Temple of the Elk vs Old Sycamore

[Beady serpent eyes]

When you enter the Temple of the Elk you get a message saying that while you were there Tartuccio probably had enough time to find his artifact or cause mischief.

What impact does this actually have on the game?

I've read that going if you go Sycamore first then at Temple of the Elk Tristian joins the party, whilst otherwise he would be too injured to immediately join the party. But what am I forgoing in choosing to go Elk first?

There are plenty of threads on Ancient Tomb vs Thorn Ford, but I couldn't find any explaining the Elk vs Sycamore choice.

[TheGodlike]

Not absolutely sure but I think you can recruit one of the 2 characters that went with Tartuccio at the start. The dwarf and the undead. You meet Tartuccio at the ruins and have a short interaction and fight.

[Gregorovitch]

I did the Elk Temple first at L2. That seemed fine. Then went to Sycamore and flipped L3 doing preliminary explorations. Game was whining at me I might lose track of Tartuccio at Elk but I think the game whines at you whatever you do since you won't be doing something else. I don't think it makes any appeciable difference which one you do first.

I would say it makes sense to do the Elk Temple forst becasue it's a small area, you get Tristian and a bunch of XP helping you to L3, and it's definitely completable at L2 whereas Sycamore def isn't. Sycamore is collossal. My guess is exploring maybe 1/2-3/4 of Sycamore topside will flip you to L3 for sure after Elk and completing the dungeons will then get you to L4. It a 2/3 trip area, loot galore.

[sigmabody]

The one long-term effect I've noticed (through two different play-throughs, due to kingdom death spiral after hidden BP expense issue) is that it determines if Tristian will be roughly half a level ahead or half a level behind the rest of your characters for the rest of the game.

If you want to use him, I strongly suggest you get him first, so he won't be underleveled. There's a kingdom project to equalize his level to your party (costs 100 BP), but it doesn't work (bugged); I did it twice to confirm.

Admittedly, the longer-term effect might be unintentional (due to a few of the numerous bugs; Tristian's spell selection is also broken, and has been since release), but there is a significant long-term effect of this choice.

[Kain Yusanagi]

Originally posted by sigmabody:

The one long-term effect I've noticed (through two different play-throughs, due to kingdom death spiral after hidden BP expense issue) is that it determines if Tristian will be roughly half a level ahead or half a level behind the rest of your characters for the rest of the game.

If you want to use him, I strongly suggest you get him first, so he won't be underleveled. There's a kingdom project to equalize his level to your party (costs 100 BP), but it doesn't work (bugged); I did it twice to confirm.

Admittedly, the longer-term effect might be unintentional (due to a few of the numerous bugs; Tristian's spell selection is also broken, and has been since release), but there is a significant long-term effect of this choice.

How is his spell selection broken, exactly?

This is separate from his bugged Domains, right?

[ShroudedInLight]

So, I had to reset backwards because I did this part wrong.

Aside from the intial group that joins you at the start, Tartucio has 2 companions with him. If you head straight to the crypt, you can make a really easy diplomacy check to lure one of those companions to your side.

If you do not head to the crypt initially, they will be gone and mercenaries will be left behind. You will not be able to recruit any of them, leaving you down a man.

Tristan can be recruited as a companion provided you do not complete Old Sycamore before you visit the temple of the Elk. Doing that means you waited too long and he's too injured to help you. On the flip side, going through Old Scyamore recruits you another of Tart's companions who will not join you if you waited to go there last.

I am unsure what happens if you go to the bandit camp, then the tomb. You might not get the chance to recruit one of Tart's companions.

[Celestial Tesla]

Originally posted by Cousin Okri:

So, I had to reset backwards because I did this part wrong.

Aside from the intial group that joins you at the start, Tartucio has 2 companions with him. If you head straight to the crypt, you can make a really easy diplomacy check to lure one of those companions to your side.

If you do not head to the crypt initially, they will be gone and mercenaries will be left behind. You will not be able to recruit any of them, leaving you down a man.

Tristan can be recruited as a companion provided you do not complete Old Sycamore before you visit the temple of the Elk. Doing that means you waited too long and he's too injured to help you. On the flip side, going through Old Scyamore recruits you another of Tart's companions who will not join you if you waited to go there last.

I am unsure what happens if you go to the bandit camp, then the tomb. You might not get the chance to recruit one of Tart's companions.

If you go to the temple of elk first, you still end up getting the other character in chapter 2 right? Or if you want to actually have tristian for chapter 1 do you have to permanently miss out on a character?

[Locklave]

Going after him second ends the ENTIRE Old Sycamore chain. Not sure what happens to those companions with him, stopped testing that save after seeing that.

Doors are grown over, Kobolds/Mites gone/dead. No entry to the caves anywhere. Animals are everywhere.

[Iry]

Is there ANY negative to doing Old Sycamore first besides Tristian taking a nap until Chapter 2?

[Locklave]

Originally posted by Iry:

Is there ANY negative to doing Old Sycamore first besides Tristian taking a nap until Chapter 2?

No.

[Shahadem]

Yes. There is a LOT of combat. Like a LOT of combat. Too much imo. Makes the whole area a giant boring slog.

[Locklave]

You need the exp/loot from the fighting. Skipping this will cost you levels and magic items.

[Iry]

Originally posted by Shahadem:

Yes. There is a LOT of combat. Like a LOT of combat. Too much imo. Makes the whole area a giant boring slog.

This is an IE-style game. LOTS of combat is almost a trademark. There is such a thing as too much combat (looking at you IWD2) but Kingmaker doesn't come close to that.

Not to mention, D&D itself is the bastard child of tactical wargaming.

[Locklave]

^^

Years of D&D and I can say it's 90% fighting. Some of us remember it fondly thinking of those few moments of real rp while forgetting that was 15minutes and the dungeon was 5 hours.

[OnlyOffensive]

he finds artifact regardless of what you do. I went thorn fjord and after recieving warning about tartuccio completed ancient tomb chain and syncamore.

[Mournechild]

Which do you want:
1. one of the two charecters you didnt get already from the begining of the game?
2. a good aligned cleric with great potential for many builds?

If 1 then go to the ruins
if 2 then go to the elk temple

in the end you get all of them... however, if you recruit tristan before 5k xp he is still lvl 3 and will always be higher level than your party. If you get him after 5k xp he will be lower level than your party until you restart the game or use a game mod in my first game he was almost a full level behind my party at level 4. There is a catch up quest later, but if he is far enough behind the level up quest wont make up the difference.