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

I did this routine that worked well. Get the book from Smyths chest and hang on to it. At least talk/kill Romag in the temple. Do Hickory Branch for Nevets. You should get the Kent dialouge for moathouse re-spawn. Do it. Read the book and do the first episode for the master. That should satisfy all the conditions for Verbo. This is assuming you've done WelkwoodBog.

 

Strange thing. When the juggernaut exploaded my screen went black and combat continued. I scrolled around and the map had shifted up to the NE corner of the main corridor. Took me quite a while to back some troops up there, then it cleared. I think this a one time event, because it didn't do it the first time. Cool particle effects, tho.
Not to be considered as a bug/problem because I'm using the console.

 

Not sure if this is a known thing or a new bug, but on my second play through I rescued Lareth (first time I have ever done so) from Rufus and Burne to set up in the bandit tower. Well since then Burne continually insinuates that I had something to do with the escape ( well Yeah )and does not renew his inventory. So he continues to fill up without cycling. Also Calmert never recycles his inventory as well. I was sure that both did so in the past.

So not sure if it is just my bad memory or if by rescuing Lareth I hit a point were I am persona non grata with Burne or not. Funny thing once you get past the accusation he will trade with you, help you with the Skull, or even for a while offer to go with you to the tower.

 

On my way back from killing the white dragon in the tunnels in verbo i got repeatedly stuck outside the map after the one with the hatchlings.

good thing my wiz leveled up and i could choose teleport as one of his spells

 

Weird Senshock battle in the temple:
Down low in the temple i encountered senshock , combat began automaticaly (senshock had 2x 100 DR and some spell resistance (16 if i recall corectly ?) but due to his low hp he got almost killed in round 1 (3 melee sneeck atakers + 2x sorcs casted scorching rays... party: level 12 excepting druidess(11) and wiked(10), non enhanced weaponry) next round he said 'i think not' and vanished and the combat ceased and dialog initiated with cmd of temple guards (acted like that was the first time he saw me :twitch: is that normal ??) reinitiated combat and cleared the cmd,Barkinar&acolites' without much effort.
Reloaded combat and didn't put all guns on senshock and they turned my party to rags(no deths but rly close) over all it was a superb battle !! (definitely top 5) (senshock kept calling elemental pets :evilgrin: ) For a level10 party with no crafted items this battle would be imposible i belive and for a lvl 10 party filled' with crafted items it could still prove a helishly dificult battle :love:
To increase the dificulty a few extra hp on senshock would ensure some extra muscle gets drafted to battle (not rly sure about other people's combat strategies but i'm mageophobic (my first priority in battle is the obliterartion of anything capable of spell casting)).
Since i'm lvl12 what should i do ?? milck some extra xp from the elemental nodes or go to Vb city now before i get too strong ?? (what would be the minimum recomended level to tackle Vb city ?? (idealy i'd like to go with at least 1 level lower then what's recomended... i enjoy hard battles:dribble

 

Speaking of Senshock. I found out something which I am not sure is normal. Maybe because of the out of the normal pace of the story I went to level 4 of the Temple before going to Verbo, and fought Senshock. I allowed him to escape and encountered the same scenario as Ank with the Commander and his crew. Wasted them and then left the temple. When I got to Verbo and went to the Magic shop, but Senchock never showed up. I have completed all of Willy's quests, but no Senchock.

Has that happened to anyone else or even if they do things how they normally go ie go to Verbo and THEN fight Senchock, does he show up?

 

I have gotten further along and have a few more thoughts and found a few bugs:

7) The moathouse respawn gave me just enough experience to get to level 9. I went back to Hommlet, healed up, rested, and then went out to the drow and the witch. The drow leader went first and charged me. My wizard went next and tossed a fireball at the remaining 4 drow. Their wizard went down and the other 3 took a fair amount of damage. It was pretty much a mopping up operation at that point. What I'm trying to say is that I'm going to join the group that is saying that this drow group needs more health.

8) Speaking of this battle, once it was over, my party of 5 all leveled up to 10. I was surprised as I had just leveled to 9. A check of my logbook shows that the most experience I received from 1 battle was that battle with the drow. It gave me 356,400 for it. I know that there has been some comments made about the drow battles in Verbobonc but this experience award is out of proportion too. Is the fix for the Verbobonc drow going to affect this battle as well? The drow rogue with the moathouse respawn didn't give me any trouble with his equipment - no crashes - so I thought I should ask in case they are different.

9) I have a few grammatical corrections:
a) Captain Abiram in VB says 'The town jail is loacted there also.'
b) Captain Achan says 'Our resources are stetched'
c) Captain Achan also says = '...but is guilty of various acts of violance across the realm'

10) After battling the criminals at the Welcome Wench, Glora stopped me before I could leave and complained about it. I chose the option to pay her off. Just wanted to report in that this feature worked.

11) I have entered all 3 of Hommlet's entry points from all over the map and used the signpost there as well to jump me around and I have not experienced any jerkstops what so ever.

 

The amulets of natural armor +2 from the slaver fight stack! And you can wear all 7 at the same time! I would approve of this if you actually received +14 natural armor but sadly, you only receive +2.

It is my firm opinion that this comes from already wearing an amulet of natural armor +2 from a previous encounter and then moving it into inventory when you switch it out for the amulet of natural armor +5.

 

Hedrack combat : as many difrent results as loads :twitch:
1)killed Hedrack in round 1 (no Iuz or Cuthbert apear easyly solved combat)
2)severly wound Hedrack ... Iuz gets called and he proposes a deal for the skull in my posesion : my speacker triked ... gets charmed and combat reinitiates (no one died: wiked felt the love' but due to his periapt of wound closure he got only non lethal dmg) Cuthbert comes and saves the day...
3)mildly harm Hedrak and he wastes 2 rounds to do : 1)gets spell resistance 2)doubles size ; after receiving some extra dmg he calls Iuz , he kills 2 of my guys , Cuthbert apeares stands like a *** and does nothing after geting firebaled he joins combat in melee, ataks and kils Iuz (a ton of friendly fire mesages betwin those 2 when they ataked each other) and after that kils the rest of my party and the game CTD's
4)severly wound Hedrack ... Iuz gets called , i deny his trade offer, i kill hedrack, Iuz kils 2 of my guys, Cuthberth apears has a chat with Iuz they vanish,(after zombifiing the ded/reviving my fallen party members) i kill Hedrack again and he's zombies ...

I presume nr 4 is the way the encounter should go ...... (about hedrack , maybe have him allready prebuffed for combat ... after all he loses 2 rounds geting spell resistance&double size oke: in wich time he can die about 3 time's especialy since he's got no DR :evilgrin: )

 

I find it a bit frustrating that I cannot open the chest. I have a 4/3 fighter/rouge and he is unable to pick the chest with his dex bonus, normal tools, and max skills devoted to picking locks. He is rolling a 33 on a 34 difficulty. It would not be so bad if Burne would sell cats grace, but alas he does not. Spugnior does not have the spell either, and knock does not work. Looks like I will be doing AoH at level 8.

 

-->Hi Necroticpus, from what I see in the picture, even though the amulets are stacking together, their bonuses are not. Your wizard has an ac of 25, and from what looks like bracers of ac and your dex, combined with the +2 amulet of natural armor, your checks out. If all the amulets were stacking with their bonuses combined, your ac would be in the 30's. (+7 for dex, +14 for all the amulets, + ? from the bracers. At least that is how it looks to me. <-- Sign I am not paying attention before replying.

Never mind-just reread what you posted and you were right and I am a blind know it all ass. sorry for my idiocy folks.

 

Ranth, do you have another spellcaster who could cast Cats Grace for you or Bard in your group to use their inspiration? One thing I liked about NWN was that you had the option to but up a chest or door you could not open.

 

Guidance! Zero level spell FTW! Grants +1 to skill checks.

 

I know this has been mentioned before, but the drow do give too much experience. The first battle of 4 of them in the tunnels of Verb gave each person in my party almost 14,000 each from that fight.

EDIT: And the Dragon only gave each person 360 each at level 13.