Strategy Final Battle 2Kn 1Wiz 1Cl

by **BASHMAN** » Thu Jul 07, 2011 11:43 am

My party consists of 2 knights, 1 wizard, and 1 cleric. I am trying to win the final battle with all the monsters converging on the keep. I also have the vrock to contend with.

We are all 20th level, and I have crafted plenty of scrolls... but I just cannot seem to win. I have read that the "go to" strategy here is to use Dominate Monster get some extra meat-shields... but the odds of success with that spell are remote with anything other than the humanoid enemies... and they seem to hang in the back while the giant nasty stuff with a 0-15% chance to dominate comes to the front.

In round 1, I have my cleric cast "Mass Death Ward" to avoid those obnoxious death arrows and vorpal swords.. then he runs off to the side to use Mass Heal or True Res where he is (supposedly) out of view of the enemies... but for some reason those three-kreens with bows can TARGET YOU THROUGH WALLS. Not only that, I've noticed that the enemies can move through each other's squares but the good guys cannot... ARG!

I have my Knights use their own death arrows in round 1, but they usually end up doing nothing.

So far I had ONE battle where I was close to winning. And that was because an NPC cast Dominate Monster on BOTH baelors and MAGICALLY SUCCEEDED on BOTH with like a 15% chance to succeed on each.

by **VentilatorOfDoom** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 11:53 am

- Buffs: Mass Death Ward (recast if dispelled), Mass Pro Evil, prayer, haste
- Cloaks if Displacement on everyone
- have the wizard use a heavily enchanted mithril light shield (for more AC), Foresight
- Generally optimize AC

Web the area to slow down the onslaught, dominate the balors and the vampires (Dominate Undead), try until succeeding, once those are on your side the tides are turning

by **BASHMAN** » Fri Jul 08, 2011 3:54 pm

Okay- maybe so as not to waste time, I'll try dominating the Balor during Round 1, and if it fails, reload and start over. Eventually, I'll get it on the first try, right?

by **VentilatorOfDoom** » Mon Jul 11, 2011 11:58 am

BASHMAN wrote:Okay- maybe so as not to waste time, I'll try dominating the Balor during Round 1, and if it fails, reload and start over. Eventually, I'll get it on the first try, right?

The only way to increase your chance for success would be having greater spell focus enchantment (and maxed INT)

Of course the battle is much easier with more wizards/clerics. E.g. 2 clerics + 2 wizards will have far less problems. With all the Dominate Monsters and Mass Heals/Mass Harms they can spam.

by **Waterd103** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 8:42 am

Wizard is your army. use knights as meatshield, in fact use ready to approach or even arrows but dont attack anyone that have shield up. dont let the big guys go through the wall. Wizard should dominate every turn. Cleric should be kept at safe distance, he should be mass healing knights and mainly resurrecting wizard. You win dominating things with your wizard to knights show is to top them to get your cleric, because your cleric job is to revive wizard again and againi so he can keep controlling monsters.

by **BASHMAN** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 7:44 am

Well, I did it. Actually I beat it last week... and accidently hit "load" instead of "save". ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!! I finally beat it again tonight.

So, yes, Dominate Monster was the way to do it. Having knights use Arrows of Slaying (and get lucky with them) also helped. Cleric as usually hid out after casting Mass Death Ward on the party.

I found 1 more key to the strategy. Back up. Take everyone about 10' back from the starting position to get a nice bottleneck. This is especially useful by having the "front line" be a dominated Baelor. But the BEST dominated monster is the Vrock, hands down. He casts "irristable dance' on some annoying enemies- and his damage shield hits them for like 50 damage each time they full attack him (and yes, they just keep doing it). Once you get a nice bottleneck like that, you start spamming Dehydrate and Acid Burst and Mass Harm. The Knights shoot around them using slaying arrows and hopefully get a lucky shot in here or there.

Question: is it AT ALL possible to overcome the "Artificial Unintelligence" of the Commander and the Wizard? The Commander pretty much yells "LEEEROOOOYY JENKINS!" and charges into the middle of the bad guys before my wizard can even put a stone wall in his way to save him from his own stupidity. I basically gave up on them being able to survive and just abandon them, backing up to form a bottle neck (overtop their baelor trampled corpses).

It would be nice if you could use true resurection on them... I cannot think of any way they could survive this fight.

by **VentilatorOfDoom** » Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:06 am

BASHMAN wrote:Question: is it AT ALL possible to overcome the "Artificial Unintelligence" of the Commander and the Wizard? The Commander pretty much yells "LEEEROOOOYY JENKINS!" and charges into the middle of the bad guys before my wizard can even put a stone wall in his way to save him from his own stupidity. I basically gave up on them being able to survive and just abandon them, backing up to form a bottle neck (overtop their baelor trampled corpses).

It would be nice if you could use true resurection on them... I cannot think of any way they could survive this fight.

Yeah, their "AI" bothered me too. They should really be added to the party so you can control them. As is the commander goes immediately on a suicide rampage and the mage gets probably killed by a slaying arrow (if you're not quick enough with Mass Death Ward). However, I've succeeded in saving them both but only with parties of Knight/ 2x Cleric/ Wizard and 2Clerics/2 Wizards. More casters mean you're twice as fast casting the important stuff so this helps a lot. The key to save them is to prevent the commander from wandering off. Best scenario is:
-combat starts
-spider Wizard gets initiative and casts web on your party! (prevents everyone from moving thus the NPCs are within reach of Mass Heals and other buffs)
- The Balor to the right gets initiative and approaches
- now your Wizard get initiative and dominates the Balor (maybe even the spider wizard)

That's how it worked out. Everyone webbed so they couldn't wander off and my clerics could keep them alive. No reason to back off into the courtyard. I would recommend to cast web yourself, but you'll need a lot of buffs too when combat starts so it's best to leave this job to the enemy.