Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) General Ironfist's Castle and Iona's Dungeon

I'm playing through this with a little bit of roleplaying added in. I am only using gear that I found in Ironfist or in the dungeon itself, outside of a dozen restoration potions. Now, I'm playing version 1.34, so I have level 5 ability in lightning and meteorstrike, which I might not be able to have if I played the Gog version.

I'm a mage, so I'm not super-dependent on gear; as long as I have potions. I'm finding the deeper level(s) of Iona's to be quite challenging this way, and I'm just on normal. I pretty much accept whatever I find loot-wise; at least outside of bookcases and known good items.

I'll save before every bookcase and reload till I get one spellbook/bookcase area. If there are 4 or more bookcases, then I'll reload till I find two good books There are a few spells that seem to do nothing. Anything that raises might has no effect, including potions.

I reload on special loot items too, like a certain bat in the catacombs, an amulet nearby, etc.

I just love this game!

One other thought: Inside of Ironfist is a ton of chests that are locked and lockpicking is disabled. Because of my roleplaying mentioned above, I don't have any lockpicks anyway. I just tossed all the chests through the gates, but I didn't have lockpicks before Iona's so I have no idea what is inside any of them I might miss some loot or doors in Ionas because I haven't found many lockpicks.

In the guard barracks (the north west most building in Stormfist castle), there is a hatch to a cellar that is outside of the anti-magic field in the castle, where you can take chests to use Lockpick on. Visiting Verdistis before going to the castle could have taken care of having lockpicks.

I had a couple dozen lockpicks in my stash, but I left them there on purpose. Since J and E really hate you, I don't think they would have let you keep your gear, but would only offer the junk laying around the castle and its grounds. It's just for fun. I keep a stash next to the Market teleporter, with a bed, a portal stone, barrels, etc.

Now that you've told me that little tip, I may have to rethink my strategy. I love the tricksy thinking that the cellar represents.

I haven't done Verdistis yet, as I wanted some quests left to do after the castle. I haven't done Nericon's or the sewers and probably a few other places. I've killed all the orcs in the camps and did most of the stuff on the west side of the game and quite a bit of the south and east. North and east is fairly unexplored.