Flipz

I'd like to know this, too, actually.

It's like flinching moves in Pokemon. : enough: All of those sheep are just too adorable for their own good. Then again, I'm a sucker for brick-built farm animals.

Is that big fat sheep from the Sheep Meadows picture an actual monster available in the area, or am I just thinking silly thoughts because I'm sleepy?

Challenge accepted.

Not if Arthur's selected. Really hope he is, I want him to get to talk to Particia. Hopefully he'll impress her enough that he can fill in on the continuation to 40 if there's an absence in the original party. Also, it's a good thing I can't host my Quest until May (or in other words "whenever Quest 66 ends"), since pretty much everyone who's expressed interest in it is signed up for Q66 as well.

I disagree. Yes, the threshold monster was too easy, but that was because its stats were set in stone from the day the Fields were created. If its stats were set in response to the party, then it could have had (say) higher HP and SP (to compensate for Xander), a higher Level (to compensate for Docken), etc. etc. etc. Really, SP:15-20 and an extra 10,000 HP would have made the battle much more into what I think Sandy was intending--but again, at the time it was a nigh-impossible fight. There's no way Sandy could have known the battle would be that easy back then--which is an inherent weakness in pre-built stats. It used to be that in this game, the average battle lasted a day or two, and a decent boss lasted a week. Now a battle isn't considered challenging enough unless it lasts a month and will KO every single Hero with a single unlucky roll. It's kind of ridiculous. There seems to be this idea that new Heroes get a simple Quest with easy battles that teach them the basics, their next Quest or two is of moderate difficulty but still not too tough, and then past Level 20 they should have to fight for their lives for EVERY last experience increase. The general difficulty curve spikes TOO dramatically, IMO. Also, let's not forget that we're dealing with one of the most min-maxed characters in existence, and Xander was geared (pun intended ) specifically for fighting the Obsidian Dragon by both Favoring Flying-types and by having the Electro Gear. Not everyone is Docken, not everyone is Xander. Battles shouldn't be balanced around them UNLESS they are in them. Also, battles should not be built in ways that require/encourage that sort of min-maxing just to survive. And really, that Fields party EARNED its victory, even if it ended up being a quick battle. How long, exactly, have they spent in the Fields? How much did they plan and strategize specifically FOR the Obsidian Dragon? How much time and energy have all of these characters spent playing the game, building up their gear, optimizing their builds for this moment? Players should NEVER be punished for making smart choices. EVER. ...aaaand unplanned rant over.

Assuming the Progg Quest 0 doesn't start until after 66 goes out, I'd definitely want to see that. (Also assuming that Sandy's Byblos Quest doesn't overlap with it.)

Also, does anyone else feel the stolen Bonaparte artifact from 33 could really use a buff? Well, that's what I'm saying, go and clean out the easier areas for extra exp. Maybe run into the Burning Forest to give us all a taste of what that area's like, toss their last Smoke Bomb, and THEN clear out the easy areas. Well, unless they WANT to leave the Fields now. But does Althior really want to play Beast Warrior at 30?

That kind of defeats the purpose of sticking together as a team, though. Alternative: go for five battles, everyone buys Medal of Glory, a Level-Up Shroom (two for Xander, zero for Docken, or Docken and Xander could buy one each and Docken could give his to Xander), and a Teleportapple (because that's interesting and important for future activities; Docken may want to buy two). Well, yeah, but they've got a really good team in there and I highly doubt that team will make it directly back into the Fields as-is.

Why don't you just try to get the team up to Level 30? Xander might have to settle for a Level-Up Shroom at the end, but I'm sure that there are 8 battles left to get the rest of the team to 30...

Haldor sounds like he's from Oklahoma or something. He sounds like Skrall. Or Hagrid. Or both.

Yeah, I have to agree with Zepher on this. You picked on one Hero, took his items, and delayed the rest of the party, without even giving him a way to skip the experience. Protip: NEVER take things from your players without giving them the chance to turn around and not give them up. Players should CHOOSE to stake their items, it shouldn't be FORCED on them against their will. Note that gold is not included in this (that operates on different rules), but that's still dangerous ground to tread. If you want to get "revenge" on a QM's Hero, fit it naturally into your Quest, or else don't bother. Never do it for the sake of doing it. And even then it should be fair. No smiley, I'm serious here.

I agree, it's a rare item as it is, and it loses its value if QMs try to circumvent it. That's true of several items/immunities, actually. Challenge us, to be sure, but don't take the easy way out by circumventing our abilities; make us use those abilities in unconventional ways. EDIT: Or at least, if you DO have to circumvent them (i.e. a Telescope not being able to see a fleeing "mysterious figure"), just tell us straight up "I'm circumventing this for the sake of the plot". Be straight with us, and we'll be (mostly) happy.

You guys gave up a chance for experience when you had a Hero ONE experience gain away from making Level 15. Bad party! Should've just killed Sancho for his bow, who cares about who ACTUALLY turned Merlyn into a frog?

Obviously, it was in preparation for the shift to Ameribricks.

Same here. Perhaps this would make an interesting "Progress" build, sort of like how some people have done the UCS Falcon? *hint hint*

Because they can fly to the enemy, hit them, and then fly back to the Back Row. Spring Awakening. Try to see it live, I don't know if there even IS a film version, let alone if it's any good.

Guts was in that party, your argument is invalid. Everything dies to Guts.

Cinna could kill it without a scratch. Also, I was under the impression that that countdown only STARTS when someone rolls Special Damage. The odds are in their favor that they'll get at least ONE Round against it without a countdown looming over them... ...but just one.

Not really. It depends on who's hosing and who's playing. A QM like Pie or Endgame could probably have gotten away with that battle much quicker (no offense), just because of the time they have available to dedicate to Heroica--assuming, of course, they had very active players and/or everyone was willing to follow Party Leader orders, the way Quest 48 is run. I'm sure that if Quest 48 was only ever updated once a day, the party would barely be past Aquos. It's just different playstyles. TL;DR, the more active the players and QM are, the higher the SP:player Power ratio can safely be.

Eh, JimB did just fine with crazy SP. Great guidelines, though, WBD. Out of curiosity, how do you deal with the discrepancies between Hero HP? Do you calculate for the highest HP Heroes (like a lot of QMs these days seem to do), the lowest HP Heroes, an average of all the Heroes' HP, or do you have a few "nemesis" enemies for each Hero HP and level range (sort of like what Sandy did in Q44 or CJP did in his latest Quest)? Some day I'm going to sit down and do a conclusive mathematical analysis of exactly how much longer each point of SP causes a battle to last versus how much longer each point of HP causes a battle to last. Then I'm going to construct that "magic ratio" so that all of my enemies flawlessly control how long it takes the Heroes to defeat them*. *This is probably never going to happen. =P

Yeah...it seems like QMs these days try to kill via straight-out "if you get hit, you die" rather than "Death by a Thousand Cuts".

The consumable venom can't be used directly on enemies, though (well, outside of clever stuff like what swils did with the food at the start of the final battle of Q35), so it's still either a 3/6 or 4/6 chance to affect the enemy (depending on class), just like a Scroll...or just like a weapon with a permanent Effect attached. The advantage of the consumable is that it can be used by anyone on any weapon, and can be used on any one weapon the character owns, thus allowing for much greater flexibility; for example, Pie's Conspirator deals the Blind-effect on successful hits, but does nothing to Dark or Demon type enemies. If he was using a Blindness-inducing venom, however, he could conceivably wait until the battle starts and THEN choose which weapon to apply it to (i.e. perhaps he'd want a Blind-effect on his Heavy Flail to inflict Fragile AND Blind, or he'd want it on Ratsbane if he's fighting a particularly nasty Vermin that's immune to Fragile. Besides, Scrolls have their drawbacks; they're Mage- and Cleric-exclusive, their chance to hit is NOT affected by Lucky, they don't target enemies for purposes of preventing Free Hits, they cost Ether even on a failure, and all too often enemies are "immune to scrolls" or some other such nonsense while still being vulnerable to the effect itself. Also remember that Mages already have some pretty serious disadvantages compared to certain other classes; part of their point is their utility, and a moderately high price point on effect venoms prevents non-Mage characters from outclassing Mages with scrolls entirely. Also, you try hosting someone with the power to inflict a bunch of effects on your enemies all the time and then say that all players should have cheap access to effect-dealing weapons/items. I probably wouldn't be far off if I said that most QMs would absolutely hate my character if it weren't for the fact that he's fun to work with outside of battle.

I was just applying a little bit of logic to the temp sales. Too much logic and the whole world of Heroica falls apart. Also remember that players should not be punished for the basic benefits of the class. Just because someone in the party is a Knight doesn't mean ALL the enemies they face should be insanely high-leveled or ignore SP just to counteract them; likewise, just because there are wealthy Rogues in Heroica doesn't mean all the prices should be inflated to match THEIR income. I think you and Zeph would both agree that your lives would be a LOT tougher if, for example, weapon upgrade prices were inflated so that Rogues couldn't afford more than one or two in between each Quest. That said, I'll address your concerns directly. I'd say that basic effect venoms should have a base cost of 100-200 Gold apiece. That's 2-4 times as much as the Scrolls that inflict the corresponding Effects, which both prevents them from replacing Scrolls AND prevents them from being too overused. Also, as different Effects are more powerful/dangerous than others, I think that different effect venoms should have different prices scaled according to the effect they inflict sort of how Mead, Smelling Salts, and Nostrum have different prices scaled according to the effect they inflict. Again, though, these are just suggestions. I applaud you for taking the time to think through them and point out concerns, though; I'll admit, until I ran the numbers exactly I hadn't priced them quite so high in my mind.

I'm not so sure they should all be rare--after all, an Alcoholic Venom (When applied to that weapon, that weapon will deal the Confused-effect (the enemy has a 1/2 chance of hitting a random ally instead of the target with every DAMAGE or SPECIAL DAMAGE rolled for it or with Free Hits for three rounds) for the duration of one battle) needn't be AS rare as Noxious Venom (When used on a weapon, the weapon deals the Badly Poisoned effect for the duration of the battle and the Confused effect for the next three rounds, for the duration of one battle.) In my mind, basic effect venoms (like Draught of Living Death or Alcoholic Venom) should be about as rare as gems or scrolls (or, even better, about as rare as Deadly Venom in terms of drop frequency), while combination or powerful effect venoms (such as Noxious Venom, which applies both Deadly Poisoned AND Confused, or Plague Venom, which deals 15 damage per Round AND -1 SP) should be about as rare as they currently are. I would agree with keeping effect venoms as drops-only, though, no need to add them to the Marketplace except on special occasions--maybe poor Portia could stock two or three different varieties for the month each time Elphaba comes in, as a way of leveling the playing field a bit?