Experience in game

[Duneswalker]

Could some one please give me an estimate of how much total experience is available:

1) IWD on insane
2) HOW on insane
3) IWD in HOF mode
4) HOW in HOF mode

[Lifetime]

With IWD+HoW on Heart of Fury mode, you'll hit the xp cap with a little "training" (sitting around killing cold wights)

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Why?

[Leafy]

yeah but, who can get to through the Orc cave at the beggining of HoF mode with low level characters? i mean, come on. I suppose you might have a chance with 3 mages casting "charm person" and 3 archers?

[Balgin]

You can do it with four first level characters. A Paladin, a Cleric, a Magic User and a Thief (yes I know the paladin can't get as many bonus hit points from high constitution as a fighter but the lay on hands ability has a faster casting time than most healing spells and it's always good to have two healers). If you've been playing with a party of four and have done all of the atsrting town quests they'll all be second level exept for the magic user (unless you've read my note about spreading experience exactly how you want to without cheating, see further up this forum). You'll need to rest twice in total for a very simple reason. Don't let the magic user get into combat. In that entrance cave with the orc archers and shaman, back up in the tunnel just east of it, make sure that the paladin has protection from evil up (it only runs out when you rest or leave the map) it's not much but it counts. Next get the cleric to bless the party then the paladin and cleric should advance, as soon as the orc shaman steps forward lob a sleep spell smack on him (and about half of the orcs if you aim it well). Then that encounter becomes fairly easy. You'll need to rest before going for the ogre with guess what, another sleep spell (if you didn't start with sleep, the town shop keeper has a couple of bookshelves upstairs that always have a sleep scroll, a chromatic orb scroll, a +1 non magical dagger and five identical gems). Then kill the orcs quickly before he wakes up. Then get everyone (exept for the magic user) to go for the ogre. As soon as it raises it's weapon work out who it's going for (that is fairly easy) and have that character run. Being fairly stupid he'll ignore the rest of the party and follow the bate (for a short while). If possible have the magic user cast a ranged damage spell at him (magic missile, chromatic orb, or blind for defensive reasons) and keep the thief shooting arrows. The ogre should be felled quite quickly. These characters don't need realy high ability scores or special bonuses to pull this off. Beware, that ogre will use his healing potion if given half a chance. (This can obviously be accomplished with a party of six, I lured the ogre out into the larger cave complex north of his lair and got him to chase party members while the rest chased after and/or shot at him.I didn't lose a single party member but they shouldn't really meet ogres until about fourth level).

Experience gainable, IWD- enough to put a party of six characters at about 10th/11th level,
HOW- I'll let you know when I finish it but I have a party of 12th level characters (six members) about half way through it. That's only for one play through each, if you mean xp caps IWD's is exactly enough for a 12/12 half elf Cleric/Magic User

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Balgin, the Dwarf

[Balgin]

Whoops, my above answer refered to normal difficulty mode and not HOF difficulty. In tougher situations stack all of the prayer/bless/aid variants that you can (but you have to cast haste before some of the higher level clerical spells or it has no effect).

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Balgin, the Dwarf

[Axterix]

I've got a party I started out at level 1 on HoF mode and took most of the way through IWD and HoW... I've got as far in each as I can get without losing my ability to go to play the downloadable expansion. With that, I've got all my single class guys at level 30. My multiclass ones (cleric/mage and fighter/thief) are both sitting around the low 20's.

Before I headed off to Lonelywood, I'd guess that my party was around level 18 or so, on average.

I expect that if I finished off HoW, my multiclass guys would both be around 27+, in both their classes. With the downloadable expansion, they'll both hit 30/30. Not exactly numbers, but it should give you some idea.

Now, my party started out with a slight edge, mainly that they got some equipment. But without it, it is still doable. Just have to think it out some and run away/rest often. A smart thing to do is not to make your whole party right away. A wizard won't get spells to scribe until later and as such, isn't worth giving xp to early. So don't add one until you are ready to face the orcs. On the other hand, clerics and druids get all their spells as they level. Makes them great to start out with solo to hog all the xp and gain a few levels. Of course, levelling up fighters a bit early on is useful too... better thac0, higher hp. Main pain is getting rolling, but once you get through the first few fights, HoF gets much easier.