KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[Dickie]

Did the bug with the fancy trident get fixed, so it doesn't go back to a regular trident?

 

[mediocrepoet]

You can create a party and start the game with everyone showing up and skill checks working properly now. Didn't have any crashes and was able to cast spells outside of combat, etc.

Clearly all the tears and accusations of fraud, etc. last week were justified.

 

[NJClaw]

How is it for bugs and UI and stuff?

Yes.

 

[Noddy]

Alright, worth pointing i got through allot of this game by just autisticly smashing my head against it, but if you want my thoughts, here's a long ass post arranged poorly:

Party was:

Drake Fighter
Carried the mid-game.
Wade in is fucking nuts. Found it to be several times better than the pounce belt due to always going off and allowing yourself to postion to continue hitting with all your attacks.
Never ran out of feats to take. Plus saving throw feats are honestly excellent.
Drake breath weapon was pointless. Yeah you can get off with a move action but nothing survives a turn next to you anyway so you need your move action for, well, moving. Better than nothing i guess.

Half-Giant Samurai
A bit shit but this is entirely my fault. Crafted him a vorpal sword (which is shit) right out the crypt and refused to part with it.
Ocassionaly went nuts with crits and just won encounters. Not very often though.
Had him with the improve size belt and tripped everything, but good god i wish i'd given him a reach weapon.

Human Death Knight
Mid tier useful.
Barely ever used life drain. Aura of dread is great. Sneak attack is great. Smite is good but gone very fast, good for a quick gib tho.
Had him with a ring of invisibility and greater feint which seemed redundant.
Solid.

Halfling M Cleric Celerity/Aberation
Carried the early game.
Celerity was useful all game long. Free action is just great. Aberation fell of and barely used it at the end, but it was super strong at the start.
Stood around during easy fights, spammed liek crazy during the hard ones.
Unforuntely perma dead at the end game due to having fraility on her when she got breathed on. You will be missed Chaste Charlie.

Human F Red Wizard
Carried the late-game.
Took 12 dex on her and regretted it all game long. Didn't take spell range and really regretted it when you start using your move action for a second spell.
Allot of fights in this game are a puzzle and the key is usually in the arcane list.
Fire feat does literally nothing.

Elf M Psionist
Good all game. Think everyone agrees about the psion. Didn't find him as useful as the wizard come end game i have to say, but still a solid second in people in i want to show up in the init list.

Companions were the pally and the sorc.

Party comp opinions:

I think what i'll do when i run again (if i take the companions) is drop the front liners down to two and bring an extra wizard.
Here's my logic: There were three encounters in the game i found genuinely frustratingly hard:

Spoiler

Chap 3 start
Death snare last room
End boss

And another 4 or 5 that involved allot reloading:

Spoiler

Spider Queen
Keep Gate
Keep Courtyard first fight
The fucking caterpillars lmao
Probably forgetting something

In every single one of these i'm just praying my wizard wins init. Occasionally my psionist.
Twice the wizards, twice the init winning, half the reloading. Yeah everything late has SR but everything's got dr/retaliation/mirror image too.
Only really question is: is two fighters enough for when you need to save spells? Can't speak for the early game, but for the upper sewers i'm certain you only need two dudes to scythe through it.
For colours, the only school i wasn't really using was necromancy. All others seem strong.
Int, dex, con for stats.

There's a fairly legit argument for running a sorc instead of the second wiz. If the companion didn't exist or i wasn't taking him, i probably would.
Sometimes a res or cleric buff is just strictly better than wiz spell and having allot of people with divine access lets you pull ressurection or unconcious heal daisy chains off.
Really felt the lack of high lvl spells on erzi tho. Also felt the lack of feats. Tough call tbh.
Think the only way to run a sorc is to dump wis and use the non saving throw spell cleric spells.

Between the Cleric and the Bishop i think the Cleric is just strictly better.
I suppose it depends on how much you value the divine spell list, but ithink it's aburdly strong. Yes the late game shit with true res, mass heal, the SR spell that eclipses all items, auto break ench, the +8 to saves etc. But i also like it in the mid game. Smite, banish, mass align weapon, mass elemental resist, prayer. Cleric gets them sooner and gets more of them. There is no domain combo i can see that that makes me want shittier spells.
For the cleric, i'd probably build it as a pure caster. Wis, dex, con in that order. Take the daily domains and fuck charisma off. Also think if your ever trying to hit someone with your cleric, the fights probably easy enough you don't that attack to connect.

I think you could replace the Cleric with a Sorc or Psy-healer. Make the early game allot harder and i don't think you'd gain a huge amount from it.
I can think of few things i like casting with high DC on the divine list, but nothing really neccesary. Doable.

Druid spell list seems shitty in comparison but who knows, haven't played with it.

Psion is great. Highly recommend. Could drop it for a another wizard tho honestly.

2/3rd casters seem entirely useless. This isn't pathfinder where they get abilites to make up for it.
When i'm using an action to attack i want it to be the best attack available. Likewise for spells. Don't see the point tbh.

For front liners, save yourself the pain i went through and take a reach weapon. There's a ton of aoo trip come late game.
I'd also hoard weapons to get through DR. You get allot of shit like DR Adamantium AND Good as you progress.

For classes, i still think the fighter is easily the best. Have i said i rate wade in? Tempted to run a monk cos they get it too.
Haven't actually played with a mantis gladitor though. They seem pretty fucking good too. Who knows?
Pretty sure i did see shake it off work once. Might be my imagination though.

Paladin divine spells are surpisingly useful. Not the actual list but the ability to cast scrolls.
Strictly inferior to the other classes in terms of fighting ability tho. Surprsing amount of non-evil creatures in the game who can't be smited by a pally.
Might take in a party that really needed a second divine caster. Otherwise pass.

Death knight would be great if he got some more feats. Strong candiate for the pounce belt, even if you can't smite off the charge.
Can feel the difference aura makes when it's on something.
Improved whirlwind with the ring of invisibity and a reach weapon seems like it could be strong.

Samurai might be OK, but there's only one pounce belt in the game, so it'd have to be stronger than a Mantis gladiator or a death knight and i don't think it is.
+5% chance to crit, +dam +to hit of sword style, +dam for two handers. None of it is going to catch a dual wielder for damage. So your going reach tripper with a sam and then you're burning feats to get the prof and sword style for it.
Mediocre.

This post has gotten stupidly long so i'm gonna cut it here. Turns out pumping 50+ hours into a game gives you allot of opinions on it.
Could type for days tbh. Game sucked me in whole.

 

[Koschey]

Unintended side-effect of Mantis blender: many High Sewer fights end before reinforcements spawn in, costing you XP.

Never fear, Pierre heard us loud and clear:

Changes to game balance

• It will no longer be possible to lose out on precious experience points by completing fights too early. Reinforcements will no longer spawn in delayed or by trigger. Instead in each battle all participants will appear on the map from the very start of the encounter.
• "Improved Initiative" exploit fixed. In certain cases it was possible for players to accidentally skip parts of fights by winning initiative if their characters had high DEX as well as the feat "Improved Initiative". To avoid this, the feat was removed from the game and DEX modifier no longer provides an initiative bonus.
• Reception of prerolled HP on level up was poor. I took the criticism to heart and implemented a rule for fixed HP increases on level up. Going forward, all classes will always receive the lowest roll possible on each level.

 

[curds]

Unintended side-effect of Mantis blender: many High Sewer fights end before reinforcements spawn in, costing you XP.

Never fear, Pierre heard us loud and clear:

Changes to game balance

• It will no longer be possible to lose out on precious experience points by completing fights too early. Reinforcements will no longer spawn in delayed or by trigger. Instead in each battle all participants will appear on the map from the very start of the encounter.
• "Improved Initiative" exploit fixed. In certain cases it was possible for players to accidentally skip parts of fights by winning initiative if their characters had high DEX as well as the feat "Improved Initiative". To avoid this, the feat was removed from the game and DEX modifier no longer provides an initiative bonus.
• Reception of prerolled HP on level up was poor. I took the criticism to heart and implemented a rule for fixed HP increases on level up. Going forward, all classes will always receive the lowest roll possible on each level.

Lol.

Spoiler

I actually can't be sure if this is trolling or not.

 

[Aegidius]

Alright, worth pointing i got through allot of this game by just autisticly smashing my head against it, but if you want my thoughts, here's a long ass post arranged poorly:

.
.
.

This post has gotten stupidly long so i'm gonna cut it here. Turns out pumping 50+ hours into a game gives you allot of opinions on it.
Could type for days tbh. Game sucked me in whole.

Congrats! Was it 50+ hours for one play through to get to the end or is that the total of multiple different play throughs? Pierre estimated 40ish hours of gameplay for AoC, so just trying to see if that is a reasonable estimate for one playthrough.

 

[Jasede]

The game is 8 hours long, and there's 42 hours of reloading fights.

 

[Aegidius]

The game is 8 hours long, and there's 42 hours of reloading fights.

So as expected then

 

[Noddy]

Congrats! Was it 50+ hours for one play through to get to the end or is that the total of multiple different play throughs? Pierre estimated 40ish hours of gameplay for AoC, so just trying to see if that is a reasonable estimate for one playthrough.

Just checked my save and it's at 70.

The game is 8 hours long, and there's 42 hours of reloading fights.

The game has four maps lmao
Where the fuck did my week go

 

[Tweed]

Feels weird going through it again now, I had to reload the cultist fight a few times but man it feels so tame compared to the horrible shit that comes later.

 

[Aegidius]

Congrats! Was it 50+ hours for one play through to get to the end or is that the total of multiple different play throughs? Pierre estimated 40ish hours of gameplay for AoC, so just trying to see if that is a reasonable estimate for one playthrough.

Just checked my save and it's at 70.

The game is 8 hours long, and there's 42 hours of reloading fights.

The game has four maps lmao
Where the fuck did my week go

thanks!

 

[cruelio]

This pool fight is really stupid. It'd be a hard fight without the druid, or with the druid but without one of either the frogs or the trident guys. With all them and the penalty for fighting underwater it's ridiculous.

P.S. spare me a troll attempt telling me to get good, I remain, to this day, a top 15 competitive esports Knights of the Chalice 1 player.

 

[Tigranes]

OK so this game is now completely fixed and bug free, right, I can start, right

Right

RIGHT

 

[Rpguy]

Defeated the green goblins alone on first try, discovered the birdman disappears after and that you can cross the chasm yourself back and forth and each time you do it you get 30 xp... I'll report it.

 

[Doctor Sbaitso]

You can no longer equip a two hander on the mantis +anything without Oversized two weapon fighting. You equip 1 two hander and that's it.

Bastard swords are a likely exception, just as they were in KOTC 1.

Bastard swords are two handers, no difference. You put a bastard sword in your mantis main hand and you can't put any other weapon, not even a dagger. Once you get oversized TWF you can equip 4 bastard swords, no problem.

I thought half-giants can wield bastards with 1 hand?

 

[cruelio]

Welp, can confirm the trident loses its bonuses when you reload. Also pretty cute putting a new fight down there Pierre when I went back up to grab a small size character.

 

[felipepepe]

Anyone playing around with the editor? The menus are a bit of a mess, but overall it's VERY easy to use. Took me a bit over one hour to turn this map of Cragmaw Castle (from Lost Mine of Phandelver) into a playable level:

Spoiler

It's VERY annoying to perfectly line up the square grids, and it has some limitations like no diagonals, but overall it's very easy to just import a map, paint what's a wall, a door, obstacle, stairs, etc and then populate with enemies.

Of course, the hard part is scripting special encounters, dialogs and interactions, but not even NWN 1's editor was so quick to use to create a simple combat gauntlet. KOTC2 doesn't have hobgoblins (SHAME ON YOU, PIERRE!), but took me like 2 minutes to just copy the 3.5 stats into a new creature template and make a hobgoblin.

 

[cruelio]

Nice railroading, Pierre.

What do you even get for doing this? The answer currently appears to be nothing, as my party has lost all its items.

 

[Tigranes]

OK v1.1 seems not too bad so far in terms of bugs

Had to reload 80 times to even start this battle because acid splash at surprise round = entire party die in one hit

Also I suspect I missed a ton of stuff / XP? Because I went in the left room before I went in the right after the brazier surprise

Edit: Oh wow OK, yeah, backing out and checking out that right room

 

[cruelio]

Does anyone believe for a second Pierre played this game? Check out this encounter:

-Party is level 2/3 (COULD LEVEL ALL TO FOUR BUT THAT REQUIRES GOLD! LOL!)
-Your party has literally no equipment other than some rocks and a dagger.
-Level 10 minotaur mage that gets a surprise round to web the party and comes PREBUFFED with mirror image and blur.
-His normal attacks do 20+ damage a pop and he can either trip as a free action or he has so many attacks he can toss out trips and still have attacks to lay into whoever just fell! Have fun with that while your casters fail their concentration rolls to cast spells at him and your warriors have less than a 20% chance to hit!

I actually like, don't know that Pierre has even played D&D to think this is a remotely fair encounter.

Anyway I decided not to do it and moved on. Pro tip. You can bully the rat people into giving you magic items and then sell the items back to them to have enough cash to level up, and they'll let you rest to boot.

 

[Jasede]

Those are the easy encounters, cruelio.
Yes, even the no weapons surprise minotaur and the pool druids. In those fights you still get to act.

Later in the game you just die if you don't get initiative because you'll eat 200+ elemental damage or everyone will be webbed, asleep and confused inside a stinking cloud. Before you get a turn.

By the way, not killing the minotaur can bite you if you have no way to penetrate DR. There's a certain fight coming where having a magical weapon is very useful, and he drops a greataxe +1. Alternatively summons or spells might get you past.

 

[Mortmal]

Anyone playing around with the editor? The menus are a bit of a mess, but overall it's VERY easy to use. Took me a bit over one hour to turn this map of Cragmaw Castle (from Lost Mine of Phandelver) into a playable level:

Spoiler

It's VERY annoying to perfectly line up the square grids, and it has some limitations like no diagonals, but overall it's very easy to just import a map, paint what's a wall, a door, obstacle, stairs, etc and then populate with enemies.

Of course, the hard part is scripting special encounters, dialogs and interactions, but not even NWN 1's editor was so quick to use to create a simple combat gauntlet. KOTC2 doesn't have hobgoblins (SHAME ON YOU, PIERRE!), but took me like 2 minutes to just copy the 3.5 stats into a new creature template and make a hobgoblin.

Try importing maps done with illwinter's floorplan generator(guys from dominion 5), the squares align perfectly . I dont know why, there must some secret club for mad autist indies .Makes senses, if it exist pierre was certanly invited. This editor clearly beats FRUA , but that will require ton of work to make something playable. I'd rather buy professionnal modules.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Decided to start it again after reaching chapter 3 because the rogue wasn't quite cutting it. Going with 2 fronts/4 casters party now to enjoy the bugless experience of 1.0.1

But that's beside the matter. What I really came here for was to ask... What the hell is the deal with the characters' eye colour? Does it serve a purpose? Why is it even a thing?

If it's purely cosmetical why not add hair and skin colour too? What about height, breasts, ass, cock size, for Christ's sake? I wanna roll a halfling with a 50cm boa constrictor hanging between his legs that needs to pass a trip check on himself every time he takes a step.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

By the way, not killing the minotaur can bite you if you have no way to penetrate DR. There's a certain fight coming where having a magical weapon is very useful, and he drops a greataxe +1. Alternatively summons or spells might get you past.

how to trigger that encounter? it happened to me once, I lost and then the minotaur didn't appear again and I just killed the worms and talked to the ratmen.