You must gather your party before venturing forth.

ps. liches before bitches imo

My default party was something like:

Jaheira
Minsc
Nalia/Imoen
Aerie
Viconia

Arie's the best magic user, far and away (mage/cleric FTW) and getting Viconia to help with the healing is a much better option than using Jaheira to do it. I had Minsc wade in with broadswords due to his strength and had Nalia or Imoen shooting arrows from the back. My main was a fighter, so I had 2 melee splitting the incoming damage with the other 4 doing ranged damage and 2 possible healers.

when do you get viconia? I have been playing this through again on 'hard' and it is definitely fucking hard. rarely get any spells off before the fight is already over one way or another.

i love how unforgiving the game is. neverwinter nights 2 (and 1?) has instant rez for the entire party if one person survives a battle. Oblivion has monsters that scale to your level. in bg2 you can get major characters obliterated and you can either reload or roll with the consequences.

I have started saying NO EFFECT? irl now and can't stop :/

http://www.mediafire.com/?a94lfvta6z634qz