Mountain Pass (SPOILERS)

[jknight]

I had no trouble in mountain pass, but it made the Giants Fortress seem a little too easy - the gnolls and all that. If the Frost Giant fortress is the same dungeon, which i guess it is, its getting better as it gets harder.

[xalles]

But if I make all this stuff, I'm afraid the combat might be boring. Has everyone else been equipping their characters with all those powerful items?

From my playthrough of the game (with knight/knight/cleric/wizard), it seemed like you could make things pretty easy by crafting, especially if you started it early. But around level 15-16, fights got so hard that I needed everything I could get regardless of where it came from.

This sort of behavior might call for the crafting level requirements to be bumped up a little across the board, but I'd have to play through a few more times to be sure.

My only issue with crafting is that it can be done almost anywhere

I thought about this too, like maybe it'd be better if you could only craft at campfires. But then you wouldn't be able to use crafting to save yourself if you run out of spells and find yourself on a long crawl to the next campfire. A compromise would be to disallow all crafting except scribe scroll/craft wand when you're not next to a campfire.

There were only two instances that I can recall where I found actual unique items

It's true you can craft almost every magic item in the game that you find, but the items with a lot of enchants (especially with special metals) cost a ton to craft. So IMHO it's nice to find an upgrade rather than having to craft everything, even if it doesn't happen too often.

[WCG]

I thought about this too, like maybe it'd be better if you could only craft at campfires. But then you wouldn't be able to use crafting to save yourself if you run out of spells and find yourself on a long crawl to the next campfire. A compromise would be to disallow all crafting except scribe scroll/craft wand when you're not next to a campfire.

And maybe it would help if the game was clear that Scribe Scroll and Craft Wand (and probably the other crafting feats) were absolutely essential feats for this game. Is there any way at all to get through Knights of the Chalice without them? If not, maybe they should be default feats for magic characters.

In other games, I rarely use scrolls and wands. For one thing, they take up scarce inventory space. And as for magic items, I just enjoy finding them. That's part of the game for me (and probably a big part, considering that it's all wrapped up in exploration and discovery). These games are partly about loot, after all, and when you can make everything you need - and far better items than you can find in treasure - you lose that part of the game.

Just my opinion, of course. And everyone's different.

[BlueSalamander]

Wizards have scribe scroll automatically and I'm pretty sure that's enough to beat the game. Of course it's a big help if the cleric also picks scribe scroll or craft wand.

[barghest]

It sounds like I in a lot of trouble. I've got this far without getting any crafting feats, and my cleric has run out of healing spells. All my characters, other than one, are down to 1 HP.

I can understand it is a hard game, but this pushes it over to frustratingly hard. I think that more camp-fires need to be added for the normal game, or the whole system looked at again.

[Over]

Or a different strategy.

[WCG]

It sounds like I in a lot of trouble. I've got this far without getting any crafting feats, and my cleric has run out of healing spells. All my characters, other than one, are down to 1 HP.

Yes, I'd say that you're in trouble! My characters have a few more hit points than that, but not enough to survive the dragon. Can't go forward and can't go back. Crafting feats - especially for your cleric - seem to be absolutely essential in this game. Too bad I didn't know that at the start.

I can understand it is a hard game, but this pushes it over to frustratingly hard. I think that more camp-fires need to be added for the normal game, or the whole system looked at again.

I'm sure it wouldn't be a big problem if this had been clear from the beginning. If I'd known ahead of time that crafting feats were required, it would have been different. But the opportunity to take a feat comes rarely, so it's not just a matter of reloading the last save. Backtracking so far just doesn't sound too appealing, so I'm on hold at the moment. (I don't believe I can go elsewhere for awhile, either, since I think the game is too linear for that. I don't think there IS any other place to go right now.)

Barghest, I don't know what to suggest, because I wasn't able to find a solution for myself, either.

[barghest]

Or a different strategy.

Please suggest one which doesn't require the crafting feat.

[some_name]

I still want to know why people would not take crafting feats in an OGL/"D&D 3.5 without the trademark" game. IMO, it's hardly a fault that the game "requires" them when it's normally assumed that every primary caster ever in the history of the system takes them.

And when there are healing wands for sale, it's hard to blame anything except for negligence if you're stuck at 1 HP far away from a campfire. Remember: "D&D without the trademark" is just as much, if not more so, about preparedness for any situation than it is about tactics.

[barghest]

Well, taking NWN/NWN2 as an example (Admittedly not a good one, but you understand) I never needed to use the crafting feat with those games, and the there was no assumption that I would pick those feats. Personally I wasn't interested in wasting money/exp on crafting, and wanted to concentrate on the combat/magic feats.

I've only ever seen one healing wand for sale...

My 'negligence' ? No, it was the assumption by the developer that everyone would grab the crafting feats. It cripples the game for those who don't.