Started a v5 game, Will play slowly Options

[Sikret]

I just started a game myself. Since I'm too busy in RL, the game will proceed very slowly.

Those who will use a similar party (even if not a completely identical one) can also use this topic to send their progress reports or journals and we can compare them.

This thread can also be used as a rough walkthrough and suggested quest order for players who may need it.

I will also add some general hints for players who may need them, but I suggest that you try the battles without reading those hints for a few times. Read the hints only if you *really* need them.

My party is this for now:

1- Protagonist:
Human Vagrant
Str: 18/03
Dex: 18
Con: 19
Int: 10
Wis: 18
Cha: 12
Proficiencies:
Two Weapon Skills: +++
Long Sword: +
Axe: +
Club: +
Flail: +

2- Custom NPC:
Human Sorceress:
Str: 18
Dex: 18
Con: 16
Int: 10
Wis: 18
Cha: 10

3- Custom NPC:
Half-Orc Berserker:
Str: 19
Dex: 18
Con: 19
Int: 10
Wis: 10
Cha: 10
Proficiencies:
Two Handed Weapon Style: ++
Two Handed Sword: ++
Halberd: +
Quarterstaff: +

The other mods installed are Dungoen-be-gone and the following components of Ease-of-Use:
-True Grand Mastery
-Shut Up "You Must Gather Your Party Before Venturing Forth"
-Wear Magical Armor AND Magic Rings
-Un-Nerfed THAC0 Table, Saving Throws, etc
-XP Cap Remover
-Bonus Merchants
-No Drow Avatars On Party In Underdark
-Imoen ToB Dialogue Fix
-Romance: Bug Fixes (only the first component; it is redundant actually as I'm not going to romance any NPC)
-Infinite Weapon, Potion and Ring/Amulet Stacking
-Infinite Weapon, Potion Stacking (ToB)
-Multiple Strongholds

I'm currently at the start of the game and intend to kick out Imoen, free and kick out Jaheira and Minsc and use Dungeon-be-gone to get out of the dungeon. I have been careful to wait long enough to see the message "Item Randomizer successfully Initiated" on the screen. Those who use dungeon-be-gone should not leave that area before seeing this message.

I need to think and choose 3 other NPCs. The candidates are Nalia, Valygar, Cernd and Anomen. I should omit one of these 4 from my list which is a very difficult decision to make.

More later...

This post has been edited by Sikret: Dec 11 2007, 08:35 AM

[Marceror]

Well, not that the infamous Sikret needs my advice on party composition, but here's how I'd handle your quandry:

Keep Valygar - He's an incredibly powerful melee addition to the party, with EXCELLENT equipment upgrade options. He's also your only backstabber (Nalia doesn't count here, hehe). Plus, you seem to have an afinity toward rangers, so there you go .

Keep Nalia. She's an incredibly powerful mage in IA, and her large spell selection will complement nicely your sorceress' arcane talents. Plus she gives you some basic thieving abilities.

Keep Anomen. Not only can he cast greater restoration (which Cernd can't), he's also a formidable melee fighter and tank. It seems you just can't have too much melee power in IA.

Drop Cernd. While the Auramaster seems to have some really great offensive power, I think you're more than covered with Nalia and your Sorc here. This means that you'll only have one healer in the party, but weighing all of your options, this still seems to be the most sensible approach. You probably don't want to skimp on the melee power (i.e. you probably don't want to lose Valygar) and you also probably don't want less than 2 arcane casters (you can't cast enough breach spells in this game). And between Anomen and Cernd as healers, Anomen seems to be the more sensible, flexible choice to round out your party. Plus you get some nice turn undead power.

Just my thoughts. Take em for what they're worth (couple them with a buck fifty, and you can get a cup of coffee).

This post has been edited by Marceror: Nov 27 2007, 05:02 PM

[rbeverjr]

Warning: tongue-in-cheek humor follows:

The Riskbreaker looks forlornely to the sky and cries out in despair,
"My creator, my god, why have you forsaken me
And for a half-orc berserker no less"

Then falls do the ground

"I lay down and die."

....Or at least until the emotion spell wears off.

[Sikret]

@Marceror

Yep, that's exactly what I decided to do as well. I'll keep Nalia, Valygar and Anomen and will drop the great Cernd for this run-through. Thanks for the good analysis.

@rbeverjr



Well, I can play the riskbreaker for another run-through with a themed party (= a party in which all members are kitted)

UPDATE: Just noticed that the Berserker warrior has a relatively low hp despite his 19 con. He has rolled miserably bad dices for his hp at character creation stage. Bad luck!

Ok, left the Irenicus' dungeon, did the circus but didn't talk to the soldier afterwards immediately (didn't want the reputation yet); instead, went to a shop and sold everything I could and then went to the temple and donated 4700 gp for 3 reputation points, then went and talked to the soldier for one more reputation. Reputation is 15.

Went to slums and then to CC; took Anomen and Nalia and then left for Goverment district; talked to beloved Delon and hated Tolgerias and then to City Gates, talked to the merchant and took the Trademeet quest and then left for Umar Hills, talked to the mayor and Madulf and then took Valygar in the party. Did all of the small quests in Umar Hills and left for trademeet (locally fixed Ilbratha to cast Mirror Image rather than mimicking the effect. The sword is not bugged in the strict sense, but mimicking effects instead of casting is in general a bad idea. IA has fixed this for almost all items which used to mimic their effects, but this one had escaped from my notice).

Talked to Cernd but didn't take him in party this time (my apologies to the great Cernd!), went to the wilderness area near the druid grove; cleared the area and then defeated Faldorn in the duel with my protagonist after three reloads. Saved the game.

UPDATE: Did the second duel in the grove; had Nalia write all scrolls in her spellbook (she failed to learn two of them); slept in the grove and took the first stronghold quest, defeated the rakshasas and then did the first druid stronghold quest, went to trademeet, met Daos and then went to report success to the high merchant. Everyone except Valygar did level up. Saved the game.

Then went to the Inn.

The strange thing here was that the alibakkar guard didn't defend himself against the Lurraxol guard at all; he just stood there till killed. It was the first time such a thing was happening, it didn't happen during the tests. It's not a big deal as it's only a cosmetic and unimportant fight/show; nonetheless, I fixed it locally.

(The Root of the Problem's enchantment was still +3; locally tweaked to +1 to match with the mod's general attitude towards other items of the type +1/+3 vs. x)

UPDATE: Returned to Athkatla; defeated Suna Seni and fellows, did the Xar/harpers quest, did the Maevar, killed Edwin without accepting his monstrous quest, killed Maevar and declined the thief stronghold offer. Bought some potions of Master Thievery for Nalia and did some pickpocketing. Did the Illithium quest; did the fallen paladins, the skinner murderer and the Beasmaster in Copper Coronet. Asked Maheer to upgrade the Horn of Valhalla to its Iron state. Did Roger's sea troll quest and bought lots of potions from him. Did the Unseeing Eye quest but declined the offer for cleric stronghold. Reputation is 19. Nalia complained. Will go to D'Arnise keep. The mages in the party are 11th level, others are 10th level. Actually Valygar is 9th level but requires 2 xp to level up. Saved the game.

UPDATE: Did all of the D'Arnise keep except the final battle with TorGal. Returned to Athkatla and did the Lilarcor quest. Enjoyed it very much with a 10th-11th level party; it was challenging enough. Nalia and the Sorceress played very effective offensive role in this battle against those small foes. Saved the game.

UPDATE: Reputation is 20. Paid the 15k gold to shadow thieves and did Aran's first and second quests. Despite being improved, the battle with the guild contact was not challenging enough for my party. The vampire brides should appear more frequently. Locally changed it so that they appear every 6 rounds (rather than every 10 rounds).

Did Aran's last quest and cleared Bodhi's lair. The battle with Tanova was very fun and challenging for my party. Reported to Aran but asked for time before leaving for spellhold.

Levels:
Protagonist: 10 (close to level up)
Berserker: 11
Valygar: 10
Anomen: 11
Sorceress: 12
Nalia: 12

Saved the game.

UPDATE: Went to Graveyard and did the small quests there and killed the crypt king as well. Locally improved him for the next version of the mod. Then went for Pai'Na. Challenging but doable thanks to Anomen's Free Action spells and the sorceress who played a very crucial role in the battle by interrupting Pai'Na's spells. Defeated Mencar's party as well. The protagonist is level 11 and valygar is close to 11. Will either go for TorGal or the Pirates in Docks district. Should think to choose which one specially because I'm now badly short of potions. Saved the game.

UPDATE: Decided to go for TorGal as it's certainly easier than the pirates. Won the battle after one reload; it was very close to a victory but I lost with bad luck; reloaded and won with no casualties, though now I have almost no potions. One of the interesting points while playing IA is to make strategical and tactical decisions about what to do with your money (when for example you have 30k gold). There are more than one option: (1) Buying resources such as potions, (2) doing some inexpensive item upgrades or (3) doing risk by saving money for better item upgrades and continue the game with the little resources you have.

Levels:

Protagonist: 11
Berserker: 11
Valygar: 11
Anomen: 12
Sorceress: 12
Nalia: 12

Saved the game.

BTW, the sorceress killed the Gem Golem almost single handedly using Ray of Fragmentation and Vampiric Touch spells.

Note: Read the hints only if you really need them; otherwise, it's strongly recommended to try the battles yourself for maximum fun and satisfaction during the game.

Hints:

SPOILER!

If your party is high level, you won't need these hints:

The order in which you concentrate on foes during the battle with TorGal is important:
I- TorGal
II- Giant Trolls
III- Gem Golem

Concentate on TorGal first. It's important to interrupt as many as possible of his spells. Throw a Breach on him at the beginning of battle. If he cast his Storm of Vengeance, retreat to the other room and if he casts a second one, retreat to the last room. He has three, but you need to be lucky to interrupt one or two of them.

Also, buff your characters with Chaotic Commands and Free Action Spells before the battle. SI: enchantment will do as well.

Once TorGal is dead, concentrate on giant Trolls. They can be killed quickly and it's not wise to keep them alive while fighting the Golem. The mages however can ignore them and throw their anti-golem spells at the Gem golem. Start with Ray of Fragmentation and when they are all cast, shift to Vampiric Touch. But make sure to buff your mages with Stoneskin and Mirror Image spells before approaching the golem to touch him.

UPDATE: Accepted the fighter stronghold and returned to Athkatla. I thought that the pirates might still be too difficult for my party and decided to go for an easier fight: Bought some potions and did the slaver's ship building battle and won with no reloads. Berserker levelled up. (Also, forgot to say that Anomen had passed his knighthood test before leaving for TorGal.)

Levels:

Protagonist: 11
Berserker: 12
Valygar: 11
Anomen: 12
Sorceress: 12
Nalia: 12

Noone is close to level up. Saved the game. Should think carefully before choosing the next step. I have 13k gold and very few potions.

UPDATE: Valygar complained about my delay and I decided to go for planar sphere. It was very very challenging (and in the same time really fun) for my party. It took a long (real) time of gameplay. It was specially very challenging because I always avoid using any sort of cheesy methods during the game. I even avoid those methods which are *arguably* cheesy (i.e. I avoid using even those methods which some people think to be cheesy while some other believe they aren't). For example, I didn't use the bridge in demon's plane as a shelter (some players believe that exploiting the area's structure is not cheesy, but I avoid such methods as well).

Anyway, I bought a small number of Extra Healing potions and entered the sphere. Everything went on smoothly till I reached Lavok. I managed to defeat him with no reloads, but he killed Valygar! Rested and had Anomen memorize Raise Dead spell and a heal. Then went for the demon's plane and did it with no reloads though it took a very looong time, because I needed to think a lot for each and every step of the game while the game was paused. This battle was no less than a chess game; enjoyed it very much.

Came to tolgerias and decided to use a risky tactics. It was not good butI didn't reload as I finally managed to defeat him. Won't use that tactics anymore (and won't say what it is, because I know some players like it. No, it's not cheesy.)

Defeated the golems in the engine room while I had no potions left. Anomen had to heal people. With a few more healing potions this battle could have been much easier for my party. In general, the hardest battle was the one in the demon's plane (= the chessboard )

Note: Read the hints only if you really need them; otherwise, it's strongly recommended to try the battles yourself for maximum fun and satisfaction during the game.

Hints:
SPOILER!

If your party is high level, you won't need these hints:

1- During the battle with Lavok be aware of his Power Word Kill spells. Buff your mages with Death Ward and SI:abjuration. Keep an open eye to the Death Ward's duration on your mages, because Lavok does so as well. Either renew the Death Ward or shift to SI:conjuration as soon as Lavok removes your SI:abjuration.

2- During the battle in demon's plane, kill enemies in the following order:
I- Skeleton Lords
II- The main demon
III- Others

Levels:

Protagonist: 12
Berserker: 12
Valygar: 11
Anomen: 13
Sorceress: 13
Nalia: 13

Weapons so far:

Protagonist: Frostreaver Axe +3 & Flail of Ages +3 (dual wields)
Berserker: Lilarcor (has also a clerical staff +3 for when needed)
Valygar: His own katana + Short Sword of Backstabbing +3 (has also Club +3)
Anomen: Borok's fist +2

After selling the extra stuff, I had around 43k gold. Decided to combine 3 rings of protection to forge another +2 one (as I had too many +1 rings). Bought some giant strength potions. I'm still short of healing potions. Should think about the next step. Saved the game.

UPDATE: Finally went for pirates. It was another chess game without question. Very challenging but still doable with the right tactics. Then did the Borinall quest. Found some healing potions there as well, but consumed the giant strength ones. Valyagr levelled up. Now, the three warriors are 12th level and three casters are 13th. Have around 16k gold. Saved the game.

UPDATE: Met Roger again to buy the rest of his giant strength potions. I should be careful in using them as he has no more to sell. Did Mekrath's Imp quest and then went for Shadow temple. Defeated Shadow Jailor and freed Mazzy. Then left the area and went to Trademeet to do the final part of the skinner's quest. Sold extra loot and saved the game. I have around 6k gold (giant strength potions were expensive).

Levels:

Protagonist: 12
Berserker: 13
Valygar: 12
Anomen: 13
Sorceress: 13
Nalia: 13

UPDATE: Cleared Windspear Hills except Samia, Conster and Firkraag. Went to fighter stronghold to deal with the angry merchant. Then went to Athkatla to sell the extra stuff. Atfter selling, I have 37.5 k gp. Should think to do something with the money while in the city and then make a decision for the next step. Saved the game.

So far the most powerful foes each party member has killed (according to the characters' sheets) are as follows:

Protagonist: Gem Golem
Berserker: Amber Golem
Valygar: Coin Golem
Anomen: Tolgerias
Sorceress: TorGal
Nalia: Gem Golem

UPDATE: Bought some Oil of Resurgence potions and went for Conster. It was challenging but doable and fun. Then went for Planar Prison. Defeated the warden with no reloads (though he managed to kill my berserker during the battle).

Note: Read the hints only if you really need them; otherwise, it's strongly recommended to try the battles yourself for maximum fun and satisfaction during the game.

Hints:
SPOILER!

You won't need these hints if your party is high level:

Before using the orb in planar prison, buff your characters as perfectly as you can. Chaotic Commands are in order unless the character has an item which grants immunity to mental effects.

After using the orb, kill the planar hounds which spawn there, but don't go for the Warden. He will come to you. Attack him with your party members; don't stand back and send summoned creatures to fight him. If you don't show courage in this battle, you will have to face an army of Planar Hounds. The warden will also use his magic lasso against you if you decide to flee or stand back. The more courageous you show yourself in this fight, the fewer problems you will have to face. If you play with the right method, you won't have to fight with more than 4 other Planar Hounds. Concentrate on the hounds with your warriors first and let your mages soften Warden:

Use two Ruby Ray of Reversal spells (use scrolls if you don't have access to the spell yet; my sorceress became 14th level after winning this battle) on him; then a Secret Word spell will also work to remove his Minor Globe. After that, two Lower Resistance spells will be enough to make him vulnerable to Magic Missiles.

Once your warriors have killed the hounds, use Breach on the warden and attack him with your warriors. Keep casting Magic Missiles on him by your mages, but also keep an open eye to when another Breach is in order. If he castss Hardiness or Protection From Magic Weapons, Breach him. If not, cast Magic Missiles on him.

Raised the berseker and finished the quest. Sold the extra stuff in Athkatla. Now, I have around 42 k gp. Will go the order to gain paladin stronghold as well. Ah, and I need to pay some money to Ribald to send Solamnic knights back to their plane. Saved the game.

Levels:

Protagonist: 13
Berserker: 14
Valygar: 13
Anomen: 14
Sorceress: 14
Nalia: 13

UPDATE: Did the paladin Stronghold's quests and Nalia levelled up. Went back to Shadow temple. The first group of undead waiting for me were apparently spawned there the previous time I was in that area (as they were weaker than the second troup). A lich, 1 Skeleton Lord and two Greater Mummies were not much of a problem even with the help of the Bone Golem which arrived later. The second group however consisted of a Shade Lich, 2 Skeleton Lords and Two Greater Mummies. The battle was interesting. Don't read the spoilerish report if you have not met such a party of undeads in your game:

Note: Read the hints only if you really need them; otherwise, it's strongly recommended to try the battles yourself for maximum fun and satisfaction during the game.

Hints:
SPOILER!

As Nalia didn't memorise Improved Haste for this battle and decided to have more Protection From Magic Energy Spells (the sorceress knows this spell, but I had some other plan for his 6th level spells ) The Protagonist and the berserker concentrated on the Skeleton Lords, while Nalia opened with a Ruby Ray. Liches are immune to 5th and lower level spells; so, there are few choices in this case. The Shade Lich has some nasty spells and I decided to interrupt his spells. Physical attack doesn't work because the lich casts PfMW as soon as attcked and can't be breached. The sorceress and Anomen took this job. Accurate timing was very important and difficult. I knew that my high level offensive spells would not do any damage to the lich but the idea was to interrupt his spells. Anomen had already done this in the previous fight with the normal lich with his Bolt of Glory spells, but he didn't do well in this battle. The sorceress, on the other hand did a great job with her Chain Lightnings and interrupted at least three of Liches most important spells successfully. In fact, the sorceress didn't allow the Shade Lich to cast any spells while the warriors were engaged with the Skelton Lords. Hence, the main hint for low level parties is this: While you may not cause much damage to the lich with a high level spell such as Chain Lightning or Bolt of Glory, a good timing will allow you to interrupt his spells. So, don't just stand there with your mage and think that she can't do anything!

Also, keep listening to the words the lich spells while casting the spell to guess the school of the spell he casts. This is helpful to decide whether that spell is worth interrupting or not. I know that it's not easy; it requires practice.

Rested and got ready to go for the Shadow Dragon. Some players had reported that the Shadow Dragon can/should be improved a bit further. I agree. I tried the battle and won and then uninstalled the mod and locally improved the dragon further and then installed. Then, reloaded and did the new version of the battle. It was more challenging but still doable in chapter 3, which is fine.

I still don't recommend the Shade Lord battle for less experienced players at this stage of the game. They can win it easily in chapter 6, but I went for it. Wow! Another Chess game! Interestingly, the battle ground had also the shape of a square and reminded me of a chess board. It took a long time (real time) as I needed to think much each time the game was paused. I won the battle with no casualties:

Note: Read the hints only if you really need them; otherwise, it's strongly recommended to try the battles yourself for maximum fun and satisfaction during the game.

Hints:
SPOILER!

The battle with Shade Lord is difficult with a 13-14th level party, because you don't have 5th level spells to do 3 jobs together: Keeping your SIs active by refreshing them + Breaching him when needed + Lowering his resistance adequately. But it's doable with the right tactics and if you are not really unlucky in your dices. Started the battle in this way:

- Buffed the party in Shadow Dragon's Lair and entered the next area.

- Decided to keep the Skeleton Lords busy while the warriors were finishing Shadow Patrick. Killing Patrick takes some time; so, you need to keep the Skeleton Lords busy. The first round:

- Protagonist: Summon Swanmay near Shade Lord where the Skeleton Lords appear.
- Anomen: Summon Lesser Air Elemental (staff of Air)
- Valygar: Summon Berserker Warrior (Iron Horn of Valhalla)
- Berserker: Used the Spider Figurine
Nalia: Started Ruby Ray
Sorceress: Started Ruby Ray (Shade Lord required 2 Ruby Rays and one Secret Word)

- The warriors immediately attacked Patrick as soon as their summoned creatures appeared. Anomen Started to cast Animate Dead. Shade Lord opened with True Sight (after the buffs).

Second Round:

- Nalia: started to cast "Wyvern Call" from a scroll (the Skeleton Lords had killed the Air elemental and spider in the first round).

- Sorceress started her Remove Magic to dispel Shade Lord's Mirror Image.

- Patrick was badly injured. Valygar was injured (Patrick was hitting Valygar)

- Shade Lord finished his true Sight and dispelled the protagonist's Mirro Image (from the Ilbratha Sword). So, I put aside my left hand weapon and took a shield as I was being attacked by shadows and needed a better AC. Shade Lord started his second spell (sounded like an alteration spell). He cast it quickly before I guess that it was Ruby Ray on my sorceress (note that I don't check my scripts during the game and I don't have pre-knowledge about enemies order of spells and tactics; I try to play like an ordinary player)

- Swanmay was doing a great job against one of the Skeleton Lords. The other Skeleton Lord was butchering the horn of Valhalla's warrior.

- Anomen's skeletons appeared. Now Anomen should not practice his turn undead ability against the shadow as it will kill his own summoned skeletons. I deliberately chose this method, because keeping the S.Lords were more important.

- Anomen started to approach Valygar to see if he needs healing.

- Patrick was near death. Valygar was badly injured.

Third Round:

- Patrick hit Valygar badly. Berseker rolled a critical miss and Valygar rolled a critical hit. Now it was all upto my protagonist to see whether Patrick will fall sooner than Valygar or vice versa. Yeah, Patrick fell and Valygar drank an Oil of Resurgence potion. He would regenerate with this potion and I decided to keep Anomen's Heal spells for better future use.

- The valhalla warrior died but the wyvern appeared right on time. Protagonist drank a fire giant strength and attacked the first S.Lord. Berserker joined him; Valygar and Anomen attacked the altar.

- Swanmay was still alive and fighting well with the other S.Lord. Swanmay was badly inujured; S.Lord was injured. Great!

- Sorceress had finished her remove magic and started SI to refresh it. Nalia started Lower Resistance. Shade Lord went to help the S.Lord against Swanmay: Hit a critical hit and killed my swanmay. Then started another spell.

- The Berserker rolled a critical hit against the uninjured S.Lord. The S.Lord killed our skeleton. Both S. Lords suddenly concentrate on the protagonist, while the protagonist rolled a hit against the uninjured one. Now both S.Lords were injured. There was no priority for attacking any of them first.

- With our summoned undead being dead, Anomen tried turn undead to get rid of those shadows. Valygar did 9 damage to the altar.

Fourth Round:

- The S.Lords together did 100 damage to protagonist. Unbelievable, but true. Now he had less than 50 hp.

- Shade Lord cast Ruby Ray on Nalia and approached to hit the protagonist. Here I needed to think. Decision made: Valygar stopped hitting the altar and used the deceased Tolgerias's Ring of Ram on him and threw him back quickly.

- Needed to decide what to do with Anomen. Heal spell has a long casting time and the S.Lords could kill the protagonist before the spell was completed. Decided to start "Greater Resotoration".

- Nalia finished her Lower Resistance ans started SI to refresh it. Sorceress started Lower Resistance.

- Berserker and protagonist hit the S.Lord (he is near death).

Fifth Round:

- One of the S.Lords hit the protagonist. Now, the protagonist has less than 20 hp.

- Anomen cast G. Restoration just intime. Berserker and protagonist both hit and one the S.Lords died.

- It took a few seconds for the Shade Lord to recover himself and return to the battleground just to cast his third Ruby Ray on the sorceress. He has plans for her, but her Death Ward combined with SI:abjuration has kept her safe so far.

- Anomen and Valygar are hitting the altar. Protagonist and Berserker are dealing with the S.Lord.

- Nalia refreshed SI and started Secret Word. Sorceress finished casting Lower Resistance, but didn't start any thing yet. This is an important stage for her. She has few more 5th level spells and should decide whether to keep them for refreshing SI or what. Without SI:abjuration, Shade Lord will cast Remove Magic and will dispel her Death Ward.

Sixth Round:

- Shade Lord cast his Ruby Ray on the sorceress.

- Berserker and Protagonist killed the S.Lord.

- Nalia finished the Secret Word. Now, with his Minor Globe Dispelled, Shade Lord is vulnerable to Magic Missiles.

- The protagonist attacked Shade Lord. I hoped to interrupt his next spell, which was either Remove Magic or Breach on the sorceress for sure.

-Shade Lord cast Protection From Magic Weapons. Relief for sorceress but only for one round.

Someone should cast a Breach spell on Shade Lord, but who? Nalia's Aura is not cleansed yet. She has just finished her Secret Word. It will take too long for Nalia to cast it. So, the sorceress should decide whether to cast Breach or to refresh her SI. Another stage which deserved thinking. Decided to cast Breach!

- Shade Lord's Aura was not cleansed either and couldn't cast his next spell immediately; so he attacked physically. Ability Drain on protagonist. Strength which was 22 (for the potion) drained a bit. No problem, we attacked the altar altogether.

Seventh Round:

- Sorceress finished the Breach spell quickly (her aura was cleansed in the previous round and cast the spell quickly).

- Nalia didn't start any spell. Needed her aura to remain clean.

- Valygar shifted to long bow and fired +4 arrows of piercing. Valygar was the only party member who didn't have Protection From Magic Energy on himself and couldn't attack the shade Lord physically. Shade Lord has a field of Dark Magic which inflicts magic damage to anyone who hits him from close distance.

- Protagonist and Berserker attacked the Shade Lord.

- Shade Lord didn't risk it and didn't start to cast Breach or Remove Magic. He refreshed his Protection From Magic Weapon. Now, we are all in the same situation again. The sorceress has only one other 5th level spell. I could refresh the SI, but since Nalia didn't have more than one Breach spell, I risked and decided to reserve that final 5th level spell.

- Nalia started Breach.

Eight Round:

- Shade lord attacked protagonist (his aura is not cleansed yet)

- Hitting him was pointless before Nalia's Breach takes effect. Just stood there and let Anomen to cast a Cure Serious Wounds on me; but the shade lord was hitting badly: more than 75 damage! Drank an oil of resurgence (I didn't have any healing potions).

- Nalia finished Breach.

- Shade Lord refreshed Protection from Magical weapon. Again in the same situation. Nalia is now out of Breach spells.

- Sorceress started her last Breach.

-Nalia just waits.

Ninth Round:

- Shade Lord keeps hitting the protagonist.

- Anomen finished his Cure Serious Wounds and started another one. There is little to do till the Breach is cast.

Tenth Round:

- Breach is cast.

- We attacked. Protagonist did 18 damage to Shade Lord (not good timing to interrupt the spell); Berserker did 20 damage to Shade Lord (bad timing again). Nalia who has a clean aura now starts magic missile. cast it: Half of the missiles were blocked by his MR; the other half worked but still bad timing to interrupt the spell. Valygar and his +4 arrows are in the way. Hit and Spell Failure! hurrah.

Eleveth Round:

- Berserker's Protection From Magic Energy expired. Bad news! He can't hit Shade Lord now.

- Sorceress appraoched to refresh his Protection.

- Shade Lord attacks Protagonist and vice versa.

- Anomen finished his cure serious wounds on the protagonist.

- Nalia started her next Magic Missile.

12th round:

- Shade Lord hit protagonist very badly. The protagonist hit him as well. Both are badly injured.

- Shade lord started his next spell.

- Berserker risked to hit him depite lack of PfME. Critical Hit.

Shade Lord: No, this cannot be...

Noone levelled up, but Anomen is very close. Saved the game.

The toughest enemies killed by each party member so far:

- Protagonist: Gem Golem
- Berserker: Amber Golem
- Valygar: Coin Golem
- Anomen: Shadow Dragon (yeah!)
- Sorceress: TorGal
- Nalia: Gem Golem

UPDATE: Did the battle in the ogre tower in the wilderness near druid grove. Anomen levelled up. Then returned to city and fought with the sewer party. Very difficult for my party. Gaius killed Anomen and the sorceress before falling. Lots of potions were consumed probably for very little gain. I recommend to leave this battle for chapter 6.

Anyway, did a lot of micro management with my inventory; sold extra stuff and even some potentially useful items to gather enough money to forge the following items:

- Phosphorus
- Halberd +3 (Berserker didn't have a +3 piercing weapon)
- Shadow Dragon Armor

Next stop is Brynnlaw.

UPDATE: In IA v5, the difficulty of the battle with Vadek and Lady Galvena varies with party's level of experience; nonetheless, I found it a bit too easy for my taste and my party. Improved it further and reloaded the game and did the new and tougher version. The same for Perth the Adept. (I guess it's almost the time for players to come and ask me not to play , because as I'm proceeding in the game, I'm making the encounters more difficult for the next release.)

UPDATE: I noticed that Book of infinite Spells has some bugs in the vanilla game. Fixed it and also replaced its spells with some more useful ones. I'm now thinking of adding the book to the item randomizer program as well.

UPDATE: The party is in spellhold. Did the Ancient Tome, the undead gang near the library, Cat O'Nine Lives, Vampire Tutor, The more Focused Altar (was so far the most difficult battle) and the guardians for the bow string and the Mithril Golem. Changes I applied for the next release:

- The pointless +10% resistance to poison of the Darksteel shield is replaced with +10% resistance to electricity.

- Cat O'Nine Lives will be more powerful in the next release.

- A possible exploit in spellhold is fixed (won't say what it is even though it's not a very decisive and bad one).

I'm also thinking of adding a new encounter in spellhold. Perhaps, a Bookkeeper (a very powerful lich -- tougher than a Shadelich but less powerful than a Grave Lich) will appear in the library (once the cat is killed) and will ask you to return the book he believes you have borrowed from the library. If anyone is interested in writing dialogues for him, I'll appreciate his or her participation. We can discuss the possible ways the encounter can end later.

Levels:

- Protagonist: 14
- Berserker: 15
- Valygar: 14
- Anomen: 16
- Nalia: 15
- Imoen: 14

The toughest enemy each party member has killed so far:

- Protagonist: Amber Golem
- Berserker: Cat O'Nine Lives
- Valygar: Coin Golem
- Anomen: Shadow Dragon
- Nalia: Gem Golem
- Imoen: Coin Golem

EDIT: Finished spellhold and City of Caverns with no particular difficulty. The party is now in underdark. Levels:

Protagonist: 15
Berserker: 16
Valygar: 15
Anomen: 17
Nalia: 15
Imoen: 15

EDIT: The first drow ambush was a bit too difficult for my 15th level party. It was doable after a few reloads, but I decided to tone it down for the next version. Did the battle with the Balor in gnome's village, did the second drow ambush and then went to Mind Flayers' lair. The main battle is the final battle with the Master Brain. Don't read the spoilerish report before trying the battle yourself (note: I also improved the Master Brain a bit further before fighting, but not too much):

SPOILER!

- Before opening the final door, summoned two skeleton warriors, two mordenkainen swords and a swanmay. The swanmay stays short and needed to be summoned as late as possible. Buffed the swanmay with Improved Haste and Chaotic Commands; buffed the party's warriors with the same spells. For other summons, I just used normalo haste.

- Opened the door and attacked. The elemental golem was to be killed before the Master Brain; but the first prioirty was to kill the ulitharids. Killing them is much easier than killing the golem. Ulitharids are very dangerous foes if they stay alive for long, because with each successful hit they drain 5 points of intelligence which could easily kill my protagonist after a couple of hits. Sent the swanmay, one of the mordy swords and the two S. Warriors to deal with one of ulitharids and the Umberhulk. Protagonist, Valygar and Berserker attacked the other Ulitharid. Imoen started Ray of Fragmentation on the elemental golem. Nalia did nothing. Her Aura was not cleansed as she was the last one who had cast a buffing spell before opening the door.

- We hit the Ulitharid very well. He is near death. The Master Brain cast "Purge Magic" and everything displled on the warriors. Nalia started Improved Haste on the Berserker. Imoen cast her firs ray on the E. Golem. The golem hit the Berseker for 51 points.

- The swanmay killed the Umberhulk and joined the other summons to attack the second Ulitharid. We killed the first Ulitharid. Berserker drank a potion of superior healing. Berserker is Improved Hasted again. Imoen started Improved Haste on the protagonist.

- Warriors fouced on the E.Golem. Nalia started Ray of Fragmentation on the E. Golem.

- E. Golem missed to hit the Berserker and shifted target to hit the mordy sword. the warriors hit the golem for about 14 points total. Imoen had caused 5 damage to him and Nalia just hit him with the ray for another 6 damage.

- Imoen finished Imp. Haste on the protagonist and started Ray of Fragmentationon the golem. Nalia did too. Valygar rolled a critical hit, berserker and protagonist hit him as well. E. Golem hit the mordy sword. Master Brain cast Psionic Blast. We all saved.

- Next round was similar to the previous one. Mages cast another couple of Rays. E. Golem killed the mordy sword. The first Gem Golem appeared. Anomen started Animate Dead.

- Swanmay killed the Ulitharid and joined us. It was important to order the summons not to attack the Master Brain as long as the golems are alive. I ordered the S. Warriors to attack the Gem Golem. The Swanmay and the second mordy sword attacked the E.Golem. E.Golem attacked the berserker again. Gem Golem attacked the protagonist.

- Gem Golem did 45 points of damage to Protagonist. E. Golem did 53 to Berserker. Nalia and Imoen keep casting rays. The new skeleton warrior appeared and attacked the gem golem. Warriors hit the E.Golem very well. He is now injured.

- E. Golem and Gem Golem rolled very good dices again and hit the protagonist and the Berserker very badly. Potons will do little help now. Anomen started Greater Restoration. Nalia and Imoen finished their next RoF spells. Nalia had one more left which she started. Imoen started another one.

- Greater Restoration is cast. E. Golem shifted target to hit mordy sword. Elemental golems (and golems greater than the Elemental ones) are professional killers of mordy swords and other summoned creatures.

- The next two rounds were more or less similar. The second Gem Golem appeared. E. Golem killed the mordy sword and started to hit swanmay. Swanmay responded with her "Wing Swing". Master Brain cast his second "Purge Magic". Improved Haste spells are dispelled again. Nalia had no more Improved Haste and she was out of RoF spells as well. She appraoched the Gem Golem to cast Vampiric Touch. The protagonist was hasted (due to the boots); So, Imoen gave priority to cast Improved Haste on the Berserker.

- After a couple of rounds, E. Golem is Badly injured and Imoen who is now out of RoF spells as well. Appraoched the E. Golem to cast the mighty "Hand of Undoing" spells on him. Nalia was now out of Vampiric Touch spells; so she wielded a +3 quarterstaff and cast "Tenser's partial Transformation".

- E. Golem killed the swanmay but was badly injured. Imoen finsihed the HoU spell and made him "near death". E. Golem and Gem golems all concentrated on the protagonist. and hit him for more than 130 points of damage. Protagonist used the golden Cat Figurine.

- Imoen finsihed her second HoU spell and started the third one. Once she finished this spell, the E. Golem is most probably dead. I wish she would be the one who inflicts the last damage to the E. Golem, because she deserved it to be written in her character sheet; but the protagonist rolled a critical hit and killed the golem before Imoen's spell is cast.

- Killing the Gem Golems was not difficcult. Then we all concentrated on the Master Brain. The Brain Golems appeared!

- Nalia with the quarterstaff and Imoen with her Vampiric Touch spells and all of the remained summons as well as Anomen attacked one of them. Warriors concentrated on the Master Brain. Master Brain Cast his next "Purge Magic".

- The battle was still a difficult one as the second Brain Golem was hitting Valygar. He drank a superior healing potion.

- The third Brain Golem also appeared before we killed the Master Brain. The rest was not very difficult in absence of the Master Brain's "Purge Magic" spells.

Exited their lair and saved the game:

Levels:

Protagonist: 16
Berserker: 17
Valygar: 15 (close to level up)
Anomen: 18
Nalia: 16
Imoen: 16

The toughest (most xp rewarding) enemy killed by each party member so far:

Protagonist: Elemental Golem
Berserker: Cat O'Nine Lives
Valygar: Coin Golem
Anomen: Shadow Dragon
Nalia: Gem Golem
Imoen: Coin Golem

UPDATE: Almost finished the entire underdark. The two most difficult battles which deserve comprehensive reports or hints are the battle against Dracolich and the fight with the Demon Knights.

There was also a minor issue (not a bug) in Deirex's tower which I have referred to here.

1- Dracolich (or "The Mighty One" as he refers to himself):

Note: Read the hints only if you really need them; otherwise, it's strongly recommended to try the battles yourself for maximum fun and satisfaction during the game.

SPOILER!

General hints:

The battle with Dracolich requires much patience. He has the immunities of a lich and a dragon all together. Hence, you can't breach him. You need to concentrate on defence as your first priority.

- As you divine casters (including rangers), memorize a good number of Zone of Sweet Air spells.

- Also, don't forget to have Death Ward and Chaotic Command spells. Memorize a number of summoning spells too though you should be very careful about how and when to use them. Dracolich casts Death Fog spells quite frequently and you should be careful not to waste your summoned creatures easily in his fog. All this said, summoned creatures if used properly can be of greate help in this battle; otherwise Dracolich will concentrate all of his attacks on your party members and the battle will become more difficult. Gated summoned creatures such as swanmays can be very very helpful in this battle because Death Fog won't kill them immediately.

- Don't waste your spells by buffing before the battle; all of your buffs will be automatically dispelled once you enter his lair. This makes this battle very interesting as you need to make intelligent decisions about how to buff yourself quickly at the start and in the middle of the battle.

- This battle is the best place to use the rare scrolls of "Protection from Level Drain" if you have found any of them. (If you plan to forge Hesperus, then don't use those scrolls extravagantly; I used only one on my protagonist).

The battle:

As I said, there is no way to buff before the battle; so selecting the spells to cast is very important in his lair. Before Dracolich approaches, I had time to cast one spell by each of my characters. Summoning creatures from items won't trigger him to approach, but unfortunately they won't stay alive for long as he will cast his first Death Fog spell quite soon. Nonetheless I summoned the Horn of Valhalla's warrior.

Protagonist started summoning a swanmay, Berserker went into rage mod, Nalia and Imoen started SI:abjuration; Anomen started Death Ward on Imoen. Mages in general have bad saves vs. death; so, the priority to cast Death ward is on the party's mages. Nalia had better saves than Imoen (thanks to Periapt of Life Protection); hence, the priority was to save Imoen. Moreover, since Imoen and Nalia started SI:abjuration, the death ward spell cast on them will be more stable.

Didn't start any spell with Valygar, because I needed his aura to be cleansed to cast Zone of Sweet Air.

When these spells were cast, Dracolich approached in a couple of seconds. He was buffed with Stoneskin, spell Turning and Spell Shield. Attacked him with the Protagonist and Berserker to remove his stoneskins. Nalia started "spellStrike" from a scroll and Imoen started Improved Haste on the Berserker. Anomen Started his second Death Ward on Nalia. Dracolich opened with Death Fog.

Valygar started Zone of Sweet Air and cast it quickly and joined the battle. Dracolich attacked the protagonist; protagonist took a shield and used the Ilbratha sword's Mirror Image. The horn's warrior had already died in the fog. The berserker used Staff of Air to summon a lesser Air elemental and then continued to hit Dracolich. He was still stoneskined.

Protagonist is Mirror Imaged; hence Dracolich started True Sight. Nalia finished her SpellStrike and started Spell Turning. Imoen finished Imp. Haste and started another one on Valygar. Anomen started Animate Dead.

Dracolich finished his true sight and continued with a wing buffet. Protagonist was thrown back considerably and took this as an opportunity to summon his second swanmay. Imoen finished his Imp. Haste on Valygar and walked to the other side of the cave. I didn't want her and Nalia being near each other as it could have been too good for Dracolich to see both of my mages together. It was a good decision as we will see soon.

Our summoned creatures did a good job next round, because dracolich concentrated on attacking them for one round. By this time, Imoen was at the other side of the cave and warriors were back to hit him. Nalia finished her spell turning. Anomen didn't start any new spell as I wanted his aura to be cleansed.

At this point, Dracolich cast his Greater Silence on Imoen, but since she was not near Nalia, the spell affected Imoen only. The two new types of silence you see in the game are: Greater Silence and Grave Silence. Greater Silence is used by Dragons, it requires the targets within 10 feet radius to save with a -9 penalty or become silent. It's "greater", because the normal clerical spell requires the targets to roll a save with -5 penalty. "Grave Silence" is used by "Grave Liches" and is much more fearsome than "Greater Silence". It bypassed all sorts of protections (including SI) and also makes the silent target even immune to vocalize spell. Fortunately, Dracolich doesn't cast "Grave Silence"; so, Imoen started to use a scroll of vocalize.

We finally managed to bring down his stoneskins and he started to cast Protection From Magic Weapons. However, he opened with a spell trigger including StoneSkin as well. Now, we needed to have patience and try to stay alive. But we also need to keep attacking him, because if we don't attack, he won't refresh and consume his remaining protection from Magic Weapons spells. When the first 4 rounds expired he still had his new stoneskins and we needed to bring it down as well. What I mean is that you shouldn't just stand there.

Dracolich cast his next Death Fog. Anomen cast Zone of Sweet Air. This was a good time to summon new summoned creatures because we have some time before he casts his next fog. Imoen summoned Mordenkainen's sword, Dracolich replied with death spell. He is clever enough not to waste his few "Death Spells" on minor summoned creatures.

He cast a Remove Magic then and started to hit Valygar very badly. Nalia started to summon an Invisible Stalker. Valygar's situation was not critical yet and since noone else had considerable damage, I decided not to use Anomen's Greater Restoration yet. Valygar decided to drink a potion of superior Healing. But Dracolich cast his Wail and despite the fact that everyone in the party have good saves vs. death. Valygar failed to save and died. Most interestingly, Nalia also failed her save (despite the necklace) but the death ward saved her life.

As if Dracolich understood what happened with Nalia, he suddenly left others and concentrated on Nalia with Ruby Ray of Reversal Spell. Anomen cast Death Ward on himself. Valygar's death was a lesson.

Imoen summoned her next mordenkainen Sword and Nalia her Invisible Stalker. Dracolich finished his Ruby Ray on Nalia and started a second one on her. So far Nalia's Spell Turning is removed but she still has her SI:abjuration.

Warriors drank some potions but also kept hitting him. The duration of his first Protection From Magic Weapons expired but we needed to remove his new stoneskin too; otherwise, he won't even cast his other Protection from Magic Weapons spells.

Dracolich cast his second Ruby Ray on Nalia and immediately cast remove magic on her. There was nothing Nalia could do, because as long as her SI was active there was no point in refreshing it. Since Ruby Ray has a long casting time, Dracolich didn't need to wait before casting the remove magic; hence Nalia could do nothing to prevent the Remove Magic (if this is not clear, feel free to ask me for more explanations; the point here is that Dracolich didn't cheat or violate any of the game's rules by casting Remove Magic immediately after Ruby Ray; when the first spell has long casting time, you don't need to have any pause before starting your next spell; not to mention that dragons' aura is always cleansed and they don't need to pause between two successive spells; hence, even if the first spell didn't have a long casting time, he could still cast the second spell immediately. Remember that Dracolich has all of the abilities of Dragons and liches together).

Nalia's Death ward was gone and Dracolich immediately fired his Chain Contingency of three Finger of Death spells on her. Everything happened very quickly (yet legally). Nalia was in great danger now. She needed to make three successive saves vs. Death. The other bad thing which happened here was that Dracolich's Remove Magic also dispelled Anomen's Death Ward (though that was not an immediate danger now). The 3 Finger of Death spells were in the air and I could do nothing. The best thing I could do was to have Nalia drink a Potion of Magic Shielding immediately, but the 2 or 3 Magic Shielding potions I had were all in Valygar's backpack and Valygar was dead. There was no time to go and pick them up from the pile on the ground. It was a mistake to give all those potions to an NPC. I won't repeat this mistake again. Either keep such important potions with your protagonist or distribute them among the party members.

What do you guess? Nalia took all three spells and saved vs them. She survived despite my mistake about the potions. However, this is not yet the end of Dracolich; he still had more resources.

Dracolich (as if angry with Nalia) attacked with wing buffet and then cast his next Death Fog. Anomen replied with his last Zone of Sweet Air. Nalia who had taken a good amount of damage (from the three Finger of Death spells) drank a potion. Imoen cast Improved Haste on the Berserker. Dracolich cast Death Spell on the mordenkainen Sword.

We finally managed to bring down his stoneskins and he started to cast the rest of his "Protection From Magic Weapons" spells. Now, we had time to search Valygar's items on the ground for those potions. Anomen Cast Animate Dead.

Dracolich cast Emotion on Imoen and Imoen failed her save and fell down unconscious. To be honest, I didn't expect Dracolich to cast Emotion, but even if I had expected it, there was no time to cast Chaotic Commands on everyone in this battle. Losing Imoen at this stage of the battle was not good news because Nalia doesn't have as many spells as Imoen. Imoen sould still summon some more Mordenkainen Swords if she were active. Nalia used the spider figurine. Valygar's Magic Shielding potions were now with the protagonist, but both the protagonist and the berserker (as well as Anomen) had very decent saves (specially vs. Death) and I didn't want to waste those potions. Nalia could still benefit from them if the oppotunity came, but I was not sure whether it was a good idea to have her drink one of those rare potions at this stage or not. Dracolich has already fired his Chain Contingency after all.

Dracolich was hitting us; and we were hitting him with no effect. Every 4 rounds, when his protection was expired one of our attacks dealt some samage but then he immediately refreshed Protection From Magic Weapons. A few rounds past, our Swanmays got killed, we needed Anomen cast one of his Greater Restoration spells, after that the protagonist got near death again and was forced to use Golden Cat Figurine on himself, Nalia summoned some spiders and anomen summoned two more Skeleton Warriors.

Finally we reached a moment when Dracolich didn't refresh Protection From Magic Weapons anymore. Yeah! He didn't have any more. We hit him quite well for one round, but he suddenly replied with "contingency - Stoneskin" followed by another "Wail" quite unexpectedly. The result was catastrophic. Nalia, Imoen and Anomen failed their saves and died.

Dracolich was badly injured but stoneskinned. The Protagonist and Berserker were uninjured. We also had two Skeleton Warriors at our side.

Dracolich attacked one the Skeleton Warriors while we were hitting him to remove the stioneskin. He killed the Skeleton warrior but we also managed to remove his stoneskins. He replied with a wing buffet. The protagonist and the second skeleton warrior were thrown quite far away, but the Berserker who was near the wall remained alone with Dracolich. Dracolich started to hit him severely, but my berserker was not an easy prey. He also hit him quite well and also drank a potion of extra healing. I was rather short of potions of superior healing at this time and decided to risk and not to use them as Dracolich was near death. The protagonist appraoched and hit, but it was (deservedly) the berserker who finished the job.

I raised Anomen with the only Raise Dead scroll we had and Anomen raised others.

2- Demon Knights:

This is the most difficult battle in underdark for players who want to play without cheese. The cheesy method to win this battle is to find some trick to avoid fighting with all of them at once or to flee back to the narrow corridor and use the structure of that area as a shelter. However, if you do this battle like a brave hero and face all 5 demon knights in the open area in the temple simultaneously, you will see what I mean when I say that this is the hardest battle in underdark. This is how I did this battle. The report is a bit too spoilerish; so, I strongly recommend that you do not read it before trying the battle for in your game.

Note: Read the hints only if you really need them; otherwise, it's strongly recommended to try the battles yourself for maximum fun and satisfaction during the game.

SPOILER!

Just to give you a rough idea of how difficult this battle can be, I give you some general information of the resources the demon knights have:

Their pre-buffs are random and for each of them it is determined separately: 50% chance to have SI:abjuration and 50% chance to have SI:divination plus Improved Invisibility. For each demon knight there is also 50% chance to be buffed by Hardiness as well.

Each demon knight has a random Chain Contingency. It's either 3 ADHW or Bigby's Clenched Fist + FoD + Incendiary Cloud or Bigby's Clenched Fist + ADHW + Symbol of Fear.

Each of them has also a random spell trigger: 33% chance to be 3 Chain Lightnings and 66% chance to be 3 Fire Balls.

For each Demon Knight, there is 75% chance to have Remove Magic too. All of them have True sight, Breach and Ruby Ray of Reversal spells.

Each of them has also two warrior HLA, which is randomly determined (this is in addition to the hardiness).

Each of them also has access to at least two other spells which random: Either Meteor Swarm or Incendiary Cloud or even Chaos.

They make very intelligent use of their resources. For example, they do not waste their fire based spells on a target who is immune to fire. They will try to dispel the protection first.

They also have the ability of lower your fire resistance independent of your buffs.

The battle:

We went to the middle of the temple and buffed in the best way we could. What makes this battle too difficult is that their attacks has a great degree of variety and hence all sorts of buffs are needed. The party should also have good resources (such as potions) to refresh buffs in the middle of the fight as it is most probable that the buffs will be dispelled by their remove magic spells. Summoned creatures can help a lot, but the demon knights always choose party members as the targets of their main spells. The order in which you cast the buffs is also important. short duration buffs should be cast last, but becareful about one other point. If you have already cast SI:abjuration on your mage, the protection spells of the abjuration school won't affect the mage afterwards. This makes things a bit tricky with short duration abjuration buffs such as Resist Fear which is a must in this battle.

Since the number of creatures you can summon is limited to 5, you need to be picky about the creatures you summon before the battle. The bad thing is that you will also need to sacrifice an animal on the altar to trigger the battle; hence, one your summons will be lost immediately.

As I said, the knights won't waste spells on summoned creatures but since they are also high level warriors, the summoned creatures can be very helpful to absorb their physical attacks.

As long as your buffs are active, your summoned creatures will also be safe from the area effect spells, triggers and contingencies, but as soon as you lose your protections and the knights find a valid target among your party members to cast those area effect spells and triggers, your summoned creatures will also be indirectly affected because they are in the area of effect as well.

One other important point is that the knights cast lower fire resistance as well; so you shouldn't just trust to the "Protection From Fire" icon on your character's portrait. Your protection from fire spell may even be there and not dispelled, but your fire resistance may have lowered. So, you need to check your resistances by reading your characters' sheet quite frequently. All these considerations make everything very very difficult; just imagine what will happen if they find a valid target for their spell trigger: 3 fireball! You may suddenly have to take the triggers of more than one of them at once. If even two of them simultaneously fire such a trigger on your character, it will be 6 fire ball spells which can even kill your character specially if his fire resistance is lowered to a negative number.

My first attempt was unsuccessful. I only managed to kill one of them before having everything dispelled on me and we were all killed before I could decide what to do.

I reloaded the game and began to thought. I thought for a long time before I made my tactical decision. I revised my caster's memorized spells and most notably, memorized Limited Wish as Nalia. This was probably the key to win the battle; otherwise I would have to leave Underdark and return for this battle much later in the game.

This time, as soon as the battle began, Nalia started Limited Wish.

Warriors just waited to find a target who doesn't have Hardiness among his prebuffs. I was not lucky in this respect because 4 of them had Hardiness. Their Hardiness can't be easily breached as you can guess, because they either have SI:abjuration or are improved invisible. The only one who didn't have hardiness was still invisible (had not performed any hostile action) and I could not attack him. He was casting true sight.

Having failed to find a target with no hardiness, I attacked one of them who was closer. Anomen didn't attack; he started to cast animate dead. Protagonist, Berserker, Valygar and the two Imp. Hasted Swanmays attacked the Demon Knight. There was really no time to prepare the demon knights for Breach spell. Those who had SI:abjuration also had spell turning, which means two Ruby Ray spells were needed for each of them before being able to cast Breach on them. I was sure that I would kill this first target before Imoen can cast so many spells on him. So, I decided to keep her aura cleansed.

In addition to the two swanmays I had one bear and one skeleton Warrior. I sent them separately to fight two other knights, but I knew that the danger was close. The first time every thing had started smoothly, but I had lost the battle. This is where Nalia's Limited Wish comes in. The Dao appeared and talked to Nalia. Nalia replied quickly: A repeatable wish! Send a horde of rabbits to populate the area!

By this time the demon knights did these things:

1- Removed Nalia's SI:abjuration by a ruby ray spell.
2- Removed most of my warriors' buffs by a remove magic.
3- Killed the bear.
4- Dispelled our Mirro Images by a True Sight.
5- lowered our fire resistances to near zero.
6- Fired two Spell Triggers: a total of 6 Fire Balls and a Chain Contingency: BCF+ADHW+SoF on Valygar.

Valygar was near death and panicked! Berseker was badly injured (had taken about 100 points of damage). Protagonist was injured.

As you can see, things can become quite dangerous in this fight very quickly.

The rabbits apeared. Anomen started Greater Restoration. Imoen started Improved Haste on Berserker. Nalia started SI.

The Demon knights (except the one who was engaged in battle with my warriors) started to butcher the rabbits by physical attacks. It gave us one valuable round to recover ourselves.

The protagonist and Berserker didn't waste time drinking potions. They continued to hit the badly injured demon knight. Eliminating one demon knight means fewer Chain Contingencies and Spell Triggers (he had not fired his yet).

Anomen finished Greater Restoration. Nalia refreshed her SI and Imoen (whose aura was cleansed as you remember) cast the Imp. Haste on the berserker very fast. Swanmays were also hitting the same knight. He died.

Next round, demon knights started their nasty Chain Contingencies again: Three ADHW and one BCF+Incendiary Cloud + Finger of Death. The variety of the damage types which were coming was such that no particular potion could do much help. The berserker's Protection From Magic Energy was dispelled and his Fire Resistance was -50. The only type of potion which could help was "Protection From Magic" which grants 50% MR.

One of the swanmays died. Nalia and Imoen were Immune. Anomen and Berserker drank those potions and gained 50% MR. The protagonist had Cloak of Magic Shielding (50% resistance to Magic Damage) and had lots of hp; hence decided to take the damage.

The good thing about skeleton warriors is their high MR.

The potions saved Anomen and Berseker and the damage caused to the Protagonist was not critical. I couldn't find Valygar on the map; he was panicked and had gone somewhere. All of the rabbits naturally died but they had already done the help with giving me one round to act a bit more freely.

We attacked the second demon knight and Anomen went to find Vaklygar. Nalia started to cast Animate Dead and Imoen started Imp. Haste on the protagonist.

The second demon knight didn't have hardiness and the imp. hasted warriors killed him quickly. Now there were only 3 demon knights and only one of them had not yet fired his chain contingency.

Valygar had gone out of the battle field. Anomen found him and cast remove Fear. A demon knight cast ruby ray on Nalia.

We attacked the third demon knight. It was not possible to say which of them is the one who has not cast his Chain Contingncy; so I attacked the one which was barely injured because of the Skeleton Warrior who had hit him a couple of times.

Nalia's new Skeleton Warrior appeared. Nalia started to refresh SI. Imoen started Mordenkainen Sword. However, the last Chain Contingency came towards the berserker. Fortunatelty the demon knight didn't see Nalia; otherwise he would try to dispel her protections before firing the CC. He saw the berserker and found him a valid target. However Nalia was in the area of effect and despite being protected from Magic Energy, the wilting spells caused casting failure to her and Imoen as well. Bersker became near death and used the golden cat figurine.

Next round Valygar was ready to join the battle. But decided to cast a 2nd level spell on himself before joining: Resist fire/cold.

One more round passed. Valygar joined us to hit the near death demon knight. We killed him, but by this time, the Berserker and the protagonist were both badly injured. Anomen cast his second and last Greater Restoration. Two demon knights had remained and one of them still had his spell trigger. One of them Breached Nalia and attacked. Nalia refreshed Stoneskin. Imoen cast a mordenkainen sword to help Nalia while we were dealing with the other knight.

We won this fearsome battle after a couple of rounds (their hardiness were expired). The one round the rabbits saved for us was the key to victory. The point is that as the number of demon knights decreases, the battle becomes easier. It's very hard at the start when all 5 demon knights are alive and active.

Exited Underdark and saved the game:

Levels:

Protagonist: 17
Berserker: 19
Valygar: 17
Anomen: 20
Nalia: 17
Imoen: 17

The toughest (most xp rewarding) enemy killed by each party member:

Protagonist: Elemental Golem
Berserker: Dracolich
Valygar: Coin Golem
Anomen: Shadow Dragon
Nalia: Gem Golem
Imoen: Coind Golem

I'm now going to test the new ranger kit. From now on, Valygar will be a 'Protector' ranger in my party.

UPDATE: Delon appeared to inform me that I'm needed in Umaer Hills and a messenger form Nalia's keep told me that Lord Roenal wants to talk to me (not the battle yet). Went to Umar Hills first and saved Madulf and the kid, then went to Nalia's keep. When we returned to Athkatla Kruin was waiting. It was another chess match. Very challenging and fun. The protagonist levelled up. Now it's thetime to think and choose some items to forge. Money is still a big concern.

UPDATE: Did the Illithid Hideout in sewers and then forged the dollowing items:
- Crom Faeyr
- Indigo Ioun Stone
- Improved Cat Figurine
Then, did the battles with Theshal, Troll Mound and the Chaos monster:

Note: Read the hints only if you really need them; otherwise, it's strongly recommended to try the battles yourself for maximum fun and satisfaction during the game.

SPOILER!

The Chaos monster is weak against certain druidic spell (though not against similar arcane spells which do the same things). Druidic spells rule in this battle. I won't spoil the fun of this battle for you by writing more details. Try to find his weaknesses yourself in practice.

Then, improved Umar witch further and did the new version of the battle.

Levels:
Protagonist: 18
Berserker: 20
Valygar: 18
Anomen: 21
Nalia: 18
Imoen: 18

Most powerful (= xp rewarding) foe killed by each party member:
Protagonist: Elemental Golem
Berserker: Dracolich
Valygar: Elemental Golem
Anomen: Shadow Dragon
Nalia: Gem Golem
Imoen: Coin Golem

Total number of reloads so far = 9

(Note: 4 of the 9 reloads happened during the first drow ambush in underdark. As I've mentioned before, that particular encounter will be toned down for the next versions. Hence, discounting those 4 reloads, the effective total number of reloads has been 5 so far.)

UPDATE: Forged two more items: Adamantite Horn of Valhalla and Red Coral Armor; then did the Guarded Compound and the new (v6) version of Improved Firkraag. Locally improved Sion further. The protagonist levelled up. Started 'The Mystery of the Shimmering Light' quest.

Most powerful (= xp rewarding) foe killed by each party member:
Protagonist: Greater Elemental Golem
Berserker: Dracolich
Valygar: Elemental Golem
Anomen: Shadow Dragon
Nalia: Gem Golem
Imoen: Firkraag (yeah!)

UPDATE: I did everything in SOA excpet Twisted Rune, Orcus and the elven city of Suldanesselar. I'm now ready to go inside the elven city and will do Twisted Rune and Orcus right before going for tree of life. I also did the first 3 levels of WK and left the rest for TOB. I will gradually add reports of important battles to this walkthrough. Also, if anyone requires hints or more detailed reports of any particular battle, they can ask and I will add them.

At this stage (right before going for the elven city), the levels of party members and the most powerful foe any of them has killed are as follows:

- Protagonist: lvl 22, Greater Elemental Golem
- Berserker: lvl 25, Spider Queen
- Valygar: lvl 22, Ultra Golem
- Anomen: lvl 26, Shadow Dragon
- Nalia: lvl 21, Elemental Golem
- Imoen: lvl 21, Green Wyrm (yeah!)

As you can see, Imoen and Nalia (specially Imoen) have actually proved themselves as very powerful members (I will probably write more details of how they won some battles in my reports of certain battles). As I've mentioned countless times before, the only point for playing mages effectively in IA is to forget the old cheap and cheesy methods and start to learn new, effective and non-cheesy tactics.

An interesting point is that Imoen, who joined the party with less xp than Nalia has now more xp than her. This is because of those battles in which Nalia was killed in the middle of the battle and didn't get the xp of killing foes.

I'll start with some reports and will add to them gradually:

- Post-Firkraag adventures (Lady Vanya's first quest):

I did the v5 version of the battle with the Guildmaster of Rune Assassins (not to be mistaken with the Grandfather) and while finding it (to some extent) challenging decided to improve it further. Reloaded and did the v6 version which is now challenging enough to satsify me (a chess match). There is a certain interesting feature in this battle and that's the fact that you can't constantly keep your party members near each other. The assassins can effectively separate your party members from each other so that the battle usually goes on in separate and distinct colonies: Protagonist against a group at one corner; the berserker against another group on another corner, Valygar against one group on another corner and so on. This made the battle very interesting for me and while I won the battle with no reloads, it took me 4.5 hours real time to finish it. The entire battle took only 25 rounds ingame time, but those 25 rounds took 4.5 hours real time (this is exactly the sort of battle I love--taking long time real time for thinking just like in a chess match). And Valygar died in this battle despite having worn his improved armor and having drunk a potion of Barbarian Essence. The way Valygar was corenered and killed was very interesting.

Note: Don't read the spoilerish report if you have not tried this battle in your own game yet.

a report of how Valygar lost the chess match to the grandmasters:
SPOILER!

This is only the report of one particular portion of the battle which ended with Valygar's death:

As I wrote above, the battle was going on in separate colonies. There were actually 4 main colonies of battles at the stage I am writing about: The protagonist and the berserker were fighting distinct colonies of enemies far from Valygar. Valygar (with his improved armor, having drunk a potion of Barbarian Essence and having his hardiness up) was fighting another colony of enemies; near to valygar was the 4th colony in which our improved hasted Greater Swanmay was engaged in battle.

Anomen who was standing a bit further had just finished killing an Elite Rune Assassin. Nalia at the other side of the battleground had her partial tenser's transformation up and Energy Blades at hand. She kept attacking one of the enemies from distance and refreshing the warriors improved haste when needed. She was in general a back up arcane caster in this battle. Finally, Imoen had just finished her tornado of Dragon's breath and ADHW spells under the effect of Imp. Alacrity and was just opening a scroll of Pfmw to cast on herself (as some rune assassins were approaching her). The numbers of enemies were many at first, but Imoen's tornado killed some of them and made things more controllable.

A series of events started to happen at the Valygar's side of the battleground quickly:

- The duration of Valygar's hardiness expired.

- Two of the enemies who were attacking the Greater Swanmay suddenly shifted target to attack Valygar (in addition to Valygar's existent oppenents). As I wrote above, the 3rd and 4th colonies were rather close to each other.

- Enemies were lucky enough to roll excellent hits. Valygar's hp suddenly dropped below 60 (below 50 to be more accurate).

- An assassin coordinator moved very close to Valygar (as if he wanted to touch Valygar) and started an abjuration spell!

- A second coordinator suddenly came into Valygar's line of sight in distance.

- The game was paused right at this moment.

This is an excellent example of why I compare IA's battles with chess matches. Just read the analysis I am going to write with patience:

Valygar was now in threefold danger:
1- The numerous enemies who were attacking him physically could kill him with phsyical damage.

2- Any experienced player could easily guess that the first coordinator who got close to Valygar to touch him and then started an abjuration spell was casting no other spell than Imprisonment!

3- The second coordinator (the one in distance) could now detect Valygar as a valid target for Power Word Kill!

The only two people in the party who had a cleansed aura and could do something quickly to help Valygar were Anomen and Valygar himself. The resources available to Anomen and Valygar were these:

- Having Anomen Cast Death Ward on Valygar
- Using the Improved Cat Figurine (either by Anomen or by Valygar)
- Valygar using his "Contact With Nature" HLA
- Valygar drinking a superior Healing potion

At this point, I studied the situation for a long time and considered all of the possible variations (just like in a chess match). Unfortunately, I realized that all of the possible lines end with Valygar's death. Let's see how:

To block the immediate danger of Power Word Kill, I had two main options: Either to increase Valygar's current hp to a point above 60 (by drinking a potion) or to protect him by casting Death Ward. (The point here is that the Improved Cat Figurine has a longer speed factor than drinking a potion and can't heal Valygar quickly enough before the Power Word spell is cast. So, as far as Power Word Kill is concerned, drinking potion was the only way to increase Valygar's hp fast).

To counter the danger of Imprisonment, I had two options as well: Either to use the "Contact with Nature" ability or to protect Valygar with Death Ward.

To protect Valygar against the physical attacks, I had to increase Valygar's current hp.

Line no.1:

At the first glance, it would look like that casting a Death Ward spell by Anomen could protect Valygar against both dangerous spells simultaneously. Yes, Death Ward protects against both Imprisonment and Power Word kill. Valygar could then use the improved Cat Figurine to heal himself which could have been an ideal solution against physical attacks. Right?


Wrong!

Enemy spellcasters in IA have the most intelligent combat scripts available in BG2 engine. They always accurately notice what you do and make the best decisions. Following our Chess-match analogy, when you play IA, you should assume that you are playing a chess-match against a chess grandmaster. Consequently, in your calculations you should always consider the best possible action for the enemy in his next turn.

If I cast Death Ward on Valygar, I can't rely on it, because the second coordinator will not cast Power Word Kill; he will rather cast Remove Magic on Valygar. And since Remove Magic has a short casting time, the Death Ward would be dispelled just before the first coordinator completes casting the Imprisonment. Valygar would surely be imprisoned in this line of actions.

Line no.2:

But couldn't I just cast the Death Ward with delay to make sure that it would affect Valygar right before the Imprisonment spell was completed? In this way, I would manage not to give enough time to the second mage to cast Remove Magic. Valygar could drink the potion to protect himself against the immediate danger of Power Word Kill.

Although line no.2 was very risky (because of the accurate calculation itrequired for the exact delay for casting Death Ward), it was promising. It would save Valygar's life for the coming round, but it would also open new dangers: Drinking a potion of Superior healing would increase Valygar's hp to a point above 60, but not to a point above 90. The second mage could see the difference and cast a Power Word Stun instead. Having a stunned Valygar (with less than 90 hp) would mean having a dead Valygar due to the phsyical attacks. And since Anomen would have deliberately cast his Death Ward with delay, his aura would not be cleansed for a full round to do anything to help Valygar.

Line no.3:

Unlike Death Ward, the ranger HLA "Contact With Nature" is undispellable and thus it can grant reliable protection from Imprisonment, but it doesn't protect against Power Word Kill. The 3rd line I studied was to command Valygar to use this HLA and also command Anomen to cast Death Ward on Valygar. In this way, Valygar would be protected against both dangerous spells. The second mage would cast Remove Magic to dispell the Death Ward, but it wouldn't dispel "Contact With Nature". This seemed to be a perfect solution except for the fact that Valygar would not be healed at all and with an hp lower than 50, he would be killed by the physical attacks.

Line no.4:

The 4th line I studied was very similar to the 3rd line except for ordering Anomen to use the Imp. Cat Figurine (rather than Death Ward). The drawback of this line (as mentioned earlier) was that the speed factor of the figurine is not short enough to guarantee that it will take effect before the Power Word kill Spell is cast. The figurine would most probably function 1 second later than it should.

I knew that all of the mentioned 4 lines would lead to Valygar's death and I had no better solution for the problem. I took one of the 4 lines (guess which?) and Valygar died exactly as I had analyzed and predicted.

The revenge was sweet though. One round after Valygar's death, my protagonist killed the guildmaster and we eventually won the battle with no more casualties.

- Green Wyrm (an arcane duel):

The battle with Green Wyrm was Imoen and Nalia's battle. Of course, it could also be done in different ways or with more focus on warriors, but I preferred to do it in the way I did to set another good example of how useful arcane casters can be in IA (contrary to the false rumors spread by some unskilled players here and there).

Note: Read the hints only if you really need them; otherwise, it's strongly recommended to try the battles yourself for maximum fun and satisfaction during the game.

SPOILER!

The party was fully buffed when we entered his lair. A creature buffed himself (Spell Turning, Spell Shield, Armor of Faith, Stoneskin) in distance and approached us with heavy but fast sound of footsteps. The protagonist shout "Quick every one! The foe casts both arcane and divine spells; he is probably a powerful fighter/mage/cleric. If we are going to do something before the battle starts, we don't have more than a few seconds left!" And started to summon a Greater Swanmay.

The rearranged themselves in this way: The warriors and the Greater Swanmay ran forward to shape the front line. Imoen and Nalia walked forward a bit and took some distance from each other to be in the middle, and Anomen stayed back.

Imoen quickly cast Improved Haste on the Greater Swanmay. Nalia did nothing for now to have her aura cleansed. The point was that the wyrm had cast "spell shield". Spell Strike is the most effective spell against those enemies who use spell shield provided that they are not protected by SI:abjuration. Nalia prepared a scroll of Spell Strike to cast it on the wyrm as soon as he appears.

The wyrm came and had his dialogue and the battle began. Warriors and the greater swanmay started hitting him with no result (as he was stoneskinned). Green Wyrm is a damn capable spellcaster and a mighty warrior as well. He finally managed to remove Nalia's thick layer of protections and killed her, but Imoen took the revenge. Nalia's death was heroic though as you will see.

Read the rest below (also remember that dragons' aura is always cleansed; so don't be surprised to see that he casts so fast):

- Green Wyrm: True Sight (to dispel our mirror images)
- Nalia is still casting
- Green Wyrm: Greater Silence on Nalia
- Nalia: Silenced: Casting Failure (lost the first SpellStrike Scroll in this way)
- Green Wyrm: Wing Buffet (warriors thrown away)
- Imoen: Started SpellStrike from a scroll
- Green Wyrm: Horrible Cloud
- Anomen: Zone of Sweet Air
- Our Warriors returned
- Nalia: Opened a scroll of Vocalize
- Green Wyrm: Storm of Vengeance
- Imoen: SpellStrike
- Nalia: Vocalize
Green Wyrm's stoneskin was gone by now and he took some small damage from the phsyical attacks.
- Green Wyrm: Spell Trigger Fired: Protection from Magical Weapons, Stoneskin, Protection From Magic Energy
- Green Wyrm: Spell Protections Dispelled (Spellstike reached him)
- Green Wyrm: Spell Shield Cancelled
- Green Wyrm: Ruby Ray of Reversal: Nalia (removes Nalia's spell turning)
- Nalia walked to go somewhere out of the storm of vengeance. Imoen was in a better position not affected by the storm.
- Imoen started Improved Alacrity
- Green Wyrm: Ruby Ray of Reversal: Nalia (removes Nalia's SI:abjuration)
Nalia here made a heroic decision and instead of refreshing her SI, she accepted the danger of being killed by acting offensively to help Imoen:
- Nalia: Spell Trigger Fired: Lower Resistance x3
- Green Wyrm: Breach: Nalia (removes Death Ward)
- Green Wyrm: Chain Contingency Fired: Finger of Death x3: Nalia
- Green Wyrm attacks Valygar (heavy damage)
- Imoen: Improved Alacrity
- Imoen: Breach: Green Wyrm (just to remove his pfme; I didn't care about his pfmw or stoneskins)
- Green Wyrm: Magic Resistance lowered by 30%
- Green Wyrm: Magic Resistance lowered by 30%
- Green Wyrm: Magic Resistance lowered by 30%
- Nalia: Dead
- Green Wyrm: Horrible Cloud
- Anomen: Zone of Sweet Air
- Green Wyrm: Ruby Ray of Reversal: Imoen (removes SI)
- Imoen: Spell Immunity: abjuration
- Imoen: Magic Missile: Green Wyrm
- Imoen: Magic Missile: Green Wyrm
- Imoen: Magic Missile: Green Wyrm
- Imoen: Magic Missile: Green Wyrm
- Green Wyrm: Specific Protections Dispelled (the breach has reached him)
- Green Wyrm: Combat Protections Dispelled
- Green Wyrm: Protection From Magical Weapons (my warriors are still hitting with no effect)
- Imoen: Magic Missile: Green Wyrm
- Imoen: Magic Missile: Green Wyrm
- Imoen: Magic Missile: Green Wyrm
- Green Wyrm: Ruby Ray of Reversal: Imoen (removes SI)
- Imoen: Flame Arrow: Green Wyrm
- Imoen: Flame Arrow: Green Wyrm
- Imoen: Flame Arrow: Green Wyrm
- Imoen: Flame Arrow: Green Wyrm
- Green Wyrm: Breach: Imoen
- Imoen: Flame Arrow: Green Wyrm
- Imoen: Flame Arrow: Green Wyrm
- Green Wyrm: Remove Magic: Valygar (every dispellable effects on the warriors got dispelled)
- Imoen: Specific Protections dispelled
- Imoen: combat Protections Dispelled
- Imoen: stoneskin
- Imoen: Chain Lightining: Green Wyrm
- Green Wyrm: Breach: Imoen
- Imoen: stoneskin
- Imoen: ADHW: Green Wyrm
- Green Wyrm: Breach: Imoen (Green Wyrm has no more Breach spells)
- Anomen: Chatoic Commands: Imoen
- Imoen: pfmw (Green Wyrm was approaching, so I decided to play safe)
- Imoen: stoneskin (Improved Alacrity expired)
- Green Wyrm:Spell sequencer Fired on the protagonist: Greater Malison, Slow, Confusion (among which we made our saves against the confusion).
- Green Wyrm: Attacks the warriors severely
- Imoen: started Improved alacrity
- Protagonist used the Improved Cat Figurine to heal everyone. Warriors were badly inured.
- Green Wyrm: Horrible Cloud
- Anomen: Zone of Sweet Air
- Green Wyrm: Greater Command: warriors (Valygar and the protagonist both failed their saves)
- Imoen: Improved Alacrity
- Imoen: started Chain Lightning
- Green Wyrm: Wing Buffet
- Imoen: Casting Failure
- Green Wyrm: attacks greater swanmay
- Imoen: started ADHW
- Green Wyrm: Green Dragon's Breath: Imoen
- Imoen: casting Failure
- Imoen: started Chain Lightning
- Green Wyrm: attacks Greater swanmay
- Greater swanmay: Dead
- Imoen: Chain Lightning: Green Wyrm
- Imoen: started ADHW
- Green Wyrm: attacks valygar
- Anomen: started Greater restoration
- Green Wyrm: Greater Silence: Anomen
- Anomen: Silenced: Casting Failure
- Imoen: ADHW: Green Wyrm
- Green Wyrm: Dead

Since it was a while ago when I did this battle, I may have not been 100% accurate about all of the details and order of spells in my report; but it was roughly as I reported above. It's not probably hard to guess why the Green Wyrm never tried to cast 'Greater Silence' on Imoen. Yes, she was wearing Amulet of Power.

- Watcher's Keep level 3:

1- Tieflings:

The only point which is worth mentioning about this battle is that the wild magic zone in this area made me reload the game once. Nalia cast an Improved Haste on my protagonist, which turned to be Flesh to Stone! My protagonist petrified and I had to reload the game for the 10th time during the entire game. The list of reloads so far is as follows:

- Duel with Faldorn: 3 reloads
- TorGal: 1 reload
- First Drow ambush in underdark: 4 reloads
- Demon Knights in underdark: 1 reload
- Tieflings in WK: 1 reload

2- Demon Knights in WK:

The demon knights in WK had not been improved. I improved them to fight in a similar way the demon knights in underdark do. Since the party's level is high in WK, it's not as challenging as it was in underdark of course. The only intersting point is that if you choose the natural route to go to their area, the previous (from which you should go to face the demon knights) is the tieflings' area which has the wild magic zone; hence, you can't reliably buff your party before changing areas.

3- Demon Wraith:

The battle with the Demon Wraith was already improved in v5, but I didn't find it challenging enough and decided to improve it further.

That's all about the 3rd level of WK.

- Viper Queen vs. Our Queen!

By "Our Queen", I am referring to Imoen. Lady Vanya's 2nd quest involved finding and eliminating the Viper Queen. This battle was again Imoen's battle, though in an entirely different way (than what you read in the report of the battle with the Green Wyrm). Imoen was the key character to win this battle in a very special way.

Note: Read the hints only if you really need them; otherwise, it's strongly recommended to try the battles yourself for maximum fun and satisfaction during the game.

SPOILER!

First of all, you should not ignore the lesser vipers just searching for the queen, because if you ignore them, their numbers will increase and you will eventually have to face a big army of vipers. While searching for the queen, you should also be fast in killing the lesser vipers.

Once the queen is found, you should send your best warriors to fight her. This will leave the duty of eliminating the lesser vipers which are spawning to other party members. Imoen, Nalia and Anomen did this duty in my party, but Imoen did a far more important thing as well (see below).

Another important point in this battle is that the Viper Queen is amazingly durable. Just hitting her with Imp. Hasted warriors may be inadequate (depending on your weapon types) unless you also keep using HLAs such as "Greater Whirlwind", "Whirlwind" and "Critical Strike". This is where Imoen came in:

Imoen (with her 18 wisdom) kept casting wish spells each time the warriors ran out of HLAs and she managed to refesh our HLA's three times (via the magical rest option of the wish spell) and this made the battle far more easily doable for us. Giving prority to Hardiness, we didn't have many offensive HLAs and I'm not sure what would happen and how we could manage to win this battle against the Viper Queen if we didn't have our own queen with ourselves.

One of the important (and positive) features of IA is that it contains many different types of battles each of which requires a different tactical approach. A tactics which works in battle "A" may prove useless in battle "B". This is what makes IA a tactical academy/school for players. You constantly need to think to find more new effective tactics. For example, a less skilled player might have thought that there was nothing he could do with Imoen during the battle with the Viper Queen. The point is that in every IA battle, there is always a useful and optimum way you can use your characters.

- Grandfather of Rune Assassins:

This battle is improved a lot in v6 compared to v5. So, since the battle is different now, I'll not write spoilers about it. It is difficult and is probably a battle in which you will have to use some of those precious potions of Barbarian Essence.

- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (final battle):

For the extra element you have to worry about, this battle can be too difficult if you don't how to handle it. Here are just two quick hints. But do not read them before you try the battle a few times by yourself:

SPOILER!

- The "Mass Cure" spell is of great importance in this battle to keep Auriel alive. You can hardly cast "Heal" spell on her and "Greater Restoration" won't affect her, but "Mass Cure" will.

- Concentrate on killing the Ultra Golem first.

Perhaps, I should explain why every time I write my party members' levels I also write the toughest foes they have killed too, but for example, I don't mention their total number of kills:

For low level parties, the "most powerful foe killed" statisitcs doesn't give much useful information, because when the party is low level, it is to some considerable extent random who inflicts the final point of damage to the foe. For high level parties, this changes considerably and the "most powerful foe killed" gradually becomes an informative and useful statistics which speaks about the character's offensive power. For example, if you see above, you see that most powerful foe killed by Nalia was Elemental golem; it happens to be amazingly accurate as Nalia is almost at the same power level to solo an elemental golem and kill him. She may not have even practically soloed one such golem, but she has the power and the statistics say the truth. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that Nalia didn't have the power to kill the Green Wyrm in the way Imoen did. So, Imoen has better offensive power.

All in all, the "most powerful foe killed" doesn't surely give 100% accurate information, but it does give some meaningful info for high level parties and says something useful.

The "total number of kills", on the other hand is not a reliable and useful statistics and doesn't say much and can even be misleading (specially for high level parties) that's why I don't write them. When the party faces a group of low level random creatures, ANY party member can go and kill all of them single-handedly. In this way, one can even artificially increase the total number of kills for any party member, if he wants to. However, the player doesn't usually waste spells against such weak enemies and sends a warrior to kill them all; but this doesn't mean that a cleric or a mage couldn't kill them all single-handedly if he wants.

Ok, it's the time to go to the elven city. I will send new updates after a while, but it may take some time as I'm currently a bit busy in RL as well as with adding some new features to IA v6.

UPDATE:

Done all of the elven city. Added one new tactical content:

- Guarded Harpist's House

Then before going to face the Black Dragon, I improved him a lot further. The battle was challenging enough. I managed to defeat him with no reloads though.

Returned to Athakatla, forged Boots of the Ranger Lord and went to face Orcus!

- Orcus, Prince of the Undead:

My party before the battle with Orcus:

Protagonsit:
Level 23
Equipments: Red Coral Armor, Boots of the Ranger Lord, Axe of the Lakesider (main hand), Flail of Ages +4 (main hand when blunt weapons are preferred), Crom Fayer (offhand), Indigo Ioun Stone

Berserker:
Level 26
Equipments: Armor of the Heart, Girdle of Lordly Might, Pseidon's Wrath, Staff of Rynn

Valygar:
Level: 23
Equipments: Improved Corthalla Family Armor, True Corthalla Family Blade, Phosphorus

Anomen:
Level 27
Equipments: Gorgon Plate +4, Delryn Family Legacy, Ring of Greater Djinni Summoning, Golden Spider Figurine, Improved Cat Figurine, Adamantite Horn of Valhalla

Nalia:
Level: 22
Equipments: De'Arnise Signet Ring (Enhanced)

Imoen:
Level: 22
Equipments: Nothing very particular

I won the battle with one reload. Don't read the spoilerish report before you try this battle yourself
SPOILER!

The party is fully buffed. The protagonist had drunk two potions of Barbarian Essence; Valygar and the Berserker have also drunk one of those potions each. Hardiness is up for all three; Berseker is in rage mode and Valygar and protagonist are in contact with nature stance. Nalia and Imoen cast Improved alacrity as their last buffing spells out of the area in which the battle is going to take place and we all entered the area.

As soon as the battle began, we summoned our best allies: One Greater Swanmay, Greater Djinni, Noble Spider and a planatar.

The first time I lost the battle, because I made a tactical mistake regarding the exact location at which I summoned my Greater Swanmay. I summoned both the Greater Swanmay and the Greater Djinni near each other in the western side of the map. I thought that they might help each other and kill one skeleton Grandlord. It was a miscalculation and a bad decision, because I left the central section of the map empty and had to bear too much pressure on Valygar.

The second time I tried the battle, I didn't repeat that mistake and summoned the Greater Swanmany in the center of the area; she lured some of the grandlords to attack her and even though she died much faster, she gave us enough time to concentrate on one Skeleton Grandlord with all three warriors and kill one of them quickly. The first time the pressure in the center was so bad that I could not even help Valygar by attacking his opponent. Each of the three warriors had to fight with different grandlords and it made the battle impossible to win.

one other important point (which is a general point and not related to this battle alone) is that warriors who use one-handed weapons should stand in the frontline; otherwise, they can't easily help each other. A warrior who wields 2-handed weapon can stand in the second line and attack from behind and help the frontliners, but a warrior with one-handed weapon, if in the second row, would need to move to reach the enemies and it may kill time or may even be impossible in some crowded areas with numerous enemies such as in this case. I didn't make that sort of mistake even in my first try. Valygar and Protagonist were frontliners and the Berserker with his staff was in the second row. Nonetheless, the presure and numbers of enemies was so great the first time that even the protagonist who was standing near Valygar failed to attack Valygar's opponent, because he couldn't reach that enemy and was separated from Valygar. in the second try, the Greater Swanmay bought us enough time to take things under control.

The protagonist was the only party member who levelled up. Now, it was the time to go for the Twisted Rune battle.

- Twisted Rune:

Before going for Twisted Rune battle, I locally improved Vaxall the Beholder a lot further; hence, the battle I tried (the v6 version) was actually more difficult than the v5 versions you have seen. Nontheless, I won the battle with no reloads.

Note: Don't read the spoilerish report if you have not tried the battle yourself. It will ruin your fun of the game.
SPOILER!

I know that despite the warning, many readers and players can't resist the temptation and read the spoilers; hence, I'm not actually going to spoil anything really serious here.

It's hard to say who is the most dangerous enemy in this battle, because they all work in harmony with each other; but if I'm supposed to vote for one of them, my vote goes for Vaxall! His special rays can destroy all precautionary protections and resistances you have. So, I decided to give priority to eliminating him before the others. But interestingly, despite the priority I gave to killing the beholder, he survided long enough to cause some troubles.

Again, we were buffed and had two greater swanmays, Greater Djinni, Noble Spider and a planatar at our side when the battle began. Imoen was wearing Amulet of Power and had no fear of Shangalar's 'Grave Silence'. I decided to make a distance between Nalia and Anomen, so that when Shangalar targets one of them with 'Grave silence' it does not affect both.

killing Vaxall took a long time and while he was still alive, layene fired her wish combo and rain of spells on the protagonist. Noble Spider was the only casualty of that rain. The protagonist survived with more than 30% of his hit points so did the other party members. Imoen used her wish spell to refresh our HLAs and it was a great help while fighting Vaxall. I'm not going to write every details of the battle, but there were a couple of nice scenes which are worth telling. One of them is how Shangalar and layene worked in harmony against Imoen. See how:

Shangalar: Ruby Ray of Reversal: Imoen (Removed Imoen's SI:abjuration)
Layene: Remove Magic: Imoen (Removed Imoen's Death Ward)
it's needless to say that Layene would never waste her remove magic spell on Imoen as long as Imoen was protected by SI:abjuration

Now, Archmage Imoen made the best possible decision available to her at this moment:

Imoen: Spell Immunity: Conjuration

But, Shangalar and Layene are very dangerously in harmony with each other:

Shangalar: Ruby Ray of Reversal: Imoen (Removes Imoen's SI:conjuration)

Shangalar shouts: Finish her, Layene!

Layene: Power Word Kill: Imoen
Imoen: Dead

Shangalar and Layene worked perfectly and brilliantly in harmony with each other and killed a mighty archmage. None of them alone could do this with Imoen.

One round Later, Shangalar was killed in revenge of Imoen. When his protection from magical weapons expired, the protagonist activated "Critical Strike" HLA and killed him after 9 seccessive hits before he could do anything.

Then everyone went to kill Layene, but hitting her was very difficult; layene doesn't stay visible long enough to allow casting Breach on her. Anomen's True Seeing keeps Layene visible for longer than usual, but it's still not enough to cast Breach on her. The protagonist took distance from Layene (guess why?) and Anomen cast Raise Dead on Imoen. Imeon immdiately cast Wish and had the option "Breach on everyone in the area except party members". in this way, we managed to breach Layene and killed her without much problem.

Total number of reloads so far = 11

Most powerful enemies killed by party members remained the same except for Valygar who killed Orcus. Next battle will be Irenicus at Tree of Life.

UPDATE: Did the v5 version of the battle with Irenicus at Tree of Life and found it too easy for my taste. Reloaded the game, improved it a lot further and did it again. As you can read in the progress report thread as well:

Irenicus at Tree of Life is improved even further. Despite the fact that you interrupted his link to the tree, he has already stablished some links and can use the power of the tree against you during the battle. His dialogue is also revised and he will tell you about his connection with the tree.

To be continued ...

This post has been edited by Sikret: Jul 9 2008, 06:08 AM

[Sikret]

Pinned this topic because as mentioned in the initial post, "this thread can also be used as a rough walkthrough and suggested quest order for players who may need it."

I'll avoid writing serious and important spoilers, but those who don't want to read even mild spoilers should avoid reading this topic. Others can check it frequently for the updates.

Those who have a (more or less) similar party and are following a (more or less) similar order of doing things can also send their own reports here.

[Shadan]

May I ask why do you use multiple strongholds mod and refuse cleric and thief stronghold?

[Sikret]

May I ask why do you use multiple strongholds mod and refuse cleric and thief stronghold?

I don't decline other strongholds. Certain encounters in Druid, Fighter, Bard and Paladin stronghold have been improved by IA (as you can see in the mod's readme file).

The thief stronghold doesn't fit with my concept of a ranger protagonist and the cleric stronghold is not really much interesting for me (and it has no additional content in IA yet)

Even though IA's expanded mage stronghold's new quests can't be played by a ranger, I will accept the mage stronghold. I like it even in its vanilla form.

This post has been edited by Sikret: Dec 4 2007, 11:25 AM

[Raven]

BTW, the sorceress killed the Gem Golem almost single handedly using Ray of Fragmentation and Vampiric Touch spells.

Out of curiosity which was your first level 6 pick for your sorceress?

[lroumen]

The strange thing here was that the alibakkar guard didn't defend himself against the Lurraxol guard at all; he just stood there till killed. It was the first time such a thing was happening, it didn't happen during the tests. It's not a big deal as it's only a cosmetic and unimportant fight/show; nonetheless, I fixed it locally.

Just for your information. He didn't defend himself in my game either. I guess he took it like a man.

[Sikret]

I decided to add some general hints for players who may need it. But I suggest that you try the battle without reading the hints for a few times. Read the hints only if you *really* need them.

[Shadan]

Sikret, what did you do in your game with Crowled Wizards? Had you paid them or just not casting on the street and you are waiting teach them a lesson later?
Another thing what interests me: why did you donate for reputation? Is any advance for high reputation beside strores discount?

[lroumen]

You can forge some items only if you have a reputation of 20..... but bby the time you get the required items you're bound to have a reputation of 20 already . I'm thinking Sikret did it for the store discounts on potions (since he mentions buying them).

[LZJ]

A high charisma score also gives you sizable discounts in stores. The Nymph's Cloak and Sensate Amulet comes in very handy for that.

[Sikret]

BTW, the sorceress killed the Gem Golem almost single handedly using Ray of Fragmentation and Vampiric Touch spells.

Out of curiosity which was your first level 6 pick for your sorceress?

Sorry for the delayed response, Raven! I had missed this post of yours.

My first 6th level pick was 'Protection From Magic Energy'.

Sikret, what did you do in your game with Crowled Wizards? Had you paid them or just not casting on the street and you are waiting teach them a lesson later?

I paid them the 5k gp this time. Next time (when I play a mage) I will challenge them (magic will be my main proficiency).

Another thing what interests me: why did you donate for reputation? Is any advance for high reputation beside strores discount?

I did it for the discount.

[Raven]

BTW, the sorceress killed the Gem Golem almost single handedly using Ray of Fragmentation and Vampiric Touch spells.

Out of curiosity which was your first level 6 pick for your sorceress?

Sorry for the delayed response, Raven! I had missed this post of yours.

My first 6th level pick was 'Protection From Magic Energy'.

Oh, ok. I had actually assumed it would be either PfMW or Imp. Haste . With having Nalia in the party as well as your sorceress though I suppose you have a lot more flexibility when it comes to arcane magic (compared to just a sorceress).

[Sikret]

@Raven

Yes, Nalia usually memorizes Imp. Haste.

Without PfME, it would have been hard to defeat Tanova (without cheesy running methods) and it would have been probably impossible to handle Pirate Coordinator (with my characters' levels).

[Raven]

I liked the detail of the Shade Lord battle! Hope people realise Sikret is putting all his updates in the same post rather than adding a new one each time...

[Olbas]

I've been following your guide and I've reached Conster and he completly wipes the floor with me in seconds, please could you offer some hints for beating him.

[Sikret]

I've been following your guide and I've reached Conster and he completly wipes the floor with me in seconds, please could you offer some hints for beating him.

Sure!

Note: Read the hints only if you really need them; otherwise, it's strongly recommended to try the battles yourself for maximum fun and satisfaction during the game.

SPOILER!

Conster doesn't have excellent saves. Cast a Greater Malison near him first and then cast disabling spells such as the 5th level spell, "Hold Monster". If you are not terribly unlucky, he will be held. He has Minor Globe on himself; so, low level spells won't affect him. Your warriors and summons should concentrate on S.Lords.

[Sikret]

I quote the following pararaph from my walkthrough here separately to make sure that if anyone is interested in participating, will not miss it:

I'm also thinking of adding a new encounter in spellhold. Perhaps, a Bookkeeper (a very powerful lich -- tougher than a Shadelich but less powerful than a Grave Lich) will appear in the library (once the cat is killed) and will ask you to return the book he believes you have borrowed from the library. If anyone is interested in writing dialogues for him, I'll appreciate his or her participation. We can discuss the possible ways the encounter can end later.