NPCs past, present, future

Repost from four weeks ago about how to get Y'dey, Murfles, and Otis in your party under current conditions.
I have to say that the Trio of Otis, Mother Screng, and Hruda are awesome. The problem is being of a low enough level to get them and once you get them you can never, ever, go back to Nulb.

First you need to have 4 PC's or less. If 4:
One Fighter/ Barbarian up to you. First Elmo and then Otis will fill out your fighter requirements for the party. If you must have Fruella in your party, you must skip the PC fighter and go with 3 PC's. Same if you want an Elmo and Otis family reunion. They do make a decent one-two punch.

A Cleric is necesary, but Mother Screng/Cannoness Y'dey is an 8th level Cleric of St. Cuthbert, so maybe have your PC cleric be of a Demi-human faith, say Moradin, and/or multi-class to something else after you get her to join.

(Personally I like to go with a Human Cleric of Bocobb or Wee-Jas and multi to a Wizard or Sorcerer respectively. A LN Cleric of Wee-Jas with Greater spell foci in Necromancy and the ability to spontaneously cast inflict wound spells coupled with a Sorcerer focusing on all of the Necromancy spells....ouch. Wizard can go the route of a Specialist to augment a generalist wizard.)

Rogue. You'll need at least 3-5 levels depending on INT and DEX Ability scores (and the nimble fingers feat) to handle the traps. After that it's all for the sneak attacks. Hruda is a 2/2 elven Fighter/Rogue, specializing in archery. The hardest part about her is remembering which class you last leveled her up in to to avoid experience penalties. I like halfling rogue/rangers with archery and racial enemies of Goblinoids. Gives me a one/two archery punch and arrow sneak attacks for both when ranges are under 30 feet!

Wizard. Doesn't matter about who/what etc. Or you can go with 3 PC's and take Spugnoir.

The hard part is staying under the magic party level number of 5 after taking Otis through the temple one time. With all of the additional experience floating around it can be tricky. When I finally did this I had to avoid either Emeridy Meadows quests, and most of the other town quests except for the ones I needed to get Meleny and that longsword. I did kill the assassin and the traders in Hommlet but I recommend not doing those till later, as I was only 1000 exp from level 6 with my PC's when I got Otis and Mother Screng. No Nulb quests either (Immryds Run or killing the crew at the Waterside Hostel.)

The other thing is you MUST complete your party to eight in Hommlet to soak up experience your PC's might get and keep your party level down. This allows you to have fairly decent NPC's waiting in Hommlet should Otis, Hruda, or Y'dey get killed or the escorts are done.

In the Temple head straight for the Earth Temple Cleric so you can learn about the factions. After that leave and head back to NULB. Otis will leave. Go to Hommlet and drop of all NPC's until you have your core four. Go back to Nulb and get Otis, then go to Mother Screng's for Y'dey and Hruda. The eighth spot is for the Verbobonc escorts, Paida, and Thrommel. Once you are done with those quests you can go back to Hommlet and pick up one more NPC, or one of the other ones in the temple (Wonnilon, Darley, etc.)

Remember there is no going back to Nulb after Otis is in your party the second time, as Y'dey and Hruda leave with him.

 

So reading through the above, does this mean that in order to get them in your party you will never get to do any of the nulb quests? It sounds like it since first you are avoiding xp, then you can't go back to nulb.

 

That is, essentially, why I've never had Screng, etc. in my party. Otis bails on returning to Nulb and I'm rarely that low of a level at that point.

 

I would like to make some suggestions about some minor NPCs who are not mentioned in any canonical text. While there is, and probably should be, greater frequency of fighters and rogues, perhaps other classes and races can be considered.

* Erliter the Beggar - perhaps make him a paladin of Cuthbert
* Gay Bertram - as above, he is very loyal you know!
* Mickey - rogue w/ sleight of hand and low wisdom
* Wicked - apparently was Ftr 2 brigand who was caught stealing Temple gems; wants revenge, but I wonder how loyal he would be.
* Morgan - it may be weird to suggest this, but how about making him a dwarf?
* Riana - something besides a rogue - too many already!!
* Pishella - straight sorceror please

I like the idea of more clerics because domains make every cleric somewhat unique. More demi-humans might be cool.

 

Fragarach's alignment has always been an odd issue. Some years back, the question was asked to Gygax himself. Here's the replies regarding Thrommel.

That's taken from the Oerth Journal N. 12, p. 8.

 

Yes you need to do just enough to advance in the game while advancing to the point you need to find out about the factions in the Temple.

I've done it once and I do say it is pretty neat. Y'dey is not a great warrior, but you'll be using her for her spells. Otis is Otis. Murfles is pretty awesome with her bow once she gains a few more levels.

 

Thanks for the research matmaisan. Great to see you here again. Tell us more!

That is quite authoritative, I agree about Thrommel but it seems that a sword "of answering" (e.g. Rebutter, Scather, Replier, Retorter, Squelcher, and Backtalker) is not very Lawful in concept, especially due to the aforementioned names.

But hey, who am I to argue with the Late Great One, who is responsible for my longest lasting life addiction?

I'm all for a Paladin Thrommel who will not join with evil groups due to Detect Evil. I wonder if the community would agree with making Fragarach a Lawful Good sword (yes, this would mess up the LE vignette speech) and the sister swords CG.:shrug:

 

I would expect righteous indignation from those swords.....

 

Is a backtalker associated with one who accepts authority or resists it? Perhaps a squelcher could be associated with either law or chaos concept. I don't know, just my 2 cp worth.

Also, there is already 1 anarchic weapon in the game - Blade of Fury. I am not aware of any non-crafted axiomatic weapon.

 

The original ToEE module stated that the other 'swords of answering' were lesser items:

The important bit is that they had differing alignments. They don't say which alignments, and there are a total of nine, so only two alignments would not have swords of answering associated to them.

Personally I think that the concept of 'answering' involves restraint, and would therfore not be strongly associated with chaos. You actually have to be hit in order to get the weapon's most phenomenal benefit. I see the concept more strongly aligned with law than chaos, in any case.

 

Wow! I have the module and was referring to it but I totally glossed over the "having different alignments".

So, Ted, shall we resolve the Thrommel issue based on this "new" information? Thrommel Pal 10 and Fragarach both LG and Scather could be CG.

 

Way ahead of you chief. My Thrommel Paladin with LG Fragarach performed without a hitch. I tested it on Zaxis for +2d6 damage and then I realized that on that saved game the party had a charmed troll in tow so Thrommel took him out with 1d10 +strength +2d6 and +2d6.

Edit: Ah, crap! I see the problem. It does not answer back. I assume because the Fragarach quality in protos calls up something in the engine that applies for CG and that is something we cannot change. You set me up for that heartbreak, didn't you Ted!

 

Ok, I did find a workaround. Make Thrommel a CG Paladin. He still keeps his paladin abilities. He won't be able to levelup, but who cares! A CG Fragarach will now perform normally!

Any comment about my suggestions for minor joinable NPCs? Ah, you could also give the 0-level ones 3hp to start with (count as Toughness, but don't write in protos). This way they don't have extra hp when they levelup. A little extra challenge to keep them alive.