Stuck?

[Beastman]

Playing Core difficulty: It seems so that I'm no longer able to progress. There are no enemies left that i have a chance to beat. I use the pregens and they are of levels 6, except for the soldier which is level 7. The golem is too hard to beat. I cannot win against the beholder and do not stand a chance against the soldiers possitioned near the arena or the castle or the remaining mushrooms. The only potential where i may gain additional XP is the mighty creature in the prince's hunting grounds (forgot the name and unless there are more random encounters, but i already have had about a dozen or so and the area is still not cleared probably because of the mighty beast still roaming the woods) - but i met it once and fled - or the arena, but there is the dilemma of the gold - food and paying the arena-master some 200+ gp...

any suggesstions? thanks

I finally managed to kill the beholder after having battled some more random encounters in the woods. I now have the artifact, but still do not know how to make progress. The remaining mushrooms are still too strong, as are the guards. I don't know what to do with the tower's artifact - but maybe this comes later. I have also discovered a new region but there is only a shrine and a road to the south leading to Red Pass (blocked) and another guardpost...I have finally cleared the hunting reservoire of all random encounters - so, no more beatable opponents are left. Guess I have miss-skilled the characters and have to start all over again...

[MReed]

The key thing to note is that if you purchase /all/ the blessings from the priest in the starting town, your party's strength (at low levels) more or less doubles (maybe even triples) for the next 24 hours. With this boost, you should be able to clear out groups of soldiers (& other things) with some level of ease, opening up more areas to explore. Of course, the cost of the blessing increases with level, so gold very quickly becomes a problem...

At least, the above applies if you have a bard with the "Song of Stunning" (chance to stun /all/ opponents) maxed out... If you don't, then... Yeah, I think that having a Bard in your party is more or less essential -- no other class seems to have mass crowd control effects, at least not at low level. With all the blessings applied you /might/ be able to take on *a* group of guards, but I suspect that you would use enough consumables that you would go broke in very, very short order.

Note that the instructions that you get at the beginning of the area ("Go into the hunting preserve and you'll be able to bypass most of the guards to access the north entrance to the castle") appear to be misleading -- you go north, then back south, then east, then north a bit and so forth, ducking in and out of the preserve to avoid the various guard posts. I haven't completely navigated through this path, but I /think/ you can get to the castle (eventually) only facing one or two groups of guards (and dodging random encounters, obviously).

[Anubis]

Some players really enjoy what can be referred to as "re-rolling". You might find a party composition which fits your playstyle better, come across different loot & rewards and preserve your gold/supplies better, thanks to a better understanding and "grasp" of various game mechanics.

That said, Lords of Xulima does present a sizable "entry barrier" due to its inherent challenging design, so the Tutorial will be improved in version 0.10.X to give players a bit more information about the options at their disposal

As for your game, MReed's post contains part of the solution. I can also say that there is some nice relief awaiting you if you figure out where to go in Nabros! So, as long as you have some Torches to light the way and PP Potions to use Camouflage, there is still hope. Follow the river until you can head North, and carry on that way until the path becomes a bit more clear.

[MReed]

Now that I've gone through the Castle (which, I'll point out, is nicely balanced for parties in the 6-7 range -- a bard is probably not required), the path is:

1) Go north into the preserve when you are greeted by the thief, then east -- you'll come back to the path with a set of guards to the south.
2) Go south along the path -- you'll see a path into the preserve to the west (before you get to the guards) that takes you to a crossroads.
3) Go east along the path to the crossroads until you see an entrance north into the preserve. If you meet a group of guards, you've gone too far east.
4) Work your way north through the preserve until you hit another path.
5) Head west (I think) along the path -- you are looking for an entrance north, to the smokey mountains.
6) Move (as quickly as possible, because you take damage continuously) west along smokey mountain path. Eventually, you'll be able to exit south back into the preserve.
7) Head south until you reach the path again, and follow it to the castle -- you'll have to defeat one, much smaller (1 master, 2 rangers) group of guards to gain entrance.

It should be fairly straightforward at this point. Two notes:

* If you follow the right path, you won't have to fight /any/ fixed monsters until you reach the north entrance of the castle (not just guards, of any type at all). So, if you see a path is blocked with a fixed group of monsters, then you don't need to go that way. Obviously, you may want to, for treasure or XP, but you don't /have/ to.
* Once you get into the castle, you'll be stuck there for some time -- while the encounters /are/ level appropriate, and there is a fairly large amount of food available to scrounge, you should make sure that you have at least 2, and preferably 3 days worth of food when you enter the castle. You should also make sure that you have a good amount of consumable items (especially items that cure bleeding) and enough inventory space to carry 10-20 extra pounds worth of items. Purchasing a crystal that takes you back to town would also be a good thing to pack (in case you get "stuck").

[Beastman]

thanks for helping out. Will try to continue the quest this evening...