A:EftP - Leaving Spiral Pit

[The Reverend]

Over the weekend my no-mage torment party took out the spectral commander at the heart of the Spiral Pit. They were a bit worn down, but everyone survived. I collected the loot, and started what I thought would be an easy march back to Mertis.

 

However, when they were almost to the exit, they were attacked by a group of undead led by a Specter. The battle seemed harder than the main boss/Spectral Commander in the heart of the Pit. After a few failed attempts to beat them, I decided to retreat, and managed (barely) to get one character out so he could run back to Mertis and revive the rest.

 

My previous playthrough was on hard, and I don't remember this battle being particularly bad - I may be misrembering, but I thought it was easier than the battle at the heart of the pit. Did Jeff significantly up the difficultly of this battle as a nasty surprise for Torment players? (Just when you think you're done with that dungeon, surprise you're not!) If so, that's not the type of surpise I appreciate!!

[Randomizer]

I don't remember the leaving battle being harder as long as you still have spell points to fight. It's in a narrow area if you retreat so you don't get swarmed.

[Upon Mars.]

Th pit was an awfull experience but I seem to recall that overall escape from the pit is harder than the first trilogy A1.

[The Reverend]

Originally Posted By: Randomizer

I don't remember the leaving battle being harder as long as you still have spell points to fight. It's in a narrow area if you retreat so you don't get swarmed.

I encountered them right as I rounded the final corner (SE corner), where there is room for them to swarm you. There's a 1-wide passage a ways back, but I wasn't able to get there before being swarmed. Last night I retried it though, and waited at the mouth of the 1-wide passage instead of continuing on until I reached the occupied corner. After waiting awhile, some of the undead wandered into visual range and came at me, allowing me to take them out one at a time. After I had picked off most of those guys, I headed into the corner and managed to take out the specter and his final remaining companion. I did have one of my characters go down in the battle though. The problem was that (even with Ward of Elements cast) my cold resistance was apparently not high enough to prevent the specter from killing either of my front line characters if he managed to get two of his cold damage attacks in (and he appears to always have enough AP for two attacks per round). This was even if I fully healed them each round. But at least the battle was winnable with this tactic.

[Earth]

lookslike you did pit too early with unprepared party. prolly all hostile casters do 2 attacks per round due they can cast battle frenzy.

[The Reverend]

Originally Posted By: Earth Empires

lookslike you did pit too early with unprepared party. prolly all hostile casters do 2 attacks per round due they can cast battle frenzy.

I'm familiar with coming back later and trying again if you can't handle the main boss - that is in fact what I did here. The first time I went into the Spiral Pit, I cleared out everything up to the Spectral Commander, and then came back a few levels later to take him and his friends out.

But in this case, after I defeated the main boss, I was expecting to take an easy jaunt back to town. Then on my way out after defeating him, I encountered a battle that I found more difficult than the main boss - the specter by the exit didn't hit quite as often as the main boss, but when he did hit, it went for more damage per round (at least given my party's current resistances and wards). It seems that battle is triggered by defeating the Spectral Commander, since it didn't occur when I left the Pit earlier.

[Lilith]

Pro tip: for that battle, summon a shade as a distraction. It can't hurt the spirits, but they can't hurt it either, leaving you free to run away.