Icewind Dale II

[Jamski]

The quest EXP is divided between the characters, I just did a test to find out. Quest EXP is not affected by average party level. Don't know about doing the game as fast as possible, but in a party with no healers, I was often resting for 76 days at a time to get bck to health

-Jam

[bakalov]

Great :-) 76 days should be enough to finish the whole game .... In the game I am currently playing the time is 1 day 18 hours and I am just before the dam on episode 1 - haven't rested till now ... The first time I usually let my party rest is before entering the fortress caves later :-) For now I am using the healers along the road and saving my healing potions for later when there will not be healers nearby. I am trying to develop tactics for winning battles with a minimum amount of damage taken.

[Jamski]

If you want to take minimum damage, then may I suggest you take "fleetfooted" as a talent for the whole party, and arm up with heavy crossbows. I think the tactics are then pretty obvious:

Look at the text box, as you see, all the monsters have a target, that they will follow around. Send the targeted party members running in a circle around the party, using way points, and leave the rest in the middle of the circle fireing thier X-bows. Almost too easy, but rather cheap and boring.

-Jam

[bakalov]

I am using this but it does not always help ... This tactic is supposed to work in open place, not in caverns and if the enemies are slow and relatively small amount. Great to take out a single tough but slow opponent ....

[Jamski]

Ah, in caverns you need another cheese trick - send in the summoned creatures first, and stand behind with X-bows. The wolfs-head talisman is good untill you get some better summoning spells (with the best being Animate Dead, of course) S
Since X-bows only fire once per round, you can try running in a straight line back up the corridor for 5 seconds, turn and shoot, run for five seconds etc. Eventually you'll come back to the cave entrance, so either then stand and fight, or run through the enemy ranks (often you can time this between their attacks - goblins and orks only attack once per round) Take advantage of the fact that the game's not really in real-time, but in rounds, and you can often hit, and skip away unharmed, even in hand-to-hand combat if you use faster weapons such as short swords and spears. Don't try this with two-handers, as they usually strike at the END of the round.

The text box is your friend - look to see who the monsters have selected as their target, they'll only go after this one character untill either they, or the character is dead. The trick is to get them all to follow one person, so send someone ahead to "catch" their attacks. Either a faster character (monk or barbarian) or a Cleric who can cast Sanctuary (yes, the monsters will still try to attack him) Invisibility is your friend too, but if you're not resting, spells are not really the way to go.

-Jam

[Dis]

good advice

far too often the targetted character is my mage

I hate that

[Jamski]

Two words Dissident :

Improved Invisibility

Or :

Multiclass the mage with a theif and hide - the targeting will "de-lock"

-Jam