3182

ProTip™: Don’t try to sleep in Emridy Meadows.

(actually I found the little sleep encounters to be not that hard, and in fact a pretty good way of grinding some XP).

3183

IWD is really frustrating. I thought I’d built out a decent party, but keep getting slaughtered in the first cave. Fighter/Paladin/Cleric/Mage/Thief/Ranger. I think I need to swap out the Paladin for another pure Fighter just for tanking purposes.

3184

Nice catch on the bedroom.

FYI to those interested in having Meleny tag along as your party’s druid: make sure you’re using the Co8 mod when you do it, as they pumped up her stats a bit (as well as a few others’) to make her much more worthwhile. That said, she’s still just level 1.

3185

The first cave is more about tactics than character classes. At first level, there really shouldn’t be such a difference between your classes.

Briefly:

(1) Ranged weapons. Make sure everyone has a ranged weapon at all times. Including your front-line fighter. He can switch to a melee weapon when the bad guys close.
(2) Never, never, never, never charge a monster. Ever. Under any circumstances. Whatsoever. Doing that will just activate more bad guys. Stand firm, and make them come to you. If they have a bow and arrow, you have 6 bows shooting back at them.

That should get you at least to the final encounter in the first cave. That part can be a little dicey, even with good tactics. It all depends on if you get lucky taking down the qoqgqrqeq.

3186

Yeah I’m absolutely golden until that encounter. Then I try to pull them in small groups it it seems to activate all of them and i lose at least one or two individuals. I think i need to have everyone bowed up (which they are, aside from the mage who has the customary darts) and then just lead one person down and try to pull that way.

3187

Fighters don’t offer any inherent bonus over Paladins in terms of tanking. In fact, in some circumstances, Paladins will be superior (they can cast protection from evil). Tanking in 2e D"&D is about being able to make monsters miss and then absorb damage. Paladins and Fighters absorb damage the same, assuming similar stats/rolls, and they can wear the same types of armor. A Fighter might have a better dex as the Paladin’s innate stat requirements don’t give you as much adjustment wiggle room; there are no dex penalities from wearing heavy armor here so an 18 dex character in platemail (ac3) has a -1 ac (+4 from dex). There’s nothing innate about a fighter that means you get more out of dex/armor/etc. The big differences are weapon proficiencies (a fighter can take 5 levels to a Paladin’s 2), and a Fighter has 3 dump stats to a Paladin’s 1/1.5.

3188

There’s a very, very, very nice Paladin-only sword in IWD that should be enough reason to keep one in the party.

3189

It also helps to understand Attacks of Opportunity in the early levels. Because in those early levels one sword swing can kill an opponent (and they can do the same to you).

EDIT: sorry my bad, I’m getting the TOEE and IWD mini-threads mixed up.

3190

To segue away from D&D for a bit, has there been any indication that Fantasy General is going to be made available? GOG has the Panzer General games but not Fantasy General. The recent Fantasy Wars/Elven Legacy are basically modern remixes of Fantasy General but they failed to click for me like FG did. Fantasy General is a fondly remembered classic, which I would love to play again. Is Fantasy General in the pipeline or is there some rights / aquisition issue blocking it?

3191

Wasn’t Fantasy General released into the public domain (by SSI, while they were still around?) at some point? Why does my brain remember that happening?

3192

I’m not sure, but I would KILL for them to release Fantasy General, especially if they offered the soundtrack, which is one of my favorites.

3193

What about Star General? I think I played that for about 10 minutes total.

3194

I actually LIKED Star General, but hey, spaceships. ;) I’d also kill for Pacific General and People’s General.

3195

I bounced off Fantasy General as a kid, but I now have a much higher tolerance for slow-paced strategy gaming, and enjoyed Fantasy Wars and Elven Legacy quite a bit. My old copy is long-since lost, and the version available on abandonware sites is missing the music, so I’d love to buy it if it ever went up on GOG. They’ve got Panzer General 2, so hopefully the rights shouldn’t be too hard to get.

3196

Fantasy General was worse than Panzer General in a way that is somewhat difficult to define. In Panzer General I felt like although there were “better” and “worse” strategies, I still had some tactical flexibility. Fantasy General had more of a puzzle nature where if you accidentally moved your guys one hex away from the “right” location, the entire scenario came crashing down around your head.

3197

I remember messing around a bit with Star General when I was a kid. The main thing I liked was the dual-layer planet & galactic map, which is one of my main draws in space games (see: Emperor of the Fading Suns).

3198

I have fond memories of Fantasy General. It has been a VERY long time since I played it though.

3199

nods Few games, in my mind, get this right.

3200

Dang it, now I am going to have to dig around and see if I still have my copy of Star General. Loved that game.

3201

Dangit, I don’t seem to have my copy anymore! Urge to buy…rising…