Battle vs. Hedrack: Strange Monster AI

[Kalendraf]

I fought Hedrack & company for the very 1st time last night. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, so I had my fighter/rogue scout the entire room while hidden to pinpoint the baddies. I noticed a bunch of wizards on the opposite side of the room from where the party approaches. I figured the wizards might be more dangerous than Hedrack, especially since they were so far back.

I decided to plant my fighter rogue right beside Hedrack, then launch an ice storm at the wizards/archers/bugbears at the far side of the room. The fact that ice storm has no saving throw and slows up movement is why I chose it over fireball. Anyways, with the characters position, most of the monsters in that zone were back in darkness. The plan was to then skewer Hedrack with the fighter/rogue and rush the fighters up for support as needed while the bard, cleric and wizard kept pounding all the back row enemies with spells and eventually arrows or bolts.

It started out ok. The initial ice storm greatly damaged some of the wizards (except Senshock) and archers, and slowed up the bugbears. However, what was interesting was that instead of rushing at the party, the monsters rushed toward Senshock! From what I could tell, someone seemed to be summoning elementals (in the dark area off screen, so I couldn't tell who), and all the monsters in that area attacked them! Saved me a lot of work, but it seems like a bug to me.

As for the rest of the battle, the fighter/rogue almost killed Hedrack by themself, but then some ettins and bugbears came for support and between their attacks managed to kill the character. The other fighters rushed to help, but scored low init rolls. Iuz made his appearance, then St. Cuthbert came and rez'ed the fighter/rogue. Iuz raised Hedrack and I got to fight him again. But this time he was surrounded by my 3 best melee characters and he went down w/o even getting an action.

Iuz also summoned some undead which swarmed the other monsters off the screen! So again, there was some buggy AI going on. I was seeing a lot of "Friendly Fire" messages as the monsters pummeled each other. Senshock managed to get off a couple fireballs, and one of them killed the primary fighter (he'd been badly wounded from some previous combat with an ettin). Senshock also went invisible which made the battle a bit interesting. But a nifty application of Glitterdust solved that, and the fighter/rogue was able to close and drop him in another round.

So I managed to win the fight with only 1 real death in the party. Easily correctable with a Raise Dead scroll. However, he does appear to have lost quite a bit of EXP (lists 32K, but still has him at 9th level - seems like another bug). I'm not sure why the monster AI went so crazy, but it sure saved my party a lot of work.

[Mulligan]

I think you'll find in the description for Raise Dead that you lose Xp, it's not a bug.

If you cat lvl 4 Restoration after Raise Dead you'll get enough xp back - the minimum for the current level - in your case the Pc would be raised to 36.000 Xp.

From what I could tell, someone seemed to be summoning elementals

This is Senchock's work. I've always fought him in his private chambers, there too he'll summon lots of elementals. My guess is that he's protected from evil by default, and all the monsters with Hedrack isn't. I too see this as a bug, since if you fight him in his chambers the elmentals won't attack him but immediately turn on you.

If you summon Elementals yourself they won't be hostile to you and start attacking your enemies, just as any other summons.

If i remember correclty, in 2ndAD&D and in 3Ed./3.5 you need to use "Prot.Evil" when using Planar Binding/Ally spells. In IWDII Elementals were only availible with Planar Binding spells. But the Summon Monster/Nature's Ally spell has no mention for "Prot." spells.

The battle with Hedrack is a great one, but the worst IMO opponents is the Ettin's and Hill Giant with reach. After they fall the rest is easy. Iuz too is a real pain, if he flanks you he has 8d6 sneak attack dmg.

I just had an error with Iuz & St.Cutbert last night. When Iuz shows up Cuthbert is likely to come after 4-5 rounds, normally they heal all and leave. But last night, with my solo character, Cutbert started to attack Iuz, and the damage was reported as "friendly fire".

My Pc just stood still as Cutbert attacked Iuz and Iuz attacked me. After a long time Iuz went down and now Cutbert attacked my Pc!!! Luckily he didnt have reach, i would have had to reload then. So i stood still and let Scather/Fragarack do the job. He was insane, with CR 60, 100 HD !!!, and more than 10 attacks/round. He had 1560 HP, but eventually he killed himself on the AoO's from the swords.

All enemies were dead now, except for an Ettin and a Hill Giant that luckily didn't flank me and a Wizard in the back shooting bolts, he must have been out of spells. So now i ended consentrating on my Meld Into Stone spell and moved in to kill the rest. This fight brought me 26.513 XP, but was reduced by 20% due to uneven levels.

My solo Pc is F4/C5/W1 Male Human with both Scather/Fragarack wielded. Power Attack (+7), Combat Expertise (+5), Cleave & Great Cleave, Two-Wpn & Improced Two-Wpn fighting. I'm done with the Temple now and on my way into the nodes. I look forward to pitting him against the node bosses.

If you haven't experimented with the Meld Into Stone spell, try it. It is a real lifesaver in some battles, as most of the monsters will hack away at a Pc that's completely immune to damage.


Have Fun

[Kalendraf]

Originally posted by Mulligan
I think you'll find in the description for Raise Dead that you lose Xp, it's not a bug.

I know there is exp loss. The problem is he should now be 8th level. He was 9th level, just shy of 10th level, hovering around 44K (45K is 10th). He only died once and got raised. This should bring him back at 8th level. It appears to have chosen the mid-point exp for 8th which is 32,000. I have no problem with that. But he still registers as a 9th level character which is the problem. Maybe ToEE doesn't handle level loss properly?

[Mulligan]

The Raise Dead spell is somewhat differnet from the description given in the PHB.

If you check the in-game help for Spells and Raise Dead and click on the "Level Loss" info tab, you'll see that in TOEE level loss is handled as "only" Xp loss.

I guess that Troika thought it too hard on the players to actually reduce the levels when someone dies. They might be right or wrong in this, but i think this is right to do in CRPG's.