ok, this thing kinda suprised me. ive read about people playing through improved Ilyich for hours before beating him. i reloaded once. the first time the fallen deva got me. second time i took out the cleric first, and killed them all. i found improved Maevar to be much more challenging than improved illyich, though i only had viconia and edwin in addition to my PC berserker. i battled him out with about 7 or 8 reloads(damn those assassins). I also killed Rayic Gethras in the strangest way ever, I dominated him with Viconia and then made him cast FoD on himself. didnt know you can do that. I found Firkraag to be to much of a challenge for my lvl. 11 party of my berserker/mage(dualed, mage at level 6) viconia, Edwin and my self made Elven Fighter/Thief(ditched Valen, too overpowered for my liking). He totally kicked my sorry a**. Umar hills was way too hard for me, what with the liches(i tried umar hills even before windspear hills). I found the De'Arnise keep to be pleasently challenging, though i had trouble with torgal and company. Anyway, the things i thought to be very hard(mainly improved Illyich) so far havent been all that hard. the lich in the docks is hard also. itll propably get even harder for my party of four, but i think i can manage. i think ill also try out umar hills again, now that i have a party around lvl 16.

What skill level are you playing on?

I recommend insane.

Most people who play with the Tactics Mod have their game difficulty set at Insane. Hence the frequent tales of horror. On a related note, certain Tactics encounters change according to the level of difficulty.