Up to the Rushlight Tournament invitation now in Chapter 5 with a playtime of >70 hours (not sure how much of that is loading times though), at 14th level with Kingdom ranks of 7, 6, 6, 10, 9, 5, 6, 8, 6, 4.
Chapter 3 turned out to be nowhere near as bullshit as Chapter 2, with most of the enemies being much weaker than the enhanced owlbears. There are still a few unfair encounters scattered about (such a zombie mage with infinite Enervation casts and a class of characters with permanent unavoidable stat-draining auras), but for the most part the chapter’s a breeze, with Chapter 4 being even easier once you get over the initial shock of having no time for kingdom development (development occurs at the end of the chapter instead).
Some things:
– Try to focus on Economy first to increase your income; note that after 40 rank-ups a project will appear to cut upgrade times in half.
— The really game-changing projects start appearing at Kingdom ranks 6+.
– Do not pick the ‘neutral’ adviser in the beginning, else you’ll eventually get hit by a nasty debuff.
– When a dwarf pops up demanding recompense for his ancestors’ expenses, give him the money. His request is worded badly and he’s one of the 10 artisans.
— That said, the artisan quests currently seem to be broken (they still give you expensive gifts though).
– Save an Emerald, an Emerald Necklace, the 3 “On Transmutation” books, and the Roc Egg; they’re needed for sidequests.
– Make sure to explore the Dire Narlmarches sometime after Armag’s Tomb; the main quest won’t send you there.
– Armor class is kind of meaningless with all the attack bonus bloat (reminds me of the first NWN). You’re better off with damage reduction and miss chance.
– The Shambling Mound in the Elk-Portal Abandoned Keep area can only be killed by negative energy for some reason.
– The Bridge-area Linnorm and Owlbear Treant in the Everblooming Flower area on the other hand have to be killed with cold iron.
– Make sure to bring the Second Execution battleaxe with you when you set off on the Varnhold Vanishing quest.
– You can find/get some pretty cool daggers and kukri, a nice Necrotic fauchard, a sai that causes bleeding, a club that casts Vampiric Touch on crit, a Dex-damaging sickle, and a mage-enhancing scythe.
— The other weapons so far aren’t as exciting and/or have annoying drawbacks.