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Cool!

Im at the same spot. I've been busy at school so my gaming has been cut down a little. Anyway, if you go outside the rebel drow camp then turn north and then left, then a band on drow assassins appear.

Now if you havent cleared them, i suggest summoning a monster left of your main character because the mage will cast some ice spell that stuns. While stunned they go through your fella like hot knife through butter so its good if the stun hits something else. I did it by buy the ring of free movement from the drow camp and then it was easy, my rogue just ran around while the rest hit them with arrows and such. My ranger, fig/sorc and fig/cler have rapid shot so they shoot 4 arrows per round. Not many monsters survive a full round.

Btw did you loot the valas tomb with 4 iron golems? the fight is so hard i decided to pass it for now.

To be continued...

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Thu Sep 28, 2006 1:21 am
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Ok some info on my party:

1) Thiefling "Shadow", fighter/rogue 4/7, effective level 12.
AR. mod. (attack roll modifier)
Mainhand: +7/+2
Base: +9/+4
Weapon: -2
Proficiency: +1
Ability: -2
other: +1
# Attacks: 2

AC 30
Base: 10
Armor: 5
Deflection: 3
Shield: 2
Dexterity: 5
Feat "Expertise": 5

2) Wild Elf "Trueshot", fighter/ranger 4/8, level 12
AR. mod.
MH: 22/22/17/12
Base: 10/10/5/0
Weapon: +5
Prof: +1
Abil: +5
Other: +1
Crit. Hit Bonus: +1
# Attacks: 4

AC 19
Base: 10
Armor: 4
Dex: 5

3) Wild Elf "Sorceror", fighter/sorcerer 4/8, level 12.
AR.mod.
MH: 13/13/8
Base: 6/6/1
Weap: +1
Prof: +1
Abil: +5
# Attacks: 3

AC 19
B: 10
Arm: 2
Def: 2
Dex: 5

4) Aasimar "Swashbuckler", fighter/bard 4/7, Effective level 12.
AR.mod.
MH: 17/12
B: 9/4
Weap: +4
Abil: +4
# Attacks: 2

AC 19
B: 10
Arm: 4
Defl: 1
Dex: 4

5) Shield Dwarf "Templar", fighter/silverstar of selune 4/8, level 12
AR.mod
MH: 12/12/7
B: 8/8/3
Weap: 1
Abil: 3
# Attacks: 3

AC 19
B: 10
Armor: 8
Dex: 1

6) Human "Fury", Fighter 12, level 12
AR.mod
MH: 17/12/7
B: 12/7/2
Weap: 3
prof: 1
other: 1
Crit. hit bonus: 1
# attacks: 3

AC 23
B 10
Armor: 9
Defl: 1
Shield: 3

My rogue rarely uses ranged weapon, most of the time he is just a decoy because of his high AC which i can very quickly boost to 38. Others use Xbows or Longbows with the exception on Fury who uses sling (currently equipped) or a frost dart. The reason i use my rogue as a decoy other than his high AC, is that monsters tend to attack rogues when in melee combat, prolly because they hate sneak attacks :D I also have boots of the shifter which allows spell "blink" once a day, which causes 50% of attacks to fail against the target of the spell, but also causes 20% of my attacks to fail, which i really dont care about since my rogue is usually on the run :D So in one round, a target faces the possibility of getting hit 15 times, lets say av.dam is 10 so it adds to 150 damage :D

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Thu Sep 28, 2006 4:04 am
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lol, nice party! I'm a bit surprised at the swashbuckler's attack bonus, but I suppose it comes from the fighter levels. And good call on using the rogue as decoy...I don't really have a rogue so I tend to use my monk for it, and while she is very good at evading and/or resisting, she can't take much damage. :( So when they web her (while fighting the driders :/ ) she's dead meat. I'll get her a ring of freedom like you did. :)

I've come to the point where I'm think about maybe multiclassing some chars. My bard, for example, has all available bard songs...so I might multi her into a sorcerer or something like that. It would neatly complement her charisma stat and her current role (secondary spellcaster).

I'll probably keep the monk a monk, the wizard too. The other classes (fighter, paladin, cleric) might take a level or two in another class but nothing major. I know that a ranger's ambidexterity improves your ability to wield two-handed weapons, but only while wearing light or medium armor right? In that case it's useless for my main tank. :(

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Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:47 am
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Ok i made it into Kuldahar last evening, man i was so pissed i wanted to smash something. Those friggin mind golems, they are pretty much immune to everything and apparently they can hit anyone and anything.

So after about 20 tries of killing one and finally succeeding thanks to arrows of impact, i managed to kill one, woohoo for me, i never touched another one :D

I hope you brought along the halberdhammer, becuase it rocks against undead. They have to make a fortitude save or be destroyed. My fury has improved cleave so it went bang = dead, bang = dead, bang = dead. they all failed their saves.

On another note, i cant multiclass fury into paladin, the choice is greyed out. I guess it comes from lack of wisdom.

Edit: Care to share how to kill the Guardian of Crossroads, its friggin immune to everything i throw at it.

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Fri Sep 29, 2006 4:02 am
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Got this off Gamespot boards about the slowdowns

Quote:
I've also had slowdown problems, though I don't think I've ever had many problems with the typing lagging, or hotkeys not working. But as for the slowdown, I spent some time googling a while back and found a fix. Apparently, with newer systems, the game has compatibility problems. I have a 6800GT myself, and I would get some sort of lag. Turns out it's a conflict with DirectX. If you go:

Start -> Run -> 'dxdiag' (no quotes) -> Go to the display tab -> Disable "DirectDraw"

This may very well solve your problems. Keep in mind, however, that in order to play other games, you'll have to re-enable this. Hope this helps.
---
Proud LUEser [~N~]


Will test this later..

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Fri Sep 29, 2006 10:48 am
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Nice find :)

And you attacked the mind golems? Haha, they don't do anything as long as you leave them alone, right? Cos I killed the elder brain and everything, but the mind golems just stayed "blue". (thankgod) I just won the fight with the 2 wizards of Thay and the harpies outside the underdark, and met up with Oswald. I'm gonna go back into the underdark and kill the monks and steal their artifact; and kill the merchants. I suppose I can't go back here from Kuldahar, so I better do it now. Oh and I gave my tank a level of barbarian, and my pally a level of fighter. :)

I haven't met the guardian of the crossroads yet....I'll report back when I meet him or her. Screenie attached, look at the bodies...golems, giants, mind flayers, drow thralls, duergar thralls, minotaurs...notice the boneguard to the left ;)


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Sat Sep 30, 2006 8:08 am
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Lemme know when you do meet him. Anyway i tested the fix and it worked, absolutly no lag what so ever. Actually it was kinda weird to play at such a smooth speed, took some time to get used to it.

Anyway im off to Dark messiah topic to express my opinion of the multiplayer beta.

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Sat Sep 30, 2006 8:56 am
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Ok, I killed the Guardian. :) It took me a few tries (4-5 or something) and it's a TOUGH battle...it's good to have a bit of a challenge. :) Reminded me of Ascension tbh.

Because of the Weidu tweaks and fixes I installed my fighting experience might differ from yours though...for one, I think you could block the bastard on the platform by using Otiluke's Resilient Sphere on a party member on the stairs...not sure. In my game he just teleported away from the platform and proceeded to rape me. :? So; if that trick does work for you you could trap him and throw everything you have in terms of ranged and magic at him.

But for general tactics: he doesn't like blunt weapons. So let your fighters use hammers, flails, staves, anything. IIRC he resists slashing damage to an extent - I didn't try piercing. Magic-wise go for fire and lightning damage; he seems pretty resistant to cold and acid.

So, what did I do....before turning the final pedestal I buff my party. Bless, strength of one, mass haste, prayer, magic circle against evil (and if you have it, protection from acid). I hold my party BEFORE the stairs and let my main tank (Fighter/Barbarian) run in and turn the pedestal. The bastard appears and will start hacking away at the tank. Let your other melee fighters run in and attack him too; if possible summon a fire or earth elemental in its back. (this is optional though, because he seems to dispel summoned creatures on touch - so just pray he doesn't attack them)

Cast lower resistance(s) with your mage; and start the fireworks. Magic Missiles, lightning bolts, fire arrows, chain lightning, flamestrikes: anything you've got. Use scrolls if necessary, and make sure your mage(s) are NON-STOP casting spells...you can't waste any possibility to do damage because he'll rip through your fighters. The Guardian will fear your party from time to time, so either have your bard play the tale of Curran Strongheart (immunity to fear) or make sure your priest has "remove fear" on her. WHile your mage is preferrably not on the platform, keep your priest on the stairs so he/she can run in to cast "heal" in time; or to use the remove fear like I mentioned.

During the battle try running around a bit with your fighters (preferrably fast classes like barbarians and monks) to confuse the dragon and make him change targets. Nobody can take his beating for a long time so it's good to have him switch targets so that your other fighters can recover with health potions or aid from the priests. That's basically the strategy I used...just keep him busy with melee characters using blunt weapons while you pelt him with spells and damage.

In the end I lost my paladin and my monk, but my main tank was still very much alive! Just remember: lower resistance+ as much direct damage spells you can do...MM seems to work best. The beast is very resistant to melee damage so don't focus on that, except for a little blunt.

Hope it helps. :) I'm currently fighting my way down in Dragon's Eye...too many Yuan-Ti! :cry: hehehe. Nah, they're easy. Especially compared to the Guardian. :?


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Sun Oct 01, 2006 5:09 am
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Btw what level is your group of adventurers?

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Sun Oct 01, 2006 9:53 am
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I advanced a bit since I killed the guardian, so they were about:

lvl 12 bard/ lvl 1 sorcerer
lvl 12 fighter/ lvl 1 barbarian
lvl 11 illusionist
lvl 13 Morninglord of Lathander
lvl 13 monk of the dark moon
lvl 11 paladinof helm / lvl 1 fighter

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Sun Oct 01, 2006 3:20 pm
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After advancing a bit further (dragon's eye is loooong and tough) I made it to the Severed Hand....the final chapter. :) I'm kinda tired atm so can't be bothered to type much about it but my party is rolling pretty well and at lvl 16-17 (more or less).

Slayer knights are hardcore opponents :( but...after a HARD battle my party managed to retrieve the Holy Avenger and now my paladin is truly owning everything; the more so because the Holy Avenger is only a longsword in IWD2 and allows him to wear a shield as well...immunity to fear + lay on hands + smite evil + long sword mastery + high AC = versatile tank. Never thought i'd give a pally so much praise, haha. But Keldorn Reborn deserves it. (yeah, that's his name :P )

Overall this run through IWD2 is a lot "easier" than the last one I can remember a few years ago. It's probably because I balanced my party better and I actually understand 3rd edition this time around...last time I played I was straight old school 2nd edition and completely messed up the multiclassing and feats choices. Ah well. :)

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Mon Oct 02, 2006 6:18 pm
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Finished the game!!

I must admit that I won the final battle by a thread only, but hey, I did it. :P I won't spoil too much (even though you already played the game once) but suffice to say that i never really got into any trouble during the entire Severed Hand; but I must admit that i avoided the battle with Xvim's avatar by siding with him instead of Ilmater :) But hey, what did you expect...give me a choice between good and evil and off I go. :P

I would have won the fight anyway I guess, but I do remember that it's HARD. Like, really really hard. But, siding with Xvim made him promise that Isair and Madae wouldn't be able to summon demons during my fight with them. That was a nice help. :)

As for the fight itself...I did it in one try, but a tough try. ;) Starts off with isair and madae in front of me, and a few of their accomplices on the sides (mage, cleric, rogue, fighter etc, all 'named' chars). I mass haste the party, cast holy aura and circle against evil and off I go. I send the fighter, monk and paladin to gangbang the nearest named minion, then the next, then the next, etc...with good equipment, holy aura and mass haste they practically rip through the first waves. Most of the named dudes were dead in a minute or two-three, but Isair and Madea were summoning stuff like CRAZY. No demons, thankgod, but greater feyrs, frost giants, shade forms, rhemoraz (they are bastards) and so forth. More than enough to keep me busy. Actually, they were virtually swamping me at a certain moment, so I decided to focus all my firepower on Madea who -I believed- was the major spellcaster summoning stuff. Things were looking dire however, as I had her down to only 'hurt' with the fighters starting to take damage; and more summons were appearing...

But then my wizard was running from the battle (chased by a summon) and I saw that the REAL culprit summoning was a (named) wizard slightly behind a wall who does nothing but summon, summon, summon...so we changed focus, owned the fella, and went back to Madae. A few seconds later she and Isair teleport out to replenish at the nearby spring well however...leaving me and my party to deal with a horde of tough summons. They're easy one by one, but hard when blocking and kicking you en masse. :( But we manage to kill them all without any losses. The party is majorly injured however, so instead of using my healing spells/scrolls I summon the djinn with the avarine decanter (can be bought off the drow merchant in the traveling camp early in the game) and buy healing for my entire party. Because you can't sleep or save there... :(

So, I'm at full health again but lost a good few of my spells already. I go to the other room with isair and madea, and face them a second time. they're both at full health again and are accompanied by two slayer knights of Xvim. Those are tough but nothing to worry about really...then I move on to the cambion twins. I'm doing the usual strategy of focus fire on one target (of course) and i'm doing good damage but Isair is a high-level cleric with several "heal" spells so it's a war of attrition. She keeps healing herself and her brother as soon as they hit 'hurt' status. Up until then I'm firmly in control, but then the balance changes...

Isair casts 'Black Blade of disaster' and DISINTIGRATES my paladin. :o you have to keep in mind that both isair and madea are very resistant to all forms of physical damage, and that the extra magical damage from the Holy Avenger is hurting them the most of anything my party throws at them. So, paladin is wasted (for good) and the holy avenger is lying useless on the floor... :? It got worse: my monk gets stunned and almost insta-killed by Isair...and madae casts mass dominate on my wizard and bard standing a few feet away from the battle, leaving only my main tank (Rinox ;) ) and my cleric standing.

The idea then was to just have the tank keep the twins busy for as long as he could until the dominate wore off on the wizard and bard. This worked, but only just: about the time the tank gets killed the bard and wizard join the battle again. The wizard starts firing some minor spells like Magic Missile on the 'hurt' twins (their heals had ran out by then) but to little avail...I start to panic at this point. I check my inventory and find a scroll of resurrection! While my cleric is rezzing my tank, I use my bard and wizard to distract the twins...the bard gets stunned and killed, the wizard follows a few seconds later. :( At this point ONLY my cleric is left standing, with no offensive spells left and two major badass enemies near. But the rezzing succeeds and my war can quickly put on all his armor again (unlike in BG2 where you can't change armor during battle situations) and the rest of his equipment.

With only these two characters left I make a last ditch attempt: I dig up the Axe of Souls from my bag of holding! :twisted: The axe is cursed, and while holding it the wielder goes berserk (no control) and his HP status is unknown...but the axe has some MAJOR bonuses too and was probably the only weapon left that can really put the hurt on the twins. So I get Rinox the axe and make him attack Isair, the warrior/mage of the twins. The priest provides some minor healing, and manages to use a scroll of 'raise dead" on my wizard. The wizard still has a 'haste' in his spells so I use it on Rinox, while firing some minor spells like acid arrow on isair.

I'm crossing my fingers, hoping he'll hold out because the monk doesn't do enough damage, the paladin is chunked and the bard's spells arent powerful enough...he's the last hope. Because I can't see his HP status I have no idea how near to dying he is, so I just sit back and hope...and then, after a while, isair goes down, the cutscene plays and my cleric, tank and wizard run for the exit as the severed hand starts crumbling down. Beat the game!! :D After being only left with a cleric at a certain point of the final battle it was really rewarding, as you can imagine. And I like to praise myself for the stroke of genius of equipping Rinox with the Axe of Souls. ;) If the paladin wouldn't have disappeared the battle would have been easy I think...but if, if, if. I think it's kinda fitting that a paladin didn't make it to the end in a party of mine, don't you? ;)

Anyway peltz, tips for the final battle:

- take out the summoner behind the wall, will spare you a lot of frustration
- focus on ONE twin only. As soon as you can kill one of them, you win the game. :)

Have fun man...I know I did!

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Wed Oct 04, 2006 5:21 pm
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I was out of the country for a few days, so i havent had the chance to play yet, still at the keeper. I havent come up with any ideas how to kill the keeper because, for good or worse, i built my party for delay tactics which means i have few offensive spells but lots of buffs and debuffs.

I dont know man, i think the keeper might be too tough. I woulndt want to give up but i aint planning on trying for months to kill one lousy animal.

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Thu Oct 05, 2006 6:11 am
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Hehe, killed the poor bastard.

The battle was beyond my meager IWD skills so i:

1) turned the difficulty to very easy
2) Had my rogue run around the monster while mages used up any DPS spell he had
3) Once the offensive spells were out i equipped slashing weapons, forget blunt weapons, and hasted them and then i used about 25 potions of health
4) he dropped down dead.

Heh i suck, but he's dead.

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Thu Oct 05, 2006 7:06 am
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Hehehe, well it does sound a little unorthodox, but if it gets the job done.... ;) Congrats! If it's any help; that is the hardest battle in my entire IWD2 run. Maybe fighting Xvim would have been harder but I got out of that one as you could read. :p

So, good luck!! You still have a long way to go!

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Thu Oct 05, 2006 3:35 pm
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