Temple of Elemental Evil: Retrospective Review

Reviewing the much loved Temple of Elemental Evil from Troika Games based on the DnD module written by Gary Gygax himself.
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#ToEE #Templeofelementalevil #DnD #Trokia #cRPG

[@johnreynolds2512]

I'm going to show my age and talk about how after I got out of college classes I went to my favorite local gaming store and bought ToEE the day it was released. Not the video game, but the original module.

[@johnreynolds2512]

@@TrueRandomization Math not your strong suit, eh?

[@WickedPrince3D]

@@johnreynolds2512 Lol, it's always funny when the person you were chatting with deleted their post so yours makes no sense. :D But I hear you, I've had Village of Hommlet for many many decades.

[@JohnDoe-sl6di]

Do you still have it? It might be a collectors item

[@ardasoydan9394]

damn u are over 60??????

[@johnreynolds2512]

@@ardasoydan9394 LOL I turn 60 next year. Started college in 1983, ToEE came out in 1985.

[@CrimRui]

This game has impressive character animations and how they look great on terrain. Even to this day, it's still holds up. Characters would run and slowly stop to their place and then when you equip stuff, it actually shows on the model. Troika knew their stuff.

[@karagumruk7330]

Is it turn based?

[@peterfarkas6763]

I loved this game. This was my favourite title after BG2. The best part was the turn based combat and how satisfying it was to experiment with different party combinations. Thanks for raising awareness for this gem of a game.

[@redfiend]

Shadows of Amn being my favorite game, I always wished it had ToEE's smooth character animations and that awesome turn based combat.

[@adseri]

The most faithful adaptation of D&D 3ed to date. :) No other crpg tried to be as faithful to ToEE - only pathfinder games came close but they're still far 2nd place at best. ToEE tried to implement it all. Sometimes it went bad when a mercenary wanted a share of all loot and he managed to get a hold of a heavy armour which made him over encumbered. But nonetheless, you could appreciate the fact that some mercenaries wanted full share of your loot, some were interested only in money/gems, and some wanted all magical scrolls you found. Sometimes it was a nice touch, like when they preserved the original crafting system - when you needed a masterwork weapon, correct feats and so on. Sometimes it deepened my understanding of the game when a paladin fell "for no reason". Thanks to that I understood a little better what it means to be a paladin and that it's not just a magical warrior. Sometimes it was an interesting change of pace when they implemented all the not-so-well-known rules like 5-foot-step or counterspelling. Or that you could burn a web spell with fire. Or a domination spell... Among all my playthroughs I like my "solo" lawful evil wizard playthrough the most. The staple spell - domination. And it's not domination like it is in other D&D computer adaptations but a true one. Domination lasting 1 day (!) per spellcasting level which added an NPC to your party under your full control. Combined with a mod that made it possible to have a full roster filled with mercenaries it was a great experience. Managing it so that I can cast new domination before an old one runs out. It even had some stressful moments when a part of my dominated party wrestled out of control after I performed a deed that is opposed by their worldview. I wish there there was another one of those faithful adaptations that focuses on roleplaying instead of powergaming, like it is with pathfinder games.

[@alexunder3165]

I'm glad to see that someone other than me enjoyed solo evil wizard (sorcerer in my case) domination run. Running around wreaking havoc with dominated ogre/ettin/troll/and even balor in just *chef's kiss*. Challenging (and winning) against the avatar of St.Cutberth in a multiple different ways (or even fishing for that nat 1 to dominate him) is some of the peak highlights I had with this game. One of them was using fire shield spell + otiluke's sphere spell, so he kills himself off of reflected damage, the other was Ghoul's touch + coup de grace, third was stacking greater invisibility with displacement for 100% concealment and dominating spiritual weapon summon (co8 addition) for a +20 greatsword, then casting enlarge person and dual wielding those absolute units of destruction... And did you know that bringing the guy with retailating autohit sword unconscious, then visiting vendor "unlocks" it from him, so you can take it for your use, then run back to temple, heal him some so he is conscious, show him the way to the freedom, so he rewards you with another similar sword (not immediately, but on safe arrival home, overworld map encounter), which you can dual wield with the first one...

[@ThiefOfNavarre]

​@@alexunder3165 Didn't know you could get a second sword from him (rather a first one) by going to a vendor. Cool

[@leeh1ful]

Coup de gras was a crazy mechanic at the time, I remember having a halfling rogue who's job was literally to stomp on the head of downed enemies. Odd game but very troika and fun trying to figure out the map and locations without hand holding

[@Hrafnskald]

Yep, and if you pair them with a wizard or sorceror casting Sleep, they can get a lot of work done :)

[@christophermzdenek]

I can't even guess how many hours I put into this game back in the day. Sadly, too much of that was restarting from broken saves. I'm super happy that the community mods exist for Troika games, now. I might have to pick this up and take a stroll down memory lane.

[@nielsdejong]

As someone who wants to pick it up again as well, could you link me to where I can download it, and also link me to the mod?

[@christophermzdenek]

@@nielsdejong GoG, and I was just going to google it. My guess is Nexus.

[@nielsdejong]

@@christophermzdenek Well you mentioned that you need some mods to help smoothen it, if so, which mods would you recomment? And thanks :)

[@christophermzdenek]

@@nielsdejong I haven't picked it up yet, but the two that were mentioned in the video I've heard of before. I'm going to start there. Heck, even if it's just as simple as stabilizing the corrupt save files, it'll be a godsend. Ironically, I checked my old junk box and found the original disks I bought for them. No joy on install, so GoG will be in my future next paycheck. Less than $10 is certainly better than the 39.99 price sticker that's still on it from Babbages (long defunct video game store).

[@NefariousKoel]

The 'Circle Of Eight' mod is a must. It fixes a lot of stuff. Comes with it's own installer program w/ extra options.

[@Arcling]

I remember this game had pretty significant following in my country. CD Projekt (back when they were mainly a game publisher in Poland) even published a special collector's edition called Biały Kruk (White Raven), it was sold out almost immediately. This was before digital distribution became common place! They were all box editions.

[@MrEtheric]

I loved the radial menu in this game. I thought it was an amazing way to get all the options out there in a compact and understanable way. I can understand that it might be difficult for someone not that familiar with D&D 3.5 though. I must admit I just did the temple as a dungeon crawl, and did not play too much with the quests in there. Cool that there were some options though for sure. The move all your opponents at the same time option was also really good at speeding up the game. Even if it was bugged with getting multiple attacks of opportunity when they did that.

[@sincyprine3487]

Something i remember is the ability to craft your magic items (base game and also extended by mods). Sure there was loot, but not as much as we see in today's games; if you wanted better gear, you had to invest into crafting feats.

[@jakobvarsson840]

This probably my favorite game of all time. A true cult classic

[@wraithalcon]

Still have the physical copy of this sitting in my closet along with the BG Saga. I fondly remember this game, and as someone who was heavy into DnD 3.5 I remember using this game specifically to test out builds because of how close to accurate it was.

[@SpecShadow]

I wish that there were more mods for ToEE,... heard that they found modding tools by accidents in the Polish version from CD - Action gaming magazine, of all things. Game is quite small scope, a lot of combat but nothing tedious, surprisingly. Coming back with new ideas and optimized strategies feels good.

[@kamilszadkowski8864]

Lol, I still own exactly this version of the game. I had no idea it was used to extract modding tools.

[@SpreadGuts]

Check out The Keep on the Borderlands

[@luxinterna3370]

I always loved the graphics and gameplay. I wished BG3 would Look and play like this game with a good Story and a larger World.

[@theouterlimits7788]

There is co8 and temple plus. Both are essential mods for the game.

[@cernunnos_lives]

I can't believe you covered this game lol. I didn't even know it still existed. I haven't given this adventure any thought in 2 decades, but I use to run this module. Thanks for the upload brother.

[@slaanax9119]

Troika almost made some amazing games. ToEE and Vampire games are some of my favorites games.

[@grabeck666]

I remember that when I played this game, on later levels of the temple, there was so many enemies that when I was entering the room my PC needed like 10 minutes to load the combat, literally. I could go make a team, eat something, come back. Imagine someone plays like this these days.

[@orfeas2335]

I am 32 ,still this is my favourite game, such an insane addiction for DnD fans

[@adseri]

Never again have I seen a game that put some so much effort to stay faithful to the rules. Pathfinder is a far second place at best.

[@orfeas2335]

@@adseri How about Neverwinter nights 1-2 and Icewind dales? And pool of radiance

[@adseri]

@@orfeas2335 When I tried to play pool of radiance it was bugged and I didn't have the D&D knowledge to fully appreciate it. I also didn't like the 100% dungeon crawl setting. Never finished it and never felt the need to come back. Icewind Dale was better and also implemented faithful paladins but it was RTwP after all. And they modified some rules to better fit a computer game. Just as NWN 1-2 did. They were relatively close but never had turn based gameplay and always took some liberties with some system. Like NWN 1 never allowed you to have a real full party (but again I didn't play that one too much). NWN gained some, lost some, again no turn based and some liberties with rules here and there. I spent a looot of time playing on RPG online servers in NWN2 though. All created by fans. Never again did I have so much roleplaying freedom as I had on those NWN2 RP servers where I spent years. :) Only ToEE went 100% with following the rules to the point that I practically can't remember anything that strayed away from the rules. Well, there is one thing - it's not tile based but I think that the distance measurement thing was better in the end - in tabletop nobody has time to measure you movement with tape in addition to everything else. In crpg you can automate it and in the end I think it ended up more natural this way.

[@orfeas2335]

@@adseri I liked Temple so so much that i did even manage to kill Iuz before Kuthbert shows up haha. ( Even Kuthbert but i did that with using a bug)

[@adseri]

@@orfeas2335 It was difficult but possible - especially with a build that used the chaotic good sword whose implementation in ToEE made it possibly the most broken sword across all the D&D media. :) I remember going toe to toe against Iuz using a leveled up troll mercenary. With unimplemented level adjustment rules, its troll regeneration combined with acid/fire immunities and top shelf magical equipment... I remember he even used the chaotic good sword I mentioned - the troll was chaotic neutral or chaotic evil so he could use the swords power to some degree. If that troll ever realised that I'm more scared of his build than he is scared of my character I'd be a dead meat. :)

[@pirateguitarrr]

As a kid I bought this one on release with zero understanding of DnD. It was one hell of a struggle to get past even the first encounter (with some insanely powerful frogs?). I've managed to finish the game though, no clue how.

[@MrEtheric]

Yeah the frog encounter was tough, especially as you could trigger a 2nd set of enemies if you moved too far. Still not sure if it was intended to be one encounter or two there.

[@jaigerwinters288]

It was my first dnd game as well and to this day I still think about the frog encounter! Taking them down had me hooked, it was challenging enough to make me say hey if this is the first whats the last fight going to be like?

[@grey_wulf]

I absolutely love TOEE (with mods of course). Such a great game.

[@conch2776]

Been playing this off and on since release. Greatly appreciate your review and shedding some light on this gem. Of note, the pathfinder ruleset is based on dnd 3.5. So if you’re familiar with those games, you should feel at home with TOEE with some minor differences.

[@brendanmckenna7613]

Such a shame troika couldnt make any more games. This came to me at just the right time: After finishing bg 1, 2, ToB, and pathfinder kingmaker. I didnt know of nwn 1 or 2 then, but even after playing them both this is in my top 3 crpgs.

[@Stoigniew666]

Pathfinder is shit

[@SpreadGuts]

Thanks for the review! You might want to check out the "The Keep on the Borderlands" mod by the Circle of Eight based on the eponymous classical module. It's considerably more polished than basic ToEE.

[@dalecummins689]

I remember that module came with the original D&D basic box rule set.

[@eugeneluk5050]

Great review! I especially appreciate the background & history overview of the origins of the game/tabletop module. As a channel specializing in covering CRPGs, I feel like that's the kind of insight you can provide on older games, versus other gaming channels that just do generic game reviews. One note though: the letter "g" in vignette is silent, so it's pronounced more like "vin-YET" (it's a French word). :P

[@refoliation]

silent letters don't exist

[@libramartin]

@@refoliation shush

[@BrokenNoah]

I remember playing this game when it came out and I was somewhere in the middle when my HDD failed. I lost the CD eventually. I haven't thought about the game since I saw this video. Hopefully it's available in GOG. Edit: 10:28 Yep, its available

[@sixofnine9407]

Your review brought back memories for this diamond in the rough, the mods you suggested have made me revisit this game.

[@HeRocco1]

I have been playing this game since I have been born and I have never gotten bored of it. It is a game with endless fun because something different will always happen, even if you play same classes across mutiple games. This game is a damn masterpiece. It would be amazing if there was a remaster of this game (with the temple plus or circle of eight mods) to show to a bigger audience.

[@Hravokh]

oh my Nostalgia hits hard :D well Temple of Elemental Evil and Drakensang: Rivers of Time

[@Hrafnskald]

Fair points. I will say that the rules are much easier to grasp than those of Pathfinder, and if you are familiar with Pathfinder, most of this will be easier to understand. Also, it has some interesting crafting options and hilarious ways to abuse summons :)

[@adseri]

Hehe, yeah. My favourite playthrough was a solo one (with slightly increased level), with a lawful evil mage who specialised in domination spell. :) Madmen actually implemented it as it is supposed to work - duration 1 day (!) per level and it actually added the victim to the party. It could also get dispeled when the victim was forced to do something that tramples his beliefs - which could happen with some characters in few situations. I also used a mod so that I could have a party composed of only mercenaries at the expense of "normal" characters. But it went well with single main character.

[@MrKanjidude]

Looks amazing. I remember enjoying the intro cinematic back in the day. Wish someone would remake the game and fill in what's missing.

[@billtodd2194]

Ooh, I played this one back in the early 2000s. It was a very good rpg for the gameplay that worked. I remember the funky quirks like you had to organize and stack merchant's inventory for them in order to free up space for them to buy from you. And there was at least 1 quest in town that was impossible to complete because once tactical combat started it'd never end until every single npc on the combat map was dead. Which was a problem for quests with a friendly npc in range of the combat...I got very close to the end before a corrupted save ruined the playthru. Hearing there are mods to fix it makes me tempted to try it again.

[@BlackIjs]

Deceptively good! I came back to it a few years after release and it was a great romp.

[@Notsram77]

This is one I've always wanted to play, but I've never gotten around to it. Maybe 2022 is the year!

[@spellandshield]

It is important to note that for DECADES, the default D&D campaign setting was Greyhawk and the world of Oerth; over time its popularity was supplanted by Forgotten Realms and there are all sorts of interesting reasons for this but Faerun as a default setting it a pretty new thing all things considered.

[@jovandjuric9694]

Where can we learn of these reasons ?

[@spellandshield]

@@jovandjuric9694 Well, I do plan on making a video about it on my channel, however, the extremely condensed version is; Greyhawk is dreary and Forgotten Realms is not with the added bonus that most of the great D&D novels were in fact published in a Forgotten Realms context. Think of the Avatar Triology, the many novels with Drizzt, etc. Very, very terse version of it but there is a lot more.

[@mikeblackmore8573]

@@jovandjuric9694 the world of greyhawk had a timeline that didn’t work well going forward and the popularity of books by Ed greenwood and r.a Salvatore were set in d&d but the works of faerun. Just made a transition……I believe the same thing is happening with exandria and the popularity of critical role, but I may be wrong

[@jamesfinch6684]

I don't know about pretty new. 1993ish is when I got into AD&D and it was pretty much Faerun at that point.

[@spellandshield]

@@mikeblackmore8573 It was the books mostly. Also Greyhawk never gave you that feeling of being a "hero"; ever play the Empire of Iuz; you cannot be a hero in that scenario, hence my claim, Greyhawk is drearier, the gods are more distant. Sure, Pelor is probably a more benign deity than say Lathander but he is more more distant as well and then the books.

[@Shikao87]

I didn't know Troika released only three games, but I know all of them

[@theheavymetalhillbilly7152]

I remember trying to do an evil party and having the quest to kill that priest of St Cuthbert...that guy was insane..I don't think I ever killed that guy with all my party alive

[@cheezeofages]

I remember a weird glitch in this game where if you killed a prince with a certain holy bastard sword and used it you'd just randomly one shot enemies way over your party level. lol I cheesed the final boss with it.

[@salahmoharram6136]

4:49 i hope im not too rude but it's pronounced vin-yet. Comes from the word "vine" for some reason. Anyway love your content! I really just watch to get your takes even if i don't bother playing the game :)

[@sbonventure]

Great review and right on the money really. What really sets this game apart, for me, is how faithfully it executes the D&D ruleset in a more entertaining and mechanically interesting way that any other game I've seen so far. For authentic D&D gameplay, based very faithfully on a great D&D module, that isn't clunky or a gross abstraction, this is a great game. It's one of those games that brings real D&D to life. Thanks for a great review. You're absolutely right, though, not a game for the CRPG light hearted crowd, but worth the investment for those who really enjoy the genre, especially if you like D&D.

[@DedicatedAngler]

Missed out on this one back in the day, picked it up during lock down and was absolutely blown away! Whilst the stories not the strongest, party management and progression are spot on. I have never played a single player game that has emulated the feel of a table top RPG so intimately. With no friends available this is as good at its gets IMO. 8/10. Gold standard RPG - needs mod to fix

[@jaigerwinters288]

When i first played this game there was no big lair of secrets or walk throughs to use. It was me and my 0 knowledge of dnd and it's lore. From dying on the first encounter to using my rogue to steal from a giant and then come back with his items to kill him it was a masterpiece of a game. A god himself joined me on one of the boss fights to fight another god, it was wild.. and it seems every single other person had different interactions or options available. Also, my paladin took a walk on a dock with a female npc and fell from grace... hand holding is evil apparently. Didn't it also come with a cookie recipe?

[@adseri]

6:24 yeah, it's from good old times where paladins were supposed to be paragons of virtues - knights of the round table style white knights. Abstinence from sins, preserving purity for your beloved until you manage to prove yourself worthy of her and so on. And it's not that you fall for everything but there are many things, like you mentioned, lying - dishonourable, participating in a drinking contest or a tavern brawls - not quite viruous. Killing a random pesant or cooperating with evil does qualify for it too. It's not the modern style paladin who is basically a spellcasting warrior and as long as you don't kill more than 3 innocents per day you will be fine. On the other hand, if you fall and go into a church you can take an extra quest for absolution if I remember correctly.

[@Mr.Verethron]

I have no idea how I finished this game at the age of 13. I had only played BG1 at the time and I didn't even know good english so I ignored most of the quests. Somehow, I found my way into the temple and I got fucked multiple times and I mean MULTIPLE times... I didn't even know how most of the spells worked and somehow, with brute force and trial and error I did it. It felt quite the achievement at the time and now it resides in my memories as a nightmare. I came into this video to cleanse myself and see it again from another perspective so it stops haunting me. In later years I became a fan of 3.5e, I was a player for a decade and DM in multiple occasions and now I think I'll try it one more time with all the knowledge I have gained through those years.

[@jedrzejszymanski542]

when you click shift all your cleric spells change to dealing damage or cure wounds depends on your aligment

[@MortismalGaming]

Correct, that's the clerics ability to spontaneously case cure/inflict spells

[@dallaspark9100]

I ran the ran the module two years ago for my players and now when ever I play this game it brings back all the good memories with my friends

[@MichaelKerr71]

I remember I found this game at a Game Stop store on sale for a great price years ago. I still have my old computer set aside so I can play it and other older CD games I have. Works great and never have had any problems like I see other people have with it.

[@PaladinLarec]

I beat the game once, after many crashes. I beat it another time when the CO8 patches were out and remember fighting a white dragon as an optional boss in the mod. However, after Temple+ came out, the game finally became what it was meant to. A true complete D&D game that is peerless and perfect. I still play it.

[@KarlWinterling]

Are you familiar with Dungeons of Naheulbeuk? It's a turn-based tactics dungeon crawl game that doesn't have roleplaying but it makes fun of tabletop RPGs and CRPGs.

[@matthehazard6986]

If you are on the fence about the circular menu system in ToEE then I would check out the menu system in the original Neverwinter Nights. It is a radial menu system implemented a lot better than this one. Basically instead of using words they use icons which are always oriented correctly.

[@Tattersail]

i'm amazed how beautiful ToEE still looks.

[@Luchiop]

I used to play this game at launch so much. I didn´t understand 80% of the rules and just tried stuff and I got my ass kicked so many times. never managed to beat it. Now I understand the system and will go back to it, but I remember that the game was really, really fun if you just tried stuff and never played or cared about d&d.

[@olivegarchy6540]

You didn't mention the best thing about this game: the breakdowns of all the rolls and mechanics you could ever want. That manual you mentioned? It's baked into the game itself, and the hyperlink system makes it ridiculously convenient. This should be standard for every single cRPG going forward.

[@larsenwright3133]

Thanks for the review!!!

[@jocelynrizz500]

I could have never expected my knowledge of 3.5 to ever help me out I almost HAVE to buy it now that I learned about it

[@BrianHartman]

I played the original module back in the 80s, and I played the computer game back in 2003. I just got it from GOG a couple of days ago, and my first impression was ... it's amazing how far video games have come. For me, the most frustrating part is moving the party around. Even if you have a marching order, they don't follow that when you move the party. So you'll try to get them across a bridge, and one or two of the characters will just *refuse* to cross it. Or a monster will attack, either the monster or one of your characters will be behind a wall or a closed door, so you can't see what's happening. I actually don't think the story is bad. It stays true to how I played the module. But the movement and combat make the game hard to play.

[@emmathepony1992]

ive been waiting months for this review !! this is one of my favourite CRPGs ever and think its criminally underrated ... as for your hard to recommend , i generally agree but you can carry over knowledge from this game into the 2 pathfinder games or solasta and BG3 , which is what ive done i love the radial menu btw :)

[@alexblades5218]

The critical hit animations are still some of the best ever for a turn based rpg- unarmed was a bicycle kick and the other melee weapons were so meaty when those big damage numbers popped up it was awesome

[@justingraves1291]

3.5 is a little rule heavy, understatement, it weeds the week out. 3.5 OGL 4 life

[@ducky36F]

Now this is a deep cut :p

[@bravalloy]

This round menu is found on Pool of Radiance 2 as well. Loved this game, it is just somewhat hardcore. I like a lot 3.5 D&D rules, actually applied to both Pool of Radiance 2 and Icewind Dale 2. It is a lot easier than "older" RPGs like Dark Sun or Ultima 7-8.

[@Bananahammock681]

I picked this up as a teenager who knew nothing about D&D. I played through it a ton, trying to do everything in play throughs that I could to get as much EXP, as was trained in me at that point playing games in general. At times I had guest party members turn on me and had no clue why, again knew nothing of D&D, just wanted to play cool game. I still know barely anything about D&D, but I still loved this game. I pretty much brute forced myself through it to the end. And this was playing it without the Circle of Eight mod, I didn't have any way of knowing about that, I wasn't part of any forums back then or anything. It was just me, my game and backache from hours of sitting in a chair.

[@bestintheworld4850]

I remember creating a cahotic evil party on this game and starting razing a village, my character was bored because the killing of innocents was a common thing for him. Good times.

[@2shobu]

I just picked this up again. Really enjoying it again.

[@Ragmon1]

IMO the best D&D video game ever made. It follows the rules of the game very closely (unlike other D&D games where is always a mix of the rules and something the developers came up with). Characters are memorable, story is simple and to the point (unlike most RPG where you forget most of it by the end). There for it has high replay-ability (tons of choices, ways to plays, group composition...). Helps if you played any D&D before, and it helps a LOT if you played D&D 3 and/or 3.5 before. Oh and the game looks good for its age.

[@welcome_to_the_own_zone]

Great game. Still holds up well.

[@arborstone6546]

I hope you truly enjoyed it. I was a blast I actually went and played it again about 4 years ago and it was still fantastic.

[@generaldemon]

There's a terrific mod, using circle of eight, that remakes B1: Keep on the Borderlands. You can switch back and fourth between the two at the launch menu.

[@boytype]

Have not checked this game out since launch, and it was in fact pretty jacked up at that point. I might check it out now that the community has given it the Unofficial Patch treatment! The only edition of D&D I spent more time with than 3.5 was probably ADnD 2E!

[@YanChose]

Having played the tabletop campaign, that game used to be my go-to when I wanted to play a dnd crpg, until I discovered Pathfinder. I couldnt wait to kill Rannos and Gremag !

[@mikeg5039]

Tower of time reminds me of this game. Stoked for their new game

[@SkaterKing101]

I loved this game growing up. Currently settling with baldurs gate games to get the same feeling. If this was on steam, id buy it again. Sadly I dont use cds anymore.

[@tommyakesson8858]

Oh man. I played this on release. I made a list of bugs. It was 2 pages long.... Just bugs I found myself. Sure. Some I understood could go undetected. Like wearing a certain helmet made the game crash when exiting the Dungeon a certain way. But how the heck did fireballs damage be what im guessing was d2s instead of d6? Or how could my minimaxed ranger with maxed out gear and with evil outsiders as class enemy not land a single hit on the balor? Over like 5 reloads... so even nat 20s missed... Actually. The only way I could defeat the balor (since I couldny hit it) was useing ALL my spellslots for magic missile (incl meta-feats so higher slots too) and then finish it of with 2 wands. Wands of magic missile ofc... So it was quite insane that I even bothered to finish it. But that speaks to the games qualities as well. What was good was great. The only thing I missed when I layer picked it up on GOG was a hotkey for 5 feet move

[@chrismyco7950]

Love this game by far the best implementation of the D&D 3.0/3.5 ruleset in a CRPG. You should play the with CO8 mod and the Temple+ mod. If you are familiar with pathfinder you will understand 90% of the rules for this game. Easily in my top 10 CRPG's of all time.

[@DCUOMultiverse]

Long Speard or PoleArms with Attack of Opportunity were deadly in this game. Especially if you have feats that give you extra attacks of opportunities. ;)

[@okagisama]

Your review honestly made me want to try this one. Will have to go back to my gog.

[@redictu333]

This gem blew my mind back in the day. I think I was about 10 or 12 years old. I didn't know the ruleset or didn't even know enough English to understand anything. But i liked it so much that i still credit this game for actually teaching me English:))) I have played it numerous times since then. Few things dindn't mentioned in the video: The game still looks great, timeless in that regard. And the modern look of the ui, an the music is so uniqe it stills feels fresh today. If the story was better, we would be talking about toee3 instead of bg3. I think it could have been that good. I love this game so much, so many memories...

[@Flayne009]

Easily one of the best D&D video games. This is a classic that rivals Baldur's Gate 1 and 2.

[@BAJF93]

I finished this game once as I was younger. To this day I have no idea how. I tried to play it once more a couple years later. I couldn't get into it.

[@user-xh2yg4uv9q]

Still a great game which faithfully follows the original module.

[@KuhoinX]

I like how TOEE allows you to charm bosses and the charm effect in the game lasts for days! So it is not impossible to lead an army of enemy bosses to fight other bosses. Feels like a new cult leader lol

[@Toshiro_Mifune]

epic stuff. pools of radiance: ruins of myth drannor next!

[@asw654]

In fairness, while 3.5 is indeed rules-heavy, it's the predecessor of the Pathfinder v1 system (sometimes affectionately called 3.75), which only streamlined some of the rules while still being extremely heavy itself. If you take that into account, then your game knowledge of 3.5 can be useful for the new pathfinder games (Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous).

[@brianjohnson5272]

My beef with ToEE was I had a 1.0 and a glitch didn't let you pick up items and it capped you at lvl 10. Other than that it was very good especially the item creation system which is almost perfect for DnD. This really needs a rebuild into pf 1,2 and 5E with no level cap and you could play it forever.

[@thegray0]

it really makes me sad so many people unaware of this gem

[@jackharrow7147]

"vignette" is actually pronounced "vin-yet" great review though, I played the shit out this buggy game when I was 13 but I never got any mods for it so I think you've convinced me to revisit it sometime soon

[@Mrfatpepper]

I had no idea I already had this on GOG lol Imma play it!

[@karlklein2263]

I've been curious about these games. 3.5 ed was when I started playing dnd, and as I understand these are based on 3 or 3.5

[@MortismalGaming]

This one is 3.5 yeah

[@evolgenius1150]

Lol that intro battle. I can totally hear Twighlight Force - Battle of Arcane Might playing in the back of my mind whike i watch it

[@Murat807]

Great info here. I was wondering what resolution are you playing the game? The characters look too small to my eyes.

[@MortismalGaming]

1080 I think? I don't remember, I usually try to see as much as possible, characters being small doesn't bother me much

[@darkholyPL]

Wait it used 3.5? I thought it was just 3.0, but it's been a while since I've played it.

[@MortismalGaming]

It was going to use 3.0 but 3.5 released while it was in development and it was updated to use 3.5 before it released

[@darkholyPL]

@@MortismalGaming Oh I see. Makes sense.

[@DCUOMultiverse]

There was more then just the time crunch. They had some pretty HUGE last minute changes that they had to do at the very last minute.

[@FelixGaunt]

Really this game really shouldn't be played without the Temple of Eight and TemplePlus Mod Packs, they truly elevate the game and playing without them is doing oneself a disservice.

[@DeimosDarkness]

I loved this when it first came out, even with the bugs. I may have my original CD so I'm going to give this another go with the unofficial patches and mods! ☺️

[@fallout3600]

I miss this game alot. I still have the disks but they won't install past disk 1. Others I miss are Harbinger and Nox.

[@NachozMan]

It's incredibly hard to find people talking about this game, which is a shame with how much Arcanum and Vampire bloodlines is brought up. Honestly one of my favorite DND games hands down, it has better combat than Baldur's gate 1/2 which I think does a good job at picking up where the lack of complex story lacks.

[@jamesmaclennan4525]

One great exploit was that if you re-diced 18 times for stats you essentially got to pick your stats

[@Amardarial]

This game suffered from the Publisher who had the D&D license at the time, rushing the game, banning patches, and eventually even sued Trokia and killed the company outright. The dark ages of D&D games, were only AAA companies could fight against the publisher and finish a game.

[@loki5123]

I always remember my Bastard sword focus chaotic good warrior with power attack and greater cleave kill everything in reach with Scather in one round :-D. Or sorcerer + mage fireball madness. Once I even kill Iuz.

[@grimecase8818]

One of the best rpg games ever

[@brendonlantz5972]

It was actually the first crpg I played. Not going to lie, it kicked my ass but I liked it. I enjoyed the atmosphere and options of the game.

[@tyr8338]

I remember playing this game like 20 years ago and loving it but it was some strange demo or something because it was only 5 hours long or so and for all this time I thought it was full game, just now I checked that this full game is something like 50 hours long to complete? I will buy this after I`m done with icewind dale then.

[@JohnnyTightIips]

I remember wanting to like this game back on CD-ROM, but it just wasn't BG1 or BG2. Have you played Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor?

[@MortismalGaming]

Not yet, I'll probably get to the goldbox stuff at some point though