Intermission 10 Page 20
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“You’re right that Amadeusz probably wouldn’t ask to take us somewhere he couldn’t handle himself… I think it would be best to go to that guard outpost first.”
“Okay, then.”
“As you’ve heard, there’s probably some good weapons and other gear waiting for you on location, so you might want to think about what kind of stuff you actually need to bring in advance.”
“You might end up leaving some of it behind if you find something better.”
“Of course, if you want to give me a call inside the dungeon, I can help mitigate that problem.”
“You’re also more likely to encounter the Guard here than in the other places you’ve been lately, so be aware of that.”
“Oh, and since you fixed up your kitchen, I can hook you up with some new stuff for the manor, too. Take a look.”
You can now buy and sell items, order renovations, and select your party and loadout for the next dungeon. Amadeusz has already volunteered himself, so only two other party members can be chosen.
I guess that we cannot buy it multiple times in a row right now? I mean, is it ‘non-stacking once-per-intermission immediately-consumable’ with no way of getting multiple 2HP bonuses for the next dungeon, right?
As opposed to the former, this totally sounds like other manor upgrades, “paid-once and then permanent”, no refills needed?
It cannot be bought multiple times in a row, correct.
For people who rightly despise the invisible coloured text:
RICKI: “You’re right that Amadeusz probably wouldn’t ask to take us somewhere he couldn’t handle himself… I think it would be best to go to that guard outpost first.”
PAWS: “Okay, then.”
“As you’ve heard, there’s probably some good weapons and other gear waiting for you on location, so you might want to think about what kind of stuff you actually need to bring in advance.”
“You might end up leaving some of it behind if you find something better.”
“Of course, if you want to give me a call inside the dungeon, I can help mitigate that problem.”
“You’re also more likely to encounter the Guard here than in the other places you’ve been lately, so be aware of that.”
“Oh, and since you fixed up your kitchen, I can hook you up with some new stuff for the manor, too. Take a look.”
LSN: You can now buy and sell items, order renovations, and select your party and loadout for the next dungeon. Amadeusz has already volunteered himself, so only two other party members can be chosen.
“PET FOOD
All pets gain 1 bonus HP at the start of every dungeon”
Flip, if that’s a permanent upgrade that’s totally worth it.
So Ricki and Dues mandatory. I imagine we’re bringing Mac for Smiffing reasons.
Arguments for the last slot:
– Botanya or Lohk for healing, with a preference for Botanya since she has a larger inventory and this is supposed to be a loot heavy dungeon. Though Lohk would have the benefit of a ranged attack.
– Kamau for massive inventory (and have him leave his plate mail home, and hope to find some here.)
– Cordy to keep the labor train building, and also to get Mac and Dues Spored.
I argue against Lara for this dungeon. She won’t get bond points, and there will probably be enough nice things in standard reach to fill our inventories. Cox also not particularly worth it – kinda mid on all the roles we need filled.
Overall I think I vote Cordy.
Personally, I think Botanya would be a good pick. Another Bond point brings her to threshold, and on top of that she seems to be a bit more reliant on synergistic level ups than other characters, so every little bit helps with her. Unfortunately I don’t think we can really rely on having a bunch of undead-themed dungeons for her to get easy level ups in, so I think this is probably the safest dungeon for her to go to out of the three that are available to us now.
Cordy also doesn’t get Bond points and I don’t think getting Spored on all of our characters is necessarily a goal we should be shooting for since it’ll waste Bond points like crazy (1 every time we pick Cordy). It’s also somewhat tricky since characters that lack Spored won’t get the best benefit out of having a Little Mushroom pet, which are very squishy and reliant on self-sacrifice damage to create. A group of Ricki, Macadamia, Amadeusz, and Cordy lacks a dedicated healer outside of Ricki’s Grit and eating the Little Mushrooms, so any other healing would have to come from the Wand of Mend or potions.
Botanya can also wear the armor that we find in this dungeon; Cordy can’t. So in addition to having a decently sized inventory, Botanya can also benefit from any armor we find that doesn’t subsequently get turned into rings. She’s also a good pick for carrying the Wand of Mend, allowing her to be the de facto support character for the group.
If we don’t take Botanya or Cordy, my second pick would be Kamau for his large inventory and defensive abilities; plus taking him to the Guard Outpost seems like it’d be pretty interesting from a story perspective. He’s also close to unlocking his Bond dungeon; if we take him to the Research Facility we could theoretically kick off the next phase of the story by doing that.
If we do ultimately end up taking Cordy- I think we should think about equipping him with one (or possibly both) of the poison damage wands we got from this last dungeon. A wand isn’t a weapon, shield, or armor so I don’t think there’s anything that would prevent him from using one, and since it deals poison damage it would allow him to create Little Mushrooms with Infestation. If using a Wand to deal damage counts as an attack then he might even be able to use Spore Touch alongside the use of a Wand to deal extra poison damage, though admittedly that might not be the case.
We really don’t need to use Cordy that often since they’re already at a point where they’re really tough to kill off completely, since the Big Mushrooms just turn into a new Cordy. He’s a Secret Character, which means they’re pretty much designed to be at a decent power level regardless of when they’re introduced to the game.
Makes me wonder about Sue and her meta-powers. I wonder if she’s also hard to kill off completely too, for meta reasons. Like she’s like Pete from the show Brisco County and can give you a retconned reason why she didn’t actually die. The idea of this one fan you can’t escape is hilarious.
Mac and Botanya are my picks. I get the feeling Amadeusz is going to showcase tremendous power so it’s mainly about who needs some leveling up. Most of us agree Mac. And Botanya has some insane abilities she can unlock. A lot of Cordy’s abilities are kind of redundant and are designed to make them hard to kill, which is hardly needed since they’re already pseudo-immortal through Big Mushrooms. Plus no bond. Plus if we get another character we’ll just need to Spore them again. Honestly we really don’t need to use Cordy much at all for the rest of the game if you ask me.
Kamau is a strong second choice, though. Have we seen dungeons carry character story elements with them before? I’m not sure we have.
I’ve said this before, but the reason I think Amadeusz is going to be a powerhouse is because he’s designed to tempt us with a choice and because he’s trying to get us in his debt. After the dungeon’s over, he may offer a morally dubious deal which we can accept or turn down. If we accept, he joins us officially, but at what cost? And making him powerful is what will make the deal more appealing, despite its cost.
I’m just suggesting Cordy as a free extra 3-6 labor per dungeon we bring him into. So 3-6 gold x however many dungeons we do afterward. Which makes him better to bring to a few early dungeons, then ditch.
Though if we don’t want to do that, and consider the powerups on other characters more valuable, that’s valid too.
Cordy offers no bond, and is dependent on a ramp up that we can’t guarantee can easily be done
He also requires self damage, and without Kamau to guarantee he won’t take damage, could end up in a situation where he can’t be safely used. We don’t know Amadeus’ kit – it seems unwise to bring a comp we aren’t sure will work regardless of how he functions. I think only Kamau provides that kind of security.
We should definitely get a rabbit’s paw and pet food
Uhm,… so can we get some sort of info/indication which is a “food related non-manor renovation”?
Like is the chicken coop and vegetable garden food related, but not “non-manor”, so it won’t count towards this? Versus the hearty meal and the pet food, that are food related AND non-manor, so it will count?
(IMHO This doesn’t make any sense, because you can also store chicken nuggets and vegetables in the freezer, so they should count for the ice box as well.)
And if the above assumptions are correct, does that mean we’ll get 2 labour out of this tops (I’m assuming no other manor renovations will have food-related stuff that we can buy afterwards), or can we get “infinite” labour, if we keep on buying the hearty meal over and over?
I think the coop and garden are non-manor since they’re technically outside it. Arguably the Shack with Still and the Mammoth paddock could count too but it’s a bit flimsier.
I think this may refer to feasts and pet food.
——– SELL ——-
* already have: 24 gp
* Crossbow, Double: 16 gp (It has been collecting dust for a over a year. We will never use it.)
* 2x Ring of Aggression, Copper: 20 gp (We are replacing these with Silver Rings this dungeon)
* Arachnomancer Helmet: 9 gp (useless)
* owlbear talons: 6 gp (useless)
= 75 total gold to spend
——– BUY ——-
* silver ring x3: 30
* Library: 30
* Pet Food: 15
= 75 gold spent
Ricki, backup fighter
[1] swiftblade
[2] magma shield
[1] free thieves’ tools
[1] 1 more thieves’ tools
[1] helmet
[1] purse
[4] free
[R] +1 atk ring
[R] free
[P] Daisy (2 atk 1 def 4 hp)
——————–
7 atk / 1 base + 5 swiftblade (1 + 3 mov from Daisy + 1 lighting) + 1 ring
6 def (+3 vs fire) / 1 base + 3 shield + 1 helmet + 1 Daisy
Ricki explores small spaces. Helps in case Kamau gets stunlocked.
Find armour inside.
Ultimate Solo Kamau
[1] hilt
[5] plate armor
[1] cowlwear
[2] heavy helmet
[3] free
[R] +2 atk ring
[R] +2 atk ring
[P] big mushroom (for pet fights)
——————–
13 atk / 3 base + 3 hilt + 1 light sword prof + 1 heavy sword prof + 2 ring + 2 ring + 1 pet
11 def (9 if using cowlwear) / 3 base + 5 plate + 2 helmet + 1 pet
Kamau solves most encounters solo while the team scurries around gathering loot
Maca, ringsmiff
[1] Monk robes
[1] 3 siver rings stack
[1] lens
[2] free
[R] free
[R] free
[P] Golly
2 atk / 2 robes
3 def / 1 base + 2 robes
Gathers loot
Amadeusz, forced companion
[1] pipes
[1] heavy greaves
[2] siedgesword (someone has to get it)
[?] free
[P] Phoenix
[R] +1 def ring
[R] +1 def ring
——————–
?+7 atk / ? base + 7 siedgesword
?+2 def (+3 if not attacking) / ? base + 1 helmet + 1 ring + 1 ring – 1 siedgesword
He probably has abilities to use instead of attacking, but nobody else wants a siedgesword.
Find him an armour inside.
This gives everyone some basic defence and utilises resources such as hands and OP items we have, while leaving enough free space for whatever we find inside.
Notably there are no ranged options, so feel free to improve on this.
This brings in a lot of gear, which we were suggested to not do. I think we should count on getting most of our non-specialized gear (armor, shield, etc) inside.
I guess magma shield can go. I figured with Golly, smiffing and consumables we have enough inventory space
Money
already have: 24 gp
Crossbow, Double: 16 gp (It has been collecting dust for a over a year. We will never use it.)
2x Ring of Aggression, Copper: 20 gp (We are replacing these with Silver Rings this dungeon)
Arachnomancer Helmet: 9 gp (useless)
owlbear talons: 6 gp (useless)
——————–
= 75 total gold to spend
——– BUY ——-
silver ring x3: 30
Library: 30
Pet Food: 15
= 75 gold spent
——– THE PARTY ——-
Ricki (7 Atk, 7 Def)
Pet: Daisy (Good Girl!)
– Swiftblade
– Hide Armour, Wolf (2)
– Thieve’s Tools
– Purse
– Helmet, Full
– 4 Empty Slots
Rings: +1 Atk
Kamau (13 Atk, 10 Def)
Pet: Big Shroom (Pet Battling)
– Kamau’s Hilt
– Plate Armour (5)
– Pile o’ Candy
– 5 Empty Slots
Rings: +2 Atk, +2 Atk
Macadamia (2 Atk, 3 Def)
Pet: Golly (Inventory Space)
– 3x Silver Rings
– Monk Gi
– Magic Lens
– 2 Empty Slots
Rings: None
Amadeusz (? Atk, ? Def)
Pet: Phoenix (Evil Minion)
– Pipes
– Heavy Greaves
– Heavy Gauntlets
– Helmet
– Siegesword
Rings: +1 Def, +1 Def
If Amadeusz starts off with a suit of armor and it’s not special, have him leave it at home. If he starts off with any sort of weapon, have him bring that instead of the Siegesword.
if we bring Kam, we don’t need armor on other especialy on mac, he not going to be in battle when kam not defending, and we probably going to find armor in dungeon, + we don’t have healing option, beter take with us wand of mend and wand from spider dungeon(if i remeber we have 2, one basic unlimeted poision spel and second barage), it give us range option and healing
Mend only works on 3 HP and lower, I’d rather avoid getting that low altogether. And we have new and improved AOE grit as healing.
Sting wand feels too weak to be the only ranged weapon. If I had to pick, fireball wand is probably better even though it only has 2 uses
That’s 9 def on Kamau, not 10
3 Base + 5 Plate + 1 Heavy Prof + 1 Shroom
Oh yeah, I forgot about heavy prof
I think Jing is making sense on Cordy.
Also, I found spending 30 gold only for the option to spend more gold before getting any benefit was lame.
We don’t even know what we’d unlock! What if we don’t like any of them?? Maybe I’m paranoid haha.
I like the idea of keeping the owlbear talons anyway.
Money
already have: 24 gp
Crossbow, Double: 16 gp (It has been collecting dust for a over a year. We will never use it.)
2x Ring of Aggression, Copper: 20 gp (We are replacing these with Silver Rings this dungeon)
Arachnomancer Helmet: 9 gp (useless)
——————–
= 69 total gold to spend
——– BUY ——-
silver ring x3: 30
Mammoth Paddock: 20
Pet Food: 15
= 65 gold spent
——– THE PARTY ——-
Ricki
– Swiftblade
– Hide armor, Bat
– Thieve’s Tools
– Purse
– Helmet
Rings: +2 Atk, +1 Atk
Cordy
– Helmet, Full
– Wand of Venomous Sting
– Pile o’ Candy
Rings: +2 Atk
Macadamia
Pet: Golly (Inventory Space)
– 3x Silver Rings
– Monk Gi
– Magic Lens
Rings: None
Amadeusz
– Pipes
– Heavy Greaves
– Heavy Gauntlets
– Helmet
– Siegesword
Rings: +1 Def, +1 Def
If Amadeusz starts off with a suit of armor and it’s not special, have him leave it at home. If he starts off with any sort of weapon, have him bring that instead of the Siegesword.
Paddock won’t pay off. At least library might have uses
I feel like I’m missing something. I see 4 upvotes here yet I thought library is like kitchen where it do nothing but allow the option of buying some stuff that actually do things later?
But we still have stuff that do things by themselves we can buy already now?
Did I forget something?
I’m not too attached to paddock exactly. Am I allowed to edit if people want something else? I saw some new ideas of useless stuff to sell to buy more stuff since I posted.
New to posting plans, sorry if noob. >.<
We don’t have specifics because LSN hides stuff, but the Library does this
“A place to gather knowledge that offers +5 Storage and unlocks new upgrades.”
Now that we’ve seen the Kitchen, it will likely unlock some paid buffs by which we gather knowledge — I’d love it if we could pay gold to retroactively lens some of the enemies we’ve already seen, or if it can generate a free magic lens per dungeon somehow.
So yeah, likely we pay now to pay more later, but the Paddock is actively bad (although I want a babby mammoth even though it’s obviously suboptimal)
Best guess is there’s ~17 dungeons left at this point, if Act 3 is the final act (based on some LSN stream comments about how much longer he expects DE to go, this is kinda likely), if Act 3 is 6 dungeons long (like all the other acts have been), if there are 2 characters left (the portraits in Ricki’s room imply 2 more), and if we manage to max every bond.
Assuming we buy it now, the Paddock will generate a maximum of 17 gold in labor by the end of the comic, leaving a net -3, which we MIGHT be able to make up if we end up buying additional outdoor upgrades (the paddock does not discount things like bedrooms)
We’ve seen all characters, LSN has mentioned there are 10 characters including DLC:
For future reference: There are 10 characters but that wasn’t including DLC.
The pet food you’re buying is the single best room buff from the manor we’ve ever seen. It cost a total of 45 gold, but permanently increases the hp of every pet we ever bring into a dungeon by 1, effectively. The library will presumably unlock options just like the pet food, but with a focus on knowledge (so perhaps a way of unlocking info on enemies we’ve seen by spending gold, or a way of getting a free lens useage in dungeon). All of those are far more useful than a discount to rooms to mostly only add labor. The labor adding rooms are generally not a good deal, and LSN has already said we aren’t intended to unlock everything.
If we waste money on things like the paddock, we’ll never get to unlock the actual impactful room upgrades.
For reference
Ricki
8 atk = 1 base + 4 swiftblade (no Daisy) + 3 rings
5 def = 1 base + 2 armor + 1 light armor prof + 1 helmet
Cordy
4 atk = 2 base + 2 ring
4 def = 2 base + 2 full helmet
2 ranged poison dmg with wand
Mac
2 atk = 2 robes
3 def = 1 base + 2 robes
Ama
? + 7 atk = ? base + 7 siegesword
? + 4 def (+5 if not attacking) = ? base + greaves + gauntlets + helmet + 2 rings – siegesword
Remember, we’ll be fighting intelligent enemies. In absence of Kamau, They well focus fire, and they will pick the squishiest target. This loadout is guaranteed to take significant damage whenever we fight groups of 3 or more armed dudes (which is a normal encounter – look at caravan for reference).
Additionally, since Ama is not spored, he will be at risk of taking unlockable damage if we have a tiny mushroom attack.
Really, this is the dungeon for Kamau. He counters intelligent enemies with interpose, he can win 1v3 in one turn with cleave, and he has a ton of inventory space even on top of plate armor.
Nooo anyone but Kamau. 5 hp combined on everyone else makes me way too nervous when we start with little armor. Like, one early explosion and we’re doooone.
We just got a super cool heal so I’m ok with taking damage until we loot armor. But healing don’t work on remorse and we have a lot more hp buffer to work with without it in the first place.
We do not have a huge HP buffer, particularly with this config that makes everyone severely under-defended. The ONLY dungeon we’ve done without Kamau relied on making sure every character had reasonable defenses. This config makes Macadamia useless, and starts everyone off with defense levels that would take damage from even two guards with simple longswords – let alone enemies armed with the sort of advanced weaponry we’re hoping to find. Even ignoring the abysmal defense stats, our attack stats aren’t sufficient to allow any character to one shot a simple guard with any sort of defense. Our action economy at the start of the dungeon will be essentially the worst we’ve ever seen.
If we go with this config, I fully expect that we will have to abandon or will lose a character. The only way I see that not happening is if Amadeusz is more of a hard carry than Kamau himself is, and given Kamau has leveled up many times and already has his first bond tier upgrade, I’d find that outcome shocking.
Y’all are going to get us killed with this plan. Macadamia has no offensive power at start, Cordy starts off with a total of 4 defense, Amadeusz with at best 4, assuming nothing about his stats, and Ricki with 5 defense. The only healing we’re bringing is Ricki’s grit, and Cordy will have to use his venomous touch to contribute anything more than 2 damage to the group and still make a mushroom. Please look at something like the caravan, which was both suspected to be an easier dungeon than this (only caravan guards and bandits, vs Imperial guards) and also a high loot dungeon. We can only rely on getting loot from a dungeon if we can actually CLEAR combat in the dungeon, and this setup is not setting us up to do that.
The opening combat in the caravan had two guards with longswords, which would be a total of 6 damage, and they were both armed with shields and one had chain armor. Assuming Imperials are outfitted as well as the merchant guards, we’d need to do 3 damage just to pierce the defense of a simple shield and no armor. Do we suspect that Ricki on her own, or Amadeusz on their own can knock out a guard? Ricki is only doing 8 damage, and Amadeusz, based solely on equipment, would also do 7. Do we think 4 damage knocks out a guard? If we have to gang up on a guard, we’ll have no method of controlling targeting without interpose.
It seems insane to me to build a loadout that relies on ramping up TWO characters that have slow starts (Macadamia and Cordy), particularly when we don’t even have the faintest idea about the capabilities of a quarter of the party.
Gotta agree with you to an extent. I don’t know why these guys want to bring Cordy so bad. Is it because they’re afraid they won’t be used much? Is it because if things go south, they don’t technically perma-die? Botanya and Lohk bring healing. Kamau brings power. All of them benefit through Bond. I’ll take ONE of Mac or Cordy, because I get that we have to build them up, but both doesn’t make sense.
I do think Amadeusz will be strong, though. The guy who gave us the mansion and who seems to be part of a bigger picture doesn’t strike me as weak.
So this dungeon is likely to be full of intelligent enemies, meaning they’ll be able to use tactics to target our squishier characters. Without Kamau, we’re going to have to be VERY careful in combats.
Here’s my proposal:
Sell: Arachnomancer Helm (9G), Arrow (1G), Chain Armour (11.5G), Copper Ring of Aggression x3 (30G), Double Crossbow (16G), Helmet (8G), Imbued Skull x3 (7.5 GP), Venom Gland x3 (3G), Venom Gland (Rotfang Cobra) (5G), Owlbear Talons (6G)
This gives us a total of 121 Gold to work with and gets rid of a slew of items that are either niche, rarely/never used, or things that we’re likely to replace in this next dungeon anyways. Using that Gold, I propose we get:
Buy: 3x Silver Rings (-30G), Foyer (-30G), Library (-30G), Living Room (-30G)
This gives us all of the (current) upgrades that we need to unlock MORE upgrades, and three Silver Rings for Macadamia to Smiff in this next dungeon. We already have a set of Thieves Tools, a Torch, a Magical Lens, a Rope, and the Wand of Mend, so there’s not much more we really need to get in terms of prep aside from the Silver Rings (which might as well be a prerequisite for this dungeon).
As nice as it would be to get things like the various food upgrades+Ice Box or the Pet Food for the permanent +1 HP for all of our pets (or any other Manor upgrades), I would place those at a lower priority than seeing what the Foyer/Library/Living Room unlock. Library probably unlocks magic/research/scroll stuff, Living Room is probably more upgrades/bonuses for our characters, and I have a strong suspicion that the Foyer upgrades give some sort of bonus/discount to what we can buy since Paws is the only person we meet regularly who can be described as a ‘guest’.
Now, onto our party composition. We have to take Ricki and Amadeusz into this dungeon. Macadamia is also coming along. Out of the three popular choices (Botanya, Cordy, or Kamau) for this dungeon, I think we should take Botanya with us. As for our pets: Ricki should take Lupus Lazuli; Macadamia takes Golly; Botanya takes no one so she can utilize her Flytrap(s); and Amadeusz takes Phoenix.
Ricki is going to be our heavy for this Dungeon. We don’t know what Amadeusz does, so if he ends up being another support character we’ll need her to be able to both tank and deal damage. Lupus is the best pet for that, getting an additional +1 ATK from Ricki being a Goblin on top of having a decent pool of 6 HP.
Botanya is a support character; she essentially deals damage with her Flytraps, so she doesn’t take a pet so she can make one and assign it to herself. She can carry the Wand of Mend and the Pipes and use either one as necessary when she isn’t using her other abilities. She’s also ironically a great meatshield due to her ability to armor up, her decent health pool, and a potential self heal of 4 HP a pop. She can’t Interpose or directly deal damage like Kamau, but she also lacks the baggage of Remorse.
Macadamia is our dedicated loot carrier. His job is to pick up heavy loot the other characters can’t use and either turn it into Rings or put it into Golly’s inventory. Aside from that we don’t really need him to do much, but we can give him some light armor and a weapon so he can act as a secondary attacker when he isn’t Smiffing or looting.
Amadeusz is a wild card. Is he a Beast Master, a Bard, a Warlock? Is he even actually human? We don’t know, so my only suggestion for him is that he takes Phoenix and any other misc. gear we have access to currently. The gear can be redistributed as necessary, and hopefully Phoenix will grow into a hen or rooster after this dungeon.
Finally, the Inventories for each of our characters:
Ricki: Swiftblade (1), Plate Armour (5), Magical Lens (1), Rope (1), Thieves Tools (1), Purse (1), Free Space (for the free Thieves Tools), Silver Ring of Aggression x2
Amadeusz: Whatever he comes with + the Heavy Gauntlets and Heavy Greaves (assuming that he can carry them).
Botanya: Pipes (1), Wand of Mend (1), Chain Armour (3), Magma Shield (2), Torch (1)
Macadamia: Wand of Fireball (1), Bat Hide Armour (2), Heavy Helmet (2), Copper Ring of of Protection x2
Golly: Nothing.
Ricki’s loadout gives her great ATK and good DEF and lets her carry all of the party’s misc. Items. She also gets the Purse since Macadamia is going to be focusing more on the heavy loot.
Botanya gets the Pipes, the Wand of Mend, and the Torch; she can use one of those as necessary alongside her shield, or potentially forgo the shield and carry both the Torch and use either the Wand or Pipes during a fight. She get the Chain Armour and Magma Shield to make her as tanky as possible with her remaining inventory space.
Macadamia gets the Wand of Fireball in case we do some fighting before we loot a weapon for him. He gets the Bat Hide Armour, Heavy Helmet, and Copper Rings of Protection for reliable defense; he can trade off these items to Golly/other characters as necessary once we start looting.
Amadeusz should keep whatever he comes with because, presumably, it’s suitable for his abilities. He also gets the extra armor stuff since nobody else has room for it; he can either keep it or trade it with another character, probably Ricki.
—
Summary:
Sell: Arachnomancer Helm (9G), Arrow (1G), Chain Armour (11.5G), Copper Ring of Aggression x3 (30G), Double Crossbow (16G), Helmet (8G), Imbued Skull x3 (7.5 GP), Venom Gland x3 (3G), Venom Gland (Rotfang Cobra) (5G), Owlbear Talons (6G)
Buy: 3x Silver Rings (-30G), Foyer (-30G), Library (-30G), Living Room (-30G)
Party: Ricki w/Lupus Lazuli, Macadamia w/Golly, Botanya, Amadeusz w/Phoenix
Ricki’s Inventory: Swiftblade (1), Plate Armour (5), Magical Lens (1), Rope (1), Thieves Tools (1), Purse (1), Free Space (for the free Thieves Tools), Silver Ring of Aggression x2
Macadamia’s Inventory: Wand of Fireball (1), Bat Hide Armour (2), Heavy Helmet (2), Copper Ring of Protection x2
Botanya’s Inventory: Pipes (1), Wand of Mend (1), Chain Armour (3), Magma Shield (2), Torch (1)
Amadeusz’s Inventory: Whatever he comes with + Heavy Gauntlets and Heavy Greaves.
Golly’s Inventory: Nothing.
I can make edits/changes as necessary and people are free to copy some/all of my plan if they have better ideas, too.
Amadeusz can carry items we give him, confirmed on discord.
Fair enough, I guess; the problem with that is that we don’t know how big his inventory is or if what he has is better than what we can give him. If we give him stuff, I’d say that things like the Greaves or the Gauntlets are our best bet. They can be redistributed as necessary if he can’t make best use of them.
I just think that loading him up with, say, the Siegesword could potentially be a bad idea if he turns out to be a magic or pet-focused character. But more armor never hurts.
I’ll go into more detail on why I chose Botanya instead of Kamau or Cordy; I won’t comment on Lohk, Lara, or Coccyx since they don’t seem to be popular picks for this dungeon anyways for various reasons.
The main reason we’d want to take Cordy with us is because of the additional Labor, which would amount to +5 Gold per Dungeon assuming that we manage to exit the dungeon with all Little Mushrooms intact. 3x Little Mushrooms can be assigned to him, and since we’re taking Golly we can get an additional 2x Little Mushrooms by taking no other pets. He also gets another level up, and both Mac and Amadeusz get the Spored ability post-Dungeon.
However, he also wastes a Bond point- something that is a premium given the limited number of dungeons we can take Characters to. With Botanya as our last (current) character yet to reach her first threshold, she would benefit the most out of this potential lost point since building her subsequent upgrade would give her +1 HP and an upgraded/new ability. Granted, gold is also a valuable resource- but Bond is still the most important one since it can unlock additional Dungeons, which in turn grants more Gold from both the loot we find and our already accumulated Labor.
+5 Gold per Dungeon is great- but it also assumes ideal conditions for this Dungeon. It assumes that Cordy is able to both produce 5 Little Mushrooms- and also that they stay alive for the entire dungeon. Little Mushrooms are squishy; much more so than other pets. They die to collateral damage easily, and then CAUSE collateral damage when they explode- something that is bad because both Amadeusz and Mac would take damage if their Mushrooms exploded, let alone the three assigned to Cordy. The guards we’re likely going to end up facing are intelligent, and as we saw with Molly (RIP) they’re pretty good at taking advantage of AOE. And, lastly, Cordy can’t benefit from weapons OR armour, which this dungeon is supposed to have a lot of.
So, essentially, taking Cordy is a gamble. It can pay off to various degrees- or it can cause a cascade of failures. Furthermore, while he can level up from this Dungeon he won’t gain a Bond point, and this dungeon in particular doesn’t offer him much benefit since he can’t wear armour or wield weapons.
As for Kamau- he offers a lot of Defensive potential, and is a good attacker as well when he isn’t being weighted down by the need to defend. He can use armour and weapons that aren’t two-handed, so this dungeon might offer him an upgrade to his kit. However, his defensive effectiveness is lesser against intelligent foes like guards, who have the potential to bypass his Interpose if they can pull off an AOE effect. Since we’re going into their home territory, this isn’t terribly unlikely- and having him Remorse out would deprive us of him inside the dungeon AND make us lose out on a Bond point.
In comparison: Botanya essentially offers all of our characters +1 Def by lowering the Atk of melee enemies by -1; she’s also ideal for carrying our support equipment, like the Wand of Mend, Pipes, and Torch, and she can make disposable pets that can attack on her behalf. Combined with being a decent meat-shield in her own right and building Ricki’s loadout for high Atk and good Def- not taking Kamau doesn’t sting quite as bad.
I like Botanya. but I think Kamau is the best bet for one reason: intelligent targeting. We are likely to fight some amount of empire soldiers in this dungeon. The -1 Atk debuff is way less impactful when four dudes with greatswords can gang up on a single target. We would have to load everyone up on defense, which wastes inventory space and is very difficult to achieve for characters like Macadamia. Botanya is, ironically. best suited for dungeons like the one we found get in. With many weak enemies who split their attacks among multiple targets. Kamau is also just such a powerhouse with his high stats and cleave, it becomes hard to justify not bringing him to what is likely the hardest dungeon we’ve tackled so far.
That’s very fair, although I’m not so sure if Kamau is going to be ‘necessary’ for this dungeon. For one thing- this is going to be a surprise attack. We’re getting in ahead of the Empire on this one, so we’re likely going to have a fairly standard win condition or even just a test of greed where we can dip out at any time after looting a certain number of items. Probably, after a certain number of turns more guards will start entering the dungeon.
Kamau’s problem is that he’s a very solid choice if we play in a way that basically revolves around him, but he becomes a huge liability if we can’t do that, or aren’t able to do that. (Or if we just get greedy and make a mistake.)
It’s true that Kamau negates a good deal of risk when fighting intelligent enemies, but as we saw in the caravan that does nothing against traps- or intelligent enemies using their environment in a way that deals indirect damage. The guards in the caravan were implied to either be aware of the trap they triggered, or outright set it themselves. The guards in this dungeon could easily use similar tactics. He’s also considerably less effective against patrolling enemies or ambushes, and I think all of these things are fairly likely to occur in this dungeon- making Remorse even more likely to occur.
If Kamau Remorses out of the dungeon, for all intents and purposes he’s dead for the rest of the dungeon. He can’t contribute, we can’t access his inventory, and he misses out on his Bond point.
It’s true that Botanya, pound for pound, doesn’t bring as much to the table as Kamau does in combat. But she IS an incredible support character and doesn’t have an albatross around her neck in the form of Remorse. With Botanya we don’t have to play perfectly; we just have to focus on surviving, which her abilities facilitate.
And, actually, I think having him tag along to the Research Facility is a better bet. We won’t have any unknowns in the party then, and the monsters are ironically more ‘predictable’ than the intelligent guards. Granted- ‘more difficult’ probably means ‘guards are going to be on us more quickly if they aren’t present in the dungeon already’ but we’re probably going to want to pull out all the stops for the Research Facility and Botanya doesn’t really fit the bill for that. Kamau is definitely one of our heavy hitters along with Lara, so that leaves Mac or someone else to take the last slot in the party.
I agree with the party comp but think we should go in with lighter armor. This is explicitly a place that is going to have arms and armor.
Same as Sick’s but with the following tweaks:
-Removed robe on Mac (wont need, will find other)
-Removed Helmet, Greaves, Gauntlets on Amad (can equip what we find)
-Added Rope, wand of Mend (just in case) to Amad
-Removed Helmet on Ricki (prob will find another)
Reason for Changes: Have Kamau interpose early so Ricki and Amad can kill enemies and equip what they have. Once everyone is equipped more we can start trying to split attacks if we want.
Wand of mend is insurance if things go bad we need more healing than Ricki’s 1 shot heal.
Rope just in case as well.
Ideally this should be give us options and let us adapt to what Amad’s skills are, intelligent enemies, and the dungeon conditions.
Here is the rest of Sick’s post with the details and changes I made:
Money
already have: 24 gp
Crossbow, Double: 16 gp (It has been collecting dust for a over a year. We will never use it.)
2x Ring of Aggression, Copper: 20 gp (We are replacing these with Silver Rings this dungeon)
Arachnomancer Helmet: 9 gp (useless)
owlbear talons: 6 gp (useless)
——————–
= 75 total gold to spend
——– BUY ——-
silver ring x3: 30
Library: 30
Pet Food: 15
= 75 gold spent
——– THE PARTY ——-
Ricki (7 Atk, 5 Def)
Pet: Daisy (Good Girl!)
– Swiftblade
– Hide Armour, Wolf (2)
– Thieve’s Tools
– Purse
– 4 Empty Slots
Rings: +1 Atk
Kamau (13 Atk, 10 Def)
Pet: Big Shroom (Pet Battling)
– Kamau’s Hilt
– Plate Armour (5)
– Pile o’ Candy
– 5 Empty Slots
Rings: +2 Atk, +2 Atk
Macadamia (2 Atk, 1 Def)
Pet: Golly (Inventory Space)
– 3x Silver Rings
– Magic Lens
– 2 Empty Slots
Rings: None
Amadeusz (? Atk, ? Def)
Pet: Phoenix (Evil Minion)
– Pipes
– Siegesword
-Rope
-Wand of Mend
Rings: +1 Def, +1 Def
If Amadeusz starts off with a suit of armor and it’s not special, have him leave it at home. If he starts off with any sort of weapon, have him bring that instead of the Siegesword.
Kamau alone has more firepower than Kamau with Ricki and Ama. He (probably) gets to attack for 13, 10 and 7, while his team does 7 (Ricki), 9 (Ama estimation), 3 (Daisy), 2 (Shroom). So no interposing this dungeon!
We are getting botted, again. I support this plan.
Please everyone, vote with your comments.
I vote this plan
I vote for this.
I support this one.
Though has LSN ever favored comments over votes?
I support this plan.
Remixing some existing proposals (thanks alterkat and Sick)
——— SHOPPING ———
Sell:
gold coins (24G),
Copper Ring of Aggression x2 (20G) [so we have 8 rings by the end of dungeon],
Arachnomancer Helm (9G), Venom Gland x3 (3G), Venom Gland (Rotfang Cobra) (5G), [trash]
Owlbear Talons (6G), Double Crossbow (16G), [not using them]
Heavy Shield (13), Chain Armour (11.5G), [we’ll find new ones]
= 107.5 gold
Buy:
3x Silver Rings (-30G) [smiffing],
Foyer (-30G), Library (-30G) [unlock interesting upgrades]
pet food (-15G) [a PERMANENT +1 bonus hp on our pets]
= 105
——— THE PARTY ———
Ricki (7 Atk, 7 Def)
Pet: Daisy (Good Girl!)
– Swiftblade
– Magma shield (2)
– Thieve’s Tools
– Helmet, Full
– lens (only Ricki can use them through walls)
– 4 Empty Slots (one used up by free Thieve’s tools)
Rings: +1 Atk
Kamau (13 Atk, 10 Def)
Pet: Big Shroom (Pet Battling)
– Kamau’s Hilt
– Plate Armour (5)
– Pile o’ Candy
– 5 Empty Slots
Rings: +2 Atk, +2 Atk
Macadamia (2 Atk, 3 Def)
Pet: Golly (Inventory Space)
– 3x Silver Rings
– Monk Gi
– Purse (he’s doing most of the looting)
– 2 Empty Slots
Rings: None
Amadeusz (? Atk, ? Def)
Pet: Phoenix (Evil Minion)
– Pipes
– Heavy Greaves
– Siegesword
Rings: +1 Def, +1 Def
If Amadeusz starts off with a suit of armor and it’s not special, have him leave it at home. If he starts off with any sort of weapon, have him bring that instead of the Siegesword.
——— MOTIVATION ———
Ricki needs to be able to fight in small-only zones. Also leaving armor slot free for whatever we find.
With 13 atk Kamau gets up to 5 attacks per round with cleave, doing 13 10 7 4 and 1 damage. I want to see what he’s capable of.
Realistically he can (nonlethaly) kill 2 enemies and damage another. This makes letting him solo encounters more efficient than interposing for the team.
He also has tons of inventory space to fill with loot. And if we’d like to unlock his bond dungeon in this act, we better take him here instead of poison well.
Mac gets monk robes because 4 stats for 1 enc is too good to pass.
Amadeusz can find an armour inside. Until then he can play music from safe distance (Botanya was able to use pipes from anythere in the room)
——— DEMOTIVATION ———
Some people are pushing for Cordy in order to get more money, but I think we’re doing alright on that front as is. I’d rather focus on getting bond for now.
Futhermore, money won’t buy really cool gear. We need to come into dungeons strong in order to find it in protected chests.
We might only find imperial versions of the heavy sheild or chain armor, i don’t think we should sell them
I support this plan
Everyone, we are likely getting struck by botters/trolls/cheaters trying to swing the voting again. Please cast your votes by appending “I support this plan” as a comment to your preferred plan, as per usual protocol.