Monte Carlo

Thanks for all the advice, I've tried a few of these out in the opening dungeon. I've never thought of the sick x5 criticals with the scythe, hmmm. Di, tried the Eldritch Knight, agree it's fun but there still just too much fiddling around with spells! Might have one in my next SoZ party. MINOR OPENING SPOILERS I've also considered other spell-casters and gone for a fighter 6 / cleric 8 / warpriest 7 (Tempus) at the start of the game, monkey-gripping that greataxe you find at the end of the upper barrow. Got him to The Veil and got my arse kicked in shadow veil by the red wizards summoning devils and stuff. This is due to my almost total unfamiliarity with spellz and stuff. I just buff as much as I can and go batsh**t crazy with melee, and my arse gets handed to me. So what suits my playing style best for very high levels, I suspect, is a melee character with non-modal and passive buffs / resistances. Which is making me think paladin. Any other ideas for a magic-resistant tank character that would benefit from highish WIS & CHA? Cheers MC

You might remember it, the dungeon underneath a big mauve bridge near the Halfling Village. Very narrow tunnels / corridors and the pathfinding was atrocious. I mean epic-level awfulness. You had to navigate each character individually around tight spots. Add a number of 'Kobold Kommandoes' (am still amused by notion of small reptilitan creatures having special forces unit) armed with fire arrows lurking in packs everywhere and you have a veritable festival or re-loading, wailing and gnashing of teeth.

^ You are in fact Damon Albarn and I claim my twenty pounds.

The only part of the game where I actually dismissed all my party members and left them outside, finished the level solo then picked them back up again. I had a melee-orientated dual-class Ftr/ Thf, it's actually not that bad if you used the old stealth-and-run cheese. Cheers MC

^ No, LAZY should be an origin story. A very short one. Lazy Origin Story: Dwarven Tunnel-Scout (Male) Snorg Rockbeard stirred from his sleep and climbed out of bed. The dreams had returned: a world in flames, a being of ancient evil awakening, a band of heroes facing insurmoutable odds... The Clerics of Sven Golden-Hammer, deity of the Rockbeard clan, swore that this marked Snorg as The Chosen One, the one Dwarven legend called The Stone-Hero. As a young Tunnel-Scout, a warrior trained in tracking the subterranean goblin foes of the clan, he was supremely qualified for the task. Already he had won The Crossbow of Steel for his exploits in the tunnels and caves of the Granite-Fist mountains. The other young dwarves already looked up to him, and none in the clan doubted his ability to drink ale and wield his battle-hammer, occasionally at the same time. He walked from the tunnel complex and looked out over the Fjords of Frosty-Nose peaks, taking in the bracing air and feeling the apple-sized snowflakes on his ruddy face. The weak winter sun sat low on the horizon and he could hear the wailing of Snow Trolls in the distance. A great quest awaited... "Bugger that," said Snorg, heading back to bed, "I'm gonnae have meself a bacon sandwich then go tae the pub." And so ended Snorg Rockbeard's part in the Quest to halt the Dark Shadows Rising of the Colon of: The Narcolich.

My last word on the subject, but in UK jurisdictions property doesn't have to be 'tangible' and therefore illegally downloading games is Theft. Not 'sort of' theft or a 'technical' theft but Theft.

Things I say once a century: Volourn is on the money. Period.

Assassins get something called Death Attack (IIRC) which is basically their sneak attack. It stacks with rogue SA, the last character I made who was pure rog / assn had a sick +12d6 combined SA or something.

I didn't know that Britain's Got Talent was doing auditions this weekend, Walsy.

^ Duh. Had to update the drivers for my video cards. Anyhoo, I'm thinking warrior / assassin build. Would a Ranger be the best base class or a ranger / fighter build? Or Ftr / Rog? Cheers MC

Bit of a problem. I have SoZ installed and the game autopatched to the most recent release. However, for some reason MotB crashes my monitor / screen goes black. Does anyone know if this is a known issue? As Atari tech support is useless. Cheers MC

I've played what many consider to be some of the best cRPGs, but I it's rare for me to complete or replay them. loving the blog

^ Indeed. We already have the Corsairs of Odge, who are pirates. Now we need an order of Mysterious Eastern Assassins

I guess the next phase is suggesting REALLY AWFUL prestige classes for the Bowl World campaign (DSR:HotNL). Bowl World is the top secret working title, BTW. We have - Warrior Maiden of Laaaa Gladys Knight Grim Dark Elven Scimitar Ninja --- Ninjas and katanas clearly have a role in The Worst Fantasy Setting Ever. We aren't necessarily using D&D. In fact, key stats will be - POWANESS: How much power you have to smite your enemies HOTNESS: How hot your character looks AWESOMENESS: How all-round awesome your character is FLIP-OUT AND KILL PEOPLE-NESS: Your ability to do "Neo-from-the-Matrix" type moves MAGICALNESS: How much mana you have to fuel youe special moves Obviously, this is ripped directly form 4E D&D, but am open to suggestions that we actually go to the other extreme and create over-nerdy stat-based, hugely complicated and overblown system where you have stat points for beard length, ability to play cards and pitch a tent. Will post FAQs soon.

^ That's the whole point of CRPGs. It's the unique selling point. You can only play, say, Crysis, once or twice (I suppose FPS games rely on multiplayer) but a good CRPG has a matrix of factors that make it replayable. Any half-decent CRPG I've bought I've replayed numerous times: it's one of the things I expect when I buy it. It's also why party-based games (either character-driven or mechanics driven like IWD) are so replayable (next time I'll do it with a party of bards or whatever) are so replayable.

Dammit, I know we've had our differences but that's brilliant. Do you work at Bioware or something?

I think you might be unrepresentative as you are, clearly, a games junkie. Nothing wrong with that, but OTOH I do tend to re-play games. What happens is that my life gets busy. I forget about my games, and then when things calm down and I get some time to game again I rediscover them. So rather than drop another fifty or sixty pounds on new games I try to finish or replay my old ones instead. OK, I'm always 6 months plus behind the gaming curve and have to ask people here WTF is going on with games, but a lot of older guys with families / long hours etc I know who like gaming are in a similar boat. Therefore, long games are ideal for people like me (especially modded games and trust me DA:O will be heavily modded adding longevity). I mean, I'm still playing Medieval TW2, MotB and Sacred for chrissakes. Cheers MC

^ Fantastic. Will definitely be picking this up.

^ Very cool, a feature where you could choose which one, a la GTA's radio stations would be even cooler. Am looking forward to playing this whilst hooked up to an IV supply of Jack Daniels and wearing my viking helmet. p.s. thanks for the console advice, I'm not bothered about Blu-Ray (WHATSOEVER) so it looks like it'll be the 360, which will delight Mrs. MC as I've already promised MC Junior a Wii. Cheers MC

I never finished MotB. Not because I didn't like it, but because I wasn't really happy with my character build (Human STR-pumped Bbn / Ftr / Frenzied Berserker uber-tank) and I'm not the D&D mentat I used to be. Now I'm going to try again and want some advice. Here are my parameters: 1. I prefer predominantly non-spellcasting classes 2. I like melee, not averse to stealthy characters, fave build used to be Ftr / Rog types 3. If I am playing spellcasters I much prefer clerics (anyway, you get the very effective high level Red Wizard NPC straight off) 4. Am quite happy to build power-gamed, micro-managed, rule-bendingly powerful character 5. Don't spoil me, but you could set me on the right path to enjoy the best dialogue / plot outcomes 6. Alignment ain't an issue, I'll happily play whatever's fun Thanks in advance, I know you'll come through for me! Cheers (and happy Independence Day to the Americans). Cheers MC

Obvious question: who's doing the music for this?

I can see it now... Langley, Virginia - NOW CIA Analyst: "Sir, we have a new plan to propagate US cultural hegemony." CIA Senior Intel Dude: "What's that? I'm extremely important and have to create a new Microsoft Excel spreadsheet." CIA Analyst (drinking lukewarm coffee from 'Dilbert' mug): "We have decided to create the worst fantasy role-playing game setting. Ever." CIA Senior Intel Dude (looks slightly alarmed): "Who currently has bad fantasy setting superiority?" CIA Analyst: "The Canadians, sir." CIA Senior Intel Dude: "Godammit, those sneaky Canucks! Can't we just steal theirs?" CIA Analyst: "It's not released until October. We need to beat them, stealing it could be construed as an act of aggression." CIA Senior Intel Dude (looking sternly into the distance and to the tune of The Star Spangled Banner): "Then get to it, dammit! We're Americans, we can acheive anything when we put our collective genius to it! Gather the worst fantasy setting writers ever, offer them whatever they want and sit them in an underground bunker until they're goddam finished! Got that?" CIA Analyst: "YES SIR!" ---

^ I wouldn't, do they still do console-exclusive releases?

Have reviewed the thread. Meshugger's titles were awesome, but for a number of reasons (most of them to do with meltdown on my spell-checker) I'm going with Darth InSidious' Dark Shadows Rising: Hordes of the Narcolich It's awful, and just right. Darth wins an NPC cameo within DSR:HotN(L) (I love the acronym, it has just the right level of self-important meta-knowledge one finds on gaming forums). He will probably be either (a) a cute kobold © a minor-level boss villain, altho Lucasarts might sue) or © a cuddly pet owned by a hulking warrior NPC. Cheers MC

^ Or, as I did with TOEE's vignettes, you play each origin story for the first chapter of the game and then proceed with the party / character you like best.