If the moon crypt is optional according to you, I'd LOVE to see you tackle the goblin arena with sticks and stones at level 4
Here at least you acknowledge that you need to disable both Pizarra and the witch in the first round to win, but you make it seem like it's only a matter of winning the initiative, when it's definitely not. If one of them doesn't fail her save against your disabling spell, you probably have to reload.- Pizarra: This one boils down to initiative, as long as you have one fighter type with great cleave and some summons, you need one/two guys winning the initiative roll to lock pizarra and the witch, your great cleave guy has to be in a position where he can make the most of it, so surrounded by targets with low HP
Nice job minimizing the problems of this encounter. The salamander doesn't need to crit twice in a row, because he can kill both characters with a single spell. If the enemy decides to use his fireball, your characters can't possibly sustain the damage, and you have only one choice: to reload. Luckily, most of the times he just decides to skip the spell and immediately get in melee range, but doing that he is basically choosing not to win the encounter on the spot for no reason whatsoever.- The Salamander (CR 8) + Huge fire elemental (CR 5) while your 2 party members are CR 3 i believe.
If The salamander crits twice in a row (or just twice on something else than a summon) you're probably screwed, If your mage/cleric depending on who you brought doesn't get the initiative, you're probably screwed too.
I picked Monk + Cleric, at this point, the monk hits like a paralytic marmot.
cleric > silence / Octopuss / the throwing stones spell is actually very good at dealing damage
Only one reload here, which makes it 2 total so far (1 sharkman shaman, one here) and if i made it with that terrible duo, anything should work.
I think a wizard is a way better pick due to all the ice scrolls lying around, ice lance among them (ice dmg + stun)
"Everything is optional" is not a good excuse for poorly designed encounters. Of course fights are not unwinnable, nobody is saying that they are, but you have to realize that "hey, there's a dialogue option with which you submit to the evil guy and skip a difficult encounter" doesn't mean that having to reload until you win the initiative and the enemies fail their saves is suddenly an ok design choice.So far, only optional fights are unfair but not unwinnable, Pizarra fight being optional too, you could align with Yanos and skip it.
Now that the game has been out for a couple of months, would you recommend it Darth Canoli? I followed this thread upon release and I remember tons of bugs and crashes being reported, as well as frustration with the 'initiative' system. By way of some background - I really enjoyed KOTC 1.
Here at least you acknowledge that you need to disable both Pizarra and the witch in the first round to win, but you make it seem like it's only a matter of winning the initiative, when it's definitely not. If one of them doesn't fail her save against your disabling spell, you probably have to reload.
Chapter 2
Optional fights
- The Salamander (CR 8) + Huge fire elemental (CR 5) while your 2 party members are CR 3 i believe.
If The salamander crits twice in a row (or just twice on something else than a summon) you're probably screwed, If your mage/cleric depending on who you brought doesn't get the initiative, you're probably screwed too.
I picked Monk + Cleric, at this point, the monk hits like a paralytic marmot.
cleric > silence / Octopuss x4 / the throwing stones spell is actually very good at dealing damage
Only one reload here, which makes it 2 total so far (1 sharkman shaman, one here) and if i made it with that terrible duo, anything should work.
I think a wizard is a way better pick due to all the ice scrolls lying around, ice lance among them (ice dmg + stun)
Nice job minimizing the problems of this encounter. The salamander doesn't need to crit twice in a row, because he can kill both characters with a single spell. If the enemy decides to use his fireball, your characters can't possibly sustain the damage, and you have only one choice: to reload. Luckily, most of the times he just decides to skip the spell and immediately get in melee range, but doing that he is basically choosing not to win the encounter on the spot for no reason whatsoever.
You are also relying on the strongest early game cleric domain for some of these encounters. That's not a great way to prove that the game is actually easy and well balanced.
So your:You missed something important, i believe...
You just have to lock the right area and the salamander can never cast a single spell
Actually means "if your mage/cleric depending on who you brought doesn't get the initiative, you are CERTAINLY screwed too". This sounds dangerously like "you need to reload until you win the initiative".If your mage/cleric depending on who you brought doesn't get the initiative, you're probably screwed too.
Again, you are downplaying it to an unbelievable level. A good summon does almost nothing to them, unless we are talking about very specific cleric domains. I've never been able to reliably lock them down with my melee guys, but maybe I haven't pursued that route for enough time. I'm quite skeptic of how this would play out, but maybe I'll try it next time I play. Have you considered streaming your playthrough? That would give a lot more weight to your "the game doesn't require as much reloading as you people say" stance.Actually, you don't need to disable any of them because both of them are back against a wall (lava for Pizarra) so you just need to get a good summon of a warrior on the opposite side and they're screwed.
For the salamander fight, you just need ice lance + a good fighter
Just to put things into perspective, especially for people who haven't played the game, what you are suggesting is to use a spell that (setting aside the chance to hit) roughly has a 30% chance of stunning the salamander:I think a wizard is a way better pick due to all the ice scrolls lying around, ice lance among them (ice dmg + stun)
Been enjoying this recurring series “people who have already played the game and read everything about it on the forum swearing you don’t need to reload to win fights and then reloading to win fights”.
The character has Int 22 (20 base + 2 from the circlet). With both Spell Focus feats, the chance of stunning the salamander would be 40%. If you factor in the fact that you have to actually hit him (85% chance with Dex 18 and ignoring the -20% if the target is engaged in melee), the chance of actually stunning him with a single cast is 34%. But to ignore that -4 penalty you need Precise Shot, and, since you can't renounce to Improved Initiative, to get that and its requirement you need to drop Greater Spell Focus, dropping the chance of stunning him to less than 30%. And you will be stuck with Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot for the entire playthrough.I guess you didn't pick spell focus conjuration and greater spell focus conjuration ?
Did you use the +2 int circlet on your wizard?
How much int? 18?
Come on, you can't be serious. You're acting like having to reload more than once is a rare occurrence, when it actually is the norm in this game. I know that it's possible to go through it without reloading, but you need complete and perfect knowledge about the challenges you are going to face, and even with that you still need a ton of luck. And I still can't understand this fixation with the fights being optional. First: the game has no plot whatsoever, so it's hard to know what is optional and what isn't. The only way of discovering what encounters are optional would be, once again, constantly reloading to find the optimal path. Second: you still need the experience to tackle the mandatory fights. Third: that's not a valid excuse for poor encounter design.Some fights might need one reload, perhaps more if you're really unlucky but they're only optional fights...
Come on, you can't be serious. You're acting like having to reload more than once is a rare occurrence, when it actually is the norm in this game. I know that it's possible to go through it without reloading, but you need complete and perfect knowledge about the challenges you are going to face, and even with that you still need a ton of luck. And I still can't understand this fixation with the fights being optional. First: the game has no plot whatsoever, so it's hard to know what is optional and what isn't. The only way of discovering what encounters are optional would be, once again, constantly reloading to find the optimal path. Second: you still need the experience to tackle the mandatory fights. Third: that's not a valid excuse for poor encounter design.
If you have a druid in your party, rejoice, you won't get surprised!
This is either fake news or a very recent addition. I had a druid in my first party and there was no way of avoiding this surprise.
Are you sure?