How Do You Beat Fampyr Encounter on Splintered Reef?

[try2handing]

Ok, I know I've been thinking to myself "game's too easy" for a while (playing on veteran), but I just ran into this encounter and I'm pretty tilted right now. Seriously what is the intended level for this encounter?

 

This is in the Sea-Lashed Crypt area on the Splintered Reef island. You run into something like five or six Fampyrs, each takes ages to kill. Well, not so bad when there's one or two of them, but these guys are accompanied by a dozen Risen Marksmen, who are immune to piercing damage and can dish out some pretty good damage at range. I've run into these enemies before, but it has never been this ridiculous.

 

My party are at level 17 right now, and the Fampyrs are level 16-17 too. I used some Svef to get immunity to domination, and they cast Arcane Dampener. What the hell am I supposed to do next? And what in the world is the "Drug Crash" effect anyway??? Each Fampyr can actually dominate TWO of your party at the same time. Even when there's only one Fampyr, it's still basically impossible to interrupt their gaze attack for long. They can do this even when paralyzed (how does that even work anyway???). Now there are half a dozen of them.

 

In this particular area, your movement speed is reduced for some reason (because of the water???). Combined with the web spamming and immobilization attacks, it gets ridiculous pretty fast. Tough encounters are fine as long as reliable counter tools are available, but this is infuriating. What am I supposed to do against these Fampyrs? I have the small shield that I upgraded to give 50% reflect chance against gaze attacks, but it's not that useful since they can spam their gaze attacks over and over. I have exactly three uses of Svef among my party - I have never needed it (or pretty much any consumable) before this point so I don't have it in abundance.

 

So my question for anyone who has beat this encounter: what was your strategy, exactly?

Edited June 24, 2018 by try2handing

[Crucis]

First and foremost for me is having Pallegina in the party, and for her to have the Aegis of Loyalty passive ability.  Also, it helps if you have her armed with a bow as a secondary weapon so that you don't have to have her walk over to a charmed ally.  It's just easier if she hits them with an arrow to de-charm them, and then get back to whatever she was doing.

 

It also helps if you've taken the Warped Scales upgrade to the Shimmer Shield to give yourself immunity to gaze attacks.

 

And IIRC, there's a Chanter chant that helps you to resist charm attacks.

 

For what it's worth, the Fampyr battles are some of the more difficult ones, but they're far from unbeatable.  I will say that I had to bail out of the Fampyr island in the extreme SE of the map, because I didn't think that I was up to it, after getting spanked a couple of times.  I returned later and returned the favor.

[Kohlingen]

**Big Spoiler Alert!**

 

 

-- Did you track down the undead sailor with the helmet at the inn near splintered reef? You can ask him to meet you at the Boathouse.  He will set up a distraction at Splintered Reefs that removes a few of the fampyrs from the fight at the docks, making it much more manageable.--  

[Kohlingen]

Also, any intellect inspiration (infuse with vital essence, prayer for the spirit, minor avatar, etc) will give you a layer of defense against charm attacks and will remove their effects if already active.

[TheSickness]

Stock up on enough Wael's Wind (booze, can be bought from several ports/bars/found in loot) to gain per-rest immunity to intellect afflictions for the party for several rest cycles. Then you don't have to worry about will or party composition and just focus on out-damaging them. Fampyrs have very high fortitude/medium reflex but no immunities (except resistance to int affliction) so target deflection or will. Even if your party is immune to charm/dominate they have tons of rogue skills and will span finishing blow and withering strike all day, so stay at full health and resist con afflictions if you can.

 

The gravehounds that run with the fampyrs are a bigger threat than it seems, as they have Persistent Distraction. Unless you want your whole frontline constantly debuffed prioritize killing them. They are immune to tons of stuff, like poison and various afflictions.

 

"Grave Calling" unique sabre (from Crookspur Merchant) has +15 acc vs vessels and a gnarly chill fog on kill effect as an upgrade that will make things much easier as well. 

 

Highly situational cipher power "Screaming Souls" would get plenty mileage here.

[try2handing]

Right, I forgot to mention my party setup. I play a cipher, have Eder, Aloth, Maia, and Xoti. This means I don't have access to Pallegina's handy charm-dispelling on-hit attacks, or any chanter abilities either.

 

I have the Warped Scale shield, and upgraded it so that it has the 50% chance to reflect gaze attack, but then it's still "only" 50%, against their unlimited casts of domination. I remember it had an upgrade that gives immunity to gaze attack, but decided to take the other upgrade because I never thought I'd run into this kind of encounter.

 

Maybe I'm missing something, but for something that is so tricky to counter, this domination bs lasts way too long. I know there's "raising your resistance" and "reducing hostile effects duration" and all that, but the problem is when there are five of those guys who can spam that ability over and over, it just doesn't help, unless you also have unlimited uses of some counter method.

 

I'll retry this fight later, see if stealth helps any.

[try2handing]

Well, I finally beat this encounter, somehow. And have progressed a bit further. I figured out that "Drug Crash" is a withdrawal effect after using Svef, which is the cause of the movement speed reduction (-40% Stride).

 

Also, apparently the AI doesn't care if the Fampyr is charmed or not. I used Puppet Master on one Fampyr when there was no other enemy left, and "dominated" is reduced to "charmed", since they are resistant to Intellect Afflictions, which is supposed to prevent using abilities. But they still used Charming Gaze on Maia when they are being charmed, and that turns her into an uncontrollable friendly. I'm sorry but this is just plain dumb.

 

And I don't see why you can't charm back a dominated ally, either. This is legit in Baldur's Gate 2, seeing as this "dominating gaze" is pretty much copy pasta of the same thing from BG2. Charming/dominating a charmed/dominated ally will show the effect, but it is suppressed by the previous effect. That doesn't make sense to me. New charm effect should reverse the previous one.

 

Not only this domination spam feels cheap as hell, and these fights leave a rather bad taste, but the AI's handling of this effect feels awkward too.

Edited June 24, 2018 by try2handing

[Marigoldran]

Put on as much armor and regen on Pallegina or a hired Paladin/Chanter.  Send only her in (keep everyone else in the back with stealth).

 

Have her cast brand enemy on the fampyrs (the paladin skill that does continuous fire damage).

 

Go and eat lunch.

 

Come back in 15 minutes and all of the fampyrs are dead.  

 

[This trick works.  That's how i soloed it.]

 

The fampyrs are cheesy so they deserve to be cheesed.

Edited June 24, 2018 by Marigoldran

[Nomian]

You can try boost your will or use some food or potion to boost your resistence to mind or intelect affliction, but there is unfortunately still chance to dominate your party members.Thats way I used simple food for all party members. Before I tried svef and another things as well,but it gives you just resistance to intelect affliction, but you need something for IMUNITE to mind affliction. Best thing for it is food called Captain Banquet, or something like that. Same strategy I used fot Fampyr's Crypt. If you have imunity to mind affliction, they cannot dominate or charm your companions and the fight after that is quite simple.

 

NOTE: Sorry for my english.

[Boeroer]

Did you simply try to use Chillfog on the fampyrs AND you? Blind makes you immune to gaze attacks and as far as I know it won't get removed by Arcane Dampener (because it's no beneficial effect). And since you are all blinded it's not really gimping yourself in comparison to the fampyrs.

Edited June 24, 2018 by Boeroer

[araj123]

You can also give everyone Captain Banquet food which makes them immune to the gaze.

 

All the ingredients can be bought at the inn in dunnage (keep resting he will restock)

Edited June 24, 2018 by araj123

[try2handing]

You can also give everyone Captain Banquet food which makes them immune to the gaze.

 

All the ingredients can be bought at the inn in dunnage (keep resting he will restock)

 

Best thing for it is food called Captain Banquet, or something like that.

 

^ These (sadly I've never seen the "Wael's Wind" thing anywhere). So, despite having beat this fight, I decided to reload a save one whole month back, went all the way back, made several roundtrips through Neketaka, Sayuka, and Dunnage, to grab all the Luminous Lobsters and Oysters, and crafted five Captain's Banquets. Then I came back and beat the crap out of these guys (again).

 

I found out something else about this domination attack. I *believe* it is a proc-based effect that triggers when you target them directly, rather than an active ability that requires them to perform an action. Which would explain why it seems to take effect instantly without any sign, and works even when they are paralyzed or stunned. In the first encounter where there's only one Fampyr, I decided to ignore him and focus on the other enemies, and no one got dominated at all. This most likely imitates how gaze attack works in pen-and-paper D&D (In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the devs took inspiration from Critical Role).

 

So hitting them with an AoE that doesn't require direct targeting won't subject you to the gaze attack, but then each of them has like 1k HP.

 

The Chillfog strat sounds pretty good. I've totally forgotten about that spell for a good while. And I always thought the Paladin's charm-dispelling attack passive seems useless; now I know why it's there.

 

The fampyrs are cheesy so they deserve to be cheesed.

 

Yes, I need to come up with my own "cheese" strat specifically for these guys. Their combat style is super cheesy.

Edited June 24, 2018 by try2handing

[baldurs_gate_2]

I forgot if they are fire immune, but a scroll of meteor shower, should do the trick.

 

Ofc in a party, this encounter is harder than solo, because domination does not really do anything to me xd

[Nomian]

One more think, if you used that captain food for imunity to their mind attacks, dont rest again and leave that affect in your group for boss fight in that undead city cause is a bit expensive to craft that again and I think you will need that for that fight.

[mant2si]

I forgot to record this fight

I stealth to bridge, at the center of map, and aggro all mobs (except 1 fampyr near crypt entrance), then return/run to map entrance and summon siren, she took all aggro from all mobs, then cast cipher ring leader on separate mobs groups Ghouls and then on all skeleton Archers (all the time I stayed away from fampyrs) after that all mobs start attack fampyrs (all of them have low will). Then you need only hold domination, until all fampyr dies

Edited June 24, 2018 by mant2si

[the streaker]

Go back for some svef... pretty good display of why charm/dominate is so important for ciphers and how much poorer they are without it.

[AeonsLegend]

I had no immunity to domination. I just straight instagibbed the boss with my two frontliners. Charge did damage back then so that may not work now.

[try2handing]

[...] then cast cipher ring leader on separate mobs groups Ghouls and then on all skeleton Archers [...]

Now that I know how the domination gaze works, it's not too hard to avoid being charmed. I retried this fight without Captain's Banquet, using Ring Leader and Puppet Master on the other enemies and had them fight each other. When two Fampyrs with Minoletta's Piercing Sigil basic attack each other, the Sigil's effect is proc'd repeatedly several times (which is weird) on both of them, leading to each of them taking well over 100 damage with each attack, aside from getting stunned. This strat worked out pretty well, I'd say.

Edited June 25, 2018 by try2handing

[MrTT_TT]

Playing on upscaled POTD here. Try using the Fampyr quarterstaffs dropped during each encounter as it makes the next encounters trivial with the charm vessels and frighten kith (2 times per rest) skill. I suspect that this is probably what the devs intended.

 

Taking someone with interrupts or to stop the fampyrs from spellcasting also helps. Concussive tranquilisers (ranger's talent) which removes 30s from beneficial effects is also divine in removing minoletta's piercing sigil from the fampyrs.

 

You could also just use wizard spells (Curse of blackened sight, Arcane dampener, Maura's writhing tentacles, Ryngrim's ennervating terror, Concelhaut's crushing doom) against fampyrs.

[StellarKane]

Playing on veteran mode this fight was super difficult for me - it was the sabre Grave Calling that made the difference, as it summons a grave imp when it kills a vessel, so you can keep boosting your numbers.

Using Wael's Wind on rest before the fight is essential to resist the charm attacks.

I didn't realise that you have to disable the AI control for your party to actually drink a potion - you have to turn it off, drink potion, then turn it on again - very annoying. But realising that helped!

The fight itself - stealth Aloth and Xoti up to the nearest vampire, the rest hang back to deal with the skeletons that appear. Aloth casts empowered missile salvo, Xoti casts hand of Berath - trying to weaken first vampire as much as possible. Then spam summons - i used a lot of figurines. Chuck a wall of many colours down between you and the summons vs vampires fight going on. Kill any undead that cross the wall, cast weaken spells from across the wall on the vampires. I was eventually down to my Main and Pallegina vs 3 vampires. the Unrelenting skill saved me in this case... otherwise would prob not have made it.

[Boeroer]

1 hour ago, StellarKane said:

Playing on veteran mode this fight was super difficult for me - it was the sabre Grave Calling that made the difference, as it summons a grave imp when it kills a vessel, so you can keep boosting your numbers.

That's the weaker enchantment though (in my opinion). The Chillfog on vessel-kill ("Chilling Grave") gets all the weapon's quality improvements (ACC, dmg bonus, PEN bonus etc.), is foe-only and with the second upgrade Grave Bound it can also paralyze with every Chillfog-crit (as if you had hit with the weapon itself). This really trivializes all fights against vessels as long as they are not immune to frost, blind or paralyze.

[StellarKane]

Probably should have done that

[Scrapulous]

12 hours ago, Boeroer said:

That's the weaker enchantment though (in my opinion). The Chillfog on vessel-kill ("Chilling Grave") gets all the weapon's quality improvements (ACC, dmg bonus, PEN bonus etc.), is foe-only and with the second upgrade Grave Bound it can also paralyze with every Chillfog-crit (as if you had hit with the weapon itself). This really trivializes all fights against vessels as long as they are not immune to frost, blind or paralyze.

Do the Chill Fog damage ticks build the Frosted Edge stacking +2% freeze lash? If so, there's no downside to, for example, killing a weak skeleton with your first hit, because the Chill Fog will quickly buff itself up. Unless the Chill Fog instance snapshots the weapon buffs at the time it's created. Hmm.

Also, are the Chill Fog ticks weapon attacks? I can't imagine they are, but the fact that they get the weapon's buffs makes me wonder. Some class abilities modify or interact with weapon attacks, so if they count as weapon attacks there might be some fun interactions in there. I'll play around and see what I can find.

 

Edit: Okay, so I did some testing. Grave Calling's Chill Fog does indeed increment the stacking lash per Chill Fog tick. The Chill Fog is also not a snapshot of the weapon buff state at the time the Chill Fog is cast: it can build itself up to 10 stacks of Frosted Edge and then start triggering the Grave Bound Paralysis on a crit. But, the Chill Fog ticks did not apply the Monk's passive Enervating Blows, which require "Melee weapon Crits."

How I tested: I went to fight Ikorno, who has one Ironclad Construct with him. I killed the construct with Grave Calling, let the Chill Fog drop, then maneuvered my party into it and watched the stacks build to 10 and then paralyze Ikorno:

 

Edit #2: Holy crap, this weapon is insane if you have it on a high-damage character and you're going through a dungeon filled with vessels (I'm testing it in the necropolis under Neketaka's Temple of Berath). The lash stacks last 60 seconds by default, and the duration is subject to passive Int buffs, so it's very easy to get 10 stacks in your first fight and then keep them until the next fight... all the way through the dungeon. Fights get a lot easier when you open by paralyzing the first thing you hit. I'm rebuilding Pallegina to supply me with cheap, weak skeletons

Edited August 1, 2020 by Scrapulous

[Boeroer]

The best thing is that a vessel-kill by Chillfog will trigger another Chillfog (as if you had used the sabre itself for the killing blow).

As a Berserker/Beckoner you can clear whole encounters with a few blows (because Chilling Grave also works on your 6 summoned skeletons which will split into 12 skeletons - and the confusions takes away the foe-only part which makes sure all your skeletons die very quickly from the first Chillfog, creating countless more). It's so powerful that it becomes quite boring after a while and it's also not good for the game's performance because VFX overload.

[Haplok]

Another fun fact : if you're a cipher, the Grave Calling Chill Fogs, as weapon attacks, also fill your Focus. 

 

I've played most of my Transcendant playtrough with Grave Calling / Kitchen Stove combo. 

Edited August 2, 2020 by Haplok