Fighting an army

Malicia · Post by **Malicia** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:24 am

I have this problem:

http://draconiz.herno.net/ToSCprob.jpg

I got the idea from VonDondu to try to battle the army instead of trying to solve the problem (or maybe both).
Now I ask all players for ideas how to beat this army!

Give me your best shot!

Reso · Post by **Reso** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 5:57 pm

Multiple fireballs is the obvious solution, along with other area effect spells. Spells like fear and sleep will also work well here, as they effect more than one enemy. Then just chop them down.

Malicia · Post by **Malicia** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:02 am

I've tried fireballs but then they all got angry and swarmed me like angry ants and I didn't stand a chance.

But then I only used Dynaheir so maybe I should try using a staff of fireballs with Imoen too...

wise grimwald · Post by **wise grimwald** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 5:12 am

My advice would be get everyone but Immy out of the way. Give her the boots of speed. Buff her up as much as you can to make chances of hiding better.Get her to cast cloudkill, then run till out of sight. Hide in shadows and wait, preferably somewhere out of sight of the enemy just in case. Wait and see what happens.

Malicia · Post by **Malicia** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 5:33 am

wise grimwald wrote:My advice would be get everyone but Immy out of the way. Give her the boots of speed. Buff her up as much as you can to make chances of hiding better.Get her to cast cloudkill, then run till out of sight. Hide in shadows and wait, preferably somewhere out of sight of the enemy just in case. Wait and see what happens.

Yep, that sounds like a good idea but my Imoen is just a plain theif with no ability to cast cloudkill.

wise grimwald · Post by **wise grimwald** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 5:40 am

Have you tried giving immy the boots of speed, backstabbing the nearest and exiting before they can react, then repeating until they you have reduced them to managable numbers.

Malicia · Post by **Malicia** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 5:54 am

wise grimwald wrote:Have you tried giving immy the boots of speed, backstabbing the nearest and exiting before they can react, then repeating until they you have reduced them to managable numbers.

Exiting, as in exiting the area? Or what?

wise grimwald · Post by **wise grimwald** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 6:03 am

Running out of sight, or through a door, just so that you can hide again before repeating the manouvre. After backstabbing them it will be worthwhile saving whenever possible.

wise grimwald · Post by **wise grimwald** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 7:01 am

An alternative solution to fighting the army is to bypass them. Give Dynahir the boots of speed. Make Dynahir invisible. If there is a way to get downstairs without starting a fight do so. Go to the back of the room and use a sling to kill the acolytes. They won't fight back. Then speak to the priestess, run out of sight. Save. Use cloudkill to kill the beastie. Make yourself invisible again and exit.

Malicia · Post by **Malicia** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:12 am

wise grimwald wrote:An alternative solution to fighting the army is to bypass them. Give Dynahir the boots of speed. Make Dynahir invisible. If there is a way to get downstairs without starting a fight do so. Go to the back of the room and use a sling to kill the acolytes. They won't fight back. Then speak to the priestess, run out of sight. Save. Use cloudkill to kill the beastie. Make yourself invisible again and exit.

Hmm...
I can't enter the door. The army blocks it. There's too many of them. Maybe I could lure them away but I'll try killing them first.

Ieo · Post by **Ieo** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:36 am

Enlighten me... How on earth does this happen?

(If those are game guards, I suppose you wouldn't want to kill them if it messes your reputation.) If not, maybe get a couple invisibility potions, disable AI, move your party out to the corner of the area, and get someone on boots of speed to do something that will make them all angry (I don't know if only area spells would work, maybe something else), then lure them all to the opposite corner of the area and turn invisible without attacking. This way, perhaps you could just park them elsewhere, but I'm not sure if their AI is smart enough to chase you when beyond the fog of war.

Malicia · Post by **Malicia** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:05 am

Ieo wrote:Enlighten me... How on earth does this happen? (If those are game guards, I suppose you wouldn't want to kill them if it messes your reputation.) If not, maybe get a couple invisibility potions, disable AI, move your party out to the corner of the area, and get someone on boots of speed to do something that will make them all angry (I don't know if only area spells would work, maybe something else), then lure them all to the opposite corner of the area and turn invisible without attacking. This way, perhaps you could just park them elsewhere, but I'm not sure if their AI is smart enough to chase you when beyond the fog of war.

I don't know how it happened at all.

Anyway, they are not the usual guards so I can kill them without my rep being damaged. But I want to try and kill them. Avoiding the fight is plan B now.

For nothing else, think of all the experience!

wise grimwald · Post by **wise grimwald** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:08 am

I must admit, I wish I had a copy of your game. It looks like it would be fun to solve. I'm sure that there are many ways of solving it if you think laterally enough.

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:28 am

It's actually pretty easy to create the situation Malicia has found himself in. Just use the CLUAConsole to create a horde of enemies. The Cult Guards are a good choice because they start out neutral but if you attack one of them, they all turn hostile (instead of only one of them turning hostile or the whole town turning hostile). I think they're 8th Level Fighters with longswords and platemail with about 50-60 hit points each. (My game is down right now because I'm upgrading my computer, so I can't check it out for myself.) You can use the CLUAConsole to change a few global variablesto re-create the situation perfectly if you want.

My own strategy would be pretty simple. I'd create my own army with a Wand of Monster Summoning and spells like Animate Dead. Then I'd start the fight by lobbing a Skull Trap, a Glyph of Warding, and a fireball into the middle of the horde. Once they turned hostile, I would use party-friendly area effect spells such as Horror, Slow, Emotion, and Chaos. It would be a hoot.

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 9:56 am

I thought I was the only nutcase who wanted to defeat an army!

Anyways, yes, its cool - but the best magics against them are the horror/cloud/slow combo. If you have Imoen dualed, she will be able to use the scroll of cloudkill; you can also cast horror pretty quick with her. I almost always play with Xan and Dinaheir in my party. Both will use shield and mirror image and blur, to avoid the arrows - if its a hobgoblin party against us, of course, like the image. The most important round is the first - when you strike to make them all come swarming at you.

My PC is usually a fighter at BG1 (dualed at BG2) so he's the one looking for trouble. Boots of speed are the key to escape alive - you gotta taunt someone with your party well positioned, and run for your life. Then nuke the area with horror (a must have at BG1), have your cleric cast hold, have minsc (if you have dinaheir) hold the mob for a while before he dies, give him potions. If Minsc and your mages survive the gap between the first wave of casting to the second wave of casting, its pretty sure the fight will be on your side.

Slow is very good. Nuking the area with potions of explosions is also handy. Wands are a must for summoning. Buffing your characters with Haste and bless-kind of spells is always good too, but it is cheesy. The combo I'd use for the second round (second round only, not the first) is: Dinaheir cast summon - Imoen (dualed) use scroll of horror (for the enemies who arent scared yet), Xan casts emotion (if you're tutuing the game) or slow; cleric casts hold/confusion/sleep/greater command.

OMG they're armored creatures - even better, they have no ranged attacks!

Edar Macilrille · Post by **Edar Macilrille** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 10:54 am

Arrows of Explosions.

Is the answer.

My party consist of a lvl 8 Ftr as main character
Dynaheir is Lvl 8 as well
Minsc
Ajantis
Kivan
and
Imoen

are all Lvl 7, Immo is pure thief.

I would equip all except Ajantis and Dynaheir with Arrows of Explosions, bowfire is faster than throwing spells and/or potions. 5 each, Dyna with Wand of Fireballs, Wand of Monster Summoning, Scroll of Cloudkill. Ajantis with Potions of Explosions.

Position one of each of the party on each side of the "Army" and have all fire Arrows of Explosions, Cloudkill and throw potions. Each should be able to fire two or three before the surviving soldiers reach them, but at that point the survivors are weak. Dyna's Monster summoning will keep some at bay while the rest are hacked to pieces by Mincs, Ajantis and main character supplemented by bowfire and spells from the rest.

Malicia · Post by **Malicia** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 11:34 am

VonDondu wrote:It's actually pretty easy to create the situation Malicia has found himself in.

Herself, thank you very much.

Maybe there's some way for me to host my save game for you people to download.

For some information, my party is made up of:
My fighter
Minsc (as tank)
Khalid (as archer)
Jaheira
Imoen (only theif)
Dynaheir

kmonster · Post by **kmonster** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 6:01 pm

Just charm the chicken on the picture and have it make short work of those guards. :laugh:

Or summon a few friendly Drizzts via the console. It might be interesting how many you need for taking down this army.

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 12:55 pm

Sorry about the gender confusion, Malicia. Since it happens to me so often, I should know better.

Have you tried to fight the horde yet?

Malicia · Post by **Malicia** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 3:28 pm

Yes, I've tried a few times but I don't think I've been very focused. more pissed, really.

I've tried with fireballs, but only the fireballs didn't work, as I said earlier. I'll try out some of the ideas I've gotten here later.