Curse of the Azure Bonds - hints please?
jah...@teleport.com
Tilverton am getting my butt kicked! The hints led me to the standing
stone and I went south from there to encounter 3, count 'em 3, black
dragons! Barely beat'em used all of my charges in the necklace of
fireballs to do it and ended up having to raise most of my party from
the dead. Went to Hap and cannot figure out how to deal with the
Efreet and his 16 spellcasting, low armor class, immune to hold spell
dark elves. I can't figure out any way to neutralize that many
sell-casters before they start decimating my party with lightning
bolts and hold spells. It weems like this quest is way too tough for
6 6th - 8th level characters. The 5th level magic-user we meet in Hap
is pretty useless. Should I be adventuring somewhere else first to
gain levels and/or potent magic items before going to this section of
the game? What am I missing here? Also can you give me some hints on
other tough parts of this game that I have yet to reach? And I
thought Pool of Radiance was tough!
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike
Neutronium Dragon
battle will be much easier.
The best way to do that is cause trouble in the streets. Start fighting with
the patrols, and after you've dispatched several of them, give the barn another
try.
After that, I would actually recommend travelling around to all the different
towns, and visiting the safe areas of each, before continuing with this or any
other of the main quests. This will give you a chance to build up your strength
a bit, and perhaps spend some of that cash to acquire useful items, such as at
the magic shop in Zhentil Keep.
In article <360dd89f...@news.teleport.com>, jah...@teleport.com says...
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Mat...@my-dejanews.com
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure and rpg as this game seems to fit both
categories in a way)
In article <360dd89f...@news.teleport.com>,
jah...@teleport.com wrote:
> I started out fine against the Fire Knives, but after leaving
> Tilverton am getting my butt kicked! The hints led me to the standing
> stone and I went south from there to encounter 3, count 'em 3, black
> dragons! Barely beat'em used all of my charges in the necklace of
> fireballs to do it and ended up having to raise most of my party from
> the dead. Went to Hap and cannot figure out how to deal with the
> Efreet and his 16 spellcasting, low armor class, immune to hold spell
> dark elves. I can't figure out any way to neutralize that many
> sell-casters before they start decimating my party with lightning
> bolts and hold spells. It weems like this quest is way too tough for
> 6 6th - 8th level characters. The 5th level magic-user we meet in Hap
> is pretty useless. Should I be adventuring somewhere else first to
> gain levels and/or potent magic items before going to this section of
> the game? What am I missing here? Also can you give me some hints on
> other tough parts of this game that I have yet to reach? And I
> thought Pool of Radiance was tough!
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
Ok... been a long time since I've played SSI's gold boxed games, but my
memory of them is still pretty good (they were the first ever CRPG's I
played, and I still hold them in high regards). First thing that might be
helpful to know, what are your current character classes/levels? I could give
advice without that info, but it'd be general advice. Such things as fight at
least 5 of the drow patrols before going against the efreet... be sure to
fight during the day time (never at night). The Drow are less effective
during the day. Also, the Drow have at least a 50% magic resistance, and of
course being elves, they have the lovely 90% resistance to hold and charm
spells. I've noticed that spells like fireball are the best bet against Drow
as you usually manage to damage some of them at least. You should try to get
your characters as much training as possible as well. Yes, Akabar is useless
most of this section of the game (although in the book Azure bonds he
appeared to be much higher level than 5th, and I can't remember what his
level was in the TSR adventure module Curse of the Azure Bonds). I think I'm
starting to ramble. I hope that some of this helps.
Also, if you think this game is tough, wait untill you get int Secret of the
Silver Blades, and then into Pools of Darkness. I wound up giving up on Pools
of Darkness because the final battle was simply impossible to win.
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Brandon Wallace
> I started out fine against the Fire Knives, but after leaving
> Tilverton am getting my butt kicked! The hints led me to the standing
> stone and I went south from there to encounter 3, count 'em 3, black
> dragons! Barely beat'em used all of my charges in the necklace of
> fireballs to do it and ended up having to raise most of my party from
> the dead. Went to Hap and cannot figure out how to deal with the
> Efreet and his 16 spellcasting, low armor class, immune to hold spell
> dark elves. I can't figure out any way to neutralize that many
> sell-casters before they start decimating my party with lightning
> bolts and hold spells. It weems like this quest is way too tough for
> 6 6th - 8th level characters. The 5th level magic-user we meet in Hap
> is pretty useless. Should I be adventuring somewhere else first to
> gain levels and/or potent magic items before going to this section of
> the game? What am I missing here? Also can you give me some hints on
> other tough parts of this game that I have yet to reach? And I
> thought Pool of Radiance was tough!
> Any help would be appreciated.
Well, it depends on your party makeup. Here is my party makeup when I
got
to this point:
Paladin,Ranger,Cleric,Cleric,Thief,Mage
I think while on this adventure, my mage and my thief gained enough
XPs to regain their other classes (they had dual-classed) so they became
thief/fighter and mage/cleric
Anyway, I remember running into the 3 black dragons. I managed to win
only loosing 1 character. For the dragons, Stinking Cloud them. You
get lucky sometimes. And have all of your guys hack on one dragon at
a time. Haste or Enlarge is rather nice also.
In Hap, I think others have said to fight the patrols in the town.
Here is a tip: When you kill the drow, use their drow weapons and armor.
They are usually +3 or better...definitely better than anything you have.
Does your mage have Cloudkill? Cast this spell and watch all of the
drow in the area of effect die within 1 or 2 rounds. IIRC, it will kill
anything
less than 6th level that fails its save. Most things under 6th level
have sorry
saves, and they have to save every round they are in it. As long as your
characters
are above 6th level, you can walk through the cloud and not get hurt.
To keep them from casting, use fireballs and lightning bolts and ice
storms,
or any other area effect. They have good magic resistance, so you can't
stop all of them. Another spell that works is Silence 15' Radius.
Casting
it on them usually doesn't work. Instead cast it on one of your fighters
and
have him run into the middle of the drow. Minor Globe if you have that
is
very useful. So is Fireshield. And if your guys get Held, remember you
can
cast Dispel Magic from a mage or cleric on your guy to remove the Hold
Person.
--
Get involved!
Georgethe4
Previously,
>Well, it depends on your party makeup. Here is my party makeup when I
>got
>to this point:
>Paladin,Ranger,Cleric,Cleric,Thief,Mage
>I think while on this adventure, my mage and my thief gained enough
>XPs to regain their other classes (they had dual-classed) so they became
>thief/fighter and mage/cleric
Similar to my party, except I had two mages (and one cleric) and I dual classed
the mages as fighters. (Boy, you sure are crazy for clerics!) I find having two
mages really makes the team pack a wallop.
Cool, cool
George IV
Georgethe4
Previously,
>I went south from there to encounter 3, count 'em 3, black
>dragons! Barely beat'em used all of my charges in the necklace of
>fireballs to do it and ended up having to raise most of my party from
>the dead.
I never had a lot of trouble with this encounter. My guess is that you don't
have two mages. This gives the party a lot more firepower than it would have
otherwise. If you start the magic users off as fighters and dual class them,
they will have enough HP so that they are not getting clobbered all the time.
Only humans can be dual classed and they must have certain minimum scores in
the prime requisites for the two classes.
>Went to Hap and cannot figure out how to deal with the
>Efreet and his 16 spellcasting, low armor class, immune to hold spell
>dark elves...
The advice already given that fighting several drow patrols before entering
this battle will lessen the nymber of cohorts accompanying the Efreet is right
on the money. I had the same problem when I first tried this one. =:-o
>Should I be adventuring somewhere else first to
>gain levels and/or potent magic items before going to this section of
>the game?
Anytime you feel like you need more XP, you can either patrol the forest around
the Standing Stone or search the areas around some of the cities. At higher
levels when trying to max out the characters, the toughest random dungeon seems
to be around Shadowdale.
>Also can you give me some hints on
>other tough parts of this game that I have yet to reach?
There's a really tough dungeon around Dagger Falls, although it's not random.
Save the dust of disappearance for this dungeon if you decide to do it, because
I never found any other way to win the final encounter there. There's also a
magic store there, as well as one in Zhentil Keep. The one in Zhentil Keep has
better prices on wands of magic missiles.
Really long range, keep changing your party as necessary from game to game. I
only kept one character from Pool of Radiance for Curse, a cleric. Traded in
the two fighters for a ranger and a paladin. I started two magic users off as
fighters as described above. Actually, I would have kept a second character
from Pool, but was experiencing technical problems with my dwarven
fighter/thief and started another.
For Secret of the Silver Blades I made two new characters, dual classing one
magic user, starting him as a higher level fighter (since characters start at
higher levels in the sequels). I also dropped the dwarven fighter thief and
created a fighter that I dual classed as a thief so he wouldn't lag behind the
others in level for the next two games. (Multi classed characters must keep
gaining XP in both classes even after they can no longer advance in one of
them.) I would advise raising the fighter to ninth level before dual classing
him as a thief. This party can finish the series, but if you wish to complete
the challenge at the end of Pools of Darkness, you may need to reconfigure the
party and dual class all of the characters.
Cool, cool
George IV
Dark fiber
<bm...@houston.nacm.com> wrote:
>I think while on this adventure, my mage and my thief gained enough
>XPs to regain their other classes (they had dual-classed) so they became
>thief/fighter and mage/cleric
>
>Anyway, I remember running into the 3 black dragons. I managed to win
>only loosing 1 character. For the dragons, Stinking Cloud them. You
>get lucky sometimes. And have all of your guys hack on one dragon at
>a time. Haste or Enlarge is rather nice also.
>
>In Hap, I think others have said to fight the patrols in the town.
>Here is a tip: When you kill the drow, use their drow weapons and armor.
>
if your really desparate, you can get the full walkthrough complete
with maps off my www site. i love this rpg, its cool :>
http://homepages.tig.com.au/~entropy/program.html
look down near the bottom of the page, there is a .zip on there.
in it is the ascii solution/maps and a msdos file to edit characters.
ja ne!
-df
-df
Dark Fiber <ent...@tig.com.au>
http://homepages.tig.com.au/~entropy
Head honch of the Ed Wood school of FanFic
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RASPUTIN
And do you have any more AD&D games from SSI?
I have been trying to get them for months
Brandon Wallace
Go buy the Forgotten Realms Archives. It has
most of the SSI AD&D games.
You can get it at most Best Buys/CompUsa/etc...
for about $30
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Eric Ashcroft aka The Ancient One
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Ken Rice
says...
>>Can you post this game?
>>And do you have any more AD&D games from SSI?
>>I have been trying to get them for months
>buy them d00d
That's easy enough to say, but how many have YOU seen in the stores lately?
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Eric Ashcroft aka The Ancient One
but other people on this group have been able to buy them in the last few
months and so i think there are *enough* guys who can give you advice where
to find them...
so they愉e *not* abandonware yet.
i would have no problem with it if the games were really unavailable.
if you live somewhere where it愀 *impossible* to order or buy them, then
fine, maybe someone should send them to you. but in any other way i think it
is unacceptable heh !
--
Eric Ashcroft aka The Ancient One
ancie...@cyberdude.com
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his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told
by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
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Ken Rice schrieb in Nachricht <6v5n7b$mq1$3...@winter.news.erols.com>...
Brandon Wallace
> In article <36162...@juno.wiesbaden.netsurf.de>, ancie...@cyberdude.com
> says...
>
> >>Can you post this game?
> >>And do you have any more AD&D games from SSI?
> >>I have been trying to get them for months
>
> >buy them d00d
>
> That's easy enough to say, but how many have YOU seen in the stores lately?
Forgotten Realms Archives from Interplay can be bought at
most stores for about $30. It has most of the SSI ad&d games (all the ones
set in the Forgotten Realms). Then you only need to find the 3 Krynn games.
There are still several places that sell the 9 game goldbox
set. I think someone said Chips n Bits...
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