I just got this game a week ago after playing the demo for a bit and I am pleased to say that this game is pure deliciousness in a can! Yes, I realize the game was released in 2009 but whatever.

For those of you hankering for some good turn-based combat, look no further than Knights of the Chalice. The game is heavy on TB combat, light on story. It boils down to you wandering around the landscape, killing baddies, and looting them with an Ultima 7-like perspective. The game is very fluid as far as combat goes. If you're casting an AoE spell, you get a nice reddish shape which shows you the width of the area to be effected. The AI in this game is ridiculously good, I have seen cases where casters were walking out of silenced areas, enemies use haste and other buffs, other enemies using ranged weaponry to wear your characters down before coming in for the kill.

My party so far in this game:

One two-handed weapon fighter with a weapons focus on bows so he can whittle the enemy down before going for the throat.

Another fighter specializing in two weapons fighting with all the related two weapons feats. He is sporting a short sword +2 IIRC and a Doom Dagger (or is it a Holy Dagger...have to check) that does some nice 2D6 damage with its enchantment effect.

One cleric specializing in mostly damage spells like Harm, Slay Living, along with True Resurrection and Mass Cure Critical.

One Wizard who apparently specializes as an arrow magnet because EVERYTHING in this game tries to kill your wizard first and foremost. I mean EVERYTHING! I have seen Black Dragons circle around my party in order to try and get to my wizard. I can't imagine having two of them in one party. I highly recommend that your wizard have the spells Dehydrate, Irresistible Dance, and Mind Blast.

So far I am at level 18, slaughtering the living crap out of Black, White, Blue, and Red Dragons. Green ones tend to be problematic. I still have not managed to get the Enchant Armor and Weapons feat so I am sort of suffering because of that, but the game provides decent enough weapons if you either slaughter Dragons or any enemy described as "high level".

This game is addictive. I spent the last weekend playing the hell out of this game. It definitely has that "one more turn" feeling that will have you playing into he night and morning and then into night again. I heartily recommend this game.

This is like one of those overnight sensations that nobody has heard of before.

Like Beiber.

Looks cool, developer's site is currently down though. Is this a temporary down-age or is the developer now gone for good?

Should be temporary since the dev is in the middle of making a sequel to the game. From a purely capitalist point of view, a sequel wouldn't be in the works if the first game was a sales flop. I'll wager my left kidney that the developer made a nice chunk of change since he (or she) sells the game from their own site and is doing it completely digital with no worries about shipping or boxing the game to stores.

I can't wait for the sequel since there are going to more classes and races to play. The 3 classes, 3 races, 4 party members set up is rather restrictive BUT it does bring back some of that old school feel where the classes were : thief, fighter, cleric, magic-user.

If you can find the latest version (1.27) of the demo, you will notice that the font is much clearer than the previous versions of the game. When the game was first released the developer was using a hard to read font. That has since been changed and that RPS readup shows screens of the old font, which might put off potential players of the game. Just an FYI for you.

That's strange...I just went there on this reccommendation of JudasIscariot and it was working for me, and now I have downloaded the demo and look forward to giving it a spin.
I got it from here:
http://www.heroicfantasygames.com/
Thanks for letting me know about this game JudasIscariot, it looks like it might be a lot of fun :D

Edit: And if you like old school looking and feeling RPG's be sure to try http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/ if you haven't yet...if you are worried about the prices don't, the demos are huge and so you will know if you want it long before you gotta drop down the change. :)

The demo is quite different from the game as the area in the demo is not in the final game. The real game starts out in the tower of the Knights of the Chalice.

The site being down might have been a mySQL burp because I am looking at the site now with no problems.

The actual game is quite crack-a-licious but there are places where you have to be prepared for the long haul between resting. I am currently in some zone involving the Frost Giants that I got teleported to and I have yet to find a campfire (the only way to rest in the game BTW!!! none of that rest anywhere for JOO! ) in the place. Meanwhile I keep bumping into random groups of Frost Giants, some magic using spiders that loved to haste themselves along with greater invisibility. I can't forget about wandering into a lich's haven with about 4 vampires and some mummies in there, that had me scared since I had nothing with Holy damage. Thank God you can scribe scrolls in this game because I am all out of memorized spells.


Regarding Spiderweb: the Geneforge series is quite good if you want a decent combo of story driven RPG along with some turn-based combat. I also like the setting as it seems to be somewhere between fantasy and sci-fi with the whole geneforge thing and all. I tried Avadon and didn't like it as much because it features cooldowns on abilities that are longer than the actual battle itself. Seriously, screw cooldowns in a single-player turn-based RPG. Either give me a mana/stamina bar, action points, or memorized spells but no damned cooldowns, please.

Well, the company that put out this game should pay you, because you are sure doing a great job of making me more interested in it. Sounds like a game that can get you addicted, and forget the dated graphics. The screen shots make me think of the old orginal Kings Bounty game...at least in the looks department, and if it is close to as addicting as that game was for me long ago, then it would be worth the price of addmission for sure..
I agree with you about the Spiderweb games...I love the Geneforge series, and would especially reccomend them as well.
Thanks again for the tip on this game...I'm going to go give it a whirl =)

You want more info from my playthrough?

Let me inform you how this game rolls (both the dice and metaphorically :P)

I was in the Orc Stockade fighting this evil witch/sorceress. This fight was a reload fest for me because there is a troll who walks right up to you and blocks your guys from walking further into the room. Make sure to have your wizard in a good place in the party formation( middle rear) for this fight because it is the best protected place (except for the arrows being shot at the wizard :D) from close-range attacks.

So I am fighting this wizard and her cohorts and getting slaughtered and reloading. I finally manage to confuse her somehow and the damned witch, I swear to God, walks right INTO a brazier, which probably means the game was feeling sorry for me and decided to help me out somehow :D, and ends up killing herself! Keep in mind that she was Confused and not because she was coded by Bethesda XD.

Oh, another point. This game loves to screw with you. For example, as I said before I am in the Frost Giant place/fortress. I encounter a single Iron Golem. "Meh", think to myself. It's just one bloody golem. Then, I scroll up and see...ohhhhh about 7 Forst GIants in a half circle above the iron golem....and most of them were of the magic using variety and they were casting ice shield on themselves along with haste....and they're armed with giant weapons and have about 3 attacks per round.....oh the pain the wonderful pain... :D

I love the descriptions you give. =) It's funny how most new games that come out now from major publishers, are so easy to win...It would be highly refreshing to play a game where even after you have reached level 18 or whatever you can actually still be killed easily if you are not careful and actually thinking. This I think keeps games fun and interesting, and most importantly rewarding, because increasing your characters skills, abilites, and equiptment actually has a real tangible effect on the gameplay. And you acutally feel rewarded for all that hard work by getting a bunch of xp and some enchanted sword or what not. Any game that has witches, golems, and frost giants, deserves to get a look at least in my book. Especially when they have D&D elements as well.
So, I started playing the demo, found a dwarf getting attacked by some hungry lizardmen, I charged to his rescue, but, after just three rounds he was a gonner, proof to me that the game is a challenge indeed. I'll have to restart it now to see what the old crusty guys got to say for himself. :D

This game is like 1987 all over again, and it is beautiful.

If you do get the game, make sure to get the Snake Sword from the Orc Stockade fight. It has a speed enchantment on it that adds an extra attack per round. In the hands of a two weapons fighter it means you get 7 attacks per round. If you get a decent secondary weapon that reduces the penalty rolls to 1 for each hands you can deal out some nasty damage BEFORE hasting. If you do decide to go the two weapons fighting route make sure to get the Two Weapons Defense feat as it makes up for the lack of a shield.

One more thing, this game somehow manages to make sure you don't have "dump stats". For example, most people wouldn't think a decent Charisma for a cleric would make sense until they discover that Charisma is tied into their ability to Turn Undead. Same goes for Knights and Intelligence: you need a minimum of 13 INT to get the whirlwind attack feat. I wouldn't recommend maxing out those stats but it helps knowing the absolute minimum in order to get the good feats and all.

I played the demo of this game when it came out and really enjoyed it; it reminded me of Dark Sun: Shattered Lands, one of my all-time favorite games. It was damn hard, though. I never purchased it, because it seems very likely that I would get frustrated or stuck and never finish the game.

It's not a difficult game on Normal. In my opinion, the game contains enough challenge to keep a player from being frustrated. I usually suck at D&D games because of the qway i build my characters and yet I have managed to make it to level 18 because of the reloading :P

Just take the Scribe Scroll feat and you don't have to worry about running out of memorized spells or resting if you are in a dungeon that you can't get out of easily. Just remember one thing: only Clerics and Wizards can read the scrolls. I tried having a Fighter read a scroll...yeah, ain't happening. Same goes for Wands: only Wizards can use them in thins game.

Is this based on D&D rules, then? A lot of the feats you're describing are D&D feats.