Favorite and non-favorite Crafted Items?

Those games are balanced around the idea that magical items only need you to spend gold to create. D&D is not. Video games in general have a very Monty Hall mentality. Something that does not work in very well in a PNP game.

The Developers set out to recreate the PNP game as accurately as they could. They didn't want to make "just another CRPG". Bugs aside, they succeeded in their goal, and for many of us, it's what attracted us to the game in the first place. No one is twisting your arm to play ToEE instead of one of those other games where you can just spend you gold at Tim's Mage Mart and get anything you want.

 

Meh, whatever happened to destroying gems for xp? :evil_laug

 

The bottom line is its NOT a PnP game and it IS a CRPG and just becuase I choose to attempt to play it again does NOT mean I am not going to complain about things in I don't happen to like.

I was under the impression that discussing games and how they work and whats right or wrong with them was the whole purpose of having a disussion forum about them but perhaps I was mistaken about that if the only discussion boils down to rtfm and go play something else if you don't like it.

 

The whole point of ToEE was that it was trying to be a faithful reproduction of a PnP module. It's not Baldur's Gate or NWN with their twist on DnD rulesets - it's PnP rules as best as can be replicated in a PC game.

Aye. But rtfm is ancient and time honoured advice. Surprisingly many people don't follow it and are unaware of little things like identify costing 100 gp to cast.

There are things I don't like with the DnD rules (I preferred Rolemaster for my PnP kicks) but this is a game which is intended to be as close to 3.5 rules as is possible so saying things like "losing experience when dying sucks - instead stats should be lowered to replicate the trauma of dying, but experience should be gained for going through to the other side" is just a waste of time typing. No-one here is going to want to mod the game away from 3.5 rules.

No-one's saying there's something wrong about discussing things about the DnD rules. But you can't fault ToEE (a game which is intended to follow the 3.5 ruleset as closely as possible) for following those rules. If you want to take issue with the 3.5 rules then a DnD site may be a better place to do it.

 

I'm not sure if this is truly the case, but a wizard with the craft wand feat and identify can create a Wand of Identify that can be used twenty times and does not appear to cost the 100gp each use.

 

This is what most players do...craft a wand. For things like potions & scrolls, they read magic. And there's a really cool helm out there now that can be crafted for just such a purpose...the reading of magic. Nobody likes crushing up 100 gp pearls in their wine, stirring it with an owl's feather, swallowing a live gold fish & then chasing it with the previously mixed beverage. It's enough to make you sick.

 

Well, what a fine discussion we have here about crafting!

My two cents--

Penny One-- I have said it before and it bears repeating-- This is an absolutely FABULOUS CRPG adaptation of 3.5 DnD PnP rules-- truly marvelous and I think -especially with the ability and desire of great modders to Mod- the CLOSEST and MOST Playable thing next to DnD!! And very expandable! Bravo to everyone involved--including you Spike- for your insight, if not modding skills.

Penny two-- VERY important Penny-- (Wanderon this is your dead horse- but listen to its voice from the grave)-- PnP DnD is a wonderful game in that each and every DM has the ability to balance the game and change the rules as they see fit--We ALL can't agree on Everything--as evidenced by this crafting debate!-- So in PnP we can have "House Rules"
In ToEE we have "Console Commands" I have Crafted exactly 6 items, and only 6 -- for four of them I took a CON point each (via console commands) away from my Cleric (he's down to only a 13 thank God he was a Dwarf) and the other two cost my elven rogue/wizard a point each (again achieved via the console) and NEITHER of them cost them EXP (adjusted back to group level via- you guessed it- Console Commands!)--

Because I think a little more along Wanderon's way as far as EXP and Crafting goes, I used "Console Commands" to enact a "House Rule"

Any thoughts on that?

 

The fact that ToEE was "attempting" to recreate the PnP experience is well known even by non D&D nerds like me however opinions on the success of that vision are varied as are opinions of whether the entire "vision" itself was flawed from the start and destined to come to a rather messy conclusion as a CRPG which like it or not is exactly what the game is.

My point has been that I take issue with how ToEE decided to implement the D&D rules. I could care less about the D&D rules in general because I don't play PnP nor am I ever likely to. It appears to me that they must have made most of those decisions with the express purpose of annoying me in mind based on the level of annoyance discovering some of these decisions has brought to my door.

Probably the biggest offender being the way the devs decided to keep what is normally considered to be relevent material hidden from the player both in-game and in the manual leaving it up to the player to go find outside sources of D&D rules and to "guess" at whether or not any of them were implemented as is or in some other manner.

Things like saving throws or duration or damage amounts for spells. Things like whether or not all of the D&D components were added for a particular spell or not. WTF is all the secrecy about? WTF are the gimpy spell descriptions for? So you can "set the mood" since theres no DM to do it for you? So the magic has some secrecy and magic about it and the fact that it comes down to dice rolls is something that should not see the light of day?

Having never played PnP I have no idea how close this comes to that experience but I am certainly not the only one that finds many things about this game to be just plain poor craftmanship.

 

While many people may indeed be comfortable using console commands or editors to write their own game rules and/or make changes of all kinds large and small I am not one of those people.

 

Yes, Wanderon, I know, and respect that. But alas, I always hope

Back to a previous post of mine on this thread-- animal companions on suicide missions--

I have discovered a "loophole" around that. You can dismiss your companion before a (known or suspected) fight, then call them back after resting. Giving them the same name
generates the "feel" of having told them to go away for their safety, then calling them back later- Of course this is kinda silly in, say, the elemental nodes! And if you do happen to have a Great Big Brown Bear who could have been of help, you lose that bonus, but it is not an entirely flawed idea to save the little buggers lives for the time being.

Ted, Allyx, think "Humble Animals" in the next patch-'k? Liv (does she even read these things I never see her post) stay AWAY from the animals-- keeping them alive is dificult enough! Really.

Also-- anyone ever think of some better (maybe stronger) familiars, and how to make them actually playable? This game promised "5 PCs and up to 3 other NPCs/animal followers and familiars. Now we all know the familiars can increase their Sorcerer/Wizard's skills, or HP or something at thier creation/calling, but have no other game play than that! A nice Pseudodragon's poison sting or hide ability would be wonderful to roleplay (and especially if most familiars can be "Humble" and thereby put out of play in dangerous situations-perhaps in a backpack or something)

Whatdya think Modders?

 

Keep in mind the fact that this game was unfinished when released. It was barely in a beta stage, and it was not the developers decision to release it in that state.

 

Bravo Allyx and Blue! More Playable familiars on the future front! Woo HOO!

Shame about Liv though- I liked her difficulty increasing- and on those same lines Ted-- I actually agree- more independent NPCs would be fine- WITH some sense put in them-- but not more independent Followers or Familiars-- those should always be pretty controllable dontcha think? I mean Druid/animal and Wizzieor Sorc/Familiar relationships have always been controlled by the human for the most part.

As far as hacking the .dll is Morpheus still around and/or inclined?