Ironman Adventures

since you have no pure healers in your party, giving the valk, ranger, and monk some time to learn their heal spells (and the ranger time to get alch up to mix) would seem prudent before hitting the road. otherwise, you'll spend a fair bit of timing running

[Ae3than]

Sultan - Thanks for the advice.

I am lurking around the Monastery for the time being, the mobs have scaled up nicely and there are plenty of good sleeping spots and defensive positions, so I think I'll take your advice and get my "healers" a little experience and then get X-ray for the Mage so that the run to Arnika becomes easier.

Lots of long battles with those mid-grade slimes is raising my melee abilities very quickly.

Ae3than

[dplax]

To further up your melee and healing abilities try healing up those slimes.

[Scatter]

Don't need Wizardry for Element Shield, anyway. Alchemy book has it, too. For me the biggest reason to include either a Wizardry-castable or a Gad is for X-Ray. Though Missile Shield is helpful, i've gone without it many times and not really missed it. I do miss X-Ray when i don't have it, but it doesn't make anything impossible.

[Loudhy]

IMO X-Ray is very helpful. In my usual games I left the monastery al Lvl 10 with X-Ray spell. No problems.
In the last game without magic-users I left the monastery at Lvl 7 without X-ray and some of my dead characters in this game were the result of running into unseen large groups of enemies. Later it gets more harder without this spell because if you want to run away from tough groups it's better to see the right direction . Run away into an other tough group can be deadly.
After my Gadgy had the right device, the problems were solved.
But I agree with Scatter : you can play without this spells but then ( especially at the beginning on arnika and arnika-trynton-road ) you must move very carefully.

[dplax]

Just to add to Loudhy's last comment: And if not on ironman you have to save often.

[Ae3than]

My Ironman party reached Arnika with no trouble. One group of the level 10 Higardi had to be fought (one death and my next-to-last Res Powder) but I slipped or ran by everyone else. Completed all the Arnika missions added Vi and Myles, Back to the Monastery where many Pestilent Rats lurked. Used the one Cure Disease I had and otherwise had no problems. On to Mt Gigas, slipped by the Hogar, slipped by everything in Northern Wilderness, and reached the Base Camp.

Trusting what I had read here I went through the obstacle course getting crushed multiple times, but the automatic save let me try again and again.

Am now stocking up with the traitorous storekeeper and heading for Trynton. At this point my team has level 9 Bard and Fighter and everyone else is an 8.

Questions: Should I get Shadow Hound? I never expended early picks on it before, but since I find it pays to rest a lot on Ironman, I might want the protection from ambush.

[Nightowl2]

I forget offhand who has it, but it's either Kunar in the camp or Sadok in Marten's Bluff. So don't be in a hurry to use a precious pick for this one; you will be able to buy the book. As I think about it, I'm fairly sure that Sadok sells this one.

Nice of them to allow retries on that [unmentionable] obstacle course. I often get caught on those spikes myself, though not so much nowadays as before.

Nightowl2

[dplax]

Actually if you just start running from the start you shall always get through the spikes, at least as I found in my experience.

[Ziggurat]

Never tried Ironman, but I get the gist of it. Trying a solo as you might have noticed...If it doesn't work out will go back to latest 4-party to see if my Samarai can reach full potential.

I'll add I would build up the Monk in magic not just for Insanity or Haste. Sane Mind is very helpful, if you want to avoid hacking your own party to pieces later on..

[ 11-25-2003, 10:31 PM: Message edited by: Ziggurat ]