Elminage ORIGINAL - Priestess of Darkness and The Ring of the Gods

[aweigh]

listen, i don't really know what to tell ya cos i never had to make "mule" characters, so i don't really know what the problem is.

have your bishop identify stuff and chuck what you don't need (i.e. what you don't need and/or what won't sell well. Later on (at around level 12-13) your mage will learn Diomante/Malor and you will be able to teleport at will from somewhere back to town, so that should also help you out as well.

(though there are some specific places/dungeons from where you can't teleport).

glad you're enjoying it man! It's a great game.

EDIT: Oh, and yeah like dorar says if you're _really_ pressed you can always dump something from your mage or whatever. I don't think I even bothered giving them a weapon during the early game.

 

[Ventidius]

Yeah, if you are not rushing Diomente with a pure mage early game, you are doing it wrong. Later you can phase out the mage as other classes (like Samurai and/or Bishop) get a few Diomente charges up their belt, which frees up a party slot for something more endgame/post-game efficient - if you are planning to go into that - like a Ninja.

 

[Mastermind]

the issue only came up in the mid game when i actually have decked out characters.

without diomante I just wouldn't play at all, but even with it it's an unwelcome break. my current build also has my thief in the front row. i can't flip her with the ninja, alchemist or bishop because they have shit health and would get obliterated.

 

[Ventidius]

A thief shouldn't be in the front row at all. In fact, I usually just bench the thief for the rough stuff and just take him out to grind him/take him to steal something good. But he should stick to the back row. A cleric or bishop work better in the front row, but they are hardly optimal. Solid front row material would be classes like Lord, Samurai, and Valkyrie. Brawlers work well in the front row as well. I avoid putting anything else there, with the exception of a cleric or bishop at times, though that is usually temporary.

If you post you your party comp, I could probably give you an idea of what your options are.

 

[Mastermind]

Lord/mage->valkyrie/thief
Ninja/cleric->mage->alchemist/Alchemist->Bishop

(the screenshot i posted has them all except the mule which temporarily replaced the lord)

I do plan on doing some swaps later because I want to play around with more classes so I'm leveling some stuff just for this purpose. IE: I have an alchemist turned hunter i started the game with that is now sitting on the bench.

I put a break on that for now because it's probably more efficient to do it when you get access to more experience rich zones (although I did clear out volcano 4)

the problem is that both bishop and ninja level slowly so i'm loathe to swap either even temporarily for a tank and I want the alchemist until i can do high level crafting.

my thief isn't a bad tank tbh, has more health than my valkyrie thanks to the leveling rate + all innocent gear give her good resists and ac. disarming is very good against most enemy front liners even if I'm not trying to steal anything. she's not as tough as the lord but doesn't feel more fragile than the valk

 

[Dorarnae]

thief can be front row. always depend on your lvl and gear I guess. but since they lvl so quickly you can also hide...Ninja back row shouldn't have much gear because of their AC ability.

 

[Ventidius]

Well, supposing that you don't really want to start any new characters from scratch, and your thief is surviving just fine in the front row, then you could keep him, but I usually prefer to have a 'phalanx' of sorts in the front line, so I would recommend making provision for replacing him for a proper frontliner in the long run. I see you don't have a Samurai, that'd be a good choice.

Ninjas can get crazy AC due to their "Lower AC" skill, so they can do front line duty, however, it really depends on the level and gear they have. You need to make sure you have "Lowered AC on" equipment that doesn't override their native skill.

If the Valkyrie is struggling to survive in the frontline you might want to consider getting her better gear and/or grinding her for HP gains. If her growths are bad, it might not hurt to just roll a new Valk. It's very easy to get characters up to speed at early and mid game. I'm not sure there is much of a point in having a Valk that can't do frontline duty.

 

[Mastermind]

She's fine for now. I might start a second party and use that to explore some of the areas. I still need to level up a summoner, that and servant is the only class i have no real experience with.

going through the forest for stuff to steal and damn, the insect lord was tough. I cleared out the volcano so I thought I was the shit but that was a good fight.

must've dropped two dozen paralyzes/petrifications on him with some magic resistance reduction sprinkled in and he never budged, worse he took was a couple of sleeps and silences that he'd shrug off in one turn.

i did get the lance off him so it's all good.

 

[Ventidius]

Good to know, and yeah, the Insect Lord is one of the tougher fights before the post-game. Good one too. And yeah, Summoners are a fun class to tinker with that has its own set of unique mechanics. Definitely recommended. Once you get to starting another party, here are some recs to keep in mind:

Single-classed:

-Werebeast Lord
-Dragonewt Samurai
-Dwarf or Human Valkyrie
-Devilish Brawler

Class-changed:

-Hotlet Cleric switches to Ninja
-Elf or Human Alchemist switches to Bishop
-Elf or Human Priest switches to Alchemist

Always making sure you collect all of the spells before switching. Bear in mind that you might not get all spells for some classes at lvl 13. You may have to get to 14.

Multiclassing is not as essential in EO as in EG, but still, why not? It is part of the fun. And later, in the post-game, you can get Medals of Power that allow you to change classes without losing your level. That comes in handy too.

Also, the frontliners above work well enough single classed, but you can always have them collect some Alchemy spells (Valk, Lord) and Cleric spells (Sam) before switching to them. With a Medal of Power you can even wear Innocent Gear after switching. If you plan on tackling the postgame, all of these things help. You can never have too many spells.

That said, I think you can probably beat the main campaign with you current party, it really isn't that hard. The last dungeon may throw you some curve balls, but that's it. So it might be a good idea to hold off creating the second party until post-game.

 

[Haplo]

I've never felt like I needed to multiclass in Original.
The game is kinda too short to level secondary/tertiary classes.
Maybe in the post game, that I didn't finish.

Gothic on the other hand...

 

[Mastermind]

getting to 13-14 doesn't take that long and why not walk around with a big dick

i'm putting alchemist/cleric/mage spells on most future characters going forward.

 

[Haplo]

I guess it works for casters not focused on damage. For many other characters I prefer to get their Mastery skill ASAP (and have better AB & AC).

 

[Ventidius]

getting to 13-14 doesn't take that long and why not walk around with a big dick i'm putting alchemist/cleric/mage spells on most future characters going forward.

It is worth keeping in mind that dual classing damage dealers before post-game is probably not worth it. At that point single classers have two perks: Innocent Gear and reaching Mastery quickly. During post-game, you can dual class with a Medal of Power, which allows you to wear innocent gear and keep your gained exp, so that alleviates those drawbacks.

If you are gonna gun for the Super-bosses I think dual classing is worth it. Dual classing an alchemist, bishop, or cleric at more or less any point is cool though.

Your main campaign mage should just be single classed though, and he will serve you well up through and including the endgame.

I would also not hoard Mage spells that much, I find that Alchemist and Cleric spells tend to offer more bang for your buck. Only a Samurai and Bishop having Mage spells in a full dual-classed party should be fine, for example.

 

[Dorarnae]

dual classing isn't required and probably requires some time to farm some medal. I find it only worth if you started with a fighter for early hp gain ect and then change to valk or lord...the post game boss aren't very hard if you know what you need.

 

[Ventidius]

dual classing isn't required and probably requires some time to farm some medal. I find it only worth if you started with a fighter for early hp gain ect and then change to valk or lord...the post game boss aren't very hard if you know what you need.

It's funny, even though I like Original a bit more than Gothic, I always end up playing it like it's Gothic, heh. I just wish it had some EX skills, but otherwise, I find it as munchkinously fun to build an uber-party in EO as it is in EG, even if the game doesn't require it.

Also good tip on the Fighter dual class, those HP gains really come in handy indeed. It is especially useful when the RNG hates the player.

Also, Dorarnae, what would you say is the most crazy OP party comp possible in EO?

 

[Dorarnae]

dual classing isn't required and probably requires some time to farm some medal. I find it only worth if you started with a fighter for early hp gain ect and then change to valk or lord...the post game boss aren't very hard if you know what you need.

It's funny, even though I like Original a bit more than Gothic, I always end up playing it like it's Gothic, heh. I just wish it had some EX skills, but otherwise, I find it as munchkinously fun to build an uber-party in EO as it is in EG, even if the game doesn't require it.

Also good tip on the Fighter dual class, those HP gains really come in handy indeed. It is especially useful when the RNG hates the player.

Also, Dorarnae, what would you say is the most crazy OP party comp possible in EO?

dunno I like to play something like fighter/brawler/thief/cleric/mage/alchemist and change my fighter to valkyrie in post game.
also fighter and cleric are dragonewt so fire breath helps a lot during main game. brawler is just broken in original, if you can end up paralysing someone during their combo, then the monster won't be able to recover and remain paralysed, I think it wasn't meant to be like this because it was fixed with the other games in the serie. bit weird they didn't fix it with the pc release.

 

[Ventidius]

Heh, yeah, Brawlers are pretty OP, and actually the fact that they hadn't gotten nerfed yet is one of the things I like so much about EO, as they are a really fun class.

 

[Dorarnae]

Heh, yeah, Brawlers are pretty OP, in fact they fact that they hadn't gotten nerfed yet is one of the things I like so much about EO, as they are a really fun class.

true. I also like the true final boss being a demon type monster. it means shaman is very good against him. I often did a lvl 2500 ish samurai to kill him or I've seen very high summoner with samariel pet to tank this boss, but a shaman with their x10 dmg to demon and with the god thing that give x5dmg at x% of your hp, I am sure you can do insane dmg to one shot him even at low lvl (just need a character who act first to hide him with the alc spell and then hope the boss doesn't parry).
I always liked the idea of the shaman class but never really found them useful in elminage 2, in 3 I can think of one fight maybe. In gothic I haven't tried them much but I think they got better seal, also they might be good early with those mage casting enterook mista.

bard is probably the class I played the less, I am sure there's some cool things with their tarot but I haven't really experimented.

 

[Ventidius]

Shamans, huh? Who would have thought? I never really bothered with them, but it's nice to hear they get to do some crazy stuff too, kinda says something about how well balanced these games are.

Bards are OP in the later Wizardry games like 6 and 8, but I've never really tried them in Elminage either. I have also never used the Servant. The one class that I have not used much that I am interested in trying out is the Hunter. I've messed around with them, but never really maxed one out. Perhaps I'll give 'em a shot in my next playthrough.

 

[Dorateen]

Can only comment about Gothic, but the bard's tarot deck was a life saver in Ibag Tower.

 

[aweigh]

bard is a very good way to cheese the optional last-floor bosses inside dungeons in elminage: gothic. just use their tarot deck to charm the bosses and they will kill themselves in 1 or 2 hits because of their ridiculous offensive damage.

(because bard's tarot deck charm always succeeds).

EDIT: Of course i don't recommend doing that, because the XP gain from the last-floor bosses insidie dungeons isn't that great. what you want to do is wait until your thief can steal and get their equipment.

 

[Mastermind]

Deleted my save again. Had like 20 characters, too much to manage + my game glitched and getting rings didn't increase alchemy storage so i said fuck it.

Sticking to just 6 this time.

 

[Dorarnae]

Deleted my save again. Had like 20 characters, too much to manage + my game glitched and getting rings didn't increase alchemy storage so i said fuck it.

Sticking to just 6 this time.

I think you just need to do the owner of the inn quest and then with time it'll eventually increase.

 

[Mastermind]

maybe going from cave straight to volcano wasn't such a good idea, i missed out on a bunch of stuff that would have made life easier

 

[Haplo]

EDIT: Of course i don't recommend doing that, because the XP gain from the last-floor bosses insidie dungeons isn't that great. what you want to do is wait until your thief can steal and get their equipment.

Or like capture some of them with your Summoner.

I mean Gaia generally carried my party trough half of Ibag's Tower.