My Comeback Party; comments

Didn't you read the militia captain's dreadful account? It's basically a zombie with a couple levels who for story purposes has a history and likes to think of itself as a lich. Think of it as a badass zombie with delusions of grandeur basically.

It has reach due to its polearm weapon.

 

I found it pretty easy to dispatch with my level 1 party, myself. So much so that I kept exploring the lair wondering if I'd missed something. Hmm.

Interesting diversion though! The nice little stash of gold was nice, too.

 

That whole area was basically intended as a substitute for ToEE's boring low level Hommlet quests, so it had to be doable by an average level 1 party - hence no serious challenges except for BTA.

 

There's no level scaling involved, but yeah, the 'boss fight' you describe is meant to be a bit harder.

 

So I've rebuilt my party, more or less as before:

Pally 3 / Fighter X (spokesman, weapon + shield), Human Male, LG
Barb 2 / Fighter X (two-handers, thumpin' stuff), Half-Orc Male, CG
Cleric X (long swords, War + Good domains), Elf Female, CG
Druid X (long spears), Half-Orc Female, NG
Wizard X (generalist), Elf Male, CG

For slot #6, I'm experimenting with a new character:
Fighter 1/Rogue X, (spiked chain), Human Male, CG.

I will pump Dex and go for weapon finesse. I will forgo wasting feats on Cleave and instead focus on things like Combat Reflexes to boost attacks of opportunity (AoO's) augmented by sneak attack damage. I've read in a few corners that this is a pretty sound strategy, as for some reason the spiked chain is not only finessable, but a reach weapon. If memory serves, there are two pretty cool spiked chains that can be found in the game, which in past playthoughs I've just sold. Plus, the animation is kind of cool (though the actual attack animation is slower than most weapons, and will take some getting used to).

I'm to level 3 now with this group, and so far so good. Thoughts?

 

Druids are a good choice. I found mine to be more useful than my cleric for the most part, so much so that I considered playing a party of all druids. An army of buffed polar bears would surely come in handy. I didn't like the paladin in this game because it is so easy to fall. Simply being around a drinking contest is a grave sin apparently. The spiked chain rogue sounds cool, I'm curious as to how effective it will be.

A solid group, all things considered.

 

Sadly no. That's a bug/exploit with ToEE - you're not supposed to be able to attack at close range with reach weapons but you can.

 

Do you need to start TOEE via front-end or just activate TOEE and Co8 mod?

To make changes in number of pc's do you need to be in the front-end?

 

Yes.

 

I'm midway through level 4 now (just cleared the moat house) and this party is doing very well. Making my Druid a half-orc was a good decision, giving her some much needed oomph in melee with long spears. At the moment, my half-orc Barby 2 / Fighter 2 is using a glaive pretty effectively, and my Fighter 1 / Rogue 3 is surprisingly effective with the spiked chain. I've never played a game with 3 characters sporting reach weapons, but I have to say it comes in pretty handy, especially where AoO's are concerned.

My Fighter/Rogue is still a little weak in melee HP wise, but overall holds his own pretty well. I think once I'm able to get him some Dex-boosting items, he'll be much harder to hit. He has 18 Str, but I've given him Weapon Finesse and will dump all points into Dex. The +4 to damage from Str will be a nice bonus, and I definitely notice when the sneak attacks go off (currently 2d6). As I've never played with more than a single rogue level for a character, so far this is pretty fun.

 

Yeah, once combat starts everybody enters the queue. I suspect your rogue might stay hidden if he/she were under the effects of magic. (Personally I don't think it's terribly unrealistic for enemies to see that there is someone crouching nearby or whatever once a fight starts and they are alerted, but I see your point.)

btw, there is a rumor going around that the Keep on the Borderlands module being made by Shiningted is not dead after all. If completed, that would be an entirely new game.

 

Can you say...AWESOOOOME!!!! KotB was the very first D&D adventure I played, at age 14. A low-level adventure, but down well. Tons of fun. I think KotB it is also being inorporated into the BG2 mod - Classic Adventures - as they are adding a lot of the old modules to that mod.