Suggested Quest Order Options

[Raven]

Since many encounters are changed/added in IA it can be hard to work out the best order to try to do things - there are some very difficult battles which can be accessed early on which are not beatable until much later. So this is a fairly detailed order in which I did things at the beginning of the game while I was testing v5.

It is far from the only way to do things but I found it worked quite well. Hopefully it'll help a little.

1) Irenicus' Dungeon
2) Circus
3) Leave Athkatla via this route: Promenade -> Slums (get Windspear Hills map location from Firkraag) -> Government District (get Hunt for Valygar and Umar Hills Quest) -> Gates District (get Trademeet Quest)
4) Travel from Gates to Umar Hills. Complete the Juggernaut golem quest (reward Ilbratha +1, very useful). Talk to the mayor and the ogres for xp and Shield of the Lost +2. Travel to the Ranger Cabin to find map to Temple.
5) Travel from Umar Hills to Trademeet, go to the Druid Grove and defeat the druids and Faldorn (not Troll Mound or Ogre Tower)*.
6) Go back to Trademeet and talk to Genies, defeat Ihtafeer. Be proclaimed Heroes of Trademeet (= lots of gold and access to some good items)
7) Windspear Hills - start Firkraag quest and clear first level of dungeon; return acorns.

At this point you could visit Watcher's Keep and do most of the first floor if you wanted. It gives you a fair amount of xp and items.

8) Return to Athkatla Bridge District - skinner murders.
9) All unmodded Athkatla content e.g. Graveyard quests, Mae'var, intrigue with Xzar/harpers. Also the core parts of the Unseeing Eye quest (not the ghoul town or Ashideena guardians).

NB also will have Suna Seni/slavers encounters here but by this time they're not so bad - this is the reason for the order of areas followed in leaving Athkatla, to guarantee the encounter is avoided. It's possible to take the encounters on at the beginning of the game but probably not advised if you're new to the mod.

10) Pay Gaelan Bayle
11) Aran's first quest (Mook)

At this point which quests are easier will depend on your party composition. Here is a list of the encounters/quests I tend to do at this point (no definite order):

- Lilarcor
- Pai'Na
- Copper Coronet slavery
- Slaver ship
- Aran's second quest (guild defectors)
- De'Arnise Keep
- Rest of Windspear Dungeon (not Samia or Firkraag)

Before heading to Spellhold I would suggest doing at least one or both of the following quests:

- Planar Sphere
- Shade Lord

Both these quests involve some difficult battles. Overall I'd say the Shade Lord quests is harder though. I usually leave the Planar Prison for Chapter 6 (remember that in IA you don't want to delay too long before going to Spellhold).


*If you have Multiple Strongholds from EoU installed and your protagonist is not a spellcaster (i.e. not mage/cleric/druid/sorcerer) the duel with Faldorn will be very difficult. You may have to postpone it until later - possibly much later if your protagonist is a thief or fighter.


Incidentally my party for testing IA v5 was:

PC Vagrant (flails, axes)
Sorcerer
Berserker (longsword, quarterstaff)
Fighter/Cleric multiclass (mace, hammer)
Auramaster

The sixth character slot changed depending on what I was testing (usually Keldorn or Imoen)

This post has been edited by Raven: Aug 26 2008, 10:52 AM

[Sikret]

*If you have Multiple Strongholds from EoU installed and your protagonist is not a spellcaster (i.e. not mage/cleric/druid/sorcerer) the duel with Faldorn will be very difficult. You may have to postpone it until later - possibly much later if your protagonist is a thief or fighter.

I have a suggestion:

What if I allow the non-spellcaster (and non-ranger*) protagonists to ask Cernd to do the duel for them if they wish? They will still have the option to do the duel themselves, but I can also add the option to ask Cernd to do it. Of course, in this case, Cernd will not be under the player's control and will do the version of the battle I have designed for him. This version of Cernd's duel already exists and is also revised to match Cernd's Auramaster kit in IA v5 (as Raven knows and has tested it without multiple stronghold installed), but since most players have the multiple stronghold, most of them have not seen it in the game while playing v5 (it's when Cernd is not in the party and you tell him that you will just observe his duel. This option is disabled by the multiple stronghold component of EoU, but I can revive it.)

The multiple stronghold does something else which I will change for the next release. It allows the second duel (= the duel for the title) to be taken place immediately after defeating Faldorn regardless of the player's level and xp. This doesn't look very nice, because without the multiple stronghold the duel is only offered to a 14th level druid; I will change it so that the protagonist's xp will be checked and the option for the second duel will be offered only to the protagonists who have the minimum amount of xp of a 14th level druid (even if the protagonist is not actually a druid).

Any comments?

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* I still believe that the duel with Faldorn has the optimum difficulty if done with a low level ranger protagonist. It is very doable and has the intended difficulty level I was looking for; so I won't give the option to rangers to ask Cernd to do the duel for them.

This post has been edited by Sikret: May 31 2008, 11:43 AM