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Thaluikhain

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Everything posted by Thaluikhain

  1. Monster manuals used to (don't know if they still do) have alignments for all monsters, including orcs who were chaotic evil, IIRC.
  2. While evil orcs weren't removed, the default assumption that a race of intelligent human like creatures is going to be evil (or mostly evil) and it's fair to kill them on sight has been removed. In theory. The topic of killing orc babies still gets people arguing today. But, ok, if someone claims this is more due to people wanting to play good orcs than because making them all evil is not a million miles away from some ideas floating around IRL, no way to prove otherwise.
  3. Isn't that why demons, daemons and devils became Baatezu, Yugoloth & Tanar'ri? Cause of Satanic Panic (or so I'm told), which seems to me to be about people being offended, though you might argue that it's not the same. Also nudity in the official material (usually tasteful, mind), comes and goes.
  4. Congrats. I find it really grindy and with not enough places to level up (or maybe I'm levelling up wrong), so end up losing interest and telling myself I'll reload a save someday and then forgetting about it, myself.
  5. Dunno if you'd call it a bug, or just an exploit of a weird mechanic, but when walking around dungeons I often find it useful to enter combat mode, walk my first fighter forward, hit a nearby monster and then end combat with the second PC. That brings the party together a little way away from the monster before it can hit back and I try it again. Useful for, say, the Shayder sewers which get annoyingly grindy.
  6. Huh, no idea that the map making had been so extensive. Idea 478 for a scenario for BoE I'll never actually get around to making involved going to an alternative universe version of Kriszan, using modified E3 map, where the slimes had taken over and those weird experiments from the slime caves were running around.
  7. Ah, didn't know that, I always thought it was intended that way, for the mechanics to have it as a shield, but using mace graphics and called a mace to make it seem unusual, and that the Protection value only was relevant to armour and ignored for everything else. Being able to give Protection values means it wouldn't be hard to give more flexible options. Or, maybe even weapons with encumbrance, but not sure if that's a great idea.
  8. Ah, didn't know they did that individually. That's not great True, but even if you did that, there'd still be a correct way of arming your party. There's be one best single handed weapon, and one best pole weapon. You wouldn't, for example, have someone armed with sword and dagger, because one (probably the sword) would be just better and you'd take two of those. That same weapon would be best for someone with a one handed weapon and shield. That somehow doesn't seem right to me (you could have a buckler and a shield), but ok, trying something different. Now, if you could have an item that gave worked as both a shield and a one handed weapon (but not as good as a dedicated one of either), then you'd have more choice in how to arm. But not currently feasible.
  9. That makes sense, I'm sure I've successfully webbed people. Especially when replaying scenarios and I know a bunch of sliths are about to appear at the crack in the wall. Also, in regards to Dumbfounding, I ended up assuming the problem wasn't so much that it didn't Dumbfound monsters, but that it shouldn't have been called Dumbfound, should have been some generic curse sounding thing. Surprised that it actually affects spell levels.
  10. Was thinking about making another thread, after people were more interested in missile weapons that I thought, but: I'd also add Lockpicks to that. Your party will be able to cast Unlock unless it's a weird scenario where they can't. No point having lockpicks or lockpicking skill. Even bashing the door works. (Oh...you could stick an anti-magic field on a doorway to stop Unlock spells, and keep refreshing it each turn. Maybe turn if off once the door is opened? Bit of mucking around, but doable. EDIT: Would that stop piercing crystals?) The way melee weapons work. If you want to use double handed weapons, you want to use pole weapons. Double handed edged or bashing are just not worth it If you want to use single handed weapons, you want to use edged. If you use single handed edged weapons, you want broadswords (or waveblades if you can get them). Dual wielding is also the way to go. That is, dual wielding broadswords (or waveblades if you can get them). Some exceptions to this, might be a good idea to have one (and only one) PC with bashing weapons because you'll find some decent ones you might want to use when you don't have enough good edged weapons for everyone, and before you get the best stuff you'll use what you have. When you get magic stuff you might want to use a weaker weapon with an ability rather than the most damaging one. But generally there's one obvious right way to arm PCs, and a lot of weapons are just junk you don't want to use. Also, armour. Now, I sorta like how armour works, in that a small amount stops a PC from using mage spells, and a large amount will also cost them action points. So it might not be obvious how much armour you should have. However, and I might be wrong about this, there doesn't seem to be much point having a shield, unless you've already maxed everything else and want more. As I type this, I realise that I don't know if the amount of encumbrance compared to the amount of protection is the same for shields as other armour. If not, if you get more protection with less encumbrance, might be worth sacrificing the use of a hand. Otherwise, you'd increase your other armour and go double handed or dual wield. And there's a few weird spells that seem useless. Does anyone use Scare, for example? Detect Life seems cool, and I sometimes consider if you could make a scenario (or at least a part of one) where you are hiding from the monster and you can see it coming to the doorway on your map or something, but as it is I don't use it.
  11. Couldn't think of a better title. Anyhoo, there's been a lot of talk about how archery and throwing weapons aren't useful due to numbers, but even without that, would people want to use them? Now, this could just be me, but archery just doesn't grab me. Ok, you can differentiate your fighters by making one an archer. But, at least the way I create parties, I tend to have front line fighters, who need use bashing/edged or pole weapons, and second line magic users. Giving someone archery takes away useful skill points (and adds the weight of a bow and arrows, I guess) from what they'd use most. Though, giving a mage a few points of throwing weapons because mana is limited might make sense, and some dungeons have narrow tunnels where you are fighting in single file and fighters can't in close, and there's always enemies on the other side of chasms or fences or something. But never really justifies the cost for me. Also, I'm not seeing an appeal. Mechanically, it's just not as fun to use bows as it is hitting people or using magic. I don't know why, and it could just be me. Do other people find missile weapons just less interesting/fun, or is it just me? And, are there ways to make missile weapons more interesting? I think you could do something with level design and weird magic ammo types to encourage their use.
  12. Huh. Didn't know that, that seems odd.
  13. Huh, guess someone forget to put some blocked to monsters tiles next to the bar there. I always remember in E3 an evil acolyte shopkeeper that kept their default hostile attitude and you have to charm them to go shopping. Oppenheimer, on the surface in a town east of Kriszan, IIRC. And also one isolated road tile near the Inn of Blades.
  14. Yeah, each time it gets harder, with different numbers of Chritrach Larvas, Chritrachs and Null Bugs, and once you win there's treasure...a Steel Shield or something?
  15. Not a captain or champion or something? I remember that differently, but it's been ages since I've played.
  16. Definitely remember an accented guard at one of the gates (southern, I think, leading to upper Exile) in Fort Emergence in E3.
  17. I've never beaten the Golems or Beasts without using the editor. Up until then I'm usually good, but it starts turning into a grind for me once I'm trying to deal with them.
  18. Yeah, not seen that before, that's impressive. Back in the old days we had to rely on the hint book with pencilled in annotations from last time I played.
  19. Huh, so, for example, you're in a store with a long counter (like most store in E3 and BoE, it seems), and if you are standing at one short end, the Shockwave spell won't affect someone at the opposite end if it's 5 or more spaces long? Also, how does it determine LoS if you are aren't in a straight line? Say the target is 6 spaces above and one to the right, so there's 5 vertical spaces in two columns, which are you looking through? Getting a bit off-topic and obscure with that, though, but am interested in working out LOS in a grid.
  20. IIRC, the magical bonuses to stuff were very over-priced and not worth it. Not sure if that meant they weren't better than magical weapons if you had loads of money, but I never tended to use them myself.
  21. I might mention, I think it was Odessa, where the scenario is you escorting someone somewhere, so every random encounter and dungeon they show up (sometimes in creative places in dungeons). Simple, but IIRC, worked fairly well.
  22. Oh, Web is nice, yes, especially when you know that a bunch of monsters are about to emerge from a certain area (normally by playing the thing more than once, though, which is a bit cheaty) and you can prepare the area first.
  23. Erm, I think Slow Group didn't need line of sight. Also, now that I think of it, spells like Mass Charm and Mass Paralysis, possibly as they don't direct harm enemies they work differently.
  24. As well as needing to know what you mean by "tedious", some explanation of "generic" would help. For example, I'd not say Avernum/Exile was generic...but then you play as an adventuring party of 4/6 people. In the later ones you pick each characters race and that gives them various benefits. Ok, no elves or dwarfs, but there are cat people or lizard people instead. You then go on quests and dungeon crawls and fight various other sentient humanoids and pick up magic gear if you're lucky. If someone was to say that was generic, I couldn't really argue. Likewise, I'd not say Nethergate was generic, it's set in Roman Britain. But then you play as either the Imperials or the local natives wanting to get rid of them, there's big world changing magic stuff going on and dragons and giant spiders and wolves and bears to fight...and I'm describing Skyrim there. In only the vaguest terms, but still.
  25. I knew how Shockwave worked, but either forgot (or never knew) that it's supposed to be an earthquake, I just thought it was magic damage that spread in all directions that got more powerful because it's magic. And to do more damage to the enemy than the rest of your party, who are presumably closer, I guess. Doesn't Shockstorm use the same "template" (5x5 except the 4 corners) as Firestorm, but places a persistent magical damage thing, like Conflagration or the wall spells? Always liked those spells once the fighters/terrain have created a line to fix the enemy. Or against invisible monsters.
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