Thank you all for the relplies, this certainly seems to be a very good board. This game is going to take a lot of getting used to. Having played all the Black Isle games and recently completing Gothic, I am a bit overwhelmed by the amount of race/class combinations possible. And the different forms of magic use are blowing my mind. I will definately have several reads through the index of spells in the manual, it appears that will help me get a grip.
Since I am getting my ass handed to me on the road to Arnika I am thinking about starting another party. I find the spit acid ability of my dracon so very useful...it does the same amount of damage to 10 enemies at a time as one arrow does to only one of those enemies. So why not have 3 or 4 dracons in my party. And maybe an Alchemist instead of a Psionic. Alchemists seem to have some nice area damage spells. And this way I could start with a bard instead of trying to switch my rogue who is already 7th level (too late from some of the opinions gathered here).
And JUST TO CONFIRM: I suspect that certain items I find can only be combined using a gadgeteer, like umm parts of stuff, like the microwave chip. But the same button that combines things can be used by only the Alchemist to combine things like potions and powders, right? And if so, is there a comprehensive recipe list anywhere out there?
Off Topic - don't read any further unless you want to read about who Brak is - Brak is indeed a character from the Space Ghost franchise. But he is not the evil bug (that is Zorak). Space Ghost started as an action cartoon by Hanna Barbara in the late 70's & 80's. You know, a super hero fighting evil on distant planets and in space. When I was a kid it was pretty cool stuff. A comic book style kind of b-cartoon. Well, now that Turner's Cartoon Network owns the rights to Hanna Barbara cartoons, they decided a few years back to do something funny with all that footage of Space Ghost. They made him into a late night talk show host with real guests (usually famous actors & musicians). Very wierd, kind of adult humor. The show is called Space Ghost Coast to Coast. This weekend I saw an episode with Bjork and the singer for Radiohead. Zorak is his band leader and is very evil. They also tried to make a morning show where Space Ghost hosted and sang silly songs and showed clips of other old Hanna Barbara cartoons, this was called Cartoon Olio, or something like that. This featured Brak as the sidekick, Brak has a really funny voice and sings some of the silliest songs you've ever heard, and is an alien kid of some kind. Since then Cartoon Olio flopped and Space Ghost Coast to Coast was a hit. But people loved Brak so he now has his own show, first there was a big stage production called Brak presents the Brak Show starring Brak. Lately he has been in a much funnier Leave It To Beaver take off more simply called the Brak Show. Go here if you want to see images of and learn more about the funny and handsome BRAK!
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/spaceg...rak/index.html
And here is a link to Space Ghost's Invincible Super Site where he has movie reviews and other great stuff:
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/spaceghost/index.html