How to level up gracefully?

[rjdriver]

Since starting Nehrim, I am constantly finding myself in battles way over my level. I realize I need to stay on the road while traveling to avoid some of that, and thank you Sureai for the warning about the level needed to handle certain off road areas. Its appreciated.

But I have followed the main quest, with some diversions to do the bounty board in Giliad, and other minor quests I have been offered, only to get to the battle of Cahbaet and find that at level 15 I may be way under powered for this stage of the game.

So I went back to do more bounty board quests in Giliad only to end up facing an impossible level 28 boss (Berserker Lord Hvald). I have found a few side quests closer to my level in Erothin, but where can I get more of these to level up? With the amount of XP to level increasing all the time, it is getting very difficult. If it wasn't for some summon spells, I would not have made it this far.

Is there a list of side quests somewhere with an indicator to show what level is recommended to do them?

EDIT: I found a list of side quests. No level indicators so I will just have to try each until I realize I'm in over my head

[badgesareus]

I'm not aware of any list that shows the level of difficulty for quests, but there is a guide to quests here: http://nehrim.wikia.com/wiki/Side_Quests- . It's hard to judge without knowing your weapons, armor, skills, etc., but I can say in the several times I've played Nehrim I've focused on exploring widely to gain better weapons & armor (& experience) before proceeding with the main quest past the initial arrival at the Arcane Sanctum. There are a great many forts, ruins, etc. that can yield benefits although they aren't part of any quest. I would think level 15 is a bit low to be as far as you are.

Here is one hint, if you haven't already discovered it:

[+]

Kill big spiders, the ones that drop fine silk (black widow, large moss, northern, southern). In Erothin, the light armor shop (across from the water wheel) will make you some armor when you give her 5 fine silks. The real benefit, however, is to keep bringing her more, in batches of 5, because for each additional batch of 5 fine silk you get a ton of experience & some good gold as well. I like to hunt the black widow spiders in the deep river gorge SW of Erothin (where you cross the long bridge) as there are quite a few there, eventually ending up in their den; and after a while they respawn.

Regarding Hvald, I assume you have removed all of the other bandits before facing him. When I fight him, I use a strong bow and arrows and try to damage him from a distance. If you are going up close with 1H or 2H, I would find that quite challenging at your level.

[rjdriver]

Thanks for the link. That's the list I found. I have already received the benefit of Matilda's nice armor for the fine silk, but I was not aware about the further batches of 5. Will keep that in mind. As for Hvald - I gave up on him. He kept regenerating health too quickly. Even with the help of a skeleton hero summon, he was too much. I tried arrows from a distance, but my silver bow at 10 damage was not good enough. I assume there are better bows (and arrows) to be had later

Now that I have the side quest list, I see that there were some I missed early on in the Abbey. I never finished the following my roots quest and now I realize I should have stayed with it. Not sure why I didn't at the time. That has lead me to others where I can see a more gradual level up progress. Things are looking better now. I will leave the main quest alone for a while until I get up to about level 25.