Grimoire Thread

[Beast British]

Just bought Grimoire again during the steam summer sale. I initially bought it on preorder but returned it after not having a manual. I need at least 150+ pages to remotely understand Cleve's brilliant game.

I gotta say, for all the memes and jokes it's a great game. God bless you, Cleve.

 

[PowerTorment]

After reaching Mostly Positive I am suddenly excisted. Soon my printed manual, printed hint book, physical DRM free DVD and more will come in the post. It is only slightly delayed.

 

[xuerebx]

About to start my first playthrough so I've first read the whole bible manual. I was going to look at the race and profession matrices to choose a party with a decently varied skill-set. Are there any skills which are useless investing in, or any skills which are sort of must-haves? Also, should I consider multiclassing at a future level when planning out my party? Thanks!

 

[Wayward Son]

Wait so is the game playable?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Very much so.

 

[Grauken]

Has been for years, you've been missing out

 

[Dorateen]

If I remember correctly, Wayward Son 's party is still languishing in the Crowl prison.

 

[Butter]

About to start my first playthrough so I've first read the whole bible manual. I was going to look at the race and profession matrices to choose a party with a decently varied skill-set. Are there any skills which are useless investing in, or any skills which are sort of must-haves? Also, should I consider multiclassing at a future level when planning out my party? Thanks!

You should consider multiclassing a few characters. It can be really tedious if you try to do the full party and you need to constantly reload for better attribute rolls on level-up, but the increased power is very noticeable. Remember to bank your bonus attribute points, but spend your skill points every level, otherwise you'll lose them on the next level.

For skills, Swimming and Climbing are important for everyone in the party, but you only need a few points invested in order to grind those. Lethal Blow is incredible for anyone who can get it, but again just a few points are necessary before it will level through use. For your martial characters, it's better to spread points among all the weapon skills (Swordsmanship, Spear&Lance, Axe&Scimitar, Bladesmanship, etc) and then let those increase by use, rather than pumping one and trying to only use it. I've never used Archery, Accuracy, Backstabbing, Evasion, Metallurgy, Stealth. Lockpicking is fairly pointless once you get Knock Knock on one of your casters. One party member should level up Ancient History (ideally a multiclasser since they get so many more skill points).

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

I multiclassed my whole party (after having solo classes up to level 8 or 9) in the first playthrough. I'm not ashamed to confess that I used the baracks in Kublai Axis to pump XP like a madman, almost on an obsessive level. But it was more than worth it, such a great feeling to finally reach the prestige classes and wreak havoc on Hyperborea with a band of crazy Jesters. There is simply no game that ever gave me the same feeling of heroic grandeur.

 

[xuerebx]

Cheers for the tips! I've created a band of misfits, we'll see how it goes.

I'm still getting used to the UI and the combat - the text is too damn small, seriously. I have to put my face into the monitor to read anything. And don't get me started on the text in the inventory screen (e.g. checking the TAC)! As for combat (which seems kind of fairly simplistic at the moment), you can't select who to divert your attacks on right as the game automatically chooses?

 

[Dorateen]

you can't select who to divert your attacks on right as the game automatically chooses?

This is the way it works in Wizardry games, with phased-base combat. You assign commands and can target groups or rows of monsters, but then it plays out and you have no control which monster in a group is hit.

 

[xuerebx]

you can't select who to divert your attacks on right as the game automatically chooses?

This is the way it works in Wizardry games, with phased-base combat. You assign commands and can target groups or rows of monsters, but then it plays out and you have no control which monster in a group is hit.

Ah, right. Earlier this year I played (and loved) Wizardry 8 and its phased-based combat is different since you can choose who to attack. Now that was a really cool combat system.

EDIT: Darth Canoli - are you implying they're not different systems? Because they feel like it... not entirely, but enough to see a difference. Anyway I just need to get used to it.

EDIT after 4 hours of play: OK, just needed a couple of hours of practice, now I've gotten used to the system! Pressing Enter really speeds everything up too. Shame about the ant sized text though, quite annoying.

 

[xuerebx]

So, I'm trying to keep multiclassing as simple as possible (so, martial characters multiclassing into a martial profession), but there are some things which aren't clear to me.

1. For example, what is the difference between the Warrior and Berserker? I have both of these professions across 2 characters and apart from some different skills they're basically the same (they're both at level 4, so maybe that's the reason). For magic users it's simpler to understand changing classes as you get different spells, but for fighter classes the benefits aren't apparent.
   
2. Should I start multiclassing at earlier levels (say, around level 4) or maybe keep going to level 8 and then swap professions? I haven't used any bonus attribute points on level up yet on any character.

As a side note, anyone else very shitty in solving the puzzles? Thank gawd for the internet!

Thanks!

 

[Dorateen]

Berserker gets the Lethal Blow skill, which is crucial, and the warrior does not. That is the big difference, but also Berserker has the berserking skill where they can go into a frenzy and do addtional damage, but I never used it. The instant kills are much more satisfying.

 

[Butter]

Multi-classing at level 4 is probably not correct. You'll level up more if you wait, and sometimes you just don't have enough attributes banked at level 4.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Yes, I'd wait until at least level 8 before changing class as you can bunker much more attribute points that way (which is extremely important in the long run, if you want to access the really cool classes). There is no need to rush into class changes. At the end every one of my character had at least 5 class changes.

 

[Lady_Error]

Multi-classing at Level 6-8 seems to be the sweet spot if you want to change many classes. More than that and it takes a lot of time to level up again, while less than that you are wasting the opportunity to get more attribute points for later class changes.

 

[xuerebx]

Cheers all, I'll wait for a couple of more level ups then. Makes sense so that I can earn more attribute points which I don't have enough of right now anyway.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

Cheers all, I'll wait for a couple of more level ups then. Makes sense so that I can earn more attribute points which I don't have enough of right now anyway.

Don't concentrate too much on the whole class change thing for now, just enjoy the beautiful game and dive in its unique world. I had phases where I pumped XP like crazy and concentrated exclusively on the class change thing because I was afraid of not being able to access the prestige classes (I already mentioned the Kublai Axis barracks, great place to earn heaps of XP and build up your characters). But if you collect enough attribute points (reloading is advised if you only get 1-3 points), use them very sparingly (only invest where it's absolutely necessary to reach a new class) and take care to not get into one of the "dead ends" in class changing (there are some good spreadsheets in the net where you can easily plan the "road" your characters should take) its no problem to reach the prestige classes. It's only a bit of work, but it's worth it.

 

[Lady_Error]

But if you collect enough attribute points (reloading is advised if you only get 1-3 points), use them very sparingly (only invest where it's absolutely necessary to reach a new class) and take care to not get into one of the "dead ends" in class changing (there are some good spreadsheets in the net where you can easily plan the "road" your characters should take) its no problem to reach the prestige classes.

Here is a link for those who do not know:
http://grimoire.wiki/index.php/Classes#Multi-Classing

 

[xuerebx]

I've now made it to the tomb of St.George and managed to get deeper into the tomb, and I've gotten quite used to most things. Few combat encounters are too difficult (one-hit-killing wasps ). Starting to appreciate the world more. Seems like a pretty long game, not sure if I will have time to finish it to the end but we'll see.

Anyway, I was wondering why whenever my sage uses the staff of missiles (with #charges) in combat and expels missiles, the number of charges doesn't always seem to go down? And the character decides automatically whether to use the magic missile staff, or his necrostaff (I have no say in this right?).

Re. Invocation (he ability to properly summon and target the magical powers of an item) - I'm not sure how this works exactly? What kind of items require this skill set?

Thanks!

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

You've only made a glimpse at the game by now, believe me, it's incredibly long (for me it took about 250 hours to finish it - with occasional help from a walkthrough). But what's even more incredible (at least for me): There is always more motivation to keep on going, it's so full of crazy stuff, interesting dungeons, encounters, great prose. It simply never gets boring...
The one-hit wasps are really something special. The most brutal enemy in the game imho, especially as they appear very early in the game, right after the St. George grave. You need to cast multiple armor spells (they stack) on your party and bring your speed to maximum then you squash them like flies.

 

[Ludwig von Eisenthal]

damn double post

 

[xuerebx]

You've only made a glimpse at the game by now, believe me, it's incredibly long (for me it took about 250 hours to finish it - with occasional help from a walkthrough). But what's even more incredible (at least for me): There is always more motivation to keep on going, it's so full of crazy stuff, interesting dungeons, encounters, great prose. It simply never gets boring...
The one-hit wasps are really something special. The most brutal enemy in the game imho, especially as they appear very early in the game, right after the St. George grave. You need to cast multiple armor spells (they stack) on your party and bring your speed to maximum then you squash them like flies.

Thanks for the armour spell tip (didn't know they stack). Two hundred and fifty hours is a damn long game! I think that's how much I spent playing up to now in 2020 :D

Any ideas on my two questions by any chance?

 

[Gunnar]

Invoking is when you use an item in combat. Scrolls go off the Incantation skill.