Okay, two questions that are bugging me.

1) What spells lower resistances in big monsters. I had them all down pat in BG2, but I'm kinda lost on this one now. I have a Sorcerer, Druid, Cleric and (low level) Evoker in my party.

2) When I go to play this hellish game again (which I know I will), is there a way to skip the prolouge? I'm especially thinking of HOF mode ...

Thanks for the help Quint (who it appears is becoming the resident IWD2 expert and I'm sure he'll post here soon) and everyone else!

ic your question is difficult.....

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[ December 03, 2002, 19:49: Message edited by: Blackthorne TA ]

No expert, just some time on hands these days :)

1) *shameless self promotion*
Download my spell table from SP and you'll see which spellcasters have the spell Lower Resistance. There's also a spell that actually sets anyone's resistance to a set amount, thus possibly lowering their resistance too.

2) I think Weimer has made a mod that allows you to finish the prologue quicker. But you'll still have to go through the battles there.

I'll have to get that mod ... I used to work for UPS and I'm sick of playing delivery boy!

On the spell resistance ... I'll be looking that up now. I'm fighting the Guardian dragon and having a dilly of a pickle ...

you can always use the ctrlaltdel:movetoarea("ARXXXX") code to skip an area.

some of the area codes for the beginning of the game are:

AR3000 is outside the hordes fortress in chapter 1
AR4000 is the ice fields in chapter 2
AR5000 is the area outside the wandering village in chapter 3

Skipping areas can be dicey since if you skip over areas you may not be able to move backwards if you wanted to. For example, if you skipped to AR5100-the River Caves-first you have to kill the dragons. But then you cannot move forward if you do not have rope. Well, if you try to go back to the Wandering Village (AR5000) to get some rope, you cannot reach it via the map since there is no path through the fell wood (the fell wood does not show up on the map).

However, if you just want to skip the prologue or the prologue and chapter 1 then starting at the ice fields should not cause you any problems since you cannot go back to Targos anyway.

[ December 03, 2002, 20:54: Message edited by: Grey Ghost ]

while I'm asking dumb questions ... the guardian dragon ...

if anyone dies while fighting him, and I don't grab their equipment before the dragon dies, most of the weapons, etc are gone.

Are they being teleported somewhere (Kuldahar) for safe-keeping, or am I screwed???

I don't know for sure, but my guess is that if you did not pick it up-then once you go through the portal it is gone.

Ok, just reread your question. That kind of sounds like a bug-why would your equipment not be there after the dragon is dead???

[ December 03, 2002, 20:59: Message edited by: Grey Ghost ]

No, they're really gone forever. The game makes you rest until healed, if you've noticed, right after the dragon dies. Since you're hurt, you'll rest for a few days, and that always makes all items lying on the floor disappear.

[ December 03, 2002, 21:48: Message edited by: Quint ]

Well, that makes sense. It sucks but it makes sense. Guess we should try not to die then...

Yeah, I've been keeping my dwarf cleric invisible, then casting raise dead then heal on the recently deceased, then having my naked druid (usually the one who rushes in when I'm not looking and dies) try to grab his items w/o getting whacked. This last time the dragon killed the druid and then sat on his ground pile until dead.

Can you say re-load?

That's about what I did too :) I had both my sorceress and cleric with improved invisibility, bombarding the guardian at the same time as my fighter, monk and rogue, except the latter were not invisible, so the dragon concentrated on them. One spell that worked nicely that my sorceress had plenty of was Lance of Disruption. Everyone was up on the platform surrounding the dragon. Luckily, no one died on me, but I couldn't help notice when the game made everyone rest.

Mathetais, you want to skip the prologue in HoF mode? Oh my God! The easiest section of HoF ignored for the "fun of orcs in Shaengarne". If I was you I would look at the prologue in HoF as a gauge of "things to come" since you're gonna need some practice getting your new tactics right...

Kharizah ... probably true, but I don't have a ton of time to play ... so I have to choose wisely. The fact that I'm still on my first run through IWD2 and bought it the day it came out should tell you something! :eek:

Quint ... on the dragon I've been thinking of using this tactic, but it sounds cheesy and bit like cheating. Have the whole party but my druid Improved Invisibility. Have the druid visible and memorize a bunch of tortise shell spells. While the dragon focuses on cracking that nut, the rest of the party goes to work. Not exactly cheating, but not really fair either ... :(

"Fair"? To that dragon?? :nolike:
Oh, I guess the poor baby is crying so hard his tears are turning into acid... riiiiight. :holy:

Improved Invisibility has been "nerfed", as I've learnt it is said, with the patch. I.e. it doesn't allow you to attack without being attacked yourself any more. So it's no longer cheesy.

[ December 04, 2002, 18:22: Message edited by: Quint ]

well ... it worked. Kicked the dragon's butt while he chewed through a couple Tortise Shells. Still not sure how fair that was, but here's my rational ...

1. it's not metagaming to prepare for dragon combat. There were a few major hints that the guardian would be a big, bad snake-thing.

2. my druid with stoneskin, barkskin, heal spells, tortise shells and shape change can endure the most damage. He's the best "bait" I have.

3. it makes perfect sense for the rest of the party to be invisible, ready to ambush the dragon while it pounces on the helpless (not) druid.

4. Summoned monsters, creeping dooms, etc were very appropriate canon fodder as well.

Well, I've killed the guardian, stopped the invasion, and I still have all my stuff. Its a Festivus Miracle!

Yay!! Champagne for everyone!! :hippy:

:whoa: What's "metagaming" ??

Metagaming is when you take information that you (the player) knows that your character can't possibly know (ie ... there is a group of 20 trolls in the fortress that attack you as soon as you open the lever, so everyone prepares fire arrows, delayed blast fireballs, etc ...)

To really role-play a game, I try to keep in my character's perspective.

On the dragon fight, I did break this a little ... as the dragon was about to die, I paused the game, went to my spell book, and prepared my characters of the Invasion of Kuldahar that followed immediately after. Heck, my druid doesn't really need 3 tortise shell spells for that fight.... but he had no way of really knowing that he could rest and prepare for the fight.

Get it? Just trying to keep it straight! :good: :holy: