quote from hollywhipet

"Constantly casting a spell at power level one is a good way of practicing without wasting mana."

And it goes really fast with an hybrid with a high score in the governing characteristic (DEX for ninja / ranger, SEN for monks)
Of course with a spell point regenrating item, it's overkill

Apologies if this is repeat of previous posts

1. Some spells to cast in fake combat:
Fire : hypnotic lure - ring of fire
Air : set portal (just after returning to it or re-returning to it).
Water : stamina (after some running for example ) - dracon breath - superman
Earth : razor cloak - body of stone
Divine : summon elemental

Fire and water son especially interessant for bishops as they are no "long-time" spells in those realms (a la missile/magic shield and co) : light is more or less incompatible with chameleon. And to wander by night and without light in the swamp is quite an experience, with a reasonable chance to train "heal" on the way

2. If you plan to play with 3 (or more) portals, for example 2 spellcasters and 1 hybrid, put one at some fountain in the trees. You cast all the iconic spells (from missile shield to magic screen), save, replenish and, your choice/luck, portal out, repeat or just reload. And, there is no justice for the "cheesy ones", at high level you'll train restoration "en prime".

3. To train heal, cure paralysis, cure poison, cure lesser wounds and similar, just cast summon elemental against some worthy opponents.

4. Greenpeace tip
Save the hoggars !
Rexx shall be a recrutable player character


2.

Tired of taking the long way around between Sadok and the Trang-o-porter? When you get to the T'rang bouncers ("Thissss area is off-limits"), pull out your swords, wave them around, hit the run button, run to the other exit, turn around and say 'ha ha, just kidding' and go about your business.

Just make sure there aren't any unfriendlies around when you do this or there'll be T'rangs standing right in fron of the doors next time you try to pass through.

After finishing a Wiz 8 area I like to look at Walkthroughs and see if there is anything I missed ... actually I found something missing from the Walkthroughs .. at least the ones I looked at .. namely now to get into the "turned" crate in the circle of crates in the "first room" of the upper monastery (coming from lower monastery). You can see the crate lid, and there is a plank for getting out ... so there MUST be a way in right? ... here is how to get there: (SPOILER)
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After "banging the gong" in the upper Monastery, go into the console room (with the big windows that are now broken) drop down into the center of the boxes and you can "reach the unreachable box" and there is a nice item (at least for low-lev parties) in there.

Sometimes Trynnie patrols get stuck in the doorway on the way to the rattkin tree. Doing one or two quicksaves will, for some reason, free them up and get them moving again.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

Here is the never ending game bug exploit. (Contains Spoilers)

For this option to work, you must first chose the ending where you do not align with the Dark Savant.

Once combat finishes, and everyone is saying their endgame speeches, you'll notice that you can move around. If you have a 6 man party, or even 4 man party, you'll have enough time to run out of the Cosmic Circle. But the bad thing is, once your out, you can't pick up items, only move. So find some enemies. Once combat begins, you are free to move. While you can never truly beat the game now, I still find it fun to play, even if all you do is fight monsters.

A nice thing i like doing that shows my sadistic side...

When im fighting enemies i KNOW i can kill without raising a sweat i use my healers to heal them...
Thus enabling me to inflict more pain, get better weapons training PLUS divine magic training.

just remember to leave enough for yourself at the end [img]smile.gif[/img]

another sadistic tip is if you have high magic resistance but your casters are bumblers, cast everything on red. this is especially good if there are friendlies around that could get hit by the back fire. you can get some nice items this way without damaging your faction rating. (you could also use instant death spells as someone has mentioned in another thread).

Don't underestimate the Lower Monastery for a skill training grounds. The monster top out around lv 14 (fleshing eating slimes), but more often you run into Metallic Slimes (lv 8 slimes that have good damage resistance). Metallic slimes can absorb a lot of punishment, don't deal out much damage, and allow you to train combat orient skills/magic schools to high level relatively easily.

Although this has been implied in a few posts, I think this deserves a separate mention:

The Portal spell - learn it, use it, love it. I think this is the single most useful & powerful spell in the whole game (based on my experiences in the completed Normal-level game a while ago) as no other spell can change your game experience (or even the game concept!) as drastically as Portal. Don't pick it for just one caster, let ALL your casters learn Set Portal & Return to Portal. This will give you even greater power and flexibility.

It is debatable whether you should spend a spell pick on the Portal spell. Granted, there are a plenty of Return to and Set Portal books in the game. OTOH, when my (pure) casters become eligible to learn the spell, I typically will only have picked up only 1 complete pair of Set & Return to Portal books, and I am eager to have portals available as soon as possible. So it's up to you. I might suggest that a typical pure caster use a pick for this spell if you do not have the books available (it's only 1 pick for 2 spells), while it would be justified for a bishop to save the pick and try to get the books instead.

Why the Portal spell is so useful:
1) Most importantly, it will speed up your game. Most of the game time is spent on wandering around and running into random encounters. While these are good for the experience reward, skill improvement and a random item or two, they tend to get boring after a while. A journey from Arnika to Croc's shack can take several hours (real time). If you have a strategically placed portal, Croc's shack is just a few mouse clicks away!
2) As mentioned by others, if you place a portal in the T'Rang teleporter chamber, you have an instant access to no fewer than 4 different locations [EDIT: 5, actually, if you also count Marten's Bluff]! In fact, if you - for whatever reason - only have one Portal caster, this is probably the best place for your portal.
3) The "town portal" tactic for exploring dangerous areas. First, set one portal in a known safe location (there are several in the game), preferably one that also has stores/healing/etc available. Then start exploring the dangerous place, let's say the Rapax Castle, until your party is in a REALLY bad shape. Cast a second portal here. Then portal back to the safe location, rest&heal up and resupply your ammo or whatever you need. Portal back to the dangerous area and continue.

There are probably other uses for portals, too. Of course the portal will not help you in any way once a combat has started, but it will make the game a *lot* less tedious - it will help avoid those annoying fights (at least some of them).

In fact, when I form a party nowadays, I try to get as many casters as possible (meaning more portals).

[ 04-08-2004, 04:57 AM: Message edited by: seclists ]