My party is
Vagrant 12th level (prot.)
Anomen 13/7
Nalia 13/4
Valygar 12
Keldorn 12
Imoen 13
I am wondering if I might be underpowered when I reach Underdark.
I took my time, planned out each step and it worked out despite not having everything covered. The old adage 'everyone has a plan until they get hit' was too appropriate and I frequently had to readjust on the fly. I found Perth in Brynnlaw to be extremely tough and it took more than a few reloads to get the right tactic. SI abj. is a mother to bring down but i had to do it because I was getting crunched by the coin golems and he keeps bringing them in. The yuan ti mages are pretty tough but doable enough with the right prep.
NB I am an avid reader of this forum so I was familiar with some spoilers.
The first real challenge was the Tome and it proved be the toughest on the level for me because I had to learn about spiders on the job I avoided them before Spellhold (no Ogre tower or Ashideena) but I wanted whatever goodies the Tome had to offer. SPOILER!
[/spoiler]I succeeded in the end because I realised how important it is to kill the whisper spider first. I placed Immy and Nalia in opposite corners of the room and positioned the fighters where the whisper appears and , using the wand , summoned some fodder where the ghost appears. The tanks are prepared beforehand with CC , Prot fom fire, Strength potions, Imp haste (or potions) and free action. When the spiders appear Nalia hit them with a spell seq of GM, Emotion and slow knocking out the killer spider and a lesser spirit while slowing another. The fighters went to work on the whisper while the summons
(Ogres) block the ghost spider from my party. The whisper is chunked pretty fast (esp with Keldorns true seeing) and the fighters move towards the ghost . In the meantime Imoen has cast a Lwr Res. on the ghost and Nalia lets go a fireball to soften them all up (the injured Ogres have served their purpose). The ghost spider went down surprisingly quickly and the others were mopped up easily.[spoiler]
(Ogres) block the ghost spider from my party. The whisper is chunked pretty fast (esp with Keldorns true seeing) and the fighters move towards the ghost . In the meantime Imoen has cast a Lwr Res. on the ghost and Nalia lets go a fireball to soften them all up (the injured Ogres have served their purpose). The ghost spider went down surprisingly quickly and the others were mopped up easily.[spoiler]
I was given the items after the spiders and had defeated everything without a rest so I guess I completed it (are there more opponents and treasure if you are higher level?).
I still had plenty of buffs up and I had done IA Spellhold before so I knew what lay ahead. I decided that the Umber hulks were well suited to my CC fighters and my vagrant being immune to poison made it easy. The Ghast/Mummy party were swept aside by Anomen and his Mace of disruption. The Undead fight is pretty tough , 4 Skelly Lords and some greater mummies and a bone golem (but no lich?) so I stationed my party in the top room at the end of the long hall and let them come to me. They deal out some good damage and move pretty fast but my guys dealt out more damage than they recieved so ....
Dace was easy the Tutor less so..
SPOILER!
[/spoiler]
You need to fight the Vampire Tutor in the hallway or along the wall and not let him run amok among your party with his ungodly speed and 5 level drains. My vagrant donned the amulet of power (imp hasted of course with the new regen. potion imbibed)and went toe to toe with him , Anomem and Valygar darting in with neg plane prot . Even keeping a sharp eye on the icon I missed that the tutor can dispel NPP and he did on Valygar killing him in seconds. Still having two arcane spell slingers constantly breaching him with he used hardiness and lowering MR helped with the outcome - one very scary but dead vampire.[spoiler]
You need to fight the Vampire Tutor in the hallway or along the wall and not let him run amok among your party with his ungodly speed and 5 level drains. My vagrant donned the amulet of power (imp hasted of course with the new regen. potion imbibed)and went toe to toe with him , Anomem and Valygar darting in with neg plane prot . Even keeping a sharp eye on the icon I missed that the tutor can dispel NPP and he did on Valygar killing him in seconds. Still having two arcane spell slingers constantly breaching him with he used hardiness and lowering MR helped with the outcome - one very scary but dead vampire.[spoiler]
Only one encounter left in this section - the one I didn't think I could do. I made my way up through the Tome room and Valygar took out the kobolds (cant give them a capital letter ) wiith his longbow as I did not want to go in there with all guns blazing and accidentlly trigger the encounter before I was ready. I then rested and completely reconfigured my spell selection and quick item slots. I have learned that autopausing the game at the end of each round is a great help in these fights.
SPOILER!
[/spoiler]Imoen and Nalia were buffed with stoneskins before resting to give Nalia one extra stoneskin and Imoen one extra 4th level slot. Then they mirror imaged and SI abj. themselves just in case the witchdoctor got a shot at them and stationed themselves in the entranceway to the crystal room. I used the wand to summon fodder where the Kobold WD (capitals this time) would appear and scrolled in an Invisible Stallker for good measure. The spellcasters covered everyone with prot from electricity and the fighters also were Amoured, protected from fire and mag energy , imp hasted and drank some strength potions. They stationed themselves beside the crystal and triggered the baddies. The Kobold Shamans , WD and Guardian Spirits arrived first - the Amber Golems a short time later. I wanted to make that time gap count so the Vagrant , Keldorn , Anomen and Valygar moved together as a Death squad toward each target and successfully knocked off both shamans and a G. spirit before the Amber Golems even showed up. A couple of chain lightnings were loosed by the G. spirits but did no damage and the WD fired a ADHW which chunked my summons but did little damage to my party. Three Amber Golems were now in the cavern as my Death Squad finished off the Guardian Spirits and switched to Crushing weapons (I wasn't sure whether blunt or piercing weapons worked best on Amber Golems but it seemed that blunt is best).
This was where things went a little bit awry. Except for the Invisible Stallker nobody was near the Kobold WD - this was by design as I knew he would have SI div on him and I wanted to be able to remove /dispel magic without catching any of my buffed tanks in the process. Also only one of the Golems took a fancy to my stoneskinned mirror imaged wizards - the other two starting hitting Valygar and my Vagrant and it hurts! Nalia summoned some fodder while a Golem clubbed harmlessly away at her , Imoen cast remove magic on the WD and Keldorn cast true seeing before going back to work on a Golem with a clerics staff. The WD got off ?/Slow/emotion/ (? could have been GM or confusion) and Keldorn , Anomem and my Vagrant hit the floor I nearly had a heart attack !
The next couple of rounds Valygar (injured) spent running from two Amber Golems (uninjured) while the third one continued to engage Naila (on her 2nd stoneskin and 2nd mirror image) Imoen went to work on the WD as he was now visible so she breached him and started slinging him. Valygar ran around immy a couple of times shaking off one Golem the other starting in on Imoen's untouched (until now) defences. Although Valygar had been slowed by the WD's spell combo he had immed. taken a potion of speed and thus was able to stay ahead of the 3rd Golem long enough to imbibe 1 potion of extra healing and one potion of resurgence. He ducked in behind 2 ogres from Nalia's summons and lost the last Golem
The next round or two involved Imoen and Nalia spamming some LR's on the Golems (I think they got 2 in on each) and then refreshing their defences and summoning some more monsters (that wand is great) as they don't last long against Amber Golems. During the meanwhile , Valygar had made his way (invisibility potion) through a round about way to the WD and killed him. The Golems concentrated on the wizards as Valygar kept a very low profile until the rest of my tanks woke up while Nalia and Imoen had plenty of stoneskins and mirror images to keep safe. When Keldorn , Anomen and the Vagrant awoke Valygar joined them and they took down Imoen's Golem first freeing her 4th level spellslots for rays of frag. which she started firing off followed by all her vampiric touches and finally her Larloch's (she did'nt have one left at the end of the battle!) Nalia did much the same. The Golem's went down one by one but very slowly and my prot. from electricitys were wearing off my fighters so I had to withdraw a couple from the fight and heal them before returning.
In the end I think that my 3 big hitters being knocked out may have helped rather than hindered as it allowed the Golem's to target my wizards which is what I wanted all along [spoiler]
This was where things went a little bit awry. Except for the Invisible Stallker nobody was near the Kobold WD - this was by design as I knew he would have SI div on him and I wanted to be able to remove /dispel magic without catching any of my buffed tanks in the process. Also only one of the Golems took a fancy to my stoneskinned mirror imaged wizards - the other two starting hitting Valygar and my Vagrant and it hurts! Nalia summoned some fodder while a Golem clubbed harmlessly away at her , Imoen cast remove magic on the WD and Keldorn cast true seeing before going back to work on a Golem with a clerics staff. The WD got off ?/Slow/emotion/ (? could have been GM or confusion) and Keldorn , Anomem and my Vagrant hit the floor I nearly had a heart attack !
The next couple of rounds Valygar (injured) spent running from two Amber Golems (uninjured) while the third one continued to engage Naila (on her 2nd stoneskin and 2nd mirror image) Imoen went to work on the WD as he was now visible so she breached him and started slinging him. Valygar ran around immy a couple of times shaking off one Golem the other starting in on Imoen's untouched (until now) defences. Although Valygar had been slowed by the WD's spell combo he had immed. taken a potion of speed and thus was able to stay ahead of the 3rd Golem long enough to imbibe 1 potion of extra healing and one potion of resurgence. He ducked in behind 2 ogres from Nalia's summons and lost the last Golem
The next round or two involved Imoen and Nalia spamming some LR's on the Golems (I think they got 2 in on each) and then refreshing their defences and summoning some more monsters (that wand is great) as they don't last long against Amber Golems. During the meanwhile , Valygar had made his way (invisibility potion) through a round about way to the WD and killed him. The Golems concentrated on the wizards as Valygar kept a very low profile until the rest of my tanks woke up while Nalia and Imoen had plenty of stoneskins and mirror images to keep safe. When Keldorn , Anomen and the Vagrant awoke Valygar joined them and they took down Imoen's Golem first freeing her 4th level spellslots for rays of frag. which she started firing off followed by all her vampiric touches and finally her Larloch's (she did'nt have one left at the end of the battle!) Nalia did much the same. The Golem's went down one by one but very slowly and my prot. from electricitys were wearing off my fighters so I had to withdraw a couple from the fight and heal them before returning.
In the end I think that my 3 big hitters being knocked out may have helped rather than hindered as it allowed the Golem's to target my wizards which is what I wanted all along [spoiler]
Very proud of getting it on the first try but I did read much advice from this forum. Those Amber Golems are brutally tough but beatable with the right buffs.