KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[Desiderius]

I think I remember decoding it because of a name, maybe from the title or description of the letter, you check the word count in the message and from this you will decode the whole message.

YEEEES!!! Thank you, using name helped me to decode. Phew, that sure took me some time...

The two puzzles like that in the main game both fall into place once you’re given a word as well.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Reaching the original game area at level 4 is almost hilarious. Niggas just don't stand a chance.

A bunch of things around Finchbury are sufficiently bullshit to compensate though, but maybe that's just my suboptimal party comp. Still, I raged quite a bit at the fucking harpies and the three shadows.

Also rain jerk feels surprisingly competent now that I could buy him 160 arrows at the start. It's great to be able to dispose of stupid things far away quickly.

 

[Serus]

Reaching the original game area at level 4 is almost hilarious. Niggas just don't stand a chance.

A bunch of things around Finchbury are sufficiently bullshit to compensate though, but maybe that's just my suboptimal party comp. Still, I raged quite a bit at the fucking harpies and the three shadows.

Also rain jerk feels surprisingly competent now that I could buy him 160 arrows at the start. It's great to be able to dispose of stupid things far away quickly.

At level 4? Exp for level 5 at the start of chapter 1 is still easily doable. Only need to stop levelling at level 3 and do everything. Possibly you missed a quest.

 

[Jvegi]

Still in the tutorial.

 

[Darth Roxor]

At level 4? Exp for level 5 at the start of chapter 1 is still easily doable.

But gathering the funds to get that level is not.

 

[Serus]

At level 4? Exp for level 5 at the start of chapter 1 is still easily doable.

But gathering the funds to get that level is not.

I was talking about exp needed not money. If you meant money then sure it's different. Anyway you do not want to level all the way - chapter 1 is easy with 8 level 3 characters and additional exp for being lower level is nice. Anyway, there should be almost 10k to gain in Finchbury. And that's without certain man wanted by certain demon which can net you 4k. How much do you need to get to level 5?

 

[Desiderius]

At level 4? Exp for level 5 at the start of chapter 1 is still easily doable.

But gathering the funds to get that level is not.

I was talking about exp needed not money. If you meant money then sure it's different. Anyway you do not want to level all the way - chapter 1 is easy with 8 level 3 characters and additional exp for being lower level is nice. Anyway, there should be almost 10k to gain in Finchbury. And that's without certain man wanted by certain demon which can net you 4k. How much do you need to get to level 5?

How do you get 4k instead of 2k?

In any event with a Rogue you can get 16k or whatever (enough to buy either relic from the traveling salesman) if you can figure out a way to kill the spiders and do the second mission before resting.

 

[Darth Canoli]

A bunch of things around Finchbury are sufficiently bullshit to compensate though, but maybe that's just my suboptimal party comp. Still, I raged quite a bit at the fucking harpies and the three shadows.

Also rain jerk feels surprisingly competent now that I could buy him 160 arrows at the start. It's great to be able to dispose of stupid things far away quickly.

I noticed enemy rangers doing way more damage, notably the ones from the black rose ambush in chapter 3.

How do you get 4k instead of 2k?

It's 4K if you side with the demon, I didn't check if you really get 4K though.
Also, I'm not sure if it's linked but you can't talk to the ghost at the entrance of the sewers if you side with the demon, first time I picked the money and first time I can't talk to her.

 

[Serus]

At level 4? Exp for level 5 at the start of chapter 1 is still easily doable.

But gathering the funds to get that level is not.

I was talking about exp needed not money. If you meant money then sure it's different. Anyway you do not want to level all the way - chapter 1 is easy with 8 level 3 characters and additional exp for being lower level is nice. Anyway, there should be almost 10k to gain in Finchbury. And that's without certain man wanted by certain demon which can net you 4k. How much do you need to get to level 5?

How do you get 4k instead of 2k?

In any event with a Rogue you can get 16k or whatever (enough to buy either relic from the traveling salesman) if you can figure out a way to kill the spiders and do the second mission before resting.

To get 4k you need to "bargain" a little. When demon offers 2k ask the man what he can offer you. Demon hearing it will double it's offer.

I noticed enemy rangers doing way more damage, notably the ones from the black rose ambush in chapter 3.




It's 4K if you side with the demon, I didn't check if you really get 4K though.
Also, I'm not sure if it's linked but you can't talk to the ghost at the entrance of the sewers if you side with the demon, first time I picked the money and first time I can't talk to her.

As to consequences later, you might be right Darth but i needed to cash to buy the boots of +10 speed* and gauntlets +2STR to get the sword in the stone. I could do one without bargaining with the demon but not both. There are more money to be had in Finchbury but some of it is in the last series of battles and you can't use it there.
The sword might not be not worth it - but if something can be looted the honour of a crpg player demands to loot it!

*they're great, a second pair is somewhere in 1st or 2nd chapter but if you have Half-Giants or even Fighters in heavy armour, they are invaluable, at this price it's a steal.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Made it for myself, but if anyone wants to use it, get it here.
All you have to do is extract inside the KOTC2 folder, and hit Yes when it asks you to overwrite the files. If you wanna erase it, do a re-installation on top of it, your savegames won't be affected. Alternatively, back up the Graphics folder before unzipping the file.

It's a very basic reskin for the UI, giving it a somewhat old-style look. Some stuff is unfixable (like black borders around text, the green line on the Cast Spell button, or being forced to use orb graphics in the middle of some buttons) because almost everything is hard-coded into the game.
Lemme know if you find anything broken or have suggestions to make something better.
This is the best free license font I found that fit the game. If you know one that's wide, serifed, tall x-height, and with short descenders that would work better, hmu.

 

[Desiderius]

As to consequences later, you might be right Darth but i needed to cash to buy the boots of +10 speed* and gauntlets +2STR to get the sword in the stone. I could do one without bargaining with the demon but not both. There are more money to be had in Finchbury but some of it is in the last series of battles and you can't use it there.
The sword might not be not worth it - but if something can be looted the honour of a crpg player demands to loot it!

*they're great, a second pair is somewhere in 1st or 2nd chapter but if you have Half-Giants or even Fighters in heavy armour, they are invaluable, at this price it's a steal.

I've been getting Belt over Gauntlets since Gauntlet slot wants Grapple/Bull Rush item. Also buy all scrolls and INT/WIS headpieces if I can. May not be worth it.

I've never been locked out of talking to Ghost whichever option I've chosen.

 

[Darth Canoli]

I've never been locked out of talking to Ghost whichever option I've chosen.

Might be a bug then.

Serus I just did a test since I got a Bravery armor from the philosopher and the bonus stacks with bless.

Also, Apparently, the philosopher's reward depends on your answer, I fast clicked 1 and got that shitty heavy armor.

I was partially wrong about the xp gain, apparently, when a character is either too far away from the combat CR or too far away from the party's average CR (probably both), he gets less xp.
So, the formula isn't simple.

 

[Serus]

Then Bravery isn't completely worthless, the higher version is +2. The only issue is that it has very low range. And costs a lot. But in a melee heavy party perhaps?

Anyone is annoyed by the fact that when you level but close the level-up window without finishing to check something, when you do it again the HP roll changes? I know that you can check you stats, etc... by clicking on the small "eye" icon but i sometimes forget that it's there. Later when HP is rolled again i feel like cheating (if it is higher) or cheated (if it's lower). Anyone has that issue?

 

[Darth Canoli]

Then Bravery isn't completely worthless, the higher version is +2. The only issue is that it has very low range. And costs a lot. But in a melee heavy party perhaps?

Anyone is annoyed by the fact that when you level but close the level-up window without finishing to check something, when you do it again the HP roll changes? I know that you can check you stats, etc... by clicking on the small "eye" icon but i sometimes forget that it's there. Later when HP is rolled again i feel like cheating (if it is higher) or cheated (if it's lower). Anyone has that issue?

It doesn't re-roll unless you picked one of the option to auto reroll HP under 25, 50, 75%

I'd rather use star diamonds on spell resistance III on armors or the colour enchantments granting you 50% resistance to one element.
Besides, even in medium-sized battle-scapes 2 squares isn't much.

Last but not least, the 5 feet large "ponds" in the sewers stop auras, at least, it does for the paladin's auras.

Maybe you can make it work but I'd suggest using it for a fighter which really needs this +1/+2 boost or use it on a fast tank you use for flanking (you put him behind a strong enemy so other char get the flanking bonus)

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

Speaking about items, is Adamantine strictly better for bypassing DR than Cold Iron or there a catch (like monster which resistant to adamantine weapons)? Masterials page mentions that Cold Iron affects "creatures like Balor", meanwhile adamantine affects "creatures like Gorgon". Would adamantine bypass DR of demons too? Will Cold Iron bypass DR of unaligned monsters? I think there was a difference between cold iron and adamantine in SRD, but in KOTC 2 many rules altered, so I don't know.

 

[oscar]

Oof this encounter might be too much for my ass party. Looks like the end of playthrough 1! Not too ruffled about this since I accidentally skipped like all of Finchbury and now know that Bards have a lot of dialogue options.

A druid makes the fight a breeze. You get some super powerful allies from selecting their dialogue option.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Speaking about items, is Adamantine strictly better for bypassing DR than Cold Iron or there a catch (like monster which resistant to adamantine weapons)? Masterials page mentions that Cold Iron affects "creatures like Balor", meanwhile adamantine affects "creatures like Gorgon". Would adamantine bypass DR of demons too? Will Cold Iron bypass DR of unaligned monsters? I think there was a difference between cold iron and adamantine in SRD, but in KOTC 2 many rules altered, so I don't know.

It's important in KotC but not in KotC 2.
With skewer, you can deal 100 damage with a glaive, 200with a Greataxe and even more if you put your mind to it, 10/15 DR is situational and only a problem in the early stages.

Silver is the only one necessary early on.

And against monsters immune to crits, there's always the destruction enchantment.
It's also really good with Skewer so there's not reason to not use a Skewer barbed destruction weapon.

 

[Desiderius]

Werewolves have low Will so I haven't found Silver to be necessary either.

 

[Darth Roxor]

yeah i didn't have silver against them either and the fights were decently ez

 

[Serus]

Third about not needing silver. They are easy to trip and keep prone using grease, not very hard fights.

 

[Yosharian]

Then Bravery isn't completely worthless, the higher version is +2. The only issue is that it has very low range. And costs a lot. But in a melee heavy party perhaps?

Anyone is annoyed by the fact that when you level but close the level-up window without finishing to check something, when you do it again the HP roll changes? I know that you can check you stats, etc... by clicking on the small "eye" icon but i sometimes forget that it's there. Later when HP is rolled again i feel like cheating (if it is higher) or cheated (if it's lower). Anyone has that issue?

Have I had this issue?

Absolutely not, I have definitely not reloaded the level up box over and over until I got a good result

I wouldn't do something like that

 

[Serus]

Then Bravery isn't completely worthless, the higher version is +2. The only issue is that it has very low range. And costs a lot. But in a melee heavy party perhaps?

Anyone is annoyed by the fact that when you level but close the level-up window without finishing to check something, when you do it again the HP roll changes? I know that you can check you stats, etc... by clicking on the small "eye" icon but i sometimes forget that it's there. Later when HP is rolled again i feel like cheating (if it is higher) or cheated (if it's lower). Anyone has that issue?

Have I had this issue?

Absolutely not, I have definitely not reloaded the level up box over and over until I got a good result

I wouldn't do something like that

Nah, if you want high rolls you can just use the options game offers. I think there is a "minimum 75%" one which means you get almost the maximum every time. I'm playing on Enchanter so 25% is on by default. Which i like, several rolls of 1 in a row on early levels is not my idea of fun. The 25% makes the very low rolls being rerolled but doesn't feel OP since on average you gain ~1 hp per level depending on your base dice and it's still relatively random.

 

[Yosharian]

I like having the rolls be completely random and then cheating the system anyway

 

[Serus]

Anyone already tried to play with only the avatar + 7 npc? As a challenge. You'd have to start as 2 man party if playing on Archmage because I don't think you can get 7 companions otherwise.

1) Paladin/Champion/Samurai (starting character)
2) Half-Giant Barbarian
3) Mantis Druid
4) Water Elemental Storm Warrior
5) Human Monk*
6) Kobold Sorcerer
7) whatever Paladin
8) Elf Warlock
If it's too hard start with 2 party members, see below.

*You'd need someone with Fire domain or Druid/Wizard school (afaik) so you'd need additional someone at the start. Alternatively play on Enchanter (or just this one setting) then several other classes can get Jorad including - i think - Fire Druid and Cleric with Fire domain. They can also get the monk.

 

[Desiderius]

You don't have to start with two, you can just design characters to get swapped out. So start with a Kobold Red Wiz to swap out for Erz etc...

This is pretty much what I did last playthrough then decided I wanted Ranger over companion Monk this time so started with Warlock to swap with Piz instead of Psi.