Co8 New Content: Hickory Branch

Ehh, I guess whatever the RAW says, then. But their logic fails on me, here.

 

Hi Ted
On d20SRD Worgs are listed under "Monsters (W)" and regular Wolves are listed under "Monsters (Animals)". http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/monsters.htm
The Royal Canadian

 

Hi Ausdoerrt
According to d20SRD Worgs are "Medium Magical Beasts" that are Neutral Evil and can speak their owm language and possibly Common and Goblin. http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/worg.htm
The Royal Canadian

 

^ Well, I guess it's the fact that the worgs in most CRPGs look almost exactly like bigger wolves, and that I've never seen intelligent ones that it's a bit weird. But, like I said, it's up to RAW really.

That said, worgs in TOEE should get this:

 

The Battles

As the dwarven ranger cousins die, crushed by massive fists and a crushing death, the wizard is finally able to cast two Rays of Enfeeblement and two Tasha's Hideous Laughter spells. The Abyssmal Cow dies the death entended for his victims! As he laughs himself to death!
[Starday, 23:32, Flocktime 579 CY—The Journal of The Crimson Cloaks]

[Edit] Whoever did the artwork for this map should be given an oscar for his or her accomplisments. I would actually like more to look at the original large scale / high resolution image for ideas.

 

I really dug this adventure! A great quest to take a party through, in my case around LVL 8 for the party, and LVL 7 for the henchmen. I had:

Janna FlameHair - Enchanted Silver Plate & Enchanted Ransuer, Flail & Small Steel Shield
Female Lawful Good Human
Paladin(Heronious)/8

Bruin Brokentooth - Masterwork Maul, Sling & stones, Longspear, Great Axe
Male True Neutral Half-Orc
Druid/6 Barbarian/2 (high WIS, STR, low INT)
pet: Black Bear Chloe

Celeste MorningStar - Longbow & Masterwork Morningstar & Shield
Female Neutral Good Elf
Cleric(Ehlonna) Sun/Plant Domains/6 Wizard(Diviner)/2
Familiar: Raven Nevermore

Aerich DragonsBane - Longbow & Enchanted dual-wield Short Swords
Male Chaotic Good Half-Elf
Ranger/6 Rogue/2 favored Enemies Dragon & Giant
Bow Specialist Ranger
pet: Wolf Kanen

J'allan UlDragos - Barbarian Sword & Enchanted Shield, Masterwork Light Crossbow
Male Chaotic Good Half-Elf
Barbarian/2 Bard/6 (with augment summoning)

Spugnior - Enchanted Heavy Crossbow (Frost)
Wizard/6 Rogue/1
Familiar: Cat Anulka

Furnok - dual-wield Enchanted Rapier & Dagger
Rogue/5 Sorceror/2
Familiar: Owl Archimedes

Ronald RynnWrathi - Longbow & Longspear, Heavy Mace & Shield
Cleric/5 Ranger/2 Favored Enemy ORCS!!! LOL
Bow Specialist Ranger

*** MINOR SPOILERS *** below





With this crew I had a great time. I was able to complete without resting using careful management of my resources. Preparation involved Spugnior preparing some Fireball scrolls and a Magic missile wand, and the Druid preparing some extra healing potions. I used Furnok and his ring for scouting, made map pins for the many attack cohorts and was able to take on every enemy group successfully - with careful strategies and planning. Actually, adding more goblin, Orc, kobold, Gnoll foot soldiers would be cool, if you decide to add them!!! It would really give the sensation of an enemy horde... if there were some more "cannon fodder" type soldiers.

Great Dialogues!!!

The coolest things were that ENORMOUS trapped Dire Bear, and the strategically placed Orc archers by the ravine. Nice job. I managed to cast Charm animal on the bear, (took multiple attempts, as the bear had to roll a 1 or a 2 on it's save attempt - but I thought rightly so that success would make the final encounter more "interesting"...) and when I entered the cave to fight Lord Hungous and his minions, the huge beast finally showed up and absorbed the wicked damage from the double-bladed axe ... nearly took him down himself!

I rested finally inside, after that victory only to be ambushed by the surviving Dire Bear (charm finally wore off) and then further ambushed when I stepped outside the cave by the 4 remaining officers... who were late to the party.

I liked the attention to detail with how enemy troops and natural beasts were set about the map terrain.

Any chance the door guarded by the southern-most Ogre could lead to some additional encounters, inside ...? Just a thought... Right now the building seems to be just a part of the map in a visual sense - the door does not open or lead anywhere. I tried searching in case it was a hidden door, or locked, having high hopes for some "hidden content".

The Minotaur Demon was WICKED. wow.

Really great job on this mod guys. Thanks!

 

That is a cool party. I dont multi-class much, but I can see some of the benefits with that party.

 

Thanks Ranth. Yeah, it's pretty flexible, so no-one gets creamed, even if the enemy breaks through the front rank of the Paladin and the Druid/Barb Half-orc. That Ransuer and Maul really take care of business, especially when the characters are Enlarged. LOL

I hope this is the right thread to bring this up in, but it would be really cool if Ronald had some character specific quotes, or even a mini quest during the Hickory Branch/ "Orc Season" ... Since he HATES Orcs. I had to pay him extra gold to just travel with my druid/barb Half-Orc. so I thought he would definitely have stuff to say when facing a horde of them...!!!

I have never used him as an NPC before and specifically am trying him out with all the work Co8 has been putting into him with this release. The longspear seems more effective than his heavy mace, but he is very effective as an archer when i added the 2 levels of Ranger to his Cleric base class. LOL i am even thinking of adding one level of Bard to round him out ... since he "sings" as well. [EDIT] Found out it is not possible to give him bard levels, missed that in previous level ups. Oh well. He must be a Lawful alignment. I am wondering ... since he seems to have Lawful as one of his domains, the other being Strength -does that mean he has a special ability with a deity granted martial weapon capability as per PnP rules? I was looking in the Help files and there were notes concerning this domain that said this.

Anyway, those were really funny additions to his v/o repertoire.

Also wondering ... any chance there is a "Masterwork Barbarian sword" ANYWHERE? I know it's basically a long sword, so i guess i could just craft from that and rename it...

 

I looked through the Description.mes file and there isn't a masterwork equivalent.

So unless it's already been made masterwork to begin with, there isn't anything for you until the next update. I can tell you're heavy into theme though so kudos for you! I hope one of the modders can help you.

 

Thanks ShadowDeth

I have on this playthrough switched that character using the barbarian sword to the weapon you win by defeating the Minotaur demon. as it is a chaotic silver blade, i thought it fit the character (being an attempt at a Skald barbarian/ warrior bard build, with a summoning focus in his spells) who is of Chaotic Good alignment.

However, i would appreciate if the modders do add an enchantable barbarian masterwork sword at some point. Thanks!

 

Yeah, barbarian sword is just a decoration. It doesn't even look significantly different from longsword either.

 

Thanks, yeah it just looked a little cooler than the standard longsword. had the extended hilt guard! Kinda looked a bit like the Conan sword. ha ha I'm over it, i guess got a cooler weapon now.

 

I'm playing through the new content again and just finished the cave. When I left the cave, these 2 named kobolds and a named orc jumped me. Nothing wrong with that but wouldn't they have been in the cave if they are special named guys?

 

You know, I haven't paid too much attention to these New Content: xxxx threads, as I preferred to experience it firsthand the first time through. I was therefore pretty surprised when Nevets' "Orc Season" quest sent me to HB instead of the Orc Cave Prespawn I remembered from Co8 5.0.x. Will the Orc Cave Prespawn ever make a return to Co8, or has HB permanently displaced it?

It's cool if HB replaces it, the new and improved HB is fantastic from what I've seen so far. (Though I'm now interested if the Ogre Cave exists for the Temple Priests quests...)