KickStarter Knights of the Chalice 2 Thread - Augury of Chaos

[Tacgnol]

What party you advise, that will actually manage to finish game?

Do not want "walking dead scenario".


p.s. Also, you are supposed to start with lvl 2 characters? Since you are allowed to.

No need to start with level 2 characters. The starting village gets you to level 3-4 before the sewers.

As for party:

1. Fighter/Samurai/Gladiator/Death Knight
2. Fighter/Samurai/Gladiator/Death Knight
3. Druid
4. Cleric
5. Wizard
6. Psionist

Above will be able to do everything.

 

[Rinslin Merwind]

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

I want mantis gladiator in party as one of martials, yet choice for second martial is bothers me. I wanted half-giant, but can't decide between samurai and fighter classes.
Maybe I misunderstood information in manual, but in summary:
Half-Giant Fighter - has a lot of cool feats and can trip/disarm/whateverthefuckyouwant, yet slow as fuck.
Half-Giant Samurai - less slow and has some cool stuf to it (namely cleave, for example), yet has less cool stuff than fighter + manual mentitons this class falls short in late game.

Manual mentions that crafting can alleviate some of the fighter's slow speed, yet judging how everyone telling how hard this game is - to craft something you need to survive and it's troublesome for party where melee character has to spend two turns to reach target.

 

[Tacgnol]

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

I want mantis gladiator in party as one of martials, yet choice for second martial is bothers me. I wanted half-giant, but can't decide between samurai and fighter classes.
Maybe I misunderstood information in manual, but in summary:
Half-Giant Fighter - has a lot of cool feats and can trip/disarm/whateverthefuckyouwant, yet slow as fuck.
Half-Giant Samurai - less slow and has some cool stuf to it (namely cleave, for example), yet has less cool stuff than fighter + manual mentitons this class falls short in late game.

Manual mentions that crafting can alleviate some of the fighter's slow speed, yet judging how everyone telling how hard this game is - to craft something you need to survive and it's troublesome for party where melee character has to spend two turns to reach target.

Fighters are super versatile amongst the martials. They have some awesome feat chains and can fulfil a lot of different roles.

I usually make at least one of the two martials a fighter.

Speed isn't an issue as there are a fuckton of items that give speed bonuses. It appears on armour, weapons and, of course, boots.

 

[Serus]

There are so many good picks for psionicist's powers and only 2 picks per character level after the first, makes me sad...
Is there a way to learn additional psionic powers (other than at level up)?

 

[Tacgnol]

There are so many good picks for psionicist's powers and only 2 picks per character level after the first, makes me sad...
Is there a way to learn additional psionic powers (other than at level up)?

There are psionic scrolls which can be memorised.

 

[Serus]

Psionic scrolls? Cleric spells that can be memorised from scrolls, psionic scrolls... Pierre has some fetish for scrolls.

The default difficulty gives you two feats per lvl, right?

Fucking french preople...

1 feat / level instead of 1 per 3 levels in 3.5 (or 1 per 2 levels in pathfinder). Plus additional feats as per class/race. I think it can be set up individually as many other difficulty settings.

 

[Tacgnol]

When does the game start to get difficult? I'm on the default difficulty and so far I've only had 1 battle where I had to pay attention. In terms of my progress, I just beat up the slimes that burst into your cell after you lose all your items and get teleported.

The one battle where I had to pay attention was one of the elemental waves down in the cave. I got hit by a spell and half my party fell off the ledge. I guess the bees were supposed to be challenging too, but I have spells to deal with animals.

Pierre never really re-balanced the Sewers around the fact you get a lot more levels (you used to start the sewers at level 1 before he added the village). I'd say the Moon Crypt and the next level of the sewers are where the challenge ramps up.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Quest: find the horse for sadina.

Spoiler

The thieves up north have it, either on the leader's corpse or in the treasure chest.

ok so at 2nd campfire in tutorial, if I go back to merchants it keeps giving me random spawns between merchant and campfire, which kills another character turn 1. then process repeats

You just learned how to "sneak", why won't you do it again?
Wait for the roaming monsters to pass by and go in the other direction and run (no, you can't really run) to your destination.

What party you advise, that will actually manage to finish game?
Do not want "walking dead scenario".
p.s. Also, you are supposed to start with lvl 2 characters? Since you are allowed to.

Any party really, Fighter, Wizard and Psion are important as well as cleric, other two don't matter much and you now get a shitload of companions, there's 4 or 5 recruitable ones in the village alone.

Spoiler

Barbarian, Monk, Water Elemental Gladiator (you need a water druid), Water Druid, Storm Warrior Water Elemental.
Water elemental comes with a huge natural armor and a lot of immunities like crit, stun, etc.

When does the game start to get difficult?

Just so you know, the intended difficulty is the maximum one and the game used to throw you in the dungeon at level 1, not level 4/6.

Half-Giant Samurai - less slow and has some cool stuf to it (namely cleave, for example), yet has less cool stuff than fighter + manual mentitons this class falls short in late game.

Samourai doesn't fall short late game if you take advantage of his special ability which turns his weapon into +1 up to +8.

Spoiler

So you enchant a good weapon with x3 x4 or x5 crit multiplier and huge base damage with skewer and then you watch everything die.
Also, if you side with the grey gobelins, you can buy a wade in belt, I think it's the grey, someone sells it in that area, chapter 2.

Sure, if you don't use either of the hints above, late game Samourai will be weaker and even more if you play on the original difficulty (less feats).
Otherwise, it'll just be a Fighter with no armor speed penalties and better THC.

 

[Tacgnol]

the game used to throw you in the dungeon at level 1, not level 4/6.

Interestingly enough, when I played the village last year and it had less content, you tended to end up level 2 or 3 which felt slightly less over levelled for the early parts of the sewers.

I think Pierre went a little overboard with the amount of XP he added in the village. That said, it matters slightly less when you hit the upper sewers as the XP curve reasserts itself.

 

[Whisper]

What party you advise, that will actually manage to finish game?

Do not want "walking dead scenario".


p.s. Also, you are supposed to start with lvl 2 characters? Since you are allowed to.

No need to start with level 2 characters. The starting village gets you to level 3-4 before the sewers.

As for party:

1. Fighter/Samurai/Gladiator/Death Knight
2. Fighter/Samurai/Gladiator/Death Knight
3. Druid
4. Cleric
5. Wizard
6. Psionist

Above will be able to do everything.

NPC Companions are worth it?

What 2 of them are best?

 

[JarlFrank]

Entirely possible it's still there and I've just managed to skip it on the last two playthroughs.

Either way, I imagine it's a lot easier now the party is a few levels higher.

It's still there even on easy if you open the gate noisily, nothing to do with difficulty. Difficulty levels do NOT change the encounters in any way (other than the negative levels for enemies option).

But difficulty options aren't even the most important part. I remember that it was still difficult when he introduced the difficulty options, but hadn't introduced Finchbury yet. I played with full HP on levelup, 2 feats per level, attribute raise on each level, etc and it was still hard as fuck because you'd always be outnumbered and outgunned by high level enemy mobs.

The biggest decrease in difficulty comes through finishing all the content in Finchbury which can easily get you to level 4, close to level 5 even, before you enter what used to be the game's starting area.
That's a difference of three to four levels compared to the original version, which makes a MUCH bigger difference than any of the difficulty options because it increases the amount of spell slots you get, and more importantly the level of spells you can cast.

Where in the old version, the best you could cast against a certain encounter was grease, now you have access to web and fireball and stinking cloud in the very same encounter. That makes a HUGE difference, more so than anything else.

 

[Whisper]

Quest: find the horse for sadina.

Spoiler

The thieves up north have it, either on the leader's corpse or in the treasure chest.

I had him recruited and got chest. No horse anywhere.

 

[Efe]

by thieves up north do you mean the one with evil cleric leader that you can recruit?
I didnt get a horse from there either
only dragon and pool fight left. still got 2 campfires. is this the end of tutorial?

 

[Tacgnol]

What party you advise, that will actually manage to finish game?

Do not want "walking dead scenario".


p.s. Also, you are supposed to start with lvl 2 characters? Since you are allowed to.

No need to start with level 2 characters. The starting village gets you to level 3-4 before the sewers.

As for party:

1. Fighter/Samurai/Gladiator/Death Knight
2. Fighter/Samurai/Gladiator/Death Knight
3. Druid
4. Cleric
5. Wizard
6. Psionist

Above will be able to do everything.

NPC Companions are worth it?

What 2 of them are best?

Probably the mantis druid from the village and

Spoiler

Pizarra the cultist leader warlock who can join you after you defeat her at the start of the second level of sewers.

There is also a paladin who is petrified that can join you in the Crones room. I never found her super useful though.

 

[JarlFrank]

the game used to throw you in the dungeon at level 1, not level 4/6.

Interestingly enough, when I played the village last year and it had less content, you tended to end up level 2 or 3 which felt slightly less over levelled for the early parts of the sewers.

I think Pierre went a little overboard with the amount of XP he added in the village. That said, it matters slightly less when you hit the upper sewers as the XP curve reasserts itself.

Yeah I felt that the lower sewers were perfectly balanced with the old Finchbury content. Now there's so much to do in Finchbury, it will easily overlevel you for that area and make it too easy.

Just a few months ago I would never have imagined saying the words "too easy" and "KotC2 lower sewers" in the same sentence, but here we are.

Pierre gonna Pierre.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

On another note having "reserve" party member through companion is kinda fun. I am pretty sure I am going to be punished heavily later due to XP curve, but my party only has 1 Sorcerer and 1 Physic as full caster and Sorcerer sucks balls. Having reserve part member make it possible to swap someone in when some party member is screwed in some extended condition. At the very least having the reserve summon shit and cast buffing spells. Certainly this is a dimension that's also non existent in most other CRPG, very refreshing.

 

[Darth Canoli]

I had him recruited and got chest. No horse anywhere.

by thieves up north do you mean the one with evil cleric leader that you can recruit?
I didnt get a horse from there either
only dragon and pool fight left. still got 2 campfires. is this the end of tutorial?

Maybe I got it elsewhere or maybe you have to kill him and get it from his corpse. there's also a lot of hidden caches, one in the group north of the princess, maybe the horse is there.
I recruited the cleric, he's the one summoning the tentacled horror, right (special abilities)? So the guy i'm talking about is in that northern group, center left if i recall correctly.

Or maybe I got the horse from the Statue room when I killed everyone. Well, it's somewhere and you have the same search skill to find hidden alcoves.

Just got the solution for the dragon from Pierre, I'm not gonna spoil.

As for the Companions, Pizarra is great and if you need a Fighter, The Barbarian is quite good, so is the Storm Warrior, particularly if you don't pick a druid, well, there is the water druid as well but the Water elemental has a lot of immunities, he'll be a great tank.
And there's the Gladiator from the tavern, I think I'll restart and try to recruit him, he's probably even better.

 

[Whisper]

I had him recruited and got chest. No horse anywhere.

by thieves up north do you mean the one with evil cleric leader that you can recruit?
I didnt get a horse from there either
only dragon and pool fight left. still got 2 campfires. is this the end of tutorial?

Maybe I got it elsewhere or maybe you have to kill him and get it from his corpse. there's also a lot of hidden caches, one in the group north of the princess, maybe the horse is there.

Just got the solution for the dragon from Pierre, I'm not gonna spoil.

As for the Companions, Pizarra is great and if you need a Fighter, The Barbarian is quite good, so is the Storm Warrior, particularly if you don't pick a druid, well, there is the water druid as well but the Water elemental has a lot of immunities, he'll be a great tank.
And there's the Gladiator from the tavern, I think I'll restart and try to recruit him, he's probably even better.

You can dismiss companions and take new ones? Or it is final?

 

[Darth Canoli]

You can dismiss companions and take new ones? Or it is final?

I think you can dismiss them, i'm not sure but if you have more than 8, the others go into the "reserve" aka they don't fight and you can switch from the formation screen.

 

[Darth Canoli]

I'm going to restart tonight, I wanted to go without a Cleric and it works just fine so far but I've been running Fighter + DK + Samourai and I'm going to drop one due to the number of martial classes the Village throws at you.

If I can recruit that Water Elemental Gladiator, maybe I can run a second Wizard, a Half-Giant Green wizard -> 4 arms + huge, with the BAB class increase belt, it could be quite good. Or a Mantis so he can go without any armor.

 

[Tacgnol]

You can dismiss companions and take new ones? Or it is final?

I think you can dismiss them, i'm not sure but if you have more than 8, the others go into the "reserve" aka they don't fight and you can switch from the formation screen.

Yep they go into formation screen and can be switched between. Only thing is reservists don't get XP so they'll become obsolete pretty quick.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

I'm on the default difficulty

The default difficulty gives you two feats per lvl, right?

Fucking french preople...

Archmage difficulty is the way it is meant to be played. Thats core rules

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Started 6 red wiz again on archmage. Lots to do in Finchbury

 

[Brickfrog]

You can dismiss companions and take new ones? Or it is final?

I think you can dismiss them, i'm not sure but if you have more than 8, the others go into the "reserve" aka they don't fight and you can switch from the formation screen.

Yep they go into formation screen and can be switched between. Only thing is reservists don't get XP so they'll become obsolete pretty quick.

Will using companions leave me gimped in 30 hours or am I safe to bring them along?

 

[Tacgnol]

You can dismiss companions and take new ones? Or it is final?

I think you can dismiss them, i'm not sure but if you have more than 8, the others go into the "reserve" aka they don't fight and you can switch from the formation screen.

Yep they go into formation screen and can be switched between. Only thing is reservists don't get XP so they'll become obsolete pretty quick.

Will using companions leave me gimped in 30 hours or am I safe to bring them along?

No you want two companions (I use the druid from Finchbury and a certain warlock you get later on). They always scale to at least the parties level when they join (some are higher than the party when they join).

My point was more you likely won't be switching them out frequently as they'll grow obsolete quickly from not gaining XP.