Random encounter shadows

Remember. You're still VERY early in the game. The Temple holds its own challenges as do the Nodes.

Still think its too easy? Have you set the HP/HD settings to maximum for NPC's and monsters?

You're not consoling UBER characters from the get go are you? That's a REAL easy way to unbalance game. Trust me.

As a veteran PnP and CRPG player, the games are only too easy if you, or someone else, lets them be.

 

Wait until you meet the Balor Guardian. You'll find out what hard is.

 

god, the first time i fought the balor it took me like 10 reloads

 

If Waterd103 did not find Lareth's club I can only assume Waterd103 did not finish the Moathouse and did not get the diary. Also, If you do a particular quest in Hommlet you gain possession of a very nice magical sword. Also you can acquire daggers +1 in combat. Give these daggers as back up weapons for your fighter types. If you get enough give them to your thief and spellcaster.

Yes, I had a random encounter with five shadows. The fight was brutal. I was able to move my wizard away from them and had my thief with a dagger +1 protect her. The paladin had Lareth's club and the fighter a dagger +1. The cleric was behind the paladin and fighter to keep them alive and intercept any shadows heading for the wizard. The party finished off the shadows and limped back to Hommlet.

The spellcaster must be protected! You may have to leave the rogue or healer near the spellcaster to throw a body in the way. Your spellcaster is your long range gun. If it is threaten you have to move it. Make sure your spellcaster has a high Dex and put points in tumble. Move just far enough away so you still have time to throw a spell. My spellcasters have been able to save their own skin this way. It is not required to have two wizards or sorcerors. I made through the game with one wizard and no NPC joining.

Yes shadows are a pain, but if you have played other D & D CRPGs like Pool of Radiance:Ruins of Myth Drannor you have encountered them before and know what they are capable of. Will o wisps are a pain. Not because they are strong or have lots of hp, but very fast and annoying.
But if you get a TPK that is part of the game. It rarely happens, but it can happen. Go back to a previous save and continue. Also remember to save and save often!

 

Yes, if i would have even ONE magic item at this point, i would had no problem, but i had NONE. All i can do is 0 damage, even my sorcerer can cast only 5 magic missile, taht won't take out 5 shadows, and my druid have only 2 cure light wounds.
The point is that so early the game should give you for sure at least a +1 dagger so you can hit them, or just avoid random shadows encounter where you CAN'T escape and CAN't Damage them. I could well have 115 characteres in my party, but if nobody can hit them, i will lose too.

And yes is not the first time i played against shadows in D&D, but generally at that point half my party have magic items, i never faced shadows at level 2, ever.

Again some answers here give a several misconcpetion of what difficulty is. Something is hard when there is a probem very difficult to solve. Random instant skills that you have no way to foresight aren't hard probelms. You can't do nothing about them so it's just plain stupidity. Also i never saw shadows in random encounters in any D&D game so early in the game, or any randmo encounter of creatures that only die to magical damage so early in the game in any d&D ever, unless you are told somewhere before hand that this can happen, and that you can't flee of them. You know why d&d in general that don't happen? because is stupid!, You should just accept that random encounter 5 shadows before giving me any warning or magical weapon where i can't flee isn't hard is a stupid instant kill. If when i traveled i would recive a message that said "you were wanderind and suddenly all your team died" It would have been exactly the same.

 

Man, I hate to say it, Waterd, but you seem to have struck a nerve with a few ppl on here. And, although, I'm not one of them, I know there are alot of the ppl on here that play D&D in rl with a dm, and I'm sure you wouldnt find it super easy playing with them, and there has been a TON of work on this game to make it rules compliant to the 3.5 rules. Also, you didnt mention if you were playing with the CO8 mod or not, if not you may run into a few other bugs that will be irritating (like the no loot bug, cant find secret doors bug etc) and even if you want to play on ironman I would suggest against it since the game is a bit notorious for ruining save games, the way I do it is save the game in 3 spots and then delete the old saves, dont save over and old save.
This is actually a pretty good forum with lots of helpful ppl that will go out of their way to help someone. But I think the main issue they have is that you blamed the game for you dying which, imo was not the games fault. If you played the game in a more rpg style and did all the quests in Hommlet before venturing off to the moathouse you would have had a few magic items to fight the shadows, and since you say your a veteran d&d player you should have known that some monsters require magic weapons (some require you to use silver weapons also). and knowing that you should have stayed in hommlet and done all those quests first. If I was to suggest an order of what you should do in the game it would be hommlet, deklo grove, emridy meadows, then the moathouse.
Well, I hope you give this game another chance.

 

Waterd103,

You need to give the game a chance and not base the worth of the game on one random encounter. TOEE is an excellent game, (but buggy in it's' initial release). The Co8 crew have worked hard to patch the bugs that Atari and Troika Games did not. I do not think they changed the random encounter mechanism. If you are not using the Co8 mod then you are playing the game as Troika intended and per the 3.5 rules (with modifications detailed in the manual).

Shoprat is correct in stating you should do as many of the Hommlet quests as possible. I was actually able to steal the treasure that the Hill Giant and bear were guarding in Emridy Meadows. If you have a thief with high enough sneak, you can sneak right in steal the treasure and sneak back out. Simply park the rest of the party in a safe place. You end up with some very good armor and a magic weapon. I was able to do that because I used the experience from the Hommlet quests to level up and improve my characters. In Hommlet you can get an excellent magic sword by completing one of the quests.

People on the forum get a little upset when you go out unprepared and complain about the unfairness of one random encounter. It is simply that a random encounter. The only way to avoid it is to modify the monster list so that shadows and other tough monsters cannot appear unless you reach a certain level then it no longer random. But that is not necessary, because shadows rarely appear and if your survival skill is high enough you can avoid them.

But if you are impatient and do not build your party correctly, raise your party's level and acquire the necessary equipment you will get trashed.

Also sometimes you get into situations you cannot run from so you take your lumps and learn from it. Remember it is a game. You can restore your last save.

 

First line in my thread

http://www.co8.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6895

looked in google and it seems someone considered the random shadows encounter A BUG (seems i'm not the only one that thinks is irratioanal)
I wonder if this would happen in non c08 mod? (wich makes me reconsider if i did right into playing this mod directly, i did because i was suggested to do so)


Certainly i didn't appreciate all the spoilers you gave me here, but well , i know it was well intended.

I can't restore from my lastsave because i was playing ironman mode.


Anyway i will try again a Run, (i hate the fact that i know alredy a lot of stuff because of my first run, i generally only do one run in RPG games)
I intend to save it in video, i'm going to buy Gamecam program for that, or do anyone a better program to record gameplay?
Also i would like to make the best ingame time i can. But I don't want to micro my spells for it (i do't want to set all my spells to cure, then cure, rest, cure, rememorize spells, rest.) every rest. Is there a training or something so i can heal my part after every rest? Maybe use some kind of trainer to give me an item that heal all my party wtih one click? (so i use it after every rest)

Also since i'm doing ironman mode in normal mode. I should consider using the point system instead of 1st rolls characters, any thoughts about that?

thanks for your help anyway.

 

I always use the point system, rolling characters is fine and dandy, but can totally skew your game experience - so if you're looking for a more balanced game, use the points

And yes, you probably hit a nerve by saying that d&d is too easy, and the only hard parts are insta-kill scenarios. Many of the people on these boards would vehemently disagree with you on the grounds that the original module (and many other old-school pnp adventures) had a lot more save-or-die traps and so on.

I, personally, agree with you that a 5xCR3 encounter is too high for a level 2 party to face, especially considering it possesses incorporeality. Perhaps some kind of restraint with them as far as world map encounters go could be helpful

Having said that, really, the entire situation was caused by using ironman mode, which, while cool in intention, is a no-no because of technical faults regarding save-slots.

In some ways you should be thankful that the shadows wiped your party out so early, and the game didnt let you get to the nodes before corrupting your one save slot :nosebleed

 

Waterd103, you have not even reach a tenth of what the vanilla version of the game has in store for your party and since you are using Co8 5.5 beta even more content has been added! I know because I played TOEE patched to patch 2 and finished it. I am now using Co8 5.5 beta mod and there are some surprising differences.

The so-called spoilers I gave may not even work in the Co8 mod! They are not really spoilers using your rogue to sneak and spy out an area is pure role playing whether CRPG or PvP. I do it all the time when entering a new area. Having a rogue steal is what they do.

If you read about TOEE here on this forum or gamebanshee you will come across information about quets because people are explaining a problem.

I will have to remember to put potential spoiler next time I use an in game situation. But some problems or situations are impossible to explain without referring to an instance in the game.

 

Waterd103,

If you are playing the Co8 5.5 beta none of my so called sneaking spoilers apply. I was rudely and pleasantly surprised all at the same time. My hats off to the Co8 crew for really upping the ante!

 

I really want to start playing again LOL. But i really would like a solution to my rest problem, anyway to hack or edit an item that heall all my party after every rest. Or someway to do that? i just want that after 8 hours of rest my party heals full. Because i want to do a good ingame time run without having to micro (the reason why i want to do this are complex and i know most of you won't be interestd). But right now is better to just memorize all the cure wounds spells, rest, use all the skills, rememorize, and rest again, wich is annoying. Any help on this?

 

Hi Waterd
If I remember correctly, you do have the option to "Rest until Healed". It may take longer, because I don't think the game is going think: "Rest 8 Hours, cast Healing Spells on those who need them. Repeat as needed until everyone is healed" but it should work, and for the most part, the extra time "spent" getting your party healed has no effect on gameplay. I just did a runthrough of the moathouse ( my party of 3 PCs plus Meleny was 3rd Level when they entered the Moathouse and 4th when they finished it ), and at one point, I went to a safe area and rested/healed after killing the guards outside a certain someones door. 16 Hours later after healing everyone and resting to "reload" spells, I went back and that certain someone was still there.
The Royal Canadian