Vardaman can tell us the exact wording.

"You do not have the required wardstone to use the stairs."

Is there a wardstone that lets you use the stairs in v5 or is it something to be implemented in the next version?

I didn't kill Mekrath so he could have had a wardstone.

Yes, it's in v5.

Just play and try not to forget these stairs during the game.

Today I went for the Tower with Belm, and before I rested just to 1: get attacked by those guys who want's to rob us and right after that 2: were approached by Meronia, whom took Jaheira away. I got the Ring of Wizadry and Keldorn, Nalia, my pc vagrant and Jaheira all levelled up. After a rest in Athkathla I decided to finish of Tor'gal. And this time I succeded: 3xlower resistance, 3xbreach, GM, 3xfire arrow and 2xMM that and my four guys beating on him. Finally he went down, and short after the golem and the trolls. Nice armour BTW and nice with one of the new spells also.

Off to bed with me

Great work, Shaitan!

The armor is one of the randomized items. I was not lucky enough to find it with TorGal in my own run-through.

Hi again!

Over our jul I had some time playing and my party is now:

PC vagrant L12 (close to 13)
Jaheira: F10(close to 11)/D12
Keldorn:L12
Thief dualed to Cleric, C L13 (close to 14)
Nalia:L13
Xan (mage):L13 (close to 14)

As for quests I haven't done:
The slaver ship
The Planar Sphere
The Planar Prison
The Liches
The Twisted Rune (of course)
The Smugglers Cave
The Rakshasa and the bandits in the sewers
The Bandits in the inn in Waukeens Promenade
The Illithids
Mekrath and his imp
The Tomb in Trademeet
The dead city on the way to The Unseeing Eye
The trolls in the Grove
Most of the Temple Ruins I still need to do
Most of Firkrags Lair I still need to do
Tower of Deception

I'm thinking of going to Brynnlaw now, but is that too early? I really don't know what else to do for now, could you give me some nice advice

And a happy new year to ye'll

I think you could manage fine heading to the Asylum now.

If you wanted to do some little extra bits you might want to consider the party in the inn in Waukeen's Promenade and the sewer Rakshasa. I'd have thought you could deal with either without too much difficulty.

Ok, I'll give those guys a try before running off for Brynnlaw. I actually haven't even tried the party in the inn in Waukeen's Promenade

Regards

You can do the slavers' ship building at well.

I think you should get as high level as possible before going to Spellhold, I went at 14 and now I'm stuck because I can't beat an enemy. I managed to to do the Planar Sphere/Prison before going so you can definetly do them.

I had a nasty surprise with the planar prison so I'll skip that, perhaps I could give the Sphere a try also, but before I'll have to do what Raven & Sikret proposed. If I'm lucky I'll be able to play tonight...

You can also beat Mekrath and the Imp quest without much trouble.

You can probably beat the Pirates/Smugglers with a little trouble. The Pirate Coordinator is annoying but you can manage.

I'll leave the pirates for later if you know what I mean

Concerning Mekrath does anybody know what yields most xp helping him or killing him?

Regards

Helping him is a tad more rewarding (but not too much).

I did Mencar and his crew, the sewer rakshasa and helped Mekrath. My party is now:

PC vagrant L12 (close to 13)
Jaheira: F11/D12
Keldorn:L12
Thief dualed to Cleric, C L14
Nalia:L13
Xan (mage):L13 (close to 14)

So now I'll head of for Brynnlaw

Don't you want to forge some extra weapons before leaving Athkatla? For example, does Keldorn have +3 weapons in all damage types? I suggest to forge a +3 Halberd for him.

He has Lillacor. I only have ~40.000 gp left, so I don't think I got enough. I did Treefolks arm for Jaheira and that's it so far

Liliarcor does slashing damage. There are battles in which peircing damage is much more useful than slashing. It's best to give him +3 weapons in all damage types: a +3 quarterstaf, a +3 halberd and Lilarcor. I guess you already have a +3 clerical staff and forging a +3 halberd doesn't cost much.

Oh I didn't think of damagetypes - of to Cromwell

There is a good Haldberd +3 in the Adventurers Mart:
The Harmonium Haldberd +3 what add you +1 strength too.

Yes, but note that the +3 halberd you forge can be used later to forge Poseidon's Wrath; while the Harmonium halberd doesn't have any future use (though its strength bonus may be considered as an advantage for a while; it also decreases the wielder's intelligence and wisdom making him more vulnerable to certain enemies).

@Shaitan

There is one other reason for which I recommend forging a +3 halberd over buying the Harmonium one. It's a tad spoilerish; so I decided to send you a PM (rather than writing about it in public).

Interesting tip. My Vagrant is Halberd specialised, but I'm missing a Permanency Scroll for now. Off to find one

Sikret, can you spend that spoiler to me also in PM about halberds? I am intended to buy Harmonium one also. My swashbuckler/fighter dual has pure 18 Strength, so 19 Strength is a huge bonus for a while.

Since you are still at the early stages of the game, buying the Harmonium halberd is not a bad choice for you. Shaitan, on the other hand, was about to go to spellhold. The spoilerish hint was targetted at him. Nonetheless, I will send it in a PM to you as well.

Well I had some time tonight, so I forged the halbard and continued on towards Brynnlaw.

Saemons treachery is as ever foul, and he has to take care if I see him again

Anyway the Vampires was quickly dead. I also helped that poor girl and her brother, so they could escape.

....and then I ran into the new encounter. Nice done with more endings and a nice way to remove that "thing" from the shops, though he took me two reloads I could nice and easy prepare his death. Annoying that Jaheira had to give me a lovetalk just before attacking


PC vagrant L13
Jaheira: F11/D12
Keldorn:L12
Thief dualed to Cleric, C L14
Nalia:L13
Xan (mage):L14

BTW when is it recommended to drop Nalia for Imoen? I usually do it before going to Brynnlaw, but this time I thought I better had to keep her, what say you?

Regards

If you want to kick out Nalia, do it while you are still in Athkatla. Imoen is very powerful and better than any other mage in the game. As a sorceress, she can use the mighty Golem Slayer rod (while Nalia can't). So, I certainly recommend to have Imoen in your party.

I don't know anything about Xan. It's been for a long time that I do not install and play any NPC mods. I either use the game's standard NPCs or make cutom ones for myself. Depending on his speciality, Xan may (or may not) be able to use the mighty rod. Anyway, I recommend that you choose and dismiss one of these two mages to open a place for Imoen.

Do you have multiple strongholds? Have you already taken the control of D'Arnise keep?

Hi!

I don't have the multi installed, thus skipping Nalia. Xan is an enchanter BTW he still has one quest left in chap 6 so I'll keep him - I'm looking foreward to the return of Imoen

Enchanters can't use the Golem Slayer rod. They can't cast Ray of Fragmentation spell either. So, Nalia is much superior IMO. She can't use the rod (because she is not single-class), but she can at least cast RoF.

Multiple stronghold is recommended (I will add it to the list of recommended components of Ease-of Use), because many of the strongholds' vanilla quests are also improved by IA and you will miss them without that component installed.

Yes I already early regretted not having the multi component installed.

Xan starts with Hand of Doom(?) don't know if it is random - it probably is?

Regards

What is Hand of Doom? A spell, an item? What does it do?

Sorry for my poor memory - I just checked: It's Hand of Undoing, maybe you know that spell It's a necromancy spell

Regards

Yes, it's the new 7th level spell added by IA.

Perhaps it really should have been deleted at startup, I don't know how frequent it is?

Does he already have it in his spellbook? The spell is the replacement for Project Image spell. If he already has this spell in his spellbook, it means that he knows Project Image if IA is not installed.

Yes, you should certainly erase it; because scrolls of the spell are damn rare in the game and you should work hard to find one.

It's good that you asked about it.

He probably had PI from start.

Yes, that's what I meant.

Hi! I'm in Brynnlaw atm, and having a hard time with Vadek. I can get him to badly injured and the he throws a comet or dragon breath... hints please.

The obvious hint would be "Protection from Fire" (either spells or potions or the green scrolls).

I'll have to try a rest with Jaheira - thanks.

Hi again!

My party now (I'm in level 3 in Spellhold):
PC vagrant L13
Jaheira: F11/D12
Keldorn:L13
Thief dualed to Cleric, C L14
Xan (mage):L14
Imoen:L13

I'm at the room with the Kurtulmak Crystal, and when I've slain all imps/kobold commandos a true meatcombo gets summoned: Beside the 4 guardian spirits and the kobold witchdoctor I also have the pleasent visit from 4 amber golems. In 5 reloads my best succes was one killed guardian spirit and a near dead Amber Golem. I buff with Imp haste, stone/iron skin, spiritual armour and prot from electricity (from my priest/jaheira). Should I postpone this onslaught?

Regards

How would you postpone the battle given you need to pass it to progress in the asylum?

I suggest working out which weapon type is best against Amber Golems. If there are too many golems attacking you at once try to get them to focus on Imoen/Xan with Mirror Image, Stoneskin and lightning protection. With lots of images/skins most golem types can be held at bay for a considerable amount of time (long enough to finish off the other enemies).

I hadn't cleared ie Dace yet, but he doesn't that great amount of xp I'll look at the weapontypes yet again.

The xp may be helpful, because in addition to Dace you will have more other foes to kill there.

I tried turning myself towards the undead and whack I was chopped to death even faster than against the Golems. As you might know my party have such melee capacities as my PC vagrant, Jaheira, Keldorn and my T->C. Still in a few rounds my chars get smacked to pieces.

My chars use mainly blunt weapons except for Kedorn. I buffed all that I could and tried Malison+hold undead (never succeds)+others undead damaging level 5/6 priest spells. I even summoned elementals/spiders.

I'm standing in a small corridor so I should have some advantage there also.

What am I doing wrong? I even wonder: If I can't beat four Skeleton lords what can I then expect later on (or even with the golems)? I could manage to get one to near dead state, but at that point I had no party anymore (besides my to mages). I wonder even if IA is a mod I should use. Help

@Shaitan

I'll send some hints to you very soon. Since the hints I am going to send are too spoilerish to be sent in public (as they can ruin the fun of this battle for those players who want to find the winning tactics by themselves), I'll send them to you in a PM.

Thanks! I guess I need some succes Just when you have time as I don't have anymore time to play the next 1½ day.

I'm now composing the PM. I'll send it in less than an hour.

EDIT: Just sent it.