Top 15 annoyances in ToEE

Diseases. You think you're resting up ready to go back to the fight, and you wake up in the morning with purple flags and an ability score penalty. So everyone goes back to sleep while the cleric prays for a bunch of (lesser) restoration spells, and you waste a day casting spells... I should scribe a few scrolls I suppose, but it's pretty dull gameplay and has no effect on the campaign overall.

 

I usually move the Rest clock up to 1 day 8 hours and sleep it off- and as an annoyance, disease is definitely one of the worse- speaking of which, does the spell version even cause effects during combat? (can't say that I've ever tried to cast any of them...)?

 

How about an AI which can easily be made to appear idiotic?

Wandering round level 3 of the temple I might have acquired 9 tame shadows....

I allowed them to attack the ogre shaman plus three ogres under the protection of a stinking cloud or two - by the time the second cloud dissipated I decided to risk my jackal and not add a third as the three normal ogres were paralyzed and dying

The shaman (who obviously has a much better fortitude save) doesn't use his actions to flatten my jackal but rather attempts to cast cure spells (defensively) on its minions that have strength scores of about -15 each.

I am not sure whether this was worse than watching a leucrotta spending two successive rounds trying to confuse the same shadow!

 

I'm finally back up to the WotGS in 7.9, and have been reminded of one of my pet peeves. Is there any way to allow boots and gloves to stack?

 

As an old gamer --emphasis on 'old' (and often cranky)-- I really appreciate Co8 rescuing ToEE. In the 80's, the Temple of Elem Evil PnP module was the highlight of my gaming experience.
That being said, some of the following are Things I Wish were Different, and a few are in the category of Annoyances.

1-Pixel hunting, especially when looting bodies that are stacked.
2-Jerk stop
3-Random spell or potion effects. Usually only occurs on the 2nd temple level, and I pass it off as General Effects of Chaos associated with the Temple itself.
4-Drop and drag. Wish it were different, like being able to highlight all the desired items in an inventory, then Drop or Collect at once rather than pick up/drop one at a time.
5-Hotkeys. Love 'em now that I learned to use them, and saved my ToEE gaming experience. More keys please. Why isn't the number row available? Wish I could reassign the ones already taken -- (L)og, (M)ap, (H)elp, (O)ptions, etc.

These next ones are going to betray my RPG biases:
6-Time. Not implemented hardly at all in ToEE.
7-Merchants Deep (even Bottomless) Pockets. This would add so much to the CRPG experience if it were corrected. Merchants should have a LIMITED amount of coin as part of their inventory with which to trade (like in Baldur's Gate and Fall Out), instead of simply conjuring up coin to match your maxed out Appraise demands. It makes NO SENSE that Jinnerth can't afford to make uniforms for the Hommlet militia, yet come up with 2000 gold to buy your Cloak. And Calmert, who is very adept at collecting contributions, certainly isn't giving coin away that he doesn't have to; yet he should be willing to trade potions and scrolls in exchange for your magici shield, but never buy it outright.
8-Crafting options could be more flexible. Like being able to place Cats Grace on boots, and Eagles Splendor on hats.
9-Zuggtmoy should be more in line with her abilities in PnP, which would make her much tougher, or even improving her spell/attack routine. Likewise with the elemental grues in the nodes.
10-Scather/Fragarach. Overpowered in ToEE because Atari/Troika didn't follow the description. The Swords of Answering are defensive weapons, not offensive juggernauts, as evidenced by the facts that 1) the wielder always loses initiative, 2)the "always hit" feature only applies to the AoO retaliatory strike -- not the wielder's normal attack, 3) Scather it is a magical +2 (not +4) "hefty steel broadsword" (basically a one-hand only long sword) -- not a 3rd edition bastard sword/two handed wpn that triggers all the most outlandish melee damage bonuses imaginable (2x Power attack, 1.5x ST bonus, Crit 2x ALL the bonuses -- where did that rule come from?).
11-Someone needs to turn all of Gygax's Greyhawk modules into CRPGs.

 

The npc sorcerer mu - has the most useless sorcerer spells ever - couldn't she at least have Identify?

 

The illogical deity selection restrictions. Why the game thinks that a NG fighter cannot worship Pelor (for instance) is beyond me. Also it would be nice to have a choice of some more non-human deities, like Sehanine Moonbow and Clanggedin Silverbeard.

 

The npc sorcerer mu - has the most useless sorcerer spells ever - couldn't she at least have Identify?

I've seen this discussion in another thread, and it turns out that Darley (the npc sorceress found in the Fire Node you refer to) is an alu-demon and has some spell-like abilities. She 'fakes spell casting gestures' when using her powers. So she's a 'horrible sorceress' because she really isn't.

 

Sorry my bad for not remembering her name - not that one - the one from Homlet - who can help to destroy that thing (avoiding spoilers). Incidentaly - I had her in my party - got the destruction dialogue - gave her the thing and the stuff necessary to destroy it - she did the destruction - but the thing was still her inventory afterwards.

 

Having just finished a solo run with a druid something I found annoying was that npc who loved me would attack if I had a summoned creature with me. A brown bear animal companion, no problem. A summoned brown bear, attack on sight!
This was particular frustrating in the "war for the golden skull quest". I could not prepare the defense with a few summoned elementals before sallying forth without being attacked by a certain elderly hommlet resident. And going out alone without my army was suicide.

Another problem I experienced when I was alone and there was a lot of enemies was that the sheer amount of actions that toee would perform at the same time meant I suddenly lost my action. One particular fight against some unique forest bandits where I rolled low on my initiative meant I didn't get any actions due to this bug. In the entire combat my turn was skipped in all rounds until I died.

 

People complaining about limited spells above 5th level, don't forget that they weren't incorporated with the game since there was a level 10 cap. It's our Co8 modders who implemented them -> see how Disintegrate has Ray of Enfeeblement animation?

Indeed. Time to roll back to before I made all those Horns of Goodness. Does Protection from X work properly?

I didn't notice anything on the ground before I reloaded my reward encounters because of this, but I didn't know to look for this either so I might have missed the loot on the ground.

Well that explains a lot. 4E brought back Answering (and made it a generally available enhancement called Final Word) but nothing was said about never missing. As for the outlandish melee damage bonuses, I guess they tried to reflect how much harder you can hit something when swung with both hands? They make fighting with two weapons so much weaker in comparison though...

1. Some peeves of mine:
2. Omigosh yes... inventory management. And also limited inventory space, especially Brother Smyth after he begins Masterwork items.
3. Spell animations not delimiting the area of effect
4. And yes, that Stinking Cloud...
5. Hotkeys... Ever tried to assign one to Wand of Identify? The hotkey is assigned to ONE, and only that one, wand. Can't assign the same hotkey to different characters, and when that wand runs out, you have to reassign the hotkey to another wand.
6. No description in the Craft menus and no Arms & Armour requirements listed. Makes for a lot of getting out of the game screen to search online
7. How easily quick saving/loading bugs a game
8. Movement: why must they run back and forth to get somewhere? And Run rarely allows more distance to be covered than a double move
9. You can't choose to stay prone and not cause all those AoOs
10. Monk loses ki bonus to unarmed attacks when wielding a weapon in the off-hand
11. It often takes me many tries at ordering the character to Trip Attack before it obeys
12. Does Sleight of Hand do anything except steal keys if they have one?
13. How long it takes to get someplace in Nulb (might consider giving my Sorc Dimension Doors for that place)
14. Freedom of Movement not doing anything (at least not on Grease or Web)
15. Hommlet turns hostile when you bring in Charmed Monsters, but it's okay if they're in your party

And something I encountered, but is circumstantial enough to not be much of a problem: Crippling Strike does no damage to a character with Meld into Stone, but still damages STR.

 

Are you aware that Nulb has a signpost where you first arrive that will jump you to most locations in town?

 

Re the answering swords in AD&D1 vs 3.5: always hits is far more powerful with the advent of doubled strength bonuses for using two hands, power attack adding your character level to damage, and feats to increase your critical hit chance. I think you also get more attacks in 3.5, and more options to increase them further.

 

I had some troubles with the Balor earlier today... then I re-discovered how much of a powerhouse a buffed up cleric can be. Divine buffs, bulls, bears, dispel evil, protection from evil, then give him some heroism, haste, and displacement from your mages/bards, equip him with the Moradins Soulhammer(if you have fighter levels) or any other holy weapon, and he will smack down the balor handily

 

:scratchhe Now I'm aware... :yes:

If your Cleric doesn't run away in fear, though Protection from Evil should prevent that. I guess last time I was using MAGIC CIRCLE and wondering why no one would stay put. Or not be Dominated. And don't forget the all-important Deathward.

I remember one time, the Balor summoned TWO Balors. :twitch: