Temple of Elemental Evil discussion thread (merged)

[Hypersmurf]

The way I remember it (as far as 3.0 is concerned) is that a weapon with a 10' reach does not threaten adjacent squares (squares that are 5' from PC's), but I thought that this point might have changed in 3.5. I DO know that the "spiked chain" DOES threaten adjacent squares and is the weapon of choice for fighters with Combat Reflexes......

It's the same in 3.5; it's not the same in ToEE. They didn't implement donut reach, which means that the Spiked Chain isn't the weapon of choice, it's the Glaive. Better damage than the longspear, guisarme, or spiked chain, and its two disadvantages - can't use it to trip, and can't use it a 5' range - don't exist in the computer game.

You can trip or attack at 5' or 10' with a glaive in ToEE, but it still has the good damage that normally balances out those problems.

-Hyp.

 

[Grog]

However, something I've noticed with ettins, ogres, and trolls - if I try to move past them, or make any sort of movement within their threatened area, I get the little AoO Warning icon... but if I'm outside their area and do a straight-line move-up-and-attack, they don't get the AoO for when I move from 10' to 5'.

Maybe that's your Glavier's problem - the enemies are exploiting that same weirdness in the reach behaviour?

Could be. The "wierdness in reach behavior" sounds like a bug, IMO. By the rules, I should get an AoO when they close from 10' to 5', but I don't.

Oh, and I apologize if this has been asked before, but has anyone else had the problem of the mouse pointer moving really slowly? I set the speed to 4 because I heard setting 5 was bugged, but it's still annoyingly slow. Is there anything I can do to fix it, or do I have to wait for the patch?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Could be. The "wierdness in reach behavior" sounds like a bug, IMO. By the rules, I should get an AoO when they close from 10' to 5', but I don't.

Oh, I agree. And tripping with Glaives and inclusive reach is wrong as well.

On balance, you're getting a more powerful weapon out of it, but ultimately I'd prefer to have it rules-accurate.

-Hyp.

 

[Dreeble]

Tony Stark

Heya:

This continuing thread caused me to finally give Ironman mode a whack. It's TONS of fun. Way, way, way back in the thread I posted that I hoped the game would be designed to be challenging, requiring that "20% resource usage in equal CR encounter" thingy. Somebody, possibly Hypersmurf, suggested Ironman mode. Whoever was absolutely correct. I was making scrolls right and left, using Sleep constantly, carefully choosing which fights to go to and which not to (Imerdys Run, for example, was avoid until I had three fireball slingers, heh).

Sadly, after rescuing the Prince and heading back to Hommlet, I got a permacrash. Darn. If the official patch (oh, yeah, I was playing Co8, very nice) can fix this sort of bug, I'll give Ironman another shot. I have my doubts, though, since this seems like it might be a bit tricky. On the other hand, I was trying to get both Fragglerock and Scather, so maybe that contributed.

Minor note: Seems like Ice Storm can't be Scribed. Also, my PC Wizard could Scribe Neutralize Poison for some reason.

Take care,
Dreeble

 

[TimSmith]

Heya:

This continuing thread caused me to finally give Ironman mode a whack. It's TONS of fun. Way, way, way back in the thread I posted that I hoped the game would be designed to be challenging, requiring that "20% resource usage in equal CR encounter" thingy. Somebody, possibly Hypersmurf, suggested Ironman mode. Whoever was absolutely correct. I was making scrolls right and left, using Sleep constantly, carefully choosing which fights to go to and which not to (Imerdys Run, for example, was avoid until I had three fireball slingers, heh).

Take care,
Dreeble

Is Ironman more difficult in itself, then? I thought it was just that you couldn't do the old "try it, die, reload" routine.

 

[Dreeble]

Is Ironman more difficult in itself, then? I thought it was just that you couldn't do the old "try it, die, reload" routine.

Heya:

Except for starting with 0 gold instead of 500, that's right. For example: your fighter rolled a 1 for hps? Bummer. You failed to scribe that fireball? Bummer. (Might be possible to try rescribing once Spellcraft improves, but I doubt it). Elmo died and you freaked out and forgot that you had a scroll of Raise Dead so you went to go buy one but when you got back the corpse was gone and there was just a pile of Elmo's equipment and _then_ you saw the Raise Dead scroll and slapped yourself? Bummer.

When playing in Ironman, I found myself casting Bless before every fight, using Bull's Strength, making and using lots of scrolls. Cool stuff. All because I knew that a TPK really was a TPK. Plus, the exp loss on death just hurts painfully. At least in PnP, the DM can fudge some rolls and go soft.

Take care,
Dreeble

 

[Thanee]

You failed to scribe that fireball? Bummer. (Might be possible to try rescribing once Spellcraft improves, but I doubt it).

You can rescribe it once you failed another scroll (looks like the memory for failed attempts is rather limited ). So, basically just have a bunch of crap scrolls on you to scribe only if you fail an important one, until you fail one, and then you can retry!

Elmo died and you freaked out and forgot that you had a scroll of Raise Dead so you went to go buy one but when you got back the corpse was gone and there was just a pile of Elmo's equipment and _then_ you saw the Raise Dead scroll and slapped yourself? Bummer.

You are going to raise that drunken fool?

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

I'm going to start Ironman after I'm through the first time and the official patch is out.

I can only hope that there won't be many serious crashes then... that could quickly spoil the fun...

Bye
Thanee

P.S. About the slowdown of the mouse... sometimes the game freezes completely when scrolling (usually in fairly large levels) for a while before continueing.

 

[TimSmith]

Heya:

Except for starting with 0 gold instead of 500, that's right. For example: your fighter rolled a 1 for hps? Bummer. You failed to scribe that fireball? Bummer. (Might be possible to try rescribing once Spellcraft improves, but I doubt it). Elmo died and you freaked out and forgot that you had a scroll of Raise Dead so you went to go buy one but when you got back the corpse was gone and there was just a pile of Elmo's equipment and _then_ you saw the Raise Dead scroll and slapped yourself? Bummer.

When playing in Ironman, I found myself casting Bless before every fight, using Bull's Strength, making and using lots of scrolls. Cool stuff. All because I knew that a TPK really was a TPK. Plus, the exp loss on death just hurts painfully. At least in PnP, the DM can fudge some rolls and go soft.

Take care,
Dreeble

It sounds like its a real "seat of your pants" experience. I tend not to reload in the case of bad hit points and failed scroll scribes anyway, but I take your point about -ups which happen because you get distracted and don't have a friendly DM to remind you. And of course the computer is merciless as a DM.

I would like to try Ironman, but daren't because I understand from these boards that a crash could permanently finish your game. (Also, I am not getting much time to play solidly due to my young family, so I reckoned I might have too many irretrievable cockups due to distraction!)

I am only on my first run-through and have just cleared the top floor of the moathouse, retreating to Hommlett to level up to two and to rest to recover from poisonous bites. As a result, I am not experienced in the game as yet and I might be regretting my "honest" approach to hit points etc. later on! If I remember the original module correctly, there is a certain critter called Lubash waiting to show me the meaning of humility on the next level down...

Speaking of the moathouse section, did everyone else find secret doors with a DC of zero? I suppose this is another bug (sigh).

 

[TimSmith]

I'm going to start Ironman after I'm through the first time and the official patch is out.

I can only hope that there won't be many serious crashes then... that could quickly spoil the fun...

Bye
Thanee

P.S. About the slowdown of the mouse... sometimes the game freezes completely when scrolling (usually in fairly large levels) for a while before continueing.

Sounds like the best plan. As for the mouse, I seem to get a slow mouse even when moving it on the current screen. It might be more accurate to describe it as having inertia, because it starts moving after I move the physical mouse and stops moving after I have already stopped. Its a bit annoying but not the be all and end all. (I think the developers at Troika say its happening to people who have their mice set faster than the midpoint usually, but I'm no expert).

On a gameplay related note- I get the impression that if I see enemies and don't hit "C" in order to initiate combat, then when they finally see me they usually get the drop on me (including my previously successfully sneaking scouts-grrr!!). BUT if I arrange everyone where i want and manage not to put my clumsy guys too close, then hit "C," I can ambush them instead. Having got mugged by hiding bandits (in the courtyard of the moathouse) in the former situation, I reloaded and tried it the second way with great success. It seemed to happen with the rats in the next room too. Is this how others have experienced it, too? (And by the way, how do i put spoiler blackouts in my post?)