Undead Raedric fight seems impossible? (possible spoilers)

[HozzM]

I played through on Hard and I would say this fight is probably the 2nd or 3rd most difficult in the game.

 

Just too many enemies that charm and there is really no defense against it because of the crit/hit/graze/miss mechanic.  The level 6 Priest spell Prayer against Treachery spell or whatever its called helps but not much.  All that said, I only attempted it twice, once at like level 10, wipe, than I came back with a level 12 party.  It was still hard, and my entire party went down except for Eder.  I built him 100% tank and he basically solod the fight.  I think I had killed 2-3 of the adds before the rest of the party went down.  Eder took on the rest of the fight alone.  He would get charmed, often, but it just gave him a breather as the enemies disengaged while he was charmed.  Charm wears off and he would go back to tanking the lot of them.  Raedric himself would occasionally cast a fireball at Eder that always missed him thanks to Shield style's reflex bonus but would burn the other Fampyr's and Raedric as well.

[general_azure]

I heavily mined the area between the groups with seals before the fight started and then nuked it with druid spells for good measure while they were struggling to get through, I think only 3 got into combat range alive (and those just barely).

[Climhazzard]

For me it was just a straight up brawl with no special tactics besides the priest spell that gives defense from domination.  Maybe it's easier if you have 3 melee oriented characters like I usually use?  I guess I'm usually level 12 by this point in the game so maybe that makes the difference.  Pop some figurines to distract the fampyr if you don't have a strong enough frontline, pop a "devotions for the faithful" right in the middle of it all, that spell is a strong tide turner.  Having your priest stand behind your frontline with consecrated ground active is nice too.

 

I should note that I fought the battle close to the stair entrance to make it easier to maintain my fighting line.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Climhazzard

[rheingold]

Jeez, I'm getting cleaned out on this fight - I managed on my first play thorough (on hard) with my chanter, mainly through luck. This time with a rogue (also hard), very frustrating. Any advice would be welcome - the only thing I regard as cheese is sending Eder forward to initiate the fight while everyone else cowers by the stairs. I am an 11th level rogue - with Aloth, Durance, Eder, Hiravious and Kana - the power party and I'm getting wiped pretty quickly. I know the mechanics - most of the game is easy on hard, but the charm spells, oh my...

 

By the time Hiravious gets ready to cast the fampyrs are wailing on him, and I'm really, really tired of hearing, "oops let me try again." Aloth gets charmed before he can cast a spell. Durance manages to get off the charms protection spell but it seems to make absolutely no difference. My rogue gets charmed as well. Seems to me that the charms spell is just so damn quick and there is very little chance to defend against it. Poor Eder constantly gets left by himself by my rather fickle party members.

BTW all the party members except Kana and Eder are in clothes to cast quicker.

Any advice? I don't see a way to win except for luck at the mo.

Edited April 21, 2015 by rheingold

[Climhazzard]

If you think about it, it only makes sense to send your toughest character forward to initiate a conversation when facing a group of powerful looking adversaries.  Rather than calling it cowering, just think of it as being mindful of the situation.  

 

If cowering isn't your thing though, make sure you picked up all the figurines when you were playing through the game, and pop them all at the beginning of the battle.  It's a bit chaotic, and they die off pretty fast, but they'll give you enough time to prepare yourself, and if you're lucky they'll soak up a few charm spells as well.  Use the priest spell that increases your defenses to charm and dominate, at the least they will graze more and if you're lucky a few will miss.  After that, a devotions for the faithful always goes a long way.

Edited April 21, 2015 by Climhazzard

[rheingold]

Thanks I'll try the summons route - I haven't really used them this play through but on my first one I had a chanter, so yeah that might have been the difference. I agree with you regarding moving your toughest companion forward, under most circumstances, but in this case it feels to much like meta gaming, mainly because they are not in view, the moment you see them contact is initiated. And if in fact I play like I normally do with my rogue scouting ahead it ends up really sadly.

[LadyCrimson]

The three beetle summon artifact works really well ... although, I wasn't in PotD, so maybe it's not as awesome then. I was lvl 11 w/enchanted gear when I did this with 3 melee types and it was pretty easy.

 

The funny thing about all these major fight quests is when you change difficulties to see what difference that makes (anyone else do that, reload to check out differences?). If you do this quest on Easy, there are no extra adds at all...just Raedric all by his lonesome. Which was hilarious. "I am mighty and I'm going to defeat you" and then splat, he's gone.

[rheingold]

At this rate I'm gonna have to do it on easy....

[avaunt]

So far I have played on normal. On my first playthrough with a wizard, I missed this quest. On the second with a rogue at level 10, I walked my entire group of five to initiate the talk. Grimo was able to cast mental binding and summon wood beetles until she became charmed - and slain almost immediately after reverting to normal. The only ones who didn't get charmed during the fight were Eder and Hiravias. Hiravias summoned the iridescent adra beetle to ward off any incoming enemies.

 

My odds were looking very dire at some point. Eder is down to 5% health, my main rogue and Aloth are charmed. I had stocked Hiravias with healing scrolls and those kept Eder alive. When Aloth became normal, he summoned widow spiders to fend off the fampyrs. For the first time in the fight, Aloth had some leeway to cast spells and healing scrolls also. Then the turning point was casting expose vulnerabilities, miasma of dull-mindedness and a couple of other debuffs from Hiravias for good measure. After that the fampyrs went down quickly. My roguess kept critting them for 60-80 dmg regularly.

 

Raedric was still a tough bugger - he disposed of all my five summons and it took a lot of spells to decimate him. His slashing DR was high and my main char didn't have any alternate weapons to change to.

Edited April 21, 2015 by avaunt

[Mirage_GSM]

Just beat this fight with a level 10 Party of my Rogue, Eder, Pallegina, Hiravias and Grieving Mother. Took "only" four or five tries. Might have been easier with Sagani instead ot the latter.

 

I sent in Eder aloneto initiate the fight and while he was retreating I blocked of the stairs with summons: The scarab, the shades and the wood beetles.

Then I bombed them with Fireballs and missiles from Aloth lightning from Hiravias.

It was still close with only Eder and Pallegina still standing, but in the end he killed himself with a fireball.

[Crucis]

I fought the undead Raedric battle last night with my level 11 party, which consisted of Eder, Aloth, GM, Durance, a (level 10) custom ranged Rogue, and my swashbuckler fighter PC, on Normal difficulty.  It took me 2 tries (sorta).  The first time, I accepted the fampyr greeter's offer to be lead to Raedric, cuz I didn't know where he would be.  And frankly, you get led and placed in a position that isn't particularly good from a defensive standpoint, so I got mobbed and I bailed on the battle because it wasn't going to end well. 

 

The second time, I just killed the greeter fampyr at the front gate and went to where Raedric was on my own.  However, I did NOT go up the stairs to where he was until I'd had Durance place a Flame seal, and I'd positioned everyone how I wanted them.  Then I had my PC go up the stairs to start the encounter.  In theory, I could have sent someone else, but I was slightly role playing it by having my PC personally respond to Raedric's challenge.  And the instant the dialog ended and the battle started, I had her run back to the party ASAP.

 

Anyways ... at that point I had Aloth cast a Chill Fog on the stairs on top of the Flame Seal and had everyone else fire their ranged weapon at the first enemy that came down the stairs and nuked him.  At this point it became a general melee, with the fampyrs trying to get around my flanks and my party doing their best to prevent it or engage them as best as possible.  It was one heck of a mess, and IIRC a couple of my characters got knocked out.  But in the end, Raedric was sent back to Berath's Wheel, like he deserved!!! 

 

It helps to fight it on ground of your own choosing.   Also, it was a tricky battle for GM (at least for me) because I like the cipher level 2 mind blades spell, but if I had a party member charmed, I didn't want GM to be unintentionally damaging them with mind blades.  IIRC, Mental Bindings ended up being more useful in this battle, since it's a Foe only AoE.  And even if it paralyzes a charmed team mate, at least it's not doing any direct damage to them.

 

This was one tough but very satisfying battle.

[srlapo]

After they broke past my tank (too many disables to hold them reliably) I just switched my whole party to melee weapons and let them slice and dice (and crush and stab) them. I kinda ignored/counter charmed the dominated members and simply did the fight as usual. That monocle "hat" and some bracers I had that also had the power gave me 3 members that could counter charm and really helped. I ignored the boss until the adds were gone, then just CC and mobbed him. And one thing I avoided was hazard area attacks, like traps or the druid's lightning storm. With all the switching allegiances those would cause too much friendly fire.

[Crucis]

After they broke past my tank (too many disables to hold them reliably) I just switched my whole party to melee weapons and let them slice and dice (and crush and stab) them. I kinda ignored/counter charmed the dominated members and simply did the fight as usual. That monocle "hat" and some bracers I had that also had the power gave me 3 members that could counter charm and really helped. I ignored the boss until the adds were gone, then just CC and mobbed him. And one thing I avoided was hazard area attacks, like traps or the druid's lightning storm. With all the switching allegiances those would cause too much friendly fire.

 

If you did what I did and set up my party on the lower level and forced Raedric to come to me, you can set up a flame seal spell on the stairs because there's no way the enemy can get down the stairs without triggering it.  Also, if you time your castings right, you can send AoE attacks onto the stairs at the same time, right at the start of the battle.

 

However, you're 100% correct that after the enemy starts swarming and charming the occasion team mate, those area effect damaging spells become too dangerous to use.  You're limited to single target damage spells and non-damaging mental spells.  But that's OK.  They work too.

 

I also use that "monocle hat" item, on my PC.  I won't say that she can't be charmed, but it's a lot more difficult.

 

One thing I've been learning lately, was the value of not ignoring the need for a wizard to defend himself in melee.  I'm not one who looks to sens my wizzies into melee.  That said, there are things one can do with little effort to make a wizard a more difficult target in melee.  Having a strong, hardened Arcane Veil.  Having Flame Shields.  Carrying some sort of shield with a 1H'ed melee weapon.  Even with just Hardened Arcane Veil, Flame Shields, and a Fine Small Shield, Aloth is a considerably more challenging target in melee than otherwise.  And I'm sure that there are other spells that would make him even more difficult.  Personally, my preference is for him to stay at range and doing ranged or arcane combat.  But sometimes, you just can't stop an enemy from getting into your rear, like in this Raedric battle.  And Aloth really needs to be able to look after himself.

[srlapo]

As I recall amplified wave was a good opening power for that kind of fight where you can't hold a line and have to engage chaotically all over the place. Of course, your cipher needs to be at least level 11 to use it. One of the teams I am currently running is composed of 6 ciphers... I am looking forward to see what they can do with that fight.

[thefairman]

just did the fight on PoTD @ level 9. i don't think i was "supposed" to, given that i got something like 5000 EXP reward per character after i won.

 

PC Barb

Chanter

Cipher

Eder

Durance

Aloth

 

the real key to the fight was the Ring of Unshackling, as Suppress Affliction stops all of that negativity from the Frightening Auras and Charms (right?). at least, it did for me. i had to recast it 3 times in the fight but it worked out. Fampyrs kept pouring through to kill Durance and Aloth. finally got it when i got slightly more aggressive with Eder/Barb/Chanter in getting them to engage people (along with summons plugging holes that the Famps couldn't slip through). from there, it was just a matter of letting my Barb do his thing while Durance buffed and Aloth flung spells. killing Raedric himself after all the Famps were dead was kind of a chore, though. 100+ Defenses in every category (185 Fort lol) meant i whiffed on 3/4 of my attacks and debuffs. luckily he liked to nuke himself with the Fireball.

 

easily the toughest fight i've had in the game.

[Tennisgolfboll]

I just treated it like all other fights. They went down rather easily.

 

Hardmode, trial of iron, but my main pc had 20 in all base stats (paladin, yes my main is better than the standard adventurer).

 

Eder, pallegina, durance, aloth, kana, hiraviad could have done it by themselves though. Insect.plague, aoe wizard+druid and they are all in bad shape.

 

Adra dragon in a fair fight however is worse, all those adragans and the dragon and her xaurips. Was a close call. Of course had i used more buffs from food and potions it would have been alot easier.

 

I love trial of iron, and i have never not used it.

 

Of course i also edit the difficulty with my 20 base stats on my main (pally or fighter) so...

Edited June 2, 2015 by Tennisgolfboll

[SoloGirl]

Any tips on how to do this fight on a solo play through? Or should I just avoid it? I have an item which makes me immune to charm and a bunch of figurines

[Boeroer]

Getting charmed/dominated is not dangerous in a solo game. The enemy will stop attacking you once you flipped and you can just wait it out.