Incline Dark Sun: Shattered Lands

[Elwro]

At lower levels, the Psionic Blast (an opponent thinks he has only 20% HP left and drops unconscious when you take them) power taken by my non-psionicist characters was quite useful.

 

[Norfleet]

At lower levels, the Psionic Blast (an opponent thinks he has only 20% HP left and drops unconscious when you take them) power taken by my non-psionicist characters was quite useful.

At lower levels, your opponent doesn't have enough HP to make -80% HP a significant difference, since he doesn't have enough HP to survive being beat on for long enough to matter anyway. Plus, the lower levels of the game are the easy ones.

 

[Elwro]

Nope.

Jost for a concrete example, the mageras guarding the kidnapped men from the caravan you meet early in the game can take a few hits each; I had to try the fight a few times and finally managed to beat it using that particular psionic power.

Second, even in the beginning (outdoor) areas you can have difficult encounters with wandering monsters. 6 thri-kreen? If you don't take one out in one hit he'll attack you four times in the following turn. Great use for the Psionic Blast power.

Second, it is possible to enter a certain highly dangerous area even before entering the Drajian fields.

 

[someone else]

I don't know much about 2E rules on psionics. Someone tell me:

Is it worth putting points above 19 or 20 in a psionic ability? Does it give a penalty to saves against them?

Does 'mass dominate' have a save bonus? Otherwise why have 'dominate'?

Do they use normal saves such as spell/death against stuff like psionic blast and ego whip.

Does psionic defense abiliies grant immunity to psionic attacks or bonus to save?

Game too easy? Play on higher diff = lots of HP for monsters.

 

[Crichton]

Is it worth putting points above 19 or 20 in a psionic ability? Does it give a penalty to saves against them?

I'm pretty sure that it just makes it easier to pass the activation roll and hence actually use the power.

Does 'mass dominate' have a save bonus? Otherwise why have 'dominate'?

Dominate is easier to activate and uses fewer power points both to activate and to maintain. However it's worth keeping in mind that mass dominate lets you make multiple attempts to dominate a single target, not just single attempts against multiple targets.

Do they use normal saves such as spell/death against stuff like psionic blast and ego whip.

Does psionic defense abiliies grant immunity to psionic attacks or bonus to save?

Telepathic powers use their own mechanisms; I'm not sure how fully they're implemented in DS:SL, but the telepathic defense powers help protect against telepathic attacks for as long as they're maintained, I don't believe that they're full-proof.

 

[Elwro]

The cost for maintaining control over one person is exactly the same for Dominate as for Mass Dominate. (Twice the level of the controlled creature iirc.) But an important thing is that Mass Dominate has wider range (40 yards instead of 30 yards), which makes it really useful in big battles. (Yes, in that one big battle.)

Initially, due to the difference in Power Scores, you should have a 10% higher chance to control someone using Domination than using Mass Domination. So perhaps some folks would decide it's worth pumping up the Domination score...

Also, to quote the manual (p.84)

A number of psychic defenses are available as telepathic sciences or devotions. When
characters are attacked, the game automatically activates whichever defense it deems
appropriate for the situation. Defenses such as mind blank and tower of iron will be
controlled by the game.

 

[derill]

The Dark Sun duo are two of the best games I've ever played, although when I first played them, I cheated and maxed out my stats and health. This play-through though, I'm just sticking to my rolls. I'm doing better than I expected.

 

[Elwro]

Well, at least the first one is definitely easy - combat-wise - for an AD&D game... It's quite strange, it doesn't even compare to the difficulty of the GoldBox games.

 

[Andhaira]

Its not all that easy. Mess up and underestimate your foes and you will end up having a party member or two killed. For example, delay during the arena and you will soon be wiped out by very tough critters.

also, theres a part during the game thats very hard if you don't have turn undead. And ofcourse, the final battle is tough as well.

 

[Elwro]

also, theres a part during the game thats very hard if you don't have turn undead.

Hm... which one? Turning undead helps, because e.g. you can end some fights in Dagolar's place in 1-2 turns, but otherwise... which part are you talking about?

 

[Andhaira]

In some well in a town you are attacked by like a gajillion shades. If you have turn undead you can wipe them all out in 1 turn.

 

[Elwro]

Heh, if I get what you're talking about then you don't need to be attacked by them as there is a way to "solve" that area peacefully. To get everything you can from that area, well, that's another story, but you'd have to fight more than undead...

 

[someone else]

Strange, one of my fighter/druid/preserver of Earth sphere does not have the 1st level 'magic stone' spell unlike another party member. I can tell his sphere is correct as it is the same color as the other party member.

 

[Elwro]

Strange, one of my fighter/druid/preserver of Earth sphere does not have the 1st level 'magic stone' spell unlike another party member. I can tell his sphere is correct as it is the same color as the other party member.

I just created a F/D/P of the Earth sphere to check this. For my char the spell was there... So check one thing. Press "c" to bring up the casting menu. You should see a small rectangular button labeled "MAGE". Clicking it toggles between spell lists, so after clicking it should transform into "CLERIC" and you should see a bunch of other spells, including Magical Stone. Sorry if this is trivial and the problem lies deeper, just want to make sure.

 

[someone else]

Problem 'solved' by deleting and creating new char.

 

[derill]

stupid wyverns hitting for 150 with their venom or w/e. they killed my strongest warrior in one shot.

 

[theverybigslayer]

Hi, I am new here (in this topic).
Where can I rest in this game? Only at specific places?

 

[Lonely Vazdru]

Yes, look for campfires (circles of stones). Clicking on them makes your party rest if I remember correctly. It also lits/unlits the fire, which is totally awsome.

 

[Andhaira]

Yep. They are scattered over the maps, so explore to find them.

 

[Qwinn]

Just curious, why would you want to play with a gladiator? The single-class only thing seems highly restrictive, and other than a -1 AC boost, the manual isn't describing any real advantage over a fighter/ranger.

Qwinn

 

[derill]

Gladiators were my class of choice when I was 13.

I find they hit harder, and generally get more hit points. Where my level 9/9 cleric/ranger had 119, my level 9 gladiator had ~200 and hit harder. I beat the game with a 4-party of half-giant gladiators, and just beat the game with one of the set-ups suggested here ( though I had some problems during the final battle with the latter group, and none with the former ), although, I'm having problems getting Wake of the Ravager working in Dosbox ( the mouse lags. ).

My party :

9/9 HG Ranger/Cleric(fire), 9/8 Mul Fighter/Psionist, 9/9 HE Ranger/Preserver, and 9 TK Cleric(water).

Spoiler

The only survivor during the last battle was my half-giant, all the others were knocked out, or killed ( just the Mul was killed ). I ended up casting haste before my preserver was knocked out, so I ran my giant far away to the south, and came up slowly, pulling only a few at a time, else I'd have no chance. Motherfucker's kept swarming me everytime the battle started for some reason.

 

[jaylittle]

I just started playing this one the other day (damn you Codex). So far so good. I the took the advice of the veterans and multi-classed every single character for maximum ass kicking. Leveling up has been a breeze thus far. Though prior to finding out that they might be useful, I sold off a huge horde of gems from the arena/sewers to some fruit peddler in the fields. Oops I assume there will be plenty more gems where those came from though.

 

[Elwro]

I played a gladiator purely for roleplaying reasons. Also, the only (I think) advantage of playing a single-class char is that you advance faster, so you earlier get lower THAC0 etc.

 

[Andhaira]

In the AD&D2e DarkSun campaign setting, gladiators got ton of bonuses to unarmed combat. I don't recall if the game kept it though (I never had my gladiator fight unarmed).

 

[Elwro]

Even if it did, they were undocumented features. My gladiator dual-wielded and kicked ass, especially in mid-game when he had the best THAC0 from the whole party.

BTW,

Spoiler

just an idea: you can have someone with many attacks dual-wield El's Drinker in the final battle. If he isn't killed during the enemy's turn, he'll most likely get MANY HPs back in his own.