Grimoire gameplay and hints thread

[Outmind]

I started playing RPG's in the late 90s, so this kind of interface is very unintuitive for me. Here are a few questions I'd appreciate the answers to:

1. How do I view an item's stats? I've gone to both the equipment and item workshop menus and can't seem to do anything with the items there. When I tell a character to look at something, they're presumably searching their surroundings. If I set them to assay, nothing happens either. Would it have been so hard to put up the window for the currently known information on an item by right clicking it?

2. How do I use the identify spell, and following from that, how do I use the spell on enemies? My sage just learned improved identify which only brings up a magnifying glass in the bottom right of he world pane. The spell description says that it will remain active "until it succeeds" whatever that means.

3. Is there a way to find something more out about monsters other than their names? putting points into mythology lets me see their real names, but can i access info on their hitpoints, stats, and resistances somewhere?

4. What exactly do Litany and Necromancy do? I've been putting points in them for a cleric and necro respectively but don't notice any difference yet (they're lvl 4 and 3).

5. Is there any way of ensuring that cast offensive spells become more reliable? Afaik, there are no direct skills for the various schools of magic, only the one with the vague description of giving you access to more potent spells. Offensive spells cast at the lowest levels are resisted all the time regardless of the spell and creature combination while higher levels produce mixed results, either missing or backfiring being a much more common occurrence than scoring a hit... except for poison. For some reason, the necro can poison almost anything on her first try.

6. What is ancient history good for?

Also, why do you need a spell to get a compass? If the party knows where they are and the arrow on the local map points in the direction they're facing, why not simply have the compass on top of the legend? nstead I have to either cast the spell or keep looking at the local map.

 

[Dorateen]

I started playing RPG's in the late 90s, so this kind of interface is very unintuitive for me. Here are a few questions I'd appreciate the answers to:

1. Have a character with good assaying skill drag the item you want to identify onto the ASSAY icon. If you have the Super ID spell up, you could get more information (click on the information panel of the item to get a second page) or cast it right before looting a chest, and all items will be Identified. Further, they will be scribed into your journal under the list of items found.

2. As above, Identify spell is only for items.

3. That's what mythology does, it reveals the true name of monsters so you will recognize them in the future.

4. Spell-casting classes have specific skills that govern the effectiveness of their magic. Litany is for clerics. Necromancy is for Necromancers. Those professions need to boost up those skills (should be highlighted in purple) respectively, to get the most out of their magic.

5. As above, your offensive spells will be more effective the more points you put into the necessary magic skill. Upward of 20 to 30 points, to increase reliability and damage output. This skill is what matters most, and should be pumped as much as you can afford on each level up.

6. Ancient History is a skill used to decipher certain messages, that you will need to have high enough points, otherwise characters will not be able to read the message.

7. A spell required to bring up a compass goes back to Wizardry. It is the legacy of dungeon crawlers.

 

[Lady_Error]

How do you prove that you are ELEETZ?

Is that for the gym or the casino?

Spoiler

GYM: Go to the final room in the south of the Bazaar and look around.

CASINO: Talk to Raji Khan.

 

[Haba]

What is the fountain in "Spring of Everlife" supposed to do?

 

[Lady_Error]

What or where is the Spring of Everlife?

 

[Haba]

One of the four endgame locations. There is a fountain and two water tiles, the fountain on the middle doesn't seem to do anything nor can you divine its purpose.

I'm guessing it is supposed to do what the name implies, but the whole aging mechanic is not there anyway so eh.

 

[Lady_Error]

Right, there is actually one main fountain there that reduces the age back to 18. Don't know if there are any others, I didn't check.

 

[Dorateen]

I was thinking about the Princess escort mission discussion from the other day. Did anyone else recruit the rhattu Snivels, just to rescue him from the pyramid? The was one of the other times I let an NPC briefly join the party.

 

[Jazz_]

Any tip on how to defeat the Samhain Horror? It implodes my party with sickening ease, not sure if I'm underleveled for it or what..

 

[Haba]

I honestly don't know anymore.

Generally, you'd need some form of permanent crowd control. Sleep, stun, paralyse... anything that works. Now chances are that post balance many of the old options won't work anymore.

Back in the day I think I did it with a lucky deep freeze (which now does like 20 dmg...)

Check your scrolls and consumable items.

 

[Dorateen]

Any tip on how to defeat the Samhain Horror? It implodes my party with sickening ease, not sure if I'm underleveled for it or what..

Cast Haste on your best fighter. (If you have the bottles of zephyr cola, spread those around to other fighters, too.) Our party's ranger wielding Caliburn landed the killing blow. I also used the flute of chaos, which confused the Horror, and bought us some time. It's a tough fight.

 

[Lady_Error]

Yeah, it's basically about landing a lucky hit to disable him in some way. Spells, instruments, items, scrolls - throw whatever you've got at him. The optimal solution would be a Lethal Blow hit, but you'd need a good amount of points in it for that to be likely.

 

[Haba]

You probably want to make sure Caliburn has charges left when you fight him, if I remember right.

 

[111111111]

I admit, I've poked around this thread quite a bit and am very intrigued.It seems like a RPG with a lot of depth and complex systems. There's a lot of hidden puzzles, walls and stuff that I generally miss from old games. However the beginners manual is really long for a 'game' which means its probably not for me. However considering this is a singular man's effort it is really impressive.

 

[Lady_Error]

So you like depth and complex systems, but pass on the game because of the length of the manual? If you are familiar with blobbers, especially Wizardry, you won't even need the manual - or can rely on the http://grimoire.wiki for all the necessary information.

 

[Sonic Titan]

Indeed. The game and it's archaic nature is incredible to me as a scrub late-comer to the blobber party.

Now all I do is scour the web for blobbers to add to the backlog.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

Is it possible to super-ID (as in, you get a journal entry) an item that has already been regular-IDed? Other than using the oracle in Shrine of the Raptor, I mean...

 

[Gunnar]

Is it possible to super-ID (as in, you get a journal entry) an item that has already been regular-IDed? Other than using the oracle in Shrine of the Raptor, I mean...

Try showing your items to NPCs. If they know about it, they will superID it for you.

 

[Jazz_]

Some rings have like magic properties (spells and stuff) but how do you use them? Is it a passive thing where they get triggered randomly?

 

[Dorateen]

Rings that have spells, like the one that casts Crushing Hand, need to be activated from the inventory bar. So you can't have it equipped if you want to use it in combat.

 

[Haba]

...which probably should get fixed.

 

[Lady_Error]

Some rings have like magic properties (spells and stuff) but how do you use them? Is it a passive thing where they get triggered randomly?

That's one of the things that you can only see by equipping a magical item and checking if any resistances changed. Other things are even less clear, such as an item giving you permanent invisibility - which you only learn about in the SuperID-description but cannot actually see anywhere in the stats.

As to the items that have spells, it's more straightforward: Unless you use them, the spells are not triggered. Some of the weapons seem to be an exception, eg. Caliburnus has a limited number of spells that get triggered on hit. And when that runs out, it just does its normal damage.

I just checked and the Recharge spell works now. The Caliburnus gets 7 spell charges again, while the Waterwalking shoes get 9 charges (Recharge Level VII).

 

[Gunnar]

What are the best invoked effects? I sort of ignored it before. Do the invoked items use any stats from the character using them, other than invoking itself?

 

[Lady_Error]

The invoked effects are simply spells in items. The best spells are also the best invoked effects.

And as far as I know, the stats (the Invocation skill mostly) have only an influence on the success of invoking. The strength of the invoked spell is hard-wired into the item.

 

[Jazz_]

Uhm using the rings spells via your inventory seems a bit contrived to be honest but ok.
Does anyone know if there are items that temporarily boost your hit points by the way?