[Aerich]

Hello everyone,

I'm a Johnny-come-lately to the fun of IWD. I bought a bargain bin copy (no HOW and using the 1.06 patch) as my Christmas gift to myself and have played it incessantly since then, especially when I should have been studying for April exams. Although I managed to do okay in everything, despite finishing IWD twice in that time. As I'm familiar with PnP 2nd edition, it hasn't been too difficult getting a handle on the gameplay.

I do have a few questions, though.

1) Is it possible to find a good on-line beastiary somewhere? I have a cd with a manual, but the manual doesn't give detailed information on monsters. I wish I had known about e.g. the immunities and general toughness of Tarnished Sentries BEFORE I wasted a bunch of spells and magical ammunition on them...

2) Can you actually steal from Bandoth? (in Dorn's Deep tower) I noticed that there is a "hand" icon in the buy screen, but I can't seem to get it to work.

3) What point is there to shapeshifting a druid to a beetle? I tried it once, but as I was a fighter/druid wearing armor, I was encumbered and unable to move until I dropped most of my equipment (shapeshifting to beetle drops Str to 9!).

4) About how many charges are there on a Staff of Nature's Wrath? I think I read in a different forum that it was unlimited, so I once burned out the flamestrike capability before I got to Wyrm's Tooth. It may have been a bug, but I would try to use the flamestrike and nothing would happen (and I know it wasn't from any type of disruption).

5) Anybody else think that snow trolls look like Marilyn Manson? The first time I saw them, I laughed so hard that my party would have been wiped out had I not hit the pause before rolling on the floor with laughter...

6) What kind of really cool spell combos are available for clerics? In my six-character parties the clerics have always been a necessary but under-utilized resource. I've just discovered that Strength of One + Call Upon Holy Might gives giant (19+) strength, and also Strength of One (among other things) affects animated dead, giving you a whole lot more bang for your buck! I'm currently soloing an evil cleric through the Vale of Shadows, with the intention of dualing him to a necromancer once I hit level 9 or so. Might have to import a tank to keep him alive after dualing, though. The idea of trying to get through Dragon's Eye with a low-level necromancer's Thaco and AC is appalling.

Cheers