FAQ

Q: What's the best party?

First time players may want to opt for a well rounded party that is fairly easy to get through the game. A pair of good melee combatants, someone to pick locks, a healer, an offensive spellcaster, and specifically a Ranger to spot hidden goodies. 

See the Party Building pages for more insight into ways to create parties. Also take a look at the Character Building pages for some ideas on race/profession combinations.

Q: How can magic items be recharged?

May I recommend Sadok who buys and sells at the same cost.

Q How do I identify items? 

If a party member is not available to cast the spell then one party member should devote a bit of attention to the Artifacts skill. Assigning points at level up, using items such as Mana Stones, scrolls, the various stix, and equippable items with spells, i.e. Ankhs, Amulets,  and Rings, are ways to train the Artifacts skill.

Some items in the game require more than 100 skill, and since the only profession that gets the skill bonus for Artifacts is a Bishop, who could cast the ID Item spell and doesn't need the skill bonus (one of life's little mysteries), two items exist that help boost the Artifacts skill. However, one of the two items in the game with this skill bonus are specific to a Bard, Prospero's Cloak.  The other is the Philosopher's Shield. Each carries only a +10 bonus to the skill so even yet a few items will go unidentified unless your Bard uses both items. Both items are randomly found from certain monster drops and in a few chests.

And for those of you not meeting all the above requirements to Id Items, hope is not lost. There exist three RPCs who could be trained to fill the void. Vi Domina (Valkyrie), Rodan Lewarx (Lord), and Urq (Psionic). (Rodan may be with the party, depending on certain choices made, and only for a short time late in the game so he isn't the best of choices.) Of course there is Saxx the Bard if you care to spend time with him to train the skill then hope for the 2 items mentioned above to come your way. 

Of course you can always sell an item for a ridiculously low price to a Vendor then pay an arm and a leg to get it back if it happens to be something you want or need. 

Q: How are enemies spawned? 

Usually an average of the characters' levels determines the level limits of randomly spawned enemies. Early in the game, as discussed in the Upper Monastery and Arnika Road FAQ pages, it is not wise to be too high a level when entering certain areas. Those two places, plus the Swamp, Trynton, Marten's Bluff, and the Old Mine Tunnels are much easier to traverse when party levels are kept lower. Level 5 and under for the Monastery and the Arnika Road and 8 and under for the others is a good average.

Beware though of holding off leveling up when entering certain areas. There are areas in the game where the programming sort of expects the party to be a certain  average level. If the party is much lower than expected the generated enemies are about midrange of the predetermined monster levels for that area. I will not soon forget my level 5 party in the Mountain Wilderness. Not a pretty sight at all.

Q: What are the adverse effects of holding back level ups?

Treasure chests, in many cases, are level sensored. The party average level needs to meet a level requirement in order to qualify for better items. See the Level Sensor Value Chart for exact value ranges per party level. For example, many players prefer to be at least level 6 when entering Arnika. Unless you are running a Solo or very small party reaching the next level of the sensor isn't an easy task this early in the game.

Some areas to avoid until the party is more advanced are the Mountain Wilderness, Rapax territories, underwater areas, and Ascension Peak. These areas can be done with lower level parties but the going will be tough.

Q: What is a reasonably convenient order to do things? 

If you have spellcasters who are quite intelligent you may wish to visit Trynton to take advantage of the +5 Intelligence Fountain which will bring them all the closer to the powercast skill. For example by level 7 a Faerie Mage can learn this expert skill if developed accordingly.

On the other hand if you have party members who you plan to make use of the Modern Weapon skill (excluding the Gadgeteer) Mt. Gigas is the logical next step to acquire modern weapons and their ammunition.

Perhaps even a run back to the Monastery to see what goodies lie in Cierdan's Tomb.

From here making your way to the Swamp, the old Mine Tunnels and/or Marten's Bluff is one of the best strategies. Between the T'Rang (Marten's Bluff) and the Umpani (Mt. Gigas) there are several Quests that will help the party financially and with bonus experience points upon their completion.

Q: Expert skills - which are most useful and how do you get them?

Q: What's the answer to...? (Riddles)