What the hell is up with the city sewers?

[zyl0x]

So, playing on the easiest difficulty, I've got about an hour of play time on this character, and I wander into the temple district which starts a quest about some cult. I head into the sewers and it's nothing but shadows. Level drain level drain level drain level drain level drain level drain level drain level drain level drain level drain level drain level drain. What the S! Oh, and they're also immune to non-magical weapons. Of course they are. There's literally dozens of them around every corner, and they're just kicking my whole party's balls in. What the hell!?

[Lerajie]

Wheres your summons to take the aggro and hits? Any negative plain protection? Even that early you should have some a number a magicial weapons to hurt them with ^^

[kaffekoppen]

Yeah the level drain is a major pain the ass early in the game. It's not just the shadows in the sewers but the vampire attacks as well.

There are a few things you can do:

1. Summons: Skeletons are pretty good early on for tanking nasty stuff, later on the magic sword (what was the name anyway) is king because it's immune to so much.
2. Characters that are immune to level drain: Hexxat, Dorn, some paladin kits.
3. Spells that protect from level drain: clerics have one, but it doesn't last all that long.
4. There are scrolls of protection from undead as well and I suppose they work.

You're still going to need some good weapons, especially against the vampires. It's pretty easy to get +2, but some vampires require more.

There's a good undead-killing sword in a hidden room in the inn near the city gates (Crooked Crane maybe?), but you'll have to fight a pretty powerful lich to get it. There's a +4 sword in the first level of Watcher's Keep. It's a pretty tough fight, but the first level is doable, and the loot is so useful.

[Lerajie]

Mordenkainen's Sword, doubtful he has that this early.

Regarding Daystar, if your unable to fight the lich it's actually possible to cast Improved Invisibility on a thief, head in there, lockpick and have the sword without a fight.

[kaffekoppen]

Originally posted by Lerajie:

Mordenkainen's Sword, doubtful he has that this early.

That's the one. I'm only mentioning it because eventually it's going to be a better summon. Skeletons are actually pretty good tanks anyway.

Regarding Daystar, if your unable to fight the lich it's actually possible to cast Improved Invisibility on a thief, head in there, lockpick and have the sword without a fight.

Good tip. I always end up obsessing over him and killing him... eventually. He's a real pain early on. I have much less trouble with all the other liches.

I actually think the game is a little unfair with the vampire attacks. There's one that requires better than +2 before you'll normally have such a weapon.

[Matuse]

There's only the one vampire attack that requires a +3 weapon, and you can avoid it or run away from her. It's also the last in the chain of night encounters, so theoretically you've got a bit of adventuring under your belt before you see it. The Copper Coronet and the Adventure Mart both sell +3 weapons, and getting ahold of Liralcor is trivial right from the start. That's leaving aside the weapons available elsewhere (like the Flail of Ages).

[Matuse]

I'm a little mystified about shadows in the sewers though. I've long played with the Tactics mod that boosts random encounters to maximum difficulty spawns, and all I get down there are slimes and goblins. That may be a change for EE though.

[Dustpuppy]

When you engage a shadow you have to watchout for "greater" or "Fiend". Most shadows only energy drain.

[kaffekoppen]

Shadows and shadow fiends only drain strength and only temporarily. Wraiths look almost exactly the same and can drain levels.

Much later in the game you'll meet devil shades, and those can also drain levels.

Originally posted by Matuse:

I'm a little mystified about shadows in the sewers though. I've long played with the Tactics mod that boosts random encounters to maximum difficulty spawns, and all I get down there are slimes and goblins. That may be a change for EE though.

There are wraiths in the Cult of the Unseeing Eye part of the sewers, but I don't remember seeing them in the main sewers.

[kaiyl_kariashi]

Difficulty has nothing to do with what spawns you find.

Easy just reduces the damage you take/increases damage you deal, auto-rolls maximum hp, and has 100% spell learning chance for mage scrolls. And party members can't be permamently killed by attacks (excluding being turned to stone and then smashed, since it removes them from the party before they die). Normal is the same but the less damage recieved bonus is much lower and there's no bonus to dealing damage.

[ozkal.arayici]

i always play insane; but summons is even when you are low levels is your friend; for example you can take any dragon in the game if you have two mages who can do level 5 spell "lower res",

[Pig Mac]

First time I popped in there, there where a bunch of shadows awaiting me.. so I changed my spells to be able to buff up for the fight.. and re-entered.. only to be met by a lonely jelly!! Seems pretty random.
Even at other places i scouted out the area.. made a save when I knew what awaited me.. died horribly, reloaded.. and totally different monsters, at totally different places.. from the same save.

[Matuse]

"Difficulty has nothing to do with what spawns you find."

If you're not going to bother reading what I actually write, please stop responding to me at all. As best as I can tell your entire purpose for existing seems to be to see how large of a jerk you can be without invoking Steam's moderators.

[Bob Rooney]

i suggest going back to the sewers at a much later point...

- if you're not able to handle some shadows, there's a group of 4 (?) or more mercenaries that will ♥♥♥♥ you up very quickly.
- the unseeing eye quest is much easier and less frustrating when you do it in chapter 5 ( or 6.. dont really know now... but it's significantly later )
- try other quests first... like the slaver quest ( copper coronet ) , d'arnise stronghold ( the mage thief girl that speaks to you in the copper coronet) , the circus tent ( waukeens promenade, close to the point, where imoen and irenicus were taken away ) just for starters... these aren't so difficult, you get ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of good items, money for gaelen( or the counterpart ) or money for more good items.

hope that helped... the game leaves it up to the player where he goes and what he does first... but it helps to have a starting point or some routine. the sewers amongst other areas aren't good to start with.

[Bob Rooney]

ah... the thieve's guild quest in the docks area... also good in the beginning... plus you get to learn some basic thieve-gameplay if you don't already know how to handle one

[zyl0x]

Thanks for all the tips everyone! I decided it's best to just turn around and come back to the quest later. Someone mentioned those adventurers in the sewers. I ran into them on my first attempt back out to the surface. Wow! That's some ridiculously hard stuff. I'm going to run around doing what I hope is just normal adventuring before attempting any of this harder stuff. It's very difficult to figure out the difficulty of quests at a glance. I'm learning that sometimes I just have to turn around and come back later.