Hi,

I have just finished ED and since I have DNS pack my hero was transported to FoV right after I've finished ED. Cool! Now I started FoV and naturally tried to mind-read Aurelius asap. OMG! 15000XP for a mind-read! I was like ok, he probably "contains" some skills and stats, I don't need those since 15000 XP is one level up anyway. I moved on, found a trader, cool. Mind-read to reduce prices of all that stuff he has that are twice as good as mine (more on that in second question ). Here comes the shock - 7400XP for a mind-read of non-essential NPC. I don't want to make this any longer than I already did, all NPC have 7000+XP required for mind-read. This brings me to my first question:

- How many XP do the quests give? What level of enemies can I expect? (I don't mind spoilers) My concern is that if I spend 7400XP for mind-read of NPC for a side quest I wont get that much XP back. (I am level 35 atm)

and my second question is about the gear. During ED campaign I found stuff that I eventually enchanted using malachite gems (life line 100, HP regen 0.3%). Now, the trader in the city sells stuff for 50.000+ gold that are unenchanted yet better than my stuff I am not emotionally attached to "my" stuff ofc, but I am rather fond of those malachite gems that I stuck into them, especially the hp regen stuff (all my jewelry has 0.3 regen).
- My question is: are the drops from monsters/quests as good as the stuff trader has? (I know they vary, I meant if you are able to get drops that are that good since there wasn't stuff like that in ED campaign). Are there more malachite gems to be found except for those two that trader in the square has. I only have 3 atm but I am reluctant to use them on this "new" stuff. Gold is not a problem since I can use runners to acquire gems and ingredients.

I asking all this because I am confused about how to proceed. All stuff is twice as stronger compared to stuff in ED, everything is like 10x more expensive including mind-read, and I just don't want to waste xp or gold (or gems), I am afraid that if I use mind-read I will get stuck on a level 35, and I am afraid of using gems for this new stuff in ED because I don't know if there are more to be found. (I am used to reading general guidelines in walktroughs and I found none for FoV yet)

thanks for reading

don't be afraid to mind read because of the stupid exp increase their are many areas in FOV that have respawning enemys for you to regain your exp.

If you don't want to use mindreading because of how expensive they are in FoV, then start getting to level 15 mindreading. You'll have more than enough skill points in the end, anyway.

Though I've built up about 100-200k in experience debt around level 32 when I started, and still made it to 42-43 in the end, so experience is plentiful.

damn...200k exp in debt repaid? Ok then, I will read minds :P Thanks for feedback.

PS. I doubt I will be investing anything in mind reading (although I do have two items that give me 4 in MR, I equip them before i mind read, and remove afterwards.) since I still have to put more points into whirlwind, bleed and life leech, not that I need 15 points in each but it's fun so far, doing 1400dmg to all around you never gets boring

what I'm really looking for is a good one handed sword with 3 enchantment slots, like that one redcliff makes for you, but better. I want to waste 3 malch gems in it :P

I accumulated an experience debt that topped 275,000, but once I got into combat, I got it back incredibly quickly. Don't worry about the XP debt.

I personally stick with level 9 enchants myself.

A 3-enchantment slot sword will be a unique item, probably. Check merchants.

dont be too sad about the Malachites you ''lost'' from investing into your previous gear either. in my playthru of FoV i was able to buy/get from rewards about 10-15 fairly quickly so i could fully enchant my new gear set

that is great news! (I hope you meant that you've found them in FoV, not in ED+FoV :P) Thanks for feedback everyone!

PS. Level 9 enchantments are cool also, but lifeline lvl.10 is worth it 100hp on 3 armor pieces = 300hp that gives me ~4hp per second regen alone. Next one I found is only 35hp, I think it's level 8 lifeline. I only use level 10 for regen, lifeline and damage enchantments. Others are not worth it, for instance level 10 melee resistance gives 11 armor, level 9 gives 10.

There is a 4 enchant mace too. Don't worry about XP, as someone mentioned there are a few respawning areas you can bounce between (2 are near teleport shrines too, so you can get tons of XP to earn back). I did that my first playthrough and ended up at about 46-47. This time I re-trained to 15 mindread, because 75% of the mindreading cost can be made by just running around the town mindreading everyone before you complete any quests or kill anything. Once I have finished that round of mindreading, I'm going to re-train again to invest those points into usable skills.

As someone mentioned, its easy to get skill points. I think I ended up in the high 60's or 70's of skill points in the end.

Its easy to spend gold by the ton in the beginning, way more than you have to start with in FoV, but once you start actually killing stuff, that will change fast. Just about every merchant has 100K in gold you can get back through farming once you buy their special weapons and sell them back junk. I made it a point to save up junk to bankrupt all the merchants you see for a limited time (like the black market guy you can kill for a wanted board quest etc)

re-training for 15 mindread points is a good idea. I didn't do it because I didn't know when will fights start :P I think it will be expensive since this will be something like 5th re-train :P I think it's already at 40.000 gold to unlearn skills Although, I have 6 points in mindread already (4 from items, 2 skill invested) that might be enough, it costs *only* ~5200xp to mindread now (instead of 7400)

Wow... you missed a lot. I had about 140 skill points by the end of FoV (I started FoV with 77).

If you max out the mindreading skill it won't use XP anymore.

I know, but it wont kill enemies either (unlike most other skills) :P