Frustrating or merely challenging?

[Gil-Galad]

Ok, so here I am, soloing (core rules, not HOF) with my monk/cleric (of Illmatter), made it to the goblin fortress at lvl 6/5 and that's too high to get ANY XP at all for any of the monsters. I got a sorry 137 for the

MINOR SPOILER

DEMON who wants you to retrieve a contract note for him. Imagine (or remember) having reloaded your game a zillion times because 10-15 goblins/orcs/shamans are simply too much for you and because the damned creatures have been programmed to go for you rather that your summoned monsters. Finally you found a really clever tactic, beaten all of them in a looong, brave and epic battle and gets nothing, nada, zip, for it.
Dammit, man...THAT sucks.

What are your experiences with this, and is there a way to get around it, I really think it's unfair...

Edit: Forgot to mention that I have 5 1st lvl characters in my party (but all dead) that I had to "summon" to get through a particularly tough battle. I decided to keep them for later if I need them for canonfodder (I know this is cheese, but that was after reloading about 20 times - and dying within seconds every time).
Do they count in the average party lvl, and if they do, is it a good thing (since they bring the average down) or a bad thing (because I have more party members even though they're dead)?

[ 03-14-2003, 07:35 AM: Message edited by: Gil-Galad ]

[Nightowl2]

Yeah, one of the problems with IWD2 is that you catch up to the critters and many battles yield little or no experience. This is especially true with short or solo parties. Experience builds up fast, then suddenly you get little or nothing for all your hard work.

Dunno about the dead party members. By strict AD&D rules, dead people don't get experience, since of course they don't contribute to the fighting. My guess is that's how it works in the game.

There's a mod around somewhere that will give you something (even if it's a small something) for every fight, regardless of your level. You may want to check that out.

Nightowl2

[koconnor100]

Monks suck to begin with. (had one...hated her, dumped her)

A 6/5 monk cleric ? You're 11th level ? And you have no 6th level spells ! No wonder they're handing you your A** !

The game is meant for a party. You solo, you've set yourself up for a challenge.

You multi-class, you're limiting the max level abilities of both classes. A multiclass is typically weaker than a pure class.

Soloing a multiclass ... especially with a lot of monk levels...it's probably not possible to complete the game. You're on the tougher than tough fights and you're getting zippo for xp, this charactar is not going to make it, solo.

You could try a pure monk. Their high speed make's hit and run tactics quite workable.

You could try a pure cleric. 3rd level raise undead, a 5 th summoning, a decent spell caster can actually summon himself up a small party of creatures. I like the 3rd level unded spell myself because those guys last 24 hrs...but they're too weak if you're only 5th level cleric. On the strong ones an 11th level cleric would get will stand up to the pounding...

just a thougth, just a thought.

[NamelessOne]

I think there's a 2da file that can be edited so that you still get the full XP no matter what your level

[Dilbert]

if you try playing a solo party you sould really try a cleric. The summons are really strong, he can heal himself during seconds at higher level still has powerfull offensive spells, can wear the best armor and is not that bad in fighing. In my full party my cleric ist killing something like 20% of the monsters overall with his crossbow. I got the Crossbow with 3attacks per 1. and used with fast shooting he is running low of ammo very fast [img]smile.gif[/img]
and if you try it solo you should try a race such as asamir wich is pretty strong with the +4attribute points and so you can get wisdom at 20 from the start and at kuldahar you will have it at max. 28 by a ring (can't bring it over 28 don't know why). The low class lvl also helps with gaining the exp.
the bonus resistence is nice as well [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Grammar]

I don't have any experience (hehe) with how well it works, but some experience for each kill is part of Weimer's IWDII Ease of Use pack:

Linky

[ 03-24-2003, 11:29 PM: Message edited by: Grammar ]

[dominions]

Originally posted by Grammar: I don't have any experience (hehe) with how well it works, but some experience for each kill is part of Weimer's IWDII Ease of Use pack: Linky

Thanks for the link, Gil-Galad [img]smile.gif[/img] .

[Gil-Galad]

Well, you should really thank Grammar.
Just checked it out - bloody brilliant mate!

EDIT: Just checked out the REST of your site...I'm kind of extatic (sorry, can't use the superlatives I normally would), have to check it all out from a better connection! Rock!!!

Status update:
My now 7/6 monk/cleric is OUT after I had to import my 13 lvl party to help her clear the goblin castle courtyard.

I have now done the same with a new party in 1/4 the time, and on 8/9th lvl with six characters there are probably around half the monsters than with my solo character on a lower lvl.

IWD are not made for soloing, I guess...
It becomes boring anyway because you use the same tactic in all battles and IWD II is quite a battle heavy game.

Thanks for your inputs anyway.

[ 03-25-2003, 05:19 PM: Message edited by: Gil-Galad ]

[Dragonshadow]

I had a level 12/13 party by the time we had got away from Sherincl the Half dragon.
Yup, its hard to get EX

[Imrahil]

The "relative XP" is by far one of the worst "features" of IWDII. Simply put, the computer cannot judge what is a challenge for your party & award XP accordingly.

Relative XP awards are OK for a human DM, but a computer can't tell whether you had a hard time due to challenge or poor tactics. At level 11, even for a party, much less a solo character, a horde of 100 Goblin Archers would be a huge challenge, but the game would still give you 0 XP for the whole battle.

So, my vote, given the topic, would be for "frustrating".

- Imrahil