Maze Master: Destiny personified

Even with over 6000 XP, this still happens.

I've settled into a gameplay loop.

1. Enter the maze and cast Cat's Eye.
2. Explore and map an unexplored portion of it.
3. Return when I run out of mana or if anyone dies - often after just one fight.
4. Restore any dead characters.
5. Update the codes of the survivors.

 

Leveling up is strange. There are no 'levels' per se, but for every 1024XP earned, you improve a little bit. One of your core stats (Str/Int/Dex) is randomly picked to go up a point, but if it's already at 18, you're out of luck. Constitution, which functions as your maximum HP here, always go up, usually by multiple points, and maxes out at 255. Fighters get a bit better at combat. Wizards never get any better at combat, but gain one additional spell point per 'level'. Right now, my wizards have 7 SP each, which lets them cast Cat's Eye, one moderate damage spell, and one major damage spell per trip between the two of them. Just another 2048XP, and they'll be able to cast Cat's Eye, one moderate damage spell, and two major damage spells per trip!

The result is kind of an inverse power curve. You improve at a linear rate, but the XP requirements are flat. Deeper dungeons have tougher monsters and bigger groups of them, so as you gain enough power to take them on, the number of fights it takes to level up gets smaller, not bigger. On dungeon level 2, I'm earning an average of 80XP per character per fight, compared to 20XP when I started exploring level 1.

Bigger groups also mean more chances of someone getting killed in the first round. If a group of seven pirates - not even an especially tough monster type - gets to go first, there's a chance that someone will get hit twice and die, or get hit with a critical blow and die. And there's nothing you can do to mitigate this except to keep your sessions brief (which I am) or to cast AC-reducing spells ahead of time, which seem prohibitively expensive for how little they do. One such spell effectively makes the wizard casting it useless for the rest of the session.

Another reason to keep sessions brief is that the longer you stay in the dungeon, the more you risk encountering a wandering monster, which is bad because it can trigger a bug that deletes the stairs to return home. At least this doesn't happen much if you always keep moving.

If someone dies, this isn't a big deal, unlike Wizardry. "Restoring" characters is free; you just create a new one and enter their last code (which is why you always note their updated code when returning to town). It's also more efficient to farm XP this way; when there are two survivors, XP per-character is doubled, and when there is only one survivor, the XP reward is quadrupled. One time, a group of six trolls flattened Fred and Jin instantly, but Houdini countered with a firestorm spell, earning him 560XP.

And if you suffer a total party kill, just restore all of your characters and avoid that part of the map until you're stronger.

In combat, Maze Master provides a much smaller variety of spells than Wizardry, but has given me little reason to use anything but group-damaging spells. The fighter hits hard, but can only kill one monster per turn. Big groups of monsters, as mentioned, can do lethal damage to a healthy party in a single round. Armor-boosting spells may provide some protection, but you know what else does? Just killing the whole group with a firestorm spell or two. Monsters never do anything but hit anyway, and they never resist damage spells. Maybe this will change later on, when my party is strong enough to withstand an initial round of melee combat, and the monsters are strong enough to survive an initial volley of offensive magic, but for now it seems pointless.

As I publish this, I've mapped out the first two levels and am halfway done mapping out the third. Everyone has over 8000 XP, and the gameplay loop hasn't changed much, but now the wizards have enough SP that we can cast Shadow Shield (-2 party AC for the session, non-cumulative) ahead of time and have enough left over to squeeze off two firestorm spells, provided we live long enough. Shadow Shield doesn't do a lot, but it's the only way to be proactive against surprise attacks. Fred can hit twice per round now, and equipment upgrades are few and far between, as gold rewards don't scale at the same rate that XP does.

The tougher monsters on level 2 still have a good chance of killing someone, especially the Ogre Magi, who seem to hit very hard and accurately relative to their XP worth. Fire Dragons are lucrative targets, awarding 140XP per character if you kill a group of four. I wish it were more. Combats on level 3 give about 150XP on average, but the tough ones are usually total party kills - which I don't mind, as I'm still making progress mapping it out, and it does not take long to restore the party and walk back down to it.

 

Level 1 map:

Gold XP Base A Kobolds 14 4 B Thieves 16 4 C Goblins 18 4 D Scavengers 18 4 E Dwarves 22 4 F Rogues 24 4 G Skeletons 26 4 H Warriors 30 4 I Pirates 32 8 J Zombies 32 8 K Bladesmen 34 8 L Berserkers 40 8 M Wolves 34 12 N Orcs 36 12 O Lurkers 38 12 P Ogres 40 16 Q Clue R Stairs up S Stairs down

 

Level 2 map:

Gold XP Base A Rogues 24 4 B Warriors 30 4 C Pirates 32 8 D Zombies 32 8 E Bladesmen 34 8 F Berserkers 40 8 G Wolves 34 12 H Orcs 36 12 I Lurkers 38 12 J Ogres 40 16 K Werewolves 48 16 L Maze Shadows 50 16 M Trolls 44 20 N Ogre Magi 54 20 O Stone Giants 56 24 P Fire Dragons 60 28 Q Clue R Stairs up S Stairs down