Battles in Avernums

[Earth]

I like that there are battles lotsa but throwing level 30 (avg.) characters against 7 drakes (yes I know battles are slightly random generated) is way too much, 4 drakes is possible kill w/o magicians dying, 5 maybe (all depends what drakes decide cast) but beyond that it is near impossible to kill all drakes w/o dying (partially cause drakes seems to see whole battle-arena (my magicians have been about 24 steps from drakes and still drakes can fireblast them)). I doubt that even level 40 characters can survive from battle against 7 drakes (4 fighters maybe but not 2 fighters w/o magicians who have been killed) if hasn't made character(s) which can't be harm magically or physically.

 

That is my opinion and I'm quite sure some of you say that more enemies is merrier.

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

you have a point there. for some reason, drakes seem to be much harder to stand against than supposedly more powerful enemies.

the best way i found to kill them is to use your magic only to defend. arcane shield, sanctuary etc should keep you from dying, and hasting+blessing should make it possible for your fighter to kill a drake each round.

this works best with a fighterpriest//fightermage-party.

[Kelandon]

If you have a well-built party, by level 30 you should be able to kill just about anything.

 

Where are you that you're running into these drakes?

[the Great Potato]

Divine Warrior! Haste yourself, slow the drakes!

[Aran]

By level 30, I'd find that easy - and it can be said that I suck at combat. If it's a dungeon battle, reload and remember where you came across the drakes. Just before you're close enough so they can see you, enter combat mode. Haste and bless all your characters - bless each one 2-3 times. Then move in and take them out with damaging spells and arrows. If they still kick you around, do the above but summon some monsters as distraction. What you should avoid is getting all your characters close up so each of them can blast you on their turn. With 7 of them, you'd be dead after a few rounds.

[Alorael at Large]

Actually, getting close is a good idea. Most monsters become stupider when confronted with melee and will waste time with attacks that miss instead of lethal spells. You also will end up doing lots of damage with good ol' swords and spears, so you might as well get started quickly.

 

—Alorael, who can't recall any fights with seven drakes. It may be possible to attract only a few at a time, in which case you should do it. If not, possibly because it's one of the outdoor encounters in the western caves, consider running away screaming.

[the Great Potato]

My favorite battle with drakes is in Krizsan Province in Exile III. You get a drake lord and a bunch of giant lizards on your side against a boatload of drakes and ice drakes.

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

i remember several such encounters in the northern islands.

 

oh wait, why did i think he was talking about a2? whatever, i think thats quite much the only place to find so many drakes at once, except only the drake lord-fight and the ice drakes in western footracer province, a3.

 

and please, forget about trying to fry the drakes with any of these fancy high-end spells. just take a stick and bang the hell out of them.

[ginger8445]

All I do is right whn I start I go into the Charcter Editor and max out all my skills so nothing can hurt me... not even a mauve bolt of fireing slime can hurt me also this is useful because what I always get trapped by are Dark Wyrms, Sprites, multiple doomguards(I know that's silly but the can spawn... GRAZERS and EYE GRAZERS)(which can zap you of all your SP in a few shots), they really are a pain! Don't you agree? Razskas(sp) These really big Drakes. Like by accident I was going to Sulfrus and she told me to go to Athron so I went there minding my own busniss so the little drakes don't see me and out of nowhere one attacks me, and Athron got mad and attacked me. The other thing that bugs me is in the endgame the letters are backwards to Rentar Ihrnos chamber to go to L2 the correct lettering is F,E,D,C really! Because I first tried C,D,E,F and then I went to do the control panel and it said I was back to square one eventhough I got the boon from Erika which I found out doesn't activate unless you go down the stairs and ladders in the right order. It's so annoying.

[Randomizer]

I found fighting multiple drakes is that hard if you plan what you are doing. The spellcasters are not meant to close with drakes because they don't have the health to withstand multiple attacks. You need to take advantage of their strengths to buff up fighters, cast protection spells, and use long range spells to damage drakes. They can also summon allies to give drakes something else to waste their attacks on instead of frail spellcasters.

[Dikiyoba]

Quote:

Originally written by ginger8445:
All I do is right whn I start I go into the Charcter Editor and max out all my skills so nothing can hurt me... not even a mauve bolt of fireing slime can hurt me also this is useful because what I always get trapped by are Dark Wyrms, Sprites, multiple doomguards(I know that's silly but the can spawn... GRAZERS and EYE GRAZERS)(which can zap you of all your SP in a few shots), they really are a pain! Don't you agree? Razskas(sp) These really big Drakes. Like by accident I was going to Sulfrus and she told me to go to Athron so I went there minding my own busniss so the little drakes don't see me and out of nowhere one attacks me, and Athron got mad and attacked me. The other thing that bugs me is in the endgame the letters are backwards to Rentar Ihrnos chamber to go to L2 the correct lettering is F,E,D,C really! Because I first tried C,D,E,F and then I went to do the control panel and it said I was back to square one eventhough I got the boon from Erika which I found out doesn't activate unless you go down the stairs and ladders in the right order. It's so annoying.

That's just spam. Don't do it.

---

Earth2025, are you sure that they are drakes? I'm assuming that this is for A2, and the way you describe it makes me think of the nagas in the outdoor arena battle, which is a battle I sometimes have trouble with, though I have no idea what my party is at when it attempts that battle.

Edit: Of course, now I remember that there are two arena battles, so maybe one is drakes and one is nagas. Nevermind.

Dikiyoba's memory is somewhat foggy.

[Randomizer]

Dikiyoba the two battles are nagas and basilisks. The trick with the basilisks is to have crystal shields and other anti-stoning items on the characters closest to them. Nagas are just a grinding battle with the fighters having to hack their way through them.

[Earth]

NorthEast to Harston where to get Black Drake Fangs (get 2 and 3 needed). Dungeon would be fine since then sides would be closer but not outside when Drakes are splitted to all over battlefield (they see me but I don't see them like I wrote). Fireblast helps to get those near dead but near dead is still alive and can cast spell.

 

Other impossible battle is that battle against Guardians and Black Shades (if I remember right it is around 13+ vs 4) in same area. If somebody has beated those w/o using char. editor I salute you since 2 fighters against 13+ invinsible (and tough to kill) spellcasters is far from fair fight.

 

All Avernums I have played (started on AV3 and after that I played AV1 through) has some big battles which are far from easy on normal difficult and must be on hard difficult real blood pressure raiser.

 

Divine-spells help for sure but my spellcasters get those in use quite late cause they are mage/priest-mixture (before getting mass healing having more than 1 healer is good and afterwards too).

[Micawber]

If you thought this fight was difficult, you should try Geneforge. There's this area call the shaper crypt

 

Anyway, those fights such as many drakes, guardians, etc are completely optional - just skip for now and go rescue some crystal souls. You can always come back later.

 

BTW, there are only 2 drake fangs, but 3 quests to get one. You need to choose whose quest to complete and whose not to complete.

[Randomizer]

The black fang quests are deliberate in that you have always one unfulfilled quest.

 

I gave up in A2 on fighting the black shades and guardians since I was using up too many energy potions trying to finish it. I had the spellcasters buff up the fighters and summon hordes of monsters. The monsters occupied the guardians while my fighters slowly tracked down and killed the invisible monsters. I got about half before I got bored and tired about keeping track of the invisibles as they revealed their positions attacking. The only area effect spell is cloud of blades and you still have to target on your own creations and watch the pitiful damage.

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

at lvl 3, cloud of blades can kill a black shade in 1 turn, and you always see where the guardians are.

my attack of choice, unless theyre all standing on different ends of the battlefield.

 

are you talking about the isolated hut-encounter, where they attack you after resting there?

[Tyranicus]

Quote:

Originally written by Rent-an-Ihrno:
at lvl 3, cloud of blades can kill a black shade in 1 turn, and you always see where the guardians are.

Hmm... I never knew that. I'll have to try that out sometime.

[ginger8445]

I don't see how a person can use cloude of blades at level 3 to kill a black shade when you can't even see it. Also I can make it so that spel castors have health, just go into the charcter editor. But usually it's just easier to play with one person because then you don't have to waste time trying to distribute armor and stuff to the others. For me that's hard.

[Dikiyoba]

Quit telling us about how you always go into the character editor. It's not a valid strategy; it's cheating.

 

Dikiyoba's not saying that the character editor is bad, or that Dikiyoba has never used it, but that its use should be limited. Very limited.

[Earth]

Tyranicus: Yep that hut where you get some wand (no clue what cause I have got it only once and boat was just too far to reach it before battle begun).

 

I use character editor to identify items (unidentified item and nearest sage is few hundred miles away) and give me gold to buy spells (I buy all spells I can) and buy special skills like parry etc and heal+energize party when resting ain't possible.

 

They (Avernum's mages) have tried making Guardians and Black Shades (or just Shades) visible quite a long time already and no results so far (AV3.

[Rent-an-Ihrno]

Quote:

Originally written by ginger8445:
I don't see how a person can use cloude of blades at level 3 to kill a black shade when you can't even see it.

cast it on other opponents near them. if there are none or its not effective enough, cast create illusions or summon aid and use them as targets.
but if you think thats evil or something, you can always haste and bless your warriors and walk around with them.
if you still have problems: shades count as demons and thus take extra dmg from demonslayer.

[Ephesos]

Quote:

Originally written by Randomizer:
Nagas are just a grinding battle with the fighters having to hack their way through them.

Nagas are easy... they fall prey to Bind Foe without much resistance. As for the black shades/guardians, do the black shades ever summon? I can't seem to remember.

(And I'm glad somebody else chastised the character editor abuse... I saw it when I was in a rush)

[John S]

Quote:

Originally written by Ephesos:

Quote:

Originally written by Randomizer:
Nagas are just a grinding battle with the fighters having to hack their way through them.

...do the black shades ever summon? I can't seem to remember.

Yes. Just about as much as any spellcaster, which makes an invisible spellcaster pointless. You'd think that the one empty spot among the huge crowd of terrors would be a dead giveaway, or that the lines of fire and lightning wouldn't also tell you where they are. But I guess not.

[Niemand]

The black shade's summoned creatures are very useful as they give handy targets for cloud of blades. In my experience black shades' very favorite spell is probably ice lances, which has the disadvantage for the player that it is one of the few attack spells that don't clearly give away the location of the caster.

[Randomizer]

Quote:

Originally written by Earth2025:
Tyranicus: Yep that hut where you get some wand (no clue what cause I have got it only once and boat was just too far to reach it before battle begun).

I finally went back to finish that encounter. You get a wand of acid. The fight isn't too bad if the invisible monsters appear near the party and you can just blunder into them.