Cambions - "tutorial"

[id795078477]

Out of curiosity - are those intended to be beatable or not? Don't remember. But I tried them twice in patch 9 and on their second turn both of them score critical hits. Happened both times, so too much for a coincidence. "Unluck" (aka rigged die roll) or it's simply designed that the party must run away?

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Not really, you're supposed to run past them and pull the lever.

[CosmicGumbo]

Originally posted by Dellecross:

Out of curiosity - are those intended to be beatable or not? Don't remember. But I tried them twice in patch 9 and on their second turn both of them score critical hits. Happened both times, so too much for a coincidence. "Unluck" (aka rigged die roll) or it's simply designed that the party must run away?

If you can pick up the purple "barrels" throughout the tutorial and keep the mind flayer alive long enough to help I would imagine it's possible. An extra custom character also gives you a full party.. My understanding is they don't have any loot anyway so whether it's worth the effort is a personal decision.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

The easiest method of cheesing it for the xp or loot is to keep 'Us' in the room where you find Shadowheart, out of combat and ready to use the Regeneration Pod as soon as a party member is downed. Then shoot Guiding Bolts with Shadowheart from either of the ledges from stealth.

You can also keep the Mindflayer alive longer with healing spells (use Us to recharge spell slots) so it will deal most of the damage to the Cambions. Just remember to cap them all (Mindflayer too) for the xp before they go down.

[k]

Originally posted by Pan Darius Kairos:

The easiest method of cheesing it for the xp or loot is to keep 'Us' in the room where you find Shadowheart, out of combat and ready to use the Regeneration Pod as soon as a party member is downed. .

rofl, nice!

[id795078477]

So they aren't immortal and there are ways to do the fight? Jeez.
then I have no way of explaining how did it happen that I tried them 2 times and they both scored critical hits on their second turn, both of the times I tried. It's like unholy amount of "coincidence". Oh well I just have to ignore that, too much of a time waster with rolls like that.

[Dragon Master]

You are not really expected to beat them but you get a really, REALLY good greatsword if you manage to take down the one that the mind flayer is fighting. He's really the only one worth killing if you feel like doing it.

[Sir_Baldur]

I tend to have everyone unload on the cambion fighting the mindflayer (for the sword). If Shadowheart's guiding bolt spell misses, I reload & scrum save because it's one of the best ways to take down the cambion quickly before the other two show up. Do I fight the other two? Never. By that point loot the sword and run. You can only loot the sword with the MC.

[id795078477]

I mean I know what I'm getting. That devil commander and the illithid are not an issue at all. It's just that I normally do them, take the sword and run away but in patch 9 I decided to stay and try the cambions. And as I mentioned above, got one-shoted two times from critical hits on their second turn. Both of the times I tried them. Statistically that's extremely unlikely (order of magnitude of -6) and that's why I thought it's a scripted event and I must run away,

[Linde]

Originally posted by Dellecross:

So they aren't immortal and there are ways to do the fight? Jeez.
then I have no way of explaining how did it happen that I tried them 2 times and they both scored critical hits on their second turn, both of the times I tried. It's like unholy amount of "coincidence". Oh well I just have to ignore that, too much of a time waster with rolls like that.

I used the 3 tanks of explosives on the ilithid and the captain after all the small enemies were killed. Got level up screen and leveled up to 2.

Cambion x 2 entered and battle started again.

Cast fairy fire on the Cambions with my bard. one Cambion saved, the other failed save.

My team of 3 ganged up on the one that failed his save. (didn't have Us as my dice betrayed me trying to free it from the skull)

Bard cast vicious mockery, Shadowheart used her mace after initial damage spell, Lae' used her longsword. (Shadowheart was targeted by the Cambion that made its save so after 4 rounds she had used all her healing potions but Cambion 1 was also down)

At that point vicious mockery kept the final Cambion at disadvantage 9 rounds out of 10, we didn't have advantage killing it so it took some time, but every time shadowheart was downed, lae' helped her up and Bard(MC) mocked the Cambion so it would likely miss attack next round. And rounds where shadowheart wasn't downed we got to attack the Cambion thrice instead of once.

[Lord Adorable]

Originally posted by Pan Darius Kairos:

The easiest method of cheesing it for the xp or loot is to keep 'Us' in the room where you find Shadowheart, out of combat and ready to use the Regeneration Pod as soon as a party member is downed. Then shoot Guiding Bolts with Shadowheart from either of the ledges from stealth.

You can also keep the Mindflayer alive longer with healing spells (use Us to recharge spell slots) so it will deal most of the damage to the Cambions. Just remember to cap them all (Mindflayer too) for the xp before they go down.

Oh my god. I usually just kept Us in the Regeneration room itself. Didn't even concider leaving them in the room where you find Shadowheart. The cheese just got even cheesier for me.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Originally posted by Lord Adorable:

Originally posted by Pan Darius Kairos:

The easiest method of cheesing it for the xp or loot is to keep 'Us' in the room where you find Shadowheart, out of combat and ready to use the Regeneration Pod as soon as a party member is downed. Then shoot Guiding Bolts with Shadowheart from either of the ledges from stealth.

You can also keep the Mindflayer alive longer with healing spells (use Us to recharge spell slots) so it will deal most of the damage to the Cambions. Just remember to cap them all (Mindflayer too) for the xp before they go down.

Oh my god. I usually just kept Us in the Regeneration room itself. Didn't even concider leaving them in the room where you find Shadowheart. The cheese just got even cheesier for me.

It doesn't matter which Regeneration Pod Us uses, as they will heal the entire party no matter where they are on the nautiloid.

I just happen to bring Us with me that far.

One note however: if you leave Us at the pod just outside the bridge, it will get killed ny the Cambion adds, which iscwhy I leave it onevroom back near the pod with Shadowheart. But literally any pod will do as long as the room is clear and Us is in no danger of getting attacked.

[LazerFruit [The9]]

Originally posted by Dellecross:

Out of curiosity - are those intended to be beatable or not? Don't remember. But I tried them twice in patch 9 and on their second turn both of them score critical hits. Happened both times, so too much for a coincidence. "Unluck" (aka rigged die roll) or it's simply designed that the party must run away?

They are more meant as a timer to push you to pull the leaver, however they can be cheesed using explosive barrels

[dolby]

with what class do you want it done? having protection from good and evil makes it a cake walk btw... but most classes are easy now that you get shadowheart..

[id795078477]

Did it anyways, the standard sneak cheese. Though it took a bit of time.
It was just an "unluck" that they both scored crits on my previous two attempts, consecutively and on the same turn. The chances of that are so extremely low (less than 1/20⁴ ignoring the fact it was the same turn both times too) that I surmised it's a scripted event meaning the party cannot possibly defeat them. Well, it's not.

[dolby]

Well if you got +2 dex and medium armor proficiency you can tank them ok by killing Lae'zel taking her armor and then resing her. Combined that with shield and shield of faith you get 21 AC... 23 ac with haste but yeah crits are pain in the ass you can survive like one crit if you used false life scroll, normal hits you can tank with potions...

diping helps and speeds it up or you can throw acid bombs and over lap AoO so they don't jump out... that would be the normal none cheeze way of doing it of course if you have protection from good and evil bless and so on it becomes super easy.

normal cheez i would say just break haste potion around mindflayer and get fullparty Haste... or explosions.. anything is better then the hide gimmick or the resting pod thing heh that one is the worst