Suicidal Gnomes - where will they get to?

[Midget Gems]

Well team Midget Gems are back in the 'Dale' and this time we're feeling suicidal.

At the moment I have a party of five Level 1 Gnomes and we have reached the Vale of Shadows. I figured I would not do any level-ups and just keep going until I get stuck. Then maybe I'll level-up and repeat the process. I wanted a really challenging game, but I play on a very low spec computer that runs H.O.F mode in slow motion. So this is something new to try !!

What do you think, interesting or stupid idea. Where will I get to before my lack of hit points makes it impossible to go on? So far I have had no trouble with killing stuff, but one mistake and someone is dead. Only had a couple of reloads so far but it can only get worse.

PS - I forgot to say that I'm playing on INSANE at the moment, maybe later when it gets tougher, I'll drop back to Normal difficulty!

[Marty4]

Heh, good luck! I would recomend using plenty of magery and cleric magic, since your little guys won't last long in a melee. The point that you will probably get stuck at (if not before) is when you start seeing salamanders, since the "small" damage that you will take from their auras will be fatal.

[Jerry_Seinfeld]

Insane?? All gnomes?? No lvl ups?? Now that is crazy. Sah, I salute you,

[Aerich]

Nice! I'm impressed you made it to the Vale with lvl 1 characters on insane mode. How did you avoid/heal damage? Lots of R&R? (rest and reloads)

You might make it through the Vale, although the mummies will give you trouble, but I doubt you can get through the Temple of the Forgotten God; little packs of verbeeg + enough damage to kill your unlevelled tank with one hit = really, really difficult. Also, an unlevelled thief probably does not have enough points in PP to get the rings of free action, so that will make the acolytes much harder to beat.

Happy trails.

PS. I think you can only level up one level at a time in IWD 1. I might be wrong, so let me know if you can "squat" and level up several times in one shot.

[Grog]

No, you can "squat" levels.

[Midget Gems]

So far the thing that has supprised me most is how the game compensates to keep things in balance. I'm sure the monsters I am fighting have been 'adjusted' to match my level, so I suspect the Insane difficulty is not that significant. I intend to try a couple of experiments to check what happens if I were to level-up or change the settings.

I have to agree with Aerich, if I reach the Temple then there are some heavy hitters around - and I don't even want to think about the damage from Static Charge.

Another little snag is that some important spells are level dependent, I had wanted to use tactics based on Sanctuary but the duration is too short. Also I must make the choice between learning my magic scrolls for use later, or using them now and never finding another copy.

And another thing - I tried this type of game in BG1 and completed without any level-ups, but BG1 is much easier and more flexible in the way it can be played.

[Midget Gems]

I have not had much time for adventuring this week, but my Gnomes have now come face to face with Kresselack.

The last level of his tomb was pretty difficult, since the monsters had reached a level where one hit could kill my guys, whereas before a hit resulted in serious injury but still a chance for them to be healed. I also struggled when out-numbered by the undead as I entered the final chamber, it caused me several re-loads. Then I devised a better tactical solution - I had my Cleric at the front and he ran across the room as a decoy, taking about a dozen monsters with him, before casting Sanctuary so he could escape. The rest of the party cleaned out the few remaining undead, giving me a foothold in the chamber and a chance to save and rest. After that it was back to carefully creeping forward, one monster at a time.

So on to the next challenge for the 5 suicidal level 1 Gnomes!

[Midget Gems]

Another busy week in the real world means only slow progress for the Gnomes with attitude. But right now they are ready to unlesh their Level 1 skills upon Dragons Eye.

The Temple was tough and even required a couple of visits to the Priest for Raise Dead on my Fighter. It is strange that that the guy with the most Hit Points takes the most damage. The game has a way of protecting my weak characters from a nasty death - my lead fighter has 22 HP, thanks to the Talisman, but he often gets wacked for about 30 Damage, meanwhile my support Fighter/Mage has 9 HP and she gets wacked for about 8 Damage, so I can Heal her before she dies. It's almost as if the game is trying to be nice to me because it thinks I am still learning how to play!

Difficulty setting is still on Insane, but maybe not for much longer!

[Midget Gems]

Update - the Gnomes are making in-roads into Dragons Eye and the number of re-loads is rising. I am totally dependent on the 'can't die from one hit' feature I mentioned earlier. No matter how powerful the attack, I am reduced to 1HP and get a chance to heal. This only works for someone with their original Level 1 HP, adding an item that boosts HP cancels the effect.

I passed another milestone - my Level 1 team have well over 100K of XP each. However I am struggling to find good weapons that match my proficiencies, with no extra proficiancy points to allocate, I am stuck with some poor choices I made at the start. Also wish I had a Ring of Free Action, but my pick-pocket isn't good enough.

[ZFR]

What are the classes of your mparty? Did I miss it in your previous posts?

Also what pp's did you choose?

Why dont you try stealing the ring of FA after drinking several potions of master thievery?