I just finished my first party and found it got very easy by the end (playing on normal, finished with Fig lvl 22 Rogue 22 Bard 22 Bishop 19, Psionic 20 Ranger 20 + Vi 18 and RFS 19). I decided to try something different and more challenging(still on normal mode, however) so went with a party of four Lord - Valk - Priest - Alchemist with the intent of no RPCs. Now, for thematic reasons I went with all humans, and all my characters have senses of 45 (no points added). I just started (finished lower monastery) and I noticed that I cannot find some hidden items even on search mode for a long time, turning all around, waiting, walking slowly, etc. Now, I don't have a lot of patience (I dont do training and such because I get very bored after about 1 minute of trying) so I don't know if my characters with their senses of 45 will never find these things or if I need to try harder.

Any ideas?

In my experience, without a character with 60+ in senses, you have to search very long. I'd not waste my time searching for them with your party.

I usually have someone who can cast mage spells, so i cast detect secrets in spots where i know something is hidden. You don't have anyone. No missile shield, no x-ray.

if you still wanted alchemy covered, change your alchemist to a ranger and check out his or her scouting abilities

the psionicist gets detect secrets. either keep it running, or cast it when you are in an area where you know there are items you want to pick up.

edit: doh - i see now you dont have a psionicist in the new party.

i'd say just do without - there's very few items in the game that searching is critical for. but if you are concerned, you have a few choices (as outlined by wearboar and rezdude)

- get access to the mage spellbook (ie dual-class someone to mage or samurai)
- get access to the psionic spellbook (ie dual-class someone to monk or psionicist)
- get access to the ranger auto-search abilitiy (ie dual-class someone to ranger)
- start running up senses on someone. it will take about 5 levels before you notice the improvement

for your party, i like rezdude's suggestion. alchemist to ranger would be immediately effective. however, it would undermine your attacking magic capability pretty severely.

however, if you dont have the minimum stats to qualify for the switch right away, i'd keep the alchemist and start building senses on the valkyrie. i find that, because they use polearm, they actually develop quite quickly as a fighter, so a few points in senses isnt a big deal (in small parties, i'll often use the valk as a default mythologist!)

[ 09-29-2003, 07:09 PM: Message edited by: sultan ]

Thanks for the suggestions. One of my plans for this game was to use Diamond Eyes with the Lord, so not being able to find it would suck. I'm actually thinking of restarting without the priest (anyway I have lord+valk) and replace with a ranger . I realize I will be doubling up on alchemy and priestly spells (and avoiding mage and psionic spells), but I've found that samurai and monks are pretty slow to get going (samurai starts becoming effective with bloodlust, monks even later). Also I'm trying a game where nobody is getting any vitality points above their starting values, so with a party of four I think a mage or psionic may be too vulnerable (at least for my taste/ability).

personally, i quite like monks, and find that by developing str and spd early they can be qutie effective melee'rs. but the psi book isnt to my liking

however, i'm a big fan of the mage book. in particular, enchant blade, x-ray, and the awesome missile shield are great buffs - and that's not even mentioning the attacking spells. and playing a purecaster in a small party is quite do-able. i had a priest and mage with a ninja and rogue once that did surprisingly well (access to all the key buffs compensated for the lack of armour)

but i think further changes would probably completely change the concept you have for the party.