So, after a long time I decided to give the IE games another shot after constantly being turned away, year after year, by their D&D'ness. Call me a ~*FILTHY CASUAL*~ all you want but I've never been good at math and remembering tons of numbers so I've always *vastly* preferred the more obfuscated dice rolls of other RPG systems on computers/consoles.

After making my party, spending an hour reading the manual and learning how to pick locks, I completed a few quests in the starting town, got into a few combat scenarios, got some gear, and then headed out to find the Caravan that starts the game.

I immediately lose a party member to a wolf.

What went wrong? Did I spec badly? Is there something I'm not understanding? Right now I feel like a bunch of math nerds are pointing and laughing at me for not understanding what '2d6' means or what THAC0 is.

Sorry if I sound pissy. I'm just frustrated at not being able to understand these beloved games. I want to experience and enjoy them like everyone else does but it's kind of hard to do that the moment you lose a party member to a goddamn *wolf*.

Any suggestions? Can I just IDDQD my way through this? How about newbie friendly guides?

As an aside, a friend of mine told me on twitter that IE games are very micromangement heavy and are more Tactics games then RPG's nowadays. Is that true as well? I just wanna experience a cool story and not worry about getting brutally murdered by a rogue gust of wind. But if I have to constantly babysit 2000's era AI.....well, maybe I'll just shelve these games for a little longer.

The problem is that the at early levels, the IE games are very luck based. Two or three hits can kill you and whether those hits land are completely based on die rolls There isn't necessarily anything wrong with your tactics except that maybe you haven't familiarized yourself with your quick save and quick load keys.

I wouldn't start with Icewind Dale. That one is more combat oriented and while a great challenge is a poor way to learn. I'd recommend Baldur's Gate. If you play on easy you'll have an easy time, won't need to micromanage as often but yes you'll need to tell them to do stuff. It's also got a really fun story and sets you up for Baldur's Gate 2 which is probably the best D&D game ever made.

All you need to know about THAC0 is that it means how good your "chance to hit" is and that you want it as low as possible. Same with Armour Class. Good luck!

If you ever need to consult a guide, which isn't unlikely, I recommend Gamebanshee.com

Play one of the newer ones first, Pillars of Eternity preferably, and then go back.

I hear that Icewind Dale is mostly a dungeon crawl, so be aware of that going in.

I'm going to dump several pieces of advice, which might help you get your head round the tactics of the IE games. I'll try and keep individual points fairly separate, so you can mix and match strategies that work best for you:

Probably the biggest thing I learned that helped me "get" the infinity engine games was that buffs and debuffs are vitally important in the early levels. It's really tempting to choose the offensive spells (magic missile, burning hands etc) as starting spells for your mage, but these are red herrings. Magic Missile in particular is only really useful at higher levels, and then more as a way to interrupt enemy spellcasters than as a way of dealing damage.

You're better off choosing spells that either debuff a large amount of enemies (particularly in IWD which can have some pretty large battles) or give a decent buff to your entire party. As you've probably noticed, the best way to survive is to not get hit, and you will find that taking the time to cast bless on your party before battle will really help avoid that. Likewise, a lot of early game enemies are very vulnerable to sleep, which can make battles a real cakewalk if you get lucky - although it tends to work best if you can funnel a large group into a small area - as most enemies will fall asleep and you can eliminate them at leisure. Later on you start encountering larger groups of spellcasters, so spells like Silence 10' radius are useful to pick up along the way.

To that end, it's worth knowing what you're going into so you can apply these spells before battle. It's worth having a thief (or a ranger, I guess) who is good at sneaking, to quickly scout the room ahead. If you feel particularly brave, give your thief a melee weapon, have her scout ahead, and then start the battle by taking out their best spellcaster with a backstab! The risk is that the thief will then pull all the aggro, but you can either heavily buff them (thief/mage can be a good option, with some armour and mirror image spells) or take some potions of invisibility. A safer option is to bring the thief back and start the battle with a "tank" character (warrior with shield, or I like to use a priest, normally). You can split the difference if you don't mind micromanaging a bit, and have the thief stay hidden while the tank starts combat, and then join in with a quick backstab to a spellcaster - but often spellcasters will very quickly get defenses like stoneskin or mirror image up that will make you less likely to get an instant kill.

So yeah, the basic thing is - use buffs and debuffs to try and tip the dice rolls in your favour, make sure you know what is ahead before you start fighting, and try and plan your attack in a way that will either draw aggro to characters who can take it, or very quickly eliminate the highest threat enemies (usually mages, although priests can be annoying too) - or ideally a mixture of both.

Another thing to bear in mind is that although it is less fun, ranged weaponry is really overpowered in IF engine games (again, a little less in IWD because mobs tend to have more archers of their own). Keeping your mages and thieves at range can keep them out of harms way, with your hardier characters blocking access to them. It's also worth noting that warrior classes can use composite longbows, whic IIRC have a 1d10 damage roll. If you let enemies come to you, you can have your front line pick off a few weaker enemies before switching to melee and getting stuck in. Ranged can also be key to preventing spellcasters from casting in areas where it's hard to manouvre. If you can funnel enemies into a good chokepoint, you can really limit the potential they have to damage you, as well.

Which leads to my final point - pause often, and get used to micro-managing your party. You should only be doing "select all - attack one guy" towards the end of the battle to mop up weaker enemies. Until then, you need to be maximising how you use the individual strengths of your characters. The most obvious way this works is trying to use the environment and your heavy characters to try and block access to your squishier characters. Another is to realise the damage potential of your thief - I believe it is possible for them to hide in shadows if they break line of sight, even if the rest of your party is engaging the enemy, so it can be very effective to have a thief (particularly a hasted thief) darting in and out of battle to get backstabs on high value targets - or just keep yourself massively stocked up on invisibility potions if you don't mind spending the gold.

In summary:

• Micromanage. Every couple of rounds you should make sure that you are in the best position to deal damage, while minimising damage to your party
• Unleash the awesome power of ranged weaponry
• Use stealth characters to scout the encounters ahead
• Use buffs on your party before entering battle - a +1 to saving throws from the "luck" spell can make all the difference
• Likewise, use debuffs on enemies over pure damage spells early on. There are a lot of spells that can either take enemies out of the fight entirely (sleep, fear, hold person), or make them far less effective (malaison, doom, that spell that has the same icon as luck but red)
• Try and draw aggro to characters that can take more than a couple of hits
• Prioritise targets, and work out what the most effective way to take them out quickly is going to be for your playstyle and what you are comfortable doing.
• If all else fails, you can always spend an hour or so making sure you're rolling in the high 90s at character creation, and min/max stats (in IWD, min/maxing is probably the way to go anyway). Tanks and warriors still want Dexterity for the AC bonus, and thieves benefit from strength for backstab damage.

Sorry for such a long post, I hope that none of that was too obvious - or if it was a garbled mess, feel free to ask me to make it a bit clearer!

@etpc: I know I cheated quite a bit when playing through icewind dale and baldur's gate the first time around, when my party choice was sub-optimal and I often stumbled into battles quite unprepared for them.

Instead of abusing quick-save/quick-load, I just enabled and used the cheat keys. Primarily I used ctrl-R to instantly heal a character, ctrl-4 to show traps, and occasionally ctrl-J to warp around. Check out http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/256221-icewind-dale/cheats on how to enable cheat keys.

Additionally, you could use DaleKeeper (ShadowKeeper for Baldur's Gate) to edit your characters. Even on my "non-cheaty" play-through, I always double the movement speed of all my characters because the standard move speed drives me nuts (equipping boots of speed on everyone is an alternative). You can bump up your stats a little (to compensate for bad rolls during creation), or a lot to really help you out. Of course, you should exercise some caution when editing your characters, it's easy to make yourself ridiculously overpowered and then the game becomes boring to play.

Although I really like Icewind Dale, I'll echo what someone else already said and recommend Baldur's Gate instead, since it's a lot more story and character driven. Though I will say Icewind Dale has some of my favorite music.

Non-cheating advice

• Quick-save often
• Pause often (there's a reason it's mapped to spacebar)
• Set an AI on all your characters (though I typically use generic attack since I don't like my spell casters to cast stuff without me explicitly telling them to)
• There's also a button to turn off the AI when you want full control
• Use a rogue and scan for traps and scout encounters
• Make sure you have a diverse group of ranged and melee guys. It can be hard to move around the field when your all clumped up together.
• Even Cleric and Druid magic can be devastating
• Don't underestimate even what seems like a trivial encounter, especially early on.

Holy crap, this is a lot of advice! I'm gonna go back at the game tonight with this stuff and see if I do better. Will report back, thanks y'all!

Most things have been mentioned, but in no particular order:

1. IWD is a combat challenge basically. Little story and it doesn't have the memorable characters of the BG series. You need superhuman stats to really make things even.

2.Range combat rules. Bows attack 2X per round which is huge early on. DEX increases missile chance to hit and lowers your AC so it should be the 2nd primary stat for mages and already is the primary stat for rogues.

3. Clerics are great. BG1 doesn't give you a cleric for awhile so you may want to make one you main character. They heal, buff/debuff and can stand in front lines.

4. Pause often. Setting autopause when enemy spotted will help alot.

5.Have a variety of classes in your party. You want at least one rogue. You likely want two front line warriors. You want at least one cleric. And you need at least one mage. Class/Multiclass combos will influence how you pick the 6th spot (ie if you have a paladin a second cleric might not be needed).

6. Attacks interrupt mages. Pelt them with missiles and magic missiles when you can.

7. Missile attacks are also deadly in enemy hands. Rush down archers with your fighters to make them switch to hand to hand.

8.Summoning spells (animal/monster/animate dead) are very helpful. They create fodder for enemies to have to deal with.

Dang, the rest of you guys already gave the advice I was willing to give. Just keep in mind that IWD is pretty dang hard, even compared to Baldur's Gate and the like and that the Q key is your friend. Oh, and don't feel any shame for at least skimming a guide. I love those games and I still have to do that when I replay them.

So all your advice has been super helpful! I managed to survive up until the Vale Of Shadows and have been wrecking Yetis and Lesser Shadows, but I'm getting my ass handed to me by Shadows. All my weapons (clubs, maces, flails and swords) are all ineffective. How do I kill these butts?

Been a while but pretty sure Shadows require magic weapons to hit. Try pelting them with spells and wands if you don't have any yet.

I bought a few spells, but how do I use them? I know there is a button that says Use Magic but even though I have spells in my Mage's Spells book, there isn't a way to auctally cast spells. Do I have to give the spells to another character?

Edit: And yes, I did read the manual. It didn't help.

The way spells work in D&D is that you have to memorize the ones you want to use before resting (The scroll looking tabs on the UI). Wizards have to buy scrolls and write them to spell books (right click in inventory, click "write to spellbook", be warned there's a failure chance so maybe quicksave before you do that). but Clerics and Druids have access to all of their spells by level. Then, after resting, you can click on the spellcasting button and cast said spells!

I hope that helps. If not... I dunno.

Assuming you're on a pc, here's a quick foolproof guide to spells, from store to skirmish:

• First buy a scroll (this is what you are doing if you buy a "spell" from a shop
• Find the scroll in your inventory, and make sure it is in the inventory for the spellcaster (Mage, Bard) who you want to learn the spell (do this by drag and dropping it to their portrait in the inventory menu)
• Right click on the scroll to bring up the item description. At the bottom there will be a "copy spell" button - unless you already know the spell!
• If you are successful (it's worth quicksaving before you learn any new spells), go to your spellbook (fourth or fifth icon down on the menu to the left of the screen). In the spellbook, you browse spells by spell level. On each spell level, the left hand page is spells you know, while the right hand page is spells you can memorise. Each time you memorise a spell, you get one cast of that spell - so if you want to cast Magic Missile twice before resting, you need to memorise it twice. You only have a certain number of memory slots per level (you gain more as you level up), so you may have to remove spells from the right hand page (by right clicking the icon) to memorise a new one!
• If you have just memorised a new spell, you need to rest before you can cast it. Once you have cast a spell, you will need to rest before you can cast it again, unless you have multiple casts memorised.
• To cast your spell, select your caster and click on the moon and stars spells icon on the bottom of the screen. This should open up a line of all the spells that character has memorised. There should be a little number on each icon telling you how many casts you have memorised.
• There are, essentially, three different types of spell: Spells that only affect the caster or are centered on the caster (EG Mage armour, circle of bones for priests), which will cast as soon as you hit the icon at the bottom of the screen; Spells that target a creature, where you click on the spell icon, which will change your cursor to a moon and stars, which will be greyed out until you hover over a valid target, which means anything with a circle around its feet (NB you can target friendlies with a lot of these, and there are "friendly" spells like invisiblity, or healing spells, which work this way). If you click the target, the spell will cast; Finally, spells that target an area (Fireball, Cloudkill, Sleep), which work the same way as the the previous sort, but you can click anywhere within range of the caster - watch out for friendly fire on higher difficulties!
• ADDENDUM: In IWD, the volume of combat means that you either have to rest between every encounter, or buy scrolls. Scrolls can be cast by putting them in your quick item slots, and then using them from the icon at the bottom of the screen in gameplay, at which point it is just like normal spellcasting. You might prefer to just rest often though!

That should be everything you need to know, but let me know if that isn't what you needed. Priest spells work the same way, except priest's don't learn spells from scrolls, they are granted them once they can cast spells of that level (Normally a level above spell level, IIRC, so a level 3 priest can cast spells up to level 2, ditto mages). However, there are some scrolls for priest spells, so they can cast spells from scrolls. I very rarelt do, tbh, but I'm not very hot on my priest game anyway!

Edit: Re Shadows. Like someone else said, you need +1 weapons to harm shadows. This includes +1 arrows, and I think +1 bullets are the most cost effective ranged option, if you have someone with a point in slings. However, if your priest can take aggro from them and not get hit most of the time, then priests have a couple of decent spell options to get you through. Shillelagh is a 1st level spell which gives the caster a +1 staff, and if you have access to level 2 spells, then you can cast Spiritual Hammer (summons a +1 hammer), or even better, Flame Blade, which does extra damage against undead (which I believe shadows are). This is a fairly low cost way of getting through that point in the game - although I feel certain you would be able to find some +1 weapons if you looked around a bit.

Ahhh, so I need to rest after memorizing a spell so I can use it?

@etpc: That's a staple of the D&D set. Resting is how you refresh your spell casts as a cleric or wizard etc. You can only cast a spell a set amount of times per rest.

This is kind of what makes D&D so tactical. Stick with these games, once you know one, you know them ALL. And these games are SO worth playing.
You are on a noble quest!

Ok, so I rested but my spell (basic magic missile) is greyed out. What does that mean?

Is your mage wearing armour?

Mages can't cast while wearing Armour - or at least, what you would recognise as armour. They can wear Mage Robes, which are generally pretty lame and only give bonuses to resistances, until you can get some of the high level gear. So if you put them in anything other than that (leather armour or whatever) they can't cast.

Same thing applies somewhat to thieves, who can't use their thief skills if you put them in any armour above studded leather (The heirarchy goes something like this:

(mage robes)<Leather Armour<Studded Leather<Chain Mail/Splint Mail<Plate Mail<Full Plate Mail)

Why do they let you give your mages and thieves armour that can make them totally useless? Because they are jerks.

Edit: Just did a quick check on my copy of the game. I'm using the enhanced edition on andriod so it might be a little different, but it didn't let me equip plate mail on a mage/thief, so I must have been wrong about that being possible - unless that is a change they made for EE - and Mage is listed as a class that can't use studded leather. However if your mage is a multiclass that could well be the issue!

I always hated the way armor is handled in D&D. It just kinda seems obscure on purpose. Not necessarily the limitations on classes, I get that. But the armor rating.. makes no damn sense whatsoever. Also the whole 2d6 thing is lame as fuck. That may be okay for a tabletop, BUT: These are computer games for a reason. The computer does the math. Surface the right numbers, or at least have an option to see them!

Man, game developers are so crazy sometimes.

The whole armor thing is weird. You kind of have to think of it as being about modifiers to rolls, so your armour class can kind of be looked at as being the modifier applied to enemy attack rolls. 3rd edition, which they used for IWD2 and NWN is easier to understand though.

I really don't get your point about "the whole 2d6 thing though"? What would the "right" numbers be? I guess I see what you mean for damage rolls, where saying "2-12" is basically completely equivalent to saying "2d6", but I think that's the only case. If they displayed to hit rolls as a percentage, for example, they'd have to really overhaul how armour class worked, or how resistances were calculated. I think it would actually be a lot harder for the player to understand how those systems interacted. Also, Infinity Engine games definitely do have an option to surface the numbers.

I wish the game told me I couldn't cast magic without taking armor off. Is that a D&D thing? It seems......kind of silly? I guess it sort of makes sense if you say "oh well you need to freely move your body to cast magic" but....idk. I guess years of playing RPG's where i can cast magic or use whatever skills I feel like while wearing what looks like two T-90's strapped to my body has taken it's toll.

Ok, will report back. Thanks again, y'all. This is really helping me a lot <3

Icewind Dale is a little rough to get started on. Maybe give Dave and Ian a look, helped me get back into the game.

Well shit. I can only cast once and it wasen't enough to kill the Shadow. Do I need to continuously rest and then come back and chip away at him? I feel like I'm doing something wrong.

@etpc: Yeah, it's just a D&D thing. There's a bar just underneath the "paperdoll" in the inventory that will come up with messages very occasionally. When you equip armour on a magic user it will normally say "Wizard spells have been disabled" but if you miss it then you would be out of luck!

In later D&D games, after the switch to 3rd edition rules, it's a bit kinder - Magic users can wear armour, but it adds a chance of spell failure (5% chance with leather armour, 10% with studded leather and so on) which is a better system imo, but that's just how it is!

Ideally your mage isn't in danger much of the time anyway, but if they are for whatever reason, there are options available to you at all stages of the game:

• It might be a little late now, but the best start you can give yourself is to give your mage Dex as a secondary stat (I think someone said this already). A character with 18 dex will start with a natural AC of 6, and a character with 19 Dex will start with 5 AC (only elves can get to 19 dex at the start, because of racial bonuses. I'm not sure if you can get the natural AC of 6 with 17 dex but it would make sense) This works for any type of mage - a multiclassed thief/mage will get bonuses to thief skills (I think!), and a pure mage will get bonuses to ranged combat. It might not be so great for fighter-mages because of the tradeoff from strength and constitution, but I tend to be a bit scummy and roll for ages until I can pump everything up high really.
• At the start of the game, Mage Armour is a pretty useful first level spell, particularly for mages who are likely to be in the thick of it, such as fighter/mage of mage/thief multiclasses. It gives them an AC bonus equivalent to chain mail IIRC, and lasts for 4 in-game hours (enough for several fights without resting). It's maybe not recommended for a mage who is more of a "support" character, where you might want your spell slots for other stuff, but those characters should probably be out of harms way anyway
• Mirror Image is another fairly early spell that can be helpful. It creates several illusory copies of the mage, which must be killed before the mage takes damage. I'm not sure whether the copies have the same AC as the original, but it can certainly buy a bit of time. It's pretty handy as well because it scales, with more copies the higher the level of the caster.
• For support mages who stay away from the fray, Shield is a pretty useful spell that provides a hefty defensive bonus against ranged attacks.
• I can't say for sure, but I'm fairly certain you find at least one Ring of Protection +1, which gives a +1 bonus to armour class. While it makes some sense to give this to a tank character, by the end of the first dungeon, your tank character might actually have magic armour that means they can't wear such rings. It will be a while before you get a mage robe that imposes that restriction, so a mage is a natural choice.
• Only "chest" armour restricts spellcasting. Boots, Bracers, Helmets (for multiclassed mages) are all fair game! Bracers in particular are a useful one, as there are numerous "Bracers of AC (number)" around. I think they're actually quite cheap to buy even, but don't quote me. They just set AC to the number they say, although they don't stack well with other items, and I've never really been sure what the cutoff is.
• Later in the game, if you ever have the money to spend, consider buying your mage the "Robe of the [good/neutral/evil] archmagi" They have some decent resistances and an AC bonus equivalent to chain mail. I'm not sure but I think it stacks with mage armour as well, but don't take my word for it. I think these armours prevent you from using rings of protection though.
  

This is really just for IWD, where I don't think you get to the really crazy spells. In Baldur's Gate 2, Mages can become properly tough, as you gain spells like immunity to normal weapons, immunity to normal missiles, spells that make you immune to spells below a certain level and so on, and even spells that automatically cast these on you as soon as you enter combat! Alas, you also start having to fight a lot of mages with the same protections...

Should I be able to get magic weapons by the Vale of Shadows? Because this definitely isn't working. I feel like I screwed up somewhere because I cannot kill this Shadow with a spell that does 5 damage that I can only cast once.

I don't know how much help you want, but I just checked a guide, and the simple answer is yes, I think. Have you fully explored the vale of shadows before hand.

What's your party like? It might help to know, in this specific instance! Is there any character that can withstand the attack for a reasonable amount of time?

Edit: Or you can go back to Kuldahar and buy something from a shop, although your money might be a bit tight at the moment.

Oh, dang! I was exploring the overworld before I explored the caves. Once I did though, I found a good Halberd and was able to cleave my way through the Shadows. Back on track :D.

Another question though: What do I do with Gems? Just sell them?

Yeah, it's just selling loot.

Same with the broken chainmail armor I just found, too? I just don't wanna sell something I end up needing for a quest. I cannot tell y'all how many times that has happened in an RPG for me.

Hmm, I can't remember I'm afraid. My instinct would be to say that if you are finding a lot of them, it's probably junk, and if you only find one, there's a reasonable chance that it's quest related. My advice would be to read the item description and see if it gives you any clues, or if it tells you that it's useless.

Either way, maybe keep it until you finish the dungeon you find it in. I don't think there are many sub quests that span more than one dungeon, so if you can't find a use for it where you find it, or in town when you get back, it is probably junk.

Make sure you sell it to the general trader in the SW of kuldahar, he gives better prices for "historical artifacts."

Will do! Thanks again :D

Not a problem. In case it wasn't obvious, these games are sort of my jam, and I like talking about them!

Goddamn, Tony Jay was such a good voice actor.

I just wanted to say thanks a bunch -- I just started playing BG I&II on iPad and PC (you can kind of sync between them now), and D&D 2.5 have been kind of obtuse up until now. These games are absolutely gigantic.

I'm glad it's helping you! <3

Can I safely sell keys and stuff?

Would say the same deal as with the armour. You probably won't get a key in one dungeon that opens a door in a different one.

I just got my ass handed to me by the Lizard King and his court. If two of my party are dead, is it worth it to go back to town and resurrect them, or should I just reload a save?

Edit: scratch that: How the hell am I supposed to make any progress when I'm constantly being hounded by trolls who regenerate? I'm looking at a guide and it's saying to cast web and because the magic system is EXTREMELY user-unfriendly, I have no idea how to. This is frustrating as fuck. The guides say fire-magic weapons would help too, but I can't find any of those! Ugh.

Seriously hampering my enjoyment of this.

Edit Edit: Nevermind! A friend told me to use the fire oils the lizardmen drop as grenades basically. Still clunky, but it works. Now there is just a bunch of priests with trolls who are giving me trouble.

Glad you got there!

Trolls are bastards. The basic thing is that you have to beat on them until they "fall over" then use fire or acid on them. There are a bunch of spells that are useful for any troll filled area (melf's acid arrow, Flame arrow, Aganazzar's scorcher etc) but if you use spells you kind of have to try and hit more than one troll at a time.

Assuming you have bought/found a Web scroll, and have copied it into your mage's spellbook - and that they are high enough level to cast it (I think it's a level 3 spell, so you should be by now), then Web is cast like fireball - it is a spell that is centred on the area you cast it at (doesn;t have to be cast on an enemy). It will create a large area of webbing, and anyone walking through it must make a save or be effectively held there (web prevents them from taking any action, unlike the priest spell entangle, which holds them in place, but allows them to cast spells/fire ranged weapons/use melee weapons if something is in range). You can trap your own dudes in this as well, so my personal preference is usually something like horror, or hold person.

You might find the magic stuff a bit easier to understand if you read the rules at the top of the description of any spell you want to use. It will tell you the area of effect - either "1 creature" which means you need to target an enemy, something like "15 foot radius" or the dimensions of a wedge, which means you just need to cast it at an area in the caster's line of sight, or "caster" which means as soon as you hit the icon the caster will cast it on themselves.

I think I'm getting the hang of it! That info definitely helped push my way through and now I'm back to fighting Good Ol Fashioned Undead. Wooo :D

Edit: aaaaaaaand just got wiped by a room full of Yuan-ti and traps. Lost a good half hour of progress ughhhh

Sorry for double postin', but if I know a room has traps in it and find traps isn't working, what do I do? Is it an invisible dice roll happening?

Yes, your find/remove traps score isn't high enough. Are you distributing you thieves skill points?

Well.....in a way, yes. I ended up re-doing my thief with DK and got past the part I was stuck at (fuck poison/insanity traps omg) and now I'm in chapter 3!

A bit late to the party, but one way to get around this issue if you have it again, is to use the priest spell "find traps" which, as far as I know, can't fail - although you have to move quite carefully as I think activates at set intervals, if you see what I mean (probably turns), rather than just being constant. Unfortunately it's no guarantee that you'll be able to deactivate the traps!

So I've hit a bit of a snag in Chapter 5. I've fooled the Frost Salamanders into thinking I'm spying on them/on their side and am exploring the aquarium and found a Salamander that talks about a noise they hear down the hall from them. I go down there and find a hiding slave, Vera. However, after talking to her, I go back to the Salamander, tell them there is nothing to worry about, and then they go down the hall and immediately kill Vera.

Is this a bug? A side-effect of the IWD Fix Pack I have installed? Can I prevent it while keeping my cover? Can I still help the slaves even though Vera is killed?

@etpc:My memory is a little hazy on that quest, but I don't think there's any bug there. I think the idea is that if you tell the salamanders that there's nothing to worry about, then they freely go investigate, discover Vera, and kill her. If you want to help the slaves, you should report back to them (downstairs) after talking to Vera.

The Temple of Illmater in Chapter Six does *not* fuck about. Is there a trick to cleaving my way through these waves of Bladed Boneguards while constantly getting cursed by Mummies?

Edit: So I punched through everything in IWD and HoW but I've hit a snag in TotL. I can't get the switch to open the stairs down to in the northwestern tower (the one with Harald) no matter what I do. Even starting a new game from HoW (with my imported characters) dosen't fix it and neither does uninstalling the Fixpack. I've solved the three other trials but I can't get this one to work right. Can I still play and finish TotL or does this mean I can't complete it?

Givin' dis a little bumpity bump