(Nearly) Invincible A-F Journal Options

[leozoroaster]

Back to school after a 2-year visa delay, finally, I have plenty of time to start another IA run and write a journal, which in fact I did a few times before but not in EN. Hope the readers may find it valuable (or fun), despite my poor writing XD. My high-level heuristic for playing IA is ‘prepare for long, fight fast’. To be specific, find the weakness of enemies, make full preparation then finish the fight as quick as possible.

This run is devoted to building a nearly invincible character, a dual class assassin21-fighter (abbreviated as AF) who can use ANY item and fight like any warrior at the same time (K13-T could do a similar job). In particular, this monster will have 90 MR, 85 PR, -24 AC, 10 APR, -20 Thac0 and -6 saving throws ultimately without any temporary buff, stronger than most bosses in IA.

Other members in the party serve to survive the early game, then simply enjoy the performance of A-F as audience in the late game. This journal will omit easy stuffs and focus on ‘big fights’ and tactics, for ease of presentation. Let’s briefly introduce the basic settings first.

Setup:
BG2EE 2.5
IA 6.52
Core difficulty
IAtweaks: Minsc being Berseker
CDtweaks: multiple strongholds, bag of holding, true grandmastery, e.t.c.

Party:
PC: Necro
Custom: RB
Custom: AF
Aerie: C/M
Minsc: Berseker
Valygar: Protector

The road to 500k xp is trivial. Finished thief/cleric quest, suna fight, fallen paladin, circus, mithril quest, xzar quest and some small ones. Suna fight is carried by Minsc, with the help of emotion from PC and haste from Aerie. The elder eye is killed by flame arrow following secret word.

Finished the first stage of Aran’s task, by letting Minsc solo Lassal. Heading to Seven Vales. Summon 5 skeletons, Aerie true seeing/bless/chant/PFEvil, PC haste. Initiate the fight with doom on Amon, PC greater malison. Emotions from both PC and Aerie in the second round, Amon lies down. Take down Mencar, the others, Amon in order.

Cleared weaker enemies in graveyard, with some extra care on mutated spiders. Paina fight is a tough one: PC/Aerie minor invulnerability (doesn’t seem to work), free action on RB/Minsc. PC breaches Paina and Aerie casts emotion, Aerie got stuck by web but PC didn’t, lucky. PC casts another emotion, taking down most spiders while warriors defeat Paina at the same time. Reload several times to save healing potions.

Buy Joril’s Dagger for Minsc, defeat beast master with a single breach followed by magic missiles to interrupt the swarm. The second stage of Aran’s quest is easy by letting skeletons fight the vampire.

Heading out of town. Clear easy fights at Umar/Windspear /Trademeet/Druidcove. Magic missiles*n kills Faldorn. To harm Ihtafeer we need at least +3 weapons, therefore let RB take club+3 though she invested 0 points in its efficiency. Hit Ihtafeer until it reads IA, take down its pets then itself. The party reaches 800k xp.

Now that RB has improved haste, things become easier. Caught skinner, and finished all EE NPC’s tasks but Dorn’s. Time to obtain the improved haste scroll at the slave stockade. We plan to enter from the sewer so cleared the mists first. Web+free action+true sight and we are done.

[leozoroaster]

The slave stockade fight: standard buffs, plus PFFire on RB and Minsc. Upon entering, warriors rush to Haygen while PC/Aerie cast greater malison+emotion (failed on the cleric). Take down cleric first then go upstairs. Once encountering the wizard, cast greater malison+emotion to bring him down. Clearing standing enemies then those lying on the ground, save the game. A few antidotes and healing potions were consumed.

Head deeper into the room and clear the rest of enemies (golem first which summons assassins endlessly when alive). With improved haste in hand, we easily smashed the big fat worm in the sewer, not to mention rats and shadow. Minsc equips Lilacor. Defeated crypt king and queen. Meet Mekrath, the go fight the Rakshasa in the sewer. Minsc along lures away the ADHW, hits the Rakshasa until he uses AI, then wait till AI expires. Greater malison+emotion to deal with the imp.

Go to windspear and clear the mists, warriors level up to 12. Pay a visit to spiders in the tower: free action on warriors, additional chaotic common+champion’s strength on RB. Kill the ghost spider first then others, everyone is on low hp after the fight (letting RB drink an defence potion might be a safer choice, but not necessary). RB equips Belm and has 9APR now.

The sewer squad: feeble mind on Rengaard and Gaius from the left, without triggering the fight. Taking care of the rest 4 is rather easy. Dm the feeble mind on Rengaard to kill him (they won’t die unless having consumed the magic shield potion). Gaius is a little more troublesome. Dm then tangle him with summons, our party gets away and rest for the expiration of his potion. Then take Gaius down with greater malison+emotion, as always.

Shadow jailer: beach and hit, since none of our warriors specialize in crushing weapons, the two skeleton lords are a little thorny. Other undead squads are strictly easier. Leave shadow dragon and shadow king for later.

Go back to graveyard. How dare Tanova to begin the fight without PFMW? Warriors rush her to death and then vampire brides. Talk to Aran and the party reaches 1.3m xp. Recruit Valygar, change his longbow proficiency to dagger by EEkeeper.