So I've started messing around with the character creator... is there really no way to customize how my character looks? I can't seem to locate anything like this. Also, are the classes of the game separated by race? I'm sorta guessing so, but that seems kindof annoying in many respects.
So I've started messing around with the character creator... is there really no way to customize how my character looks? I can't seem to locate anything like this.
You can change the PC model with a save game editor, but that's about it.
Bah.. that's a bit disappointing, but I guess it's not so bad. I usually just enjoy making my character look how I want it to, but none of the models seem too bad. I ended up going with a female Elementalist, and so far I am really enjoying both the class and the game. Blasting stuff with fire and summoning elementals is a great way to pass time.
Ok next question: I notice that, when my characters are holding weapons, they're always in a combat stance. It doesn't mean much as none of the NPCs seem offended that my crew looks about ready to murder them, but is there a toggle somewhere, to have my characters not be in combat stance?
It's more of an RP preference really, and toggling each one of their weapons in and out seems a bit tedious.
Bah.. that's a bit disappointing, but I guess it's not so bad. I usually just enjoy making my character look how I want it to, but none of the models seem too bad. I ended up going with a female Elementalist, and so far I am really enjoying both the class and the game. Blasting stuff with fire and summoning elementals is a great way to pass time.
Ok next question: I notice that, when my characters are holding weapons, they're always in a combat stance. It doesn't mean much as none of the NPCs seem offended that my crew looks about ready to murder them, but is there a toggle somewhere, to have my characters not be in combat stance?
It's more of an RP preference really, and toggling each one of their weapons in and out seems a bit tedious.
No, there is no "weapon equipped out of combat" animation, it's always combat stance. But they are saying that it's a common request to put that animation in so it will probably be in the next game of the series.
You can leave the first area with about 50 ducats if you play your cards right.
Jesus god how? I think I ended up with about 20, and I'm pretty sure I did all the quests. I killed a wolf and a bear, ended up with a huge amount of bandit insignias, saved some crazy ass wizard, got ready for the thieves guild, and turned over a sack of tongues. Can you really turn the screws that hard on the tongue guy? I only got 4 silver out of him. Is the difference in pickpocketing or generating crafted goods out of all the raw materials in the area?
I'm just curious because arrows, arrows are expensive, and as far as I can tell, a bow and arrow set is the only way my mage can participate in combat after he runs out of mana without being sodomized.
Now I wish I would've gone through that beginning spot more thoroughly. I just did the bear and wolf quest and the two quests to get my passage into the city. Money isn't too much of a problem, though, since I've been having Gladys rob everyone blind (she also has a ring for +2 pick pocketing). I usually get enough for what I need that way.
Dashui on
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Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
Is it possible to learn magic through trainers or do you have to start with a magic class?
You can leave the first area with about 50 ducats if you play your cards right.
Jesus god how? I think I ended up with about 20, and I'm pretty sure I did all the quests. I killed a wolf and a bear, ended up with a huge amount of bandit insignias, saved some crazy ass wizard, got ready for the thieves guild, and turned over a sack of tongues. Can you really turn the screws that hard on the tongue guy? I only got 4 silver out of him. Is the difference in pickpocketing or generating crafted goods out of all the raw materials in the area?
I'm just curious because arrows, arrows are expensive, and as far as I can tell, a bow and arrow set is the only way my mage can participate in combat after he runs out of mana without being sodomized.
Honestly I have no idea how you could possibly earn that much money without being a thief and stealing every last bit of coin from every person in town, and even then it sounds more like an exercise in madness than anything I'd have fun doing. :P
Still, I did manage to get 2 ducats from that guy for the sack of tongues. To do so I basically had to (spoilered just in case people don't want to know)
...get to the point where one of my choices was to rip the package open and eat them, or simply leave. I left, wandered around, then came back, and when I told him 2 ducats was my final offer, he broke down and paid me.
I played the game quite a bit last night and I have to say, it has a lot've charm. One thing I'm wondering about though, is the dialogue. I'm playing an Elementalist, and so my character has a middle-eastern type of appearance which is quite different from all the NPCs I'm currently dealing with in the game. It's only because of this that the dialogue seems to work at all, as in my head I just picture this foreigner being absolutely flustered by everything that goes on, and that a slightly less than perfect grasp on the tongue being spoken is responsible for the rather over-the-top proclamations she exclaims.
Is the dialogue (particularly the response dialogue your character makes) the same no matter what class you pick? If not it's sheer genius how perfectly it comes across for the character I made, but if it is as I suspect that you respond the same no matter what you're playing, I'm sure glad I didn't decide to play a badass pirate.
You can leave the first area with about 50 ducats if you play your cards right.
Jesus god how? I think I ended up with about 20, and I'm pretty sure I did all the quests. I killed a wolf and a bear, ended up with a huge amount of bandit insignias, saved some crazy ass wizard, got ready for the thieves guild, and turned over a sack of tongues. Can you really turn the screws that hard on the tongue guy? I only got 4 silver out of him. Is the difference in pickpocketing or generating crafted goods out of all the raw materials in the area?
I'm just curious because arrows, arrows are expensive, and as far as I can tell, a bow and arrow set is the only way my mage can participate in combat after he runs out of mana without being sodomized.
Honestly I have no idea how you could possibly earn that much money without being a thief and stealing every last bit of coin from every person in town, and even then it sounds more like an exercise in madness than anything I'd have fun doing. :P
Still, I did manage to get 2 ducats from that guy for the sack of tongues. To do so I basically had to (spoilered just in case people don't want to know)
...get to the point where one of my choices was to rip the package open and eat them, or simply leave. I left, wandered around, then came back, and when I told him 2 ducats was my final offer, he broke down and paid me.
I played the game quite a bit last night and I have to say, it has a lot've charm. One thing I'm wondering about though, is the dialogue. I'm playing an Elementalist, and so my character has a middle-eastern type of appearance which is quite different from all the NPCs I'm currently dealing with in the game. It's only because of this that the dialogue seems to work at all, as in my head I just picture this foreigner being absolutely flustered by everything that goes on, and that a slightly less than perfect grasp on the tongue being spoken is responsible for the rather over-the-top proclamations she exlaims.
Is the dialogue (particularly the response dialogue your character makes) the same no matter what class you pick? If not it's sheer genius how perfectly it comes across for the character I made, but if it is as I suspect that you respond the same no matter what you're playing, I'm sure glad I didn't decide to play a badass pirate.
You respond the same no matter who you're playing as. My anti-social Pirate and my charming Rogue both gave the same responses.
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
Is it possible to learn magic through trainers or do you have to start with a magic class?
I've been lead to believe that you can learn anything if you have the money. Can't guarantee you'll be good at it.
I believe this is correct... your character (and those in your party) are capable of learning any and every skill in the game, if you find a trainer for it. But since skills are tied so heavily to attributes, you will probably be pretty terrible at things you are not meant to do unless you spend gobs of points raising them... which means you'll cause other stuff to suffer.
That's the theory anyways. I'm not quite sure how it works in practice, as I'm not very far into the game and so far I've been keeping my character specialized... but one thing I did do was give my Elementalist a healing spell, which seems somewhat out of line with how they are 'supposed' to work.
For those of you who have played mages a bit, how useful are all those attribute-boosting spells? I started with a few but I rarely use them, because they don't seem to last long enough to be used outside combat (the way I usually do with summons), and in combat it seems better just either be blasting something or healing a party member.
I wanted to post a picture of my party so far, they look kickass. I found a whole bunch of great armor. Customization really is a strength of this game.
I also think that I encountered a quest bug. The second quest for the trading companies war, called "A handfull of ducats" I think, where you have to deliver some goods to the brewery doesn't work. I spoke to the people at the docks to give me the goods, they have, but they are not in my inventory. And the brewery doesn't have any conversation menus.
Pic
edit:
Attribute boosting spells can be pretty useful, kinda. Attributes very rarely increase your base stats, like damage (check weapon, usually every 3 or 4 strength), like attack & dodge (again, every 3-4 points) or like magic resistance. So a powerful boosting spell might add 1 in those categories. Attributes also govern how many points you can put in a talent. So if it stays at 18 max forever, you can change that by boosting the highest attribute that governs that talent. This is therefore useless with the boosting spells.
Also attributes are heavily used on talent checks, like lock picks. A +4 to dexterity boost is tremendous for anyone lock picking, or maybe use one that boosts plant gathering ability. They are useful there.
Finally, attributes are also used for casting other spells, and spells whose power depends on "SP" are stronger the more points you have in them, or the higher your attributes.
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FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
They don't give you the goods. After you talk to the dude at the docks he walks over to the cart and a small bag appears on the cart. You need to click the bag to pick up "the goods."
edit:
Attribute boosting spells can be pretty useful, kinda. Attributes very rarely increase your base stats, like damage (check weapon, usually every 3 or 4 strength), like attack & dodge (again, every 3-4 points) or like magic resistance. So a powerful boosting spell might add 1 in those categories. Attributes also govern how many points you can put in a talent. So if it stays at 18 max forever, you can change that by boosting the highest attribute that governs that talent. This is therefore useless with the boosting spells.
Also attributes are heavily used on talent checks, like lock picks. A +4 to dexterity boost is tremendous for anyone lock picking, or maybe use one that boosts plant gathering ability. They are useful there.
Finally, attributes are also used for casting other spells, and spells whose power depends on "SP" are stronger the more points you have in them, or the higher your attributes.
This helps a bit for me to decide what to do with the spells. I guess for the most part I probably won't bother with them, but I may pump the agility booster and keep it around for times when I need to pump up the party's thief for a particularly difficult lockpick or whatever. For general spellcasting, it seems kindof a time waster to cast that spell in combat just to be able to improve another spell. Maybe not, but I'm impatient that way and want to burn stuff with fire.
I'm also kinda frustrated with that 'Lightning Find You!' spell I started with. It's kinda neat as it debuffs an enemy, but it only lasts for a couple rounds and only affects one guy at a time. Seems a bit of a waste and I'm hoping there'll be more AoE stuff down the line.
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
A few things on spells and misconceptions discussed above:
- Lightning Find You is useful against boss enemies mostly, or when you're up against a single powerful target. Remember, it will decrease more depending on the power of the spell and your rolls (SP*/3 means your remaining spell points (same as TAP*) divided by 3)
- Attribute boosting spells are much more powerful than you think. Remember again, it's not just a +1 or +2 or +3, it's dependent on your roll. The confusion comes from the problem that the game does not show your actual rolls when casting this spell, only the SP*.
Just as an example, I cast the strength boost on one character and ended up with SP* 4. That gives me +2 strength. (SP* / 3 + 1)
I then cast it again and got +4 strength from SP* 9. (9 / 3 + 1)
It all depends on your rolls. If you are up against a tough boss fight and you have time to prepare, don't be afraid to cast strength booster a few times until you get a roll you like.
- And STR is a great stat to boost. It affects almost everything combat related (Vitality, Endurance, AT, PA, and overall damage dealth (the HP stat)
- Look into boosting talents instead of stats when you need that extra umph for something (lockpicking, for example). Why boost only DE when you need 2 other stats to be high as well, when you can boost the talent itself. Remember, a talent's level is used as "make up points" for crappy rolls, no matter what attribute die turned out to be a crappy roll. For lockpicking, carry around actual lockpicks. You can smith them or buy them, but I usually have 50 at all times. Using a lockpick when you pick locks adds 5 to your skill. My skill is 15, giving me 20. My related attributes are around 15, meaning I can not fail to pick a lock unless the difficulty is at least fairly high. Even then, it would have to be some crappy rolling on my part.
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
Oh holy hell. This entire time I've been avoiding armour that says "Race Restriction: Dwarf," always wondering "why the hell is so much good armour only for Dwarves?
I read that guide on page 7, and have been kinda following what that guy said, which includes not bothering much with attributes until late game. At least, not unless one is needed for a particular combat talent.. or whatever those things are called (would like to get Roundhouse for the Amazon, but her STR is only 14 and it requires STR 15).
Some of that guide doesn't make sense with what other people in this thread have talked about though. In particular, I've read here several times that mages can't cast spells if they are carrying a shield or if they're wearing metal armor, and yet the guide is pretty absolute about maxing the shield fighting talents for every character.
For my part, I just can't see my mage spending points on a shield. I did shell out the Ducat for her to learn how to wield a bow, which seems a much better choice for a character who needs to keep the hell out of melee. :P
I read that guide on page 7, and have been kinda following what that guy said, which includes not bothering much with attributes until late game. At least, not unless one is needed for a particular combat talent.. or whatever those things are called (would like to get Roundhouse for the Amazon, but her STR is only 14 and it requires STR 15).
Some of that guide doesn't make sense with what other people in this thread have talked about though. In particular, I've read here several times that mages can't cast spells if they are carrying a shield or if they're wearing metal armor, and yet the guide is pretty absolute about maxing the shield fighting talents for every character.
For my part, I just can't see my mage spending points on a shield. I did shell out the Ducat for her to learn how to wield a bow, which seems a much better choice for a character who needs to keep the hell out of melee. :P
Actually, the guide says shields for everyone but spell casting party members.
Dashui on
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FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
I wouldn't use a shield for a mage, since that lowers her DV.. which is her only real chance at avoiding damage.
Also, no metal armour on a caster. None.
And raising the STR of your melee characters is always a good idea. I don't care what the guide says. Both my amazon and dwarf now have 18 STR without buffs and they're fucking beasts because of it. My thief has 14.
I wouldn't use a shield for a mage, since that lowers her DV.. which is her only real chance at avoiding damage.
Also, no metal armour on a caster. None.
And raising the STR of your melee characters is always a good idea. I don't care what the guide says. Both my amazon and dwarf now have 18 STR without buffs and they're fucking beasts because of it. My thief has 14.
That guide said it is a good idea to max out STR, just not necessarily in the early game where you'll want to get some combat talents first. DID YOU GUYS EVEN READ IT? :P
Dashui on
Xbox Live, PSN & Origin: Vacorsis 3DS: 2638-0037-166
I think I generally boosted attributes the most. Both my dwarf and Rhulana have 19 str(ha, beat that!) and 3 of my 4 characters have maxed out their Vitality. I also boosted my burglar's intuition to 20 just recently since it affects practically every one of his talents and combat skills. I also boosted his agility a bit. Right now he has 14 dodge and with Dodge III will have 16, I think I can squeeze in up to 18 in dodge, not so bad is it. This is all at about 7000 experience.
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FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
I haven't read the entire guide, no. I don't need to. Right now I'm, I am guessing, halfway through the game. I do perfectly fine in every fight, my thief has never met a trap/lock/pocket he couldn't handle, and I've got a magic user who can nuke, heal, and do insane damage with a bow (inflicting a wound almost every shot).
Keep in mind that the guy who wrote that guide plays the PnP version of the game. He's trying to tell you how to min/max from that, whereas the PC version is going to differ slightly not only in stats/levels but also in how you actually play.
Just one example: positioning is huge and easier to accomplish in the PC version, since you don't need to spend turns moving around. You get behind a mob and he can't parry you.
Also, for those wondering what happens when you "buy your own ship"
As I suspected, it's a trick. When you give him the 1000 D the camera pans down to the tiny rowboat. You then have to chase the guy down and search for him. I just loaded my game back and forgot about it :P
Both my dwarf and Rhulana have 19 str(ha, beat that!) and 3 of my 4 characters have maxed out their Vitality.
I've got 2000-3000 experience points left to spend on my characters. I want to find a new damn trainer though before I spend it all on stats/spells/talents.
A dagger? Which one is that? The best dagger I found came with a new character I recruited. Yeah, I'm at the same part of the game as you. I started 2 games just for fun, one as an elementarist and one as an archer.
btw : Have you gotten Aurelia the alchemist? She's in the citadel area and she says if you solve her quest she'll join you. Her quest is to find some information on Manticore's claws or something, except that I haven't found anyone who can help me.
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FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
A dagger? Which one is that? The best dagger I found came with a new character I recruited. Yeah, I'm at the same part of the game as you. I started 2 games just for fun, one as an elementarist and one as an archer.
btw : Have you gotten Aurelia the alchemist? She's in the citadel area and she says if you solve her quest she'll join you. Her quest is to find some information on Manticore's claws or something, except that I haven't found anyone who can help me.
Well, it's actually a dirk, which is +3 on the die. I'm considering training swords on him simply because I have not found a decent dagger.. At all. I wouldn't mind spending several hundred points to get a weapon I'll actually like. I was also expecting some sort of dual wield setup at first... but nothing like that exists it seems.
As for the alchemist... I have not gotten her. That quest has been in my quest log for ages.
So how is this character then:
The guy you save from the castle? The one you fight Bloodfang with? I just got him, and I might use him instead of my dwarf or amazon.
Oh and Folgrimm looks badass with a shield as tall as his entire body
FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
I've decided to stick with my dagger. I put swords up as high as it would go, and it cost around 1000 points and only went to 13. Dagger, on the other hand, is at 18.
It's a difference between like 18 attack and 20,21 parry with daggers compared to something around 6-7 lower in each of those. So, I save a thousand points and have a much higher AT and PA score. There's gotta be a kick ass dagger somewhere. There just has to be.
Oh, and save up a few thousand experience points for when you are finishing off the
Dragon quest trials
You'll thank me after that when you come across a trainer with a shit ton of stuff to buy.
And screens:
My mage is pretty sweet looking, and her flaming arrows are pretty fear-inspiring (Or poison.. or +20.. whatever tickles her fancy at the time)
Bad-Ass Dwarf looks Bad-Ass!
And a fat man.. who is fat
Oh and that bird tongue quest at the beginning:
I think if you save them for a really long time you get something. I mean.. a really long time. Half the game.
A dagger? Which one is that? The best dagger I found came with a new character I recruited. Yeah, I'm at the same part of the game as you. I started 2 games just for fun, one as an elementarist and one as an archer.
btw : Have you gotten Aurelia the alchemist? She's in the citadel area and she says if you solve her quest she'll join you. Her quest is to find some information on Manticore's claws or something, except that I haven't found anyone who can help me.
Well, it's actually a dirk, which is +3 on the die. I'm considering training swords on him simply because I have not found a decent dagger.. At all. I wouldn't mind spending several hundred points to get a weapon I'll actually like. I was also expecting some sort of dual wield setup at first... but nothing like that exists it seems.
As for the alchemist... I have not gotten her. That quest has been in my quest log for ages.
So how is this character then:
The guy you save from the castle? The one you fight Bloodfang with? I just got him, and I might use him instead of my dwarf or amazon.
Oh and Folgrimm looks badass with a shield as tall as his entire body
You mean the prince soldier guy who owned the castle? I didn't know he joined you for good. Mercenary Galdwin (or close) was kinda killed because I refused to give her the Dragon Eye, hehe.
Yes I have the same shield for him, lol.
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FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
Yeah, Galdwin lived for me but it didn't make much of a difference. You need to go back to the Duke and talk to the Knight so he'll join you.
Sir CarcassI have been shown the end of my worldRound Rock, TXRegistered Userregular
edited March 2009
Do recipes ever drop as loot or are they all only bought? Where is a good place to get some good weapon and armor recipes?
Also, for those that may be curious, whether through save game editing or memory searching, the game stores your money as a single integer. Farthings uses the 1's spot, Thalen's the 10's, and Ducats the 100's and above. So if you have 28D, 4T, and 6F, the integer would be 2846. Just 28D is 2800.
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FiggyFighter of the night manChampion of the sunRegistered Userregular
The blacksmith in Ducal Citadel sells some good weapon and shield recipes, that I've seen. I'm sure there's more in later villages.
While killing an orc, I also found on him an orc composite bow recipe.
Also, barrel drops are random, within a range of items. I bet ordinary chests are random too, with a higher quality of items, and I bet so are monster drops.
Also for sneak, since it's so useless. I realized that random encounter you get right out of Aventrue against wolfs, you can choose to "avoid" it and it rolls a sneak check!
Unfortunately, random encounters seem to be broken because I never got another one after it. So if they weren't broken, sneak would be used during those times. Better than nothing...
There's one point in the game where you are infiltrating a castle, and there's a lever you need to pull that's past some enemies. Since my character is a rogue I go all sneaky and select her to move past them and pull the lever. She gets there no problem, but then the game auto-pauses due to combat. I'm confused about what happened, then I see that when the character you are controlling is past a certain distance, all the other characters will move towards them. The stupid dwarf aggroed the guards.
That's pretty much what makes stealth useless; that all the rest of your party follows you even if they aren't capable of sneaking... which means that, if you're going to try and employ stealth tactics, you gotta spend points on everyone in your party. Which of course is horrendously stupid.
Another thing I found stupid was the AI of those Black Wolf Rats during a particular mission under Ferdok (or whatever the first city is called). They have this special 'feature' of, as a massive group, all making a beeline for my main character (who is a mage) and assraping him while the rest of my party looks on in horror, unable to kill a half-dozen rats fast enough to stop it.
All the rats in that area have the AI setting to go after the mage first, which is a feature only shared by the most challenging encounters in the rest of the game. I'm pretty sure the encounter at the end of that section is going to end up being the hardest in the game.
That's pretty much what makes stealth useless; that all the rest of your party follows you even if they aren't capable of sneaking... which means that, if you're going to try and employ stealth tactics, you gotta spend points on everyone in your party. Which of course is horrendously stupid.
Another thing I found stupid was the AI of those Black Wolf Rats during a particular mission under Ferdok (or whatever the first city is called). They have this special 'feature' of, as a massive group, all making a beeline for my main character (who is a mage) and assraping him while the rest of my party looks on in horror, unable to kill a half-dozen rats fast enough to stop it.
Oh God, you mean the quest to clean out the Brewery (there are like half a dozen levels to that place!) while trying to save Dranor? They keep inflicting poison on everyone and horribly raping my party. I'm at the fourth level, I believe, and they keep rushing toward Gladys and gang banging her and now the rest of my party. I need to head back to town and get some of those items to treat poison. Does anyone know what shop sells those teas?
Dashui on
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I'm enjoying this game a lot more since I restarted as a Spellweaver. My first character was a dwarven mercenary. He hit things with axes.
As a mage, I'm having trouble surviving even in the tutorial area. My dwarf, by comparison, wiped everything out on his own and rarely dropped below half health. However, as a mage I start with half a dozen combat abilities worth using, whereas my dwarf just autoattacked everything to death, and would use his sole combat ability twice per encounter.
So, as with Dungeons and Dragons games, it seems melee characters are exceptionally strong and take one hell of a beating before going down, but they're terribly dull to play as. I'd rather get my arse handed to me as a prancing elvish girl than watch the game play itself for me as a fighter.
Heh, I don't think I ever make warriors because a bit of that reason I always go for the extreme. In Dragon Quest 7, I mastered the "Sheppard" class just because I never played as one.
The mages do need a few more area of effect spells, it's annoying casting a spell that takes 3 rounds and the little rat that 3 of your buddies were ganging on is about dead. But since a sequel is already in production, I have really high hope it will be even better. Like Baldur's Gate 1 & 2. Same engine, so all time was spent making the gameplay better.
Posts
You can change the PC model with a save game editor, but that's about it.
Ok next question: I notice that, when my characters are holding weapons, they're always in a combat stance. It doesn't mean much as none of the NPCs seem offended that my crew looks about ready to murder them, but is there a toggle somewhere, to have my characters not be in combat stance?
It's more of an RP preference really, and toggling each one of their weapons in and out seems a bit tedious.
Jesus god how? I think I ended up with about 20, and I'm pretty sure I did all the quests. I killed a wolf and a bear, ended up with a huge amount of bandit insignias, saved some crazy ass wizard, got ready for the thieves guild, and turned over a sack of tongues. Can you really turn the screws that hard on the tongue guy? I only got 4 silver out of him. Is the difference in pickpocketing or generating crafted goods out of all the raw materials in the area?
I'm just curious because arrows, arrows are expensive, and as far as I can tell, a bow and arrow set is the only way my mage can participate in combat after he runs out of mana without being sodomized.
Yeah, I got the message that he was trying to screw me, but I didn't manage to get any further than that.
They look like Mexican wrestling stars.
Honestly I have no idea how you could possibly earn that much money without being a thief and stealing every last bit of coin from every person in town, and even then it sounds more like an exercise in madness than anything I'd have fun doing. :P
Still, I did manage to get 2 ducats from that guy for the sack of tongues. To do so I basically had to (spoilered just in case people don't want to know)
I played the game quite a bit last night and I have to say, it has a lot've charm. One thing I'm wondering about though, is the dialogue. I'm playing an Elementalist, and so my character has a middle-eastern type of appearance which is quite different from all the NPCs I'm currently dealing with in the game. It's only because of this that the dialogue seems to work at all, as in my head I just picture this foreigner being absolutely flustered by everything that goes on, and that a slightly less than perfect grasp on the tongue being spoken is responsible for the rather over-the-top proclamations she exclaims.
Is the dialogue (particularly the response dialogue your character makes) the same no matter what class you pick? If not it's sheer genius how perfectly it comes across for the character I made, but if it is as I suspect that you respond the same no matter what you're playing, I'm sure glad I didn't decide to play a badass pirate.
You respond the same no matter who you're playing as. My anti-social Pirate and my charming Rogue both gave the same responses.
I believe this is correct... your character (and those in your party) are capable of learning any and every skill in the game, if you find a trainer for it. But since skills are tied so heavily to attributes, you will probably be pretty terrible at things you are not meant to do unless you spend gobs of points raising them... which means you'll cause other stuff to suffer.
That's the theory anyways. I'm not quite sure how it works in practice, as I'm not very far into the game and so far I've been keeping my character specialized... but one thing I did do was give my Elementalist a healing spell, which seems somewhat out of line with how they are 'supposed' to work.
For those of you who have played mages a bit, how useful are all those attribute-boosting spells? I started with a few but I rarely use them, because they don't seem to last long enough to be used outside combat (the way I usually do with summons), and in combat it seems better just either be blasting something or healing a party member.
I also think that I encountered a quest bug. The second quest for the trading companies war, called "A handfull of ducats" I think, where you have to deliver some goods to the brewery doesn't work. I spoke to the people at the docks to give me the goods, they have, but they are not in my inventory. And the brewery doesn't have any conversation menus.
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Attribute boosting spells can be pretty useful, kinda. Attributes very rarely increase your base stats, like damage (check weapon, usually every 3 or 4 strength), like attack & dodge (again, every 3-4 points) or like magic resistance. So a powerful boosting spell might add 1 in those categories. Attributes also govern how many points you can put in a talent. So if it stays at 18 max forever, you can change that by boosting the highest attribute that governs that talent. This is therefore useless with the boosting spells.
Also attributes are heavily used on talent checks, like lock picks. A +4 to dexterity boost is tremendous for anyone lock picking, or maybe use one that boosts plant gathering ability. They are useful there.
Finally, attributes are also used for casting other spells, and spells whose power depends on "SP" are stronger the more points you have in them, or the higher your attributes.
Go back and check it out.
This helps a bit for me to decide what to do with the spells. I guess for the most part I probably won't bother with them, but I may pump the agility booster and keep it around for times when I need to pump up the party's thief for a particularly difficult lockpick or whatever. For general spellcasting, it seems kindof a time waster to cast that spell in combat just to be able to improve another spell. Maybe not, but I'm impatient that way and want to burn stuff with fire.
I'm also kinda frustrated with that 'Lightning Find You!' spell I started with. It's kinda neat as it debuffs an enemy, but it only lasts for a couple rounds and only affects one guy at a time. Seems a bit of a waste and I'm hoping there'll be more AoE stuff down the line.
- Lightning Find You is useful against boss enemies mostly, or when you're up against a single powerful target. Remember, it will decrease more depending on the power of the spell and your rolls (SP*/3 means your remaining spell points (same as TAP*) divided by 3)
- Attribute boosting spells are much more powerful than you think. Remember again, it's not just a +1 or +2 or +3, it's dependent on your roll. The confusion comes from the problem that the game does not show your actual rolls when casting this spell, only the SP*.
Just as an example, I cast the strength boost on one character and ended up with SP* 4. That gives me +2 strength. (SP* / 3 + 1)
I then cast it again and got +4 strength from SP* 9. (9 / 3 + 1)
It all depends on your rolls. If you are up against a tough boss fight and you have time to prepare, don't be afraid to cast strength booster a few times until you get a roll you like.
- And STR is a great stat to boost. It affects almost everything combat related (Vitality, Endurance, AT, PA, and overall damage dealth (the HP stat)
- Look into boosting talents instead of stats when you need that extra umph for something (lockpicking, for example). Why boost only DE when you need 2 other stats to be high as well, when you can boost the talent itself. Remember, a talent's level is used as "make up points" for crappy rolls, no matter what attribute die turned out to be a crappy roll. For lockpicking, carry around actual lockpicks. You can smith them or buy them, but I usually have 50 at all times. Using a lockpick when you pick locks adds 5 to your skill. My skill is 15, giving me 20. My related attributes are around 15, meaning I can not fail to pick a lock unless the difficulty is at least fairly high. Even then, it would have to be some crappy rolling on my part.
It's not. Dwarves can't wear it. Damn me.
Some of that guide doesn't make sense with what other people in this thread have talked about though. In particular, I've read here several times that mages can't cast spells if they are carrying a shield or if they're wearing metal armor, and yet the guide is pretty absolute about maxing the shield fighting talents for every character.
For my part, I just can't see my mage spending points on a shield. I did shell out the Ducat for her to learn how to wield a bow, which seems a much better choice for a character who needs to keep the hell out of melee. :P
Actually, the guide says shields for everyone but spell casting party members.
Also, no metal armour on a caster. None.
And raising the STR of your melee characters is always a good idea. I don't care what the guide says. Both my amazon and dwarf now have 18 STR without buffs and they're fucking beasts because of it. My thief has 14.
That guide said it is a good idea to max out STR, just not necessarily in the early game where you'll want to get some combat talents first. DID YOU GUYS EVEN READ IT? :P
I think I generally boosted attributes the most. Both my dwarf and Rhulana have 19 str(ha, beat that!) and 3 of my 4 characters have maxed out their Vitality. I also boosted my burglar's intuition to 20 just recently since it affects practically every one of his talents and combat skills. I also boosted his agility a bit. Right now he has 14 dodge and with Dodge III will have 16, I think I can squeeze in up to 18 in dodge, not so bad is it. This is all at about 7000 experience.
Keep in mind that the guy who wrote that guide plays the PnP version of the game. He's trying to tell you how to min/max from that, whereas the PC version is going to differ slightly not only in stats/levels but also in how you actually play.
Just one example: positioning is huge and easier to accomplish in the PC version, since you don't need to spend turns moving around. You get behind a mob and he can't parry you.
Also, for those wondering what happens when you "buy your own ship"
I've got 2000-3000 experience points left to spend on my characters. I want to find a new damn trainer though before I spend it all on stats/spells/talents.
Oh.. and I think the dagger is out of place
btw : Have you gotten Aurelia the alchemist? She's in the citadel area and she says if you solve her quest she'll join you. Her quest is to find some information on Manticore's claws or something, except that I haven't found anyone who can help me.
Well, it's actually a dirk, which is +3 on the die. I'm considering training swords on him simply because I have not found a decent dagger.. At all. I wouldn't mind spending several hundred points to get a weapon I'll actually like. I was also expecting some sort of dual wield setup at first... but nothing like that exists it seems.
As for the alchemist... I have not gotten her. That quest has been in my quest log for ages.
So how is this character then:
Oh and Folgrimm looks badass with a shield as tall as his entire body
It's a difference between like 18 attack and 20,21 parry with daggers compared to something around 6-7 lower in each of those. So, I save a thousand points and have a much higher AT and PA score. There's gotta be a kick ass dagger somewhere. There just has to be.
Oh, and save up a few thousand experience points for when you are finishing off the
You'll thank me after that when you come across a trainer with a shit ton of stuff to buy.
And screens:
My mage is pretty sweet looking, and her flaming arrows are pretty fear-inspiring (Or poison.. or +20.. whatever tickles her fancy at the time)
Bad-Ass Dwarf looks Bad-Ass!
And a fat man.. who is fat
Oh and that bird tongue quest at the beginning:
Yes I have the same shield for him, lol.
Also, for those that may be curious, whether through save game editing or memory searching, the game stores your money as a single integer. Farthings uses the 1's spot, Thalen's the 10's, and Ducats the 100's and above. So if you have 28D, 4T, and 6F, the integer would be 2846. Just 28D is 2800.
I have seen only a potion recipe drop. Other than that, nadda.
As far as weapon/armour recipes, all I've seen so far are bowyer ones. The best bow recipe came from a side quest.
While killing an orc, I also found on him an orc composite bow recipe.
Also, barrel drops are random, within a range of items. I bet ordinary chests are random too, with a higher quality of items, and I bet so are monster drops.
Also for sneak, since it's so useless. I realized that random encounter you get right out of Aventrue against wolfs, you can choose to "avoid" it and it rolls a sneak check!
Unfortunately, random encounters seem to be broken because I never got another one after it. So if they weren't broken, sneak would be used during those times. Better than nothing...
Another thing I found stupid was the AI of those Black Wolf Rats during a particular mission under Ferdok (or whatever the first city is called). They have this special 'feature' of, as a massive group, all making a beeline for my main character (who is a mage) and assraping him while the rest of my party looks on in horror, unable to kill a half-dozen rats fast enough to stop it.
Oh God, you mean the quest to clean out the Brewery (there are like half a dozen levels to that place!) while trying to save Dranor? They keep inflicting poison on everyone and horribly raping my party. I'm at the fourth level, I believe, and they keep rushing toward Gladys and gang banging her and now the rest of my party. I need to head back to town and get some of those items to treat poison. Does anyone know what shop sells those teas?
You can do the dragon quest first to level up all the way to 7 or 8 and come back for the brewery.
As a mage, I'm having trouble surviving even in the tutorial area. My dwarf, by comparison, wiped everything out on his own and rarely dropped below half health. However, as a mage I start with half a dozen combat abilities worth using, whereas my dwarf just autoattacked everything to death, and would use his sole combat ability twice per encounter.
So, as with Dungeons and Dragons games, it seems melee characters are exceptionally strong and take one hell of a beating before going down, but they're terribly dull to play as. I'd rather get my arse handed to me as a prancing elvish girl than watch the game play itself for me as a fighter.
The mages do need a few more area of effect spells, it's annoying casting a spell that takes 3 rounds and the little rat that 3 of your buddies were ganging on is about dead. But since a sequel is already in production, I have really high hope it will be even better. Like Baldur's Gate 1 & 2. Same engine, so all time was spent making the gameplay better.