Vagrant's journal, Building as OP crew as possible Options

[pekkae]

Welcome.

Playing like it was planned to be played. As I have some time on my hands until the end of January and it's like a lockdown here in Finland, what else am I going to do? ( I could ... read books, finish school or something else but ... oh well)

The rules

- No non-protagonist-related drops (no Necro's stuff etc.).
- Our Custom Characters get 90 points to divide among attributes.
- We have the tomes from bg1 to spread among our crew
- Simplified economy + we'll console in the trinkets we need
- No personal stuff, except for the NPC's we are using
(EDIT: - We learn all spells (so we lower difficulty when scribing scrolls)
(EDIT2: - Forging restrictions in place as well)

The exceptions

- We will most likely give our sorcerer (sorceress) the same bonus spell slots as other mages get. I don't get why sorcerers spell slots are not developing in later levels where as every other arcane caster's slots will. Though this will be at such a late stage that it doesn't probably matter at all.
- We have a few supplementing items we'll use throughout the game (described below).

****

Thoughts on the crew

I think I have this figured out.

We are not looking to survive the mod. We are looking to obliterate all opposition and in every and all possible encounters to milk away as many summons as possible to max out our rewards. Our plan is to once again do the demogorgon fight as fast as possible and then just dominate the rest of the way. Demogorgon with my style requires enormous spellcasting capabilities up front while enormous H2H capabilities throughout the fight. We'll try to construct our crew so that every character will be completely and insanely OP once they are fully developed.That's the way we like it. That's the plan. I'm not sure how it will work out. The 2nd thing is that we like characters who can fill out multiple roles, even though in some cases we lose out on some uber-powers.

For Chapters 2-3 we'll just take on rotating crew members so we'll ave as easy time as possible as we want to maximize fun while minimizing endless reloads & trying to figure out tactics. Or our tactic boils down to maximize strengths, enter, obliterate, repeat.

Since we are playing with a Vagrant we won't have a Necro with us. That means we could be somewhat more powerful in chapters 1-5 as plethora of characters are much more powerful than a Necro throughout chapters 1-5 (think: Berserker/Mage, Auramaster, Thief/Mage or even Nalia or especially Edwin). Edwin can easily wipe the floor with a Necro until chapter 6 (+2 spells per level, mirror images, II's). However, since we'll still need 2 spell casters and we absolutely need a sorcerer for early access to all lvl 9 spells, we won't bring Edwin along to spellhold. Most likely. And we want our supporting arcane spellcaster to be able to do something else than just casting, so Edwin won't fill that spot either.

****

Composition

We have our "tank" covered in Vagrant, who by chapter 7 will be better at tanking than any other character in the game. So no DD this time around though we will take one for chapters 2-3 but we most likely won't bring a DD around for spellhold so our tanking capabilities there will take a big hit. Gladly warrior HLA's won't be that far away once in chapter 4 but for a few key fights we'll need a way to survive. As the fights in chapters 4&5 are dominable with 2,5 fighters (that means 2 full fighters +a dual classed / multi-classed one), our plan of bringing along 3-4 full fighters (or characters who count as such under buffs) means we should be more than equipped to handle those encounters.

We are quite set on Vagrant obviously. After that it's Jaheira and Neera. Those are the locks. Neera because of the nice extra quest in ToB and also because she has great stats & personal item. Jaheira because we've never played it and we need healer. She's supposed to be great and she can fill out both "healer" spot as well as dish out huge amounts of damage in H2H (while buffed).

Vagrant is the best tank in the game and can deal & absorb an insane amount of damage as well, but we do need some help up front so we'll take either one of the ultimate damage dishers, so either Riskbreaker or a Kensai. I can't wrap my head around why RB is better than a Kensai, but I've had a Kensai / a version of a Kensai with previous runs so I'm really too familiar with it - I've done everything I wanted with it. Riskbreaker would be a nice change. That's the only reason we are leaning towards a RB.

We need a supportive arcane caster, so we'll do a custom thief/mage, who'll join in Spellhold. This character will fill out a number of roles, it can support in h2h and will fill out the role of supportive arcane caster. It can also hide in shadows and backstab. Yay!

Then it's just the last slot. We have 3 fighters already in Vagrant, RB ( or Kensai) and the Avenger (so 3 chars who can critical strike already). We have our arcane spell casting covered in Neera + Thief/Mage. We have "only" Jaheira as a healer so we have quite the doubts about our healing capabilities, as we are lacking a Necro & Cernd. So we would likely be looking into healing as well as H2H capabilities.

Pure Cleric's are out of the question because the dual classed version is superior in every way, even getting a 7th level fighter dualled to cleric pumps the cleric to a whole new level. So our choices boil down to dual-/multiclassed fighter-cleric characters where a character like Dwarven Fighter/Cleric would probably fit perfectly. Normally we would be looking into Fighter/Druid combinations, since it's easily and by far superior to the cleric-combinations but ... we already have that in Jaheira and I don't want two very similar characters. Also various Paladin's (or a blackguard for it has permanen NPP + immunity to fear) would be a possibility but since they are quite terrible as healers and lose out to a regular fighter in H2H, it will most likely be a smoother ride with another type of a character on board. And last but definitely not least is the Ranger/Cleric combination, enabling the OP version (where the char will get druidic spells as well). We don't really see why if druidic spells aren't enabled would anyone play that class, as losing out grand mastery and/or faster level gains hurts. A lot.

We are leaning towards the R/C or the dwarven F/C. The F/C could easily utilize staves until chapter 6 when it gets the warrior HLA's. It won't be any sort of a problem protecting that character unitl then. Also Rasaad could be an option.

So we would end up with the following, where last changes will be made in Spellhold. It would be easier if we postpone the last changes until chapter 6, but that feels a little bit like cheating.

PC: Vagrant
Jaheira the Avenger
Neera the Sorceror
Custom T->M
Custom RB (or a Kensai)

And the last slot (most likely) goes to;

Custom Dwarven F/C
Custom Ranger/Cleric combination
Mazzy Fentan
Blackguard (possibly Dorn)
Rasaad

****

Non IA Item's we'll use.

I think compliment IA's items quite nicely while not being OP (with the possible exception of Aegis of Torment)

Tymora's gift (belt +10MR, +3Luck, ch 3)
Black Wolf Talisman (amulet, +10HP, +10Resistance to Cold, +1 AC, ch 2)
Clasp of Bron's Cloak (amulet, +5 phys resistance, ch 3)
Aegis of Torment (amulet, +3AC, +2CON, +15HP, ch 6)
(Edit: we also upgraded the reaching ring to a version that has bonus spells from levels 1-7, instead of levels 5,6 & 7)

+ possibly

Amulet of Ilmater (amulet, +1 AC, +3 Saves, immunity to poison, chapter 6)
Sash of the Black Raven (for a monk, +2 thac0, +2 AC, chapter 6)
Heaven & Earth (mace +4, +2 str, ch 6)
(EDIT: ^We only used amulet of Ilmater)

(EDIT: If anyone is interested the item packs are "Item Pack by Daulmakan 1,8" & "Item upgrade mod pack by Westley Weimer v 4.0". In addition to the items up above they do introduce items that are completely OP, which we do not use & new ways of forging (like rings of protection +2 for 5k), which we do not use either).

This post has been edited by pekkae: Feb 23 2022, 06:55 AM

[pekkae]

To Chapter 4 we go.

Help Ginia & Ason

Get Stonefire axe

Do the Lady Galvena - quest
We whack the mage and leave galvena attacking skinned & mirror imaged Neera. Then we whack all of the guards. They don't stand a chance. Once we know there aren't any more coming we whack Galvena. Mage drops 4 absolute immunities. That's 12k. Nice.

Whack Perth the Adept
Then we visit spellhold grounds for a casual late night whack (mists, pun intended)

Desharik send us to Spellhold

** Status **

Crew at Spellhold maze

Our crew is in it's final form. After play testing and tweaking around for a bit, we decided we are going to use Valygar for the Riskbreaker, as mentioned earlier and we'll use our "last slot" for a Kensai. So we drop our initial assumption of needing healing and maximize our H2H capabilities by picking (arguably) the best fighter in the game. So Imoen the (IaTweaked) Kensai, welcome.

We know that with our setup we will be in trouble. For our lack of arcane spellcasting capabilities puts us in an enormous hole for a while. But we don't think those troubles will be unsolvable, but it won't be as easy-breezy as possible. We will suffer in a few fights and it will be very tight. But suffering for a while in order to be more powerful later on is perfectly fine for us. It's actually preferable. The whole chapters 4-5 would be humongously easier if we would just switch the crew in Chapter 6 but as mentioned earlier, we are reluctant to do that, as that feels like cheating. Besides, after Spellhold it will start to even out and we can better utilize our strengths quite fast afterwards.

Our plan of "milking as much exp as possible" is also problematic in the sense that our group is atm (& in the immediate future) much, much, much better equipped to solving problems with "whack everything within a round", than "survive for a long time to max exp". Actually, we will get our milking superpowers at a much later stage when the majority of our milking possibilities have already been solved. The tradeoff is, that even if we do the milking part in a little bit harder way, we will be extremely well equipped to handle the easily most challenging encounters in the game. And ofc. when we get our milking superpowers, the rest of the milking will be, well, cushy.

Voilá our group, for the rest of the game. (With one exception we'll take later on.)

Vagrant, Str 18/87, Dex 18, Con 19, Int 9, Wis 12, Cha 19 (he got the charisma tome earlier)
Jaheira (Avenger)
Neera (Sorcerer)
Valygar (Riskbreaker)
Imoen (Kensai)
Custom T/M (Assassin), Str 15, Dex 18, Con 14, Wis 17, Int 17, Cha 9

PC at 2,33 Mexp. Jaheira is about the same level.

We use the tomes we have been dragging this far, so PC gets str + dex, Jaheira gets 3x wis, T/M gets int, Valygar gets con.

Vagrant (PC): Level 14, 155 HP, AC -12
Stuff: Frostreaver + fortress shield / harmonium halberd, Shadow Dragon Scale, Helm of Balduran ,2nd sword arm gauntlets, clasp of bron's cloak, destroyer of hills, 2x Rop +2, Cloak +1, Paws of cheetah

Jaheira (Avenger): Level 13, 98HP, AC -2,
Stuff: Staff of Arundel / Spear of Kuldahar, Orc leather, paws of the furious cat, circlet of the woods, harper's ward, 2x RoP +1, Cloak +1, Paws of Cheetah, elves bane

Neera: Level 15, 65HP, AC 8,
Stuff: Martial Staff / sling +3, Robe of Invocation, Pearly white ioun stone, AoP, Rop +1, ring of acuity, atoy's belt, cloak +1

Assassin level 18, 92HP, AC -5,
Stuff: Martial Staff / Shortbow +1, The night's gift, ln zekk gauntlets, hood of the honorless, wooden horse necklace, 2 x RoP +1, Cloak +1, belt of minor invulnerability, Paws of cheetah

Valygar (Riskbreaker) Level 16, 163HP, AC -2,
Stuff: Solemn Duty / Kneecapper + Waters Edge +4 (off-hand), pale green ioun stone, black wolf talisman, 2xRop +1, cloak +1, girdle of bluntness, Paws of the cheetah

Imoen (Kensai): Level 16, 129HP, AC 2,
Stuff: Staff of Rhynn / Peridan + Blade of Roses, Amulet +1, 2xRoP +1, Cloak +1,

**

Wares
Gold at 44k
30 Dispel & Remove magic scrolls (Yea!)
1 Barbarian Essences
8 scrolls of PfF

**

Neera's Spellbook:

Lvl1: magic missile, chromatic orb, protection from evil, llarloch's minor drain, nahal's reckless dweller
Lvl2: horror, glitter dust, melf's acid arrow, mirror image, resist fear,
LVl3: flame arrow, remove magic, hold person, protection from fire,
Lvl4: greater malision, emotion, polymorph other, stoneskin,
Lvl5: breach, lower resistances, spell immunity, cone of cold
Lvl6: improved haste, protection from magic energy, protection from magic weapons
Lvl7: mordekainen's sword, RRoR

** / status **

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jan 14 2022, 11:30 AM