ToEE: New player

[Volourn]

"I'm fairly new to 3.5 and don't want to sit through reading all the rules."

FUCK OFF.


"Yeah, beating ToEE with first rolls party is always nice experience, i raise my hat to you good sir."

No, it isn't. It's the same experience everyone else gets. L0L

 

[King Crispy]

Volourn post your first ToEE party. Was it quite r00fley?

 

[Volourn]

It was fine until the game's legendary bugs fucked everything up and I said fuck off. I've tried it sevral times and just got bored. TOEE, a game with lots of potential, espciailly game tules wise, but really screwing tpooch on important stuff like working

 

[King Crispy]

Most of the bugs have been ironed out by now, you know. Why not give it another chance?

 

[LibertyRansom]

I've been playing ToEE on Ironman with a Druid/Wizard/Ranger/Cleric. Neutral Evil party. Wizard is a Specialist Diviner who's prohibited school is evocation. (because I feel like Wizard turn into Fireball cannon at Level 5 and that sucks the fun out of it, makes you have to get creative w/o evocation). Have made it to Seventh level characters and second level of the temple. I play pretty conservatively, always sleeping and preparing tons of scrolls and summoning a lot and prebuffing for battles. Even so, there have been some very close calls and I've had to resurrect or dismiss a few characters. Also...thank god for teleport scrolls or I would have been eaten alive by a Troll Chief earlier tonight.

As an aside...I've never really finished ToEE but played it a lot. I never NEVER understood or was able to put together the plot or whether I was playing right or if there was another way to do finish a mission. No matter what, it always seems to come down to me having to kill. For example, basement *SPOILER* basement of the moathouse. Is there a way to finish it without killing/fighting Lareth?

 

[TigerKnee]

As an aside...I've never really finished ToEE but played it a lot. I never NEVER understood or was able to put together the plot or whether I was playing right or if there was another way to do finish a mission. No matter what, it always seems to come down to me having to kill. For example, basement *SPOILER* basement of the moathouse. Is there a way to finish it without killing/fighting Lareth?

In the early parts of the game, yeah, it pretty much comes down to "kill the shit out of everything"

In the titular "Temple of Elemental Evil" though, you can actually do stuff like... let's call it "social stealth" where you have C&C and turn the temple denizens against each other and earn favor with others in order to access different parts of the Temple and so on. I actually recommend doing that and I'm honestly surprised that some people enjoy wiping out the entire Temple. I would die of boredom if I had to kill the 600th bugbear in there.

 

[LibertyRansom]

Hm, yea, I'm working for the Water temple Priest right now. Still, I always feel like I run into characters I can't wrap my head around or side plots I don't know the full story to.

So sad this game never had modules made for it. It really is excellent.

 

[DemonKing]

How they managed to waste that awesome combat engine on a dire recreation of one of the most ridulous modules ever created I don't know. They could have produced a really awesome game if they had just produced something original instead of slavishly trying to copy a Gygaxian mess from the early 80s. Instead we got a handful of awesome encounters intermixed with a dull starting town that overstayed its welcome and a seemingly endless horde of bugbear mobs.

Also you better be into crafting if you want to succeed as the equipment you can loot in this game is not really up to scratch if you want to be competitive in some encounters.

 

[tred]

I've been playing ToEE on Ironman with a Druid/Wizard/Ranger/Cleric. Neutral Evil party. Wizard is a Specialist Diviner who's prohibited school is evocation. (because I feel like Wizard turn into Fireball cannon at Level 5 and that sucks the fun out of it, makes you have to get creative w/o evocation). Have made it to Seventh level characters and second level of the temple. I play pretty conservatively, always sleeping and preparing tons of scrolls and summoning a lot and prebuffing for battles. Even so, there have been some very close calls and I've had to resurrect or dismiss a few characters. Also...thank god for teleport scrolls or I would have been eaten alive by a Troll Chief earlier tonight.

As an aside...I've never really finished ToEE but played it a lot. I never NEVER understood or was able to put together the plot or whether I was playing right or if there was another way to do finish a mission. No matter what, it always seems to come down to me having to kill. For example, basement *SPOILER* basement of the moathouse. Is there a way to finish it without killing/fighting Lareth?

yes, iirc Lareth can be recruited as a NPC if you do not kill him when he surrenders.

 

[Volourn]

To blame the module it was based on is weaksauce. TOEE can be done well or poorly based on the DM and TOEE - despite some sold work - ultimately failed as DM.

I warned them. I tried to help them out pre release but they were the 'professionals' 'who knew better' so *shrug* . My nearly 2 decades and now nearly decades coulda been sueful to that failed company. R00fles!

 

[Sitra Achara]

Just a heads up - there is a patch coming out soon. The relevance for the non-NC version is a new navigational aid for the Temple and some enhancements to the fights therein. (also took note from the last thread here and added an option to set the starting gold to what it was in Vanilla)

By the way, I've had some respect for Volourn ever since his multi-headed monster prediction came true. R00fles!

 

[King Crispy]

How they managed to waste that awesome combat engine on a dire recreation of one of the most ridulous modules ever created I don't know. They could have produced a really awesome game if they had just produced something original instead of slavishly trying to copy a Gygaxian mess from the early 80s. Instead we got a handful of awesome encounters intermixed with a dull starting town that overstayed its welcome and a seemingly endless horde of bugbear mobs.

In 2004 Dungeon magazine published a list of the 30 greatest AD&D adventures of all time.

http://www.librarything.com/bookawa...The+30+Greatest+D%26D+Adventures+of+All+Time"

The Temple of Elemental Evil finished 4th on that list. The top 5 are dominated by Gygax' works. The problem wasn't with the module, the problem as Volly pointed out was the execution by Troika and the near-disaster that befell the (near-non) release of the game.

There was a huge amount of material there to work with. It's one of the most memorable modules I've ever owned, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. Then again, I don't need a module that holds my hand the entire way, lays out the story and the plot for me in flowery-worded boxed text, and pays more tribute to emo next-gen gay romance and big poofy hair than your classic wizards, plain broadswords and a room full of boring bugbears to kill. I'll take the latter any day.

I am Crispy, and I am a Mondblutian.

 

[Dorateen]

In 2004 Dungeon magazine published a list of the 30 greatest AD&D adventures of all time.

http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Dungeon magazine's "The 30 Greatest D%26D Adventures of All Time"

Number 19... Against the Cult of the Reptile God, I would love to play that in the ToEE engine. In fact, any of those modules converted to the ToEE engine would be pure cRPG goodness.

 

[LibertyRansom]

If only there was a decent module editor.

 

[GlutenBurger]

In 2004 Dungeon magazine published a list of the 30 greatest AD&D adventures of all time.

http://www.librarything.com/bookaward/Dungeon magazine's "The 30 Greatest D%26D Adventures of All Time"

Number 19... Against the Cult of the Reptile God, I would love to play that in the ToEE engine. In fact, any of those modules converted to the ToEE engine would be pure cRPG goodness.

Somebody did actually do The Keep on the Borderlands for ToEE, but I don't know how good it is as I still haven't gotten around to trying it.

 

[Mother Russia]

Do NOT use the Co8 patch. It has Cloud's sword in it with other retarded stuff. Furthermore, if you uninstall the game with the patch still installed, it will format your C:\ drive.

 

[Xeon]

lol.

About Cloud's sword, I think Grunker or Infinitron posted something about the modder removing it later and its now only obtainable thru console or something.

 

[SCO]

As an aside...I've never really finished ToEE but played it a lot. I never NEVER understood or was able to put together the plot or whether I was playing right or if there was another way to do finish a mission. No matter what, it always seems to come down to me having to kill. For example, basement *SPOILER* basement of the moathouse. Is there a way to finish it without killing/fighting Lareth?

Yes. You have to be lawful evil party or something like that. There is a bit of that obscure stuff around the game (especially around the recruitable npcs). Bullshit like the druid girl ending changing if you killed more than 20 gelatinous cubes, or being able to recruit mother streng (sp) if you very carefully monitor your levels of entrance into the inner temple and return to talk to her before going over the upper lv limit.

 

[LibertyRansom]

The Keep on the Borderland is supposedly only a few hours long and is a demo version. Someone over at the Circle of Eight is still working on it ... but my expectations are fairly low considering it has been over a decade. If only the game launched with an editor in the vein of NWN

 

[Dorateen]

That's right. The Keep on the Borderlands is in a demo state. I had been played for a bit, but ran into a crash-to-desktop bug. Which is too bad, because I was enjoying what I had seen up to that point.

 

[LibertyRansom]

My entire party on Iron Man nearly died in the encounter with "aireem"? (fire elemental priest) in the Temple. You go to talk to him and he attacks with like 10 salamanders, two of which cast fireball first turn. Everybody in my party, with avg lvl of 7, nearly died first turn. Druid was passed out after second fireball and before her turn. Wizard was down to 2 HP on his turn. Thank god I previously had him equipped with a ring of fire resistance. He used a scroll and teleported the half dead group back to Hommlet. I can just imagine the fire and brimstone exploding around the party as they scream "get us the fuck outta here man" as a pack of salamanders descend upon them.

Once again, thank god for teleport scrolls or I'd be breaking my keyboard.

 

[GlutenBurger]

The Keep on the Borderland is supposedly only a few hours long and is a demo version. Someone over at the Circle of Eight is still working on it ... but my expectations are fairly low considering it has been over a decade. If only the game launched with an editor in the vein of NWN

Ah, perhaps that's why I never got around to trying it. Too bad, it could have been good.

 

[pakoito]

The Keep on the Borderland is supposedly only a few hours long and is a demo version. Someone over at the Circle of Eight is still working on it ... but my expectations are fairly low considering it has been over a decade. If only the game launched with an editor in the vein of NWN

Divinity: Original Sin? So far it feels close enough.

 

[Lilura]

Do NOT use the Co8 patch. It has Cloud's sword in it with other retarded stuff. Furthermore, if you uninstall the game with the patch still installed, it will format your C:\ drive.

I see now why you have the dumbfuck.

 

[Lorica]

lol.

About Cloud's sword, I think Grunker or Infinitron posted something about the modder removing it later and its now only obtainable thru console or something.

FWIW:

Q: What's this I heard about Cloud's Sword from FF7 / Sword of Life Stealing?

A: There is a hidden item called 'Sword of Life Stealing'. It's a +2 sword that drains a level on a critical hit and gives you 1d6 temporary HP. It's only available via console (type give 4154), and it was there in the vanilla game files.

The life-stealing property is bugged - it will insta-kill any monster without actual character levels (most non-human monsters are such) on a critical hit. Monsters with regeneration ability (such as Trolls) will cause further problems, too.

The Sword's model indeed looks like Cloud's sword from Final Fantasy.

Co8 has created the Guillotine Blade, which used the same model but was otherwise a regular greatsword (without the bugged Lifestealing property). It used to be available for purchase on the beginning shopmap, and was wielded by some critters in Verbobonc. It has since been removed from the game and can only be obtained via console.

(Co8 Forum FAQ)