Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) Help/Tips/Tricks Stuck in ELona's Dungeon

Hi,

Can't get past the first scorpion in Elona's dungeon. Is there any way around this epic design flaw?

I'm level 3.

Thanks.

Level what? You mean Elona's dungeon as in after doing one of the quests that give you an invitation to Stormfist castle, going there, doing stuff and leaving?

You must have skipped doing the quests and catacombs in Aleroth and most of the stuff on the way to the castle to only be level 3.


If you are referring to the catacombs, then check back with George periodically for equipment upgrades (merchant inventories reset every 10-15 minutes, depending on the NPC), trade crappy loot for potions, etc. You can leave Aleroth and level up a bit outside. The orcs get stronger and are in larger groups if you go too far south, so clear around the east/west and north of the village first.

If you started over you could get to level 4 in Aleroth before even entering the catacombs, defeating a hostile opponent in town. You can defeat him on level 3, as well, which would be a little easier, but you wouldn't get quite as much experience points for it.
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Early Starter Tips (NON-Spoiler Version)



If you really did mean Iona's dungeon, then some maps should help: level 1 (with the exit), starting cell level and levels 2-4 (optional)

Do you have a save from before entering the castle?

If you did a quest for the cook, he would have given you a strange spice bottle which is actually a shadow potion. That would allow you to become invisible to opponents, as long as you don't get too close to light sources (you can put torches out with Telekinesis, etc), open doors or make a direct attack on an opponent. There is one door on the way to the exit that you need to pull a lever to open, but a couple shadow potions could get you to the exit (I assume if you were playing survivor you would have tried the Sneak special move).

On the main level after you get your stuff back, the exit stairs up are to the far west. You can read a scroll on a pedestal to open the lower levels, but they are optional, and you can return for them later.

You could use DAD's item editor or the Divine Divinity Item Editor to give a crappy weapon a large damage/stat/etc boost, so you can simply toss/sell the weapon after you get out of the dungeon. DAD's editor requires Visual Basic files which may not be included or installed in Win7; the other editor has slightly fewer features (though would do what you need), but will work fine.


Alternately, you could teleport to the exit, take the stairs up to get a quest, and head back to areas suited for your level.

Teleporting Anywhere, via hex editor

If and when you return to the dungeon after hex editing out, there is one locked door that has a lever to open on the opposite side of the wall you are on. Level 1 of Telekinesis is enough to pull the lever (it might be possible to toss a teleporter stone through the door).

As a warrior I maxed Telekinesis with purchased skill books. It comes in handy once in awhile for grabbing loot, etc (there is some minor loot in cells you can not reach otherwise, something in the sewer you either need Telekinesis to reach or toss a teleporter stone down in order to get close enough to pick up normally, etc).


Welcome to the forum.

Hi, Thanks for the advice.

Yes I do mean Iona's dungeon aka the quest I got after poisoning the orc water supply. I just did the quests in order as they came, avoided fights I couldn't win, and suddenly i'm in a dungeon with no way out.

I play my RPGs with the intention of avoiding conflict and bloodshed. Maybe this was a little too ambitious for a ten year old game : p

I have two saves, each for levelling up, so just before stormfist when i got to level 3... but i abhor grinding, it's boring

Maybe I'll just let my character die here lol :P

In general side quests should probably be done before main plot quests. By finishing the army quests so early you miss some quests in Aleroth (Mardaneus' sanity is restored without your help, and the wounded soldiers can not be healed if you have not done so, yet).

You can avoid some combat, but there are required fights (see Minimal Hack 'n Slash).

Curious to see someone else try this at the same time as me. I recommend you go to the farmlands, Poor Quarter and Verdistis next, you can get a lot of experience from quests without many fights. I also recommend you use a bow.

I finished it yesterday but had to do some experience points farming in order to beat Josephina in the Elven burial ground, I couldn't defeat her around level 24, managed it at level 28. As a result I was level 35 when I finished it. I'll update the thread in the next few days. It did not take me that long to finish it though.

Hmm I'll try and find someone who sells a bow as well :S haven't met anyone who actually trades anything interesting yet : P

When you get out of that dungeon follow the path, that will lead you to Rivertown where you'll meet a good blacksmith. If you're playing as a survivor click on torches to put them out to make stealth more effective, stand in corners to restore stamina, enemies tend not to see you in dungeons as well there.

Some games simply are not built for low-level runs. Don't complain about a "design flaw" if you're purposefully making the game difficult on yourself. I mean, come on, you MUST have been skipping both combat AND quests to only be level 3 by there. What did you expect?

Divine Divinity is a good RPG, but it's closer to Diablo than Planescape: Torment.

In Divine Divinity, a difference in levels affects your ability to physically hit enemies, and there are mandatory fights in the game. Playing as a magic user would help with that, but being a low level is still dangerous. It was easier for a magic user back before version 1.4, because you could use spellbooks found on bookshelves to max out a lot of your magic spells without needing to reach the appropriate level.

The scorpion in the dungeon is not a mandatory fight, but you would soon reach a point where you'd have to fight an enemy that is roughly level 30 to advance the main plot.

In addition to the missed quests in Aleroth, you will also be without a set of teleporter stones after going to the castle, until completing a main plot quest that you receive upon exiting Iona's dungeon and doing something else (involving traps in the first case, which wouldn't be much of an issue at a higher level with better equipment, and the boss fight Stabbey mentioned in the second). The teleporter stones would allow you to quickly teleport back to a home base, for example, to sleep, trade or drop off loot, then return to where you left off. You get the first teleporter stone in Aleroth, after freeing Lanilor and entering the catacombs (the first quests you get talking to Joram and leaving his house, then getting close enough to Mardaneus' house to trigger the next cutscene with Lanilor).

Yes, that's fine, but placing it in an area where there is no way out, allowing the player to advance without some limiting device. A simple stall device like a level 25 ogre blocking the way to stormfist castle that you have to kill before they will open the gates.... that would have been so simple.

It's not terrible, if I decide to start from my save point i barely lose any time (convenient that my teleporter stones were thieved before i get into stormfist, with no optin to tell the ugly flikflak NO) ...reminds me a lot of how bad Dragon Age 2 was, but with that one I had fought for an hour to get to an impossible boss, and not 10min of faffing about ;p

for the record, i didn't purposly skip quests, i've never played a divinity game before, I just went with the quest on my map that seemed the most urgent.

So open worlds are bad? The limiting device is the fact that all the opponents were increasingly above your level, dialog and other warnings in the game about certain areas, along with the usual physical indicators that there may be stronger opponents ahead (fences, gates, bridges...).

No quests are urgent (there is only one timed quest, involving a merchant in Verdistis; if you accept it, it must be completed the same game day). For the castle, I completed all 3 of the quests that give you an invitation, did most of the first map and Verdistis and cleared the Rivertown sewers before entering.

An open world isn't bad, but it requires skill in world design to pull off correctly. An open world which suddenly becomes a closed world? Terrible. Skyrim is great. Baldur's Gate was great. OBlivion etc, Dragon Age Origins. These games all have devices to prevent a low level character from proceeding, or at the very least a massive warning. If I play a game that claims to be an RPG as an RPG, instead of a diabloesque hackemslash, why am I being punished for not knowing this?

There were numerous times the developers could have put in level-blocks up until stormfist, but chose not to.

The skill in designing an open world correctly is to put in devices so it is not really an open world?

I had no problem figuring out that something was up with the new duke or that entering the castle was a main plot quest that should be left for awhile.

Do you really need a blatant physical block to prevent you from going places you shouldn't go? At some point in a series of quests, if you have to avoid combat and opponents keep getting higher and higher levels, don't you think you should be able to figure out that maybe you've gotten ahead of yourself, and that instead of jumping into the next quest in the series, you should probably go back and do things you skipped over?

In any game I always go for all the XP I can get ALWAYS. When I finish the Aleroth Dungeons, I kill all the orcs around the town before even going to the Farmlands and the Poor Quarter. That way, you get the levels you need before tackling the areas that would turn you to a pile of mush instantly.

I enjoy every single creature and battle. Skipping is something I never do unless I'm playing around with the game after having done it "correctly" the first time. Then I mess around a bit to see what happens. But in general, skipping to things and areas too fast is not a good idea.

I also tend to read some general spoiler-free reviews to see what landmines to avoid.

Good luck! This really is a fun and addictive game.

My opinion :
As long as you've fun with a game,
Play it as long as you wish ...
Whether or not on Your Own playstyle .

But do not cry afterwards
The game isn't
Designed in a good way
Because of Your playstyle .

Then I believe
That game isn't really Your game
For hours of Fun & Entertainment

Do not take Gameplay Time
Too seriously, Never !
Or the Fun melt away
Like snow in the sun !

Joram, how poetic!
True, its very obvious that the game was not built for that, so I go and kill everything in my way for XP!!!! RRAAAGGHHhhh!..hh...khmkhm..khm :))))