Pit of Abomination in Vahnatal Land

[nearart]

There is this monster in the Pit of Abomination that keeps replicating itself like red slimes . Is the only solution to be powerful enough to kill or severly damage the first one before it can duplicate too much?

[Randomizer]

Two things that you need to do. Area of effects spells to attack more than one target and kill off the original monster. I got through on torment so it can't be that bad.

[*i]

The trick with the Doomguard is to buff your party as much as possible in one turn. Use the Battle Frenzy battle discipline on your main fighter if you have it. Let the Doomguard attack you. After it does, release everything you can on it so its copy is at as low a life as possible. A copy will form, continue this procedure and always focus on the weakest of the copies. Hope this helps.

[Synergy]

Heh, I had great fun with this pesky little Doomguard, the first time I stumbled upon it. I wasn't taking it very seriously, and wound up with literally about 50-60 of them filling every visible available floorspace filling the whole screen. I took a picture of this, but can't find it now, alas. Eventually, after much enduring and whittling away, Divine Fire began to take out a couple dozen of them at a time, which was tremendously satisfying.

 

Jeff expressed what I can only describe as devilish glee upon revealing to me early in testing, that A5 would herald the return of the Doomguard. By the time I finally encountered the first one, I had entirely forgotten about this warning, so it was a bit of a shock.

 

-S-

[Randomizer]

This method is boring, but another way to deal with a doomguard is to retreat to the stairs and place a fighter on either side and the spellcasters in the back. Then concentrate on attacking only one doomguard and ignore the rest. You may want to summon a creature to keep any splits from appearing in with your party. This was about 5 hours of my life that I'll never get back.

[Khoth]

If you cast Slow on it, then you can get two rounds of damage in before it splits.

[Khyryk Eye]

I hope Synergy finds that picture; I'd want to see it. There's something immensely satisfying about eliminating dozens of enemies at once, provided that they don't kill you first.

[BenS]

Not counting a few do-overs, that fight took about an hour for me to get through. But fun in it's own, twisted way...

[scottk]

I had a decent experience killing the doomguards. I am not sure this is how it was supposed to work, but when I had 2 doomguards and hit them both with a spell, only 1 of them split. Anyway, as long as you can hit all doomguards with a single spell (divine fire!), you are effectively fighting one enemy. I never got daze to work (which is effective on the unstable mass), so I assume that strategy's out.

[Fael]

I think area effect spells are exactly the wrong way to go on this. Unlike the Unstable Masses, the Doomguards only split if they've taken damage that round. So, the trick is, you only want to ever damage one of them in a given round. But you want to damage that one really, really hard.

 

Bless, Haste, Battle Frenzy if you've got it or Mighty Blow, if you don't. Let it go first, so that all four of your characters hit it before it moves again. Once it splits, pick one Doomguard and repeat, making sure not to damage the other. If it doesn't die, it'll split again and you'll be facing three, but two of them will be at very low hit points and should be killable without splitting again.

 

Once I figured out the trick, it was a pretty easy fight. I only fought four of them total, with never having more than three on the screen at any one time. The only danger is if you accidentally damage one with a Riposte. Just don't use acid or poison and only use area of effect spells when you're sure they'll kill everything they hit.

[Soul of Wit]

Careful. Several weapons drip acid. It's easy to overlook.

[Ephesos]

Daze doesn't do too well against mechanical creatures. Massive doses of Slow, however, help a great deal.

[Lilith]

Quote:

Originally written by Fael:
Unlike the Unstable Masses, the Doomguards only split if they've taken damage that round. So, the trick is, you only want to ever damage one of them in a given round. But you want to damage that one really, really hard.

Actually, Unstable Masses work that way too. Try it.

[DarkTreader]

Slow got me through this fight. I have two buff warriors with Mighty blow wail on him, hit him with every spell I can (even if they don't do very much damage) and just make sure the slow spell stays on him, I got a grand total of 3 doomguards, including the original.

 

Jeff, if you make a Doomguard immune to slow in A6, I will *#@!$%^ kill you Evil, evil man

[Gorthaur]

to summarize:

 

1) cast slow.

2) wait for Doomguard to attack first.

3) hit only one Doomguard with everything you've got - if it's slowed, you'll have two rounds.

 

just following this, it was doable (though not easy). fight the temptation to use fireblast... of course it's satisfying when 8 go down at once, but that only happens in a room full of doomguards, which just ain't a good thing...

[nearart]

I found that being very powerful by completing all of Lark's quests helped tremendously.

 

Thanks for the advice.

[Californian]

I just finished the Pit, and after (finally) killing the Doomguard (if only I'd thought of using slow), I wanted to go back to the lich's chamber, 'cause it looks like there's something else there. Also, there's a chest on the second level surrounded by barriers I couldn't dispel.

 

But I can't get back up there. The iron gate to the next levels is shut solid, and I can't get the thing open again.

 

Is there any way to get back in, or do I have to wait till my next playthrough?

[Californian]

Got it! (You just have to go in twice. In fact, there's a second boat just for that).