IAv5 experiences Options

[Shadan]

As Ryel asked, I will write about my party and my game also here. I was not able to resist to start the game, despite of I wanted to start only in some weeks, when I will have more time. smile.gif
I hesitated alot with my party selection. I wanted 5 man party earlier, but after reading Sikret's progression, I changed my mind to 6 man party. I wanted to use at least 3-4 custom NPC, but hesitated abit on 1-2 bioware NPC also. Since I am an attribute fun, at end I started with 6 custom made chars. Maybe in v6, I will do with Bioware NPCs again, and it seems druid protagonist. smile.gif

So my party:
Human vagrant (as usual:)):
I gave long sword **, axe, club, flail * and 2weapons *** to him. Luckily I pickpocketed an Enchanted Weapon scroll for my mage, so in dire situations I am able to give him +3 long swords and +3 maces to my cleric. I have The Root of the Problem and Flametongue now, so at lvl 9 I put 2nd * in the club. And I think I will increase his flail skill at lvl 12.

Human swashbuckler lvl 10 - fighter:
This character gave the most thinking to me. Finally I chosed staff** and 2handed weapons ** for him. At lvl 10 I changed him to fighter. Now he is lvl 8 and has halberd **** and 2handed sword **. He will be very versatile character in damage type (halberd - piercing, staff -crushing, 2handed swords - slashing). I chose him to handle locks, traps and illusions, so he has 100 % pick lock, find trap and detect illusion. I want to buy Harmonium halberd for him, if I will have money for this, since 19 Str is huge upgrade considered to pure 18.

And the four sisters:
Half-elf blade
I liked Haer'Dalis in my 4.2 run, so I chose blade again. Reasons are in this topic in my former post. I hesitated alot between Haer and custom NPC, I chose custom cause of better attribute distribution and earlier join, but I lost easy upgradable Chaos Blade and ** in short sword. I started her with scimitar, katana *, 2weapons: **, but since I haven't found any magic weapon for her, she used Melf's Minute Meteor in fights. Sadly it is bugged with offensive spin as I wrote in bug report topic, but she was very good with MMM anyway. Now I have got Rashad's Talon which is a great weapon for her. She has 18 charisma and with a Friends she has 24, which means almost best buying price.
There were no need in good tanks so early in the game as I am now, but later she will be the best tank ever. smile.gif And she did a wonderful pickpocket tour at start, and I am planning to do it again after I get back to the city.

Human ranger 7 - cleric:
I dualled her immidiately after start. She started with 2weapons ***, warhammer**, shield and sword **, flail *. As cleric, I chose mace *, sling *, club * and put 2nd point into mace at lvl 8. The main reason to chose her above Anomen (who was great in my 4.2run) is Ironskin, better attributes, and some druidic summon at start. Price was loosing the option of 5* proficiencies, Anomen’s doesn’t have any good improveable item. She will use the usual maces, hammers mostly.

Elf sorcerer:
She is the 6th member who was not in my original party conception. She has the following spells (* means she had that spell at start):
lvl 1: Armor*, Shield*, Spook*, Magic M.*, Larloch’s M. Dr.*
lvl 2: Melf’s AA*, Horror*, Mirror Image*, Vocalize
lvl 3: Flame Arrow*, Skull Trap*, Vampiric Touch, Slow (Remove Magic planned)
lvl 4: Emotion, Spider Spawn (Ray of Fragmentation and Stoneskin planned)
lvl 5: Breach (Lower Resistance, Sunfire planned)

Half-elf summoner:
I hesitated alot between Nalia and custom NPC. Nalia has a nice upgradeable ring, but a specialist mage is better at start. Decision was made since I WANT to cast that damned Wish with her.

I am basically following Sikret’s quest order. Well, more or less and mostly only at start. I did some pick pocket tour after circus (I was lucky to get a Spell Trap Scroll, 2 Mord. Sword scroll and some others, but no manual or Perm. Scroll), then I went out to Umar and Trademeet. I encountered with Suna earlier, and she suprised me, but after reload and some spell casted before map change, I easy managed them. Fladorn was a bit hard, but when I killed her, I made 1st challenge immidiately after rest. It was funny, since I thought I am itemless again, and started my usual Faldorn tactic, after 2 rounds I realized I have weapons, so beat that druid very fast. smile.gif Rakshasa in the tower were not too big challenge. I went back to Trademeet for rewards. Now I will go back to the city, and will do some minor quests when I have time to play again. At this time I won’t follow Sikret’s order, but mostly I will do those quests what he did, just not in that order.
My only big concern are Crowled Wizards. In my 4.2 run I didn’t pay to them. I killed their members easily, but the last fight was very very hard. I was able to kill them only just before I went to Spellhold (I did all available quests in chapter 3 in that game as well as WK 1st and 2nd lvl). I was not allowed to cast arcane spells on the streets, but as far as I remember this was not so big problem in that game, not too many fights are on the street. Now maybe Anarg and his followers could cause problem. My only headache was Borinal, since it was a very hard fight with new enemies in my 4.2 run, and I was not able to cast defensive spells before his door, so I had to go to Oghma temple for casting. Now I don’t know if I should pay, or suffer a bit hindrace sometimes while I am not able to kill their lasts members.
End of my report now.

New part
I was not able to resist playing a while yesterday. I pickpocketed a large part of the city and I've got a Helm of Glory. (If it is a cheesy, I can tell the location, Sikret.) Well I can do a paper armor from Identify and Shocking Grasp scrolls what I pickpocketed. smile.
I also killed Valeria and her goons. They surprised me, when I went in with badly injured chars while Iexplored the city and did the pikcpocket tour, so I had to reload. smile.gif) And did the tanner quest.
End of my report now.

This post has been edited by shadan: Jan 14 2008, 05:48 PM

[Shadan]

OK, I did some quests now, so I would like to comments my characters. These comments reflect my feeling and thoughts about them in the 1st quarter of the game.
I did the following quests:
Circus
Umar Hills small quests
Trademeet druids
Trademeet raksasha
Suna Seni
Druid stronghold 1st duel and 1st quest
Maevar’s quests and killed him (declined thief stronghold)
Paid to Aran and Aran’s 1st quest
Copper Coronet and beastmaster
Buried alive
Xzar/Harper quest
Anarg and fallen paladins
Illithium
Cult of Unseen Eye (accepted priest stronghold)
Quest for potion seller in sewers
Child and her bear
Killed Valeria and his goons
Murder at docks
De’Arnise keep full cleared (accepted fighter strongold)
Returned acorns to dryads
I am now in Firkraag’s Lair halfway.

My party now:
Vagrant lvl 11, Swashbuckler/fighter 10/11, Blade 13, Ranger/Cleric 7/11, Sorcerer 11, Conjurer 11.

My PC is Vagrant:
He is a usual character. He has good THACO, and moderate damage. He has the most kill in my party, since my others melees are duals or blade (which is weak at start). His elemental resistances are useful, but not too big thing yet. His weakness is his armor. Leather armors are weak at start, and Spirit Armor takes up a very valued lvl 4 spell slot. I found Green Leaves Armor, so it is a bit less problem now. Charm Animal is very useful ability at low lvl. His sneak skill makes him to perfect explorer at new areas.
I made a minor mistake with his weapon skills. I started her with long sword **, club, flail, axe *, 2weapons ***. I chose club 2nd * at lvl 9, since my best weapon was The Root of the Problem at that time. Now he as a FoA and Frostreaver, but sadly no ** in axe or flail... I will put my 2nd * to axe at lvl 12. And I am intended to forge Treefolk’s Arm for him asap, I have all ingredients now, just need a little more money. I will give FoA to my cleric if my PC has that imba +4 club which will raise his strength to 19.

Swashbuckler dual to fighter at lvl 10:
He was my weak point, since it took a long time to regain his 1st cast. I had no trap and lock handler guy for a while, so I had to use a lot of Knock, and endure many traps. He was also weak fighter cause of his low level and bad weaponry. When I bought Harmonium Halberd for him, he became incredible with 19 Str, 5* in halberd and 2* in 2handed weapons. (He has +2 2handed sword and a cleric staff+3 with 2* in staff and 2handed sword.) He is the 2nd in kills now. Now he can use Detect Illusion continuously while he is hitting. He has only one frustrating thing: he cannot pick lock or remove trap in full plate armor. I have to put down his armor always when I want to use thieving skills. Maybe I will give him Supreme Chain Mail instead of Huskar Lord’s Armor. I lose 3 AC and missile immunity, but I will gain 20 % fire res and I don’t have to remove armor always at thieving.

Blade:
She is my favourite character. She was very weak at start, since she didn’t have good weaponry, her THACO and saves are very bad. So I gave the best protection items (rings, amulet, cloak) to her. Ha started with scimitar, katana *, 2weapons** and I chose short sword at lvl 12. I miss only the 3rd *from 2 weapons now. She is a good damage dealer with Melf’s MM with a mediocre THACO. She is the best tank with Spirit Armor, Stoneskin, Mirror Image, Blur and my favorite: Defensive Spin. With Defensive Spin I can reach -24 AC for her even at this early stage. My favorite tactic to run in with her, wait 1 round till all enemies attack her, then bomb enemies with AoE spells or my other 3 melee chars proceed and kill enemies. I did this many times, for example at golems in De’Arnise keep and Firkraag’s Lair, or at vampires in Firkraag’s Lair. She is master pickpocketer. And when she is out of defensive/tank spells and spins and no more Melf’s MM, she starts to sing to encourage other chars to fight.  She is at 4th-5th in kills, but she is the most versatile character.


Ranger dual to cleric at lvl 7:
3rd in kills. She uses Blackblood club and Club+3 now, occasionally she use weapon + shield when enemy has a very good AC (so no hit with left hand), or when she is tanking with Ironskin. She is what can I expect from clerics, plus he can charm animals, can hide a bit. (I have 3 characters with hide, when I wants to move near to enemies, so I don’t really needs Invis. It was useful at beholders/gauths for example.) Summon Nymph is very good early spell, since nymph can heal a lot, and nymph can summon some cannonfodder also.  Iron skin is very good also. My only problem that her level 5 spells are a bit crowdy (Chaotic Command, Iron Skin, Mass Heal etc.). Her level 4 and 3 spells are free. On level 3 I have some Holy Smite, 1 Remove Par. and 1 Zone of Sweet Air. On level 4 I have Def. Harm. and Prot from Evil 10’ (Prot from Lightning, Restoration when it is needed). Nymphs starting to be not too useful at this stage.

Sorcerer:
Good supporter/bomber. 4th-5th in kills. Her 1st lvl 6 spell is Prot from Magic Energy. Good spells of her: Spider Spawn, Emotion, Sunfire, Vampiric Touch, Flame Arrow. I am currently trying if Glitterdust works against Impr. Invis + SI: Div. combo or doesn’t... Sadly the guardians in Firkraag’s Lair successfully rolled all saving throws against Glitterdust despite of Gr. Malison, so my question is unanswered still, but it is not big thing if it works, since saving throw and MR makes it irrelevant tool most of the time.

Conjurer:
Good supporter, last in kills.

There are 2 other things:
- When I 1st tried to dispel illusion with my regained swash/fighter it didn’t work. I didn’t understand why, and when I checked his thief skills, they were only the base + dex. modifier. For example his DI was 0. I loaded my lot of earlier saves with Shadowkeeper and I figured out he lost his all thief skills on character sheet between 2 saves when he was lvl 9 fighter only (his rogue class was not regained yet). So I changed her old skills back with SK, but I don’t know why he lost those skills. I will check his AC bonus as swashbuckler soon, I hope it is counted now.
- Prot. from Fire (wizard version):
All wizard version prot. spells (Fire, Cold, Acid, Magic) has 1 turn/lvl duration. In priest version Resist Fire/Cold, Prot from Fire basically 1 round/lvl, Prot. from Lightning 5 rounds/lvl. So I used to use wizard version, since it is long lasting buff. In spell description it says it gives only 50 % resistance (while priest version gives 80%), but in the game I have found it protects completly from fire. On char sheet there is 100% fire and 50 % magic fire res, but my characters don’t get any damage from Fire Shield or Sunfire at all. It was same in 4.2, just I had many elemental resistance with my high level characters there, so it was not so obvious as it is here. Is it a bug, or bad spell description?

This post has been edited by shadan: Jan 16 2008, 12:12 PM