First post - resurrection and Sorcerer spells

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Hi people. This is my first post here. Nice active board although this game is getting old. I actually recently started playing it and I haven't come too far yet. Anyways, after a really tough fight my rogue breath his last breath. And frankly I don't know how to revive him? I have a wizard and a cleric in my party. I try to buy resurrection spells in the city, but they are grayed out so I can purchase them. How can I get him back (if possible)? Or do I need to create a new party member from scratch?

Also, I had a weird experience with my sorcerer. He had a few spells (magic arrow etc.), but I couldn't get him to use them. It only said it was beyond the casters ability. So I leveled up a couple of times, but I still couldn't cast them. What did I do wrong? Now I've turned him into a wizard instead, but for the next time I play it would be nice to know what I did wrong.

Grateful for any answers to my questions...

 

Welcome aboard!

You don't need to use Resurrection, there a cheaper option called Raise Dead that'll also work, though the raised character will only have 1 hit point (nothing resting won't fix). If your cleric is below level 9 though, he can't cast it, and you'll have to buy the service from a temple. If it's greyed out, chances are you don't have enough money to do it... The easiest option is to restore to a saved game before your rogue died. If that's not possible, you'll either have to wait until you raise enough gold, or create another character.

In order for a Sorcerer to cast a spell, he must have a Charisma score of 10 + spell level (11 for magic missile, for example). Chances are you created your Sorcerer with too low charisma?

Hope this helps.

 

Ok thanks. It might very well be the case with the sorcerer. However regarding the rogue, I'm positive I have enough gold. They sell resurrection and raise dead. But they are both gray, can't buy them...

My cleric is below lvl 9, so that means I must find a temple right? Are there any temples in early game? Otherwise I have to reload a saved game. Problem is I tried that fight perhaps 10 times and this was my best result (only one dead - my rogue sacrificed himself by sneaking close to the spellcasters).

Edit: I'm at the end of chapter one I would assume... Trying to kill off the goblins.

 

Have you *Selected* the rogue when you're planning to buy him the resurrection?
Furthermore, I believe the casting problem, which you should consider, is indeed a matter of abilities
Here follow the classes and their casting statistics... The stat's must be 10+the level of spell you want to cast (like Ziad said))
Sorcerer, Bard: charisma
Mage: intelligence
Druid, cleric, ranger, paladin: wisdom
IIRC raise dead is a level 5 spell, so your cleric (maybe paladin) must have at least 15 wisdom, 17 for resurrection.
Although bitchy expensive, you should be able to resurrect/raise dead your rogue tho'... Anyone that offers healing will usually also offer raisings.
Most likely you forgot to select him to receive the raising, like you'd select whoever you wanted healed.

 

Thanks a lot guys. I'm sure this will solve my problems. A last question: will temporary boosts to abilities help up when trying to cast spells? Like magic items or spells which increase for instance wisdom?

Thanks again...

 

Temporary boosts to your casting stats will only increase the difficulty of saves vs your spells. If your casting stat is not high enough (unmodified) to cast a certain level of spell, then you're out of luck.

 

I am not entirely sure, but it'd be logical that it would.

After all, everything concerning that particiular stat is affected if it's modified by an item or spell. Bonus spells, DC, everything.
I havent tried it though.

I must say, that if you're having troubles with goblins your party certainly isnt optimised, or at least you lack the experience to utilise it fully. Sorcerers with 10 or less charisma are... a bit completely utterly useless.
I advise you change at least this character, though i doubt the ability of others as well, seeing this one char


EDIT: Seems i was wrong about being able to cast higher level spells with item&spell modified casting stats. Ah, well

 

When creating a spell-casting character, I usually try for 14 to 16 in that character's casting stat. For sorcerers, that extra charisma helps out your interpersonal skills (bluff/diplomacy/intimidate) as well.
As a suggestion, there are a number of guides on Sorcerer's Place that are an immense help to new players--check 'em out...

 

So Gothmog, what you are saying is that the "boss" gang from chapter one (which is the one I'm having problems with) is easily dispatched with? That is good to know, because then my party is probably not very good. However it's my first try so I might learn Well, not sure it's the last enemies of the chapter, but those are in a cave. Actually there are two different groups in the same cave (this cave also has a door which need a password to get through). If you follow...

And thanks, I'll check out those guides. Seems to have forgotten a lot since I played Icewind Dale 1 four years ago or so...

 

So you are in the goblin warrens L1? Or about to face Guthma, the leader of the Horde forces?

I think you might have taken on the Bargest Whelp. You actually need not and he gives you a small quest to do if you just speak to him. That guy is tough for the party at low levels, so your party might be able to scrape through.

Who all do you have in your party?

 

I noticed I probably could talk my way through that fight, but I decided not to.

I don't have any multiclassed. I have a paladin, barbarian, rogue, ranger, cleric, and a wizard. So many questions, but I guess I'll just look around here and see if I find some answers. For instance, I noticed my cleric could use heavy armor without any penalties (I think?). I don't find that logical for a healing character. And my ranger was supposed to be outstanding with ranged weapons, but my fragile wizard almost does the same damage with his slingshots...

Talking damage, the paladin only does about 3-10 points of damage. Maybe that will improve if I find some good weapons. And I've never managed to silence any spellcaster.

Some feats are incomprensible. For instance, one is supposed to double the fire rate of ranged weapons. But it says "NOTE: this does not reload crossbows faster" or something like that... Does that mean crossbows won't fire faster?

And speaking ranged: is there any reason whatsoever to use a bow instead of crossbow? The latter does more damage.

Well I won't bother you with all questions, they are probably answered somewhere else already.

 

Damage is not just your weapon damage, you have strength bonuses and various spell effects that boost you damage as well. If you're really good at buffing up your characters (hint: JUPP), you'll see that the weapon you're carrying matters very little.

Rapid shot adds just one extra attack per round, it does NOT double it. Oh yes, it doesn't work with crossbows at all. (There is some magical crossbows that allow it, though..) Also, when your characters start to get several attacks per round, using a crossbow will actually hamper their effectiveness, as it only shoots once per round, period.

 

"If this is your first time
through the game, please stop reading NOW and go play the game through once
with whatever party you think should be workable. After reading this FAQ,
you will be so spoiled that playing through the game seems rather redundant,
as there won't be much of a chance of actually losing anymore, and how much
fun is that?"

Hehe, those sentences made me change my mind. I might take your advice and just play it through once with my not-so-optimized party. I'm starting to get a hold of it now. The confusing part is the stats pages which say how much damage is dealt from a particular weapon. Obviously the characters own bonuses aren't included in that computation right?

 

He got you Jukka

Pure paladin, barbarian, rogue, ranger, cleric, and a wizard. Hmm . . .

As far as the damage dealt in the stat pages is concerned it does include the bonuses you get from strength or dexterity, buffs and the weapon itself. Dont depend only on it though, as the %age elemental damages are also taken in the calculation which is wrong.

Clerics and Druids could use full-plate back in BG II, why is it new to you?

Im with you on the Rapid Shot. The way its described even slings should not use it according to me.

 

Frankly, the multiclassing thing puts me off a bit as it gets very complicated. I don't want to "loose" levels by multiclassing the wrong way. I have to really look into that before I dare to take such drastic measures.

Don't like my party, mmm? In my imagination, I have this really good fellow, the paladin, who is the sweet talker and the charismatic leader of the gang. For some weird reason, his best friend is a brutal and not so intelligent barbarian and they often go out on adventures together. The rogue is maybe less dependable according to the paladin, but he's known world wide for his foul skills and thus a good companion in dangerous environments.

The ranger is a real loner, but she's skilled and fearless, and knowledgeable about the wild terrain. The wizard is the only character not known to the others. He's been recommended and actually lives far away but he thought he could help the world by joining this party so he accepted without any payment whatsoever.

Anyways, that's what's inside my head. In effect, the cleric could create magical weapons and be a really adept fighter with her armor, right? So I've started to first put some good spells on the party (i.e. bless etc.), and then I create a weapon and let her join the fighting ranks. It's working pretty well. How to increase the AC of the mage is beyond me as AC modifiers don't appear to stack (he's got those magical bracers bought from town, giving +2 to AC).

And Jukka - what's the difference between double attack speed and getting 2 attacks/round? Isn't a round just a certain amount of time, and 2 attacks should mean double speed?

 

There are several types of AC modifiers (armor bonus, shield bonus, dexterity bonus, deflection bonus, etc), and bonuses of the same type generally don't stack together. There might be exceptions, I don't remember this part very well. Jukka will be more helpful than me I guess.

Attack speed defines at what time in the round you attack with this weapon (closest analogy I can give is casting time: at what time during the round the spell will go off). Number of attacks is how many times you can attack per round. So no, the two things are not the same. I think what Jukka meant is that the Rapid Shot adds one attack per round instead of doubling the number of attacks you have per round (which is the way you seem to have thought it works: "one is supposed to double the fire rate of ranged weapons")

Anyway, I can understand your distrust of multiclassing. Even though they're usually much more powerful than pure classes, I enjoy playing the latter more. The one multiclass you should really consider is the Rogue/Wizard. Because of the way skills work in 3E, and the relative ease of traps and locks, having a pure rogue seems a bit like a waste of a character slot.

Anyway, don't listen to any of us, and just play the game with whichever party you feel more comfortable with, and tell us how it works. And above all else, have fun!

 

It's a matter of using a confusing term.

Sure, going from 1 attack/round to 2 attacks/round just HAPPENS to be same as doubling it. However, if you start talking about doubling stuff, then there's going to be many disappointed people complaining why their 6th level warriors don't shoot 4 times in round using rapid shot..

 

Different types of AC bonus-

Armor bonus: comes from armors, bracers and spells like sheild, mage armor
Shield bonus: obviously sheilds
Dexterity bonus: well it comes from your Dex but is limited by the type of armor you wear. Light armor allows you to retain the max dex bonus.
Deflection bonus: Most of your rings and cloaks provide you with this type of bonus. A few spells too.
Generic bonus: If it does not say which bonus you get, it probably falls under this category. This type of AC bonus does stack and is hence very rare.

JUPP is a manical work which lets you decide how to get to such a high AC that nothing, but nothing, can ever hope to hurt you except for a natural 20 roll.
Among other useful things of course.

 

@Sharikanth
Perhaps my memory fails me, but AFAIK a druid couldnt wear plate armor. Jaheira is an exception since she's multiclassed fighter/druid, so she's allowed to, but single classed druids shouldnt be.

In 3ed (IWDII) druids are also only proficent with light and medium armor. Sure they can wear heavy armor, but it imposes its armor check penality to all attack rolls, which makes the character successfuly useless with any kind of weapon-fighting.


@Tadidas
Sorry, somehow i though you were in Targos, trying to repel the goblin attacks. Which is a rather easy fight. Barghest whelp, his goblins and another group that also turns hostile just a little to the west is definitely a harder fight.


Dont worry, the ranger will get way better in ranged combat than your wizard in time, when he gets more attacks per round - lvl6 being the first for wizard only lvl12.
Damage wont be that much of a problem i reckon, with that kind of a party. If you ever lack it, just scour the spellbooks of casters for helpful spells to boost it


Seems you have your characters well thought out already, so i wont suggest to alter them to be more powegamish anymore
No matter how powerful the character you may play, it still doesnt beat a average/flawed/decent character that is a person instead of a bunch of numbers. So, Go for it!
(not to mention you'll have plenty of challenge)

 

Aah well!
I never really got their 'hug-a-tree, summon-a-bear-to-flatten-that-mage' philosophy of life.

I only used Jaheira coz she was a romance option (once was enough!) and never bothered with Cernd.
Hell! During that fight with Faldron(sp?) Minsc, Keldron and my Kensai had to 'protect' his ass.

That girl impressed me though.
In my current run through IWD II I have a Drow NE Druid[12]/Stormlord of Talos[18] who rocks!

@Tadidas
Multi-classing is not the pain you seem to think it is, specially if you know what you are doing.
Except for the spell casting classes, you get decent benefits in the first 1-3 levels itself.

Then again ... this is your first time ... it's a six member party ... probably will stick to just the Normal game ... already have enough problems without adding level squatting to the pain ... should end at L16 ... less 3 levels is L13 ... only 7th levels spells ... oh well! Too much bother.

Stay with those pure classes.

PS:
Your Ranger will do (and also take) a lot more damage if she goes upfront.
And if your L12 wizard is shooting arrows instead of fireballs, its time to rest.