Is Book II Easy or Hard??

[IJBall]

Perhaps Book II is more challenging than you expected because you played it expecting an identical experience as you got from Book I... ?

I never said that. I'm just listing the ways that Book II is more challenging/difficult than Book I. Of course, Book II also has more features than Book I, so...

[arcaliea]

It's fairly challenging, which is 'just right' for me. Eschalon's appeal is the gameplay, not the story, so it would have been boring if it was too easy. The Taurax were difficult, but that's fine too.

I do think there should have been more magic user enemies, and more differentiated enemies in general. The big beetles with stunning ability was nice.

[RasterOps]

I know (believe?) PowerGamers think its easy but I am starting my seventh character and still haven't entered the mines. I believe there are balance issues and buffs may be too powerful making the game easy when learned by the average player (me).

So I voted for 2nd from top. Make a few changes and its just right.

[Buckets]

I'm playing a straight fighter and I found that all the creatures encountered were of the correct difficulty level for my character except the dwarves. They were way too easy. Perhaps it was because of the great armor I had by then, but they just couldn't do any damage to me in melee combat. I'll be interested to see how I feel about them when I play as another class. Perhaps they are just too easy for that point in the game for all classes. What do other's think?

[xolotl]

I found playing a Book II mage to be easier than playing a Book I mage, but I'm not complaining. :) The enhanced mana regeneration rate is wonderful in Book II (more than one MP per turn, once your stats are right). I'd definitely recommend keeping that kind of ability in place, as constantly running out of MPs (especially when casting high-level spells) can get kind of frustrating.

[PhilosophiX]

I'm playing a mage. I've been developing her magic skills of course, but apart from that I've got dodge almost at 20, cleave at 10, no armor skill (hoping to find a book for light armor). Between dodge, the chamelion spell, some hide in shadows learnt from a book, the cats eyes spell and predator sight spell - well lets just say you wouldn't want to meet her in the dark. I gave her a lot of strength so she can carry things around, then put used finnesse mode so she usually does some damage every time dodge trips up a foe. This helps me use mana strategicly although I have bought enough alchemy and forraging knowledge to keep myself in potions. And anything too hard I can just blow up from a distance... Perks of being a mage

So I have to say I like the difficulty setting. The first character I was playing with I had to bin because I botched thngs up by learning too many peripheral skills at the start. So second time I started focusing on Elemental, dodge, and cleaving with character II and bought all the rest of her skills.

Being able to fail makes it more rewarding when you build a powerful character. And I like playing it with the extra difficulty.

[110kaakeli]

Book II is way too easy if playing as a mage. First playthrough and didn't have any trouble at all. I don't think that I had to use potions before encountering the big bad(=small and puny) taurax general. Could have used haste potions couple times if I hadn't had haste spell.

And the equipment I was using! Cartography amulet till I got to the island, meditation cloak which I think I found home I used all the way to the end. And what is with the magic equipments? There is so few different kinds! For example belts: Light belt +2medicine and heavy belt +2STR. I didn't find anything else. It would be so easy to come up with different magic items but for some reason the game only have few of those. Kind of takes the fun out of the game when shop have 5 exactly same magic hats for sale.

Sorry. Book I and II are great games although they are a bit unsuprising and boring.

[corwin]

If you plan well and know what you want, the game is fairly easy. If you just barge ahead, you could severely mess yourself up.

[Asgard The Elder]

It all depende which set of rules you play by. Personally I have had a blast trying several characters with varying skill sets and various difficulty levels.
The next poll should be "Did You Get Your Moneys Worth"?
Think about how much you pay going out for a movie these days and you don't even get to clober the bad guys. Somewhere close to $10.00 per hour for me. And if the movie sux, ouch.
Applying a small bit of the same logic to this game Paid $25.00, Played first game in 28 hours which is about $.90 per hour. Very resonable entertainment. Not being satisfied with just one romp through Eschalon and its environs, I have just completed my fourth. At about 28 hours per romp that gives about 112 hours of entertainment which lowers my cost to a paltry $.22 per hour an I am not done yet. Talk about value or bang for the buck! Did your get your moneys worth? You also should factor the time spent here in the game forum into the equation. Talking about ENTERTAINMENT! WOW.

[ManusDei]

I play with all of the rules on, and I'm having a bit of difficulty.

I voted that, but for me it's just perfect (It wouldn't do without challenge).

[SpottedShroom]

Playing as a pure mage I find things pretty easy. With high MP regen (2/turn currently) and the right spells, you can basically ignore major parts of the game.

Create food + Draw water = ignore the food and drink rule
Reveal map = ignore the cartography skill
Dense nimbus + attack spells = ignore armor, weapons, and repair skill
Lock melt = ignore pick lock skill
Divine heal = ignore having to rest to recover HP
Gravedigger's flame + cat's eyes = ignore torches, day/night cycle

And unlike bow and thrown weapon specialists, you don't have to worry about ammo.

The game isn't necessarily TOO easy as a mage, but it's much harder as a fighter, rogue, or ranger. It would be nice if there were some things those build types could do better than a mage.

[stone]

just finished first game tonight..

overall about right.. I went slow with a ranger with magic and hide and sneak skills and did not have a really really hard time as I worked quest and knocking off beasties to get xp and level up..

I did think some areas of book1 were harder due to shear numbers of different beasties attacking at the same time. Talushorn would have been very hard had their been more bulls and other varied beasties... was really expecting more bulls to fight even given they are supposed to be gathering elsewhere for invasion..

I had collected a good supply of demon oil to deal with crowd control as I did in book 1 -- did not need this much fire brew as only place it was great fun and helped me was killing off the room full of stalks.. like burning down a forest...

the spearman were quite a pain with their extreme accurate long range throws --

weirdest thing in game was lava walking...

I expected the mire trolls to be harder.

nearly died once or twice by borehead due to stunning - had to run away and keep distance.. never like just being stuck and pounded

I tend to use compress atmosphere too much

liked using bows in book 2 ... repair and foraging such allow high skill archer to make arrows..

will now load a save near end and see how the general deals with soulpiercing arrows from an invisible assasin

[niek]

I just finished my first game as a true mago too, and found it a bit too easy. the dwarven mine was pretty much a cakewalk for me, but otherwise it did built nicely throughout the game. If I remember correctly only the Taurax Spearmen really gave me a somewhat tough time, but Dense Nimbus usually protected me enough. Oh and the zombies at the Necromancer altar were a hassle too.

Or maybe my strategy, going for lots of points in Meditation soon in the game, just worked really well!

I think I'll try a fighter to see if I get more of a challenge.

[avv]

Played the game with hardcore and it was way too easy. First few attempts I had some problems because of mislocated skill points so I made third char and powerbuilded it. In the begining I just collected money for forage 10 and forage rings, and skillpoints for mercantile then started to farm reagents. Farmed reagents, bought the best equipment and had never short of money. After that there was basically nothing that was challenging except inventory management and trying to cope with slow travelling. Some items are really heavy and inventory gets filled very fast.

[SpottedShroom]

Merchant does seem to be a legit build strategy, but I think most people don't play that way because they find it less fun than killing baddies and taking their stuff. I haven't tried it myself yet, but I imagine it wouldn't be any easier than, say, a high-perception mage build.

That said, I wonder what the most efficient merchant build is? You've got a choice of forage, create food, repair, or alchemy to create value, plus the option of investing in the merchant skill to maximize your returns.