This screen also appears when the party is bartering with an NPC or looting a body, but clicking out of the inventory tab will eject the player from the interaction.

The main radial menu, which encircles a picture of the character selected, has up to six sections, the number being based on class abilities.

Defensive casting and fighting, dealing non-lethal damage, tripping an opponent, and coup de graces are examples of particular actions in combat.

The structure of the engine is also utilized, allowing encumbered characters to move at 3/4 their maximum rate, even if the resulting speed is not a whole number.

A hybridization of some rules also occurred; the spell Doom is modified to reflect the first printing of the Player's Handbook, and weapon sizes are a blend of 3 and 3.5 editions.

As the presence of bandits, kobolds, and goblins increased, a local militia led by Waldgraf of Ostverk was raised to defend Hommlet.

For three years the Temple of Elemental Evil served as a center for the swarms of vile creatures who plagued Hommlet.

The leaders of the Temple grew too power-hungry, and they were defeated in the Battle of Emridy Meadows after challenging the kingdoms of the north.

In the years that followed, Hommlet became a destination for adventurers, who brought wealth to the city and returned the area to its peaceful origins.

A year before the start of the game, bandits once again began trickling into the region, and the villagers appealed to the Lord, the Viscount of Verbobonc, for aid.

After arriving in town and completing minor quests for the townsfolk, the player is directed to the moathouse, a small, fortified outpost to the east.

However, in the dungeons of the moathouse, the player encounters a large force of bugbears led by an ogre named Lubash and a priest of the Temple of Elemental Evil, Lareth the Beautiful.

The player is asked by all four to provide assistance, and can gain access to Hedrak, the leader of the Temple of Elemental Evil, by performing quests for the sub-Temples.

These gems can be inserted into the Orb of Golden Death, which is hidden inside the Temple, to form a powerful artifact.

[17] With sales of 128,000 copies and revenues of $5.2 million by February 2005, The Temple of Elemental Evil was less commercially successful than Arcanum, Troika Games' previous release.

[23] The Temple of Elemental Evil's critical reception was "mixed or average", according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

[6] Jamie Madigan of GameSpy gave the game four out of five stars, but he made note of a lack of multiplayer options.

[25] John Breeden II of The Washington Post complimented the game's graphics, particularly the animated scenery, and also said that "[m]onsters appear suitably gruesome".

[22] In 2004, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated The Temple of Elemental Evil for Computer Role-Playing Game of the Year, but was ultimately awarded to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

[27] It was also a finalist in RPG Vault's special award categories for audio design and art direction that year.

[29][30] The latter publication's editors wrote that no other game brought back memories of the old pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons days the way Temple of Elemental Evil did.

[30] Upon its release, The Temple of Elemental Evil created a small stir due to the availability of the option for a male character to enter a same-sex marriage.

In the town of Nulb, a pirate named Bertram begins flirting with male characters in the party and offers a lifetime of love and happiness in exchange for his freedom.

[35] Another improvement released in 2015 is a recreated game engine called Temple+, similar in functionality to OpenMW for Morrowind and built using Python, allowing for increased flexibility and avoidance of legacy coding limitations and issues.