ToEE

[Darmanicus]

Hi folks, just acquired the above game for the PC.

Any recommendations on character classes to have in the party with regards to items they can use as there is nothing more annoying than making up a party in these sorts of games only to find that you only picked 'proficient' in the longsword and finding a holy avenger!

Or any other advice, (without spoiling the plot)?

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Or any other advice, (without spoiling the plot)?

Make sure you have all the patches that are available, otherwise there are lots of bugs in the game. There is a nice long thread in this forum somewhere with lots of good advice in it.

 

[TheYeti1775]

Look at the Circle of Eight website.
They have a patch as well that has some other fixes in it.
There is a specific way to do the patches to get them all to work for WinXP SP2.

If you search through here, you will find the CO8 website.

Yeti

 

[JimAde]

Ditto on the patches. It probably won't even run without them. I have played this game a lot and it's a blast. The best success I've had is with a very traditional party:

Half-orc fighter or barbarian (I've used both and both worked fine)
Dwarf cleric/backup tank
Human bard
Human sorcerer
Elf rogue

The bard was very important to the in-town quests.

I've had no success with evil parties. I know it's possible, but the loss of spontaneous cure spells is just crushing at low levels.

The developers insist it's possible to complete the game with a party consisting entirely of halfling bards, but I wouldn't try it.

 

[Ranes]

Played this through twice in ironman mode and had a great time with a fairly traditional party. On the first run-through, my dwarven fighter optimised his greataxe wielding skill, only to find a sword that was really worth swinging (mind you, it was an accident - we didn't mean to kill Prince Thrommel).

Apart from that and the Craft Rod (I think) feat not working, there's nothing about party composition you have to really worry about - although Jim's advice re spontaneous healing is worth taking seriously.

If you're on XP SP2, I'd install the following:

1. Official Patch 1: http://www.atari.com/us/support/new...entalevil.php?browser=1&pageDisplay=DOWNLOADS
2. Official Patch 2: (same url as above)

Then install the latest mod pack:

3. Circle of Eight mod pack 3.04 (unzip and run .exe):
http://www.co8.org/files/patch/ToEE_Fan_Fixes_V3-0-4.zip

4. Fixes by moebius2778 (unzip to your ToEE directory):
http://www.co8.org/files/patch/temple.zip

There is a third official patch but the Co8 modders advised against installing it. There's another fan mod, for which you'd skip step 4 but I never tried it.

Edit: links fixed.

 

[Ranes]

Oh yeah - I remember hitting a nasty bug.

My party's cleric cast silence on a hostile spellcaster and later ended up in melee against it, at which point she failed her save against the effect and was permanently silenced. As I was playing in ironman mode, this was a potential show-stopper. My solution was to nuke the cleric and get her raised. Expensive and inconvenient but better than starting over.

 

[JimAde]

Yes, even with the patches there are some nasty bugs. I just discovered the Craft Rod bug myself. Very annoying.

It says a lot about the game's design that I still find it worth playing. But I really wish they'd put out a properly fixed version. As I understand it, though, that's not in the cards.

 

[JimAde]

Oh yeah - I remember hitting a nasty bug.

My party's cleric cast silence on a hostile spellcaster and later ended up in melee against it, at which point she failed her save against the effect and was permanently silenced. As I was playing in ironman mode, this was a potential show-stopper. My solution was to nuke the cleric and get her raised. Expensive and inconvenient but better than starting over.

That's annoying. If you have another caster in the party, did you try a dispel magic? Might have worked.

 

[Darmanicus]

Thanks everyone, I'll give those patches/crack thingies a go and let you know if I encounter any crappiness.

What's with the craft rod bug?

 

[Ranes]

Now that you mention it, I believe I did try Dispel Magic, to no avail. It's over a year since I played that particular game, so I can't recall exactly how I came across this information but, IIRC, the situation that affected my cleric was a 'known issue', which is why I wanted to give Darmanicus a heads up.

And I agree, Jim. The game is deeply flawed but it pulled me back in again and again.

As for Craft Rod, I can't remember a single rod that could actually be made. It simply looks like one of those points where coding went unwritten. I'd give it a miss. I'm not sure that Craft Wondrous Item works either. Crafting magic arms and armour, brewing potions, scribing spells and crafting wands all work, so go with those.