Grimoire Thread

[Gunnar]

My observations of Superhero difficulty were that the number of enemies in the mobs seemed to be higher, and enemies would use their special abilities more frequently.

What I'm little worried about is that after 2-3 class switches for melees, you can max out lethal blow pretty fast and have crit-fest galore for the rest of the game.

Yup. Get speed up so you act first also.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Even now, with poison daggers and low tier broad axes, and LB around 50s, insta kills proc pretty often. This makes 99% of fights redundant.

Can someone confirm that changing diff settings mid game works, or you just have to pick it out before start?

Fuck, i expected this to be as unforgiving as wiz 7. Right now I feel I don't even have to multiclass to breeze through.

 

[Dorateen]

Have you faced dragonflies yet?

 

[Piotrovitz]

Nope, currently I'm at the mines and rape everything with melees and fireballs.
Does it gets much tougher later on?

Are some mobs resistant to insta-kill?

If not, then I assume that high-speed LB maxed out melees can get you through almost everything.
Then again, I'm not that far so I may be wrong.

Back to my previous question - does anybody know if changing difficulty mid-game works?

 

[Lady_Error]

The thing is, if you know what you're doing, then the difficulty is indeed not that high - though still challenging in many instances.

Wizardry 7 is pretty much the same.

Once you enter the open world, there are many places that only a high level party can handle.

 

[Gunnar]

There are some mobs that can be problematic if they get to act before you do, but I don't recall any monsters being immune to lethal blow. The difficulty switching mid-game seemed to work for me.

 

[Piotrovitz]

The thing is, if you know what you're doing, then the difficulty is indeed not that high - though still challenging in many instances.

Wizardry 7 is pretty much the same.

True to much extent, tbh this can be said about pretty much almost every cRPG.

I have a feeling that Wiz 7 is much more unforgiving though - especially that without multiclassing your skill growth is slow as hell, same with learning spells.
In Grimwah my aeorb sage had 100 sorcery around lvl 6-7, same with thaumaturge and alchemy. Weapon skills also seems to be rising fast as fuck through usage as well - my saurian berserker already has 100 in axes.

In a way, it's a good thing - you don't have to roll with ridiculous z/x/c/v/b/n multiclassed munchkins to get through the game without grinding, but I would definitely tone down the skill gains.

Wiz 8 had perfect balance in that matter.

 

[cvv]

Grimoire is definitely way, way too trivial in the first part. I'm now in Samhain and difficulty-wise it still feels like that starter meadow in Wiz7. In Wiz7 the first non-trivial fight is Ra-Sep-Re-Tep, the boss of the starting dungeon. in Grimoire (at least V2, apparently gaem was p. hard on D1) it's Hobknob, 10+ hours into the game. I just re-read Felipe's review and apparently fights will get progressively harder (or more BS according to him) so we'll see.

Other minor annoyances include the inventory management, that must've been an absolute pain before V2, the bafflingly microscopic text in some places, the OP RPCs, some of the mechanics that seem pointless (all that sharpening and poisoning and enchanting that lasts like 2 fights) and a few other quirks.

Luckily none of this is very serious plus the number of QoL improvements over W7 is higher than the annoyances. Apart from the balance I don't have any other major complaints. The dungeons are excellent, puzzles just right (had to look up only 1 solution so far), writing is easily on Bradley's level, itemization and loot very good and I'm actually starting to be intrigued about the story which, for an old-school blobber, is virtually unheard of.

 

[Lady_Error]

Grimoire is definitely way, way too trivial in the first part. I'm now in Samhain and difficulty-wise it still feels like that starter meadow in Wiz7. In Wiz7 the first non-trivial fight is Ra-Sep-Re-Tep, the boss of the starting dungeon. in Grimoire (at least V2, apparently gaem was p. hard on D1) it's Hobknob, 10+ hours into the game. I just re-read Felipe's review and apparently fights will get progressively harder (or more BS according to him) so we'll see.

The early difficulty is really not trivial, especially if you start in Crowl or use the early stick weapons instead of unequipping them. I'd say the gang outside Crowl is more akin to the first early challenge or that undead mini-boss in Aquavia - which is actually directly inspired by Ra-Sep-Re-Tep.

some of the mechanics that seem pointless (all that sharpening and poisoning and enchanting that lasts like 2 fights) and a few other quirks.

You can have alternate weapons enchanted or poisoned and store them for a fight when you might need them, eg. a boss fight. Though yeah, overall that stuff is not important.

 

[cvv]

The early difficulty is really not trivial, especially if you start in Crowl or use the early stick weapons instead of unequipping them. I'd say the gang outside Crowl is more akin to the first early challenge or that undead mini-boss in Aquavia - which is actually directly inspired by Ra-Sep-Re-Tep.

Oh yeah, those Black Hand bandits, I had to leave those for later, you're right.

Also Rosie can make the very early game super trivial but even without her your mages will get mass-blast spells like Shrill Sound, Magic Missiles or Fireball very soon (I wanna say on lvl2? maybe 3) and start raeping on their own.

So in general, IF you don't read the manual beforehand, IF you assemble a bad party, IF you don't use your racial powers and IF you don't recruit Rosie the game can be difficult in the first hour or so.

I don't wanna bitch too much about balance though. So far I'd say Wizardry 7 nailed balance better (in fact it's probably the best balanced RPG I know) but even it collapses into triviality by the time you get to Ukpyr, especially if you know what you're doing. Plus, as I said, I'm still in Samhain, which is what, maybe 20% in, based on the reviews? Still plenty of time for tough fights.

(Btw I'd REALLY loved to hear from Cleve what exactly various difficulty grades do and if they can be changed mid-game/without restarting).

 

[Darth Roxor]

You have to remember that Grimwah doesn't concern itself too much with balance, and in fact eventually the game turns into a massive cheesefest, so you should just kick back and enjoy the ride

 

[Piotrovitz]

QQ - is metallurgy working now, i.e can you craft weapons and shit?

 

[cvv]

QQ - is metallurgy working now, i.e can you craft weapons and shit?

It better be since my Metalsmith has been pumping Metallurgy almost exclusively since the get to.

 

[Lady_Error]

QQ - is metallurgy working now, i.e can you craft weapons and shit?

That's a good question. Never did it myself. The manual says: "The ability to forge powerful weapons and to construct them from components."

So I suppose the forges are where you forge weapons, but from what components?

 

[Dorateen]

From the Grimoire Manual:

The character with the Forge Craft can add an armor bonus to any qualified armor in proportion to their METALLURGY skill. Each time the enhanced armor is hit in combat and penetrated by the enemy it will lose a point until this enhancement vanishes.

So you use the skill metallurgy in conjunction with the Forge Craft, to increase a bonus on pieces of armor.

 

[Lady_Error]

Right, I remember doing the AC bonus for armor, but it also wears off quite fast. I guess the crafting from components was his initial idea, which is now the AC bonus.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Meh, so it's nothing to write home about and makes the whole metalsmith class kinda redundant and just make you want to have another saurian berserker instead.

Anyway, I just started again on higher difficulty, and the number of mobs on most of encounters is noticably higher. Changing this previously during the game did not seem to change anything.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Are bard instruments worth it, like in wiz 8?

I dont have pure bard now, and raising music skill on aeorb sage may take forever.

 

[Lady_Error]

Music instruments and the speed of the music skill increase were nerfed, but there are some good instruments in the game. It's basically a free unlimited spell machine and many of those are crowd-control spells.

 

[Butter]

Music is strong. You can get free mass paralysis pretty early in the game. Don't start with a bard though. Bard is the only class that can multi into Jester.

 

[Gunnar]

Metalsmith can't be class changed into, so it's a good starting class to take if you're trying to maximize your gains from class changing.

 

[Baxander]

Cleve, you ready to roll?

 

[Dreed]

Cleve, you ready to roll?

I heard there's a new bug out there called Coronavirus, why don't you go away for the umpteenth time and chase that?

 

[Incendax]

Never finished my last playthrough. Taking a second shot at it.
Single Class challenge.
Is there any class that is absolutely 100% necessary? As far as content or puzzle solving is concerned.

 

[cvv]

Anyway, I just started again on higher difficulty, and the number of mobs on most of encounters is noticably higher.

Aw shit. So I guess you need to restart if you're after a different difficulty.

Now do I want to restart 20 hours in....

Goddamn, this game already made me work harder than Wizards&Warriors back in the day.