Standstill - Monk's Chamber 8

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I'm at a complete standstill. I'm at the Monk's chamber 8 and can't get anybody to survive. My fighter's last a bit longer than other characters, but can't deal enough damage before dying, my MU/Cleric doesn't have enough time to cast spells to help them enough to keep from getting pummeled. My thief doesn't last long at all, even if I get hide in shadows set up fast enough to get to the weapons.

I'm to the point where I can't finish the game if I can't get past this. I'm toying with starting over and make sure I buff up my MU with fighter strength lol. Some hints I saw said to caste haste before going in, but all spells cast before entering get wiped out as soon as I get in there.

ETA: I found some more hints on here when I searched Chamber of Immolation instead of chamber 8 I'll try some of those and see what happens.

 

What does your party look like?

 

Fighter should survive the Eight Chambers as long as you don’t get surrounded by the enemies.

If you have trouble with the fight , try wizard ----- the practitioner of the Art is the best choice , since Mirror Image is such a munchkin spell

Hope this video walkthrough will help you



PS :

1.) Phantasm Blade ( Wiz/Sor 5 ) can be purchased at wandering village and Tenser’s Transformation is available at monastery library . ( Alternatively , you can try Decastave ( Wiz/Sor 2 ) which can be purchased at monastery as well )

2.) If your arcane caster is a sorcerer or a specialist wizard who is barred from the appropriate spells , try the combination of Mirror Image and summoned creatures .

3.) Cleric and Druid could brave the Eight Chambers as well , since both class can summon creatures to their aid . Also , Cleric can cast Champion’s Strength ( Clr 5 ) and Druid can assume Wild Shape and is immune to poison .

 

Level 12 Ranger - 144 HP
Level 12 Thief - 108 HP
Level 12 Cleric - 108 HP
Level 11 (effective level 12) Paladin - 132 HP
Level 12 Fighter (7)/Bard (5) - 136 HP - was an experiment and he can't seem to learn spells despite having slots for them (that's another issue I ran into)
Level 12 Sorcerer (5)/Wizard (7) - 60 HP - another experiment that didn't work as well as I thought it might lol.

I've tried casting spells, but they always disrupt them and then pound on my character before I can get to the weapons. It's really getting aggravating.

---------- Added 1 hours, 2 minutes and 27 seconds later... ----------

Blah - My MU can't use Phantasm Blade yet! I may have to go rest and pull up some random encounters and level till he can lol.

 

For the bard, check his charisma level. It needs to be 10+spell level, so you need a minimum charisma of 11 to cast first level spells. If you max-minned and your CHA is 3, you're screwed, since you only get to increase CHA by 4 during a normal mode game.
You can always use DaleKeeper2 to increase CHA to 15, then put your remaining stat increase points into CHA.

 

Ah - that might be the problem. I never thought about that, I'll have to check. I may start over with some new characters lol.

What's DaleKeeper2?

ETA: I checked, his CHA is 10 lol. So that explains that issue.

 

Well , since your wizard is muticlassed , perhaps you could give your cleric a chance .

Have you tried Summon Fire Elemental ( Clr 6 ) ? The spell works perfectly in the last chamber .

Screenshot:

Spoiler

PS :

1. Iron Skins ( Clr 5 ) and/or Divine Shell ( Clr 6 ) can protect your cleric from those Brass Monk .

2. To speed up the fight , you can cast Champion's Strengh ( Clr 5 ) on your Elementals .

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll have to see if those work. If not, I may need to start over with different characters LOL.

 

DaleKeeper II is the Icewind Dale version of the Keeper series of character editors for Infinity Engine games. If you've heard of Gatekeeper, ShadowKeeper, or Sword Coast Keeper, then DaleKeeper and DaleKeeper2 are the same thing for the Icewind Dale games.
http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/dl.php?s=IWD2&f=IWD2/DK2-Beta-5.zip
Minimal description here:
http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/IWD2/index_editors.php

As for your sorcerer/wizard, Well, I should comment that multiclassing sorcerer/wizard is one of it not the dumbest multiclass combinations. They both do almost the exact same thing, but use different prime attributes (or whatever it is called in 3E, I am more comfortable in 2e). Sorcerers depend on charisma, Wizards on intelligence.
By multiclassing with both classes, you halve your caster level. While you get more low-level spells, you get far fewer high level spells and probably won't get to cast the really powerful 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells.
Druid/Cleric and Paladin/Ranger are the other combos that are just as bad.
Maybe Barbarian/Paladin or Barbarian/Ranger (not sure the former is really possible).
A fighter mix-in with barbarian, paladin, or ranger works for weapon specialization, but not a true multi-class where both are leveled up evenly beyond fighter(4).

 

Well, I finally decided to start over with a new party. I have a much better balance and no split class stuff . But I'm sure the spell ideas for the 8th chamber will come in handy once I get there again

 

By the way, you don't have to finish the 8 chambers in order to advance in the game.

You can also just slaughter all of the monks in the monastery. Sometimes I just kill them all after doing the first 2 or 3 of the 8 chambers (I think the 8 chambers are boring and frustrating and typically don't put much effort in trying to finish all 8 of them).

In fact, if you are trying to maximize XP as well as treasure, you can finish the 8 chambers and get the XP for the quests related to that mission, then turn around and slaughter all of the monks on your way out of the monastery.

The way I remember it, there are no alignment hits for any actions related to this sequence of events, either way.

 

you could also try a real monk to enjoy the chambers. ;-)

 

That's a thought. I never thought of running a monk before. I'm currently having a good run with my new party I put together. Maybe I'll try a monk next time I play through

 

I did it!!!! I set up my new party and started the game all over again. Thanks for all the advice! I managed to get my Cleric through the first 7, mostly using Summon Monster spells. That didn't cut it for 8, so I switched to my MU and combining spells and summoning an earth elemental and other monsters, haste, and a few distance spells, I did it!!!!! (yeah, I had it on the easiest setting, but hey... she survived with 5 HP left LOL).

And now on to the rest of the adventure....

 

Don't worry, you get to do it again in HoF mode. Only this time the Monks get 20/+1 damage resistance due to their increased level.

(Spoiler tip: You never thought you'd need those summoned weapons.. well, it turns out you do. Kinda.)

 

Just in case someone searched this and that person would have a different party composition than OP 2 years ago....

This was my most successful 8th chamber go and it is I think fool proof if you have a mostly pure wizard that can cast these spells. My sorcerer it turned out was crap for chamber 8 because her spell selection did not have the needed spells of haste and animate dead. I've beaten chamber 8 before using a high hp tank or a semi-tank with evasion but this was much better result i.e. 'sure thing' or 'easy mode'

For a wizard or mostly pure wizard...

I used a diviner which gets +1 spell per spell level in return for losing conjuration school. He was a Tiefling with Spirit of Flame feat so innate 10 fire resistance but is not necessary as he only got hit once.

Here are the important spells:

3rd Level spells: haste x as many slots as you have. You won't run out if you have a mostly pure wizard but this will keep you ahead of the dropping fireballs and attacking monks. It is the key spell.

4th Level spells: fire shield blue x 2 This will reduce fire damage by 1/2 if you get hit. Only 1 round/level. Stoneskin x whatever slots left

5th Level spells: Animate dead x all This is your kill spell when you get buffed enough to not fear damage so much... At this point summon one undead. If you have a high enough caster level it will be greater bone guards or zombie lords and zombie lords don't take fire damage and both hit hard enough to kill the monks eventually. Also when 1 or 2 get out the dropping fire or monks ignore you now. Checkmate!

2nd level: mirror image all slots. you could take a slot of blur if you want.

1st level: shield x2, protection from evil, minor mirror image x the rest

Tactic: first spell to cast is haste and then run away and give time for a 'new round' when you cast a new spell. You should never take damage unless a 'player error' because you can run ahead of both the monks and dropping fire.

Next steps in the tactics is to cast protection spells. When buffed up you summon your animate dead friends and finish off the level. Start with only spells with fast casting times but if you play correctly you should wait for enough time to be sure you get the spell off.. If ever haste runs out you have to recast haste because this is the key spell. I am not sure if this will work if you have no, only 1, or weak animate dead slots.

Buffer spells:

mirror image
shield
protection from evil
blur or cat's grace (optional and takes away mirror image slots)
stoneskin
fire shield blue (probably not needed)

Do not use blink because it gives you a 20% (edit not xp rather spell) failure and takes up a haste slot which is more effective

So that is pretty buff and then even so you still run away using haste and wait for a good moment to cast your first animate dead to get a summon out.

Play conservative but by the time you get more animate dead out (2 or more) it should be pretty apparent you will win.

I think my guy actually had 2 6th level slots and used the necro darts spell to summon 9 +3 darts per casting but if you have 6th level slots probably not needed as it would be overkill. None of my animated dead which were greater bone guards and zombie lords got killed and they ended the fight quick.

Edit: you can probably just go haste then mirror image then animate dead x 2 but I did the protections in case haste ran out and I couldn't get another haste off (because no protection) before killing enemy...

 

Chamber of Immolation (8th): the key to this chamber should be Protection from Fire , a clerical 3rd tier spell. You will want it up all the time because both Brass Monk's attack and environmental fire strikes are causing fire damage. Armor of Faith are also very good for defense. Aid is good to get more hits connect. Animate Undead last about 3 rounds before getting killed, they are too disadvantegous down here.

After that, it's a matter of hit and run to avoid getting two on one which can be very tough. My Cleric/Fighter got 130 Hp and barely enough to survive that way.

If you try it with Paladin, I suspect Pal will need high level enough to cast 2 and 3rd tier spell.

Generally, the key is a prot FIre and other defensive buffs to help the combatant last long enough to kill two monks. A pure melee wont last long, what with their naked defense and no magical weapon.

 

Laclongquan, I can confirm that I tested my strategy. With haste you don't get hit by the fire blasts because you keep ahead of them (and the iron monks). So you don't need protection from fire. Mirror Image also protects if a fire bomb accidentally hits you (oops didn't move away) and you only lose on 'image' per hit so you have 8 images protects a lot and easy to recast. And I can confirm that Animate dead spam can easily kill the monks and survive the the fire. You need high enough caster levels to summon Boneguards and Zombie Lords. If you have a diluted caster level from multi classing it is possible they won't be strong enough. Again I tested my method and it's easy and you take zero damage. Of course there are other tactics. Protection from fire level 3 cleric spell will only protect from 7 fire/ hit. But if it's stacked with like racial fire resistance from Aasimar or such maybe 12 is enough to protect you long enough to survive. I don't know about if 7* will protect long enough and you would need to burst the monks down quick if you are taking steady damage from fire. My strategy you take no damage because you are hasted and can outrun the fire spots on the ground and the monks. Then you buff up with mirror image and other buffing spells. You have time to cast them because you run ahead with haste. Then the high caster level of Animate Dead (Boneguard and/or Zombie Lord) they will easily burst down the monks before those strong summons are killed.

*depends how much damage per fire bomb ie if they are doing 25 damage/hit then the protection fire make it 18/hit or with racial fire resist now 13/hit...

But if you tested your strategy I believe you I'm just saying I tested mine and it works fine.

 

Mmm. I will try to see if I can test it with my Transmuter. I overwrote the files, but let me see...

Anyway, my Cleric Fighter is dual style, not F4Cx, so the Cleric is waaaaaaay diluted. The point is a frontline dreadmistress who only cast quick spell in combat, not healing, and mainstrength lie in Polearm and Bow. So yeah, she got the job done. Though the weapon storage mean she can only be proficient in attack. And even if she remember level2 hammer spell and level3 blade, it's not that much better and of no help. And Animate Dead is waaaay underpowered in this scenario.

My F4Paladin is a bit weaker in term of combat spell but more durable thanks to a lay on hand heal/remove curse, which combined can heal 30HP. And her mastery in Largesword mean the long sword in the storage get a +1/+2 in hit/dam, slightly better in term of hit ratio.

 

Your solution is based on Animate Undead as the cornerstone. But Transmuter cant learn Animate Undead (as well as some school that forbid Necromancy)
On the other hand, Improved invisiblity is nicely long and allow us to withdraw to safe distance.
Then it's enough for us to cast a Malison on the pair of monks. -2 saving throws right there.
You can use Otiluke's Resilent Sphere to imprison one of them and deal with other, if you plan a long battle.
Minute Meteor give us missile attack at +5 to hit, so they get cut down at range
Fire Shield Blue allow Fire Rez AND damage upon melee combatants with cold damage.

It's not that I dont like Haste but the freaking monks are freaking fast and arcane caster need time to cast. II is better than Haste.