almuric

Well, I read what the reward is, so I went ahead and broke the circle. Getting to remove all the barriers was nice. I spent most of my playing time last night going back to all the places I'd been, dissolving barriers and getting a bunch of spells. I did three before bed time and two of those spells I didn't have. The other, mass healing, I got two levels on. Would I have found all those spells in other places? Or would I have gotten the 'remove barrier' spell in some other way? It seems like a fairly important thing to be able to remove those stupid barriers. Did I basically just take the 'easy' choice? I.e., one that makes the game easier for me?

Last night, I got to the bottom of the Undead Spiral. It asked me if I wanted to fulfill Gladwell's quest. I'm not sure what to do here. I'm afraid if I do it that horrible things will happen and if I don't do it that I will miss out on part of the game. It would seem to me to be out of character for the way I've been playing to actually do what he asks. Can someone tell me the ramifications, in general terms, of each way? I don't want Gladwell not to give me more quests as from reading the boards it seems there are several things he gives out that I would want. If I don't do it, is the game still 'winnable'? Since I've been ostensibly playing as a 'good' group of people (not stealing, killing bad guys but attempting to not kill the good guys), it just seems like doing what he asks is completely evil. Am I soul-searching too much? Does it even matter? Any help would be appreciated.

I did the running away thing from Gladwell's 'red stripe' quest and was able to get away. So I've completed that. But while running away I accidentally clicked on one of the other doors (with the blue lizard things behind it.) One character was able to still get away downstairs but it led me to thinking if I could get the monsters to fight each other? Go down to the end, open the doors and lure the monsters out as I run away? Would the monsters fight each other? Would I get the experience if they end up killing each other? Has anyone been able to do this? I ended up in the Western Reaches. I found a demon there who again took my party apart within 2 rounds. I think I did about 3% damage to him. Does anyone have a method for remembering things like this? I'd like to try him again when I'm 20th level or so. Is there a way to annotate the map or do people just keep like a text file open and jot notes down? I remember encountering one demon under Patrick's Tower (or near there) that was chained up. Not sure if I'm supposed to free him as part of a quest but at this point I don't even remember how to find him. Is there some way to see encounters that are still not finished? If for no other reason than for the XP. I did use the Character Editor to give each of my characters a couple of traits. I tried to pick appropriate ones. I'm not sure how much 'cheating' that is, but whatever. I've got the XP penalty now and didn't have the advantage before. If I'm higher level than I would have been without it, I did get to this level legitimately. And I gave my Tool Use guy a few levels in that as I think he's disadvantaged by the amount of skill points he has to expend on that. Also, reading through some of the advice I see that should be spending my money on trainers and not buying spells? I finally found one of those guys near the Great Portal. But if I give my fighters a level each in Priest/Mage, I'm not sure I can remember where I found all the spells at. Is it really a waste of money if I buy spells from people? That's all the questions for today. I'll probably have more tomorrow. Thanks.

Last night I spent a little time trying to complete Gladwell's 'red stripe' quest in Fort Remote. My characters are around 10th level and got their butts kicked in a couple of rounds. In fact, they died within 2 or 3 rounds when opening any of the four striped doors. My question is, is there any way to tell what level you should be before attempting a specific quest? I mean, these weren't close fights where a slightly better strategy or better dice rolls would have netted me a victory. These were complete blowouts. No chance of winning at all. I had the same problem in trying to clean out the Skribbane dealer under Dhaermon. I believe I was around 5th or 6th level at the time. Him and his Ogre/Giant (can't remember what it was) guard mopped the floor with me in 2 rounds. (Although I might be high enough level now to go back and teach him what's what.) Obviously I can just load my save and move on, but I'm just wondering if there's any way to tell ahead of time if I'm about to attack the wrong guy. Btw, I took the default party when I started. I see now that that was probably sub-optimal. I may start over again but that's a lot of lost hours. Can I use the character editor to remake the default group into a better party? Is it a good idea to get everyone at least a level or two of priest spells so that anyone can heal? And if only the highest Tool Use is counted, how can you get that to a decent level? Seems like you'd spend all your skill points for one character on just that. Thanks for any help.