New Player Basic Questions

Discussion in 'The Temple of Elemental Evil' started by licker, Jul 25, 2011.

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  1. Wiggum

    Wiggum Member

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    Thankfully thats not the case, i only was to dumb to look at the right window for the scroll description... :D

    About the Bow in combat:
    Would you recommand to pick "Point Blank Shot" and/or "Precise Shot" already during the character creation ?
    My rouge will use a bow as main weapon, but i did not choose one of these two skills during creation, maybe a mistake...
     
    Last edited: Aug 3, 2011
  2. Wotan Wordsmith

    Wotan Wordsmith Member

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    Thanks Maalri, I almost cleared the moathouse and just leveled to 3 while doing it. Didn´t do Emreldy Meadows yet so thanks for the tip.
     
  3. Wiggum

    Wiggum Member

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    Three more basic questions:

    1. Can a cleric wear heavy armor without getting any adverse effect on his spell casting ?
    I mean, armor that gives a adverse effect on spell casting, will it only affect Wizards or clerics too ?

    2. How can i place different weapons in the "Quick Item Configurations" ?
    If i place a bow in the first one and try to get a dagger in the second one so i can switch between them this does not work...
    Looks like i only can have 1 weapon for all configurations.

    3. How can i see which type of armor or weapon (light/heavy or simple ect.) i use ?
    While viewing the description (also by looting chests) i cant see a "simple" (for weapons) or "heavy" (for armor) so i have to look at the Help all the time...
     
  4. Azured

    Azured Lethal but deadly.

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    There are two spell categories: Arcane and Divine. Wizards, Sorcerers and Bards cast Arcane spells; Clerics, Druids, Paladins and Rangers cast Divine spells. Divine spells are not affected by armor spell failure, Arcane spells are (Bards are an exception - they can cast without spell failure chance in Light armor).

    First, equip your character normally for set 1. Then switch to set 2, unequip unwanted items and then equip the items you want. This should save the sets automatically, but you of course need to have the necessary items in your inventory for the saved sets and also have enough free space so that items that become unequipped when changing sets have somewhere to go to.

    IIRC, Shift-clicking on items should help here. Other than that, there are not that many different weapons or armors in the game so they should become familiar in time.
     
  5. Wotan Wordsmith

    Wotan Wordsmith Member

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    For some reason my bard has only half the exp that the rest of the group has. I don´t understand why, though. Maybe he was dead once, I´m not sure anymore, but so was my wizard and she has the same exp as anyone else in the group. And only half(3000/6000)? Weird. Any ideas? It can´t be crafting btw.
    Think I´m gonna cheat him some exp because this is pretty annoying.

    €: Ugh I can´t figure out how to open the console with a German keyboard :(

    Ah got it. shift + key below enter
     
  6. Wiggum

    Wiggum Member

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    Thanks for the answer Azured !

    Another question:
    How can i make sure that my character with the best conversation skills is always the one who talks to people ?

    Sometimes conversations are started when you enter a room and then it looks like a random character is used to do the talking which could be bad i think.
    I have skilled my cleric as my "conversation guy" so how can i make sure he will do all talking as long as i dont directly order another character to talk to someone ?

    And another question: :D

    I have chosen "Two-Weapon Fighting" as starting feat for my Ranger.
    Maybe a mistake ?
    Because at Lvl 2 i get i anyway (if i chose it)...

    So should i have started with Two-Weapon Defense ?
     
    Last edited: Aug 4, 2011
  7. Wotan Wordsmith

    Wotan Wordsmith Member

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    *Maybe* you can load an earlier save and switch places in the formation with the char who gets picked instead of your cleric. I don´t think it´s random it´s the char nearest to the dialogue triggering npc.
    But probably that won´t work either- when the assassin ambushed me my wizard always spawned in front of my formation, despite being last. Didn´t matter where I put her in the formation either, she would always spawn ahead of the group and get killed.

    2 more thoughts:

    Dialogues may trigger with the person who occupies the first slot in the party(left-most- not sure if that´s always the case though). Drag portraits to change places. Spawning position is always established by position in the group, not the formation and it can be quite illogical who spawns in front- but it´s always reproducable.
    In case of the assassin it doesn´t change anything though... he always spawns next to & attacks my wizard, probably because of lowest HP.
     
    Last edited: Aug 5, 2011
  8. Azured

    Azured Lethal but deadly.

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    I usually have a rogue up front to do the talking in towns and use a different formation in combat areas to have my tank characters in the front line. Usually you can spot the NPC you need to talk to from further away so that you can order your face character to talk to the NPC directly. In some conversations you can't control which character is up front (ambushes etc.) but usually then it doesn't matter what you have to say anyway...

    Depends, how do you intend to have your Ranger fight? If (s)he's supposed to be a Two-Weapon Fighting machine, selecting the feat in advance is a mistake. If you intend to make an archer out of him/her and use TWF for melee then it's not that big of a deal; however, there are better feat choices for an archer Ranger than TWF.
     
  9. Wiggum

    Wiggum Member

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    Looks like i have to start again...
    I want him to be a Two-Weapon Fighting machine.

    Should i chose "Two-Weapon Defense" ot is there another good starting skill for him ?
    Thanks !
     
  10. Azured

    Azured Lethal but deadly.

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    There are a number of good feat choices. I'll list them according to my preference with a justification for its priority.
    *Two-Weapon Defese is a good one as it bolsters the Ranger's AC.
    *Weapon Focus for either weapon (usually primary first as it is a more damaging weapon due to a better damage die and full strength bonus) as it increases your Ranger's bonus to hit.
    *Dodge because it bolsters AC and opens up new feat choices such as Mobility and Spring & Whirlwind Attack (however, these attack types may not be the best choice for a Ranger as he has a large number of attacks).
    *Power Attack doesn't benefit much as you already take a penalty to hit due to TWF but it does open up the choice to take Cleave and Great Cleave.
    *Quick Draw if you need to switch weapons often during battle.
    *Combat Reflexes to get extra Attacks of Opportunity and for holding the line during the first round if someone decides to charge your poorly armored support characters (such as arcane spellcasters).

    I'd take Two-Weapon Defense first and Weapon Foci for both weapons on the following levels. But that's just my opinion, feel free to experimentate!
     
  11. Wiggum

    Wiggum Member

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    I saw that you can only use "Two-Weapon Defense" if you already have "Two-Weapon Fighting".

    So i removed the ranger and made a druid.
    I will use him primary for Summoing and other cool spells like entangle, so he will be manly a mage.

    Two questions:

    1. Can i only chose a animal compaion once or switch them as soon as i can get stronger animals ?

    2. Will i need Spell Penetration as a druid with focus on spells ?
     
  12. Azured

    Azured Lethal but deadly.

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    Yep, forgot about that one prerequisite. You could've just taken a Weapon Focus feat now for him and have Two-Weapon Defense on level 3, though.

    IIRC, you can dismiss your animal companion and get a new one after some waiting. However, animal companions tend to have rather short life spans...

    Druids have some good offensive spells like Flame Strike and Call Lightning etc. so Spell Penetration is a good choice. If you like summoning, then the feats Spell Focus (Conjuration) and Augment Summoning might come in handy also. If I field a Druid, I usually take Natural Spell as well as Wild Shaping is a very powerful ability.
     
  13. shapecharge

    shapecharge Established Member

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    Wiggum,

    If you go back and try a Ranger again, here is my four most typical early builds I use,

    Two-Weapon Fighter (human): start with combat reflexs and dodge or improved intiative and dodge; take your two-wepon fighting style at second level and two wepon defense at third level.
    Remember at 6th level you will get improved two-weapon fighting and then you can pick up either improved iniative or combat reflexs (which ever you didn't take at first), or weapon focus your primary weapon which you should have a master work or magical in that hand by now.

    Archer (human): Point blank shot and precise shot; 2nd lvl you get rapid shot; 3rd lvl I then take weapon focus longbow and by this time should have some cash and finished delko grove so I can go to the woodworker and peruse his bow selection, if my streagth is 16 or above I usually go with one of the composites if 15 or below a master work longbow. 6th lvl you will get manyshot feat from ranger and then I usually pick-up dodge as my charecter level feat.

    If you want to do both either take point blank and precise shot at first then grab two weapon fighting at second and two weapon defense at 3rd; Or take two weapon fighting and two weapon defense at first and then grab archery style at second and point blank shot at third and go from there. if I go one of these two routes a lot of the time after 3rd level I will multi-class with fighter giving me feats at 4th and 5th level as well so I can grab my precise shots/weapon focuses/combat reflexs/dodges or whatever. basically giving me 2 feats at first level, one at second (combat style), and one each at 3rd, 4th and 5th level (3rd level ranger/2nd level fighter).

    Just some thoughts to try if you attempt a Ranger again.

    I am a little biased towards Rangers, so always trying to win new recruits.
     
    Last edited: Aug 5, 2011
  14. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    re: the dialogs question, much of the new content has been scripted so that NPCs who auto-initiate dialog do so with your party leader (assumed to be the one in the left-most slot in the lineup). Most of vanilla ToEE does not do this, instead only looking for whomever triggered the script (not surprisingly called the 'triggerer' in scripting). I'm not sure how the game sorts that, although it appears to be fairly random.
     
  15. Oakheart

    Oakheart Member

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    To optimize game integrity following the (basically inevitable) use of console, do everything you can that you want to accomplish with your console at the start of a completely fresh game start (one that is started with newly created characters, and with -no- saved games). Then once you've changed your party speed, or started your rogue with masterwork tools or your bard with an elvish shield, then make -one- saved game BEFORE you leave the starting shop, and even before you buy anything, quit the game completely, then start it up with an fresh empty cache (you'll want the 'clear game cache' option on the front-end enabled). Then do your best to not use the console again. If you -do- use the console once into your game, make your changes, then completely quit out of the game, then reload the game. It takes a little extra time when you do this, but I have found with the endless repeated playing of this game that regular restarts (with console use or not) dramatically decrease CTD's or other bugs. The game just seems to like a clean cache. Starting each new game with no prior saved games also seems to help dramatically. Every now and then in the game you may come across a minor graphics anomaly or some other strange little bug that does not seem to effect your game play at all, and go away when you go through the little blue door or staircase, but these are the perfect times to restart your game then proceed, as these little bugs may start to 'add up' until you have bigger problems.
     
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