Fresh blood + a few questions

[Aerich]

Hello everyone,

I'm a Johnny-come-lately to the fun of IWD. I bought a bargain bin copy (no HOW and using the 1.06 patch) as my Christmas gift to myself and have played it incessantly since then, especially when I should have been studying for April exams. Although I managed to do okay in everything, despite finishing IWD twice in that time. As I'm familiar with PnP 2nd edition, it hasn't been too difficult getting a handle on the gameplay.

I do have a few questions, though.

1) Is it possible to find a good on-line beastiary somewhere? I have a cd with a manual, but the manual doesn't give detailed information on monsters. I wish I had known about e.g. the immunities and general toughness of Tarnished Sentries BEFORE I wasted a bunch of spells and magical ammunition on them...

2) Can you actually steal from Bandoth? (in Dorn's Deep tower) I noticed that there is a "hand" icon in the buy screen, but I can't seem to get it to work.

3) What point is there to shapeshifting a druid to a beetle? I tried it once, but as I was a fighter/druid wearing armor, I was encumbered and unable to move until I dropped most of my equipment (shapeshifting to beetle drops Str to 9!).

4) About how many charges are there on a Staff of Nature's Wrath? I think I read in a different forum that it was unlimited, so I once burned out the flamestrike capability before I got to Wyrm's Tooth. It may have been a bug, but I would try to use the flamestrike and nothing would happen (and I know it wasn't from any type of disruption).

5) Anybody else think that snow trolls look like Marilyn Manson? The first time I saw them, I laughed so hard that my party would have been wiped out had I not hit the pause before rolling on the floor with laughter...

6) What kind of really cool spell combos are available for clerics? In my six-character parties the clerics have always been a necessary but under-utilized resource. I've just discovered that Strength of One + Call Upon Holy Might gives giant (19+) strength, and also Strength of One (among other things) affects animated dead, giving you a whole lot more bang for your buck! I'm currently soloing an evil cleric through the Vale of Shadows, with the intention of dualing him to a necromancer once I hit level 9 or so. Might have to import a tank to keep him alive after dualing, though. The idea of trying to get through Dragon's Eye with a low-level necromancer's Thaco and AC is appalling.

Cheers

[pritchke]

Sorry I can't help you with alot of these questions as many I am no longer sure of.

3) I found the Beetle to do very little, I believe it may offers some acid resistance or some other type of resistance but if so it isn't much. I just used this shape shifted form to heal some damage. The most useful for fighting are the elementals. The earth and water elementals plus a certain belt can make you invincible to a certain type of damage thus certain enemies. I will let you figure out there benefits. The wolf actually is useful as it is small and fast, I use it for getting out of tight situations and running away. Druids are great in this game. (I don't think Elementals are available without HoW)

5) Never looked at snow trolls that way before but for graphics I always thought the trolls were really well done compared to other games.

6) Coolest Cleric combo: Cast Sanctuary, then walk up to the enemy (spell casters really effective against, and good if surrounded by multiple enemies) and cast Circle of bones, or Circle of Blades. The enemy gets toasted while you are still protected with sanctuary. (I assume spell combo is available without HoW)

Welcome to the forums. [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]

[ 05-31-2004, 01:27 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

[Aerich]

Thanks for the welcome, pritchke!

Maybe I'll just have to experiment to find out the answers to my questions (the flamestrike).

I'm really looking forward to getting HOW, as a lot of the strategies you (and others) suggest (Bard songs, shapeshifted elementals, Circle of Bones, Blades) require the expansion.

I was also disappointed to learn that casting Animate Dead dispels the Sanctuary.

I found out another cool cleric-related thing yesterday.

MINOR SPOILER
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You know that trapped coffin on the first floor of the Black Wolf Temple down the corridor past Mytos? It's the one that hits you with sleep and does not allow a saving throw. Using my evil cleric, I walked up to it with Protection from Evil, Sanctuary, and Turn Undead active (Sanctuary + Turn Undead being the best way I've found so far to deal with Skeleton Archers). When I opened the coffin, the sleep "arrow" came out and did not affect me! I think it's because the protection from evil gives immunity to certain charm spells.

It makes me very happy to find a counter to that trap. In my first time through the area (party of 6), I got mauled by Mytos, and decided to explore that corridor with depleted spells and hit points before resting up. I sent my poor thief down the tunnel, drew the skellies away to their eternal rest, and opened the coffin. My fighters were halfway down the corridor, and my spell-less druid and mage were at the top of the corridor. I had no cleric, having decided to go with the druid. The hidden skeletons came out and slaughtered my helpless thief, and then pounded my mage into a sorry little pile of bloodied robes.

[Xen]

Welcome to Ironworks Aerich! [img]graemlins/happywave.gif[/img]

[True_Moose]

It's not incredibly indepth, but there are simple stats about monsters at Mike's RPG Center.

[Aerich]

Thanks, True_Moose,

I think I've been there before, but it's good to be reminded of it. Hit dice are usually a good indicator of overall toughness. However, I'm more interested in trying to find out the immunities and special qualities of various monsters. That kind of information is pretty helpful in tailoring tactics and spells to the monsters I know I'll be encountering. Also, sometimes I notice something that seems weird, but would be described in monster descriptions. For example, have you noticed that shadowed monsters seem to take more damage than their living counterparts? I'm not sure if my characters were tougher than I thought, or if that's actually a feature of the shadowing effect. It would also be nice to know what kind of spells can actually affect Tarnished Sentries.

TACTICAL SPOILER
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My only tactic for this area (as arrows of piercing are so rare and do so little damage to the sentries) is to cast (on at least two tanks, preferably using blunt, stun-capable weapons)

1)protection from fire - to minimize damage taken from salamanders while crushing the sentries
2)protection from normal missiles - to give immunity to hurled axes, as it is impossible to take them out one at a time
3)haste - for the obvious reason

It would be nice to figure out some other spells that can do something against the sentries. Buffing myself is the only thing I've found that works, so far...

[Roboghost]

2. Bandoth: he is good for buying spells/1 side quest/information. If you visit him after finding a certain parchment--he turns "red" and runs out...gone for good (so be sure to buy those spells first). I don't think he has anything you can pickpocket.

4. Nature Staff--I think 15 charges: you'll have to sell it and buy it back to get it "recharged"

5. Marilyn Manson: Are we going backwards in time?

6. Make sure you toss "Curse" into an area before you do battle: that way your mage might get lucky.