If you want to learn more about any of the monsters discussed here visit my recently updated bestiary...
Webs - Webs can be very annoying, but are only dealt by spiders
and chitraches. They slow the victim. There are two things you can do -
Cast the priest spell 'cleanse' on the victim. This removes all disease and webs.
Clean the webs off you by pressing the space bar.
Of course, the best cure is prevention so if you know there are spiders
around get your party ready to fight and engage before the spiders have
a chance to fire webs.
Webs can be used by your party with the mage spells 'goo' (1 square
only) and 'web' (large area). These spells are not much good as it is
easier to use the spells 'slow' and 'slow group' - they are much more
effective and don't obstruct your way afterwards.
Sleep Fields - 'Sleep Cloud' is one of the most useful mage
spells at a low level. It causes an area of 2x2 to be filled with an
effect that makes monsters fall asleep if they cannot resist. This is
very helpful for you as the monster loses all of its defense capability
and you can inflict great damage on it. This only works on low-level monsters though.
There
is only one monster in Exile that produces sleep clouds - the gorgon.
This is no problem if your characters are of a high level and therefore
can resist the sleep cloud but if you are of a low level you fall to
the same effect described before - you lose all of your defense
capability. The best way to combat this is to have the level 6 priest
spell 'hyperactivity' handy - this wakes up sleeping characters in the
party and gives them resistance to sleep for a while. The problem is
that by the time you've got this high level spell your characters will
be naturally resistant to sleep anyway.
Paralysis - Paralysis is a more advanced sleep. It can
affect much higher level monsters. Use the priest spells 'paralysis' or
'mass paralysis' to immobilise any monster (provided that your caster
is of a high level and intelligence). This effect lasts much longer
than sleep and gives the same inability to defend to the affected
monster. There are only a few monsters (ice pudding, ice drake in BoE)
that can paralyse in Exile but they are not very common. However, your
characters are probably not going to be able to resist it and so will
be very vulnerable. You can use the priest spell 'Cure Paralysis' to
free paralysis, and there are some magical items that give immunity to
it (like the ring of free action).
General Tactics
Mages and Priests - Magic users are
probably the biggest threat to your party so action must be taken
immediatly to make sure they don't start slowing, hasting and blessing.
Here are the steps you should take to get rid of them quickly:
As soon as the combat starts cast 'Slow Group' and 'Major
Bless' if possible. If your mages aren't that advanced then cast the
level three spells 'Haste' and 'Bless' instead on one of your warriors.
Send them forward to intercept the mages (usually behind the warriors).
When one of your characters is right next to a magic users they will
tend to try and engage in hand to hand combat.
Next cast 'Major Haste' and send your warriors through to
attack and surround the magic users, making sure that your magic users
are well defended. Use 'Antimagic field' if possible to prevent the
magic users from casting.
On the next turn your mages/priests will be able to fire 2-3
spells. Spells could be 'Mass Paralysis' to make the enemy defenseless
or 'Wall of Blades' to damage a whole row of magic users. Use 'Kill'
for one mage/priest or 'Death Arrows' for many.
If there are really powerful wizards like liches or rakshasa
when surround them in an antimagic field and send in the warriors.
These creatures are immune or at least resistant to anything you can
throw at them except hard steel.
If the magic users start summoning always go for the
summoner. However, if you are fighting for experience let the summoner
summon away and kill the creatures. A way to utilise this is to capture
a mage that likes to summon daemons a lot (like an ogre mage, gazer or
mage) and then summon it and kill the demons it makes. This will give
your party a lot of experience. Tip submitted by Akhronath, see my links page.
Don't leave the priests alone - remember that they can heal all the damage you've done or even cast 'Avatar'.
Warriors - As long as there are no mages or priests in the enemy you can follow these instructions:
First of all, draw your warriors into a straight line
perpendicular to the attack of the enemy. Leave them some action points
to make the first strike with.
Bless the most capable warriors and haste them - if possible
use 'Bless Party' and 'Mass Haste'. If you have another mage then cast
'Slow Group' if possible.
Let the warriors come to you (unless they have projectile
weapons) - they will all bunch in a group by your line of warriors and
this concentration makes it easy for a well placed fireball or
firestorm to take out a load of monsters.
Once there are only a few monsters left you can break the formation and take them out.
Specific Tactics
In a dungeon you can easily amass experience points by first
blocking yourself in a room with a force barrier, repeatedly long
waiting (the 'w' key), and then casting a spell that affects all
enemies within a certain radius of the caster like pestilence or
shockwave. This means that you can kill loads of monsters without
actually coming into contact with them. Submitted by Akhronath.
An easy way to dispose of large numbers of monsters is to (In
Exiles 2+) capture a basilisk or Ur-basilisk in your soul crystal, hide
in a room off a corridor which has lots of monsters in, then summon
about 3 basilisks into the corridor with simalcrum. The attackers will
be disposed of and you, protected in a room, will be safe.
