KickStarter SKALD: Against the Black Priory - retro RPG inspired by Ultima

[damager]

I'm thinking about a pure Cleric, a Officer or a Ranger rn. A good Bowman might bring the most damage potential rn I'm guessing.

Can somebody help me find a spell merchant before I reroll because my mage sucks? If I start rerolling I will never finish this

 

[Hydro]

So. I need once again ask your for your financial support.

About poem in the lighthouse. I can't fine a single tree in the lighthouse area to start my bounty hunt. For a second I thought they mean the cross on the crave, but than I remembered it must be the fresh grave from the boy of the lighthouse.

Where is the motherfucking tree? Oh the center of the three!

Any hints?

Go pixelhunting like a man!

 

[damager]

The healer in the refuge camp sells some spell books. Air magic kinda sucks as first school I would say. I grinded me into the third tier spell and I get a single target 2-9+ dmg spell that costs 3 times as much as the 1-4+ magic missle I got on lvl 1. I could have a fireball now if I went fire

I wanted to go a little more exotic and was punished for going blind and not looking up builds or reading the external spell list. I guess I will just go on grinding out the other schools and not give a fuck.

 

[damager]

I have to admit that my MC I min maxed is the worst party member by far kinda kills a little my boner for the game

Why did they gimp Mages so hard? The Ranger in my party crits like every round and has already 2 attacks with rapid shot.

 

[Castozor]

Well if it's any solace to you, my MC kinda sucked too. But that's because Champions kinda suck unless you fight those weak too Holy/Sublime dmg. Mages are allright but kinda devolve into rest spamming which is just boring to me and I wouldn't make another run with one as the MC for that reason. If anything that's what I'd really like to be fixed in a sequal, the class balance. Not because you can't finish with weak chars but they just feel bad to use when there is a clearly superior alternative right next to them putting out 3x the dmg for less work.
Also don't get too used to those crits (or backstabs) lol. Rely on it too much and you'll have a lot of "fun" later on.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I very much disagree that air magic sucks. Steal Breath and Blinding Bolt are amoung the most valuable spells for much of the game. Poison Globe is the all-around best spell in the game. Swarm of Gnats is your best damage spell all game. Earth will round you out with some nice defensive spells and tanky summons.

Mages are a serious carry until around level 8. Use and brew mana potions (and other consumables). They help alot and you will quickly have more than you can use. Heirophant (cleric) is a good class and is easier to manage than Magos early on. It has better CC and direct damage along with good aura spells. Your magos won't outclass it until Act 5 or later. Healing is unimportant. Same with debuff removal and dispels. If you have access to the greater regen spell, you're good to go. Focus on offensive spells and buffs.

 

[damager]

Yes. I loaded another save yesterday and got Poison Globe instead of Lighting strike, to make my mage more useful.

I also hired a Archer and a specialized Thief and went on robbing tour. Got some nice uniques and big armor out of it. I like the thiefing mechanic! Somebody know if the merchants trade with me again after some time passes, if they caught me?

Also I found out that you only need 1/6 ranks in a feat to get to the next feat. Man that's a big noob trap. I might have to reroll after all

 

[Fedora Master]

Yes. I loaded another safe yesterday and got Poison Globe instead of Lighting strike, to make my mage more useful.

I also hired a Archer and a specialized Thief and went on robbing tour. Got some nice uniques and big armor out of it. I like the thiefing mechanic! Somebody know if the merchants trade with me again after some time passes, if they caught me?

Also I found out that you only need 1/6 ranks in a feat to get to the next feat. Man that's a big noob trap. I might have to reroll after all

You get enough levels to mostly fill out the skill tree anyway. I guess with a thief you have to specialize somewhat but if you stick to one style it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[damager]

Blinding Bolt

If successful it reduces Agility 1 and Awarness 6. What effect does this have on combat? I thought Awarness was a purely noncombat stat?

 

[processdaemon]

Just finished the game and really enjoyed it. Played as a Hierophant and it stayed fun throughout (especially near the end when everything is weak to sublime damage), although I do think encounters got a bit repetitive in the final chapter. The story was compelling enough that I no-lifed it all weekend and the companions were understated but likeable, which I think suits this sort of game.

I was kind of sceptical when I heard that it was an Eldritch horror game as they can get a bit samey but I was pleasantly surprised by the way it was handled and felt that the game very much had its own identity rather than just aping others. I think the art style helped with that, I'm not normally much of a pixel art fan but some of the work in this is great, really contributes to the atmosphere and has a very distinct style.

More than anything I was impressed with how accessible it felt; sometimes RPGs from before the mid-90s can be a bit opaque if you're more used to modern gaming and I thought that since this is a homage to those games that this would be similar, but for the most part everything felt very intuitive. I'm not saying that to shit on older RPGs, many are fantastic once you adapt to the playstyle, but I thought it was worth mentioning in case anyone was on the fence because of that.

It isn't perfect by any means; it felt rushed towards the end, the English was a bit clunky at times, there are a few QoL things that could be added and I would have liked if parts of the story and lore were fleshed out a bit more. It's still a great game though, especially for a solo-dev, and if the story and combat are more or less there then all of the above can easily be sorted for any future games by the same dev (which I will definitely be buying if and when they materialize).

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Blinding Bolt

If successful it reduces Agility 1 and Awarness 6. What effect does this have on combat? I thought Awarness was a purely noncombat stat?

Blinding Bolt will impart the "lesser blindness" status if they don't save. Enemies rarely save against it. This will give you 2 turns where that enemy takes no action and is vulnerable to backstab.

 

[damager]

Ah really? It does not say that in the description of blindness. Just the stats debuff. That's a total different spell than I thought than

 

[damager]

Yes. Mages are really strong if build right. I rerolled and build my MC as a disabler and support. Dart of Blindness, Poisond Globe, Mass Lethargy and Stoneskin are my favs. But even casting a bat to have somebody flanking is awsome. The team is wrecking like never before. It makes a huge different if you understand the feat system as well. I had to raise the difficulty to hard as result.

I wanted to get a bow wearing Rogue as first mecenary to have somebody to steal the shops empty again but than I had an Composite Bow +2 in one of the chests on the light house cave. 1-12 dmg and +3 hit. Holy shit. I guess I need a Ranger now because rogue can't hold that.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Bow rogue seems attractive at first, but go with melee. It will be easier to establish flanking and when you get the Red Arc feat, you can setup some brutal chain kills. Since characters step forward when they slay an enemy, you can lock down the field with Poison Globe then have the thief backstab their way through practically the whole lot.

 

[damager]

I was just kitting out Driina. With spells dependend on Attunment is it not a total waste to take multiple Lay on Hands spells? Any must have spells here? Problem is the real banger spells only come at Body 3 but it also has a banger Lay on Hands

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I was just kitting out Driina. With spells dependend on Attunment is it not a total waste to take multiple Lay on Hands spells? Any must have spells here?

Regeneration is all you need once you get it. The lowest Lay of Hands is fine. Potions will do the job if you ever need emergency healing. Once you get your ranger to heal the party every time they kill a marked target, you will always be at full health. All ranger spells are quite helpful. It's easily the best overall class.

Must have spells in Magos are Blinding Bolt, Steal Breath, Poison Globe, Swarm of Gnats, Stoneskin, Summon Ooze. Diamong Skin and Fireball are nice to have. Fists of Fire can be nice against certain vulnerable enemies, but Gnats is almost always better.

Heirpohant overall has a better spell list. Take anything with CC. I like the offensive auras spells alot. Their damage spells are in general better than Magos damage spells too. Don't bother with healing (other than regen), non-AoE buffs, or debuff removal. If you find a book though, might as well. Just prioritize your level up selections for the good stuff.

 

[damager]

Okay I went with Bears Strength, Lay on hands 1, Remove Disease, Fleet on Foot, Greater Regenration and Miasma

Fleet on Foot I can cast on myself too?

 

[Castozor]

It's on the same map as the refugee camp, all the way down. It's not a seperate location on the world map.

 

[damager]

Can‘t wait to get home and play again.

 

[damager]

Do I lose a lot of interesting story when I leave Kat at home and use a custom merc rogue? I would like to take somebody with a bit more thievery. And can somebody explain what Harmstring really does?

I really liked Zahra the pirate queen. Her dialogue and descriptive text were nicely written. Finally an RPG were the writing is not an absolute slop

 

[damager]

Uff navigating Horryn is hellish. I found the blackmarket and got some awsome loot there. I found the butcher and I found Oleg, but I can't find the entrance to his house. Same with the Inn, can't get in. I think I found the harbor but it was also an dead end. I'm kinda running out of ideas.

Scrap that I found the entrance!

 

[damager]

What happend at the end of Horryd?

I fought Oleg and killed him. When I visted the Butcher he was aggressive and died to me. After that the narrator said all chieftains are dead, without me even meeting the third one (a woman I believe). Did I miss something? Is it even possible to find her?

 

[Incognito]

What happend at the end of Horryd?

I fought Oleg and killed him. When I visted the Butcher he was aggressive and died to me. After that the narrator said all chieftains are dead, without me even meeting the third one (a woman I believe). Did I miss something? Is it even possible to find her?

Yeah, you can find all three. There are some dialogue options that makes them kill each other without your intervention.

 

[damager]

Sadly I got locked out from meeting the woman. Now I already got to good gear on the blackmarket vendor restock to be willing to reload

 

[damager]

Embla

Hm kinda sad Embla is a mage herself with a PC mage. Would be nice if she was a cleric or if you could chose her to be cleric or mage. Than I could kick Driina for her. She seems very interesting and story relevant, but hard to implent in my pary. Especially with Iago being such a badass. Maybe I have to kick out Kat for good now loool

I guess it really makes sense to play a cleric PC after all. You can abuse Driina as a fighter until she's obsolete with the other Mercs and kick her out when you don't have combat feats to pick on her anymore

And man Horryn is a horrible city. It looks really good and realistic, but it's so shitty to navigate. Even with the barricades down it gives me aids to find a shopkeeper there. My body really wants just get on the boat and leave that shitstain.