New Player Basic Questions

Just a few tips from a D&D and ToEE old-timer:

1. If you gave your paladin the exotic weapon (bastard sword) proficiency feat so he could wield the legendary swords in the game without penalty, it might not work as planned. If I remember right, you have to be Chaotic Good to wield them to full effect and paladins must be Lawful Good.

2. Extra attacks come when a character's Base Attack Bonus reaches +6, +11 and +16. To put it simply, that's Level 6 (and every 5 levels thereafter) for barbarians, fighters, paladins and rangers; Levels 8 and 15 for bards, clerics, druids, monks and rogues; and Level 12 for wizards and sorcerers. Monks get additional attacks on top of this when they use Flurry of Blows. Extra attacks do NOT apply to spells.

3. Looting is a good idea because you need money to buy and craft magic items. When your party gets encumbered with loot, go back to town and sell them. It's good to have 1 character with a maxed out Appraise skill to deal with merchants and get the best deal when selling loot (remember that character has to be the one talking to the merchant). The benefits of Appraise seem to kick in when your Int+Appraise equals 10 or higher. After you sell the loot you can fast-travel back to where you left off. You can even do this after every big battle in a single location (like the Moathouse). After a particularly large massacre, you can even go back and forth, picking up loot from dead enemies and taking them to town over and over until you get and sell them all. Remember, there's no time limit to clear out a location in most, if not all cases.

Hope this helps and best regards!

 

It's usually very easy to double-check, but usually stuff doesn't stack if it's the same type of enchantment, the one that gives the biggest bonus will be used instead. For example, Bull's Strength won't stack with Belts of Strength. Magic weapon won't stack with enchanted weps either. Bless and Prayer is a difficult one, you could try to test it. According to d20srd the attack rolls should stack, but somehow I have a hunch they might not in TOEE. Divine Favor is decent for the atk and dmg rolls. Cantrips I wouldn't bother with, there's lots of better higher-level spells. Mage Armor is great for pure mages, until they can find/craft bracers. For your rogue, try using Shield (spell), or spells like Mirror Image, Blur, Invisibility, Greater Invisibility when you get them. Also, beware of the arcane failure rate when you put your rogue/sor in armor.

I can't remember what feats Monks get automatically, you can check in-game, but you could either go for Great Cleave and Unarmed Wep focus, or for Whirlwind Attack.

Depends on BAB thus class. From d20srd:

"A base attack bonus is an attack roll bonus derived from character class and level or creature type and Hit Dice (or combinations thereof). Base attack bonuses increase at different rates for different character classes and creature types. A second attack is gained when a base attack bonus reaches +6, a third with a base attack bonus of +11 or higher, and a fourth with a base attack bonus of +16 or higher. Base attack bonuses gained from different sources, such as when a character is a multiclass character, stack."

For weapons yes, though there's spell prerequisites for all enchantments other than the simple +1/2/3. No materials for Wondrous items in TOEE, just the requirements listed. For detailed info, look in gazra's guide (stickied in the TOEE forum) under point 18.

I usually just loot the stuff that will sell for a lot (armor, magic items I won't use etc.), and the stuff I know I will use (scrolls, potions and such). If you have at least one chara with decent appraise skill, you will have more than enough cash by the end of the game.

 

I hope i can post my basic questions here too:

It looks like the pre-made character are all not that good. They have abilitys around 12-14 and not their primary abilitys high at 17 or even 18.
With a few dice rolls i can get 16, 17 and 18 which i give to the main abilitys of my character.

So, are the premade characters any good ?
Or should you build your own party even if you are new to the game and rules ?
Will you have to restart if you have choosen the wrong skills for one of your characters (because it gets to difficult ?

That would be a classic party i think:
- Cleric (with focus on healing and support spells)
- Babarien (Only for close-combat)
- Rogue
- Wizard
- Ranger (Close- and range combat)

Any advices for some multiclass ?
Or any Skill or Spell that is a must have for one of the characters ?

EDIT:
And is it true that tumble is a skill that every character in the party should have ?

 

Premades are harder to play. I think they're made with point-buy rather than dice rolls in mind. Playing pre-mades or point-buy characters is one way to get a bit extra challenge if you're looking for it.

I personally prefer Fighter over Barb, but both are playable.

Ranger gets a weapon specialization (at lv2 and 6) of ranged OR two-weapon fighting, so decide which you want ahead of time. If you do plan to swap between the different weapon sets a lot in combat, don't forget the Quick Draw feat.

I'd say if it's your first time playing and you're not closely familiar with DnD, stay away from multiclass, it's much easier to play TOEE with straight one-class characters. Otherwise, it's possible to make just about any multiclass workable with a bit of though put into it.

Concentration is a must for all casters (Ranger only if you plan to cast a lot in combat), the rogue will definitely need to pick up Open Lock and Disable Trap. Have at least one party member with good Search, and one or two who invested in a speech skill (get a few different ones, you can usually choose which character does the talking).

Tumble is great for anyone with high DEX, and casters that plan to use touch spells a lot. Heavily armored people (clerics, fighters) not so much, since it's cross-class, and armor penalties will make it nigh useless. I usually dump points into Tumble anyway, though.

 

Thanks for the comprehensive answer Ausdoerrt !
I will make my own party now, following your advice (and other tips i found here).

My plan was to use the cleric as totally passiv healer/booster for the other group members.
Also he should get high charisma and most speech skills.

Is it a good idea to play a cleric without any melee skill/focus ?

 

Nothing wrong with a magic centric cleric. But at the same time, nothing wrong with giving him a magic mace and he can protect the back line in case of a flanking attack.

 

Hello, I hope it´s ok that I highjack this thread for a little question :roll:

I started a game with this party:
Human Bard
Half Orc Barbarian
Elf Druid
Halfling Thief
Elf Ranger
Human Wizard without specialized school

I also took the cheating thief from the inn with me.

... and I found it to be absurdly hard, haven´t played further than to the Moathouse.

So now I changed the Elf Ranger, who despite Dexterity 20 seemed to constantly miss with her bow(yeah level 1... but still...) for a Dwarven Fighter with dogde and combat expertise to hopefully stay alive a little longer.
Also I rolled better stats for my Bard to make him fight more decently.

Is it just normal that the beginning of the game is very hard? Do you think the party will perform well or should I have another healer?

The bard has to stay btw , I know he isn´t that powerful but I like him. He can fight a little, cast a little and takes care of all my speaking and bartering skills.

 

I finally have created my party, but although iam still in the starting room (where you can buy stuff) i already have some trouble.

None of my characters, not even my wizard can see what kind of scrolls are in one of the chests.
I only can click "Identify" on the chest-menu but that would cost 100 Gold...

Have i done something wrong already ?

 

A few things to note. Your Elven Ranger is going to suck until you get her Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot. Even then, you have to get the Ranger a clear shot so the enemy doesn't get the "cover" bonus. Right now, if you check the rolls logs, the Ranger is suffering a -4 for firing into melee and the enemy is probably getting a +4 for cover on their AC. -8 total is bad enough, but at level 1, you will virtually NEVER hit.

Next, WHY are you in the Moathouse at level 1?! That is for around level 3-4. Do some "Fed Ex" quests around town first and get to level 2 at LEAST before going in there. If you ave the New Content (NC) Mod, great, that can level you with fighting instead of running around.

Your Bard could also be a good enough Thief for what the game needs, so split class your Rogue to Fghter, and get someone else with skillz up there on the front line with the Barbarian. Or sacrifice Furnok all the time, LOL. A Rogue/Fighter is a great combo, so long as the Rogue level is low and the Fighter level is the one going up. Those flanking and Sneak Attack bonuses will help your R/F kick A$$. Another caster like a sorcerer, or picking up Meleny the Druid from the FedEX quests in homelett will up your firepower, always a good thing. Druids make a great healer/ damager(DPS) class.

My 2 cents worth.

 

The Moathouse can be very hard for first level characters, just the animals around the moathouse are tough. I would drop Furnok and pick up Elmo, he is 4th level and a competent front liner. I would also do the quest in Homlett, or the New Content Welkwood Bog, or at least get some random encounters walking back and forth between town and the Moathouse.

These randoms will do 2 things for you, give you XP to get to 2nd level for more hit points, spells, and attack base. It will also give you some equipment to either use or sell for cash, so you can outfit your characters with the best armor they can wear, and give everyone a missile weapon. Having everyone in good armor makes them harder to hit, and thus stay alive longer.

The best early tactics is to slowly move across the map and only encounter at a time, then pepper them with missile weapons until they come to you, do not move towards them, because they could have friend behind them just out of sight and you will have a hard enough time with one guy, add 3 more to the mix and its a real battle. Have your barbarian and cleric hold the front line while the softer characters work from behind them. Until your ranger can get Point Blank Shot, and Precise shot, it will be hard for her after the enemies engage you. Give her a longspear, and let her poke them from behind the barbarian.

Another good tactic early on is to have your druid, cleric, or wizard summon in some help. At 1st level they only last one round, but by placing them between you and the enemy, the enemy targets them instead of you, and every hit they take is one less that you take. Also have the druid get a jackal companion, it might have more hit points than the rest of your party combined.

Your bard should be singing to start every battle, and if you feel its going to be a hard one, have the cleric cast Bless on his first turn. Controlling the battle field is essential, so make sure the druid has Entangle on his spell list. The bard can help out with Grease, and Sleep is a great early game spell for the wizard.

Sounds like a bad install.

 

Haha, the moathouse being for a 3-4 lvl party explains a lot Thanks for the tips.
Talk about bad game design though. The druid master in the beginning sends me to the druid in Hommlet and since it´s my opening quest of course I think it´s appropriate difficulty. He even has a *go there right now* dialogue option.

Still I´m gonna start over, I like the new party I created better. Changed ranger for Dwarfen fighter, changed druid for cleric with plants and sun domains.

The spell failure in armor applies only to arcane spells, right?

€: Oh and another thing, can´t find it in the manual:
Are the attributes in this game permanent or do I get additional points while leveling up, like in Planescape Torment?

 

It's not really bad design, it's classic design where the game isn't holding your hand and lets you die brutally if you take on something beyond your ability. I tend to like that.

I also wouldn't say MH is for level 3-4. It'd be too easy if you run it that late. I'd say it's reasonable to start it around 2 (once you've finished FedExing or cleaning the Bog). You'll probably be halfway through level 3 by the end of it for a standard party. I remember when playing Vanilla for the first time I got my second level on the frogs outside MH.

Then again, Co8 did improve the AI, so the final MH fight is much harder than in vanilla. So level 3 is still fine. Waiting till 4 is just taking the challenge out of it.

Though remember, you can always recruit higher-level NPCs to help you out. Elmo and Fruella make MH much easier since they actually regularly hit stuff.

 

The spell failure in armor applies only to arcane spells, right?

Correct your Cleric can wear up to heavy armor and not be affected.€:

Oh and another thing, can´t find it in the manual:
Are the attributes in this game permanent or do I get additional points while leveling up, like in Planescape Torment?

You gain one point to add to any attribute you wish every 4th level

 

Thanks for the info @shapechange

@Ausdoerrt: Nah, this is ridiculously bad design. They make a game which is basically a combat simulator with RPG elements and then they start you off in some village and let you help some goddamn idiots with their personal affairs for the first hour(s?).
Of course you just wanna escape that mess and everyone talks about the moathouse so that´s where you´ll go. A game like this where you have to wait endlessly for your first fight with some alignment choices, what the hell were they thinking... has nothing to do with taking the player by the hand imo...

Thankfully some awesome person saw it like that, too, and implemented the Welkwood Bog, which I shall do right now.

 

Also, the Spider fight in the Deklo Grove (and get he woodcutter's quest befoer going there for some extra XP- it is worth talking to him) and visiting Emreldy Meadows before the Moathouse will give you good fight XP. Before EM, get a quest from Terjon, the head cleric in the Temple at the north of town, to get some extra XP for finding a bobble of his there.

Stay to the upper and right halves of EM though, so you don't get killed by a nasty that is above you level in the lower left section. EM skeletons are good fights, and sources of things to sell at lower levels.