Knights of the Chalice Tips & Strategies
Knights of the Chalice is officially responsible for about 15 hours of lost development time so far. I found a profound sense of victory upon defeating the slave lords. It is not an easy game, but I'm having a blast playing it. From what I have heard, it sounds like I am not quite halfway through the game yet.

I thought I'd share a few tips I've picked up along the way for people just starting out:

#1 - Character creation is critical. If it's your first time playing, I'd recommend not settling for an average character. Wait for a character with at least 10 in every characteristic, at least one score of at least 17, and a reasonable spread of abilities otherwise. THEN you get one re-roll and one swap. Take advantage of them. And then tweak the character further through race. Half-Elves tend to make good wizards, and a Mul (half-dwarf) is a good choice for a Knight.

#2 - Your party should consist of a Knight, a Wizard, and a Cleric. The fourth character class is up to you. I have a second cleric in the party. They can hold their own in a fight, but more importantly if one goes down, the second cleric can heal or raise them back up again.

#3 - Superior Concentration is a very valuable feat at lower levels. Also click on the option in the spell screen to always cast defensively when threatened in melee. This avoids attacks of opportunity (and the way melee characters like to swarm your wizards, this is an important thing!), and Superior Concentration reduces the chance of spell failure when doing this. Don't worry - at higher level, spell failure becomes less and less frequent when casting defensively.

#4 - The game has an option in the settings to get maximum hit points when you level. For first-time players, I recommend this setting. Otherwise there are some battles where getting surprised or losing the initiative will likely kill off half your party before you get your first turn.

#5 - Do NOT neglect item crafting feats for non-Knights (Knights don't seem to get any crafting skills, even though Forge Weapon or Armor doesn't seem to be magic-related). Particularly at lower levels, your casters will need scrolls or wands to supplement their limited spell slots, and those things are NOT available in plentiful supply via loot or merchants. Make sure that you have all of the crafting feats covered somehow between all party members by 8th level or so.

#6 - Note that there is a difference between "Forge Weapon or Armor" and "Craft Magic Weapon or Armor." The former lets you create non-magical equipment, and the latter lets you enchant said equipment with magical powers. You can instead enchant items that you loot (as long as they are of masterwork quality), but it's far easier to make exactly what you need when you need it.

#7 - The AI enemies really, really like to attack your wizard(s). Hey, when I'm fighting groups of bad guys, I go after their wizards first, too. You can either grouse about it, or take advantage of it. I try to position my wizard defensively so that enemies have to approach and go around my other characters (thus drawing attacks from readied actions and attacks of opportunity). It helps to load up the wizard with good defensive gear as early as possible. Bracers of armor, rings of protection, cloaks of blur, and rings of fire (or ice) to defend against those pesky enemy wizard spells and dragon breath weapons.

#8 - Enlarge Person is the single best arcane spell a low-level wizard can have. Forget the piddly damage a Magic Missile can do at levels 1-4. And Burning Hands will usually just hit friendlies, since you'll be hiding behind them so much. No - Enlarge Person makes your fighter bigger, stronger, more likely to hit, do more damage, harder to grapple (the enemies LOVE to grapple in this game!), and most importantly - a bigger obstacle for your low-hit-point self to hide behind!

#9 - Likewise, while spells like Fireball and Cone of Cold are really important for higher-level wizards to "clear the room," against single, powerful "boss" encounters, your wizard is best off letting the knights dish out the damage. Instead, the wizard should focus on debilitating the major foes. Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Exhaustion, Enervating Ray, and so forth can be FAR more powerful and battle-winning than direct-damage wizard spells. Plus, there are few things as satisfying as dropping a fearsome, mighty opponent down to only hitting half the time for 5 points of damage or less.

#10 - Silence and Insect Plague are awesome cleric spells, but require some management. They don't exactly neuter enemy spellcasters - they force them to move. Combine it with good tactical positioning to force them around corners or whatnot, and you can reduce their ability to fry you with long and medium-range area-effect spells.

#11 - Speaking of good low-level spells - the Summon Elemental spells are 1st level divine spells that scale with the caster. These have been key to winning many combats for me, and they are just as useful at first level as at 13th (and I assume at 20th and above, but I'm not there yet). I'd say Cure Light Wounds and one kind of summoning spell should be your very first spell selections. You'll eventually want at least two elementals eventually (or you'll be hating life when your fire elemental HEALS an Iron Golem).

#12 - Blind-Fighting is a lot more useful than it sounds. My knight has only occasionally been blinded (or stuck in darkness) in combat, but is frequently attacking blurred or displaced or invisible opponents, and it's nice to hit them a lot in spite of their defenses.

#13 - When in doubt, stick close to a wall. When combat starts, you'll have at least one side protected. In at least one combat, sticking close to the wall AND near obstacles changed the combat from being practically unwinnable to straightforward when battling giant intelligent spiders.

#14 - The universal advice - save often, using multiple slots.

#15 - If you find yourself needing a little extra XP or cash, simply wandering about the world map will help you pick up some a trickle of both. This is helpful if you are right on the cusp of leveling, or if you need to build a few more magic items.

#16 - Do NOT agree to go to the slaver's stockade until you have an ample supply of wands / scrolls to sustain you. I'd recommend not going until 5th level, too, as you may be stuck there for a while without access to a place to rest and heal / replenish spells. Having a wand of fireballs and a wand of cure serious wounds will really, really help see you through to a campfire.

Hopefully these words of advice will help you through the first several levels of the game. Veterans of the game, feel free to chime in with your own tips and suggestions!

Have fun!

Labels: Roleplaying Games

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