Quest Level Changes

[Gippy]

I suggest the following changes to these quest level ranges.

Harpies; 2-6 (from 2-7)
- This quest is pretty easy, gives solid payout every time. Hardest part's getting there.
Kobold Mount; 2-6 (from 2-5)
- This quest is fairly difficult/draining even for better parties. Allowing level six players would see it done more often.
Wolves pt 1; 2-6 (from 2-5)
- This quest is easy but does not give a large reward from what I've seen, which balances out the difficulty. Raising the level would allow more people to do the excellent second part of this quest.
Ilythiiri tomb; 3-7 (from 2-6)
-Difficult quest with little payout, a long distance from the colony.

[Listen in Silence]

Ilythiiri tomb; 3-7. Difficult quest with little payout, a long distance from the colony.

[BringOutYourDead]

The thing with Harpies is that their strongest ability, charming/confusion, is easily countered. I would rather see the difficulty on harpies ramped up instead of lowering the level range.

The harpies should cast dispel magics more often. How harpies "drop" behind the party at times is also great and I think it should be done more often, from multiple sides, and with more powerful harpies.

I think more charmed sailors under the harpy's control would be better as well, perhaps in a 50:50 proportion of harpies to charmed sailors. In my experience, they deal decent damage with their sneak attacks and are quickly rushed by tanks because of this. But also, maybe include a wider variety of charmed sailors, include charmed ogres, gnolls, orcs to give the harpies more lasting power and damage dealers.

Scalemount is an awesome quest which does a great job of giving you the impression that you are scaling a mountain. Because of the multiple levels, archers and other long-range characters play a key role in minimizing the amount of damage done to the overall party on the way up. However, having to travel to the opposite end of the mountain to climb up a tier is rather annoying. I would suggest that ramps be added in a 90 degree by 90 degree pattern (e.g. first ramp on the south side, second ramp on the west, third on the north, next on the east, and so on).

To make up for that change, I would suggest adding barricades on each of the tiers. Because of how the game engine works and because of how our two legs are naturally acclimated to travel along the horizontal plane, navigating obstacles on the horizontal plane is more of a challenge where has navigating obstacles on the vertical plane is just annoying.

I also think that the top of the mountain would be better fortified with barricades and obstacles instead of just a wooden platform.

The Illythiiri Tomb quest I wished I could go on more often, bumping the level range to include seven would definitely open the quest up to a lot of people who would feel more comfortable going that far out from the Colony at that level.

Add a few more drow ghost spawns and poisonous spiders and I think the quest would be a challenge perfectly suited for level seven characters.

[SkillFocuspwn]

I have done a DM spiced version of this quest, facing charmed giants and various other creatures, and it was awesome. Seeing a lot more competant fighters than this, rather than a quest of charm spells, would be very cool!

[Gippy]

Harpies is a fine quest that would be well balanced for a lower level range.

[BringOutYourDead]

I have done a DM spiced version of this quest, facing charmed giants and various other creatures, and it was awesome. Seeing a lot more competant fighters than this, rather than a quest of charm spells, would be very cool!

I heard of this myself and am sorely disappointed that I missed out.

[Damien]

I am for LiS's suggestion since it is fuck dangerous to get to the tomb, also for upping the kobold mound quest because it is quite a hard quest for such low levels.

Though I say keep harpies the same level range, this is because it's the big coin earner before the level seven goes off and blows it all on orcs or brood hive.

[Drakill Tannan]

I am for LiS's suggestion since it is fuck dangerous to get to the tomb, also for upping the kobold mound quest because it is quite a hard quest for such low levels.

Though I say keep harpies the same level range, this is because it's the big coin earner before the level seven goes off and blows it all on orcs or brood hive.

Actually Kobolds is pretty easy IMO, It's simply a matter of advansing slow and setting traps/ambushes.

But harpies is too easy. As soon as the Mage/Cleric casts protection against evil the quest is already over. IMO that spell is a bit overpowered. I'd like if harpies where made more dificult.

[Letsplayforfun]

All for scalemound being up to 6, because it's a long quest too, and the inside can be as bugger as the outside.

Harpies really depends on the dispels. If the pfe and insulation get dispelled, you can be in real trouble real fast, because charmed+unavoidable spell damage can be rough. More dispels, instead of true strike, imo. And yes, the DM spice with charmed giants was cool!

I don't remember the tomb well, only did it like twice, because it's too far away for most people to bother.

[Not.Him.Again]

I disagree with this. Harpies is able to be completed if you are prepared. They are based on enchantment, if your FTRs PFE wears off or isnt cast it is pretty easy to have a complete party kill. Also, lets not design quests around optimal builds and parties. We have some hard quests, we have some easy quests. Lets keep it that way. If you want a challenge try orcs 2 or lizzard folk quest.

[TheImpossibleDream]

To he person above who referred to it "not being designed for optimal parties" I've done a few quests with non optimal parties, this one included, many are a challenge, but this one is not, as at lower levels its INCREDIBLY EASY to get an entire stack of protection from evil potions! Also to letsplayforfun the charm is instantly dispelled if you take a point of damage.

This quest actually seems a lot easier now than it was before, for some odd reason the harpies cast dispel less frequently.

On a side note I'd also say trogs changed to 2-5 would not be bad either!

[Listen in Silence]

Not to make the impression that I'm an elitist, but-

Some of the people commenting on harpies do not sound as if they've experienced the more-or-less random chance of a f-up. With a certain combination of the fairly random spawns, your seemingly well prepared party can instantly and easily be completely immobilized and fugued. An example of this is when you charge the final fight, and the [Inser name of spoiler spawn here.] casts dispel instead of a certain other spell. The dispels spread on your 2-3 fully buffed frontliners, but instead of removing their strength/endurance/blur/barkskin buffs they get rid of their insulation and PfE.

Your frontliners are then stunned by the inevitable spam of sound bursts, and since they have arrogantly charged all at the same time they are completely immobilized and taking damage slow. The Queen slowly but surely burns through her other spells, and then spams her 3 scintillating spheres in a row.


I am sort of an elitist, and this scenario has happened to parties where all the players and indeed all the characters were well equipped and well built.

The quest as is, is easy, with a small chance of becoming a complete slaughter. I enjoy this.

[TheImpossibleDream]

Scenario has happened to me LiS, I was actually with you the day that happened to us and half of our party almost died horribly long long ago. I still don't think it merits the level range as similiar can happen on ANY quest.

Thats just a rare instance of bad luck, I would however point out that if we were completely on the ball and not charging forward ready to crush them we might have managed to pop a pfe as the aoe dispel landed!

[Flying Swordfish]

The harpies and kobold level range changes would be cool, but don't drop the max range on trogs.  With the addition of a certain threat a while ago that wasn't in the original version, and the potential for the end encounter to drop 12 fishers if your party has a couple lvl 6s, it can become something of a challenge.

Even dropping the level range on harpies might not be the greatest idea.  If that change is implemented, the options for a lvl 7 become Nightrisers, Gnolls, or Jergalite Mortuary.  The last of the three is just as easy as harpies, without the chance of the confusion TPK, it just gives low rewards so people don't spam it as much.  Gnolls is pretty balanced now, but can use up a lot more supplies than it gives if your group is much off from an "optimal" party.  And Nightrisers is kind of like hell on Earth, and can only be done at night anyway (it is ridiculously fun, though).  Of course, lvl 7s can still go do the easy higher level quests like crystal mine, Vrazdn, and Broodkeepers, so maybe this niche doesn't need to be filled.

The kobolds suggestion, I support because I want to take this quest more often, and you just don't see too many groups going for it.  It's not actually as hard as reputed, but I think just a little bit of a buff-up on the end battle and it could be a very solid 2-6 quest.  It wouldn't be quite as hard as imps, illythiiri, or sewer goblins, but probably on par with troglodytes and snakes.

[Egon the Monkey]

Scalemount *is*.

If you're that level, you likely don't have a great amount of insulation, so the Combusts are lethal. Add to that the fact that at L3-4 the Coloursprays blind you and can't be protected against, and the Clouds of Bewilderment at point-blank range, the capacity of some enemies to Dispel and it's a real bitch of a quest. I have died more often on that than anything else in the 2-6 range.

TBH it comes down to consumables. At that level you have few of them, and you need them to deal with the many and varied threats. By the time you've got them, you're too high level often.

I would like to see Nightrisers upped to 3-8 too. It's the hardest quest to get a group for due to both timing and needing a good team, and with its difficulty, increasing the range isn't going to hurt. It's a really fun quest and I'd like to see it done more.