Tricks and tips

[Hissssa]

Feel free to share how to make your characters just a little better.

One thing I have noticed is that you can swap vitality and willpower gear to your guys as they level up. This will give them more energy and health. If you had a way to slightly space out when your team levels up

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/cough xp necklace cough

you could space their xp in a controlled fashion so you get the most out of each level. Along this line, put your first 2 points into your mage for spellcraft so you get more energy from the +2 willpower.

Each party member needs to get a hit to gain xp from the enemy. If you have a fire mage fighting fire enemies pull out some throwing weapons to get a hit. All he needs is one hit to get full credit. Against enemies you outclass lead with the weakest attacks first so everyone gets a hit.

Overall I feel that axes are better than maces (assuming you find them all). The bottom line is that + strength is more useful on your fighter than + vitality. Most of the dungeons are laid out so that you can strafe to evade or use terrain (including doors) to avoid hits.

If you have an ice mage with 24 points in ice you'll notice you get a longer freeze time. If the rest of your party's weapons are still cycling prepare another freeze spell before you use a throwing weapon. If you have two mages give both of them another spell!

Give your mage throwing weapons! They can make excellent use of a staff and a one handed throwing weapon. The secondary damage won't be great but there are enough throwing weapons for two range weapon characters (more like 3 really). Use the throwing weapons inbetween casts to help save mana for tougher fights.

While a door is opening you can use bows/crossbows/throwing weapons before the enemy can attack. Throwing weapons will stun an enemy in a doorway allowing you to throw twice as the door opens and then attack twice with the front row. If both melee attacks hit the monster will not have a chance to attack you before you start closing the door.

Two mages can be challenging to use for spell combinations. Note that fire requires 3 symbols while all the other best attack spells require one less symbol.

[Hissssa]

If you use a torch and the light spell

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or if you have the orb that is a continual light source

it is much easier to see a number of objects that are just lying around.

One of the big problems I have with this game is the view mode which does not help this problem in several places. But overall that's a very minor problem considering the rest of the game is very solid.

[UknowsI]

Overall I feel that axes are better than maces (assuming you find them all). The bottom line is that + strength is more useful on your fighter than + vitality. Most of the dungeons are laid out so that you can strafe to evade or use terrain (including doors) to avoid hits.

Anyone know how much of a difference the ignore armour skill from maces will make? It depends a lot on how armour is calculated (flat reduction, percentage reduction, other), but it could potentially be a very powerful skill against some enemies.

[Hissssa]

Here's the thing.... Unless you plan to level up a bit you won't have enough skill points to get 50 points in maces and anything else. You're looking at level 15 to have 16 points in armor and 50 points in maces if you don't use any skill books.

I think most people finish the game around level 13 with 1 character maybe 14 wearing the amulet.

And now more hints:

Light affects how far enemies will start chasing you. If you use the light spell and carry a torch they will come find you. If you don't want to be found then you might want to consider using less light.