Forums > Submission Feedback > wolfqueen001's Eschalon Book II review

The caves are tough. I went in a couple levels ago (mistake). I did okay with the outlanders. There's this Blacksmith guy who's incredibly challenging. In a melee contest, I'd be dead in the first two hits. In magic I did "alright" but I would have needed seven times my mana to kill him.

So... I stole an explosive barrel, blew it up right next to him for 150 damage. That took him down by about 40%. Then I cast spell after spell (using no less than three mana potions), all of them fire dart level 3. Then I tossed two demon oils in such a way that he was trapped in the flames for eight rounds. That was the big turning point in the combat. After that I poisoned him with a toxin vial and then just ran from him until he exploded.

It was pretty sweet. Gave me 500 Exp.

But I couldn't get past the spiders deeper in the caves, so I backed out and that's when I went exploring on the west side of Eastwillow and found Everdale.

How did I handle the lycanthrope? I attacked him, easily killed him in his human form, and then got torn to shreds by his dire wolf form. That message last night about how I need more ranks in Elemental? That was inspired by that.

So I haven't taken him on again, yet. I'm waiting for my next level up, when I can pump enough points into elemental to get access to Fire Dart level 4. I also want to pump attribute points into strength, because right now I can't wield my mace and cast magic at the same time. Not strong enough :(

I've decided to focus my attributes on Int., Str., and Con. from here on out, with occasional points going to End and Speed. For skills I'm going to focus on getting Elemental, Light Armour, and Bludgeoning all to level 11 before I start thinking about getting new skills. I also want to boost foraging. It's quickly becoming one of my favorites, when combined with alchemy.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Oh, wow. You already kiilled the Blacksmith. That was the boss I was talking about. That dude was brutal, and I couldn't kill him until pretty near the end of the game. lol Interesting, though, that he only gave 500 XP. He gave me 600.

Yeah, the Lycanthrope is pretty tough. I think I wound up luring him near the town's bblacksmith so she could help kill him for me and then made sure she didn't die and that I got the finishing blow, otherwise you don't get the XP if someone else kills a monster for you.

I'll tell you about how I handled the actual quest (not just killing him) later once you've done it.

Anyway, your planning for your attributes and skills sounds pretty good. Though, I have to wonder how your intelligence is if you're going to start focusing on other things. And also where your strength is at if you can't wield a mace.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

I think he did give 600. I'm terrible at remembering numbers. For instance, right now I can't remember how high my intelligence is. It's between 19 and 21, I know that. Strength is at 15. I'm probably going to boost it to 18 next level.

Good to hear I've bested a difficult enemy. That gives me hope.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Lycanthrope is dead. I'm beginning to be quite deadly, now that I've get elemental raised to level 7 (8 with my nifty new wizard's hat). I found a bandit camp that raised me the next level. My strength is also higher and I found a unique quarterstaff (my preferred weapon). With that and my spells (and the blacksmith providing an unexpected distraction) I murdered that wolf.

I kind've wish I could have stolen all his goods, though.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Nice job. Yeah, I wish I coul've taken all his stuff, too. But at least his pelt sells for a lot.

The way I handled the quest was that I didn't believe the guy in the woods, so I told the magic shop owner about him to see who the real wolf was. The shop owner told me to go kill Xed (I think that was the guy in the woods... or maybe that was the shopowner I don't recall). IN any case, I told the guy in the woods what I had done and he got mad at me and didn't hand anything over, so I got mad and killed him for about 400 xp. Then I took the ring back to the shop owner and he offered me 500 gold for not asking anymore questions (I had already received 500xp for beating the quest), but I chose to ask about the ring anyway. Then he attacked me as a wolf. =/

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

So did you get more experience that way, then?

Aw, but I like Xed. He's one of those loveable shifty-eyed guys with no chance of procreation.

I finally made it through the caves. That took me up to level 8. I also found the entrance to the new material. Looks very promising, but I think it's definitely meant for an "end of the game" kind of thing. I didn't explore it yet, because even heading a little ways into the dungeon seals you in. Fearful I might forget that and save, I'm leaving it alone for now.

Anyway, now I'm starting to find some nice equipment. My main issue now is my dexterity. Despite my intentions, I really have to focus on it for a while. My To Hit rating was just not good enough.

Still no idea how to get into Port Kulad... tell me this... is it something you do in another town or is the "way in" located in the same vicinity as the city? Knowing that would be nice because I won't spend my days wandering every inch of that part of the map.

Baring that (because pretty much all of my quests now take place in Port Kulad), my next quest will be to return to Ironpool Dam and start exploring its depths for these rumours about ghosts. Seems like a fun quest.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

I assume it did. Since I got XP for killing two people as well as for the quest rather than just one person.

Yeah. Your To HIt rating is a bitch to work with. Even pumping mine to like 49 or something, my highest at the end of the game (against some of the toughest enemies) was only around 40%.

I think putting points into the weapon skill (in your case, bludgeoning) will also increase the hit rating, so keep that in mind, too.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

I think the mage has an advantage in the late game because spells rarely miss if your concentration is anywhere above 16. I've almost gotten to the point where I'm not sure it makes sense to raise elemental any more... I don't think it increases the spells, just the rank you can cast them at.

Now I have to decide whether to go ahead and pick up divination as well. I've saved a couple of the scrolls I've found just in case I want to do that.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Okay, skeleton archers are friggin' tough.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Haha. Yeah, for you they will be. For me, they weren't too bad. I hated the skeleton marauders more.

Anyway, if you're struggling with these, you're really going to hate the ranged monsters at the end of the game, though. Man. Those guys kicked my ass.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

It won't be so bad once I get some more damage spells or if I decide to get some divination for armour spells, but right now they are definitely pissing me off.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Thanks, Ben. To address some of your concerns that I forgot about in the results topic:

Before the game starts, there's a brief still-shot CGI thing that explains what happened in the previous game. When the player starts out in the cottage with amnesia, you're not really meant to know why he/she got there. The amnesia is explained later as you play the game and the cottage I always just took as a random location to place you in when you start. If you talk to people, too, sometimes you get more of a history of the first game where they talk about the war and such.

The other thing I wanted to address was actually for True, haha. I can do that later.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

I guess if I were to guess, I'd say the time that elapses between the two books is between a few months to a year. But I say "right where the first left off" because you're told about it as if it just happened, and the things that you're trying to prevent now are a direct result of that war. So really, a year might even be pushing it.

The amnesia was a reseult of trauma suffered as a result of your character's actions in the previous campaign, and so aced as an immediate effect. Though I won't say much more about it because I don't want to spoil anything.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

I think the guy in the first mission tells you it's been a year or two, but I'd have to replay the opening to be sure. I'm almost positive an exact time is given, though.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Found a Citizen's Writ. Happy to announce it was aaaall by myself. No guides. Port Kudad adds a lot to the game. I was beginning to feel like I was running out of places and things to do. The trainers are nice, though I've surpassed most of them already, lol.

It was great being able to learn cartography finally, though. And I think I am going to take a few levels in divination. First though, I want to find someone to train in light armor. I haven't gone to the dwarven city yet, needed a writ, but now I can go there.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

No one trains in armor unfortunately.

Yeah. I also had that same sense of not having anything to do for a while when I couldn't get into the city. Which is when I used the guide. Good job on the writ by yourself; that's better than I did. Which one did you find? There's like 3 in the game.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

I ventured to the one major area of the map I hadn't explored, which was the destroyed town of Blackgate, to the far north. I had tried to push in several times but always got waylaid by Giant Beetles and Purple Salamanders (one complaint I have about Eschallon: the enemies are pretty boring). Finally got past them by running the proper path and found this house belonging to some ranger chick. She attacked me when I spoke to her, but I just ignored her and robbed her house while she walked around trying to find me. I did end up smacking her around a bit, but we both decided it was a bad job and we fled from each other.

Anyway, one of the items I robbed was the writ. Somehow I had a feeling it would be in that town.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

Huh. It's called Blackgate now? In my version it was called Broken Blade.

Anyway, that ranger chick plays an important role later... Not sure if you've gotten that far yet, but you'll see soon enough. Just remember that her name is Sparrow if you didn't pay attention to it earlier.

EDIT: Oh yeah. I never had an issue with the enemies. I thought the beetles were some of the hardest creatures in the game - not least because they stun you - and the devilmanders were a huge pain because they could poison you really badly.

[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will