They can fight on their own, but afaik, the character scripts are set to 'none' by default, so they don't.
Choose a character, then go to their "Record" screen and click the "Customize" button under the picture. You can then change the script for each character to whichever one you find appropriate for that character... but you may find that it's usually better to turn scripts off (click the glowy eyes of the time-indicator, globe-holding statue guy on the right side of the interface to turn scripts on or off), especially before a big battle.
Unfortunately, all of the scripts will cause a character to attack on sight of an enemy, which means that your rogues can't sneak up behind anybody, and basically the script determines your battle strategy. There are a number of battles in the future (Shengarne Bridge comes to mind), where you will not want this... if you want to live...
As for your cleric having only 3 spells... well, that sounds odd. OK, I can believe that she only has 3 spell
slots, but afaik, she has the entire range of 1st level cleric spells available (and possibly one or two second level as well, depending on her level). Given that she can't cast many spells before resting, you might want to reconsider which spells you've given her.
For instance, I find Cure Light Wounds pretty much useless, for 2 reasons. First of all it's only a few hit points, which isn't going to keep anyone alive if they're getting creamed. Half the time the character is dead before the cleric even gets to him/her. Second, it's a touch spell, which means that the cleric has to 1) walk to the character who needs healing, stopping what she's doing (which is hopefully eliminating an enemy), and 2) walk to the character who needs healing, leading the enemy that the cleric was fighting to a weakened teammate. Unacceptable. For the small amount of hitpoints that the spell heals, you might as well give everyone 3 or 4 Potions of Healing, which can be used from inventory (pause=>go to Inventory=>right-click potion=>click "Drink Potion", if the potion isn't in one the Quick Items slots, where I find it more useful to keep Flaming Oil and Lamp Oil, which
can't be used from inventory). And Moderate Pain (is that Inflict Moderate Pain?) is again a touch spell, and IMO, there's just too many strong enemies to make it worth wading a cleric (!!!) into a hand-to-hand battle with anyone.
I do hope that you have a save from right before you talked to Shawford after getting (or killing) the Iron Collar band, but if not, you could try running away into Shawford's building, and there re-assigning the cleric's spells. Just click on any of the ones memorized to remove, you'll get a dialog asking if you want to remove it, then select a more useful one, like Sunscorch or even Magic Stone, or do Summon Monster I several times. Level 1 monsters won't kill anybody much, but they will distract enemies from your party members long enough for one of
them to kill the enemy. Unfortunately you'd have to rest to memorize the new spells, which may not be possible (but may). If you can't rest in Shawford's building, I would even try running off the map to one of the abandoned buildings (Phaen's house, now empty, so a rest spot), or all the way an abandoned building on the Docks. What the heck, you're going to have to reload something anyway, so why not experiment
?
If you won the Wolf Charm from the guy at the Salty Dog, that's quite helpful, as are a couple of Elytharra's books, which have magical properties (not for sale items, stealable). Did you do every single 'town quest' before this battle (such as finding the traitor, cleansing the Inn, etc)? This battle is tough enough without being at a lower level than you can be. Also, use the Targos troops to your advantage. If you remain outside the enemies' line of sight (hide a rogue or something to scout forward), they'll swarm who they can see-- who is the Targos fighters, enabling you to pelt enemies with arrows until the Targos fighter is killed. Just be careful, as some named Targos fighters will
not be killed during this battle, and if you hit any allies with area affect spells, they will attack you, which is quite unpleasant.
Anyway, this is your introductory battle to "Strategy in IWD2"-- as in many battles to come you will be outnumbered and outgunned, and will only have the strength of your previous planning (spells memorized, potions bought, etc) to rely on, as you can't rest or escape or buy more. Get used to saving right after you did anything that gave experience, and right before you tell anyone that you did that thing, or right before you move into the next section of the Fog of War after clearing a section. This will usually allow you to reload as close as possible to whatever battle is wiping the floor with you.
Don't worry about having to re-fight the battle-- it happens a lot, as even the Tips in the log window tell you (try forming your party in a different formation, don't be stingy with potions, etc). Get used to the Pause key (spacebar). It helps a lot in keeping the battle from getting ahead of you. Learn to use your party as a team. If the Wizard is getting targeted by a melee fighter, run her away, and send your tank to that enemy to "distract" it from the Wizard. Run the poor wizard in circles if you have to, till everyone forgets about him, and then cast away.
Of course, you could always just slog away, get creamed, then reload with the knowledge of just what enemies you're going to be facing, so you could come up with a better strategy in the first place [img]smile.gif[/img] -- or you could set the difficulty on "Easy" for this battle, then set it back after you've won.... hey, it's cheesy, but the tips suggest that, too....