Trials of the Runemaster ruined my game (spoiler)

[Barre]

I was loving this game untill I sort of accidentily stumbled upon HOF , after exploring the first town I encountered some guy that teleported me to do the quest Trials of the Runemaster ,first part outside of the keep was not that hardn difficulty was balanced nicely and it was still good fun.

However once I entered the crypt the difficulty spike is just ridiculous and laughable , it feels forced and badly designed and I get totally wiped out by those silly spectral guards , after sevral tries the game has nopw become boring and I am startibng to lose interest in what could have been an otherwise great game , I have no saves before this quest started so I am stuck in this sillyness .

Any tips on how to beat this part ?

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

HoF or HoW?

Trials of the Luremaster is ... meh. You could reduce difficulty or search for walkthroughs. Or reload an older savegame.

Heart of Winter is fine, though, particularly since one can travel back to the base game areas regularly.

[Barre]

I guess it is part of the Heart of Winter expansion

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

It has been integrated into the enhanced edition. Originally it was a separate expansion.

HoF is short for Heart of Fury. That's why I asked for clarification.

[Black Sheep Inc]

Best advice I have is to cast every available buff you have ahead of time and stage the fight to that they're drawn to your tankiest characters. Follow it up with Greater Malison and AoE debuffs with heavy saving throw penalties like slow or Chaos in order to disable as many of them as you can. (Greater Malison is extremely important since these enemies have pretty high saves) Summons are also quite useful so get as many as you can, they won't do any real damage but should hopefully soak up enough to give your party some breathing room. I'm also 90% sure that they won't follow you through area transitions so it might be worth a try to go in, kill a few, leave, rest up and then return to continue the fight. I've also found Sphere of Chaos to be an absolutely amazing spell in this area when coupled with Greater Malison.

Hopefully some of this helps.

[Godsarm]

It's probably a case of level and equipment. I've waited to start HoW until I'm done with everything in IWD and am ready to ascend the stairs in the Fallen Temple (from which there is no return unless you export/import later) so that I'm as high of a level and have all the equipment and spells from the original game. Then when I start HoW I finish all of the content until I'm ready to go to the Sea of Moving Ice (from which there is no return) and start Trials. I've never had a problem with Trials when I've done it that way even on Hard difficulty

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Godsarm:

Then when I start HoW I finish all of the content until I'm ready to go to the Sea of Moving Ice (from which there is no return)

That's not true. From Icasararacht's Chamber the party is teleported to Hjollder's house in Kuldahar automatically.

[Godsarm]

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Originally posted by Godsarm:

Then when I start HoW I finish all of the content until I'm ready to go to the Sea of Moving Ice (from which there is no return)

That's not true. From Icasararacht's Chamber the party is teleported to Hjollder's house in Kuldahar automatically.

How do you get back to Lonelywood to talk to Hobart? Hjollder isn't going to take you again, you've already done your work. So, like I said, I finish up to the point of no return then take on the Luremaster. When I'm done with that I go take on Icasararacht and then back to Kulduhar>Dorn's Deep (Stop by Dirty Lew with a Rhemoraz shell and he'll make you a great helmet) then back to Easthaven.

[Godsarm]

Originally posted by Barre:

I was loving this game untill I sort of accidentily stumbled upon HOF , after exploring the first town I encountered some guy that teleported me to do the quest Trials of the Runemaster ,first part outside of the keep was not that hardn difficulty was balanced nicely and it was still good fun.

However once I entered the crypt the difficulty spike is just ridiculous and laughable , it feels forced and badly designed and I get totally wiped out by those silly spectral guards , after sevral tries the game has nopw become boring and I am startibng to lose interest in what could have been an otherwise great game , I have no saves before this quest started so I am stuck in this sillyness .

Any tips on how to beat this part ?

Are you talking about the Crypt or the Castle itself? The Crypt is where the Crypt things teleport you all over the place, the Castle is where the gangs of Spectral Guards (high level fighters) try to chop you to pieces in 3 waves, 4 if you go into the kitchen

Some specifics for the Crypt

Invisibility + Turn Undead - A High Level cleric or paladin can walk into a room full of undead and potentially vaporize them. I don't remember what level my Paladin was at this point in the game but it was enough to blow up the Crypt Things, Ghosts and Ghouls leaving only the Spectral Guards and Skeleton Warriors to be dealt with. I did this last playthrough with an also invisibile Thief detecting traps and my Archer following in Stealth to open doors and containers. If you don't have a high level Paladin or Cleric, obviously this won't work but if you do it makes the level easy if tedious because you're not moving your whole party.

Slow - Undead are not immune to this spell and it really helps you win tough fights

Some specifics for the Castle:

Max Buffs - I mean throw everything at it. Fighters down potions of Giant Strength, Heroism and Regeneration (you won't have time to heal much) Everyone downs potions of Speed (doubles attacks and movement). You might want to have your tanks down a couple potions of Mind Focusing to increase DEX to 24/25 to further lower AC. Your Mages should have all their buffs up before you initiate the fights and as a precaution, give everyone an Invisibility potion to down if they get tore up so that the enemies won't target them...they can still drink potions of healing to get back into the fight.

Use Slow spells and scrolls to even the odds and summons to distract them. Concentrate missile fire on a single guard while they are coming up to cut down their numbers at contact.

If you're too low a level, reload and wait till later to talk to Hobart

[Redwood]

Originally posted by Godsarm:

Originally posted by Barre:

I was loving this game untill I sort of accidentily stumbled upon HOF , after exploring the first town I encountered some guy that teleported me to do the quest Trials of the Runemaster ,first part outside of the keep was not that hardn difficulty was balanced nicely and it was still good fun.

However once I entered the crypt the difficulty spike is just ridiculous and laughable , it feels forced and badly designed and I get totally wiped out by those silly spectral guards , after sevral tries the game has nopw become boring and I am startibng to lose interest in what could have been an otherwise great game , I have no saves before this quest started so I am stuck in this sillyness .

Any tips on how to beat this part ?

Are you talking about the Crypt or the Castle itself? The Crypt is where the Crypt things teleport you all over the place, the Castle is where the gangs of Spectral Guards (high level fighters) try to chop you to pieces in 3 waves, 4 if you go into the kitchen

Some specifics for the Crypt

Invisibility + Turn Undead - A High Level cleric or paladin can walk into a room full of undead and potentially vaporize them. I don't remember what level my Paladin was at this point in the game but it was enough to blow up the Crypt Things, Ghosts and Ghouls leaving only the Spectral Guards and Skeleton Warriors to be dealt with. I did this last playthrough with an also invisibile Thief detecting traps and my Archer following in Stealth to open doors and containers. If you don't have a high level Paladin or Cleric, obviously this won't work but if you do it makes the level easy if tedious because you're not moving your whole party.

Slow - Undead are not immune to this spell and it really helps you win tough fights

Some specifics for the Castle:

Max Buffs - I mean throw everything at it. Fighters down potions of Giant Strength, Heroism and Regeneration (you won't have time to heal much) Everyone downs potions of Speed (doubles attacks and movement). You might want to have your tanks down a couple potions of Mind Focusing to increase DEX to 24/25 to further lower AC. Your Mages should have all their buffs up before you initiate the fights and as a precaution, give everyone an Invisibility potion to down if they get tore up so that the enemies won't target them...they can still drink potions of healing to get back into the fight.

Use Slow spells and scrolls to even the odds and summons to distract them. Concentrate missile fire on a single guard while they are coming up to cut down their numbers at contact.

If you're too low a level, reload and wait till later to talk to Hobart

Thanks for this information. I was beginning to think there was no use for all the potions the game gives you.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Godsarm:

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

That's not true. From Icasararacht's Chamber the party is teleported to Hjollder's house in Kuldahar automatically.

How do you get back to Lonelywood to talk to Hobart?

As in the bit you've quoted. Once you're done in Icasaracht's Lair, the enhanced edition game teleports the party the Hjollder's house in Kuldahar automatically.

[Herr Kruelbar®]

Originally posted by Black Sheep Inc:

Best advice I have is to cast every available buff you have ahead of time and stage the fight to that they're drawn to your tankiest characters. Follow it up with Greater Malison and AoE debuffs with heavy saving throw penalties like slow or Chaos in order to disable as many of them as you can. (Greater Malison is extremely important since these enemies have pretty high saves) Summons are also quite useful so get as many as you can, they won't do any real damage but should hopefully soak up enough to give your party some breathing room. I'm also 90% sure that they won't follow you through area transitions so it might be worth a try to go in, kill a few, leave, rest up and then return to continue the fight. I've also found Sphere of Chaos to be an absolutely amazing spell in this area when coupled with Greater Malison.

Hopefully some of this helps.

Also use every single critter you can summon to help boost your numbers. Think of them as nice little meat shields for your party until you can destroy all the spectral guards.

[El'Toro]

I honestly tried to kill these stupid guards for an hour. I've beaten Baldurs Gate 1 and 2, and the main Icewind Dale. Nothing compared to how frustrating these guys were coming of nowehere! Even after I killed a large group, there was another group to kill triggered on the right! IMHO, the battle is way too overpowered for the level most people will arrive to at this location. There is no Role playing way to pass as far as I know either.

I gulped down tons of potions and managed to kill about 2/3rds and then saved before triggering the last group. I was out of spells with 13-14 level guys and reloaded soooo many times. My two tanks with -10 and -11 AC kept getting hit.

Putting it on a lower difficulty was the only way I could get past this part :/