Ok, a few newbie questions since I can't find the answers

[Goof]

I have passed the game once, and almost twice with diff chars, but I still have some questions . . .
1. Strongholds, what are they besides just a quest?
2. What are some must have spells for mages?
3. How do you make a party member just leave?
4. What difference does it make what class is first in a dual/multi?
5. How do I put a summond friend in my back pack (I read others have)
6. Where are places you can go to just lvl (like in bg 1, there was places you could sleep and almost always get good monsters to kill)
7. Whos your daddy?

[nael]

1. nothing really, depending on which stronghold you get, you can either get gold or items
2. abidazims horrid wilting, lower resistance, stoneskin, breach is a must, mordenkain's sword, many many more
3. go to your profile screen and one of the buttons is labeled reform party, hit that to get rid of someone
4. multi class there is no first or second. for dual class it determines which class the character will goi further in, which will obviously be the second one. what order effects what you need stat wise as well. 17 for the secodn class prereq's
5. are you talkign about familiars? if so, just talk to them and one of the options is to put it in yoru pack for safe keeping
6. there aren't any.

[fable]

6. Actually, there *is* a place where you can be repeatedly challenged by monsters: in Irenicus' dungeon, second floor. Those mephit generators will keep on turning out mephits for as long as they exist. Of course, at that point in time they pause a significant threat to your party, so using 'em for experience boosts probably isn't a good idea.

[Ironman]

1. Strongholds, what are they besides just a quest?

Places to stow some of your gear/get income from/get an ongoing quest with/get class-specific goodies?

2. What are some must have spells for mages?

Magic Missile & Fireball
Mirror Image & Stoneskin
Dispel Magic & Remove Magic
Detect Invis./Invis. Purge/Oracle/True Seeing
Breach
Spell Thrust/Secret Word/Pierce Magic/Khelben's Whip/Ruby Ray/Spell Strike/Pierce Shield
If you plan to use magic a lot, add Lower Resistance and Vocalize.
Also, Spell Immunity can be good, gives strategy options.
I also like Contingency. The Sequencers aren't that important to my mind.

Any death spell will kill summoned creatures, and of course the high level spells are almost all very good to have...

3. How do you make a party member just leave?

Go into the Character Record screen and click on Reform Party

4. What difference does it make what class is first in a dual/multi?

I don't think it matters in a Multi. The order in those is set and only matters for display. For Duals, my understanding is that you want to choose the class which gets the most hit points first. Also, you should remember that once you dual, the original class won't progress any further. E.g. mages keep getting more spells as they go up levels, so you probably don't want to limit your character by choosing mage first and the dualing at say level 9.

5. How do I put a summond friend in my back pack (I read others have)

You can put your familiar in your pack. If I remember correctly, this happened by talking to it. To get a familar, your protagonist has to be a magic-user, and cast the first level spell.

6. Where are places you can go to just lvl (like in bg 1, there was places you could sleep and almost always get good monsters to kill)

Tends to take a long time, faster to level by doing quests. But there is a room in the Unseeing Eye quest that would be usable for that. There is a screaming mouth hewn into the wall. Whenever you run your cursor over it (changes into a '?'-cursor) it summons a couple of spiders, I think. You don't even have to use sleep.

7. Whos your daddy?

Not you.

[Valorhan]

Actually there is a really cheesy way to gain experience. By taking advantage of a certain bug, you can constantly get 27500 quest experiece points. (That means 27500 xp to each party member)
In the city you go into before you enter Spellhold (Brynn something), you have the option of doing a certain quest in the courtesan's guild. After you complete the quest, a cook from the courtesan's guild thanks you and you get 27500 quest experience. You get 27500 quest exp every time you talk to her after that. Cheesy, huh?

[Mr. Sprinkles]

The mephit in the portal room don't generate experience, only the portals do.

[ 07-25-2001: Message edited by: Mr. Sprinkles ]

[Philip]

6. IIRC there is also a room in the Mind Flayer section of the Underdark that spawns another Mind Flayer (after you kill the previous one) after about a 10-15 second delay. I guess this is so there's always one around to open a door for you, if you know how to ask nicely!

[GEorGE]

I didn't notice the mind flayer spawning, so I used the Slayer ability, which also opened the door.

[Xandax]

Originally posted by Mr. Sprinkles:
<STRONG>The mephit in the portal room don't generate experience, only the portals do.

[ 07-25-2001: Message edited by: Mr. Sprinkles ]</STRONG>

IIRC then the first machine you get to after escaping will continue to spawn mephits.
(the one that shoots out a bit of lightning too)

[Xyx]

Originally posted by Goof:
<STRONG>2. What are some must have spells for mages?</STRONG>

I could go on about this for hours. In fact, I did. Check my sig for the Spell Reference in which I wrote it all down (after discussing it with various helpful people).

I'm afraid I have to thoroughly disagree with Ironman about the Spell Thrust/Secret Word/Spellstrike type of spells... If anyone feels these are needed, please enlighten me.

Originally posted by Goof:
<STRONG>6. Where are places you can go to just lvl (like in bg 1, there was places you could sleep and almost always get good monsters to kill)</STRONG>

Gate in Pit Fiends. Use Protection from Evil 10' Radius and they won't even see you while you beat them up.

Originally posted by Goof:
<STRONG>7. Whos your daddy?</STRONG>

Bhaal, God of Murder, obviously.

[Goof]

Originally posted by Xyx:
<STRONG>Bhaal, God of Murder, obviously.</STRONG>

Ha! finaly someone got it hehe, thanks all, had a really hard time trying to keep my familars alive . . .

[Laurelei]

In ToB (Spoiler coming you have been warned )
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You can fight unlimited fire giants from the walls of Saradush. This is a VERY cheesy tactic as they don't touch you. You must have a script running and I would suggest unlimited ammo launchers (ie gesen bow and sling of everard) and you can shoot fire giants at 8000xp a pop to your heart's content.

[Xyx]

Originally posted by Laurelei:
<STRONG>This is a VERY cheesy tactic as they don't touch you.</STRONG>

Aww... How'd that get through playtesting? Last thing I need is a "legitimate" way to get all my characters to the cap.

Gesen Bow
Ranged attack script
Leave on overnight
Level 40 in the morning