About combat options

That's far too easy! Your ward plant is swamp lotus.

 

@Shiningted: Temple+ would gladly take your suggestions!

What about having Zuggy as your ward plant?

 

Bah... what man hides behind a plant ! I bet your father smelt of elder berries.

 

Has anybody used invisibility/sneak/hide options in the game for stealthy movements? What are they practical for in the computer game, particularly sneak?

 

Sneak seems way over-powered to me. With decent move silently and hide skills, you can "sneak" right up to and past most enemies, while moving in plain sight. Even at level 1, a rogue can sneak very effectively against the weak opponents you meet at early levels.

Edit: sometimes my rogue will get "stuck" in sneak mode during combat, even after making a melee attack, and gets to use sneak attack every round.

 

Sneak/invisibility is how I approach most encounters. Surprise makes or breaks most combats for me.

 

I only use sneak to explore and get rid of the fog. Sometimes to get the map to Nulb before finishing Lareth. And I suppose it's somewhat useful if you want to do certain Temple quests early, like rescue Thrommel or Trilahi and Sir Juffer.

Otherwise, I don't see it as all that effective, personally. The entire party can't sneak, so that leaves one character getting in close for a sneak attack then being vulnerable. I'm sure there's the occasional use, but overall, in general, I don't see it as a very useful tactic.

 

I use sneak or Invisibility to act as a spotter to allow spellcasters to throw a few AoE spells from long range. Of course, there are a few places where a buffed(Enlarged,Protection from fire, protection from evil,etc) heavy hitter with a holy,axiomatic,keen Glaive can initiate combat with a Whirlwind supported with a fireball or two can be quite "entertaining"

 

On one of my early run-throughs, I rescued Prince Thrommel on my first visit to the temple with the aid of Furnok's Ring of Invisibility. Can't remember how he came to lend it to me.

 

Somehow, in a few of my games, Furnok and Fruella get eaten by Giant Frogs/Toads.

The ring of invisibility is somewhat useful, but pretty soon hide and move silently skills get the job done without magic.

 

How exactly does "Fight Defensively" work? I assume that since you can toggle it as a free action, the AC bonus only comes into effect once an attack with the corresponding malus has been performed?

 

Right, but the thing is that in the engine, for example, I can select "Fight Defensively" even after performing my attack for the round, which had me thinking this might be a potential exploit to simply toggle it on after every round's attack and then deactivate it before the next.