A:EftP - Hawthorne on Torment

[Painted Lady]

Okay - I'm basically at the end of my first ever Torment playthrough of a Spiderweb game, and I have a question.

 

The battle with Grah-Hoth was doable because I took Randomizer's advice about the corridor behind the throne. The whole gang went to the back of the tunnel and my tank duked it out with the monsters. Since they couldn't see us, the second and third wave of bad boys never even came after us. After we did in Grah-Hoth, my tank fought a delaying action while the rest of the group looted the treasure and headed for the exit. The whole battle didn't even require my using an Invulnerabilty potion.

 

So, the good news is that I'm loaded with resources for the final battle. The bad news is that the guards are so tough on Torment that I can't make any progress through the corridors. Having come this far I would hate to have to turn the difficulty down to finish the game, but that is starting to look like a real possibilty. Any ideas?

[The Reverend]

The key for making it through the royal spire on torment (or any level, really, but especially torment) is to not get bogged down - new guards continually spawn, so if you don't keep moving, you'll get overwhelmed. Speed helps (e.g., battle frenzy), so you can make more progress before additional guards catch up with you. They are tough on torment, but by this point you should be able to clear out enough of them fast enough to make progress - high powered AOE spells help (you may want a good stock of energy elixirs if you think you might run out of spell points), as does being able to attack multiple times per round (AP boosting items and adrenaline rush). The trickiest part for me was when you get to Garzhad (or however you spell his name). You need to take him out as fast as possible before too many guards catch up with you.

 

Once you actually get to Hawthorne, it's just a waiting game - he'll eventually use up his shield trying to fight you, and at that point you should be able to kill him in one shot. You just need to survive the mob that attacks you long enough. I found divine retribution at level 2 to be helpful here - it gives the slow status, which the sentinels seem particularly vulnerable to. And it also does a lot of damage to the guards that arrive while you are waiting.

[Randomizer]

There's a bug that lets you slip past Garzhad without having to fight him to get the final dialog. You have to move quickly.

[Death Knight]

After facing Hawthorn twice, I think this time I'll focus on getting the escape ending. It wasn't that he was too hard, it was more that I rushed it and did it at an early lvl. Hawthorn doesn't mess around and when your too low a lvl it can be brutal. The best way to get through Hawthorn is to go at him at lvl 32-35. Somewhere around there. This is for hard or normal. I wouldn't guess what it is for torment.

 

Anyone that does Hawthorn fight on torment gets props as that is something I wish I could do.

[Randomizer]

I try to go in at level 35 for Hawthorne and use invulnerability potions for torment.

[The Reverend]

I try to go in at level 35 for Hawthorne and use invulnerability potions for torment.

This, except I was at level 36. And yes, invulnerability potions makes it much easier to survive long enough for Hawthorne to waste all his shields.

[Valerio]

I just beat this today on Torment with characters of levels 30/29/30/31. Not easy.

 

Basically, I used a trial-and-error method to "corpse hop" my party around the tower by abusing the "blink" spell on my mage who was well-equiped with Return Life scrolls and speed elixirs, occasionally being able to save along the way. I skipped Garzhad in the same way.

 

As far as the fight against Hawthorne himself, let's just say it involved a lot of invulnerability potions... still took several tries.