Evil direction

I am playing a lawful evil party and am having trouble finding reason to get to places that will give me experience.

I came to Homlett, smacked up a few chickens and even killed Black Jay's sheep and blamed it on some kid who was sneaking around at night. I'm not interested in helping out any of the pathetic peasants in town, though the woodcutter told me of some giant spiders so I went and killed them for fun. Toruko sent me off to the moathouse and I knocked off all the bandits there but there's no sign of Fragarach yet. I sent Lareth on his way and the traders in Homlett seem interested in me doing some work for them. I could head off to Nulb, but I hear it's a pretty rough town and my PCs are only level 3. I heard somebody mention the battle of Emridy Meadows and I could go there, but the only person who I know of that might give me directions is Terjeron and I'm not setting foot in his church if I can help it.

Who else can give me directions to the meadow?

 

One of the problems with proper roleplaying is that this game doesn't really encourage it. For example, I've found that the best way to get decent amounts orf extra experience, apart from the usual constant resting at the Deklo grove, is to eliminate every single one of Hommlet's inhabitants, and all the Nulb pirates and all the people in the 2 Nulb Inns, after doing all the Hommlet/Moathouse/Nulb/Desperate Housewives quests, of course. (I usually just go the shortest route to Temple levels 3 and 4 to do the Desperate Housewives' quest without doing all the levels first-). This way, I still have Mother Screng and the Oriental weapons-seller in Nulb to sell my gems to, and still gain the maximum possible experience.

Anyway, the result of this is that I feel morally obliged to always use a NE party in the game to get enough EXp for the end of the game. In some ways, the game is balanced in that, while the good-aligned parties are weaker due to not wiping out Hommlet etc., they can, unlike evil-aligned parties, rely on joining the two most overpowered NPCs, namely Scorrp and Prince Thrommel with Fraggarach, but then I've always found that using such ridiculously powerful NPCs makes the game way too easy. Of course, one can ignore strict roleplaying and still take them on, even if evil-aligned, but that 's pointless.

Also, with strict roleplaying, I would think it's only possible for a party member to properly use Fraggarach if one has a CG party member within a CN-aligned party, as you need to kill Prince Thrommel to get the sword, which is not a good act,
but only CG characters can use Fraggarach at its full potential.

 

I have never had a problem justifying doing the Homlett quests with an evil party. I am not doing them to help the people involved, I am doing them to gain power (i.e. wealth and experience) to later use against them. I exploit the people of Homlett for personal gain, all the while lulling them into thinking I am good so they don't try to squash me while my party is still weak.

 

I've never used the uber NPCs and don't have a problem finishing the game. The key to the end game for good parties is crafting yourself holy weapons, not recruiting super NPCs.

 

I myself have found that evil parties are at a distinct disadvantage in this game. Unless you are smart, you could kill all of Hommlet (most of it) and have no way of getting masterwork items from Bro Smythe (once you have the butcher of Hommlet rep you are done for). I am amazed this was never thought out. The only solution is to lull them all into complacency, get what you need and then kill em all. But you are about level 5 by then (you need to kill a giant to get the quest to work), but till then, you are at the mercy of the good folk. REAL evil people would not wait, but we must just to get some good weapons.

 

Unless there's a store of master work stuff already made; then you have to wait until it's fabricated. Evil would do what is necessary to further it's own ends, as Blue suggests. I think it really depends on the ethos (law vs. chaos) moreso than anything else; except of course for what is limited by the gameplay itself. If it's not a pre-programmed situation, then by default it cannot occur. RP in general is pretty limited in this game.

 

I disagree. ToEE is based on the paper and pencil plus dice version of original module.

In most settings in D&D, evil aligned characters would wait and do wait, as needed. At least, that is what the smarter or more intelligent ones most certainly would do, especially if needed. Hommlet is a town of mostly neutral and good aligned folk. Any evil aligned character would have to go to an evil town to get masterwork items from an evil NPC smith--Hommlet does not have an evil aligned smith. An evil aligned character might approve more about the idea of getting masterwork items from Nulb better considering the general disposition of its folk. However, it is a smaller town than Hommlet and is a river pirate town, more of a township than town or small city. So naturally, the availability of masterwork items from Nulb would be more limited than what can be obtained in Hommlet.

 

I had a chat to Spugnoir and Zert and neither of them offered anything about Emridy Meadows. Burne mentioned it, but didn't offer directions.

 

Are you quite sure? The trouble with the map is that the sites don't show unless you place the pointer/mouse over them. Emridy meadows is in the northwest corner of the map.

 

Dont forget there are some master work weapons (i think all two handed tho), in the first level of the trmple in the barrels near the entrance.

 

Yep. Quite sure.
Locations do show fainly in the map... they just don't highlight until you put the cursor over them. I've been to the meadow many times in prior games. I know where it is.
The people at the inn will of course give directions to the Moathouse, but not Emridy Meadows as far as I can tell. Terjeron is the only one who I can remember that does it, but surely there must be others?

 

i've been there, but i found a nice solution to it. when bro smyth attacks you on sight, cast charm person or suggestion or so on him. when he becomes charmed or an npc of your party, talk to him using the talk command in the radial menu. he hill have a normal dialogue as if nothing happened, and you can still sell him stuff and tell him to give you masterwork items or so. when your done with him, beat him up. don't kill him, just do lots of nonlethal damage. you can leave hommlet, and when you need something from him again, wait till he wakes up from nonlethal damage, charm him again, do what you want, and then 'send him back to sleep'. you see, this also works in roleplaying story sense, since you make him a mindless slave, with no personal will or freedom.
one little trick i haven't had time to try is drop his intellegence using curse on him multiple times (which would lower his appraise skills) and hence be able to sell him stuff for more money and get things cheaper from him. note that when his intellegence becomes less than zero, he becomes paralysed, that way, when he is not charmed and spots you, combat will start, but he shouldn't be able move, so you can charm him more easly, avoiding the risk of him charging to you and getting a lethal attack of opportunity if you have someone with a glaive or longspear with combat reflexes...

 

You obviously take pride and joy in being evil. Commendable. I shall keep this in mind for my foray as an evil group. I have always been bothered by the fact you can butcher up Hommlet (a sensible thing, as it is easy experience) but then be limited in how you can get masterwork items as easily as a good party. This is my focus; an evil party should have and evil version of Bro Smythe. Conversely, you could mod up Rannos and Gremag to sell them to you after a quest is done (obviously evil; kill Terjon, Jaroo etc...) and then the evil would have a safe, reliable person to buy from, albeit at maybe a higher price.