Ok so i finished the game last night, some thoughts. Spoilers
6 red wizards with raven familiars for additional initiative
- Stygian female humans with 6 str, 18 dex, 16 con, 20 int, wis and cha were about 9 (manually calibrated the stats while still respecting the race maximum)
- from the options i took full hp on levelup (i do that in every game, its just how my OCD rolls), kept the money on levelup cost
- starting feats were improved initiative and 2 summoning ones
Chapter 1
- skipped last fight and thought the quest would lead somewhere, - spoiler - it did not
- used the Deep Slumber scroll on the sharkman and toads, skeleton summons coup the graced em
- summons with added feats pretty much destroyed everything
Chapter 2
- Killed th minotaur mage by greasing him and surrounding him with summons
- reloaded a few times on the centipedes, also killed em with summons
- leveled up to lvl 3 (removed the summoning feats before leveling and took improved/greater magic missile feats - magic missile then does 4-7 dmg PER missile) and killed the mimics by fleeing back through the tunnel on the right side, past the 2 mimics and then blocking the entrance with summons
- picked up the chaos scroll and then went for the arena fight, assisted the gray goblins, had to reload a few times until chaos beserked/confused most of the gobbos
- after that i leveled to 5, took empower and improved empower feats, also got access to fireball and magic missile started really to come into play (3 missiles on lvl 5, empowered magic missile takes up 2nd level slots, tbh its the deal breaker from then on)
- cleared the crypt, nuked everything pretty much with magic missile, dragon went down in 1 round from empowered magic missile
- after exiting the crypt i used deep slumber on efreet and coup-the-graced him with a summon xD
- recruited erzimon, didnt level him up at that point
- probably the hardest fight in the game was the goblin king - key was to drop a lot of shit on the ground right after he summons the vrock, because then he usually casts greater dispel and banishes the vrock at the same time, when he peeped around the corner i bursted him down with magic missile
- after that it was pretty much smooth sailing for chapter 2, hydra went down in 1-2 rounds, etc
Chapter 3
- leveled all characters to lvl 9
- Pizzara fight was tricky a bit since i wanted to kill the demon as well, used the suprise round to destroy most of the enemies with cone of cold and ice storm, managed to feeblemind the demon and lowered his SR, then nuked him with imp magic missile (5 missiles on lvl 9 YO!)
- cleared the upper and lower part of chapter 3 including the dragon (except the death snare, queen and demon summon) as lvl 9 right up until the fomorians, there i leveled to 11 to get access to chaos and acid fog (ignores SR), that made the fomorians fights pretty manageable (acid cloud and energy wall were key here)
- leveled up some more, cleared death snare (prismatic spells really came into play here, soul sucker died from 6 shaped prismatic cones), and wrecked the spider queen (single blocks of prismatic wall on her spawning point)
- went back to the crones, gave em the book, freed the demon (took archmage robe as reward), killed the crones and then the demon as well
- used the lamp genie to duplicate the archmage robe, freed him afterward, never saw him again even though he promises he will return
- freed the lich and nuked him with prismatic cones, destroyed him with the book of the dead which then got ruined
Chapter 4
- went here as lvl 15ish i think, quickly leveled all the way since i realised this was it
- went around the castle first, cleared the mobs
- it was like shooting fish in a barrel - you get 8 casters who can cast lvl 9 spells
- tbh i really didnt prefer prismatic void that much, its kinda unreliable, used a lot of power fireballs, even empowered regular fireballs, also irresistible dance is OP amongts other things
- massive aoe (2x casts per caster) trivialised the entire chapter, cleared the last fight in a couple of rounds
Gear
This setup is great since you do not need much gear to prosper, only stuff i used was the +constitution belts/necklaces and the Archmage stuff that gave extra spell slots. Cloaks of SR were nice, but as game progressed my dmg loadout became so good that rival casters got ganked promptly and didnt have a chance to cast anything.
Also another curious thing is that i didnt need a lot of healing, Erzimon was tasked with this but i mostly used him for buffs and healing between fights. Mirror image saved my ass most of the time.
Feats
Improved initiative is a must
In retrospect, i regret not taking improved spell range I,II,III - that would make things easier
Empower / Improved Empower - was essential for magic missile spam and for fireball as well, didnt take any other metamagics
Improved / Greater Magic Missile + Improved Magic Missile Range feat - these are awesome (tho bugged atm, you dont receive the 6th and 7th missile), if you plan on a full caster party take these, great for massive single target damage, for nuking down bosses. ALSO the damage receives a 50% buff from red wizard transformation which alongside empower is a massive boost,
Spell focus evocation / greater spell focus evocation - no brainer, needed for transformation as well
Spell penetration / greater spell penetration - no brainer, must have
Superior concentration - took this pretty late, mid chapter 3
Spells
LVL 1
- Summon skeleton (this little fella will carry you through the first chapters)
- Magic Missile (staple of the build)
- Grease
- Sleep
LVL 2
- Mirror Image (mandatory)
- Empowered Magic Missile
- Web (to ruin casters day)
LVL 3 (all mandatory)
- Deep Slumber
- Fireball
- Stinking cloud
- Haste
LVL 4
- Resilient Web
- Ice Storm
- Energy wall (mandatory)
- Empowered Fireball
LVL 5
- Cone of Cold (mandatory)
- Reduce spell resistance (mandatory) - short range, for this spell mostly i regret not taking the Improved spell range I, II, III (took em late in the game)
- Frailty is cool but your dps is so big they do not have any time to heal anyway
- Feeblemind is ok
LVL 6
- Acid Fog (aoe that ignores SR)
- Chaos (crowd control)
- Mass ability increase (used it at start of combat for +int)
- Chain Lightning (mandatory)
LVL 7
- Foresight (+ intiative, MANDATORY)
- Power Fireball
- Prismatic spray
LVL 8
- Accelerated Spell and Power (MANDATORY)
- Prismatic Wall
- Mass protection (bonus to saving throws)
- Irresistible Dance (boss killer)
LVL 9
- Prismatic Void
- Mass Irresistible Dance
- Mass Mind Blank
With 8 casters you get enough time on round 1 to aoe buff, aoe disable, and start nuking the shit out of em.
Final thoughts - even though the game is bugged as shit, half the stuff doesnt work and the encounters arent optimised at all, i had a lot of fun with it. Looking back, i think i played it at this point mostly because i didnt have anything else of interest to play, the entire module seems like a demonstration of the engine and combat ruleset, since the story itself makes no sense.
I will buy the complete game on GoG but i have to say that Pierre was misleading us with the GUIZE TEH MODULE IS 100% DONE bullshit, that was noot cool Pierre, not cool at all.
Anyways, thats that.