Easthaven:
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One of the earliest, and easiest, enemies you will get to fight in HoF mode are the Fire Beetles in the basement of the pub. Talk to the pub owner about her problem and proceed downstairs. The good thing about these beetles is that they do not move, and they are melee. Using the superior range of the quarterstaves that your party started off with, proceed to poke the beetles to death.
As your party is only level 1, expect to only hit the bettles on a critical strike. Do not bother with spells here, just be patient and go read a book or something while your party robotically swing away. If you have a Bard or a pureclassed Thief, they will level up after you have killed all the beetles( assuming that you have a party of six). Deed done, go get more XP by talking to the pub owner again.
You can get a gem by using your Bard to talk to the people in the pub. If you have a Dwarf, get him/her to talk to the female Dwarf in the pub.
The next easy quest is to solve the dream quest. Go find Johad and then go find the Sea Nymph. If you have a Bard, use him/her to talk to the Sea Nymph to open up new dialouge options which will lead to even more XP. Remember, HoF mode also exhances the Quest XP, so squeeze as much as you can out of it in the early game.
Once done, go find the Drunk Neb and use a Mage to talk to him out of his drinking habit. By now, you should be level 2-3, and the only thing you have whacked so far were some pushover beetles.
You should also have some decent money by now, so go to Pomab's and go upstairs to ransack his place. There are some good scrolls to be had here for your Mage/Bard. Plate Mail is good for your melee characters, if you can afford it, while Thieves should get Studded Leather. Bards and Mages will have to go naked for now( choosing Armor as their first spell choice is a good idea, since the scrolls from Pomab's give you offensive power).
Now go find the wolf that has been disturbing the peace in the western part of the town. If you have a Ranger, use Charm Animal on it. Otherwise, blast away with all your offensive spells and ranged weaponary while one bait lead the wolf around the table in the cabin.
To deal with the Goblins in the east, send someone to gingerly step by step inch closer to the goblins' line of sight. Try to lure them one by one, so that you can nuke them with all you got, six to one, fair shmair. Do not feel embarassed to rest after each fight. This is HoF mode. Even the Goblins will eat you alive if you underestimate them. Besides, it only cost one gold to rest in the inn nearby.
After looting all the houses, sell off whatever you do not need and proceed outside. You will encounter some wolves, three of them. Try to charm two of them using either a Druid or a Ranger, and get them to fight each other. Otherwise... you will need to use a method, which you WILL need to use later on.
The "Charge In, Hurl Everything Plus The Kitchen Sink, Run Out, Recharge, And Repeat" method.
Ergo, you fill up all your spell slots with offensive spells. Send in your tank to distract the wolves while you FOCUS FIRE on the weakest one. Scorch it, blind it, curse it, shoot it, do as much possible damage as possible. When your tank is yellow /orange( NOT RED) life, retreat the whole party to rest and charge back in.
Why this works is simple. When you leave an area, any enemy that is still alive will by default, go back to their starting location. The only difference is, when you come back, they remember about it and charge after you. This leads to some terrifying moments in the Orc Cave.
Speaking of which, use this method in the Orc Cave, and under NO circumstances should you run blindly in the Orc Cave. If you attract the attention of too many Orcs, you will be totally overwhelmed and may result in a need to restart from an earlier savegame.
Chromatic Orb and Hold Person are your trump cards in the Orc Cave. A held opponent means automatic hits, which means even your frail old Mage can score a direct hit on a roll of 2. Alicorn Lance is good for direct damage and lowering their AC. Curse and Bless are good too, for enhancing your party's longevity in the battle. Remember to cast Curse BEFORE casting Chromatic Orb or Hold Person.
Remember to Focus Fire! When you rest, the monsters rest too...
It is possible to kill 1-2 Orcs per charge in, but even so, it is still a slow process. When it comes to the Ogres though, expect to take at least 4-5 trips to kill one.
Take advantage of the enemies' AI. Do not charge towards them. Let them charge towards you. Take advantage of the starting tunnel's narrowness and use your stun spells to block those behind.
Killing off all of them is a good thing, as you will garner a lot of XP from this trip. Lots of good items to loot from the cave too. Once you have accomplished your mission, go back to Easthaven and pickpocket the people at the temple for some free Potions of Healing. Remember to Quicksave before your pickpocket attempts.
Congratulations. You have completed Easthaven. Onward to the area where most people give up on HoF mode. The Goblin Zone. [img]tongue.gif[/img]