ToEE - Retrospective @RPGCodex

Myrthos

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At RPGCodex, Roguey saw his article on the Temple of Elemental Evil promoted to the front page, focussing on what he thinks is wrong with the game (although there are one or two comments on what was good as well).

Part of ToEE's claim to fame is its faithful adaptation of 3.5 edition D&D rules. It makes a few concessions for the sake of gameplay, but not enough. An example of a problem they created for themselves: all potions you find start out as unidentified. There is no knowledge skill that lets you identify them, and you can't taste a drop and recognize a familiar potion like you can in P&P. The only way you can find out what they are is to cast an identify spell or go to a shop keeper to identify them one by one, and both options cost 100 gp each time (individual potions cost significantly less of course). The Circle of Eight mod alleviates the cost by allowing characters to use the read magic spell instead, but it doesn't remove the sheer tedium of having to cast it so many times. This pointlessly routine nonsense doesn't exist in any other D&D game of which I'm aware.

Naturally, it does retain many of the problems featured in other D&D-based crpgs. The pseudo-simulationist ability scores result in outright-dump, less-important, and must-have stats for certain classes, making the process of assigning those scores a rigid, uninteresting routine. There are outright statistically-inferior weapon and armor choices (and exclusive to ToEE are wearable items that don't actually do anything but still add weight). Ultra-specialized feats like weapon focus and favored enemy are a blind guess without metaknowledge. Since this is 3.5, clerics can become better fighters than fighters through the use of self-buffs. Hard counter spells that make certain status effects completely negligible are present, though the times when they're useful to have are few and far between. The array of degenerate, go-to tactics are also here: HP mechanics can be bypassed entirely through coups de grace and the slay living spell, you can summon up to five summons at a time to soak and deal damage, and there are plenty of buffs you can cast before combat, such as the ever-overpowered haste, a spell that gives you an extra attack with the full base attack bonus and +1 to your attack and armor class scores. Par for the course, nothing stops you from resting after every fight by either demolishing any random encounters that interrupt you or backtracking to a safer place.

As far as class balance goes, I believe pretty much any balanced party can complete all challenges, and no one class is necessarily essential. Of course, since this is D&D, caster-heavy parties will have a much easier time, though the level cap of 10 keeps them from becoming absurdly more powerful than the mundanes. Skills exist; considering this is primarily a dungeon crawl, the ones that provide a systematic benefit are generally preferable to those that require scripted support. There are a few trap feats, including toughness, the Monte Cook classic that gives you a paltry extra three hit points. Loot is a sparse gamble, and the store selection is terrible, so I recommend getting the magic arms and armor and wondrous item crafting feats. The prerequisite spells for those items aren't documented until you've actually bought the feats, so you should look those up too.
More information.
 
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He makes good points, but he forgets that we folks will basically put up with anything for a good turn based CRPG. Well, we would then, anyway...

but it isn't 2003 anymore and we have Divinity and Shadowrun and Wasteland 2.
 
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Hey, if you wanted a fantastic realization of D&D in a computer game you should've played Knights of the Chalice.
 
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ToEE was never more than a good combat engine and dungeon crawler demo; why bother after all these years? Troika's worst (unfinished) game.

Mrs. Roguey likes to stir up the pot...
 
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ToEE is best played with a chaotic evil pastry. That way you can instigate all sort of political chaos in the temple. Not that I'd ever do that. :)
 
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