Alternative title to this post: "Did I make a bad character and ruin my chances of success?"

I'm playing a fighter 9/wizard 1/arcane archer 15 and despite how many times I throw myself at them, I just can't seem to beat Grimgnaw and his grimlets. I'm playing with Deekin (who's mostly a bard with just a couple levels in Dragon Disciple) and Nathyrra, who's mostly a Wizard by this point.

I'm throwing my most powerful scrolls at them and they act like it tickles. Trying to use my Arcane Archer skills is an exercise in futility since Grimgnaw won't leave me alone. Deekin (bless his Kobold heart) is doing his best singing his songs but isn't really helping all that much. Nathyrra seems content to just stand there invisible and wait until the fighting stops.

What if... What if Mercy was wrong... What if heroes DO die??

For your own edification... a Level 20 toon is ridiculously low to attempt this combat. Your PC should be AT LEAST Level 25 by now. Normally, a character will be in the 26-27 range by now. Since the level of your campanions are tied to your toon's level, they also will be nerfed, level-wise. Anyhoo, onto a plan of attack...

Before entering the Abandoned Entryway, make sure all party have been pre-buffed with True Seeing. There should be items in your inventory to accomplish this. Then have Deekin cast ImpInvis on full party and whatever other buffs he has. Nathyrra: same deal. Expend all her buffs.

Make sure you've used the convo with both spellcasters to expel all their pre-buffs. You should have also adjusted their attacks to ignore spellcasting, also via convo. Place the party on Stand Ground. When you enter, they should be standing at the doorway, invisible to all enemies (none of the enemy have True Seeing when the combat begins).

While Grimgnaw is in convo... blah, blah, blah... move your invisible toon completely around back of the circle and stand behind Balpheron, the lich. Set your attack to Rapid Shot mode then Force attack on the lich. Try to disrupt his TimeStop (the first spell he tries to cast) else the battle will be longer and tougher. Focus on the lich until dead, then the minotaur guy Koth who can IKD IIRC.

Release your "hounds" the moment you attack. They will (hopefully) start attacking other enemies by now. It doesn't matter which really. They will deflect some of the flanking at least.

That's one way to handle this. I've already won this battle solo when I was XP-greedy, leaving my two companions on the other side of the entryway until I was finished. That wasn't an AA, however, though I've played one through HotU using Deekin/Aribeth and Deekin/Valen. An archer really needs at least one dependable meat shield to do what they do best... snipe over the shoulder.

You main handicap is that an archer (AA or otherwise) does not get access to the godly weapon enhancements from the Ch2 smith Rizolvir. In general, HotU was biased towards some sort of melee type, especially a DW toon that can do insane damage per round with two of those godly weapons. Those sorts pretty just waltz right through the entire campaign.

He is level 25.

Fighter 9 + Wiz 1 + AA 15 = 25.

This is one of the tougher battles in the Hordes. I remember having to try it multiple times.

I did one of my play throughs as an AA.

For an AA you should have built a +10 Mighty Bow, and probably added permanent +5 arrows to it. You should have enough strength with gear to use most/all of that Mighty effect, + EWS longbow.

Damage: Arrow 1D8 + 10 Strength + 5 Arrow + 6 EWS + 8 AA.
= ~34 Average per arrow.

Other than that, I ran around taking out spell casters first, using heal potions, buffs, summons, any and everything to stay alive and pick off the enemies.

They act like the scrolls tickle because scrolls DO tickle at that point, they don't scale well. Arcane Archer skills also suck. The real benefit of AA is the +8 AB/damage you have -- stop being fancy and just shoot the bastards in the face, basically.

Thanks for the correction. Was wondering how he could have gotten this far at so low level. Poor math skills explains it.

Can't crit Balpheron but he's still the one most equipped to sway the tide so is worth the trouble. A lich can't heal so all damage is permanent. But if he casts NEB nearby, it will heal him. An artillery archer shouldn't need to deal with that sort of healing though.

Maugrim cannot be targeted for attack during all of the battle, probably from casting Greater Sanctuary but if so, I've never spotted it on the combat log. In any case, while he's untargetable he doesn't attack and GS seems to last several rounds.

On a less serious note, you're dealing with one of the main villains of the original campaign and the master of the main villain of the second campaign. And some other no-names, more or less. Such a battle can't be easy. ;)

No-names?

EXUUUUUUUUUUSE ME?

Crimson is kind of a no name, but Grimgnaw is one of the henchmen from the first campaign and Koth is the minotaur Lord Nasher slew in the opening cinematic.

Well, just because they did appear doesn't mean they are significant figures.
I mean, Maugrim orchestrated the Wailing Death and the whole original campaign, basically, while Belpheron was said to be incredibly powerful and even his student was powerful enough to endanger Faerun all on her own.

Grimgnaw was a henchman, but he played little part in the events surrounding the Wailing Death incident lore-wise. So he's not that important of a figure.
Similarly, what do we know about Kloth apart from the fact he was slain by Nasher at some point in time?

This, however, makes me wonder why it's Grimgnaw that's the leader of the group and not Belpheron. I'd think Belpheron is much more powerful.

HotU was designed to be the sequel for SoU, not the Plague Campaign. Unless you've already played the OC, you'd have no clue who Maugrim or Grimgnaw were (and many players skip it due to bad press). We were spared Heurodis in the abandoned entryway by the mercy of the the HotU designer(s).

Well, if you talk to original campaign's henchmen in chapter 1 a lot, I think they roughly describe the whole story of the campaign. Not sure if any of them mentions Maugrim by name, though, or Grimgnaw. I know for certain that Lady Aribeth is mentioned by them, but this might be due to her importance in HotU.

"The minotaur Koth Uth-Kallin once roamed the wilds around Neverwinter, leaving death and destruction in his wake. His reign of terror was ended by a young hero named Nasher Alagondar, who slew the beast to avenge his murdered wife and infant child." Strictly speaking, according to game stats, Grimgnaw is a level 21 monk while Belpheron is a level 21 wizard (technically everyone in that group is level 21). But Grimgnaw apparently has the strongest personality or leadership ambition since they all do acknowledge him as the leader. Maugrim doesn't even try some passive-aggressive stuff after being chastened, he (and everyone else) just accepts it.

This was many years ago, but I was able to beat this fight after a few tries with a Monk, even-split Deekin, and rogue-focused Nathyrra. The strategies here are pretty good ones; I didn't have invisibility, but my monk's AC (some custom gear, but not a lot) helped a great deal. Having Deekin (and Nathyrra, I guess) buff the party before the fight is definitely recommended. Spam your potions (and make sure your henchmen have a supply too), use whatever feats you can, the usual heavy boss drill. You'll probably have to be the meat-shield yourself, so wade in with the best melee weapons and armor you've picked up (I can't remember if you have the genie yet, but if you do, buy some good stuff from him if you can) and don't let up. I have no idea what Nathyrra's spell list looks like, but she should be debuffing and offensive casting. Order of killin' should probably go Balpheron, Maugrim, the Minotaur, and your choice of Crimson or Grimgnaw.

As the announcer in SmashTV used to say: Good luck; you'll need it.

Maugrim: So mean you should consider killing him twice! ;)

Today, on my second playthrough of HotU, I just beat these guys.
To be honest, this wasn't the most difficult fight I've run into. The Maker was WAY harder for me. Even Soladis (or whatever the name of the high priest of Vixthra was) gave me more trouble than these.

I'm playing a bard 15, red dragon disciple 10 build. My companions are Nathyrra (who I ordered to level-up as a wizard) and Valen.

Balpheron was the biggest threat to me (I generally am not fond of wizards in this playthrough, Vixthra didn't even require me to use any consumables, while Soladis and The Maker were real pain in the ass), so I dealt with the others first. I gave a few heal potions to each companion, so that they could heal on their own should they be in trouble.

Once it came down to Balpheron, I smacked two greater spell breaches to his face to get rid of that nasty acid sheath. The rest went smoothly.

As for preparations, I cast greater invisibility on each member of my party, buffed myself and Valen with Bull's strength, cast protection from evil on everyone, drank a potion of bless, cast elemental shield on myself and of course used the Bard Song (and Curse Song on Grimgnaw's gang). That was enough. Consumables I used during the battle were the two scrolls of greater spell breach I mentioned earlier and some four potions of heal overall for the whole party. All of that was on hardcore difficulty.