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]

Thanks Vagramant, I have found them also. Since Planar Prison was one of the hardest place in my 4.2 run, I left this to last before Spellhold. It was hardest because I was new in IA, my party was a bit low level (no Ruby etc.), I didn’t have good save game before PP, and Haer’Dalis was my party member. So I suffered alot with that warden in 4.2. But lets go back, and continue from my last report.
I did all quests what Sikret did, except sewer party and Shade Lord. I am sure, I could handle them, but I was a bit afraid because I didn’t want to go to Spellhold with too high level. Since I did cleric stronghold quests also, finished Planar Sphere and student graduating, and did more part in fighter stronghold, there was a possibility to reach the magical XP number for improved Spellhold. So I did Firkraag’s Lair except Samia and Firkraag. Conster was a quite challenge. I skipped ToD to chapter 6 also, cause of similar reason. I wanted to do pirates in the docks, but at end I forgot them, and I went to Spellhold. I was in deep Spellhold, when I realized this, and I was angry, because I missed the loot from pirates, but I didn’t want to play whole thing again.
Planar Sphere was challenge also in luck of Ruby Ray. Prison was interesting, since I had Ruby Ray (my sorcerer and conjurer leveled to 14 after Planar Sphere), so warden was too easy with destroying the gem. I was able to burn down hounds really really fast, and 2 Ruby Ray 1 Breach, and warden was dead. After this I realized that I cannot go down to last 2 pits (minotaurs and slaver captains+golems). So I choose to reload and my blade ran down to those 2 pits. Of course warden attacked, but I intended to destroy gem when my blade was out of pits with some pit monsters. But, I clicked only once, and didn’t realized that I would have to click twice. Anyway, I killed all yuan-tis, warden, some minotaurs etc. and appr. 8 planar hounds + the warden of course. Well more XP, more loot. I went down into the 2 pits, and cleared the remaining monsters there also. At this time I realized my mistake with gem, so I destroyed it, but I didn’t get XP. Anyway, I had got more XP and treasure than with usual method, and I didn’t want to do the whole thing again, so I missed 20+k XP with gem destroying.
So I went to Spellhold which is one of my favorite place in Improved Anvil. Vadek and Lady was a bit easy, the narrow corridor caused the most problem for me, not the enemies. Perth was easy also, so I reloaded and tried to endure as long as I can to get more coin golems. So I dispelled his spell protections, and my casters just stood there and tried to interrupt his spells with Larloch M. Dr., while my fighters killed golems very fast. I had got 3 or 4 golems, I didn’t see anymore for a while, so I killed the mage. I tried to dispel his melee protections also, but he used up scrolls very fast, so I decided not to Breach him, so scrolls left as loot when he died. Some bonus Abs. Imm. scrolls are always good to sell. 
Spellhold was fun. Shade Lich and skelly lords was a challenge, since my Remove Magic at lvl 17/18 from my blade was not enough to dispel Impr. Invis from lich. So I used brute tactic there. Vampire lord was good also, he immidiately shifted from my blade, when she casted PfMW. This is reasonable from an ancient vampire lord, but I think brainless golems and monsters with low intelligence shouldn’t change always to most vulnarable target...
I agree with Sikret, Cat O’Nine Lives was too easy...
Amber golems and guardian spirits was enough hard. I don’t know how, but those guradian spirits killed my blade within 2 rounds. He had -20 AC, Stonekins, Mirror Image, fire, lightning, magic damage res was max. Maybe they do cold damage, and I realized I missed prot. from cold from my blade at buffs, all of my fighters had it. Anyway, Stonekin didn’t protect agasint them. If they do cold damage, it is fine, since cold res. is less important resistance, so I am glad if I have to use it. Anyway, brute force and some summon helped to win this fight. Those swanmays are really good. Sadly I think old summons from spells are really crap (Spider Spawn was good at start, now it is a bit useless. Skeleton Warriors are mediocre, Mordi Swords are OK, but other summons are crap), only item summons worth something.
Ancient Tome was too easy. I went to Brynnlaw with lvl 13 vagrant. He was lvl 14 at tome, my sorcerer and conjurer was lvl 15. Those spiders not too big challenge at this stage. Probably all ppl did spiders at lost temple or in ogre tower before Spellhold, so this Tome is too easy, I would recommend another 2 weaves of mobs (maybe skip the first 2, since they are joke). I recommend this even at normal (not Improved) Spellhold.
My first suggestion:
Minotaur King with high melee capabality. And a dozen (10-20) of nomral minotaurs. Fighter should concentrate on king, while casters should AoE the normal ones. Or alternatively some summoned meatshields could hold normal ones for a bit. I would appreciate if I could use old Fireball and similar spells.
My second weave suggestion:
3 demons: All demons should have crushing, piercing and bludgeoning resistance above 90 %. Their magic resistance 100 %, but no elemental resistance at all. Good saves, but weak offensive power. They wouldn’t use any dispelling method, but they would use many elemental damage spells (Acid Fog, Delayed Blast Fireballs, Chain Lightnings, Flame Arrows, Cone of Colds etc.), so all type of elemental resistance would be an important factor in this fight. (Don’t forget, this would be the last weave at tome, so some of your buffs could be down cause of duration.) And these demons could summon a lot of smaller demons with mediocre melee capabilities, but 100 % magic resistance (immune to Lower Res. also.). So the ideal battle strategy would be this:
as much elemental resistance as you can, many Zone of Sweet Air
fighters and summon should kill small demons (there should be really alot (like 5-6 from 1 summon, and they shouldn’t die from 1 hit)
casters lower big demon’s magi res with Lower Res., and they have to kill them via spells. I would like to use that useless low level damaging spells also.
All in all, I left Spellhold. Now I’m going to back to Brynnlaw again.
End of report.