Beginners Guide
From Grimoire : Heralds of the Winged Exemplar Wiki
Contents
General Gameplay Tips
- Keep up the "Detect Secret" spell at all times to discover secrets. This way you won't miss hidden buttons, illusion walls and secrets for which you need to use the 'Look' action of a character.
- In addition, having a party member with a high Scouting skill will allow you to spot Safe Haven spots, where you can rest without being attacked.
- Run into a locked door three times and an option to force the door open appears.
- To select an action for a character, instead of using the arrow buttons underneath their action button, you can also Right Click on that button and select an action (much faster).
- To see the stats of an item or weapon, select 'Assay' on the character who has the highest Assay skill and drag that item ON that character's button. You can get a description of an item by selecting 'Look' instead and draggin the item on the character's button.
- It is recommended to turn off smooth movement and smooth turning in configuration by choosing the "2.5D" option instead. This will remove the graphical glitch when turning left or right and it will make autowalking very fast.
- Autowalking on a map: Use the "Set path -> Pathfinder -> Exit & Walk" functionality in the map menu (F3 key) to speed-up your travel.
- Resurrecting a dead character reduces their Constitution by 10 points each time. After 10 days, the Resurrecting spell won't work and you need to use the 'Raise Dead' spell instead.
- You can also 'Raise Dead' the bones of people you find.
- Put at least a couple points into swimming - that way your characters won't drown right away when stepping into a water tile.
- The fastest way to learn climbing is to cast Featherfall and to try climbing again and again. This will increase the climbing skill no matter whether you fall or succeed. (You will need climbing only later on.)
- Most recruitable NPC's have much better stats, eg. Little Rosy in the Briarwoods in the beginning. Each recruitable NPC is paid 100 gold per day. A list of all recruitable NPC's is here (SPOILERS): All Recruitable NPC's
- Important: DISEASE develops over time, causing other conditions to appear and preventing conditions from disappearing over time! Make sure to cure disease quickly, either with potions, spells, or with consumable items (Galen Apples you find when you 'Look' in a bush in the starting areas). The new shrines also heal diseases and other status effects.
- The leeches you sometimes find in the water pools can cure POISON, but inflict some damage while doing so. There are also potions and spells against poison.
- You can turn off random monster encounters completely in configuration, or you can adjust the encounter rate.
- To pick locks on doors and chests you need both the Inspection skill and the Lockpicking skill on the same character.
- Click on the pile of party gold at the bottom to see all the attack stats and currently selected combat actions in one place.
Combat Advice
- In combat, you can keep pressing Enter to speed up the fight.
- In the beginning, some races inflict higher damage without weapons (eg. Drakes, Giants and Saurians have 3D4 unarmed attacks while early weapons have only 1D4). Also make sure to use the special attack abilities that some races have.
- Especially in the beginning, keep the Vitality bar high. Otherwise your armor penetration rate in combat goes down. You can also replenish Vitality in combat by eating consumables or by casting the Refresh spell after you learn it.
- You can target a specific row of enemies with weapons that have a range of larger than 1. For this, either select 'Fight' or 'Spell' again and you will be able to select the row of enemies to target. Or click on the number next to the character portrait - this number shows the row this character is currently targeting.
- You can cast protective spells that affect your whole party even before combat: Armorplate, Enchanted Blade and Magic Screen (You will get these spells as you level up or find spellbooks). Note: These protective spells stacks, so that casting them several times increases the effect. This can become important when dealing with enemies that kill your characters with a single hit.
- Keep in mind: If you cast a spell on the second row, but the enemies in the first row die - then the second rows moves to the first row and the spell hits nothing in the second row.
- Musical instruments can be very powerful, so make sure to have a Bard or Sage in your party to equip and use them. Currently, Bards and Sages need to succesfully use an instrument 16 times to have the Music skill increase by one point (Jesters 21 times). Even when monsters resist the effects of the instrument, it counts as a successful use.
- To use the Lethal Blow skill (instant killing) of some of the melee classes, you need both that skill and a weapon that has the *Lethal* trait. Assay a weapon to check if it says *Lethal* on its stats page.
Comparison of the 5 Starting Areas
| Starting Areas Advantages (SPOILER): |
|---|
"The Shrine" / Briarpatch Woods
Owl Statue --> Leading to Secret Area in Shrine of the Raptor 9 Lore Entries (Thanatos, Gorgon, Scylla, Aurora, Arachne, Atropos, Megaera, Nemesis, Lachesis - Hints for finding the tablets) ID Owl Statue Shrine that heals Disease and other negative Status Effects An Oracle with a limited amount of SuperID improved Identification of Items |
"Sanctuary":
Xenomorph Keycard for Endgame weapon 1000 Free XP (Bringing some characters to Lvl2) Terminal that lets you train “Iron Fist”, “Accuracy”, “Firearms” on all characters to +12 Terminal that reveals the maps for Village of Crowl, Briarwood Forest, Gardens of Midknight Statue to Identify items Ranged Star Gauntlet Weapon with 99 Charges that is helpful in early tough fights |
"Imprisoned" / Crowl Prison:
Moravia Key 1 Hard Chest with 12 Items (Armor, Helmet, Random Weapons, Bow, Arrows) 5 Easy Early Chests with 7 Items Each in The Armory (Arrows, Scrolls, Sword, Axe, Maces, War Axe, Lance...) |
"Wilderness" / Gardens of Midknight:
Key of the Ancients |
"Eerie Wastes":
Skull of Hathor Sogg can be found only here (gives access to Temple of Hathor Sogg and a powerful weapon later on) Difficult starting area You need to survive long enough to get to the teleport which takes you to the Village of Crowl |
Attributes in Grimoire
For more information about the attributes, read this article. This is the currently available information and some educated guesses:
- INT: Intelligence
Intelligence influences how quickly you gain skill points from successful actions, eg. hiding, scouting or using a weapon.
Intelligence may also be important for spellcasters in other ways.
Accroding to the creator: "INT and WIS are used for learning in all kinds of contexts, affects spellcasting and lockpicking, is used in inspection and detect secret, also applied to NPC interaction and negotiation."
The latest experiments show that INT, WIS and WIL have some influence on the success of spell casting, but not too much. The magic skill is the most important part.
- WIS: Wisdom
Wisdom influences how quickly you gain skill points from unsuccessful actions, eg. hiding, scouting or using a weapon.
Wisdom has some influence on the success of spell casting.
- WIL: Willpower
Resistance against mind attacks, maybe some attack bonuses.
Will has some influence on the success of spell casting.
- STR: Strength
How much damage you inflict in an attack.
Carrying capacity of a character (equipped armor and weapons only).
Together with AGI, STR also determines how well you penetrate your enemies' armor.
Determines whether you can force open doors.
- CON: Constitution
Determines the carrying capacity (equipped weapons and armor) and encumberance.
How well a characters deals with diseases and other conditions.
Resurrecting a character decreases CON by 10 points each time.
In Grimoire V2, high CON can lead to automatic increases of resistances.
- SPE: Speed
Who attacks first and additional attacks per round.
One of the most important attributes. In Grimoire V2, spell casters can use magic before fighters if their Speed is high enough.
- AGI: Agility
Dexterity and evasion of attacks.
Together with STR, AGI determines how well you penetrate your enemies' armor.
- FEL: Fellowship (equivalent to charisma)
Recruiting and talking to NPC's.
May have an influence on Music instruments.
- DEV: Devotion (equivalent to faith)
Determines the rate at which skills are improved.
Influences the amount of mana points you get on levelup (this is also influenced by class).
- MET: Metabolism
Determines how quickly HP, mana and vitality are regenerated (these are also influenced by race).
Influences recovery from various conditions.
- DES: Destiny (luck, karma or both)
Can save from death in fights, "Destiny intervened".
On each success, one point of DES is removed, similar to the "9 lives of a cat".
ATTRIBUTE ADVICE
For fighters: SPD/STR/AGI are the most important ones. CON and MET shouldn't be too low. DES is optional.
For spellcasters: SPD is most important. With enough speed, spellcasters can now use magic even before melee fighters. DEV for more mana and INT/WIS/WIL have some influence on spellcasting as well. CON and MET shouldn't be too low. DES is optional.
INT and WIS also have an influence on things like Assaying and Lockpicking. So the Sage, Bard or Thief needs relatively high numbers there.
Music instruments may be relying on FEL. The diplomat in the party also needs FEL.
Armor Class Types (NAC, TAC, etc.)
NAC: Natural Armor Class BAC: Basic Armor Class CAC: Class Armor Class (?) IAC: Item Armor Class. MAC: Magical Armor Class (?) TAC: Total Armor Class
Resistances
AIR: Air CAU: Caustic (Acid) COL: Cold DEA: Death EAR: Earth FIR: Fire GAL: Galvanic (Electricity) HYP: Hypnosis LUM: Luma (light) MEN: Mental MES: Mesmeric SON: Sonic SOR: Sorcery SYS: System TOX: Toxin
Lockpicking
- When opening chests, the Inspection skill determines whether or not you will set off the trap when clicking on the outside tabs. With a high enough Inspection skill you get a number. If not you set off the trap.
- When opening chests, the Lockpicking skill determines whether the trap will go off if you click an incorrect sequence of wires.
- Opening door locks is straight forward: 1) The Inspection skill determines how many letters you see, 2) The Lockpicking skill determines how many chances you get. (The number of stars below the puzzle tells you how many chances you have.)
- Also, you can force open doors if your strength is high enough. Run into a locked door three times and an option to force the door open appears.
Good Race and Class combinations
Let's look at the basic attribute points of each race first:
- Saurians are strong and fast, but gain skill points through use much slower than others due to being the by far stupidest race. You can counteract that by picking a Saurian Berserker, which gets extra skill points on level up due to the bonus multiplier. Also, Saurians have the lowest number of total attribute points along with the Aeorb, making these two probably not such great choices for multiclassing.
- Humans and Drows (Elves) have the slowest mana regeneration, so they can only be good for non-spell casting professions.
- Wolfin have the lowest WIL (important for spell casting in some way), but good DEV for bigger mana pool. And they even have claw attacks for the early fights. Fastest mana regeneration.
- Barrowers have average WIL and DEV, but no claw attacks. Also fastest mana regenaration.
- Drake, Feyfolk and Naga have the highest natural armor class (NAC). The question is how important it is to have those 10-20 extra points. As you get better gear, NAC definitely loses importance.
- For multiclassing, the total number of attribute points may be something to look at, since you cannot go lower than the racial minimum on attributes when you are back at Level 1. The Naga and Durendil have the highest total number of attribute points (440), making them pretty good choices for multiclassing, but both have armor restrictions - the Naga cannot wear pants and the Durendil need special gear for their race, which is not easy to find.
- The Naga also have the highest SPD and AGI - especially speed is very important for striking first and for more attacks per round.
You also have to keep in mind the bonus multipliers for more skill points on level up and more bonus points at creation (which you can put into extra hitpoints, attribute points or skill points):
- For Assassins and Pirates the Rhattu have the by far best bonus points - and those two classes have some special skills that definitely benefit from more skill points (until you max them out). Have claw attacks.
- Sages also have a lot of useful skills (Assaying, Music, Ancient History, etc.), so that the fantastic 2.0x multiplier of the Aeorb may be worth taking them for that class. To counter the Aeorb squishiness, you can put the 2.0x bonus points in the beginning into their HP and then they gain twice as many skill points on each level up. But the Aeorb are also super-slow, which is a big minus.
- If you want a Metalsmith, then the Drake seems to be an obvious choice. Have claw attacks and fire breath (and high natural armor class) - excellent in the beginning.
- Despite the fastest mana regeneration for Barrowers and Wolvin, a Barrower Sage is a bad combination and Wolfin Bard is a bad combination regarding extra skill points on level up and extra points when creating a character.
- The Giant is only good for melee classes (except Assassin). Enormous STR and CON, but relatively slow. So if you create a Giant Warrior with 1.5x bonus points, you can put those into SPD in the beginning to counter that. Giants have quite a lot of HP anyway.
- If you want a Necromancer for their excellent spells, the Feyfolk are an obvious choice due to the 1.6x bonus on skill points (which you can use to increase your magic skill much faster). Feyfolk have average DEV and WIL.
- Wolfin Clerics and Barrower Thaumaturge are also obvious choices due to the bonus points and both races having the fastest mana regeneration.
More Tips for Beginners from Crispy
- Use Identify and Improved Identify to greatly increase the chance to ASSAY any ?ITEM?. But you can also left click on that object then left click on one of your character's LOOK icon to get a verbose description of that object. You can also do the same thing with the ASSAY icon to get a (very tiny) box listing that object's in-game stats, if appropriate.
- Before buying an unidentified item from a vendor, you can have them Identify it for you first. This helps when deciding which, for example, spellbooks to buy from them, if any.
- Remember that your Scribe skill has to be sufficient in order to successfully learn a new spell from any spellbook. Of course, it has to be successfully Identified first.
- Also regarding scribing new spells from spellbooks: Often, when you have a vendor Identify a spellbook for you first then you buy it, then attempt to scribe it, if unsuccessful, the message you receive is misleading. it claims you failed to identify ?SPELLBOOK?, but that's not really what's happening. Since it's already been ID'd, you're free to attempt to scribe it, but if your scribe skill still isn't high enough to scribe that particular spell, you'll get that message. I confirmed that spellbooks bought from vendors indeed can successfully be learned.
- If you want to know what a skill does in the game, believe it or not (easy to miss this), just click on the skill name in your character sheet and the small window below gives a full description of it. DOH!
- Related to the above, you're going to discover that a lot of the skills you weren't advancing might be necessary for the success of your character. For example, don't forget to put some points into Evocation if you want to successfully use magic wands! Otherwise, BACKFIRE!
- Want to know what keys do what in the game? Hit F1!
- On the map, there is a small button that you can hold down to reveal where your discovered safe rest areas are. Handy!
- There is a small icon to the right of the inventory bar that represents a single storage spot. This actually represents (I think) the "ground", and is useful if you want to temporarily set something down in order to move it or leave it somewhere or whatever.
- Use the Autowalk feature! On the map, just set the movement point (your destination) first then have autowalk calculate and draw the path. Then just hit the autowalk button to almost instantaneously go there. Beware that you can still run into wandering monsters this way so make sure you're prepared for that possibility.
- If you're stuck in the story and don't know where to turn to next, talking to NPC's can often get you back going again. Without spoiling, remember that there are certain spells that can coax them into doing what you want or telling you what you want to know.
- To buy from and sell items to a vendor, right-click on a character's talk icon, then you can select Buy, Sell, etc. Remember to use whomever in your party has the best Barter skill!
- Don't forget to use the different discovery spells when adventuring, especially in dungeons. Detect Secret is a must-have, and someone with a decent Scout rating is handy, too. There are illusory walls, so keep that in mind as well.
- Spell points regenerate while resting at different rates depending on (I think, someone please confirm) your Devotion attribute. ***UPDATE*** This actually appears to be more related to race. Humans replenish their spell points during rest at a fairly slow pace while certain others do at nearly double the rate. It's up to you to discover which!
- If you want to quickly get through an easy combat and you don't care about the particulars of it, just hold down Enter.
- In combat, sometimes your character will get extra attacks. If they happen to have a secondary weapon equipped, they'll use that one for each and every secondary attack. That's how darts and so forth can come in handy. But remember that your secondary weapon governing skills may not be as good as your primary! Decisions, decisions.
- In combat if you target a group of monsters with a spell or spell-like effect, and that particular group of monsters "moves" up in the order because your frontline fighters wiped out a previous group, that spell will NOT take effect and will instead hit empty air! So you have to choose which group to target carefully taking into consideration the other groups' overall survivability of your fighters' onslaught. I believe this might be a bug, therefore Cleve might fix it such that your spells "track" the group you originally specified, but I kind of like it the way it is.
- Related to the above, if your character is equipped with any secondary weapon, and you give him or her combat orders, the game actually asks you which group to target twice. This is not a bug. Cleve Grimoire wants you to specify which group to target with your primary attack and which group to target with your secondary attack(s). Neat, huh?
- If you're getting poisoned or diseased a lot, which sucks when you're first starting out, you may have to savescum a bit. But there are certain items that you can find that alleviate these conditions, such as a certain type of fruit you can find if you LOOK when standing in front of a bush.
- Be very certain you want to use Raise Dead. This includes the use of scrolls that cast the spell and certain items that will raise a dead character back to life. The problem with it is that every time you successfully raise a dead character, he or she loses 10 points of CON permanently! There's no way to re-gain these CON points except through re-levelling and assigning points to the attribute again. Jeez, Cleve!
