Walkthru add-on (Arnika NPCs)

[Nordoki]

When you first arrive in Arnika you meet Myles. He tells you about the plight of a beautiful woman in need of rescueing from Dark Savant's troopers.

Do not invite Myles to join your group.

Instead make your way through town and save her yourself. You will gain more experience if you do it without him.

After she is rescued, invite Vitalia to join your party. Take her to the Temple to speak with Lord Braffit. Next take her to see He'Li at the Bar. After you have gained all the items and experience from He'Li dismiss Vitalia from your party. (Try to keep track of her items you end up with.)

Next go back to Lord Braffit. He will give you an additional 1000 gold to try to convince you to keep an eye on Vitalia.

Now go back and get Myles and take him to see He'Li. She will ask for money to clear his tab and you will gain some additional experience points for paying it.

Now reinvite Vitalia if you want her to help you in your further adventures and equip her with her stuff.

Doing it this way gains you more money and experience.

[Gimli]

I took Myles until I was done with Trynton, I actually like the idea of him taking some experience. I believe the more you have to work early in the game to make levels the better, as it will make your skills higher per level. Also I had no thief type and developed Myles exclusively for those skills, never let him take part in combats except to guard other chars (didn't want him taking away chances to attack and raise combat skills from my other characters). He was mostly useless except for an occasional picpocket session. But he did slow down leveling which I believe is a good thing.

Vi is different, she seems more central to the plot of the game and I take her as a "keeper" RPC - but I made her a Priest and she rarely does anything offensive in fights, she's just there to keep everyone else going in good health. Might late in the game switch her back to Valk just so she can wear better armor.

Now I've replaced Myles with Saxx and will keep him since he seems to round out my party really well, have also had RFS 81 but I already had a monk. So at level 13/14 I now have these guys:

Vi, who changed to a Priest
Saxx, Bard

Male Felpurr Samurai
Male Human Monk
Female Mook Ranger
Female Lizard(wo)man Valkyrie
Female Hobbit Gadgeteer
Male Faerie Bishop

Well off to go back to the Mountain Wilderness
That was one sweet waterfall...

[Pyrates]

Hi Nordoki!

What you suggest sounds fine, but one should point out that not everybody wants to focus on the party alone. I myself grabbed the 2 RPC's I'm taking with me as early as possible and shared all experience available with them (well, there is a mission where you have to drop one, and that one misses quite a lot then, but you don't have a choice...). They are around the same level as my "root"-party, and they are SO valuable, you can't imagine [img]smile.gif[/img] . Anyway, that's a question of style, right?

Never forget your towel, cheers
Philipp

[GenXCub]

This is something I harp about all the time on the Diabloii.net boards, but it applies here as well. Many people on here take this point as a given, but sometimes for others it's good to mention... play the game every way possible. Just because someone says not to use Myles or do this, or do that, it's just advice... it's one person's input onto what makes their game fun. There's no way to know if that way suits you till you try everything.

Diablo2 got so bogged down with everyone's "cookie cutter" character builds...what skills to learn, etc... but for some people, you have to have a SUPER group to have fun. Not necessarily true. Try something new, See if you can go the game with just a Lizardman Bishop and Recruits [img]redface.gif[/img] ) I'm exaggerating a bit, but variants are what make the game replayable. Have a party full of fairies to do everything (hold a pride march ;o) Sorry... had to put that joke in)

[Gimli]

I totally agree, I think the main goal is to just enjoy the game. Vi seems pretty central to the plot (ask any NPC about her and they all seem to have something interesting to say) - what made me finally decide to take her was Braffit, he asks you to look after her if you bring her there to him after rescuing her and then return without her in your party.

Personally I didn't want another character in the group fighting, so I decided to just make her a support character (made her into a Priest and she's doing pretty well). I like the depth she adds to the role playing aspect of the game, the extra comments she makes, and I want to see what happens when I finally kick the Savant's butt with her in the party

But also to develop my own characters, I think the most powerful they can be made is via the patient route, have 8 characters in the party whenever possible to slow their rate of gaining experience. This way they have to do more to earn levels and will gain more skill points per level. I'm in no rush with this game, enjoying it quite a bit!

[Oberon]

I agree, slow leveling is good in this game.

And I just wanted to say, my Dwarf Gadgeteer will never have the highest stats, but its just more fitting than a damn hobbit [img]smile.gif[/img]

And I put Vi in the front line, escape death rocks [img]smile.gif[/img]

-Oberon

[Nordoki]

*sniff* Thanks guys. I only wanted to point out a way to pocket some extra exp and money. I wrote the add-on in a way to permit you to eventually have both NPCs in your party but still take advantage of other perks you might not have been aware of. Personally I left Myles guarding the front gates of town. I find he hits with a lot more damage when he is on his own. This helped me greatly. Vi is in my current group and is still a Valkrie. I have no intention of changing her, just enjoying the added help in battle situations.

As you say: to each their own. Bottom line is: Have Fun!