Namrok wrote on 2022-09-20, 13:25:
I only played Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds so far, but I distinctly remember the final boss for one of them would always go first, always cast lightning at me, and more often than not instantly kill 3 out of 6 of my characters from full health. I mostly just had to keep retrying that battle until RNG favored me and only killed 1 character before I could act.
This was definitely CotAB, because I had the same exact experience! 😀 I think initiative plays a very heavy role in that one, and my best "legit" attempt was when my fighter/thief (with cloak of invisibility) went first in the round, and I carefully sent him over to attack the boss and prevent him from casting. It went okay at first, but soon got overwhelmed by all the high level priests wiping out the rest of the party. Maybe some clever use of potions, scrolls, and wands might have helped.
I ended up resorting to using the Dust of Disappearance, which makes the entire battle trivial. It's not "cheating" per se, since you find that item by just following the plot and searching around normally, but it sure did feel like it!
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Baldur's Gate (PC)
I was initially going to skip most or all of the expansion content, since I started to get annoyed with the combat from the end of Chapter 5. However, I read that having the expansion installed makes the final battle harder in some ways (under the assumption that you would be of a higher level after the expansion content), so I decided to give it a try and have been really enjoying it! I did the ice cave area without much trouble, and am working on Durlag's Tower now. I've finished exploring the basement, upper levels, and outdoor area, and just started the lower levels.
It's a great dungeon, but I also feel that the BG engine suffers a bit in cramped quarters. It's harder to manage combat (especially if you are running a six-person party) in narrow confines, and pathfinding becomes quite an issue. My solution for now is to first send my thief on her own finding and disabling traps, with the rest of the party waiting around the stairs. If she finds any enemies, she runs back to the stairs, and then I move my frontline (fighter, paladin, cleric) forward and wait for the enemy. This has been working pretty well throughout the expansion. I'll sometimes even just send out my fighter and paladin alone with appropriate buffs to tackle certain encounters (basilisks on the roof, for instance).
I've also studied a bit more about spells, and found some useful ones. I still use Web, Stinking Cloud, and Fireball, but also have started making a lot of use of Blind. I've also been treating my cleric more like a spellcaster and less like a fighter; she's a pretty poor fighter at this point in the game, and it seems better to have her stand back and support my front line.
One goal before the endgame is to save up enough gold to buy a set of full plate armor for my paladin, to replace his plate+1. The combination of full plate plus a ring of protection should give him a lower AC by one point, and I think every point helps now.