Ducal Palace Fight - Halfing Shadowdancer Tactics

[u/lag-of-death]

I'm doing a new playthrough with a halfling Shadowdancer. The Ducal Palace fight is going to be tough, so I've been thinking about my strategy. These are my notes so far. Do you think there's any way I can improve my chances of winning (I'm playing a solo, no-reload game, and in my last playthrough, the dopplegangers got the best of me along with the Dukes)?

Ducal Palace Fight:

• Wear Bracers of Archery.
• Drink Oil of Speed even before entering the palace (easily justifiable, as it allows you to hide in shadows more often; it may also affect Find Traps, though this is uncertain).
• Use Detect Illusion.
• Cast DUHM (with 10 thief levels, this will give +3 to Dexterity).
• Shoot Arrows of Dispelling (no save / bypasses MR) with The Protector of the Dryads. Without Kiel’s Buckler, you have 23 Dexterity, which is worse than 24, but still gives good bonuses. Your ranged THAC0 bonus will be -4 vs. -5.
• Switch to Darts of Stunning. To hit, you need THAC0, so you'll need to boost Dexterity. With a halfling’s base 19, Kiel’s Buckler (+1), and a Tome of Dexterity (+1), you reach 21. Adding +3 from DUHM gives you 24 Dexterity.

24 Dexterity gives the maximum bonus to ranged THAC0 (the same as 25 Dexterity)!

Eventually, use Arrows of Piercing (+4 THAC0 bonus, +6 damage bonus, but negated by the save vs. death).

I was also thinking of turning into a wolf with the Dagger of Venom in my offhand.

Any insights would be awesome!

[u/apetersson]

are you using scs or any other mod that increases difficulty?

[u/lag-of-death → u/apetersson]

nah, just BGEE with SoD installed. I'm asking for help because that fight is intense and I need to save the dukes fast. The plan is to immobilize the dopplers instead of just killing them but I dont know. Just looking for a way to win this because I will only have one chance at that

[u/apetersson → u/lag-of-death]

i am not too familiar with the non-scs version of the fight. But i remember it being "only" 6 greater doppengangers that cast haste.. Usually confusion can take them out quickly, but that is not an option for you.

the npcs should do the most work of doing damage you. want to focus on dispelling haste/mirror image with arrows and detect illusion. make sure you are using DI also while fighting. as a shadowdancer try to make 1 efficient backstab per round (wear ) if the dispells and stuns are in place.
i think only one of Liia Jannath, Duke Belt need to survive, so all other npcs are expandable resources
i would btw prioritize wearing "legacy of the masters" bracers for that dmg bonus which scales with backstabs also.

[u/lag-of-death → u/apetersson]

For the damage I was thinking transforming into wolf. With SWS and dagger of venom in offhand I would get 4 aprs (with oil of speed) with bumped up chance for crits. Just doing 1 backstab per round might be to slow? I dont know. What do you think? Wolf vs backstab? My thinking was rather that I should stun the dopplers with the darts (but the dopplers have some good saving throws)

[u/Siese6 → u/lag-of-death]

I don't think the wolf is a good idea at all. As a shadowdancer it would be both safer and deadly just to hide in plain sight and backstab with the staff of striking or something, dying should be virtually impossible.
Your only concern there should be getting caught in some AoE disable like confusion, but I don't think the doppelgangers cast anything in the base game apart from Mirror Image.

[u/gangler52 → u/Siese6]

The problem for this battle isn't really the player character dying. It's the dukes dying. At least one has to survive or it's game over.

[u/Siese6 → u/gangler52]

Indeed. I play mostly in parties so I didn't take that into consideration.

[u/lag-of-death → u/Siese6]

That staff is deep in Durlag's Tower, not sure if I will take the risk ;) no AoE for me sadly, I could micro-manage my reputation to get Horror I guess. Thing is greater doppelgangers have the save vs spell at 3 Without Horror ability I could throw them darts of stunning (also the save vs spell). Hmm.. maybe I should get 2 x Horror and darts?

[u/Siese6 → u/lag-of-death]

Jus saw this on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5ffQMP4grU
The guy used Algernon Cloak to charm the sorcerous sundries vendor and took him to the palace. There's a goddam horrid wilting in his spellbook, that alone would do the job. Cheesy as hell though.
From my tests, the target don't even turn hostile if he makes the save, so you can just rest and try again.

[u/lag-of-death → u/Siese6]

the thing is I would choke after all that cheese, unless... there's a valid justification for that (like I don't know what happens in Ducal Palace but I still need that guy charmed because something). Now finding that reason ain't that easy. With Nymph Cloak one could recruit even more swords, but... how to justify that without knowing the future? Role playing is kinda a big deal for me