Tales of the Wild Coast Discussion Thread

I'm doing a 5.6.1 with 5 pc's and I'm early in temple level 1 and just leveled up to 5. How people get to level 9 is beyond me. I've never came close. I wouldn't do HB or Verbobonc now because it's too tough. Don't have the ac or hp to do very well. Same for moathouse respawn, not ready. The first time I played those it didn't work out well and I lost a number of players. For someone who played 4 years ago and quit because of the bugs would have a tough time. I found out about HB in the forum and got killed when I first went there. It's not much fun to find new content just to find out you can't complete it. Mods are for experienced players who know the game. Good players will figure it out, but I'm not a very good game player.

 

Yeah, the wide range of player skill is another tough issue. I guess that's why Livonya started working on a Hard Mode in the second version of her mod.

 

Hi Folks
For some reason (for which I am now thankful) I decided to keep notes on my last run through with a 5 member CG party (Fighter, Druid, Cleric, Wizard, Rogue/Wizard) plus Elmo and Meleny. I didn't do any "EXP farming" but took out any evil monsters I had the option of fighting during random encounters. Here is my list of what levels my party was at different stages in the game. I should point out that I was unable to complete the "Cure for Amie" (I always ended up in the "wrong" swamp) quest, and never took the quest to "free" Bertram. I should also point out that I meta-gamed so I could kill Iuz.

Moathouse Cleared - "Big Three Fight" , Lareth's Spiders:........ PC: 4 Mel: 3 Elmo: 5
Emridy Meadow Cleared:........................................................PC: 4 Mel: 4 Elmo: 5
Nulb (minus "Eye of the Tiger"):..............................................PC: 5 Mel: 4 Elmo: 5
Temple Tower (with Otis) and the Assassin:..............................PC: 5 Mel: 5 Elmo: 6
Rescue P.T. and Elves (Meta-gamed sneaking):........................PC: 6 Mel: 5 Elmo: 6
"Retribution" and the House fight in Nulb :................................PC: 6 Mel: 6 Elmo: 7
Temple: 1st Level except Ghouls, Spiders, Stirges :..................PC: 7 Mel: 7 Elmo: 8
Clear first two levels of temple:...............................................PC: 9 Mel: 9 Elmo: 9
Clear Level 3:.......................................................................PC: 10 Mel: 10 Elmo: 10
Clear Level 4 South of Trap:...................................................PC: 11 Mel: 11 Elmo: 11
Clear Air, Earth, and Water Nodes :.........................................PC: 12 Mel: 12 Elmo: 12
Clear Fire Node / Prep for Zuggtmoy:......................................Crafters: 12 Elmo, FTR: 13
I guess, seeing as the question has been raised, and I'm not in the middle of a game, I will activate "Vanilla" with the Level Cap turned off, and see how the games compare.
The Royal Canadian

 

Hi Gaear
I figured it would be, but I thought I would point it out as an option. I personally would have no objections to TotWC being added on to the end of ToEE if the story integration were improved.

The Royal Canadian

 

So there's a very helpful table by TRC as well, but all too long to quote.

Let's just compare a second. He has two extra people, but he's killing "Evil" random encounters. You don't say what you're doing.

Now I'm part way through the Temple with a party of 5. It's a good (no XP Pen) party IMO - I've had to use my two scrolls of Raise Dead, but that's it. I've not crafted, just grabbed most of the loot available (NG party so I haven't been attacking any non-Evil NPCs). I did rob Otto though. This was roughly my experience of those early levels:

I did the majority of the Fedex quests, by which time I was level 2. Then I did Deklo Grove and Elmridy meadows except for the Giant. I had to make several journeys due to needing rest, and also sometimes I had to turn back and rest due to having to take on tough random encounters (e.g Trolls). This got me to level 3 and I took on the Giant, then completed the remaining Fedex that I could, including marrying Meleny, but not taking her into the party. Next up Moathouse, and the first encounters took me to level 4. By the time I cleared out the rest I was at 5 for the Lareth & co fight.

I did the few Fedex quests in Nulb (including the brothel), then the Waterside Hostel, which took me to level 6. Then I did Imeryd's run, finished the Nulb quests and killed the Pirates (which is some decent XP & gear and maybe a little naughty to do, but hey they are evil). I also inadvertly got into a ruck with Mother Screng & her Daughter. Then Retribution. At level 7.

Next was the backdoor battle at the Temple. Although I had Wat's quest I preferred to slay the evil scum. I then fought sevral battles on lvl 3 (Lamia, Jackalweres, Wisps, Smigmal, Umber Hulks, Trolls, Ogres). These were tough, but not as tough as I remember them, which suggests to me I have more levels than I did when I originally played the vanilla game. By now I was at level 8. Then back to level 1, and after partially completing that and some of the Fire quests I made level 9.

Given that I have 2 people less, but maybe have done less random, this ties in with TRC. Can't see how you made the temple and only reached 5 if you did all the main quests/fights.

 

Yes, except he has a party of 5 only, not 5 + NPCs. I was wondering whether a few other encounters had been skipped too.

 

Well, I've done some side by side testing (vanilla + patch 2 vs. Co8 5.6.1, party of 5 PCs + Elmo + Meleny, no random encounters at all via hacked survival skill)

Up to the beginning of the Moathouse it's about the same, with vanilla giving a little more XP actually. By the time you kill Lareth's sergeant (the one in the corridor) it evens out, and from Lareth onwards the XP bulge begins:
Lareth's spiders - extra 195xp
Ambush - extra 570, hit level 4 (in vanilla I was still level 3 here)

So far it was 6570 xp vs. 5730 in vanilla - 14% more XP.

Hill giant: extra 35xp
Hill giant head quest: extra 30xp
Moathouse completion quest: +120
Assassin: extra 720 xp (he was level 4 in vanilla, boosted to level 10 in Co8; to be fair, though, there's a much higher chance of character death now)

Nulb phase:
Imeryds fight: extra 140 xp.
Brothel - extra 175 xp.
Sammy quest - extra 75 xp.

By the end of Nulb (without retribution quest):
11640 xp vs. 9577 xp in vanilla - 21.5% more.

So far it seems that reducing the XP modifier by 20% - from 0.7 to 0.56 - would make sense, given the added XP.
Note that it will probably reduce overall XP by a little less than 20%, since lower level characters gain more XP from high CR encounters.

I am guessing the gap will continue to grow, since many Temple monsters had way lower CRs/XP awards before the protos overhaul (e.g. werewolves, greater temple bugbears, etc.).

 

Hi Ted

I actually had completed "Grud's Fish Story" before going to the temple.
TRC

 

He wasn't talking about you...

 

After Nulb (still haven't done retribution), cleared Temple Level 1:
21847 xp vs. 17894 xp in vanilla. Again, + 21%, and level 7 instead of 6.

Doing the retribution fight at this point nets another 2240 XP.

 

By the end of Temple Level 2:
38145 xp (lvl 9) in Co8, vs. 26,677 xp (lvl 7), or +43%.

By the end of Temple level 3 (inc. tower and smig/fal):
49250xp (lvl 10) vs. 34078 (lvl 8), or +44% xp.

Doing some more testing in vanilla - it is possible to reach level 10 by the end of Temple level 4 (almost got there, but I haven't done any random encounters at all), and level 11 by the end of the Water Node. It seems like you're capped in vanilla, though, so you won't actually level (I got stuck at 54999). I'm guessing that by the end of the nodes you could theoretically hit level 12 in vanilla, or close to it.

 

That sounds right. I remember doing it with a party of 3 and worked out I would have hit 13/14.