I am at somewhat of an impasse in BG2:SoA. I have access to most anywhere on the worldmap, but whether exploring out there or skulking around in Athkatla, I can't seem to pull a victory when it counts. A perfect example is the De'Arnise stronghold. I have cleared it totally but cannot beat the 3 trolls at the end. Another example. I killed the tanner and took the unfinished armor but cannot beat the mage and his cronies one floor up. Is it just that there are level thresholds which really should be crossed, or key members that should be in a party, before these quests can realistically be completed well? Or is it merely that I must vary my tactics and spell-use? Or some combination thereof? I am really getting frustrated here, as I cannot seem to DO anything without dying, but it is by DOING things that one becomes more powerful, finding items and gaining experience. On a side note, I would love to drop Cernd from my party in favour of another tank (like a fully armored Anomen) but I feel I can't because I read somewhere that a druid needs to be level 14 to challenge for leadership of a grove, which I surmise is what is needed to overcome that druidess who has linked herself directly to the corrupted grove. *sigh*

Any words of wisdom for a simple mageling?

Mage Inis
level 10 and...er...counting?

Ok,Do The Quests You Can Do Without Getting Killed And Slowly Accumulate XP,sp? Also make sure you have a balanced party,like a thief,cleric,mage and fighters and archers. As For the druid grove quest,you could challange Faldorn with a lvl 1 druid if there was one in the game [img]smile.gif[/img] . Jaheira and Cernd can challange Faldorn anytime,if your pc was a lvl 14 druid you could challange that other druid guy to get the druid stronghold quest

Only Your Player Character Can Challange for leadership of the grove not that freak Cernd, Sorry if I confused you [img]smile.gif[/img]

try using flame blade spells, and acid arrows on the trolls it should do the trick. And yes if you are having a problem with a battle do not be afraid to try different tactics, and keep an eye on the dialog box if something is not doing damage to the enemy it will tell you. good luck.

there are some level thresholds which are very useful to cross - the 3 million xp mark is v.useful if you have ToB since you get special skills. lvl 15 is good for a mage since you get skeleton warriors. part of the fun however is in beating tremendous odds despite a low level and lack on super powerful weapons.

in the battle in d'arenise keep i would use an entangle/web combo with stinking cloud and cloudkills after that. a barrage of fireballs is also good. horrid wilting would be ace but its too high a level. any survivors (probly torgal himself) should be easy meat for your tanks. if you dont mind cheesy tactics send in an invisble char. only torgal can see invisble chars so he'll chase you. he wont remember to alert his bodygards and they wont follow. by himself hes much less of a threat.

oh and its not too much of a spoiler to say that there are many more areas to find yet...

the grove challengine thing needing lvl 14 is only for the druid stronghold. mages get a different stronghold.

The druid thingie Cernd or Jaheria can defeat her if you are not a druid

Slight cheating maybe, but i just cast lots of defensive stuff on Jaheria, pumped her full of steroid drugs (Potions in RPG language)
and the shadow druid wasnt too tough.....Jaheria was level 12 i think for me

I beat Faldorn when Jaheira was lvl 10 (Druid one). I used summon woodland creature, a nymph came out, cast hold on Faldorn, and she stayed held until she died.

Easy way to kill the trolls in the dearnase keep-
Go into the room with an invisible creature (such as a hidden in shadows thief). This will intiate dialogue and TorGal Will attack, BUT THE OTHER TROLLS WONT. TorGal is simple when its only him, and after that u can go back in and kill the trolls for the XP!!. This is a very usefull bug... albeit cheesy

Don't know, never had any problems with smacking all those you mentioned. Didn't use any other tactic other then "walk in and beat the living daylight out of them" either.
*spoiler warning to those who care*
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I guess it depends what char is your main char. Mine is human berserker whom I got over from BG1, wasn't maxed out there (lvl wise), I usually tend to finish things before I max levels heh. I did roll for quite some time and got not too bad stats for him, not to mention the stat books I found, so his main stats are 19 (STR, DEX, CON). In any case here's a tank who can take beating and give it. As for the tanner encounter, my main concern there was that the weaker party members should be protected, so before I went down I buffed Aerie and Yoshi with protection spells like Barkskin, Stoneskin on Aerie. Also the Aid and Chant (or whatever it's called), Defensive Harmony, the neat buffs what clerical types have, are handy - they make your party effective and enemies weaker. With Jaheira I used the True Sight (off of a scroll I think, she didn't have it yet), to remove that pesky Invisibility those bloody assasins have, so that they cannot backstab. By that time my main tanks had all at least the full platemail on, it was dropping in many places. All tanks drank the Oil of Speed, main tank had already the Boots of Speed as well from the Planar Prison, so he was extra fast. And then I went in (took Party AI off first). As soon as I was in I hit the pause and managed to do so before the dialogue started. I sent the main char right after the ghoul at the caster, and sent the Minsc on the closest assasin. All the other party members were attacking the same target as Minsc with ranged weapons (bow and slings). I sent my main char after the ghoul because it was the weakest there, and the second assasin would then go after him. Since the True Sight was up, they could not go invis on me and backstab. Also the ghoul is so weak that was dead with the first hit, and considering the speed my main char had, the ghoul died before the second assasin could even get close to my main char (forgot to add, main char had Draw Holy Might special ability also on, making him really mean). Ghoul died and then the main char went after another assasin, while others finished the first. Then I regrouped them and was ready for the Bone Golem, which still hadn't spawn yet. It came shortly and almost as fast, as it was whacked by all at once.

With the trolls, I did somewhat similar buffs to the party, but I also used the little neat thingie what Yoshimo has, and what many for some reason disregard (or aint mentioning anyway) - traps! Yes, that's right, Yoshi's special ability. He had 3 usual Snares and 3 Special Snares, so I set them carefully on the stairs, so that the trolls didn't see him. Set all of them there, on the upper step. Then moved him back and got the Hasted main char to walk in and get the dialogue to start. Once it was over, ran back to others in the room where the hulks used to be earlier. It was no nice to see the trolls get a full blast of Yoshi's traps, really sweet. They did get damaged nicely and later I just chopped them into "troll shaped chunky bits". Yoshi was using flame/acid arrows to finish the lying trolls, while others were whacking at the standing ones.

Levels of the chars during both 'events' were between 10 and 13 I think..

SPOILER. The easiest way to beat Faldorn is to have Cerrnd go in, hasted, as human, then have him cast Summon Animals. You usually get 2 bears, who make short work of Faldorn, esp. if you beat her to the Insect Swarm spell.