Review Knights of the Chalice review

[VentilatorOfDoom]

The efficacy of classes depends on situation, playstyle and character builds.

Of course it does.

With my playstyle my single knight was killing every major enemy in no time (elder dragons would survive 2-3 rounds) and could take a severe beating himself by the end, while my casters were running around like little bitches trying not to get killed. (The AI's attack focus on casters, the bad scaling of spells, spell immunities and the inability to pre-buff do not work in casters' favour, either. Just sayin'.)


Why do we even have to argue about that? I do better with fighter heavy parties, you like casters. Fine. Done. What's your problem?

Disclaimer: VoD and I aren't arguing this kind of stuff for the first time, for anybody wondering

I don't have a problem. What about you?

You misunderstand me if you think I'm trying to convince you to change your playstyle. If you like knights, go with my blessing. I have played with 2 knights, cleric, wizard the first time because it's the standard setup and I know that the game is perfectly beatable with such a party (although I had major difficulties during certain encounters, as already mentioned: the final final fight, the fight with the lich after the boss dragon etc) and of course the knights were dishing out a lot of pain. But I also played with different caster-only parties, so I think I know the differences. And one of the differences is, that during a handful of especially difficult encounters having more casters is a major advantage.

The AI's attack focus on casters

is crap early on but can be dealt with eventually.

bad scaling of spells, spell immunities

Don't remember those. Want to elaborate?

the inability to pre-buff do not work in casters' favour, either

Not sure if that is that much of a disadvantage. First, the enemy isn't buffed either. Secondly, if you could pre-buff, the enemy would need to be pre-buffed too, which means you had to cast dispels and dispel doesn't really work well, considering that tough enemies usually have very high will saves and the DC of the lowly lvl3 dispel isn't all that high. Taken all that into account it's probably for the better to not allow pre-buffing.

 

[Terpsichore]

The point is that knights are entirely useless during the final fight.

 

[Mrowak]

The point is that knights are entirely useless during the final fight.

Define "useless". Mine managed pretty well in the last secret fight.

 

[Wunderpurps]

The point is that knights are entirely useless during the final fight.

I already posted that I had no problem with those fights, in fact I did better than you did. Maybe you just think I am a liar, but since I'm not the only one to get these results obviously it's you who can't figure out how to make them work for you.

If you give a fighter long sword and shield and plate mail and choose bad feats then your fighter will only be good as a meat shield. If you choose a more offensive and mobile build then you'll have characters able to kill almost anything in the game in one full attack, and able to close with enemies very quick to get attacks of opportunity when they try to cast or move towards your spellcasters.

 

[Terpsichore]

Except when there are enemies with massive damage reductions and nasty reflect shields involved.

But don't get me wrong, the hardest part of that fight is keeping the npcs alive, a knight doesn't help with that.

 

[Wunderpurps]

Except when there are enemies with massive damage reductions and nasty reflect shields involved.

But don't get me wrong, the hardest part of that fight is keeping the npcs alive, a knight doesn't help with that.

Well you get a two handed weapon and power attack. Then damage reduction is not an issue, and you'll be dealing hundreds of damage per round by the end. And remember damage reduction is ignored when you have the proper weapon type.

Or you can dual wield vorpal swords. Then you get some ridiculous amount of attacks and behead anything that has a head in one round 90% of the time.

And before you face guys with strong fire shield or ice shield your cleric, instead of acting as 2nd rate fighter or 3rd rate mage, casts the proper protection spell on your fighter.

That's all I ever did with my cleric in more serious fights, he was constantly casting buffs and dispels and cures in combat. He'll have Heal by the end so really it's very easy. Likewise in most fights your mage would then cast haste. Now your hasted flame protected fighter zooms across the screen and hits one dragon for 200 points and the next round it kills 3 dragons with great cleave in a full attack.

The complaints you have say it's that you're not using them right, because these just aren't real problems. Also, having just one fighter is a bad mix. You should have two or have none because just one won't be enough to act as your main damage, especially if he has longsword and shield.

I don't remember the fight details any more but I had zero difficulty keeping the NPCs alive, and that's going to be easier with fighters because you can just run them past the NPCs to draw monster attacks. With mages as your damage battery you have to just kill the enemy immediately to stop attacks.

 

[hydd]

Greetings all,

Wanted to resurrect this thread to share my recent rant of Knights of the Chalice. I actually found out about Kotc and a few of my other favorites (Avernum & Arcanum ♥) from RPG Codex. Discussions happen quite fast here and never got around to making an account. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the rant!

URL: http://www.benjaminbook.com/

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I'll wait until it will cost 15 PLN.

 

[kieferd20]

Knight is completely useless later on and the extra final fight will be a nightmare.

But of course, with a proper party and gear the game is just too easy.

Wow i take it you did not play the game. knights are not useless matter of fact they are the ultimate heroes. i am currently level 22 and my knights hit 6 to 7 times and do about 30 to 80 damage per hit.

 

[Cosmic Bane]

Some players can't figure out any style of gameplay except to cast fireball over and over.

 

[Roguey]

Wow i take it you did not play the game. knights are not useless matter of fact they are the ultimate heroes. i am currently level 22 and my knights hit 6 to 7 times and do about 30 to 80 damage per hit.

While "completely useless" is an exaggeration, it's D&D, so a high level two wizard party is going to trounce a high level two knight party.

 

[kieferd20]

Wow i take it you did not play the game. knights are not useless matter of fact they are the ultimate heroes. i am currently level 22 and my knights hit 6 to 7 times and do about 30 to 80 damage per hit.

While "completely useless" is an exaggeration, it's D&D, so a high level two wizard party is going to trounce a high level two knight party.

You are misguided for sure
I have played through the game so many times with so many parties, and knights are the rulers in the game! D&D or not!!
You people are idiots!! fat slobs that sit behind their computer and suck down MD and pretend to have a life.

 

[Dickie]

You can get to level 22 in this game? I remember the cap being 20 back when I played.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Tried the demo. Hard computer lock after install followed by a spontaneous reboot.

Against my better judgement, when reboot I tried again to launch the game.

It worked.

"Something something...search ruins...blah blah"

Got party wiped by a bear in the first 3 minutes.

Uninstalled.



Zep--

 

[Tigranes]

Got party wiped by a bear in the first 3 minutes.

Uninstalled.



Zep--

Episode: "Zep Plays Pillars of Eternity, Can't Git Gud"

 

[Darth Roxor]

Tried the demo. Hard computer lock after install followed by a spontaneous reboot.

Against my better judgement, when reboot I tried again to launch the game.

It worked.

"Something something...search ruins...blah blah"

Got party wiped by a bear in the first 3 minutes.

Uninstalled.



Zep--

the dementia's kicking in, old man