KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[Serus]

What classes are "trap options" and what classes are actually nice?

Good party builds?

I had an amazing time with 6 red wizards.
A little buttfuckery on low lvls, but when they start going, they dont stop.

Nice. Tough i suspect you would do better on low levels with 5 wizards + 1 something else either with divine spells or a pure melee. But i'm just guessing here. Were they all halflings?

 

[Serus]

What does it mean: a "manufactured" weapon? Not masterwork but manufactured? I see on some abilities but can't find anything in the help.

 

[Darth Roxor]

What does it mean: a "manufactured" weapon? Not masterwork but manufactured? I see on some abilities but can't find anything in the help.

it means it's not a natural weapon iirc

 

[Darth Canoli]

In addition, iirc, there are DIFFICULTY settings to lower enemy initiative. Why people are so afraid of lowering difficulty. Is it the: "i'm a genius, if i can't do beat the game at highest difficulty the game is crap!" approach? Well, the highest difficulty in this game is the default one and anything above are for true connoisseurs in masochism. Which is ok in my book.

The default difficulty, aka the only one available for the first year is the hardest available with 1 attribute every 4 level, 1 feat every 3 level (+class specific ones) and every little help turned off.

It doesn't mean you have to play it this way but that's how it is.

covr Looks like I was wrong, seems like there is no level cap according to Pierre.

 

[oneself]

What classes are "trap options" and what classes are actually nice?

Good party builds?

Wizard, Cleric, Psion, Druid, and two martial classes (Fighter, Gladiator, Death Knight, Samurai) make for an excellent party.

Is everything else a trap?

 

[Tacgnol]

What classes are "trap options" and what classes are actually nice?

Good party builds?

Wizard, Cleric, Psion, Druid, and two martial classes (Fighter, Gladiator, Death Knight, Samurai) make for an excellent party.

Is everything else a trap?

The only outright trap options are Rangers and (arguably) Rogues. The latter does get quite a lot of unique "dialogue" options though.

Pierre himself calls Rangers a bad choice for AOC in his guide.

 

[Serus]

In addition, iirc, there are DIFFICULTY settings to lower enemy initiative. Why people are so afraid of lowering difficulty. Is it the: "i'm a genius, if i can't do beat the game at highest difficulty the game is crap!" approach? Well, the highest difficulty in this game is the default one and anything above are for true connoisseurs in masochism. Which is ok in my book.

The default difficulty, aka the only one available for the first year is the hardest available with 1 attribute every 4 level, 1 feat every 3 level (+class specific ones) and every little help turned off.

It doesn't mean you have to play it this way but that's how it is.

covr Looks like I was wrong, seems like there is no level cap according to Pierre.

The game as default sets the difficulty at "Challenge mode (normal)" level (+1 ability score/every 2 levels and +1 feat/each level) nowadays. So what you call "default" will differ from what a new player who has no idea about Pierre approach to difficulty will see in-game.
That fact the "very hard" difficulty (that used be the only one) follows 3.5 rules the most closely is another thing. It just is the problem with Pierre design and his understanding of difficulty. It was discussed here long time ago. I remember people were telling Pierre to add standardised lower difficulty settings in this thread. Suggesting something easier as default if he wants to sell the game to anyone else. Hardcore players can still play it "as it was meant to be played".

 

[Darth Roxor]

I had good experience with a rogue, though I was initially very sceptical about it. That said, I stopped playing with that party when I hit chapter 4, so odds are the rogue might lose a lot of usefulness there given that every piece of shit enemy has foresight or unnatural immunity to critical hits.

 

[Tacgnol]

At the end of the day, I've completed the game on the "original" difficulty in summer 2020 and the new default normal mode (in summer last year). So I know how both feel.

The latter is a much less frustrating experience. It still has plenty of challenge, but actually forgives some mistakes and a (slightly) sub optimal party. It also requires less perfect RNG on initiative and save rolls (except for some of the optional fights like the spider queen which are still very difficult).

Not to say Archmage won't be enjoyable to some, but people should be aware what they are getting into.

I had good experience with a rogue, though I was initially very sceptical about it. That said, I stopped playing with that party when I hit chapter 4, so odds are the rogue might lose a lot of usefulness there given that every piece of shit enemy has foresight or unnatural immunity to critical hits.

I found Rogue fairly weak in the final chapter when I did my playthrough last year. I was constantly wishing it was another full caster or martial.

 

[Serus]

Do alignments of your party members play any role in Augury of Chaos?

 

[Brickfrog]

My body is ready to finally play this, a couple of questions:

-mantis unarmed monk - does it make sense? There's 14 STR cap during char creation on such character.

I also tried this build because I did play Dark Sun at one point in my life and remembered the FOUR attacks that a mantis gets out of the gate. Sadly, this is a weird ass home-brew hybrid set of rules because while it does list 4 attacks under the Mantis race you most certainly do NOT get 4 unarmed attacks as a mantis monk. Maybe you'd have better luck w/ Gladiator as someone mentioned but I will be rerolling into something else since 1 attack a round ain't cutting it. Also for a monk in general the STR cap is not a major issue if you take weapon finesse which will then run off your DEX stat.

-any tips on difficulty? I do not like cheating like every feat of attribute point at every level but I've also read here that KOTC2 is much more difficult that first part. I do not fear to reload and I am learning animal. Should I play on normal difficulty with all popamole helpers on (like those extra points or no gold to lvl up)?

The game is hard AF and very unforgiving. It is definitely of a different time, the good news is you can dial the difficulty down at any time. If you made it through the tutorial fairly easily you are fine, if you did not, then turn on the helpers. You said you only played the first tutorial battle, that is a mistake. Play at least up to the 3rd encounter to get a feel for what combat is really like.

For what it's worth my mantis monk was getting 4 attacks in a round so long as he didn't move prior to attacking.

Is anyone else really impressed with the ai? I know a lot of people have been playing this game for a while now so it isn't news, but man the enemies use their movement and actions pretty wisely.

I noticed there's an option to take the limiter off of the processing power used to compute enemy actions. Has anyone messed around with this setting? Did you notice a difference?

 

[Tacgnol]

Do alignments of your party members play any role in Augury of Chaos?

Not plot wise, but some enchantments work better on certain alignments.

Holy weapons for example do more damage when wielded by a good aligned character.

 

[Trash Player]

I also tried this build because I did play Dark Sun at one point in my life and remembered the FOUR attacks that a mantis gets out of the gate. Sadly, this is a weird ass home-brew hybrid set of rules because while it does list 4 attacks under the Mantis race you most certainly do NOT get 4 unarmed attacks as a mantis monk. Maybe you'd have better luck w/ Gladiator as someone mentioned but I will be rerolling into something else since 1 attack a round ain't cutting it. Also for a monk in general the STR cap is not a major issue if you take weapon finesse which will then run off your DEX stat.

DS games are 2E. Read up on 3E action economy and natural weapons. It works the same as PnP. It is a weird ass homebrew but it is faithful on this point, if a generous interpretation.

The dumb and lazy version: free claws are only usable in a full attack action, by default a full turn. So only a 5-feet-step is allowed. Move more than that, only one main hand weapon hit.

No wonder you guys can enjoy the game this much, ignorance is bliss indeed. Despite D1P to support Pierre, I have a hard time impressed by 3E anymore.

 

[TigerKnee]

There's a couple of places in AoC where certain classes with Good alignment get extra dialogue options.

 

[JarlFrank]

That made me remember a question i wanted to ask:
Is this game even possible Ironman? Assuming someone knows the module inside out, is good at d&d tactics and the difficulty settings are not set high? Would it be, in theory at least, doable or not a chance?

I think so. After my current regular playthrough, I might attempt going after the ironman achievements.

According to the Steam achievement descriptions, Ironman achievements have no difficulty requirements. You can set everything to easy, giving you a massive boost in character abilities. Start with max ability scores, get 2 feats per levelup, max health, a stat increase on each level.
I wouldn't select anything that weakens enemies though because I'm not sure whether it reduces XP rewards, and getting yourself high level is more important than keeping your enemy low, especially with bonus feats and attributes on levelup.

With this low difficulty level selected, you then have to harvest as much XP as you can in order to prepare yourself for each challenge. With all the new content added in Finchbury, you can absolutely get yourself to a level where you're able to ironman at least all the way through chapter 2. I'm currently at chapter 3 in my normal playthrough and am going to take a look at the optimal strategy for getting through that area while minimizing the risk of death.

 

[Tacgnol]

That made me remember a question i wanted to ask:
Is this game even possible Ironman? Assuming someone knows the module inside out, is good at d&d tactics and the difficulty settings are not set high? Would it be, in theory at least, doable or not a chance?

I think so. After my current regular playthrough, I might attempt going after the ironman achievements.

According to the Steam achievement descriptions, Ironman achievements have no difficulty requirements. You can set everything to easy, giving you a massive boost in character abilities. Start with max ability scores, get 2 feats per levelup, max health, a stat increase on each level.
I wouldn't select anything that weakens enemies though because I'm not sure whether it reduces XP rewards, and getting yourself high level is more important than keeping your enemy low, especially with bonus feats and attributes on levelup.

With this low difficulty level selected, you then have to harvest as much XP as you can in order to prepare yourself for each challenge. With all the new content added in Finchbury, you can absolutely get yourself to a level where you're able to ironman at least all the way through chapter 2. I'm currently at chapter 3 in my normal playthrough and am going to take a look at the optimal strategy for getting through that area while minimizing the risk of death.

Yes, I noticed Pierre wasn't sadistic enough to insist on Ironman + Archmage mode.

That would just be cruel.

 

[Serus]

That made me remember a question i wanted to ask:
Is this game even possible Ironman? Assuming someone knows the module inside out, is good at d&d tactics and the difficulty settings are not set high? Would it be, in theory at least, doable or not a chance?

I think so. After my current regular playthrough, I might attempt going after the ironman achievements.

According to the Steam achievement descriptions, Ironman achievements have no difficulty requirements. You can set everything to easy, giving you a massive boost in character abilities. Start with max ability scores, get 2 feats per levelup, max health, a stat increase on each level.
I wouldn't select anything that weakens enemies though because I'm not sure whether it reduces XP rewards, and getting yourself high level is more important than keeping your enemy low, especially with bonus feats and attributes on levelup.

With this low difficulty level selected, you then have to harvest as much XP as you can in order to prepare yourself for each challenge. With all the new content added in Finchbury, you can absolutely get yourself to a level where you're able to ironman at least all the way through chapter 2. I'm currently at chapter 3 in my normal playthrough and am going to take a look at the optimal strategy for getting through that area while minimizing the risk of death.

When/if you do it, bring us a report. And good luck.
Wouldn't be lowering enemy initiative be a good idea though? Even a 25% can mean that you will be able to (more) reliably win the initiative rolls which wold be big.

Edit: Pierre is a crazy person. I'm doing my team for the main module and i just found, there are 40(sic) domain for clerics and bishops. Granted most are rather simple but still. :O

 

[Brickfrog]

Stupid question but how does resting work in aoc? Are we only able to rest whenever the DM deigns to give us a campfire or it's equivalent? is there a more reliable way to get my spells back?

No I did not play the tutorial do not tell me to play the tutorial.

 

[JarlFrank]

Stupid question but how does resting work in aoc? Are we only able to rest whenever the DM deigns to give us a campfire or it's equivalent? is there a more reliable way to get my spells back?

No I did not play the tutorial do not tell me to play the tutorial.

Yes, only campfires provided by the level designer let you rest.

There are certain consumables that recover spell slots or psionic power points though.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Are we only able to rest whenever the DM deigns to give us a campfire or it's equivalent?

yes

 

[Dorateen]

I have uploaded version 1.28 of Hearkenwold to coincide with the official release of Knights of the Chalice 2.

https://www.nexusmods.com/knightsofthechalice2/mods/5

No major changes from the previous version. Just flagged the module data for no gold requirement to level up. And fixed an NPC interaction.

 

[oneself]

Rangers and (arguably) Rogues.

sweating.gif

 

[Tacgnol]

Also, since Dorateen is posting in this thread, I'll take the weekly opportunity to shill his Hearkenwold module.

It's a really good module and difficulty wise much closer to KOTC 1.

 

[Serus]

Stupid question but how does resting work in aoc? Are we only able to rest whenever the DM deigns to give us a campfire or it's equivalent? is there a more reliable way to get my spells back?

No I did not play the tutorial do not tell me to play the tutorial.

I tell you: play the tutorial. Seriously. It's a good advice.
With the exception of the very early part (first 3 or 4 fights that are gimmicky for the sake of tutoring), it is a nice small module by itself. You will level several times and find varied enemies to fight. And it is in my opinion good at teaching basics too.

 

[notpl]

Does this game use straight 3.5e as-written, or does it fix the glaring problems like Pathfinder did? Are 90% of the enemies in the game still immune to the rogue's central class feature? Can clerics and wizards still cast spells to literally become Fighters But Better? Are there still a thousand noob trap races completely unusable because of a huge level penalty?