This is probably an unpopular opinion: I want to enjoy this game because it’s so imaginative and I love getting into a long playtime RPG, but there are just too many choices for everything. I don’t do well when given 100 choices on how to develop a character. Then, the skill list is unmanageable to me. When I’m in a fight, my characters have at least 25 different things they can each do. I have no idea what is best to do, what I should use, what I should be trying to work towards. I’ve watched some YouTube stuff on it, but it’s really just about getting the most crazy overpowered build so you can smoke everyone. I don’t care about that. Any suggestions?
The game gives you tools to make that easier, like the “thumbs up” recommendations for feats which are fine on Normal difficulty. You can also turn on Auto level-up and the game will level up your companions automatically and if you want your MC as well (just make sure you pick a primary class and not an archetype, as they don’t have pre-built load outs).
The game revolves a lot around the difficulty settings, but if you’re playing on Normal basically anything works.
As for the options in combat, well, 99% of the time you’re just going to want to run up and stab them with a sword, shoot them with a bow, or zap them with a spell.
Fortunately, the game also has the ability to make choices fairly easy for you through the difficulty settings. Turn those down to a level that makes ‘mistakes’ in builds and battles forgivable and then play as you like. You’ll still enjoy the game but you won’t have to focus on the mechanics of it as much.
Go with standard D&D fare to start and then experiment at your leisure. In other words, shooty, stabby, fireball and magic missile. This will get you going and after awhile you can figure out synergies.
You can respec fairly early on.
Oh, and haste and blur. All good.
Finished Drezen. It felt a map or two too long but hey. I went Azata or whatever and now I have a pet baby dragon.
I still find myself switching between Turn-base and RTwP based on the fight. I prefer the speed and combat visuals of real-time but it’s a big step up in difficulty from turn-base so for tough fights I switch to it. It’s a bit finicky but loads better then something like Arcanum which also has a hybrid combat system.
Act 3 is like Kingmaker Act 2 if I remember correctly, but even more so.
Base building and card shits for sure! You better believe it. On top of that you still have to do deathstack HoMM style gameplay all over the shop!
Does Act 3 have any time limits? The queen said I took Drezen fast and gave me a bunch of items including a Ring of Protection +4.
I love Drezen, it’s probably the best “dungeon” ever, but yes, it does carry on for too long.
I guess there is a kind of soft time limit by way of the crusade meta-game. Once all the demons and forts are cleared out, your armies will start to lose moral and soldiers will start to desert because they got nothing left to fight.
It was fine. Depends what you mean by best, but The Temple of Elemental Evil is impossible to top in terms of a dungeon. Both the module and Troika game
TOEE is pure joy, but I have much love for Tomb of Horrors.
I’m just starting out with this game, currently in the Shield Maze. Is there supposed to be a horse just wandering around with my party? It looks so weird.
Did you pick a class that gets a mount? If so, he’s yours! Click the little bar under your portrait to level him up.
Yes, I suppose I did. And thanks! He needed levelling up. :)
Now I have a nomad ranger with a bulwark horse.
(I feel like this game might be overwhelmingly complex for little old me.)
Also look for the Mount hotkey and put it someplace easy to reach because you’re gonna use it.
A lot.
The game loves dismounting you constantly and you probably want to be mounted if you picked a horse.
Don’t worry, like a third of the shit you can do (feats, etc) with building your character probably doesn’t work.
Remember that carved demonic mouth that was actually a sphere of annihilation in the Tomb? My 1st ed psionicist (Dragon magazine character class), Garilonn Greenleaf (Julian May naming convention there with the first name), a retired half-ef history prof from the U of Greyhawk turned adventurer once his psionic powers became ‘operant’ when he reached venerable age status (he had like a 5 strength), used probability travel as he touched the sphere, which ended up giving him the additional psionic power of Energy Control. That ability, combined with the increased psionic pt pool this class had over regular classes that had psionics just tacked on, pretty much broke 1st ed D&D. DM throws an ancient red dragon at you, who breathes fire on the party? Garilonn blocks it all via Energy Control, party then subdues dragon in 1-2 rounds.
Good times. Never ceases to amaze me how at work I’ll forget a fairly simple Powershell cmdlet I just used the previous week, but nerd stuff like these memories from 40 years ago are crystal clear.
I think that made me drool a bit.
That’s because PowerShell cmdlets have terrible names
Been playing the midnight isles DLC.
I guess I can appreciate Owlcat leaning into the things they do well, or arguably don’t do well, or really I’m not sure there’s any difference between these things at all where Owlcat is concerned. There is only the gonzo.
Is any of the DLC integrated into the campaign or is it seperate? Kingmaker had that super bland dungeon integrated. Beneath The Stolen Lands. Not sure what they were thinking with that one. It was as if someone used Neverwinter Nights module toolkit to make it, and they just made the same square rooms connected by the same hallways over and over again for dozens of levels.