The Fate of Daggerdale

The Fate of Daggerdale is a very good module. The module was mostly linear and the areas were standard fare, but that as close to a negative as I can say about this module. 

The author clearly worked hard on this module. The story is well thought out and the story continues to drive the module. The areas and quests were just the right size, none were too big or to long in this story. As the author mentions checking your Journal is critical in this module.  

Most of the battles were scaled correctly, though some were a bit easy.  I did love the variety of NPC's and creatures in this module.  Though the option for many henchmen existed, I only kept one throughout the game  for my Paladin and that seemed to be just the right combination.  I loved the idea for the Final Battle, it was creative and took a little bit of maneuvering to solve!

There were plenty of traps but only a couple of puzzles, of which one I had to go to the readme for.

I played with 1.69 and did not come across any bugs in the module.  I played solo with a 5th Level Dwarven Paladin.

Its a good module and I am going to give it an 8.

This module starts out very exceptional. However, slowly as one goes on through the module, it slightly falls apart. The plot is very good, and I liked it for as long as I decided to play the module.

I played a rogue.

Since I'm a rogue, my damage output is low. There was an area in Castle Daggerdale where I drew the final straw and decided to rage quit. It was an area where you fall into a pit trap. At the bottom is a troll, and the troll simply was impossible to defeat with my level 7 rogue. I'd do 5-7 damage with my +1 shortsword, and he'd immediately regenerate. I even went and bought a dexterity potion, two haste potions, and a bull's strength potion to try to defeat him, but to no avail. This trap wouldn't be as big a problem I'm making it out to be, if your companions actually followed you DOWN into the trap! No, instead they stay behind, and you're left to kill whatever creatures are at the bottom of the trap.

I played with 1 companion, and I realize I can get more, but the companion A.I. while playing with more than 1 is bugged. This is because the companion wheel will only show for 1 companion *only*. If you have more than one companion, don't expect to be able to manually control the others or even look in their inventories unless you manually talk to them out of combat. But this still doesn't fix the problem of being able to control them while *in* combat.

The amount of loot you get is greatly balanced. I always felt like I was getting a nice amount of loot, but without getting too much for it to feel ridiculous.

The use of the Ochre Jelly was also extremely annoying as a rogue. I had to go and spend 4000 gold, of my 15000, to buy a shortbow +1 and ice arrows just for a measly 94 experience. Once again, this is another example of bad balancing.

The 3 boulders you encounter in the Dagger Falls Catacombs made me want to pull my hair out. My companion refused to help me attack one of the boulders, barring my way into the next area. Since, as a rogue, my damage output was so low - especially at this point - doing 1-2 damage (IF I WAS LUCKY), it took me nearly 20 minutes to destroy one boulder.

However, as of continuing to write this review, I switched to having two companions and am now thoroughly enjoying the module more. Personally, there's a lot to enjoy about this module, and there's a reason why it's a Hall of Fame module. It's way better than a lot of modules I've played so far. I'd actually very much recommend this module to people. It's very good despite its flaws that can sometimes make it frustrating to play.

A good, solid module that takes place in the Forgotten Realms setting. My only real complaint is that henchman interaction was very bland. Other than that, it was good. Though some of the fights (especially early on) were way too easy.

One NPC dialogue line was pretty hilarious. It went like this:

"May the willy of Lathander be with you."

Stated by Lenny the Loon, the village lunatic as the PC was passing by. He only said it once though as far as I know. Needless to say, I got a kick out of that one. XD

As far as a vote, I would probably give this a 7 or an 8. I am not sure yet which one, so will refrain from casting my vote until I decide. Minus 1-2 stars for the companions (both bland interactions and bugged party system as others have already stated), and minus half a star for the too easy battles at the beginning (though less henchman would have likely solved that).

Good, riveting story (though perhaps not earth-shattering), no annoying bugs, game-stopping or otherwise, not even minor ones, as well as decent writing and dialogue overall. I enjoyed all the lore that was given in the books at the Dagger Falls Hall of Lore and Calderon's Library. A nice bonus to help pull one into the setting.

Amazing module in almost every aspect, I had tons of fun playing it!! Very balanced for a fighter-type class starting at lvl 4 (for solo play with no henchmen),detailed areas, VERY interesting story for how long the whole adventure was, it had RP options and skill rolls, event scripts like rescue and escort NPCs, and quest update triggers worked flawlessly, it had everything!! 

The start was relatively linear with only a few options for your course of actions, but every limitation was story/logic explained, and your advance options changed later on, as the story progressed. (which shifted my 9/10 to a 10/10)

Two things that the creator mentions and people might wanna invest a couple of points on, would be Spot, and Appraise (I started with no gear and 5400 gold at 4 level, according to the https://www.dndarchive.com/forums/depth-roleplay-qa/character-wealth-level 3.5 Ed, and I had a tough time buying the stuff I wanted from the majority of merchants, at the start of the module) 

Yeah, henchman system is not so great, especially with tons of petrifiers in the game.But story and all is great.

Almost a 10 star module, but due to some shortcomings I have deducted a star! The use of map pins was somewhat arbitrary, good placement in some areas, nothing in others. Lots of caves with nothing really going on. Virtually all bodies were shown as if they had something on them, but never did. All chests were trapped and locked, even if they had virtually nothing in them. When performing rescues, the person(s) had to be walked back carefully to town each time. No way to use the Temple recall doohickey. Finding the vampire(s) coffins was not easy, and the Cormanthyrian Dvining Stone was pretty much useless. When you fish it out and use it, all it says is "The coffin is in the Bloodstone Crypts", or similar. Useless, as yes, that is where we are, but where exactly is it? 

Plus side, great to have up to three henchies at once, that can all be outfitted as you would like. Only the first one can be talked to at a time, and given commands, or have items given to them, so you need to talk using the radial menu, ask them to show their inventory, and then scroll through them as you can. Not a big deal and all the ones I chose could stand on their own two feet. One thing in regard to the comment above about the helpers: you can command the top one to stay put, and the others will follow suit. That makes it easy to avoid the Gorgons and other petrifiers in certain areas.

The gear that was available in this adventure was not great, but I had some I brought with me so that helped a lot. Very nice areas and storyline to help things along, and all seemed to work. You will need to refer to the DM Guide at some point, due to the complexity and obtuse use of certain keys and Gates and such. But all allowed for a fine finish, and all quests were recognized and awarded! Great work, ddraigcymraeg!

QA:
- escort missions are evil.. and there are 5+ of them here. While author states that the recall stone does not work with them.. but console command "dm_jumptopoint" does! ;)
- Aisha is missing an arm
- Many buildings have 2 entries leading to 1 door inside or have messed up door-door connections (Dagger Falls Garrison HQ, Temple of Lathander, Drindells, Specialty goods)
- Drindell's upstairs and Dagger Falls Garrison HQ can be entered prematurely, same with several other locations. Just need pick locks or bash the locked doors
- generally if you do things out of order the module tends to break plot-wise (for example killing some hostile noble guards in the home nearest to starting point starts Drindell's quest VERY prematurely
- Henchmen get petrified, while there are not anti-petrification stone to flesh spells anywhere (spawn them with console folks ##dm_spawnitem X1_IT_SPARSCR604) Moreover when hench dies while petrified he is gone forever.
- henchmen forget they were asked to not pick traps or unlock doors.. probably after dying once?
- some encounters spawn behind you
- sawhorse placeable in Dagger Falls asks for axe (neither hand nor battle axe works) It's probably leftover of crafting system?
- Some corpses at Deep Catacombs are named "orc champion" while they are kobold and 2 humans visually
- Calderon does not give any divining stones?
- what is the purpose of pieces of Ironwood scattered? (found 3 so far) Leftover of crafting?
- Statues at Dagger Hills and statue of Lolth (one of the Eagle's Eyrie catacombs?) turn hostile
- Hafur Straides is mute
- Infinite rings of lore. After selling you will be given another on game loading
- Khalid is missing small portrait
- Gwath's sarcophagus is already destroyed when I get to her haunted plane
- Sterling (Monk? at inn) never helps with anything
- Northern Dagger Hills are is not used and it's exits lead to wrong places. It can't be entered without cheats though.

TYPOS:
"Drindells" (missing ' ) - Councillor Cantha
"the whole of Dagger Falls is behind you" (I think it si missing "the fate of".. - Councillor Cantha or maybe Jameson?

So far one of my favorites, played it before hotu, No issues, good story, good transitions, importables on characters all working (mostly basic build gear), Very good! would definately recomend, I would say better the either sou and, hotu for sure, as it's a complete story unlike sou and isn't just a cheap shot to take your gains from previous stories like hotu. An arc my main character will keep, as a volume of his adventures! Good work

My views are very similar to the last few reviews for this module.

I'll be recommending this to my friends coming back to NWN :)

Hello. I can't get this to work. I am playing EE through Steam. When I start the module, I pick my character, it loads and then exits the programme. Have i installed the files in the correct directories? Some installation instructions would be great. Thanks

IMO the story is just a bit above average, there are a lot of repetive encounters and backtracking with a refugee on the heels is a pita. But actually on can make a good use of the recall stone. After picking up a refugee, use the recall stone. The refugee is left behind. Jump back. Now walk the victim home. To reach the point where you were before, just use the temple portal again.

The worst: There is a situation where the PC has to follow a zombie over at least 10 tiles until the creature will open the door ... 10 tiles in zombie speed ... well the best is to get a mug of coffee meanwhile.

I begrudgingly finished this module even though it was very frustrating at times. The story is okay but the gameplay just sucks. So many empty chests and clickable corpses with nothing on them, most of the enemies drop nothing, and there is very little in the way of loot and good gear. Towards the end when you finally have access to good gear you have very little money to spend on anything because the loot is so sparse throughout the whole game. I guess you can make money gambling in town? Or just sell the ring of lore you get over and over. The henchman add nothing to the story and the interface with them is terrible, you can only tell one of them what do to at a time and most of the time they are buggy and just stand there not helping. One of my henchmam ended up with some kind of permanent movement speed decrease that wouldn't go away no matter what I did so I had to ditch him. Like other reviews have mentioned the petrifying gaze is so annoying because there are no scrolls or items to cure it and it will just kill you henchmen permanently, plus no items to increase you fortitude against it. Lots of places hard to find even with the help from your journal. Overall if you have played some of the better quality modules on here I would skip this one as it will pale in comparision.

Playing this module for the first time and I love it, but I'm stuck. I've crossed the bridge into Bloodstone and now have nowhere to go. I killed all enemies in the outdoor area of Bloodstone and  cleared out the crypt. Now there is nowhere to go. My notes talk about the "dungeons of Bloodstone" but there is no entrance to a dungeon here. How do I get to Bloodstone dungeons? Where do I go?