How Much Random Encounter Grinding Do you Do?

I've got my little team of Fighter 2 / Specialist # up to level 4, though I've yet to do any of the major mobs in Moathouse, or Emridy (Welk is cleared).

Fighter 2 / Bard 2
Fighter 4
Fighter 2 / Wizard 2
Fighter 2 / Cleric 2
Ranger 2 / Rogue 2

I leveled them up from 3 to 4 just from random encountering.

See, I've never really played past about getting to Nulb (level 6ish) and I don't know how hard it becomes to level up (particularly for a pretty heavily multiclassed group like that) at later stages. So I wanted to make sure I had my specialists up a bit before I tackle the locations that will advance me through the main story line. Since I added Zaxis to the mix it is slowing things down even more.

I figure if I can endure the tedium of randoms till I get to level 5, I should be good to go to take on the rest of Moathouse, Emridy and then the Giant.

So just a general question: how much random encountering have you fond it expedient to do to level up before trying to move on with the main story and location based engagements?

 

More the higher level I get... I found some of the new random encounters will TPK mid-level parties (under 10), so be careful. One particular encounter is still giving me trouble even at level 14, so good on Gaear for getting the challenge level right!

 

I generally don't grind for levels, but rather for gold/exp for magic item forging. Once I have what I need for forging, I make the item and move on. It's only a matter of time till your encounter 4 wandering Trolls or 3 Ettins or something worse, which could be quite a tough fight for you at this point if you are surprised, so it depends on whether you like save-reloading or not.

Imo the only challenging fights left for you before the temple are the King Frog, the Giant and Lareth's hideout. But if you go in prepared, even those should be doable at this point.

My goal is always to get to the temple asap, since the best NPC's for joining become unlocked once you have entered the temple and know what to do. But if you are exploring the temple for the first time, I think lvl 4 is 'safe' to start as long as you play intelligently. There are a few baby-sitter NPCs and some role-playing elements that are meant to help you survive the first few levels of the temple, but I won't spoil it for you if you don't know who/what they are.


One trick to make grinding much safer (Spoiler):

Spoiler

instead of killing Lareth, spare his life and have him join your party. While Lareth is a member of your party, wandering monsters won't attack you, but you can still attack them if you choose. You can't trade with most people in Homlett when Lareth is joined, but Nulb should still be ok. Once I leveled up the party this way (back and forth from Moathouse to Nulb about 100 times) till Lareth was lvl 6 and he then took Forge Magic Armor feat and made some useful things before he "left".

 

Heh, which one is that? The

Spoiler

sirens? Leucrottas + Jackalweres

?

 

Neither one of those, though they're both still interesting fights... it's the

Spoiler

Nightwalker and Greater Shadows

that still gives me trouble. The last time, my melee character (with almost 200 hp) was knocked down relatively quickly. I'm just glad I invested in Periapts of Wound Closure. I haven't seen the

Spoiler

Elder Fire Elementals

since they wiped me out somewhere before 10th level, but I imagine they'll also be tough.

 

A bit surprising I must say!

Do you reckon some of the encounters appear too early?

 

I do no grinding at all and the game is easy enough yet up to the earth temples final fight.

 

That encounter was the only one I found to be completely beyond handling. Since it's only happened once, it may have been a fluke. Or at least I hope so!

Oddly, the random encounter generator seems to have swung the other way for me at the moment. I've had several encounters in a row with an ettin and a few hobgoblins, with a handful of bugbears sprinkled in between. Of course, at my current level the XP is paltry or non-existent, but the potential for healing potions makes the bugbear encounters worthwhile.

 

Cool! Thanks Dudes. Now you've given me tantalizaing spoilered stuff that I need to finish the game to be able to back and read

Sounds like I'm good to just forge ahead.

I did get a "Troll x 3" but I had the "Avoid" option (my ranger has survival 11 or so so we don't get surprised too often), also a Hydra x 1 that had the avoid option too.

Since I had avoid as an option on both I went ahead and engaged them knowing I had a save from immediately before I decided to go ahead and give those a taste. I knew the Trolls was a bad idea for a level 4 party with no magic items, no fire, no acid (if they were anything like in old school D&D) and yep! Bad idea. The hydra they managed to kill but with one man down, so I just went back and skipped both of those.

The funnest one was the Carrion Crawler x 1. Holy crap!? That things gets 10 attacks per round!?

The Hobgoblin, goblin, jackal, wolf, and lizard population in and around Hommlet must have been depleted by a good 25% or so by now

 

Nope, I don't grind on them. Usually I try to avoid them whenever possible. If one of the brand new random encounters comes up though, I'll probably do them, though the only one I encountered so far is the one I mentioned below.

The Temple gives a lot of EXP and a lot of riches if you know where to look, to the point that grinding in this game is just excessive.

The only new encounter I've had so far was with a pair of Invisible Stalkers. Flame Strike from my Druid and few hits with my newly forged weapons were enough to beat them quite easily.

... Though now I question why creatures from the Elemental Plane of Air are wandering around in the countryside. Must be the start of the dark ages...

 

I got 2 HUGE Fire Elementals along with some accompanying Fire Snakes at party levels 4th and 5th mixed. It was the only TPW of my last run, but quite refreshing to be surprised like that.

 

Five Foot Step is your best friend.

 

I grind them if I am close to advancing to the next level and a big fight is next on the agenda.

 

I grind them if I am close to advancing or if their a spell/equipment I feel like using/crafting. (the latter is usally during late games)

Or for general role-playing purpose.

You don't really need to grind in this game, the game throws you enough xp and tools for you to use.

 

Agree that there is plenty of xp (especially in the Temple) without grinding random encounters. Besides, the way xp works-- with CR (creature rating) -- equates to a redux in xp value in some encounters the higher the hero's level.
I know the Co8 modders have worked hard to create a balanced, natural progression with xp values and modifiers. If memory serves, the xp in the vanilla game is quite high and your toon levels up faster than they can 'progress' through the game/story with balanced play...

Quite the opposite of the original pnp module (for 4 to 8 characters, levels 1-8). Beginning in Hommlet at 1st or 2nd level, the moathouse was insanely difficult (especially Lareth). No xp to speak of in Nulb. Entered the Temple at 3rd or 4th level at most. Clearing each Temple level basically equated to 1 char level gain. Entered the Nodes at 7th level at most, and exited with enough xp for 8th, even when trying to avoid every node encounter possible -- being full of instant death in many cases. Of course, 1st edition level progression was much steeper than 3.5.

Personally, I avoid nearly all toee random encounters if possible (just like pnp), unless I'm looking for Amii's cure. But the new ones are interesting and challenging ...