As I plan my party: 1. What is the expected party size? 5 PCs and 3 NPCs? 2. What is the maximum level that it is reasonable to assume that my party will get to?
While your party's characters remain at character level 1, combats in the KotB module are brutally difficult! This difficulty can be lessened by having lots of characters in your party and/or having powerful NPCs in your party (such as Two Swords, Korrac, and Brother Fist). Once your characters get to character level 2, the game becomes MUCH easier! And once your characters reach character level 3, you should be able to handle any opponents in the module. If you are playing an "evil" party, you can have a party size of 8 without any bad consequences. If you are playing a "good" party, then I strongly recommend that you have at least 1 NPC slot free because there are some NPCs in the module that need rescuing (and you won't be able to rescue some of them if you don't have a free NPC slot). The character level that your party's characters finish the module at depends on the number of characters in your party. The less characters in your party, the higher the character level that the characters in your party will finish the module at. I did a playthrough of the module with a party of 5 characters who all finished the module at character level 6. There are plenty of magical daggers that you can acquire in the module. The following are all of the permanent recruitable NPCs currently in the module: Robin Graves (male human Necromancer 2) (location: roaming the graveyard during the day(?); inside Flay's home at night(?)) Brother Fist (male half-orc Monk 2) (location: inside the church during the day; inside the pub(?) at night) Two Swords (female human Fighter 2 (Two-Weapon Fighting)) (location: inside the pub at night) Milo (male halfling Sorcerer 2) (location: inside the pub at night) Korrac (male dwarf Cleric 1 / Fighter 1) (location: inside the pub at night) Angela (female half-elf(?) Bard 2) (location: up the ladder inside the inn. She will only join your party if your party size is 7) Lorin (male human Druid) (location: at the druid shrine in the Northern Oak Woods once you have cleared the druid shrine of monsters and then talked to Kepler) Mia (female Wemic Ranger (Two-Weapon Fighting)) (location: Raider Camp) Aereon(?) (male Ranger 2 (archer)) (location: random encounter) I hope that this helps you with your party planning.
Mia's a ranger, I think you'll find. The game is balanced (when such things were carefully considered) for a party around 5-6 strong. As Gazra said, use the NPCs if you need some early muscle, much like using Elmo in ToEE. O, and there's a recruitable Druid named Lorin. Some of his attributes (like proficiencies) vary randomly Also there's some later-game prisoners of varying types who will stay in your party if you want, and some mercenaries in the pub to recruit (fight independently as ai_followers but charge money to do so). Or buy an attack dog / chicken.
Don't forget Buttercup. Oh, she only readies vs. Approach, you say. Guess what the suitable strategy is then? :yes:
What!? I can have my very own fowl of foulness? Where, pray tell .... Doth this fearless feathered force of frenzy find itself waiting for my companionship?
You can buy animal companions from the Animal Seller (see building #7 in the map below). Originally posted by Shiningted: I'm guessing the Ox is named Buttercup.
I know this is an old post but wanted to say thanks. I was about to give up looking. I loaded up my party for the first play through to check out the NPC's and could not for the life of me figure out how to get them back into the party once i let one go to rescue the merchant. Knowing that they are gone once released changes how I will play the game. Glad I figured it out before i got very far. @Garza - This tidbit should be added to the walk through. I scanned it to see if there was any info on where they would be after release and there is none.
Well I do know one thing.... Have a slot or two open at all times. Been lurking for years found my lost password and decided to log on. **** Still play Pen and Paper (2ed) and have passed my Anthology copy out to everyone in my group and they have downloaded the Temple Mod.. Once I have digested more of the Keep I will recommend they download that as well. I am so glad that a game that I loved as a kid has morphed into so many more hours of enjoyment. I have no idea how many times i have played these games over the years to then put them down and pick them up a year or two later. (I'm talking Icewind Dale and Baulders Gate as well) Is the Palace of the Silver Princess next? Or are you out of viable hair?
That was the very first module I ever played and I don't remember a thing about it I believe there are some individual efforts at new modules going on (eg Marc) but noi plan for a new official Co8 effort to my knowledge. KotB is still a ways from a final polished version, though it can certainly be played beginning to end.
Well, we have giants, that's for sure. It's the cooperative combat of the Orc slave revolt in G1 that bothers me - the ToEE engine is, alas, not built for that. A real oversight - one of my favourite parts of BG (1) was how if you fought in a just cause, the local guards came in on your side. In fact, sensible combat decisions by groups is one of my personal benchmarks of a good game. - Good example: U5 Lazarus: you get attacked by Gazers in the mountains above Trinsic. If you run like hell (and the Gazers follow) you can run them right into Trinsic, where the guards will join in and help you defeat them. :yes: - Bad Example: a mod of Jedi Knight I played years ago that stuck in my mind, where I was attacked by Storm Troopers (of course). There was a Wampa nearby for some reason, so I lured the buggers over near it. It attacked me, ignoring the Stormies. I hate that :no: Any game (eg RTSs) where the player is singled out for special attention is lazy AI imho.
In many of the NWN2 adventures I would lure my attackers back to a town and watch the over powered guards handle it for me.
