Just finished MotB and very satisfied with the ending. Overall an excellent campaign, with better pace and writing than the OC. Companion interaction here just shows how much it adds to a story and the playing experience.
That said, i's just reaffirmed for me that I'm really not that keen on high level / epic play. I played with my OC character - the original Wyrin D'njargo inspired by a PC from the days of the 2nd Ed D&D Bard kit,the Blade. Finished as a Ftr4/Bard16/DivChamp5/NWNine5, and by the end even the climatic encounters were over by the time I'd unpaused from issuing commands and my poor processor had caught up with the flow of play. The problem for me is balance - critters either become a cakewalk, or have to be twinked out so much it removes the point of being epic, as they are all your equal. Luckily in MotB for me the great story was a welcome distraction form this.
Even in my ongoing pen-and-paper campaigns, I'm not fond of high level play. I'd say levels 3-15 are my favourite, where the character comes into their own, but still have foes to challenge them. But from a long time of playing D&D, its clear for every player, there's a different view on how the game should/preferably be played. I mean, I love Dungeons and Dragons, but would be quite happy never going in an actual dungeon. But that's another rant about distintegrates and vertical dungeoneering...
ANyway, my period of playing rather than building is kinda coming to a close - gotta restart Sands of Solvheil now new versions aare up as my last trek through got a little out of sync, but not much else drawing my attention at the moment
...apart from the Toolset...
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5 hours ago
4 comments:
I'm just starting MotB, but share the same general feeling on Epic Characters. I think the sweet spot has always been 4th-10th level, give or take a bit. It must be a pen and paper holdover.
I'm glad to hear that MotB has better pace and writing than the OC. I probably won't get there for awhile: I'm a sucker for linearity and can't bring myself to play the expansion without finishing the OC, even though I know it's not necessary, and meanwhile I have H&C to keep me occupied.
Thanks for posting all those pics of the placeables and creatures!
Wow, that's quick!. Me and my wife hasn't finished the OC yet and we've played sincs last December! Well, we've plucked every single little XP out of it :)
It's nice to read some positive news about MotB so we're looking forward to start playing it in November. I agree with your thoughts on Epic Chars when playing singleplay I feel that 4-10th level is most fun and 8-14 in co-op multiplayer.
I agree on the mid levels being the best for the default rules. For me these levels match the power of characters seen in most of the classic fantasy books and stories.
At mid levels a hero has no problem dealing with a couple of guards, and a party of heros is capable of besting a decent sized group of lower levels. However, throw an army or a dragon at them and the heros have to play smart.
That is not to say that Epic stories can't work, but simply increasing everythings level doesn't cut it (which unfortunatly happens in MoTB).
The rest of MoTB is quite fun though, not perfect but 100% worth buying; especially since Bioware may have just been struck a death knell by the EA takeover.
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