Well I decided to dust off my copy that has been sitting around all these years and got to 3rd level :) Since I've played all the Balder Gate series, I wasn't sure what the 3.5 rules for AD&D differ in TOEE.

I created a monk and dualclassed him to wizard at lvl 9 which worked out really well in Balders Gate.

But will it work here in TOEE? How effective is the monk really in the mid to late game?

Right now most of my charcters are 3rd level so I haven't gotten very far.

My party consists of

Fighter (might dualclass him to be a pally or barbarian)
Cleric (dualclass to be pally soon I think)
Rogue (to be dualclassed to bard later)
monk (to be dualclassed to wizard)
druid ( I like the companion but druid has been only an extra healer for now)

I only have one NPC following me around and that is Elmo.

I hope that some NPCs are integral parts of the story or at least give some additional background.

Anyway, I hope people still remember this game hehe.

Thanks all!

Another thing..the manual doesn't say how far your characters can level up to. Is it 10th lvl? 20th lvl?

As I only see spells up to 10th lvl I assume the game is geared towards under 20th.

Is this true?

Level 10 is the maximum you can reach in TOEE. Haven't played far, can't remember why.
Anyways, it's the kind of game where you'll want to go out and celebrate every time you gain a level [img]smile.gif[/img]

Welcome to our forum!

Here's what's cool about the game in terms of party development. You can pick whatever you want. Go ahead. Invent. I bet you'll still win. I would advise against all that multiclassing. In third edition (well 3.5), IMO, feats let you make up for perceived inabililties. Besides, you'll stop at 10, and you will want the full 10th level powers of whatever class you have. In 2nd edition there really was no reason to have a 10th level rogue, for example, but with this game, some of my most vicious combatants were 10th level rogues.

I beat it with a party entirely under 3.5 feet lol. My monk, even being tiny, was still effective, though certain monsters simply shut him down.

Make sure you're prepared to deal with creatures who are highly immune to certain things. You'll want a powerful spellcaster to get through physical resistances, and you'll want a variety of spell damage types. You'll also want someone who simply does a lot of damage. Consider the possibility of meeting creatures who take half damage from spells, or those who resist 20 hitpoints of damage PER STRIKE. Also consider that your spellcasters get the opportunity for having feats that allow you to make magical items. It's an awesome ability, and well worth the money.

One more, consider the range of your characters and enemies as you move around in combat. Watch for attacks of opportunity as you move around. It kills. Any character with a Glaive or Long Spear has an awesome advantage of range, especially with the feat that gives unlimited attacks of opportunity.

You'll also have some power to hire others...which will make up for anything you may be lacking in. I think I counted 36 different NPCs in the game who could join you.

Have fun with that underrated game, but make sure to patch first.

[ 01-11-2005, 02:15 AM: Message edited by: Lucern ]

Great thanks for the info. Now that I know the game caps out at 10th it makes a bit difference. I won't bother multiclassing then.

Too bad since that really does limit what you can do.

Also do NPC suck up xp gained from your overall party or do NPCs get rewarded separately? I wasn;t too clear on that and the manual wasn't clear either. I didn't take on that many NPCs since I didn't want to drain my XP received from my other party members.

Funny, I just created a new party on the weekend too. I'm not sure what you mean by the game being old though?

If you check the forum at Atari you'll get a lot more info there too. Many players didn't take npc's 'cos they took money and other items found until their inventory was full. I don't like 'em myself. The party you make up is plenty strong enough.

[ 01-11-2005, 06:48 AM: Message edited by: Variol (Farseer) Elmwood ]

In Wizardry 8, the NPCs there share the total xp that your party gained which lowers your leveling characters in the long run.

So I haven't bother taking any NPCs from that game.

But I do like Elmo though since he only takes money and is a pretty decent fighter

[ 01-11-2005, 02:32 PM: Message edited by: Don Bolo ]

I love Wiz8! C'mon Don marry me! Oh, sorry, too late! I usually only take about 3 in my Wiz8 party anyway. And 3 of the same. 3 Lords 3 Gadgies, you know. I just bought BG2 collection on the way home. $20cdn, I figure it's worth a try.

I refuse to Play TOEE until I can get enough good portraits to make a all female human/elf party.

[ 01-12-2005, 01:03 PM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

LOL...the portraits and voices in the game are pretty limited, so I know what you mean.

Yeah...the portraits are basically the same as the pictures you could scan from the 3rd edition player's handbook and DM guide. Suspicious no? lol


About that experience and items taken by NPCs's: They will essentially negotiate for what they will take when they join up. Some expect more for their level, like Rufus and Bernie - who, by the way, could in NO way have killed a dragon at their level lol. One problem I noticed is that a couple of NPC's refuse to sell anything, though some do. Not sure if this is a design or character flaw, but I can't stand the Scottish sounding rogue fellow. He simply won't drop anything and isn't strong enough to carry everything he picks up. You can give them items, very useless items to fill up their spaces to prevent them from taking their fair share, if you are so inclined. It's pretty easily done, and their help is well worth it.

It's also worth it in terms of experience. You're limited to 10, and you'll hit that before you're done, even with a full 8 characters. Your experience is determined by the monster's CR (challenge rating I think). A beast of CR 10 basically means that a group of 4 level 10 characters could reasonably expect to defeat it without any casualties. That will be divided by however many characters you have, and possibly by their levels.

The short of it is that everyone's level will be 10 by the end, even if you are frequently changing out NPCs. So don't hold back (unless you're waiting for female PC pics). Take anyone you like and fill their inventory with a single arrow, a low value stone, etc, or simply accept that they risked their life as your characters did, and they earned it. Yeah, I couldn't handle just how much they took either lol. Zert rarely earned what he took.

[ 01-13-2005, 02:03 PM: Message edited by: Lucern ]

Is that any site that offer portraits for download?

there are no decent portraits, not to my knowledge. IMO I don't see anything worth playing in this game besides the nice backgrounds.

Woot 800 posts!

Actually, I like the game mechanics. Yes, I know people have complained about the wheel setup, but I played Planescape: Torment enough that it didn't bother me. It just felt good to have a game that would let me build a party per 3.5 rules, and be able to do most everything you can do on tabletop. It did take some time getting used to playing turn-based again (I went from BG1 to Planescape to BG2 to NwN before playing ToEE, so quite an adjustment).

It is a mediocre game, though. The voice acting is bad (I shut the sound off when I play), and it one of the buggiest games I've seen. Oh, and if you don't like the way the NPCs take all kinds of items, there is a fan mod out there that makes them take money only.

I think the combat and character creation/development are far better than any other DnD game. They use actual DnD rules, for one, whereas most RPGs only use character and statistic rules but make a real time combat version that's not at all the same. Real time necessarily focuses on your stats to overcome your opponents, but this system will let you use tactics, carefully use combat feats and things like "Full Defense" for each character and trip attacks to your best advantage. I always liked the tactical aspects of DnD, and this lets you play it that way.

It's too short to be great though, and patching is a necessity.

The ultimate failure of the game was that Atari made them release it before it was done cooking. It happens, but it killed the game's potential, and it may have killed the chances of anyone else making a DnD game with a by-the-book combat system. A more epic game allowing you to go through a high level with 8 characters with a similar (bug free!) engine would be awesome imo.

And if that doesn't appeal, maybe you're unaware that this game lets you hire or marry a gay pirate. A gay pirate! C'mon, that's not something you see every day lol.

[ 01-14-2005, 04:06 PM: Message edited by: Lucern ]