Asylum shade lich..., Skeleton Lord's are tearing my tanks a new one! Options

[olimikrig]

Tried everything I can think of here.. The lich itself isn't really that much of a problem, the skeleton lords, however, are simply just too much for my front-liners. They are tearing my tanks to pieces within seconds. I don't really understand just wth is going on, I've dealt with other skeleton Lords before, and they weren't too much of a problem (the planar sphere demon fight amongst others).

My party is (all lvl 13-14):

Vagrant
Berserker
Anomen
Valygar
Nalia
Imoen

Heck, I've even tried resorting to some cheesier tactics, bottlenecking the Skeleton Lords in the corridors back towards the crystal area, but I still only seem to be able to get one of them down - at most - before my melee guys start dropping like flies.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'd hate to have to end up resorting to lowering the difficulty.

[critto]

Here are some guidelines:
1) Make sure you have at least one guy with low AC, e.g. Valygar with a shield. With clerical buffs and right equipment you can get his AC around -20 so he wouldn't be such an easy target for Skeleton Lords.
2) Use Improved Haste and concentrate all of you warriors on one Skeleton Lord at a time, preferably with blunt weapons.
3) Use summons. They can buy you time while serving as damage absorbers.
4) If one of your characters getting too hurt, try to move them around and change positions.
5) Anomen should have an access to Greater Restoration by now, timely usage in critical moment can guarantee you victory.

This post has been edited by critto: Aug 27 2009, 07:00 AM

[olimikrig]

Thanks a lot, Valygar as a meatshield did the trick in the end (could manage -17 AC) . I just had Anomen fall back and heal when needed, as well as summoning some skellies from time-to time to occupy the enemies for a round or two, as well as refreshing defensive harmony.

I suppose I have to get more creative for future battles .

[matti]

SPOILER!

(Hmm...all Skeleton Lords are the same, imo...) ;]

[And that's why, amongst other reasons, ranger/cleric will always be better then Anomen - ironskin. He can absorb quite a punch, at least one SL should be dead until ironskin refreshment. R/C rules!]

Critto's advices are very good, nothing more to say exept one thing, when using summons make sure they're not blocking your fighters way to the skellies.

[olimikrig]

Aye, I always try to summon on the other side so my own guys can retreat to chug a few pots when needed.

SPOILER!

The lich itself was a pretty close call as well since I had to wait for the dispel, and throw prot from magic energy on those I could before it got too low and fired its nasty contigency

Gah Mithril golem hat me pulling my hair out as well!

SPOILER!

Just kept landing a bleed on either Anomen or my PC as they moved in for the kill (had to have them join the fight, because every time the golem reached near death my regeneration would be wearing off on Valygar and he'd basically be a sitting duck... couple of reloads due to last second chunky deaths on valy as well . Got the bastard in the end though.

This post has been edited by olimikrig: Aug 27 2009, 11:57 AM

[critto]

@ olimikrig:

SPOILER!

Battle against Mithril Golem is one of those occasions where Oils of Resurgence come quite in handy, if you have them, of course. The allow to negate the bleeding damage and keep characters alive. Summons are also perfect for this fight, to soak up the hits. And Anomen could probably be better used as healer in this battle, to place timely Heals and Greater Restorations on party members

[olimikrig]

SPOILER!

Yeah that's also how I did it, problem was just that by the end of the fight my resources had run out, the summons were gone, and Valygar's buffs had run out. So I did not have much of a choice but to move all in and make an attempt at finishing it off quickly

On a side note I now officially hate all the "helpers" in the Irenicus fight. They just ganged up on him and stood there doing nothing but preventing my guys from getting in... Never really realized how annoying they were before since Irenicus usually goes down in a couple of swings .

[darkjeshush]

Sounds like your general difficulty is in the tanking department. Your use of the term 'front liner' suggests you aren't using your arcane casters enough as meatshields. They are unbeatable in physical tanking until your vagrant is fully decked out. A level 14 sorceress should be able to nullify about 800-1000 physical damage per fight vs lords/grandlords, no need to cheese, no need to heal. You could even slide the difficulty bar to insane, and the outcome wouldnt differ by too much.