Dark Sun: Shattered Lands starting tips

[Vlajdermen]

I recently tried Shattered Lands, but I was reminded that I never got gud at D&D games. Give me some general starting tips: what builds to use, what dialogue options to avoid my first time, and so on.

 

[Strange Fellow]

People tend to recommend multiclassing the shit out of your characters. People also tend to complain that the game is too easy. My only suggestion is to keep the multiclassing somewhat sensible (or skip it altogether), and stick to rolled stats, no editing. It's not like you need to game the system. In general terms, try to make a varied party. Other than that, there's nothing you absolutely need to know. Dark Sun is a very accessible title IMO, apart from the ruleset. Spend some time in the first area fighting a few battles and trying to find different ways of escaping before commiting yourself. It's a lot of fun, and you'll get a feel for how the game works.

 

[marek]

Things that are not obvious:

* Make a savegame *before* you enter a new area. Especially the sewers can sometimes load incorrectly, breaking the quests there since many NPCs don't spawn...

* One thing i wish i knew earlier is that Clerics only get their domain spells at spell level 4 and 5 (so can choose only from ~2 spells at those spell levels), while druids get domain spells and cosmos spells and have a full selection. So druids get exactly the same spells clerics do, and extra spells high lvll spells on top.

* Thieves backstab works like this in the game: How the enemy is facing graphically doesn't matter - You need to attack the monster withe another character from one side and then with a thief from the other (no matter where they face in-game).

* Buff spells last really long - far longer than their round based duration suggests. Maybe only actual combat rounds are counted, but you can have like 10x combat in the arena using a single shield spell.

* THACO (chance to hit) isnt displayed in-game, but to increase it strength is king: i would highly suggest to roll characters with STR 19+ which will make hitting far easier (and do considerably more damage) and using spells like preserver lvl2 strength buff to increase it further (or the psion self buff setting it to 24!).

* Haste spell doubles your actions! So you effectively move & fight like a party of 8. Its really crazy good and a must-have pick. I would recommend to increase difficulty by a level or two as soon as you get the spell.

Also, i would suggest to make every party member a multiclass character, with at least one class of the set being of the warrior type (=Ranger or Fighter, Gladiator cannot multi). That way, you can actually use all the great equipment you find & get multiple attacks at high levels. For the same reason i would recommend to not pick a thri-keen. While they are very powerful (multiple attacks, paralyze attack) & can offset their inability to equip anything except weapons and neckslot items with spells, it really hurts my collectors heart to find so much good items and being unable to use them all^^.

My party:
Elf Ranger/Preserver/Thief
Half-Elf Fighter/Druid/Preserver
Mul Fighter/Druid/Thief
Dwarf Fighter/Psionicist/Thief

 

[ColCol]

Create two wizards that can create a wall of the flame because it's literally going to be how you beat the final battle.

 

[marek]

Create two wizards that can create a wall of the flame because it's literally going to be how you beat the final battle.

If you don't want to use the limited number of preserver spell learning slots for wall of fire on both preservers, a druid (or cleric) with the fire domain will also get wall of fire. Preservers in general have the best buffs but must learn spells at lvl up (or from scrolls, but those are rare) so two of them are really advisable for better spell coverage: Haste to make every party member twice as powerful, slow to make your enemies half as powerful, stone skin to shrug off damage, enlarge to dish out sick amounts of damage, strength buff to get everyone to STR 24...

 

[Poseidon00]

I would definitely recommend a half giant Gladiator. That will be the tank.

Unarmed thri-kreen have 5 attacks per round, and this can be abused.

Fire domain has good spells, but I like to take water for an insta-death spell, and kinetics as my main psionic school for Disintegrate. A water domain/kinetics build can fire off a lot of instant death spells.

Oh yeah, and search around for scrolls. Use them to learn spells where possible. There are some spells that can only be learned through scrolls, if I recall correctly, and only one scroll available, often hidden away.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

By the way, any mandatory patches/mods to play the game?

 

[marek]

I would definitely recommend a half giant Gladiator. That will be the tank.

The main thing about half-giants is their maxxed STR (24 for strong hits) & huge hitpoint pool: they get double rolls at lvl up, and up to 22 Con. However, their low max DEX (15) means weak AC compared to other classes, so they really need those HPs since they will get hit more. Other classes can replicate the high strength (psions with self-buff setting it to 24, or get a preserver buff Str) and since 24 is max, get equal to half-giants. Other races access to multi-classing means self-only buffs increase the better AC from DEX 20+ even more (e.g. preservers lvl 1 shield spell, and lvl 2 mirror image - as well as most psionicist self-buffs). That said, they are absolute beasts in combat from day 1, without needing any spells and special equipment - but with a bit of work other characters have the same regular damage output, better AC and more abilities (and if they multiclass to thief, more damage).

Unarmed thri-kreen have 5 attacks per round, and this can be abused.

Even better, dual wielding armed thri-kreen have the same number of attacks (also doubled with haste to 10). The last attack even has a chance to paralyze (or last two with haste), and they have good multiclassing options. Only downside is their inability to use most equipment - for me this is a huge downside, but if you are fine with that: just for gameplay its actually not important to use equipment since you can just use spells for armor etc. instead.

Fire domain has good spells, but I like to take water for an insta-death spell, and kinetics as my main psionic school for Disintegrate. A water domain/kinetics build can fire off a lot of instant death spells.

Yeah, definitely. Fire was just an suggestion for an alternative way to get firewall. Water is great for insta-death like you said, and Earth for Ironskin (as most enemies don't have magic weapons). For non-buff psionics i also liked to use mass domination: Snatching up to five enemies to fight at you side really changes the landscape.

Oh yeah, and search around for scrolls. Use them to learn spells where possible. There are some spells that can only be learned through scrolls, if I recall correctly, and only one scroll available, often hidden away.

Good tip! While all spells can be learned from lvl up, the number you do learn is very limitedn. Also, since first-lvl spells are preset, the first spell you can select is for spell level 2. However, its spell level 2 or lower(!) - so you actually can get great lvl1 spells like "Enlarge" at the cost of not selecting a higher level spell.. Would still suggest to get at least one spell of the new spell lvl first, so the casting slots don't go to waste.

By the way, any mandatory patches/mods to play the game?

Latest patch is included in GOG version. No mods unfortunately.

 

[zapotec]

For avoiding the final battle bug:

1)I let Wyrmias go in Gedron. This was tough and took several reloads to accomplish due to my warriors' multiple attacks automatically striking his new form.
You can kill him on the spot or let him go, but if he gets hit and leaves you're boned.

2)The other one that I'll repeat here is Laussa's quest (the ssurran south of Teaquetzl).
Once you've convinced her to go and join the tribe to the west, she starts to leave.
Naturally you'll want to teleport away, but if she doesn't get to leave the area completely she locks up the Final Battle.
Let her walk off the screen and disappear completely, and you're good.

Full reference:
https://af.gog.com/forum/dungeons_d...s_final_battle_does_not_trigger?as=1649904300

 

[Poseidon00]

but with a bit of work other characters have the same regular damage output, better AC and more abilities (and if they multiclass to thief, more damage).

Being great right from the start is the main appeal to a half giant pure warrior, for sure.


The half giant also gains a significant power boost later on after you obtain a certain sword, as they are the ones who can make the most use out of it.

If you import into Ravager, you can end up with two, greatly increasing their tankiness.

 

[Sinatar]

Don't choose Earth as your cleric domain unless you want to be stuck with Cure Light Wounds as your only healing spell for the whole series.

 

[Saduj]

If the fights don’t seem way too easy in the 2nd half of the game, you’re probably going to lose the final fight.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Create two wizards that can create a wall of the flame because it's literally going to be how you beat the final battle.

Seeing this, I remembered I finished the game and didn't have wall of flame. So I loaded my 10 year old saves and fuck me, I couldn't win that fight again now. Was close 2 times, but nope.
But honest, I did it back then, I have saves AFTER the combat. I don't remember how, though.

 

[Poseidon00]

I seem to recall smart use of Domination, Fireball, Grease, Curse, etc. was an appropriate method of winning.

 

[Poseidon00]

Random question: has anyone ever had the defiler in the opening cutscene win? I started up again after this thread and he got really close.

 

[marek]

Random question: has anyone ever had the defiler in the opening cutscene win? I started up again after this thread and he got really close.

Yes, its rare but if he is going first & lands a good ice storm, gets missed and casts a good cone of cold he sometimes wins. Doesnt produce special dialog or anything, but i was quite surprised when it happened....

 

[zapotec]

I won the last battle by using wall of fog i think (and a lot of haste)

 

[marek]

* Another thing i noticed, if you do a certain ingredient hunt quest line, make sure you finish it before you help a certain blind half-giant leader. Leads to a very nice weapon that won't be available if you change the order.

* Allying the second village triggers the endgame, so only do it if you are ready/completed everything else.

(Also, why can't i edit my old posts... :-/ )

 

[octavius]

(Also, why can't i edit my old posts... :-/ )

Joined: Sunday

 

[marek]

(Also, why can't i edit my old posts... :-/ )

Joined: Sunday

Ah, so thats also probably the cause why i cannot find a way to use emoji ratings/reactions on posts. Thx

 

[Erebus]

Create two wizards that can create a wall of the flame because it's literally going to be how you beat the final battle.

From what I remember, Web also works.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Turns out that, yes, web does it. Didn't even try it when I made the previous post. Guess I'm more retarded now than I was 10 years ago.

 

[Saduj]

The cleric spell Entangle is also a good one for the final fight. Basically anything that slows down or funnels enemies..

 

[Poseidon00]

I don't really think the final battle is that hard tbh. It's just a lot of crowd control, so be prepared for that. nothing that you shouldn't be able to handle by that stage in the game.

I'm breezing through right now with a half elf fighter/water druid/preserver, Half giant Gladiator, Human Fighter 7/Psion, Halfling fighter/thief/Psion. Both lean into damage protection and strength enhancement so far.

Will have to turn the difficulty to Max in Ravager

 

[Sceptic]

For avoiding the final battle bug:

1)I let Wyrmias go in Gedron. This was tough and took several reloads to accomplish due to my warriors' multiple attacks automatically striking his new form.
You can kill him on the spot or let him go, but if he gets hit and leaves you're boned.

2)The other one that I'll repeat here is Laussa's quest (the ssurran south of Teaquetzl).
Once you've convinced her to go and join the tribe to the west, she starts to leave.
Naturally you'll want to teleport away, but if she doesn't get to leave the area completely she locks up the Final Battle.
Let her walk off the screen and disappear completely, and you're good.

Full reference:
https://af.gog.com/forum/dungeons_d...s_final_battle_does_not_trigger?as=1649904300

Unfortunately neither of these guarantees avoiding the final bug (and in fact I always kill Wyrmias in Gedron, in both games that get bugged and those that don't). For the longest time I thought it might be picking up the message at the entrance of the area or not, but according to the thread you linked that doesn't seem to make a difference either.

I'd love to replay the game for the Nth time but I've seen the bug too many times to muster the courage.