Hearkenwold Beta

[Pongo]

I checked my save and I had actually only reached level 5, so that sounds like its about right for your expectations of progress. I hadn't reached Hamhock yet - and I still have the new city area to go through as well if I remember correctly. I'm a bit behind! I might start again from scratch with a new party rather than try to pick up where I left off.

Edit: so I did. My new party is six, so I've taken one of each of the classes. I'm just clearing the goblin caves at the minute. Having a mage for crowd control is really helpful this time round! Having said that, I'm having to pay a lot more attention to positioning (my party of dwarves didn't have any "squishies") and I'm appreciating your PC/enemy placements more.

[Dorateen]

That's great! The information is really valuable, as balance is always tricky. For example, I tested Hamhock with 5th and 6th level characters and found it to be a decent challenge. In other places you might run across fights that your party has to come back at a higher level.

As far as positioning of spell casters, just be careful if you are standing next to an enemy, they will get a free attack and chance to disrupt the spell.

[Pongo]

I played a bit more today. My current playtime (not including character creation) is 2 hrs.

I cleared the goblin caves. The battles were fun. The final fight against Aznek was a good challenge that took me several attempts to win. My characters were level 1, with the exception of my thief (2) and I think my ranger was at 2 as well at that point. The bottleneck at the door was a real problem for us, as was the goblin wizard throwing out heal and sleep spells. I couldn't get my own wizard into a counter position because of the door; and sitting back and inviting the enemy onto us didn't work because they had better ranged capability. Eventually we triumphed though, and Aznek was beaten down! I've now picked up the Wrathrak quest and begun to venture further east. My final battle before ending the session was with a bunch of horrible stinging, poisonous stirges. This was a nasty fight. No one in my party can counter poison, and their positioning (surrounding the party) left my weaker members fully exposed. Fortunately my main fighter had just levelled up and gained access to Cleave, which provided highly effective at cutting down their numbers and leading us to victory!

Currently, my fighter is level 2- and loving his new Cleave ability! Main issue is a poor dexterity roll and armor class, but he has good constitution to compensate.
Paladin level 2 - currently wielding Briar, which looks to have lots of great bonuses. Again, dexterity roll could have been better, but I'll move the front line to heavy armor in due course so it shouldn't be a long term issue. She's just accessed lay on hands which will be useful, but I haven't used it yet;
Cleric level 3 - focussed on healing and bless rather than damage output, but pretty effective in a tight spot;
Ranger level 2 - focussed on ranged weapons, and notably lagging behind the melee fighters in damage output at present. Hopefully some new abilities at higher levels and better equipment will improve this when I get them, but at the minute he's the weakest party member;
Thief level 3 - quite effective at melee attacks, but I'm focussing him on non-combat skills at present - eg he just prioritised Disable Device over additional melee damage;
Wizard level 2 - but only just getting to level 2 after the battle with the stirges. Her sleep spell has been key to a few successful fights. But she's very squishy, so she's chosen Mage Armor as her new spell over any new damage output spells.

I'll get some more time to game next week, I'll keep you posted on my journey to the east!

[Dorateen]

Excellent progress there, Pongo. Sometimes I think the first level or two is the most challenging to overcome. Due to the open ended nature of the content, I would just caution, if you run into any battles that seem way over what your party can handle, it is likely meant for them to come back when they are more powerful.

[Pongo]

Yeah I found a few already - for example I picked a fight with the adventuring party in the south west tower of the castle and got totally wasted. I'm leaving them for a couple of levels, but it's going to satisfying to wipe the floor with them at some point and take all their gear!

[slowdive]

Yes, that has always been one of the more satisfying encounters and I keep trying it earlier on, risk vs reward

[Dorateen]

No one ever listens to the guard who says not to go up there!

I'm the same way as a player, which is why I included the encounter. If I see a random door with a Do Not Enter sign, that is practically an invitation.

[slowdive]

From the player data on android (it shows start encounter, end encounter, Load save, start convo, enter area, and save game), apparently most players go into that room ignoring the warning. I typically saw a start encounter and then a load save right after that

[youngneil1]

[Dorateen]