Gameplay Notes – Eschalon: Book II

Walkthrough

We wrote this walkthrough using version 1.05.

Quest walkthroughs only contain information relevant to the quest. For more information about each location, please refer to our Location guides.

Characters

With enough points in Perception, you won’t need the Spot Hidden or Meditation skills.

A Cartography skill of 7 is enough to make maps look good.

Encumbrance will probably be an issue for you much more in Book II than it was in Book I, so be sure to put some points into Strength (+4 pounds per point) or Concentration (+2 pounds per point).

You’ll meet skill trainers for Alchemy, Bludgeoning Weapons, Bows, Cartography, Cleaving Weapons, Divination, Elemental, Foraging, Hide in Shadows, Move Silently, Pick Locks, Repair, Swords, and Thrown Weapons. Most of these trainers are located in or under Port Kuudad, so it’s a good idea to get into that city as quickly as possible. The skill trainers are listed below.

You can find skill books for all skills except Meditation, Repair, and Thrown Weapons.

The new Foraging skill is very useful. It will save you money on food, and it will provide you with more than enough ingredients. With 12 points in the skill, you’ll be able to find all ingredients.

The new Repair skill is also useful, but only 1 or 2 points are needed early in the game.

You’ll reach Level 22-23 by the end of the game.

Fighters:

• Strength and Speed affect damage for melee weapons. Dexterity and Concentration affect tohit for melee weapons.
• Although it might sound strange, we’d recommend not putting any points into the Shields skill. That’s mostly because of Encumbrance (all of the good shields are very heavy), but also because of how Torches use your shield hand, and because of the weight limit for spell casting. As an alternative, you might want to try out the Dodge skill.
• The various melee weapons have pluses and minuses — Cleaving Weapons, for example, do the most damage but have a crummy feat — so you can pick the weapon type you like the most.

Rangers:

• Dexterity and Concentration affect damage and tohit for bows.
• With even 1 point in the Mercantile skill, basic Arrows will only cost 1 gp instead of 2 gp.
• You’ll probably have trouble finding / affording enough arrows early in the game, so be sure to have a backup plan. We’d recommend using piercing weapons, since they’re affected by Dexterity like bows.
• You can’t use a Torch when you fire a bow, so it’s a good idea to add Divination or Elemental magic (or both) quickly. That way you’ll be able to cast Cat’s Eyes / Predator Sight / Gravedigger’s Flame and see better in the dark.
• The bow feat will give you a huge boost to your combat capabilities (since it can’t miss and will do 3x damage). So even though there’s a Bows trainer, we’d recommend ignoring her and adding points to your Bows skill as quickly as possible to get to skill level 10. One trick for this is to put 5 points into Bows at character creation, and leave 2 skill points unspent. Then you can put 5 more points into Bows at level 2.
• Windy weather will reduce your accuracy.

Casters:

• Perception is the best attribute for casters since it increases Mana, Mana Regen, and Magic Resistance. That means there isn’t any reason to focus on Divination or Elemental magic alone. You might as well learn both.
• If you’re planning on casting both types of magic, then you should select Magick User as your class during character creation. That way, Intelligence will affect your starting Mana Points and also the Mana Points you receive when leveling up. If you select Healer as your class instead, then Intelligence will affect your starting Mana Points, but Wisdom will affect the Mana Points you receive when leveling up.
• While Intelligence (for Magick Users) and Wisdom (for Healers) will affect your Mana Points when leveling up, Perception is twice as effective for that, and so you should only raise Intelligence and Wisdom high enough so you can learn the spells you want. Also, your current (not base) Intelligence and Wisdom are used for learning spells, so if you have equipment like the Philosopher’s Pendant or a Warlock’s Hat, then you can get away with lower scores.
• Rainy weather will reduce the damage of fire spells.

Skill Trainers

Listed below are the seven skill trainers in the game, plus the skills that they teach:

• Becka (Excelsior Elixirs and Alchemy Supplies, Port Kuudad): Alchemy
• Gilgamen (Gilgamen’s Ironworks, Durnore Region): Repair
• Hunter (Fletcher’s Grove, Wolfenwood): Bows, Foraging, Thrown Weapons
• Luci (The Darkest Arts Magick Supplies, Port Kuudad): Divination, Elemental
• Sonya (Sonya’s House of Pain II, Port Kuudad): Bludgeoning Weapons, Cleaving Weapons, Swords
• Ned (Port Authority, Port Kuudad): Cartography
• Zeblin (Thieves’ Arcadia, Port Kuudad): Hide in Shadows, Move Silently, Pick Locks

Equipment

If an item becomes so damaged that it breaks, then it will disappear from the game. So be careful with your equipment, and especially your weapons if you need to bash things. The game will warn you if a weapon is about to break.

Equipment is more difficult to identify in Book II than it was in Book I (among other things, Lore rings are only +2 now rather than +6). If you want to maximize the money that you make, then you’ll need to identify objects yourself rather than rely on shopkeepers. Lore rings will help you early in the game, but from mid-game on we’d recommend using the Lore spell rather than wasting several points on the Lore skill.

Be sure to camp long enough to repair the equipment that you find before selling it.

To kill an ethereal creature — for example, a dwarven spirit — you’ll need a weapon that deals bonus damage or bonus magick damage. Or a spell.

Each weapon or piece of armor can have at most three enchantments. If you try to add a fourth, then you’ll destroy the item.

Miscellaneous

NPCs won’t care if you steal Torches or loot barrels.

You should always switch to power combat mode when you’re going to make an attack that is guaranteed to hit. This includes when using a weapon feat and when bashing an object.

With the Foraging skill, you’ll create a bag of ingredients each time you camp. If you leave at least one item in the bag, then the bag will stay there forever. So you can create storage centers for your character anywhere you can camp.

Many enemies can’t see in the dark, so it’s a good idea to learn spells like Cat’s Eyes or Predator Sight. That way if you fight underground or at night, you won’t take a penalty, but your enemies will suffer -20% or -50% tohit.

There is no time limit in the game, so you can camp as much as you want.

Even if you’re using the “fixed loot” rule, there are places where saving and loading can still help you. The game only decides if an enemy (like an Outlander) is going to drop loot when you first attack it, so you can save beforehand to guarantee loot. Gold coin chests are random regardless of your rule choices, so you can save before opening them to guarantee a good result.

If you walk on lava, then your boots and leggings will take damage even if you don’t.