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

Two more things to rant about:

1.Why do I have to bother with the smith's chest after I've done the Orc quest? I'm playing solo and knock doesn't work, so how am I supposed to get the next mission from Brother Smyth? :/ I should be able to say "I don't care about your stupid chest, give me another task".

2. Why does in some cases dialog start when I'm invisible and enemies have no spells of detecting me? I should have the upper hand when I enter combat to surprise my enemies and instead I lose a spell and the speech triggers, after which it's not my turn -__-

 

1. You are able to get more things from the blacksmith without opening the chest, you just need to get to the next story state. It is probably finding out about the temple factions. However, I do recommend opening the chest if you can, it gives you a fun adventure.

2. Not sure.

 

Ignore that bit. My mistake.

I was saying that because Hedrack's Warhammer +2 is a 2-handed weapon when my human fighter equips it, Hedrack wouldn't be able to wield both it and Hedrack's Shield +3 at the same time in PnP D&D 3.5. But I have no problems with Hedrack being able to "cheat" in this computer game because he needs all of the help that he can get!

Can you check the PnP module to see whether it states in there whether Hedrack's Warhammer +2 and Moradin's Soul Hammer +1 are 1-handed or 2-handed weapons?

Then what's the point of them being in the game other than being eye candy?

No, Otis said "You killed the lich!" when I initiated dialogue with him after I had just cleared out one of the Elemental Nodes (either Earth or Air) and teleported back to Nulb. I had killed Mathel right at the start of the game, which is why I was baffled why Otis said that to me!

I would have said that this would have been a good idea until I just got my arse handed to me on a platter by those 4 Ice Tyrants (Beholder-kin) in the Water Node! They do freaking 22d6 damage to my whole party at range! WTF? The Hezrou Guardian was a pushover compared to those 4 Ice Tyrants! The Earth Node and the Air Nodes were a pushover compared to the Water Node! Now I am dreading how difficult the Fire Node is going to be! This game is brutal the way that most combats are easy and then the game suddenly has an extremely difficult fight! The game balance is all over the place. You can't just clear out each map in sequence - you have to leave the tough fights for later on when your characters have gone up some more levels and acquired better equipment and spells. The trouble is that a new player doesn't know which fights are going to be tough and where to expect these tough fights nor what spells they should have memorized beforehand and have cast just before the fight started.

Well, the Drow Fighter did nothing in the first round of combat when I fought him in 5.8.1 NC and 5.9.2 NC. I don't understand why he is catatonic in my game and yet functions normally in yours.

dolio, thanks for all of that fascinating information about the greathorn minotaur's greathammer. I did not know any of that information or that greathammers are in D&D 3.5.

Okay, I just tested Hedrack's Warhammer +2 and Moradin's Soul Hammer +1 and they are both 2-handed weapons when my human fighter wields them, and they both do 1d12 damage (see screenshots below).

I thought it odd that Hedrack's Greater Temple Chest 1, 2, and 4 each have a magical item in them, but Chest 3 contains no magical item. Is this a bug or is it like this in the PnP module?

I had never noticed that a spell object appears in a character's inventory when the character is affected by certain effects like Hezrou Stench until kungfuramone mentioned it the other day (see screenshot below). I did not dare to click on the spell object.

When my fighter attacked an opponent that had the spell Mirror Image in effect on them, my fighter attempted a Mirror Image check (see screenshot below). Does anyone know what this check is for? I have absolutely no idea!

One thing that the Greater Temple of Elemental Evil needs is a new secret door to the surface. It is EXTREMELY tedious to have to move the party through all of the different maps to get back down to the Greater Temple of Elemental Evil each time!

My party no longer rests upstairs in the Welcome Wench Inn any more because most of the times that my party exits the inn after resting, all of my PCs are frozen in combat stances on the spots that they appeared on the Hommlet map. This is extremely annoying! This never used to happen to my party in 5.8.1 NC. Do players really want the Sign Posts in the game that much? I would MUCH rather not have jerkstop near the Welcome Wench Inn than to be able to use the Sign Post in Hommlet! Are you going to remove the Sign Post from Hommlet?

 

Thanks for the tip Ranth, I managed to open the chest using Furnok + masterwok tools + gloves of dexterity +4. Try this in the arena:

After winning the first round, cast deep slumber on Arena Master, steal his cloak of resistance 21 and wand of charm monster. Wait a few days so he wakes up like nothing happened. [Tried to kill him with coup de grace but he is immortal]

What would you say to an idea that after winning the 3rd round of the Arena you get to choose your reward? [Like in Black Jay's ring quest] If you are a magic user the reward is not very usefull if I'm honest.

 

Not sure if this has been mentioned but in the mouthouse respawn you can kill the witch alone without alerting the undead, if you are invisible and use acid arrow.

And if you want the ring from the other witch without paying the 20.000+ gold, just cast deep slumber on her and take it..and kill her for some nice exp :3

 

1.Doesn't Hedrack cast Divine Favor or something that makes him large size? Not sure, last 2 times through I hit him with a Laughing spell and dropped him before he could do anything. If he were large size, he could wield both, I like to enlarge my fighters wirh pole arms and then give them good shields.

2.Was Moridin's even in the module?

3. I regularly catch something (goblins, bugbears, oozes) camping on the random map and move to the top of the screen and fire at them with arrows. If you kill one the others still sit there, only the ones hit or targeted and missed become hostile and move toward you.

4. Teleport is your friend, or use the letter from the with in the MR or the Arena book and decline the fight.

5. I always rest the Welkwood now, even with the yellow tent, you never get attacked, and its a longer distance to everywhere else, so I get an extra random encounter sometimes.

 

How did you test this, exactly? It's been a while since I played, and I see the screenshot. However, by 3.5 rules, you can weild a one-handed weapon of your size category two-handed for extra strength damage. This would apply to warhammers. So the important test is whether you were able to equip a normal shield while wielding that hammer. Unless that screenshot really indicates that it's a two-handed weapon; as I said, I haven't played in a while.

Does that actually work? According to enlarge person, the weapon grows with them. So, a medium size polearm would turn into a large size polearm, and still require two hands for the character to weild. Righteous might (the cleric spell that makes you grow) has the same stipulations. Do you get improved damage for the larger polearm when you do this trick, or does TOEE leave it with the stats of a medium polearm?

 

Hey, you can use this bit of code:

Code:

def can_see2(npc,pc):
    # Checks if there's an obstruction in the way (i.e. LOS regardless of facing)
    orot = npc.rotation ## Original rotation
    nx, ny = location_to_axis(npc.location)
    px, py = location_to_axis(pc.location)
    vx = px-nx
    vy = py-ny
    # (vx, vy) is a vector pointing from the PC to the NPC. 
    # Using its angle, we rotate the NPC and THEN check for sight.
    # After that, we return the NPC to its original facing.
    npc.rotation = 3.14159/2 - ( atan2(vy,vx) + 5*3.14159/4 )
    if npc.can_see(pc):
        npc.rotation = orot
        return 1
    npc.rotation = orot
    return 0

The script briefly rotates the NPC in the PC's direction, checks for visibility, then rotates the NPC back.
This way the NPC doesn't have to face the PC, while still taking into account the PC being invisible or in hiding etc.

 

dolio, when my human fighter wielded Hedrack's Warhammer +2 and Moradin's Soul Hammer +1, he was not able to equip a shield as well. There is no greathammer in the D&D 3.5 SRD but this computer game has greathammers as a standard 2-handed weapon. Brother Smyth sells a Masterwork Greathammer (see screenshot below).

If you wield a 1-handed weapon 2-handed (that isn't a light weapon), then you have a damage bonus equal to 1.5x your Strength Bonus.

In this computer game, when you cast Enlarge Person on a medium-sized race (e.g. human, half-orc, etc.), then your enlarged character is able to wield a 2-handed weapon (e.g. greatsword, ranseur, etc.) in each hand. When the spell expires, the 2-handed weapon in the off-hand is automatically moved to the character's inventory.
Also, weapon damage is increased while under the effect of this spell. Ranseurs do 2d6 damage instead of the normal 2d4. Longbows do 2d6 damage instead of the normal 1d8.

In this computer game, the main differences betweewn the divine spell Righteous Might and the spell Enlarge Person are that Enlarge Person lasts much longer and Righteous Might gives DR (6/Holy).

I wasted the 4 Ice Tyrants without any of my PCs dying on my second attempt after I adapted my tactics for the situation. I now believe that single-class rogues are the most amazing and powerful characters in the game! My rogue laughed at the Ice Tyrants because he was immune to their cones of cold unless he rolled a 1 for his saving throws, and my rogue is able to move so far and attack in the same turn, and he does insane amounts of damage with his sneak attacks and he reduces opponent's Strength by 2 each time that he sneak attacks! Rogues are SO scary in this game!

The Hezrou Guardian and the Hezrou monsters use the same portrait. Could you be bothered changing the colour of the portrait for one of these monsters so that the 2 monsters would have different coloured portraits?

 

Okay. I guess Hedrack may just be cheating if he's wielding both the hammer and the shield prior to growing, then. Not that that's a big deal.

Well, this is wrong. I could see allowing two-handed weapons to be wielded one-handed, but then they shouldn't do additional damage from the size increase. Large weapons do do more damage than medium weapons, but large creatures are subject to the same restrictions in wielding them as medium creatures are with medium weapons.

I'm not holding my breath for this to be fixed, though. It'd probably involve a .exe or .dll hack.

Righteous might is always better than enlarge person. The former is a 5th level cleric spell, and the latter is a 1st level wizard spell. Your numbers aren't exactly correct, though, so if they're actually what happened in the game, it's a bug.

Enlarge person is supposed to result in +2 strength and -2 dexterity from the size change. Is that what you meant (+1 being the net change to the strength modifier)?

Righteous might says it gives a +4 bonus to strength and +2 to constitution. I've seen games where this stacks with the size change per enlarge person, giving a net +6 strength, -2 dexterity, +2 constitution, but the srd doesn't say anything about that, so maybe it shouldn't happen (I can't remember what happens in TOEE).

Maybe you were using divine power at the same time, though? That gives +6 strength.

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that you need to import the atan2 function from math.py:

Code:

from math import atan2

Hopefully it should work now.

 

Is it just me, or do you seem to get filth disease while resting in the Inn of the Welcome Wench even though it shows you make your saving throws? It says you have to fail two in a row. I seem to make my fort save and still get inflicted. What gives?

Wayzar