A couple of questions...

First, how to set the game to Heart of Fury mode. Do I just set game difficulty to the farthest setting over? The game says "Insane" then--is it the same?

Yes, yes...read the manual. I would if I could, but I accidently left it on a different continent.

Second, are the items available in this mode really THAT good? And is it really difficult to play?

In essence...is it worth playing the game over?

The monsters all have MANY more HP's. I restarted the game in HOF mode using my party that had already completed the game. Even my very well-equipped 16th level party of 6 found HOF very challenging. However, I found it necessary to almost always use summoned monsters in most battle to do most of my fighting. Damage producing arcane magic spells simply did not produce enough damage to turn the tide of battles. I got bored. I restarted a new non-HOF party.

To set HOF mode, you have to run the separate configuration program; you can't do this in the game itself.

As for tough...well, gobbie archers have a +31 to hit, and by my figuring, orcs are somewhere in the 250-300 hitpoint range.

Yes, some good things do show up, early on. Like Golden Heart of [CHARNAME], which, among other things, provides haste and free action while equipped.

Of course, you also start with no money. So you'd want to bring along all the excess equipment you can carry (bags of holding won't come along) so you can build up cash for the better items.

<center>Nightowl2</center>

I have been playing through HOF mode with my original party from the first time through the game and having a blast. Its not as hard as it sounds... YES, everything has over 250 hitpoints BUT if you have a sorc/wiz with improved invisibility you'll make it through no problem. It is kind of lame and cheap, but the game is built that way and I am perfectly willing to take advantage of. I "cloak" my entire party every time I rest and hack and slash everything. Im past the ice temple all ready and havent had much harder of a time than the first time through. Also I beat the battle square game with my fighter after making her invisble before every fight. I have found it anoying that NONE of my sorcerers death magic works kind of wasteful, and the enemies WILL make almost all of there saving throws, but after I make him invisible it gives him time to brush up on his hand to hand skills. [img]smile.gif[/img]