Current thread: Mythic forums > Strategy & Advice > How to avoid losing your high level party to demons
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Legion
8/5/2009 11:39:09 PM | Until fleeing skills and illusion magic enter the game, there are several tricks you should know to help you survive the apparently unavoidable party-killing encounters, such as (for this example) a large group of gray demons.
For this example, pretend you have a group of 8 fourth level characters, predominately fighter types with little fancy magic. You're almost done with a level 8 adventure when you see that your next encounter is with "many gray demons."
First, many means over ten. Any group of many demons should strike fear into your heart, and if they don't you need to lose a few more parties of adventures and come back to this article when you have learned to fear them properly. Their ability to drain strength and gate in reinforcements can very quickly turn an easy encounter into a no-survivors massacre. Much more quickly than most people realize.
Every hit from a demon can drain your strength. In the future, there will be demons with other abilities, but most will always have some type of strength draining touch. When there are a lot of demons, you will very quickly find your strength heading toward zero from all the drains. Once your strength reaches zero you will not be able to act, or run. You will sit there and die, and not be able to do a thing about it.
So you must avoid getting hit by demons too many times at all costs! There are obvious ways, such as killing the demons first with area-effect magic or simply through combat, although the groups of dozens of demons makes the latter more difficult. Bolstering your defense by equipping shields and using the shield spell can help. Toughness spells can reduce the damage and if it reduced to zero, you will not be drained. Tanking, as always, will focus their attacks on your tanks to protect others. Strength spells can be a lifesaver, keeping you in fighting condition.
None of this matters if you end up at zero strength or less ... you will stand there idle until killed. Keep a very close eye on your strength scores. What this article is really about is how to flee. Obviously, when you saw the many demons listed as the encounter, you tried to flee. At least you should have. No matter what your group, no matter what your adventure level, there always be encounters that you cannot win. ALWAYS. By which I mean, always. If you play extremely conservatively they may only come along once every 100 encounters, or once every 1000, or once every 10000, but they will come, and if you waste even a single round you will lose more people. So when you recognize that a deadly encounter is approaching (remember they're not only demons -- learn what you can kill and what will kill you) you need to flee at every opportunity.
Here is a good trick. Every time you click the "flee" button, your party has a 25% chance of escaping. Which means there is a 75% chance that you cannot escape and the monsters get one step closer. However, if you set your characters to flee as individual actions (through clicking their action buttons) and run a round normally with the continue button they will have somewhere nearer a 50% chance to flee as individuals (depending on their strength, dexterity, and encounter difficulty). Some will escape, and some will not. If you start fleeing soon enough, you might only have one or two guys still waiting when the monsters arrive, and if you're lucky even those might get away. Using this individual-flee option will often lose someone, or even two or three guys, but most of your group will escape. Its better to lose two than 8, right? The key of course is knowing when you need to make that sacrifice. If you wait too long, you'll lose more.
A key consideration is to ensure that your guys all act each turn. If anyone has negative speed, they may miss actions. The less armor, and the faster the weapon, the more quickly characters act. If you find you have been drained of strength, your speed modifier may be less than zero and you're in danger of not acting, which means not getting a chance to flee. Using a strength spell or potion might fix this, but often you can bring your speed back above zero just by switching to your fist (currently the fastest weapon) and/or removing your armor and shield. Give your guys every chance to escape.
In short, learn to recognize encounters that are potentially deadly, and flee early and flee often. Consider pre-battle fleeing as individuals rather than as a group in order to save more characters. Get your attack speeds high to let you flee before the next round of monster hits. And above all, when you are fighting, get in the habit of realizing when things might turn against you and flee before they do. The strength-draining hits of demons give them a unique ability to turn the tide of a battle in the blink of an eye, and sometimes its worth fleeing before you give them the chance to gain the upper hand. One round of fighting too many ("maybe I'll get lucky") can mean more losses. Sometimes even one round is too many. More spells and skills will be added to help with fleeing, but people will always be pushing the limits of party safety. Be careful, pay attention, and become an expert with the various flee options. |
Legion
9/24/2009 11:58:14 AM | With the addition of illusion magic, this needs an update.
Illusion magic is currently the most important requirement for any adventuring party of any level above one. The cheapest spell is currently fog of escape which has a base SP cost of 30 at skill level one.
I firmly believe that no party (above level one) shall ever be allowed to adventure without an illusion caster in the group who has enough SP earmarked for a fog of escape spell, to be used in emergencies only.
Each level of fog allows an additional flee chance. This applies to both party fleeing and individual fleeing.
For example, lets say you have a party of 10 third level characters out on an adventure, and they're injured and low on SP when they see "many black demons" at short range. Clearly its time to leave! Have your illusionist cast fog while others try to individually flee. Alternatively, if you have other summoners in the group you may wish to summon a few more screening monsters this initial round to help dilute incoming attacks should it come to melee. As always, roughly half your guys will escape this turn (excluding the guys who stuck around to cast spells, including fog). Now the monsters are at very short range and you have your fog spell active. Perhaps 5 or 6 characters are still present -- rather unlucky, sometimes you'll get most out right away. Regardless, they all flee again as individual actions, now each getting two (or more for higher level fog) chances to escape. Often everyone will get away, and at worst you'll have just 1 or 2 characters left to face the enemy, and they'll usually always escape the first round. Remember to maximize speed here, so you can get out before the monsters attack.
As a final note, an adventure-length extended alarm spell will ensure you are never ambushed and will always have time to get your fog up when you need it. This combination will give you the maximum chance of survival. The key, as always, is recognizing situations that are beyond your comfort zone and fleeing intelligently from the earliest possible moment. |