Thaluikhain

I knew how Shockwave worked, but either forgot (or never knew) that it's supposed to be an earthquake, I just thought it was magic damage that spread in all directions that got more powerful because it's magic. And to do more damage to the enemy than the rest of your party, who are presumably closer, I guess. Doesn't Shockstorm use the same "template" (5x5 except the 4 corners) as Firestorm, but places a persistent magical damage thing, like Conflagration or the wall spells? Always liked those spells once the fighters/terrain have created a line to fix the enemy. Or against invisible monsters.

Definitely muck about with anywhere else you can before the endgame, or prepare to use the editor a lot. Or both.

IIRC, Firestorm spells can be blocked (partially) by walls, don't specifically remember for Shockwave. Save the game, go to a friendly town, cast in one room with nobody in it but people nearby and reload when you find out?

IIRC, someone did manage to extract E3 towns and put them into BoE, so that might be possible-ish.

I don't think so, IIRC if you use a magic map there's large areas that haven't been detailed because you can't visit them.

The Barrier Tunnel being the final part of the Troglo/Giant quest, you might not want to clear out Castle Troglo just after getting through that (might want to run away and avoid the final battle/s there as well, but there's stuff you don't want to miss first). But once it's done, you can clear out the giants at your leisure, and then go via them. Can't remember if you can just walk up to the front door of Castle Troglo and enter that way.

Er, depends what you mean by "the area behind Erika in her tower". If you go around the tower outdoors and enter from the north, you end up in a small monster fill section not really connected to the rest. Directly behind Erika's throne is her personal living quarters or something, you can see it with a magic map, but I've always been told you just can't get into there. Castle Troglo, yeah, you can get in and clear it like a normal dungeon. Which should end the Troglo threat, I guess.

I can;t speak for the severity, but I get something like that every so often, when I don't want to do anything, but don't want to not be doing anything. Generally, I have to force myself to do something, and sort of build up inertia until it's easy to keep doing it, but that requires only up to a specific amount of not wanting to do anything.

Could that be a kris? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris Distinctive wavy blade makes me think of vahnatai, and, well, Exile 2 has them, of course. OTOH, always poisoned looks like you might be right. What is it renamed and repurposed as in late games, though?

Running back and forth to ID stuff is a pain, yeah. Secret treasure in Formello, didn't know about that. Took one look at the Remote Temple and decided not, might give it another go.

IIRC, the Formello murders and the Tower of Magi are timed, whilst the Orb of Thralni thing can be triggered by timer or by completion of a quest (giant/troglos?), whichever happens first.

Yeah, did that dungeon a few days ago, don't play with the altar (really don't, a Haakai is way too tough, in E3 they are about the toughest monster that isn't a special character.) and I think that guy is just to give exposition and doesn't escape, or at least doesn't have an explicit gameplay escape thing.

Second that, lots of monsters that have little or not treasure and exist solely to get in the way gets tiresome. IIRC, E3 had a lot less of that.

As I understand it, that's because your level is too high. Not sure if that's intended to represent them being scared of you (which makes sense) or it's more a gameplay thing, because low level monsters would annoy players.

Oh, that one. I think you just get loot from there. And, yeah, the bats, and the rabid bats turn that the bat cave into a real grind.

The multi-level one with Anastasia in charge? For that, you just need the necklace (there's 3-4 necklaces there, only one is the right one, and to know you even want one you have to be told be someone nowhere near) and you get a reward for that, not for clearing it, IIRC.

I don't know if the spies has a reward, but is it the fort with the portcullis at the back and lots of secret passages? YIf so, you have to open the portcullis and tell the prisoners about it, and then tell the captain about the prisoners, clearing the fort itself doesn't help (well, makes that easier).

True, had overlooked that. Still find it more useful myself, though. Ah, not that high level yet, but good point.

Wound seems more effective than flame, though generally hasting is better than either. While I find at higher levels that I may as well give priest spells to casters (they've got magic points) and priest spells to fighters, I find that I need a bunch of people in armour, so no mage spells for them. Though not tried more magic, might give that a go.

Oh yeah, leveling up at different rates can be a pain, I rotate the positions of melee fighters sometimes, but it's handy to have a heavy hitter first. Also, your healers aren't killing stuff so they don't level as fast, but are important to level up. I see someone with bashing and pole weapon skills, normally I'd pick one and put all the points in there. Also, I'd give melee skills to my casters, though, I almost never use them that way so that might be a waste. Having a third caster is useful, I find, normally I retreat from a dungeon crawl when my magic points run out, not so much my health points.

Yeah, that's often a nice trick, though does leave you bunched up if the enemy is casting certain spells at you, and your magic users aren't hiding behind fighters.

Do you find that still worth doing when the enemy has archers or magic and can hit you a little before their fighters get close? Yeah, one annoying thing is that if you are in a cramped tunnel in a dungeon and enter combat mode, the third person to act often is standing in front of the second.

You mean not Wait, wait, just not advance and make the enemy come to you? Good idea, not thought of that. In E1, it's "Parry", rather than "Stand Ready", you are harder to hit, but you don't get a hit when you are approached (if I'm understanding it correctly). Which is a shame.

Lower base to hit? Not sure what you mean, unless you mean it's easier to zap people with magic then hitting them with stone weapons, which is true, yeah. Not noticed armour giving a negative to hit chance. Not exactly, hasting a PC takes effect next turn, so waiting doesn't help with that, but OTOH, there is a wait command and I use it all the time to do stuff like hitting a group of enemies with a fireball and then sending the fighters to hit the survivors.

Yeah, I always have 3 fighters, 1 mage, 1 mage-priest and 1 priest. Playing Ex1 at the mo myself, and using 1 fighter for disarming traps (doors are kicked door or have unlock cast on them). Not bows of thrown weapons as yet. 1 fighter has bashing weapons, in case I find a cool bashing weapon, have found the odd iron or bronze mace. Oh, everyone dual wields, except one fighter using pole. And the endless wandering monsters that wear down health, and worse, magic without leaving treasure are very annoying, make just getting to the dungeon grind a grind. Are my automaps supposed to erase themselves every so often? Also annoying.