Hidden Tradition 5

I remember this old setting! I loved playing in this module back years ago when I first chanced upon it on the old Vault. Actually, a LOT of stuff from this module inspired some of the work I ended up doing in my Knights of the Holy Grail module, especially the Gnostic sub-plots and things like that. I also had a lot of inspiration from playing Tales of Celts too. Ah, the memories! But yeah, I redownloaded this module and gave it another play... good fun, great nostalgia!!! :)

A huge undertaking with many different quests in different lands. Lots of varied monsters and allies. Almost too many henchies that you run into in lots of places. Hard to outfit them although some come with okay but minimal gear. There is not a lot of stuff dropped in combat and some of the stores are not really a good fit for an advanced PC to find useful things.

There are absolutely NO Heal potions or regen items of any kind, so you need to rest when you can and use Healing Kits liberally. This module would have been a good one for Stones of Recall, but perhaps with the different lands it would have been tough to do. The henchman interface was good, with the ability to equip your buddy as best you can. I would suggest coming into the module with regen, immunity to Mind effect gear and better weapons than the +3 that you eventually get to have.

Play this one, but expect to spend many hours of fun adventuring!

Hold up, after testing this out I bit, I found that pretty much all the content in All Things Are Lights 1 by the same auithor is included in this module as the initial/beginner areas. Yes, there is some changes, mostly aesthetic, and encounter spawns, but everything's mostly the same for these.

On top of the ATAL1 content, the author then added many original regions consisting of several areas each, plus continuations to the plot of ATAL1 and a lot more main/side quests!

This is basically All Things Are Lights series completed under a different name for multiplayer/PW (but can still be solo'ed) . I suggest adding Hidden Tradition 5 under related projects to ATAL1 and vice versa so players are aware Hidden Tradition 5 basically builds off ATAL1.

TL;DR : overall i'd give this about a 6.5/10. interesting concept with lots of places to go, but could use additional material and polish. some bugs, several of them quest-breaking.

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i started this module with a first-level druid. as it turned out there was really very little geared toward druids, and lots of challenges a druid can't address well [traps, locks, identify, ...] and no items available to bridge the gap. i quit at 6th level and restarted with a 1st-level rogue, building to cleric/rogue which i took through 17th level. this character was more successful, but still suffered from many of the same drawbacks as the first one.

the most fundamental problem with this module is that treasure is niggardly. item drops are almost non-existant during the first dozen levels or so, and many of the items that do drop are flagged so you can't sell them. typical treasure is usually around 10-20gp, with maybe a gem here and there and the occasional potion.

while money is scarce, shops are expensive. there are a few shops with some decent items suitable for the lower levels, but the useful items were all so expensive i wasn't able to buy more than a couple of them. this is the first mod i've ever run in 15 years of playing nwn where, at level 12, i still had blanks on my equipment slots and over half my quickslots were empty.

as this is a low-magic world, there are very few items -- dropped or sold -- more powerful than +2. there's also no perma-haste, no regen, and no permanent immunity to mind spells or death effects. personally i like this, but these choices may not be to everyone's taste.

combats are a mixed bag ; some encounters scale reasonably well through the lower levels, but many do not, so area x, for example, is appropriate for levels 1-4 while area y is more for levels 6-8. although there are quite a few quests and xp awards tend to be robust, i had to go back to previously cleared areas many times to grind [treasure doesn't respawn, but encounters do], because after finishing the various quests i could do, i still didn't have enough xp to level up to a point where i'd survive more difficult areas and there simply aren't enough quests to level up otherwise. finally, there are some well-developed dungeons where encounters scale more/less well through the mid teens or so, until the end boss, which is often CR 40+...

there are henchmen available and they seem to run the standard bioware hench a/i, but with special death mechanics. although they level when hired, they don't level up with the pc afterwards, and they're destroyed and respawned in their original locations when dismissed. this makes it a pain to level your hench, as you have to travel back to point of origin, take all your inventory back, fire your hench, and re-hire.

the module is pretty big; there are lots of areas to explore. however, quite a few areas are unfinished [missing doors, unpopulated, etc.]. those that are finished i thought were quite well designed.

for all its size, there isn't really as much of an over-arcing epic story so much as several small, unrelated quests. the characterisation of the various factions is well-done, and adds a lot to the ambiance. there are many ways you can manage your character's alignment should it go astray [which it likely will] and conversations taking this and other socialising factors into acct are in good character. dialogues were technically well-written, if not extraordinarily inspiring.

for me, the best part of the module was the ambiance. i found the concept of an 'alternative earth' with fantasy creatures in a similar history to be interesting and entertaining. there were many elements of alternative world history and a well-conceived society with well-established social interactions. it's obvious the developer[s] gave background a lot of thought.

it's hard to give a precise recommendation on this one. playing this mod as a one-shot, i think any 1st-level solo character would have the same problems i did regardless of class. playing this one-shot with a party would increase survival chances, but money would be that much more scarce. maybe starting with a completely self-sufficient damage-dealer lvl.12+, well-equipped, with lots of gold... but then there's still the problem of encounter scaling, which would leave you bored running a character this high most of the time. the alternative would be running the module as a pw with daily reboots. that would likely solve the money issue, but you'd still end up grinding quite a bit if you want to level, and redoing the same quests over and over doesn't seem all that thrilling to me.


BUGS  [spoilers hidden -- highlight to show]
- igor doesn't give boxes if you choose to explore a bit, but he takes the contract anyway [quest-breaking]
- key 'Pilgrims Cave Key' it_pilgrimscavek to plot-locked door isn't provided anywhere [quest-breaking]
- can't get farmer bouillon's quest if already offered to buy an ox [quest-breaking]
- jerusalem watch captain doesn't recognise letter to ogre mage [quest-breaking]
- plot key 'amulet of thievery' [amuletofthievery] to plot-locked door never given anywhere
- key 'Lomendel's Front Door Key' [it_LomFrontKey] to plot-locked door never given anywhere
- key it_RachelsRoomKey [rachelskey] to plot-locked door never given anywhere
- east tower key given but no doors on any east towers anywhere
- transitions within areas don't jump henchmen with pc
- rd to bethlehem - broken trans [gate to nowhere]
- faction bugs with guards at pilgrims' rest
- faction bugs with watchmen in jerusalem
- dwarf captives in svirfneblin lair - invalid exit waypoint
- elvish grove quest journal doesn't close
- dwarven mine quest journal doesn't close
- idun's apple quest journal doesn't close
- implementation of climbing rope, while well-intentioned, doesn't work correctly
- doors close automatically without anyone to close them
- henchmen don't level up
- when henchmen are dismissed, they don't just go back to where they were; they're destroyed and respawned