The Ultimate Basher Crew (with a random journal on some of the fights in the game). Options

[pekkae]

First of all, again I would like to highlight that this mod is amazing. It's the best time that I've had playing my favourite game of all time. It's amazingly balanced, works very well offers such a great fun developing an amazing and super powerful party. I've spent more hours on this than I care to count.

I posted a few notes when I started regarding my original party & composition and the tremendous troubles I had finishing, well, pretty much anything in the game. I started with dual classed Fighter/Thief, Cleric/Mage, Fighter/Druid with Barbarian and a Necro (PC). I had to make numerous alterations as this crew just wasn't going to make it.

Based on that incomplete run & my experience with the mod I took another swing at IA, this time being much wiser so my crew turned out to be: Necromancer (PC), Minsc, Valygar, Cernd, Jan Jansen and a custom made Riskbearer. I finished SoA with this crew but were in tremendous troubles by WK level 4 (especially the "orc"-encounter & Githyaki supreme leader). While it looks like a very powerful group, it sort of runs out of juice with some of the encounters, because it lacks pure melee-power.

So I made a few changes, re-imagined my approach to party composition (& took a few freedom's) but this is what I ended up with.

Protagonist: Vagrant (Inquisitor is the preferred & more powerful choice or at least for my playing style)
Sorcerer (I used Imoen)
Berserker(9)/Mage (We use Jan Jansen tweaked)
Kensal
Swashbuckler(5)/Cleric (We use Aerie for this, tweaked)
Berserker(9)/Druid (We use Jaheira, tweaked a bit)

^ This party is uber powerful. It has 4 outstanding kick-assers for melee with the possibility to add a 5th one in Swashbuckler/Cleric. We can get amazing amount of attacks per round, amazing Thac0's, we are extremely competent in spell casting having almost 4 full spell casters (2 arcane / 2 divine). If you want to have a thief in your party, this is probably "as strong as you can get". (Well, you could always make a Swashbuckler(3) -> Fighter but I like my cre as it is & I want to try a cleric).

My über-crew doesn't have a single IA kit. (or wouldn't if I play with the most powerful combination)

A note. I have an item pack installed giving me a few powerful items. I also bent the rules so in my game the S/C (turned to vampire) can use the cloak of the daywalker & she also got a powerful upgrade on her "symbol of deity" she got at level 25 (I think). She also can use thief specific gear, even if it's marked for "single class thief's only". By end of spellhold, we don't have single such item though and her usefulness just grows from there on.

Her "deity's holy symbol" gives her +2AC & Saves, +20HP, -2 Casting time & +10% physical resistance (but no +1 strength, no magic resistance, no extra spells) It's a powerful item, comparable perhaps to the "master of disciplines". While the casting time might seem like overkill, it doesn't come with "aura clensing" so she is limited to only 1 spell / rd . What it does do is make her low level spells even semi useful in combat because now they can be cast and sometimes even finish. I think this tweak works very well and isn't OP and makes Cleric more usable.

Jan (or Berserker / Mage) got an incarnated elven chain giving him -1 casting time, AC1 & 20% fire resistance. He also got a ring with an additional spell from levels 1-9. The ring is sort of optional, as I haven't run into a case where I would run out of spells with him. So, even though it's very potent I might just turn that item slot over to a ring of protection +2 later on.

For balance, we omitted a number of very powerful items from the game that would have been super useful incl. Jan's enhanced armour (it's very, very effective for a F/M), Githzeral Blade, (Enchanced) Armour of Stamina, Royal Elemental Staff, Noble Staff of Earth, Noble Staff of Air, Golem Slayer (it would be ridiculously effective with a berserker/druid), Sword of the Rashemi (we use Minsc for Kensai) & Might of the Avariel (Aerie is the T/C), Lord of the Underworld, Cloak of Arcane Immortality & Scarlet Ioun Stone, The Truth +5 and a few others.

This post has been edited by pekkae: May 21 2021, 01:53 PM

[pekkae]

Twisted Rune (on insane)

We prebuff a little in the entrance, not overly though.(PC with 5,2M exp).

PC (Vagrant or Inquisitor) - Protection from level drain
F/D - Shield of Archons
Kensai - barkskin (optional)
B/M - SI:D (would use trigger if possible for Spell Immunity, but I'm not even sure if this is necessary)
S/C - Holy Power + Foreknowledge (or righteous magic)
Sorcerer - n/a

**

Snapshot of the party when the fight starts:

Vagrant: AC -12, APR 6, Thaco -16 (under champions strength), 179 HP.
Weapons: FoA +3, Frostreaver +3, Short Sword +3
Other equipment: Red Coral Armor, Shield of Harmony +3, Helm of Balduran, Ring of Protection +2, Cloak +2, Boots of the Ranger Lord.

Berserker9/Druid: AC -20, APR 6 (with IH), Thaco -2, 150 HP.
Weapons: Treefolk's Fist +4, Spectral Brand +4,
Other equipment: Huskar Lord's armour, Paws of the furious cat, Circlet of Golden flowers, Harper's Ward, Supreme Shelter, 2xRing of prot. +2, Cloak +2, Bootf of speed

Kensai: AC -6, APR 10 (with IH), Thaco -22 / -15, 201 HP
Weapons: Quarterstaff, Staff of Rhynn +4, Dragon's Breath +4, Long Sword +4, off hand: Water's Edge +4
Other equipment: Indigo Ioun Stone, 2x Ring of prot. +2, Cloak +2, Amulet +1 (Belt giving him +2 Thaco, +2AC, +2damage, non IA item).

Berserker9/Mage: AC -19 (with TT), APR 9 (with IH), Thaco -15 / -6, 333 HP (with TT)
Weapons: Dagger +4, Crom Fayer, offhand: Belm +2
Other equipment: Incarnated elven chain, 2nd sword arm gauntlets, helm of the trusted defender (a non IA item giving any small folk +3 AC), necklace: Aegis of Torment (non IA item giving Jan +2AC, +2CON, +15HP), mage's ring (a non IA item that gives +1 spells per level), ring of protection +2, cloak +2, elves bane

Swashbuckler(5)/Cleric: AC -21 (Foreknowledge), APR 6 (with IH), Thaco -9 / -5 (with Holy Power), 174 HP.
Weapons: Sling of arvoreen, Club +5 (a non IA item, a +5 version of Gnasher) , off-hand: Heaven & Earth (non IA item morning start +4 that gives +2 STR)
Other equipment: Gorgon Plate +4, Crimson ioun stone, amulet of master harper, holy symbol (+2 AC, -2 Casting time, +10 Physical resistance, +20HP), Ring of Gaxx, Cloak of daywalker (my big cheat to make this character useful), Belt of inertial barrier

Sorceror: AC -15, APR (n/a), Thaco (n/a), 97 HP
Weapons: Cleric's staff +3, Sling of Everad +5
Other equipment: Memory of Apprenti, Bracers of icelandic pearl (a non IA item giving +50 cold resistance), circlet of nether, amulet of hades, 2x ring of protection +2, scholastic cloak, Tymora's gift (a non IA belt that gives +3 to Luck & +10% to MR)

'*'

Off we go.

Rd1 (part 1). S/C casts Champions Strength for Vagrant and moves towards the entrance for a bit. Vagrant moves a little bit away from S/C & summons a greater swanmay near S/C (towards the entrance) (or if inquisitor, a Deva). Kensai Hardiness. B/M's CC launches with MS8, Mordekainen's Sword and Limited Wish-> Goes Berserk and moves from the table in the middle of the corridor. Sorcerer's CC launches with PfMW, ST + Foreknowledge and she starts IA. F/D moves away from S/C and summons an anaconda on the entrance then attacks Vaxall. Genie appears and we choose "horde".

S/C is hit with grave silence and that's fine (since she can't cast spells anyway). Immediately after that Revanek gets attacked by Vagrant, Kensai + S/C. Vaxall gets F/D. Shyressa gets B/M (once rabbits are unblocked)+ summons. Shangalar gets greater swanmay & anaconda. (Shangalar doesn't attack either but goes after S/C).

Rd2. Vagrant Hardiness. F/D quaffs a potion of rejuvenation. Sorceror's IA is finished, comet & RRoR on Shangalar (to knock Shangalar to the entrance), IH x 3: kensai, Vagrant & S/C, Breach Shyressa, Summon planetar (away from Shyressa) between sorcerer & Vagrant then Wish (we get hardiness, completely optional and not needed). Walk a bit out of sight of Vaxall. MS8 near Shyressa.

Revanek is now pounded by: Kensai, Vagrant & S/C. Shangalar is battling greater swanmay & anaconda in the entrance (and out of sight). Shyressa is attacking rabbits. B/M finally reaches Shyressa through the rabbits.

Rd3. Revanek is dead. Vagrant quaffs a potion of Barbarian Essence. Planetar goes to heal vagrant, who is hit with about -50HP. Vagrant is hit with Vauxhall's ray's. B/M reaches Shyressa through rabbits & launches a spell trigger (TT + PfMW + IH). B/M now with 340hp, APR 9, Thaco -18/-11, AC -21, Laynne's can now be targeted.

Sorceror 3RRoR + Breach on Layenne. Kensai + S/C move to pound Layenne. F/D stays with Vaxall. Sorceror goes SI:Divination + Improved Invisibility and starts IA(#2). Vagrant attacks Shyressa, Planetar moves behind Vagrant and starts another "heal", even though Vagrant is at 100% health as a precaution.

Rd4 (or so). Layenne can't be killed because of scripting (at the end of the round she has taken about 50pt of damage at near death). Shyressa goes for Vagrant (who is followed by planetar just casting "heal" on him). Sorceror RRoR's Layenne (she got SI:Abjuration up), then 2x acid arrow Laynne (just to disrupt if there's anything), Breach Shyressa, MS8 near Shyressa.

Rd5. Laynne (now with 100pt damage near death) Wishes (magic rest), heals completely and gets pounded into oblivion by Kensai & S/C. S/C goes to sorcerer for PfME and then for Vaxall. Summons go for Vaxall. Kensai quaffs "potion of invulnerability" & goes for Shyressa. F/D quaffs another potion of rejuvenation. Sorceror breaches Shyressa & starts a round of PfME's for members pounding Shyressa so B/M, Vagrant & Kensai. Planetar joins in (if the situation allows it, so if it's not busy healing Vagrant)

(if Shyressa goes for Kensai the planetar can revive via lesser restoration)

Rd6. Or so. Shyressa is dead. Shangalar is still battling greater swanmay / anaconda. Trolls (were on Vaxall) are sent to battle Shangalar. Everyone moves to annihilate Vaxall, F/D comes by Sorceror to get her PfME and then goes for Vaxall. (Once Vaxall is at "injured", Kensai activates "magic resistance" HLA)

Rd7-11. Vaxall gets PfMW up (if it doesn't, it's killed in rd 7-8). We can't dispel. So we aimlessly pound Vaxall, while summoning Trolls & casting PfME's if it's dispelied on someone. F/D goes around casting regeneration on Kensai, Vagrant and herself.

Rd11-12. We can hit Vaxall. Vaxall dies quite fast. Everyone in pretty much full health. No 3xADHW(?), but our crew was pretty well protected with PfME's.

Once Vaxall is dead. The fight is won, there's only Shangalar left. We are very careful, we send summons (which we have left like ... a million) and every now and then B/M goes to whack it while under PfME. (I don't play this part as we can't dispel Shangalar & it's rather boring )

Alternatively we could have loaded B/M & S/C with "disrupt undead" 's and used them.

This post has been edited by pekkae: May 21 2021, 01:52 PM