query about solar dreams and WoP structuring

[DavidW]

Here's something about WoP I've been mulling over for a while, and (now that ToF is just beginning to approach stable, albeit many bugs left to squash) I'm starting to think about.

Vanilla ToB has a very clear stylized framework. You kill one of the Five, you get a dream sequence. WoP disrupts this: after you kill the last of the Five, you miss out on a dream, but get a clue that sends you back to the elven grove. You have a fairly minor combat encounter, then you get the prophecy that reveals that Melissan is planning to usurp Bhaal. That triggers the last dream.

Feedback on WoP suggests that this is thematically awkward: it breaks the structure to not have a fifth dream when you kill Bhaalspawn #5, and the battle in the grove is anticlimactic. I'm sympathetic to that criticism. I toyed with a sixth dream sequence, but it's awkward resource-wise, not least because every dream sequence is tied to a challenge and there are only five challenges.

My inclination is to revert to the original structure and roll WoP's content into the fifth dream sequence. But I thought I'd see what people thought first!

[Angel]

I personally like the structure as it is, especially since I usually don't kill Balthazar anyway, so the dream coming after making him a permanent ally makes sense to me.

[Morgoth]

12 hours ago, DavidW said:

My inclination is to revert to the original structure and roll WoP's content into the fifth dream sequence. But I thought I'd see what people thought first!

I agree with this. Revert the change.

The issue I have, personally, is that the whole encounter is not interesting enough.

What I mean is that it's okay to be ambushed for the nth time, but if for once, there were some allies that know that you are a rising power and could offer you some help there, even a Solar, the scene would probably turn more interesting than just being the nth time you got to kill something just to progress the story.

I already killed everyone in the oasis, spare me the nth killings.