Minor Spoilers
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I D/L Trials today and installed. I currently have a party that are going through HOW for the first time (just exposed the dragon spirit and kicked barbarian butt). Do I need to start Trials before moving on? I'm in an expansion only game where I imported some of my favorite character from IWD. It's not that big a deal as my next furthest party is in Lower Dorns so they'll be coming along to HOW pretty soon. But while I'm on that subject, If I'm taken back to Easthaven after the first Belhifat battle, will I be able to get to Lonelywood? Just trying to figure how I have to do this so I can play a "full" game with my second party and hit all the areas in one continuous game.

[ 11-02-2002, 09:34 PM: Message edited by: Peytin of Rothmire ]

No, if you kill Belhifat you are not allowed to go to lonelywood because the game is over, and if you get to easthaven after beaten Belhifat the first time then you are stuck in easthaven. You can start a new game for HOW new from your saved party game after defeting Belifat but there will be no going back to Kundahar. If you want to do a full game with expansion them I recommend going so far as were you place the six keys, then doing HOW, and after that is complete then go and kill Belhifat. That is the only way to be able to move to and from lonelywood and Kundahar in a full game. I think this answers your question.

[ 11-04-2002, 02:48 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

As for the time to do Trials - right after exposing the the dragon spirit is a good time.

minor spoiler
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there are two 'quest' that give really good XP back in Lonelywood anyway.

Thanks.
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Yeah, I went back to Lonelywood and defeated the wizards and Purvis. Got some nice level ups from Kiernan too. So now I'm going to give Trials a run. But let me make sure I'm right: I return to Kulduhar after the keys and before Belhifat, then on to HOW. After the Barbarians and wizards, on to Trials. After Trials is complete, will I be returned to Lonelywood? And at that point should I return to finish IWD or HOW? Can I finish both in one game?

After you finish that damnable castle, you return to lonelywood to finish HoW, then when you finish that, you return to kuldahar and get on with that damnable demon.

Pritchke, you recommend doing Heart of Winter that late in the game? I haven't done HoW before, so in a scratch game I headed over there after I took out the lich in upper Dorn's Deep.

So far I'm getting my tail handed to me by the barrow wights, and I'm wondering if it's because I went to soon (around lvl 10 average), or if it's just my strategy. Haven't had anyone killed yet, but I'm sure getting beat up bad, and I haven't even entered underneath burial isle yet.

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For what it's worth, I followed the path laid out by a previous poster. That is, I did EVERYTHING in IWD up to and including finding the last of the six badges but BEFORE i actually used them. Then i went off to Kuldahar, talked to Hjolldar and teleported to Lonelywood. From there, I did everything up to and including the return trip to the barbarian camp where Wulfdane is revealed.

As to the problem you are having with the barrow wights on the surface, a fairly high level cleric should be able to turn them in sufficient numbers for you to concentrate on the shamans that accompany them. Unless you are playing in HOF mode and have an understrength party, they shouldn't be THAT much trouble. I think I first hit burial isle with something around a 12th level party. Try buffing your party the MINUTE the arrive on burial isle. Protectio from evil, recitation, prayer, bless, defensive harmony, protection from fire are all good spells to add. If you have a druid, cast multiple static charges! It's the gift that keeps on giving! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Try to NOT expose more than one group of barrow wights at a time. When you first arrive there is a group to the northwest and a group to the northeast. Take ONE at a time. I recommend the northeast group. Try dropping a web in the other direction just in case. Also try using spike growth to slow down the wights, and if you mage is high enough level, cast an acid for at the extreme edge of your vision BEFORE you expose the wights in EITHER direction. (yeah its cheesy but it works). the acid slows the wights down and inflicts damage at the same time.

If a shaman becomes visible, start peppering him with fire based spells - anything that can disrupt his spells is useful.

Try to have all your front line fighters equipped with Rings of free action and if necessary drop a web RIGHT ON TOP OF THEM!!! They will be immune but the wights won't be! Don't let any character get surrounded or it will be all over.
Hope that helps. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Will I recommend it because HOW is tough and it gets far tougher than Burial Isle. If you have Trials of the Luremaster installed this area is extremly difficult, at least I thought so, and I doubt my party would have gotten through in one piece without a druid in my party. The final battle with the dragon is not easy either so it is good to have your party members at as high as level as possible or you may find yourself doing alot of resting and healing. As far as burial isle goes it could be strategy the drowned dead are tough and I have used two strategies for this area one involves a cleric, and the other a druid, both work well, and even better if you have both.

1. The Druid - Turn into earth elemental, send forth to battle drowned dead, use everyone else on ranged to take out enemies that do crushing damage, or wailing virgins, than concentrate fire on drowned dead. (not for barrow wights)
2. Priest cast Undead ward, than turn undead and have everyone stand behind. If your lucky very few undead will make it through, and the ones that do you should be able to handle.

I am sure there are several other strategies that people have come up with that work really good in this area. For the surface Barrow wights you can use the priest strategy, and have fighters concentrate on one wight at a time, the mages cast whatever spells you think are best.

[ 11-04-2002, 04:56 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

Thanks again for the help.

Pritchke: Will HOW actually get harder with Trials installed? I didn't install it until I had exposed Wylfdene and the barbarians. Will these areas be harder the next time I come through?

As far as the drowned dead, I didn't find them all that tough as long as I used ranged weapons. I always tried to only have one to deal with at a time and had every character use their range weapon on that one. If I got more than one at a time I used my cleric and fighters with melee weapons as best I could. The barrow wights were pretty easy using a mage and web spell with free action. They took awhile to go down but never did much damage.

Thanks much for the advice all. I went back to a slightly earlier save game and am doing wyrmtooth now before I go to Heart of Winter. Won't lose that much time there since I hadn't gone much further than stepping on Burial Isle anyways.

One more quick question on the rings of free action: where can I find them? Haven't seen them yet. I've got a few potions with me, but the rings would be much nicer to use.