Hi there

I'm kind of an old fan of CRPGs, started with Baldur's Gate and played a bunch of them. I decided to try ToEE, I bought it aeons ago but heard it was a buggy hot mess, so avoided it until now that Temple+ and Co8 make it a pretty good game

I made a party, a balanced one I thought, but died outside the Moathouse. Made another one, same experience. I've played D&D3.5 at the table for a decade, I know how to build a character and a functioning party, but no matter what I do those fracking frogs just annihilate me

I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, maybe I'm just very unlucky with dice rolls (not a big news, since I've probably rolled twice above 15 with d20s in 23 years of TTRPGs), but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask the pros for some help

Is there a guide about how to start the game the right way?

Thank you in advance for your help and time

I guess the first question is when are you hitting the Moathouse?

You can pretty much gain a level just running all the fetch quests in Hommlet and close to another level with the Co8 Welkwood Bog area which will certainly help survivability at the Moathouse.

I tend to run partys with both a Wizard and Druid in them so I can maximize the advantage of spells like Entangle and Web to keep the nasty things far away and use ranged weapons. My tank will usually finish the job once I get a Ring of Freedom.

However some times you need to just restart the combat so that your Wizard or Druid gets an opportunity to cast a spell. I find that bad initiative rolls can really start a combat on a total losing streak. If you think the Moathouse frogs are nasty wait until you meet up with the Behemoth King Frog at Imeryds Run.

Game Banshee has a walkthrough that can help.

https://www.gamebanshee.com/templeofelementalevil/walkthrough.php

The game gets easier if you take your time rolling for very good starting stats instead of balanced stats.

Ha ha, I'm not the only one! I just started this and I am getting destroyed. I made 2 characters and picked 3 from the pre-made ones and decided to go and do the Deklo spiders quest. They killed me within 2 rounds. 2 rounds! I played it a few times and still the same. Once the spiders are on me they take my guys out with one shot. I can't even hit them.

So, I go off then and try and do the fetch quests, I did one ok but can't seem to progress any of the others. Have a quick look and apparently I have to intimidate or bluff my way though the dialogue options. I don't have any cues for that so I am stuck here too. I decide then to try the main quest. Surely the main quest because it is mandatory won't be too hard. Wrong! I came across the frogs on the way to the moathouse and they are actually worse than the spiders. As big as they are, I never can hit them. They hit me alright and kill me with one hit. What the hell can I do?

I just want to say too that I played this before and it wasn't this hard. I don't remember it being this hard before. I played it right up until the end I think. I definitely got really far into the Temple. I do have the patches and Co8 patch too though so that might be new. But it is a struggle. I don't want to sit down and keep rolling for good stats and min/max my party but that seems to be the only way to progress. Pity.

Did you have any more success with your party?

I went with an all custom party and yes did keep rolling until at least the characters maxed their stats for their primary roles. Party consists of a Bard, Wizard, Druid, Cleric, and Fighter. I did all of the Hommlet fetch quests that did not involve any of my characters having to get married. Use the Game Banshee walk through for assistance with that. When I played the game originally I don't think I even had dial up internet. So been there done that.

One item that will assist with the Hommlet quests is a Black Dress that provides big bonus stats to talking skills. My Bard is female and I am not sure if you can cross dress and get the bonuses. Also I am not sure when this was added to ToEE it might have come in through Co8. See Co8 URL down below.

With regards to fights you will notice that I run a magic heavy party. I am especially fond of spells that hold critters in place such as Entangle, Web or Grease. I also run a party heavy on ranged combat. Yes I think under Co8 combat has gotten harder but ranged weapon ammunition seems to be more available.

Deklo Grove was tough. Mostly due to the fact that significant chunks of my party were flat footed and lost initiative. Also my squishys tended to be right up front which was not good. So I needed to play with the party formation a lot and restart the combats from a save until one of the magic users was free to cast.

I also built up some experience fighting undead in Emriddy Meadows before taking on the Giant. Also don't bother with Terjon's bauble until your cleric is more undead deadly.

Also make sure you do Welkwood Bog before the Moathouse. I think I was level 3 or nearly so having done Hommlet quests and Welkwood prior to the Moathouse. For the Frogs just lead with your tank and keep the squishies in the back so they can immobilize the frogs.

That said I still think the hardest battle is the opening act of Imeryds Run. Many restarts required on that one before the above tactics could be put into play.


https://co8.org/community/threads/game-guide-walkthrough-for-the-circle-of-eight-modpack-new-content-edition.8742/

Like the others have said:
- don't use point-buy to create characters but roll for them
- make extensive use of crowd controling spells like sleep, grease, web, entangle, stinking cloud, etc.
- use positioning

This game is intended to be hard. Save often and don't overwrite old saves.

Tasha's Hiddeous Laughter is a great spell to immobilise fighter type enemies. (bards can cast it at char level 2)

Later on when you can craft magic items you can make your party much more powerful. Just craft whatever you can make and sell it to the right vendor (*) This way you can trade xp for cash to craft more powerful items for your party. This is why I prefer all my characters you have some magical skill.

(*) The right vendor means one who would normally sell such an item. For example when selling a set of chainmail armor the tailor will give you half the price the blacksmith would offer and the leather worker would pay twice as much for a leather armor compared to the tailor or blacksmith.