Question about my party of once-and-future paladins

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Yup! Got the damage resisted message when I fired an icelance at her! She is only a human sorcerer/paladin so she wouldnt have any naturaly/class resistances. I do have ease-of-use mod but I cant remember seeing anything about stackable resistances! I know that stats bonuses dont stack as I tried to place 2 rings of dex on my rogue! Maybe IWDII counts armor, helms, belts etc.. as different sources?

 

Well im finally through the Fell woods.... I hate that place. I had some memmory of the woods from previous games but not enough to prevent a headache! Thank god for the mace of distruption or I would still be hacking away at those undead. I bought the dekanter thing and I used it 3 times, and of course I used it the 3rd time just after killing those lights and I was attacked but thankfully my rouge was still buffed to the max so he managed to hold the melee enemies off while my other chars kept the spell casters and ranged at bay by either charming them or holding them. Then there are the snow dragons which I personally think is an insult for D&D dragons. Arnt dragons supposed to be immensly powerfull creatures and here a party of 6 lvl 10 people destroyed the dragons like nothing else. Anyways after finishing them off I had to download GateKeeper to add that hemp rope in my inventory because my rope had vanished at that time, both of them. Thanks to Grey I was prepared for the hook horrors and summoned undead on all sides of my casters and put my rouge up ahead so that they would attack him. It worked alright but I died a lot. The fireball was usefull as well as Horror spell, and I didnt use color spray much at all, think I used it twice. My evoker kept getting attacked by them all the time and even though he has the highest armorclass besides my necromancer and rouge he still got hit easier than the others. My rouge is imensly powerfull as he took on most of the Duergar by himself although the spell casters were eihter held or busy with something else. Isnt Malison great!!! Then Hold Person, and then Shroud of Flame... Well either way I am at the Monestary now and im wondering how im gonna go about this as none of my chars are good at hand to hand, low strength for all and I dont have bulls strength yet.... Maybe ill use my necromancer to summon, or my evoker for damage spells or maybe the Transmuter for the buffs.... either way its gonna be interesting!!!!

 

I just finished the Eight Chambers. It's possible...but barely, and it was most unfun. Let's just say that for awhile I seriously contemplated how I could ethically justify massacring the monks to clear the path without going through the chambers.

Not only can you not take any equipment into the chambers, but the game craftily dispels any enchantments right before you enter the chamber, so you can't pre-buff your monk-wannabe. This completely counters the party concept of complementarity.

The only strategy I could find that had any chance of success was using the necromancer for "Animate Dead". My rogue-paladin just wasn't strong enough -- unbuffed, unarmed, and unencumbered with unusual unguents and unique usables -- to survive any fights. Each room was the same: enter, immediately cast "Animate Dead", then let the hapless critter take the punishment.

The eighth room was by far the worst, and required maybe two or three dozen reloads. The two brass monks descend on you before you can finish casting the first Animate Dead, usually reducing my necromancer to half health before the summoning completed. Plus, because Animate Dead takes so long to cast, there's only one safe place to cast it: the lower-righthand corner of the room, just out of reach of the flamestrikes. Those brass monks have an area-of-effect fire attack, though, so even if they're attacking the undead distraction, if you're standing too close then you get hurt, too. ACK! When I finally survived long enough to summon two criters, I had single-digit health and was reduced to running around in panicked desperation, dodging flamestrikes, while the undead beasts gradually chewed down the brass monstrosities. Good riddance.

I tried using the rogue-paladin, to no effect; thanks to his Improved Evasion he doesn't take any damage from the flamestrikes, but the monks tore him to shreds with their hand-to-hand attacks. The evoker was worthless, too: her Spirit of Flame fire resistance was negligible, and the monks either resisted or evaded all her spells.

I hope you have much better luck than me, Darkstrike, or come up with some better tactic. In this category I would include using cheat codes to insta-kill the monks; the Animate Dead tactic is so honorless that it's basically a cheat unto itself. I'm just glad this part is finally over!

 

Well I was close to throwing my computer out the window when I was in the eight chambers. I managed to find a way through after tearing my hair out. I used my Transmuter for the first 2 chambers. Used shield, stone skin, cats grace, haste and blink. Made those pretty easy as he is proficient with spears (2 points I guess). Then I use my rouge-paladin in the 3rd one because those lightning bolts were killer and he finished them off after a few tries. The 5th was stupidly easy (The fire one I think) and the 4th with the traps was prety easy as I used my transmuter again. The spider part was very hard i found as I kept getting poisoned! That changed after I decided to send in my Evoker. Got in the corner and used Electric Whip spell (Cant remember the name of it) and the ones surrounding me were stunned I dropped a fireball and repeated till they were dead. Then I used my transmuter again at the Battle chamber and that was done easily. Then the last chamber, which is hell. I had a hard time finishing this! I sent my transmuter in again, he got one of them and died then I sent in my necromancer and used all her defensive spells, most importantly Mirror Image and hacked away at the last one! So I resurected my Transmuter after... after spending close to 2 hours in the chambers I would accept the loss of experience and gold. But needless to say I hate those chambers! Now im in the underdark and Im in the camp with the drow! Time to kill off those driders.

 

Why do you lose experience and gold darkstrike?

 

I meant for the fact that a dead memeber wont get experience from the last part of the chambers and I have to resurect him for a price

 

Eh? Didn't you get the Ressurection scrolls from the storage boxes in the Ice Temple? Or atleast Raise Dead?

Oh. Your pallys can't use them can they Tough Luck!

 

I could try with my rouge to use the scroll but most likely it would fail!

 

My congratulations, Darkstrike, for using something besides Animate Dead to pass the chambers. I should've remembered my evoker's L2 electricity spell -- I used the necromancer's Death Armor instead, which also zaps critters but only when they hit you. Not near so effective.

A side question: Is it paladinically proper for my transmuter to cast an Eagle's Splendor on himself before buying and selling?

 

Good work. The chambers are fun the first few times but (as with many games) you soon learn the tricks for getting through. What a cool game.

 

Well I dont see why you dont cast Eagle's Splendor as I highly doubt a paladin would cast death spells like horrid wilting. I made the chambers sound easy but I died more times than I have to date with this or any party for that sake!!! I agree Harbourboy, the chambers are fun the first few times, specially with non monks. Oh and Grey, to be honest I never even thought of using the Animate Dead spell! I would have used it like mad if I had!

 

Still plodding through, one weekend at a time. The Order of Broken Glass has just finished clearing out the snake temple and Kuldahar; I'm looking forward to coming back to reclaim that lovely Holy Avenger for my rogue, who's now at Rogue 13 / Pal 2. He slices, he dices!

The Guardian fight gave me fits the first few times. What finally worked for me was asking the necromancer to summon six critters with Animate Dead, and then giving them Stoneskin protection with the transmuter. Then I tossed on an Emotion: Hope from the enchanter and then, for good measure, added a Mass Haste from the transmuter. Then I armed my rogue-paladin with that Brilliant Short Sword +5 with a shield, and moved my sorcerers off to a safe distance.

Then, during the battle, while the undead kept the Guardian occupied (and the rogue chipped away at his HP), I had the enchanter cast Malison and the transmuter repeatedly cast Lower Resistance. (I don't know if separate castings of Lower Resistance are cumulative, but I didn't want to take any chances.) Then I tasked my four sorcerers to relentlessly cast Magic Missiles. All the undead were destroyed and my rogue's HP were knocked down to single-digits, but the sorcerers carried the day.

I was horrified, though, to see that the game added 38 DAYS to my game total! 38!!! I've been extremely stingy with my resting in order to keep my total "in-game" time to below a month. But the game's automatic Rip-Van-Winkle move after the Guardian defeat -- a cheap programming shortcut to heal the characters and refresh their spells -- ruined that. But am I bitter?

 

so this game still lives! I stopped playing as you said you wouldnt be able to in a while but now that I see you are way ahead of me ill just have to go at it again!!

 

Well I just made my way through the Mind Flayers lair and I had no pronblems at all, untill I hit the Master Mind (or whatever its called). Even though I was buffed to the max it still kicked my ass so on the third try I summoned 5 undead and hasted them all and the enemy fell quickly, especially when I added a few fireballs to the mix. Then when I got outside I was caught off guard and died rather quickly so I reloaded my autosave and buffed up then headed out! I didnt really want to deal with the earth elementals right away so I sent my rouge to take out the wizard, well one of them with the help from my necromancer whilst my Evoker used Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on the Earth elementals so they were out of the way for a while! After that I used fireball and slow on the Harpies and a slew of spells on the other wizard and thats it for them! Finally I worked at the earth elementals and they were gone.

So now im in the Kuldahar Valley and thank god for my Necromancer and her Club of Distruption so the undead fell rather quickly, and the Bane guy was really easy as well as I finished this part in 10 minutes... on to kuldahar.

Kuldahar started off really bad as I am currently playing BG2 and the Yuan-Ti are extremely easy so I didnt think much of them here and so I barely survived the first encounter. After the first battle I buffed my Rouge and sent him on a single man killing spree and he did just that untill I attraced to many enemies so I had to call in for backup and I barely survived that encounter as well.
After cuting them all down I porceded to the Yuan-Ti temple and cleared that out pretty quickly until I fought that Rouge misses (Cant rememeber her name sadly) I had to pull every trick out to finish them off! The archers kept killing my sorcerers but I realized that blinding them helped, tons actually!!! After this I left to fight the guardian and he killed me about 3 times before I used my killer tactic. I took your advice and I summoned 5 undead and stone skinned them, then I buffed my Rouge and got my sorcerers out of there. As I was still at lvl 13, 11 sorcerer/rouge levels, my spells were alright but nothing high like mass haste which would have helped. I summoned the dragon then as it attacked the undead mini army I cast Tenser Transformation with my rouge (Thank god I saved that scroll) and I hacked away at the Dragon with my sorcerer's casting magic missile one after another. My rouge had about 20 HP left when it died.
I returned to Kuldahar and absolutely slaughtered the army waiting there... as my rouge now has 23 dex with items and spells so he does a share bit of damage and with slow spell at the enemy mixed with malison and Emotionespair and a few fireballs and skull traps I had no problems... bit too easy.

Finally its on to the Dragon's Eye.... and that first wizard encounter was a bit nast as it really caught me off guard, but a few acid storms and fireballs finished him off afterwards... time to go in....

 

Arrgh! I forgot about the Club of Disruption! I've had it sitting in my pack ever since the Battle Squares but have never used it. That would've been the perfect spot. Tenser's Transformation is a great idea which I also didn't use. Next time, next time...

I had trouble with the Yuan-Ti rogue, too; her opening Envenomed strike is vicious. I disoriented the archers with my enchanter's Chaos and the transmuter's Slow, and had my own rogue focus on killing the assassin first before moving on to the Yuan-Ti casters. I'm more and more pleased with this rogue-caster combination; he can be buffed to cause massive damage, and the casters can toss whatever spells they want without worrying about hitting him.

I'm impressed that you're sprinting ahead so quickly...I'd better get to work to catch up!

 

Well I finally finished the game, and man the rouge made it really easy... I could have sworn the last battle was harder......... hehehe just kidding, im nowhere near the end. Just finished the Dragon's Eye and got the Holy Avenger. Added a point to longsword for my rouge so he now wields Holy Avenger and Sure Striking Short sword, and thats it for tonight.... wont have any time to play until at least after December 27th or even later!!

 

Grey - the club of disruption is awesome in Kuldahar.

Darkstrike - it's ROGUE, not ROUGE.

 

You sure got me, Darkstrike, when I read your opening sentence. Ha! But you're well ahead of me all the same. How did you manage the fight for the Holy Avenger? It has me quaking in my boots, even though I'll have all L15 characters by then (2 Pal, 13 Rog/Sor).

 

it's very interesting to find such a highly unconventional party. all paladins, meaning you cannot get any rewards for quests ...

for myself, my primary enjoyment in the game is roleplaying the characters as well as the rewards reaped from the game which allows you to better equip your characters and make them more formidable. without the material rewards (cash + items), then it might not be as motivating to complete each quest to perfection

i also share the same habit of resting as little as possible. having disabled the full-rest setting, i can now opt to rest 8 hours to replendish my spellcasters' magic but the physical wounds would still be there. only in the event that i know that i have a big battle ahead do i ask someone to watch over my party as we go for the 16 hour full rest. i also find it unsettling to rest a few hundred days for some wounds ... makes me wonder if it was designed to be such or that there is a serious bug somewhere ...

 

I make sure to drink potions or heal myself in town before I rest, so I never rest more than 8 hours at one sitting. Not that it's necessarily more "realistic" to overdose on potions than to sleep for a few weeks!

An all-paladin party does miss out on many quest payments, but virtue has been its own reward -- the party treasury now exceeds 500,000 gold. It helps that my high-Charisma paladins get that extra bargaining edge...and also that my sorcerers don't have to buy pricey wizard scrolls or heavy armor. Money was very tight for the first half of the game, though -- partly because of the lack of quest rewards, and partly because the lack of a cleric or druid meant that I was spending all my money on medication.