Grimoire gameplay and hints thread

[Lady_Error]

graphical glitch (a flickering cell in St. George's tomb).

I think that's supposed to be that way.

 

[MadMal073]

Durendil should be able to use any sword, shield or armor with a "legendary" quality - like Excalibur or a Lightning Sword, etc. If it is epic they should be able to use it.

Thanks! I picked Durendil, Aeorb, Giant, and Vamphyr (even though all three of them come with some significant drawbacks) to make my playthrough a bit more unique. Figuring out the Vamphyr in particular has definitely been fun. He's a necro, but I've been levelling his unarmed skill on the side and have discovered that his bite attack is pretty awesome, especially when the enemy fails its save. Counting the drain damage, he has dealt over 20 points of damage in a single unarmed attack early game. Great fallback when he runs out of mana.

Out of curiosity, what stats affect whether a character's native "supernatural" attack (Vamphyr charm, Saurian acid spit, etc.) succeeds? Str? Con?

 

[MadMal073]

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:

Spoiler

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?

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

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:

Spoiler

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.

 

[MadMal073]

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:

Spoiler

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]

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:

Spoiler

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

2) Don't remember. What is the name of the escaped?

The escaped slave's name is Krellspar.

 

[Lady_Error]

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.

 

[MadMal073]

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]

(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]

(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]

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?

 

[Lady_Error]

You don't fish with a rope.

 

[MadMal073]

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]

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?