After writing up yesterday’s blog post, I decided to continue the idea of moving my Priest to a Bishop. There were a few reasons for doing this, one not so obvious one where I no longer would be tied to dealing with a three way shared leveling situation between my Mage, Bard and Priest.
Obviously, changing a Priest to a Bishop hurts due to the massive stat drop (I rolled a 26 bonus for my Rawulf after all!). That said, I managed to already push both Piety and Intelligence to 18. I’m trying to be picky with level ups and not take anything less than a minimum of 2-3 attribute increases at a time (actually 3 for recently changed characters). The nice thing about swapping character professions is that it’s easier to control the leveling experience since many characters share experience tables with other classes. So part of my hesitation in getting rid of the Ranger was this very issue.
That said, with the Bishop change, getting back to level 8 wasn’t terrible. I’ve paused his Theology push in favor of Thaumaturgy where the skill points per level haven’t been great but enough to gain me level 3 Mage spells. I still need to improve his Oratory (which sits in the 50s) but I’ve been waiting for level 8 as certain spells can’t be cast at maximum level due to his lowered level. In addition, I acquired a Monstrance from Smitty which is great because of the increased damage. I might do a little bit of grinding though just to see if I can improve his Oratory to make him more reliable as a spell caster. The next area I’m targeting is the Amazulu Pyramid. There’s a few encounters in there where having a reliable spell caster will make a difference.
Unfortunately, while I was on my way to that zone, my game froze. I noticed that the DosBox version frequently freezes. Luckily, only the application gets frozen and I suspect it has to do with the sound being played. I have no idea if there’s a way to patch that issue. However, it was late so I simply took it as a hint to stop for the time being and come back later.
Along the way, I also pushed my Lord to level 8 and my Valkyrie to level 10. I have yet to use most of my non-spell casters from casting anything during combat. I might change that policy and start working on my Valkyrie casting more spells here and there. Same with the Bard.
Speaking of the Bard, I’ve been very impressed by his melee/Sword skills. Most times, he’s been utilized strictly as a debuffer (and now a buffer via Bless and the Angel’s Tongue instrument). So it’s rare that I have a chance to allow him to engage in melee. When he does via backstabbing, he generally hits and often times does pretty decent damage, despite only having a Cutlass as his weapon. With his Music skill at 80, I’m hoping to push it all the way to 100 and in finding the very useful Angel’s Tongue, I’m a lot less inclined to switch him to a different class. The only part where I feel he’s being underutilized is actual spell casting. It’s too easy to blast off free Sleep, Itching Skin and Bless spells especially when there’s the motivation of improving ones skill to 100. And with the free Bless spell, I can reserve my new Bishop’s Mental spells for something more important.
As I am probably going to do some level grinding for my Lord and Bishop (and possibly Ninja), I’m thinking I could use that partly as an opportunity to begin developing those characters whom I haven’t developed Oratory skills to start casting spells. I might do some sort of rotation thing where my Bishop goes after easy fights and cast Fireball at groups. Once his Oratory hits over 70, I’ll feel that he’s in a better spot. Then move to my Bard since he can cast spells like Fireball. Then Valkyrie, etc.
I did read a tip somewhere about using the Amazulu Pyramid as a place to grind some experience too. I’m not sure of the location but the tip mentioned near the front. I do know that there are a few pernicious mobs that need to be Silenced. I’m sure my Valkyrie can cast Silence so I feel like I should develop her Oratory too.
Beyond that, there are a few fights I’m not looking forward to. One is the Hellcat from the wizard’s lab. I do have a Fire Shield scroll and one of my characters knows the spell (the Mage I believe) so I’m not as concerned. Then there’s the two twin rock men and the guardian. I heard in particular that the guardian is annoying but can be defeated by volleying Acid Bombs and Acid Splashes. Unfortunately, my Ninja at this stage lacks Acid Bomb and his Earth spell pool points is low. So I probably will need to retreat to Queequeg and purchase a bunch of Acid Bombs.
Another thing I could try is pumping up the difficulty to Expert and grinding everyone to level 10. That’s what I did before attempting to tackle the Enchanted Forest zone. Of course, there were a few other things I did (* cough * BaneEdit.exe * cough *) but getting my characters to a competitive level did make that zone easier. I think for this party, I’m going to first try the pyramid zone and see how much experience I can acquire. If the experience is better than the Mine level 2 zone, I’ll just spend more time trying to grind to level 11.
Something else I’ve read is that you can grind experience in the Stygian River zone before attempting the Hall of the Dead. Right now, I know that I’m trying to avoid changing my Bard and Mage since both have significant value at this stage still. The Enchanted Forest zone would be the ideal experience grind zone though. However, the mobs are quite dangerous in there and without everyone having a high Ninjutsu skill, it’ll be rough avoiding getting my ass seriously kicked. I think if I can hit level 11-12, it might not be as bad. Also, I’m hoping that before I get to that point, I can improve my gear. There are a few spots as you explore the Stygian River that should provide some upgrades. So I might have to wait for that.
Going back to my Mage, I will comment that I managed to acquire the Deep Freeze spell after reading how much damage it dishes out. Turns out people weren’t joking. It’s a very nice single target spell when it works. Also, I think his Thaumaturgy skill is in the mid 80s now. So I’m guessing that around levels 13-14 he’ll max that skill out. By then I should be able to transition into a new class (probably Bishop). By then my Rawulf Bishop ought to be more proficient with Mage spells and can safely take over high powered offensive spell duty.
Similarly, considering how slow it’s been going with the Bard, I don’t expect to change classes until at least levels 13-14 if not a little later. I recall that my Valkyrie managed to hit level 16 or 17 when she was ready to change but only did so at those levels since I was going to also changed out my Monk. I probably won’t do the change simultaneously though. I prefer having a more controlled, individual experience when it comes to leveling.
Anyway, we’ll see how this goes today.
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