| Hello all. I'm new to this board, but not to IE games.
I've read thru this particular thread (great stuff, Gruntboy!) and there's a particular tactic that I have only seen partially refered to. And this tactic is perfectly useful in IWD1&2 and the BG games.
I call it the "Kill Zone".
The Kill Zone is a great tactic to use when you have an incoming mob of enemies, particularly if the terrain will give you a choke point, like a narrow passage.
What you do is cast spells like Grease, Entangle*, and Web for starters. Spells that will seriously impede the enemy's mobility. (*Entangle doesn't work inside in IWD2, but does in IWD1 IIRC. Don't remember for the BG games.) The follow up to these are spells that totally immobilize the enemy, like Emotion Hopelessness, Symbol of Hopelessness, or various Hold Spells. Anything to keep the enemy immobilize inside the Kill Zone.
Next, what you do is cast spells that do damage over multiple rounds, like various arcane magic fog spells or the druidic Spike Growth and Spike Stones spells.
BTW, while your spellcasters are casting these spells, have your non-spellcasters suppliment the attack with their ranged weapon of choice.
And another way to fine tune this tactic is to use certain summons inside the Kill Zone. Sure, you can use any old summons, cuz you don't really care whether they die or not. But if you want to be nasty, dump a fire elemental in the kill zone and limit your heavy duty magical attacks to fire based ones. Not only does the FE ignore your damage, he may even get some free healing. Or perhaps some undead summons inside a cloudkill.
Another point about summons and kill zones. Summons are great for keeping the enemy stuck in the KZ if you get them to attack your summons. In fact, sometimes the best thing to do is to have the summons be sort of a magnet for attacks, then drop the KZ on your summons once the enemies close in on your tame monster.
This is a devastating tactic that I've used both in IWD1 and IWD2 and IWD (HOF mode) to great effect.
And it doesn't absolutely have to be used in tight spaces. It will work rather well in more open areas, since nearly every enemy will walk straight into a kill zone, rather than try to walk around it.
Kill Zones are particularly great when you are faced with a major mob of enemies. Launching your standard fireball into the face of that incoming mob seems like a pretty standard tactic. And it will do its fair share of damage. But tying down that mob in a choke point of grease, webs, and entangles, then dropping even just 2-3 multi-round damaging spells, along with your warriors' ranged fire is an utterly devastating tactic, particularly if you keep those enemies in the KZ.
A note on ranged weapon targetting. My standard practice was to target those enemies that were closest to my party and not stunned by some sort of Holding or Hopelessness spell. The enemies that were fully stunned, I'd leave alone and let the gas and fire and acid do its damage. I'd focus on the annoying baddy that was slowly slogging thru the grease and webs towards me. Basically this ... ranged weapons attack the closest enemy that's still moving.
I don't know how well this tactic works in IWD1-HOF mode, but it was exceptionally useful in IWD2's HOF mode, particularly in conjuncture with some summons.  |