Pet Pal is one of the most important talents. All the rats in the dungeons with their input about puzzles are already worth the point spent into it.

Indeed. It was the first major skill I gave my Ranger. =)

A little further along now. I didn't have as much time to play last night as I was hoping. Still at level 3 for the party, but we cleared out the ruined house near the exit to the tunnel from the graveyard. Found a note on a Legionnaire's body detailing their orders to check out the lighthouse. Haven't made it to the lighthouse yet. Madora is getting killed a lot, so her experience gains have been pretty stunted. Unfortunately, I haven't found much money, so no new armour for her at the moment (or skill books for that matter - those are expensive, heh).

Still, grinding isn't too bad for the most part unless there are a number of ranged enemies. Then we get annihilated pretty quick. Also, I really despise the undead priests. Bad enough they can heal their undead allies, it's even worse when (at levels 3 and 4) they can resurrect their fallen comrades. I try to target them with my Ranger's Fire Arrows as quickly as possible. Usually that means getting my Ranger close enough to have the enemy archers target him instead of Madora and it ends badly for both of them. Also, it seems like the enemy archers have a slightly longer range than my Ranger?

More planned for tonight and hopefully more play time than last night.

Flynn

Flynn, try leaving town to the east (the gate just southeast of the Legion headquarters). Hunt around carefully and you should find an unoccupied building that can contain some nice loot. It's also a good place to practice using the teleport pyramids and navigating various hazards without risking getting into a fight. Remember, quicksave before opening boxes/chests--- if you really need good armor, and get something less useful, reload and reopen, the loot drop will probably change.

I think I found that building. It has a number of elemental fields inside. I haven't managed to clear that yet - I'll head over there tonight and see what I can do with the teleport stones.

Flynn

fyi the lighthouse will be tuff at level 3... I'd go at four or even five.

I think D:OS is the best crpg since baldus gate 2. My fist impression since im already in the ghost wood. The combat is just great system and very nice graphic style. Only drawback is that it needs a very fast pc.

Cheers
Slash

I just had a bunny rabbit show me how to get past the prison gate... yipee!

No kidding. I found the lighthouse. Yay! I got trounced badly by the ghoul guarding it. Yay?

I did find another abandoned house with undead it in. After the fight (in which Madora was ganged up on and killed in the first round by a pair of Explodeskeletons) we found a key and pulled a covering off to reveal a hatchway. Found some nifty ingredients in there, a skill book we can't use until level 7 (which we're still at level 3, so this is a long, long ways away) and a few other assorted items.

I'm really thinking that having a ranger and wizard as the starting party wasn't such a smart idea for a first play through. Since the two companions you find in Cyseal are a warrior and mage, it makes potentially more sense to start with a Warrior and either a Wizard (or Battlemage or other variant) or a Rogue. Having only one melee character in the party is tough as even with the best armour I've found so far Madora is often ganged up on and destroyed within the first two - three rounds of combat.

So, I'm of two minds - continue soldiering on with my current party (who seem perpetually stuck on level 3), or restart and see if a different party mix may make things tactically easier (or more difficult depending on starting skill sets, heh). If I do start over, regardless of what initial class I pick, I certainly plan on seeing if I can add Pet Pal to one of my characters from the beginning. =)

Flynn

I've been running with a Wayfarer and Cleric, with Madora and Jahan they're doing pretty well. Having 3 characters who can cast Minor Heal, plus the spider summon from the Wayfarer, has definitely helped survivability in this early game. We just made L5---and I'm proud to report that we actually managed to survive a fight against eight L5s!

I use the spider summon as cannon fodder, as a way to block/distract enemy archers, and to help Madora get the flanking bonus by positioning them both next to an enemy. The Cleric can also go toe-to-toe when necessary.

However, I also got several chunks of XP by carefully scouting just outside Cyseal and getting info to solve quests without having to fight anything. The tip below may be enough to get you to L4.
SPOILER INCOMING in
3...

2...

1...

SMALL SPOILER: Find the mill NE of town, then go talk to the Legion Captain.

Sounds like a good combo. Right now I only have one character that has minor heal (Jahan) so it's pretty difficult to keep up on the healing.

I haven't found the mill yet, so that sounds like my next destination, heh. I have been out that direction and ran into several L7 undead, so I'll definitely have to be careful, heh.

Flynn

Im lvl 17 and in ghost wood and i play with a ranger + wizard + jahan and madora and im having no problems at all. Just keep with the monsters that are your level and what is even more important both of your wizards should be able to summon pets ( spider is level get go level 1, fire elemental level 4 and later you get more at higher levels) since they are very important to distract the monsters from madora

Each of my four person party can summon at least 1 pet just for the cannon folder value but Yes having the right pet out for the job is important eg. A fire elemental fighting your fire elemental will never win because they heal each other.

From memory level 3-4 and 9-10 were just tuff… it will take off soon.

p.s. ime the exploding un-dead should be shot at from range or set fire to an oil slick/ barrel to blow the buggers up & Jahan can also teleport the little shits away from near-by neutrals… you'll know it when you see it.

Btw wet things freeze easy.

Well, it was a busy evening and morning for my intrepid group of adventurers. When we last left the Ranger and Wizard, they were constantly being owned by the monsters at the lighthouse. Things were looking pretty bleak for our heroes, but we decided to teleport back to town and do a little looking around. After loading the Ranger with all the party's gold and equipment no one needed, we headed to Ahru for a little bargaining session. A few exchanges later and we were the proud owners of four Resurrection scrolls and two skill books - one for Small Fireball and one for Summon Spider.

We then proceeded to the mill and chatted it up with a legionnaire who looked a little...erm, bleached. He pointed us in the direction of the old church. However, we wisely decided to stay away from there for the moment. But, going back to talk to the legionnaire captain, we did receive a little experience and finally reached level 4. Using our new found power we run into a small (8) group of undead and quickly dispatched them. Though we did suffer the slings and arrows of the archers until Jahan could freeze them in their tracks. As the Wizard wasn't able to easily cast Small Fireball yet, she did summon a spider to help keep Madora alive through the fight and she was able to gain enough experience to achieve level 4 as well.

Feeling a bit fey this morning, we tromped on up to the lighthouse and - after a glorious fight which the bards will sing of for the ages - we defeated the undead and entered the lighthouse. What we found was... interesting to say the least. On our way out, we ran into a couple of legionnaires that wanted us to tell them about what we found. Since we'd done the hard work and they wanted to take the credit, we refused to share. We had almost made it back to town (the Ranger wanted to check just "one more thing"), but we lost the Ranger to a trap. Somehow the fates intervened and we wound up outside the lighthouse again with a strong sense of deja vu. Perhaps the Imp at the End of Time had convinced the Weaver of Fate to do a little creative backtracking? We will make note to ask them next time we teleport there.

Flynn

Fate has dealt a cruel blow as for the moment we are standing outside the lighthouse; frozen as though Jahan cast his freeze spell at our feet.

In other words, haven't had a chance to replay the battle yet. =)

Flynn