Going back in

If they're turner they can't cast, problem solved. Just hammer away.

I guess there's some sort of range limit on the turn undead. The arena is pretty big so you need to get closer up for the turn to work. That's my current theory, anyway.

 

Summoning always helps in every fight, but this one especially. Bringing in some elemental help, who are immune to the stinking cloud, allows them to move freely, and take hits that would normally go to the party.

Even without meta-gaming, the party has been to the arena twice before. They know they are in for afight, so why would they not buff up beforehand. A simple Protection from Evil does wonders in this fight, but Bless, Prayer, and Aid make a lot of sense going into a know tough battle. Bard's song would help with saving throws and to hit rolls, wizards can add in some Enlarging, Mage Armor, and Invisibility. Druids can bring in the elementals just before reading the book, so they are ready to go, and barkskin can go a long way, especially on their own companion, add in a magic fang as well.



Gaear, anyway of making Gust of Wind the counterspell to Stinking Cloud? Otherwise why would anyone ever take that spell? Then you could add it to the Slavers AI so the tactic of Cloudkill is countered by them as well.

 

It has a range. You have to to turn undead several times, in strategic positions to affect all enemies in this battle.

In a longer battle... turn undead does wear off. It's possible to run out of turn undead attempts.

 

Playtime has been extremely limited lately, but I'm still plugging away.

I have cleared the first 3 levels of the temple, and then went to Verbobonc. I've helped the gnomes with their problem and taken care of the dragon. I've also had my confrontation with the 3 fugitives.

The quests that I've liked most were the non combat ones... the ghosts hanging in and around my castle as well as the Vicount's daughter tricking me. I was worried for a bit that I was going to get run out of the city. I'm playing a neutral good party with a paladin, so I'm staying away from all of the evilish quests.

I tried the slavers one time (I guessed well on their location). Had a total party wipeout at level 11/12. I think I'll wait for a couple more levels and try them again.

For some reason if I try to approach the ruined temple I get a game crash. I was able to approach it earlier in the game without issue, so I'm not sure what that's about. Anyhow, I think I'm mostly done with Verbobonc, except for the slavers.

I really love the city. It's huge and looks great. It would be nice to have citizens in some of the dwellings. It's a little peculiar that every place I've been to that doesn't involve a quest or provide a service (e.g. inn, armorer) is completely devoid of people. There are MANY such places, and I went inside just about every one. It started to feel a little like a Twilight Zone episode with all of these empty homes and shops. Not a complaint... just honest feedback that can perhaps be looked at for a future release.

Verbo is a very nice addition overall. The slavers excepted, all of the combat related missions were rather easy due to the level of my party. I guess that's to be expected to some extent.

Now I'm working on temple level 4, and plan to give the slavers another try once this level of the temple is cleared out.

 

After takign out Hedrak and much of level 4 of the temple, I went back to try the slavers again. This time my party was level 12/13.

I managed to defeat them with only one party death. I got like 30,000 xp for the remaining 5 party members! And now I have a boatload of magical items to identify. It's like Christmas.

Now I'm concerned that I'm going to be really overpowered for the remainder of the game... but I'm rolling with it.

Does anyone have the slavers' stats they can send me? Now that I've defeated them, I'm really curious just how powerful they really were. They are clearly very high level.

EDIT: Nevermind on the slave traders stats. I just found them in Gazra's guide. Wow... tough group of baddies.

 

No. I was able to enter the church when I first got to Verbo. The guard inside told me that I wasn't welcome, and I left. I never went back. I got the idea to head back after completing a number of Verbo quests, and as soon as my party gets near the courtyard entrance on the left side of the church it crashes.

I must have gotten pretty lucky to beat them at level 12/13. I started by giving my party a good set of buffs, including haste. My wizard went first, and got in an effective chain lightning spell. Then my rogue went and got a nice sneak attack against the sorceress. Then my cleric went and dropped a holy word spell, which blinded several of the enemies, on top of the damage it did. Then my barbarian/bard went into a rage and charged the sorceress with his greatsword. Then my druid called in her most powerful earth elemental (lvl 6 spell) next to the sorceress and the archer. Finally, my paladin/fighter ran in and performed a smite evil attack against the sorceress, knocking her to dying status. The sorceress only got a single spell off, which was resisted by my rogue.

I made sure to kill the sorceress before moving on, lest she receive a heal spell from the priest. I figured she was the biggest threat, so I went after her without prejudice.

Lots of chain lightning spells from my wizard (seemed more effective and practical then fireball or icestorm). Nothing but summons from my druid... more targets for the enemies and more damage output for my group.

The enemies were kind enough to give me a few nice attacks of opportunity against them. I was lucky enough to score a few critical hits. My cleric cast 2 heal spells during the battle, which were hugely beneficial. My bard got killed by the archer. In retrospect I should have taken him out earlier.

I tried a couple more times to get through without any deaths, and didn't manage to pull that off.

A few thoughts here. You could simply make less of the buildings able to be entered. This will prevent crazy players like me from entering each of them.

You could have some residents that say "good day." You could also get creative with a couple of them, and create some characters who are a lot more memorable than that. You could have some old lady accost you for entering her house. She could be given some strongly worded lines, resulting in a bit of comic relief.

Maybe another dwelling could contain a crazy half orc who starts rambling on about how no one understands him. How half-orcs always get the short end of the stick. Be creative. Maybe he could be like a Half Orc Milton Waddams (Office Space) who is goofy and threatens to poison the ale if he doesn't get better service at the bar. If you talk to him, maybe the end credits make mention of a terrible sickness in Verbobonc due to poisoned ale, but no one ever found out who did it. The town guard believes it was the Hextorites.

Perhaps yet another dwelling could contain an old man with a story to tell about his adventuring days. If you agree, he will tell you his best tale.

No quests need to be written for these characters. They are just residents of Verbobonc with their own personalities and who will serve to make the city more memorable, and give it more character. If some of these characters are popular, maybe one or two can be related to a future quest down the road.

I'd be willing to help out with writing the dialogues for some of these residents. This wouldn't be too big of a time sink for me.

That would probably be a good idea. I was getting tons of xp from the spiders and drow and I didn't even have a remotely difficult time with any of those fights.

 

Absolutely not. I have never even touched the console in this game (never had a need to). So far this issue has only surfaced in this one particular area of the game. If it was a proto issue (not that I know what that is) would you expect that I would be having crashes in other parts of the game as well?

If it hasn't happened to anyone else, I would say don't worry about it. I'm pushing on with my game and simply not going back to the ruined temple.

 

Interesting stuff. Again, all I can say is that I never used the console, nor do I even know how to use the console in this game. Cheating immediately ruins my enjoyment of a game.

So I guess I must just be "lucky".