Reduced XP awards testing thread

Not yet. Must have slipped my mind.

Edit:

Nth session (lost count by now )

• Killed a bunch of things in the Temple level 2 - Ogres, a bunch of bugbears, Kelno, Minotaur, and the littlest troll (is there supposed to be a story behind him?). Gained 1395/1682 XP.
• Now that Ted reminded me, went to the gnarley woods (this was actually a small N+1 session). Stinking Cloud worked wonders, enabling me to fireball at my leisure. It's a good thing I have spell penetration! But even if I didn't, I can't fail the SR roll all the time against everyone, right? Anyway, the Rogue was actually the only one who showed some resistance, constantly making a successful Reflex save and taking no damage, so I had to magic missile him instead. Also, a funny thing happened. I'm not sure if the AI did this on purpose, but the Drow fighter walked into my globe of lesser invulnerability after being sickened, so the effect fizzled. Too bad for him that he was already a mere 6 HP away from death when he tried to drink that healing potion +880/1131 XP, almost 30k GP from items I sold, and a pretty uber item I got from the witch and kept - the amulet of wounds closure (troll-like regeneration - wow!). I didn't want to take the gun from the witch because I find it too out of place.
  Regarding the loot, I think giving them all boots of elvenkind is pretty redundant... same for the dagger of venom, which the AI never uses properly AFAIK.

So, all in all, +2275/2813XP, 30K GP for these two sessions.

N+2 session:

• Some more dungeon cleaning in Temple level 2: A RE on the way there, Juggernaut, Water Bugbears, Water Snakes, Owlbear & Troll Keeper, Hyda & Troll Keeper, a carrion crawler, 3 Wisps on the way back to Nulb - in total, 1225/1454XP
• Rested, did Fire Temple fight. Was a lot easier than I expected (didn't even have to use Globe of Lesser Invulnerability). I managed to sicken both Noble Salamanders on the first round, then took my time with the ordinary salamanders and Bassanio, also sickening and webbing them, and finished everything off with magic missiles/my battlemages. +1020/1165 XP, and I'm now level 8!i
• Chopped up another two bugbears (I gotta say, fireballs are pretty useless against these guys, as they tend to dodge them) and the Temple werewolves for another 420/462XP

This latest romp has contributed 2585/3081 XP, a level up, and standard ToEE loot. I think I'll take greatsword proficiency with my main battlemage so he can wield Frostbrand.

Also, I seem to have encountered a bug where I have a 'master key' - I can open every container as if I had the key for it, even if I don't. Looking in the Keys tab in the Logbook, I found an entry for a key labelled 'reserved'. Presumabley it was used in testing. I wonder how I got it?

N+3 session:

• Slaughtered Greater Temple Bugbears in level 2 and the fire Temple bugbears near the stairs to level 3, netting 2591/3279 XP (and almost closing the gap between the resurrected party member and the rest). Now that the bugbears can evade fireballs fairly effectively, I finally see the advantage of Ice Storm over Fireball!
• Nuked Feldrin and his boys. Not much trouble there. Having over 250k GP, I didn't even bother with the ordinary loot.
• Finished off the Greater Temple Guards (what a joke they are! 12 HP warriors led by a 25HP leader!)
• My spells nearly exhausted, I went back to Hommlet for some rest. Crafted the +2 Spiked Chain into a Frosty Chain +2.
• Since the second level is almost clear, I decided to foray into the third. So I tackle Falrinth first. On the very first round, he casts Lesser Globe of Invulnerability, so most of my spells bounce off of him. The second round, he casts Stoneskin, so my battlemages can't get through effectively, and then he casts fireshield as well, so even when I connect, I take far more damage than he does (and I can't cast protection from energy on my battlemages since they're inside the anti-magic sphere). I figured I'd just wait till the sphere vanished, but then he summoned an air elemental! At this point I fled combat. I immediately returned after waiting a minute or so - Falrinth's spells wore off, enabling me to wipe the floor with him (dead in one round). Still, he put up a good fight earlier, I don't recall him being nearly as effective pre Co8.
• Next up was smigmal. Another fireball dodger. So I magic missiled her instead. +822/960 and a Blue Elven Chain I can't use
• Attacked the Wisp sentries. Casting prot. from energy (electricity) did the trick, allowing me to slowly magic missile them all to death (as they are immune to fire and cold, and my battlemages don't have a high enough To Hit bonus).

In total, this recent excursion netted 4429/5368 XP. One of my guys is nearly level 9 now (the designated crafter guy, who until the wisp fight I kept at a lower level so he'd gain more XP), the others are about 3000XP short of it. Seems like I'll reach Hedrack about halfway to level 10 or less, then.

 

Hello,

This isn't much of a first post, but I've been "lurking" here for a while. I was wondering:

Is there a link to the Reduced XP mod somewhere on the forum? I've searched high and low, but I've missed it, if it's here. I thought perhaps it was still in testing only.

Also, truly excellent work and sincerest commendations to everyone involved at Co8. You've fulfilled, and are fulfilling, one of my fondest wishes, which has been to keep ToEE and its engine alive. I can only express how happy I've been to install your various files and fixes. Three cheers!

 

You can find the Reduced XP mod here.

 

Thank you very much.

I'll go back to reading and playing for a while!

 

Since this seems to be the place for testing with reduced xp, here is my current situation. I have a party consisting of a fighter, mage, rogue and druid. Added Ronald and Zaxis (the latter recently). I've been playing with the 40% xp reduced, the start levels were a bit difficult but it became noticeably easier when I hit 5th, maybe 'cause the first thing I did was craft a wand of fireball

I had intended to play with a reduced gp award, in practice since the average gold per level has so far always been lower than the Wizards recommended values (as per DMG and PHB2), this hasn't been necessary. I should note that I have zero ranks in Appraise - I suspect this will make a big difference in the treasure values. Here's a short summary:-

Level 2 - still in Hommlet, have around 600 gp, donated half to Turgon. No items bought after Allyx' traders.

Level 3 after deklo grove and level 1 of moathouse. Using the value given by Craft Wondrous feat, have now got 270 gp, must have spent some on bribes to complete quests.

Level 4 after clearing moathouse and big three ambush - great stuff BTW. First time was a TPK, after which I rested in the moathouse and buffed before leaving. Total gold circa 7000, divided by five characters = 1350. Recommended value is 2700.

Level 5 after rainbow rock, orc cave, nulb quests and start of hickory (run away!). Nulb is very expensive! Paid 500 gp for Mona's orb, and *ahem* visiting certain ladies. Total gold = 14378, no small part of which is down to confiscating Rhianna's ring of invisibility, for the greater good! crafted wands of fireball and enfeeblement.

Level 6 during level 1 of temple. Total gold 8972

Level 7 during hickory, need a new wand of fireball but can't afford it. Still haven't crafted any stat-boosting items, but made my weapons all +1 and crafted a mithril shield to +2.

level 8 after clearing hickory, bumped into Zaxis and cleared most of level 1 of temple. Crafted a single axiomatic weapon. Total gold 17762 remaining.

level 9 after drow and dragon in Verbobonc.

So far, I would be disinclined to reduce treasure any further. Stoneskin is currently costing me 500 gp/time, which is draining my funds sufficiently. It may be that Appraise is overly powerful, or it may be that I haven't hit the excessive treasure areas yet, like the lower levels of the temple. I suggest someone plays through with a maxed out Appraise to see how big a difference this makes. It is also possible to abuse the system, for example by mugging Furnok and selling his ring of invisibity at first level! I suppose you could also try crafting in order to sell, if you can spare the xp. Obviously doing things like this would have a big impact on balance.