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Grimoire gameplay and hints thread

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
I'm approaching the semi-"point of no return" in Crowl, since the only area I have left in the beginning of the game is Samhain. Question:

If I choose to kill Argosyre (yes I spoiled it, though it was obvious he was a sketchy dude anyway), I understand the whole town basically turns on me except the innkeeper whose asks you to save her sister--is it possible to restore relations back to friendly/neutral with the remaining townspeople? Do they restore on their own or do I have to scatter gold coins amongst the peasantry?

Give it some time and the animosity will fade - except for a few specially marked NPCs who never forgive.

Thanks!

One small bug to report btw (at least I think it's a bug). This happened in the Ukluk mines. My Vamphyr necro, whose mana regen is good, but not necessarily spectacular, suddenly got super mana regeneration (he was level 6 at the time). Every time an action was processed in any combat I was in, his mana bar would refill slightly, meaning that I could cast an almost max level summon undead, wait a combat round, and instantly have a full mana bar again. I know Vamphyrs have stronger stats at night, but is this super mana regen part of it? He's not wearing any items that give him mana regen and the regen is otherwise more or less on par with my aeorb sage, so I'm not quite sure what happened that made the bar refill so fast.
 

Cleveland Mark Blakemore

Golden Era Games
Übermensch Developer
Joined
Apr 22, 2008
Messages
11,557
Location
LAND OF THE FREE & HOME OF THE BRAVE
I'm approaching the semi-"point of no return" in Crowl, since the only area I have left in the beginning of the game is Samhain. Question:

If I choose to kill Argosyre (yes I spoiled it, though it was obvious he was a sketchy dude anyway), I understand the whole town basically turns on me except the innkeeper whose asks you to save her sister--is it possible to restore relations back to friendly/neutral with the remaining townspeople? Do they restore on their own or do I have to scatter gold coins amongst the peasantry?

Give it some time and the animosity will fade - except for a few specially marked NPCs who never forgive.

Thanks!

One small bug to report btw (at least I think it's a bug). This happened in the Ukluk mines. My Vamphyr necro, whose mana regen is good, but not necessarily spectacular, suddenly got super mana regeneration (he was level 6 at the time). Every time an action was processed in any combat I was in, his mana bar would refill slightly, meaning that I could cast an almost max level summon undead, wait a combat round, and instantly have a full mana bar again. I know Vamphyrs have stronger stats at night, but is this super mana regen part of it? He's not wearing any items that give him mana regen and the regen is otherwise more or less on par with my aeorb sage, so I'm not quite sure what happened that made the bar refill so fast.

Yes, Vamphyr gets a night time bonus to most metabolic conditions, including mana.
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
Is there any...efficient way to kill the Barrower Miners in Samhain? No matter what I do it takes forever to kill them. I thought poison would do the job while they stay bolstered behind their protective spells, but even though it affects them, they're rarely "wracked" and take damage by the poison. If there's a spell that can dispel their protections, none of my characters can cast it :(
 

Gunnar

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 10, 2016
Messages
819
Is there any...efficient way to kill the Barrower Miners in Samhain? No matter what I do it takes forever to kill them. I thought poison would do the job while they stay bolstered behind their protective spells, but even though it affects them, they're rarely "wracked" and take damage by the poison. If there's a spell that can dispel their protections, none of my characters can cast it :(

They are susceptible to various status effects, like confusion and insanity. They can also be put to sleep by a Bard. Use speed attribute/haste spell + lethal blow skill to kill them quickly with melee fighters or use status effects to freeze them and heavy damage spells like crushing fist to finish them off. If they appear in groups use cloud spells to affect them all. If you don't have the spells you need, look for scrolls or items that produce spell effects, they are everywhere (this uses the incantation / invoking skills).
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
Is there any...efficient way to kill the Barrower Miners in Samhain? No matter what I do it takes forever to kill them. I thought poison would do the job while they stay bolstered behind their protective spells, but even though it affects them, they're rarely "wracked" and take damage by the poison. If there's a spell that can dispel their protections, none of my characters can cast it :(

They are susceptible to various status effects, like confusion and insanity. They can also be put to sleep by a Bard. Use speed attribute/haste spell + lethal blow skill to kill them quickly with melee fighters or use status effects to freeze them and heavy damage spells like crushing fist to finish them off. If they appear in groups use cloud spells to affect them all. If you don't have the spells you need, look for scrolls or items that produce spell effects, they are everywhere (this uses the incantation / invoking skills).

Thanks. My bard had been using her charm flute but I swapped it for the sleep harp and it made the fights much faster.
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
Cleared the first act of the game and am now exploring and figuring out where to go next! I got the second tablet and am now trying to figure out whether to venture deeper into the caves or to do one of two climbs down in the crescent wilderness...

(1) if I accidentally sold/dropped my faery water bottle thinking the fact I couldn't use it up was a bug and not knowing that I could refill it, is it possible to get/find another one out there somewhere? or am I screwed?

(2) If you dismiss player-created PCs to try out an NPC, where do you find them again?
 

Dorateen

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
4,332
Location
The Crystal Mist Mountains
1. If you dropped the faery water, it would still be on the ground in the game world. You just have to move over that same square, and you should be able to pick it up. If you sold the bottle, does it show up in the NPC inventory to buy back? I don't recall how that worked. Regardless, I'm sure more bottles of faery water appear as random drops in treasure chests.

2. Dismissed player characters can be recovered in the Shrine of the Raptor.
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
1. If you dropped the faery water, it would still be on the ground in the game world. You just have to move over that same square, and you should be able to pick it up. If you sold the bottle, does it show up in the NPC inventory to buy back? I don't recall how that worked. Regardless, I'm sure more bottles of faery water appear as random drops in treasure chests.

2. Dismissed player characters can be recovered in the Shrine of the Raptor.

Thanks for this. In a pure coincidence, I just opened a treasure chest where I found a bottle of faery water with like 25 charges in it, so I should be good!

Two other quick Qs:

(1) Is there any penalty for resting too much in this game?

(2) How bad is the penalty for characters dying? I have all these resurrection items, but have been typically reloading when a character dies. I've heard they lose con, but that it grows back, so is it really all that bad?
 

Dorateen

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
4,332
Location
The Crystal Mist Mountains
1. If you dropped the faery water, it would still be on the ground in the game world. You just have to move over that same square, and you should be able to pick it up. If you sold the bottle, does it show up in the NPC inventory to buy back? I don't recall how that worked. Regardless, I'm sure more bottles of faery water appear as random drops in treasure chests.

2. Dismissed player characters can be recovered in the Shrine of the Raptor.

Thanks for this. In a pure coincidence, I just opened a treasure chest where I found a bottle of faery water with like 25 charges in it, so I should be good!

Two other quick Qs:

(1) Is there any penalty for resting too much in this game?

(2) How bad is the penalty for characters dying? I have all these resurrection items, but have been typically reloading when a character dies. I've heard they lose con, but that it grows back, so is it really all that bad?

No penalty for resting, the disincentive is the risk of random encounters while resting (unless at a safe haven) depending on the setting of encounter frequency. The penalty for dying is as you described. Loss of constitution, but will be replenished over time when resting at safe spots. It is more of an inconvenience.
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
1. If you dropped the faery water, it would still be on the ground in the game world. You just have to move over that same square, and you should be able to pick it up. If you sold the bottle, does it show up in the NPC inventory to buy back? I don't recall how that worked. Regardless, I'm sure more bottles of faery water appear as random drops in treasure chests.

2. Dismissed player characters can be recovered in the Shrine of the Raptor.

Thanks for this. In a pure coincidence, I just opened a treasure chest where I found a bottle of faery water with like 25 charges in it, so I should be good!

Two other quick Qs:

(1) Is there any penalty for resting too much in this game?

(2) How bad is the penalty for characters dying? I have all these resurrection items, but have been typically reloading when a character dies. I've heard they lose con, but that it grows back, so is it really all that bad?

No penalty for resting, the disincentive is the risk of random encounters while resting (unless at a safe haven) depending on the setting of encounter frequency. The penalty for dying is as you described. Loss of constitution, but will be replenished over time when resting at safe spots. It is more of an inconvenience.

Thanks! The Hive Empress killed one of my characters (and the dragonflies have of course killed many before), and I had always reloaded. Ok stomaching the occasional character death now.

As an update of where I am in the game, I just took the Green Way from Crescent Wilderness all the way to Crescent Valley. Did the quest to kill the hive empress, and then found some cavern called "Nether Passage" on the way back. No idea where it leads, but I'm excited to find out...
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
Just finished the Gideon questline and I must say wow--what an incredible challenge and subplot line! The Lovecraftian monster eye thingys were very difficult initially, regularly driving my party members insane, but I found out, almost accidentally, that you can insta-kill them with a drain magic spell, so as long as my insane front liners and summons could hold the line and avoid beating on each other too much, my necromancer could wipe the floor with them all. I never could figure out the dark fairies though--when confronted by those, I just ran/reloaded. The boss took me a couple tries, as his spells beat through my magic shielding and, after that, could one-shot all of my party members except my Giant warrior, but my bard got a lucky paralysis song in and then my fighters had a free round before the insanity from his minions kicked in to beat him to death. I confess I used Weak's Steam guide for some of the puzzles, as I couldn't figure out that you had to sleep in specific places to move the quest along but other than that I managed to work things out pretty much on my own. .

Few more follow up questions on mechanics and suggestions:

(1) Where would you suggest I go after Gideon? Looks like I can go to Harradan Grove or Waterport next. Does it make sense to do one over the other first?
(2) Is the escaped slave outside Gideon recruitable? I tried to recruit him both before and after I completed the questline, but got rejected both times.
(3) I raised Medea from the dead, but then didn't recruit her. Is she gone forever, or has she moved to a random encounter somewhere?
(4) Like, I imagine, most newbs, I didn't plan ahead to multiclass, so I'm basically closed off to some of the advanced classes, such as pirate, assassin, and jester. Are there NPCs in those classes available for recruitment somewhere in the game if I want to try them?
(5) Every now and then during combat, a dramatic rift will play (sounds kinda like the killing theme from "Psycho") when one of my characters takes an action, even if that action is fairly undramatic (such as drinking a healing potion). Is that rift intended to signify something? A round that, had my character attacked, would have been a critical hit perhaps?
(6) I see feedback for party-wide buffs on the HUD, but although I can cast single-target buffs out of combat, I'm not seeing similar feedback. Does casting these spells out of combat make a difference in combat, or do they have to be cast again while in combat in order to do anything? Before I fought the Gideon boss, I buffed my characters with a level 4 cerebral shield, but his minions still managed to turn almost all of my characters insane with their physical and gaze attacks. Did my buffs not work, or does cerebral shield only protect against SPELLS that cause insanity, and I was supposed to use either gaze protection or rely on armorplate for gaze and physical attacks that cause that effect? It's difficult to understand.
 

Lady_Error

█▓▒░ ░▒▓█
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Joined
Oct 14, 2012
Messages
1,879,250
1) Up to you.
2) Don't remember. What is the name of the escaped?
3) She stays on that map and you can meet her again.
4) Yes.
5) No idea, have sound turned off when playing.
6) I think you can pre-buff only the party-wide spells that give an icon, though I may be wrong.
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
2) Don't remember. What is the name of the escaped?

The escaped slave's name is Krellspar.

He is not in my list on grimoire.wiki, so probably not recruitable.

Thanks! Btw, is there a summon elemental spell in this game? It's mentioned at the introduction to the spell list in the manual, but then it's not listed in any spell school. Wasn't sure whether that was an oversight or whether you actually can summon elementals ingame.
 

Dorateen

Arcane
Joined
Aug 30, 2012
Messages
4,332
Location
The Crystal Mist Mountains
(5) Every now and then during combat, a dramatic rift will play (sounds kinda like the killing theme from "Psycho") when one of my characters takes an action, even if that action is fairly undramatic (such as drinking a healing potion). Is that rift intended to signify something? A round that, had my character attacked, would have been a critical hit perhaps?

That psycho riff should signify a character under the influence of confusion or other affliction that takes control from them. Did you notice if the acting character failed to take its assigned action? Or even strike another party member? Look for that next time it happens.

Personally, I enjoyed the Gideon adventure a lot. Did it rather late in the game, it was the last tablet I went after. Agree, the atmospheric writing here is some of the best in any computer role-playing game.
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
(5) Every now and then during combat, a dramatic rift will play (sounds kinda like the killing theme from "Psycho") when one of my characters takes an action, even if that action is fairly undramatic (such as drinking a healing potion). Is that rift intended to signify something? A round that, had my character attacked, would have been a critical hit perhaps?

That psycho riff should signify a character under the influence of confusion or other affliction that takes control from them. Did you notice if the acting character failed to take its assigned action? Or even strike another party member? Look for that next time it happens.

Personally, I enjoyed the Gideon adventure a lot. Did it rather late in the game, it was the last tablet I went after. Agree, the atmospheric writing here is some of the best in any computer role-playing game.

I think you're probably right--what's likely causing the issue is that there are certain actions in the game that are "impossible" to do wrong, like drink a healing potion, so I think that rift may have played, but then the game couldn't force my character to drink the potion incorrectly (like giving it to the enemy instead), so it looked like the rift played for now reason.
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
If I use one of the pieces of rope to go down the well to the Halls of Commerce in Waterport, have I lost the ability to complete the fishing activity?
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
Is stealing/killing the pirate under Waterport the only way to get the combination to the nautilus mosaic in the Saltwyrm Caves? I read somewhere that you can get it by talking to him too, but with him friendly and charmed, I can't find a keyword that triggers it.
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
So I figured out the answer to my question above--apparently you have to show the pirate the totem from Saltwyrm Caves, after which he'll give you the password for the Nautilus mural without combat. i discovered two other things that might be bugs though.

(1) I'm trying, similarly, to see if I can get the helm to avoid the Kraken from Black Pierre somehow. However, while I meet him some time ago when I first explored the Snark Mistress and joined his crew, I can't find him again on the Snark Mistress anywhere. I've used locate person and it didn't tell me where Black Pierre was. Has he vanished from the game? Do I have no other option but to fight the Kraken now?

(2) I found a book with the Etherwarp spell and have "Eldritch" unlocked. However, even though my wizard's "Arcanum" skill is 100 (from grinding when trying to scribe other arcanum spells) and with a maxed Read Magic cast on him, I can't scribe it in my spell book. Is this a bug, or do factors other than "Arcanum" skill come in to play. Does my scribe need to be even higher too?
 
Last edited:

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
Finally managed to memorize Etherwarp after many attempts, but still can't get Black Pierre to reappear. I saw in a different thread that if you do two full rests you can get him to reappear, but it didn't work for me. No matter what I do it seems he's gone permanently unless I provoke him by freeing Little Daisy or trying to open his treasure chest. As a last resort I can just do the latter and kill him, but would love to avoid that if possible.
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
I ended up just bypassing Black Pierre, killing the kraken the good ol' fashioned way, and going to the Bahomet Megalith. While the first couple of floors of the Megalith were a little monotonous, the upper floors were awesome--best boss fight I've encountered in the game so far, and the egg reward at the end was a nice surprise (I figured out how to hatch it, though I'm playing with an all-custom party so far). Decided to skip the Rattou area for now (one of the few Southern zones I have left to explore) and head back North to check out Kublai Axis since I have so much crap to sell and am too lazy to head back to Crowl. Few other questions:

(1) Do sages learn any new spells after level 10? If not, I might multi-class mine into cleric so I have a second character who can cast enchanted blade, and have access to the cure paralysis spell (which I don't yet have...).
(2) Does the Prophetess in Megalith Spire have any purpose after your initial encounter with her? I tried heading back to her spot after killing
the Methuselah
, but she didn't reappear.
(3) Which recruitable NPC in the game is pirate class? Might give that class a try...
(4) Has anyone in the game experienced tablet robbers yet? I have the option on and have rested a bunch and taken my time, but the five tablets I've collected so far were all where they were supposed to be.
 

MadMal073

Literate
Joined
Sep 7, 2020
Messages
44
So I killed the kraken and met the big bad guy just outside Kublai Axis, and he was mad and sent his
astral stalker
. After me. However, it doesn't appear to be aggressive--I encountered it almost immediately afterward, but it just stared at me, being all neutral and weird and shit, and didn't respond to anything I had to say. Does it attack me eventually, or is it just gonna be all creepy and stuff until I decide to kill it?
 

Lady_Error

█▓▒░ ░▒▓█
Patron
Joined
Oct 14, 2012
Messages
1,879,250
(1) Do sages learn any new spells after level 10? If not, I might multi-class mine into cleric so I have a second character who can cast enchanted blade, and have access to the cure paralysis spell (which I don't yet have...).
(2) Does the Prophetess in Megalith Spire have any purpose after your initial encounter with her? I tried heading back to her spot after killing Show Spoiler the Methuselah , but she didn't reappear.
(3) Which recruitable NPC in the game is pirate class? Might give that class a try...
(4) Has anyone in the game experienced tablet robbers yet? I have the option on and have rested a bunch and taken my time, but the five tablets I've collected so far were all where they were supposed to be.

1) There is a list of what spells can be learned at what class level. I'm pretty sure it's in the manual.
2) Don't remember.
3) If none of the pirates you met are recruitable, then there may be none. You can create pirates right in the beginning and honestly, they are not as good as Assassins or Jesters.

If you want spoilers, here is a list of all or most of the recruitable NPC's in the game, including their class:
http://grimoire.wiki/index.php/NPCs#List_of_all_recruitable_NPC.27s_.28SPOILERS.29

4) I played without them.
 

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