Thanks for the notes

Originally posted by Harley Quinn:

Recently finished my first playthrough on Tactician Mode with a crossbowman and a one-handed swordsman/witch.

I never needed them later as the fights seemed to fall off after that. After I reached about level 5, summoned spiders and skeletal warriors stopped being simple meat-shields and started being able to actually defeat enemies in combat, normally that's a good thing, but after that, the fights just seemed kinda one-sided until the very end of the game.

Which fights would you say were too easy? I did some nerfing shortly before release and may have gone too far.

And just in general is it an enemies don't do enough damage issue? Or do they have too little health?

The fights I generally consider easy:
Most of the skeleton fights (8 or so)


Average:
Cave fight with the troll
Crypt Monument Boss fight
The Necromancer Boss fight
First fight in the tunnels to Ruins (The one with the Arhu model)


Harder:
Crypt Guardians
Crabs (depends how you tackle them though)
Fire Skeletons Guarding the portal

There were a few things I wasn't able to complete, namely the coffin puzzle

Did you just not find a place to put it or was there a bug?

and the Moment guy in the inn. I agreed to fight him, but he never did anything after that.

He should say in dialog to meet him somewhere in the woods. I can probably make that more clear.

Gotta say though, when my Waypoint option disppeared at some point in the crypt I panicked, as reloading didn't seem to do anything and I have a habit of deleting auto-saves.

Do you remember when it disappeared?

The early skeleton fights were about where they should be, but I think I reached level 5 somewhere after half of the skeleton fights were done and after that they just didn't pose that big a risk anymore. The damage they did was about where it should be, maybe a tad low, but their health does feel too low at that point.

Yeah, that's about how I'd rate it too, though the first Ruins fight was sort of cheesed for me, as the Guardians more-or-less took out everything but the Zombie Man, which kept hastening the archers, but never actually hit anything.

The crabs. Oh god. I just threw oil at them and picked them off with my crossbowman. Those summons were simply wack. But I rather enjoyed the fight.

Originally posted by SniperHF:

Did you just not find a place to put it or was there a bug?

He should say in dialog to meet him somewhere in the woods. I can probably make that more clear.

Yeah, I never found where to put the coffin. As for the Moment, he did say where he should be, (I actually had a save right before I talked to him so I could double check), but when I went there, he wasn't there, nor did he move from the inn.

Originally posted by SniperHF:

Do you remember when it happened?

I think I was about halfway through the crypt, maybe a little less than that. I know it was gone by the time I reached the Storage Room. Maybe around the Graveyard?

The skeletons having low health is how Larian had it, I didn't touch it. Probably needs a little increase since anyone playing the mod is an experienced player.

Originally posted by Harley Quinn:

though the first Ruins fight was sort of cheesed for me, as the Guardians more-or-less took out everything but the Zombie Man, which kept hastening the archers, but never actually hit anything.

I'll have to further nerf the guardians then. Maybe reduce their AP.

The crabs. Oh god. I just threw oil at them and picked them off with my crossbowman. Those summons were simply wack. But I rather enjoyed the fight.

Yeah AoE and Surfaces are definitely the key to making them fairly trivial. That's one of the things that's hard about balancing D:OS is there are so many cheese strategies it's hard to be sure.

nor did he move from the inn.

Sounds like some funny business, I'll check it out. Not a big deal though, the main reward for that encounter is his sword.

Originally posted by SniperHF:

I'll have to further nerf the guardians then. Maybe reduce their AP.

That should balance them out, yeah. Everything else about them seems fine to me.

Originally posted by SniperHF:

Sounds like some funny business, I'll check it out.

Happy I could bring it to your attention. I'll start up another playthrough in a day or two, see if an Aeromage and a Thief have what it takes. It'll be a good chance to see if I can replicate the bug Mundolf found.

I may have figured out why he didn't move from the inn. I said he seemed insane before I challenged him the first time, but in my second playthrough I refrained from doing so and he ran off as soon as the conversation ended.

My Tactician run is almost complete. I am about to tackle the boss that unlocks the special door in the parsonage. I can add my notes to this discussion or continue the one I started. Let me know which you prefer and I will do it that way.

All my notes are at home but I would say that the Moment quest is slightly confusing. He says on the East Hill or something but actually appears in the South (I think). I believe the Eastern nook actually has Jonathon for the missing equipment quest

Harley did you notice the missing novice skill books after entering the parsonage? I noticed it again in my tactician play but expected it.

Scala says he'll appear to the south of the hill southeast of town, though he's more at its base than south.

On my current playthrough, I noticed the Waypoint buttton disappeared after going down to the cellar of the Abbey, must not have been paying much attention last time, sorry about that.

I wasn't able to duplicate the Aerothurge skillbooks glitch, as I recieved the currect skillbooks.

I didn't notice it no, but I saved right next to the merchants, so I'll check it out next time I start up.

For the skillbook issue, is it on the vendor in the village or the vendor in the parsonage?

Originally posted by Harley Quinn:

Scala says he'll appear to the south of the hill southeast of town, though he's more at its base than south.

I'm going to come up with a better description for that, probably using the caravan camp as a point of reference instead.

On my current playthrough, I noticed the Waypoint buttton disappeared after going down to the cellar of the Abbey, must not have been paying much attention last time, sorry about that.

That one is by design:

Originally posted by SniperHF:

The first time the player goes into the parsonage, the rift travel menu will get disabled. This is to prevent fast travel to waypoints you aren't supposed to be able to access. If you reload a save game the waypoint menu will be accessible again.

It's the only way to circumvent a bug in the scripting. I even talked to one of Larian's scripters about it and they said the function which disables waypoints isn't used by them and it doesn't work. But I found that if you force a reload it will properly lock the waypoints. So I have it set that when the church gets attacked it disables the travel menu so you cannot go to those old waypoints which don't get properly locked until after a reload. Once you reload it comes back.


There is one other time it gets disabled, at the "boss" fight in the Crypt as one of you two noted earlier. That one is more out of paranoia for something in the script breaking if you use fast travel during the sequence. It's on my list of things to rework since I know there are some potential ways to break it.

Okay some notes from my tactician run.
Party was a 2 handed warrior who crafted and blacksmithed + dual wield rogue with a point in lock picking.

The start of the game was challenging as it should be. Limited skill options and lack of money to buy more or buy consumables/crafting mats made me think a little outside the box. I approached all of the boar fights by sneaking into positions that put a tree between me and them. This removed their ability to knock down via charge and helped a lot.
Scala fight was actually a bit too easy. Knock down, smash, repeat.
I saved all of my consumables for the crabs and I am glad I did. With no ranged attacks and their summons, I needed all the help I could get.

Infinite use bedrolls were a fantastic touch. Between battles I was able to heal up because of them which let me take a useful skill instead of Cure Wounds and saved a ton of time.

Whilst exploring I noted most of the locks were still too high for me to pick. Found some +1 bracers and lockpicks but still had several locks I couldnt get open. 3 ability points into lock picking seems a bit step so I just left those few.

I attacked all of the npcs at the fishery so I could get an extra level before going into the parsonage. Interestingly enough, they all just stand there during combat. The named Tributary Note giver is the only one who fought back. This seemed weird and probably not intentional. Because of this I attacked the caravan guards. They do fight back, if you can call it fighting. I was utterly out matched.
I then attacked several of the shop keeps and people in the inn. None of them gave XP though. I decided to stop killing the townsfolk after that and went after Scala. That Monk Blade is one of the best single handed weapons in the module. I used it in place of a second dagger for the majority of the game.

Went inside to start the main part of the module and found the Sacrfical Blade. Sweet idea for a weapon but it needs a bit more base damage. Most fights are so short I couldnt justify casting Oath from it over just using the Monk Blade. Cant remember when I found the Burning Heart but it was my main weapon the whole game.

Two handed weapons also had a good variety but Vrogrirs is by far the best for me. One thing about it though, Vrogrir's Magical horn seems incomplete. Skill description reads "% chance to set for 10 turns" Chance to set what? Item description just says "Shoots a magical spear". So I used it on myself and noted that it did +30% move and -100% damage. Was this the intended skill?

I did not notice any change in difficutly during this run though. I mean between Classic and Tactician that is. Sure things were harder/easier because of my character builds but it didnt seem like the jump to tactician on the vanilla game.
One possibility for this is that once you get into the caves you can craft so many grenades and scrolls to use. It would have been even worse if I had an archer and could use those special arrows I was making. Crafting by far trivializes the content. I wasnt save scumming and still ended up with several master scrolls. Lightning Storm + Hail Attack finished off the guardian fight in two rounds. This was previously the hardest fight imo. Even without crafting I did not notice an increase in difficulty though. Oh there is also no forge in the Parsonage which makes blacksmithing worthless once you get inside.

I did notice that the vendors did not have all the skills again and most of the adept ones that they did have required level 9. I have finished level 7 both times I played this which renders most of them useless.

Quest/Puzzle notes. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS
Most quest givers, like the Ghost of Shana, will only explain the quest to you a single time. This is problematic because they do not populate as quest events in your log and you cannot get them repeated. I would suggest a dialogue option to repeat them.

With Shana I was only able to progress after reading the tombstone. This was confusing because I had clearly found the body but didnt know what to do with it.

The last boss room inside the old abbey has what appears to be two portals. The room before it has a bunch of statues and a book (crypt roster or something). Only the book can be interacted with. I tried throwing several things on the table in the boss room as well as on the portals themselves but nothing happened. I search for any hidden buttons/levers/etc to no avail. I have read through all of the items I have found, etc I cannot figure out if those are supposed to just be asthetics or not.

I do think it could be more challenging. Especially on Tactician.

Originally posted by Mundolf:

Infinite use bedrolls were a fantastic touch. Between battles I was able to heal up because of them which let me take a useful skill instead of Cure Wounds and saved a ton of time.

That was basically my thought process, most everyone who knows the game will take a heal skill they can spam. And everyone who is playing a mod knows the game. So the resource management of potions/food is trivialized inherently.

I attacked all of the npcs at the fishery so I could get an extra level before going into the parsonage. Interestingly enough, they all just stand there during combat. The named Tributary Note giver is the only one who fought back. This seemed weird and probably not intentional.

Yep that's pretty weird. Think I know what broke it though.

Went inside to start the main part of the module and found the Sacrfical Blade. Sweet idea for a weapon but it needs a bit more base damage. Most fights are so short I couldnt justify casting Oath from it over just using the Monk Blade. Cant remember when I found the Burning Heart but it was my main weapon the whole game.

Blade of pure heart comes from the Rogue trader in the town. You either bought it or stole it. For the sacrificial blade I did nerf its damage pretty hard since it's basically sitting there for free. Figured it could be a utility weapon for your 2nd hand of a dual wielder perhaps. Maybe it needs more utility instead of more damage.

Oh there is also no forge in the Parsonage which makes blacksmithing worthless once you get inside.

Can't you use the oven in place of a forge? Or are there some combinations it doesn't work for?

I did notice that the vendors did not have all the skills again and most of the adept ones that they did have required level 9. I have finished level 7 both times I played this which renders most of them useless.

If I can figure out how to do it, my plan is to reduce the level requirement of those level 9's to match the mod content.

With Shana I was only able to progress after reading the tombstone. This was confusing because I had clearly found the body but didnt know what to do with it.

Did you read the note in addition to finding his body? Before reading the grave that is.

I could probably have them repeat dialogs. I didn't want to make the "quests" too obvious since those were meant to be a bit more hidden.

Did you figure out what to do with the Wailing ghost?

The last boss room inside the old abbey has what appears to be two portals.

It's just decor. Probably a mistake on my part to use the portal items since they are used elsewhere for such puzzles.

If those last two were just decor then yes I solved everything. Wailing Ghost you asked about during my first run as well. I watch far too much Supernatural/Sci-Fi stuff to have missed that

Originally posted by SniperHF:

Did you read the note in addition to finding his body? Before reading the grave that is.

I did but that was a few days ago and it still didnt progress until reading the tombstone this morning.

Originally posted by SniperHF:

Can't you use the oven in place of a forge? Or are there some combinations it doesn't work for?

Didnt try it on the oven but I imagine it wont let me smelt axes or ores into bars in there.

For the sacrificial blade I did nerf its damage pretty hard since it's basically sitting there for free. Figured it could be a utility weapon for your 2nd hand of a dual wielder perhaps. Maybe it needs more utility instead of more damage.

Yeah it needs something. As it stands it just wasnt worth the AP. Maybe added blessed (or a chance at) as well? Then you could pair it with Power Stance.

Blade of pure heart comes from the Rogue trader in the town

Ah that was it. Priced just expensive enough too. I had to pour most of my cash into that instead of skill books and stuff. Fun debate that was.

Originally posted by SniperHF:

Didnt try it on the oven but I imagine it wont let me smelt axes or ores into bars in there.

It will

Originally posted by Mundolf:

If those last two were just decor then yes I solved everything. Wailing Ghost you asked about during my first run as well. I watch far too much Supernatural/Sci-Fi stuff to have missed that

Did you have any trouble with the fire part? On occasion I've had them not properly catch on fire.

No trouble with the fire in either play through. Started from a wand and a scroll

Originally posted by Mundolf:

Two handed weapons also had a good variety but Vrogrirs is by far the best for me. One thing about it though, Vrogrir's Magical horn seems incomplete. Skill description reads "% chance to set for 10 turns" Chance to set what? Item description just says "Shoots a magical spear". So I used it on myself and noted that it did +30% move and -100% damage. Was this the intended skill?

Looked at this a bit.

The skill will actually launch a missle weapon at enemies that does damage. I'll look at the description and stuff and see if it can be fixed/clarified.

Baardvark is the one who designed most of the uniques and I'm not too well versed in how all that works.

Can you either of you tell me how you handled the final fight with the Necromancer? There's 3 different ways to do it.

Hopefully you're still watching the thread :P