KotC Post-Game Review: Casters of the Eternal Chalice

[Endarire]

We finished the game.

[itsdat]

"EASILY EXPLOITABLE AI.
- While sometimes it felt good to triumph over foes due to our finding exploits, once we realized that anything not immune to web very frequently treated escaping it as the highest priority, we effectively won the game very early. Once we saw the final red dragon boss helplessly flail around in it and even dispel himself to escape the web, we laughed."
- CROWD CONTROL: WEB!!!
Web is so good at crowd control that it can make the final boss show its arachniophobia! (That’s fear of webs, not fear of spiders.) This spell a large area that, immunities aside, auto-entangles with an attempt to stuckify on initial cast every 5’ step! Non-immune enemies are also apparently allergic to web, making them want to flee it ASAP! Maybe it’s because so few things in this game have a good Reflex save.

Yeah, it is an exploitable spell [..and not just in KotC 1. of course]. It needs balancing for sure.

AOE DAMAGE: FIREBALL!!!, lightning bolt, cone of cold, dehydrate, acid blast. Most fights are against notably large groups of foes where “fireball formation” applies. Often, victory came with one spell and that was usually fireball or cone of cold, likely metamagicked.
&
"Facing large quantities of foes so often only reinforced our view that Fighters/Knights were worthless compared to casters since Fighters can only target normal AC (grappling aside) and hit single targets while casters can bypass these limits."

True. Casters are OP in "large" battles, because of the AoE damage + CC [like the exploitable web spell]. I played many D&D RPGs, and all of them had this problem. How would you balance this in KotC 2. for example?

[BlueSalamander]

While still a very good spell, Web may not be as powerful in KotC 2.

Firstly, the Stuck effect is applied once per round on a failed save, not once for every Web square you have to move through as in KotC 1.

Secondly, enemies in KotC 2 are often much smarter than in KotC 1. If an enemy Stuck in a Web can hurt the party with magic, a melee attack or a ranged attack, it will do this and ignore the Web. Otherwise, if it can eliminate the Web with a simple Burning Hands spell or a Fire Breath Weapon, then it will do that, even if the fire spell has no target other than the Web itself.

Likewise, the AI will use Gust of Wind or Greater Gust of Wind to dissipate the effect of Stinking Cloud or Acid Fog when it is beneficial for the enemy to do so.

[Endarire]

The smarter AI in KotC2 regarding web seems encouraging to us as players and good to know in general.

Thankee!

[BlueSalamander]

I've just read your post-game review and I was wondering if you've completed the final battle at the Keep of the Knights of the Chalice?

That is one more battle where you fight together with your fellow Knights. And it is... quite difficult...

[Endarire]

We didn't do Keep Army II since we quit playing after we saw The End. By that point, it was late and we thought we had experienced enough of what the game offered.

We may still do it, but we're amidst a KotC2 preliminary analysis based on website material.

[Endarire]

We eventually finished the final, final fight in the KotC headquarters. That Knight commander who we envied at level 1 was of little use in this fight. We started with mass death ward and mass freedom of movement because we had to.

So, yes, we won, by using scrolls and scrolls and scrolls. And spell slots. Rarely melee. Alleluia!

In short, this fight was more of the similar (except with extra game crashes which made me not want to finish it).

[BlueSalamander]

Well done, congratulations! Maybe a party of two wizards and two clerics can do it without Scribe Scrolls, if they're lucky enough with Dominate Monster, Control Monster and Dominate Undead.