From: jon3@quads.uchicago.edu (Jason Jones)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Minotaur
Summary: lore-beasts rule
Message-ID: <1992Nov17.075007.16544@midway.uchicago.edu>
Date: 17 Nov 92 07:50:07 GMT
References: <micah.721790672@milton> <1992Nov16.030427.14334@monu6.cc.monash.edu.au> <1992Nov16.225026.20738@news.Hawaii.Edu>
Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System)
Reply-To: jon3@midway.uchicago.edu
Organization: University of Chicago Computing Organizations
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In article <1992Nov16.225026.20738@news.Hawaii.Edu> rbrewer@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (Robert Brewer) writes:
>How do people feel about this game? I bought a copy, and playing a two player
>game was nifty the first few times, but then it gets boring. The graphics and
>complexity seem good, but gameplay is pretty poor.
>
>The person I was playing with found what appears to be the ultimate strategy.

[description of "ultimate strategy" deleted]

The balance between the various attributes and items is one of Minotaur's
strengths.  If your friend, the brawn-beast, manages to find Durandal and
a Dimension Door or Shadowgate in the opening seconds of the game, he
can easily hack a wizard into puppy-chow (but wouldn't you expect this?).
If the wizard, however, has even thirty seconds or a minute to gather
items, the battle will be far different (see below).

>I don't see how anyone could successfully play a Wizardly type character. Even
>with maxed intelligence and the Tome, casting the most damaging spell is
>peanuts compared with a few bashes with Durandal or Excalibur.

Them's mighty big peanuts, Robert!  With a 55 lore (base 45 plus 10 for the
Lexicon of Wisdom), the spell "Rune" does almost 70 points of damage (23% of
the total 300).  Combine Rune with a few Tremors, Scythes or Fireball spells,
and you can easily cause 200 damage or more in two seconds.  Of course,
you gain this potency by sacrificing your ability to attack with physical
weapons.

In addition to damage spells, all of your other spells (Daze, Lethargy,
Stoneskin, Wizard's Sphere, etc) and most of your items (Mirror of Lost Souls,
Ring of Metamorphosis, etc) will have a duration double or quadruple that
of your muscle-bound opponent.  Use this to your advantage!

Above all, if somebody IS hacking you to pieces, by all means LEAVE!  Run
away, teleport away, cast a forcewall between the two of you, paralyze
them, teleport them away, cast Negate Magic to make their sword suck.
If you don't constantly have a plan to eject yourself from a hostile
situation, you _will_ lose!

It is true that Illusionists (high agility/lore) or Mages (lore-beasts)
require more strategy than Barbarians to play, but isn't that the way
it should be?  Wizards are supposed to be smart ...

>It seems like it would be fun to set traps and such, but you always die if the
>other person uses the Grunt strategy above.

I'd love to make your friend pay the price for his lack of vision.  :)

>Has anyone made a list of secret cool things in Minotaur? Like which spells do
>what on which symbol and secret items?

Bungie sells a "Survival Guide" of undocumented features (and lists of spell
and weapon damage, etc) for $4.  It won't help you much until you
know the basics.  Lore beasts rule in two player games!

Jason.