Large Water Elemental with level 1 party

[Sabi The Worst Player Ever]

Is it doable? Because I tried several times already and rolls are never on my favor. With potions of Barkskin, Shield of Faith, Bless and Resist Cold, thats the best I can do but its still not enough, especially against frequent 20 rolls on that guy side. Not to mention that he basically one hit kill everyone, once he connects.

If anybody wonder why I keep them at level 1 - thats for later recruitment of custom characters.

[darkholyPL]

It's doable but you need to cheese it a bit and have some luck. I know players who do it on Unfair, tank it with a pet, and charge him with enlarged melees, so they don't get hit with AoO when backing up for another charge. Takes a few tries but works.
On core, try to get your tankiest guy to tank him with it's back to the rest of your party, co you don't get cleaved. Should work just fine.

[Drake]

About level 1, isn't wrath not using the same method than kingmaker ? I was under the impression wrath tied the price to total experience gained rather than levels (meaning even if you're lv 1, if you have enough xp to be lv 4, it counts as if you want to recruit a lv 4 merc).

[brownacs]

Sorry why are you keeping your characters at level 1? I don't see what that has to do with the later recruitment of custom characters.

[Sabi The Worst Player Ever]

Originally posted by Drake:

About level 1, isn't wrath not using the same method than kingmaker ? I was under the impression wrath tied the price to total experience gained rather than levels (meaning even if you're lv 1, if you have enough xp to be lv 4, it counts as if you want to recruit a lv 4 merc).

No, from what I heard from other players, it checks only your character actual level, not experience. No idea if it would result in party of lvl 1 characters with lvl 3 MC and pretty much extra hard mode as a result (which would forc save editing or something anyway). In Kingmaker I had the same situation but there prologue was finished with level 2, not 3 and game took only actual level in mind, not experience (but I played it before "Enchanced" version so maybe they changed that).

Overall placing such problems for those who want to make custom parties is very bad move. At least there are ways to get around that.

Originally posted by darkholyPL:

It's doable but you need to cheese it a bit and have some luck. I know players who do it on Unfair, tank it with a pet, and charge him with enlarged melees, so they don't get hit with AoO when backing up for another charge. Takes a few tries but works.
On core, try to get your tankiest guy to tank him with it's back to the rest of your party, co you don't get cleaved. Should work just fine.

Now that you mention it, I have scroll for summoning wind elemental. Extra head wont hurt, rest it up to lucky rolls I guess.

Originally posted by brownacs:

Sorry why are you keeping your characters at level 1? I don't see what that has to do with the later recruitment of custom characters.

Game calculate the cost for recruitment based on your actual level - at 1, you should pay 1000 per character but game actually takes 500, same as with Kingmaker. Cost goes up rapidly and level 3 character cost 4500 gold, which is way too much to be able to pay at this point. Keeping character at level 1 is workaround. Other one is to edit save file but I leave it for last resort.

[brownacs]

Originally posted by Sabi The Worst Player Ever:

Game calculate the cost for recruitment based on your actual level - at 1, you should pay 1000 per character but game actually takes 500, same as with Kingmaker. Cost goes up rapidly and level 3 character cost 4500 gold, which is way too much to be able to pay at this point. Keeping character at level 1 is workaround. Other one is to edit save file but I leave it for last resort.

I thought it worked like Drake described but I'll take your word for it. I've always been able to afford my one level 3 custom party member (usually a skald) in chapter 1 but I do obsessively loot absolutely everything.
To your question: I've managed to beat the water elemental on unfair exactly once and that was with a level 2 party deliberately built for it (pets and buffs) after over an hour of trying. If you're playing on core then it should be doable (and that's the only difficulty which matters for achievements for that boss fight if you care about those). If you're playing on unfair, I'd honestly just skip quite a few of the optional boss fights, especially in the early game. They just don't provide good enough rewards for the dozens and dozens of attempts it might take to beat them in my opinion. The amount of xp you get from defeating the elemental is about the same as killing a standard Vrock later on if I'm remembering right.

[corisai]

Originally posted by Sabi The Worst Player Ever:

Other one is to edit save file but I leave it for last resort.

If you really hate companions - just add extra gold via it and don't suffer.

[Mork]

🧀

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2626573027

[Drake]

Originally posted by Mork:

🧀

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2626573027

Now that's a table full of cheese

[Grimshot]

I had to cheese it. Ran around the table in the room you find it in with archers until it mercifully got stuck then I afked while my archers shot at it.

[Geeves]

Theres really no reason to hold off on leveling just to save a few pennies. You will be overflowing with gold soon enough with nothing to spend it on.

Or as someone else suggested just cheat in the gold difference. You're already gaming things by halting levelup to save a few coins, why make things more painful than it needs to be?

[Starfire]

2 lvls Witch of the Veil 1 lvl Rowdy easy peasy

[Sabi The Worst Player Ever]

In the meantime managed to actually do it but mostly thanks to some weird glitch - summoned air elemental should last for 3 rounds but instead lasted for entire combat and tanked enemy long enough. Weird.

Now I need to find out some harder cheese for final fight of prologue, since I already lost 5 times (and repeating takes way too long since somebody thought it would be good idea to add long cutscene before it).

Originally posted by Mork:

🧀

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2626573027

Looks like Camembert rather than Cheddar. Good one, by the way.

Originally posted by Geeves:

Theres really no reason to hold off on leveling just to save a few pennies. You will be overflowing with gold soon enough with nothing to spend it on.

Or as someone else suggested just cheat in the gold difference. You're already gaming things by halting levelup to save a few coins, why make things more painful than it needs to be?

Could be, but people claim that they managed to finish prologue with lvl 1 on Core so I guess it should be possible. "Overflowing with money" means nothing if I would have to play next Chapter to actually gather it as leaving prologue means not having enough to hire everyone right away (and keeping "companions" for even second longer than required is something I would like to avoid).

[Geeves]

Of course it *can* be done. Many people have, I have. What I meant is that unless you're just trying to see if you can do it, no reason not to adjust your play as you see fit and skip annoyances. Personally, when I want to play a custom built party I just use respec mod and respec all companions. Or use toybox and mark hirelings as 0 cost.

[Sabi The Worst Player Ever]

Originally posted by Geeves:

Of course it *can* be done. Many people have, I have. What I meant is that unless you're just trying to see if you can do it, no reason not to adjust your play as you see fit and skip annoyances. Personally, when I want to play a custom built party I just use respec mod and respec all companions. Or use toybox and mark hirelings as 0 cost.

Mind telling me how exactly you did it? I mean, it was fair and square or you cheesed it? Just being curious at this point.

[Starfire]

I don't fully understand why you keep them at lvl 1? You don't level up until the tavern where you create mercs or what?