GameBanshee Forums

I did all eight chambers with a barbarian. Eighth chamber was the hardest, but I just ran around until I could stand my ground without being hit by the flame strikes, then clobbered a monk with whatever weapon I grabbed from the room. High HP saw me through..

After a long period of no-play, I've restarted again with a 6 member party. This time I've taken a melee heavy approach - only because I'm a bit tired of using summons to do all my fighting.

I've got a paladin, barbarian, fighter, cleric, fighter/thief and specialist wizard. A sorceror is not ...

If you want to go for a pure bard, I find that drow is the best choice. Having 16 con is plenty for soloing. The main reasons for the drow choice are immunity to sleep spells (includes command), spell resistance and an effective +4 bonus to will saves v enchantment spells. These really do help you ...

Slings are nice. They can do decent damage. But I don't think that the ability to use a shield at the same time is all that overpowering for a long range attacker. If the enemy closes up on you, your attack penalty is -4 at best if you have precise shot. If you are attacking enemy archers they tend ...

Didn't think that the charm spells allow you to control the enemy. Simple charm makes the enemy non-hostile but it doesn't seem to do anything other than stand around. Dire charm forces the enemy to attack, but I think you have no / limited control over what / who the enemy attacks. You might get ...

Bards don't need points in intelligence if you don't need skill points in anything other than concentration and/or don't wish to take the expertise feat.

I normally do use the bard's other skills though and sometimes take expertise feat for normal mode play. You can gain some nice items right at ...

Disagree that the daylight penalties are severe enough to sway the decision. I fight in broad daylight with a duergar at the moment and I swat orcs away like flies.

Also, am not sure if the +2 bonus is to ALL saves for the deep gnome. I remember seeing somewhere else that it's a +2 bonus vs ...

In some ways IWD2 is better than BG2, depending on your perspective.

In BG2 a high level mage was untouchable except by other magi (or a inquisitor wielding holy avenger perhaps). What BG2 has are tons of protection spells, contingencies, illusion spells and spell triggers for the mage. You can ...

Agree - phantom blade sucks. I think dark raven is right on this. The only point of this is if I don't have a +3 weapon spare to go around or if I can't afford to buy one for my bard. It can be ok if you are lacking a +3 weapon, but that's about it.

One of my games (party of 3) has a drow monk. Drop charisma and intelligence and boost the rest as much as possible. It is important to boost constitution and strength as much as possible - max it out if you can. Later on you'll probably only boost wisdom to increase the effectiveness of the ...

@Heidrek

I'd pass on taking rogue levels. 5 points in UMD isn't great if you want to use some good higher level scrolls that the bard can't cast already (esp. some cleric scrolls). A 3d6 sneak attack bonus is nice, but if personally I'd go with the extra feats and slightly higher base attack bonus ...

@Raumoheru

If you think the monk can do well against tough enemies in solo mode, just see how long it takes to bring down a few Zombie Lords (which enemy clerics get at level 9 or 10). Maybe later on you can take on one slayer knight as see how the monk fares.

The stunning and quivering palm ...

@ Heidrek

I think I used so many instances of heal and spontaneous heal spells the last time. As I had the gnome wizard and couldn't find mord's sword scroll, I was stuffed on that strategy. Yes, my druid kept casting the lightning spells but that took a while as they strike not so often.

Will ...

Am playing a drow bard and most likely will stay a pure class.

I'm not too sure, but I think starting stats were Str 17, Dex 17, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 4, Cha 16. As you can see, I decided to live with the -3 will save penalty. This was offset partly by the racial bonuses drow have versus enchantment ...

Out of interest, has anyone actually fought the guardian (toe-to-toe in melee), without using large number of summons, Ot's Sphere tactics or instant death spells, and won?

I remember that first time I played the game, I was using the Rose pre-made party and the guardian was pretty hard ...

Couldn't have said it better myself than silverdragon.

AC below 40 is not enough against some of the tougher melee enemies and you can bet that they have excellent fortitude saves so you'll need nothing short of a miracle to stun them with your fist attack, or even outright kill them with your ...

Level squatting means not levelling up when you are prompted to upon attaining the next level's worth of XP.

The point of this is the computer looks at your current average party level when it decides how much XP to dish out for a kill. If your average party level is too high, it is possible to ...

Later on, having an AC of 30-35 does not mean you're untouchable in melee. And with a relatively low Con score, you're not going to last long. I personally would have put points into maxing out Con rather than Dex. Wis should be as high as possible - you're going to have to make good use of your ...

I'm also running a 4 character party, in tandem with my other game. I've got 3 drow and a gray dwarf as: a bard, oghma and mask clerics and a fighter. First time I'm not playing with a wizard / sorceror, so I'll be interested to see how that changes things.

You can reach level 20, but 18 -20 is a reasonable range. If you really want, you can try level squatting towards the end and see it you can get higher. But there really is no need to do that.