Do I need to keep the keys I found in Kresslack's tomb once I am done in that area? I also have 2 skull things I keep carrying around. I am not asking for a spoiler of any kind just a yes I should keep them or no dump them would be ok.

Why can I no longer sell yeti hides? I managed to sell about 17 or so and not no one will buy them. I have been dumping them in the upstairs chests in the inn.


The Trolls in the Dragons eye need fire or acid to kill them off. Is there a store I can buy arrows of this kind? I seem to run out of spells fast and the arrows I have pretty fast. The trolls then proceed to beat the daylights out of me.

The guy in the once locked house in Kuldahar should I wait to go with him when I finish the game or can I go before?

1) Keys. Nope, don't keep them once you've moved on to the Temple of the Forgotten God. Same goes with the Symbol of Myrkul. Dump them in a chest, or perhaps sell them to Gerth for the pitiful 1 GP.

2) Yeti pelts. The shopkeepers work on a demand system. Thus, they will no longer keep buying things if they have a large supply already. The price will also go down after you've sold them a few pelts - I usually wait to sell until I've got 16 (the max you can sell from one character) and sell them all at once. That gets the best price.

If you aren't doing so, use the character with the best Charisma to talk to the storekeepers - high Cha may have an effect on how many pelts they'll buy. If not, don't sweat it - there'll be plenty of money eventually, and you can sell yeti pelts to the merchant in the Severed Hand.

3) Trolls. You just have to suffer for a bit - the only merchants that sell fire/acid arrows are in areas after Dragon's Eye. I generally do not use fire or acid arrows until a troll goes down - just use them with one archer to finish off the fallen monsters. Same with the Burning Hands spell or Melf's Acid Arrow. Don't use them to cause general damage, just use them for the killing blow.

One tactic that has served me well here is the Web with Free Actioned (via rings) fighters. If you pay attention to how much damage the trolls have taken, you can bring them all down to "seriously wounded", withdraw the fighters, and finish them with a Fireball - spells like Spike Growth are also good for bringing the trolls' HP down. If you have the 3rd level priest spell Protection From Fire cast on your fighters, you can even cast the Fireball while they're still in there - that's particularly useful if some of the trolls are hurt but not down, and not affected by the Web - they'd chase you if you ran out of the Webbed area where the Fireball will be cast, but by staying in there you can maximize the number you hit while protecting yourself.

You can also use weapons that stun, poison or phase - stunned trolls die normally if they lose the rest of their HP while stunned, poison will finish off trolls when they're down, and phasing acts like poison. Addtionally, you should have at least one "flaming" dagger or sword by now - those can also be used to finish off trolls.

4) The once-locked-house aka the HoW expansion. I usually wait until I'm almost finished Lower Dorn's Deep (near the end of the game, after I have collected all of some certain objects - you'll know what that refers to when you get there). You can go anytime after the average level of your party is lvl 9 or so, but the first area of HoW can be tricky.

Edit: for thoroughness and clarity

[ 10-11-2004, 01:27 AM: Message edited by: Aerich ]

Thanks Aerich for this help. I don't have any flaming swords but I do have a phasing dagger and an ice sword. I made the trek back ot the spell seller and bought my mage thief some acid and fire spells and the mage the web spell. Now 2 mages have them.

Finally I can drop those keys and skulls. I was afraid to do so earlier not knowing if I would need them in a pinch. I tried to get my cleric to write the protection from fire spell but he couldn't, or the write button didn't appear the last time I tred to do so.

I generally use the pally to deal with the shopkeepers. Killing the lizardmen does help on the gold income. I have about 5500 now after buying spells.

The Smithy in Kuldahar should always buy pelts no matter how many you sell.... the price will go down but he will always buy...

I found my first flaming sword on level 4 dragons eye first time i played. But its a random item wasnt there when i played second time...

Always dispose of keys and such items after youre done with an area except for certain badges you'll find later.... to be safe find some container in Kuldahar and kepp it all there...

Clerics cannot write spells from scrolls.... they get ALL the spells per level soon as they can cast spells of a particular level. In that way they are better than mages...

The smithy in Kuldahar won't buy my pelts. He was the first person I sold to and no he just won't buy anymore.

Thanks for clearing up the cleric spell thing. I will quit trying to get him to write them now.

What I don't understand is why my Thief/Mage doesn't get spells like the Mage does? I have to buy all her spells.

I am just now entering level 2 of the Dragon's Eye. Entering I say if I can get past these cold wights.

This game is really very good. I am throughly enjoying it now that I have a few levels under my belt.

And how does your mage get spells??? thief/mage is no different from normal mage.

Clerics and druids (and paladins and rangers) get ALL their spells soon as they reach the proper level...
Mages and bards (whether a pure class or multiclass mages) get no spells whatsoever and have to get spells from scrolls by writing them into their spellbook.. I personally never really bothered with buying scrolls usually used those found around... except for some which I bought...

Or are you saying that you cant cast spells because they are grayed out and have to buy scrolls and cast from them?? THATS BECAUSE YOU'RE WEARING ARMOUR. A bard or multiclassed mage cannot cast spells while wearing armor. Remove your armor and you can cast spells normally.... there are very precious few armors found in the game (much later) that will allow to cast spells while worn. Clerics (and druid) spells can be while wearing armor.

For taking out trolls, remember that you also have Flaming Oils available to you. You find on the corpses of lizardmen shamans and you can also buy more back in Kuldahar, but they're quite expensive. Just put them in your quickslots and use them once the trolls are down on the ground. Try to get as many as possible with one oil.

I have been using the flaming oils on the Cold wights to knock down their numbers.
I now follow the previous advice and only use fire or +1 arrows at the very last thing. It seems to work well

Don't waste too magical arrows, they're quite hard to come by.

The flaming oils don't do that much damage - they are best used to finish off trolls, but if you have a few left, by all means use them on cold wights.

Cold wights are best beaten with spells and well-armoured melee fighters. I'll second Stratos and say that you shouldn't use many magical arrows on them - there's far too many wights and not enough arrows.

Pelts:
Kuldahar's smithy is the ONLY person in IWD (not HoW), that will buy Yeti or Wolf pelts. You probably have some kind of bug going, so make sure you have the latest patches (preferably all the way through Trials.)

Gold:
The best thing to spend your gold on is ammo! Since missile weapons really put the hurting on the bad guys--it's expensive to purchase. There are a couple of RARE purchases that are unlimited:
.
.
.
.
.
+2 bullets in The Hand
and
Fire arrows outside castle Maluradek (Trials)...Hint...
.
.
.
Bag of Holding.

Still...even not counting these unlimited buys, you can practically run your gold down to zero if you were to buy up all the good ammo.

If you can hold out, the best prices to get for your stuff (including books/potions/gems) is the ghost shop keeper in The Hand. I save up all my gems and get a whopping amount of gold for them (for example.) That way, when I hit HoW, the enemies run like hell with all my cool ammo [Virgins!]

[ 10-12-2004, 03:42 PM: Message edited by: Roboghost ]

Roboghost
I checked and I do have all the patches through to HOW. The smithy did buy pelts the first time. I sold 17 to him, The 2nd trip the button was depressed and I was unable to sell anymore to him.

I made a visit to the mage tower and bought what spells I thought I could use.
It has to be a glitch like not being able to remove the rangers bow from the assigned slot.
Maybe I should do a reinstall and save the savegames?

Calagari,

I've noticed that you're having a lot of problems with different features of your game. Could it be that the disks you received are somehow defective? It happens sometimes.

*shrug*

Cary

I don't get any error messages. I was wondering if the ultimate collection needed any patches? Maybe I have messed up the files without knowing it? I am thinking seriously of copying my save game files to another folder and reinstalling the game.

I have the Ultimate collection too. Wonder why yours has so many problems and not mine. It is a mystery...

Cary

I think it is something specific I did in patching. I just read the correct way to install the game. First you install IWD, then HOW, then ToTLM. If what I just read is correct ToTLM patches both games. I ran the patches over these and that may have messed up some of the files.
Today I am off to a new install and will see how my save games fair in this.

</font>[/QUOTE]<font color = mediumspringgreen>Calagari,

No longer a mystery it is: You have solved it!

Yes, you have the right answer --> The correct install is IWD, then HoW, then TotLM, then STOP!! TotLM is the COMPLETE and FINAL patch for HoW/IWD. Running any patch after TotLM is installed is virtually guaranteed to bring heartache.

Sorry, I didn't see where you had said you had done this, or I would have piped up before. I should have asked anyway.

After you reinstall, Dale Keeper should take care of any initial surviving irregularities from your saved game. You are set. Congrats.

</font>--------------------<font color = mediumspringgreen>
What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!
</font>

"After you reinstall, Dale Keeper should take care of any initial surviving irregularities from your saved game. You are set. Congrats."

NobleNick I don't quite understand how Dalekeeper will do this could you go in a bit more detail?

I ask because I have one remaining problem or maybe it is normal. When I go through doors or levels bows and slings seem to change to meless weapons on my party. I have to pause, go into inventory and reset the weapons almost all the time. Once in a while one or two party members will retain what they were holding.

BTW During all this I created a new 4 person party. The lead man is a BARD of all things. I have them armed with range weapons and they are doing very well much better so far than my 6 person party. I have only let them go to Kuldahar so far but it was an easy sail. Bards do Rock!


I sure appreciate all the help I am getting here. I just wanted to let everyone know this.


</font>[/QUOTE]<font color = mediumspringgreen>Calagari,

No longer a mystery it is: You have solved it!

Yes, you have the right answer --> The correct install is IWD, then HoW, then TotLM, then STOP!! TotLM is the COMPLETE and FINAL patch for HoW/IWD. Running any patch after TotLM is installed is virtually guaranteed to bring heartache.

Sorry, I didn't see where you had said you had done this, or I would have piped up before. I should have asked anyway.

After you reinstall, Dale Keeper should take care of any initial surviving irregularities from your saved game. You are set. Congrats.

</font>--------------------<font color = mediumspringgreen>
What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!
</font> </font>[/QUOTE]

[ 10-13-2004, 07:03 AM: Message edited by: Calagari ]

<font color = mediumspringgreen>Calagari,

Congrats on your makeover. I know that many people (myself included) decide to revamp their party somewhere around Dragon's Eye, the first time they play the game. Seems that this is where less-than-optimal builds start showing. Aerich is right: virtually any party is workable. However, some builds are a lot more fun; and that is why we play the game, isn't it: to have fun?</font>

...I have one remaining problem or maybe it is normal. When I go through doors or levels bows and slings seem to change to melee weapons on my party. I have to pause, go into inventory and reset the weapons almost all the time. Once in a while one or two party members will retain what they were holding.

<font color = mediumspringgreen>I suspect that your problem now is that you have party AI turned ON. You go through a door and your AI arms your party with whatever it thinks is best for the situation. It is REALLY annoying when your Fighters drop bows and run screaming with their swords held high... to the EXACT spot where your Mage has just started summoning a Fireball!! IWD AI liked to have been the death of my party. Turn AI OFF, on the bottom right corner of your main screen, and you should be O.K. IWD, great game that it is, is not known for its astute A.I. nor its excellent pathfinding. Quite the opposite, I'm afraid.

I prefer manual control; but if you would like A.I. the way it is supposed to be, cruise the swamp for some of Dundee Slaytern's posts. He is always looking for lab rats to try out his sophisticated scripts; and I have heard more than one raving review over the years about how good his scripts are.</font>

BTW During all this I created a new 4 person party. The lead man is a BARD of all things. I have them armed with range weapons and they are doing very well much better so far than my 6 person party. I have only let them go to Kuldahar so far but it was an easy sail. Bards do Rock!

<font color = mediumspringgreen>Yes they do, if you have HoW installed. And you ain't seen nothing yet. After the Bard hits level 11 and gets the "War Chant of the Sith," things go into overdrive in a warrior-heavy party. The War Chant betters all friendly ACs by 2 and provides 10% resistance to most physical forms of attack, for everyone within range of the song. Woot!! Now, as if wasn't Wa-A-AY too much already, the Chant also heals all friendlies within range at the rate of 2 HP per round; and let's go overboard and heal at the same rate EVEN when your party is not fighting! Yes, that means your Cleric's slots can be used for something other than Heal spells. And your party only sleeps when fatigued or out of spells, not to regain HP. Oh, and your party can always enter every battle with every member at 100% HP.

Hint 1: The Bard rocks BETTER in direct proportion to the number of warriors she has to sing to.

Hint 2: The Bardic Horn of Valhalla is the most powerful piece of equipment in the game, and is the best purhase you will ever make if you have a Bard in your party. The earlier you get it, the better.

Have fun.

</font>--------------------<font color = mediumspringgreen>
What's a party,
without a song?
Bards ROCK!
Party On!!
</font> [/qb][/QUOTE] [/QB][/QUOTE]

[ 10-13-2004, 05:58 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

I second the motion on the Bardic Horn of Valhalla. It is super cool.