The O.C. - Newbie Thoughts

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Wow, I don't know how you managed to stay within 3 inventory tabs. All 6 of mine are chocker-block and I use the Stone of Recall continually to sell stuff at the Temple.

 

Well, I didn't play a rogue, so I didn't have to lug around traps all the time, and most items that were of little value were dropped or ignored.

 

Is a Fire Beetle Belly of little value? They take up loads of room and I've only found one use for them so far.

 

It's worthless. Most of the monster trophies you can get at every corpse of their kind is useless.

 

Au contraire! Monster trophies are only useless if one is not an arcane caster (or a Rogue with UMD). For the blessed classes, the monster trophies (fire beetle bellies, bodak's teeth, etc.) can be used in Chapters 2 & 3 to create some very nice magical items.

Harbourboy, if you have taken UMD skill with your Rogue / Ranger / SD, then you can make yourself some nice magical items with the reagents you are picking up. If you go to the Bio boards and search for Voleron's guide to crafting items you will find an excellent description of what items you can craft, what reagents are needed, and how to actually make the items. If you have UMD, you can simply buy scrolls of the spells needed so you do not need to be a full fledged arcane caster.

Just to give you some ideas about what you can make: you like that regeneration ring you have? Well, in Chapter 3 you can craft a +4 Regeneration Ring (regenerate 4 times as fast as what you have now). How about an Amulet of Natural Armor +5? That would go well with a Ring of Protection +5. Other classes will not be able to buy items this good until Chapter 4 (and they will pay a great deal of gold for them) while you can enjoy them throughout Chapter 3.

Therefore, if you did get UMD skill for your Rogue, keep those reagents and make yourself some excellent gear.

 

I haven't got much UMD because I pumped so much into Hide, Move Silently, and Tumble to qualify for Shadowdancer. I also have maxed out Disable Traps so that I can recover better traps (which I find essential for those big battles when Linu has already expired)

Latest gripe is about the random placement of chest and crates. It's annoying and illogical that there should be chests all over the place, by the side of the road, in caves etc etc that all have some treasure in them. It's just silly. Chests with treasure should only be in houses, or guarded by a monster, or in a storeroom. I seem to spend half the game opening a box of some sort.

 

Yes, what a society Neverwinter must be to have so much wealth and magical items just lying around in barrels! It is rather silly.

On a more serious note, UMD is one of the best skills in the game. I would heartily recommend that you put points into it at your next level-up. Would it not be nice to wear Monk robes & boots? How about using clerical items such as Wand of the Heavens or Staff of Curing? What about tossing fireballs from a Staff of Power? UMD makes Rogues the most versatile character in the game. For my part, I would never play a Rogue without maxing UMD. I often include some Rogue levels in my Wizard builds just so I can use Monk robes (Robe of the Dark Moon is the earliest Haste item you can get, under normal circumstances) and boots (Boots of the Sun Soul +5? Very nice.).

 

FYI - Bards and Assassins can also take UMD as a class skill.

 

Hmm, I just took Shadowdancer as my 11th level so can't get anymore UMD until probably towards the end of Chapter 2.

Is there anything I can do with my existing 4 points of UMD or do I need stacks more to do anything good?

 

Four points in UMD (what is your CHA? What is important is your total UMD, not just the number of skill ranks) will allow use of low level scrolls (allowing you to make some pretty nice items in the Wizard's Lab). IIRC, a skill level of five in UMD (ranks + CHA modifier) will allow Robes of the the Dark Moon (Haste) and some of the lower level Boots of the Sun Soul.

The easiest way to see what you can get is to go to a merchant and place the cursor over an item you know you could not normally purchase because of your class, e.g. arcane or divine scrolls, monk robes or boots, etc. If the item has a red background, your UMD is not high enough yet to use the item. If the item has a white background you can buy and use the item as your UMD skill level is high enough.

Note that CHA boosting items will help raise your UMD, so Sharwen's Belt, Boddyknock's Ring and the Helm of Persuasion will all have some usage for you in this area.

 

Ah, that red background vs white background things sounds like what I need to look at. Where do I find a Wizard's Lab, or is that further on in the game?

 

I recall one being in the dungeon of some deceased magus in Chapter Two, and another one in the Tower of the Arcane Brotherhood, but I played the OC well over two years ago so I may have forgotten or misremembered. By the way, you lose all your items at the beginning to HoTU, so they won't be useful then. But Robes of the Dark Moon are a great armor choice, and don't forget that you can use many of the wands and staves you find if your UMD is high enough. If you know the gold value of an item, there is a chart in the manual, somewhere near the end, that allows you to cross-reference your UMD skill with prohibited item costs.

 

Cool, I found some Yellow Rose gloves that I was able to wear that should be restriced to monks. There is loads of XP in the Charwood area so I'll be level 12 in no time and I'll take another Rogue level then and try out more UMD.

Meanwhile Linu is getting worse. Every time I get her back she lasts about two fights before dying to some loser Skeleton Warrior. I'm beginning to think I'm better off going it alone.

 

I really enjoyed the story of the OC, and the first time through thoroughly enjoyed the game. I really enjoyed trudging around Charwood with a torch. The 3E rules are great and easy to understand and the rogue class is finally something worth playing. Aribeth was a fantastic NPC.

However, I found the replayability to be very poor. Having only one NPC around was a factor. A small group of adventurers (say 4) would've been great. Although I'm more character oriented than item oriented, I found that there was a severe lack of decent weapons. The game was also far too short.

 

Yes, Tassadar, I am finding that the Rogue rocks big time in this game. This Charwood area is quite cool, after the boredom of the endless troll and orge caves.

 

Harbourboy,

Bovine Knight is correct about the two locations he mentions. Those two locations allow you to make a single magical item. The Wizard's Lab in Chapter 2 is behind Eltoora. It is a raised platform which shows the "door" pointer when you place the mouse over it. Simply step on it and you will be teleported to the lab. There is a man in the lab who will have a shop selling scrolls and ingredients once you give all the books to Eltoora, completing her quest. Also within the lab is a chest. Simply place the reagents in the chest, cast the appropriate spell on the chest and, if all was done properly, open the chest and retreive your item.

The Wizard Lab in Chapter 3 works similarly, just talk to Eltoora.

 

Oh well, I'm still stuck in the castle in Charwood. Is there any way to get Linu to cast Protection from Evil? What's the point of having a cleric if you can't ask her to cast the buff you want?

 

Npcs are pretty worthless, in my opinion. I'm soloing HoTU with a Rogue/Shadowdancer wearing Robes of the Dark Moon and slaughtering any sneak-attack vulnerable foe in my path...though that legion of skeleton warriors guarding Enserric took awhile to finish. The main problem with playing rogues is that most battles are relatively easy, but constructs and undead are usually quite difficult, unless one has access to items specifically designed to combat these types of monsters.

 

Yeah, a Rogue / Shadowdancer really runs into trouble if they encounter a non backstabble enemy who can detect concealed characters.