(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]

Contingency haste+RB improved haste+champion’s strength shutdown the trademeet founder. Entering the planar sphere, we destroy the golem squad one by one: PC triggers the fight while others wait in the corner. All golems follow PC, and warriors intercept a coin golem and a bone golem falling behind. PC turns back, warriors intercept a gem golem again. Another gem golem is taken down similarly, and the final coin golem got polymorphed.

Lavok: a tough fight. 2 gem golems will spawn around PC, with 4 additional skeleton lords below the throne. PC lures golems away, 2 skeletons approach Lavok while warriors take down skeleton lords first. Lavok was busy casting RRR and breach on PC so there is no risk so far. Warriors intercept one golem and AF tries to attract Lavok’s attention. One more golem down and party members retreat out of Lavok’s vision. Using summons to finally drag him down.

Raid Togerias with invisible warriors, remaining enemies in the sphere are not worth mention. Forged amulet of Hades, turn the lich at city gates into stone. Back to WK, easily killed the elite fire giant. There are only a few fights left before sailing.

Samia squad (a rewarding fight): full buffs on, PFEnergy on RB and Minsc, PFFire on warriors, limited wish minor invulnerability on everyone, RB drinks invulnerable potion. PC along with 3 skeletons stand in the inner room, warriors along with 2 skeletons stand where Samia squad will appear, Aerie and AF stands outside. Start the fight, PC casts sequence emotion*3 to disable Akae. Kaol couldn’t cast any spell before dying faced with attack from our warriors. Aerie uses magic missiles to interrupt Chak’s insects. Warriors take down Ferric and Samia with the help of breaches from casters, then kill Chak and Legdoril. Meanwhile, PC uses 2 PFMW scrolls in the inner room to attract skeleton warlords. The rest of the fight is easy.