Tips for fighting Raphael?

[e11]

I'm busting Hope out, and I just had my first crack at this particular fight. And Raphael and all his buddies launched their attacks before before I got a go, and dropped everyone below half health right there and then. I noticed that Radiant damage against the pillars apparently saps some of his power, but there are four of them, and a LOT of devils to deal with.

For info, I brought my paladin, Lae'Zel, Shadowheart and Wyll for this outing.

[iTemperence]

I focused the towers down and I believe I had Hope doing the rounds of the cambions. I also had a devil buddy's help, he's not particularly strong but he does have access to the infuriating cheese method enemies employ of attacking, then stealthing.

Hope has a prayer she can use to help everyone out, just make sure to get out of Raphael's stuff, he eventually runs out of steam and gets easier to deal with. This fight is a marathon, not a sprint. It's the only fight I genuinely thought was challenging in a way that wasn't contrived (I'm looking at you, Bhaal).

[astarion]

Globe of Invulnerability helps a lot but some consider it cheesy. Hold Monster also helps. Drinking Elixir of Vigilance before the start of combat will boost your initiative so you can start your turn earlier.

[Mike Garrison]

Tip number 0: Use the bath in Raph's bedroom to heal yourself and fill all your spell slots just before the final fight.

Tip number 0.5: Convince Yurgir to be on your side.

Tip number 1: Do not use *anything* that inflicts radiant damage. It will be reflected back at you.

Tip number 2: Destroy the pillars ASAP before worrying about anything else.

Tip number 3: Raph is actually less dangerous in melee.

Tip number 4: AOE spells on his allies.

Tip number 1000: Raph is pretty weak to CC spells, so use them to lock him down. If you can hold him, paralyze him, hit him with hideous laughter, etc. then you can get him pretty quickly.

[Burdpal]

I keep Raphael prone-locked with a Berserker on most of my runs. Plus, leave 5 Smokepowder Bombs on each pillar before the fight, and have them destroyed immediately. It saves having to move to them to destroy them, wasting valuable time.

[asnjas19]

Globe of invulnerability. Go to either side of the map before battle starts. There's a perfect pocket for all 4 chars to stand in and recieve globe. Space out your guys so they form a nice line that will align with your globe. Seriously, this spell carried the whole fight. It's ridiculous.

Give those giant gloves you stole in that level to a front line char and have then toss out enemies from your globe, preferably into your concentrated aoe spell, wall of fire, hangars hunger etc.

Pre summon all your dudes, sip from rest fountain and then go start the fight. Between druid and mage, I had 2 earth eles and a dryadd. Some summons don't use concentration.

Make wise usage of aoe damage spells.

When important ♥♥♥♥ misses, reload. F5 before you use important ♥♥♥♥.

[Pyromaiden]

One cheesy way is to bring Shadowheart with you, have Hope use her Revoke Guest Status spell on two enemies, have her use her Divine Intervention spell to restore the party (including Revoke Guest Status), use them again on two other enemies, have Shadowheart use her own Divine Intervention to restore the party, and then have Hope use her Revoke Guest Status again.

Boom, you eliminated 6 enemies within 2 turns. This way you can bump off all six Vengeful Cambions.

If you're a Cleric yourself you can up this to 8 and banish Yurgir and Korrilla as well - leaving only Raphael to contend with. This makes the fight much easier.

[GrandMajora]

Ask Haarlep if Raphael is good in bed.

It won't impact his performance in the fight, but it will ensure you have the last laugh.

[Draknalor]

Originally posted by e11:

I'm busting Hope out, and I just had my first crack at this particular fight. And Raphael and all his buddies launched their attacks before before I got a go, and dropped everyone below half health right there and then. I noticed that Radiant damage against the pillars apparently saps some of his power, but there are four of them, and a LOT of devils to deal with.

For info, I brought my paladin, Lae'Zel, Shadowheart and Wyll for this outing.

You don't have to attack any towers, just kill him.

Here's my video from my tactician run against him

On saturday i also defeated Raphael on my Tactician durge with a different set up than in the video, No special tactics, just hit him until he dies.

https://youtu.be/t3fnHBVhRHY

[arikel.pv]

Originally posted by Draknalor:

You don't have to attack any towers, just kill him.

Attacking towers is quite useful.
First, because any crushed tower makes Raphael somewhat stunned for a whole turn. If he managed to take his devil form before, he will turn back into humanlike one and then be stunned, and all his preparations for a 'Great Mighty Devilish Smite' will be off.
Secondly, Raphael's minions scatter around one by one trying to stop the tower-attacker instead of bullying mages and Hope (if you freed her). And still there's not much place in the room to use AOE spells on them successfully.

[Delivor]

Use scrolls of Otto's dance on Raphael if you have any, it disables him for one turn.

[Ceredh]

I defeated him in a "normal" fight, without Globe of Invulnerability or barrels or scrolls or potions (except healing which I needed ...) or such. I also did not use Radiating Orb or Reverberation or Arcane Acuity in that playthrough (which generally was a big mistake). Got Raphael one time in Hold Monster, but that helped not much. Contrary to my normal procedures some of my chars slurped Haste potions during the fight however, otherwise it would have ended even more badly.

It was my Honour mode run and sadly I had not played the fight in other modes before, so it was a premiere. Jaheira as Paladin 8/ Bard 4, Shadowheart as Tempest Cleric 12, Gale as Evocation Wizard 12 and my main as Sorceress 6/Fighter 4/ Warlock 2 crit build, a lvl 6 summon and a lvl5 summon, Hero's Feast applied. It was a chaotic fight which went quite ok until Raphael killed Hope in one turn without anything I could do, about when he had half of his hp and with 3 cambions left. Ironically one round before I had looked the first time at Hope's Divine Intervention abilities and thought, wow, that's easy and a guaranteed win. It is not if she is dead because you cannot revive her.

Basically I destroyed the pillars with 1 char and my 2 summons and fought Raphael and the cambions with the other three, more or less. Jaheira was downed three times, Gale one time and my main Alicia two times. What saved me in one critical moment was Dimension Door casted by Shadowheart (from an item), bringing two of my chars out of the deadly fire zone.

My advice, if you don't use any of the special build/item-strategies the game offers, you should at least use the best and most overpowered item in the game, the healing potion. Keep Hope alive and you cannot lose.

I consider the fight not a win because Hope died. But it was Honour mode, so no reload possible. In my current playthrough with modded and stronger enemies I will keep the pact with Raphael, I think. My party is stronger now (despite a nerf to Wet by a mod), as I'm using Radiating Orb (otherwise it's very difficult to survive) and Arcane Acuity (otherwise it's very difficult to hit), but I like Raphael in a certain way and almost regretted to have killed him in that run.