Things to do before going to Spellhold!

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Thought I would make a post for anyone who is planning on going here and still find themselves in Chapter 2 or at the start of Chapter 3.

Sell any extra equipment by going through your inventory that you may not need. +1 weapons, loose items that take up inventory slots. Although you can do this in Brynnlaw, best to get it done and over with before making the trip.

If you used the substitute Illithium for the Temple of Helm quest, then remember to coat the Mace of Disruption +1 with pure Illithium to make it a +2 weapon.

Hit all the shops that sell magical scrolls for wizards and buy all the ones you don't have. I regret doing this so I hope I survive my journey.

Give everyone in your party two gem bags. Once again, something else I regret not doing.

Bring along just as many scroll cases. Four for your main mage and two for clerical scrolls of protection. These seriously begin to pile up, especially if you want to take them to sell later on in the game, otherwise you should be fine with just taking the scrolls you do not have in your spellbook.

Bring along a few potions to raise your intelligence if you so need it.

You're going to be in hostile territory for awhile and if anyone has anything else to add to this from their own experiences, please post away.

Going to Spellhold is like going camping for a week or more. There's always something in the back of your mind that is telling you something was forgotten or was not done.

Syl...

 

I might add :
- Manage your stronghold (especially for thiefs).
- No need to sleep before the trip.

Syl, where you can buy so many spellcases ?? I just found 4 of them, I bought all . Gem bags, hmmm..., I only take 2, and I guess it's enough though sometimes I may need more, indeed. But, in SpellHold you find the wonderful Bag of Holding that simplifies a LOT life .

 

Where do you get more speel cases ?
I only found 4 as well and have filled all of them as well as keeping lots of spell scrolls in a chest.
I did spellhold with only 3 gem bags and that was ample (Could have done it with 1).
The problem I fould was arrows, bolts etc and the bag of holding just wouldn't take any more good weapons. (Wouldn't it be nice if there was another one.

 

Hey, are you guys using one of those hidden fighter kits...
I think its called 'the pack rat'

Who needs all that stuff anyway. I seem to get by ok with a single scroll case (for those obscure, infrequently used spells) and two gem bags. I get to the point where characters only grab the things they need and leave the rest behind. I try to keep my mages up to date by recording most of the usefull spells into their books.

BTW, I'm interested on how others play their mages. I memorized a wide assortment of spells to cover most situations, the only problem being that I don't often use up my memorized spells before I rest. I also keep about 5 or 6 magic missiles in the good ole short term memory.

 

In my current game, I have 1 multi-classed wizard that focus on few spells (stoneskin, fireball). And I have a sorcerer that got in memory all his spells, without any need of memorization. In some rooms, one of my tactic is to double-fire fireballs then quickly move out, and go back inside with a thief to see what happened.

And I keep those spellcases for special cases, that's why I got 4 of them.

 

Actually, I'm sure it was mentioned in a previous post but I did receive e-mail from a reader for that particular equipment you speak of. A tip of sorts.

If you give all drow equipment to an NPC character while in the Underdark and dismiss them from the party, when you return and aquire them again, they will still have the drow equipment and its abilities and properties will still be intact, allowing you to use their full benefit above ground.

Syl...

 

Yes Syl, I also heard that tip, but I didn't try it... not fair .

 

Back to the bag...of holding and the case of scroll cases. My Fighter/Mage has 4 scroll cases and I finished the game with 3 of them full of valuable scrolls like TimeStop, AbiDalzim's etc. I cursed myself for not using them...so here's my message: Don't use many scroll cases, you're tempted to store your scrolls instead of using them (you know, for the hard times). Less cases force you to use them...
To the Bag Of Holding: Never stuff them with arrows, bolts etc. for it will only hold IIRC 99 items and a pack of arrows counts as 40...

[This message has been edited by Elenias Nal'nair (edited December 19, 2000).]

 

I also noticed that if you put Drow equipment in the bag of holding, it will not disentigrate when you get above ground. I accidently had a drow shield in there and it wasn't dust when I took it out.

As far as pointers, buy all the good equipment you can afford before moving on to chapter 3. You will make your money back and then some, but keep some $$ handy for those merchants in the Underdark because they sell some nice stuff. If you plan to pick up Imoen, stock up on spells for her to learn and think about the equipment she might need. Take all the potions of extra healing you have. I found gem bags needed, but they don't do much good when you find those gems in piles of more then 10 down there. Buy plenty of arrows if you use them as I've noticed the Drow prices are rather high. Also, don't have your inventory full. There is a LOT of loot to be had down there, and even with a slimed down inventory, I found myself deciding what I wanted to bring back by the end of the journey. Every slot counts, so choose wisely what you bring and what you don't.

 

Maybe some people considers that as cheating but, I usually steal nice items and spells when it's possible... with a score of 250, you can almost steal everything to everyone... lol , I tried yesterday to steal Adalon, and she didn't notice me ), well, I found nothing but I laught a LOT.

I consider it's not cheating because when the level of your thief is very high (20 or more), you can have the max score in stealing skill, so I assume that your thief is GRAND MASTER in that activity... where is the cheat here ??? I guess, it's the same for a fighter with a Thaco of -10, isn't it, that one can hit almost everything everytime ?? It's not cheating for fighters, so why it should be cheating for thieves ??

Cheating could be : sell item, steal it, sell it again to the same person. I never tried that way, and I'm not sure it works...

Any comments ?

 

That selling/stealing thing works, but I've never tried it....

 

jsut make sure you try it out on a dumb storekeeper. The front man at the Mae'Var quild in the Docks is just such an idiot. Nalia and her impressive thief skills, without any potions, ripped that goon blind.