Burial Isle, HoF, ouch

Thrasher91604 · Post by **Thrasher91604** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 12:15 pm

It was almost too hard, on HoF mode, with the respawning wailing virgins down below. It took my party's full arsenal of tricks to get through that. Webs / entangles with fire elemental summons immune to the web/entangles, plus my favorite new spells with a 30th level bard: Incendiary Cloud, Shroud of Flame, and Death Fog. Static charge is getting pretty useful now, too, since my R/C and F/D are getting up there in caster levels.

I finished HoW up to the Sea of Grinding Ice.

Going through TotLM, now. Harpies are annoying, but protection from evil seems to help a lot!

Aerich · Post by **Aerich** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:27 pm

Yeah, it's an awful area on HoF. Quadruple the normal number of wailing virgins is a recipe for disaster. I used a lot of Death Fog and Spike Growth/Stones.

TotL isn't that bad with the exception of a few areas/fights. I despise Crypt Things, and Spectral Guards are really tough. There's a couple of nasty jackalwere fights, at least two challenging harpy fights, and the final fight can be difficult too. Enjoy.

Thrasher91604 · Post by **Thrasher91604** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 4:02 pm

Finished the Crypt area. Wow, huge!

On my second encounter with a crypt thing I lost my F/T to a teleportation deep into an explored part of the crypt. He made valiant attempt to escape but got trapped behind a locked door, and was quickly slaughtered by a mob...

Annoying that the crypt things are immune to normal missiles! I found fire elementals the best weapon when fighting a horde of undead including them. As I've said before, the fire elemental attacks are considered magical for some reason. Unfortunately stalkers can't hurt crypt things.

What's the deal with revenants? They seem to be like trolls. Requiring a magical or fire attack to finish them off?

I agree those spectral guards are tough! They are fast and do tons of damage. At one point about 8-12 of them spawned. It took a few tries to figure out a strategy to keep my party safe. Had to play super defensively when there were more than a couple of them...

Aerich · Post by **Aerich** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:10 am

Yes, and that's why I hate Crypt Things.

They aren't really all that tough, but they can teleport your characters one by one to go and face Greater Mummies. I just ignore them in fights until everything else is dead. They don't hit hard by comparison, and they won't teleport anybody again unless they lose sight of the party.

If you have a paladin, single-class cleric, or dual class cleric, it should be near or at max level by now. Turn undead can make this area a relative cakewalk. Crypt Things and Revenants seem immune to turning (maybe because they aren't "real" undead), but even Mummies can be destroyed by turning. You're better off hacking down Greater Mummies ASAP instead of trying to turn them.

Revenants do require fire to kill them off. You should have at least one weapon that does some fire damage, otherwise, just use spells. There aren't that many revenants, and you should have tons of spell slots available.

Spectral Guards are a major reason why a character with 100% slashing resistance is such an asset. They can hit just about any AC, so weapon immunity is the best "armor" available against them. Put an immune, shapechanged druid in a doorway, and cast spells and attack in melee (with two-handed weapons) with your other characters.

Thrasher91604 · Post by **Thrasher91604** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:03 am

I had given up on turning way back in the Vale of the Shadows.

I tried it again last night when Lord Maluradek summoned about 15 skeletons. Sure enough my 27/22 C/R could destroy 5 of them at a time. Sweet! Since my paladin reached level 30 a while back, I should have tried using him in the crypt. Maybe even santuarying him, for extra cheese.

I've been handling the spectral guards using tried and true spelltrap/killzone and summons as meat shields techniques. Along with peppering them with ranged weapons while trapped. Tedious and a bit slow. I should really start taking advantage of all the damage immunity equipment and shapechanging. Good idea!

I wonder if they can be turned?

Aerich · Post by **Aerich** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:48 pm

They can be turned but it's really difficult. Make sure any character attempting to turn them is in a protected position, because if you're just standing around trying to turn them and they don't turn, they'll turn your character into a pile of equipment.

Thrasher91604 · Post by **Thrasher91604** » Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:48 pm

Hmm. My best turner is my Paladin, and he's also my tank.

SPOILERS below

Spoiler

Another REALLY tough battle with the stone circle summoners in the Jackalwere cave. Ouch!

Those greater galbrezu summons do tons of damage, and are very resistant to magic, so my spelltrap/w/summons as meat shields approach went only so far. They also are immune to normal weapons. Went though a lot of magic ammo.

After the first onsalught, I had gone through all my spells. It turns out that the summoners didn't all participate. There were two left down at the circle. And their summoning rate was horrific! I went back in the previous area to rest, then explored in shadows with my thief to find the other summoners. Problem is that the galbrezu can see my thief when he's hiding in shadows. Even with the shadow ring that is supposed to give him non-detection.

The summoners wouldn't see him though, so I could sneak up on them sometimes by keeping the summoned galbrezu off screen. And just barely finish a summoner off starting with a sneak attack before being mobbed by hordes of galbrezu.

After the first, I thought, well just run back to the entrance while hiding, heal up and finish the second. I could do that but when going back to the second, he had summoned so many galbrezu (about 20 inc. the others from before), that the whole party could just barely escape to the previous area, after naliling thesecond summoner.

When coming back, there was this huge pack of 20 galbrezu near the entrance! That was REALLy tough! All magic and lots of magic ammo later, they were finished. Just barely had time to summon some meat shields. It was very dicey! I was glad I didn't have to go back to an earlier save to try a different tactic!

mewp · Post by **mewp** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:26 pm

How does one do HOF.

Thrasher91604 · Post by **Thrasher91604** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 2:46 am

You can turn it on in the confiuration prog.

Aerich · Post by **Aerich** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 11:21 pm

You have to check off the box in the configuration menu, then start a new game. For your first time at it, I'd recommend importing characters with some experience. While you can play HoF with fresh characters, it requires a huge alteration in your tactical thinking, and it's not for the faint of heart.

Thrasher91604 · Post by **Thrasher91604** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 11:46 pm

Even if you have a heart of winter?

Sorry, I couldn't resist...

Once you get the tactics down it's not hard, just tedious....