This might be loopy but I just stayed up until 6 AM fighting a truly tough battle and loving every minute of it. Oh man am I glad I found this game and I'm glad I Co8 put the time they did in to make it work because this game is truly a thing of beauty. It's the perfect version of a game where you make a bunch of random dudes and then strike out into the world to destroy evil (or good). Ahhh! So great! Now, if you don't mind me asking some questions about the game here. 1. My elf archer with 19 DEX can't hit the broad side of a barn with any ranged weapon I give him. What am I doing wrong? I mean I'd even be happy with 50% hit chance but I'd say it's around 12% right now. I'm pretty sure he has the right feats to use the thing, there is no red border. Makes me sad that he can only pick locks and not much else. 2. The Masterwork Crossbow I found has 0 range. Is that a bug? 3. Wizards vs. Sorcerer. They're obviously not the same. I don't quite understand the difference however. Tactically how are they to be used? 4. My Wizard lost a huge amount of EXP points recently and I don't know why. Only thing I could think of is that she summoned a familiar...is that why? 5. About how many items do you guys usually end up making with the Craft Wondrous Item feat? I'm so excited about this, you have no idea. I was under the impression from reading some guides that and databases that there were very few special items in this game. That's all my questions. It's really too bad Troika didn't get a better chance to make the game what it could have been. They really had their heads in the right place. Ah, well...
Welcome, friend. 1. Through the years I have noticed that any bow skills pretty much suck early on in the game. If you hit, it's because of luck. Things don't start ramping up until about 5th - 6thish level. 2. Don't know if range 0 is a bug but it doesn't affect the way it shoots. 3. Wizards vs. sorcerers...wizards can learn spells from scrolls, giving them a significantly wider range of spells they can use and choose from. They have to memorize the spells they are going to use every day. A sorcerer cannot learn new spells from scrolls and must learn new spells through level progression only, making them have a more narrow choice of spells to use everyday. However, they do not need to memorize specific spells to use each day. They get a set number of spells per level they can cast per day and they have access to all of their spells so they can always have the option to cast any one of their spells while the wizard can only cast what he memorized. Also, it is my understanding that a sorcerer cannot benefit from metamagic skills, such as enlarge, widen, quicken and all the other spell based ones that modify the parameters of spells. 4. You lose experience by dying. If the beginning of level 3 is 3,000 experience and say you had 5,000 when you died, you would lose all experience above the minimum you need for your current level. So, in this case above, you would lose 2,000 experience, bringing you back down to the beginning of 3rd level. It also costs experience to craft magic items and arms and weapons and spell scrolls. See next question. 5. It varies as to party makeup and what the classes are and whatnot that determine how many items I craft. I usually craft 2 belts of strength +6, an amulet of wisdom +6, headband of intellect +6 and maybe some ioun stones. I will always enchant all weapons to +3 as well as holy/mighty cleaving/keen and maybe flaming burst/shock burst/frost burst if I'm feeling that I need to lose a lot of experience for overkilling monsters by a lot. Basically, my 2 crafters, a cleric and a wizard, are pretty much always 1 level below the fighter(s) and rogue.
Awesome. Great information. Yeah, I definitely remember using that Raise Dead scroll, good to know about that. Haha, man this game is so wonderfully hardcore. Good tips on the crafting. Thank you.
Welcome, You also lose a lot of exp when you craft. What class is your archer? Fighter, Ranger, Rogue? Does your archer have any of the following feats: Rapid Shot, Precise Shot, Point Blank, Weapon Focus (Short/Long Bow or Xbow), Weapon Specialization?
Grab "Point Blank Shot" and "Precise Shot" asap for your ranged characters - you'll experience some awful penalties to your attack rolls without them. Click to little blue icon in the bottom right of the screen to see the dice rolls. A human character can grab both right from the start - other races have to wait till level 3. If you only have "Point Blank Shot" aim at enemies who aren't in melee combat as a workaround i.e. other ranged characters. Make sure to take note of the Damage Reduction of certain enemies in the log. Attacking with the wrong type of weapon, early game is virtually useless i.e. Zombies are resistant to Piercing/Bludgeoning - but weak against Slashing. IIRC the other round-based D&D games (NWN) bent the rules to make the make the game easier. Good and/or Lawful Clerics are particularly handy for enchanting items with "Craft Arms and Armor" - providing you pick a good Deity with the right Domains i.e. Pelor / Good, Sun Wizards are rather useful for making "Wondrous Items" and their high intelligence translates into lots of skill points for party skills like "Appraise" etc. I'll generally learn the item making spells (Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace etc) with a few other damage/control spells (Web etc) Sorcerer's tend to make better battle casters - spontaneous casting and the ability to cast more spells before resting. However they learn new spells at level up only and learn fewer spells than a wizard. Putting points into "Use Magic Item" can be handy for casting spells off scrolls - which they couldn't ordinarily use. I'll generally put hard hitting/useful spells on the Sorcerer - Enlarge, Sleep, Fireball, Cone of Cold etc Don't forget to use "Summon Familiar" with your Wizard/Sorcerer - the "Rat" gives a +2 to the Fortitude Save. To Gaear - are you charged for summoning a familiar - the manual states 100GP - that doesn't seem to occur
Check the dice roll window to see exactly why. My guess is just that it's either your poor luck, or the monsters you're trying to kill have AC too high for your skills. TBH, if you want a good "early start", get a human fighter (I assume by "archer" you meant "fighter" not "ranger"), an extra feat comes in handy for weapon focus and related ranged feats (someone mentioned them above). A bug of some sort? As soon as it still shoots bolts, I wouldn't be worried. Maybe the info window's displaying the stats wrongly. Wizard learns spells, Sorcerer "knows" spells. A wizard can learn spells from scrolls as well as on levelup, Sor can only learn on levelup. The Wiz has to memorize spells on rest like a cleric would, but sorcerer does not. The Sor can cast any spell off his spell list as long as he has "spell slots" per day left, and can substitute a higher-level slot to cast a lower-level spell. Thus: a wizard is a more all-around, versatile mage that has access to more spells and can be customized for every fight. The downside is that if you customize wrong, he can be rendered completely useless. The Sor knows less spells, but can adapt to any situation from what he has, and can be deadly if his spells are chosen well. Because of high CHA, the Sor also makes a decent face-man of the party. Conclusion? Tactically, it all depends on the gameplay. I personally prefer sorcerers most of the time, because 2-3 of those guys in a party just about cover my casting needs since I use similar spells most of the time. A Sor is a much better "magic cannon" than a Wiz, since he usually leaves no spellslot unused. On the other hand, the Wiz is a better crafter since he knows more spells. Did the Wiz get killed? If not, did the familiar get killed? If not, did you by any chance try to dismiss it? From d20: "If the familiar dies or is dismissed by the sorcerer, the sorcerer must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. Failure means he loses 200 experience points per sorcerer level; success reduces the loss to one-half that amount. However, a sorcerer’s experience point total can never go below 0 as the result of a familiar’s demise or dismissal. A slain or dismissed familiar cannot be replaced for a year and day. A slain familiar can be raised from the dead just as a character can be, and it does not lose a level or a Constitution point when this happy event occurs." IIRC, TOEE uses the same rules for familiars. It depends on what I need. I'm usually stingy about my XP, especially now that the "extra content" was temporarily axed. I usually wait until late-game when I REALLY need the items, and only craft the strongest (+6) versions. Aside from stat-boosting items, I rarely use CWI.
Regarding the Archer- enemies also get the annoying +4 COVER bonus to their AC- making it harder for your Archer to hit even WITH Precise shot and Point Blank Shot- if anyone or anything (like a wolf follower) is anywhere near being in-between the archer and the target. So - IF you get Point Blank shot and ALSO Precise Shot and ALSO walk around the battle scene a bit so that the archer has a direct line to the target- you can hit awesomely well. I use a Ranger with the free Rapid shot and make sure she's clear to the target, and buff her Dex as much as possible (with Craft Item - Gloves of Dexterity) and she rocks.
