"Suddenly a gate slams down and traps you in the room and then a whole bunch of undead appear out of nowhere and murder you."
- DM Narration, Delera's Tomb. (unused first draft, probably)
Over the years Dungeons & Dragons Online has had something of a reputation for being not very solo-friendly. By this I'm not referring to content that requires a group to complete - though that does exist - but to instances that are somewhere between hard and impossible for certain classes or builds. That's not unusual in older MMOs but up until recently I hadn't encountered any, and then I walked into the first quest of Delera's Tomb.
I've wondered in the past how classes manage when they don't have the same level of skill as my Rogue in picking locks and detecting and dismantling traps. In this quest these skills were of little use and instead, after the third close range ambush in as many rooms, I started wondering how a class that wasn't optimised for this level of intense melee combat could possibly get through it.
I checked the level of the quest - 5, so actually 1 below my current level. I checked the challenge - normal. I reread the quest log to ensure that I hadn't walked unwittingly into a group instance - no mention of that either. I switched to an alternate set of weapons that didn't rely on poison, seeing as undead are immune to that damage type - it didn't help.
I did consider dropping the quest. It's not as if I had any lack of other things to do as there's far more content here than one character will see on the way to max level - but before I walked away I did want to see if there was any other approach I could take that might see me through it, and I found one in a system I hadn't used at all up to that point.
Hirelings are NPC adventurers who will join a character for a limited amount of time and can be obtained via contracts which can be purchased in much the same way as arrows, healing potions or any other consumable. They are stronger than the companions in Neverwinter but not so much so that they overshadow the player character. They also have wider skillsets - I didn't need my Drow Cleric to detect traps for me, but it was nice to know that she could. They can also be directed to interact with objects in the dungeons and so are more flexible than the typical combat-only companion of most MMOs.
The AI is fine - by which I mean they react to enemies in the right ways and don't get lost. With a hireling at my side - and a summon monster spell for even more support - I was able to return to the tomb and battle my way through fights that up until then had been insurmountable.
There's a wide range of available hirelings and each contract lasts for sixty minutes, which is enough to complete most instances. It's a great option to have available as it opens up the possibilty of completing quests where I absolutely can't go it alone.
Comments
Post a Comment