Hi! New to ToEE and some questions.

Actually, the moathouse can be done with a level 1 party with near zero exp. Charmed the fighters next to the archers (AOO, anyone?), blocked the doors with a highly armored cleric(defensive fighting) supported by long reach weapons, summoning animals on the other side of the door, and constant healing and some use of potions. And be sure to take advantage of the safe resting zone.

Everyone leveled up right after the barbarian's pack. Minions and summons are really great early in the game.

 

Right. Moathouse is certainly doable at 1st level, it's just harder than it used to be.

One thing I've discovered that using the normal door leading into the room with the bandit leader and his guards is a lot better tactically than using the secret door. The regular door allows you to set up ranks and keep your squishier party members away from harm, while forcing the baddies to engage your party with only a few at a time, rather than en masse.

I agree that Charm Person is probably the most useful spell for this fight. Charm one or two of the bandits and the fight becomes a whole lot easier.

 

Actually, with the exception of a regenerating character like a troll, any enemy that is at -1 to -9 hp will automatically die at the end of combat. I think they implemented it this way to save characters from having to do a lot of "mop up" work at the end of each fight, since a good number of enemies are generally "dying" (i.e. not yet dead) when initiative ends.

 

You can only use Coup de Grace on critters that are unconscious. So tripped, slipped or otherwise prone creatures that are not unconscious it does not work on. Sleeping does count as being unconscious though.

 

Hold on - don't you need fire or acid to kill trolls? Haven't reached there yet.

 

Yeah. It saves you from having to pretend you're dousing them with one or the other to finish them off properly. You'll see. :dead:

 

Fire and acid do lethal damage, so yeah, this is a good straight forward way to take out a troll. If you find yourself without the ability to do either of these damage types, then knock the troll out with a whole bunch of non-lethal damage (i.e. anything other than fire/acid damage), then walk up next to it and perform a coup de grace. I like to RP that I'm cutting the troll's head off in this case.

 

Which actually just gets you a pissed off troll that happens to be in two pieces.

Basically, the game is assuming when you use Coup de Grace on regenerating enemies, that you're using a torch to light them on fire or some other method that bypasses their regeneration and kills them that's not actually scripted in the game.

 

I really like to render enemies uncoscious in any way (hold spells , sleep, etc.) and then just kill them by a CdG. Good way to take out key enemies.

 

Deep Slumber works well for that, too.

 

Okay, so I'm cutting their heads off with a big nasty flaming blade!! Did I forget to mention that little detail?

I realize this is fantasy, but I still have a difficult time wrapping my head around the idea that a body, once dismembered from a brain to control it, could retain any sort of "will" to control itself. Even if it's not technically dead, it should only be able to flail about aimlessly and blindly. And the head, well without any vital organs to pump blood to it, should utterly expire. If we're talking a magical beast then maybe I could swallow this, but as far as I know, a troll is a natural creature (at least in the D&D universe).

Perhaps I'm just overthinking this one....

 

I'd say so. Trolls can be completely dismembered & regenerate into multiple new individuals. Nothing in real nature can do this in the way trolls can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Dungeons_&_Dragons)

 

You are going wrong in assuming that trolls have an anatomy similar to humans. Perhaps instead of having one centralized brain in their head they have many smaller neural clusters scattered about their bodies, and instead of one centralized heart they have multiple pumping stations throughout.

And Spike, earthworms can do just that.

 

Hm, I never thought about it that way before, Cerulean. That would make sense.

Its just easy to assume that a troll would be similar to a human in that way because their body is kinda like ours.

 

Feelin' "froggy", eh? I disagree:

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/zoo00/zoo00690.htm

Now, had you said these little fellows, I would have been compelled to acquiesce without further typing:

http://www.rzuser.uni-hd.de/~bu6/Introduction03.html

So, I should have stated that "ALMOST" nothing in real nature. I surmise that trolls have a biology similar to planarians (but not earth worms).