IWD - Tactics 101

[Gruntboy]

***********Beware spoilers!*************

Pardon my arrogance but there have been pleas for help so here are the musings of General Grunt Vs General Winter.

My credentials: hacked my way thru BG Lord knows how many times, IWD 5 (HoW 3, TotL 1) and BG2 twice (ToB 1).

Easthaven
Goblins & orcs are easy but you're party is low level so your initial choices are important. A balanced party is essential but you will find your party swamped by hordes of enemies later in the game. Spellcaster must be well protected or able to fight in melee. 3 possibilities:

- Lots of fighters.
- A few fighters and lots of ranged attacks/spellcasters.
- A balanced party. Clerics, bards, thieves and mages can all be equipped to fight in wild melee using items from IWD.

Target shamans with ranged attacks first. How does a level 1 party take out an ogre? The ogre's strength is hand-to-hand combat. Stick him in place with "grease" or other such spells and pound him from a distance. This simple tactic will serve you well throughout the game.

[Gruntboy]

Vale of shadows
Yetis - powerful but few in numbers. Block with them a few fighters, pound them from a distance. When you are forced to fight many at the same time, back into a corner. Drink potions - strength, speed etc. That's what they're for. Again, grease is useful. You may have other good spells by now - web, or defensive ones like bless/chant. Use them.

Undead - Shadows are easy. Ranged attacks are poor against skeleton. The cadaverous ones are easy - but take out ghouls & ghasts first because one "held" character can be a disaster. Clerics are a must here - even a low level cleric can send undead running (the power of an attack which causes no damage...). Take your time using blunt weapons to smash 'em - but take your people of AI in case they go running off into a hoard of undead. Thieves are useful in scouting out and luring them 1 at a time. Have a reception party waiting. At this early level the only way some of the more powerful dead can be taken out easily is by concentrating your efforts on them one by one. There is a mummy or 2 (and a few wights) which need magic attacks. Fighters with a good AC should avoid be able to avoid them whilst you assemble the meagre +1 weapons you have. Imbued wights - there is an counter-action for every action. The first level spell "shield" works wonders against their magic missiles.

[This message has been edited by Gruntboy (edited 03-26-2001).]

[Gruntboy]

Forgotten Temple
Drop the druids first with ranged weapons. "Silence" works well too. Verbeegs are tough. You need a high AC tank or decoy (do some running around) and lots of ranged attacks. Grease, web & entangle all work well. If you fire off several of these it increases the chances of them failing their saves.

Don't neglect "poorer" weapons. Crossbow can turn bards into excellent, powerful shots. Darts of stunning/wounding are great weapons for thieves & mages. If you have 1 tank taking on the verbeegs, you can equip other fighters with 2-handed weapons to deal out more damage quickly.

By the time you're out of here your party should be getting quite tough. Level 3 mage spells should be abundant (fireball) and you're clerics should have spells like defensive harmony - brilliant for forming a defensive line and cutting down all-comers.

[Gruntboy]

Dragon's Teeth I
Lizardmen - easy to kill but they also deal out big hits with their two-handed weapons. Use the tank/ranged weapons tactic and get the shamans first. The Lizard king is a tough fight - but there is a narrow stairway to his lair. Line up 2 or 3 fighters. Cast stinking cloud/grease/web/sleep (sleep is good for removing some enemies from a fight but as soon as you hit them they wake up) etc. into the room. Concentrate a few individual spells on the king next - hold person/magic missile. As you cut them down in the doorway, area effect spells can be tossed towards the back of the room.

Bombardier Beetles - again, its the tank/ranged attack methods so you don't get everyone caught by the acid clouds. Close in only after they've "released" eek . Erevain's broadsword & protection from acid is useful here.

Trolls - easy. They're lousy hitters, just make sure you collect all the shaman's pots of fire to finish them off - you can 2 or 3 at a time if you're lucky. Fire arrows & "melfs acid arrow" are helpful.

Evil Clerics - easy. Humans are easy to kill . You can silence, hold/web/gas, miscast magic and ranged attack or melee them. *Be careful* though, they can still cast in grease/web and can get you with their own spells. Watch out also for the innocent civilians.

Spiders - have "slow poison" (this does *not* cure weak poisons like in BG1&2) and antidotes ready. Phase spiders are easy, just watch your back. Wraith spiders need magic weapons. Sword spiders need the tank/ranged weapons tactic or spells to stop them from ever getting to you.

Blast skeletons - magic sets them off, so use your magic missiles & melf's.

Hordes of undead - clerics and defensive line-ups are handy. If you sneak around you can catch whole groups with fireballs. Try and take out skeleton archers with magic whilst your fighters cut throught the hordes of cold wights.

[This message has been edited by Gruntboy (edited 03-26-2001).]

[Gruntboy]

Dragon's Teeth II - the good stuff
First off, sneak around till you find the captured adventurers, you *will* need their help! You can either stand back and watch the fight or pitch in for the experince. Watch your spells though - you don't want to injure or incapacitate your allies.

Yuan-ti mages/priests. These should be your first targets. Confusion should be about the only level 4 spell available to you now. Use it, have them attacking each other. Use your thief/ranger to find their spellcasters and target them with confusion and ranged attack spells. Miscast magic, fireball, melf's (causes damage for a few rounds - stopping casting) should be used.

Warriors & archers - these are tough but they love to pack themselves in ranks. Burn them out with fireballs. If you're quick you can fire these through doors and retreat then return for another blast. Rest often - it doesn't make any difference to the game. Archers should be finished off first.

Be patient. Take the time to search for traps. Invisibility is useful because it allows your thief to search for traps at the same time. Take them on room at a time. Scout out all the angles, pick off every individual that you can, get the most from your fireballs. You should be able to summon undead/monsters by now - use them as fodder whilst you plug away with ranged weapons. Haste is a useful "last" spell. I only ever have 1 memorised b/c it tires your party out. Use all your spells then finish off with a haste before you rest.

Xunomei - This is not a difficult fight. Scout her out and reveal yourself. Let her cast her spells and attack you. You need a tank or some summoned fodder. Haste & strengthen your fighters, apply defensive harmony. Whack away with magical weapons. X will chase 1 or 2 characters (usually the weak ones) so give her the run-around whilst you slice her up. Afterwards, go in and pick off the archers/spellcasters in the usual fashion. Then prepare for the long walk home

[Gruntboy]

***MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THOSE NEW TO IWD***
_________________________________________
The Seldarine hand I
If you thought getting here was hard...
This is an awesome level, my favourite in the game.

Shadowed orcs & goblins, ogres & wolves - easy kills for the XP and there are lots of them. Also, specific spells will not affect them (for example, ice storm ) . I only ever use damaging ones (magic missile, melf's and fireball) and some of the higher offensive spells (hopelessness is *great*). No problems - you can still cast defensive magic. Watch for ambushes where they just "appear" (making the over-run mages in your party fight for their lives). Scout around first, draw them out then burn them and form a defensive line. Protection from fire are valuable spells which allow you to toss fireballs into the front line. Take out the shamans first.

Shadowed marksmen - lethal. These are good shots. Use the different angles afforded by windows etc. to *your* advantage. Summon monsters on the "other" side of windows. Fireball is your best friend. When you've whittled down their numbers, close in quickly for the kill.

Undead (Bladed skeltons & Fire skeletons) - Protection from fire helps here too. You must close with the Fire skeltons and finish them off or they will fry your party - one fighter protected from fire can do this. Clerics can be useful if powerful enough, though the Bladed skeletons are pretty tough. Its defensive line time again as they swamp your positions. These enemies have the annoying habbit of chasing the individual who discovered them - use it to your advantage, run around the debris whilst your other characters lay into them. You should have some powerful maces & hammers by now.

There are lots of entrances and exits on this level. Explore them all. There are also many undead and a few tough fights:

Shattered souls - As you progress up the hand you will come across these guys who drain your HP constantly with Larloch's. Very annoying. But when you chase them down you run into hordes of undead guardians. Concentrate on killing the souls with one or two fighters - the rest of you party should support from afar/defend themselves form the guardians. The main lesson here is concentration of force. You can't spread yourself too thinly but you need to take out two or more distinct threats. By using a cleric to repel the guardians you can defeat the souls and turn on the guardians later.

[This message has been edited by Gruntboy (edited 03-26-2001).]

[Gruntboy]

The Seldarine hand II
Its not over yet. Hope you saved the Orcish flail Vs elves 'cos your gonna need it. At least you get to rest. The Shadowed elf leaders here will ask you to put their people out of their misery... Its a hard life

Shadowed elf clerics - masses of these will atack you. From your defensive line, cast hopelessness. It will freeze many in place. Cut down those that get through (they're low-level clerics and usually fail their saves) and fireball those left behind. There are a few high level clerics which it is best to take out first. BE PREPARED - it is difficult to stake the place out without disturbing the acolytes or the tougher clerics and bringing down a mass charge - you usually appear in the middle of them anyway!

Shadowed elf soldiers & archers - Tough fight again, but the archers fire at you from slits. Keep yours spellcasters at the back and scour them out with fireballs or hold them with hopelessness. Close down the archers with your fighters as quickly as you can. Kaylessa is a tough cookie on her own. You get time to prepare before you talk to her again - use it wisely.

Shadowed elf officers - these are tough fights but you have time and space to prepare. Form a *tight* defensive line. Summon fodder and protect from fire. Toss a fireball into the rooms or just expose yourself then retreat. When the officers come spilling in, cast defensive harmony & fireballs. A near trick: form up in a V shape (reverse of a wedge, open end towards the elves), let them come at you and fill the V. With a mage at the point, cast burning hands. At that level they should do about 16/18+ whatever hit dice to everyone in the "cauldron". It works, trust me (though you need to experiment with the shape of the V - just protect yourself from fire ).

Shadowed elf mages & clerics - Really tough. Try and get them one at a time but sometimes they open doors to get at you! Their quarters are so cramped it can be difficult to get at them. Pull out all the stops - potions, magic items, defensive spells. Protect yourself from magic. Your better off singeing your own people with fireballs than letting them cause havoc. They have a penchant for web & cloak of fear.

After this you may want to go back to kuldahar to sell your booty & restock (though there is a limited elf store in the hand) before going to Dorn's Deep.

Your only problem in the hand is running out of missile weapons. Stock up in Kuldahar and don't skimp on magic ones in the seldarine shop.

[This message has been edited by Gruntboy (edited 03-26-2001).]

[Gruntboy]

Upper Dorn's
Miconids - can cause problems if they make someone berserk and they do a lot of damage *if* they hit. Protect your mages and just hack through them.

Ettins - tough guys. But slow Tank & archers here. Don't be afraid to give ground.

The bridge - this U shaped chamber is a tough fight too. However, it is possible to take out the orc archers on the arms of the U first with missiles & magic. Then draw out the Neo-orogs & Drow spellswrods. Missile weapons are a must if you're to drop the Drow Spellcasters. Their mirror images can be dropped with dispel magic or magic missile. Blast the remainding Orogs & orc marksmen with a fireball.

Neo-Orogs - Easy to kill but the warlords are quite tough.

Drow (Spellswords, Vanguards & spellcasers) - hard fights here, though there are only a few. Magic is all but ineffective. Their crossbows are poisonous. Its potion & defensive magic spell time again. Take down the spellcasters with missiles. Close with the vanguards to prevent them using their poison. Deal with the spellswords last. Make no mistake, these are tough fights and you have to deal with 3 groups of Drow.

Undead & Lich - Deal with the undead as before, hack through the cadavers. Any cleric should be high enough to destroy skeletal undead outright. The best way to take out the lich is with haste spells & strength potions (this is a good strategy for defeatingany powerful character, deal out lots of damage quickly) - he may get you with a few fireball-type spells which erupt from his position. You should find the key in the coffins *first* with thief. Kill the lich at least once for the experience then hide your party in the tombs whilst your thief locates the phylacteries and destroys them.

Bronze Guardians - more tough creatures. Haste & strength, magic & missile weapons hardly scratch them. See why you need fighters?

[Gruntboy]

Wyrm's tooth
Snow trolls - need acid & fire.

Greater Yetis - If you can't take these on by now you need help. Go back to BG2

Frost Salamanders & white wolves - Protection from cold is helpful here, keep the unprotected back, the white wolves have quite a blast radius and the salamanders will cause damage to those close to them every round or so. Otherwise they're not too difficult to kill and can be lured out group by group.

Frost Giants - You can wipe these out for stacks of experience. Go and cajole Jorril into giving you his badge. Then attack him. Have your party waiting. You may want to have a lone thief or mage harrangue Jorril and his body guards. Poison is good. When they have fallen back to your party, web/grease them or confuse etc. Then use ranged weapons (especailly sling: giantkiller). You can then lure the giants out 1 by when you have killeds Jorrill and his body guards. I like using my ranger to charm the white wolves in the area and set them on the giants Dont be stingy with powerful weapons like acid arrows.

Black ice nights & Kontik - toughies again. Start with a few fireballs on the closest nights, then its defensive line time again - don't draw too many at once. Then its the old haste & strength. Magic works OK but you need to kill them quickly 'cos they deal out stacks of damage. Kontik is tough. I usally leave him/her? till last, thief backstab and charge with my entire party otherwise a few nasty spells go off. Some Spellcasters in IWD have teh nasty ability of not being disrupted while they cast.

[Gruntboy]

Lower Dorn's I
Tough level. The end is in site but this is a *huge* area. Be careful in this area - you can't sneak effectively because of the tarnished sentries. You can rest at the beginning and I would suggest plenty of snilloc's snowballs (you did buy that useless looking spell from Orrick right? ) - they do double damage to the fire salamanders...

Fire Salamanders - Snilloc's & protection from fire when up close. But first you must deal with...

Tarnished sentries - Rock hard. 2 methods.
1)Dodge their axes/use protection from normal missiles. About the only missile weapon that hurts them is arrows of piercing (0-3 damage per). With 4 archers plugging away it is possible to take them down!
2)Get in close & quick with magical hammering weapons - the stun ability works and gives you vital seconds to destroy the, using haste/strength enhancements.

Elementals - easy.

Fire Giants - easy. Set yourself up on the islands and block a bridge. Don't bother talking with Ilmadia, just let rip. Toss cloudkills and webs/grease/gas at them and ready your bows. They'll get bottlenecked on the bridge and go down quickly.

Rhino Beetles - easy. Don't bother paying for the armour, one has good fire protection but you hardly need it. Nym is difficult to kill and there seem's to be an odd sidequest that no one has found/solved here?

Tower archers - A cramped fight. Try hopelessness and other spells that remove some from the fight for a bit - prepare by hasting/harmony/mirror image outside the tower (and approach down the "slide" to avoid being shot at ).

Screamers - This can become a chaotic fight if you elect not to use blast magic to avoid hurting the sculptor. Take out the screamers first with all your might, then get the leftover creatures...

Blind Minotaurs - easy.

Umber hulks - Tough due to the gaze. Take them one at time, use a tank with potion of clarity (the only defence). In unavoidable massed umber hulk situations, use blast magic to pre-empt their arrival and keep weak party members poorly armed (they'll get confused and attack each other. Have your fighters drink potions of clarity or just let them go confused - its hardly science but you'll win through with some prepartion.

[Gruntboy]

Lower Dorn's II
Specific bad guys:

Ilmadia - easy.

Malavon - hide in the room furthest away. Kill the golems with conlan's hammer. Wait for him to "exhaust" his spells. Kill his simulacrum. Hide again. Go to his room, fire at him with magic arrows and send summoned fodder to accept "malavon's rage" (cool spell). Clsoe to finish him off.

Marketh & co. - The thieves are tough, respond rapidly with melee weapons or try and hold them (never tried this mind you... ). Kill the 2 brothers, you'll have to anyway so take advantage of getting them separately - surround them and pound them. Same goes for Marketh and the halfling. They have cool stuff. You may want to hunt down every thief in the building - have high AC fighters up front to thwart/soak up their attacks.

The Idol - Phew! They keep coming. Now you can either scout around and take out all the skeltons for the XP or swoop in for the kill on the Idol. Try removing some of the powerful Zombies/Mummies first - drawing them off one by one. They cast symbols & hoplessness. What to do? Infeno cloud works, as does some blast magic. Otherwise, ready those +X weapons. The Idol is compartively easy - you should have an Elfbone Ring or the shield of the dead. These protect from death magic. Kill the idol and the undead will fall.

At some point you should go back to the Seldarine with books & the arboretum stuff (you did talk to Nym before killing him, right?) for the XP.

Now go get "Poquelin".

That's it! The Cyclops are easy. Pomab and his copies just need to be hacked away and the cystal guardians will fall. The big B can be defeated using my strats posted in the IWD section. Cheers!

[Gruntboy]

On Icewind Dale: a treatise on winter warfare by Gruntboy
In summary, there are a few key tactics and concepts.

Know your enemy
Find the weak spots. Match your strengths to their weaknesses. Scout first and draw them out 1 by 1 (not so effective in HoW!).

Concentration of force
Take out ememies 1 by 1. Concentrate all your firepower to take down 1 enemy, then switch. The bad guys will be tackling your characters 1 on 1. You'll cause more damage as their numbers dwindle.

Combined arms
Balance is important. Be flexible and combine attacks - magic to attack and priest spells to defend whilst archers support front-line characters from afar.

Terrain
Use the terrain - bridges etc. - to even the odds. Don't be afraid to retreat (trade space for time).

Attack is the best form of defence
You'll never win if you don't kill them. Dealing out damage is more important than not taking it. Likewise, the "offensive-defense" is crucial. Form a defensive line, let them come to you. Protect spellcasters whilst impaling the enemy on your defense. Works every time.

Create a balaned party. Slaughter you foes. Reload often. But above all, have fun

Hope this helps.

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Its shocking, Foul. I was happily spamming away when BAM! a serious discussion broke out.

[VWzealot]

ok, i worked on my parties wepeons some and im finding things much easier.

fighter --longsword
fighter/cleric --warhammer

theif --bow
mage --dagger (dagger of mage for more spells)
cleric --sling
pladian --crossbow

basicly i added the crosbow to the paladin and the sling to the cleric. now it seems like things are twice as easy as before. weird.

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[Rail]

Oooooooooo! Ahhhhhhhhh!

Hurray for Gruntboy!

[Sojourner]

On Marketh's palace: I like to draw out the hidden thieves by sending forward one party member until I hear them leaving the shadows, and then immediately having him/her fall back toward the group. By keeping him/her moving, the thieves have a tough time backstabbing and are quickly cut down by my waiting fighters.

[ 04-24-2001: Message edited by: Sojourner ]

[Gruntboy]

Good idea. I use a high HP & AC tank to do the scouting and take the hits - simple spells, missiles and fast melee is the only way to take out the thieves before they disappear in front of you.

[Gruntboy]

*Ba-Bump*

Will update for HoW.

[Icelander]

I have found that the best party to play is:

1 paladin
1 ranger
1 cleric
1 thief
2 mages

By having the mages focus on different spells you have some great range. The thief is there for traps and locks. The cleric for the spells that boost your to hit and damage bonuses. The paladin and ranger are there for some serious whooping. I rarely had to reload and most often just walked through levels like the severed hand and lower Dorn's.

[Sojourner]

The party that worked for me in HoW was:

paladin
fighter
fighter/druid
cleric
bard
mage/thief

[Sojourner]

On Dragon's Eye, level 4:

Originally posted by Gruntboy:
<STRONG>First off, sneak around till you find the captured adventurers, you *will* need their help! You can either stand back and watch the fight or pitch in for the experince. Watch your spells though - you don't want to injure or incapacitate your allies.</STRONG>

I prefer to hoard all the experience to myself, so I have my paladin reveal the false monks right at the start. I then immediately web/gas/booby-trap the entrance area and have my entire party using missile weapons on anything that comes through. When the stream of monsters coming through slows down (and the webs clear), I send my party through to eliminate the High Summoner, while eliminating any interference along the way. Finally, I take out the large group of Yuan-Ti around the dining table, concentrating on the cleric first.