Troika Games' 2003 Dungeons and Dragons CRPG The Temple of Elemental Evil just received a fresh patch, courtesy of publisher SNEG, adding Steam achievements and fixing a bug that had been quietly breaking XP gain for anyone pushing past the game's level 10 cap. This is the same RPG genre that produced classics like Planescape: Torment, and it's genuinely surprising to see a game this old still getting meaningful fixes.
Temple of Elemental Evil dungeon
The XP bug that made high-level crafting pointless
Here's the thing about D&D's third edition ruleset: XP wasn't just a leveling currency. Crafting magic items, scribing scrolls, and brewing potions all cost experience points directly. That design choice meant characters who specialized in crafting needed a constant trickle of XP even after hitting the level ceiling, because burning it on item creation was part of the loop.
The bug in SNEG's Steam release cut off XP gain entirely once you hit level 10. On paper that sounds minor. In practice, it made any crafter-focused caster build functionally useless at the endgame, since you'd drain your XP pool with no way to replenish it. The patch addresses that directly, restoring post-cap XP income as the rules originally intended.
In D&D 3rd edition, crafting feats like Scribe Scroll and Craft Wondrous Item require spending XP as a material cost. Without post-cap XP gain, any character relying on these feats hit a hard wall.
What else the patch fixes
The XP correction is the headliner, but the update covers a few other longstanding issues:
- Melf's Acid Arrow now deals damage as intended, fixing behavior that had been off since the Steam launch
- Curse removal via scrolls and spells works more reliably, addressing inconsistent results that had frustrated players trying to debuff enemies or cleanse their party
- Steam achievements are now live, with most unlocking retroactively when you load an existing save
The retroactive unlock is a nice touch for returning players, though there's a catch. Achievements tied to visiting specific locations, including Emridy Meadows and the Moathouse dungeons, require you to actually travel back to those areas. They will not pop automatically from a save that already passed through them.
New Steam achievements added
A 2003 game still worth revisiting
SNEG brought The Temple of Elemental Evil back to Steam last year, preserving Troika's remarkably faithful adaptation of the classic tabletop module of the same name. The game ran on a near-complete implementation of the D&D 3rd edition ruleset, which was unusual for CRPGs of that era and remains one of its defining qualities. Turn-based tactical combat, genuine spell slot management, and a party that actually behaves like a tabletop group rather than a hack-and-slash crew.
The game has always had a reputation for being more interesting as a rules implementation than as a narrative experience. The temple itself is a sprawling dungeon that can feel like it overstays its welcome, but the surrounding areas, particularly the village of Hommlet and the pirate-adjacent settlement of Nulb, give it enough texture to make a playthrough worthwhile for fans of old-school RPG games.
For players who want to explore more of what the genre has to offer beyond Temple of Elemental Evil, there is a solid collection of gaming guides covering CRPGs and RPGs worth checking out before your next playthrough.
