Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

ToEE - create party or recruit NPCs?

zool

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2009
Messages
897
I'm planning on starting soon my first (and likely only due to adult-life time constraints) playthrough of ToEE with Co8 and Temple+. I'm looking for advice about how to handle my party : as far as I understand it, in vanilla ToEE, you're more or less supposed to create a 5 member-party and then you have 3 additional slots for NPCs. However, I generally prefer to recruit NPCs during the course of the game (like in BG and BG2) rather than creating my own party (a la IWD).

So my questions are :

- are the recruitable NPCs that you encounter in ToEE worth it (additional dialogue, etc)?
- is it possible to only create one PC and leave all the other spots for recruitable NPCs?
- how does increasing the number of available slots in my party (through Co8) affect game balance? I'd be happy to be able to recruit as many NPCs as possible.

I'm only reasonably interested in powergaming, so I don't care if I could get a more powerful party by creating it myself.

Also, no spoilers plz.
 

Thonius

Arcane
Joined
Sep 18, 2014
Messages
6,495
Location
Pro-Tip Corporation.
1) No idea.
2) Yes but you will die horribly and poor.
3) More guys- less XP per char. Default amount is enough.
So there are some folks in first town... in inn I believe it's fighter and he want money for service... also there is smith in second town. Never used them... you better think about them as spare part if some of your original party member dies.
 
Joined
May 3, 2011
Messages
260
Location
USA, NY
You can play a single and get along with the recruits in the game. Might lose the opening vignette for CE alignment though, because it starts with a battle. Aside from that, you basically start in the first town and there is an Inn with multiple recruitable characters. They are decent too.
 

deuxhero

Arcane
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
11,302
Location
Flowery Land
Elmo is really the only one with that much commentary, and he barely has any. Elmo is also the only one with a build that's not horrendously bad. Also the game's forced loot sharing (You can disable this in Circle of Eight with Humble NPCs) is pretty bad, as characters can take critical items and won't let you have them or overburden themselves by taking every suit of unenchanted chain and not letting go (Elmo, by contrast, only takes raw coinage and most money comes from selling gems and gimmick/duplicate magic items.)

Oh and you want a cleric with the good domain and craft magic arms and armor (only way to get Holy weapons beyond a handful of random freebees) and a wizard or cleric with Craft Wondrous Item. You're given a ton of gold, but few useful magic items so you want to craft.
 

Raghar

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Jul 16, 2009
Messages
22,383
Are there any recruitable NPC in ToEE? I mean enough for a party? That's quite news for me.
 
Self-Ejected

aweigh

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
17,978
Location
Florida
just fucking create 5 chars and recruit 3 npcs and dont try to reinvent the fucking wheel

christ some niggas always trying to ice-skate uphill
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

Guest
>not soloing ToEE

BjCeBTh.png
 

NeoKino

RPGCodex Ninja
Patron
Joined
May 7, 2016
Messages
1,864,638
Location
Somewhere
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
Depends if your playing iron man mode and not allowing rerolls for the chars you make.

If you don't allow rerolls and get unlucky then you may need to recruit npcs.
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,099
NPCs are supplemental. Most of them have fairly poor stats/builds and unlike most other RPGs plenty of them won't stick around in the party all game long. They are also apt to turn on you if you damage them significantly or do something they don't like. This is aside from the fact that vanilla ToEE has completely broken looting mechanics. It's certainly doable, but not the intended way to play the game. There are a handful of good NPCs that stick with you throughout the game though.
 

zool

Arcane
Joined
Oct 26, 2009
Messages
897
Thanks for your replies.

Now all I have to do is get acquainted with the D&D 3.5 ruleset : anyone interested in summing up the main changes from AD&D 2nd edition?
 
Self-Ejected

aweigh

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 23, 2005
Messages
17,978
Location
Florida
zool

i found a great guide detailing major conversion points using google... since theres so little info on D&D on the internet it was hard but I managed to do it
 

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Many npcs have mini-quests (though not to the BG level imo), unique equipment (like a certain carving utensil) and ending slides. Sometimes the slides even change depending on quests done and some other things (not often because Troika half-assed npcs in this game).

However at least some custom npcs to serve as enchanting sacrificial goats are recommended because of the unfortunate D&D mechanics for enchanting and required classes.

Then again plenty of grogs ended locked accidentally to the hyper-mega-gay ending slide because of not paying attention to what they clicked in npc quests so YMMV depending on your tolerance to jokes.
 
Last edited:

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,203
Are there any recruitable NPC in ToEE? I mean enough for a party? That's quite news for me.
In the first village alone (Hommlet) you have the following:
1. Elmo - Fighter type. Heroic stats (as he is based on a 1st Ed Ranger, which had crazy stat requirements). Comes with +2 chainmail and +2 sword.
2. Meleny - Druid. Wis 15 normally, 16 with Co8. Just about the only healer you are going to get for a while unless you bring your own. Comes with +1 Holy longsword.
3. Wizard in the tower - Never used him because he insisted on getting all your scrolls, which is BAD.
4. That femiNazi with the cleaver - best base weapon in the game. One handed, d10 20/x3 damage, counts as a hand axe, counts as masterwork. You can get another on an orc later in the temple, IIRC.
5. Rogue in the pub.
6. Monk in the pub, who comes with his pet Barbarian. Very Evil and won't join large parties because they don't want to share the loot. Also will betray you at the drop of a hat.
7. Bog standard Fighter in the pub. Best of the lot in the pub, but that is not saying much as they are all pretty badly set up.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom