I've finished the expansions for the first time today, i had done the OC twice and once between SoU and HotU. The expansions were generally good fun but the end battles in both were very disappointing.
SoU: I was a Druid 5/Shifter 8. Dorna was a Cleric 7, Rogue 4 (i think). The battle basically went like this:
*buffs*
*talk with Hierodule*
*cast Earthquake from Boots of Shifting Sands*
*nearly half the mythallar break*
*Dorna does something and i've won*
It was over in a few seconds. :/ Sure, those boots are very powerful and i spent all my money on them, but to win this easily?
The hardest battle in SoU probably turned out to be the one against the Grey Slaad and Red Slaads right before the portal to Undrentide. The ant-people summoning thingie vanished so i had to face them alone. Call Lightning + Gargoyle-shape + that Power item + sneak attack with bow = win.
Mephistopheles was even easier. The first time i battled him i got a bug which left me in cutscene mode, unable to act. I didn't realise this at first, so there was this hilarious Scooby-Doo-like scene where i'm standing in the middle doing nothing while Valen and Aribeth run to the left to kill stuff then to the right to kill stuff. I hit Escape, got into the battle but i barely managed to shift or Mephi was already beat. I realise that Valen with a Keen/Haste/+10/2D6 Acid Heavy Flail and Aribeth with a Keen/Haste/+9/2D6 Acid Sword of Aramil is probably the best you can have (both had the maximum of +12 STR from items) but i had been saving virtually all of my potions, scrolls and one use per day items hoping for the 10 minute/half an hour battles i read about. Instead, i saw 20s flying off Mephi so fast i again barely had time to shift. I think i did 50 damage at most. :/
I reloaded and it went wrong again (Mephi flew up, nothing happened). The third time i immediately hit Escape and got to smack some elementals. Mephi was no threat again, all i did was heal Valen twice.
Now the mythallar are an obvious weakness for Heirodule, and it sure helps if you know Mephistopheles does not resist Acid but still, shouldn't it have been at least a little bit harder? I'm playing on normal (core rules) difficulty and i've had a couple of tough fights. This was silly. It's probably due to being able to turn your weapons into crazy killing machines that is the weakness of the game.
The second battle against Soldaris (vampire wizard in Underdark) was much harder, why doesn't Mephi cast some nasty magic damage shield? Why doesn't he have some buddies? The battle against the Long Death was way harder (again, before i went back and upgraded my weapons first). A Druid 5/Shadowdancer 5/Shifter 17 isn't exactly the hardest character i can think of.
Anyone else have the same experience? Should i bring Deekin and Nathysomething next time to make it harder? Play as Arcane Archer?
