Spells, Gold, and TOLM

[Lymond]

Can anyone recommend a listing of mage and druid spells that not only describes them in some detail, but offers some opinion as well? I find I'm always using magic missle, the orb, haste, and summoning spells. My mage has many others, but they never seem to work- domination never works, the power words don't do anything, chain lightning came back through my party and killed one of my own guys. I'm sure the problem is me and my lack of knowledge of how the spells work, but it's still frustrating.

Is there anything good to buy in Lonelywood or afterwards? I don't know why, but I have almost $300,000 in gold and nothing to buy. I remember when I first began the game, there were some expensive things I wanted to get and now that I have gold lying around, nobody's selling anything extraordinary. I can't take it with me, so what's the point?

Finally, is the difficulty of TOLM the monsters or the puzzles? For the most part, I'm not very good at the puzzles. In IWD, I had to look up the answer to the table puzzle, because I didn't have a clue- did I miss a lever, an object, forget to speak with someone, was the answer in the symbols themselves- the possibilities seemed endless. On the other hand, I solved and enjoyed getting into the castle in TOLM. The riddle was there, which at least provided a direction as to the form of the answer. Is it like that throughout or is it more open ended "get past this" puzzles?

Lymond

[Micah Foehammer]

Answering your questions in reverse order:

THe primary difficulty in TOLM is the combat and NOT the puzzles. There are only three riddles / puzzles to solve and the hints for them are provided within the game so they are fairly straightforward. The one that seems to be causing the most trouble for people is the flawed gem / flawless gem series. I won't provide spoilers unless you ask for them.

There are some nice weapons to be had in Lonelywood - one mace in particular is VERY useful to have before you trundle off the burial isle. [img]smile.gif[/img] Plus there is a mage with some nice items to be found later on in HoW.

I am sure that there is a link listed somewhere earlier in this forum providing spell lists but I can't seem to find it at the moment. Try scrolling thru the threads back a couple of weeks and you should be able to find it.

I'm surprised that domination isn't working for you ... I've gotten a LOT of mileage out of that spell. You might try using chaos as well as confusion and hold person / hold monster - they can affect multiple targets instead of just one for domination. You might just be unlucky on the saving throws the monsters are rolling. Try putting some more distance between you and the bad guys when you use chain lighning - the spell will jump from its initial target to the NEAREST target and then to the next nearest and so on. If your party is TOO close, THEY will become the next targets in line. Be VERY careful with spells like Horrid Wilting - it has a 30' radius which means it needs to be cast WELL away from your party or THEY will take damage too!