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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joshua Randall" data-source="post: 9631521" data-attributes="member: 7737">[USER=42856]@Jfdlsjfd[/USER] asked if there is a way to complete The Sorcerer’s Crown without using magic. The answer is yes.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Grab the manticore's tail spike, which requires a successful DEX test.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Leave the Sceptre of Bhukod with Perth in Wealwood.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Start out on the mainland and deliberately enter Yellow Marsh.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don’t use any spells against the unknown enemy in the fog.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Instead, whack the giant hand with your staff.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ask Shanif the Marid about how to stop Arno.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Continue on to Saven, meet Garn, and enter the secret passage into the cathedral…</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">… but you must fail the DEX test on the way in. This means you never witness the Pazuzu summoning, but that’s OK, because as cool as it is, that scene is completely useless to the One True Path. (If you pass the DEX test and end up watching the summoning, you then must escape and seal the door behind you with Wizard Lock specifically, else you die.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Immediately exit the secret passage and split the party. Survive your pretend-drunken encounter with the corrupted paladins. (Because you don't have the Sceptre of Bhukod, they buy your act and you escape minus 2 HP.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Get on a boat to Seagate Island, land on the southern coast, trek through the high desert and mountains, spot a would-be ambush, choose to intervene…</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">… and that’s it.</li> </ul>Not only does this path not require any spellcasting, it only asks if you WANT to cast a spell twice! (Once at the very beginning vs. the manticore and a second time in the Yellow Marsh.) That makes us two-for-two on gamebooks in which we use the bare minimum magic. So much for this so-called kingdom of SORCERY trilogy.A side benefit of the magic-free path through book 2 is that it only requires two ability checks. Both are DEX tests and you need to pass one and fail the other, which is awkward, but that's the price you pay on this path. At least you minimize your chances for death due to bad dice luck.---Speaking of deaths: Here's the list of all the ways we officially died in this gamebook.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">163: Impaled by a rain of heavy iron spears thrown by Gnolls after we couldn't withstand the bright light of Arno's permanent Detect Magic radar emplacement.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">110: Burned up by a Fire Trap and its mighty teens damage when we stroll right up to the main doors of College Arcane and open them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">65: Spine severed by corrupted paladins after we roll low on two DEX tests in a row and drop our extendo-weapon while fighting them on the streets of Saven.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">171: Trapped in the College Arcane tower despite numerous spells on our character card that could get us out (plus Rufyl, plus common sense, etc.).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">78: Crushed by a Dragon Turtle flipper when we use Polymorph Other on Rufyl while he is still aboard a small boat.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">26: Drowned by a Marid after we throw Chekhov's darts at it.</li> </ul>And our nonlethal failure: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">69: Forced to stay in Delmer with Wendel because we cannot possibly overcome the six gnolls guarding the port.</li> </ul>What's frustrating is that these deaths depict Carr as a bumbling idiot: he drops his staff; he can't figure a way out of obvious traps; he's flummoxed by enemy magic; he doesn't know how his own spells work.Contrast book 2's deaths with book 1's:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">17: Heaved over a cliff by Ulrik's men after we fail a CHA test to bluff them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">54: Killed by an angry mob after we intervene to save Wendel.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">190: Fall from the fifty-foot-high tower of College Arcane after we fail a DEX test.</li> </ul>One of these teaches young teenagers the important lesson that you should never stand up for your friends, but the other two are legitimately "our fault" for rolling low. And every one of the (unofficial) gnarly deaths during our spell-learnin' in book 1 are also due to low rolls on INT tests.By contrast, only one of the deaths in book 2 was "our fault" for rolling low, at (65) where we get our spine severed. The others are arbitrary, and most of them come after reasonable decisions in prior sections.</blockquote>

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