Dungeon Balancing

[Saulus]

The sewers are mostly composed of level 1 NPCs, most with barely 10HP, the oozes should have already been significantly nerfed. One should not have to leave the city to 'find' a levelling area, we've made sure there were plenty of places to explore within the city itself.

If you do finish the quest you end up on the valley road which is right where all the rest of the newbie content is, so it shouldn't be difficult to find your way around.

The Privateers again have been nerfed into Oblivion, I don't know if we can make them any weaker than they already are without unbalancing things.

[Cornuto]

Hello! New player to Sundren here, posting about my initial dungeon run. Ideally, I should have posted this immediately after the experience, but I've only now registered on the forums.

With almost no foreknowledge of the server, I saw my character wake up in the Legion chapter house in Sundren. My general modus operandi when trying a new server is to set up my character's initial equipment and supplies and then wander through the starter dungeon, while observing how the players here do their thing.

The NPC I started next to gave me a quest to assist a Legion investigation. I thought it might be an 'introduction to the starter city' or 'path to the starter dungeon' quest, given the location of the NPC that offered it. I followed that quest, wandering around the city and speaking to the correct NPCs. I was able to find item merchants along the way thanks to map markers, getting a starter set of armor and a basic weapon. (I had much more trouble finding some healing supplies like kits and potions.)

So far, so good.

The investigation led me into the aqueducts of Sundren, or the sewer area. I assumed this to be the 'level 3 newbie area' since the quest pointed in that direction. And that quest was given by the NPC I started next to, so what could go wrong?

As it turns out, the gray oozes absolutely slaughter a level 3 character. They have DR, lots of HP, and can easily hit using a touch attack for a third to half of your HP. The big bloated gelatinous cubes are just as bad - they even start the fight with Grease so you can't run away once you figure out you're outmatched. The humanoid cutpurses were much more reasonable, though the Blue-named ones showed up frequently enough that you died more often than not.

After lots of mucking about, dying, getting dropped to unconsciousness, resting at every opportunity (a tactic that seemed fairly cheap to a newcomer, even if it might be intended given the lack of rest restrictions on low-level characters), I eventually asked a friend for advice. There, I learned that the level 3 area most people actually go to was somewhere else entirely.

And it was quite a journey to get there. I don't think I would have found that area or those goblins without an older character guiding me there. Especially since, at level 3, the green-named Privateer orc muscle is easily capable of stomping you.

Things would've probably been easier with other level 3 party members. But the starter city seemed quite empty - and no wonder, given that most people go straight for those hills.

In short, I think the new player experience could use some work. At the least, the deceptive starter quest that sends you into a tough, unforgiving area (for level 3s) should be looked at. If the aqueducts were rebalanced into an accessible newbie area, that'd be great.

Yes, those critters were ridiculous. I toned them WAY the hell down a couple weeks back but the server hasn't yet been updated to reflect the changes.

[lostinspace]

Out of interest, which class mix is your character?

The character I tried the sewers in was a swashbuckler.

I'm glad to hear the npcs will be toned down when the server is updated. Hopefully it won't be such a newbie trap.

[thaelis]

I'm glad to hear the npcs will be toned down when the server is updated. Hopefully it won't be such a newbie trap.

Yep, it got toned down after my 18th level character nearly got killed in there >< Which possibly means I'm just weak...but hey, even a weak level 18 shouldn't die in a level 3 area!

[InflatableFriend]

I trotted through the sewers a couple of days ago with by replacement for my dead umberlean. I didn't think it was that tough. Sally was a tough fight for my level 3 druid, her stunning weapon is potentially a huge risk, but she died for a pleasing amount of XP.

[Dragor]

Temple of Shargass (entrance)

My stormlord lvl 19
Veerin's FS lvl 20
and Keagan

all having short term Cleric spells up

we lasted all of 45 seconds at most including load times

[Jhickey]

Ya, and Death ward is neither non functioning or they have a spell that it dosn't work for. I did roll a one on the save but had deathward.

[Cornuto]

Ya, and Death ward is neither non functioning or they have a spell that it dosn't work for. I did roll a one on the save but had deathward.

What hit you with a death spell?

[Jhickey]

It was either a Cleric or Warlock, My spell craft is not high enough to know what the spells were.

[Seheren]

An implosion perhaps.

[Jhickey]

Big chance it was!

[wangxiuming]

If warlocks had a on-hit death spell ... alyrian would have been far eviller than he was. =X

[Catastrophe]

If it was implosion, then death ward doesn't protect vs that.

[Cornuto]

We have non-epic mobs that throw implosions?

Gonna have to look into that.

[Jhickey]

The DC was 26, that I do know. It was a death spell, I rolled a 1 giving me a fort save of 38. But I am not skilled enough to spellcraft.