Temple of Trials, or Irenicus' Dungeon, or ToEE Moathouse, or Peragus?

[Laz Sundays]

I unironically like the first dungeon of Baldur's Gate II.

It's pretty good. Not sure why so many people complain about it.
What the hell were you expecting? Durlag's Tower 2: Electric Boogaloo?

probably no dungeon at all.

Starting duneons tend to suck, hard, in most cRPGs, even when they're decently designed they still serve to get in the way for repeat playthroughs.

Irenicus's Dungeon is a tutorial, first and foremost. If you've played BG 2 before it's annoying to do the slog yet again.

Doesn't hold a candle to Peragus though. Truly, an absolutely dogshit start to any video-game.

Which is why Moathouse wins. But you haven't played ToEE, correct?

 

[NecroLord]

Which is why Moathouse wins.

Most certainly, as I always thought.
Peragus does get on my nerves every now and then. I plan to do a Kotor 1 and 2 run, can't say I look forward to Peragus...
Endar Spire is short and Taris is pretty good.

 

[Laz Sundays]

Brofist this post if you think that changing the option to the Moathouse (which is a dungeon, and matches the other poll choices since they're dungeons as well) as opposed to it just saying "Hommlet".

poll is about starting areas not dungeons crithpy

I just wanna add my 2 cents on this with an official statement, in Italic, which means its extra important

"As one of the leading experts on all role playing game systems and Gerry Gygax forgotten realms adventure modules.....the adventure party doesnt even begin in the moathouse. it shouldnt even be on the list"

It doesn't matter if it begins there, mr. Italic. It's even better that it doesn't, regardless of how much of a fail the Hommlet was. Moathouse is the first dungeon that you, hm, encounter.

 

[NecroLord]

Moathouse has so many memorable fights. The giant frogs and the bandits at the start. The bandit leader (who is a barbarian) and his cronies inside. I remember one time when he once critted my squishy mage with his greataxe. 1d12 damage and x3 critical... Yeah, let's just say my mage got fucking annihilated.
You got the zombies and ghouls (watch out for that nasty ghoul paralysis!), the bugbears, the gnolls, the ogre Lubash and finally Lareth and his goons.
It's just perfection *chef's kiss.

 

[Hagashager]

I unironically like the first dungeon of Baldur's Gate II.

It's pretty good. Not sure why so many people complain about it.
What the hell were you expecting? Durlag's Tower 2: Electric Boogaloo?

probably no dungeon at all.

Starting duneons tend to suck, hard, in most cRPGs, even when they're decently designed they still serve to get in the way for repeat playthroughs.

Irenicus's Dungeon is a tutorial, first and foremost. If you've played BG 2 before it's annoying to do the slog yet again.

Doesn't hold a candle to Peragus though. Truly, an absolutely dogshit start to any video-game.

Which is why Moathouse wins. But you haven't played ToEE, correct?

No, I have not. It's on my To-Do list.

 

[Skorpion]

I unironically like the first dungeon of Baldur's Gate II.

It's pretty good. Not sure why so many people complain about it.
What the hell were you expecting? Durlag's Tower 2: Electric Boogaloo?

probably no dungeon at all.

Starting duneons tend to suck, hard, in most cRPGs, even when they're decently designed they still serve to get in the way for repeat playthroughs.

Irenicus's Dungeon is a tutorial, first and foremost. If you've played BG 2 before it's annoying to do the slog yet again.

Doesn't hold a candle to Peragus though. Truly, an absolutely dogshit start to any video-game.

Which is why Moathouse wins. But you haven't played ToEE, correct?

No, I have not. It's on my To-Do list.

They apparently have it as a mod for Solasta (I was just perusing mods) if you have that.
No clue how faithful it is though.

 

[KateMicucci]

Peragus is great. Telos is the real turd.

 

[NecroLord]

Peragus is great. Telos is the real turd.

Telos surface is pretty good.
But Citadel Station, yeah, it kinda sucks.

 

[Skdursh]

One of my favorite thing about playing FO2 in the modern day is I can mod it to completely skip Temple of Trials.

I'm definitely going with Irenicus on this one.

 

[e-mailio estevez]

I spent many, many hours playing through to the end of the Moathouse and then rerolling another party just to see how a different party comp would fair. I had more fun doing this than I've had playing 99% of the RPGs in the past 5 years to a decade. The same could never be said for BG2 or Fallout 2's starter dungeons, they're not even in the same league. You're just going through the motions in those dungeons to get to the fun part of the game. This is with a fresh set of eyes, as I've never made it past Homlett prior to 2022.

Thread concept was murdered by the Moathous inclusion, frankly.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Thread concept was murdered by the Moathous inclusion, frankly.

Correct. All of these are obligatory intro levels that gate your entrance into the broader game. I can get to L3 before even leaving Hommlet. Much higher if I do other things. The player can sneak and steal +7 Elven Chainmail and a bunch of gold before even getting to the moathouse. This change botched the poll.

 

[Roguey]

Whoever changed the title to "a bunch of unpopular starting areas and the dungeon that gave ToEE a glowing reputation among P&P gamers" was ridiculous.

 

[Jason Liang]

But Hommlet isn't a dungeon. It's a hamlet.

I always thought Hommlet as a name for a hamlet was funny.

idk if you know but Shakespeare had a son named Hamnet who died in childhood, after which he started writing tragedies like Hamlet.

 

[Jason Liang]

Missing
- "The Rescue"/"The Pickup"/"The Heist" from Cyberpunk 2077
- Abandoned Factory from Nier Automata
- Mako Reactor 1 from Final Fantasy VII Remake
- Harfeld Manor from Dragonfall
- Tower of Set from Conan the Barbarian