I'm nearing the end of my Chaotic Good Campaign with a 5-person party now all at level 17 and just starting to deal with the elemental nodes. Before I hit level 15, I decided it was time to start make my own weapons and beef up my armor through crafting. With masterwork greatswords and two-handed warhammers in hand, I proceeded to slap on as much keen, holy, and bursts as I could and found all of my party now wielding glowing, exploding, implements of death and destruction. Then, in the span of an hour, I completed Monster Mash, rounded up and killed the three convicts, and rolled over the Slavers. These quests got me a couple of quick levels, sure, but when I soon realized that I was basically walking through Node of Air, that there was no challenge and, therefore, no real fun anymore in the game. I wasn't even using my Rogue to scout ahead anymore! Just barreling forward without even so much as a Bless when I entered a dungeon! This game is about danger and challenge and even a sprinkle of role-playing thrown in, don't ruin it by making your charatcers invincible. So, any idea when 7.0 will be ready? I need to start a new party...
Not real soon. My hope is that our reducing the CRs of NC enemies will significantly limit the NC-boosted leveling from 1 - 10 and that eventually the 'normal' playthrough will feature players doing the Nodes and Zuggtmoy when they were originally supposed to - around level 10 or thereabouts. You would then proceed to the real high level content stuff - Verbobonc and WotGS et al. We'll have to move the end-game routine in order to do that ... that might even happen in 7. It's no big deal really, just postponing the endslides. (We really should add some NC-related endslides, come to think of it.)
I still think you guys should do more Slaver related material... not sure if copyright infringement would ensue, but 'The Scourge of the Slavelords' is the next module in the series and would provide a wealth of new content to build from. Oh well, on the 7.0 ... I guess I can start my Lawful Evil party a little early. no shame in having to restart when the next modpack comes out.
I for one would love more slaver episodes and involvement, but I am sure that is a time tasked endeavor that would need someone to take up. I am looking for more Hexorite and SB factions showing up and giving more of a challenge. I know that 7.0 is still a ways off, hopefully by early October. For now I am playing with various limitations and gimping various groups to see how well they will play out.
Maybe try the next party w/o a thief? Makes getting into chests a challenge; while some traps can be disarmed with someone with a sufficiently high dex, ultimately someone's in the end is usually going to have to eat it by opening the chest or setting off the trap. I always like to play parties with a Wizard and a Sorc, while giving massive firepower at higher levels they are always a liability when it comes to getting ambushed or attacking the enemy out of formation. A cleric, druid and barbarian can make a pretty good melee line, though half the time I spend maneuvering them into position to put my mages into a pocket or rush ahead of them so that the pair of giants don't kill them on their next attack with 1 swat of their club! You don't need to go ironman style to create a real type of character with personality. Your front line fighter can still be a fighter half orc with 20 str to start out with but only 6 wis and 8 int, having your main melee character being a magic magnet can give him a different type of character like you'd only get with pencil and paper. Even with artifact caliber weapons the elemental node battles can be hard and enjoyable.
For me... It really was just making myself weapons with multiple burst effects for all of my characters. I went from doing 10-20 damage an attack if I actually do hit to doing 40-50 damage on every swing (rarely missing). Kind of makes the difficulty of the game a joke when you don't have to sneak around anymore. My current Lawful Evil party of a Cleric / Fighter (of Hextor), Cleric / Rogue (of St. Cuthbert), and Cleric / Necromancer (of Vecna) will not be making themselves weapons of mass destruction. Gonna rely on sneaking and magic buffs before every fight all the way.
I find that if you actually use ressurection, when party members die, instead of reloading and refighting the battles. It tends to keep my party's XP in check and keep the Temple, Hickory Branch, Areana, immerdy run and the other mid level parts challeging and level appropiate. I bounce between these quite often, and still find them quite challenging and also can put some level variety in your party I have had some charecters as low as 4th still with some others around 7; after finishing hickory branch, and the arena, and maybe 1st floor of the temple, and still having the other floors of the temple, and moathouse respawn to go with the average level being around 6th, and still challenging. I for one am actually fearing the nerfing of the CR coming up due to my Iron man type playing style, but I do understand them and they seem to fit well into the way most people play the game.
