I gave up last night on my recent party of four...

Basically it ended with fighting serval groups of monsters. I had just left the Monestary when I ran into trouble. First I fought 7 Hidgardi Highwaymen (HP: 77+), 7 Hidgardi Roubousts (HP: 87+). Three out the four people died. After the fight was over, I used my last three resurection powders and went on. I reached the "abandoned house" right before the Arnika Road, and BANG. I encountered another 10 Highwaymen. I lost only one life but had no more resurect poweders. Of course the dead one was my only magic caster (Bishop). If that didn't piss me off... it was the next fight. Not only did I get done fighting a tough fight but not ten feet down the road was 10 Acidvines. So I reloaded, and tried to sleep behind the house. As soon as I woke up I spotted an even bigger group of Highwaymen waiting for me again.

All I wanted to do was get to Arnika so I could get more powder but after every single fight; there was another one (harder than the previous one) waiting for me around the corner. I am serious about this!!! I couldn't go 30 seconds without a fight (literally). And there weren't any remotely easy ones (battles) either. To top that off I had no more healing potions, no healing magic (dead caster), and the only three standing were at 20 hit points or less (and the all had a max of 50+ HP!!!). I couldn't camp because everytime I did, an even HARDER group of monsters showed up and "surprised me".

So I just deleted all of my saved games, from that party, and removed those four characters from the game as well. Tell me that I did everything right. Tell me that this is typical for a party of four. I mean I comnplained about the whole "fighting/random encounters" thing in another topic but this was way over the top when it came to having TOO MANY BATTLES. Because I give up on small parties for a long time...

Edit: By the way... In order to overcome this great injustice, I have restarted my LOTR party (thought you might have an interest in this Rezdude03). I have recreated each character (made them more awesome than the first group I made) and I have chosen to stick with this party to the end. And yes it is a party of 6 and it is going to probably stay that way. I'm thinking of picking up RPCs but not to sure... Give me some suggestions or ideas if anyone can...

[ 10-28-2003, 12:10 PM: Message edited by: allstargoaly ]

Sounds like a more than a bit of bad luck. What level were your characters?

In my current party of four (alc-ran-lor-val; currently level 14-15), we had far less trouble on the way to Arnika. I think we were level 6-7 when we started. We had several tough encounters, but nothing like what you describe (I remember something very similar happening in my very first party - a party of six - with group after group of 100+ hitpoint higardi/unfair numbers of plants etc.). The toughest encounter my current party had was around the safe house - we went up against 8 higardi (50-80 hitpoint variety, I think) + 4 acid vines + 9 ants (in a single encounter). I had to reload once because I got caught in the open and surrounded (they came from two different sides. After reloading, I went to the 90 degree angle made near the door to the safe house and scrunched back into it as much as possible (ants cannot climb the walls of the house). Basically, I won the fight by using every spell point my alchemist and others had (and starting fully loaded), and using several magic missile sticks/thrown powders/etc. I also used a lot of heal spells/cure condition/stamina potiions, etc.) You get good effects from cone-type spells in that position. The problem with the back of the safe house is you can still get surrounded, particularly by ants.

yeah, parties of 4 have it tough at the beginning, particularly on the arnika road. it sounds like you had an inordinate amount of bad luck, though.

some things i've done to make it easier:

- reload from the monastary. i always do a quick save before leaving the monastary. if before i get to the teleport house i find it's outta control, i'm not above reloading back from the monastary.

- defense. tactically speaking, small parties dont have as many hit points for distributing the damage they take, so you have to be particularly more conscious of health levels than with larger parties.

- easy difficulty. that's right, another thing i'm not beneath doing is taking down the difficulty for this stretch.

- camp frequently. after i get the piercing pipes chest, camp. i try to minimise extra use of potions for healing and i prefer to have max mana for each new battle.

- terrain! the key one. my favourite spot is at the teleport hut - but not by it, across from it. when you come out of the sandy area, turn left up the hill. at the top, in the corner is a fantastic little crevice where only one enemy can get at you at a time. even better, if you settle right back into it, no one can see you, making it a great place to camp (see previous point).

- finally, if all else fails, keep moving. i hate running from fights, but this is the most imbalanced stretch of the game. so i've occasionally made discretion the better part of valour and kept moving rather than hang out for a bash up.

obviously, in something like you experienced, no amount of strategy is going to help. you just got f*****d. but dont let that turn you off small parties.

good luck with your new one, though!

It can be done, I personally have completed Wiz8 with only 2 characters (and the occasional help from a NPC at the start). Have read reports from playing completing the game with just one character!

Use the tips above, and remember, you do not have to fight every battle in Wiz8, discresion is the better part of valor and all that.

Have fun!

[img]smile.gif[/img]

EDIT: Thought of another one: Run away, and live to fight another day!

[ 10-28-2003, 07:35 PM: Message edited by: Wolfie ]

I don't recommend camping along the way to Arnika after leaving the Monastery, only if you are close to Arnika. The 2 places I rest before the last few niches near Arnika are at the Cutthroat chest, which is asking for trouble, or behind the house, which also asks for trouble. New groups are generated when you rest and they can be hard. After that, run if you get overwhelmed. The enemies generally break off before you are out of stamina. I made it to Arnika at lev 2, just to see if I could do it. A fair amount of running and using crevices and blind luck helped. People are right when they say the number of enemies are random on that road.

I've made it to Arnika a few times with a 4-party (on my third? now lev 13 much later in the game). But the dice can throw you a bad mix, so you reload from the Monastery...or run.

Hi,

that's one of the reasons I build up my party slowly in the monastery until they reach Lvl. 10 ( as some of you may know from my earlier posts ). When I enter the arnika road there are no longer difficult enemies and you can rest as often as you wish. The new spawned monsters ( many higardi brigand and highwaymen ) bring a lot of EXP and many good items. I never played a party of 4 but IMO they can be build up the same way.
Of course you'll need a little patience for that but with a little luck you can get interesting items in the monastery ( in one of my games it was the only place where I got Vampire Bat Wings ).

But, of course, this is only one way to start into the game.

Greetings

i've actually had as much trouble staying in the monastary trying to build up as i've had just taking my luck with the road. one time a party of 3 (an early one that i think i quit soon after this happened) ran into no less than 17 lvl 8+ slimes in a corridor... they were only lvl 7 or so at the time and just got bitchslapped (if i can say that here!)

I like to leave the M at L5 for parties of three or more, but with enough XP saved up to advance to 8th for a party of 3 and 7th for 4's.
The first 2 games i finished, with parties of 6, i did develop everyone to L10 in the Monastery, but they were imports and started with 5 free levels.
Solos all ended up leaving the Monastery at L8 with enough points for L10. (these were developed in there with extensive fights against Met. Slimes, whose drops were quite a boon...) and Duos were either like Solos or leaving at 7 ready for 9.
The mobs are pretty much evenly matched if you do that. (and don't camp long enough to let them respawn!!!) I haven't been overwhelmed since i started doing this, and i've taken at least 100 parties at least as far as Arnika.

Of course, this may be skewed from your experience, because i always do Stealth for everybody at L4/5.

The biggest problem wasn't defense. The problem was DEATH. I had never had so many deaths in any of my other games. I did have defensive spells, but my bishop was "never" alive to cast them. The battles (IMO) were normal for a PARTY OF SIX. All of my previous parties of 6 encountered these series of "countious" battles but I didn't have THAT many deaths in the early parts of the game. My bishop died about 5 or 6 times. FIVE OR SIX TIMES!!! None of my other magic caster died that many times in the ENTIRE GAME!!! If I can't handle the early levels how can I take on the harder levels/bosses in the game.

With each new monster and each new level brings a new challenge. THE GAME DOES NOT GET EASIER. You fight harder, tougher, stronger, faster, smarter, etc as the game countinues. IMO if I can't win battles early, later equals more disaster. I'm going to totally throw the idea of SMALL PARTIES aside. I like the idea of failing once because now I have something to look forward to trying later on ("... try try again") For the time being I'm going to forget about it and focus on my next party. Speeking of my next party...

Update on my LOTR party: I haven't gotten very far (college, soccer, family issues...) since my first post.
SPOILER ALERT
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My last saved game was in the cave near the N. Wilderness (near the HOGAR). None of my characters have died yet. Gandalf came close (2 spells backfired and brought him down to 2 hit points). I SMASHED Gregor. I only took 5 mins. He did bismal damage to my party. In fact I haven't had any trouble. My next possible mission is the Hogar.

The Hogar has about 400+ hit point and I was thinking about taking him on. I believe that every character is on level 6? Gimil, Aragorn, and Legolas are all on the front line. I think Gimli has 80 some hit points and Legolas/Aragorn each have about 50 something. I do have the concussion powder. Hehehehe. I'm not sure that I'm ready to face him at such a low of a level. I have gone back in other games (late in the game) and absolutely crushed him. I was thinking of maybe seeing what I can do early in this game. I have never used the concussion powder before (on the Hogar); I hope it works...

I will keep you posted about my LOTR party... (if anyone is interested).

[ 10-30-2003, 09:01 AM: Message edited by: allstargoaly ]

Keep us posted. You can take on the Hogar at level 6 but I foresee alot of reloads. Whatever you can do to make him handicapped, try it. You can also run around a nearby hill and sneak in the cave, but you may not be fast enough at your level. I'm usually lev 9 or better when I try him, but I get him in an attempt or 2. I think it can be done at 6, with patience.