Nere fight impossible to win?

[noisyturtle]

I've done everything else in Act 1, but the Nere fight seems totally unwinnable. There are WAY too many enemies, and even setting up a ton of bombs I still can't win. They get so many turns, and one of my party ALWAYS gets pushed into lava. I'll be like 20 mins into the fight, then someone gets pushed in. I do not understand how to do this fight. I have tried so many set ups and tactics, and have been getting nowhere for 2 days straight. Ideally I'd like to kill Nere for his items, but he has like 12 dudes backing him up, AND stupid mindcontrol that lasts like 5 turns.

How tf???

[Frostfeather]

Originally posted by Archmagel:

I...probably wouldn't do that if you want to keep the Deep Gnomes alive. Summoning the Ogres will cause them to be hostile as well. If you don't care about the gnomes, you can just wait for Nere to die.

If the Gnomes become hostile for any reason, you can knock them out with non-lethal attacks and still do their quest. I had to do this when in the final turns of the 30 minute fight they turned on me.

[Bloodwest]

Originally posted by Archmagel:

[
I...probably wouldn't do that if you want to keep the Deep Gnomes alive. Summoning the Ogres will cause them to be hostile as well. If you don't care about the gnomes, you can just wait for Nere to die.

It's alright, ogres never make it this far in my playthroughs anyway, they seem to never do enough impact for me to not KoS them. Having free 17 INT is much better.

[ULTRA]

I won it without ogres first try, I just convinced the duergars to infight and then I chucked some spears at Nere until he fell down

[Vexillarius]

When you arrive at Grymforge there is an opening scene where a gnome tries to extort 100 bucks out of you. If you don't threaten to kill her or tell them you are a true soul they can be allied with. Your probably going to need to reload to arriving n the area though.

[Archmagel]

Originally posted by night4:

Originally posted by Archmagel:

I...probably wouldn't do that if you want to keep the Deep Gnomes alive. Summoning the Ogres will cause them to be hostile as well. If you don't care about the gnomes, you can just wait for Nere to die.

If the Gnomes become hostile for any reason, you can knock them out with non-lethal attacks and still do their quest. I had to do this when in the final turns of the 30 minute fight they turned on me.

I tried that when a buddy summoned them. It was a five way war (the ones planning to kill Nere, the ones that sided with him, the deep gnomes, the ogres, and our party). It just got the deep gnomes killed and Nere's head unsalvagable through all the fire, lava, and such.

Originally posted by Bloodwest:

Originally posted by Archmagel:

[
I...probably wouldn't do that if you want to keep the Deep Gnomes alive. Summoning the Ogres will cause them to be hostile as well. If you don't care about the gnomes, you can just wait for Nere to die.

It's alright, ogres never make it this far in my playthroughs anyway, they seem to never do enough impact for me to not KoS them. Having free 17 INT is much better.

My ogres lasted until the architects and people from the docks came. They did better than I thought they would.

[wtiger27]

Originally posted by PaloG:

If you don't mind "cheating" by exploiting the AI there is an easy solution. You can Misty Step to the metal railway at the top of the room and use a Rogue to shoot and Cunning Action: Hide at the end of the turn. No matter where the enemies path to there is always a part of the railway that they can't get line of sight to so they just stand around doing nothing if they've killed the rest of your party. Can easily shoot them one by one and never get hit as long as you hide before ending your turn.

That's not cheating. It is smart strategy using the environment and the correct class to be successful.

I kept Nere in the room you free him from and simply burned him down after first taking care of the outside the room enemies.

[ChaosAOE]

You can kill everyone in the room before freeing Nere, then kill Nere. Also you should be able to surprise kill/shove into lava a few of them. Also there is a ladder that leads to high ground right next to the cave in where your ranged/caster characters can chill.

[wtiger27]

Originally posted by Bloodwest:

Originally posted by Archmagel:

[
I...probably wouldn't do that if you want to keep the Deep Gnomes alive. Summoning the Ogres will cause them to be hostile as well. If you don't care about the gnomes, you can just wait for Nere to die.

It's alright, ogres never make it this far in my playthroughs anyway, they seem to never do enough impact for me to not KoS them. Having free 17 INT is much better.

I have to agree about the Orges, While they can be beneficial in early fights before your char reaches level 5, they also seem to not show up on occasion when called. The crown and the experience for killing them all earlier is the way to go I think.

[Recjawjind]

Post your build and explain some of the things you tried.

At first glance, the fight is pretty stacked, but you should be *more* than ready to do it.

[Occasum_Solis]

Start the talk with Nere -> click bottom left to Character Selection and switch to one of your companions -> Position, preferable a Mage, that companion at the top where one of the Crossbowman stand -> Position Lae'Zel next to Nere -> Position SH in the middle of the room so you can hit all your Party Members with Bless when the fight starts -> ! Quicksave ! -> Start fight -> Kill Nere. Easy.

Also siding with the Duegar against Nere does also help.

[nemO]

As long as you don't mind some strategic spoilers . .

The GrymForge, while one place, is semi-split into four areas - the main hall (where the main dig is happening), the upper docks, the lower docks and the other dig far from the main action, to take you on to the escarpments. The escarpments are the conventional way to traverse across the docks and on to the main metal walkway.

If you start a fight in one of these areas, as long as you kill your foe and do not (through repositioning or fleeing) wander into another area, you can tackle them separately, without dragging in more duergar.

You should hopefully be about level 5, though level 4 is do-able, depending on your level difficulty.

Each of them areas is it's own little mini fight and each has it's own way to cut down on potential reinforcements.

1. Lower docks.

The two disposing of bodies - One can be pushed into the lake, halving your odds. This is the 2nd easiest fight.

The two drinking and teasing the deep gnome - just talk to the gnome first on your way to the fight (above) to initiate acknowledgement that you are there to help, then just poison their beer keg. You won't have to lift a finger.

The spider keeper - He is a quite tough archer with lots of spiders to confuse you but should be reasonably easy considering the enemies you'll have had to face to get there in the first place.

2. The far dig

Two ways to do this - animal potion to convince the Roth to help you kill the miners. They are still tough little buggers, very hard to knock off the side into the chasm so you will invariably have to fight them, but with help of Roth, it's easier.

The second way is to YOLO it, with no potion. Good luck - tough fight.

3. Upper docks

Wandering guards can be taken out separately, just make sure to keep away from the eye orb. The eye orb negates the first 8 points of damage from anything, before applying resistance, so you have to hit it hard. Shatter is a good way, or a good smite etc.

Leave the architects - they generally won't get involved unless you wander past them covered in blood and duergar gore.

4. Main hall

This is two fights. Don't do it as one. You can use the plots (previous posts) of dividing their forces or get the the gnomes to help you if you wish but I didn't . . so can't help you that. I just fought them.

[edit] i.e kill the duergar, before freeing Nere.

As you go up the stairs you pass by 2 duergar, arguing / discussing all of the things that are going on, on a semi large balcony type area, before you go into the main hall. If you go over to the ledge, to the (male duergar's left), just before the large pillars (and the single female archer), you can actually jump over the small chasm. This is another way to get across the main chasm / docks area on to the other side of the GrymForge and where the second lever is for progressing on to the actual forge itself.

That little area up there is where you are going to make your stand. It has exceptional field of vision and advantageous fire control over the entire hall for your archers and magic users and the place where you jump across can be held by one good fighter (with maybe another behind healing, firing etc). This is an unbelievably good choke point and you can potentially push people off, or just go toe to toe with them. If you fall or if they do and you want to revive someone or loot bodies, they can be accessed through the hole in the wall, above the cages, with the spider keeper (as above).

This is a much more simple way of doing it than trying to take the duergar on, all at once, or even worse, involve Nere in the fight as well. They aren't huge magic users as such, but they are tough fighters. It will be a slog.

The Grey are nasty buggers . . kill 'em all.

:) Have fun.

[noisyturtle]

Originally posted by nemO:

As long as you don't mind some strategic spoilers . .

This is very helpful, thank you!

So to be clear; If I initiate the fight and kill the Dragurs too, I'll have to fight EVERYONE in the area? So it's not like the Goblin Camp where you can kill one group and the rest will still be friendly?

[mapamapa]

I used invisibility potions and invisibility spells and then pushed everyone into the lava.
Gale had his thunderwave so he could push several into the lava at a time. Start the combat with that one. There is a chasm at the far end side of the magma pool where they fall down and die instantly.
If you drink a potion of hill giant strength to get strength to 20 you can throw people as well.
Potion of speed to get extra turn etc.

[Naamtar]

Not sure if anyone's mentioned it, but if you throw that scrying eye off a cliff without anyone seeing you - you can recruit half the dwarves in the area to fight on your side.

[MugiCharlie]

bro what? well you can side with the drugar so thats half the enemies you'd need to fight at once. but also where are your casters? cast hypnotic pattern or slow. it targets a ton of enemies and swings combat in your favor. "but concentration" cast sanctuary on them and they cant get hit, ergo cant lost concentration.