KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[Desiderius]

Finished it just now (first 50% normal then switched to hard).

Good game few minor bugs and some performance issues at the final area. Final fight nearly wiped because even letting enemy cast 1 nasty spell can kinda kill everyone (prismatic void killed 3 guys from full hp even with buffs).

Was thinking that melee becomes bad later on but fighter and monk were doing still well even in end game. Paladin npc on the other hand was quite bad damage wise.

Does the base game include rest modules or do you need to buy those also? :D

Guess I try the tutorial dungeon next and maybe hearkenwold later

Pretty sure Pal/Champ slot does better Grappling/Casting

 

[Pink Eye]

Anyone who would enjoy the game (which requires digging into it at which point it becomes a great entertainment value at $50) but is holding out over price is making an economic/political statement rather than thinking about what gives them the most enjoyment/fulfilment.

Pretty much hit it on the head with this one.

 

[Jermu]

Wtf is this tutorial stairs fight :D Nearly harder than anything in the main campaign. Luckily I bought fireball scroll

 

[Yosharian]

Who am I supposed to give this Black Rose to?

 

[Jermu]

Who am I supposed to give this Black Rose to?

Spoiler

think it was for the shady guy at the inn

 

[Desiderius]

Any advice on what to duplicate with Genie? What item to choose?

 

[Desiderius]

Who am I supposed to give this Black Rose to?

Spoiler

think it was for the shady guy at the inn

It says you don't have enough evidence to convict him then you get the Rose from his chest and no more options. Leave the Rose there and report it to the Bailiff?

If you have Turning or Banishment you can get another Rose at entrance to sewers from the ghost and it tells you to use it to get minions of Yanos to think you're part of their group.

Though that has yet to be an option.

 

[Jermu]

Any advice on what to duplicate with Genie? What item to choose?

You can craft some ridiculous stuff late game when you get for example +20 spell resistance base robe. I used it for crafted 2h weapon so my fighter could get same for other hand. If you have found wade-in item and need another 1 that should be solid option also. I would probably not save it for end game considering good items are more valuable early-middle game since you use those longer.

 

[FA7]

Any advice on what to duplicate with Genie? What item to choose?

Spoiler

King Garamon Mace (+4 STR, +2 CON) - reward from pizzara fight, put both in offhand on your mantis fighter. Enjoy this handsome fella.

 

[Fireblade]

Who am I supposed to give this Black Rose to?

Spoiler

iirc, in Chapter 4 you can give it to Rothgar to convince him you're a member.

 

[felipepepe]

If I can interject for one moment, I still think the best way to get a mod scene up and going is to do pre-existing pnp conversions in the KotC2 toolset. The only other sample we have right now is from felipepepe and I believe he worked from the map of a 5E D&D module.

Yup, did the Cragmaw Castle map from Lost Mine of Phandelver module. It's a nice, self-contained map with multiple routes and had a lot of different maps online for me to use as background.

Was extremely easy to make, even while learning the tools the whole process took just 1-2 hours. Biggest obstacles was what makes any conversion hard: adapting GM interactions into short CYOA segments (and figuring out which triggers I can use to set them).

I agree with Dorateen that it's probably the best way to start. Do a small 1-map/level adaptation. You'll learn A LOT. And it's easy to later integrate this level with more levels. My second project was a much larger and more ambitious original campaign, but got too ambitious, I kept changing the design all the time and never went beyond the first two levels. Most of my time was wasted playing with tiny details like this:

Really, if you wanna learn the tool, get something small & just do it at quickly as possible. Then you can iterate it a few times until it's decent, and use that experience to move to something a bit bigger. Don't start with crazy shit like "I'll do an adaptation of Shadows over Bögenhafen!".

Pierre did a nice editor manual, but here's the WIP manual we did when the editor had just come out: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16LKjIU2l-f5nVIqpxypGE3egq9iOO75PoFgm32CNqEQ/edit?usp=sharing

 

[FA7]

My second project was a much larger and more ambitious original campaign, but got too ambitious, I kept changing the design all the time and never went beyond the first two levels. Most of my time was wasted...

 

[Jermu]

How hard it Hearkenwold compared to base game? Was thinking going with hard difficulty and not using classes I previously used.
Is ranger still the worst class?

Was thinking going with:

Death Knight
Storm Warrior
Ranger / Rogue
Bard
Bishop
Warlock

That should cover all the spell classes.

 

[Desiderius]

How hard it Hearkenwold compared to base game? Was thinking going with hard difficulty and not using classes I previously used.
Is ranger still the worst class?

Was thinking going with:

Death Knight
Storm Warrior
Ranger / Rogue
Bard
Bishop
Warlock

That should cover all the spell classes.

Ranger isn't the worst class. I don't think there is a worst class but Ranger isn't it. It's just hard to fit into Augury since it's a dungeon crawl so your skills don't come up as much. Tight quarters makes ranged better, not worse.

 

[Jermu]

Tight quarters makes ranged better, not worse.

I would say this is untrue and our buddy Pierre seems to agree with me (from manual):

As far as Augury of Chaos is concerned, Rangers aren’t a terribly good class. The
Ranger favours bows, but many encounters are in cramped spaces where bows are diffi-
cult to use. This favours melee over ranged in many situations (though there are excep-
tions). As such, a Ranger will likely be more inefficient than most other classes due to
the nature of the module.

Also, Rangers aren’t necessarily the most useful ranged combatants either. Many of
their abilities give them great power and versatility with ranged attacks, but they lack
the Wade In feat Fighters get access to, which allows Fighters to move before firing all
of their attacks.

 

[Desiderius]

Tight quarters makes ranged better, not worse.

I would say this is untrue and our buddy Pierre seems to agree with me:

As far as Augury of Chaos is concerned, Rangers aren’t a terribly good class. The
Ranger favours bows, but many encounters are in cramped spaces where bows are diffi-
cult to use. This favours melee over ranged in many situations (though there are excep-
tions). As such, a Ranger will likely be more inefficient than most other classes due to
the nature of the module.

Also, Rangers aren’t necessarily the most useful ranged combatants either. Many of
their abilities give them great power and versatility with ranged attacks, but they lack
the Wade In feat Fighters get access to, which allows Fighters to move before firing all
of their attacks.

Lol, move? Why? Play one, you'll see. In any case you can move + crit shot or rapid from where you are. You're the only class that can hit things early with Careful, then you get Improved Careful (Standard Action) at the time you get Rapid, so you're move + Careful or Rapid, then the same with Crit Shot.

Melee gets gummed up and you'll want to lay down all sorts of clouds and surfaces and berzerked enemy melee. Ranger sits back and avoids all that while applying the damage (crit shot)/conditions exactly where they're needed.

Entangling costs one enchantment point and is no save. Likewise Barbed and/or Keen. If you go enlarged HG you can use Force with Crit Shot and go off. Or Stillfinger Halfling and Skewer with Barbed Warbow.

As I said before I think Pierre nerfed ranged to correct for BG so hasn't played much Ranger himself. Only downside is finding the slot and Bard can be good enough ranged while covering a lot of other things. I may try to work a Ranger into the slot where I've got the Monk currently. Monk is really great but has even less relevant skills, doesn't use magic weapons, and gets gummed up in all the junk on the battlefield.

 

[Dorateen]

How hard it Hearkenwold compared to base game?

It's not on the level of Augury of Chaos. I have had encounters described to me as "tough but fair". And the overall module is more exploration focused.

I used a Ranger when testing, and had a lot of fun with this class. The party you listed looks like it would do well.

 

[Nortar]

they lack the Wade In feat Fighters get access to, which allows Fighters to move before firing all of their attacks.

You don't need to move before firing all your attacks, if you attack from range.

With that said, I don't use a ranger myself, coz who wants a guy armed with a stick-and-rope instead of a proper weapon.

 

[FA7]

Wade In feat Fighters get access to, which allows Fighters to move before firing all
of their attacks.

Not only that, best part of fighters-archers is that you can ready vs. spell, then when interrupt happens shoot whole salvo of 5-6 shots altogether.

 

[Desiderius]

Wade In feat Fighters get access to, which allows Fighters to move before firing all
of their attacks.

Not only that, best part of fighters-archers is that you can ready vs. spell, then when interrupt happens shoot whole salvo of 5-6 shots altogether.

Ranger has phat crit shot for that scenario but yeah that sounds nice too.

 

[Sacibengala]

If I can interject for one moment, I still think the best way to get a mod scene up and going is to do pre-existing pnp conversions in the KotC2 toolset. The only other sample we have right now is from felipepepe and I believe he worked from the map of a 5E D&D module.

Maybe a youtube video tutorial for the editor would help with that?

 

[anvi]

Going well with my second run. My 2 Rangers are better than I expected. Their bow shooting is not great yet but they did 1 shot an enemy with a single arrow, coup de grace on I think a stunned enemy, made that fight super easy. Also they get a bunch of Cleric spells so I have 2 healers in addition to my Cleric, and they can summon some simple pets too. Wolves and webs and stuff. If I knew both could heal like that I would have skipped the Cleric, but I'll change that into more offensive.

Psi is much better than Wiz -.- And this Samurai seems better than all other classes combined.

 

[Yosharian]

I started my caster-heavy party and holy shit the game is rough at the start when you have almost no spells. My cleric's aberration summon is carrying me hard through these fights.

Nowhere near as difficult as the tutorial so far though

 

[Serus]

Going well with my second run. My 2 Rangers are better than I expected. Their bow shooting is not great yet but they did 1 shot an enemy with a single arrow, coup de grace on I think a stunned enemy, made that fight super easy. Also they get a bunch of Cleric spells so I have 2 healers in addition to my Cleric, and they can summon some simple pets too. Wolves and webs and stuff. If I knew both could heal like that I would have skipped the Cleric, but I'll change that into more offensive.

Psi is much better than Wiz -.- And this Samurai seems better than all other classes combined.

Psi is much better early from my experience, much more casts and more possibilities but once wizards start to gain some levels they catch up.

 

[Serus]

Do anyone find Feint or Sunder worth the feats needed to make them effective? I find that there are better feats to take even as fighter. Grapple is very useful. You can't go wrong with Trip as long as the enemy doesn't have an immunity. Disarm is situational but when it works then it works, I suppose. Bull Rush in some battles can be nice too. Those two otoh, i'm not convinced.