Icewind Dale Help?

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm kinda stuck on a fight in Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition, namely on Dragon's Eye Level 2, with the large chamber full of trolls and Talonite priests. How do you fight, like eight trolls while priests are casting spells on you?! :smalleek:

[Narkis]

I don't remember that specific battle, but have you tried spamming fireballs? It's the best way to kill groups of trolls and I can't imagine the clerics changing the recipe all that much. Unless they're protecting the trolls from fire, in which case Dispel liberally before fireballing?

[JadedDM]

I remember that fight. It was pretty tough. I played it a little over a year ago (although it was the original IWD, not EE). Here's what I remember.

The main problem was the clerics. I would go in with full spells, full buffs and full HP and the clerics would drop tons of Hold Person and Silence spells on me, allowing the trolls to finish me off. I remember I had to reload 6-7 times before I finally found a strategy that worked, and just barely.

First, I would buff everyone up. Then I would have my mage cast Monster Summoning I. Then send in the monsters first. They do almost no damage, but the clerics wind up wasting some of their spells on them. Then I would take position in a narrow hall to the north, letting the trolls bottleneck themselves, and also open themselves up to AoE attacks like Fireball or just throwing flaming oils. My cleric was on standby with Remove Paralysis, but sometimes he'd get silenced, negating that.

Even with this strategy, it took a few tries, because sometimes I'd get unlucky and my cleric would get silenced, but eventually it worked, although it took every single attack spell and nearly all my ammunition to get through it.

[Narkis]

I see. That does sound a pretty good strategy for a tough fight. I'd just like to add that Vocalize and Free Action are excellent answers to Silence and Hold Person respectively.

[LibraryOgre]

I tended to use the summoned monsters, yes, but if we're talking about the one I'm thinking about, I would also hang back in the hallway, which forced the trolls into a narrower channel, and tended to leave the priests dribbling in. If I could throw up a wall spell across the neck, it would force everyone through the wall, then into my fighters.

[LongVin]

Acid and fire are your friends.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Yes, the guides I've looked at have warned me that I'd need both (especially since the game itself telegraphs it with the flaming oils you find on dead enemies).

The problem has been the sheer number of trolls coming at you in this fight, especially since a lot of the fire and acid stuff I have does area damage, meaning my frontliners are getting hurt at the same time, something that is a REALLY bad thing when there's plenty more trolls where the most recent ones have died, and those things take large chunks out of my frontliners' health (the paladin, fighter/cleric and fighter/druid).

[Triaxx]

I got very lucky with hold monster on a troll in the doorway.

[LibraryOgre]

Yes, the guides I've looked at have warned me that I'd need both (especially since the game itself telegraphs it with the flaming oils you find on dead enemies).


There are two flaming oils. The rounder ones have bigger AoEs than the ones that look like lamps.

[Triaxx]

If it's the same as Baldur's Gate, the lamp one is Aganazzar's Scorcher, and the fat one is Fireball.

[LibraryOgre]

If it's the same as Baldur's Gate, the lamp one is Aganazzar's Scorcher, and the fat one is Fireball.

Not quite that big, no.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm just worried about wasting them on full-health trolls when they're needed to deal the finishing blows to them.

[Cheesegear]

That fight is really difficult. Especially if you haven't picked up any Flaming weapons from the random loot drops.
What they don't tell you, is that Phasing also kills Trolls. If that's an option to you.

Or you can backtrack all the way back to Kuldahar, sell everything that isn't a +2 weapon, and buy some Flaming/Acid or Phasing weapons... And have a Rest. :smallwink:
Fire or Acid Arrows are also really useful.

Your ranged attackers can disrupt Spellcasters, and when time comes, you switch to Acid Arrows, the Auto-Pause feature will tell you when the Troll dies, switch back to normal Arrows, target the Spellcasters again, and unPause.

Dispel Magic is also incredibly important to get rid of Slow effects.
You should also have a number of Antidotes from previous levels which should get rid of the Poison 'cause those Priests are casting Beast Claw or whatever it is which Poisons you when it hits.

[Cheesegear]

In the other thread, I was reminded about something...

...You can Pickpocket the extremely valuable Necklace of Fireballs off of the Potion-seller in the airship in Kuldahar. The Cleric-and-Trolls fight is exactly the kind of encounter you use it in.
(Whilst you're PPing the Potion-seller, you'll also grab a few Fire Breath Potions and a Ring of Protection +2...Nice!)

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Shoot, I think I might have already sold that. :smallsigh:

[LongVin]

So this inspired me to start a playthrough of my own and I was wondering if I should have my thief focus mostly with ranged weapons or melee weapon?

[Winthur]

So this inspired me to start a playthrough of my own and I was wondering if I should have my thief focus mostly with ranged weapons or melee weapon?

Both. Most Thieves don't have proficiency points to worry about it and especially the best of thieves (multiclassers or dual-classers from Fighter) will easily be able to invest into both at the same time. Bows of all sorts carry the early game, though, so prioritize that until you get some levels (and thus more HP). Any Thief or Fighter/Thief can start the game by maxing out their starting ranged and melee weapon proficiencies. After that you can get a backup weapon or invest into dual-wielding style if playing the EE (and probably while also being a Fighter crossbreed because pure Thieves who aren't Swashbucklers are poor dual-wielders).

[Cheesegear]

So this inspired me to start a playthrough of my own and I was wondering if I should have my thief focus mostly with ranged weapons or melee weapon?

Fighter/Thief; Start ranged, transition into melee.
Cleric/Thief; Ew. Why?
Thief/Mage; Ranged.

Fighter/Mage/Thief; Start ranged, transition into melee.