Mask of the Betrayer '15

[PorkyThePaladin]

This got embarassingly trivial once you realize you could rest in the starting room.

I admit that's horribly cheesy but by then my patience with the OC was nearing the end of its tether.

How do you mean? You could rest anywhere in that dungeon, but what I meant was, if you went to rest, most times a really powerful enemy party would spawn right around your main character (shadowwalkers, etc), which for me was suicide, since I was a mage, so imagine a bunch of those spawn right on top of you without you having any buffs/debuffs/spells on, insta-death every time. So in practical terms, that meant I couldn't rest and recoup spells.

Then the whole boss sequence at the of OC, god, so annoying. The first phase was easy, but then the second phase, you had a herd of his minor copies flood the level, and I just couldn't kill them normally. Spells did little damage, and I ran out of them really fast because there were so many, and they would mow my companions down really fast too, even with summons.

I finally figured out a way to beat it by having my character, and 2 other casters in the party (Sand and that elven druid chick) all cast the high level transform spell, all turning into Shadowwalkers. I tried Golems before that, didn't work well, but Shadowwalkers were just the thing. The 3 of them tore through that herd like a harvester through a field of grain.

The final phase was pretty hard too, but I just used a shit ton of greater elementals to tank damage while I finally whittled that bastard's health down.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

How do you mean? You could rest anywhere in that dungeon

Do it in the starting room, no interruptions or anything.

 

[Lilura]

Ok, it seems going full evil means you never meet the Woodman and therefore don't get to devour him for spirit gorge. Ashenwood in general is pretty poorly designed for evil spirit eaters, too: no closure with Nadaj and Delenka, no Gnarlthorn essence drop, and Imsha and Tamlith simply disperse when threatened. Meh..

Note to self: don't neglect to take Gann to Coveya Kurg'annis. Ever.
Casual observation: OoM as warlock kicks enough ass with puppet mode off. Good for lazy players.
Opinion: MotB rocks, but the Swordflight Series is still superior in the ways that count. I would probably take an extended hiatus from this genre if Chapter Three was not on the horizon.

 

[Black]

it seems going full evil means you never meet the Woodman and therefore don't get to devour him for spirit gorge.

I'm pretty sure you can get to the Woodman as an evil character.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Do it in the starting room, no interruptions or anything.

I did, and it was the same for me, if I went to sleep in starting room, bad guys would spawn on top of me.

I would probably take an extended hiatus from this genre if Chapter Three was not on the horizon.

Do you only play C&C heavy, number-crunching RPGs? I am sorta playing through a lot of different RPGs (many of those on the top 70 list), and I really enjoy a lot of them for totally different reasons. Might be good for you as well if you are feeling burned out, because it's almost like different genres.

 

[Lilura]

I'm pretty sure you can get to the Woodman as an evil character.

Not if you pray to Malar.

Do you only play C&C heavy, number-crunching RPGs? I am sorta playing through a lot of different RPGs (many of those on the top 70 list), and I really enjoy a lot of them for totally different reasons. Might be good for you as well if you are feeling burned out, because it's almost like different genres.

I'm just so jaded by the genre in general, because Swordflight made almost everything else seem like utter shit.

To expand a bit, I've outgrown RPGs that don't feature resource management as an ongoing concern. Resource management has many facets that need to align to crystalize the concept. You can't have loopholes for the player to exploit.

Almost every RPG fails in this respect: Fallout, Arcanum, Baldur's Gate, Bloodlines, Origins, Jagged Alliance 2, Temple of Elemental Evil, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, NWN, NWN2 (and 99% of their user-made modules) etc.

So yeah, combat encounters need to be made tough by enforcing resource management on a tactical, strategic and campaign-wide lvl. Not saying Swordflight is perfect but it's the peerless exemplar, in this respect.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I did, and it was the same for me, if I went to sleep in starting room, bad guys would spawn on top of me.

Odd, might help that I closed the door first. But then I played a Barbarian so didn't have to worry about spells I guess.

 

[Black]

I'm pretty sure you can get to the Woodman as an evil character.

Not if you pray to Malar.

I see. Any other differences than if you'd pray to the default local deity?

 

[Lilura]

I see. Any other differences than if you'd pray to the default local deity?

Other than pwning Gnarlthorn and getting nothing for it, then pwning the forest and the consequence being under-developed and unsatisfying, nope.

Only by praying to Chauntea - a sickeningly good act - can you gain one of two useful feats from the Woodman: spirit gorge or bestow life force.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

That doesn't make sense. The woodman always appears after you kill the genius Loci (Nadaj), in what way you solved the 3 tasks (malar or Chauntea, help the shape of fire or not, what spirit to put in the sanctuary etc) doesn't matter. I never had problems with this and the woodman never failed to appear no matter which path I chose. Using Malar's item (created with the blood of the beast of malar) definetely doesn't prevent the woodman from appearing, I did that often enough.

 

[ksaun]

Lacrymas Love your profile pic, cause Kaelyn was my favorite companion. That's actually one of my issues with MotB, that you can't really unwind that path all the way, the noble path of working with Kaelyn to break down the wall not to save yourself or Akachi, but because it's such a cruelty that needs to go. At some point that new god of death dude-man just goes fuck off, you aint doing this today. I would've preferred something really epic where you tear it down and then unleash some kind of a cataclysm with all kinds of unexpected consequences.

Oh, so you can't pull it off then?
I was totally defending dat wall so I wouldn't know. But that's indeed a bit suboptimal if you can't do it.

(At the time, the Wall of the Faithless was a fixture in the Forgotten Realms universe and allowing it to be destroyed would have defied canon.)

 

[Lambach]

(At the time, the Wall of the Faithless was a fixture in the Forgotten Realms universe and allowing it to be destroyed would have defied canon.)

Once Kelemvor explains the necessity of the wall, I assume most people realize that tearing it down would be extremely counter-productive in the long run.

 

[Jaesun]

As if the party could ever attempt to battle (and win) Kelemvor's Avatar....

 

[hoverdog]

As if the party could ever attempt to battle (and win) Kelemvor's Avatar....

well, an evil PC was able to fight off and kill several gods who ambushed him, according to his epilogue.

 

[Black]

Yes, but outside their domain and only when mastering the hunger.