Geh4th's v5.0 game thread, progress, trouble, questions, requests for advice, etc Options

[geh4th]

This thread will document my experiences with my first serious attempt with IA v5.0. This is the first IA version I've played and I'm still fairly new to the mod; comments from others regarding my decisions, progress and problems are welcome.

I did a fairly short initial trial with 5.0 using a Vagrant and all-bioware NPC’s, but decided early on that I’d already seen/heard most of the NPC banter ad nauseum and frankly, it was getting old after many games of BG2. I decided to restart and customize a party to what I wanted to use and just pay attention to the business of campaigning.

As a result, I created 4 characters on multiplayer as the core of my group:

-------

1) Human Vagrant protagonist
Weapons: 2-wpn combat x3, longsword x2, flail, club, longbow
L9 will be flail again unless I've somehow found a better weapon than the FoA by then. Not bloody likely I figure.

Notes: This is the same protagonist I was using with the previous game; I want to play out the Vagrant to see those new quests. Next game I'll do a mage type.
Ability score note: I legitimately rolled an 18/00 strength with this PC. First time I've ever done that in many years of roleplaying. I nearly fell out of my chair
I took club because based on my earlier experience, those seemed to be a very prevalent decent quality weapon available early. Flail is obviously for the FoA and the late-game goodies that become available. I'm also looking to get at least one * in Axe soon (probably L12, but depends on what weapons I come up with, too.)

-------

2) Dwarven Fighter/Thief
Weapons: Warhammer x2, Shortsword x2, Axe x2

I wanted a decent thief that continues to level in the profession throughout ToB. His next 3 weapons picks are going to be in dual-wielding.
With a 19 constitution, this PC is a surprisingly good tank, particularly if before the tougher battles I have him don 'real' armor. With the Dwarven Thrower hammer, he's tremendously effective early in the game and I don't expect that to change.

--------

3) Human Ranger, Dualled to cleric immediately.
Weapons: 2-wpn combat style x3, Flail x2, Club x2, Hammer
As Cleric: Quarterstaff, Sling; mace at L4. Will take Quarterstaff again at L8 (there's some decent +3 staves available early.)
I love this class combination for a PC. Ranger abilities, Cleric spells and Druid Spells. Beats the heck out of Anomen if you ask me, despite the 4* he has in flail. I'm not a fan of going beyond 2* in a weapon anyhow, IMO the return is simply not worth the investment. And while it's not all that relevant for a cleric (who can't use slashing/piercing weapons) I think that it's foolish to over-specialize in one weapon class in a mod that encourages weapon diversity because of monster resistances to damage type.
The reason I dualled right away was to get the extra weapon proficiency at L8 cleric. I'm not sure if this is prudent since I'm 'wasting' about 15,000 xp's, but it seemed a reasonable goal. It also means she will regain her Ranger abilities relatively fast.

--------

4) Human Beserker
Weapons: 2-handed weapon style x2, 2-handed sword x2, Halberd x2.
My intent is for this PC to dual to mage at level 9. As a mage she'll take Quarterstaff (L1) + Dart (L6), then at L12 Quarterstaff again.
She's my 2-handed weapon specialist, needless to say.

=================

My last two spots will be BioWare NPC's that will vary initially as I do quests, but I'm a bit undecided on which two to carry into the late game. I'm fascinated by the Auramaster (Cernd, specifically) thanks to the class' incredible number and versatility of spells. Cernd is a bit lacking statistically (If only he had an 18 dex!) but his items upgrades look really cool - not to mention a few other druid-specific items available both from IA and vanilla SoA/ToB.

Imoen will ultimately be my last NPC once I get to her. I've read some game reports and realize that she's very powerful later in the game. Besides, she's been there from the start (of BG1) and I consider her essential to the story. Otherwise, what's the point?

This gives me 4 "tanks" (Vagrant, Fighter/Thief, Beserker/Mage, Ranger/Cleric) and 2 pure spellcasters (Auramaster, Sorcerer.) If this seems out of balance for IA, or if there's any obvious flaws that I'm overlooking, I invite anyone to comment on it. Do I have enough pure fighter firepower (i.e. will they be good enough later in the game)? Do I have enough arcane firepower? Is 2 divine casters too much (despite Cernd's arcane abilities)? If so, who would I replace Cernd with? Valygar? Haer'Dalis? Another custom PC? Someone else?

Thanks in advance for any input. I look forward to sharing my experiences just as others of you already have.


geh4th (maybe I'll invent a cool name for myself someday.)

[geh4th]

My Vagrant group is in the Spellhold Asylum dungeon, I just finished the first level. If memory serves I'm about to run into that tome that summons nasties.

To keep myself sharp and interested, I wanted some variety so I've started a concurrent (new) game. I'll alternate games as my interest in groups sways back and forth. It also is an opportunity to learn from previous mistakes and do some things more efficiently this time around.

This 2nd group has a Sorcerer Protagonist. I wanted to do this to see the extended Mage stronghold content, as well as "life from the other side" (as a mage rather than a vagrant.) I initially thought I'd want to do a Conjuror, but ultimately decided that a Sorcerer was simply a better spellcaster.

I face a bit of a quandry, though. I don't really feel that I need two sorcerers (Imoen). I can of course leave her out of the party, but I don't necessarily want to do that. Sikret has often advised sternly about not changing classes for certain NPC's (Keldorn, Valygar...) but I don't specifically recall if there's anything with Imoen that would crash the game or IA content if Imoen were changed. I figured that was more because those NPC's have unique items associated with them, wheras Imoen doesn't have any items. I was considering making her a bard or kit thereof (I'm partial to Skalds in my brief experience with Bards.) And IA 5.0 will be the last time I'll ever have any interest in using a bard, thanks to the impending changes coming in v6.0, so why not...

Bottom line, would changing Imoen's class (to anything, not just Bard) present me with any long-term problems? She's already been changed once, after all. I know people routinely change Minsc to a Beserker and often see Jaheira as a Cleric/Ranger.

I also plan to use several multiclass NPC's in this group, a Dwarven Fighter-Thief and an Elven Fighter-Mage. I'm having a little bit of trouble figuring out or finding info on gaining high-level abilities. Can someone tell me how gaining HLA's works for Multiclass characters? Is it at 3-million-ish total XP, or when each class has that much XP, or something else entirely? If this is written someplace, I'd appreciate info on where.

All in all, my long-term idea for this party goes something like this:

Protagonist Sorcerer
Valygar
Dwarf Fighter-Thief
Elf Fighter-Mage
Anomen
Imoen (changed to Skald as I currently see things.)

I'm a little short on divine spellcasting power, but I've done one-divine parties before and seem to be able to get by. I like the melee firepower of this group. I've considered dropping Valygar for a Cleric/Ranger dual, but I like Valygar and I feel that I'd be committing some sort of blasphemy by removing him (seeing as he's sort of Sikret's persona...er, personified.) I fear lightning bolts from above and that sort of thing.

Comments and/or answer to the questions above are welcome.

G-