The Dark Eye Realms of Arkania - Blade of Destiny

[PorkyThePaladin]

I never played the ROA series before, heard some good things about it here and in other places, and decided to give it a try, starting from the first game. Been playing it for a few days, after spending a couple of days just reading the manual and creating my party. And I have to say, so far, I am really disappointed.

First, there is the terrible combat system, which is, in my opinion, a great example of why turn based does not necessarily equate to good. It is so clunky, boring, and most of all, slow as all hell. Even though I leveled all my characters' combat skills as much as I could, they cannot hit anything in melee range. On top of that, everyone also parries once per round, making even more attacks useless. Magic users run out of astral points (mana) after a few weak casts, so really, the only way to do damage is via missile weapons. I outfitted everyone except the tanky front line with bows/crossbows/etc, position them around the enemies, and it still takes forever even with focus fire to kill some lowly bandits. The turn-based combat makes it even worse, because ever time i need to perform actions for every party member. That's on top of really clunky combat interface. And then of course, the icing on the cake, after you spend 2 hours beating on some retard and are close to killing him, he suddenly decides to run, and runs away, because the ranged party members have to be some distance away from him.

Some of the longer combats (involving 6-9 bandits) take a ridiculous amount of time, considering that nothing interesting at all is happening. The tactical aspects of it are also a joke, basically move tank next to target, move ranged behind/to the side, commence... There are some spells I suppose, but at this point I have almost no chance to cast them successfuly, and no mana.

Then, outside of combat, this game tried to undertake a deep simulationist approach. Ok, I love simulations, but there has to be some sort of goal where the simulation leads to enjoyable gameplay. A good example of that would be NetHack, which I've played on and off for years. That game has a lot of similar stuff to RoA, having to eat, weight considerations, equipment being damaged, new stuff you find being as likely to hurt you as to help you. But in NetHack, this is all balanced to be fun. After you get in the flow of it, most of that stuff just adds layers of strategy and depth to the game. In RoA so far (and yes, maybe it gets better later), it just adds a ton of hassle. I trained some of my party members to be good at healing, so what happens? Half the time they give my party members diseases instead of healing their hitpoints. Weapons break all the time, if you try to carry spares, it makes your party heavily encumbered. You need to carry all kinds of shit for various situations that may or may not happen, but all that stuff makes everyone overweight. You end up constantly having to juggle everyone's inventories, through a really shitty interface. Lots of mechanics aren't well explained in the manual or the game. The freaking dungeons don't even show you passageways half the time unless you have someone with a really high perception up front and rub them against every wall.

I am going to continue playing Blade of Destiny for now, want to see if it gets better, but what do you guys think? Am I missing something here?

 

[Lady_Error]

Try Star Trail instead (Part 2). There you can skip the combat by letting it play out automatically. Also, it is a much nicer game than Blade of Destiny.

 

[Darth Roxor]

(and yes, maybe it gets better later)

Nope, it doesn't. Blade of Destiny is a pretty shit game all in all. It's boring and full of chores, the combat is terrible, some of its design is completely obtuse and many of the quests/dungeons were very obviously designed in such a way to make you buy a cluebook.

If you don't like it already, I can only suggest you drop it right now. You'll get sick of the entire thing in a few hours tops, and after that you'll just keep playing with a walkthrough open to make the nightmare end as quickly as possible. AND THE ENDGAME STILL WON'T BE WORTH IT.

Quite possibly the only good parts of BoD are the music and the manual. The travel interface gets a few bonus points, but it also turns out annoying more often than not.

 

[Gord]

I am going to continue playing Blade of Destiny for now, want to see if it gets better, but what do you guys think? Am I missing something here?

Depends. IMHO the strength of Blade of Destiny is the way the main quest is done - you are free to follow the leads (map pieces) in your own sequence, which gives a sense of freedom not often found in RPGs. The global map + small local maps is probably the best way to do a (semi) open world in the limits of computing without sacrificing too much illusion of size.
The downsides of the game for me are mostly on the technical side. They have improved that noticeably in Star Trail and Shadows over Riva, so BoD feels somewhat clunky and outdated in comparison.

As for combat, it's rather easy if you do a little bit of character/party optimization during character creation and after you gained a few levels (ultimately the game can be played with just about any party, but there are some character types that suck and others are better).

Spoiler

Some recommendations to character creation:

If you want to cheese it, try to get as many 12s and 13s as possible
You can raise negative traits to raise positive ones, the negatives will crop up from time to time, but in general their influence isn't so big, biggest exception probalby being superstition since it affects magic resistance
Good classes are Fighter, Mage, the elfs, the dwarf - a dwarf can do everything you'd need a thief to do but is more sturdy and a better fighter
Thorwaller, hunter and thief are ok, but nothing special. Druid can be ok, but is one of the weaker magic users.
For a beginner I wouldn't reccommend the witch.

In combat you can easily cheese a bit. Armor class rules in this game. By giving your main tanks as much armor as possible, you can make them almost completely resistant to normal damage. Armor is much better than parry (since parrying is limited to one attack/round) , so put your points into attack, not parry, on level-up for the tanks.
Since an enemy can parry only once, attack him with multiple characters.
Ranged attacks can't be parried, iirc, and do good damage, making them pretty effective.
Mages in the TDE ruleset are not really suitable for damage-dealing, except to quickly finish of an enemy or on some certain occasions (e.g. when fighting against demons, which can only be hurt by magic and magic weapons). Rather your mage should be used to debuff/disable enemies with cost effective spells, most notably the blinding lightning spell (don't know the english name).
Perform the staff-rituals with your mage, they give you a magic torch and rope.

There are a few spells you should raise even though you practically never need them, because they might become important once or twice during the trilogy, either to escape a trap or to find some treasure. Those are the ghost banishing and the Melt solid spells, iirc.

The simulationist aspect is really not that complicated. You are pretty safe already if you consider what equipment you need in the wilderness (clothes, blankets, food, water,...). Try not to travel too much during winter, though.
It's good to have one dedicated healer and one as back up if your healer gets sick/wounded. Additionally you often need the right herbs for healing, so have one char able to fins some herbs, too. The healers in the cities can help, too, but their quality varies. Some are good, others are charlatans. You can sometimes get some hints in inns.
Save the game before traveling, don't worry too much about the small xp penalty when saving outside of temples, it really doesn't matter much.

In what order you travel around isn't really that important, but it might pay off to read some guides if you want to optimize it a bit (of course doing it on your own might be more fun). There are a few magic weapons/armors hidden in the world that can make the game easier, but finding them blind can take a while. As a hint: there's a village full of Pirates somewhat north-west of the starting city where you can find some stuff if you manage to beat the pirates.
Anyway you can encounter some side-quests by exploring the map and the cities (rumors in taverns will often give hints).

There's one big problem with the main quest, imho, which is that one of the very last things you need to find is hidden quite well and there's no hint in the game telling you where it is, or that you need it at all. So at that point you can either explore (hint: it's not in the civilized areas) or simply consult a walkthrough.

Also don't listen to Darth Roxor's lies.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

In combat you can easily cheese a bit. Armor class rules in this game. By giving your main tanks as much armor as possible, you can make them almost completely resistant to normal damage. Armor is much better than parry (since parrying is limited to one attack/round) , so put your points into attack, not parry, on level-up for the tanks.
Since an enemy can parry only once, attack him with multiple characters.
Ranged attacks can't be parried, iirc, and do good damage, making them pretty effective.

Yeah, I am already doing most of this. Equipped the two front-line tanks with chain mail pieces (best I can afford so far), and equipped everyone else with missile weapons. I am winning the fights, but it just takes such a long time, and this is against mostly bandits. Can't imagine how long a fight against something really powerful would take.

The simulationist aspect is really not that complicated. You are pretty safe already if you consider what equipment you need in the wilderness (clothes, blankets, food, water,...). Try not to travel too much during winter, though.
It's good to have one dedicated healer and one as back up if your healer gets sick/wounded. Additionally you often need the right herbs for healing, so have one char able to fins some herbs, too. The healers in the cities can help, too, but their quality varies. Some are good, others are charlatans. You can sometimes get some hints in inns.
Save the game before traveling, don't worry too much about the small xp penalty when saving outside of temples, it really doesn't matter much.

My biggest problem is that if I equip my party with all the stuff they might need, it takes up most of the inventory slots AND weighs them down. Can't even carry most of the stuff I get from fights/dungeons back to sell.

 

[Gord]

Yeah, I am already doing most of this. Equipped the two front-line tanks with chain mail pieces (best I can afford so far), and equipped everyone else with missile weapons. I am winning the fights, but it just takes such a long time, and this is against mostly bandits. Can't imagine how long a fight against something really powerful would take.

TDE is a system where the advances from level ups are far less dramatic than in e.g. DnD. You will hit more often and get better equipment increasing damage output, but you won't encounter too many enemies that are orders of magnitude more powerful than those early bandits. Overall combat gets usually easier as you progress. That being said I do understand that you get a bit bored by it. If it's not present already (don't remember), then at least Star Trail introduced a auto-combat system that lets you delegate trash-mob fights to the computer.

My biggest problem is that if I equip my party with all the stuff they might need, it takes up most of the inventory slots AND weighs them down. Can't even carry most of the stuff I get from fights/dungeons back to sell.

Don't burden your characters with too many rations. You don't need more than 5-10 per person, if at all - especially if you have a good hunter. Likewise you e.g. don't need winter clothing during spring-autumn. There are also some clutter items that don't serve a purpose, like cutlery. Other stuff like climbing hooks is extremely situational. And as I said, do the staff rituals with your mage (if you have one), saves you a light-source and a rope, I think. Eventually you will find some magic belts that increase your strength, those help a lot.

Edit: Also, you don't need to haul back every sword you find. Money isn't much of a problem usually and there is more efficient loot around (some herbs, gems, magic stuff).
Tip: Should you keep playing and want to import your party into Star Trail, buy some expensive herbs and sell them in Star Trail. Money import is limited, herbs are carried over.

 

[V_K]

Spoiler

Druid can be ok, but is one of the weaker magic users.

Spoiler

Druids have Dance from the get go, which is IIRC the cheapest "instakill" spell in the game.

 

[Scroo]

As Gord said, a good hunter is vital and provides you with more than enough food. A good herbalist will provide you with the herbs you need for healing and combat.

I played through the game myself for the first time early this year and I didn't think it was incredibly difficult or harsh tbh but I have to admit I consulted a few FAQs about the best party composition and hints for travel and stuff so I didn't go in completely blind. I also had 3 elves I believe which I found very useful due to the long ranged combat. Melee combat became easier in the long run tho. Also you should focus on AT completely imho you don't need PA that much - when your front row fighters are equipped with really strong armors they will barely get hurt by most monsters.

Disclaimer:

I only played through the game once so maybe my opinions are crap ^^'

 

[Grimwulf]

Don't wanna create a new thread to ask an advice.

So, I'm halfway through Blades of Destiny right now (5 map pieces out of 9) and I think I'm doing pretty good. But I kinda afraid to mess up spell development, considering that I plan to walk through all 3 games with one party. Spells in RoA are extremely situational and somewhat confusing. For example, only recently I found out that "petrified" status is cured with Dispel Transformation spell. And I never bothered leveling it up for anyone.

So the question is, what non-combat spells should I pay attention to, if I plan to import mah party to Star Trail, and then to Shadows of Riva?

The party is:
Dwarf (tank/leads in towns and dungeons)
Fighter (tank/body skills)
Ice Elf (agility fighter/buff spells, some clairvoyance and dispel)
Silvan Elf (archer/healer/hunter/clairvoyance and healing spells)
Druid (archer/leads in wilderness/domination spells)
Combat magician (high level combat spells and wide variety of 0-3 lvl spells)

Also, how de fuck do I use this:
SOLIDIRID RAINBOW'S HUE: Carry To My Goal True. Creates a magic rainbow
bridge of up to 50 paces in length

There is a spot in wilderness with a broken bridge and options:
- build a new one (some kind of "tools" required - can't figure out which ones exactly, I already bought ALL of them, and it still says I don't have "neccessary tools", dammit)
- find another way
- go back

But I have this spell, fffuck. Should it be some high level in order to work? Will I ever need it?

 

[V_K]

Don't wanna create a new thread to ask an advice.

So, I'm halfway through Blades of Destiny right now (5 map pieces out of 9) and I think I'm doing pretty good. But I kinda afraid to mess up spell development, considering that I plan to walk through all 3 games with one party. Spells in RoA are extremely situational and somewhat confusing. For example, only recently I found out that "petrified" status is cured with Dispel Transformation spell. And I never bothered leveling it up for anyone.

So the question is, what non-combat spells should I pay attention to, if I plan to import mah party to Star Trail, and then to Shadows of Riva?

The party is:
Dwarf (tank/leads in towns and dungeons)
Fighter (tank/body skills)
Ice Elf (agility fighter/buff spells, some clairvoyance and dispel)
Silvan Elf (archer/healer/hunter/clairvoyance and healing spells)
Druid (archer/leads in wilderness/domination spells)
Combat magician (high level combat spells and wide variety of 0-3 lvl spells)

Also, how de fuck do I use this:
SOLIDIRID RAINBOW'S HUE: Carry To My Goal True. Creates a magic rainbow
bridge of up to 50 paces in length

There is a spot in wilderness with a broken bridge and options:
- build a new one (some kind of "tools" required - can't figure out which ones exactly, I already bought ALL of them, and it still says I don't have "neccessary tools", dammit)
- find another way
- go back

But I have this spell, fffuck. Should it be some high level in order to work? Will I ever need it?

No, that one is useless.
For quest purposes you'll need: Banish Spirits, Destructibo, Melt solid and Camouflage or Eagle, Wolf. Maybe Ocean's Floor can help at one point, but I'm not sure about that.

Other totally useless spells include:
Necrophatia, Witch's Eye, Respondami, Nihilatio, Without a trace, Walk on ice, Calm the storm, Claudibus, Freeze soft.

Basically, those quest-related spells you only need at about 0 skill level, so I wouldn't worry much.

 

[Gord]

I don't remember many enemies with a petrification spell, so you should be fine without. Solidirid is a situational spell you can use in one or two occasions, I think. You might need the meld solids and its counterpart spells, though.

 

[Grimwulf]

Other totally useless spells include:
Necrophatia, Witch's Eye, Respondami, Nihilatio, Without a trace, Walk on ice, Calm the storm, Claudibus, Freeze soft.

You mean, I won't need them even once in all three games? That cannot be. I heard that 2nd and 3rd games are both 3 times longer than Blades of Destiny.

I don't remember many enemies with a petrification spell, so you should be fine without. Solidirid is a situational spell you can use in one or two occasions, I think. You might need the meld solids and its counterpart spells, though.

Well, there was a nasty trap in one Inn cellar in the middle of wilderness. Everyone with mag. resistance below 8 were instantly petrified. Only my magician passed the check. And I save my progress only in temples, so it was pretty nasty.

 

[V_K]

Other totally useless spells include:
Necrophatia, Witch's Eye, Respondami, Nihilatio, Without a trace, Walk on ice, Calm the storm, Claudibus, Freeze soft.

You mean, I won't need them even once in all three games? That cannot be. I heard that 2nd and 3rd games are both 3 times longer than Blades of Destiny.

You won't really need a lot more, many spells have only very minor situational effects. These ones, if I remember correctly, produce only some flavour text.
Same goes for the skills for that matter. Lots of useless and near-useless ones.

I might be wrong on a couple of them though. It's been a long time since I last replayed the series.

 

[Grimwulf]

Other totally useless spells include:
Necrophatia, Witch's Eye, Respondami, Nihilatio, Without a trace, Walk on ice, Calm the storm, Claudibus, Freeze soft.

You mean, I won't need them even once in all three games? That cannot be. I heard that 2nd and 3rd games are both 3 times longer than Blades of Destiny.

You won't really need a lot more, many spells have only very minor situational effects. These ones, if I remember correctly, produce only some flavour text.
Same goes for the skills for that matter. Lots of useless and near-useless ones.

I might be wrong on a couple of them though. It's been a long time since I last replayed the series.

Well, that's a maor dissapointment. Still, I'm glad I won't ever need "Witch's Eye". It has cool description and it almost made me take otherwise useless witch instead of DOMINATING druid.

 

[:Flash:]

Other totally useless spells include:
Necrophatia, Witch's Eye, Respondami, Nihilatio, Without a trace, Walk on ice, Calm the storm, Claudibus, Freeze soft.

You mean, I won't need them even once in all three games? That cannot be. I heard that 2nd and 3rd games are both 3 times longer than Blades of Destiny.

People on the Codex continue to bash the RoA games for this reason, but they completely misunderstand what those games set out to be. Instead they judge them by what has become the modern RPG industry standard of balancing on the developer's side and min/maxing on the gamer's side.
The RoA games are three computer modules for the TDE roleplaying system. That means they do exactly what pen & paper modules do. They recreate every single spell and skill that the roleplaying system provides, regardless of whether it is needed in a specific module. I bet you can't name a single D&D module that requires every single spell and skill, yet somehow, when it is in pen & paper form, people are completely willing to accept that, but in a computer RPG, they say that it sucks and want the module developers use only a subset of the real ruleset.

The Realms of Arkania games specifically provide the possibility to print the character sheets, as it was intended that the players could use their characters from the computer games in Pen&Paper modules. So those skills might not be needed in the computer games, but they are still part of the character development and might be needed in a later pen&paper module.

If you develop your characters according to modern min/maxing standards, they will get you through the games, but they will not be well balanced characters in the TDE world, that would be ready to go for advanced p&p adventures.

I admit that most of this is not really relevant in a context where the pen&paper modules are not available in English (and the third edition is out of date), but it is important to understand why the games were designed this way, and not see it as a nuisance, but as a different approach, that has unfortunately been completely lost in modern RPGs.

 

[Grimwulf]

yet somehow, when it is in pen & paper form, people are completely willing to accept that, but in a computer RPG, they say that it sucks and want the module developers use only a subset of the real ruleset.

Makes sence, when you put it that way. I'm still convinced that there's no point in including useless spells & skills in the game (not just underpowered, but something you are not allowed to use AT ALL). But if you aim to model existing setting with 100% accuracy, yeah. That's reason enough.

One major difference tho is that you don't have a dungeon master in video game. If I see a broken bridge, I can come up with a dozen of possible solutions to overcome this obstacle, and DM will accept any of them with one result or another. Video game just gives me 2 or 3, and it doesn't give a flying fuck about all those repair tools I got, or Rainbow Hue spell I developed. "Either take an 8-hour detour or turn back".

But I would forgive even that if they made some kind of level editor for modding community. Then all this perfect setting model would pay off in long run. Why do I have so little Dark Eye games to play? RoA, Drakensang and Blackguards - that's it. And I like TDE MUCH more than d&d.

 

[Gord]

Well, there was a nasty trap in one Inn cellar in the middle of wilderness. Everyone with mag. resistance below 8 were instantly petrified. Only my magician passed the check. And I save my progress only in temples, so it was pretty nasty.

Hm, in that case you can either prevent it somehow, or it's the devs trolling you. I think it might be

Spoiler

the trap in the old inn, which can be deactivated by destroying some nearby appparatus.

There are a few situations however where you need a specific item or spell or you're fucked. E.g. the Poltergeist in part 2 that will trap you if you don't know the spell to banish him. However, he's not mandatory and only shows up when you steal some item.

Btw., I just looked it up, there are enemies that can petrify you in part 2, as well, but if you disable them fast enough you don't need to worry.

 

[NotAGolfer]

There is a way to repair broken bridges with the tools you can buy. But I never did it myself, not worth the hassle and you have to have packed some otherwise pretty useless items.

As far as I remember the only things everyone in the party needs to carry around in summer are:
a blanket (or better a sleeping bag)
a waterskin ... 1 for each char is enough
about 3 to 4 rations (replenish them with your hunter at rests, throw away the surplus)
some LP healing herbs (4-leafed loneberries are enough)
a replacement weapon in case the RNG doesn't like you in the upcoming battles (weapons degrade too, dunno if that is in RoA already but in Star Trail you can inspect them closer to see if they will break soon ... and use a whetstone to delay that, in RoA whetstones are useless afaik)
... not much else i think.
The dwarf or whatever high dex dungeon party leader you choose has to pack 2 lockpicks too, the mage has to upgrade his wand to 4. spell asap (so you don't need to carry around light sources and spells get a bit cheaper), casters should carry some of those costly higher spell potions, the mage could bring an alchemy set, ink and an empty spellbook or whatsitsname if you want to try that stuff out (not really worth it but these games are not fun if you only try to think cost effective), some stronger chars should maybe carry a shovel or pickaxe, but since the only places you have to use those (at least as far as I can remember) are dungeons inside of cities you can get them easily when needed. Someone should carry some herbs that are needed for curing diseases like joruga or whirlwind.

Some rules of thumb (no spoilers):
1. The party leader (the one in the far left window) gets most of the skill checks. He better be gud at what he's leading you in. So leveling is important and not trivial.

You need dedicated roles/jobs in your party:
one dungeon dweller (usually the dorf, as dorfs are awesome even though axes suck)
one bum leader for towns who should be proficient with all the people stuff. You don't really need it in RoA but later in the other games.
one Strider ranger who's doing the hunting in the evening too
one Miraculix healer/herbalist (finding herbs reliably (read: if the RNG isn't trolling you or you are wandering through a desert or something) - hugely important, not just because money money money, but also herbs are essential for healing diseases which are very dangerous in these games).
one specialised mage who doesn't waste too many skill points with healing/nature stuff, but should be able to at least heal diseases too
In the end only 2 of these are really essential, the dungeon dweller and the ranger.
The rest makes things easier and gives a better roleplaying feel.

2. Fights are easy and don't last longer than a couple of minutes if you know what you're doing. The combat system isn't really deep, I give you that, but it isn't trivial too, thanks to the abundance of skills/spells.
Standard tactics

Spoiler

Poison your weapons with the cheapest poison out there and kill them in seconds
Let you mage and other casters crowd-control them - either just blind them, break their weapon or use some domination spells and let the fighters take it from there
Let your casters buff your fighters (Acceleratus and Terror Power are an awesome combo, positioning doesn't really matter for fighters buffed with those)
Create a choke point or at least prevent multiple attacks per turn by sensible crowd control (domination school, positioning, illusion magic, experiment with spells - though some might not work properly)
Gangbang - attack same enemy from 3 or 4 sides, rinse repeat for the next, use spells or good tank positioning to cover your flanks -> this is pretty much what even the thickest moron should be able to figure out for himself in the first couple of minutes

3. The gods are important. Yes, they are. There are riddles to solve testing your knowledge about them (not too many though, but the rewards are worth it) and they can do miracles while praying in temples (after you donated huge amounts of dough ofc). One of these miracles by one of these gods is def. worth it, some others are nice too.

4. Most towns don't contain anything interesting except for the buildings that are not brown on the map.
Exceptions are the big ones (Thorwal has some flavor buildings, Prem and Upper Orcam have mines, Phexcaer is full to the brim with flavor buildings) and things you hear about in taverns. Make a habit out of visiting taverns, they are valuable sources of information, for the main quest too.

5. There are some nasty dead-ends in the RoA games.:

Spoiler

After killing the demon on board of the ghost ship leave the ship asap because it is sinking. It is possible to screw up by saving the game after it's too late to leave the ship. ... And maybe after loading a save that silent countdown ends abruptly, dunno.
Also leave the spider cave immediately after you burned the eggs. Explore the cave before you do that.
Don't pick up the gold coins and other treasures lying around on the floor of Hyggelik's cave. These are cursed and you won't be able to leave the cave and finish the game afterwards.

RoA 2:
Don't waste too much time in Lowangen. You have 10 days to get back the Salamander Stone. And ask Dragan about traveling or the game ends here.
Don't plunder the shrine in the Phex temple. Same problem as with the treasures in Hyggelik's cave.
Don't let yourself get captured by the orcs in the Blood Peaks, you won't get your equipment back. This is a major bug in the game.

In RoA 3 there's a time limit for escaping from the pirate ship.

Also there are some minor bugs like bandits with absurdly high magic resistance in Blade of Destiny (that's why none of the crowd control spells work on them).

6. Magical items are not always discernable as such. Some pretty good magical weapons and armors look like their ordinary counterparts so it is important to have a mage who can cast Odem Arcanum and Analyze Magic.
Another highly useful spell combination is Penetrating (stone) and Transversalis Teleport.
Banish spirits and Melt Soild are quest relevant spells you only need once or twice in the whole trilogy so don't level them higher than -2 or so.
Destroy illusions is kinda useful, at least in one or 2 cases in RoA 3.
Domination spells are awesome, at least most of them.
You might need Foramen a couple of times. Lockpicks don't always work.
Healing magic spells are worth it, poison cure not as much as that LP healing one which is a lifeline in some harder fights.
Lightning is one of the best spells in the games.

7. There are more than enough skill and spell level points to shape a decent adventurer party. And there's a lot of leeway to what skills to level. There's still dispute among the fans about what exactly some seemingly obvious skills like tactics do (most think that it only influences the computer simulated combat). Not to mention lying, seducing, riding and animal training, these are a complete waste of points and you could still level them with chars where it makes sense. The rogue for example could invest in lying as much as he likes and still be a useful asset in these games, as :Flash: pointed out these games are balanced as simulatiuons of PnP modules. Just roleplay your char classes/party assignments and you will be fine. Minmaxing is detrimental to your fun in these games, they get much too easy that way.

8. Always start with leveling up strength for every class except mages. Strength trumps everything. Later (after having 15 strength for each char) let them level up something that supports their skillset.

 

[NotAGolfer]

In RoA whetstones are useless afaik

Meant Blade of Destiny of course. ^^

 

[Grimwulf]

Spoiler

the trap in the old inn, which can be deactivated by destroying some nearby appparatus.

Yes. The thing is, petrification trap is lying exactly in front of that apparatus. You can't reach it without stepping on the trap. And I know,

Spoiler

Split the team and send forth guy with high MR or just someone expendable

But you can't figure it out during first blind walkthrough. And healing petrification is a bitch, I believe it's only possible to do in temples of Peraine or Tsa (not sure tho). So it's good to have the spell.

a blanket (or better a sleeping bag)
a waterskin ... 1 for each char is enough
about 3 to 4 rations (replenish them with your hunter at rests, throw away the surplus)
some LP healing herbs (4-leafed loneberries are enough)
a replacement weapon in case the RNG doesn't like you in the upcoming battles (weapons degrade too, dunno if that is in RoA already but in Star Trail you can inspect them closer to see if they will break soon ... and use a whetstone to delay that, in RoA whetstones are useless afaik)
... not much else i think.

I don't think there isn't much sence in blankets in RoA 1, maybe in later games. My guys sleep on ground and never got any desease, but sometimes they got wet after unlucky fjord crossing. It's a waste of few hours til they dry out, but it's better than carrying a blanket on everybody at all times. Also, no sleeping bags in BoD. But I think you really need 3-4 ropes, preferably on fighters, plus one high lvl magician wand (transforms into rope when needed). Ropes are extremely useful when crossing mires, climbing mountains and overcoming some obstacles in dungeons.

The dwarf or whatever high dex dungeon party leader you choose has to pack 2 lockpicks too, the mage has to upgrade his wand to 4. spell asap (so you don't need to carry around light sources and spells get a bit cheaper), casters should carry some of those costly higher spell potions, the mage could bring an alchemy set, ink and an empty spellbook or whatsitsname if you want to try that stuff out (not really worth it but these games are not fun if you only try to think cost effective), some stronger chars should maybe carry a shovel or pickaxe, but since the only places you have to use those (at least as far as I can remember) are dungeons inside of cities you can get them easily when needed. Someone should carry some herbs that are needed for curing diseases like joruga or whirlwind.

Agree on pretty much everything. Although

Spoiler

Spellbok? Is there an empty spellbook in RoA 1? I can write my own grimoire, yar!

Some rules of thumb (no spoilers):

Thanks for these man. Wish I've seen it sooner.

Just roleplay your char classes/party assignments and you will be fine. Minmaxing is detrimental to your fun in these games, they get much too easy that way.

Just don't want to miss out the content, because I didn't level up some specific spell and thus can't enter some interesting branch in later games. I've got 4 magic users and try to develop almost everything, but there are some spells, like "Witch's Eye" that are -19 for all my guys. No point in developing it. If there is some secret underground Witch's Coven in RoA 3 that I'll never see, I'm gonna cry. But it won't make restart the game tho.

 

[V_K]

It's not a spellbook, it's a recipe book that you copy alchemical formulas into. Also needs a read/write skill, naturally.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

One major difference tho is that you don't have a dungeon master in video game. If I see a broken bridge, I can come up with a dozen of possible solutions to overcome this obstacle, and DM will accept any of them with one result or another. Video game just gives me 2 or 3, and it doesn't give a flying fuck about all those repair tools I got, or Rainbow Hue spell I developed. "Either take an 8-hour detour or turn back".

Not to mention in PnP games you will usually know which spell does what before you're asked to pick a bunch of spells your character knows. RoA apparently expects you to guess the spells' function by nothing more than its name. Doesn't smell very PnP to me.

 

[Grimwulf]

One major difference tho is that you don't have a dungeon master in video game. If I see a broken bridge, I can come up with a dozen of possible solutions to overcome this obstacle, and DM will accept any of them with one result or another. Video game just gives me 2 or 3, and it doesn't give a flying fuck about all those repair tools I got, or Rainbow Hue spell I developed. "Either take an 8-hour detour or turn back".

Not to mention in PnP games you will usually know which spell does what before you're asked to pick a bunch of spells your character knows. RoA apparently expects you to guess the spells' function by nothing more than its name. Doesn't smell very PnP to me.

The description was originally in the manual (standard for rpgs of past days), but GoG version somehow fucked it up. Their manual doesn't have "Arcane Lore" section AT ALL. So here is the full original manual of RoA:
http://www.lemonamiga.com/?mainurl=http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/docs.php?id=1335

 

[aleph]

One major difference tho is that you don't have a dungeon master in video game. If I see a broken bridge, I can come up with a dozen of possible solutions to overcome this obstacle, and DM will accept any of them with one result or another. Video game just gives me 2 or 3, and it doesn't give a flying fuck about all those repair tools I got, or Rainbow Hue spell I developed. "Either take an 8-hour detour or turn back".

Not to mention in PnP games you will usually know which spell does what before you're asked to pick a bunch of spells your character knows. RoA apparently expects you to guess the spells' function by nothing more than its name. Doesn't smell very PnP to me.

Ha, I take it you have never played a pnp session of the The Dark Eye? The whole system is designed to keep the player characters weak and on rails. The rulebooks are full of advice to the DM how best to fuck the characters over and keep them on rails. Hell, there even is an official adventure that starts of with the premise that the characters are cursed and therefore forced to kill the emperor because the plot and its resolution requires that the assassination proceeds almost to completion.

So, in this regard, RoA is a very faithful implementation of PnP.

 

[V_K]

One major difference tho is that you don't have a dungeon master in video game. If I see a broken bridge, I can come up with a dozen of possible solutions to overcome this obstacle, and DM will accept any of them with one result or another. Video game just gives me 2 or 3, and it doesn't give a flying fuck about all those repair tools I got, or Rainbow Hue spell I developed. "Either take an 8-hour detour or turn back".

Not to mention in PnP games you will usually know which spell does what before you're asked to pick a bunch of spells your character knows. RoA apparently expects you to guess the spells' function by nothing more than its name. Doesn't smell very PnP to me.

The description was originally in the manual (standard for rpgs of past days), but GoG version somehow fucked it up. Their manual doesn't have "Arcane Lore" section AT ALL. So here is the full original manual of RoA:
http://www.lemonamiga.com/?mainurl=http://www.lemonamiga.com/games/docs.php?id=1335

IIRC both ST and SoR (not sure about BD) also had in-game help system with all the info from the manual.