First off, I will spare you the "Equip your party with six Flaming Magic Wave Blades of Infinite Destruction" type of advice. If you find such items, I trust you will know what to do with them
This tip sheet is for the more run-of-the-mill parties finding normal equipment and facing decisions in the critical early to middle part of the game.
When you start off, go to Captain Cecile and ask about supplies. When you find the supplies, look for secret passages. Also it doesn't hurt to rummage around. You never know what you will find...
After the Nephilim raid, grab all of their stuff. Most weapons and armor at this stage won't be cursed, so it's probably safe to try it out. The worst you will probably find is a pair of Asp Gloves, and you'll know about that soon enough...
Go down to Fort Draco, and equip everyone with a leather helm and boots as soon as you can afford to. Every protection point counts at this stage, and these don't encumber you, so even your mage can wear them.
In the early going, you will have plenty of trouble hitting your foes, so use weapons with high bonus values, even if they have lower damage values. As your characters advance in level, you will start hitting more often and you can start moving toward weapons with higher damage values, even with lower bonuses. Alternatively, when my characters hit most of the time I switch my skill points to Assassination and keep using high-bonus weapons, but this is a personal preference.
Armor is important for your frontline fighters (duh!), but don't overdo it. There are few sadder sights than a party being bogged down because they are stuck in a one square wide corridor because their frontline fighter is so slow from encumbrance. I always make sure that my defense is equal to or greater than emcumbrance, and I try to keep my defense at least twice that of my encumbrance. This seems to help a bit, but at high encumbrance (say four or more) you will usually be slowed somewhat no matter what you do.
It is nice to give your archer a lower encumbrance because it allows him to poison and deliver arrows quickly. This is particularly important in the early game. If you have any non-combat priests, give him as much armor as he has defense, since number of actions per turn is not all that important, althouth it starts becoming important when your opponents can cast nasty spells and you can use Flamestrike.
A mage cannot have a total encumbrance of more than one if she wishes to cast any spells. This seriously limits what kinds of armor she can wear. In the early going, she may have to settle for Leather Armor, Boots, and Gloves, and a wing and a prayer. If her strength is low she may not have many hit points. Finally, opposing spellcasters and missile throwers have a nasty habit of targetting your spellcasters for punishment. All this points to one conclusion: mages need lots of protection items. Charms, protection rings, etc. are often the difference between life and death.
(Kudos to Nick (nick@stm.k12.la.us) for this tip) Speed items belong in the hands of fighters. An ambidextrous fighter with a Helm of Speed and Boots of Speed is a terror.
One would think that a Weak Invulnerability Potion might be best used in the hands of your frontline fighter. But you might want to give it to your mage instead, and not just as a defensive measure. At the beginning of a combat with lots of spellcasters, breathers, and/or missile throwers, have your mage use the potion, lob a couple of fireballs, and move away from her comrades. The opponents will usually take the bait, trying time after time to blast the mage into cinders, all to no effect, while your fighters close and cut them to pieces. I originally used this tactic with a Protection spell and Death Arrows, but it seems to work just as well with cheaper materials.
Back to the Exile II Home Page