What exactly am I supposed to be doing? I was exploring the bandit tower outside the temple (is there a reason for me to be at the temple?) and found a secret door.
I ended up fighting a wizard, and found a secret room with a treasure chest. Inside was a gold skull, so I picked it up, and a cinematic played.

Why did a cinematic play? What exactly am I doing?
After I killed the moathouse people, the Hommlet priest told me to go to Nulb to search out some "dangerous" guild or something. After that, I really don't know what I'm supposed to be doing.

I never found the "hook" either, and as far as I can tell no one ever explicitly instructs you to "go clear out the temple". At any rate, aside from a few quests in Nulb, all that's left to do in the game is explore the temple so you're in the right place.

Is there a way to make the game not so flagrantly unfair? I don't understand why every single monster gets three attacks per round and my guys either get one or just sometimes drop what they're doing and forget about fighting.

The rules work the same way for you as they do for everyone else, but it's definitely something you need to pay attention to. First of all, you cannot attack more than once in a round if you perform any movement other than 5-foot step. So if a monster charges you then it only gets one attack, but if you charge at a monster then on its turn you're within reach and it can perform multiple attacks. If you want to make sure you get all your attacks, ensure that the only kind of movement you perform is a 5-foot step.

Secondly, unless you're dual-wielding weapons or have a special ability or spell that lets you do otherwise, you need to be at least level 6 before you can attack more than once per round. Classes that aren't as strong in combat have to wait even longer; a rogue doesn't get a second attack until level 8 and a wizard doesn't get a second attack until level 12. The best way to get extra attacks is the "haste" spell.

Finally, if you want to be really cheap use the "enlarge person" spell on your melee characters. It makes them enormous and gives them exceptional reach with their weapons (if your weapon already has long reach - like a glaive - then it gets almost comical) in addition to a damage and strength boost. Top notch for a mere 1st level spell.


As for "forgetting about fighting", it's possible that the enemy was too far away and the character didn't have enough of their turn left to actually make attack after they moved. To mitigate this, use the special offensive option "charge attack". If there's a straight line to your enemy, then you can travel your maximum distance and still get your attack in. Remember that an attack uses up half of the action counter, so if you spend more than half of your move for the turn you can't attack.

Thanks.

So messing with the tactics will change their defaults?

Also, is there a kind of "point of no return" on the elemental priest quests when the others will all get mad at me?

To be specific, every character has a stat called "base attack bonus". This is based solely on your class level. Fighters, Barbarians, Rangers, and Paladins all have a high base attack bonus; rogues, bards, clerics, and druids have a medium bonus; wizards and sorcerers have a low bonus. If you have a base attack bonus of 6 or higher, you get an iterative attack at a -5 penalty. Every five additional points of base attack bonus grants you an additional iterative attack, but at a further -5 penalty.

These iterative attacks can only be used as a full attack. If you perform any movement other than a 5-foot step then you cannot perform more than one attack in a round. Although a new iterative attack might seem useless (since it effectively has only 1 attack bonus) the trick is to stack lots of "to hit" bonuses. Start by pumping your strength (let's say 24 strength for +7 to hit), get weapon focus (+1 to hit), add on the haste spell (+2 to hit), and the heroism spell (+2 to hit), and a fully-enchanted weapon (+3 to hit) and the outlook starts looking very good for all your attacks to connect.

Always remember: stack those bonuses! Individually a those +1's and +2's may not feel like a lot, but they add up.

2 weeks later...You da man! Thank you so much.

I printed up the reference card and it's actually on there but for something like that you'd think they would put it in bold print or underline it or something.