Please help me - I'm a newbie.

I've tried about a dozen times to take on Smaelav Orcslicer and his amusing colleagues in the Den inn, but they kick my posterior even in easy mode.

Any suggested strategies gladly accepted. I've tried getting Aerie to stinking cloud the room, but it's a bit of a wimpy spell.

Also, how do you cast cause major harm? I have two of my party with the memorised spell and have yet to successfully use it.

Cheers

Are u reffering to the ones in the inn at Waukens promenade upstairs?? If so this is how i killed em. Memorise as many stinking cloud and cloudkill spells that u can. move out of veiw of the thugs and cast all the stinking cloud spells on the ground at the edge of the shadowy area so to speak. then cast all the cloudkill spells on the same spot. If all that doesnt kill em cast a few icestorm or fire ball spells at em aswell. If they STILL aint dead they must be lookin pretty bad, go in for the kill.

Not too hard. Use emotion on the entire group, and they'll play dead. Cull them all while they're down and finish Pooky off last, since he's no great threat. The Cause Wounds spells, I think, act much like the Quivering Palm ability. You need to cast them and then successfully strike an opponent in melee for it to work. If you miss, the spell fails. They're not very useful except for Harm, which takes the enemy's hit points down to 1 and has no saving throw.

I found Cause Wounds to be a bit of a redundant spell really. Harm had some use but Cause was just a total waste. If you have to get to melee range might as well smash them with something sharp and solid.

I found at early level Confusion or Chaos works well too, keeps them distracted. The dwarf is PRETTY tough for a newbie but keep hacking away, eventually he'll fall.