House Of Grief Frustration...

[Jinx]

This fight is so annoying. All the bad guys do is spam Darkness over and over. Which is annoying because it blocks spellcasting and healing more than it would in actual D&D.

Also... and this really pissed me off when I realized it... the Shar enemies don't have any problem targeting my characters through the darkness! Are they using some spell I'm not aware of to do that? Or is it a bug?

Is there any way to counter this stuff? Counterspells aren't adequate when you're being spammed and you don't always get the prompt. Is there any sort of light spell or item I could bring that would prevent getting shut down with Darkness spells? Any way to compensate?

Thanks!

[iTemperence]

Originally posted by Nobody:

Originally posted by Jinx:

This fight is so annoying. All the bad guys do is spam Darkness over and over. Which is annoying because it blocks spellcasting and healing more than it would in actual D&D.

Also... and this really pissed me off when I realized it... the Shar enemies don't have any problem targeting my characters through the darkness! Are they using some spell I'm not aware of to do that? Or is it a bug?

Is there any way to counter this stuff? Counterspells aren't adequate when you're being spammed and you don't always get the prompt. Is there any sort of light spell or item I could bring that would prevent getting shut down with Darkness spells? Any way to compensate?

Thanks!

Dude, wait on top of the stairs, and cast firewall straight down the middle of the stairs, then lay back, or move a bit out of reach from them, but remain on the stairs. They'll rush you, taking a ton of damage, since they can't avoid the fire, and just pick them off.
Or you can do the firewall, move back and cast cloud kill. Use the environment to your favour.

This is what I've done - first couple of turns I have everyone fall back, then stick some fire walls up to filter them all through. It's easy enough to drop some daylight when necessary and the AOEs drop them so quickly it's almost not even an interesting battle. I like druids for this fight, and have shadowheart stand there with her circling guardians. The enemies just kill themselves.

[ahsanford]

This battle is all about keeping their melee 162 HP dudes (on Tactician) occupied/disarmed/goaded with your melee dudes and AOE-ing the crap out of them. Turn 1 it's hard to hit more than 3-4 people with an AOE as they are spread out, but a hasted AOE caster in turns 2-3 should absolutely mop the floor with all the people crashing the bottom of the stairs area.

- A

[Brian_the_Brute]

I always use hunger of hadar, which is basically using their strategy against them, with damage. On last play I also had an ice wizard build which made half of them fall prone while being slowed and taking damage every round from hunger. I go after the spellcasters first and eliminate them, and then just mop up the rest after. I also run Shart away up the stairs so they have to go through the rest of my party to try and get to her, which they typically will try to do. One other note, having devil's sight lets you see through darkness, comes in handy for this encounter.

[Ceredh]

That all sounds so easy, have this, do that, and some advice is ... situational. For example dealing with the spellcasters first is not really possible when they position themselves far away from each other and run into cover after casting their nasty Darkness and Cold Bones spells. The position high on the stairs is a possibility but you get Darkness spells around you left and right, and have to run down to help the char who did the talking or deal some damage.

It's a hard and ugly fight which can go wrong, depending on luck. I went there today, first time I faced the fight in the game, Honour mode, not the best idea, ok. You should prepare well. I forgot to align Gale to his staff in advance for example, one turn lost.

The amount of enemies is frustrating, My summons (one Dschinn and one Water Myrmidon) first distracted some of the many Sharites, but were eliminated quite quickly. I was a bit shocked that almost all attacks against them were hits. Then Gale went down mid-fight from two crits and could not be resurrected because he was one millimeter in a Darkness cloud, so he died. Next Jaheira (Fighter/Paladin/Bard) was downed because of three crits in a row. Mmmhh.

Luckily I had the ring against Blind in my backpack and switched it on my main Alicia (Warlock/Sorceress/Fighter) in one turn. Shadowheart also helped a lot with her Spirit Guardians, and together we slowly mowed them down. Alicia and Shadowheart sipped Haste potions, something I ususally do not do because I hate this op spell/potion. In the end Shadowheart could raise Jaheira with Healing Word and Gale could be ressurected. He had the final blow against Viconia.
It was a chaotic fight and my party wasted almost all spell slots, which happened not often. I would say it was the most difficult fight till now after Grym and the Gith patrol. Szarr was a breeze in comparison. I'm curious how difficult Gortash and Orin will be.

[AokiYakumo]

Couple other points:

1) When Viconia's in her wolf form, hit her with DEX save control effects like Entangle, Web, or Black Tentacles. She has a much harder time breaking those when not in her base form.

2) Can't believe I have to say this, but HYPNOTIC PATTERN!!! You can shut half the encounter down instantly with this spell and since it's a wide AoE you can hit so many of the adds with it it isn't even funny. Yes, it's only 2 turns, but 2 turns of halved enemy action economy is SO MUCH when you're dealing with like 20+ units.

[Hobocop]

Daylight dispels magical darkness for its duration (20 turns) and can be cast on one of your party member's weapons. Concentration free as well.

[ahsanford]

Originally posted by AokiYakumo:

Couple other points:

1) When Viconia's in her wolf form, hit her with DEX save control effects like Entangle, Web, or Black Tentacles. She has a much harder time breaking those when not in her base form.

2) Can't believe I have to say this, but HYPNOTIC PATTERN!!! You can shut half the encounter down instantly with this spell and since it's a wide AoE you can hit so many of the adds with it it isn't even funny. Yes, it's only 2 turns, but 2 turns of halved enemy action economy is SO MUCH when you're dealing with like 20+ units.

+1 on Hypnotic Pattern, esp. on turn 1 when you can get a good 5-6 people in the radius and not any of your party.

Turns 2-3 I would start dropping bombs (AOE) rather than crowd control b/c an Evoker like Gale can carpet bomb without hurting your party.

- A

[Mike Garrison]

Originally posted by Jinx:

This fight is so annoying. All the bad guys do is spam Darkness over and over. Which is annoying because it blocks spellcasting and healing more than it would in actual D&D.

Also... and this really pissed me off when I realized it... the Shar enemies don't have any problem targeting my characters through the darkness! Are they using some spell I'm not aware of to do that? Or is it a bug?

Is there any way to counter this stuff? Counterspells aren't adequate when you're being spammed and you don't always get the prompt. Is there any sort of light spell or item I could bring that would prevent getting shut down with Darkness spells? Any way to compensate?

Thanks!

They see through their own darkness.

Solutions:

1) Daylight. This spell is amazing here.
2) Give their own medicine back to them if you have a warlock, and drop Hunger of Hadar onto a choke point (like the stairs). They can't see through or target through *that* darkness, but you can. And it slows them down and bunches them up for AOE attacks.
3) Come loaded with counterspells and the illithid power that works like a counterspell.

[RhiTheWitch]

AOE with Druid, moonbeam on some of the stronger casters and spike growth. Shadowheart obv w Spirit Guardians and have her run around and guiding bolt everyone else at various spell levels. (I didnt need to use her Divine Intervention most recently, but that's a big benfit too) Sorc was my main and they also spammed some AOE attacks (The quickened spell is HUGE in my pt w a Sorc). I had Astarion as a Barbarian but it was kinda a waste in this fight with what he was actually able to get decent damage on. I'd probably bring Lae'zel or another fighter next time personally.