Thank you! Here is what I love about KOTC! (spoilers)

[PsySal]

Hey there! I got this a few weeks ago and am absolutely loving it. As long as you are a bit careful with your saves the game is quite reasonable. I love that each battle requires thought, and that major ones require a lot of thought.

Here are my favorite "aha" moments so far, i.e., battles that really made me think, and when I did, I had great success.

1- Spider Cave. The room with the spider queen was driving me bananas. I kept trying to get out of the spider web, which is a natural response since it seems so crippling. My "aha" moment came when I realized I shouldn't fight it. By trying to get out, all that I was achieving was separating my team so that they could be taken out one by one. So to win this battle, I had my guys sneak in along the wall, get my wizard safely blocked in, and then let them come to me. Such a great feeling to beat what seemed like an impossible battle!

2- The Mummy in the Ancient Tomb. I was having such a hard time with this, it's the one in the room north of the banishable Vrock. No matter what I did, that thing could just decimate me too quickly for me to do anything about. The "aha" moment here came when I realized I should run in, wake it up, and then run out! Worked like a charm.

3- The Knolls in the cave leading to the Slaver town. Man! That first battle was hellish for me. I think I eventually won this by putting +1 Plate armour on my wizard, which of course incurs spell failure but allowed me enough time to get positioned properly and/or survive long enough to thin them out with fireball. Another battle like this was the one with Kessa, I think, at the end of the Orc Stockade. I found it really important to get my party positioned properly very very fast (I had to reorder them in the menus) so that my wizard could cast spells, and then resist the urge to run out and attack even when I could.

I've never played any tabletop DnD, not that I wouldn't like to! I have played a fair bit of nethack, so I understand some of the basics of AC, etc., and really enjoy the overlap here. It's a good system. A few things I'm learning, for instance it's taken me a while to understand and learn how to use 5-foot step, but now it's quite invaluable and makes perfect sense. From reading here and other places I realize I should be crafting/enchanting but really so far I have not needed to (I'm at the battle with the Slaver Lords.) I was originally attracted because the graphics reminded me so much of Ultima 6, of course it's a much much different game... Anyhow I digress!

What I'm trying to say is that I love how the encounters feel like I'm being challenged by another person. I.e., it's really how imagine playing tabletop DnD with a creative DM would be. So a big Thank You! to BlueSalamander and anyone else who helped on the project. I sort of imagine your design process as getting together with some friends at a pub and hashing out the details of the latest build, etc. Then getting drunk and being like, 'You know, this encounter needs another DRAGON.' Hahaha =)

Great game and I look forward to KotC2/Fantasy Game Engine!! Well, and the rest of KotC1, really...

[Dave Mongoose]

Sounds a lot like some of my experiences .

My 'aha' moment with the spider cave was realising that, although they don't get stuck in the webs, the spiders still take extra damage from fire spells that hit them when they're standing on the web: when a group of them come in close to attack my trapped knight I can let loose with a fireball . I still found that battle to be the hardest one in the caves (although I didn't 'stray off the path' in the tomb).

The first round of the gnoll battle is really painful: that slow effect is cruel . My wizard went down but I was able to get my cleric safely to one corner where she could get him back on his feet, then I had him cast a dispel to clear off the nasty effects and cleaned up with my knights and a fireball or two.

I thought the rest of that dungeon was very entertaining, particularly the debuff that turns out to be beneficial .

I'd also agree with you about the 5-foot step: now that I know how it works I use it all the time, particularly for getting into flanking positions.

[BlueSalamander]

Hello and thank you for your post, PsySal!