Am I glad that I don't use walkthroughs

wise grimwald · Post by **wise grimwald** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 5:11 am

On my second trip through SoA, I thought that I would turn left instead of right after delivery of the eggs to the silver dragon. To my surprise, I found a whole new area with those quite fearsome demonknights! Took me quite a while to suss out how to deal with them. It's like having a brand new game!
Am now in the mindflayer section. Again, a brand new experience!
I am wondering if I am being greedy by trying another brand new experience. i.e. re-entering Ust Natha and fighting my way through. Is it worth doing, or should I go back through the Koa-Tua tunnels? Any ideas?

anarchistica · Post by **anarchistica** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 10:58 am

I usually kill everyone aside from the innocent Duergar. Killing Adalon only when evil, of course.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:06 pm

anarchistica wrote:I usually kill everyone aside from the innocent Duergar. Killing Adalon only when evil, of course.

What you mean you kill the Smerfs? You eveil man.

I kill everyone but the Deep Gnome (Smerfs) and don't usually even kill the Duergar (innocent Duergar???). I only kill Adalon and sacrifice to Demogorgon if I'm playing evil. Bit of a drag not getting the frost giant belt but being good does have it's price, as well as rewards.

Saros · Post by **Saros** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 4:31 am

wise grimwald wrote:On my second trip through SoA, I thought that I would turn left instead of right after delivery of the eggs to the silver dragon. To my surprise, I found a whole new area with those quite fearsome demonknights! Took me quite a while to suss out how to deal with them. It's like having a brand new game!
Am now in the mindflayer section. Again, a brand new experience!
I am wondering if I am being greedy by trying another brand new experience. i.e. re-entering Ust Natha and fighting my way through. Is it worth doing, or should I go back through the Koa-Tua tunnels? Any ideas?

Well, am I to assume that you never ever collected Crom Faeyr in one piece yet? Do hurry back to Cromwell then(provided you have the rest of the parts).

I will try to sort out all of the things you can do in Underdark from pure powergaming view(i.e. items, xp and treasure).
Spoilers below:

Spoiler

The Kuo-toan tunnels and the double gate guarded by Drow are your only way out. You may, however, storm the higher levels of Ust-natha, and kill some enemies, but you won't be able to reach the surface from there.

You need a specific scroll in order to open the gates. It is in the possession of Adalon, the silver dragon, which leaves you with 2 options - either to fight her for the scroll, or return her eggs(quest line).

If you fight her immediately, you won't be able to go to Ust Natha. The Beholder's lair, Illithid City and Kuo-toan tunnels will still be open for exploration. But you'll lose many other things. For instance - while your party is in Drow form, re-visit the Duergar merchant again. He will surprise you with a whole new stock of items, much more valuable than the ones he has already shown you.
The city, itself, is filled with valuable, rare and useful items (Drow Merchants, Quilue's Home, Deirex's Tower, House Jae'lat, the tavern fights), and a lot of xp.

Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to choose what to do with Adalon's eggs. If your main character(or current party leader, not sure about that) is evil, the demon will offer you a trade for them.

There are other side-quests in Underdark. If you haven't done this already, try casting a Freedom spell(from a scroll) near the elemental portals. Or try casting Heal on one of the victims of Imprisonment (Raevlin Strathi).

BTW - if you have Throne of Bhaal installed, ALWAYS kill adalon. The armor made with her blood is one of the best in the game, and with UAI, even in a good-aligned party the item can and will be used.

I really don't think it's worth it assaulting everyone in Ust-Natha. Playing along gives you much more xp and rewards.
There is a way of completing Adalon's quest(returning her eggs) for the quest xp points, and killing her afterwards (again, for more xp and her blood), but it requires quickness and some reloading in order to get used to it.

anarchistica · Post by **anarchistica** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 7:08 am

galraen wrote:What you mean you kill the Smerfs? You eveil man.

I kill everyone but the Deep Gnome (Smerfs) and don't usually even kill the Duergar (innocent Duergar???). I only kill Adalon and sacrifice to Demogorgon if I'm playing evil. Bit of a drag not getting the frost giant belt but being good does have it's price, as well as rewards.

I forgot the guys in the NW aren't Duergar (i'm currently playing IWD, IWD2, BG1 and NWN1 simultaniously... easy to get stuff confused). I might kill them next time i play Evil, never have before.

wise grimwald · Post by **wise grimwald** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 7:18 am

Quite right, I haven't yet completed Crom Faeyr, though I have collected all the parts except for the belt before. I have completed all the Ust natha quests. At least I think that I have, certainly all those that you mentioned. I
have completed the Kuo-Tua tunnels after learning that "He who fights and runs away lives to fight another day" when dealing with the demon knights.Two at a time isn't too hard, it was the four at a time that I found nigh on impossible! I am now having fun with the mind-flayers. I certainly had several reloads there also! Will I be able to get back into Ust Natha I wonder.
I will no doubt find out when I try. The dragon already has her eggs, so your suggestion comes too late this time round. I would however have qualms about killing her as I get the impression that she is of good alignment.

JackOfClubs · Post by **JackOfClubs** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 5:40 pm

wise grimwald wrote:I am wondering if I am being greedy by trying another brand new experience. i.e. re-entering Ust Natha and fighting my way through. Is it worth doing, or should I go back through the Koa-Tua tunnels? Any ideas?

Everyone should wipe out the Drow city at least once, just to say they've done it.

I usually don't anymore, though, since it is a rather tedious series of battles. None of the drow opponents are particularly tough, but there are lots of them and their high armor and magic resistance mean they tend to take awhile to kill.

wise grimwald · Post by **wise grimwald** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:46 am

JackOfClubs wrote:Everyone should wipe out the Drow city at least once, just to say they've done it.

I usually don't anymore, though, since it is a rather tedious series of battles. None of the drow opponents are particularly tough, but there are lots of them and their high armor and magic resistance mean they tend to take awhile to kill.

Took your advice, and yes it is fairly easy and I probably won't bother in future. Nothing of value to find either. I was a bit careless with that nice cloak. It turned to dust. If I had put it in a bag of holding, could I have used it underneath the graves, or is there no way of keeping it?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 10:49 am

The cloak you got from Solaufin do you mean WG? If so, then no you can't keep it unless you exploit the dismiss party member ploy.

Spoiler:

Spoiler

The ploy I'm referring to is the one were you can give your Drow items to a party member, dismiss them and arrange to meet them back at the Copper Coronet. When you meet up again they will still have the items having bypassed the dungeon exit script

.Spoiler ends

Saros · Post by **Saros** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 3:34 pm

There are other ways to get out of Underdark(and not only) a powerful, illegal item like the Piwafwi cloak or the Rift Device, for example(who among us doesn't want to have an unstoppable, ranged version of Harm, even just once). But there is little use in getting out an adamantine item, since it will dissolve to dust anyway everytime you visit your Pocket Plane in ToB.