*Bump*

Speaking of tough (and I'll try to avoid spoilers), how's this for an equation:

Ulgoths Beard + Cultists = Me weeping in frustration.

It's one of few instances where I'm determined to beat it without the aid of Google and was approaching an hour and a half of humiliation before quitting in disgust!

I'll think of some new tactics tomorrow.

I'm playing through with a sorcerer right now, and I've noticed that Sleep is AMAZING at lower levels. Nothing makes a tough fight more manageable than putting half of them to sleep.

I'm playing with a 4 person team.
Me: Cleric
Tashia: Sorcerer
Tyris Flare: Warrior
Yoshimo: Bounty Hunter
It's the 1st time I've played without Jaheira & I'm missing insect plague right now.
This games seems very hard after Skyrim.

At the lower levels, crowd control spells and ranged attacks are the keys to survival.

Spells like Sleep, Entangle and Web are fantastic for keeping the enemy locked down. Then just stand back, switch to missile weapons and open fire.

Another tactic is to have one party member be the "bait" -- have him run forward to catch the enemy's attention, then run around in circles with the enemies chasing after him like some crazy Keystone Cops movie while everyone else opens fire with missile weapons. There is no real concept of "aggro" here, like in a modern day MMO, so most enemies will be perfectly happy to chase after that one character that first caught their attention while the rest of the party blasts away at them with arrows and spells.

The only real threat early on are archers, since they can still fire back at you when rooted or being lured around. A Sleep spell is your best bet here. Admittedly, sometimes battles just come down to pure luck of the dice. That's pretty much how 2nd Edition D&D worked. :-)