What is HoF?

Remove all ads!

Does it make you lvl faster or sumthing? And doesn't that make the game trivial?

[ November 29, 2002, 06:41: Message edited by: Blackthorne TA ]

 

Everything steps up a gear.

So from chapter one onwards the monsters are a lot harder to kill, with better hp's BAB, etc. You are rewarded with more XP though.

Having said that, it is designed to play after completing the game to get the higher level spells.

 

Has anyone tried Heart of Fury mode with 1st level characters in IWD1/2? It could be quite challenging...

 

Sure they have.
Look around for posts by Tioma, he (she?) seem to live for constantly posting about HoF soloing.

 

Sylvan. Are you sure it's 1 gear? I felt it was about 50. But...

Harkle.

Yes I played a party of level 1 characters with no imported or hacked items in HoF mode. It was... interesting to say the least. If you want to I can give you a strategy on how to do it.

Cheers.

 

Yes Khazraj, any advice is welcome. All I know is that ranged weapons are necessary in HoF.

 

How much do they go up?

 

For example I believe the basic goblins get +29 on their attack rolls to hit. Makes you wonder why you even bother with armor, doesn't it?

 

"For example I believe the basic goblins get +29 on their attack rolls to hit. Makes you wonder why you even bother with armor, doesn't it?"

This is the sole reason why I have all my people using miniguns and turbo plasma rifles.

On the same train of thought, I always go in the front entrance on the Headquarters.

I figure why should I hunt them down when they can just come to me? It's like when you were a kid, and your grandfather told you to go find something that he could swat you with.

Cha! I'll get right on that.

 

Harkle. Get ready for a big rumble. I made a brand new party. It does not really matter what you make, so long as you have a sorcerer. This is MUST. (Sorry moderators, but this is for emphasis).

The whole party is going to level squat, that is you never press the level up button ever, until you hit level 30, which should be around the Goblin Fortress. The only character to level up is the sorcerer.

Spell picks, whatever you like so long as you get monster summoning. You will die without it. You will die without it. You will die without it. Harkle, are you listening, you will die without it. (I can't overestimate this.)

Keep everyone far away from anything, because you will die. Get your sorcerer really close the edge of wherever goblins appear but for starters go over near the goblin that is close to the steps leading up to Targos Town, and summon a monster, but don't get seen by the goblin, this way it will attack the summons and not you. Remember that your summon won't last long, because you are first level. Move so you can see the goblin and have your summoned monster go for it. You will probably need to summon more to actually kill the goblin. After that you will get 3600xp for 1 goblin.

Now you will need to rest. Have your party hide. And then move them into the house that Jorum Tamewater says you can rest in, SW corner. Hide so that the goblins won't move. I can't overstress the need for all your party to have hide skills. Once they are all safe inside the house, get your sorcerer to rest and relearn spells to go on a goblin killing spree. Never take on more than 1 or 2 goblins at a time. Kill all the goblins outside on the docks before going to the wharehouse.

As you go up in level remember to pick monster summoning, because this is your weapon.

When you go into the wharehouse, make sure to send the sorcerer alone and hidden. Go to the far NE corner and summons monsters. By this stage you should be around level 3 or so, so keep on summoning until the first level of the wharehouse is empty. Repeat until all the goblins are dead.

I estimate that you will be around level 5 or 6 when you are fininshed the Docks. Everytime you get spells, you need summons and spells that can defend you. You absolutely must have Invisibility Sphere as a level 3 spell pick. Webs, sleeps, hold, etc are useless at this stage. Summons are the only way to go.

When you are ready to fight the Goblins at the palisade, you will need the Goblin Slayer dagger from Elytharra. Also you may wish to level up a fighter here to be able to wield it and kill goblins. Still keep your strategy as summons and killing the monsters, but if you use this dagger it will kill every enemy and will make your fight much much easier. A ranger may be good for being able to hide and stab them. Always remember that mid-fight you can go back into Shawford's office and get free healing from the cleric there.

You can't rest during the fight so try to minimise the summons spells and use the dagger as much as you can. When it is all over, enjoy the new magic items. Take the new sorcerer spell picks, and try not to level up anyone else.

You will love Caballus' staff, and don't lose it. Move on to the Shaengarne and keep up the summons, and Invisibility sphere. Only ever have the sorcerer do anything. Remember to have the rest of the party hidden at all times, or they will, die. (Just like the Evil Emperor said to Luke in Return of the Jedi).

You should be around level 24 or so when you finally capture the Shaengarne Bridge.

Good luck and have fun. Be patient also because this is quite challenging.

Hope this is not too long, and I hope it helps.

 

Thanks Khazraj!

Now I have some questions about races and abilities.

1. What are the best race choices (ECL race or not) in HoF? My party will be something like this:
Sorcerer
Rogue/fighter
Rogue/wizard
Ranger
Paladin/cleric
Druid

2. Are some abilities especially important in Hof?

 

Harkle. It won't make any difference, because you don't want to level up until you can go from 1 directly to 30. ECL races can still get level 30 effective level, 31, 32 or 33.

Multiclassing won't really be possible, since you can only select 1 class at level up. If you press the level up button it will level you up 1 or all levels. Besides this is HoF, it won't matter. Your strategies will be seriously different.

What do you want a rogue for? Sneak attack? Are you joking? Melee fight in HoF + rogue = dead rogue. Even at level 30!

If you want rogue skills, give high INT to the Wizard and let them have the skills, Open Locks, Disable Device, Search, etc.

Have a straight fighter. And I would pick 1 from cleric, paladin or ranger. Personally I would go with cleric.

A monk? Maybe you don't like them, but if you level jump from 1 to 30 you will have an unbelieveable "machine of death" that has great damage and magic resistance. Especially if you make it Deep Gnome or Drow.

I don't think that there are any special skills or abilities that are useful in HoF, they are about the same.

PS. If you hate the idea of monk, then go for your favourite, warrior type, ranger, paladin, barbarian etc.

 

Thanks again for help.

So, I made this party:
Duergar Fighter - I chose duergar, because they get invisibilty ability, which is especially useful in HoF
Aasimar Sorcerer - because Aasimars get high charisma and they level up quicker than drows.
Aasimar Painbearer of Ilmater - I wanted a cleric. Ilmater, because ****spoilers ahead**** I want to see what happens in Kuldahar graveyard.
Swirfneblin Monk - because Khazraj said that they are great
Drow Sorcerer - One level of sorcerer to get access to all spells. I will multiclass him to a specialist wizard (maybe necromancer)
Wild Elf Druid - Well, I wanted one summoner more, so I took druid (there's also cool portrait for her)

[ December 04, 2002, 14:58: Message edited by: Harkle ]

 

Khazraj

Do you have to keep those tactics the whole HOF game? If so, I'm not sure I'm interested ... doesn't sound like too much fun.

But I'll sure try it.

 

"Do you have to keep those tactics the whole HOF game? "

Yep.

Welcome to the Jungle. We've got fun and games.
We've got everything you need, hunny we know the names.

Armageddon and Uber.

Them's the names.

 

Mathetais. I wonder if you thought about how a player develops and tactic that works a they stick to it...

You are right though, it can be boring, but this is one tactic, Quint proved to me that he can come up with others too. There is also a huge difference between the tactics that unarmed, cool equipmentless level 1 noobs use as compared to your party of level 16 or so heroes who just finished off the twins. If you use level 1 nobodies, there is no other option than summons. Because if you had missile weapons, you will use thousands of them to kill the goblins on the docks, and I am not joking.

But, if you have nice chunky weapons, skills, spells from your previous regular game, you can smash goblins pretty fast.

Think of it as a truly hard core game of chess. You have to think about how you are going to survive. The tactics are really tough, but it is "fullfilling" (?) when you achieve it. Look it really is powergaming here, not really any scope for roleplaying. All you want to do is stay alive.

Harkle, don't do things, "because I said so", do it because you want to have fun.

The specialist wizard... pick Transmuter for "the quest"... you have access to all spells anyway...

And be patient, because I can see you are thinking about chapter 5 in Kuldahar, you may have given up on it by the end of chapter 1 (or even the prologue) if you don't persevere.

Ejsmith, you are so "evil" for mentioning those weapons. Of course they are mega cheese and destroy all concept of tactics, but they sure would be grouse to play with...