My party of 6 with additional Zaxis as NPC is now at 8000xp and has cleared moathouse, welkwood bog, deklove grove, emrydy meadows except hill giant, the sea hag and gar and pirates in Nulb. Is temple the only option left to gain xp ? Guess level 4 is a bit low, right ?
Have you been to the Arena of Heroes by opening Brother Smyth's chest next to his anvil? You can always wander around the world map seeking and engaging random encounters until your party has reached an experience level that you are comfortable with to start tackling the Temple. It depends on: 1. your skill at playing the game; 2. the ability of the characters in your party (including their statistics, equipment, and character builds (i.e. class selection, feat selection, spell selection, skill development)); 3. your knowledge of the game (i.e. whether you are playing the game for the first time, or whether you know exactly what is about to happen and exactly what you are about to fight); 4. your style of playing the game (some players use crowd-control spells like Entangle, Web, and Grease to make the game much easier than it is designed to be). I'd say that a party of level 4 characters can start tackling the Temple of Elemental Evil, but you would need to play very carefully. I would recommend avoiding the combat in the broken tower until your characters are higher level. Scout, reconnoitre, and pick and choose the rooms that you want to clear out. Your party could choose to be benevolent and side with the evil characters in the Temple. Your choice. You can recruit a high-level NPC such as Otis or Burne to make combats much easier until your characters are high enough level to fend for themselves. As a last resort, you could use cheat codes to make your characters more powerful for their level by giving them better weapons, armour, and items.
But before you try the Arena of Heroes, you should take on the Emridy Meadows hill giant. At your party size and level, he should certainly be doable.
Depending on your party alignment you could always trigger the encounter with the traders in Hommlett- spolier follows: Spoiler and subsequent ambush if yo take certain actions against them...
Level 4 is fine for the Temple. Most of the enemies in the 1st floor of the dungeon are stuff you've already faced before (Goblins, Ogres, Bugbears and Gnolls). I'd avoid the Broken Tower though, it'll destroy you.
Mother Screng, Burne, Rufus and Otis are all joinable NPCs that can help a low-level party at that point in the adventure. If you are playing with the Co8 mod active, don't worry about their looting fee: this has been deactivated. If you REALLY wanted to roleplay it, you can pickpocket them after they leave your group anyways and still get all the loot they are carrying for yourself. If you don't want to share exp with NPCs who might not be around till the final showdown with Zuggtmoy, you don't need them. But you WILL want to stock-up your inventory with as many scrolls of Cure Light Wounds, Charm Person, Glitterdust, Tashas Hideous Laughter, Grease, Ray of Enfeeblement and True Strike that you can afford. Equip EVERYONE with a longspear, so your squishies can attack from the second row. Remember the old proverb oft heard over a pint of good ale at the Welcome Wench: "If you can't blind 'em, charm 'em. And if you can't charm 'em, make 'em laugh! If you can't make em laugh.... RUN!!" Mild Spoiler: Secret of survival: On temple level 1 and 2, charm your own bugbear army, and fight at choke points such as doors, so you only melee against a few mobs at a time. Use Glitter, Tasha's and Ray of Enfeeble vs. Ogres. Pre-buff with True Strike to make sure your Enfeeble Ray spell hits. Till ogres are safely debuffed, have your front-liners fight defensively and choose total defense. You will occasionally encounter Bugbears wielding a spiked shield and a spiked mace. These particular guys make excellent tanks when charmed, as they usually have 75+ hp each. Keep these guys alive with heal spells and you won't lose a fight! The bugbears with 2-handed greatswords also do lots of damage, but they don't have as many hitpoints.
Thanks for your help guys. Otis is currently in our party too so I will think we are fine for a first run into the temple. I'm thinking about using the -5 DC for charm person though as I think the spell is overpowered otherwise. Hope this will not make it too hard for me.
