In Progress Let's play Disciples of Steel

[octavius]

I still can't believe how mind numbingly badly designed the towns and their shops are in this game. I feel like getting violent on something.

 

[Lowgun]

If making new characters make sure to have max statistics for spell casters. The statistic level dictates which spells you can cast once you have enough power.

 

[octavius]

So a Priest can cure broken limbs with the Splint spell, but he can't fix more mundane injuries like bruised ribs or injured arms???

Also I think the OP CRPG Addict (my notes from this LP and Addict's blog are mixed with each other) once asked:

Search the area. I have no idea what this does in combat.

It allows you to Search for Hidden enemies. Based on Perception skill, I guess.

 

[Lowgun]

So I am in the lost city of Terine but I can't find the Hermit!! The reference in this walkthrough is VERY vague " Near the spot with 2 secret doors" I found two of those and there is no big room. Any one know where it is?

 

[octavius]

I've done a couple of quests and only two character deaths so far, and some reloads to beat the bat pack in Teal (party because I failed to notice some of the bats were not merely large, but Gargantuan).

I like how the game is open and my party trying different areas to explore.
The outlaws near Demata were rather tough, so we retrated after the first fight. Then we headed to the Dwarven capital of Hollengard before doing King Krassens quest to bring back the head of the Orc leader in the nearby Orc outpost. The Dwarven king also wanted us to clear out an Orc outpost, so we tried that next. But in addition to mostly harmless orcs there were also some rather dangerous (more so than the Outlaws near Demata) Rothran Soldiers. So after the first fight we retreated and headed for the first Orc Outpost which seems like it's the closest you get to a beginner dungeon in this game. My party even managed to defeated the cocky looking leader of Orcs

and his minions (including tough Wolfwarrior) on the first try, even though my Illusionst failed on both Power Word Stuns in the first round.

Great game, but so bloody slow. It takes so much time to sell loot due to the bloody "Negotiate" option. Grrr...why not just do the haggling automatically?

 

[Lowgun]

Here is a great walkthrough if needed.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/disciples-of-steel/hints/hintId,17370/

It sheds some light on some very easy beginner question to get XP and items.

 

[octavius]

Just survived an ambush from a Cutthroat, an Outlaw and some Thugs and it was one of the most nerve wracking CRPG battles I've fought. In the end two of my guys were dead and some nearly dead, but we prevailed. The cutthroat had a nice +5 Backstabbing Dagger.

 

[Lowgun]

They are amazing. Give it to your knight until you can stun and kill the death knight by teal. His sly sword is best weapon in game I've found.

 

[octavius]

Now I understand why the ambassadors to Pallasase sent from Farnus never made it:

My guys could hardly scratch the motherfucker the few times they hit it.
Fortunately my guys managed to escape, except for my Troll Warrior (so much for professional courtesy).

They are amazing. Give it to your knight until you can stun and kill the death knight by teal.

I think my Rogue needs it more. She need needs mores skill point that does the Knight.

 

[Lowgun]

Nah. Make you're Knight a beast then level others

 

[octavius]

The Temple failed to Raise my dead Illusionist and she ended up as Gone.
So I rolled a new one, with 100 Intelligence and then gave her 100 Power skill. Hours later I discovered that she can only cast the first four Illusionist spells, even with full mana and after further raising the skill. Grrrr!

 

[Lowgun]

Illusionist needs intuition. Not intelligence!

 

[octavius]

 

[octavius]

Fortunately I was able to Hex Edit the character file, switching the numbers for Intelligence and Intuition.
And ironically now she can cast Power Word: Futility.

 

[octavius]

This is most exasperating:

The "temporarily" blindness could not be slept off either.

 

[Lowgun]

It sucks. I save before each battle and reload if something happens..

The temple of terrine can cure this. There is one in each city.

 

[octavius]

This is fucking ridicilous...if you stop to Fix armour while onboard a ship the ship will be gone when exiting the backpack menu!

The temple of terrine can cure this. There is one in each city.

I tried that. Look closer at the screenshots.

 

[octavius]

So I am in the lost city of Terine but I can't find the Hermit!! The reference in this walkthrough is VERY vague " Near the spot with 2 secret doors" I found two of those and there is no big room. Any one know where it is?

I assume you have found it now? If not the secret door is on the east wall, 10 squares north and 1 square east of the entry square.

But now I wonder if there is any in game way of solving The Hermit's riddle? I assume it's not, since the anwer can sort of be derived from the question, but it's ra-a-ather far fetched.

 

[CryptRat]

I didn't manage to solve the hermit's riddle. Judging by the ones I managed to solve I'd say that there are both riddles with in-game hints and more general ones.

I stopped my playthrough after "completing" the final dungeon. I had some weird bug where I walked out of the bounds of the deepest floor ; it took me a while to understand what happened but then I think I completed the dungeon because they are clear hints that you're approaching the end. I'll surely resume later to try and figure out how to complete the game.

I did a lot of quests but I think the lord in the first town is the only one who didn't have any more quest to give to me.

 

[octavius]

Thieves & Knights

The main barracks

There was nobody in...



Finally found the boss!

That was quite a tough battle because there were quite a few assassins and these are really tough enemies. But casting multiple stuns in a row with my illusionist saved the day. Yes like the warriors, the higher your magic skills the more spells you can cast during your turn, that makes low level spells like power word stun extremely useful.

Interesting...when I recently played this area the main barracks was full of Assassins, Cutthroaths and Outlaws, but the Guildmaster was only protected by some Panthers and Outlaws, making the boss fight one of the easier fights in the Thieves Guild.
I wonder if the whereabouts of the main groups of thieves is dependent on time of day?

Another thing I recently noticed now that I'm nearing the end, which I don't think has been mentioned before: if you Search outdoors you can get a report of the possible enemies you can encounter in the area, based on the Tracking (not Perception) skill.
If I were to replay the game I'd give my Ranger, instead of my Thief, the Perception skill, and always have him as Point and Leader. That should maximize chances of finding stuff and avoiding surprises, I think (not knowing excactly how the skills work). I think the Ranger need to spend more XP for each skill points, but he has so much more to spend than the Thief, who needs to be good in several skill to be effective.

Ranger probably is strongest class mid-levels.

Unlike monk, he can not only stun with crits but also blind.

Hmm, I've never seen my Ranger blind an opponent. Lots of stunning, but no blinding.
EDIT: seems you need skill 250+ for it to happen.

 

[octavius]

Looks like just entering (not exploring the "out of bounds" area) the Fire Mountain dungeon corrupts the game; after exiting the dungeon the game keeps freezing and then crashing when encountering enemies.

EDIT: also crashed in shop or temple menu.
But it's enough to just find the cave entrance to complete Krigg's last quest.

 

[octavius]

Some things in this game pisses me off royally.
The last (?) quest from Kitari was to assassinate the reagant [sic] of the closest Rathadon town and bring his body back to the lord. After several hours I managed to beat the Regent and his guard, but apparantly the loot is limited to 200 items, so when the loot screen came up the Regent's body was not there!
So the quest failed. But at least now I know what the Take command in combat is for!!!
Assuming of course that Hardton was the right town.

 

[octavius]

Tried the high level Illusionist spell Confuse when facing an army of Gargoyles. At level 5 it worked and made them all Confused, but one of them was so cinfused that he got 100 or so attacks in one round and proceeded to kill half my party!

 

[octavius]

Like the Fire Mountain dungeon, the Maze of Dispair dungeon has an "out of bounds" area where you can end up behind stairs. The funny thing is that the area (near the entrance) was not open when I first passed by it, but when returning from lower levels and returning to the exit I noticed that one unit of wall was missing.

Anyway, I'm nearing the end of my playthrough. All I have left before hunting down Variz is to conquer the last two Rotharian towns (including the capital) and explore the Lighthouse in Dridgemuldor.
With the awesome Wrath of God for my Priest and my Knight being an unstoppable killing machine, my party has a glint of victory in their eyes.

 

[octavius]

Like the Fire Mountain dungeon, the Maze of Dispair dungeon has an "out of bounds" area where you can end up behind stairs. The funny thing is that the area (near the entrance) was not open when I first passed by it, but when returning from lower levels and returning to the exit I noticed that one unit of wall was missing.

And now the game keeps crashing when accessing The Vault.