Suicidal Gnomes - where will they get to?

[Midget Gems]

Ok guys and gals, I’m back online and can report on the progress of my loveable, yet still suicidal, Gnomes. In my last post I was bemoaning my lack of pickpocket skills, well I never did get a Ring of Free Action there just don’t appear to be any potions available that can help me. I got round my immediate problem by charming some of the Priests with the Hold Person spells and turning them against each other. And just for the record I have one Fighter, with four Multi-Class companions combinng the Fighter, Cleric, Mage and Thief classes.

My progress has slowed to a crawl and I have effectively reached the point of no return. I made a saved game and then continued by spending all my money on scrolls and potions, which I used to blast through the opposition. Effectively this means I can never learn most of the spells because I’ve already used the scroll. My plan is to proceed until I can go no further, then return to the saved game to level up and try to finish the game with the levels that I get at that point.

The other factor that I can control is the difficulty setting, though I got a nasty surprise when I did reduce the setting from ‘insane’ to ‘normal’. While the XP I gained reduced with the new setting the quantity of monsters did not, so I had to struggle on to the end of the current level while fighting huge armies of powerful enemies. Still I now have about 185K of XP per person and just about enough resources to attempt one more level of Dragon’s Eye.

I have been a little vague about where I am – can you guess? I, for one, am surprised to get this far.

[Aerich]

I am 80% sure that you are on DE lvl 2. As an outside chance you might be on DE lvl 1, but I don't know if Charm Person works on lizardmen.

There are potions that help thieving skills, but they don't start showing up until the Severed Hand, I believe. I seriously doubt that you can get that far with lvl 1 characters; How could you beat Yuxonomei with lvl 1 characters?

[lost prophet]

if you beat yuxonomie with lvl 1 chars i will eat my hat. That would be ( dare i say it?) impossible.

[Eugen]

Its possible with missile weapons. Shoot and run away and so on. But i think you would be in real trouble with Severed hand's shadowed archers (goblin, orc and elven alike).

[Aerich]

@ Midget Gems,

Are you playing with Heart of Winter or just the original IWD?

It crossed my mind that you might be playing on original IWD, because the HoW call-to-arms feature would probably be too much for you.

As for beating Yux with 1st lvl characters, I would be surprised and awed if they make it through DE lvl 4.

[Midget Gems]

Progress report - we are now inching slowly through DE5, though the difficulty level has dropped to 'easy'. I also have 1 million XP in the bank (split 5 ways).

DE3 was the really tough level for us and as Aerich pointed out with HOW the call-to-arms feature is a killer. Those Cold Wights come from far and wide to hunt us down and all it takes is one critical hit to kill one of my Gnomes. I also got the problems from the extra ememies generated by the 'insane' setting, even though I switched to 'normal' on this level.

DE4 was quite easy as I posted on the other thread.

I am getting worried about my lack of thief skills, even after I got lucky and pinched the ring of free action. Now I find that most of the locks and traps are too tough, so DE5 is a nasty place to be. Normally I would soak-up the hit points or absorb the damage with mirror-image, but I can't do either at this stage. It would be such an anti-climax to be stopped by an impassable trap, rather to die with honour in a massive fight against impossible odds.

Yux is waiting up ahead and we are coming to get her - very slowly.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Crikey nutty! I don't care if it is on Easy difficulty, getting this far is a milestone. I simply can't envision completing the whole game though, one fireball alone would mean party K.O.

Heck, the Frost/Flame Salamander auras alone would make your gnomes kneel over and grimace to death.

[ister]

I am getting worried about my lack of thief skills, even after I got lucky and pinched the ring of free action. Now I find that most of the locks and traps are too tough, so DE5 is a nasty place to be.

I thought I'd gone through all of DE without ever picking a single lock - I was able to bash every single one of them. Surely that would work with a potion. Or am I missing something?

(Doesn't help with the traps, obviously)

[ 03-14-2005, 02:00 PM: Message edited by: ister ]

[Midget Gems]

Ister, that is a good point. I tried to bash a few locks but failed, but I ought to give it another try. I have a couple of Potions that I was saving for when things get desperate, so I guess this might be the time to use one. After I have cleared a few rooms I shall go on a lock bashing spree and see where it gets me - well and truely dead is one result that springs to mind.

[Midget Gems]

Another progress report, though I haven't played too much this week.

The 5 Gnomes are now ready to face Yxunomei and we are in good shape. It's been a slow crawl though this level, with several trips back to town and a couple of requests for 'Raise Dead', but the good news is we didn't have to use too many of our scrolls and potions. The traps are still giving big problems, one mistake means another re-load.
For the big fight with Yux I have enough resources for my protection, but my offencive options are very limited. A few arrows and a Hammer doesn't add up to much, especially as my frontline Gnomes didn't take a skill in using the Hammer. Should be a good contest and maybe worthy of a screen-shot - watch this space