There is actually a new combat area with kobalds you can access (thanks to the Co8 mod) that is much easier to tackle than the spiders, and should give you a bit of loot and that all important first level up. THEN you can take on the spiders. I kinda don’t remember HOW to access the new area, but I know it’s given by a quest giver in town there…
It’s a long time since I remember trying ToEE, and my strongest memory was of a situation similar to step 3. It wasn’t spiders, it was some basement if I recall correctly, but it did involve repeated deaths.
The root issue is that straight AD&D is not a particularly good system, it’s just the oldest popular one. In particular, 1st level characters are made of Kleenex, and getting to level 2 doubles your hit points. Doubles! Unless you’re a Ranger. I gather things are different now, but that’s how it was when ToEE was written.
The solutions back then were either 1) don’t follow the D&D rules verbatim, even if your game is heavily influenced by D&D or 2) design a game that’s kind of roguelike, where you expect lots of low-level characters to croak and be replaced.
Ok, I just started following the main quest and found some things to kill that I could handle. It saddens me to say this but I’m not sure if I have the patience to play this type of game anymore (which maybe I should be thankful for since it may prevent me from buying Pillars of Eternity). I used to love stuff like this but after the short time I played I’m already tired of:
- making sure everyone is selected and then move
- Making sure I have the right character selected before initiating dialog.
- Splitting up inventory across 6 characters.
- Making trips back to town to sell loot.
- There may be more…
I used to love these games - gold box, BG 1&2, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age: O. I still loved DA:I even with the lackluster combat, due to the first person exploration, beautiful world, story I was interested in, etc. I think I prefer RPGs where you control 1 character now. It feels like blasphemy to say so, but I think it’s true.
This was my experience too back in 2003. I had played a few infinity engine titles and enjoyed them and tried TOEE for more RPG fun. It was the opposite of fun, a torturous experience. I packed it in after a few hours and (this is rare) KNEW I’d never play it again.
If Pillars of Eternity shares any resemblance to this I’m out!
I got a second wind because I have a hard time dropping games sometimes if they don’t completely suck. I went to the moathouse which provided some combat. I cleared much of it out but still have a bit left. I went back and killed those spiders too.
Holy crap does the game have you running back and forth trying to solve some town quests. This is trying my patience again. I don’t even recall this part of the game from when I tried it a long time ago. All I remember is getting into some building (I think the temple, but maybe not) and encountering some bug and I gave up.
If it’s any consolation, you’ll get PLENTY of XP just fighting and clearing out areas (especially once you brave the temple itself) and can safely ignore any and all quests, if you like.
So, I have Co8 8.0 installed. Does anyone know if 8.1 add enough for me to go through the process of updating? I have a few early games under 8.0 but nothing I wouldn’t chuck, really.
Yeah, I can’t think of why you wouldn’t want to take the time to do it - it’s not a very big download, and 8.1 adds a lot of bug fixes and such.
Great, thanks.
You get the quest from that town guard (Rennlon?) in the south west of Hommlet.
I installed the new content version of Co8 8.1 yesterday, with party size set to 8 everyone hit level 2 after clearing the moat house exterior, killing the spiders and a couple fights in that bog area. Then the game crashed during a random enounter.
The best sequence for skipping the Hommlet fetch quests would probably be bog, deko grove, moathouse. With a min maxed party you could also go straight to the moat house.
It’s so nice when games are being improved behind the scenes while I do other things. I can wait another 5 years and ToEE / KotB mod will be even better.
Well, this is kind of incredible (in theory) - someone is making an Icewind Dale total conversion into the ToEE engine.
Right now it’s just the first chapter, and it is in beta, but might be worth checking out.
Crazy! I played all the way through Icewind Dale recently, but the Enhanced Edition crashed on me when I struck the final killing blow.
So instead of playing Civ6: Rise and Fall, instead I’m knee-deep in another playthrough of Temple of Elemental Evil, this time using the amazing temple+ mod, which adds 8 new prestige classes and a new base class and fixes just an entire host of bugs and bad rules interpretations. It is absolutely magnificent. It works with CO8’s extensive mod and of course adds a really nice high resolution mod, though I prefer to play at around 1600 x 900 even on my 4k monitor. 1080p is just a bit too far away. In particular I’m enjoying the mystic theurge, arcane trickster, and duelist prestige classes.
Awesome!
I don’t remember this happening before…
I play the tutorial, kill the rat and climb the ladder. Wander to the right and get slaughtered by many enemies with bows. Reload. Wander straight and get slaughtered by enemies with arrows. Seems odd that they would slaughter you right off the bat. I guess I’m just wandering in the wrong direction.
Edit: Another forum mentions that the Co8 mod might have broken the tutorial and points the ladder to the wrong area. Going to try launching the tutorial from the non-modded ToEE.
Is there any reason to use pregenerated characters? Do they have any stories or interesting party banter?
I don’t believe so.
I realized I had downloaded and installed the Co8 mod a while ago so I just started playing. Unfortunately I had downloaded the standard version and now I want to crush my head in a vice because of the damn quests in the first town. It wouldn’t be as bad if the quests gave me an option I was happy with.
I don’t want to shake down some guy to get money for the church. As chaotic good my option for the barn usage problem was to day “well if your brother can just take it from you he deserves to have it”.
I decided to make a beeline for the moathouse and keep getting crushed by those frogs. I now downloaded the additional content pack and am hoping i can continue my save and find the quest to get XP to bypass the fetch quests. I guess i will start over if not.