My experiences with IA and Auramaster Options

[Shadan]

Well I have played 2 days with IA now. It seems very cool to me, just I feel it is a bit hard yet. My party still weak for most of the IA fights.
Here is my party: gnome fighter/illusionist lvl 9/10, Keldorn lvl 9, Haer'Dalis lvl 11, Anomen lvl 10 clr, Cernd lvl 12, Nalia lvl 11 mage.
My PC is very good now with +3axes and Hill Giant Str. belt.
Keldorn: True Seeing very usefull, but I haven't seen any success with Dispel Magic in IA battles... And he is very weak even with -5 AC in hard battles...
Haer'Dalis: When he is buffed, he is very good tank. He isn't very good damagedealer yet. I found his Offensive Spin + Melf's Minute Meteor bugged, since when he press O. Spin, his attack lowered to 2 with meteors. I haven't tried more time yet btw. Without buffs he is like a chicken in fights. I like him.
Anomen: Very good and strong char with his buffs, melee etc. DUHM overshine even Holy Power and Champion's Strength, and you have alot lvl 2 free slots...
Nalia: I dislike her low thieving skills, when I cannot disram a trap or open a lock. But he will do all what a mage should do in IA.
Cernd: He is very good in this early stage. He was at least 2 lvl higher than rest of the party, and it helped a lot.
His spells:
lvl 1: Doom very good spell. Burning Hands: Not the best, but good to kill trolls.
lvl 2: There are not really good spells here. Invis: good only for scouting. Mirror Image, Barskin: good defensive spells, but Cernd usually sit at back, so he don't need this too many times. Charm: sometimes good to get cannon fodder for a short time.
lvl 3: Flame Arrow shines here. Summon Insects: Not so usefull now with nerfed save. Stregnth of One: I used this often till I found a strength belt. Usually I mem FA all but 1 Dispel Magic.
lvl 4: Call Woodland being: not so good as was berfore. Defensive Harmony: good, but he lefts this for Anomen. Greater Malison and Emotion shine here. I like them. Fire Shild useless on him.
lvl 5: Sadly Chaotic Command demands lower usefullnes of other spells here. Iron Skin, Insect Plague good when don't need CC. Also Prot from Acid will be good in certain fights.
lvl 6: Unleash Enetgy is great. Conjure Animlas would be good but most of the enemies Death Spell all summoned ones immiditaely... Conjure Fire Elem would be good also. I use Heal also. Chain Lightning and Death Spell is unused atm.
All in all, Cernd is very good char yet, especially cause he can cast high lvl spells which aren't blocked by (Minor) Globe of Inv. and with a lot of FLame Arrows he can deal good damage also.

[Shadan]

Hmm, I checked improved item list again and I have a question:
How many Scroll of Memory Boosting and how many Permanency scroll should I count in the whole game? Seems they are needed for many items, and I would like to know if I should spare for powerful and important items, or can I use them for medium, not so important items earlier?
I've found 1 Permanency Scroll so far.

Another question: Where can I find/buy Bag of Holding? I really hate inventory management. I know there is one at least on original game, and one put in by Sikret.

This post has been edited by shadan: Jul 20 2007, 09:55 AM

[Raven]

Hmm, I checked improved item list again and I have a question:
How many Scroll of Memory Boosting and how many Permanency scroll should I count in the whole game? Seems they are needed for many items, and I would like to know if I should spare for powerful and important items, or can I use them for medium, not so important items earlier?
I've found 1 Permanency Scroll so far.

There are actually lots of Permanency Scrolls in the game. So don't worry about running out of them. The distribution of the scrolls is a little odd - there's just not that many available early on. I actually found more of the supposedly rarer Manuals of Elaboration early on. Maybe this was because I did quests in a weird order. But anyhow later there are plenty of Permanency Scrolls.

I know less about Scrolls of Memory Boosting. Because there are numerous items requiring these Scrolls which would be useful for your characters (Memory robe for F/I, Eternal Melody for Haer'dalis, Cirlet of Golden Flowers for Cernd and Improved Ring for Nalia) my advice would be to prioritise these items just in case it turns out you can't forge all of them.