What to do between the mines and the bandit camp?

[pincher.martin]

I've completed the mines (after some difficulty with the boss) so feel that I may need a few levels before taking on the bandit camp in the north east. Are there some easy quests or maps to explore that will help level my party before resuming the main story? Many thanks.

[revanbh]

What level are you now and what parts of the map have you explored?

[pincher.martin]

Most of my party are level 3 or 4. I've rescued the "witch" from the gnolls, and had a brief look around High Hedge and the area with the waterfall (dead cat). I've tried looking towards Ulcaster but the difficulty of the fights seems to ramp up around there.

[fauxpas]

Explore the entire Southern half of the map, minus Durlags tower of course.

[revanbh]

Southern half is good, like fauxpas said. Be aware that you can also trick one of the bandits to take you to the camp as reinforcements. He should be in one of the nearby wilderness areas.

I did bandit camp at lvl 4. You can also thin out the bandits by using traps and backstabbing from shadows wih your thief.

[red255]

If you *NEED* more XP if you go into the area north of the friendly arm inn there are anklegs, in the hole they generally spawn in more anklegs every time you rest worth almost 1000 XP a kill


the tower west of beregost has Skeletons, skeletons are really easy to kill and carry throwing daggers. 65 XP a skeleton, not sure how many are in a group of skeletons but its extremely easy to kill them.

if you have protection from petrification theres an area to the west with Basilisks, really Easy to kill if you can protect from their petrification gaze. great XP limited in amounts.

uh.... you can wander along the west coast getting the constitution and Charisma Stat tomes. Might level up doing that, but its more for the tomes than anything else.

the main deal with the bandit camps is they kinda fill you with arrows so its best to burn some wands of fireballs from out of range to nuke em. but you do you.

Ankleg hole north of the friendly arm in or various quests around Nashkel.

[AlexMBrennan]

I so feel that I may need a few levels before taking on the bandit camp in the north east

You really don't.

the main deal with the bandit camps is they kinda fill you with arrows so its best to burn some wands of fireballs from out of range to nuke em.

If you can get past the Blacktalon Elites in Peldvale/Larswood to unlock the bandit camp then regular bandits (who will easily fall to sleep) won't be a problem.

If you find yourself badly outnumbered then switch melee fighters to ranged to pick them off one at a time.

[Godsarm]

If you haven't purchased the Wand or Sleep and the Wand of Fear from High Hedge, do yourself a favor and do it. Use them on groups of Bandits, Blacktalons, Humanoids even Dire and Dread wolves go down or run around in fear from time to time. When the charges get low, sell them to a Merchant and either buy or steal them back with 100 charges. If you steal them, you can only sell them again in Baldur's Gate to Silence or Black Lily in order to recharge. If you hit a group with both you will take most of the foes out of the fight. Once you're done with the ones that saved, just missile the rest down

[Godsarm]

Oh and Wands go off immediately with no spell casting time.

[pincher.martin]

Thanks for the advice. I've (finally) beaten the bandit camp, although there were a few tough fights in there. Onto Cloakwood next.

[danconnors]

A couple of levels of Durlag's Tower are okay. One has a boat load of ghasts, each worth 600 XP's. One of these levels has several basilisks, including greater basilisks. Greater are worth 4,000 XPs for no apparent reason if you are protected by protection from petrification. There is a thoroughly trapped maze near a hobbit village, way out in the boonies to the South and East of the region.

As you go deeper in Durlag's Tower I would say the stopping point would be the first basement level, when you begin running into the Greater Dopplegangers. There's one GREAT suit of armor on that level, which is usually where I say goodbye to Durlag's Tower.