Circle of Eight Modpack v6 / v6 NC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by Provodnik, Dec 30, 2010.

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  1. WinstonShnozwick

    WinstonShnozwick Established Member

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    The extraplanar chest is such an excellent addition by the Co8 team, by the way. The way it reorders items so well and classifys them in groups, holds a nice amount for big fights looting, and is overall covenient just makes my game so much more enjoyable when it comes to item storage. Although I still find it a bit overpowered (preference), it's a nice addition and if I want to RP I'll just ignore it and wait for the spell. Anyway, thanks for that :)

    I have an idea for a Verbebonc quest if thats ok;
    Quest content for the castle of lords. If you buy the castle it will happen, so otherwise you wont get it.

    If it's possible, it would be cool to trigger this quest to only happen if you have a certain amount of gold/platinum and bought the castle. Otherwise just the castle. Because the idea is that you are targeted by a highly skilled group of thieves or something like that, because your large wealth brought you to their attention. So after a while of owning the castle, when you walk in one time you will find that the castle is full of people that have come to kill you/steal your money/both. Every level of the castle has enemies in it and you have to clear all of them out to complete the quest. Just had the idea if anyones looking for them.
     
  2. florian1

    florian1 Established Member

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    Or how about if you store items in the castle, some of them will disappear while you are away, and you then need to hunt down the thieves guild to get your stuff back.
     
  3. General Ghoul

    General Ghoul Established Member

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    The Bag of Holding is an iconic D&D magic item, and the chest takes the place of it. Most D&D parties will have several of them by the time they reach the levels you do in the game. Before the mod, in big fights like the moathouse entrance i would fill the chest in the bedroom with all the loot I couldn't carry, then make several trips back and forth to town to sell it all off.
     
  4. Ausdoerrt

    Ausdoerrt Veteran Member

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    I personally only use the chest occasionally, if I have a few items that weigh a lot but I'm not sure if I'll use in the future. Usually turns out I don't and they just take up space.

    Other than that, I take a pretty minimalistic approach to looting, I just take things that I may want to equip, and/or magic items. Everything else I leave, since a few extra silver coins aren't worth the effort of inventory management.
     
  5. cezmail

    cezmail Gorboth's Rider

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    Well one good thing with a large party is that you have more space to pack it one the characters. If you want to make things really challenging, load everyone to the max and fight some big battles. See how well you can survive when you can only move 10 feet. :)
     
  6. WinstonShnozwick

    WinstonShnozwick Established Member

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    I just went against the Slave Traders for the first time. Congradulations for the work going into that! I loved it. The cinematic about them, the challanging fight, really great everything. And I still can't kill them -_-. Any advice on how to win the fight? I have a party of one, cleric level 12 and rogue level 8. Scarab of protection stops the instant death spells. Stoneskin and fire shield as well were prebuffing spells I used, but I just kept dying. Then one time the evil lady ice stormed all the children.

    Also, of the five major forms of energy in the game, Acid, Cold, Electric, Fire, and Sonic, Only cold electric and fire are normally availible. I'd really enjoy more of sonic and acid, would it be possible to make it so you can craft weapons being acidic, acid burst, sonic, sonic burst? I'd love more sonic weapons beside the one sonic crossbow in the game. And ther are no acid weapons, that would be cool to have.
     
  7. WinstonShnozwick

    WinstonShnozwick Established Member

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    Re: Going back in

    I'm really looking forward to this conversion, but I've had a big question. Going through the vanilla proper would probably get you to level 10-13? and then, when you get the NC after that, fights like welkwood bog, hickory branch, and the moathouse respawn would be pushovers. I think all the verbo content is still nice and good for those level parties, but would these lower level areas be changed to reflect the difficulty for a >10 level party if/when the NC is moved to after the vanilla content?
     
  8. Ausdoerrt

    Ausdoerrt Veteran Member

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    Re: Going back in

    As I've voiced my opinion before (though it seems to have gone without notice), I'd rather suggest you guys make NC a stand-alone adventure (kinda like KotB); that'd eliminate the extra work needed to rebalance most of NC content for a high-level party. The link between the vanilla areas and NC content is pretty arbitrary anyway. Just base the party in Verbo from the get-go, set the story after the defeat of Zuggy, and open up the higher-level quests and new areas as party completes previous challenges. Sure, there'll need to be some more writing added to plug the holes between adventures, as well as maybe a few more quests, but arguably that'd be easier, and IMO more compelling, than reworking most of the existing content.
     
  9. cezmail

    cezmail Gorboth's Rider

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    Well I personally would recommend getting some more levels before going up against the slavers. I would also suggest either recruiting some NPC's or having your cleric summon some powerful elementals to act as damage absorbers and deflect attacks away from your group. But some cloudkill and stinking cloud spells/wands and have the rogue use them to dilute the fighting strength of the slavers.

    As for more energy options, I do not think Co8 can add much more in the way of sonic/acid bonuses to weapon or new spells/ NWN did allow this but different worlds and game program.
     
  10. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Re: Going back in

    Is GoW supposed to counterspell Stinking Cloud?
     
  11. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    This would be a major shift in direction. I guess all I can say is that it's not being considered at this time.

    Still not sure why that is. I think we even replaced the originals. I guess I'll have to look at them again.

    Yes, that has always been the plan. Welkwood Bog, however, will not be going anywhere. It was always intended as a level 1 affair and will remain as such.

    I do have a few as yet unresolved concerns about this business, for example AoH. That's probably not tough enough for a level 10 party (certainly not the first two fights), but I'm quite reluctant to alter it. Particularly the third fight, since it took a rather large amount of design and playtesting to pull it off, and since it's quite popular as is. It's stupid to toss out stuff that works, and there's no better way to put off your player base than to start being stupid where before there was no stupidity. I know that drives me crazy, like when your favorite software app comes out with a new version that changes everything and becomes stupid when all they had to do to remain un-stupid is do nothing.

    Plus, AoH is arguably in that ultra-sweet-spot for D&D CRPGs - level 5 to 7 - where you are far from being a weakling but don't yet have the "I win!" spells. This means tactical DRAMA, which imo is in a nutshell what separates ToEE success from ToEE failure. Marceror's example of spreading out his party to lessen/avoid the effects of the undead wizard's Stinking Cloud is a perfect example - use of terrain and 'thinking outside the box,' while being kept on your toes and never knowing for sure if you're going to win, all the while your opponents using diverse tactics ... it doesn't get much better. For the first time player, that's RPG/tactical heaven.
     
    Last edited: Jun 30, 2011
  12. florian1

    florian1 Established Member

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    Re: Going back in

    Gust of wind in the Player's Handbook 3.5 says that it will blow vapors and gasses to the edge of it's range (60 feet). Stinking Cloud mentions that a permanent stinking cloud (from a permanency spell) reforms after being dispersed by wind. Which leaves the question of whether Gust of Wind would disperse the cloud or move it. Gust of wind is strong enough to knock a gnome on his ass, and stop a dwarf in his tracks so I would come down on the side that it would disperse the cloud if in the open air, but just move it or partially disperse it when in enclosed spaces. It would be nice to have something other than Lesser Globe and Dispel Magic to counter the cloud, so whatever makes that practical would be welcome.
     
  13. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Re: Going back in

    Well, if it doesn't say so explicitly, I'm reluctant to change it. Plus, Troika didn't make it that way, and despite our inclination to think they goofed everything up, most of the time they actually didn't. Plus, I like the idea of enemies having at least one trump card against you. They're at a horrible disadvantage as it is.

    Beef up your fortitude save!
     
  14. florian1

    florian1 Established Member

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    Re: Going back in

    Well, one thing about D&D, is that not everything is explicitly stated. A good D&D game constantly has players coming up with ideas and strategies that the DM never expected, and has to make decisions of how to handle what the players throw at them. I don't blame you for not wanting to change it (I totally agree it's not a big deal really), but it's pretty clear that a strong wind is expected to blow away vapors and fog. Unlike a computer game, in a P&P., you can try anything you want, and the rules cannot possibly cover all situations.
     
  15. chano

    chano Established Member

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    Maybe the party would have to fight a three fights in AoH without pause, that could be a challenge for a level 10 party, maybe adding another giant
     
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