Dark Sun: Shattered Lands is fucking great

[Ol' Willy]

The same people telling you to multi-class and tell you about the best combos will also tell you the game is piss-easy.

It's easy regardless; the combat encounter design is just not grognard friendly.

Humanoid enemies are complete pushovers, be it Draj guards, ssurians or bandits. The only worthy human enemies are Draj elite troops and you will encounter them only in the very end.
Magera and half-giants are dangerous in close-quarters, but could be dealt with and latter are very rare.
Shadows fucked up my half-giant party real good - until I googled that AD&D treats shadows as undead and thus Turn Undead spell works on them... and three of my half-giants were Clerics.
Babau are weak but annoying with their "destroy items on the first hit" ability. Vrocks are dangerous, though.
Defilers are not bad, quite dangerous, but they're squishy, don't use crowd control spells and don't cover themselves with meat-shields, therefore easily dispatched.
Spider-mages are cool, Dagolar slimes are super annoying, but you fight them only once.
Wildlife though... entirely different level of difficulty. Bulletes, Stalkers, Xorns, Mastyrials, Wyverns, Rampagers - all can fuck you up very fast. But you can just run away from them, for they spawn randomly.

 

[Cael]

The same people telling you to multi-class and tell you about the best combos will also tell you the game is piss-easy.

It's easy regardless; the combat encounter design is just not grognard friendly.

Humanoid enemies are complete pushovers, be it Draj guards, ssurians or bandits. The only worthy human enemies are Draj elite troops and you will encounter them only in the very end.
Magera and half-giants are dangerous in close-quarters, but could be dealt with and latter are very rare.
Shadows fucked up my half-giant party real good - until I googled that AD&D treats shadows as undead and thus Turn Undead spell works on them... and three of my half-giants were Clerics.
Babau are weak but annoying with their "destroy items on the first hit" ability. Vrocks are dangerous, though.
Defilers are not bad, quite dangerous, but they're squishy, don't use crowd control spells and don't cover themselves with meat-shields, therefore easily dispatched.
Spider-mages are cool, Dagolar slimes are super annoying, but you fight them only once.
Wildlife though... entirely different level of difficulty. Bulletes, Stalkers, Xorns, Mastyrials, Wyverns, Rampagers - all can fuck you up very fast. But you can just run away from them, for they spawn randomly.

People who claim multiclassing makes things piss easy is on drugs, especially when the best combo is a triple dual class and doesn't even get up to multiclass spec until the very last level.

 

[Saduj]

Single classing is fine until you reach the last fight. Then you’re fucked.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Rampagers are dangerous until you realize they fail the check 95% of the times against Disintegrate.

This thread got me to play it again, damn this game and setting kick ass. Am I the only one playing without the music tho? Usually run some dark ambient in the background, it fits the vibe better.

 

[Outlander]

Play it with Fallout 1 & 2 OST, it's perfect.

 

[Ol' Willy]

PC at my work doesn't have a sound card - it doesn't need one: so I play it there without sound at all. Although there is a radio with Rock FM providing a soundtrack... and culling some folks while FOOL FOR YOUR LOVING NO MORE is blasting from the speakers is kinda fun.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Am I the only one playing without the music tho? Usually run some dark ambient in the background, it fits the vibe better.

During the middle-age, heretics and witches were burned alive for far less...

 

[Ol' Willy]

Finished my four halflings run... definitely was more fun than four half-giants run. Comparing the two, half-giants have more health but shit AC, so they get hit more; this, actually, makes both parties roughly equal in tanking. Halflings do less damage due to less STR, but lategame this difference is negated by equipment and bananas (didn't have any STR enhancing spells).

A question: this three people that appear beside you in the end fight are the all allies that you get? When the game was speaking of allies I thought it would be more - at least several groups of three to four people, and I was expecting to see the ghosts fighting on my side. If so, this help is useless - all they can do is to distract the enemy for a couple of turns.

Also, the final fight supposed to be different every time? This time it was different from the last: first, the allies appear, all three of them. Then, the first wave: while in my first run in was literally just five Draj guards, this time it's a legit wave - a dozen of guards, half a dozen of this yellow toads whatever their name is, trio of defilers and trio of psionicists. After that, the final wave with the Commander as usual. Once again, I fuck up the entire battlefield with some AoE shit - Entangle, Insect Plague, Dust Cloud and such - and retreat East. While enemy Defilers are "switched off" this way, elite troops are still the pain in the ass, but the great joy of using Dust Cloud - enemies lose sight of you, you can exit combat and heal.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Aw, fucking dammit, I got the endgame bug
Can't believe it never got patched.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Aw, fucking dammit, I got the endgame bug

How do you people get it? Two runs, never cared much about "playing script careful", triggered the endgame both times.

 

[bec de corbin]

Finished my four halflings run... definitely was more fun than four half-giants run. Comparing the two, half-giants have more health but shit AC, so they get hit more; this, actually, makes both parties roughly equal in tanking. Halflings do less damage due to less STR, but lategame this difference is negated by equipment and bananas (didn't have any STR enhancing spells).

A question: this three people that appear beside you in the end fight are the all allies that you get? When the game was speaking of allies I thought it would be more - at least several groups of three to four people, and I was expecting to see the ghosts fighting on my side. If so, this help is useless - all they can do is to distract the enemy for a couple of turns.

Also, the final fight supposed to be different every time? This time it was different from the last: first, the allies appear, all three of them. Then, the first wave: while in my first run in was literally just five Draj guards, this time it's a legit wave - a dozen of guards, half a dozen of this yellow toads whatever their name is, trio of defilers and trio of psionicists. After that, the final wave with the Commander as usual. Once again, I fuck up the entire battlefield with some AoE shit - Entangle, Insect Plague, Dust Cloud and such - and retreat East. While enemy Defilers are "switched off" this way, elite troops are still the pain in the ass, but the great joy of using Dust Cloud - enemies lose sight of you, you can exit combat and heal.

The final battle is supposed to depend on choices and your approach, yes, but it's also rather buggy so who can say whether what happened was correct or not. Sometimes it just doesn't work at all.

 

[Bara]

So for wake of the ravager I accidentally saved the game while the elf in the party was dead.

Is there any other sources of resurrection that works on elves since raise dead per the rules does not? That fountain in the veiled alliance headquarters won't resurrect them either.

Never mind realized I could just create a duplicate character and add them to the party. Few levels behind but eh.

 

[Cael]

So for wake of the ravager I accidentally saved the game while the elf in the party was dead.

Is there any other sources of resurrection that works on elves since raise dead per the rules does not? That fountain in the veiled alliance headquarters won't resurrect them either.

Never mind realized I could just create a duplicate character and add them to the party. Few levels behind but eh.

Elf death is forever in that edition, IIRC. But since there are no level limits (that I can recall), just go half-elf?

 

[Bara]

Yep raise dead 2e and prior works not on elfs. Reincarnation and Ressurection are your only two option to bring back dead elf characters in this edition.

 

[Darkzone]

Who the fuck plays a Elf Character in a Desert World where Muls, Half-Giants and Thri-kreen exists?

 

[fantadomat]

Who the fuck plays a Elf Character in a Desert World where Muls, Half-Giants and Thri-kreen exists?

Who plays non-human in any rpg? It is disgusting!

 

[Darkzone]

Who the fuck plays a Elf Character in a Desert World where Muls, Half-Giants and Thri-kreen exists?

Who plays non-human in any rpg? It is disgusting!

I can hardly argument against it. But i let in some exceptions if the races are kind of human (Half-Giant and Mul) or if they are so far off and still fitting into the world (Thri-kreen, Aarakocra (Vulture - Men) or Pterran (Lizard - Men)).

 

[Ol' Willy]

Most fantasy races are just humans with gimmicks.

Although full Thri-kreen party would be interesting as some truly alien shit.

 

[Bara]

Who the fuck plays a Elf Character in a Desert World where Muls, Half-Giants and Thri-kreen exists?

I liked the idea of a elf reduced to being a vagabond and city beggar once the forest and nature were reduced to naught bot sand. Leaving them penniless beggers reduced to a life style of brutality and survival first like many of the different races on Athas.

 

[Darkzone]

Most fantasy races are just humans with gimmicks.
Although full Thri-kreen party would be interesting as some truly alien shit.

You are right about this, but the races have quite different societies from the humans. While the Mul (half human and half dwarf) are bred for combat in the arena and the Half-Giants are a cross bred with giants and humans due some lost curse or magical experiment. And this aspect make them somehow interesting due to the familiarity with our earthly legends (around the world) about giants or nephilim that have build the monolithic and gigantic structures around the world from the stone, copper and bronze age.

I liked the idea of a elf reduced to being a vagabond and city beggar once the forest and nature were reduced to naught bot sand. Leaving them penniless beggers reduced to a life style of brutality and survival first like many of the different races on Athas.

With no more fey-wine and delicious fruits they now have to scavenge through the garbage and eat rats and cockroaches. Behold how low this arrogant buffon's have fallen.

 

[Excommunicator]

Shattered Lands should be Codex #1

 

[Ol' Willy]

You are right about this, but the races have quite different societies from the humans. While the Mul (half human and half dwarf) are bred for combat in the arena and the Half-Giants are a cross bred with giants and humans due some lost curse or magical experiment. And this aspect make them somehow interesting due to the familiarity with our earthly legends (around the world) about giants or nephilim that have build the monolithic and gigantic structures around the world from the stone, copper and bronze age.

They are different socially, but nothing to really distinguish them from people biologically; i.e. nothing that people couldn't do in theory. I don't mean that this is bad, it's just the way it is - more grounded, realistic maybe.

Although I can't deny that Dark Sun is my favourite D&D setting. It has some really original outlook on the races, the world, magic, psionics etc.

And Dark Sun halflings are best halflings ever

 

[Cael]

Who the fuck plays a Elf Character in a Desert World where Muls, Half-Giants and Thri-kreen exists?

Multi-class Preservers are, as usual, not in the province of those races...

 

[Darkzone]

You are right about this, but the races have quite different societies from the humans. While the Mul (half human and half dwarf) are bred for combat in the arena and the Half-Giants are a cross bred with giants and humans due some lost curse or magical experiment. And this aspect make them somehow interesting due to the familiarity with our earthly legends (around the world) about giants or nephilim that have build the monolithic and gigantic structures around the world from the stone, copper and bronze age.

They are different socially, but nothing to really distinguish them from people biologically; i.e. nothing that people couldn't do in theory. I don't mean that this is bad, it's just the way it is - more grounded, realistic maybe.
Although I can't deny that Dark Sun is my favourite D&D setting. It has some really original outlook on the races, the world, magic, psionics etc.

Although all D&D settings have a certain aspect in them that makes them interesting, perhaps with the exception of Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun is by all metrics and variables my favorite. Dark Sun is where all the necessary checkboxes are positively checked, for me.
Dark Sun is also most suitable for a Barbarian / Fighter / Desert Ranger / Thief S&S/S (Sword and Sorcery / Sandals) playthrough. And the only thing that i would tune down are the psionics, because i think that this is too much that in the end takes away from the Dark Sun setting.

 

[Butter]

RIP. Came back to the game after a few weeks and my latest save seems to be corrupted. It keeps flashing BAD GPL EXIT on the screen and I can't do anything.