KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[Tacgnol]

Also as a lulzy reminder, the game's biggest defender hasn't even finished the game and is arguing with multiple people that have.

He's also offering a light walkthrough, which goes way beyond your whinny contribution.

I've offered plenty of suggestions, as have Roxor, Jasede and others on your shit list. All of us who've, incidentally, actually finished the game.

May surprise you, but I actually want this to be successful. Pierre dying of malnutrition (or tuber poisoning) is counter to my interests.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Good, he's working on an easy version with lighter encounters.

 

[NJClaw]

Good, he's working on an easy version with lighter encounters.

You are already playing the easy version, dummy. Play the game unpatched for the real experience.

"What? You think you can simply drink that water breathing potion? Think again, you little bitch"

 

[Darth Canoli]

Chapter 2

Optional fight
- The lizard King & the Hydra
This one is tricky on a first playthrough, even the hydra alone if she doesn't spawn with the king is tricky so there's probably room for a reload here.

On a subsequent playthrough, it's easy as a pie.
Formation : One front-liner (fighter), another fighter closing the formation, mages and cleric on the side-lines and i put the mage knight as a leader (so his position can't be changed)
Deep slumber on the fighters on the right side, stinking cloud south on the mages, then sent the monk (leading formation, he was in the middle of the pool) against the two fighters (one was asleep, the other woke him up).
The fighter "rushed" the lizard king + a summon close to the king, the northern lizard DK sekered himself passing near my mantis warrior in order to reach the mages.
The cleric dealt with one fighter in the pool after the psion debuffed him once.

It really was a one sided fight.
When only the king and one mage lizard were all that was left, they summoned the hydra right inside my stinking cloud and she was nauseated...

After the king died, I flanked her with the monk and the fighter and properly skewered her...

Skewer
By the way, skewer apprentices, what counts is the weapon crit multiplier and it can go up to x5 or even x6 on some weapons with keen + the braces increasing the crit multiplier.
And then, Skewer damage are huge like 100 - 130

The giant crocodile fight is just a joke, if you don't finish him with one hit (skewer), a lot of monsters will spawn making it more interesting but he died too fast and robbed me of some good xp...

Not optional : Fighting the champion
This one is the real deal and all the gelatinous cubes are a real pain, they can even destroy some items (they destroyed my int+2 circlet but at this point, i didn't care).

This is the kind of fight where you wish you brought 3 psionicist along but i only have one.

Summons to protect your mages, spam energy cone or energy ball with the psionicist, holy smite from the cleric works very well too, just throw it on the northern slimes to slow them down, aside from that, protect the psionicist at all cost, he's the one nuking them.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Chapter 3

Pizarra fight
This fight is only difficult if you don't take it extremely seriously, like earthquake seriously, there is an earthquake scroll and an earthquake acorn lying in your backpack, you should use at least one.

Used my third reload here.
Picked the no surprise round, no allies option and even if i wanted to, for some reason, i didn't use earthquake.
Well, they spammed cone of cold on my fighter + cleric + wizard and Ko'ed my 14 CON fighter (poor thing) and i reloaded on the second turn, there was also a stinking cloud on the cleric + wiz + psion and a resilient web so i figured reloading would save me some time.

Second time, i gave up the 500 xp bonus (no allies no surprise)
But really, you get 2x50 xp + 200xp if you pick the cleric allies option and the angel doesn't die and the fight is piss easy.
The only reason to summon the angel being the xp bonus.
The surprise round i got with the psionicist distraction was a full round...

Strategy:
Earthquaketo target 75% of the mobs
Stinking cloud on pizarra
Nothing else matters but i stunned a bunch of them on the right with the psionicist
And then you just finish them off
With the surprise round and the acorn of earthquake(or the scroll), this fight is a joke.

Reinforcements:
For some reason, pizarra whom was nauseated on the second turn didn't summon the demon, the vrooks didn't spawn either nor the barbarians, sad story, all that xp gone...
Or did Pierre modified the encounter already? I was hoping he would keep the original intact and add a modified normal or easy difficulty option ...

 

[Darth Canoli]

Chapter 2 (i mean chapter 3 but they're from the lower sewers)

The Crones
Long overdue, if you have a rogue or a death knight, there's an interesting option with the tome you got from Pizarra, otherwise, you can seek knowledge and use some skills to pay in gold rather than in blood (but eventually, you'll pay in blood, still), i used Erz, i know, i'm heartless, he doesn't have that much HP to begin with but i'm not using him so it's the best move, his HP gets permanently drained and i get spell scrolls.

Then, i killed them, tough fight.
I used greater stomp (3/4 of them prone), debilitate on one of them and then greater command with the cleric, which works very well (on the gargoyles too)
Corner the North-eastern crone, the one with magic resistance with your best fighter and anything else you can spare or a summon.
And nuke everything!

She turned my Mage knight into stone but the cleric had a spell to undo it before the end of the fight.

Some people let them live until they're ready to leave the sewers, valid choice as they have a lot to trade.

Chapter 3
The real challenge here is to manage resources (spells & campfires)

Cultists (south from Pizarra)
After a couple of easy fights according you only use spells when needed, i often pass mages turn after they did their job in disabling the dangerous foes, fighters have to earn their keep too.

If Pizarra is in your active party (as she should, just kick Erz out already), you don't get surprised, turning a deadly trap into a mere nuisance.
some disable spells in the corridor are required.
Send your skewer fighter toward the western group and eviscerate 2/3 or them in one turn, if the other one was protecting the rear, good, otherwise, just nuke the corridor with low lever spells, my mage knight can finally make use of burning hands in this fight (but also against the undead on the way)
Shout, energy stun, almost anything works here, i believe.

If you were surprised, on the other hand, better throw your A game, same strategy but their monks/warriors are going to rush your mages if they can and throw everything they have at you.

Black Dragon
Give your skewer fighter some fire protection, either your best equipment or a spell as soon as possible and send him on the lava, that's by far the best way to deal with the dragon, eventually a haste spell as well and a fire elemental behind the dragon to flank/lock him.

I believe ice or electric spells works best here once the reinforcements spawn, throw everything you have, the NPC you save give you soem bonus xp.

Also don't forget to scatter as much as possible on turn one, the dragon is a meanie.

Psi Bugs
Got surprised here, didn't remember the bugs to be this annoying but nothing skewer couldn't solve, this and proper electric nuking, as always.
Eventually a shout/energy stun, low chance but if you get 2/3 targets, there's always a chance...
Sending some summons to lock the psi bugs where your skewer fighter isn't is a good idea.

The Dragon, the Crones and the Cultist ambush can really screw you over on a first playthrough but Skewer will get you through most of chapter 3 encounters, this and a little nuking.

 

[luj1]

So when is this coming out

 

[luj1]

Anyone tried psychic warrior? Maybe half giant Psychic warrior? they have grip of iron as a free action which can get crazy bonuses to grapple checks

This sounds like the right game for munchkins

 

[Citizen]

where da graffix at, pierre?

 

[Darth Canoli]

Chapter 3

The Spider Queen (optional)
Easier than i remember, fought her with a level 15 party.

The strategy is simple :

• Fire immunity shield for the cleric
• Fire immunity cloak for either a wizard or a psionicist
• Spell resistance cloaks for your best two fighters
  
• Save after each fight
• Use pre-buffs (there isn't many but some are useful, just in case, i used them all)
• Make the early spiders last, stay grouped, use mass combat buffs (+8 saving throws, prot against evil, not sure they stack though, mass enhance weapons if it makes sense, eventually mass align weapons good, mass boost STR or INT, etc. )

The spider queen and her 3 goons appear during turn 3 i think if you didn't kill the spiders.
I tried anti-magic cloud, Queen Spider could cast through it like it wasn't there.
Went back to the classic silence.
And then, the revelation, Asharzaelle, after some self boosting, had 95% chances to grapple her...
And the fight was over...
Still tried some things and the Queen got decerebrated and then pined by Ashar...

Well, before she was grappled, she threw one prismatic thing and killed Pizarra on the spot, the others saved and either didn't get damaged or got half but she blinded the wiz, the psionicist and Asharzaelle*.

Also used chaos early on on the first spiders wave, to keep them busy added one vrook and spell acceleration, of course.

The statue spawed after the queen died, flanked by my two best fighters and the succubus.
Vortex of doom, resilient greese, electric nuke and then the warriors finished it off.

It was quite disappointing.

The SW snare (forgot the name, maybe brain sucker snare?) This one is mandatory
This one was tough but i was hoarding xp to get as much as i could for the Spider Queen so the party was level 12 or 13.

First thing first, spam dispel/greater dispel/break enchantment and haste to remove the suppress swords and slowing effects.
It's not too bad until the last room.
The boss has SR36 and the demon SR30 (SR=Spell Resistance), this is ridiculous.
They killed my mage knight and i really thought that was it but nuking and nuking, i finally got there, also, couldn't reach the mantis fighter to cast true sight or something so i wasted 10/16 attacks per round (yeah, the mantis has 16 attacks at this point with the haste boots you get for free (siding with the formians against the cultist in the central room fight)
Didn't find the spell that worked on the boss and the demon here, aside from vortex of doom.

By far, the toughest fight of the game so far.

No reloads so 3 reloads total and i'm ready for chapter 4.

*The worst part was to get rid of the blinding effects, had to savescum and cast 3 break enchantments to get rid of them all, lucky i had a spare campfire.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Soon, chapter 4.

By the way, i have some news about KotC 2 Augury of chaos
Pierre is working hard

• Really cool revamped Barbarian class
  
• Ultra-fast speed for the combat
• Addressing the difficulty issues
• Maybe more (like fleshing out the module here and there)

 

[Dickie]

This is what it's like to me when people are explaining how easy KotC2 is.

 

[Darth Canoli]

This is what it's like to me when people are explaining how easy KotC2 is.

Looks like New Zealand Story kind of level design, except in NZS, you get a flying vehicle for these levels, there's some kind of thruster you have to hit regularly in order not to crash.

I don't know how you can think this of Augury of Chaos, though, with a balanced party, you're almost never surprised and with improved ini + heroic ini + some ini equipment and eventually the initiative familiar for the wizard, you get the upper hand most of the time.

The only reason i fathom you'd think it's too hard would be if you refuse to use the most efficient spells like stinking cloud, sleep, deep slumber, grease, chaos, quicksand (you need a druid for this one) and don't use the earthquake acorns disseminated along your path.

Also, i recently read his guide and he confirms the druid is one of the most important spellcaster along with the wizard, the psionicist and the cleric if some of you ever doubted it.
It's a nice change as D&D druids are useless in most RPG.

 

[Trash Player]

A good part of it is a concept problem. By "balanced party", it comes to mind to your bog variety DnD players and even WotC themselves a one-of-each-kind mishmash, regardless of
their actual gameplay roles. To anyone who has even a vague idea of how RAW works, it would mean a party that can solve most problems it encounters.
DM is expected to not discourage the players if they are behaving sensibly in narrative sense, so even less rules-savvy veteran tabletop players can be unprepared for a CRPG that
actually pressurize the players. Not to say the your usual CRPGs do not really dare to do that.
Most cRPG players are also allergic to using consumables, so they are not able to shift gears even if the situation calls for it.
And ofc the frustration threshold differs.

 

[Dorateen]

Knights of the Chalice 2 version 1.10 has been released for backers to download.

Introduces new sprites for characters and weapons.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-revolutionise-old-school-crpgs/posts/3087229

Update #43: KotC 2 Version 1.10 Introduces New Character And Weapon Sprites!

Hello everyone! Version 1.10 of KotC 2 Augury of Chaos is now available for download here for both Windows and macOS. The main change is the addition of new sprites for characters & held weapons:

List of improvements in KotC 2 version 1.10

• You can now type in a name / description for your saved games.
• Added the 'Ultra Accelerated Combat' game option.
• Reworked the 'Options' screen using four tabs and a bunch of selection boxes.
• Added a new game option allowing your characters to Charge towards a specific square of large creatures. That option is switched on by default.
• Added the new in-game sprites for player characters and for the humanoid enemies found in the game's first chapter. The sprites will display the weapons held in the right hand and left hand, and the armour being worn, if any. Magic weapons and shields will have a different colour. There are sprites for walking, running, being idle and being prone. The running animation is displayed in combat while the walking animation is displayed out of combat.
• When combat is not taking place, you can now select the hair style, body type, and height of your characters from their character sheets. Simply open a character sheet and click on the character's token in the top-left area of the character sheet. You can also add wings to a character. Finally, you can select a type of armour that will then replace the image of the armour being worn by the character.

• The module editor was also updated to allow selecting the hair / body / height of humanoid characters. Simply open the creature editor, click on a creature to open the creature properties, then click on the green button labelled 'Sprites' in the top-left area of the screen. I've also updated the weapon editor to allow selecting the weapon sprites.
• Added a new 'Defensive Casting' option in the menu of combat actions. It allows you to switch defensive casting on and off easily for the acting character. You can also press Shift + D to switch defensive casting on and off, if the option appears in the menu. The option will only appear in the menu if casting would trigger an attack of opportunity (AOO). If the option does not appear, then casting a spell will not trigger any AOOs.
• When switching between characters with the left and right arrow keys in the character sheet, the game will no longer jump to different tabs of the character sheet (unless you were on a spellbook tab and the next character does not have spells).
• In the inventory screen, bags will no longer be closed automatically when taking an item from the party-items box.
• Reworked many text labels and button sizes in the character-sheet screen and inventory screen. Hopefully those screens will look less chaotic now.
• In the main menu, the shortcut keys F1 for help and O for options will now work.
• In the help entry for Experience, added a table of XP requirements for each level from 1 to 40.
• Fixed a problem with movement in combat where some squares were inaccessible when they should have been accessible.

Next Steps for KotC 2

• Add new sprites for monsters. Add content in village map & a few extra quests in chapter 2 and 3.
• Add two new options, one to provide more campfires and another to reduce encounter difficulty.
• Implement the Barbarian Class upgrade. Add local-map screen (expanded minimap).
• Add feat-selection recommendations. Add the new feats / items / spells / features as promised.
• Create the tutorial module. Add module-creation info in guidebook. Fix any remaining bugs.
• Read & reply on HeroicFantasyGames.com forums, Discord server and here on Kickstarter.
• Add backer names to the KotC 2 Credits Screen as appropriate, and assign forum labels for backers.
• Continue working on the Steam page for KotC 2 and start working on the Steam version of KotC 2.

Please feel free to post any comment about the new features, or planned features, here or in the forums. Also please feel free to email me at enquiries@heroicfantasygames.com if you find any glaring bugs or you'd like to highlight a particular forum post containing suggestions.

Thank You For Your Support, Dear Knights and Wizards of the Realm! Enjoy!!

 

[Darth Canoli]

Nice QoL improvements.
Also, i'm really looking forward to the extra village, ch. 2/3 content.

Now, i started chapter 4 and it certainly needs polish.
First fight is long but alright, second fight is something else (2 more party wipe, didn't beat it yet)

 

[Desiderius]

Been enjoying this recurring series “people who have already played the game and read everything about it on the forum swearing you don’t need to reload to win fights and then reloading to win fights”.

Also as a lulzy reminder, the game's biggest defender hasn't even finished the game and is arguing with multiple people that have.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

 

[Ragniz]

Is the game playeable yet?
I don't mind a bullshit encounter every now and then but the couple times I've tried it I had to win initiative + land my shit every fight or I get steamrolled

 

[Darth Roxor]

Is the game playeable yet?

don't know, darth canoli is yet to tell us about breezing through chapter 4

 

[Ragniz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWOvt2sGM8
Just got this on my feed, is he finally losing his mind?

 

[Tacgnol]

Is the game playeable yet?
I don't mind a bullshit encounter every now and then but the couple times I've tried it I had to win initiative + land my shit every fight or I get steamrolled

I doubt Pierre is going to redesign any of the encounters at this point. I think the only thing to do is hope his next module is less bullshit.

 

[Darth Roxor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWOvt2sGM8
Just got this on my feed, is he finally losing his mind?

Well, he sounds like he's about to give up the ghost.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Is the game playeable yet?
I don't mind a bullshit encounter every now and then but the couple times I've tried it I had to win initiative + land my shit every fight or I get steamrolled

There's a shitload of customizable difficulty settings.
Or you can wait a couple of weeks, Pierre is working on some difficulty settings which will decrease opponents level.
And maybe more, i didn't get any news since i gave him the link to Roxor's review...

Edit : Fake news, he's working on the sprites.

 

[Ragniz]

Is the game playeable yet?
I don't mind a bullshit encounter every now and then but the couple times I've tried it I had to win initiative + land my shit every fight or I get steamrolled

There's a shitload of customizable difficulty settings.
Or you can wait a couple of weeks, Pierre is working on some difficulty settings which will decrease opponents level.
And maybe more, i didn't get any news since i gave him the link to Roxor's review...

Edit : Fake news, he's working on the sprites.

Whelp, I'll check again in a couple months I guess