So, my first game, first party, etc... I figured out how to do the basic stuff in the monestary, and eventually worked my way thru it...

I took some advice I read here, and left my party members all at level 3 for the trip to Arnika, and that worked perfectly. Every encounter my party had was no problem - I even took the south road to the chest guarded by bandits, and succeeded.

When i got to Arnika, I leveled my party up, which put them all at 5 or 6. Then I had a small surprise. The Arnika walkthru suggested picking the lock at the spaceport - which I did. Upon entering I encountered some humanoid thingies which slaughtered me. When I clicked on them, I discovered they were level 20 beasties. Ouch...
I restored from an earlier save and decided to avoid the spaceport for a (long) while....

Question 1: What's up with that? Was that a REALLY UNLUCKY random encounter? Or are the walkthrus a little less linear than I originally thought?

Question 2: I plan to stay in Arnika and train skills and level up until my party is ready to move on. At what level should that be (at a minimum)?

I'm having a blast with this...
-sbb

level 20 mobs? I think your smoking something. When I was around level 8 - 9 I believe, I wanted to kill the vendor outside the monostary for kicks.

Mid battle he summoned a level 17 monster, which kicked my butt. That was a huge level difference. I couldn't see a group of level 20 mobs inside arnika around level 5.

I have seen a couple of posts from people who had level 20ish androids wandering around Arnika while their party was low-level. It does not seem to be a regular occurrence as I've taken a couple of parties in to Arnika and only saw the big baddies when I was bigger and badder than them! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Once you have been everywhere that you can get in Arnika at this time, you might as well move on. There's lots of fun places that you can go after Arnika. I'm kind of partial to wandering around the various wilderness areas to see what kind of goodies I can find.

If you exit Arnika and re-enter, it should re-spawn the encounter to not be those killer droids. Am I correct in this? I've never seen the super killer monster mobs like that either, but I too have read of the horror stories from others.

I'm still in my first game and new to these boards, HOWEVER - I can tell you that shortly after I got to arnika, I too, picked that lock and went inside the 'airport' facility. About 10 extremly high lvl robots came pouring out of a building (the on on your right as you walk thru the door) I was instantly killed. I restored the game and avoided that area at all costs. When I had to go back there the first time (before ever leaving arnika and heading for trynton) I was very nervous. I girded my party with everything I could find and then went back in. To my surprise there were only one or two low level robots to kill. WHEW, what a relief.

When you see big bad mobs like that this is what you do...Run!! Run very far and Very Fast!!

Thanks, all. It's nice to come here and sort of "cross-reference" the things that occur.

And no - I'm never smoking anything at this point in my life. Now, the time when I was between 23-35 years old, thats a different story...

-sbb

LOL, smoking should never be given up when it comes to RPG's. It inhances the mental state you know..... LOL, a +20 increase to senses.... LOL.... NOT!

On a more serious note, running very fast and very far has worked for me as well, but I have also found that you can "wait" in doorways for things to come to you. Missle shield is a great spell to keep those pesky flying objects from penetrating your puny armor, and hence increase your lifespan. Always try and use the cover provided by the game, whether it be a door, a rock, a crevice..... whatever, just don't let those bastages get behind you. I have completed some really tough fights, just like the one you are talking by using the available terrain.

I had the same encounter in the spaceport(non-drug induced level 20 droids), and took them two at a time as they came through the door. The fight lasted like 27 rounds, but I lived, they died, and I got like 17K EP for the hour long battle.

[ 02-27-2002: Message edited by: ChopSuey ]</p>

I might add to this, if you please. Some critters will chase you no matter how much you run. At least at lower levels when you aren't too fast. I had soldier ants and their queen chase me all over the northern swamp. I ran out of stamina, later I realized that the Insanity spell of the queen was only temporary (so I had panicked) and that I had to face them head on. Running doesn't always work or is best.

As posted in the tip section, it also helps to run to a nice friendly group of green npc's. This works very well in Arnika. You can find a lot of city militia, Myles(if not in your party) and monks to help you out. I also find elementals very helpful..anything ot anyone that helps take some of the attacks away from your party is a good thing, especially at the lower levels when you are weaker.