Favorite and non-favorite Crafted Items?

Ahhh ok so much for draining Burne down to nothing to open our own shop then...

Having already run across some critters that became extremely difficult to beat due to only really hitting them on crits I suppose we will have to bite the bullet and at least craft some weapon enhancements altho it appears we will have to gain another level before any will be available (or take Burne who is already level 8 I think).

I was just reading through the guide by Lord Plothos and came across something that says casting identify from a spell slot costs 100 gold ---- is this true for ToEE????

 

Yes. Casting Identify uses up 100 gold.

While not a ton of them, there areas where you can buy some magical equipment. Calmert has a holy heavy mace +1 for sale. Mother Screng sells a Staff of Life. Between them, Skole and Lodriss in the Boatman's Tavern in Nulb have gloves of Dexterity +4 and +2, respectively, cloaks of resistance+1, rings of protection+1, amulets of proof against poison, wands of cure light wounds (very inexpensive way of keeping your party healed without using up spells) and daggers+2. Plus, Lodriss' stock replenishes itself over time.

While this isn't exactly a mega mall of magic, you don't find magical mega malls in D&D either. If someone had enough gold to stock one or more of a hundred different magical items, they'd be rich enough to buy their own country. So why are they risking their life and their wellfare selling these things?

The advantage of crafting is it guarantees you get the exact magical items you want/need. Of course, in exchange it requires some sacrifice. (As a DM, I once tried having the equivalent of a huge magical item store in my game. It was a disaster as the players were able to tweak their characters to perfection and just waltz through anything I threw at them. [Not to say I couldn't have killed them, but killing a party is easy. You just throw something they have no chance of defeating at them. I was trying to give them appropriate challenges. You throw something bigger than then they should be able to fight at them to make up for their magical items and yeah, the fight is tough, but then they gain buku XP for it, level up and you have to throw something even bigger at them the next time.])

As for who makes the best crafter, probably wizards. Between the bonus feats that can be applied towards crafting and the huge amount of spells they can know, they're going to be your primary crafter. Clerics and Druids are second, and both of them have some spells the wizard can't get. (The 4th level Good domain spell Holy Smite is required to make Holy weapons, which are almost essential in the later parts of the game.) Sorcerers make lousy crafters just because their spell selection is so low, but they can still get some use out of Craft Arms and Armor. Bards are even worse crafters because of again, the limited selection of spells. Don't even bother taking crafting feats for Paladins and Rangers.

 

I can't believe the devs didn't think it necessary to mention in the identify spell description that using it would cost you 100 gold - I never knew this at all are there other spells that use this "hidden" ingredient cost as well???

I didn't take the good domain so I guess the holy option is off the table for this group. The only stuff I really see a need for at this point is some weapon enhancement effects to get past the DR on tough critters and perhaps some better armor for the druid. I gave the elven chain to the bard and the rogue while the cleric and tank have pretty good armor but the druid still has plain studded leather altho he's primarily an archer anyway so it has not been much of an issue.

We have about 24K in gold right now so I guess it wouldnt hurt to spend some - maybe I will take Burne and see if he has the CA&A feat already and see what can be done- I can always reload if I don't like the results...

 

It's listed in the manual.

 

I would have to suggest getting some Masterwork Hide Armor for your Druid, and adding +3 enchantment at least, and maybe SR 13.

Brother Smyth has everything available for enchantment (i.e. Masterwork anything)- even my Sorcerer has a +3 shortspear, though he rarely if ever uses it. And +3 armor is a MUST!

 

Next patch-Allyx, Ted, Spike-- Please make Ah-Fong available without the Desperate housewives or 1.3 playful patch I need to go to that place!

 

Somehow I didn't think it was necessary to look up the identify spell in the manual to see if they decided to have it remove gold from my inventory since not a single CRPG I have ever played did this.

Or perhaps you are suggesting that everyone should read the manual from cover to cover before attempting to play???

Can you think of any legitimate reason why such pertinent information would NOT be included in the spell description in game or for that matter why EVERY option for identifying magic items in the game should cost 100 gold in the first place??

Isn't it customary in D&D for items to have lore values and for characters to be able to gain skills in lore which could then be used to indentify some items without even using a spell? And if they decided not to include this that perhaps they should have at least allowed the identify spell to work for free???

And if they did not that they should have at least made every effort to let the gamer know this is the case by putting the information in the freaking spell description or perhaps by including one of their famous little pop-ups to remind you when you went to cast the spell that you could then disable!!!!
:doublethu

 

Well we just picked up Burne and he doesnt have the CA&A feat and I didn't give it to anyone else at level 6 so it will all have to wait until either Burne goes from 8 to 9 or until my druid or cleric goes from 7 to 9.

Do I even get the chance to choose Burnes feats with Co8.v4 installed or does that require a seperate mod to do? If I don't get to choose his feats then I may press on without him for now to max our exp gain.

 

Actually, no, it's not customary in D&D. Bards in D&D get a chance to recognize items, but it's dependant on how famous the items are. Random +1 items have next to no chance. A holy avenger, on the other hand, would have a pretty high chance. Even then, this ability does not work as well as an Identify spell. The bard only gets a vague idea of what the item does. Unfortunately, this isn't implemented in ToEE, but it would have a minor effect on the game, at best, even if it was.

It would have been nice if the 100gp cost had been included in the in-game spell description, and I'm not sure why it wasn't, but I generally don't get pissy if I didn't know something about a game that was clearly stated in that game's manual.

By default, Co8 4.0 allows you to level up NPCs as PCs, I believe. So no, you don't need anything else.

 

Well it certainly makes me pissy that it was not included in the in game description and only included in the spell description in the manual (not mentioned under the bartering section which is the only other time identify is mentioned in the manual. Identify does not even appear in the index.) Isn't that the whole purpose of having "in-game" spell descriptions and other information so that you don't have to play with the manual in your hand??

Its certainly not like these developers did not know that this is totally different than any other D&D based CRPG out there (I have never found one that did not offer some manner of identifying items for free with the proper spells or abilities) and I'm also fairly sure it may have crossed their minds that people might be a bit miffed that apparently this is the ONLY time they have bothered to implement this rather obscure notion of charging a spellcaster gold for casting a spell. If its relevant for this spell why the hell isn't it relevant to every other spell that calls for that sort of component. I thinks its bullshit myself but then I'm not a PnP D&D nerd so maybe I just don't freaking "get it"...:rant:

 

actually, the XP cost involved with crafting items makes perfect sense, considering the type of game system D&D is.
This isn't a system where you are rewarded XP in certain skills as you use them. This is abstracted to the point of you assigning those experience values yourself when you 'level up' instead.
You don't gain XP for crafting items you already know how to craft. You do however expend the amount of energy (mental and spiritual i assume) needed to craft those items.
You learn how to craft new items by choosing the feat required and/or gaining the levels required to craft it.
Considering you also spend energy (albeit differently) when you cast normal spells and only get better at casting them when you gain levels, I don't see how this doesn't make sense.
That some spells cost money to cast - well, spells in D&D often require material components and reagents to cast. This part of D&D has been abstracted into you just paying a price equal to that of the material components. It actually complies with the rules quite well, all things considered.

 

The developers of ToEE didn't care what other D&D game developers had done. Their goal was to represent the D&D rules in a computer game as accurately as possible.

And FYI, the old gold box AD&D games from SSI did the exact same thing ToEE does as far as Identify is concerned. Bioware inserted a Lore system into their D&D games, but Bioware isn't Troika. Complaining that Troika didn't adapt D&D the same way as Bioware did is like complaining that Peter Jackson didn't adapt LotR the same way Ralph Bakshi did. (Though I give Bioware a lot more credit than I do Bakshi.)

 

EGAD! Stoneskin costs?!?!

So much for arbitrarily using THAT spell! No wonder my group is broke all the time. As a PnP D&D nerd DM I used to limit the use of such powerful spells by giving them a cost of around 1000 GP per use-- please tell me this is NOT the amount I have been paying....

Oh, and no more "Raise Dead" of the freakin Animal Companion of the Druid, because of Gameplay storyline!!! I mean we liked Spike the Rottweiler and Jacques the Playful Brown Bear, but not THAT much.

Speaking of which-- does anyone know how to keep the Animal Companion of the Druid from attacking? He doesn't if he's too far away, but sometimes he just runs up to something he is WAAAY overclased by, and also my "ranged first, then let them come to us for melee" stategy is blown to heck too.