for instance, 2 of my fighters gets killed in one of the tombs in the vale of shadows ,but my other 4 characters happen to survive the long battle.now i have no way to resurrect the dead fighters other than having to go all of the way back to the temple in kuldahar then by the time i rez them and get back to the area where they died, all of their items have vanished (i would have taken them all with me before i left but my surviving characters could NOT carry everything or were "too encumbered to move" ,etc.).. am i supposed to just re-load my last saved game every time one of my characters gets killed and then do the entire fight all over again,hoping everyone lives or what? i'm just wondering what you all do when this happens because i find the item management very annoying .if my cleric knew how to raise the dead then that would be EXTREMELY helpful but i'm guessing he probably won't be able to learn that spell until much later in the game???

[ 11-10-2004, 01:06 PM: Message edited by: blakething ]

Reload, and find a better fighting strategy.

Edit: you shouldn't be over-encumbered this early in the game. Are you taking every little sword and dagger that the skelotens drop? Selling them, IMHO, is not worth the effort in hauling them back to Kuldahar.

[ 11-10-2004, 01:17 PM: Message edited by: Marty4 ]

Nothing wrong with reloading. Every fight can be done without having anyone die.

Further, if you go and raise or resurrect every time you lose somebody (which can happen a lot on your first time through the game), you quickly run out of money, or in fact may lack enough to raise your characters.

yeah, i bought the game about a year ago but didn't play all that much (still using my old characters )

btw what are the gems for? do i just sell those in town for gold or is there another use for them?

Gems are only for selling. In IWD2 there are certain gems with a purpose.

ok, here's the deal: i've killed the "myrkul's sending" in the tomb of vale of shadows then i go down to level 2 and i find about 8 skeleton archers that keeps killing my characters.(where the skele mage keeps casting stinking cloud )i dont think i can win this fight without a few of my characters getting killed because they are hitting me for about 10 pts of damage each and i cant even get close to them without taking a lot of damage and there's too many of them..i have 2 fighters, a cleric/fighter, thief, necromancer, and illusionist. i've tried getting my spellcasters up front to cast burning hands ,etc. but the spells gets disrupted and/or they get killed . (last time THEY lived but my 2 fighters didn't) . any help with this would be cool,as i don't really know a lot about this game; been playing UO too long i guess. thanks.

You can send one character (ranger or thief) to lure them around a corner where your party is waiting to engage them in melee.

Be creative and use the dungeon environment and fog-of-war to your advantage.

i've tried that strategy with my thief (hiding in shadows) then when they spot him, i try to lure a few back to my others but they don't follow (just disappear).

edit:

@Otto:
btw , you from springfield arkansas or missouri by any chance?

[ 11-10-2004, 05:03 PM: Message edited by: blakething ]

I don't recall any large groups of skeleton archers. well, if there were, I would use a high AC character like a fighter or paladin. Do you have anyone with a grossly low AC? giving a guy plate mail, large shield, a helmet, ring of protection and 18 dexterity would make them nigh untouchable.

<font color = mediumspringgreen>blakething,

Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Yes, we have the right answers, above.

First: if I ever lost a character in a battle, I would reload, at least until my Clerics got "Raise Dead" spell. So I save quite frequently, so as to not have to backtrack far.

Second: I only infrequently lost a character. Maybe I am just overly cautious and conservative; but I don't like my characters dying. I take it personally. I suspect there is something simple; or maybe a collection of simple things that you are not doing, that you should; or vice versa.

Are you at the very start of the second level, where you start in a small room and have to go through a door that leads into a large room with rows of columns?

Here is an eclectic list of thoughts, wherein you might find a few helpful things.

1.) Advance cautiously. Trigger as few of the enemy at a time as possible.

2.) Scout ahead with your Thief (hide in shadows) and plan out your battles.

3.) Use pause extensively while in battle.

4.) Having two Mages is nice. Having two Specialist Mages is better. And your Illusionist and Necro are a pefectly complementary pair: My FAVORITE matched Mage set! You should have at least Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb, Web, and possibly Aganazzar's Scorcher and a low-level summoning spell. Focus on Scorcher (if you have it), Web and summoning; then the other mentioned spells, as slots allow.

5.) Remember that your Cleric has spells, too. Since you will need the extra Fighter, I suggest you use Cleric to buff before enemy contact, then switch to fighter mode.

6.) Web keeps archers from shooting. Summons can be used to get archers to not shoot at you. Scorcher (and Fireball, when you get it) turns archers into crispy critters.

7.) Your Mages are probably CLVL4, which means they have 16 to 24 HP, and bite the dust quite easily. Did you know that if you start these guys out with the same stats, except made them Human Fighters with CON=18 and STR at least 15 and DC them to Necro and Illusionist at Fighter[3], that they would now both be CLVL2 Mages with 54 HP? Not only that, but if you stacked your weapon points correctly, they will both be killer archers when they hit Mage[4].

8.) Gang up on archers to take them down quickly.

9.) Use the columns as cover from arrows.

10.) Keep Mages out of sight until archers have targeted your Fighters. THEN bring the Mages out and unleash your magical cannons.

11.) Don't send a 20 HP Mage out into an army of archers to do the Burning Hands thing.

12.) Retreat into the first small room for protection, and force the enemy to take you on one at a time.

13.) Remember that blunt weapons are most effective against skeletons, whereas arrow are almost useless: Do not engage in a ranged battle, unless by doing so you can force a 6-on-1 or 6-on-2 confrontation (in your favor, of course).

14.) Roll your guys with DEX=18, CON=18 and give them good armor, to keep them from dying.

15.) Multi-Classing your Thief as a Gnome Thief/Cleric would get some more Cleric skills into your party. Alternatively, combining your Thief and Illusionist into a Gnome T./Ill. would give you room to scrunch another Fighter/Cleric, Fighter/Druid, Druid, Cleric, Paladin, or Fighter into your party.

16.) This fight (if it is the one I am thinking of) is not tough. There are MUCH tougher fights ahead. Reload until you get lucky or get it right.

Hope this helps.

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

[ 11-10-2004, 09:38 PM: Message edited by: NobleNick ]

Not quite. In the beginning of the game, gold is in short supply, and the dozens of weapons( especially the green-tinted ones) can easily give you hundreds, if not thousands of gold pieces before the start of Chap3.

The trick is in hoarding the weapons and selling them in bulk( 16 per bulk), because the selling price of an item is determined by how much the storekeeper has of that item. This applies to armour too, such as Platemail.

Why the need for gold? Coz it is nice to have Orrick's items when you are still in the Vale of Shadows. ;)

I concur with our illustrious mod. My general strategy (if I'm not in a hurry and I have a reasonable number of characters; 4+) is to take back all weapons worth more than 5 GP. Essentially, longsword and better. I leave axes, daggers, and especially the ultra heavy maces and flails, unless they are high quality.

A little financial flexibility goes a long way. You can pick up the bardic horn, better armour, spells, potions, etc. if you have that extra couple thousand cash.

My strategy for this area is to draw the skeleton archers with one character, unstealthed. You can draw the archers back to the entry foyer - if the rest of your characters stand on either side of the door, the archers have no angle to hit you, walk right in, and get clobbered. If the archers don't walk all the way in, they usually come close enough that you can charge out and get them into melee before they can get off more than one shot.

Clarification: If I needed inventory space, I would drop all those swords that I'm schleping around. I didn't mean never take them, I meant that if needed there shouldn't be a problem with dropping 30 gold worth of skeleton armaments.

Be sure to buy storage containers if you haven't already. You can get them for gems, scrolls, or potions. It doesn't hurt to get 2 if you have many items of one category.

thanks for all the help. i finally DID lure the archers back to the entryway (not sure why they did not follow me before), and i'm at the start of chapter 2 now (fighting lizard men in dragon's eye). my party is realing starting to kick some butt too, now that i know a little more about what i am doing .and if one of my characters die, i'm just reloading as it's too much hassle to have to go all of the way back to kuldahar and waste the gold on rezzing them, then re-equiping all of their items,etc. (i'm not dying as much now anyway) ...i found the storage containers in town, those are very helpful.have also been using my thief to pick pockets there too (thief has 90% pickpocketing skill) , and am getting some pretty good items just doing that.


btw, i found the raise dead and resurrecction scrolls for sale in the temple (did not see the buy/sell option there before) but it says that only good characters can cast those spells but i have a chaotic evil party so i guess my evil cleric will never be able to resurrect? any spells like that that only the evil clerics can use? thanks again.

Yes basically good clerics can use the the healing spells, while evil can use the harming spells (cause serious wounds... etc). Though AFAIK the low level versions of these spells can be used for both.
The harming equivalent of resurrection is I think "destruction" which can be only used by evil.

There are few other spells which are alignement restricted...

If I'm not mistaken, any spell can be cast from a scroll, no matter the alignment of the character.

Off the top of my head, evil clerics cannot cast raise dead, resurrection, heal, cure critical wounds, or either of the Shield of Lathander spells. Instead, the curing/raising spells are reversed, so evil clerics can slay with those spells instead. They get a few other high-level nasties, too.

Good clerics cannot cast Circle of Bones, Cloud of Pestilence, or any of the harming spells.

Some good/evil spells are reversed, like the 3rd level Smite spell.

For me, the clincher is the Turn Undead ability. High level clerics can destroy undead, whereas evil clerics can only control them. Not bad, but I prefer just getting the experience outright.

I also really love the Shield of Lathander spells. True invulnerability for your tank. Mmmm. :D

I only know the duration of the shield of Lathander in IWD2, but in that it is VERY short. Good, but short.