In Progress Let's play Disciples of Steel

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Some weird stuff...

There is no DEX stat, but the manual says Strenght, Dexterity and Constitution are the prime requisites for Warriors and Knights?
Do they mean Accuracy? It's not the same, but I see it's the stat that governs the Dodge skill.

I rolled two Human monks and they are aged 66 and 84 years old? WTF?

EDIT:
What are the rules for backstabbing? Any weapon, including Open Hand?
What does Hide do in battle? Is it just to avoid being targeted?

The manual sure is lacking...

I've read up to here. A great LP that keeps delivering. That last dungeon seemed very large and diverse, but the word guessing shit with the hermit was retarded.

Yes Accuracy is DEX.

You have to re-create a few times the monk to get a young one mine is 16 or 18.

Hide is useful to avoid being targeted, but doesn't always work as creatures tend to actively search for hidden characters. I haven't messed around much with backstabbing and hide because I was busy increasing perception skill and now I'm focusing on disarm/pick skill.

Haven't had the chance to play this weekend, but I'll try to get an update during the week!

Romance?

So time to take care of the lady's father... Let’s go back to that tomb



That is definitely the right place



We find a door pretty quickly



Simple layout



Near here, in another small room we find...



I like the description



Now that is weird, as soon as the fight started I got this message!



And then this, the empty treasure chest that we've seen before



I had a hunch that I might have too many items between my characters and the vault, so I went to sell some non essentials items and when I come back I get the fight and the proper treasure



This is a weird bug! I've had some items disappearing on some saves that I had to redo... I wonder what was in the other 'empty' chests I found before...

Anyway back to exploring the dungeon, we find some orcs not feeling in their element



So far the dungeon is quite simple and you can see the 2 closets



Another room with caskets but this time keeping something alive in there!





This place is also full of traps



Not a problem for my rogue



Very symmetrical tomb, which makes sense I suppose, let's see what's behind these doors



hmm... Getting more interesting



That was disappointing...



Ah! Ah! This place is not completely symmetrical after all



Let's go down



Again a door



Nice!





They were a bit stingy with the gifts...



Secret door



Getting closer





Charming



Our first lich!



He's berserk, odd thing for a lich...



Berserk or not he didn't have the time to do anything, that's why if you're a mage you'd better surround yourself with fighters...

She can't completely hide her emotions



That doesn't last... next mission?





Ah Ah! That was the dungeon I found earlier, let's go there then



Let's clear this dungeon!



First door I find is...



Next door...





And that's what he was guarding



Another locked door in this area



What does it hide?





They're quite numerous



I think the animal rights activists are going to hunt me down after this



And back to the original locked door



Oh... What is that?



A Chimera...



Missed a few pictures here, that was behind a secret door I found just after dealing with the chimera





Wow! Nice!



That must be why we didn't find interesting loot in the father's tomb

This camp is full of secret doors



Further down



Undead collaborating with grave robbers?!



High perception, works sometimes





And close to that door we find…



... more undead



Didn't think they need to sleep... Unless they slept never to wake up again?

Another secret door



Whatever is behind that door must be fun!



Indeed





Vampires are tough, but not when facing a dark knight

Further down





Interesting





The interesting fact is Balen's Blade which we reconstructed with the dwarves kills all demon in one hit, making my priest really scary! Couldn't capture a picture showing that as the text flashes too quickly... Will try when I meet some more demons

Anyway there is a secret door



Another nice treasure in perspective



Missed a few pictures again... It contained quite a few potions

Anyway, further down





Seems like we interrupted something...



The wind giant started in the wrong position...



In that room we find...





...what we were asked to retrieve



The description comes after we get the shield... I guess it's due to the perception skill which spots treasure before we need to search for it



So this was the last part of the dungeon... Let's see if our lady is happy



Next mission?





Yep we need to find for some root again

Using transport we locate the swamp to the west





And skimming through it



That's where what it was



Oh found another root!



Anyway let's head back





And return we did! Next mission?





She has weird taste in men...



So I tried to come with only my illusionist to see if we could have other... romantic options





But it didn't work. I wouldn't get the next screen

I thought that if my illusionist was to find the root, it would work...



Didn't work either...

I guess the first person to talk to her is the one that gets married in the end. I don't remember who was selected back then... but luckily I can check out:



And we can see opn the upper left that the rogue was the leader of the party the first time we spoke to the lady. So that chooses who gets to marry the lady at the end of the quest line. So same sex marriage is possible I would suspect, and it's already been done years ago

Lol, that was... Unexpected.

Heh, that was a weird bug indeed. How many items did you have in inventory when it appeared (approx.)? 127, 255 or something like that?

Nice one

It could have very likely been 127, I had 50 items in the guild vault (which is the maximum number of items you can store there) and around 10 items on average for each of my 8 party members.

Another Kingdom

Ok Now it's time to finish Farnus since they also needed the cross

We are on friendly terms



That was the seal we found in the caravan in front of the lost city of Terine





I don't know what I have done to get this success



Next mission?





Went to the vault and dug out the Rathadonian captain's body I found in the dungeon near Hollenguard. Good thing I kept it!



Now it's the Thyra's Cross I found for the lady of Demata or should I say my Halfling rogue's wife now?





Never needed the key to get into Terine, anyway I have the cross





Next mission?





Looking around we find a cave that seems the right one here





And indeed it seems to be the right place



Yep this is what you'd expect form an orc outpost



Our first secret door is just next to the entrance!



Nothing in there though...



... apart from a trap



Another secret door not too far



Our first guards





Didn't last long, this where we are



And further down, more orcs, not as ready as the other ones were though



We go further still and we find...





So they are indeed involved, now to find some kind of proof, because this time bringing someone's corpse is not enough it seems

This outpost is quite simply built



Another secret door





And it seems we found our boss





A man on fire again!



Our first higher level enemy since we started that dungeon

He doesn't feel superior though



And there is probably a reason for that



Managed to get the picture on time! So yeah the dracnor had reason not to feel superior...

And in this room we find treasure!



Yep, it included the orders we were looking for. This mission was really a walk in the park compared to others ones you have to do before getting here. Not a bad thing really... It's not because you get tougher that you always have tougher missions to go for.

Let's go back to the king



Next mission?





Is that another Death knight? Wouldn't mind getting another sly blade...

While going to the forest we get an interesting message



Yep, I get payed taxes but I can make much more by killing a few ogres...

And at the edge of the forest we meet Jax





hmmm... not what I expected

He looks a lot like my monk



He was equipped with some Elven armor pieces but nothing else of value. He didn't last long

On the was back to Farnus, we meet a new encounter



Anyway back to Farnus



Next mission?





And yeah a new kingdom to rule



Next we will go to the Ruined temple a dungeon Whisper suggested to visit!

Looks like he had a fiery, burning determination




*Insert Cleve here*

So, it seems that whenever you complete all quests from a ruler, he automatically abdicates and gives you his/her throne? That's quite a reward, I wish more games had this feature. So, does the game end once your characters are the kings of the entire land?

Either you get the kingdom or they promise to be at your side during the final battle against the evil wizard (like the dwarves did so far). The game ends when you defeat the evil wizard which you can either do as a party in a final dungeon or going to war with the armies of all the kingdoms you helped.

That Farnus quest that you've already did - is to return Thydra's cross. You have it so they take it from you and give reward.

I finished by killing wizard in fire volcano dungeon, but to get army victory route - how exactly you get allies like dwarfs and elves to "join" you in battle?

Haven't reached that point yet, I still have to finish the other kingdoms first. I will let you know once I get there.

kofeur, thank you.

Know that you have wrenched me from 5 happy years of lurking in the RPG Codex forums without ever previously feeling compelled to register. I do so now to thank you for making this Lets Play thread. Disciples of Steel is a game I have great appreciation for, with it's charms and quirks and unique features overwhelming, for me, it's flaws and shortcomings.

I've just discovered this thread after a bit of googling, prompted by the necro-ing of a Hellherron thread in another forum. I shall proceed to devour everything you've written. I may even play Disciples again myself. There remain some parts of it I've never been able to solve, one being a word quiz in order to access a particular sub-area within a dungeon. Mayhaps you've already encountered it, but it is not the hermit.

I do have one immediate question, do you have a copy of the spell list that indicates what the minimum wisdom or intelligence is required to become capable of casting particular spells? I recall that there are some spells that require attributes to be boosted very high. Wrath of God for Clerics in particular I recall requires something like 108 wisdom, meaning that you really need to purposeful dedicate yourself to pursuing it.

104 Wisdom, 250+ Karma for WoG.

Thank you Whisper.

It is possible that no one else has seen it recently, since I've never seen it digitized, but there is a spell reference sheet which lists the attribute and karma/karma equivalent requirements for each spell. I owned this game for the PC back in 1993 or 1994, which is the last time I saw the sheet.

On my last partial play-through, several years ago, I took notes in an excel file against each quest-line and quest, noting down the solution including the grid reference of the relevant mob, dungeon or collectible. Of course, I've since lost that file.

I've only ever completed the game, with a victory via the army route, not the rpg route, if that makes sense, and I did that without venturing forth my own forces beyond whatever city they were garrisoned in. I would rather like to have another go and play it differently.

The deadline is fairly tight though, and does limit what you can do and encourages focused activity. I recall that raising and equipping army units was also hellishly expensive, and really made you realize that whilst your party might be crazy-rich by adventurer standards, they were dirt-poor as rulers.

Ruined Temple

Time to go visit that temple! Here is the temple in question, I had passed in front of it quite a few times but never gone in thinking it was somehow related to a quest.



Let's enter then



This time, the first guards we meet are lizardmen





And we quickly find a secret door



And another one



Going through the secret doors would allow us to avoid this encounter, but who said we want to avoid encounters?





See, this is the door they were guarding, so you can either enter normally or enter through the secret door





Going further in the dungeon



It's an entrance to a huge room, I wonder if there is a wind giant around since it's the lair of the wind. Unless it's home to air elementals? We'll find out soon enough

Interesting architecture...



Ah Ok, that was what the letter T is all about...



These guys are the randomn encounters around here



Didn't show them properly earlier



Oh another secret door with stairs leading down, I will leave that for later



Hmm... We had the chance to look at all the letters now





Seems like this voice's name is Hyt, weird name

The rest of the room doesn't contain anymore letters



Unless it's Hyt in another language...

Let's go back to that door, but before answering the question let's see if we can answer with force



Scary



This guy is clearly underestimating us...



Anyway, getting in we find another door...



... and another giant





Ok, now that we have an idea, let's answer the question



So that is this giant's name... Talk about having a huge ego, writing his own name as part of this room



Looking around this room properly, we find



Wow cool!!



Thanks for the tip Whisper!

And going through the next door







A death knight is much more dangerous than a wind Giant...







He did eat 3 hits of the Sly blade before going down which is impressive after all... So this was how it was supposed to be you answer the question and you get treasure, if you go further in you have to kill this giant. I guess the scripting of this game was quite basic.

Anyway inside we find a locked door



No worries, my thief is quite adept at lockpicking by now, inside we find





Nice exactly what I needed for my illusionist!

But more importantly let's drink all these potions to see what the final spells look like!

Illusionist



Priest



Magician



There are quite a few spells to try here! Next fights should be fun!

Anyway the other room...



Going back to another unexplored part of the dungeon, we find this behind a secret door







Nice, these mushroom allows us to recever magic energy, each one of them for a magical discipline.

Increasing your skill in a magical discipline increases only the magical energy in that discipline. The highest spell you can cast is governed by your attribute. To get the last spell you need an attribute score pf 104 in the chosen discipline. I found out that a skill of 250 is enough to be able to cast any spell.

This is where it is



In a room nearby





Ok, let's go back to the stairs



The lower floor is essentialy a corridor that leads to this room





Cool creature, let's see what it can do in combat



It's confident but not feeling superior



Didn't last long...

Let's answer the question



In this room we find







That's the second blue amulet I find, I wonder what its effects are... The key must be the one that opens the door I picked previously.

This is what the lower floor looks like



Going back up, I realise ther eis a part of the dungeon I missed, let's amend this mistake







Oh cool, these guys are the ideal guinea pigs for the best spell of the game Wrath of God!

But first I want to check something, my priest's experience points



3090 XP, ok let's proceed

That's going to hurt!



Indeed!



Killed everybody!





Ok let's check our XP ponts now



3337 XP. That's what I thought. If I had killed them by hand with my priest one after the other, he would have earned more XP points. I'll write my thoughts about that with more on the combat system (haven't forgotten about that one) in another post after I finish the game.

This was what the lizardmen were afraid of





Not much of a challenge, we find this in the room



Fun layout



And here is the locked door that goes with the key we just found





Interesting



More interesting



And a secret door to boot



I wonder who's been eating both Lizardmen and orcs...



Let's find out



Another door, they really know how to keep the suspense!



Hideous beasts!



Ah our friends the trolls!



That was fun, I hadn't seen them in a while

Anyway in a room not far from here





Another secret door



And another set of stairs leading down, but we'll finish exploring this floor first



This door looks interesting



Never knew the orcs were tough enough to tame panthers..



Further down





And they were guarding...



... another group



In their room we find





Let's see what's in the cell



Nice!



Weird, never needed the key to open the cell

And exploring further





Ok let's go down now



And a secret door







Beckoning me over...

She doesn't feel superior, that is surprising



Let's try this spell



uh, ok...



This spell is great in concept, but not useful for this game...

Poor succubus...





She didn't know she was facing Balen's Blade

Anyway, we find in this room





A white key... That is probably the last key that went in Terine dungeon.. the door we had to pick

Exploring the level further, we find





And just near this place the locked door in question





Interesting





And in one of the doors





And this is it, this dungeon is fully explored. And since it wasn't a mission, we don't have to go back to anybody!

Next we'll go to the other kingdoms!

Thanks! Really appreciate this

You should definitely play it again. If you want wait until I've finished all the city quests, so you know which enemies you can kill without keeping their bodies, which quests to do without closing another quest line, etc... It would make the game even more enjoyable

As Whisper said, you need 104 in the chosen attribute and at least 250 in the skill. I guess, you must have seen it in the latest update by the time you're reading this

You just need to capture all Rathadon cities?
Also, how exactly your allies "join" you for battle?
Also why you need army, all cities are capturable by your team alone.

p.s. What happens if time is up? Game end or what.

I have to give the caveat that my answers are based on memory dating back to 1994, since I have not played to completion on subsequent plays.

Q. You just need to capture all Rathadon cities?
A. I was never able to capture a single city, I attacked one, but it was extremely well defended and the forces I could move to attack it were hopelessly outnumbered. This because I believe that the forces you gain by winning allies are immovable from the city they originate from, leaving you only units you raise yourself with your own coin for overland conquests. My route to completing the game with a "win" was therefore an event whereby Rathadon forces led a final armageddon type assault upon an allied city. In this event, which I believe was simply triggered by reaching a preset date, the game transferred me to a strategic battle screen where I was looking top down at a fortification with my troops inside the gates and the enemy outside.

My forces in this battle consisted of:

Units garrisoning the city
Units contributed by each of the allies I had won
Units I had raised myself ("Rainbow Archers", I think)

Upon my victory in this battle, the game ended.

Q. Also, how exactly your allies "join" you for battle?
A. In the armageddon-type battle which led to game end, they were simply made available to me for deployment. I had not transported them overland to the city that was assaulted, so this was a developer-driven feature. I think I saw messages like "Teal sends xyz unit to aid you" in sequence for each of my allies.

Q. Also why you need army, all cities are capturable by your team alone.
A. As I understand it, there are 3 ways to "win"

1. The party kills some big baddy in the final dungeon (the sorcerer guy, I forget the name)
2. You use army (not party) to capture all Rathadonian settlements
3. You do neither of the above, but win the armageddon battle

Maybe there is #2b, capturing all Rathadonian settlements with your party. I don't know why, but I don't think you can do this. I say this because if it were possible, it seems likely that I'd have done this.

I've only ever completed the game via #3, which I dare say is the easiest way to win. #1 is possible if you take care within the reportedly buggy final dungeon i.e. do not move beyond the undefined dungeon perimeter. I'm not certain that #2 is possible given the forces available to you and those arrayed against you. Towards the end of the game I had 2 clerics with Wrath of God and was very quickly wiping out 20+ strong groups of mobs with great loot, and harvesting that loot for coin. I was still hopelessly unable to raise strong enough forces for a successful overland campaign. This is a part of the game I'd like to experience more of.

Q. p.s. What happens if time is up? Game end or what.
A. I definitely did not have any choice but to fight that armageddon battle and recall only that winning the armageddon battle granted me some form of victory message. I think afterwards it was still possible for the party to continue overland exploration and activity, but I didn't do so since the story had concluded.

I killed Variz in final dungeon. Also to find this boss, you dont need to pass buggy sections, if you see them - you are in wrong way.

About capturing towns with your party, you need to take out 2 towns during quest line. So basicly you can as well take Rathadon ones if you want.

I am hoping to try all options in this LP. I am currently traveling only with 'transport' spell, and I never camp, so hopefully I should have enough time to do the rest.

Buying an army is really expensive... I make much more money from adventuring than from taxes! So the only way I can afford armies is with my adventuring funds.

You dont need money, except some for elven arrows, unless you want to spam +mana mushrooms in battles.

kofeur, it may also interest you to know that in three major play-throughs (albeit only one to completion) I've never used a monk. I had no idea that they could enable a party to overcome higher level enemies than an equivalent level party without one. I've always avoided monks because I like tinkering with armor and weapons, but wow, being able to stun is clearly a big plus.

I went with monk, was pretty useless, reason being he was same level as other party. Unless you powerlevel monk (takes time), they wont be so useful. Low damage(at the end you are looking at 200 dmg from knight per hit to 15-20 from monk, see difference?), low defence and stuns are random.

If you invest that much time to powerlvl one party member, i think every class except illusionist will be awesum. Though archer would be fastest to pwrl (since you can ignore defence).

Curious, so this power-levelling, are you doing it within the continuous game-time, or effectively doing it on a different time-line by levelling the character and then adding that leveled character to a party you start the game with such that the game is started with that highly leveled character? Since from the start the clock is ticking towards the deadline, I've always had in mind efficiency albeit without compromising much if at all on enjoying play.

Incidentally regarding dungeon secret doors, since there are so many and since there is no reliable way for your characters to detect them for you, I've always had the practice of pushing against each and every single wall that did not border against an area I'd already explored i.e. step one, push against walls, step two, push against walls, step three etc. This is one of the dimensions of the game I'm not crazy about.