HOF advice

Alterac · Post by **Alterac** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 11:10 pm

Beat IWD:2 for the first time, played through one and the baldur's gate games, and have been trying out the HOF mode... which is HARD (yes, yes, i know its suposed to be hard and thats the point, its just harder than i expected) and my level 16 (now 18) party is having a tough time (sorc, pally, monk,cleric,thief,mage), and was just wondering if anyone had some advice on surviving... desperation is the greatest source of inspiration, and ive come up with a couple of interesting strategies of my own...

Ive noticed that summons are a LOT more powerful in the HOF mode, in addition, the monsters seem to do less damage to them. I like making my sorc play necromancer (raise dead X6, mass haste, invisibility on self) and occasionally cast horrid wilting on the melee.

Ive almost given up on meleeing certain groups, the half goblin hordelings can do over 100 damage to a character in a single hit, and I am relying on summons to do most of my fighting. Anyone have any advice?

(sorry about the incoherency of the post, late night study break + caffine = bad posts)

Goon66 · Post by **Goon66** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 11:40 pm

About from summoning i cant think of much as you can do at this stage though you should use your cleric to cast animate dead as they get it at a lower level that sorcs.

And get your sorc to cast (i think) summon shades its one of the shadow spells anyway. The shadows are more powerful than even animate dead summons especially after the patch.

irish37130 · Post by **irish37130** » Tue Apr 27, 2004 2:52 pm

i had a heckuva time starting off HoF. The only thing that keeps me alive is the animate dead and summon critters spells. I likey the 9th lvl version. I just like sticking the frost giant in front of doors to block it completely. Then I can lob spells (which, honestly, do not matter much when the baddies have 500+ hps. Melee is tough. I usually just run in and out with my fighters between killing hits from usually easy critters while the dead whallop everything and absorb the damage. My poor thief just throws hundreds of arrows around which do little more than irritate. Finger of death and banshee wails have replaced magic missle and fireball as spells of choice. the best thing is to have at least one character with some boots of speed and send them with the undead to scout and engage the enemy and then move the others up. That's how I have survived as long in HoF mode. hope it helps

Goon66 · Post by **Goon66** » Fri Apr 30, 2004 12:29 am

Iron body allows your mage to kill everyone (at the start stages of the game) without getting hurt cause i dont think they meet the +3 weapon requirements(with both fireshields them attempting to hurt you causes them more pain).

I read on a walkthrought FAQ or something that you could get someone to attract all the monsters to them then cast otilukes resilient sphere on your party memeber. THe monsters will keep attack them use lessly and you can cast as many mass damage spells(eg fireball) as you like without hurting your party member in the sphere .

I havent played HoF yet so these are just things i think SHOULD work(the iron body spell is what i will use when i get that far)

shakuhachi · Post by **shakuhachi** » Sat May 08, 2004 3:28 am

wow!

these HOF battles sound like nonsense after advancing in and playing Epic levels in PnP D&D.

Mr.Waesel · Post by **Mr.Waesel** » Sun May 09, 2004 11:47 am

Epic is cool. My ECL 45 paragon phaerimm hatchling sorcerer has saves of +100