HELP! battle squares trouble

Remove all ads!

Here is my party.

Rog4/Fig5 tiefling
Monk9 Aasimar
Ranger9 Drow
Evoker10 Human
Druid10 Half Elf

No trouble until this point, but this battle squares thing is driving me nuts.. I cannot beat even the first monster with any of my characters. My monk can't hit and gets killed right away. Evoker has some chance with mirror image but quickly dies as well, Druid is dead whether he shapeshifts or not, Ranger has the best chance with hits but bad armor, gets killed quick, and the figher rogue, although one of my more powerful chars, no chance there either.. wth am I going to do? I've fought water elementals, greater warewolfs, even mind fleyers, don't have a chance against any, and this is just the first damn fight. Nothing so far has given me even a problem, except my first run in with the crystal golem, but now that is easy too.

Trypt

 

Have you tried putting it on an easier level? On my game I realised I'd started it on level 7

 

Maybe you had activated the battle square at a high rank, i.e. at rank 8 instead of starting out small at rank 1. In fact, your description of the monsters seemed a little too powerful.

There are ten switches at the top of the room, activate the first one to the left for rank one, its easier.

There were topics in this forum as to how to win the squares, you can still search for them.

 

If this is the first time you encounter the battle square, you might not have the level to play highier ranks (rank 5 and up). You can always return later to finish it after you gained some level. The furthest you can get if you still want to return to battle square is the end of chapter four before you take Oswald's ship. i'll place a reminder later in the walkthrough. If you are impatient, you can export a current member, create a new one and adjust it's level. Later after you've completed the square, you can delete that member and import back your previous one. For more information about adjusting a character's level, please refer to Dan Simpson's faq at http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/IWD2/index_tips.php

Because all i know about this part is from him and i don't want to plagiarize his work. If you are so desperate, two items for you to create '00ARMBL2' and '00ARMCH'. This two totally destroy the fun of playing the game, not just battle square, use it at your own risk.(Special thanks to [ejsmith] from Sorcerer's Palace sharing his discovery about the two with the public)

You should have no problem finishing the first 3 ranks using normal tanker character. Monk isn't really useful in battle square as monk offers only one damage type, bludgeoning. If you encounter zombie lord for example, your monk can do nothing but pull the trigger to end battle square. Fighter type is the best because they have a wide range of damage types to choose from, depending on what weapon they use.

Before you start the battle square, rearrange your wquipments so that your fighter has every of the best that the band can offer. When playing under HoF mode, choose equipments that reduce damage and increase saving throws. Monsters will hit you on regular basis even if you can push your Armor Class to as high as 40. When choosing your weapons, make sure you can do slashing and bludgeoning damage, melee and range damage. Give the fighter all the healing potions you have. If you have problem getting more healing potions. Venla in the Wondering Village (the next area) sells extra healing potions as much as you can buy. The last thing to do would be, of course, polish your fighter. Cast spells like 'stones skin', 'chaotic command', 'remove fear', 'barskin', 'emotion: hope', 'resist elements', 'improved invisible' (if not playing V2.00), 'cat's grace', 'bull's strenght', etc, depends on what spells you have. The best candidate to enter the battle square in my opinion is paladin 3 or 7 / fighter x. paladin for the immue to fear at level 2, immue to disease at level 3, fiendslayer feat at level 7. fighter for the weapon sepcialization in several kinds.

Of all the doors in IWD2, this one is the most famous and important. There are two doors in the battle square, the one at the north wall is the 'north door'. This door offers you strategic advantage as huge enemis cannot pass through this door. That's why range damage is also important playing battle square.

The 'Club of Disruption', as battle square rank 6 prize, really helps a lot. High rank battle square will always give you demons and elementals type enemies which you can destroy them by using 'Club of Disruption' if they fail their fortitude saving throw. Open your 'Attack Rolls' feedback via option --> game play --> feedback to see if the enemy you are currently hitting is subject to disruption process. If they are, it will show their fortitude saving throw aganist 'Club of Disruption'. When playing high rank battle square under hof, it is just a fight to see if monsters throw 1 in their fortitude saving. If you want to use range attack with your fighter, take throwing weapons over missile weapons because throwing weapons (like throwing dagger/axe/hammer) use STR modifier in attack roll not DEX in missile weapons. A returning throwing hammer +2 that i've gotten in Wondering village/Underdark (i forgot which) is also a helpful weapon as my fighter already specialized in war hammer. Apart from bludgeoning damage, it deals electrical damage as well. 'Throwing Axe of Shocking Burst', rank 5 prize of battle square, is also useful if you are better with axes then hammers. Weapon choice for [fire mage] are Warhammer +2 with shock, Flaming Star +1, Morning Star of Thorns, Greataxe +4, Club of Disruption (prize), Ice Spear (prize).

Now save every single time you completed a single square. If you are not satisfy with the monster that the next square gives you, you can always load the game. Well, this is a computer game after all and the designers don't limit our saves, so however 'cheesy' it is, it is still valid.

Sometime those teleport-able monster will teleport to where the rest of your members are. This isn't a bad thing as now you can outnumber the monster. However, take extra care to make double sure that the ice golem champion is somewhere near this room the moment you kill the monster. If not, you kill wouldn't count. You can also choose the teleportion on purpose if you feel that the monster is to hard to handle single handedly. Summons several minions in the battle square room before you start and place them at a corner where they cannot see the coming monster. When you encounter a teleportable monster, send one summon to attack it. Upon making a sucessful hit, the summon will be teleported to the resting room with the others and so as the monster who choose to chase this summon.

Enemies and weakness
Elemetals:
Fire/water/earth/wind elementals fall under this group. They generally have high hp. Club of Disruption works on them but some have pretty high fortitude saving throw bonus (like +19). Some even resistance to bludgeoning damage, making the attempt to disrupt process harder.
Demons:
Gelugon, Cornugon and Glabrezu. All demons can be dispruted and are vulernable to bludgeoning damage, making them weak against Club of Disruption. Keep in mind that all demon knows how to teleport. Also, they will 'panic' those unprotected.
Undead:
These undead are very strange. They are subject to disruption under HoF mode, but not under normal mode. Boneguard type is resistance to slashing damage and zombie type (including the fat ones) is resistance to bludgeoning damage. To me, these are the hardest foes in battle square. i often reload encountering them.
shadow:
Those black monsters are shadows, not some bad animations or your graphic card's fault. Shadows come in different forms and each form's charateristic is just like their real bodies. So, for example, if you encounter Glabrezu in shadow form, use your against demons tactic on it.
big ones :
These are the ultra big enemies that have problem passing the north door. When you encouter these, rush pass the north door and use range weapons to deal damage without taking any pain. They are the easiest foes in battle square.
others:
These include small skeletons, small shadows, animals and any other type that doesn't fall into the previous categories. They are not that strong and you can just melee them to death. None of these is subject to disruption. There is a kind of enemy called Fyer variations (the big floating balloon kind). They know how to teleport and can 'hopeless' your member.

Words of wisdom from [fire mage]
"Because the game often uses the same monsters repeatedly, it didn't take long for me to figure out which type of weapon worked best with which monster"

[ November 30, 2002, 22:09: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Thanx guys, just realised what was wrong, my rank of course, had it set on rank 6 for whatever reason, no wonder I couldn't compete, I'll go back to that rank when I get some damn armour or something.

Trypt