Let's play ToEE!

Welcome to this very special (meaning first and probably last) Let's Play Thread about Temple of Elemental Evil : A Classic Greyhawk Adventure.

Index:
Part 0 - Intro & Basics (read below)
Part 1 - Visiting Hommlet: A snake pit survival guide
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Part 2 - On Emridy Meadows: Walking with the undead
Part 3 - In the moathouse: About the duality of doing things 'the smart way'
Part 4 - The guard tower: Boss Battle Time
Part 5 - Nulb: Living amongst the bold and the beautiful
Part 6 - The Temple: Getting to the bottom of things (Upper levels)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Part 7 - The inner sanctum: Meeting the boss
Part 8 - Dungeons & Kindergartens: When the big kids collide
Part 9 - The nodes: Going elemental
Air
Water
Earth
Fire
Part 10 - Revisiting Hommlet: The great homecoming
Part 11 - Down in the Basement: How you give your place that 'final touch'
Part 12 - Wrapping things up

Potentional points of interest:
Spazmo's review on RPG Codex
Other stuff on RPG Codex
Co8 community forum for all your modding needs
RPG Vault's interview with Tim Cain (Part 1, Part 2)
Desslock's interview with Tim Cain


Brief Introducing

If you've never tried this masterpiece either because of innocent ignorance or because the long winded title sounded terrifying to you: Temple of Elemental Evil (short ToEE) is one, if not the, best D&D (Edition 3.5) combat simulator to this very day (and counting).
Why the 'classic' you ask? It is because this game spawns from an old P&P module created in 1985 by Gary Gygax and Frank Mentzer. Typical for RPG material of this era the campaign includes a lot of story exposition plus a very deep philosophical and thought provoking narrative way too complex for me to describe in full sentences. Luckily, the intro of the game provides enough strong visual messages so this tale of epic proportions can be summed up briefly.


Skull!




Wizards!




Evil Slut (+ an army of darkness)!




Good guy in shiny armor with big sword (mandatory) and an army of the righteous (expendable)!



Disclaimer: This sword actually plays an important role for lawful evil parties as their very first goal would be to find and destroy it.


Good Guy pwns Evil Slut. Final Fantasy Style!




Good Guy about to pwn some more (with his big sword)...fails!




Wizards seal the temple (Evil Slut inside)!




And that's pretty much everything you got to know about the backstory (if even that). Like its P&P predecessor ToEE has the wonderful luxury that you can mostly ignore the plot and hack & slash all the way through. So let's make our start by creating a suitable party of butc... I mean adventurers.
Before we can actually do that however we will have to choose one of many so called 'party alignments'. Your choice will determine the opening vignette, which alignment your potential party members must be (a paladin will never join any evil party for example), how the party will interact with NPCs and maybe even offer some special quests (like the quest that involves the sword mentioned above).
While I was pondering about which alignment to take, I realized that I've never actually beaten the game with an evil party. It's neutral evil then.

The actual character creation remains faithful to the D&D rule system and can be broken down into two steps (three if you pick a magic user like wizards and clerics).

1. Roll up your stats (they may range from around 6 = poor to 18 = uebermensch. You can re-roll them as often as you like (except if you play in 'Ironman' -> no saves mode where re-rolls are not allowed) which will give you bonus modifiers for several skills and saving throws, choose your race which may also affect your stats and various other things and finally choose your profession.

2. Choose so called Feats which will give your character additional bonuses and can sometimes expand his repertoire of combat maneuvers. To round up the whole thing, you'll spread skill points (number depends on your character intelligence) on the various skills available. It should be considered that improving skills outside of the character's current profession will cost him more points though. Every character can learn to pick a lock but a fighter will have to spend more points to be as efficient as professional thief and so forth.

3. (Optional) Choose your spells.

I'll graciously skip the parts where you decide hair color and the like.

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention here is the alternative point buy system. Instead of rolling up a character, you can also click on the 'advanced' tab in the lower right corner on the initial character creation screen. You will then get 25 points that you can freely distribute amongst the different attributes. Rule thereby is: the higher the stat the higher the amount of points you have to spent to raise it.

For this playthrough, I will make the daring attempt to beat the game with first roll characters. No re-rolls. The game will actually show how many re-rolls were made for a character on his character sheet. See the upper right corner in the below examples. Kinda like a mark of shame. You can avoid this by quitting the character creation screen and retry. But this is timid and boring so I never did it and won't start here.
Naturally, my first roll is an utter failure. I decide on the spot that this will become my party leader.

Say hello to Screamer



Truly one of those 'probably is going to die first in..like..every encounter / turn?’ kind of characters. The only positive thing to say is that she's the only person in my party with a charisma above 10. Then again this is D&D, the RPG brand for men, not some weird larping crap.

Disclaimer: Funny enough I actually forget to invest any skill points into 'perform' meaning that she can't even use her more or more than less useful songs! Oh well, until the next level up, I guess.


Next in line is Screamer's (debatably) faithful bodyguard: Johnny Legcutter. A dwarf who knows where it hurts!



Now that's more like it baby! Too bad that he's also as dumb as one can be meaning that he'll only get 4 skill points per level. (Edit: Only one actually) That's just enough to fill all the skills he's specialized in but it is something.


Where is the magic you wonder? It is right here! Say hello to Magedude! (and yes, giving the smartest guy in the party the stupidest name of 'em all struck me as kind of funny)



Again a pretty good roll (except the 9 maybe).

I'm just wondering if my luck will last when Punkaid hits the stage.



This cleric (who earned his name simply due to his blue Mohawk) is pretty much average on every level imaginable. That's too bad since I wanted him to become my second melee focused character. We shall see how he'll do on the field.


Last but not least there comes the vital Rogue/Halfling combo. A party without a rogue is only half complete, especially because ToEE, like many other D&D games, comes with a lot of traps hidden inside. Rogues will ease your pain a great deal in these regards. I dub thee Tumblefingers.




Since we hit the party cap now, let's take a last look before pressing on. We got a least three decent characters one so-so character and one who completely sucks. That sounds about right. Let's get started!


About being 'Evil': The Basics

To make sure that we follow the proper procedures whenever we perform 'Evil' acts we must first grasp the concept of 'Evil' as it is understood within the game.






Alright, it's pretty much the dull kind of evil. You probably are going to guess what's going to happen. Screamer will laugh naughty and spit some taunts. The Acolyte gets angry and attacks. While this setup is not terribly exiting, at least I get the chance to explain the combat system in detail.



ToEE, despite modern trends, more tends to the P&P roots in the way combat is executed. Combat is organized in so called turns (with a roughly estimated time span of a couple of seconds). First, the game rolls for initiative. The idea is that the one with the highest dexterity is probably going to act first which often gives him the advantage to plan things ahead before the other combatants can prepare (better hit first than bleed first). This is especially important in the first round. If you look at the small character icons on the bottom of the above picture you may notice the little boot symbols. That means that the character is 'flat footed', meaning that, as long as he doesn't do anything within the first turn, he will not be able to rely on any AC (armor) bonuses granted to him (like the bonus for a high dexterity value) when being attacked. Especially for 1st level characters being or being not caught flat footed can make the difference between life and death.

Once the initiative is determined by the game, the pictures of the combatants are lined up in the upper left corner with the leftmost character being first to act when a new turn starts and from there it slowly works its way down the calculated hierarchy (the portrait of the currently active character is thereby enclosed by a blue frame). I get lucky and three of my characters roll a higher initiative than the poor Acolyte who, still flat footed like the rest, doesn't really stand a chance anymore. Notice that because it's Johnny's turn he lost the flat footed status. His AC bonuses will not be ignored anymore should he be attacked.

Shift your attention now to the hourglass below Johnny's portrait. This is the 'action time' for your active character so to speak and comparable with the better known 'action points' when it comes to functionality. Pretty much any action you take during combat will sap some sand from the hourglass. In case that all the sand is depleted the turn of the active character ends. You can alternatively end your character's turn either by using up all his attacks or by pressing that provocative big red button at the bottom of the hourglass. As long as you haven't depleted any of the yellow sand your character will be able to perform at least one melee attack on any enemy in range (firing a crossbow in comparison requires both a full yellow as well as a full green bar). So the rule of thumb says: move your character as long as you are in the green area, do something else when you’re not. To make things simpler when estimating if you got enough action time left to hit somebody while walking somewhere, the walking cursor will change in color depending on how much time it will cost the character to reach the pointed out position. So, if your cursor points on an area to walk and it turns yellow, that means that you'll spend up more time than the one you get from the green bar. Red means that it won't be possible to reach the spot with the current character during this turn. Green is safe.

By right clicking anywhere on the main screen you open a radial menu like the one seen close to the middle of the screen above. This plain menu may be called the heart and soul of the whole experience.
In Johnny's case the radial menu lacks a bunch of categories (like the spell segment) because of him being a warrior and all but we shall see as we dwell further that there is actually quiet a lot to of options even for a simple level 1 fighter.

Let's start off by examining the hottest candidate in this case: the combat category.


Tactical




Tactical, at this stage, covers mostly defensive actions only.

Total defense will boost the character’s AC during the rest of the round. If he can still move after this action (indicated by the green color) this bonus will also count for attacks of opportunity. He is not able to make attacks of opportunity himself (or start any attacks at all for that matter) while in total defense. More on attacks of opportunity later.

Ready vs. X will grant the character to attack an opponent in range if he performs X. I mostly had to use Ready vs. approach since this is going to happen most of the time (although Ready vs. Spell is the real life saver here from my point of view).

Feint is a fighter thing. If Johnny tries a feint and makes a successful bluff check he can ignore the AC bonus for high dexterity of his opponent. Occasionally useful but sucks up all the time the character got (indicated by the yellow color. Those are so called 'full round actions').


Options



Fight defensively means that, while activated, every attack of the active character will have a strong penalty but also cause a slightly increased AC bonus. Mostly worthless in my experience except if you use your fighter as a door blocker while the casters prepare spells.

Deal nonlethal damage does what it says. It doesn't work with every weapon. I can't recall using this option except for once (there is no real reason anyways).

Cast defensively will make a spellcaster with this option activated less likely to provoke an attack of opportunity. Should he fail a concentration check though his spell will fizzle.


Offense




Trip attack is an unarmed attack that, when successful, will make the opponent fall and therefore vulnerable for the rest of the turn. Just enough to coup de grace his ass (Edit: Wrong. Coup de grace doesn’t work in this case). Sadly, this option seldom worked for me. We'll see how it will turn out this time around.

Single Attack & Full Attack are basically the same at this stage since no one in the party gets more than one attack per round otherwise you could either decide to use one attack or release a fury of blow on the hapless opponent. If the defender gets killed during a full attack all the remaining attacks the attackers would have left will be lost. (Edit:Actually, they're not the same. Single attacks grant you to move after you've struck your opponent so you can remain mobile even after an attack either by walking or using the 5-foot step move. Don't ask me how I was able to finish the game without knowing that)

Coup De Grace is the satisfying finishing move on defenseless opponents (pretty much anything with legs that is lying on the floor). This attack is almost always lethal. Too bad that the AI knows this too.

A Charge Attack is the only attack that requires the character to move a few steps (in a straight line) before taking effect. He will get a bonus on his attack roll but also a penalty on defenses for the rest of the turn. As long as you don’t try this on someone who stands in the middle of a large group this attack can be quiet useful as it will be demonstrate on the poor Acolyte later. (Edit: Won't trigger any attack of opportunity as pointed out by Nightjed)


Movement



Withdraw is the best bet when you want to escape in style. It's not as fast as running but also less likely to provoke an attack of opportunity.

Run the less subtle approach. The characters runs in a straight line while moving 4 times faster than his normal speed. That's quiet a distance that can be covered at this rate but there is seldom enough room to move really far.

Move is self explanatory, I hope.

What 'Flee combat' stands for I got no clue. I didn't find anything in the help menu (the question mark located in the lower right corner which provides many detailed information about gameplay mechanics and the D&D rule system in general btw. Wholeheartedly recommended to everyone) and this post already took me too long to be bothered to look in the manual now (Edit: It actually could be called an emergency button. Once pressed the whole party will try to escape the current level. Doesn’t work in some of the more unique encounters).

I'm not sure what the purpose of the 5 Foot Step thing is. The only time that move is useful is if you find yourself in a large group of enemies. The premise is that you can walk a very short distance without provoking an attack of opportunity and still be able to attack afterwards.


Special Abilities



This is the bard's turf. All his songs are stored here. Magic users can call their familiars in this category. Then there are some special moves like turn undead or smite for clerics.


Skills



Most of a character's not combat focused skills are stored here. This section is mostly used by rogues.


Inventory



What would an adventurer do without his entrusted backpack? ToEE keeps the inventory management very minimalist. You seldom got to open the big inventory screen since there are handy shortcuts for potions (like above), scrolls and magical devices.


Finally, it's over! Johnny celebrates end of school by trying a charged attack on the rather helpless Acolyte with results too gruesome to be shown in public.

Since there is nothing of value to be found the party departs towards Hommlet, the new seat of the mysterious Terjon mentioned by the Acolyte. Maybe he'll make it worth their while.

Now wander into the Temple and finish the game in your next post.

Nah, that would be way too easy. How about summarizing the Hommlet area in one post while still trying to keep it entertaining? That's a real challenge.

I started TOEE yesterday. I must say I'm getting really sick of Hommlet and it's people, I hope there'll be an option to raze it to the ground later. I want to kill monsters, not help a farmer get his son castrated or whatever.

If you are playing this for the lulz, then I suggest trying something unique, like an all mage party. As you go up in level you will be able to destroy nearly anything in 1-2 rounds.

Codexian! said:

blah

Click to expand...

Andhaira?

Codexian!

Banned.

lulz.

You can kill everyone in Homlett if you want, I befriended some evil giant in the temple and brought him back to town for some R&R and the fuckers went nuts and began attacking me for some strange reason.

Oh, man. I'd forgotten the awesomeness of this game. Time for another go. *addstolist*

Zuggtmoy appears as a puffball mushroom with a toadstool growing from its top. Four elephant-like legs support her body. The feet are suckered and allow her to climb even the slickest surfaces with ease. She stands about 8 feet tall and her mushroom-like neck is capped with a humanoid head with flattened features. Her eyes are large, round, and black. Her body varies in color (she can change color to suit her surroundings). Typical colorations are pale gray-white or brown-white. Four pseuodopods jut from her body. They are moss green to dull brown in color. Despite her plant-like form, she weighs in excess of 2,000 pounds.

Zuggtmoy is revolting to look upon and exudes a stench that can be easily detected within 30 feet (all ranges for the Scent special quality are doubled).



Good old AD&D 2.0. I guess toadstools just weren't cool enough.

Great job! I hope you'll keep it coming. I was always on the verge of playing ToEE but never got to it.

Codexian! said:

If you are playing this for the lulz, then I suggest trying something unique, like an all mage party. As you go up in level you will be able to destroy nearly anything in 1-2 rounds.

Click to expand...

Last time I started I went with an all ranger party. Some bow oriented, some dual wielders, some using other classes as well... hmmm... no I don't remember which ones.

Probably fighter or barbarian.

I'm following this one. I hope you'll be able to keep up with this kind of quality to the end.

If only Arcanum had had a similar combat system... Bah, forgive my rambling...

I'm glad that You decided to create this thread, good job thus far.
A tip: skip the Hommlet part, otherwise You'll bore us to tears.

VonVentrue said:

If only Arcanum had had a similar combat system...

Click to expand...

If only ALL d&d based games had this.. hell, I might as well have enjoyed such a thing as IWD.

mjorkerina said:

VonVentrue said:

If only Arcanum had had a similar combat system...

Click to expand...

If only ALL d&d based games had this.. hell, I might as well have enjoyed such a thing as IWD.

Click to expand...

Things from IWD that I most fondly remember are the backgrounds- I found them most pleasing and wished for more hiking than combat actually And there was also my team of dumb, psychotic dwarves Good times, although IWD would indeed be so much better with ToEE combat.

Memorieeees...

I still have some of my old screencaps around here. My party was hawt.

VonVentrue said:

skip the Hommlet part, otherwise You'll bore us to tears.

Click to expand...

No mercy!


Visiting Hommlet: A snake pit survival guide (Chapter 1)


"Looking for the pitiful priest Terjon and his flammable church, you arrive on the outskirts of the village of Hommlet."




Hommlet is probably the largest area above ground within the entire game. Don't let the peaceful scenery deceive you however. This town is the seat of true evil! Its inhabitants marked by the worst sins of human kind, namely ignorance and greed. The local clerics for example, men of supposedly good (or neutral but that's also a kind of good in this game), won't do anything for you before they are not paid. It doesn't matter if your character is as good as dead and obviously suffering pain and agony. Heck, they even charge you with the hefty sum of 100 gold pieces for something as minor as curing a light wound (in comparison: every party starts the game with 500 gold) and it will take some time before our group will be able to afford a resurrection of one of their own without turning bankrupt. Don't expect any more pity from the other townsfolk. They either want something from you (while at the same time never expect to give something in return) or, even worse, are just filler characters who waste your precious time with pointless and often tedious dialogue. Hommlet is notorious for its habit to crush the spirit of young adventures, driving them into madness and despair but most definitely into boredom. If you don’t want the same happening to you, I would suggest that you try to find a reason to leave this place as quickly as possible, only to return when you desperately need to sell your loot. The battles will be harder at the beginning and you’ll miss a few opportunities in which your ‘social’ characters can truly shine but when you look back later (or read further below) you’ll realize that the XP you’ve lost are nothing comparable to the bliss of knowing that your soul remains strong and pure.

However, for the sake of completeness and to prove to myself and to you humble reader that I’m serious about this LP, I will run down the whole town, talk to the important people and finish all the quests which I know of and that can be done within this area so the following visits (may they be few in numbers) can be as brief as possible. This means that the next two or three entries will inevitably become very, very long. I’ll cut down a lot of dialogue here to safe some space. If you’re one of those people who just can’t live without listening to coherent dialogue though, here is a universal placeholder that you can attach to pretty much every conversation in Hommlet.

Peasant: Greetings traveler!
Screamer: Hi, I’m Screamer!
Peasant: Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you! I’m Cuthbert Thunderbottom! I make cheese!
Screamer: Oh, isn’t that nice!
Peasant: It truly is!
Screamer: …
Peasant: …
Screamer: Quest?
Peasant: I’m afraid naught!
Screamer: I guess I’m on my way then.
Peasant: Of course! Safe journey to you friend and have a wonderful day!
Screamer: Bye.

Our brave party, without any obvious clue where to begin, starts the tour by spontaneously entering a nearby residence in search for lootable furniture. Although their investigations are fruitless (as they will be with most of the other households) they at least make acquaintance with the house owner.




Percy is one of the most successful farmers in Hommlet next to his brother (although you wouldn't guess so if you bother to pickpocket him). Apparently, this brother, Filliken by the name, has become a little bit too successful so he wants some land from the reluctant Percy to store his grain. It has gone so far already that it has now evolved into a terrible dispute. The quest to solve this conflict is actually the longest that you'll encounter on your journey, next to the main quest. Sadly, like for most quests in Hommlet, there is also only one real way to solve it and that is the good way. Our would be evil doers will have a hard time finding any job or a way to solve a job in a vicious manner fitting their alignment since this will either not be possible by quest setup (in other words dialogue restrictions) or simply because the benefits when doing evil will in no way outdo the loss.

A brief chat with Percy's wife (the woman in the blue dress) will reveal that one of their neighbors, Mathilde, is in love with Filliken and may be willing to help out. After paying that hag a small sum when asking her about local rumors she'll also tell Screamer about a moathouse located nearby, that is inhabited by bandits. A job opportunity for our evil party perhaps? We'll see. The next sensible step would probably be to talk to Mathilde because of the farmer issue but let's do a little sidetracking and talk to the local woodcutter instead.




He wants us to get rid of some giant spiders in a grove nearby so he can clear the whole woodland for his financial gain. Our battle hungry group travels to the grove immediately. There won't be many other opportunities in Hommlet for a good fight. It doesn't take long after their arrival until the party set gaze upon two fat spiders hiding between the trees and combat ensues. Soon however, it becomes painfully obvious to everyone involved how much it sucks to be a level 1 low life character. The first two attempts to battle end in utter defeat since one of the spiders wins initiative and doesn't hesitate to trap the whole party in a web. The combined attacks of those two monstrosities that follow shortly thereafter take out each team members one by one. To ease the pain there is always an autosave made before the party enters another area so there is the possibility to try again until the dice rolls more in our favor (Edit: The ToEE modding community actually advice to turn off autosave as some of the game scripts won’t fire probably while on). Third time proves to be the charm as always. Tumblefingers deals a critical hit with her crossbow, hitting one of the spiders between the eyes (not if that would be difficult) and a daring charge attack of Punkaid takes care of the little amount of HP the creature has left.




Encouraged by this sudden turn of events, the remaining group members repeat the same moves with the other spider. Screamer fires her crossbow, Magedude throws his one and only magic missile at it and Johnny charges in headfirst. This combined attack fails miserably with the result that Johnny gets bitten and is instantly poisoned. Whenever one of your characters fall victim to an enduring negative effect, might it be magic in origin or natural like in this case, it will be indicated by a small arrow below the character icon pointing downwards. Its color indicates under which kind of effect your character suffers. Green stands for acid/poison, red for a temporal stat decrease and purple for an illness or a curse. Every positive effect in contrast is represented by an arrow above the character icon pointing upwards. Hovering your cursor over one of those arrows will provide you with a brief description what it's about (like 'Dexterity decrease'). Left click on one of them will open the help menu with more in depth explanations. Despite his new handicap, Johnny is still able to cast down a fatal blow which ends this brief encounter between men and beast.

While celebrating their very first victory, our heroes are on their way back to Hommlet as they suddenly discover vicious bats blocking their path. Thanks to Magedude’s high enough skill rank in survival, we get the option to either avoid combat or try to engage the enemy. Screamer, confident in her men, let them heedlessly charge in. She doesn’t know how badly random encounters are executed in ToEE.




Although you can't see it well on the screenshot rest assured that every opponent in a random encounter will be placed somewhere next to one of your characters at the beginning of a battle. Always. This awkward positioning of enemies will often cause your weaker characters either being brutally slain or badly injured. Engaging a random encounter voluntarily while traveling is pretty much the dumbest thing you can do. It doesn't help either that, since Punkaid couldn't cure Johnny from poisoning earlier, Johnny now has his constitution temporarily decreased. It's even worse that the attack of those bats can cause a dexterity decrease with every successful hit. Three of them simultaneously attack Screamer who, with her meager 4 hitpoints, quickly folds.

It is to her advantage in this situation that, according to D&D rules, a character doesn't necessarily die right away when he has 0 or less hitpoints. Instead a character in this state first fall unconscious (marked by a 'Z' symbol on the character icon) and starts to slowly bleed to death (skull symbol). He will lose 1 hitpoint each turn as long as he is not stabilized (red cross symbol Edit: Actually this is wrong. The red cross means that a character is 'disabled'. He can still walk around, at half of his normal speed during combat but can't participate in any aggressive action unless you want him to fall over dying). You can stabilize a character either by a healing spell or by using the healing skill of another party member. There is also a 10% percent chance each turn that your character will stabilize himself. In case that his hitpoints drop to -10 or below he'll definitely kick the bucket.

Punkaid acts quickly and is able to stabilize Screamer with his superior healing skills before it gets too serious for her. She's also lucky that animals often tend to ignore unconscious characters until they run out of targets. Later enemies might not share this sense of fairness. After the encounter we check Screamer's character sheet to see if she still got some XP out of this whole mess.




Rejoice! Although the near death experience may traumatize her for the rest of her life, Screamer still earned as much XP as the rest of the group. We can be more at ease as we return to Hommlet to find us right next to the local pub.




This is very convenient since no one seems to be willing to carry Screamer any further. She is left lying in the mud (I guess that the results of her last decision has undermined her authority somewhat). The party prepares for a pleasant evening spent at a fireplace but are suddenly engaged in a conversation right when they set foot into the building. Johnny Legcutter, now leader of the yet-to-be-named group and a people's person at heart doesn't hesitate to create an accurate psychological profile of this coarse troublemaker.




Jup, this is Elmo in all his beauty. He's one of the many joinable NPCs and most likely the one you’ll run in first on every playthrough. Next to the five customized characters that you can pick at the beginning, you can additionally let up to 3 NPC join your cause. They may also replace your self made characters however so in case you want a group of one solo PC and 7 NPCs that's fine too (you can add or remove PCs by using the easy to overlook guestbook on the bar counter to the left). NPCs are each like a little Pandora’s Box in the game. You don't know their profession, their stats or their alignment. The only things you do know about them is their current level and what items they are carrying. Most of them have demands that will endure the whole game. Some of the lot will take a specific amount of gold every time you loot a chest or a corpse, they may leave you after a while or outright betray you at some point. The last option is for the most part reserved to evil persons though. Your safest bet to avoid dubious characters joining your group is if you have a paladin at your disposal. A paladin will turn down every offer of evil NPCs to join automatically so you got an easier time to figure out who’s who. You can still make them join by talking to them with a character other than the paladin. He won’t become a fallen one if you have an evil party member (or so I remember). If you haven’t got a paladin, you can always lead the NPC in question into the wild, disband him from your group and then slaughter him in cold blood. His alignment will then be shown in your personal killing list. In this playthrough however we won’t bother picking up any of the NPCs. They take away precious loot, XP and sometimes make things way too easy. They will still be honorably mentioned though, in case they pop up.

Fun Facts: If you're in for one of those very special game experiences, try to beat the thing with a solo PC in ironman mode and let as many evil NPCs join as possible. It sure will be an interesting ride (albeit a little too short perhaps).


As for Elmo, he’s the safest bet for your first time party. He’s reliable, not too costly, comes with good equipment and is all in all a very capable fighter. The fact that you can pretty much solo the first dungeon with him should speak for itself.

After we’ve turned down his offer, we head for the barkeeper to ask for a room.




He has the attitude of an average Hommlet dweller. Jolly on the outside yet his heart remains cold as he watches Screamer lying on his floor in a mixture of spilled beer and vomit (no one in the party knows who she got in. She must’ve crawled all the way). He demands 2 gold for a room but makes an alternative offer as Magedude is about to pay. One of his customers seems to be a cheating gambler. He’ll let the party have a room for free for the rest of their stay in town if they catch this man in the act. Figures that the barkeeper probably is a member of an illegal gambling ring and fears the competition. Anyways, we talk to the gambler in question.




This is Furnok, another joinable NPC. He’s a rogue and that’s all I know about him. He and Magedude quickly settle down for a game of cards. After a few games (which cost Magedude around 50 gold) the wizard finally realizes that the cards are marked and reports back to the barkeeper immediately. Furnok might be pissed afterwards but he’ll still join the party if so desired. After this matter is dealt with, our people enjoy a few days of well deserved rest (it is thereby good to know that time seldom matters in ToEE). Once they're fully recovered, they spent the ongoing night by talking to the pub attendants at random.

First come Spugnoir, a student of the arcane arts with the most awkward name.




According to his explanation, he’s on a journey to explore nearby ruins as an assignment from his master or something. We notice that Screamer suffers under a rather short attention span maybe due to recent events. It’s not like his backstory is important anyways. It gets more interesting when he mentions that he wants to visit the moathouse of which we already heard of and also an actual new location: The fields of Emridy Meadows. The place where the epic battle between the forces of good and the forces evil took place (from the intro remember?). He is kind enough to point out those two locations on our map (the greedy hag that Percy got as wife actually didn’t even tell Screamer where to find the moathouse) so that we can now travel there at whim. If you can endure that this guy will take all the scrolls you’ll find (as long as he got room in his inventory that is) you can ask him if he wants to accompany you. He’s fairly competent but alas there can be only one Magedude in this group so we tell him to scram.

We met Zert, a mercenary for hire who claims that he usually guards caravans for a living and would be delighted to join us as an additional bodyguard.




Don't ever let his good manners fool you. This guy is one of those people who will fall into your back sooner or later. Luckily for you Zert is way too untalented to cause any serious harm as far as I can remember but he's not much of a help either.

Then there is that dubious duo at the fire. As there is the laconic Kobort and a shifty looking monk with the name Turuko.






In case that you play a lawful evil party you'll know that Turuko is sent by an evil church to find a powerful magic sword (again intro) as he will be your supervisor while you retrieve it.
If you're party is not lawful evil however the fact that Turuko and Kobort won't join any party which headcount is five and above should get all your alarm bells ringing. Our conversation is brief and fruitless.

The barmaid, like Percy's wife, is another rumor machine. Put your coins in and words come falling out. She also sells food which is of no use since the heroes in ToEE don't ever have to eat a single bite.

The two men in the middle of the room are Valden the wheelmaker and his apprentice. Valden is only important to the goody two shoes so we ignore him. His apprentice invites us to a drinking contest but since no one got enough HP to possibly outdrink Kobort we refuse for now.

Finally having talked to everyone in sight all the party members release a sick of relief and get back to bed to have a fresh start in the morning. There is still a lot to be done.

This LP almost makes the game sound good.

Hommlet is a thing of beauty. I order you to explore every crook and granny!

Words from the master himself! I obey!

Heh, reading this thread made me interested in trying to game out, so I downloaded the old demo. When I installed it, however, my antivirus identified the .exe as a trojan. I deleted this and reloaded it from a more "dependable" site, but it still IDed as a trojan. If even the demo does this, what might the actual game be capable of? *shudder*

Still, looks fun. So in terms of sheer strategic combat its gotta be worth playing, rite?