Intro and a couple of questions

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Hi, there

Well, I am new to this wonderful game and new to all the rules this game uses (THAC0, saving throws, etc) but I managed to get my first char through the game and beat Irenicus in Hell, without any help and advice, so I am not too stupid, heh.

Besides, I think I made a pretty awful char choice, I really needed to start with a melee fighter, but I created a female Bard/Blade, in the end she was a poor mage, a poor poor fighter (I didn't understand that you can reroll the stats upon creation and thought - I'll add the missing ones when leveling up, haha been playing too much Diablo2) and her Bard song was sucky.

This time I created a human fighter and this is the party I am going to have:
Jaheira / romantic interest and a pretty decent fighter IMO, I had her the last time and "fell in
love with her"
Korgan / no need to explain
Viconia / didn't play her my first time, seems a decent cleric, certainly not as annoying as that Anomen
Edwin / self-explanatory, also don't have a lot of exp with him, he seems to be a lot more durable than Aerie.
Joshimo / Imoen also self explanatory.

The question is such - how do I go about assembling my party?

Picking Jaheira, Imoen, Joshimo, Viconia is easy, but there are problems with Edwin and Korgan.

I went straight over to Korgan and picked him, but he is urging me to the graveyard quest, but I cannot cut it just yet. So I had to ditch him for now in favor of Minsc for now.
Same problem with Edwin - Rayic Getras quest is too difficult to do straight away from Irenicus Dungeon. I now use Jan as interim mage, but I cannot decide, is it worth to learn som spells for him, I will be ditching him eventually.

I guess I should do some easier quests without Korgan and Edwin and pick them later, no?

So to my question - what is the approx order of the quests you do in Alkhatla? As I said I went straight over to Renal Blooodscalp for Edwin's quest - bad idea, tried Korgan, well Vicky is not high level enough to turn undead effectively.

I think the order -
Circus -> Copper Coronet and sewers below it -> perhaps Nalia's quest as it is also a stronghold, right... that should be pretty doable order.

What would you recommend for a newb?

I also need your opinion on what would you recommend as a good weapon for Jaheira. Seems that going Scimitar/Shield is the decent way, AFAIK, both decent scimitars Rashad's Talon and Belm are in Trademeet and Druid Grove. Should I head there perhaps, I'm afraid my Jaheira is struggling a bit with the weak weaponry I have right now.

TIA,
jurts

 

That sounds a lot like my first run through the game...

Anyways, I'd take care of the Slaver's Complex, followed by the Harper quests next. Taking Renfield's (sp?) body and the Montaron quest involves just one fight in the streets, one that you'd encounter anyways, so it should be do-able. No nifty items, but may net you a level up and gold of course.

 

Get Edwin then level up then get korgan and do both graveyard quests for Eddy and Korgan - that's just my thrupenny info though.

If you need to still get used with some of the play - heck my friends did, save the same game in three slots so you can play around and get into it. Unless your pure rp and live with what you make - if so GO YOU! that's my style anyway

 

Slight spoilers ahead for newbies in terms of helping people on their way fairly early in the game...

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Firstly, I'm pretty sure almost everyone does the sewer and slaver quests from the copper coronet first in Chapter 2. It is worth getting Lilacor - a good sword ealry on and useful for getting Celestial Fury next.

It is worth getting the Celestial Fury ASAP as there is a very easy strategy to do so. Once you have this katana, the other City Quests are fairly easy if you are cautious.

The easy way to get Fury is as follows - go to the guarded compound and enter. Make sure you have at least 1 weapon of +2 or above (like Lilacor+3, or the Chaos Sword+2 from the genie in Irenicus' Dungeon). On the first floor when all the monsters appear, run everyone into one of the rooms on the left. The Glazebu will eventually kill all the other monsters that were beamed in. Optionally use a thief hiding in shadows to occasionally go to the door to see how the fight is going. Have 1 'fighter' character armed with the +2 or higher weapons attack the Glazebu thru the doorway. A 2 handed-sword is best because the Glazebu cannot hit you back! Take all the items you want from floor one.

Just before going up to floor 2, recommended, but not essential is to 'Haste' party (or use speed oil) and maybe a few other protection-based spells/potions. On floor two, use MISSILE attack weapons on the nearest monster, and (optionally) cast 'silence 15 degree radius' (Viconia and others) on the enemy Cleric or Mage(Sion). The guy with Celestial Fury will have run up near you guys now. Move to lower floor, surround the guy when he comes down and all change to MELEE attack weapons to surround and finish him. Get Celestial Fury and Equip! Then move up and down floors, using MISSILE weapons on top floor (so as not to move onto trap areas and MELEE on bottom floor. The Cleric and Mage if silenced earlier will be a lot less trouble. Collect goodies! You will now find the rest of Chapters 2 and 3 fairly easy battlewise, although I would still leave Kangaxx and possibly the Shadow and Red Dragons until you have done most of the other City Quests.

On Korgan's book quest, the hardest part is normally where all the sarcophagi open and the undead monsters, some of which level drain all appear. However, if you are fairly quick you can run all party into the top left room and cast Neg. Plane Protection (ie Viconia) on your main fighter (or Korgan - it's his quest he'll be with you ideally!), and have him/her alone attack the enemies at this doorway one at a time.

When facing Ray the mage (thieves quests), early on, yes this can be a bit tricky, but talk to him saying you'll leave (to leave a blue circle under him) then surround him with everyone equiped with melee weapons and all force attack. If you are lucky some members will hit him before he can cast his protection spells. If he does, equip everyone you can with NORMAL (not magical ie +1 and above) weapons and all attack him, since the first spells he casts are protection from MAGICAL weapons and NORMAL missile weapons. If you still have trouble with him, other things you might try are 'Summon Skeletons' (with Viconia, for example) as they are very resistant to his magic.

Early in the game, and at parts later in the game, skeletons seem to me to be the best summons!

Use these general tactics thruout - of course it is different if you are soloing and you will have to choose which quests you do early very carefully as certain options like detecting traps or having certain spells cast on you won't be possible!

 

Hmm, weird thing happened to poor Edwin seems he screwed up reading an ancient scroll and became a woman, lol, now everyone in my party is making fun of him I wonder is that permanent?

Did a lot of quests, in order ->
Coronet slavers -> D'arnise keep -> Mae'var quests to get Edwin -> Graveyard quests for Korgan and Edwin -> Trademeet & Druid grove -> Umar Hills + Temple Ruins -> Windspear Hills

Hmm, I didn't know about that "I'll be going then" trick with Rayic Gethras (thief quest) - would have saved me a lot of time, when I was running around the city trying to find Resist Fear and Breach scrolls, heh

Hmm, I managed to kill of shadow dragon, was a bit tough as Edwin run out of spells, heh, so in the end I had to issue a melee onslaught, but it worked out eventually. Didn't try to kill Red Dragon thou - he seems a bit harder.
Btw, what's with Jaheira always getting romantic as we enter Dargon lair??? Eh, women, go figure...

Yep, Jierdan's quest was pretty tough, I have to say. First, those orc archers ambush you in the narrow hall - I solved this by exiting the area and those 8 morons followed me out - my fighters took them out in seconds, heh.
Next there was a very tough group of undead mummies, ghasts and vampires, very hard thou Vicky sure made it easier.
Samia's goons are easy to dispose of with Skull Traps, I discovered, otherwise it's a nasty fight. Also that mage that Firkraag sends out to kill the child can be annoying, if you don't breach him quickly. He can cast some kind of Death spell (discovered that hard way) so must be killed quickly.
So when my wounded party finally got out of the underground, the trouble was not over - stupid Reviane jumped us and wanted to fight. I'm getting a little annoyed with Jaheira's friends, this woman IS pretty complicated, hope she is worth it too.

oh, well of to get Celestial Fury.

Btw, when you enter the graveyard and Bodhi speaks to you - do I have to either side with her or decline her offer, can't I tell her "I want to do some more quests around here, ok?"

 

Edwin's transformation is not permanent, although last time I played, he didn't revert to normal at all.

Something's fishy about what triggers romances (all of them, not just Jaheira). I also noticed that they happen usually after battles. Guess she needs a little loving after a little killing.

I even had one romance event happen during a battle. The enemies were temporarily covered by the fog of war and Viconia just started talking...

 

Could have been worse. When charging into battle with the boss troll in the D'Arinise keep Jaheira, Viconia and Aerie (ok I admit she was in the party for a bit the first time through, then I found out how annoying she was ) all decided to go into romance mode. Women eh?

 

If u have problem with Conster (Fikraag's mage) Trap the area where he's gonna appear in, the room where the child is held. 2 traps killed him juz after i finish loading

 

To kill Rayic, why not just buy a breach scroll from Ribald and casting that? If your fighters are halfway decent, he'll be dead before he can get off more than one or two spells. A lot easier than using that cheesy "Force Attack" method, imho.

They cannot activate in dungeons. Since the timer tends to run out in the dungeon, they are immediately activated afterwards. Dragon's Lairs are not considered part of the dungeon, so entering one tends to trigger the dialogues. I've never noticed that they "seem to appear after fights", though.

No. You must accept or decline. You cannot tell her "later".

 

> other things you might try are 'Summon Skeletons'
> (with Viconia, for example) as they are very resistant to his magic.

Waiting for the magic-reisitant Skeleton Warriors to be summoned means waiting for Viconia to level up! Skeleton Warriors will be summoned only by clerics level 15+!

 

Excellent point about those skeleton warriors there, that explains it... level15, hmm that's still far.

Dunno, my first time through the game I got the feeling that these skeleton warriors are quite overpowered. Dunno if this is considered cheesy, but when you are up against pure mages these skellies can do the job alone for me, esp if they are hasted prior the fight.
AFAIK, none of the mind controling spells (Chaos, Confusion, etc, dunno them all yet) affect them - hey they don't have brains, right + the huge magic resistance (are they 100% resistant to magic?)

They absolutely own Mind Flayers, mind you... also they almost alone killed Tanova (tough Vamp mage) and Irenicus (in suldenassellar) - my first idea was to send in summons to soak up the more lethal spells and when the mage starts running out of them - send my fighters in.
Heh, I was really surprised when I got messages like:
Skeleton Warrior did 12 damage to Jon Irenicus
Skeleton Warrior did 14 damage to Jon Irenicus
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Skeleton Warrior did 11 damage to Jon Irenicus
Jon Irenicus - Death ???

Hmm, I wonder... AFAIK Irenicus casts protection from magical weapons, so skellies are still capable of hurting him. Is he really too stupid to cast Protection from Normal weapons as well??? I sent a Nishruu as well, but he was hardly needed, hmm that was cheesy...

I ain't a fan of the fake talk tactic. Hardly ever used it, basically only to try it out. As was posted previously Rayic Gethras is no threat if you can take him out quickly.
Basically what I needed to cast before the fight was Haste + Protection from Fear + True sight, then as soon as he turns red, Breach, and down he goes almost a 1 hit kill.

well, anyways, next on the plate for me - Plannar Sphere. It can be quite tough - Lavok is no pushover (not incredibly hard either), but Tolgerias was more difficult for me.

btw, while I'm at it, I am in need of a tactic vs. golems in Suldenasselar. They spanked me baaad last time I visited there, heh.

 

Irenicus uses absolute immunity, which makes him immune to +5 weapons and less (including normal ones). It doesn't last very long though. Skeleton warriors use +1 two-handed swords, btw.

They are immune to any mind affecting spell. They should not be 100% immune to magic, but they are pretty close. If they are, then that is pretty cheesy, but I have seen mages destroy my skelly warriors pretty quickly.

 

Hmm, finished the game yesterday, well, second time through it was much more smoother, I guess I finally understand what I am doing, heh...

Man, Edwin is such a great guy thou, the ridiculous amount of spells he can memorize, wow!! Btw, Imoen is not TOO bad of a mage either, for she gains access to lvl8 spells fairly quickly. It really helps if both of your mages can spam Abi-Dalzim's or Simulacrum's or whatever, heh.

Vicky is a great cleric as well, man first time thru I used Anomen, hey now I understand the importance of wisdom for a cleric Besides, Vicky had as good AC as my fighters, iirc -9. Too bad her HP is quite low, I would love her to tear enemies apart in melee.

Korgan with Crom Fayer is able to tear apart anything, but that was the last time I used him - his personality is too annoying to me.

Jaheira is a pretty solid char, but as many have noted she isn't neither a great fighter or a great healer. Anyways, with the Staff of woodlands and AC-11 she rarely took any damage and made her kills when necessary, no complaints about her from me. I was told that multi-classed chars, esp Druid/Fighters do not reach their best potential until >lvl14. Well, I don't now the reasons why it should be so, but if that's true then Jaheira would be pretty decent in ToB, is that true? Ehh, still searching that elusive ToB CD, lol, don't blame me for living in looser country

Hmm, I had some glitches or bugs thru the game and figured that I really should download the latest patch. Most of them concerned Jaheira's romance.
Overall, I really enjoyed this romance, it was very rich emotionally.

Here are some of the weirdnesses:
some LoveTalks just don't occur, even if all the prerequisites are met. I had problems with LT53, it just did not happen. I tried to activate it with CLUA console, but nope, nothing happens. I had to activate the next LT with the console, and from then on everything went smoothly.
Some LoveTalks also did not occur at all and some occured twice, that was mostly in the start of romance.

I also thought that romances are put on hold in chapters 4,5,7... well, my char had sex with her on the cold floor of the Spellhold asylum... wwoman are sooooo weird
There were many glitches with the "morning after THAT night" talk. First time it occured normally after resting, then it just kept coming up in the weirdest places and not triggered after resting at all!

Illithid lair:
Jaheira: "Good morning! Blah Blah Blah..."
Me: "Are you ready to go, I didn't think you slept much"
Jaheira: "Neither did you, so blah blah blah..."

In hell, final battle with Irenicus,
Jaheira: "Good morning! Blah Blah Blah..."
Me: "Are you ready to go, I didn't think you slept much"
Jaheira: "Neither did you, so blah blah blah..."

WHAT GIVES???

Also the cool vampiricism subplot, enjoyed that very much. However, first time I put Jaheira's body with the heart in the statues arms and she is revived -> another strange dialogue
She tells me that will not stand it if she is kicked out of the party and how important she is and that we must make haste to the Harper hold in Athkatla... WHAAAAAT? I was expecting something more romantic than that...
ok, tried the same quest second time and after reviving she greats me with a tearful dialogue, pretty much what I expected (wanted).

I suppose I should DL the patch and play this romance thru one more time without these damn bugs, heh