Eye of the Beholder II: Key Encounters

The party meets the big boss.

         

Well it's official. Wisps are the most annoying bastards in any realm. I previously added them to my "most annoying enemies" list because of their appearances in Ultima V and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but they do an equal job of infuriating you here. Fast, agile, immune to at least some spells, they pound the lead characters round after round while most of your attacks completely miss them. They're too fast for any fancy footwork, since they come into the square already attacking. Oh, and they make the most grating, cacophonous sound, as if someone combined feedback from a microphone and static. I had to stop and rest after practically each one, and I think they respawned while I was sleeping.
         

A pretty light! Let's follow it!

       

Oh, but I'm ahead of myself. When I left off, I was trying to solve a lever puzzle. I appreciate my commenters' help with that. "Faith is the key" meant that I should trust that I could step on the last hole without falling down the hole; it's illusory once you press the button in the corridor (or an invisible shield falls over it, or whatever).

A few more wasps and one copper key brought me to the end of the level. The old man who greeted me upon entering the "test" appeared again and said I was almost done. He said that two choices lay before me, the left door leading to the "next trial" and the right leading to "almost certain death." He was lying: the opposite was true, with the left door severely damaging the party and teleporting them to the beginning of the level, surrounded by wasps, and the right going on to the next level.
       

Wait. Your right or my right?

        

This was one of several places where despite hitting upon the "right" path the first time, I saved and explored the others solely for the sake of map completion. It occurs to me that in some ways, full maps are contrary to actual role-playing, as most people would seek the shortest, safest path to a goal rather than exploring dangerous corridors for the hell of it.
            

Sorry guys, but I had to see what was down here.

          

The issue came up again shortly after entering the next level, when a plaque said, "the way through three is two, not four." I don't know what the "not four" part meant, but I soon came to an intersection with three doors and plaques marking them I, II, and III. Sure enough, "II" was the correct path, but I had to test the others, one of which launched a fireball at me and one of which released a gas spore.

There were a lot of gas spores on the level. They're puffy, flying things that look like beholders. They die in one hit of just about anything, but they explode when they do, so you need to hit them at range. It was very little problem to do so, and the creatures really didn't bother me.
           

Nailing a gas spore with a thrown dagger.

           

The other enemies on the level, flying snakes, were a bit more troublesome, mostly because they respawned like crazy, choking the narrow corridors and preventing passage for sometimes 10 minutes at a time. They also cause poison. Fortunately, they die quickly (individually) and are slow enough that you can kill them in fighting retreats or side-stepping without much trouble.
        

Evolution through natural selection clearly doesn't exist in the Forgotten Realms.

          

The level had a lot of puzzles involving magic mouths. The first mouth offered what I thought was a riddle: "When we have feasted, it is I who sings the praise / When we have hungered, it is I who breathes the pain." I was all set to answer STOMACH, but the damned thing didn't give me a chance to answer. It just blew a fireball at me. What the hell?

But later, there were eight more mouths along a long corridor. Each one wanted something and had to be satisfied to open the door at the end to the next level. These were the clues:

• "One's refuse is another's gold. Your famine is my feast." This one wanted rations that had spoiled. There were some near the beginning of the game that I dumped a long time ago, but fortunately there was another set on this level.

• "Items born of greed are what I need. One for each year, and one less to fear." I didn't understand this one until I found a hidden area on the same level, where a plaque said, "greed may be your downfall; give what you need not." Nearby was a triangular niche in the wall that would accept any item and turn it into a rock. The mouth wanted rocks. I'm not sure what "one for each year" meant, but I just fed it rocks until it had enough and closed. I think it was five.

• "From the fiends from below, find the item with the hidden glow." This referenced an idol found on the previous level after killing a bunch of mantises.

• "Nature's beauty is my meat. Tiny and red, 'tis such a treat!" I was scared when I read this one. On the earlier level, there had been a place with two gems inset in a wall. While I was fiddling with them, the wall opened and the gems disappeared. I worried that I was supposed to have gotten one of them. But I needn't have worried; the riddle referred to a ruby found elsewhere on the same level.

• "I must have the blade which has eaten so much! I must have the one which I fear not to touch!" I tried feeding it several blades before it happily accepted a polearm I'd found on the same level. I reloaded and identified the polearm first, and it turned out it was cursed -2 polearm called "Leech."

         

          

• "I am parched. I am dry! Give me liquid so I can cry!" I gave it a Potion of Vitality, but I suspect it would have taken any potion.

• "No matter how parched, no matter if rolled, no matter if magic, no matter how old." This one wanted any paper, I think. I satisfied it with a "Flame Blade" scroll.

There was one other interesting encounter on the level involving a wounded priest who had been trying to pass the trials. He warned us to leave him alone and said he'd wait for one of the flying snakes to deliver him an "honorable death." The game gave me the option to leave or kill him. "Officially," I left, but I had to check out the alternative. If you try to kill him, he rises up and fights you. Once he's dead, a pressure plate is revealed beneath his body, and there's a bunch of treasure on the other side, including magic plate mail and three Spheres of Fire. But crossing the pressure plate closes the wall behind you and locks you in the area with no way out.
           

I like that the pile of treasure is visible behind him. Why isn't there an option that says, "Leave, but ask him to hand you that plate mail first"?

        

The level culminated with a visit by the visage of Dran Draggore, the "high priest and overlord of this realm." He congratulated me on my progress so far but said:

         

You have killed several of my minions and pillaged my temple. I did not invite you. You are beginning to upset me. You have come sooo far, but all for naught. Alas, now we must part. To insure that you meet your doom, I have sealed the door behind you. I'm afraid there is no way out. So stay awhile . . . stay forever!

         

Before we could call him out for plagiarizing Dr. Atombender, he disappeared. If he'd been smart, he would have sealed the door ahead of us. Sealing the one behind us meant that we could continue to the next level.

The fifth level of the temple (since I blew the four horns) started with a bunch of teleporters and keys not worth recounting. It wasn't long before I discovered the first enemy: actual beholders. Anyone who thinks that dodging and waltzing and whatnot violates the spirit of Dungeons and Dragons combat needs to study the screenshot below.
       

       

Fortunately, the eye tyrants were slow and susceptible to ranged attacks down long corridors, side-stepping, and whatever the one is called where you lead him around a pillar. There were maybe eight beholders on the level, and I only really had problems with the first and the last.

There was one encounter with a beholder where he noted that we were "not acolytes of Darkmoon." A second encounter concerned a beholder stuck in a hole in the ceiling; we could help him or kill him. Helping him led him to just attack us once he was free.
         

But it was still the right thing to do.

          

Wisps were the second enemy. The first one I saw was true to his tradition; he tried to lead me onto a pressure plate that triggers fireballs. I saw the plate and declined to take the bait. He waited in the corridor patiently and is waiting there still. The other wisps I encountered on the same level just attacked me. "Bless" and "Prayer" helped a little, but nothing really changed until I had my front-rank characters put away their shields and dual-wield weapons instead. That effectively doubles their attacks, and if there's a penalty, it's not really noticeable. It occurred to me belatedly that "Haste" probably would have been a good idea, too.
        

Two attacks give us twice the chance to hit.

         

There was an area of illusory walls, but a map found on the previous level helped with those. About halfway through the level, Khelben Blackstaff contacted us telepathically and we related what we'd discovered. He reacted with alarm at the name "Dran Draggore" but was soon cut off.
          

The characters have figured out more than probably many of the players have.

        

At the end of the level, we met the illusion of a woman who noted that we are not "children of Darkmoon" and released two beholders at us. Owing to limited maneuvering space in this area, killing them took some serious effort and a couple reloads.
          

These two beholders sat like this for minutes and would, I think, have sat like this indefinitely. I think they were both trying to move into the center space at the same time. Unfortunately, moving forward broke their impasse.

       

Finally, we came to a pedestal with a carving cut out for a hand. Putting our hands on it gave us the mark of Darkmoon required by the magic mouth way back towards the beginning. A bolt of light knocked us out and we awoke in the lobby.
        

Thanks, Khelben. You sent us on a brief scouting mission, and now we're branded for life.

       

Miscellaneous notes:

• I haven't found any more portal doors nor objects to use with them. I can't imagine that the game has that many unexplored levels left, so I suspect that the two portal doors I've already found are the only two, and the stone gem the only activator, allowing quick passage from the lower levels to the main area. Either that, or I've missed a ton of secret areas.

• I like the way that the characters occasionally alert you to secret doors and traps and such, but occasionally it goes too far. If I'm not capable of watching my own compass to note the position of spinners, I shouldn't be playing this kind of game.

          

Why not just have a big spinning dial on the floor?

           

• Most slain beholders drop femurs for some reason.

• The levels haven't really been making any sense. The first level beyond the "four winds" door occupied 17 x 29 space (and was, I guess, adjacent to the upper level of the temple accessible from a different stairway). The second occupied 17 x 23. But the two above that were about 30 x 30 square. This place must look awfully weird form the outside.

• So far, the game has reliably introduced one or two new monster types per level. To get a sense of how far into the game I am, I took a scan through the monsters in the manual that I haven't yet encountered: aerial servants, lesser basilisks, bulettes, frost giants, hell hounds (or were they in the forest?), mind flayers, and salamanders. That suggests three or four levels left to go. It's hard to imagine a scenario in which bulettes ("land sharks") and frost giants make an appearance.

• Starling the Paladin hit Level 9 during this expedition and finally got one first-level cleric spell. Gaston hit ranger Level 8 and Shorn hit cleric Level 9.

• The two levels I explored this session had a large number of magic items, including a +3 short sword, a +3 shield, a  +3 two-handed sword, +2 banded armor, +4 dragon skin armor, and a non-magical composite bow.

     

Below, I've offered some quick thoughts on the utility of the game's various spells so far. I'll update it at the end with the last spell level.

Time so far: 25 hours

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Mage spells

1. Armor. Protects the target with the equivalent of scale male (AC6). Useless since it doesn't stack with actual armor.
   

1. Burning Hands. Only works from the front rank, limiting its utility, although it would be interesting to play the game with mages in the front rank. It does scale with the mage level, doing 21-23 at Level 10, perhaps making it worth swapping the mage briefly to the front rank if you can be fast about it. I think "Magic Missile," which can be cast from any rank (though may do less damage) is better.

1. Detect Magic. Turns magic items blue. I have one on hand and cast it when I have more than a couple unidentified objects. If they don't turn blue, I know I don't have to waste an "Improved Identify" on them.

1. Magic Missile. Very useful, as in most D&D adaptations. Grows in power as the caster levels; by Level 10, it does 10-25 points of damage.

1. Shield. Blocks "Magic Missile" and protects against missile weapons. I haven't run into any enemies that use either.

1. Shocking Grasp. Only does about as much as "Magic Missile" and you have to be in the front rank and make a successful melee attack. Not worth it.
         

My mage tries out a couple Level 1 spells against a cleric.

       

2. Blur. Makes it hard to hit the caster with an attack. Not really useful unless you have the mage in the front rank.

2. Detect Invisibility. Are there any invisible monsters in the game? Maybe aerial servants?

2. Invisibility. I was thinking it was useless because it only affects one party member, but I suppose it could be useful as a quick way to get enemies to stop targeting a low-hit point character. Unfortunately, you can't cast it on the two front characters and then painlessly let the rear characters fire their missile weapons, as enemies can still hit the front characters while trying to attack the second rank.

2. Improved Identify. Identifies items. Priceless. Both Dungeon Master and the first Eye of the Beholder should have had this.

2. Melf's Acid Arrow. Decent attack spell that, unlike its counterpart in the Infinity Engine games, levels with the caster. It does 8-16 by Level 10.

3. Dispel Magic. I haven't been hit with anything that it dispels, like "Hold." It's also supposed to dispel enemy buffing spells, but there's really no way to tell when they're active.

3. Fireball. Less useful than in the Gold Box games, as it only affects enemies in one 10 x 10 square, but still valuable to have for its 1d6 x mage level damage. The party, oddly, can't be damaged by this, even if the enemy is right in front of you.

3. Haste. Yeah, I should have been memorizing more of these. Halves the cool down rate for attacks. The spell makes me paranoid because it ages you in some games, but there's no penalty for that here. It lasts long enough that, between two mages, you could almost always have it active and still have slots for a couple of "Fireball" or "Lightning Bolt" spells. I suspect I'll use it a lot more from here on.

3. Hold Person. Works, but there's too much other good stuff at Level 3. Better to use the equivalent cleric spell.

3. Invisibility 10' Radius. I haven't been using it. I can imagine it's helpful if you just want to sneak past enemies, but the nature of the geography makes it hard to do that in this game. 

3. Lightning Bolt. As damaging as "Fireball." Enemies rarely line up behind each other, so you don't usually get the full effect of this. Thankfully, it doesn't bounce off walls and hit the party.

3. Vampiric Touch. Drains 1-6 points for every 2 levels of the mage. Works as advertised, but I think "Fireball," "Haste," and "Lightning Bolt" are the better investments, particularly since "Vampiric Touch" only works on one creature. San-Raal comes with it, but I otherwise haven't found it.

4. Fear. Rarely seems to work. When it does, it just drives them down the corridor. You still have to contend with them.

4. Ice Storm. Does 3-30 damage across up to 3 x 3 squares meaning that you can only cast it safely at range. Very nice for softening up targets down long corridors.

4. Improved Invisibility. Nobody has it yet, but it doesn't sound very useful. Just makes the targeted character harder to hit. I suppose I should add it to my buffing arsenal.

4. Remove Curse. Vital to keep around for the occasional cursed item. I typically do a series of "Detect Magic," "Improved Identify," and "Remove Curse" when I have a safe place to rest.

5. Cone of Cold. Nice fifth level spell that sends a 1d4+1 x caster level cone down three squares. My primary Level 5 spell.

5. Hold Monster. Useful but fails too often. I'd rather just blast them.

5. Wall of Force. Puts up a barrier and blocks enemies from moving. Could be useful for shaping combat terrain and preventing attacks from multiple sides. I just got it.
         

Memorizing spells in camp.

     

Cleric spells

1. Bless. Gives an attack bonus. The bonus isn't enough to be palpable in combat, but I suppose anything helps.
    

1. Cause Light Wounds. 1-8 points of damage and must be in the front rank. Waste of time.

1. Cure Light Wounds. 1-8 healing. Never goes out of style.

1. Detect Magic. As useful as the mage version.

1. Protection from Evil. Only works on one character. Better to save this level for healing and use the improved fourth-level version.

2. Aid. Gives attack bonus and extra hit points. Good buffing spell.

2. Flame Blade. Useless once you have your first magical weapon. You're not going to put the cleric in melee combat anyway.

2. Hold Person. Works well on the few human enemies.

2. Slow Poison. Slow it for what? There's no healer in the game. Either you have a scroll, potion, or spell to cure it permanently or you're screwed. Waste of space.
        

The various colors and lines around the character portraits indicate buffing spells in effect.

       

3. Create Food and Water. Vital to cast every once in a while, since there's hardly any food in the game.

3. Dispel Magic. So far, there's been no reason to use it.

3. Magical Vestment. Waste of time since it's not cumulative with actual armor.

3. Prayer. A more powerful "Bless." Good buffing spell.

3. Remove Paralysis. Absolutely vital at stages in the game. You want multiple copies ready at all times.

4. Cause Serious Wounds. Waste of time. Use this level for healing and buffing.

4. Cure Serious Wounds. Cures 3-17. Vital.

4. Neutralize Poison. A god-send when you finally get it. You get poisoned repeatedly in the game.

4. Protection from Evil, 10' Radius. Affects the entire party, so always best to have one on-hand for buffing.

5. Cause Critical Wounds. Inflicts 6-27, but you really need this slot for the reverse.

5. Cure Critical Wounds. Need as many as you can spare.

5. Flame Strike. Does 6-48 on a square. Works about as well as "Fireball" but can't be cast from a distance. I would only bother with it once I had a couple of "Cure Critical Wounds" memorized.

5. Raise Dead. Only if you're playing the game without reloading. As per D&D rules, doesn't work on elves, but doesn't seem to subtract the point of constitution that the description says it does. I still have several scrolls on hand before I need to waste a slot memorizing this.

5. Slay Living. Enemies almost always save against it, taking a little damage instead. If I wanted a damage spell, I'd rather spend the slot on "Flame Strike," which affects multiple enemies at about the same damage level.
  

5. True Seeing. Says it dispels illusory walls, invisible monsters, items, and magical effects. Other than illusory walls, I haven't noted any of these features in the game, and illusory walls aren't that hard to find on their own. On the other hand, it sounds like this might be the solution to a puzzle later.