The Journal of the Insane Kensai, Playing a Kensai on Insane, spoilers and whatnot. Options

[pekkae]

Welcome. Again.

So we succumbed into "Insane".

We are looking to obliterate, again.

Our last crew with Vagrant spearheaded by Riskbreaker & Kensai was quite OP, except for the most difficult fight(s) as in the demogorgon-fight, which was extremely difficult. In the end H2H rules in almost all fights. However we botched our approach as in we didn't read the rules clear enough, so we managed to inflict quite a lot of pain for ourselves in the early parts of the game most notably in chapters 4-5, but we wanted to "play by the rules". In the end we obliterated though. That was the plan and it worked for some (most) parts at least. But in the end we weren't completely happy with our crew though.

However, we managed to dig a hole for ourselves forcing to re-think strategies and to survive, with very, very sub-optimal setup for good parts of the game. Managing to do this though, we think we have enough not to play on Core anymore - we can do it and do it easily. So we will up the difficulty. However, we think that with increased difficulty comes slightly different challenges. For example we think in we can't really tank with anything else than skinned characters, besides the DD ofc since it has about 50% physical resistance quite early. In that way it's about similar to tanking with a regular fighter on core rules, the result should be about the same. And since we did that already, we think we should be quite Ok tanking with a DD (with quite the increased divine spellcasting power that is)

But everyone else we need to protect we think. And we really need CS's, in the few difficult fights. So how do we construct a crew that has max skins, CS's, extreme spell casting capabilities together with great H2H (APR's & Thac0's)?

We think we have this solved. Ahem. Again.

The Rules

- No non-protagonist related drops & forging, though ...
- We get to forge MotA (as we don't get to forge anything else and it actually isn't even a drop, as we'll get the required items)
- We have 91 pts to distribute with the custom character we have
- We have the tomes from bg1 to spread among the crew
- Protector of the Woods is fixed to be usable by a Druid as well (it also fits the lore and it would be a shame to let it unused, since it's such a great item for a druid)
- Max HP's for NPC's
- We'll bend the rules just a little bit regarding a specific item later on in the game, but we are a bit hesitant to call it "cheating", since we can actually do it within the game's rules & it fits the lore as well. We won't abuse it though.
- A few (2-3) non-IA bonus items, to supplement item classes that don't have a lot of choices (two amulets & a belt).
- Rotating crew of party members in early chapters, as usual

***

Voilá our crew, we'll end up with:

Kensai (PC), the best damage dealer in the game we think. Needs to be protected, as otherwise will be toast immediately. Kensai gets the nod over Riskbreaker because it can use staves, so we can actually protect it in the early chapters, when RB is limited to dual wielding without range thus being subject of constant near-death experiences (due to myself being not that good of a player perhaps). Will get JD for dual wielding purposes later in the game for game breaking damage dishing. Will have skins in the end through JD. Gets the PC slot for early game superpowers. Played as Half-Orc with maxed stats from the beginning: (STR 19, DEX 18, CON 19, INT 9, WIS 18, CHA 9)

Korgan the Dwarven Defender. The only character that can tank in the game throughout all of the chapters, sort of. Is able to get about 40-50% physical resistance quite early in the game though abilities + innate physical resistance. This type of resistance also cannot be dispelled nor breached - a major, major bonus over any other type of (phys. resistance) tank. Combines very low AC with up-to 70% resistance to physical damage, which should keep him quite safe until the very end. That and 250-300 HP's with 100% fire resistance and so on. And ofc some timely healing from Cernd. Would play Korgan, but we don't like him so we take Minsc with Korgan's stats. So essentially we're playing a Korgan, who's nice and who carries a miniature giant space hamster around. We'd love to see that hamster in a fight one of these days.

Jaheira the Avenger. The best early game (H)2H damage disher. Amazing complimentary items and abilities, able to get to 6 APR with staffs / spears in chapter 2/3. Gets to summon the Clan Spirit. Gets Critical Strikes. Plays like a fighter, but with superpowers in the early game. Can tank in almost all fights and the one where she really can't, we have a plan for that fight. Gets the Golem Slayer, for... well, golem slaying purposes.

Imoen the Sorceress. Our archmage for top-notch arcane spellcasting superpowers. Will get MotA. A Necromancer gets +1 spells per level through levels 1-7 somewhere around level 30 or so we are thinking about giving her the same bonus spells. Can be silenced, so that's a big minus. Early access to amazing difficulty breaking spells though. We'll use them fully!

Cernd the Auramaster as the ultimate divine spell caster for prebuffing, debuffing & tanking golems and for summoning greater elementals, anacondas and the Smilodon. Will dominate encounters especially in chapters 4 & 5. An amazing healer & lich-killer. Insane amount spell slots. In later stages it will be Cernd's job to disable enemy casters and keep the crew alive with heals, regenerations & natural restorals. Especially those regen's will be in high demand, we think. Also, by the end he will be arguably the most powerful spellcaster in the realms, on par with a Necromancer, a lot better in a number of encounters, as powerful as a demi-god so a very worthy companion for a realms-roaming bhaalspawn.

Up to this point the crew is quite "conventional", as in nothing special besides the choice for the PC & the double-druid perhaps, though very, very powerful and almost solely NPC's with their original (IA) classes. What we are still lacking is H2H capabilities together with casting capabilities. We think there's only one character that we can use for this. Gets to cast everything besides ADHW, which it wouldn't cast anyway. Gets +1 spells per level. Gets critical strikes. Gets fighter Thac0's. Gets amazing equipment. Doesn't have great hit points but it's offset by being able to tank with skins & pfmw's & mirror images. Can also chain contigency properly & use triggers. We think she'll be great! Doesn't get IA but then again, without minuses in casting time IA is almost useless. Can also breach and tank enemies like a boss and is able to summon powerful allies for help. So a custom made gnomish Fighter/Illusionist, welcome! We think she'll be great! (STR 13, DEX 18, CON 18, INT 17, WIS 12, CHA 13).

So in the end ...

=> 5/6 are able to skin up (6/7 if we count the Clan Spirit).
=> The one that can't skin up has the best physical resistance & about the best AC in the game
=> 4/6 can go about critical striking awee'
=> 2/6 can clense auras with tremendous casting time bonuses (aura clensing without casting time bonuses is well, pointless)
=> We have the best casting ability both arcane & divine in the game
=> Effective use of the most powerful gear in the game

We think we'll break it, even on insane!

****

A few abbreviations we use in this Journal

Spells:

MS Minor Sequencer
SS Spell Sequencer
ST Spell Trigger
MS7 Monster Summoning 7 (7th level spell)
MS8 Monster Summoning 8 (8th level spell, troll)
MS9 Monster Summoning 9 (9 the level spell, greater yaun-ti)
CS Clan Spirit, Jaheira's summon
CC Chain Contigency (9th level arcane spell) / Chaotic Commands (5th level divine spell)
PfMW Protection from Magic Weapons
PfME Protection from Magic Energy
PftE Protection from the Elements
PfE PRotection from Energy
PfF Protection from Fire
PFL Protection from Lightning
PfC Protection from Cold
PfA Protection from Acid
GOi Globe of Invulnerability
ST Spell Truning
PO Polyomorph Other
IH Improved Haste
GM Greater Malision
DUHM Draw Upon Holy Might (Bhaalspawn ability / 2nd level divine spell)
IA Improved Alacrity (the 9th level arcane spell)
RRoR Ruby Ry of Reversal (the level arcane spell)
ADHW Abu Dalzim's Horrid Wilting (8th level arcane spell)
CoC Cone of Cold (5th level arcane spell)
AA Acid Arrow (2nd level arcane spell)
MM Magic Missile (1st level arcne spell)
SoA Shield of Archons


Stuffs & other's

AoP Amulet of Power
CF Crom Fayer
DoE Defender of Easthaven
CotW Circlet of the Woods
CotGF Citclet of the Golden Flowers
MotA Memory of the Apprenti
CS Critical Strike (Warrior HLA (high level ability))
F/M Fighter Mage, our custom made gnomish fighter/Illusionist
F/I our F/M
DD Dwarven Defender
OoR Oil of Resurgenrece

This post has been edited by pekkae: May 19 2022, 08:03 AM

[kilorew]

Yup I had a feeling that Ancient Dragon fight with no Necro on insane would be a pain in the ass. Hurts to even think about.

Look forward to the plan for Demo!

[pekkae]

Yup I had a feeling that Ancient Dragon fight with no Necro on insane would be a pain in the ass. Hurts to even think about.

Look forward to the plan for Demo!

It's always a pain. Though I think I have it covered for now, it doesn't seem impossible at all once one gets the hang of it!

***
At 7m exp our multiclassed F/I has 7 HLA's. A Paladin with same exp has 10 HLA's. Our F/I has also gained all of the ground regarding Thac0's. Compared to Paladin/Ranger she's lacking a little bit in HLA's, somewhat in hit points & weapon proficiency points. On the bonus side she's quite the competent spell-caster. Monies at about 450k, some gear left unsold still.
***

Mystery of the Shimmering light

De-buff and anhilate. Elite Doppleganger against DD's 55% undispellable resistance + double regen is easily enough.


Judgement Day - fight

We can't blow through this. We probably could, if we would swap Cernd for a Riskbreaker to add muchos-muchos H2H capabilities, but we would have had a terrible time so far in the game.

It takes some time before we find the right rhytm for the fight.

Demon Lord's summons aren't a problem. We get mostly elemental golems. That's completely fine for us since they are much easier to dispatch than Marilith groups. Jaheira is our best tank against them, as she's got the shadow dragon scale, that together with improved dragon helm and Boots of Grounding means she only needs "resist fire & cold" to have about 100% in elemental resistances (we don't need em Boots when we get the Harper Pin, but we don't have it yet). The only thing that comes through the skins then is the acid, where she's only at 50% without acid shield. Naturally we have a lot more "resist fire & cold" 's then protection from elements & PfE's. And ofc she has the golem slayer, so when we get "hardiness" we can drop her phys. resistance against crushing to 75%. She usually equips the girdle of lordly might so with buffs she's at 190hp's or so. With regen, good enough easily.

Anyway, whack the entourage, they aren't a problem - so we tank with Jaheira or Cernd mostly

The end is annoying for the FoD trigger + lower fire resistances + the oodles of absolute immunities. We make it, though we have to once re-up through Wish.


Ultra golem + GEG

F/I takes initial purge with summons. She then uses ST to launch PFMW + IH + skins. GEG goes for summons so our frontline + CS (PfL + IH'd) goes for ultra golem. Everyone CS's, Cernd + Imoen aura clense. Cernd summons distractions, Imoen summons + turns a few ambers into chickens + once ultra drops the dispel she imediately re-up's IH's for our frontline.


Nasty Orcsies - fite

Well, here we are again. We come in prepared though. Our least favourite fight in the while game. Prebuff to the max. Additional buffs we usually death ward, protection from poison & protection from petrification on on DD + F/I. Kensai + Jaheira take potions of magic protection, they don't do the "mage runs" that much. Potion of storm giant strength for F/I.

We optimize our equipment;

Jaheira with Noble Staff of Earth + Senses of the Cat is at -22 against missiles. We can aura of flaming death her to -26 & if we use DUHM we can drop to -28. That's good enough not to be targetted. We have numerous auras of flaming death.

DD has defender of easthaven in off-hand + BoIB so with Hardiness he's at 70% phys resistance + 85% against missiles. Then we further optimize by equipping the orc leather for him, which puts him at 95% physical resistance against missiles with Hardiness. Conveniently it also makes him easier to hit, it's the perfect combination - easy to hit, impossible to hurt. Though missing one hardiness means he's dead. Most likely. In a pinch we could equip the supreme shelter. (The arrows do 28 pts of damage, but with DD's protections they are down to 2 pts, how noice!)

F/I takes gloves of missiles snaring dropping her AC against missiles to -16. We can drop an additional -10 against missiles by equipping the supreme shelter. That plus SI:Divination, improved invisibility + blur mens that we can get as low as -29 against missiles or so (-19 without supreme shelter) assuming there's no bonus from improved invisibility. And ofc. she has skins + mirror images + pfmw's to keep her safe. And a few foreknowledges. And CC's & triggers & everything.

Kensai is safe with Judgement Day & almost continuous CS / Kai.

Imoen with SI:Divintion + Mirror Images + Blur + Improved Invisibility is at -15 + occasional foreknowledge (to -19) and PFMW's.

That leaves Cernd, who is in trouble here the most. Cernd takes the ox-tail belt, that together with barkskin + aura of flaming death means he's at -19 against missiles. We cast "protection from missiles" every now and then but it doesn't last that long (we don't actually even check if works but we cast it). Usually missing one mirror image / iron skins means he's dead.

Drop mages immediately, summon for distraction, buffs (IH+ Regen) on bigger summons (so Smilodons & CS). After entering (we usually aura clense here) Cernd & Imoen take turns in dispelling. Cernd with dispel magic, Imoen with remove magic. We keep Imoen & Cernd a little bit away from each other so that we can see when mirror images are out. All three of F/I + Imoen + Cernd have SI:Divination + Improved Invisibility active. Imoen casts the improved invisibility to F/M, so it's more difficult to dispel. Renew regen on DD. We have oodles of 'em.

With this setup we can manage. However, we will run out of defensive buffs so we need a wish:rest. If we don't get it, we lose. And we need it at mid-point, so after 1-2 hours of playing through this. We win this perhaps on the 5th try or something like that?

In the end, we're all out of resources & in desperation mode.

We are super glad this part os over.