[andrewas]

there are some level thresholds which are very useful to cross - the 3 million xp mark is v.useful if you have ToB since you get special skills. lvl 15 is good for a mage since you get skeleton warriors. part of the fun however is in beating tremendous odds despite a low level and lack on super powerful weapons.

in the battle in d'arenise keep i would use an entangle/web combo with stinking cloud and cloudkills after that. a barrage of fireballs is also good. horrid wilting would be ace but its too high a level. any survivors (probly torgal himself) should be easy meat for your tanks. if you dont mind cheesy tactics send in an invisble char. only torgal can see invisble chars so he'll chase you. he wont remember to alert his bodygards and they wont follow. by himself hes much less of a threat.

oh and its not too much of a spoiler to say that there are many more areas to find yet...

the grove challengine thing needing lvl 14 is only for the druid stronghold. mages get a different stronghold.