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]

**

Back to Brynnlaw and we whack Desharik (or what's his name, he's worth 15k or so) and let Saemon guide us to the sea. When Saemon departs, or tries to, Assasin backstabs him. He's worth some 18k or so. Great.

**


Prince Vinyardi
Our H2H too great, our summons (waay) too powerful. I mean waaaaaaaayyy.


1st drow ambush
CC's for anyone without a mind shield. Summon troll, sword, Swanmay + Clan Spiri. IH's, skins.

PC takes improved web with potion of free action. Very smooth and quick. Our H2H capabilities are too much.


Rescue the Svirneblin child
No rewards necessary + backstab the other nasties.


Western tunnels
We clear this part. Prebuff wih skins, ih's and an occasional barskin for Kensai.

Kua'Toan wizards & priests are taken down with insect plague / creeping doom + 3x cone of cold trigger from Neera. The 3 xCoC trigger actually almost kills the wizards & priests. Together with insect plague & creeping doom they are defenseless. Ditto for the prince fight, summons move in first, while our frontline takes out the royal guards. Jaheira creeping doom's & insect plagues, neera chain lightnings (from scrolls & debuffs). Assasin summons fodder thru items.


2nd drow ambush
We summon our help in Swanmays, Clan Spirit & trolls, Valygar takes the western side. PC takes improved web and manages to direct it to the small enclave in the rock near the ambush (with potion of free action ofc.). Our summons move in for H2H, while our characters stay back, buff and then move in to whack. Valygar goes chain breaker stance. We manage after a few tries.


Ust'Natha
We blow through this. Assassinate Jarlaxle, more exp that way. We whack the whole city and everything in it on our way out. We return silver's egg's & whack the drow near the entrance and come back to Underdark.


We would like to take this opportunity to highlight that even though we just killed an entire city full of sentient beings, and even all the evidence "au contraire", we are actually pacifists in our group and we don't think violence is a viable option for solving problems

** Status **

We do mage's proposal and Assassin levels up to 23. Great. We take UAI and immediately dual class her to a mage. Then we finish "mage's proposal" and she gets 20k of exp. She then sips nature's gift (*hölökynkölökyn* as we say here in Härmä) giving her 270k of exp to start with and even some usefulness in combat, as now she can be a decoy. Now we can use her for something at least, instead of just dragging her along. We give her fire tooth for now. So yea... Neera levels up, takes RvE + IA. ofc. There's a stark contrast with usefulness of our arcane spellcasters

** /Status **

Demon Knights
hmh. I don't think this has has ever been so easy.

We prebuff with PfF's, IH's & PfMW's (on frontline, but no IH on Jaheira - she's tanking). Summon a few Swanmays & clan spirit & kitthix (Kitthix goes to the altar). T/M also casts SI:Abjuration.

Initiate. Swanmays each take 1 demon knight, clan spirit takes one. jaheira takes one. Valygar, Imoen + PC take one (it lasts for half a round). Neera IA. Fighters then move on to the 2nd one, who is pestered by CS (didn't haste it this time as we're short on level6 spells). It gets horror away, luckily Neera just resist fear's (x3). Valygar runs around to the bottom part of the screen where the 2 bottom ones are pestered with Swanmays. Neera 3xRRoR + Breach on a demon knight and then SI:Necromancy. Valygar goes for one near him at the bottom and activates power attack and what do you know, the demon knights can be stunned. So Valygar stuns 1 knight and then moves on to the 2nd knight, leaving the helpless knight to Swanmay. Jaheira gets breached a few times but she immediately just skins up again. Our frontline just takes the knights out one by one, they don't even get a remove magic away.

After the fight PC is down 18 hit points and Jaheira is down 26 hit points. Demon Knights obliterated.

(Edit: Haha. We actually forgot to reset our difficulty setting, as we lowered it to "easy" because we were learning spells. So that's why it was so easy. Naturally our self esteem takes immediately an enormous hit and we'll try not to brag about our accomplishments later on in this journal. We play it again on core. Much more challenging this way. They get a dispel magic off but still Valygar stuns 2 demon knights (or at least one, the other one dies so fast we don't bother to check) and I think Imoen stuns one. Ive never used power attack before. Well anyway, this was much fun still even though we are not nearly as dominant as we thought. Now we will fetch our "jackass" - hat and go sit in the corner and be ashamed )

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jan 17 2022, 07:43 PM