Greetings and a tentative First Playthrough Party.

Greetings to all and much appreciation to all the C08 developers and helpful posts from community.
My experience so far of Computer Gaming of this genre has been limited to the Baldur's Gate Series and Neverwinter Nights so it will be a challenge to deal with the high-level combat tactics featured in ToEE.

To cut to the chase, here is the party of five I am going to start off with. All legitimate rolls but 90+pts for each PC. With starting class, weapons and proposed 10th Level Class-Splits and Stats.

1) Magnus III ~~ NG-Human Cleric of Heironeus-Good and War Domains, Cleric 10, Initiative, Spell Penetrate , Brew Potion, Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Arms and Armor. Heavy Mace or Long Spear, Sling [17*-14-16-14-17*-14]

2) Gorlac Dobrynyi V ~~ CG-Half-Orc Fighter, Fighter 8 Barbarian 2, Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Great Cleave, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Whirlwind, Glaive and Scather [20*-14-16-14-15-12] Note-Uncanny Dodge

3) James O'Carolan ~~ TN Dwarf Barbarian, Wizard 8 Barbarian 2, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Spell Penetration, Craft Wondrous Items, Craft Arms and Armor, Heavy Crossbow Longsword [14 18 20 17* 14 10]
Note: Uncanny Dodge and 66HP

4) Gabrielle de Marseilles ~~ [Male] NG Elven Rogue, Rogue 5 Fighter 4, Wiz1 [Archer-build, Party-Leader, Meleny suitor] Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Inititative, Rapid Shot, Weapon Focus-Composite Longbow, Weapon Specialization, Combat Reflexes, Longbow and Rapier? [17* 20 15* 16 10 16] Note: Evasion, Uncanny Dodge

5) Jambar Dobrynyi ~~ NG Half-Orc Barbarian, Cleric4 [Obad-Hai /Plant, Fire Domains] Fighter 4 Barbrn 2
Longsword, Greatsword, Scather-Alt, Initiative, Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Great Cleave, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip [20 14 1614 16 8] Note-Uncanny Dodge

More later----Library is closing. Cheers

 

keep in mind your dwarf will suffer an XP penalty for the level difference for wizard/barbarian

 

When this is your first game, what are you going to play? Pure ToEE? Co8? Co8 with New content?

In ToeE reach weapons are better than the normal rules would allow (they give an Attack of Opportunity when an opponent approaches or passes, can still be used in close combat and with a 5 foot step after your attack you are prepared for another AoO when your opponenet closes the distance again).

 

Ooops!! So now my Wizard will start as a Human-Fighter for extra feats, taking Point-Blank, Precise Shot and Spell Focus: Enchantment at Level 1 finishing Wiz 8 F2. Feats in order: Initiative, Spell Penetration, Empower Spell, Craft Wondrous Items, Craft Magic Arms and Armor...
Also new stats: 16-17-16-18**-15-12

Magnus, Cleric of Heironeus has also been re-rolled and now starts with Initiative, Spell Focus: Necromancy [16-15-18-16-17*-13*] adding Extend Spell, Craft Wondrous Items, Craft Arms and Armor. Heavy Mace.

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@Conjuror Dragon: Planning to complete all areas before Temple with Original Game and then gear-up with Co8 and perhaps Temple+.

In ToeE reach weapons are better than the normal rules would allow (they give an Attack of Opportunity when an opponent approaches or passes, can still be used in close combat and with a 5 foot step after your attack you are prepared for another AoO when your opponenet closes the distance again).[/QUOTE]

Check! So I will gear-up Party-Leader Gabrielle with Ranseur instead of Rapier/Longsword for her Melee Weapon. Gorlac, the Half-Orc is already aiming for a Glaive, wherever it may turn up.

Also planning to abandon the single level of Wizard for Scribe Scroll because I cannot see getting more than Spellcraft 10+ 3Int. = 13. That could be boosted with Fox's Cunning I suppose but it seems kinda iffy for the purpose of effectively relieving some of the XP drain on my Crafter-Mage ~ and will cost 1 BAB. ?????

Considering re-rolling Gabrielle as a Human R6-F4 which would get +1 to Fortitude, Reflex and Will Saves from R6 but I really like the Auto-Search feature of Elves for a First Playthrough. And then, of course, there is the whole Dex 20 thing... Mmmmmm.

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So that has lead to a major re-think on my 5th Party-member, The Super-Tank Fighter-Cleric-Barbarian. Re-rolled now as a Human Female Neutral Druid. [Which means I will be leaving Meleny for a future playthrough. Elmo and a bit of Furnok should be more than enough of the NPCs for starters!]

5)Siondha Galen - Druid 6 Fighter 2 Ranger 2 , with Feats in order: (Lvl1) Spell Focus: Conjure, Augment Summons, (Lvl2)Point-blank, (Lvl3)Precise Shot, (Lvl5)Rapid Shot, (Lvl6)Brew Potion, (Lvl7)Combat Reflexes, (Lvl9) Scribe Scroll [Stats: 17*-17*-18-15-16-12] Longbow and Longspear, which hopefully is a Reach Weapon.

Well, that is enough for now. The game awaits and I feel like I have a pretty solid line-up that will help me summon the patience to figure out the whole combat thing with Hot Keys and the wide range of choices in Actions and Attacks.

Somebody ought to start an Uber-GameMasters business where you can hire someone to walk you through start-ups. Might be a thing!!

Thanks!

 

Hi Quandari,

I’ve found Temple+ to add only quality of life type extras to the game and not additional content, (except for some amazing new classes to play).

I personally recommend using Temple+ even with your first run through.

 

I've not really played the game since the 8.1 update and haven't tried Temple+- but with that said why take Brew Potion? Not trying to spoil anything for you if this is your first time playing this game but I think you'll come to realize something about that particular feat...

 

I agree with sirchet, the game, even with the 3 patches is still very crash happy and corrupts the saved games a lot.

temple+ fixes these

 

OK, point taken, Brew Potion is certainly one I have wondered about, especially as a late-game feat.

I have reset Siondha to be Druid 6 Fighter 2 Barbarian 2, dropping Rapid Shot but keeping Point-Blank, Precise Shot, Spell Focus-Conjure, Augment Summons, Initiative, Combat Reflexes and adding Craft Arms and Armor. And also taking Druid at Lvl 1 for Longspear and Scimitar. [Also maybe dropping the Ranged Weapon feats altogether and opting for Extend Spell, Combat Expertise]. Choices, choices, choices!!!

Re Gabrielle, my Party Leader, I have more confidence now about Scribe Scroll with Wiz1 and @10 Spellcraft. Fox's Cunning +2, Guidance +1, Heroism +2, UMD Synergy +2, Intel Mod +3 should be more than enough!!!

Which leads to another look at my original 5th Party Member option, the Half-Orc Fighter-Cleric-Barbarian with Plant-Fire Domain [Enabling Entangle and Barkskin] Plus revisiting the option of travelling with the Newly-wed Druid, Meleny, who seems to be a popular NPC even with her Strength and Intelligence stats being so unpromising. Hmmmm!

So I will definitely go ahead with patches, Co8 and Temple+, per your recommendations. Thanks for your encouragement. Amazing that folks realized that there was enough worth saving in the original ToEE bug-fest because of the in-depth combat tactics and adherence to D&D 3.5ed. ~ to do the astonishing amount of work that Co8 must represent.

Gamers Rock!!

 

Allyx, that is something many of us are eagerly awaiting.

 

Indeed, Co8 has done an amazing job with this game. When I first played it out of the box upon its release the furthest I could get would be the Hedrack fight before the game consistently crashed. I didn't touch it again for years until found this site. Hats off to all who have contributed and worked on TOEE- with the resurgence of some classic games I wonder why no one has ever revisited the SSI Gold Box games, as well as TOEE, Icewind Dale, Baulder's Gate, Planescape: Torment, etc....

 

I decided to restart ~ with my Wizard build at Lvl 10 being Druid 1[start] Wiz 8 Fighter 1 Human. This should allow scribing of Lvl 2 Druid Scrolls from Meleny in the early game. Will be necessary to boost her Intel to 11 at level 4, and take a Rogue Level and Wizard level so that she has UMD and Scribe Scroll. This of course assumes that I can remove Meleny from Party when she hits Level 5-6.

Later on I understand that there is a very good Druid you can recruit if desired but only if you have a Druid already in the party, so hopefully that will be an option.

Then I will fall back on the Half Orc Fighter 4 -Cleric 4 - Brbrn 2 concept for 5th Party member.