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]

***
Portal Room
Prebuffs, summon a couple of swords + Swanmay, CS. Jaheira runs to golems & uses the horn of blasting to interrupt Rukh conjurer.

Then we draw the golems out to the courtyard, where we materialized in the first place. Full on attack from everyone, make sure that 2 golems take a sword. Neera & Jaheira take aggros, finish bone as fast as possible (for we have awful saves).

It takes a few tries, mostly because hideous laughter gets us all the time / something else, like Jaheira accidentally blasts herself and gets whacked by the golems.

Assassin is completely useless. Will put a separate note when Assassin can actually accomplish ... anything.


Spider ambush
Max prebuffs, max summons, dodge web & anhilate starting with whisperer spider(s).


Crystal Shard Kobolds.
We suffer. Oh boy we do we suffer. It's so difficult it's super annoying. Our group is comprehensively ill-equipped to handle this encounter. And it comes down to optimizing positions & equipment and everything. Completely opposite to our mantra of "enter, obliterate, repeat"

Anyway, we PfL + PfC + IH + Everything else we have. Dodge improved chain lightnings with summons. Jaheira tanks an amber (#3), but doesn't attack. Neera tanks one (#2) while starting to turn the amber #3 into a chicken (skins, lr, lr (interrupted), skins, lr (interrupted), lr, skins, and so on). Summons go for the amber #1

Fighters take out guardians, then witch doctor. Jaheira interrupts doctor's greater malision with horn of blasting. After witch doctor is dead they go fo amber that is surrounded by summons, so the amber #1. We full assault it (completely opposite to how this is the easiest), then withdraw to heal when hp's are down. Vagrant quaffs 4 oils of resurgerence. We manage to whack the amber #1.

Then for Neera's amber (#2). Vagrant, who now is healing about 30 hp's per round takes the lead. Others quaff healing potions and follow. Whack, when near death, retreat, heal. With help from the clan spirit, who is target of aggro, we manage to whack it. Valygar is at 10hp's, Imoen is at 4 hp's :/. Neera has gotten 4 LR's away to amber #4. Vagrant goes to stand near the amber to offer a target for aggro (he's still regenrating very fast), Neera starts GM and Jaheira iron skins. It's the last one she has. Clan Spirit comes to help (we skinned & wonderous recalled a few skins before for CS) and attacks. Amber goes for clan spirit. Great. Greater Malision hits. Jaheira Dooms. Neera PO's & the first PO hits. YES!

We win. With the slightest of margins.

( For A LOT easier time, we could have used a scroll of spell sequencer (3xPO) and a scroll of spell trigger (3xLR) which we both have. But as I don't remember where the next ones of those scrolls will be, we are very reluctant to do that )


Tomes
Neera conveniently levels up before this fight & we get a level 8 spell. We take Ms8. Ofc.

For coin we summon a sword. (it takes the aggro, while everyone else whacks). For gem Neera goes to hug the golem while the rest of the crew whacks (we use 1 stoneskin on this). We are actually highly appreciative of gem golems for they bring us many a magical gifts later on <3. For Ghost Spider we summon a djinn & kitthix. Vagrant takes improved web with potion of freedom. Kensai is improved hastes & Valygar uses innate IH.

Then for the actual fight. How to milk as many spawns as possible from the Elemental, with a crew of 5 with terrible tanking capabilities and no Cernd. We try a few different approaches but come back to the same conclusion. It's Jaheira's job to tank the elemental, it's probably the best way. There's no way Vagrant can take it - he's still too weak. Neera could, but she seems to run out of skins way faster than Jaheira. Also Neera doesn't have acid resistance, only through potions, so she would take a lot of damage even while skinned up (+50% through potions but that's it).

The fight is very tricky. We lose it once after we've milked 4 golems out of it. We could whack it before it gets a single spawn away, but we lack the "endurance-skills" to properly do this as in getting all 6 spawns out. We have to tank it with skinned character (under PfF, PfC, PfL + acid resistance from spells / potions). So we play it around to 3 spawns (Jaheira can easily tank till about here) and then drop the golem. When we drop it we have a swanmay, 2 swords & joolon we could still summon + Neera has 6 skins. Maybe we should have continued but ... oh well.

We use maybe 8 potions of extra healing, 1 potion of acid resistance + 2 potions of regeneration for the fight.


Mithril Golem
Valygar conveniently levels up before this, so we get chain breaker stance. It will go to great use immediately. So we have 2 regenerations to use on whoever will take the Aggro. If my calculation is correct, we have ...

5 APR from Vagrant
6 APR from Jaheira
9 APR from Valygar
5 APR from Imoen
6 APR from Clan Spirit
----
31 APR with Fighter Thac0's. That's better than if we had a party of 6 Barbarians with 2H weapons.

+ attacks from all of ur summons (Swanmay, Noble Trolls + Swords) against the Mithril Golem. Somehow I don't see a problem here. Plus we can chain breaker stance with Riskbreaker.

**

Well, it isn't as easy as I thought. Vagrant is a dreadful tank at this point. However, Vagrant quaffs 5 potions of rejuvenation pre fight, then we enter with swanmay, clan spirit & noble troll. Everyone fully buffed ofc. Jaheira follows and drops 2xregen on Vagrant. After that he's regenerating about 70-90hp/round. It's enough to take down the golem. Riskbreaker helps quite a lot with chain breaker stance. No barbarian essences required.


**

Irenicus
Well, we're really glad we didn't use that spell sequencer scroll earlier. We use it now to GM+Emotion+Hold person. We also limited wish CC for 3xSwords. With that setup it's easily doable. Max Prebuff's (so IH,s skins, SI:Abjuration for Neera, PfF's, Vagrant takes minor globe (from the belt), giant strength for Imoen, potions of invulnerability for Valygar + Imoen)

1st rd Jaheira casts regen on Valygar, who chain breaker stances. Sequencer takes down most of the clones and conveniently makes them immobile. Jaheira then Creeping dooms nearest immobile/unconscious clone from Irenicus and it hits Irenicus as well. Great. Then we single out the scouts, swords work as detractions & whack. For once, we don't summon the Clan Spirit. After the launching the trigger Neera joins H2H. She has instant skins so she's safe.

Sort of.

Well. Neera gets PW:K'ed, as she gets hit with meteros & immediately drops below 60 hp. Jaheira raises her soon. Then T/M gets PW:K as well, with similar treatment. We raise her after the fight is done.

We pick up Yoshimos's heart. We'll need it later.

**