Incline Dark Sun: Shattered Lands

[Satori (original)]

About to start this up, any tips or tricks you guys can recommend for a first time player?

 

[Andhaira]

Yes. Multiclassing is your friend. So if you take a druid, make him a fighter druid.

Clerics and druids share basically the same spell list. The only diffeerence is your elemental orientation which dictates a few spells; its no real big deal. I suggest you go with fire druid/cleric. You can also do without a cleric if you want, as long as you have a druid (entangle is EXTREMELY useful in this game since its turnbased) Clerics do get turn undead which druids don't, but theres only 1 place n the game where its useful

If you take a fighter druid make sure its fire oriented, becuase then you getto use the flameblade spell which is wicked.

Make certain to take a mage. They are very powerful.

Try to take a psionicist as well. They are quite wicked too. However make sure to multiclass him, into either a fighter/psi or mage/psi.

Gladiators are nice, but they cannot multiclass.

Half giant fighters are VERY powerful.

Unlike other D&D games, in this one you don't memorize spells, you can simply cast any spell from your list a certain number of times per day.

Arrows and ranged combat is very powerful in this game; again because its turnbased. Make sure your fighter(s) have bows and arrows.

Take your time making your party. It makes a difference.

The first battle is, in many ways your toughest since you are getting used to the interface and rules.. Use spells like entangle, grease, etc to pick off foes one at a time.

Make suer to learn disintegrate psi power. Its insanely powerful and can work even on 'boss' type monsters.

When escaping the prison at the beginning, go for the non-violent route as fighting everyone in the beginning is tough. (though it too can be rewarding, combat is so fun in this game)

 

[Rabidredneck]

I used to have that game, the only thing I can remember about it is, for me at least, Psionics were useless. The Psionicist class was okay, but the minor powers everyone got never seemed to work right.

Didn't keep me from beating the game tho. Good luck.

 

[Crichton]

Mind control is a great asset, psionists are useful because they get powers that'll let them dominate 3 enemies at a time.

Druids have a slightly better spell list than clerics, but not all races can be druids (sorry half-giants)

Half-giants get a nice hefty str/con bonus and bonus HP which make them super people.

There is no EXP limit, but there is a level-limit, so everyone should be at least multi-classed if not triple classed.

Rangers are like fighters, but better.

Thieves get backstab, which allows the 2nd character to attack a creature in a given turn to double their damage, but they get precious little else (the few areas where they can climb can also be accessed with rope). I wouldn't bother.

Tri-keen are great early on due to nice natural attacks and low AC, but they can't wear all the super armor that you inevitably find, and super-weapons are better than claws, so they aren't a great long-term investment (still aren't bad).

The best party for just having fun with the game is probably:

Half-giant ranger/Cleric
Mul fighter/psionist
half-elf ranger/preserver
thri-keen fighter/druid

I have played around with using 4 half-elven fighter/cleric/preservers as a long-term super-party, but I've never seen it through to the end.

The Final battle is a bitch,

Spoiler

The only thing I found that worked was to retreat up into the top right corner and wall myself off with walls of fire, dust cloud, spike growth and the like to spread the enemies out and damage them before contact. I never found a way to win the battle with all three NPC buddies alive.

 

[getter77]

I'm kinda looking forward to this additional game in the series should they succeed in hitting it out of the park.

http://dso.zidev.com/index.html

 

[Luzur]

huh? a new Dark Sun Online game?

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

There is no EXP limit, but there is a level-limit, so everyone should be at least multi-classed if not triple classed.

Very true. That's probably the most important and non-spoiler tip for a first playthrough.

The Final battle is a bitch,

Indeed. But...

Spoiler

Simple spells like "Web" and "Entangle" will work wonders to keep most ennemies stuck. Massive AoE dammage spells then finish them off while you take care of those who succeeded their saving throws, and are moving, the melee way.
It really turned the ending battle into "almost too easy" on my last playthrough. I was surprised to see the efficiency of those low level, move limiting spells.
As for the NPCs, never could save them all either.

 

[Andhaira]

Bah the final battle was tons of fun. I recall using aoe and wall spells to make the foes sticky, then spamming disintegrate (psi), fireballs, lightning bolts etc.

And yes that advice about a level cap is spot on. I still feel you should have one perserver single classed to get spells quickly.

 

[Fezzik]

It might be wise to invest in a Stone Wall spell in the course of the game. When I needed to fight many very strong enemies at once I found that spell indispensable.

 

[someone else]

I just want to chip in and say that for those who haven't played this, you should. This is the best D&D PC game made.

 

[Panthera]

The game is fantastic, yeah. Sort of a proto-baldur's gate.

I currently run a Dark Sun PnP game, and this was how I fell in love with the setting.

 

[Araanor]

Dark Sun is good fun. Interesting enough world design, snazzy graphics and funky music. There's even some choices thrown in. Game is mostly filled with battles, luckily they're much more enjoyable than Infinity Engine combat.

 

[Rabidredneck]

My apologies, I was thinking of another Dark Sun game called Wake of the Ravager. Never played Shattered Lands, guess I'd better look into it.

 

[Hory]

Yep, it's probably my favorite DOS RPG. Less cliched setting, interesting plot and particularly tensionate in the beginning where the "timelimit" and motivation to escape is that you're continuously sent to fight tougher foes. Also, when you enter the arena, there are interesting things going around and to do, it's not just some meaningless combat. Unfortunately, combat does eventually start to suck (too easy), but the last battle is so memorable that it almost makes up for it .

 

[bgillisp]

Last time I played this game I did all mutli or triple classes, which were either fighter/druid or fighter/druid/preserver (I think I had one druid/psionic too, can't recall). I ended up with one druid of each element that way, and all the healing spells were nice.This party made it to 9th level in almost all classes in the first game, and really tore things up in the 2nd game, despite most of them not getting to level 15 (cap in the 2nd game).

Warning if you intend to go to the 2nd game: There is a bug that will cut off your experience gain of the character placed in the upper right corner of the portriats at 13/14. I hit this every time I played this game, first time with a fighter/psionic and 2nd time with a different double class (but all my other double/triple class characters made it to 15 just fine if I got them enough experience). Make sure whoever you put there you can live with them not hitting level 15 in the 2nd game in case this happens to you.

 

[ghostdog]

And when multiclassing you can even go for three classes. IIRC the level cap applies for each class separately so in the end you can have each character with 3 classes maxed.

 

[Elwro]

The game is fantastic. I finished it yesterday for the 2nd time and I'm planning to write a "Forgotten Gems" article on it. But anyway, my party contained:

a dwarven fighter / priest;

a thri-kreen fighter / psionicist;

an elven fighter / preserver / thief;

a human gladiator.

Basically, multiclassing is a huge advantage. One thing to remember is that choosing your priest's sphere is crucial, as it has a strong influence on his spell list. Consult the manual before creating the character! I always found strange that there doesn't seem to be a way to have a priest who could cast spells from the sphere of Cosmos of level higher than three. (But that's what the Dark Sun PnP rulebooks say, too... priests get major access to the sphere of Comos only after level 20 iirc.) This means that no, your priest won't be capable of casting Cure Serious Wounds. Your druid will be, but he won't be wearing any armor. (So it'd be best if she was a thri-kreen, as they cannot wear armor anyway.)

If you take a priest, remember about his turn undead ability, it may be really handy.

The Preserver spell "Haste" makes combat twice as easy. Anyway, the game only contains one difficult fight...

Remember that all your characters have at least a modicum of psionic powers. Diversify. Also, your psionicist can be extremely powerful in combat - check out the powers called Ego Whip, Psionic Blast, Domination and Mass Domination. The last one is equivalent to assuming control of up to 5 enemies! Psionics may be easy to forget about if you played other (A)DnD games before, but they really help in this game.

It is important who the leader of the party is. Talk to people with your charismatic character as the leader; have the thief lead the party if you have something to climb or suspect that the floor is trapped; read books with an intelligent person; (!) talk to people using your psionicist if you want to dominate them during the conversation - unfortunately, I only found one instance of this option, but man, did it save me a lot of trouble.

Warning: if you find a scroll with a spell requiring experience level x to cast, and you have a lower level, don't read it! Even if you see the "you learn the spell" message, when you finally reach the required level, the spell won't be there on your spell list, meaning that you just wasted the scroll. Keep your spell scrolls until you achieve the required levels.

edit: all my chars maxed their levels save for the Fig/Pres/T, who finished with 8/9/9. The moral being that it's good to triple-class.

 

[Trash]

The start of this game alone warrants the instant classic status. Thrown into an arena, cheered on and mocked by a SOB commentator and desperately trying to escape from your quarters in between fights because you know one day they'll have something you won't win from.

I loved it.

 

[Crichton]

This means that no, your priest won't be capable of casting Cure Serious Wounds. Your druid will be, but he won't be wearing any armor.

For whatever reason, DS:SL is just like the older d&d games in that you can use any feature of any class you have without penalties from other classes you have. So your ranger/preserver can cast spells in armor, your fighter/druid and fighter/psionist can use metal armor without penalty, et al. Just one more reason to multiclass, I guess.

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

It's indeed a great game. I remember seeing it on a friend's computer at the time it was released. And being really impressed. It took more than ten years until I had both a computer and an internet connection, but as soon as I discovered abandonware, I hunted for this game and played it to death.

So when most gamers were all over whatever it is they were all over in 2004, I was hooked on DOS-Box and I breathed, ate and shat pixellated Dark Sun for two weeks. Not many games of tha era could have done as much, except for M&M 3/4/5 and a few others of more debatable "universal quality" like Thunderscape.

And Dark Sun is the best D&D setting. I love deserts.

 

[Elwro]

This means that no, your priest won't be capable of casting Cure Serious Wounds. Your druid will be, but he won't be wearing any armor.

For whatever reason, DS:SL is just like the older d&d games in that you can use any feature of any class you have without penalties from other classes you have. So your ranger/preserver can cast spells in armor, your fighter/druid and fighter/psionist can use metal armor without penalty, et al. Just one more reason to multiclass, I guess.

Hm, that's right. I forgot I put some armor on my elven fighter/preserver/thief, but still, I blindly believed the rulebook regarding the "leather armor only for psionicists" rule... that's why I chose a thri-kreen for that role. Good point!

 

[SmokedWolf]

I've got through to the last battle on three separate parties and never managed it. You SOBs going to make me play through this game again (again and again I don't mind just I have other stuff to do!)

 

[WanderingThrough2]

It is important who the leader of the party is. Talk to people with your charismatic character as the leader; have the thief lead the party if you have something to climb or suspect that the floor is trapped; read books with an intelligent person; (!) talk to people using your psionicist if you want to dominate them during the conversation - unfortunately, I only found one instance of this option, but man, did it save me a lot of trouble.

So I played Darksun not quite when it came out -- indeed, probably sometime around 1996, by which time it had already been bundled with other stuff. But it absolutely blew me away back then, for many of the reasons people mention. (The third person aerial view and dialogue trees, frankly, were probably two of the biggest draws, given that I was more into jRPGs back then; there may have even been some appeal to the munchkinism of the setting, since I had otherwise cut my teeth on the older Goldbox games, so 1d20 rather than 3d6 seemed like an obscene boon.) It was amazing then.

What's even more amazing is that there are features like this that I either don't recall, or never found. Dominating someone during conversation?! Was that ever done before in a game, and was it ever done after prior to KOTOR?

My recollection, though, is that the best part of the game by a very wide margin was the first sequence (from the opening battle in the arena through the final escape from the sewers) where there were always multiple possible paths (usually significantly divergent) in both geographic and playstyle, competing factions, relatively well-drawn NPCs (or so it seemed at the time). My recollection is that as the game goes on, it becomes not necessarily more linear but more monotic, though maybe there was some variety involved in a spider quest (can't really remember).

Kudos to the game for the implementation of the wishes, which were pretty serious. As for the final battle, I recall it being very tough, but I also recall possible cheating options involving save scumming. Or did I just replay it from the start lots and lots of time? In any event, I never multiclassed (not really understanding how it worked), so if it was beatable with single class characters, it can't be that hard if you powergame it.

I was terrible distraught by how bad Wake of the Ravager is. Despite having bought the game (albeit in a collection), despite having loved DS:SL, and despite having no other decent RPGs of which I was aware, I just couldn't get past the first area. (Compare that, incidentally, to the first area of DS:SL, which pulls you straight in.) I had always thought, given that they were made back to back, that the teams were the same but the vision just got muddied somehow. But looking it up on Mobygames, I see very little overlap between the teams. Maybe the core squad went over to the online game they were making?

 

[Andhaira]

reply

My apologies, I was thinking of another Dark Sun game called Wake of the Ravager. Never played Shattered Lands, guess I'd better look into it.

Wake of the ravager was the direct sequel to SL. It was a great game, though not as good as Shattered Lands, even though you started at higher levels (with the same party you complete the first game with). There are a couple of reasons it was not as good as the first one:

-Sprites used are too big
-More linear story with less focus on exploration. It doesn't help that the story, though it tries to be clever, is not all that good. Its ok though/
-Bugs. Including one gamestopping one, though it can be surpassed.

It has a couple of good things going for it though:

-Same great turnbased combat, but this time with higher levels. More spells and psi disciplines.
-Another good beginning. Not near as good as the first one (the arena) but WoTR's beginning does draw you in. You see a member of the veiled alliance get murdered then you have to fight her murderers. In faact, you can dictate whether she survives or not (i.e. you can actually save her, or let her die)

So wake of the ravager is certainly a game you will want to play after you beat Shattered Lnads, but SL is ultimately the superior game.

Also, guys the last battle is not that hard. You just need to use basic AoE spells to contain foes, and plink at them from a distance. Sure it may take reloading but you can beat it, its fun. Also, I think you have a choice between wishes, so don'tt wish for lots of gold as that wont help you. Wish for help vs the final battle.

 

[Norfleet]

I used to have that game, the only thing I can remember about it is, for me at least, Psionics were useless. The Psionicist class was okay, but the minor powers everyone got never seemed to work right.

They were useful. They weren't always the most effective, but how much do you honestly expect from freebie minor powers?