(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]

Back to WK, roast the spider queen. The green wyrm is no better than Firkrag. Wish-PFME is the only thing crucial to defeat the devil spirit. Play with Aesgareth, +1 STR for AF using the deck. Forged Jan’s armor for AF and golden spider.

Kangaxx: prepare summons in advance, use ring of ram to send it into the corner. The demilich form is taken care of by Minsc and Valygar.

Alhoon and the greater elemental golem: PC lures the golem alone then PFMW, the golem follows summons into the encirclement of warriors. Warriors hit it to near-death within one round! Forged Cromfaeyr for RB, green wyrm plate for Minsc and grandmaster of flowers for AF (it took 3 +1 necklaces!)

Our party is pretty strong at this stage: every warrior has a decent +5 weapon, AF has also exceeded Minsc in dps.

Kushi squad: PC casts IA in advance, ADHW*3+dragon’s breath*5 easily kills humanoid enemies except Ketta and Theon, warriors clear up the rest. Greater elemental golem is taken care of in the same way as above.

Troll cove: PFFire on everyone, PC sets CC-RR*3, trigger-LR*3, cast IA in advance and use acid arrows*n to kill the queen first, meanwhile warriors use CS to take down the queen. Subsequent vengeance trolls are easy to deal with. Forged Valygar’s armor for him.

Falahar squad: just prepare everything and let PC bomb enemies. Any humanoid squad is fragile faced with PC. Easily take care of Umar and Chaos.

Guildmaster: full buffs on, let PC go alone, gathering all assassins together then roast them. Warriors clear guildmaster and elite rune assassins first then golems, coordinators at last. Forged greater protection talisman.

Bodhi: PC PFMW and blocks the door, let Minsc attack, over. Ancient lich: it doesn’t summon skeletons with no party members in sight, so let our summons finish it. Ancient mage: don’t enter any further and let him approach, so elemental golems won’t join the fight. Zallanora: warriors circle the spot where she would appear and chop her into pieces once she shows up.