Circle of Eight Modpack 5.9.x/5.9.xNC General Commentary & Discussion Thread

I believe you need a magic weapon or use magic spells to do real damage against groaning spirits. An alternative is to have your healers use their cure spells.

 

You're gonna need a lot of cure spells for that one!

 

Elmo was with me with his magic battle axe, and all of his hits came off the temporary hp same as everyone's hits, as did damage from spiritual weapons and any spells that overcame spell resistance. On another note, the DR for non-magical weapons did not apply against the temp hp, although DR was in effect before that.

 

mmonagle, thanks for the heads up. Yeah, those Dire Rat corpses were piled up all around their spawning point.

In 5.9.1 NC, at Emridy Meadows, the combat with the hill giant is now doable with a party that has just come from clearing out the moathouse now that the brown bear is not hostile. I prefer it that way - it balances out game difficulty in proportion to party level at the time that the party should be clearing out Emridy Meadows.

One thing that I believe is still severely unbalanced in terms of game difficulty is the assassin who attacks your party on a random map encounter after you have sold one of Lareth's items to Rannos Davl or Gremag. It's possible to have the assassin attack a party of only level 3 characters. At that character level, the assassin pretty much kills a character each round while barely getting damaged himself. The only way that I can think of a party of level 3 characters being able to kill the assassin is either by using Improved Trip or casting the spells Tasha's Hideous Laughter or Hold Person. Does anybody else have any other suggestions for how to kill the assassin with only level 3 characters or what minimum level characters you attempt to take the assassin on with?

While playing 5.9.1 NC, I have not experienced any crashes to desktop yet! However, I just encountered a really annoying bug that I also experienced on a few occasions while playing 5.8.1 NC. I don't know if this bug occurs because I have switched between running applications (open windows) (by pressing Alt Tab) before going back to playing this computer game, but I sometimes encounter a bug where one or more (sometimes all) of my PCs are unable to move any more during a particular round or for the rest of a particular combat (while they have no afflictions that prevent them from moving such as being stuck in a web, or being encumbered, or having an attribute reduced to 0). My PCs can still cast spells and attack targets within reach, but they cannot move any distance. All of my PCs in the screenshot below cannot move any more in that particular combat. The image below shows a stuck PC that still has a full-round action left for his turn (as can clearly be seen with the icon at the top left of the screen) but he cannot move at all (the area that the enemy hill giant threatens is being shown which verifies that the Alt key is being held down, yet the PC cannot move towards where the mouse pointer is positioned when he should be able to). Has anybody else experienced this bug? Does anybody have any ideas as to how to overcome this bug?

 

About the assassin, there are two things I do. When I know the fight is coming, I move my wizard from the last slot to the middle. He always appears next to the person in the last slot. Therefore, he does not kill my wizard right away if they try to move.

Other tactics include trying to get a web or entangle spell off. This will allow your fighters to hit him as he tried to break free and go for your wizard. It is a tough fight, but this game is made for tough fights.

For the problem with people not moving, I would get that if I loaded a saved game with a lot of buffs on a character. I found it happened a lot when I did a solo cleric run, I would save before fights with buffs off. The only way to move on reload was to sneak, and then it was fine.

 

Just to clarify regarding the groaning spirit, for the first few rounds, there were no temp hp shown for the groaning spirit. All non-magical damage was affected by the DR. At some point the groaning spirit gained 514 MILLION(!) + temporary hp. After that, there was no damage reduction affect, and ALL damage came off of the temp hp. After watching it drop by 400, I figured it really was 514 million, and gave up.

 

The lockpick being interrupted is interesting. The speed change in the smith's arm may give us a strong clue as to the cause of the game's interrupting the execution of commands.

 

I will add that I experienced a jerkstop session recently. However, it was not with any of the village/town signposts in play. I used the code that SA put up to make the earth temple go reactive. I fought everything that engaged (that I could see in the top of the screen that shows you the initiative order) except for one earth elemental. It had not popped up from the surface to engage and ended up never doing so. Thus when I had finished off everything else I was out of its range and combat ended.

However, I then experienced the worst jerkstop I have ever encountered. I ended up getting my character who was closest to one of the earth temple exits around to the stairs that leads down to the second level. It probably took @ 10 minutes to do it though due to the jerkstopping. Once they were down the stairs, the jerkstop ended. I saved and went back upstairs and even went back into the temple and the jerkstop never returned.

I didn't mention it sooner since I used the reactive earth temple hack. However, if you are trying to track down jerkstop causes, I thought it might help to know that it doesn't appear to always stem from signposts.

 

On a different note, gazra_1971 I'm curious about facing the assassin at just the 3rd level. To trigger his attack, you have had to made it to Lareth. By the time, I finish Lareth off, and the moathouse with him, I'm at level 5. I've done all the quests in Hommlet that I can, I've cleared out Deklo Grove, Welkwood Bog, and Emridy Meadows. Plus the moathouse is truly cleared. Is there anything that you are doing differently?

I simply ask because I realize that it is possible to skip parts or an entire area but doing this would affect the experience you have earned. I would also believe that you have obtained Lareth's diary and so you could go to Nulb at just 3rd level as well. You could even then talk to Otis from there to get the temple's location and go there at just the 3rd level. I don't think these areas were designed for 3rd level play either.

I'm just trying to say that I believe that the assassin's attack is designed for a party at higher levels. It is a tough fight but by following along the path of the game design, you ought to be tough enough to take him. Perhaps you have a different experience though. That's why I'm asking how you got the attack triggered at such a low level.

 

Sorry guys, I forgot that characters gain experience at different rates depending on how many characters are in your party.

As you can see from my screenshot above, I'm playing the game with a party of 7 PCs. mmonagle, I'm guessing that you play the game with a party of less characters. I got Lareth's diary while my PCs were all level 3. My level 3 rogue tried to unlock Lareth's diary, but I received a message like "Maybe you should give the book to somebody who actually knows what they're doing". That really pissed my rogue off!

The following is my PCs' level progression throughout the game:
Welkwood Bog: level 2 PCs
the Moathouse: level 3 PCs
Emridy Meadows: level 4 PCs
Hickory Branch: level 5 PCs
My party of 7 PCs were all level 9 when I stopped playing on the Temple level 2 in 5.8.1 NC.

Jaroo revealed Nulb on my world map (because I'm playing a True Neutral party alignment) while my PCs were all level 3, so yes, my party of level 3 PCs could have gone to the Temple of Elemental Evil if I had travelled to Nulb and spoken with Otis while my PCs were still level 3.

I'm not cheating or skipping any parts of the game (except for all of the boring quests in Hommlet).

 

Sweet! Do I win anything? I like to help. With anything in life, sometimes you can be too close to the issue and need an unwashed and unlettered mendicant to see things for what they are. oke:

 

Good point. I usually play with a party of 5. 7 would definitely throw that off. I'm not sure how the modders can correct for a larger party though.

 

Instead of doing your victory over your righteous win, why don't you celebrate with a bath? You can afford city water now you working fool! (Congrats!)

Honestly, I hope this thing isn't spreading somehow.

 

I got into a fight with Senchock and during the fight my Fighter was first dominated by senchock and then by my wizard to counter it, he was also webbed.
I won the fight and went back to rest, the dominate spells disappeared but the webspell seem to be permanent.

Question is how do i remove it?

I have tried, dispel, greater dispel, break enchantment, remove curse and even tried another webspell.
My wizard also has a dismiss spell option that will not disappear.

 

I have regularly taken out the giant and the bear at 1st or 2nd level, big XP there! The trick is you need some crowd control spells, specifically entangle, grease and web. There more you use, the better. Buy the scrolls if you don't have the spells, throw an entangle from range, use a rogue or ranger to sneak in to get a good look at the area. Then follow up with web and/or grease. Follow this with a few summoning spells behind them, but out of reach, remember the giant has a big reach. Keep your party far back and plink away with missile weapons and spells. If you have a druid for the entangle, have him charm the bear! The giant will fight to get free of the spells, then go after the closest enemy-the summons. Now he kills on one hit so you may need to replenish every few rounds, but even with 4 1st level characters, who have done a few Fedex quests and got a little cash, can buy 3-4 scrolls needed for the fight, to suppliment their own spells. Now, do make sure everyone has a missile weapon and PLENTY of ammo, it does take awhile to knock him down, unles the bear is on your side.


As far as the assassin goes, THL is the way to go, especially if you have a bard, or hold person from a cleric. Tripping does work well, enlarge a high STR character and go for it.