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Well, I've been taking a break from BG2 and, after running a party of 4 PC's that got insanely powerful, decided to take a party of 6 through. This time my party consists of:

human paladin
elven ranger
dwarf cleric
human fighter dualed to druid at 9
human thief dualed to mage at 7
bard

I've been taking advantage of monster re-spawn spots to level up my party fast. I dualed my thief in the Temple of the Forgotten God, and just soaked up trap damage in the first few levels of Dragon's Eye. By the time I hit Yxonomei's level, my mage-thief had recovered his thieving skills.

This was the easiest battle with Mistress Snake yet - first I had my cleric cast Recitation, my mage cast web on the doorway, then I had my paladin (equipped with the Ring of Free Action) speak with Yxonomei. After her little speech was over, I had him beat a hasty retreat back to my party. My cleric then cast Defensive Harmony, my mage cast Haste, my bard started to sing the Siren's Yearning, and my ranger, armed with the Messenger of Sseth bow and +2 arrows, cautiously approached the doorway. As soon as Yxonomei appeared, conveniently stuck behind the Yuan-Ti trapped in the Web, my ranger filled her with arrows. Meanwhile, my mage threw a couple of fireballs, and my paladin and fighter (not yet dualed) awaited anyone who made it out of the web. Before I knew it, Yxonomei and half her contingent went down, and the rest soon followed under a hailstorm of bullets/arrows/bolts. Yxonomei might have gotten one spell off. The entire battle took less than a minute.

Nice post, i see a few similarities between our current parties. Mine is here and you've already commented a couple of times in that thread.


My battle with Yxu was a little more hectic because I stormed into the room with a bunch of summons. Your battle seemed a little more controlled whereas I stormed the front and set off area spells everywhere. They bow of sseth is something else. My F7/Th9 is using it. He can backstab for 40-50 points and if the critter doesn't die, he takes a few steps back and is receiving 3.5 att/rd so the beast doesn't even make it to him.

Isn't it going to take a long time once you dual the fighter at lvl9 (110,000 XP?). a tenth level druid must require similar experience. I didn't want to wait that long so I dualled at six. you'll probably have more HP's and attack per round plus proficiencies but is it worth the wait?

I've got both HoW and TotLM, so yes, it was definitely worth it to dual my fighter to druid at level 9 - which was right after returning to Kuldahar from Dragon's Eye. I had to kill a lot of Cold Wight re-spawns, of course. My druid leveled up incredibly fast in the Severed Hand, and it wasn't too long after reaching Dorn's Deep that she recovered her fighter class. Her druid spells came in very handy for handling the denizens of the Hand. I've just finished a Frost Giant killing spree, and am debating whether to go on to lower Dorn's or to the HoW section.

Advice from the exaulted ones?

This is my first time through IwD and Im having a difficult time in Lower Dorns Deep.

My party is :

Fighter 9
Multi Fighter/Thief 8/10
Fighter 9
Multi Fighter/Mage 8/9
Mage 11
Cleric 9

It sounds like im not as buff as I might need to be.
I also noticed that most of you are playing Dual vs. Multi class.
Is there an advantage there?

Any advice appreciated. Thanks guys!

First off, do you have HoW installed? Among other things, it makes changes to the classes and the enemy AI.

First area in Lower Dorn's: Keep your party by the entrance and send one party member to scout and lead enemies back to your party. Use fire-protection items if you have them, and try to take out those salamanders with ranged attacks to minimize the fire damage from their auras.

Highlight the following for spoilers:

The tower: Get the key, move in quickly, and rush the enemy. Haste and Chromatic Orb can do wonders here. Protect your mage with Stoneskin. Once you've taken the tower, use your oppurtunity to rest.

Malevon's Palace: Use Chaotic Commands and Potions of Clarity to protect your party members from Umber Hulk gaze. Inside the palace, keep the party near the entrance and send one PC forward to talk to Malevon. Hightail that PC back to the entrance and let Malevon do his thing. Eliminate the golems. Eliminate Malevon with ranged attacks, area effect spells and/or monster summons.

Marketh's Palace: Keep party back and use one PC to draw thieves back to your party. Keep that PC moving and most of the time the thieves will fail to land a backstab.

Fire Giant cave: If you enter near the elementals, just go slow and take on one at time. If you enter near the Fire Giants, tell them you're looking for Ilmadia and they'll leave you alone. Eliminate the elementals. Next, choose your battleground carefully. Set up an area where the Fire Giants will get trapped in a bottleneck (web/entangle helps) and take them out with ranged attacks. Go after Ilmadia.

Perdiem's area: Keep party back and lure Undead to you a few at a time. Use fire and ranged attacks. The statue, zombie lords and mummies are vulnerable to Death Fog as well as Fire, IIRC. Use hidden character to scout out their position and aim series of Fireballs, Death Fog and Flame Strike (if cleric has it) their way.

End spoiler

Regarding your party - I, too, prefer multi-classing fighter-thieves. You already have one straight mage, so multi-classing the other is a good way to go due to the scarcity of spell scrolls. Many do not like multi-classing spell-casters since it prevents them from casting the high-level spells due to the XP cap and/or party size, but it's really a matter of preference.