His Name Strikes fear into the drunkest of bards. The worst part about encountering Herb is his annoying tendency to multiply. When he is summoned he doesn't just fight you, he overwhelms you. By the time you kill him he will have summoned another and another and yet another. So when I face him I usually ask myself 'will the experience points and the little gold I get out of this fight be worth the aggravation I know he is about to cause me?' For this update I will be going over Herb's weaknesses and his strengths.
The Facts
What started out as a simple melee of some mages and giants ends quite differently. The problem with Herb is that he usually isn't worth the trouble of fighting him. I usually run away (or try to kill the summoner before he can call a Herb).
His Strengths
Herb has a ton of hit points, starts out away from melee range, and replicates. So it can take a while to whip one or as it usually turns out around four of them. When in melee range the characters with lesser experience points generally can't touch him.
His Weaknesses
Herb spends most of his time filling up his ranks… Even when they are already filled. He rarely attacks and if he does you should be able to take the brunt of his attacks with ease. Since you may not be able to hit him too well think about throwable weapons; even at close range.
Battle Tactics
So here is the real question: 'How do you kill a Herb?' Well lets start with some simple ways to finish them off. For close range attacks use the stone blade (warrior/paladin), a critical hit (hunter), drums of death (bard), or deathstrike (magician spell) for melee range. For distance fighting have your bard play "The Archer's Tune." Then have your paladin, bard, and thief throw their Sword of Zar, Song Axe, and Aram's Knife respectively. For your magic users consider the dream spell and Mangar's Mallet. For a more difficult battle have your best experienced fighters go after Herb. A good monk or warrior can do some real damage and have your spell caster cast melee men and pull them all forward one at a time. When they are all within range you may want to refer to the simple ways to dispatch them listed above.
A Job Well Done
Unfortunately even though you just finished off a couple of Herb you might have wasted a handful of spell points and a lot of time. Because your next battle may be exactly the same thing. So to avoid this problem familiarize yourself with the monster spellcasters and kill them off before they can call in the big hitters or Herb for that matter. So you ask yourself again 'Is Herb worth the trouble?' Well I'll leave that up to you.
I'm a bit surprised to hear 40+ people say that their environment reacted in a weird way upon hearing that they play games. I've always found the people that expect you to live your life in a certain way based upon age, or reason "X", a bit weird.
