A few questions from a noob:

Klorox · Post by **Klorox** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 8:59 pm

Do I need to hold onto these scraps of paper I picked up in the mortuary? I'd hate to lose out on some stuff because of inventory management issues.

What happens to XP when I dual class? Let's assume I'm a 6th level fighter, with half the XP needed to become a 7th level fighter. If I dual to Mage then, will some XP be lost? If I go from Mage back to Fighter, do I pick up at the exact XP I left off at, or will I go to the minimum of a 6th level Fighter?

(I hope that was clear).

Am I alright with going with only 4 total party members in this game? I've always been a fan of slightly smaller parties than the standard 6 allowed. I'm considering dabbling with the other NPCs, but staying with only Dak'kon, Annah, and Fall From Grace.

Where do NPCs go when they're dismissed? What about when Nameless dies? I've only died with Morte in my party, and he was with me in the mortuary. I don't know if others are there with you as well (which would be weird, because Morte's the only one from inside the mortuary) or if they're someplace else.

Nightmare · Post by **Nightmare** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 10:43 pm

Once you leave the Mortuary, I'm fairly certain you can just junk the pieces of paper.

I'm not entirely sure about the XP...I think when you switch classes, your XP goes to zero, and whenever you switch BACK to the original class, you'll be at the XP amount you were before you switched. But I could be completely wrong.

You'll be fine tactically, but in order to get the full narrative experience, I *highly* recommend using the full six. At least, I highly recommend you add Morte as one of your regulars, in addition to those you listed.

I'm fairly certain that NPCs will be beside you whenever you "wake up" from dying.

Qwinn · Post by **Qwinn** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 12:10 am

Do I need to hold onto these scraps of paper I picked up in the mortuary? I'd hate to lose out on some stuff because of inventory management issues.

You don't need them.

What happens to XP when I dual class? Let's assume I'm a 6th level fighter, with half the XP needed to become a 7th level fighter. If I dual to Mage then, will some XP be lost? If I go from Mage back to Fighter, do I pick up at the exact XP I left off at, or will I go to the minimum of a 6th level Fighter?

(I hope that was clear).

You won't lose any xp from switching back and forth, don't worry.

Am I alright with going with only 4 total party members in this game? I've always been a fan of slightly smaller parties than the standard 6 allowed. I'm considering dabbling with the other NPCs, but staying with only Dak'kon, Annah, and Fall From Grace.

I personally would take Morte and Nordom as well, but you won't suffer gameplay-wise from not taking them, you'll just miss some content.

Where do NPCs go when they're dismissed?

They stay where you left them.

What about when Nameless dies? I've only died with Morte in my party, and he was with me in the mortuary. I don't know if others are there with you as well (which would be weird, because Morte's the only one from inside the mortuary) or if they're someplace else.

They will all rez with you in the mortuary or wherever else you get rezzed. You won't lose them via dying.

Qwinn

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 2:50 am

Klorox wrote:Am I alright with going with only 4 total party members in this game? I've always been a fan of slightly smaller parties than the standard 6 allowed. I'm considering dabbling with the other NPCs, but staying with only Dak'kon, Annah, and Fall From Grace.

What are your reasons for favoring a 4-member party? PS:T is different from other games such as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, so your reasons for favoring a 4-member party in those games might not apply to PS:T.

The best feature of the game is the dialogue. If you want as much dialogue as possible, then you should try to recruit all of the NPCs. (Since there are seven NPCs, two can only be recruited temporarily, but you can see most of their dialogue if you play your cards right.)

You can fight as many enemies as you want in PS:T. There is literally an endless supply if you know where to find the respawning points. (They're pretty easy to find.) The game designers seem to have made it sort of an inside joke: if you want to fight monsters over and over, then you can fight monsters over and over. You can do almost anything you want in the game.

You can also avoid combat almost completely if you want to. Only four encounters in the entire game are completely unavoidable, and you have already seen the first one. (The zombie you had to kill at the very beginning of the game.) Avoiding combat will NOT prevent your characters from advancing. Most of the experience awarded by the game is quest experience for choosing the appropriate dialogue options and solving riddles. Larger parties are not penalized, since every member of your party is usually awarded quest experience. (Experience for killing monsters is evenly divided.)

The number of good weapons in the game is fairly small, and the Nameless One does not wear armor. You can lower his Armor Class with rings and tattoos. Your party will not be fighting over armor and weapons, since most of the NPCs have items that only they can use. If you lose a fight and get killed, it usually doesn't matter, but there are a couple of specific situations where you don't want the Nameless One to be killed. Consequently, sometimes the best course of action is to AVOID combat. You might even get more experience for solving a problem peacefully (thousands of experience points) than you would if you killed the creatures you encounter (a few hundred experience points).

You should assign most of the Nameless One's assigned stat points to Wisdom (and raise it even more with items and tattoos), because you get experience point bonuses if the Nameless One has high wisdon. I think it's 10% at 19 and 25% at 25. That can mean hundreds of thousands of extra experience points by the time you finish the game, and it makes party size less of an issue. When I created the Nameless One, I didn't put any points in Strength or Constitution. By the end of the game, both of those stats were at least 18 or 19 because there are many dialogue options that result in stat increases and there are many different items that increase stats. It is best to raise the Nameless One's Charisma to 16 by the time you reach the Dead Nations (with assigned stat points and items), and a couple of points in Dexterity is also useful.

You don't really need to be worried about the Nameless One's level, so again, party size doesn't really matter. You might be "disappointed" to know that the Nameless One's stats are actually more important than his level and his combat ability. For example, if his Wisdom is 21 or higher, then he can actually change reality through sheer force of will. To be more specific, you get more dialogue options that can change the outcome of various encounters. In the Planescape universe, if you believe something, you can make it real. You can even cause a person to exist who had never existed before if you say his name frequently enough, because you are making the other characters in the game believe that a person by that name exists. When enough people believe that he exists, then he exists. You'd better get used to things like that if you want to understand what's happening in PS:T.

Klorox · Post by **Klorox** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 8:12 pm

You've sold me, VD, I'm going with 6 guys.

My NO will be mostly a Mage.

I like Dak'kon, Morte, Grace (haven't met her yet, but I sure could use a Cleric), Annah, and I'm not sure who #6 will be for me yet.

I don't think I need another Mage, so Ingus is out (but a buddy told me he helps Mages in conversations, so I'll add him for a short time). I guess that leaves me with Vhailor or Nordom. I'm not sure who I'll go with.

Qwinn · Post by **Qwinn** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 11:08 pm

Nordom has something like 20 banters, Vhailor has 3 and Ignus has none, if that helps your decision.

The following represents some important information that includes light spoilers, so stop reading now if you'd rather have a nasty surprise than be lightly spoiled. (I'll give only the minimum info required to give you the gist).

At a certain point in the game, you will leave Sigil, and you won't get back to it for some time. You will find one of the NPC's while you are gone, and if you get there with a party of 6, you will be forced to either not pick up that NPC or strand one of them there, to be lost forever. I found this to be the least fun aspect of the game. My "Save Nordom!" tweak makes it so that you have the option of sending Nordom somewhere where you can pick him up again after you return to Sigil, so that you can comfortably have a party of 6 wherever you go without having to lose one forever.

Qwinn

VonDondu · Post by **VonDondu** » Fri Oct 17, 2008 1:29 am

Klorox wrote:I like Dak'kon, Morte, Grace (haven't met her yet, but I sure could use a Cleric), Annah, and I'm not sure who #6 will be for me yet.

I don't think I need another Mage, so Ingus is out... I guess that leaves me with Vhailor or Nordom. I'm not sure who I'll go with.

Vhailor is available too late in the game for me, and I don't like him all that much, anyway. Some people think he's the best warrior in the game, but I just don't see it. If you buff up Dak'kon with spells and if you equip Nordom properly, I think they are much better than Vhailor in combat. Maybe I was playing Vhailor the "wrong" way, but my party was always well-developed by the time I met him, so I didn't have much use for him. Nordom is the only NPC who uses missile weapons, and he can kill most of your enemies before they reach your party, and that's a very big advantage.