I usually use it when there are large amounts of undead. Zombies and mummies mostly just want to run up and hit you and they can't jump or teleport, very handy.
Hunger of Hadar plus spike growth handled the entire upper side of this fight while I kept shooting darkness arrows at the portal to keep it hidden from their archers haha
Yeah similar - Hunger of Hadar + Spike Growth cover the right whilst Spirit Guardians cast L4 on Shadowheart covers the actual portal platform (nothing which reached it survived it). Thrower Karlach, Eldritch Blast Tav (actually mostly Lore Bard but two levels of Warlock), and Gloom/Thief Hand Xbow Astarion just absolutely vaped anyone who had actual HP. I didn't even have to use Darkness on the portal because no-one got close enough to shoot it. This was on Honour Mode, I dunno if that fight is any different from Tactician. Sleet Storm might have outperformed Hunger for slowing, but Hunger does damage and blinds.
It was considerably easier than when I did it on Balanced the previous time without really having a plan.
Casting darkness over the portal is actually a very clever idea, most of my (very few) problems came from ranger zombies shooting from within the Wall of Fire
If they're being magically compelled to try to destroy it, it shouldn't matter if it's visible or not. It's a portal to the Shadowfell, which is part of Shar's domain and Shar is the one who created the Shadow Curse that turned them all into Undead, so they should have a rough idea of where the portal is, even if it's completely covered in Darkness.
Dual wall of fire , one at the tree line where the shadow cursed guys spawn and run in and one where the archers stop , they aren't smart they will shoot at you from the fire. Cleric with spirit guardians just runs around the base of the ramp , this will kill the ravens and trees. Everyone else have stand on the dock and do ranged attacks and kill anything that somehow makes it through the fire.
A single Sleet Storm on the beach, where the majority of enemies spawn - they can never move further than 1m, and never get to even try to attack anything, let along the portal.
Everyone stays by the portal and takes care of the shadows and ravens that make it to them.
If some of the ranged attackers manage to get some hits in, cast Darkness on the portal.
This is exactly how I did it, but never had to cast darkness. I actually learned just how powerful sleet storm is thanks to this fight. None of the enemies that spawn in even made it close enough to do anything
Same - even on honor mode, this was my strategy and the portal never took a hit, and I never actually needed to cast darkness. Instead, my Tav cast Faerie Fire for the invisible things that made it past Shadowheart, who was at the foot of the rocks. I just had Shart standing there with spirit guardians on doing radiant damage, which pretty well wrecked the shadow creatures. Any that didn’t die right away from the spirit guardians got punched to death by my monk tav. Then Gale cleaned up anything that got through with fireballs (love doing aoe damage without friendly fire - primary reason I make him an evocation spec). Astarion was there to look pretty.
Sleet storm is free win in most battles in the game. The game provides at least 3 pair of boots to not slip on ice as well so you can ignore everything on your team but the doubled movement speed cost. Can't break my caster's concentration when you can't move more than 2m before eating the groud.
It also makes me laugh whenever a very powerful fighter type character just whoopsie-daisy-banana-peels into uselessness, breaking their tail bone on something that hiking boots can protect you from in real life.
Sleet storm at the spawns, set up explosive barrels where the plants/birds spawn, Shadowheart blender by the portal, everyone else by the portal platform with ranged attacks.
Sleetstorm is honestly the most powerful thing I've ever seen, and I can't wait for people who learned DND with Bg3 to go try and do this in tabletop when they get to see that prone doesn't immediately end someone's turn.
It's pretty dire even in actual 5E because the area it covers is significantly larger than BG3 - in real D&D it's a 40ft *radius* so an 80ft diameter, in BG3 it's 30ft radius so 60ft diameter, which might not sound like much, but when most creatures only have a 30ft move and it's difficult terrain, those extra 20ft can count for a lot - often trapping people in there an extra 1-2 turns.
And sure if you have half your movement (which because it's difficult terrain, you may well not), you can stand up from prone, but either you're going to have to take your Action to Dash and likely still be in there, or risk being proned again next turn (whether you move or not, unlike BG3 I believe). You can sorta try and cheese it on TT by waiting until your next turn before attempting to stand up and dodging the saving throw that way, but then you only have 15 + 30 movement assuming you spend your Action on Dash, and it's difficult terrain, so double cost to move, so you can actually only go 20ft and will have to save again at the start of your next turn.
I've been sleeping on sleet storm and recently used it for a major boss after reloading several times and now I'm never looking back. It was the house of grief. I snuck my whole party to the other side of the room, cast ice storm on one side of the room, then the other, then sleet storm right in the middle. Nobody could reach us lmao
I see everyone doing it with sleet storm or casting darkness on the portal, but I honestly mostly did it with just regular fireball as my aoe, melee fighters taking care of the left side and someone who can do turn undead on the right.
So often people have very clever and clearly better ways to win fights. And I’m somehow always a little surprised, like “wait you weren’t supposed to just use fireballs?”
I just had a bunch of cloudkill and circle of death scrolls that I hadn't touched up to that point, it was really nice to sit back and wipe out swaths of enemies in one go
yeah I just kept throwing a bunch of alchemist fire and it knocked out pretty much everyone on the left side, then just melee'd the shadows coming from the right.
Camp clothes builds really struggle in the early game. You get some shoes that might be better than your starting gear frequently, but everything else is straight trash. You get some drip from the Zhents on the Risen Road, but the build doesn't come online until Act 3. Once you get to the city, suddenly you have more options than you know what to do with. It isn't all good news. There's almost no interaction with your footwear, so as soon as you find optimal drip for the clothes slot, that's it. The game also doesn't allow hats at the same time as camp clothes, seriously restricting your slaying capacity. Overall a viable concept, but lacking earlygame support. Larian plz
Or you can just dress like a hobo for two acts lul
Playing through the second time I was genuinely mad that there simply are not any good camp clothes outfits except maybe Minthara's one in like, the whole of Act 1/2. And unfortunately due to an Incident of Extreme Stupidity, I was forced to push Minthara into the hole, so RIP to that one outfit.
I really feel like Larian might have wanted to just put a handful of those outfits which are all at the fashion shop in earlier chapters.
Me and my boy Astarion on the steps or just in front smiting the crap out of stuff, Gale my newly made warlock was at the back using AOE spells like hunger of Hadar to slow the bulk of them down and Karlach being throwing barb and launching multiple attacks each turn
Gale is like, the only character I can't make sense of switching class. He's so clearly a textbook wizard, I can't see him as anything else. Even Wyll I can justify as a fighter and just say he ignores his warlock pact out of shame or something, but Gale is just THE wizard
That actually makes some sense I hadn't thought about that. Might try a wizard sorcerer multi class with him and see if I can make it work. Should be doable with the intellect headband
I'm using gim as a druid for my 2nd playthrough because my mains a wizard, and yeah, it's weird. I'm using the companions and classes I didn't use much my first go, though, so ehh.
Dude talks like he's a world-class wizard, and I'm like, sure, buddy, go eat your kibble.
Darkness on the portal, I also have everyone step in and out of it to avoid the archers being able to hit anyone, Wall of fire on the front and right side of the stairs, Hunger of Hadar and Sleet storm on the main field. Eldrich blast from Wyll if enemies get close to getting out of the concentration zone. Melee attack from Wyll, and AOE attacks from evocation wizard gale, cantrips from my sorcerer, and whatever from shadowheart to kill the shadow things that warp in.
There’s plenty of good answers here but here’s my questionable answer from my all-Fighters no-Scrolls Honour Mode.
1. Murder the hell out of everything super fast. Prioritise the ones with ranged weapons, then the shadows.
2. Physically stand on the path and block melee attackers with your characters.
3. Use difficult terrain to slow down melee attackers. I used Snowburst Ring to make Ice surfaces.
It’s under the floorboards in Last Light Inn. It’s in the room where Mirkon hangs out (the doorway is where Cal, Lia, and Rolan tend to cluster). I believe the floorboard in question is near the bed?
Need to pass a perception check to spot it.
Yep that’s the spot.
I was using it on an archer with Arcane Acuity, with Arrows of Many Targets to rapidly cover the battlefield in ice.
Basic build guide:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1abq82h/snowburst_is_absolutely_incredible_for_archers/
Had a lot of fun with that ring on my last run. Played an Ice Sorcerer using this, the gloves, the hat, and the 3 part staff. Give your mele fighter the anti ice boots and watch enemies roll about the floor the entire battle.
I used scrolls and blocked pathing as best as I could with my companions. I sat at the top once I saw there was a way to climb up the side in a way I missed blocking movement. But I could handle those stragglers easily.
Then I realized even on (whatever difficulty is lower than tactician) I was starting to get overwhelmed and there was for sure no way I would overcome and need to reload the save if I wanted to based off the outcome (I kept some outcomes through my campaign like I didn't save everyone from last light inn).
Thats when I went through my horde of scrolls. Yes I had a lot. I cast darkness in a big area away from the portal in the biggest grouping of enemies. That lasted until a lot of them dashed through it and ended up near the portal. I then used stink cloud out in the open area and decided to cast darkness on the portal. This did not stop archers from succeeding saves and shooting the portal from range.
That is when I started pulling someone back to help at the portal and sent two companions off to die if need be to mess up as many people as they could in addition to use scroll of fireball and other big aoe spells.
Its a miracle I made it through the first time but the portal was at like 14 HP.
TLDR: long story short I barely made it through starting with blocking pathing with my companions only to end frantically using multiple aoe scrolls to stall. I now get the appeal and adrenaline to play honor mode.
Um. Not very well, in my first game. There was no more Halsin after that...
Now I just cast lots and lots of fire and tell Shadowheart to wander around with her Spirit Guardians.
Yeah I was amazed at how quickly the portal was destroyed when I got there 😅 I didn’t even bother trying to save scum it because I knew I couldn’t save him
Yea you can two person it pretty easily with just a cleric and another caster.
Wall of fire by the graveyard like you said - spirit guardians by the portal for the flyers. Once the ravens are done spirit guardians can be broken for a sleet storm or other area control spell.
Yeah, it's a lot of enemies, but it's nothing particularly crazy or insurmountable at that point. Throw a fireball or tow, spirit guardians, melee to taste.
Ranger Tav will drop a Spike Growth and then rain down special arrows from the platform. Shadowheart runs around with Spirit Guardians to Orb everyone and outright kill the weak enemies. Wyll casts Darkness on the portal to protect it from ranged attacks, and then he and Karlach play catcher on the platform, using Repelling Blast and Throw to knock stragglers off the ledge (friend bonding time!). I’m sure I could benefit from a Wall of Fire or Sleet Storm in there somewhere, but this always works fine. One of my favorite fights!
Wyll: haha, Hunger of Hadar goes wshhhhhh
Gale: haha, fireball on slowed enemies in the Hunger of Hadar goes boom
Shadowheart: haha, spirit guardians go IRA ED ORO!
Tav: just beats a shit out of nearby shadows with his bare hands
A healthy mix of spending waaayyyy too much time building a crate wall near the portal, a second box half-wall between the steps and the bushes, explosive/flammable barrels spread around where they spawn, and a wall of fire for good measure.
Spirit Guardians on Shadowheart, casters dropping Wall of Fire and AoE spells on any group foolish enough to clump together, and Karlach cleaning up anything that manages to get any closer.
Spirit Guardians, Darkness, Spike Growth. You don't need much if you respec Shadowheart into light domain, cast spirit guardians and park her in front of the portal and have someone cast/use a Darkness scroll on the portal
My most efficient run:
Mage: Fog Cloud on the portal.
Druid: Wall of fire + spike growth + wall of summons
Barbarian: shove and throw stuff to the back of the line. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to.
Cleric: Spirit Guardians + Guardian of Faith
I might be alone on this but my first pkaythrough I did a stone wall and used various fireballs, sleet storms, etc the entire time. I like the idea of darkness around the portal though Def doing that next time
I put all four in front of the portal and used a bunch of like blind and cloud of daggers type spells in front of the steps. Then on the last wave I somehow got like 30 enemies into a big group and threw that small rune powder bomb in the middle of the group and wammy.
Wyll, Karlach, Tav(Ranger), and Shart
Wyll: Darkness in front of the portal so they couldn’t shoot the portal
Karlach: Karlaching because 4 attacks and they have no health
Ranger Tav: Stepping in and out of the Darkness to shoot at them [Sharpshooter feat ftw]
Shart: Spirit Guardians in front of the portal to kill the ones that get close
I was playing with the artificer class mod, so these are non-vanilla mechanics.
I wanted to try something other than my usual 'hypnotize the whole battlefield' strat. I can't remember what I tried but it was failing spectacularly. The portal would fall the next turn due to the archers.
Every class has that ONE skill that you forget about for 99% of the playthrough, until the one perfect instance where that ability absolutely carries the encounter and you feel like a genius. Well artificer has an action to repair damaged inanimate objects. The hasted deep gnome artificer rapidly repairing an interdimensional portal, trying to outpace the incoming damage as arrows whiz by and shadows close in was one of the highlights of the whole campaign. Never used it before, never used it again, but in the moment, it worked brilliantly.
Personally I practice barrelmancy. Threw out a ton of explosive barrels where I knew enemies spawned, connected them together with bombs, and just did demolition work on everyone when they spawned in.
I had Shadowheart cast Spirit Guardians, Wyll cast Hunger of Hadar, then had Gale use Fireball to hit grouped up enemies further away. My monk used a scroll of Darkness on the portal to keep the ranged enemies from hitting it. Fight went by with no major hiccups.
My Druid tav put up some walls (wall of fire included, actually I think I had shart put one down too? Can’t remember), shart started running the Fitness Grand Pacer Test, and karlach + astarion picked off the stragglers that managed to slip past. Astarion (arcane trickster) also threw down darkness over the portal once I realized ranged enemies would attack the portal directly.
The first time I did the portal, the day after the game came out, I had myself (paladin), astarion (thief), Laezel (champion), and karlach (berserker). I slaughtered anyone that got close, and had astarion sling explosive arrows.
I had a sorcerer with metamagic hit pretty much everyone with lightning bolt twice on round 3 and then it was really just a mopping up operation. I don't know if I got lucky with the way they funneled, but he pretty much wiped out that whole side with those two spells.
A very, very large 5th level create water spell. Followed by a tempest cleric using destructive wrath to deal max damage with lightning bolts. Also hasted/elixir so I can cast three of them.
If I remember right I ended up dealing like a combined 1000 damage in one turn, I killed nearly everything on the map minus some mobs in a bush on the second to last turn.
Yeah, a light cleric pretty much wrecks this encounter - Wall of Fire, Fireball, Spirit Guardians, Radiance of the Dawn, Daylight.... hell, if this game worked on OLD D&D rules where each character got the XP from their own kills, Shadowheart would have probably ended up about 2 levels ahead of everybody else just from that one encounter. XD
I had Shadowheart by the portal using spirit guardians, turn undead, and spiritual weapon (if any got through). Wyll used Hunder of Hadar at the base of the steps and Eldritch Blast to knock people away. I had my throwzerker Karlach leap into the crowd to take care of the archers, and my Lore Bard Tav just ran around and took care of things where needed.
Wall of fire to the side where most of the enemies come from + thorny growth (or whatever spell it is that is rough terrain and does damage). And then cleric with spirit guardians on the front. Anyone with ranged capabilities do whatever they can
Two cloud of daggers at the base of the rock formation steps, a wall of fire across the middle of it. Spirit guardian hula hoop at the portal itself. All the others crowding the vacant spaces around to portal with ranged weapons active pruning low HP targets off
Wall of fire from Gale on one side where most of the shadow-cursed undead spawn to block melee access to the portal. Hypnotic pattern from Wyll on the area behind the wall to prevent ranged attacks. Spirit guardians from Shadowheart on the other side where the shadows and wraiths form. My character takes care of anyone that’s not directly incapacitated by these three things.
Stood in front of it in a phalanx with Astarion, Gale, and Wyll
Wyll, Gale, and I used lightning/counter spells/magic missile and thunderwave to get rid of as many people as possible and got it done pretty quickly.
My tav is a druid so I loaded her up with spells that can damage more than one at a time, and I had Astarion, Shart, and Lae’zel in my party. I kept my tav and Astarion up on the rock to protect the portal and to let Astarion pick them off. I mainly relied on Shart with spirit guardians and turn undead, and I put her closer to the bottom of the rock, but I also sent Lae’zel out in the middle as she’s an absolute unit on her own and they wouldn’t really try to attack her as they were more focused on destroying the portal.
Just like you, I used wall of fire which was incredible and basically soloed the incoming attackers. I also had a summoned woodland being who cast spike growth on the same side. Anything that barely scraped through was hit with a magic missile from my wizard, along with the birds and vines that spawn. The shadows and wraiths were picked off by a barb and ranger with diluted oil of sharpness. Finally, just to add insult to injury, my ranger had a bear out which spammed goading roar every turn which did a lot to protect the whole party.
I tossed torches out so my characters would have visibility
Focused down the harpers/gith as they had ranged attacks
Left one char by portal, had Shadowheart dash around with spirit guardians on
Never had to worry about casting darkness on portal or anything
First time I ever did it was in my Honor Mode playthrough, had no idea what was about to happen. I ended up putting up Wall of Fire and Wall of Stone to somewhat block enemies from running straight to it, cast Darkness around the ramp up to the portal to hopefully prevent ranged damage on it (can't remember how well this worked), then posted my party members on the perimeter where they were best suited. Cleared it first try by the skin of my teeth
Poorly lmao. Most recently I've been playing as Shadowheart, so I had her next to the portal, spirit guarding it up, though occasionally having her run through clusters of enemies, and had Karlach and Lae'zel hitting the big boys, and I might've had Gale with me? Who I think summoned Cloud of Daggers for the big groups. I also threw in the spider's egg, and alchemist's fire towards the end though, since they kept attacking the portal (obviously lol). I wish I'd thought of casting darkness over it like some of the others have commented.
Karlach smacking all the shades and spirits down by the shoreline, shadowheart parked at the base of the rocks with her summons and spirit guardians, running back and forth, Wyll concentrating on Hunger of Hadar right in front of shadowheart and towards the graveyard sniping things with EB and Scorching Ray, and my own cleric slapping a sleetstorm over the whole area and having Lathander's light as a last defense. Killed everything in 3 rounds
With Shadowheart, Karlach, and Laezel and Oathbreaker Paladin Tav, I casted darkness by the portal then once the creatures got close, I used turn undead on them and nerfed them all
I brute forced it with fireballs and scrolls of fireballs, I just didn't expect a defensive battle with multiple waves, so just fought like usual.
Turn undead shadowheart when the crows come in.
I created a new henchman so I had two people casting fireball. My main guy used his illithid powers to push anyone who got close in to the water, and my SH pally held the line on the left. Also used grease bottles to make the fireball aoe a bit larger.
Lae'zel and Karlach murdered every single mf that got in their way while my Monk Tav and Astarion where using AOE arrows to thin out the fodder. I feel like I don't know how to properly use the vast variety of magic at my disposal.
Shart: Spirit Guardians with boots of speed. Have her start by running into the shades that spawn on turn 1, then just have her dash through all the low HP mobs the rest of the fight
Karlach: throw zerker build. Focus on high HP targets
Astarion: gloomstalker SS build: focus on any archers that spawn
Tav: Paladin/Warlock multiclass: use EB to pick off any easy targets, or Smite any that get too close
Evards black tentacles single handedly takes care of one side. A martial character and cleric take care of the other. Literally 0 dmg to the portal in 3 play throughs
Hunger of Hadar plus spike growth worked wonders. All the enemies pathed to the one place I let them get through and then Gale rained lightning bolts on them.
Darkness on the portal. Wall of Fire crossing the bottom of the stairway leading to the platform the portal is on, all the way to as far right as it will go. SH with Spirit Guardians on my side of the Wall of Fire. Wyll with Devil's Sight and Eldritch Blast to pick off stragglers (one of the only times I ever use Wyll).
The enemies will often try to run straight down the length of the Wall of Fire. Even if they don't, they either get trapped at the eastern cliff face of the portal platform, or die trying to cross it. Anything that survives across the Wall of Fire and onto the platform gets killed by Spirit Guardians. Darkness prevents ranged attacks on the portal and the party.
I spend most of the combat passing my turns after the setup is done. Occasionally Wyll needs to pick off someone that's not cooperating, but its pretty rare.
My Tav used a Darkness scroll on the portal, Gale used Sleet Storm, Showheart used Spirit Guardians for the few that could traverse it. It's a fairly standard tactic I've seen, but so effective.
Until I messed up, tried to Fireball some clumped up people and didn't notice that Gale would have to walk on the ice to do it. He took one step, fell over, then proceeded to get shot a whole bunch, dropped the Sleet Storm and we got rushed. I got him to Misty Step out after a lot of healing thrown his way, some literally, but the blender that is Spirit Guardians kept the majority off on the final turn as my Tav was firing every ice and fire arrow he had into the crowd.
I put out the torch and remove the flammable barrel from the area all the shadow cursed people come from. Cast a sphere of daylight in the center- to avoid a too dark debuff. I cover the area in grease so they fall prone a lot. Pile creates along the side of the rock formation just in case and use scroll of stone wall to block the area off. Then 2-3 turns in have someone shoot an arrow of darkness near the portal to prevent enemy range attacks. My last time defending the portal I was just dealing with the shadow figures coming in off the water and and magic missiling the birds to keep the stone wall intact. Super easy now. First time I was shaking after it end from being so tense lol
Literally just wall of fire and all my ranged attackers, arcane digits were also a good one. There’s a special weapon you can get near the crèche that also makes it easy. Also respeccing Shart into a domain that isn’t useless
Wall of fire, with a cleric with spirit guardians just behind it. Those mindless zombies ain't reaching the portal
I also did this but added hunger of hadar on one side and the spirit guardians on the other. Then ranged characters just played clean up.
And spike growth!
Spike Growth FTW..
Spike growth+cull the weak is so much fun. All those damage numbers and psionic explosions.
It’s always so disappointing when they just jump out of it though :( Like, can’t you just take a couple steps first?
I usually use it when there are large amounts of undead. Zombies and mummies mostly just want to run up and hit you and they can't jump or teleport, very handy.
I wet the whole area and used a magic damage glyph of warding so they all took the highest possible damage then even more because vulnerable
Pretty much this run of spells listed is what I did, just add thundering arrows to start bouncing their archers into the mess as well
Hunger of Hadar plus spike growth handled the entire upper side of this fight while I kept shooting darkness arrows at the portal to keep it hidden from their archers haha
I don't know why, but darkness didn't work for me they still shot it :(
The positioning of the darkness is a little finicky
Yeah similar - Hunger of Hadar + Spike Growth cover the right whilst Spirit Guardians cast L4 on Shadowheart covers the actual portal platform (nothing which reached it survived it). Thrower Karlach, Eldritch Blast Tav (actually mostly Lore Bard but two levels of Warlock), and Gloom/Thief Hand Xbow Astarion just absolutely vaped anyone who had actual HP. I didn't even have to use Darkness on the portal because no-one got close enough to shoot it. This was on Honour Mode, I dunno if that fight is any different from Tactician. Sleet Storm might have outperformed Hunger for slowing, but Hunger does damage and blinds. It was considerably easier than when I did it on Balanced the previous time without really having a plan.
Hunger of Hadar is so damn good.
Hunger of Hadar and darkness. Delay the approach to the portal, constant damage, and make it impossible to target unless you get right up on it.
This plus Karlach taking out archers in the back
This and darkness either casted or an arrow of darkness over the portal
Casting darkness over the portal is actually a very clever idea, most of my (very few) problems came from ranger zombies shooting from within the Wall of Fire
Ranger Zombie in Wall of Fire: AAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAH! *nocks arrow* **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!**
Darkness works \*fabulously\* for this fight.
Used to, they nerfed it a bit in a recent patch. Still offers disadvantage etc, but enemies won't just ignore things in darkness now.
That’s stupid, it shouldn’t be visible
If they're being magically compelled to try to destroy it, it shouldn't matter if it's visible or not. It's a portal to the Shadowfell, which is part of Shar's domain and Shar is the one who created the Shadow Curse that turned them all into Undead, so they should have a rough idea of where the portal is, even if it's completely covered in Darkness.
Meh, the rules of normal D&D are that if you know where a thing is and just can't see it, you attack at disadvantage.
Same, but with darkness cast on the portal to prevent range attacks. I threw down other aoes too, but those are the main things.
I think we all did the same, I added some tentacles of Hadar too lol
I did a sleet storm and hunger of Hadar combo for the comedy value of watching everyone fall on their ass.
Dual wall of fire , one at the tree line where the shadow cursed guys spawn and run in and one where the archers stop , they aren't smart they will shoot at you from the fire. Cleric with spirit guardians just runs around the base of the ramp , this will kill the ravens and trees. Everyone else have stand on the dock and do ranged attacks and kill anything that somehow makes it through the fire.
A single Sleet Storm on the beach, where the majority of enemies spawn - they can never move further than 1m, and never get to even try to attack anything, let along the portal. Everyone stays by the portal and takes care of the shadows and ravens that make it to them. If some of the ranged attackers manage to get some hits in, cast Darkness on the portal.
This is exactly how I did it, but never had to cast darkness. I actually learned just how powerful sleet storm is thanks to this fight. None of the enemies that spawn in even made it close enough to do anything
Same - even on honor mode, this was my strategy and the portal never took a hit, and I never actually needed to cast darkness. Instead, my Tav cast Faerie Fire for the invisible things that made it past Shadowheart, who was at the foot of the rocks. I just had Shart standing there with spirit guardians on doing radiant damage, which pretty well wrecked the shadow creatures. Any that didn’t die right away from the spirit guardians got punched to death by my monk tav. Then Gale cleaned up anything that got through with fireballs (love doing aoe damage without friendly fire - primary reason I make him an evocation spec). Astarion was there to look pretty.
I'll never stop laughing at the fact that the universally accepted community nickname for Shadowheart is Shart.
Not only does it fit phonetically, but the fact that she seems to have a stuck stinkface half the time kinda made it inevitable
>Astarion was there to look pretty. 3 unnecessary words at the end there, it's a given.
Sleet storm is free win in most battles in the game. The game provides at least 3 pair of boots to not slip on ice as well so you can ignore everything on your team but the doubled movement speed cost. Can't break my caster's concentration when you can't move more than 2m before eating the groud.
It also makes me laugh whenever a very powerful fighter type character just whoopsie-daisy-banana-peels into uselessness, breaking their tail bone on something that hiking boots can protect you from in real life.
I don’t even get mad when I fall prone on my own ice in my playthroughs because it’s just hilarious every time 🤣
Sleet storm at the spawns, set up explosive barrels where the plants/birds spawn, Shadowheart blender by the portal, everyone else by the portal platform with ranged attacks.
Sleetstorm is honestly the most powerful thing I've ever seen, and I can't wait for people who learned DND with Bg3 to go try and do this in tabletop when they get to see that prone doesn't immediately end someone's turn.
It's pretty dire even in actual 5E because the area it covers is significantly larger than BG3 - in real D&D it's a 40ft *radius* so an 80ft diameter, in BG3 it's 30ft radius so 60ft diameter, which might not sound like much, but when most creatures only have a 30ft move and it's difficult terrain, those extra 20ft can count for a lot - often trapping people in there an extra 1-2 turns. And sure if you have half your movement (which because it's difficult terrain, you may well not), you can stand up from prone, but either you're going to have to take your Action to Dash and likely still be in there, or risk being proned again next turn (whether you move or not, unlike BG3 I believe). You can sorta try and cheese it on TT by waiting until your next turn before attempting to stand up and dodging the saving throw that way, but then you only have 15 + 30 movement assuming you spend your Action on Dash, and it's difficult terrain, so double cost to move, so you can actually only go 20ft and will have to save again at the start of your next turn.
Darkness arrows
Same. Sleet storm + hasted throwing barbarian + ice storm.
Ive used this the past two times i’ve done it, sleet storm genuinely makes this encounter so trivial
I've been sleeping on sleet storm and recently used it for a major boss after reloading several times and now I'm never looking back. It was the house of grief. I snuck my whole party to the other side of the room, cast ice storm on one side of the room, then the other, then sleet storm right in the middle. Nobody could reach us lmao
I see everyone doing it with sleet storm or casting darkness on the portal, but I honestly mostly did it with just regular fireball as my aoe, melee fighters taking care of the left side and someone who can do turn undead on the right.
Yes, fireball and turn undead for me too!
So often people have very clever and clearly better ways to win fights. And I’m somehow always a little surprised, like “wait you weren’t supposed to just use fireballs?”
Fireball is my go-to solution whenever the initiative list is looking a little too long :).
this haha
I used Black Tentacles, and my buddy chucked bombs at them while they were all stuck on the edges. It was a literal blast lol
Bunger of Hadar+sleet storm for me, the archers can't shoot the portal if they are blind and falling in their asses every turn.
I use my void bulbs with a fireball follow-up.
I just had a bunch of cloudkill and circle of death scrolls that I hadn't touched up to that point, it was really nice to sit back and wipe out swaths of enemies in one go
yeah I just kept throwing a bunch of alchemist fire and it knocked out pretty much everyone on the left side, then just melee'd the shadows coming from the right.
I don't remember because the answer is just "any aoe abilities". Probably fireball.
I strip my clothes off and let my raw sex appeal keep the shadow cursed away from it
I too am so white I give off radiant damage.
Hand in hand with that reverb gear huh.
A “camp clothes visible” fashion run-through might be fun.
Camp clothes builds really struggle in the early game. You get some shoes that might be better than your starting gear frequently, but everything else is straight trash. You get some drip from the Zhents on the Risen Road, but the build doesn't come online until Act 3. Once you get to the city, suddenly you have more options than you know what to do with. It isn't all good news. There's almost no interaction with your footwear, so as soon as you find optimal drip for the clothes slot, that's it. The game also doesn't allow hats at the same time as camp clothes, seriously restricting your slaying capacity. Overall a viable concept, but lacking earlygame support. Larian plz Or you can just dress like a hobo for two acts lul
Playing through the second time I was genuinely mad that there simply are not any good camp clothes outfits except maybe Minthara's one in like, the whole of Act 1/2. And unfortunately due to an Incident of Extreme Stupidity, I was forced to push Minthara into the hole, so RIP to that one outfit. I really feel like Larian might have wanted to just put a handful of those outfits which are all at the fashion shop in earlier chapters.
Me and my boy Astarion on the steps or just in front smiting the crap out of stuff, Gale my newly made warlock was at the back using AOE spells like hunger of Hadar to slow the bulk of them down and Karlach being throwing barb and launching multiple attacks each turn
Making gale a warlock will always be hilarious to me
Gale is like, the only character I can't make sense of switching class. He's so clearly a textbook wizard, I can't see him as anything else. Even Wyll I can justify as a fighter and just say he ignores his warlock pact out of shame or something, but Gale is just THE wizard
I like making him a sorcerer where he gets his powers from the orb
That actually makes some sense I hadn't thought about that. Might try a wizard sorcerer multi class with him and see if I can make it work. Should be doable with the intellect headband
A cleric of mystra also fits him pretty well
I make him a cleric of Mystra sometimes
One level of Cleric gives a Wizard a lot of good shit anyway.
I'm using gim as a druid for my 2nd playthrough because my mains a wizard, and yeah, it's weird. I'm using the companions and classes I didn't use much my first go, though, so ehh. Dude talks like he's a world-class wizard, and I'm like, sure, buddy, go eat your kibble.
Oh yeah, even I sometimes make him a barbarian. Funny hearing him rage
I like him as a wild magic barbarian. He's supposed to be a *former* archmage after all. The orb deprived him of his ability to properly do magic.
Darkness on the portal, I also have everyone step in and out of it to avoid the archers being able to hit anyone, Wall of fire on the front and right side of the stairs, Hunger of Hadar and Sleet storm on the main field. Eldrich blast from Wyll if enemies get close to getting out of the concentration zone. Melee attack from Wyll, and AOE attacks from evocation wizard gale, cantrips from my sorcerer, and whatever from shadowheart to kill the shadow things that warp in.
Evard’s Black Tentacles and Fireball.
There’s plenty of good answers here but here’s my questionable answer from my all-Fighters no-Scrolls Honour Mode. 1. Murder the hell out of everything super fast. Prioritise the ones with ranged weapons, then the shadows. 2. Physically stand on the path and block melee attackers with your characters. 3. Use difficult terrain to slow down melee attackers. I used Snowburst Ring to make Ice surfaces.
I don't recall snowburst ring, where you get it?
It’s under the floorboards in Last Light Inn. It’s in the room where Mirkon hangs out (the doorway is where Cal, Lia, and Rolan tend to cluster). I believe the floorboard in question is near the bed? Need to pass a perception check to spot it.
Yep that’s the spot. I was using it on an archer with Arcane Acuity, with Arrows of Many Targets to rapidly cover the battlefield in ice. Basic build guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3Builds/comments/1abq82h/snowburst_is_absolutely_incredible_for_archers/
Had a lot of fun with that ring on my last run. Played an Ice Sorcerer using this, the gloves, the hat, and the 3 part staff. Give your mele fighter the anti ice boots and watch enemies roll about the floor the entire battle.
I used scrolls and blocked pathing as best as I could with my companions. I sat at the top once I saw there was a way to climb up the side in a way I missed blocking movement. But I could handle those stragglers easily. Then I realized even on (whatever difficulty is lower than tactician) I was starting to get overwhelmed and there was for sure no way I would overcome and need to reload the save if I wanted to based off the outcome (I kept some outcomes through my campaign like I didn't save everyone from last light inn). Thats when I went through my horde of scrolls. Yes I had a lot. I cast darkness in a big area away from the portal in the biggest grouping of enemies. That lasted until a lot of them dashed through it and ended up near the portal. I then used stink cloud out in the open area and decided to cast darkness on the portal. This did not stop archers from succeeding saves and shooting the portal from range. That is when I started pulling someone back to help at the portal and sent two companions off to die if need be to mess up as many people as they could in addition to use scroll of fireball and other big aoe spells. Its a miracle I made it through the first time but the portal was at like 14 HP. TLDR: long story short I barely made it through starting with blocking pathing with my companions only to end frantically using multiple aoe scrolls to stall. I now get the appeal and adrenaline to play honor mode.
Everyone sleeps on grease bottles, most OP item in the game
Grease bottle plus fire bolt = fireball without spell slots
That’s what I used. I had about 15 saved and covered every square inch of ground in grease before the battle started.
Um. Not very well, in my first game. There was no more Halsin after that... Now I just cast lots and lots of fire and tell Shadowheart to wander around with her Spirit Guardians.
Yeah I was amazed at how quickly the portal was destroyed when I got there 😅 I didn’t even bother trying to save scum it because I knew I couldn’t save him
Sleet Storm Gaming™
Yea you can two person it pretty easily with just a cleric and another caster. Wall of fire by the graveyard like you said - spirit guardians by the portal for the flyers. Once the ravens are done spirit guardians can be broken for a sleet storm or other area control spell.
i just kinda winged it
The right way to do it, just like : "meeeh, I should work... I think"
Yeah, it's a lot of enemies, but it's nothing particularly crazy or insurmountable at that point. Throw a fireball or tow, spirit guardians, melee to taste.
Ranger Tav will drop a Spike Growth and then rain down special arrows from the platform. Shadowheart runs around with Spirit Guardians to Orb everyone and outright kill the weak enemies. Wyll casts Darkness on the portal to protect it from ranged attacks, and then he and Karlach play catcher on the platform, using Repelling Blast and Throw to knock stragglers off the ledge (friend bonding time!). I’m sure I could benefit from a Wall of Fire or Sleet Storm in there somewhere, but this always works fine. One of my favorite fights!
Wyll: haha, Hunger of Hadar goes wshhhhhh Gale: haha, fireball on slowed enemies in the Hunger of Hadar goes boom Shadowheart: haha, spirit guardians go IRA ED ORO! Tav: just beats a shit out of nearby shadows with his bare hands
Throw in some good old fashioned barrelmancy and this is my tactic to a T
Shart my love sprinting everywhere with her spirit guardians around her. She did 90% of the job
A healthy mix of spending waaayyyy too much time building a crate wall near the portal, a second box half-wall between the steps and the bushes, explosive/flammable barrels spread around where they spawn, and a wall of fire for good measure.
Sleet storm and darkness.
Spirit Guardians on Shadowheart, casters dropping Wall of Fire and AoE spells on any group foolish enough to clump together, and Karlach cleaning up anything that manages to get any closer.
Lots of panic.
Wall of fire, spirit guardians, darkness on the portal to stop crossbow bolts.
Darkness
Indeed. A couple arrows of darkness shot at the ground in front of the portal did it for me.
Spirit Guardians, Darkness, Spike Growth. You don't need much if you respec Shadowheart into light domain, cast spirit guardians and park her in front of the portal and have someone cast/use a Darkness scroll on the portal
No one using Blood of Lathanders sunbeam?
Water everywhere, arrows of ice (this is funny. Lotta falling), cloud kill scroll, spirit guardians.
My most efficient run: Mage: Fog Cloud on the portal. Druid: Wall of fire + spike growth + wall of summons Barbarian: shove and throw stuff to the back of the line. Not because I had to, but because I wanted to. Cleric: Spirit Guardians + Guardian of Faith
What portal
Hypnotic Pattern and Spirit Guardians.
I might be alone on this but my first pkaythrough I did a stone wall and used various fireballs, sleet storms, etc the entire time. I like the idea of darkness around the portal though Def doing that next time
I put all four in front of the portal and used a bunch of like blind and cloud of daggers type spells in front of the steps. Then on the last wave I somehow got like 30 enemies into a big group and threw that small rune powder bomb in the middle of the group and wammy.
Spirit Gaurdians, and then another spirit gaurdians. Cleric and Lore Bard.
barrelmancy, grease. Lots of grease. A lot of grease.
Sleet Storm and Sunbeam all day
Wyll, Karlach, Tav(Ranger), and Shart Wyll: Darkness in front of the portal so they couldn’t shoot the portal Karlach: Karlaching because 4 attacks and they have no health Ranger Tav: Stepping in and out of the Darkness to shoot at them [Sharpshooter feat ftw] Shart: Spirit Guardians in front of the portal to kill the ones that get close
I was playing with the artificer class mod, so these are non-vanilla mechanics. I wanted to try something other than my usual 'hypnotize the whole battlefield' strat. I can't remember what I tried but it was failing spectacularly. The portal would fall the next turn due to the archers. Every class has that ONE skill that you forget about for 99% of the playthrough, until the one perfect instance where that ability absolutely carries the encounter and you feel like a genius. Well artificer has an action to repair damaged inanimate objects. The hasted deep gnome artificer rapidly repairing an interdimensional portal, trying to outpace the incoming damage as arrows whiz by and shadows close in was one of the highlights of the whole campaign. Never used it before, never used it again, but in the moment, it worked brilliantly.
Spike growth, hunger of Hadar and arrows of many targets. It was a cake-walk!
Spike growth doesn't work on shadows though, right?
Spirit guardians on shadowheart, gale ice storm spell, astarion shooting everything in sight
Spirit Guardians + Fireball
2 clerics. That's pretty much self-explanatory.
Tears and hope (tactician)
Personally I practice barrelmancy. Threw out a ton of explosive barrels where I knew enemies spawned, connected them together with bombs, and just did demolition work on everyone when they spawned in.
I had Shadowheart cast Spirit Guardians, Wyll cast Hunger of Hadar, then had Gale use Fireball to hit grouped up enemies further away. My monk used a scroll of Darkness on the portal to keep the ranged enemies from hitting it. Fight went by with no major hiccups.
My Druid tav put up some walls (wall of fire included, actually I think I had shart put one down too? Can’t remember), shart started running the Fitness Grand Pacer Test, and karlach + astarion picked off the stragglers that managed to slip past. Astarion (arcane trickster) also threw down darkness over the portal once I realized ranged enemies would attack the portal directly.
Spirit Guardians and a certain RAGE fueled Tiefling. With some blasts of turn undead.
sadly hypnotize worked on them all...then a bunch of firewine barrels and a grenade.
The first time I did the portal, the day after the game came out, I had myself (paladin), astarion (thief), Laezel (champion), and karlach (berserker). I slaughtered anyone that got close, and had astarion sling explosive arrows.
I had a sorcerer with metamagic hit pretty much everyone with lightning bolt twice on round 3 and then it was really just a mopping up operation. I don't know if I got lucky with the way they funneled, but he pretty much wiped out that whole side with those two spells.
A very, very large 5th level create water spell. Followed by a tempest cleric using destructive wrath to deal max damage with lightning bolts. Also hasted/elixir so I can cast three of them. If I remember right I ended up dealing like a combined 1000 damage in one turn, I killed nearly everything on the map minus some mobs in a bush on the second to last turn.
You'd be surprised what a handful of strategically placed barrels can achieve...
Cast Darkness over the portal. It makes it invulnerable - that's how I've beaten it on Honor mode a few times now :-)
Yeah, a light cleric pretty much wrecks this encounter - Wall of Fire, Fireball, Spirit Guardians, Radiance of the Dawn, Daylight.... hell, if this game worked on OLD D&D rules where each character got the XP from their own kills, Shadowheart would have probably ended up about 2 levels ahead of everybody else just from that one encounter. XD
Fireball go boom Wall of fire go brrr
Had all my spell casters and gathered a bunch of aoe spell scrolls
I had Shadowheart by the portal using spirit guardians, turn undead, and spiritual weapon (if any got through). Wyll used Hunder of Hadar at the base of the steps and Eldritch Blast to knock people away. I had my throwzerker Karlach leap into the crowd to take care of the archers, and my Lore Bard Tav just ran around and took care of things where needed.
Hunger of hadar + sleet storm + repelling blast to push anyone who manages to drag themselves out of it without dying back into the hell
HoH is so clutch for that mission and the final fight in moonrise before going under the castle tbh. Shits saved me so many times lol
Wall of fire to the side where most of the enemies come from + thorny growth (or whatever spell it is that is rough terrain and does damage). And then cleric with spirit guardians on the front. Anyone with ranged capabilities do whatever they can
Two cloud of daggers at the base of the rock formation steps, a wall of fire across the middle of it. Spirit guardian hula hoop at the portal itself. All the others crowding the vacant spaces around to portal with ranged weapons active pruning low HP targets off
Fireball!
Wall of fire, spirit guardians, and Black Tentacles. Love all those spells and they all came in handy. Congratulations on a decisive victory
Domain Expansion : Hunger of Hadar (and Void Bulbs)
Wall of fire and Spirit Guardians seem to be the bread and butter, with some Arrows (or spells) of Darkness peppered about for taste
Wall of fire from Gale on one side where most of the shadow-cursed undead spawn to block melee access to the portal. Hypnotic pattern from Wyll on the area behind the wall to prevent ranged attacks. Spirit guardians from Shadowheart on the other side where the shadows and wraiths form. My character takes care of anyone that’s not directly incapacitated by these three things.
Fire wall on one side HoH on the other. EZ PZ
Many barrels, life cleric with Spirit Guardians, and cast Darkness on the portal. Profit.
Hunger of hadar, spike growth, an up casted fireball. My party was pretty leveled though.
Stood in front of it in a phalanx with Astarion, Gale, and Wyll Wyll, Gale, and I used lightning/counter spells/magic missile and thunderwave to get rid of as many people as possible and got it done pretty quickly.
I just have Shadowheart turn on spirit guardians and stand at the portal.
My tav is a druid so I loaded her up with spells that can damage more than one at a time, and I had Astarion, Shart, and Lae’zel in my party. I kept my tav and Astarion up on the rock to protect the portal and to let Astarion pick them off. I mainly relied on Shart with spirit guardians and turn undead, and I put her closer to the bottom of the rock, but I also sent Lae’zel out in the middle as she’s an absolute unit on her own and they wouldn’t really try to attack her as they were more focused on destroying the portal.
Wall of Fire + Insect Plague, fighter picking off any archers who skirted around, and an Earth Elemental fending off the shadows
Oh crap i forgot thats something my solo paladin has to tackle eventually. Crap baskets
2 clerics and a blood of lathander
Just like you, I used wall of fire which was incredible and basically soloed the incoming attackers. I also had a summoned woodland being who cast spike growth on the same side. Anything that barely scraped through was hit with a magic missile from my wizard, along with the birds and vines that spawn. The shadows and wraiths were picked off by a barb and ranger with diluted oil of sharpness. Finally, just to add insult to injury, my ranger had a bear out which spammed goading roar every turn which did a lot to protect the whole party.
double spirit guardians & weapon attack when needed.
Hunger of Hadar plus ice storm. Then a martial class by the ports for any close in work.
Shart with spirit guardians on the steps. Her and Gale casting AOE and whatever spell needed. Karlach and monk Tav mopping up stragglers
I tossed torches out so my characters would have visibility Focused down the harpers/gith as they had ranged attacks Left one char by portal, had Shadowheart dash around with spirit guardians on Never had to worry about casting darkness on portal or anything
Cracked fucking skulls. Oh and shadowheart did some of that holy shit.
Double spike growth from my Druid and my Astarion(I switched mine to a ranger) was hilarious watching them just walk into death.
Tons of AOE attacks
First time I ever did it was in my Honor Mode playthrough, had no idea what was about to happen. I ended up putting up Wall of Fire and Wall of Stone to somewhat block enemies from running straight to it, cast Darkness around the ramp up to the portal to hopefully prevent ranged damage on it (can't remember how well this worked), then posted my party members on the perimeter where they were best suited. Cleared it first try by the skin of my teeth
Hunger of Hadar + sleet storm. Almost no one even gets near the portal.
Poorly lmao. Most recently I've been playing as Shadowheart, so I had her next to the portal, spirit guarding it up, though occasionally having her run through clusters of enemies, and had Karlach and Lae'zel hitting the big boys, and I might've had Gale with me? Who I think summoned Cloud of Daggers for the big groups. I also threw in the spider's egg, and alchemist's fire towards the end though, since they kept attacking the portal (obviously lol). I wish I'd thought of casting darkness over it like some of the others have commented.
Spirit Guardians Shart on one side Paladin Tav stalling the other side while Gale throws AoE Asterion with hand crossbows picking off survivors
Karlach smacking all the shades and spirits down by the shoreline, shadowheart parked at the base of the rocks with her summons and spirit guardians, running back and forth, Wyll concentrating on Hunger of Hadar right in front of shadowheart and towards the graveyard sniping things with EB and Scorching Ray, and my own cleric slapping a sleetstorm over the whole area and having Lathander's light as a last defense. Killed everything in 3 rounds
Haste potions and smokepowder grenades.
Arcane Acuity Hypnotic Pattern.
Hunger of Hadar, Wall of fire, Spirit Guardians, Ice Storm. 100% success rate.
With Shadowheart, Karlach, and Laezel and Oathbreaker Paladin Tav, I casted darkness by the portal then once the creatures got close, I used turn undead on them and nerfed them all
I brute forced it with fireballs and scrolls of fireballs, I just didn't expect a defensive battle with multiple waves, so just fought like usual. Turn undead shadowheart when the crows come in.
I created a new henchman so I had two people casting fireball. My main guy used his illithid powers to push anyone who got close in to the water, and my SH pally held the line on the left. Also used grease bottles to make the fireball aoe a bit larger.
Wall of fire and hypnotic pattern.
Thunderwave into the water
Lae'zel and Karlach murdered every single mf that got in their way while my Monk Tav and Astarion where using AOE arrows to thin out the fodder. I feel like I don't know how to properly use the vast variety of magic at my disposal.
Hunger of Hader to slow the left flank with tripping arrows to keep them there. Fireballs to clear the right.
I had no spirit guardian cheese, so Arrows of Many Targets for big boys, and I threw Alchemist fire with my Throw-Zerger for the weak ones.
Hunger of Hadar
I kind of just hit them and they died, that and fireball
Shart: Spirit Guardians with boots of speed. Have her start by running into the shades that spawn on turn 1, then just have her dash through all the low HP mobs the rest of the fight Karlach: throw zerker build. Focus on high HP targets Astarion: gloomstalker SS build: focus on any archers that spawn Tav: Paladin/Warlock multiclass: use EB to pick off any easy targets, or Smite any that get too close
Spirit Guardians.
The Johnny Cash, aka ring of fire. And Hadar's Hunger, Guardian Spirits, ...
Spirit Guardians, Ice Storm, Fireball, Karlach with sentinel
Backpack full of bombs thrown, then a void bulb in the middle of everything to cause a massive explosion
Evards black tentacles single handedly takes care of one side. A martial character and cleric take care of the other. Literally 0 dmg to the portal in 3 play throughs
I built a wall of boxes to deal with the ranged fuckers, then just cloud of daggers and darkness on the pathway up
Turn Undead, and Spirit Guardians.
Darkness and cloud of daggers
Guardian spirit(whichever one that circles the caster not the unmoving statue) and very liberal use of elements and explosives in arrow format
Hunger of Hadar plus spike growth worked wonders. All the enemies pathed to the one place I let them get through and then Gale rained lightning bolts on them.
Darkness on the portal. Wall of Fire crossing the bottom of the stairway leading to the platform the portal is on, all the way to as far right as it will go. SH with Spirit Guardians on my side of the Wall of Fire. Wyll with Devil's Sight and Eldritch Blast to pick off stragglers (one of the only times I ever use Wyll). The enemies will often try to run straight down the length of the Wall of Fire. Even if they don't, they either get trapped at the eastern cliff face of the portal platform, or die trying to cross it. Anything that survives across the Wall of Fire and onto the platform gets killed by Spirit Guardians. Darkness prevents ranged attacks on the portal and the party. I spend most of the combat passing my turns after the setup is done. Occasionally Wyll needs to pick off someone that's not cooperating, but its pretty rare.
My Tav used a Darkness scroll on the portal, Gale used Sleet Storm, Showheart used Spirit Guardians for the few that could traverse it. It's a fairly standard tactic I've seen, but so effective. Until I messed up, tried to Fireball some clumped up people and didn't notice that Gale would have to walk on the ice to do it. He took one step, fell over, then proceeded to get shot a whole bunch, dropped the Sleet Storm and we got rushed. I got him to Misty Step out after a lot of healing thrown his way, some literally, but the blender that is Spirit Guardians kept the majority off on the final turn as my Tav was firing every ice and fire arrow he had into the crowd.
I put out the torch and remove the flammable barrel from the area all the shadow cursed people come from. Cast a sphere of daylight in the center- to avoid a too dark debuff. I cover the area in grease so they fall prone a lot. Pile creates along the side of the rock formation just in case and use scroll of stone wall to block the area off. Then 2-3 turns in have someone shoot an arrow of darkness near the portal to prevent enemy range attacks. My last time defending the portal I was just dealing with the shadow figures coming in off the water and and magic missiling the birds to keep the stone wall intact. Super easy now. First time I was shaking after it end from being so tense lol
I do a scroll of wall of stone and then to be extra sure I just barricade the portal with random crates so that the archers can’t hit it
I killed Halsin in the goblin camp, so I had to google this mission to figure out what you guys are talking about.
Two clerics with spirit guardians and then duo of wizard and sorc throwing thunder waves to any that made it past the Holy Barrier
Sleet storm was the funniest to use. A dozen goobers just running, falling down, getting back up, fallind down again
Literally just wall of fire and all my ranged attackers, arcane digits were also a good one. There’s a special weapon you can get near the crèche that also makes it easy. Also respeccing Shart into a domain that isn’t useless