[Un]dead Raedric and his 6 vampires strategy

[aartamen]

So I ran into this bunch of somber characters while doing the PotD run. I was at level 10 and fairly confident I could handle it. I did not even get to kill one of them before they wiped my party out. So what should I do the next time? I prefer to do it with Barbarian, Fighter, Druid, Chanter, Ranger and Cipher.

Edited July 11, 2015 by aartamen

[Doppelschwert]

It's one of the toughest fights in the game, especially in PotD, so I would advice you to hit the level cap first, regardless of which strategy you want to use.

Even then you will need some good advice which I probably can't give to you since I had trouble beating it on hard with lvl 12.

 

In tried to use the bottleneck to the bottom right to my advantage by placing all the ranged characters on the circular platform, but without buffs and CC my frontline broke down pretty fast.

Edited July 14, 2015 by Doppelschwert

[Torm51]

So I ran into this bunch of somber characters while doing the PotD run. I was at level 10 and fairly confident I could handle it. I did not even get to kill one of them before they wiped my party out. So what should I do the next time? I prefer to do it with Barbarian, Fighter, Druid, Chanter, Ranger and Cipher.

This is why its hard for me get rid of my Priest.  I am not saying that the game is unplayable with one.  In fact the game was made so you could win with almost any set up but the priest buff that reduces duration and increases defense against mind control effects is down right awesome for this fight.  Also a Paladin with extremely high will saves (even higher with Righteous Soul) will never get mind controlled and if he/she does its for an extremely short duration.  Those 2 classes are great against mind control bad guys.

 

As for your set up  Try getting the jump on them maybe (if you have it) use the quick AOE knock down of the Cipher (lvl1 spell). You can then quickly Mental Binding Paralyze.  At this point you are at 12 Focus but are only 3 focus away from another mental binding.  hit someone and you should have a mental binding available again.  Use it again.  Obviously use chanter summons as soon as you can hopefully at level 10 you have either the Ogres or the Drake.  You can then get your fighter in there and hopefully if hes not mind controlled knockdown another mob or clear out. At this point start focus firing with your Hard hitters.  I you have a high enough attack most of those should not get resisted at your level.  If they do well you will have to adapt.  No planning can ever go perfectly as sometimes you are at the mercy of the dice (a character planned properly will not be but it happens from time to time) or you miss something a bad guy is doing and don't interrupt. 

[Gromnir]

priest is also useful for putting down a searing seal and repulsing seal before a battle begins... and then use a shining beacon.  two or more priests makes the battle relative easy, but most folks don't have multiple priests.  even so, searing seal has a large aoe size and as it uses hazard accuracy, it has a high chance o' blinding all, or nearly all, o' your foes.  first spell at start o' combat for priest is likely the will boosting holy meditation for your entire party, followed by a painful interdiction. have a mage cast miasma of dull mindedness to reduce will. miasma and painful interdiction results in your will spells hit and crit rather than graze and miss.  it is costly, but we tend to use amplified wave at the start o' most battles... 'cause.  even if it grazes, your opponents is prone for a few seconds, and the aoe size is enormous.  do you hoard scrolls o' paralysis?  we do.  a high accuracy character with enough lore to use a scroll o' paralysis is likely needing nerfing, but for now, you can use such to your advantage by using one o' those scrolls immediate at the start o' combat.  sure, it makes more sense to wait until will saves are reduced, but the scrolls o' paralysis appear to have a quick activation time so you can get off a mass paralysis before any undead charm spams is unleashed.

 

a borderline cheese tactic requires some careful equipment checks.  IF you can manage to make your mage the member o' your party with the weakest will save, then the undead will try to spam him/her with their initial charm attacks.  4th level mage spell, minor arcane reflection, will send the charms back to sender.  depending on how much o' a min-max kinda guy you are, reducing your mage will far enough could be a challenge.  

 

*shrug*

 

multiple priests is still best bet to make easier w/o cheese... although priests do have longer casting times, and the undead don't offer much time, do they?

 

HA! Good Fun!

[HoopleDoople]

The key to winning any difficult battle is keeping the enemies CCed. On PoTD you not only need access to CC abilities (Wizard, Cipher, and Druid are your best options) but the accuracy to land these abilities (and preferably more than just a graze). Against enemies with charm/dominate it is a good idea to have boosted defenses against these abilities, summons active to reduce the chance your characters are targeted, and a plan to respond to a charmed character. For example, you can use your Cipher to charm the charmed character and make him into a friendly.

 

The Priest is enormously useful for this battle with his Prayer Against Treachery and Devotions for the Faithful. The bonus defenses, reduced enemy accuracy, and shortened charm/domination duration are all incredibly helpful at mitigating the frequency and severity of charms. The bonus accuracy to your party will significantly increase the success rate of your CC.

 

That said a Priest isn't necessary for any battle in this game. On my current PoTD run I have not been using a Priest and I'm close to reaching the second Raedric battle. Just last night I took down the Adra Dragon without the use of any consumables or figurines (though it did take about 3 tries). Once I polish off undead Raedric I can report back with more specific advice for you.

[gkathellar]

It bears noting - soloing the fight with a suitable offtank can actually be easier than using a party, since Charm loses its bite when you don't have friends to beat the snot out of you.

[HoopleDoople]

It bears noting - soloing the fight with a suitable offtank can actually be easier than using a party, since Charm loses its bite when you don't have friends to beat the snot out of you.

 

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

 

I've never thought of this strategy before, but I have managed to use charm to my advantage before. The idea is to run one (off)tank into the middle of all the enemies while your party attacks from a distance and uses an Ectopsychic Echo on him. Before your tank can take too much damage he gets charmed and the enemies disengage. Your charmed tank will then pull out a ranged weapon (make sure it isn't a powerful one) and the enemies have to walk through the beam to reach your party. One CC can leave the grouped enemies trapped in the beam, plus whatever AoE you've added to the mix.

 

This worked particularly well in the fight against Nridek in the Bronze Beneath the Lake quest. I doubt it would be nearly so useful when numerous enemies can use charm, but I may give it a shot anyway.

 

EDIT:

 

This plan worked out far better than I could have hoped, earning my a comfortable victory first try. I sent my Monk ahead to trigger the battle and eat a charm and used an Ectopsychic Echo on him. Meanwhile my Paladin boosted my Wizard and Druid's accuracy, my Druid cast Relentless Storm, and my Wizard used Call to Slumber on the gap between my Monk and my party. The Monk was rapidly stunned and as the enemies moved on to my main party they all got caught in CC (including my now charmed Monk) before they could charm again. Raedric kept breaking out and fireballing my party, but a Moonwell kept my endurance up. It was a simple matter of alternating nukes and CC on the Fampyrs until they died. After that Raedric was little threat.

Edited July 15, 2015 by HoopleDoople