A:EftP - Tactical tips and tricks (MINOR SPOILS)

[Vent]

I was wondering what was the various good tricks relative to fights tactics.

 

Here few points I quoted:

• Swapping during movements: If you attack the path finding won't use the ability of swapping members, but if you move the path finding is using the swapping. So just move to the position where you'll attack and members will be swapped if they block a path, then attack.
• Swapping only without moving: In case you just want swap two characters, the arrow keys allow to move one step so you can use them to just swap two characters that are close but not in diagonal (I don't know the moving keys for diagonal).
• Use scouting in rude places: The beginning of a fight can be sometimes rather rude and with some random hard to predict. So when you are adventuring in a very rude place, enter in fight mode then scout with your first character and keep enough movement points to come back and setup an ambush in case there was some enemies after the corner.
• Check any repositioning opportunity before each attack: That can easily makes the difference between win and lost. There's many good opportunity to reposition, and even close attacker have opportunities. For example to move to a less exposed place, to move to opposite direction than other members in case the enemy is using cone attacks, to use the swapping possibility to exchange targets, and many more.
• Use doors and corridors: both could allow control a small front fight more easily.
• Use weaker enemies as protection: Sometimes you could even use small front fight to face some weaker monsters and shoot with long range and spells above them avoiding some tougher close range opponent.
• Learn identify enemies with area attacks: They are very dangerous so try identify them and position your team to minimize the number of members hurt by such attack.
• Against enemies using cone attacks: Position your fighter(s) attacking in opposed directions and in different directions than long range attackers.
• Against enemies using a ranged cloud attack: Have your group at least spread in two parts, like close range at a side and long range as far than possible.
• Have the priest in last position: There's many little advantage of this order choice. Have your main healer act at end of turn to make the best healing decision. At start of fights let the mage summon before the priest cast some support spell. This is done in the stats window (click the ? next to one of your characters, then move a character up or down in the lower-left corner of the window.)
• Find Healing Herbs, make free potions, use more often Healing potions: First places provides few spots that regularly provide few healing herbs, and an alchemist can make for you free healing potions if you provide healing herbs. So check those spots often, have more Healing potions, and use them a bit more often during tougher fights.

Well that's what I think of, more are very welcome, or different opinion when you disagree.

 

EDIT: Added explanation on how change party order as quoted Soul of Wit in a post.

[Slawbug]

These are great pointers for people new to the engine. Good idea Vent!

[Vent]

Thank you, and you are welcome to provide more! For sure I read some in some of your posts or from other players. I mainly wanted put some focus on this point of the game... and hope get more idea from it.

[Soul of Wit]

Good list for rookies, Vent.

 

Of your tips, the first priority is to move your Priest to last position. This is done in the stats window (click the ? next to one of your characters, then move a character up or down in the lower-left corner of the window.)

 

I find it odd that the game defaults to having the Mage last.

[Vent]

Originally Posted By: Soul of Wit

Good list for rookies, Vent.

Of your tips, the first priority is to move your Priest to last position. This is done in the stats window (click the ? next to one of your characters, then move a character up or down in the lower-left corner of the window.)

I find it odd that the game defaults to having the Mage last.

Yeah it's just for rookies (for now) but feel free to add more, for rookies or not.

And yeah the Priest is in general better at end. He isn't at end by default probably because he is supposed to be more resistant. The Mage has armor constraints the Priest hasn't.

I read a nice trick about Priest order in some posts, it's for few fights put him first to have it remove some mental effect before your fighters controlled by an enemy is killing some members.

But in practice this trick is perhaps more complicated because it's a matter of attack order if some enemy act after you Priest in first position and before your fighter. If your fighter don't have fast reaction time I suppose it could happen. I haven't tried yet that other trick because when I would like use it it's for fights where enemy has mass control spells like Daze but I don't have the spell to Mass Mental effect removal.

I think in practice against an enemy that can control one party member it probably works in all cases if the Priest has slow enough reaction time and the other party members faster reaction time.

[Vent]

I regret be the only one to suggest stuff related to tactics but well anyway, some more tricks:

 

• Flee is a good option without penalties: In most fights flee is an option and there's no real penalty, XP already got at each kill is kept and you lost no money. To flee you need reach the grey area/exit area if there's one and have end of turn. It's more in the mood than reload.
• Using flee for playing "real": It's fun to use to play it a bit "real" when you see a fights isn't ok or is going bad, then you can prepare the flee, just one member flee can be enough. But it's a matter of taste and reload can be better for the fun and to learn.
• Using flee to break a very tough fight in multiple assaults: If this is really going bad you can use flee to tune down a bit one fight difficulty instead of changing difficulty setup for this fight. If you succeed kill few enemies before the flee, in most case they won't be regenerated next time you come, perhaps you need not wait to much but you can kill a few, flee, go to a town to restore and resurrect and come back. Sure it's only for using very rarely but it match some real play where you use flee instead of reload.
• Give one Priest level to all your characters: Have the option of one of the base Priest spells for all characters adds a lot to tactical choices. It's not for constant use but for casual use or special cases.
• Even your mage can benefit of one Priest level: With his high int and other related skills, a mage casting Smite will have rather good damages, and this can be useful where there's nothing better to do and enemies are almost immune to the mage spells you have. For Heal spells it's more a problem for your mage because your mage improvements won't help much to raise their power. But sometimes a bit of healing can help. And also it can be very handy for some Curing. Typically cure the Priest before he gets his round and die because of some poison and low health.

 

[darint]

Excellent advice, Vent! Here are a few more tips:

 

• Summons as a rearguard: Sometimes you will run into ambushes where opponents are generated all around you, or cases where enemies' reinforcements come at you from the rear. One way to protect your fragile spellcasters is to have them generate summons to keep the opponents at bay.
• Summons in the doorway: A slight variation on Vent's advice to use weaker opponents as protection is to put a summon in a doorway. This allows you to use missile weapons and spells, but you can also cast cone spells through the doorway without killing your protector.
• Yo-yoing tough melee monsters: When the front is completely blocked, melee opponents will often try to circle around and hit you from the rear. Sometimes you can use this to your advantage by letting them circle for one turn, then knock a hole in the line. The tough melee opponents tend to move early, so the next turn they will see the hole and run back to face you. But usually they won't make it all the way back and another weak opponent fills the gap, so they circle next turn, and so on.
• Watching the boss triggers: In the boss fights, many events are scripted by boss HP triggers. Some of these triggers generate summons, and if you cross more than one trigger in a single turn, you could be faced with a lot of summons. So it is often better to cross one trigger and deal with the summons before dealing serious damage to the boss.
• Give your meat shield scrolls and crystals: It may seem more appropriate for your spellcasters to have these items, but it is often profitable for your dumb ox to have a few as well. Many of the offense scrolls affect nearby opponents, and no one will have more nearby opponents than your meat shield. The damage they do is weak, but when you hit a lot of opponents the overall effect can be great. For curing/buffing scrolls and crystals, having your first character use it means that everyone else benefits from it immediately. And remember since using these items only costs 5 APs, you will usually be able to use one and attack as well.

[Jerakeen]

Good tips, but it's hard to make a pet go just where you want it to.

[Randomizer]

Wand of Inferno is the only wand/scroll that is effective through out the game except for some bosses.

[Vent]

When fighting a certain Ogre Mage I used the tricks "Watching the boss triggers" listed by darik. He was objectively too strong but I end just throw a tank in the room and have all other support and guard outside from perturbations and when there was one they supported less the tank and was focusing on killing to "not welcomed" faster. For that fight I wonder if with some patience you couldn't only just fire from outside area spells and take care of the external elements but not really bother with the mini boss.