Party Creation

Hi guys!
I'm new to this game , played for a bit when it appeared but never played with Co8. I was wandering about a couple of things :
1. Co8 is designed for a party 8 or lower ?
2. The experience from killing mobs is divided between party members or i get the same amount even if i have 5 or 8 members ?
3. Is any of the npc i can recruit worth it or i'm better off creating my owm party ? Do i lose anything story wise if i dont use them ?

PS: I see that even with this add-on there is still the bug which allow you to create a char with 18 on all stats without any rolls .

Thank you very much for you time

 

Correct. Although, for your first playthrough of this computer game, I recommend that you play the game with a party of at least 5 characters.

The game ends prematurely if all of your PCs (Player Characters) are either unconscious or charmed/dominated or dead, so if you were playing the game with a solo PC, then the game would end as soon as your PC became charmed/dominated or unconscious from a spell or receiving enough damage to take your character's Hit Points below 0.

In order to be able to complete all of the quests in the Circle of Eight Modpack New Content Edition of this computer game, you need to have 6 or fewer characters in your party. If you play this computer game with 7 or more characters in your party, then:
a. you won't be able to complete the 'What Lies Beneath' quest, and;
b. the 3 'Wanted:' quests won't play out the way that the creator of those quests intended, although you will still be able to complete all 3 quests.
If you play this computer game with 8 characters in your party, then you won't be able to rescue any NPCs (such as Prince Thrommel and Paida) who need to temporarily join your party in order for you to be able to rescue them (in which case, you will never receive the reward for rescuing Prince Thrommel (which is the best reward in the entire computer game!)).

XP (eXperience Points) is divided amongst all of the PCs and NPCs (Non Player Characters) in your party. The less characters that are in your party, the quicker that your characters will go up in experience levels during the course of the game.

I had 8 characters in my party in my last playthrough of the Circle of Eight Modpack New Content Edition of this computer game, and all of my characters finished the game at level 17 (and I did not clear out all of the dungeons and did not do all of the combats in the game) (characters can reach a maximum of level 20 in this computer game with the modpack).

You will be able to create PCs who have MUCH better ability scores than most of the recruitable NPCs have, so this computer game will be easier if you play with a party that only consists of PCs that you created.

You will actually find the early part of this computer game MUCH easier if you recruit powerful NPCs such as Elmo, Fruella, and/or Furnok. Elmo is level 4 and he has a magical weapon and magical armour. Fruella is level 3 and she has a magical weapon that has an excellent critical range. Furnok is level 4 and he has a magical weapon and a Ring of Invisibility that allows him to scout new areas (while invisible) and position himself (while invisible) to sneak attack enemies whenever a combat starts.

You will have less problems playing this computer game if you don't have any NPCs in your party because NPCs can cause complications.

You will lose some story if you don't have any NPCs in your party, but it's not essential information. The NPCs don't really have any plots themselves - they will only occassionally say a voice sample whenever your party appears on a map or during combat. For example, when your party appears on the Emridy Meadows map for the first time, or when your party appears on the Temple of Elemental Evil exterior map for the first time, or when your party meets Prince Thrommel for the first time, an NPC in your party may say a voice sample that gives you a little bit of information about the place or the person or about their own personality.

 

Or an NPC might just never stop singing .... GAH!

Has anyone ever heard Zaxus actually speak without singing?

 

When he dies in battle.

 

Alternatively, you could delete Zaxis' sound files.

 

This whole XP calculation seems a bit wonky anyway. In my Ego tab, I see fantasy XP numbers in the 100000s for my top fight, when I received only a couple hundred per char.

Then again, using well-designed NPCs that tend to be overleveled (with the exception of Taki) may also be easier for inexperienced players. Also, developing characters who don't have the stats and feats you would have given them, is a niche challenge in itself.

 

The XP listed in the ego tab is greater than what is actually given due to the adjustments that have been made in the Co8 Modpack in hopes of keeping things somewhat balanced, (I did say somewhat).

 

By a factor of 100? I feel a bit cheated of XP there. :sadblinky

 

I love hearing Zaxis sing! I'm not sure who's more amusing - him or Elmo - when you come upon a new area and he offers his ... opinion.

When you first meet Zaxis, the last line he speaks is fairly deadpan: "Hmmm... what rhymes with your name?"

 

Hello again and thank you for your answers . Sorry for this late reply but on 30 October my first child (a girl ) was born so I was pretty busy with that ). Still I manage to get a couple of hours of playing and i'm back with some questions :
1. Does a rogue 1 / bard X focus on speaking skills + open locks makes a good party leader ? Should I focus on range weapons or in spike chain + finesse ?. Are there any nice spike chains ?
2. Will I have much problems if I don't raise Disable Device skill ?
3. Does Listen, Spot , Search skills worth investing points in them ?
4. Does monks make interesting front liners ?
5. From my experience till now range mele weapons (ranseur , spear etc) are a bit better gameplay wise than the "classic weapons" (swords , axes , hammers etc) for fighters / barbarians because of AoO . Is this correct ?
6. Fighter 4 / Barb x or Fighter X or Barb 1 / Fighter x (first level took as fighter) ?
7. Can you give an example of a good party of 6 for begginers (no NPC included) ?

That's it for now
Thank you again for your time

 

The basic problem with the rogue/spike chain/finesse build is that damage is still based on strength. The way to get good damage without strength would be improved trip and sneak attack; unfortunately, trip attacks are also based on a strength check for the attacker (defender can also use dex, ironically). The build just does not fully work out.

So this points more to ranged. However, rogue/bards also make only mediocre snipers (since they lack BAB and, again strength, which would allow composite bows, slings, and darts to be used to full effect).

 

First- congrats! May you have many years of being a great dad! :thumbsup: As for your questions here are my suggustions/answers:

1- Rogues get more skill points but bards get spells- personally I'd take one or the other and stick to missile weapons (get the best masterwork composite shortbow you can afford early) as I hate the idea of lightly armored, medium HP characters indulging in melee. There are both holy and unholy spike chains to be found to answer the second part of your question.

2- Not really but a few points put into it early will help. Cat's Grace, Gloves of Dexterity, Knock and Warp Wood will all help if your Disable Device skill is too low (check the rolls box to see how close you've come to failing to open a lock- a Bless or Guidance spell might make all the difference).

3- Yes to all 3, especially Listen as it helps you avoid becoming caught flatfooted when combat starts. Also, there are some quests in the post Temple part of the game that require these skills to be really high to solve...

4- there are several threads here dedicated to monks with folks giving their opinions both pro and con- read thru them to help reach a decision (personally, I like them as specialized fighters- quick strike hit and run types).

5- yes- and you can find longspears early in the came if you don't have the gold to buy ransuers, etc.

6- this game doesn't give the barbarian his full set of flavor from the D&D pnp game but some folks like to give a fighter a couple of barbarian levels to get the Uncanny Dodge feat- it's really up to you. My personal preference is to keep the fighter 'pure' unless I wanted to get a paladin withe weapon specialization, then I would go fighter 4/paladin 16.

7- my party makeup depends on my alignment- right now I have a CG party with a dual weapons human ranger, an elven druid, a human bard, human cleric, human wizard and human sorcerer (3 males, 3 females). My chaotic and neutral parties tend to have rangers, druids and bards while my evil parties tend to have at least 1 barbarian or sometimes monk. LG gets the paladin, fighter and cleric usually along with rogue, wizard and sorcerer. One of my favorite party compositions was in vanilla TOEE when I had a ranger, druid, bard, wizard and sorcerer- needless to say, some of the early undead battles were a little tough to manage... :yes:

 

LG or NG: paladin, Pelor cleric (good/sun domain), two temple guards with reach weapons (one starting out as a rogue and taking the occasional rogue level later on), a wizard, and leave a slot for Meleny

CG: sorcerer, elven Corellon cleric (good/war domain), elven rogue/ranger sniper, two half-orc barbarians, and leave a slot for Zaxis (although leveling sorc/bard is more tricky for beginners because you need to give them good spells)

 

The problem with multiclassing bard/rogue is that while you get good skill point progression you delay your other main class features- singing/spellcasting and sneak attack respectively. Just as a wizard gets access to a whole new level of spells every 'odd' level, so a rogue gets another d6 sneak attack; and a just as you ideally want your fireball at 5th and cloudkill at 9th level more than you want extra hp from spending a level going Barb1 Wiz X. Same applies to bardic music and spells (though I don't recall the exact level that each thing comes in): you want it as early as possible. My main uses of multiclassing have been when I've mixed a full BAB class with a sprinkle of rogue (I think you effectively swap 1 point of BAB for each d6 of damage) to boost my damage on a second melee PC, and taking a single level of arcane caster somewhere during mid-levels as a rogue to give infalliable use of wands/staves as an additional arcane artillery piece (first vanilla play through I spent my 10th level this way on arriving on temple level 4; I've never looked to see at what point a maxed use magical device makes this redundant). I really can't stress the value of sneak attack highly enough- it takes a lot of magic to get an equivalent number of additional d6s, and there are numerous ways to ensure that you are mainly making sneak attacks: glitterdust at low level, invis sphere and greater invis later on. A composite short bow means you can selectively pick off the bad guys who are susceptible.

6 PC party for beginners:
1 each of Fighter, Rogue, divine caster (Cleric probably easier), arcane caster (Wiz probably easier)
2nd front line warrior-type (could go Pal or Barb for variety while staying quite tough, or more fragile Ranger or even Monk, in which case you probably want a strong, well armoured Cleric as your divine caster to share duties on the front line at least early on)
2nd caster. I often go with a druid here for variety of spells, but could equally be a bard (great for enhancing your other PCs) or another arcane caster (in with case you could have 2 complimentary specialists).
Somewhere in this lot you want a character with good people skills- could be a bard or a sorceror or paladin, or a rogue. Or you could split tasks and have a cleric as the diplomat, fighter as intimidator and focus on bluffing and gathering info with your rogue.

 

I use an elven Rogue/Fighter multi-class for my party face, and at 20th level (9th Fighter/11th Rogue), that's +17 BAB with +6d6 sneak attack. As a fully tricked out archer, that's 5 sneak attacks per round before counting specialization, composite bow strength bonuses, or crafting.