Regarding Lock Picking

I am pretty new to the boards, so hello first of all. Love the C08 mods, they are brilliant and beautifully designed. I stumbled on them when the gaming group I play with suggested TOEE game to me. I was skeptical, I'm not one who usually plays video games, but this one has been a joyful experience, and has ultimately helped me learn a lot of rules to the game.

The question I had, was regarding the lock picking for this mod. It seems even at level 10, my rogue struggles to unlock chests.

I'm also running a side adventure where it's a complete impossibility to open any chest with my level 2 rogue. I don't mind the realism, but are all these chests set to DC 30 locks? I mean everything else in this superb mod is fine, in fact I was pleased to see the rogue become a bit more viable. I just am frustrated with spending 20 minutes clicking "Open Lock" and never to know if I am just rolling bad or if it's something impossible to do.

I understand using the spell knock as well, but I am hoping I don't have to use it for every single chest out there. Just some curiosities is all, and thank you for reading my question.

 

First of all, welcome to Co8!

There are several ways to increase your rogue's Open Locks skill. First, give him/her points in the skill when you level up. It doesn't matter if the rogue is level 2 or level 12 - the lock picking skill is based on Dex and skill points. Second, you suffer a penaly of -2 if you don't have lockpicks equipped on your character - conversely, you get a +2 bonus for masterwork lockpicks (which can be purchased in Nulb.) You can also use spells such as Cat's Grace, (Super)Heroism, and Guidance to boost your rogue's skill level.

Hope this helps.

 

Oh I know the ways in which to increase one's skill in it, obviously through leveling up, and high dex, but my question was more along the lines of "How difficult is a general chest to open?" As my level 2 rogue is maxed as possible in her lock picking skill, and yet I spend nearly 10 minutes left click/open lock, to no avail. I also have the lock picks that you get outside the Moat house. Yet I still fail on opening general chests about the moat house dungeon. The room with the spider is seemingly impossible, and also the giant lobster.

 

Oh, that's good information, sadly I didn't know there was a "rolls box" so thank you for that information, also, didn't realize the level in which to open a box. I tried using the mage spell "Open/Close" but it fizzles on all of the boxes, so I'm guessing that is a useless spell.

Generally though, the drops I find on enemy NPC's or throughout the game has satiated my need for loot generally, I just get frustrated when I feel like my rogue is useless. Now I understand why. Thanks for all the information you two, it's appreciated. Now back to my level 2 crawl of the deadly moat house, I just killed Mr. Lobster, and I delve deeper into the Gnoll and Bugbear hideout!

 

Hi Carrie
Welcome aboard !! If you designed the artwork at the bottom of your post, you better hide real quick or a guy by the name of Shining Ted may "volunteer" you for some projects he is working on. Very nice job.
If I may, allow me to give you some pointers on Rogues in ToEE
1.) As Erkper pointed out, the two main items that determine how good your Rogue is at picking locks are his/her Dexterity, and how many skill points you assign to "Open Locks"
2.) Something Erkper didn't point out is that there is a feat called "Nimble Fingers" that adds 2 to your Rogues "Open Locks" skill

With those two facts in mind, when I create a Rogue, I almost always go with an Elf (for the 2 extra points of Dexterity) and give him the feat "Nimble Fingers" . If you have a Rogue with decent Intelligence (I confess, I keep rolling until I can get a Rogue with at least 16 Intelligence and Charisma) you shouldn't have a problem getting your Rogue's "Open Locks" skill high enough that he/she can open any chest you encounter at 4th Level. In fact, I usually end up with a Rogue/Wizard Level 4/10, because I find having a second high level wizard in the party is more useful than having a high level rogue (with the character being an Elf I don't have to worry about losing Experience Points because of the imbalance between the Rogue and Wizard Levels).

The Royal Canadian

 

Oh, thank you all for the welcome, I appreciate it. This is a wonderful community from what I've read through thus far. To answer that query, yes I did design the signature you saw below, it's my other passion. So if my graphic design can aid in helping out this forum, consider me volunteered. I do know quite a bit about signature design, and rendering

The rogue tips are appreciated highly, I thank you for that helpful advice. I honestly just barely started playing DnD, and I really liked it. I went to a game with my husband, with complete disdain. I didn't want to be there, and thought I'd hate it. Some of the guys I knew in high school who played were so obsessed with it, you couldn't ever get them to talk about anything else, so I started hating it through them. Though finally playing it was a wonderful experience I look forward to doing many times over.

My character is a bard, which I was given a lot of teasing over, but I enjoyed playing her, and I know my inspiring music saved a few behinds that day. Which is why I'm now working on reading through the players manuals and such, trying to become as skilled as I can. Plus playing this game has helped me understand all the classes a lot more, and their roles in the DnD world.

Which is why Temple Of Elemental Evil was suggested, one of the guys there was telling me how close it is to DnD and it would help me to learn the game in a more fun setting. Then he suggested the Circle Of The Eight modification, and here I am. He says playing the original TOEE doesn't truly grasp DND as well as this mod does.

So I guess in many words, that's my way of saying thank you to the designers and developers who put all this work into it. Once I make my way through the current module, I look forward to the Keep one I've been reading about.

Also, again thank you TRC, I appreciate your advice about rogues, it will help for sure. I do have one last question though if it's not too much trouble. I couldn't find how to add additional party members to my quest. I see them appear in the tavern after I click on the book, but they simple talk to me as generic npc's. I'd welcome any tips on that one! Thanks again in advance.

 

Carrie,

To be perfectly honest, I do enough FedEx quests in Hommlet that my party is usually level 3 by the time we hit the Moathouse, and at that point, I've never had much trouble with the chests. As TRC said, by the time your rogue gets to 4th level, you shouldn't have trouble with any lock in the game.

Wow, thats the second bug report like that we've seen recently - and I've never seen it before. I'd recommend posting this in the Co8 5.5 bugs report thread in the General Modifications forum so it can be officially added to the bug list to be investigated. You did use the Front End to set the number of PCs at or above the number you're trying to add with the guest book, right?

 

Hi Carrie

I guess my answer to this question depends on how many PCs you have in your party. If you already have 5 PCs in your party, you need to change the maximum number of PCs the game will let you have. To change the number of PCs in your party, start the Co8 Front End and click on "Options" and then click on "Modify Max Number of Players in the Party" . The default setting is 5 PCs and 3 NPCs. Keep in mind that you can't have more than 8 members in your party at any one time. I should also point out that any PCs that you add to the party from the "Guest Book" at the Inn will be 1st Level and will have no equipment.

The Royal Canadian

 

TRC, I am aware of how to change the number of people in the party, the problem is, they don't join when I recruit them. They stand at the center of the tavern talking to me like NPC's of no warrant do. The little picture with a random comment like "Yes Ma'am?" and so forth.

 

Hi Carrie
Sorry for stating the obvious. I would follow Erkpers advice and post it on the buglist.
Sorry about that !

The Royal Canadian

 

Carrie,

Here's a kinda random question: why are you adding PCs from the guestbook? Did you change the max # of PCs in the Front End mid-game? Some Front End settings only work with new games, and changing them mid-game could cause problems - though I'm not sure if max # of PCs is one of them. Maybe Agetian (TFE-X designer extrordinare) will browse through this thread and answer that one...

 

OK, good to know. I wasn't aware Humble NPCs couldn't be changed until Agetian said so in another thread, so I was just checking.