The dialogue was less interesting, with choices and role-playing options in only a couple of places. It was refreshing to see some NPCs in a Dungeon Master-style game, and I liked the process of adding NPCs to the party. Dungeon Master, with its skill-based leveling, is much better. Race, class, and alignment don't seem to matter at all (the lack of anything for a thief to do is particularly unforgivable), which is really too bad it would have been fun if the encounters with the dwarves or the Drow had gone differently depending who was in the party. More than in other D&D games, the effects of increased hit points and spell points aren't really noticeable. Development is rapid through the first few levels and extremely slow after that, and the only tangible reward from leveling up is access to better spells. As the quest progresses, the story fleshes out a little, with the dwarf expedition, the Drow invasion, the mysterious robed NPC, and the final encounter with Xanathar himself, but none of it is terribly compelling or cohesive. The back story is pretty poor, telling you only that there's a threat (left oddly vague) to Waterdeep and that the Lords want you to solve it. There are no entries on Teirgoh the dwarven king or his son, and the Wand of Slivias appears to have no eponym.Īll right. Piergeiron, one of the Open Lords of Waterdeep (the others' identities are apparently hidden), appears in several novels and references. Shindia Darkeyes, the Drow briefly encountered in the game, is an operative of the Xanathar Thieves' Guild and appears in several sourcebooks. Information about the other Xanathars apparently comes from the City of Splendors: Waterdeep and Cloak & Dagger TSR sourcebooks. The Eye also somehow "secretly aided" the adventuring band in Eye of the Beholder, leading to the death of the game's Xanathar, but I'm confused about the specific timeline or how this aid was delivered. Eventually, a powerful beholder called The Eye murdered this Xanathar and took over his guild and title. The narrative is a bit confused, but another beholder of that name led the Xanathar Thieves' Guild in Skullport.
The Forgotten Realms Wiki says that "Xanathar" was one of several beholders to take that name. I'm not sure why he deliberately killed 3 of his 4 characters, but in any event, I couldn't do it faster in 5 years of trying full-time.įinally, let's talk about the characters. He kills Xanathar the long way, using weapons, instead of going through the trouble to solve the side quests and get the Wand of Slivias. He knows exactly where he's going, takes the most efficient routes possible, fights only when he has to, and maximizes the use of scrolls, wands, and potions. I Googled it, and sure enough, this guy did it in 10 minutes. Its map of Level 12 is close enough to mine.Īt the end of the game, I was convinced that, with my maps and notes in hand, I could win in a speed run of only a couple of hours. After the fact, it was fun to see if I'd missed any major areas (doesn't look like it).Ī bit from the official cluebook. But I wouldn't want to use the hint book for a game in which half the fun is mapping and figuring out puzzles.
One of these days, I might complete a game I don't care about by just following the directions in a hint book or walkthrough-just to report on the experience.
I wonder if we are missing something here!," whereas the third section explicitly tells you, "There is a secret brick on the west wall." In the second section, a number might be clued to a paragraph that reads, "This is a silly place for a dead end. The book is otherwise reasonably well done, consisting of three major sections: indexed maps, broad hints, and specific notes on areas and puzzles. The solutions to these special quests are mostly not found in the game's official cluebook, presented as a package of documents recovered from a Drow spy and sent to the party by the famed wizard Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun.
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