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]

1- Coin, Gem and Amber golems don't have any "loot" (in that sense). A Coin golem drops coins, because he is made of them (not because he carries money). Once he collapses, you can collect the coins. A Gem golem drops gems, not because he carries gems, but because he is made of gems. Similarly, Amber golems are made of amber and once they collapse, you can collect the chunk.

Yes I know this. We call as "treasure" even the collected parts of the monsters. It is only just a gamebalance thing: chunk of amber should be a bit more expensive...

2- Even regardless of the first point, I don't agree with the generalization that (for any given x and y) if creature x is tougher than creature y (and gives more xp than y), he necessarily has to carry better loot (than y) as well.

I am a DnD gamemaster in PnP since almost 20 years. In my experience players are waiting more and/or better treasure from thougher enemies. Of course there can be a roleplaying or gamabalance exception (for example as Sikret wrote: golems don't have treasures), but in long term most GM should follow this rule. I didn't write it is a MUST rule.
Anyway my opinion is unchanged. As Baronius said, players shouldn't be too dissapointed, I think this is the goal of all GM. I am dissapointed when my Bag of Holdings are full with upgrade components and I cannot afford the upgrades cause of low money. Of course I am only ONE player, maybe others aren't dissapointed cause of this. Anyway I found at least a very very slight cure for money problem, but still it is a problem for me.
I consider this discussion over, since we cannot convince each other.

[rbeverjr]

I am only ONE player, maybe others aren't dissapointed cause of this. Anyway I found at least a very very slight cure for money problem.

Don't feel to lonesome. I haven't commented simply because I have not progressed far enough in the game to make a valid conclusion. I'd like to be able to forge many of the items that Sikret has made, but don't feel the need to make all of them or almost all of them. And some day, I would love to be able to do it thetruth-style - without using any at all.

I do feel like money is tight early on if I want to make any items. In particular, +3 weapons are needed. Sikret himself has commented that money is tight several times in his walkthrough, and the spending of the money must be carefully considered. That's OK.

One thing that I already know that I would like more of is dropped healing potions. However, there's some guy who posted that he is selling healing potions. I guess I should stop using healing potions after a battle. Instead rest and pray for healing spells, heal, and rest again, but that is such a micromanagement drag to me...

More money would certainly be useful for those who want to try a no-reload game too.

However, as of right now, I am not really expressing a concrete opinion that there should be more money or that the present money level is just right, because I have not progressed far enough into the game to know.