House of Hope Tactical mode?

[nightwalker83137]

Hi,

What party members did you have? I am playing through the the House of Hope with my Dark Urge fighter but can't decide which party members to take? I will probably just have the rest of my party made up of hirelings since a number of members either left permanently or were killed off as part of the storyline.

Thanks,



Aaron

[Kaisha]

I cleared it easily with Karlach, Laezel, SHart, and a sorc. It's not really a hard fight if you down the cambion's quickly. Just pack 4 fire resist pots and some haste scrolls you'll be fine whatever you pick.

[Stepfan]

Lae Zel with haste on her from potion or item, preferably with Silver Sword, rest do not matter that much if they have haste on any class is good. Just avoid staying together keep a healer on Lae Zel. The NPC Hope is awesome healer. Now it depends on difficulty, I just cleared it on explorer with 2 retry so I can imagine on normal and hard being insanely challenging.

[arcturus]

House of Hope It is not particularly challenging (even in Tactician) if you prepare carefully. Virtually any party setup will work. The most basic tips are: engage in melee with Raphael as soon as possible; destroy the Pillars before targeting Raphael; and use Minions and Summons. Some more tips (with spoilers)
- Disguise your party earlier on. Make sure Hope magically changes your clothes. If you do not disguise your party, then will have to fight literally everyone inside the House, which means you may lack critical spell slots later on. If you have Shadowheart in your party, casting Divine Intervention before the final battle can be a good option.
- Protect the party from fire and use Haste.
- Ungroup and separate your party members to minimize AoE attacks.
- Try to engage Raphael into melee combat in the very first combat turn. Use Haste or one of the teleporting spells to make sure one of your strong party members or a minion his making him busy from the very beginning.
- Focus on destroying the Soul Pillars. You have virtually no chances if you try fighting Raphael while the Pillars are active.
- Use minions and all sort of creatures you can summon (Necromancy of Thay is particularly useful here). These will make sure the Cambions will be busy while you destroy the Pillars.
- Once the Pillars are gone, the fight will be rather straightforward.

[Supply Slut]

Make sure you have damage spells that are not fire based. So electricity or cold probably. Assuming you’re a sorc, bring a front liner: barb or fighter, bring either another spellcaster that is either set up for burst damage or support (whichever one your assumed durge sorc isn’t), then another of your choice - since you already have hope to heal, I would recommend another front liner or burst damage class.

Yugir or whatever his name is can either be convinced to fight with you (which helps a lot), or if that fails, he can be banished. Raphael is weak to CC, so hold monster, otto’s irresistible dance, or Tasha’s hideous laughter can be used to give you a massive head start in the fight. Just make sure whoever casts it will be able to hold concentration.

[SpaceWombat]

I just did it with a party of 3: my Gith Fighter avatar , Lae'Zel ( Fighter ), and Karlach ( Barb ).

To have a fighting chance you really need all the allies you can to distract the other demons in the room. Having Yurgir and Hope on your side helps a lot. (Hope's divine intervention and AOE heals are essential if the fight starts going south). Additionally I summoned an earth elemental which was awesome because it can knock down Raphael with its opportunity attack.

As for strategy I used the "amulet of branding" to make Raphael vulnerable to piercing on turn 1. Then I had my 2 fighters misty step around to destroy the totems which you can break first turn with the crits from adamantine weapons. For the remainder of the fight I just had Karlach throwing spears whilst hastened/bloodlusted and It was over pretty quickly. Having "scrolls of hold creature" are also nice as you can buy yourself time if Raph is in his demon form to ensure he doesn't kill anyone at low health.

[Kaisha]

You don't need a disguise. Just kill everything then go back to his 'pool' or whatever of rejuvenation and it restores all spell slots and abilities.

[Popsicles]

Took two tries. My dumb ass didn't get going on the pillars soon enough the first try. Ended up getting overwhelmed.

Get that Demon dude to side with you. That was a big help. He is a HP soak and can do some good knock back damage.

I had Laezel, Shadow, Gale and my main is an Assassin.

Jump and haste on Laezel. Have her destroy the pillars with the Orphic Hammer.

Shadoweart and Gale both have banishment. Use it.

Definitely haste your main spellcaster.

Summon an Elemental. I like earth. Another HP soak.

You just need to hold on until the pillars are destroyed. I ignored Raphael and mowed down/banished the other demons. Upcast banishment and you can banish more than one enemy.

Once pillars are down, then it's time to just focus fire on Raphael.

[Popsicles]

Originally posted by Kaisha:

You don't need a disguise. Just kill everything then go back to his 'pool' or whatever of rejuvenation and it restores all spell slots and abilities.

This^^^ I'm surprised I've read in other threads that people were trying to rest in House of Hope. You have the rejuvey bath you can use whenever you need.

[Husker_85]

Raphael: "In my house, there is decorum, and in my house there IS order..."

Me: "In your house is a giant ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ gnomish explosive; you should really watch where you teleport into Raphael. Say goodbye to those pillars..."

[LArc7thHeaven]

The difference in difficulty won't matters, what matters is preparation, you can always fight like a fool walks into a trap and sometimes dies like an idiot or you can rig the place where you fight with sh*tload of smokepowder barrels and fireworks from felorgyr's, put 2 of each smokepowder near the pillars and you can go crazy with extra oil barrel or firewine barrel and set chain reaction

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3050787606

[nightwalker83137]

I beat it with my main fighter, Lae zel, Astarion and a hiring Cleric all restated from fresh.

[Daniel]

Raphael’s WIS saving throws suck, you can just Hold him the whole fight.

[Rabbit]

Lots of good advice here, and I'd just say hitting the soul pillars hard and fast is the biggest thing that makes all the difference in the world to me. That and the blood of lathander. Without the pillars and while blind he's almost completely toothless, cambions included.

[Moonbane]

I am bringing a massive load of explosives to stack around the pillars prefight. Bringing the BOOM!

[victorvnv]

No one- I just went in by myself on Tactician and gutted everyone alone
https://youtu.be/FlhVFSjgpw4?si=-urm01Ju_KLnhDYR