Tactics: Improved Druid Grove

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My party is:
Totemic Druid (L13)
Korgan
Kitanya
Viconia
Yoshimo
Haer'Dalis

I have battled my way through the outlying wilderness and managed to reach the actual Druid Grove. This was good fun actually and much more of a challenge, with better use of spells and party placement essential.

I have challenged Faldorn and this is where I have hit my BIG problem. I am level 13 (750000xp) and going strong.

I can rest before the challenge so I can memorize any spells allowable to a L13 Druid.

This is what basically happens...
(pre-cast Iron Skins)
(Faldorn has some shield/protection on)
1. I cast Insect Plague
Faldorn summons 3x Dread Wolves
2. I summon Spirit Animal
3. I summon another Spirit Animal
(a few rounds elapse where I try various harming spells only to fins that nothing hurts Faldorn)
4. Insect Plague wears off
5. Faldorn summons Storm of Vengeance (I think)
or Faldorn attacks me in shape of Tiger
6. Game over

Once the insect plague(s) end it is all over for me within seconds.

Should I wait until I reach L14 (trouble is I need an extra 750000xp), to have more spells at my disposal or is there a simple tactic that I am missing?

Has anyone beaten Improved Faldorn below L14?

 

What do you get at level 14 that's going to help you? If you wait until you're level 15 and have an HLA, then I can think of something that will help you A LOT. But at level 13, you should have all the spells you need.

Think about it - you're smart - I'll let you figure it out on your own - but I'll throw you some hints:

I think it's a level 3 spell - summon woodland being - that really helps, but summon the insects FIRST.

Unless she's uber-cheating, there's no way Faldorn can be immune to normal and magical weapons. There's a normal weapon on the ground (or you can shape change) and you have at least one magical weapon at your disposal (an actual use for the spell Shilleighly sp?)

I'm not sure how many spells you have at level 13, but you should be able to bother her with several insect spells. The low level one is just as good as the higher level one in terms of disrupting casting, and the lower level one is only a 3rd level spell, so throw another one on her before the first one wears off.

 

Wait until you get some HLA`s. Imp. Faldorn is a master cheater.

Click here for the link.

 

@Xen: It's frightening isn't it.

@Aldeth: The only thing L14 gives you is extra lower level spells and a L7 spell. So just more fire power really. It is tough getting the Insect Plague(s) off as you are being bothered by the Wolves as well, so you need your summons to take care of these.

I manage to last quite a long time, but she seems to outlast my insects and takes absolutely no damage from them.

I am going to try Iron Skins, then sleep (still have iron skins active), Draw Upon Holy Might, then challenge her.

I will cast Insect Plague, a few summons, re-cast Iron Skins, a few dooms, Summon Insects. Rinse and then repeat.

 

Had CERND in my party the first 37 times I challenged her. It wouldn't give me the option of CERND challenging Faldorn. Might be because I'm a Druid.

This mod and Illyich both seem way too powerful.

Q. Do Insect Plagues stack? Do Iron skins stack?

 

I beat improved faldorn without cheating with a MC lvl 9 Fighter lvl 11 Druid. Seeing as i am so bone lazy i normally just keep my party at the door and just let the druid walk over to talk to her. But this time i moved a char with boots of speed over with mine. She initiates conversation and your druid gets teleported into the ring, but his equipment is lying on the ground, outside the ring where he was before conversation. I then got my char with boots of speed to pick it all up, move near the ring, and transfer all my druid equipment to him, via the inventory screen, and re-equipped everything except his armour, however i overcame this by already having barkskin and ironskin cast on him. And as you say Faldorn is IMMUNE to the insect plague. So i summoned two mountain bears, they chunked the three wolves with impunity while i tried my best to do anything to faldorn, which didnt work(i think she must have iron skins but you can't see it because of the lion animation). After a while the iron skins wore off on her, and it was a simple matter of pounding on her, and praying that my healing potions and items with healing held out. I also had some buffs from other party members cast on him as well, Chant ,Haste, and Defensive Harmony.

 

Now I find that very hard to belive. Why? If you look at my link wich leads to Ironworks forums you can see that you cannot pass someone`s equipment to the Druid/whoever is in the ring.

 

To that point it all sounded reasonable. Isn't cheating just the point of 'Tactics' -to allow PC to have ûber abilities? (Like natural immunity to weapons less than +1 and throwing in Imm. Mag. Weapons -something only the highest level monsters can do in AD&D.)

 

I am already pre-buffing before the fight.
- Potion of Speed
- Potion of Defence
- Barkskin
- Protection from Fire
- Iron Skins
- Armour of Faith
- Draw upon Holy Might
- Shillelagh

I am allowing myself these as I am a Druid and know the rules of Ascension (or whatever it is) and feel that pre-buffing makes sense.

I don't want to use any equipment and just want to use my spells that are available. Although, I might have to re-think them a bit.

Insect Plague is critical. If you don't get this off then it is game over. Trouble is, Faldorn's magic resistance kicks in 8 out of 10 times.

I am summoning spirit animals and fire elementals, trouble is these can only be summoned individually and by the time the next one is called the first is nearly dead. So, I might try the Conjure Animals and/or Animal Summoning III, to get more out at once. Then use my spirit animals for more fodder.

Then all I have to do is stop her from casting anything else. She keeps resisting Summon Insects and then off comes the Storm and it's game-over. I can't seem to get miscast magic to work either.

Does Poison or Delorous Decay work against her?

 

If she can resist Insect Plague 8/10 times and saves more often than not vs. Miscast Magic, quite likely anything that affects her *directly* won't work.

So, have you tried casting the plague on someone nearby that has no MR...?

 

@ Bard

To answer some of your questions that you asked earlier:

I don't know for sure, but logic dictates that Insect Plague SHOULD stack. Just like if you hit someone with 2 Melf's Acid Arrows, they would take damage the following rounds from both arrows. In the case of Insect Plague, there would be a percent chance (somewhere around 20% by what you're saying) that they would do damage. So that's another possible strategy.

As far as Ironskins are concerned though, sorry, they don't stack, and I'm positive about this.

 

@Aldeth: You are right about Iron Skins. I checked I cast 2 on myself, had someone hit me, saved and looked in SK. It turns out I did have 2 lots of Iron Skins active, but both Iron Skins lost skins at the same time.

I can get off Insect Plague well now, I summon some bears which fo a great job. I can get off some dooms, but nothing else works.

Summon Insects won't work.
Miscast magic won't work.
Delorous Decay doesn't fail, but she doesn't take damage.
Poison is the same.

So, basically, I have to give up at this point and return when I've gone up a level or two and can hopefully match her skills better.

She is immune to nearly everything and when I do get through her protections I still can't do damage as I need a +3 weapon or better which I just don't have.

It does seem to me, as Beren said, that Cernd (or a PC Shapeshifter) is the only way to beat her. As you get +3 claws with the GWW.

So, the question now is... Is there any spells at L7 that can be used to defeat Faldorn, or do I need to wait until I reach 3mil xp for some of the quest spells. The trouble is to reach this level, I will be at the end of SOA, so won't really be able to play through the Druid Grove.

Another thought is that I might start another game as a Shapeshifter. I love these characters anyway, so I'm not too worried about this.

 

Read the Iron Works link from Xen... that pretty much says it.

Improved Faldorn is next-to-impossible to be legit'ly. Bring in some cheese and you can do it. I loved the Improved Grove, and got through it legit, but I had to cntrl-Y on Faldorn.

 

I love hopeless fights. So much fun in strategising.

Well, going by what your battle plan says, I would use the following to try to counter her:

Insect Plague right away. Might fare better then Summon Insects.

And for if at anytime if you need a chance to rest, rebuff and regroup, you might try casting Pixie Dust.

The druid throws pixie dust into the air and all within 10 feet will become invisible. This invisibility lasts until dispelled, 24 hours have passed, or until the invisible creature performed an offensive action such as attacking or casting offensive spells.

I have my doubts as to whether Faldorn at this level of play has memorized something as minor as Invisibilty Purge, if that even works against Pixie Dust.

If you do decide to wait until you are Level 7, I have some thoughts on that too. For Level Seven spells besides Creeping Doom (which might fare even better then Insect Plague if you want to use the spell slot), you might try Shield of the Archons.

What it does for those of you who don't know what Shield of the Archons is, it forms a magical shield that will absorb spells equal to half the level of the druid. It absorbs both spells directed at the druid and area-effect spells that the druid happens to be in. In instances where spell's level is higher than the levels remaining in the shield, that spell will be absorbed while cancelling the shield.

This could buy you the time you need to for a counter attack.

 

Improved Faldorn has invisible detection by script.

 

Xen why did it work then, i didnt do anything illegal but it worked for me, i dunno

 

@Thyorna: really? Weird. Huh... lucky you then.

 

@Bard: sorry for the misinformation - seems that Solaufein did not unistall - had to reinstall everything. Well, those Duergar Proletariat in the Druid Grove were an in indication
Faldorn attacked summons alright
Still recommend the potions though - high dex + potion of defence can bring your AC to -6 without other buffs, not to mention electricity resistance since she's using the staff of lightning.

[ August 28, 2004, 19:11: Message edited by: Chimera ]

 

@Xen: I read the link and I am starting to think it is even more hopeless at the level I am currently on.

I always do cast Insect Plague first. I only cast Summon Insects when my Insect Plagues have run out.

I can be fully buffed, which is okay and keeps me alive for ages. These buffs run out after a while which is my big problem. Then I am easy pickings. The other trouble is what can I use to do damage?

I can confirm this. I go into battle Imp.Invis. and she sees me straight away even when her summons are just sitting there.

I don't know whether it's because I'm a Druid or whether I am doing something wrong, but only I am able to fight Faldorn. There is no option for Cernd to fight her.

Faldorn always attacks my Summons and kills them off nice and quickly.

She is immune to everything and the summons do absolutely no damage whatsoever.

This kinda shows that I will need to level-up to L14 in order to be able to have a chance of beating her. Trouble is can I earn enough xp before going to Spell Hold - or do I have to wait until after the underdark?

Still not convinced I have a way to do any damage to her though.

Here's a thought ...
1. Use ring of spell turning
2. I cast Conjure Animals first
3. Faldorn casts Creeping Doom
4. Creeping Doom gets turned back to Faldorn
5. I cast Conjure Animals again
this would save me on some Iron Skins and give me an extra Insect Plague to cast later

[ August 28, 2004, 17:33: Message edited by: Bard ]