by Kurgan » Tuesday November 9th, 2021 8:47pm
SPOILERS!!! My thoughts... (the gnome only features in the introduction that I recall...)
So there's a kind of cliffhanger ending? I guess so did Return of the Witch Lord (which was never officially resolved). I guess because the quest never ends... you're just intended to make your own quests to answer what happens next.
Now THIS is the "hard questpack" on the level of the Dark Company in terms of monsters (BP totals in the 50's, for the last quest for example). Good thing you have access to the Alchemist shop between quests once again, eh?
The Dragon "only" having 5 BP may seem slim, but he has super strong attack and defense... and just look at the spells he has! Cloud of Chaos (er, Dread) is a devastating spell, especially considering he could follow it up with the "Firestorm" equivalent. Does the anti-venom cure acid? I will have to do some more reading... just starting to look at this one.
As far as bosses go, yes, you may be well equipped by this point, but he is stronger in some ways than the Frozen Horror boss (albeit that pack overall is extreme difficulty, with BP's going over a hundred, and its last two quests were a two parter (with no recharging in between), so that is even extreme in terms of being a sheer meatgrinder of an adventure).
But while the difficulty of Prophecy of Telor and Spirit Queen's Torment seemed just about right (monster Body Points never go over the 30s), this one is more on the level of the KK/ROTWL or Dark Company in terms of difficulty and straight up threat. Maybe this one SHOULD be played last? You can also make off with a massive reward (and apocalyptic visions that haunt you long after).
Let me reiterate... Cloud of Chaos [Dread] is a BEAST of a spell. It's like casting sleep on ALL the Heroes. Remember how effective sleep can be against a single target? Plus FIRESTORM let's you blast the entire room and while it will hit the monsters (but not the spellcaster) too, it is guaranteed to do 1 damage to all Heroes, and could do up to 3 each! Those two spells in combination can be absolutely catastrophic. Yes, maybe one person could have the Fire Ring and resist the fire attack, maybe another has high minds points and the Talisman and resist the Cloud, but dang, that's powerful and multiple bad guys have those things in this quest pack.
The "dread" sorcerers who don't have firestorm or cloud of dread tend to have "command" another potentially lethal spell, depending upon the hero they corrupt is armed with (the rules don't clarify it lets you use combat magic it just says you can move and attack other heroes).
At first I thought maybe the Dragon could ONLY be harmed by the Dragon spear, but it's just extra effective against him (4 combat dice instead of only 3). Now the Dragon still defends with black shields, but still!
While Baker went for the rich storytelling and puzzles/gimmicks in Prophecy of Telor, here Mangianello goes for sheer brutality in fighting. Lots of dread spell users or special strong monsters in many quests, and strong wandering monsters too though not an excessive number of traps. A clever use of cheese though, and a Minotaur (sort of) ! It looks like a few quests in Joe ditched the storytelling in favor of pain and punishment.
For comparison, the Trial, one of the hardest GS quests (other than the last two) had monster BP in the high 30s (even with no traps). BQP (the hardest official quest pack) tends to triple that number (but they expect you will have mercenaries with you by that point).
The new traps don't seem too crazy. There are dread skull type enemies that can shoot at you for 2 BP but die in 1 hit (they can't defend). The acid pools sound exactly like regular pits (unless you assume they do damage for every turn you sit on one, but the text only says you take damage from moving onto them). The grasping vine traps are interesting and sound like something fans came up with... you can expend an action cutting through the vines (or another can cut through them to free you, otherwise they are just like a spear trap, that goes away once they are destroyed.
There's some stuff about magical darkness but I didn't study it too carefully. I guess that's a cool idea and having an artifact that can counteract it is cool too.
This like some of the other new quest packs makes use of the Wooden/Iron in/out doors packed with KK/ROTWL.
Back to Joe's pack (I could be off by 1 or 2 BP as I was skimming through and tired):
Quest 1: 33 monster BP (a bit on the high side for a first quest, though various rewards are possible)
Quest 2: 40 monster BP
Quest 3: 31 monster BP
Quest 4: nearly 40 monster BP
Quest 5: nearly 40 monster BP
Quest 6: 40+ monster BP
Quest 7: nearly 50 monster BP
Quest 8: 40+ monster BP
Quest 9 & 10: 50+ Monster BP
Joe's quest looks to have a very casual style, kind of an informal "You probably know this is a game you're playing, right" kind of atmosphere as opposed to the more flowery style of storyteller Baker and even more laid back and informal than Abadia's quest book, in my opinion. "Amidst the chaos..." indeed! There is a strong "fan made" vibe to this pack. Probably best to play this with fully equipped Heroes.
/End SPOILERS>..!
Last edited by
Kurgan on Saturday December 11th, 2021 3:46pm, edited 1 time in total.
