Wow, I'm all fired up!! (not in a good way)

[Derell Licht]

Okay, this is the second time that I've encountered an area that's filled with those volcanic vents which pound the entire party all at once... This one's in a cave near Harkin's Landing.

 

So... is that just a game-mechanics way of saying "get out, and STAY out!!", or am I actually supposed to be able to survive in here and do something???

[Mav]

Eventually, you should be able to get through the volcanic vents just fine. Sounds like you'll need to level up and might have to "backtrack" (part of the reason Jeff provided more than one boat for the rapids sections, I guess).

 

This'll help you get through:

--Get into fight mode beforehand and buff your characters (Haste, Prismatic Shield to reduce fire damage). In case you weren't already doing this, fight mode lets you move more than one square per turn. Haste lets you cover more ground per turn.

--Use highest-HP characters only to navigate through the vents if you're just treasure hunting, and keep your mage/priest/healer(s) back (non-group healing spells have plenty of "range")

--Given the area effect of the vents, try to stay away from as many vents as possible to minimize damage stacking per round.

--If you've got a mage and priest in your party this'll get much easier when you get to access higher-level spells.

[Taliesin]

Good thing it's a really small cave.

 

What I did was cast all buffs on my tank, then had him run around the edge, both to minimize damage, and because all the loot is near the edge.

 

Edit: All buffs as in Steelskin, Enduring Shield, Augmentation, Haste, Protection, and War Blessing. I think Steelskin was really what did it. And the Slith bonus

[Derell Licht]

Ahhh... it sounds like I'm *way* too low level for this region, then... I don't have most of those higher-level spells yet, just got Mass Heal. Okay, we'll go back there when we have more scars!!

[Randomizer]

Synergy had a nice trick for the cave west of Harkin's Landing. Send in the fighters to kill and loot with at least one character staying back to heal. When the fighters are dead, you leave and revive in Harkin's Landing to retrieve the loot. Repeat as needed.

[Student of Trinity]

You can't do that, Jim! That's engine abuse!

[Chicken]

I found it worked quite well with just having one character move forward and stay at the very edges of the cave, use his bow to shoot one of the hostile critters, and then run back to my party to slaughter the previously mentioned hostile critters.

 

After the hostile critters were dead, looting was proceeded to be done by buffing up one character as much as possible, loading him with fire resist gear, and navigating along the edges of the caves. Shouldn't be getting hit by more than two of the calderas venting at once that way.

[Randomizer]

Quote:

Originally written by Student of Trinity:
You can't do that, Jim! That's engine abuse!

Quoted for posterity. This game is all about engine abuse and Jeff's futile attempts to stomp it out.

[Callie]

I send the whole party through, but it results in excessive reloading to prevent my mage from dying.

[Dikiyoba]

I'm only on normal, but I had no problems with the cave near Harkin's Landing with only the spells you can start the game with. I entered combat, hasted and shielded the character with the highest health, went around the edge of the cave with that character, retreated out of the vents when I encountered a lizard so the entire party could kill it, and made sure my exploring character was at full health at the beginning of each new round (which meant casting multiple healing spells occasionally, but all my characters can cast that spell).

 

Dikiyoba.