Questions/irritations with Drakensang

[MisterMT]

Hi - would be grateful for thoughts on these questions

1) Is there any reliable aggro system in this game? Because it seems that a dwarf mercenary finds it difficult to hold aggro on a bunch of rats.

2) Why does endurance run down so fast? And is there any way of getting it back in combat? Seems pretty lame to me that you only get three special hits before being stuck in autocombat.

3) Buffing - why on earth do the buffing spells have such a short range? The squishie buffers are forced to run right into the middle of the battle to buff the plate wearers. Seems wierd to me.

4) As one reviewer suggested, is there any reason to use anything other than three tanks and one healer?

5) Is there any point raising social skills? I find in general that social skills in computer RPGs seem fun in theory, but in practice are pretty obsolete.

6) Turns out many skill points are obsolete - such as treat poison. One magic user with no points invested will be able to sort out all your poison needs (perhaps not mid battle, but still).

7) Wasted points in unnecessary weapons for beginning classes. I know I should have dealt with that in advanced, but it was too late when I worked this out.

[Ergopad]

1) Is there any reliable aggro system in this game? Because it seems that a dwarf mercenary finds it difficult to hold aggro on a bunch of rats.

Doesn't it help, if you set your character as aggro by by clicking the "Shield" icon on the avatar to switch it into a "Sword"?

2) Why does endurance run down so fast? And is there any way of getting it back in combat? Seems pretty lame to me that you only get three special hits before being stuck in autocombat.

I guess the battles in the P&P are far more smaller and you do not need that much endurance there, thus the low endurance. But you can increase the maximum amount of the endurance by getting the "Endurance I, II & III" special abilities. And also Special Dark -beer restores some endurance points (more with my fixpack). And one more reason to have the offensive mage.

3) Buffing - why on earth do the buffing spells have such a short range? The squishie buffers are forced to run right into the middle of the battle to buff the plate wearers. Seems wierd to me.

To make the fights more harder? Ex. in Baldur's Gate it's the same thing usually. You should cast the buffs before the fight, not during. But it's not that easy always though...

4) As one reviewer suggested, is there any reason to use anything other than three tanks and one healer?

Yes it's very good combination, but any other will work too pretty good. How do you define "tank", a pure fighter? I really like to have atleast a single rogue in my party to deal the locks as well as offensive mage with a bow for example helps in some fights to do the damage.

5) Is there any point raising social skills? I find in general that social skills in computer RPGs seem fun in theory, but in practice are pretty obsolete.

Unfortunately in Drakensang there is very little opportunities to use these skills (~10...15) dialogs, but hopefully this is fixed in prequel. So no point to invest that must xp in social skills.

6) Turns out many skill points are obsolete - such as treat poison. One magic user with no points invested will be able to sort out all your poison needs (perhaps not mid battle, but still).

Agree, unfortunately again. Though in some tough battles, like with mother rat, you might want to have some xp in that skill. But generally speaking, I think there is some use for most of the skills, especially the artisan talents work surprisingly well compared to other rpgs.

7) Wasted points in unnecessary weapons for beginning classes. I know I should have dealt with that in advanced, but it was too late when I worked this out.

You start with ~250 xp, so the loss isn't really that bad. The first points in weapon talents are quite cheap to raise so don't worry about it. Btw, in prequel they are planning to have more customized character generation...

You had some very good questions there, hope the answers helped you a bit.

[MisterMT]

Thanks so much for your answers - much appreciated.

Well, we'll see how it goes... after checking out this forum I decided to leave the mother rat until my group was a bit tougher (level 4 got me down pretty well all the way, with lots of running away from rats, but I suspected that the boss would be too tough)

Other than that, a party of one tank (metal wearing fighter type with a shield - the dwarf merc) two charlatans and one Amazon (as bow user/sabres) was doing the job - although often one or even two party members would die.

I just sent the NPC charlatan home as I got the elf mage. Looking forward to this new set up. I like having the summoned wolf.. figure it helps against swarms to have an extra body.

[Drakton]

Hey there. I have run the game twice, and in both I have never been able to complete the mother rat quest before lvl 10. Maybe Im doing something wrong, but well... thats my advice
My party consist of my main: an elf ranger, Traldar, Rhulana and Gwendala.
Both my ranger and Gwen are proficient archers and can heal. The bear Gwen summons at higher levels is a big help.
I have found this party easier and more fun to play than my previous, a main Pirate, Rhulana, Gwendala and Gromlir or Grimlor or whatever the dwarf merc is
I find these kind of games very fun in that they give room for a lot of experimentation with different party combos, thus having a good replay value, IMO

[Ergopad]

Hey there. I have run the game twice, and in both I have never been able to complete the mother rat quest before lvl 10. Maybe Im doing something wrong, but well... thats my advice
My party consist of my main: an elf ranger, Traldar, Rhulana and Gwendala.
Both my ranger and Gwen are proficient archers and can heal. The bear Gwen summons at higher levels is a big help.
I have found this party easier and more fun to play than my previous, a main Pirate, Rhulana, Gwendala and Gromlir or Grimlor or whatever the dwarf merc is
I find these kind of games very fun in that they give room for a lot of experimentation with different party combos, thus having a good replay value, IMO

I wish there would have more tough boss monsters like mother rat. The fight was actually very fun.