How to deal with Enemy Mages?

[Aramazon]

This is the second time I've given the game a try, and I really want to like it...I really do, but I keep having problems with battles once enemy spell casters start using effect spells...

 

For example...I'm at the Nephilim Fort...every time the enemy mage casts the poison cloud spell my party gets wiped...not only does the spell do a bunch of damage taking out half of everyone's health, but the next round everyone dies from the poison.

 

Everything else I can deal with at that point, but spellcasters destroy me. So what am I supposed to do to deal with that?

 

Even if I had mass cure or mass heal, it wouldn't really help since everyone would still remain at half health still be posioned...and things are starting to hit hard. Anyways, last time I played a bit furthur, and I remember getting constantly beaten by spellcasters...so what gives?

 

And I'm also playing on hard, but that's the only thing that really gives me a hard time so there must be some battle tactic or way around this out there?

 

Advice is appreciated

[Lilith]

That poison spell is a huge pain at low levels; if you can survive and make it to around level 10, it becomes a lot less scary, as the ongoing damage from the poison doesn't scale with level. The general strategy for mages is just to try and kill or disable them as quickly as possible.

 

Early-game bosses in general tend to be significantly tougher than the other enemy encounters in the same area, so you might want to put a pin in the fort for now and go explore some new places.

 

Keep in mind that you can change the difficulty at any time during play, so you can always just bump the difficulty down to Casual for early-game spellcaster fights and bump it back up for everything else. You won't be eligible for the medal for beating the game on Hard, but who cares?

[Randomizer]

Like Lilith says, just clear what you can and come back later. Also there are scrolls to mass heal the party and items for poison. For boss fights it sometimes pays to just use them rather than get frustrated with dying all the time.

 

Welcome to Spiderweb Software. Please leave your sanity at the door. Why lose it playing the games.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Another thing that can help is spacing your party members away from each other, so that the damage doesn't affect all of them, the early game mages are rather weak against physical damage, so if you can just get a fighter next to the mage and keep healing him, It helps a lot.

[Jerakeen]

The entire nephilim fortress except for the three upstairs bosses is doable on Torment at level 7. The bosses can be done at level 8. Hard, I don't know, but if you're below 7 you probably want to come back later.

 

Summoned shades are immune to poison and mental effects, and quite useful at low levels. If you haven't topped up your spell levels at Ft. Dranlon yet, this is a good time to do so.

 

Unfortunately, none of the wards help poison resistance, but I do remember that having a Steelward in place significantly improved survivability - maybe the initial damage is from acid? Not sure about that. But you probably want to save your scrolls for the boss fights on the upper level (assuming you are going to leave a few times to recharge). It's also worthwhile to boat over to the spring east of Formello to get Cloak of the Arcane (assuming you haven't tapped it out already).

 

A trick to get casters to come to you is to step just out of sight - around a corner, for example. They will run right up to you.

 

As MS says, spreading your party members out is helpful. I've found that some casters won't even use their area attacks if they can only see one or two of your characters. Doorways and ranged attacks are useful combinations.

[Death Knight]

Aramazon,

 

You can use leg sweep which is a battle discipline for melee. Use that with a melee user on the mage/priest and it will force them to stay close. You might have to reload if it doesnt work but Ive done that area at lvl 6.

 

Another thing you can do if you have an archer is just basically duel the mage with your arrows. When I did use archers in my party, they are the best characters to hold their ground against mage/priests until you can remove enough of the opposition for your melee to join the fight.

[Learned Noremac]

Archers, if you have them, are probably pretty good for this because mages won't, most of the time, have much resistance to them. Otherwise, inch your fighters towards the mages as you move through--take a slowed step, attack, repeat next round. If you have Icy Rain, your mages can fire it while in another room as long as one of your characters can see the spot, and if your "central" square has no character, friendly or otherwise, in it. Also, your healers don't need to see who they're healing--just click portraits. Fighters can probably manage the damage a bit better.

 

Otherwise, try to survive until you can get Mass Healing.

 

Or...if you're not afraid to take "Learned Noremac's Foolproof Strategy for the Cowardly and Dishonourable Adventurer"(Copyright pending), you can make a few early boss game fights easier by recognizing this: Bosses and their cronies do heal if you run away, but the dead ones don't respawn. Thus, go into a difficult fight not with the goal of WINNING, but with the goal of REDUCING the number of guys in the room, even if only by one. Conserve your items, target the cronies only, and keep at least one guy near the back row. Once at least 2 of your guys have died, leave one guy in the fight to give your last guy enough time to get away. Then, run back to town so everyone can sleep off their decapitations, then do it again. Eventually, you'll be left with just the boss itself, which will be far more manageable.

[The Reverend]

And I'm also playing on hard, but that's the only thing that really gives me a hard time so there must be some battle tactic or way around this out there?

 

The difficulty of the boss (and mini-boss) fights are really the biggest things that differentiate hard from normal, and torment from hard. This is especially so in the early part of the game, where even on normal there is significant bump up in difficulty between the rest of the dungeon and the dungeon bosses and mini-bosses. I remember there being a couple difficult spell casting bosses in the Nephilim fortress. On Torment, I think I started that fort at level 8 or 9, but wasn't able to finish the bosses until level 10 or 11.

 

Or...if you're not afraid to take "Learned Noremac's Foolproof Strategy for the Cowardly and Dishonourable Adventurer"(Copyright pending), you can make a few early boss game fights easier by recognizing this: Bosses and their cronies do heal if you run away, but the dead ones don't respawn. Thus, go into a difficult fight not with the goal of WINNING, but with the goal of REDUCING the number of guys in the room, even if only by one. Conserve your items, target the cronies only, and keep at least one guy near the back row. Once at least 2 of your guys have died, leave one guy in the fight to give your last guy enough time to get away. Then, run back to town so everyone can sleep off their decapitations, then do it again. Eventually, you'll be left with just the boss itself, which will be far more manageable.

 

I like to call this "guerrilla tactics" rather than "cowardly and dishonorable". On Torment, it is extremely useful in the early going (definitely the first 10-12 levels, and still somewhat so later). Without things like this, there are very few boss fights you can handle in the early going without a lot of level-grinding. Often I play a variation on this where I attempt to lure some of the cronies out of the room, by standing where they can see me but the boss can't. This way you can kill the cronies, then heal/rebuff and head into the room with the boss to take them on with fewer buddies to help them.