My party made it

[Loudhy]

My party without magic-users won the final battle last night. It seems to me from my experience that my party had only two problems in that game : 1st money and 2nd the time between Lvl 10 and 15 . In that period my Dracon Fighter with his breath and the bard with his Piercing Pipes were the only one with the ability to help kill larger groups of bats and other nasty critters. Because of this there were many long-time combats. My Fairie Rogue works well because with his sprite dagger he had a good weapon ( even without powerstrike ),and because of his high speeed and stealth he wasn't easy to hit. They had only missile shield scrolls and no elemental protection so later the swamp with this shooting insects were hard, not because the hits but my party was often afflicted by poison or nausea or others . After I found the healing instruments life became easier. Bayjin wasn't really that problem ( in that area I expected the most problems ) but the Mandolin of the Magus and the Soulful Sax were enough to survive there .Later in the game the harder combats were easy because of the good melee power of my party. No problems in the rapax area and at AP (with the exception of the souleater ). I had a highlevel party ( all above 30 ) and I hoped to find some of the highlevel monsters that roam this area but there was nothing special or difficult [img]graemlins/crying.gif[/img]

But what now ?

I thought about a party of six ( this time without NPC's )

1 Fairie Ninja with only alchemy skill without spells to create money (fighting for money isn't hard, only boring )
2 Elf Bishop without spells for turn undead and uncurse items (this time I want to use cursed weapons and armor )
3 Human Gadgeteer ( for lockpicking )
4 Felpurr Bard with 3-X-Bow and PP-skill ( I want to find out what is possible to steal with max pp and the latest W8-patch )
5 Dracon Samurai without spells ( this time I want to use this sort of weapon and armor)
6 Monk without spells with polearm and staff skill.

I know the melee power is great but I have lesser magic than in my last party so I think this combination is interesting (especially in the beginning).

Any other suggestions ??

[dplax]

If you are thinking of taking a bishop just for his special abilities then it might be a better idea to make him from a stronger race, like a lizzie bishop.

[Starfire]

Congratulations to your party! Sounds like you had a lot of fun and that's the whole point [img]smile.gif[/img]

Your next party sounds very interesting. One thing, why don't you want to use magic? I find the game hard enough without restricting myself lol I'm playing my first game on normal and everyone misses more often then they hit, I can't imagine going without magic with these guys lol

[Scatter]

Speaking for myself, as one who's completed a couple games with no or limited magic, it's the challenge. As much as the challenge of running a group with no combat, or a Solo. After enough times through, the game becomes easy enough with the 'standard' ways to go, and new ideas for making it harder appeal. And, of course, for all my finishes i've got more than twice as many abandoned games, forever deleted from existence--only to be recreated slightly differently, or with a new approach, that finally makes it through.

[Loudhy]

Dplax : Lizzie Bishop is a good idea. He's better for fighting with a mace.

Starfire : I try to find other ways to win the game because I finished it twice with magic-users and I can't count the games that were never finished where I used them. I my last game two bards ( plus Saxx) and two gadgeteers later had enough items to let me win without big problems.

Additional question:
I also have thought to play the next game on expert. What is really the different there ? In the manual they wrote that the enemies are harder to hit and and the armor heavier to penetrate ( have no imagination how to kill Nessie then ). But is this really all ?

[Scatter]

It seemed to me like skill increases took a bit longer, and more mobs were hard to shake when running. And magic was more likely to have less effect.

a dwarf or dracon bishop might be an interesting alternative to the lizzie, if you're going non- (or minimal) spellcasting. in fact, why not go priest so you at least get faster level ups and better starting bonus?

[dplax]

In the first post Loudhy said that he wanted the bishop for uncursing because he wanted to use cursed items, and the priest doesn't have that ability.

[Wild Rose]

I haven't made it through yet, but I started off a couple of games on Novice and then Normal but the levels just seemed to come too slow. Now I wouldn't play on anything except Expert because you get so many more ex. pts. from your battles. I don't know, but I think the levels come at the same point rate, that means 1000 pts for level 6 (just throughing out numbers here) what ever difficutly you are playing. So monsters worth 40 on Novice might be worth 100 at Expert. Yes, they are harder to hit and all, but then so are you.

Good luck with your new party Loudhy, sounds interresting - and have fun.