Act III: The *difficult* begining

Hi All,

As you have probably noticed, I have been playing this game on the hardcore D&D setting and I did not have real problem, well up to now (even though I don't think this is that much affected by the hardcore rules as the biggest hits are things like that area spells affect your companions and such which obviously does not aply in the begining of Act III).

I've just solved a little 'hard-to-determine-why' bug and I'm heading to save the lord of castle Never. And I'm alone. Lonely sorcerer in the halls of castle Never has very very very [x10] hard time to survive. Those champion vampires are very hard to kill and when there are three of them at once, it's getting almost impossible. Having greater Stonesking, Mordekainen's Sword by my side and all three special auras from the Ritual of Purification turned on and it doesn' help much. Well, six or seven chain lightnings can really harm them, mostly kill them. What is the problem is to have the time to cast them.

How did you go through this area? I assume strong melee fighter has much easier time here. I was really relying on my companions providing the first melee wave. And now alone…

One of many things I don't like about the OC rears its head. I played a Sorc too, and my secret was to RUN as fast as I could to safety. Don't stand and fight unless ABSOLUTELY forced to!!

Do you mean 'run away', Corwin? You can't mean that? I'm not roleplaying coward, not even clever coward ;].

…well, if I get too frustrated, I may still try.

Brave brave sir Corwin bravely ran away

Run away from a fight you cannot win; live to fight another day. Follow the others and get to where you need to be.

Originally Posted by Corwin
Run away from a fight you cannot win; live to fight another day. Follow the others and get to where you need to be.

Aye.

"He who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain
Can never rise and fight again."
- Oliver Goldsmith

Personally, my buddy and I really liked that part of the game. A party is fine and all, but having to control different party members was a bit tedious. Plus we mostly didn't get to fight much anyway, once Qara could get off one or two of her spells. Being on our own we could finally use our abilities to the fullest.

That said I can see how a squishy mage would have more problems with those fights than others, but yea.. just follow Corwin's advice.

@Arhu, I tend to enjoy single character games more than having a party. Therefore if possible I go with single character. I never had a companion in the original NWN. There isn't a choice like that in NWN2 and I developed my character in a way that reflects that. He is really an easy target.

Seems like good old haste and the 'run away' my be just suitable.

The running away worked. It is quite short after all, there was only the first bunch of vampires and few shadow priests I had to run away from. That was all, the other little creatures in the underground dungeon were easy to handle, each group by one chainlightning spell.

And now I have my party again…

Even the braviest Sorc has to roll play his limits. I won't share with anyone that the run away part is how Corwin always plays. Well to be honest he did go in bravely where no man had gone before in one mod, but he was transformed into a giant mass of 2500 hp at the time.

Cm hasn't learnt how to play an effective Sorc yet. In the mod she's referring to, she played the Sorc and died something like 315 times, while I died twice!! I usually run from melee range and then devastate the hordes of monsters with my brilliant spellcasting!!

Well, I now feel very comfortable with fighter (dwarven axe), paladin (hammer) and thief (two rapiers) taking the melee away from me. I sometimes even walk around looting chests while they are doing the fighting, casting a spell from time to time.

I've found out that even on the hardcore difficulty, having 3 capable melee fighters with you can take you through all battles probably too easilly. Well, if I boost those three with stoneskin, heroism, bear skin, bulls strenght and haste, there is hardly anything that could stop us.

Originally Posted by Danicek
I sometimes even walk around looting chests while they are doing the fighting, casting a spell from time to time.

He sounded a bite like The Short One there for a seconded.

And Corwin didn't mention the fact HE was the reason my sorc got killed so often. He left us all unprotected and at the mercy of our captures more then once.

At least Cm doesn't deny all those deaths. How could I have caused them, seeing as how I was always in the thick of the fighting. My kills were astronomical!!

@ Corwin
I seem to remember at one point, your deaths also being astronomical hee hee…

Ya know, mass heal (scroll) worked real well for me.