Yet another Journal. Random crews & some uncommon tactics and techniques, One big spoiler from start to finish. Options

[pekkae]

Journal Part 1.


Welcome. Again.

I think this is the last journal, for now at least. It's much fun for me to tinker with the party composition and I think the last partial run starring a Berserker(13)/Mage I learned a lot again (though no journal that time). So here we are, yet again. I don't think there's that much that I would have not tried, but the one thing that I have not played since the very first attempt is my favorite character from the vanilla game as in the Cleric/Mage. So we've decided to build a crew starring a C/M. Her roman name is "tankius maximus", so that might give you a little bit of a clue where this is headed . And there's some new spells etc. we have not tried which we've only now beginning to figure out.

The 6.6. version changes things. We now have a clear idea on how to develop some of the underutilized characters in the game. And the changes bring some amazing capabilities and abilities for the crew, even if we are lacking a single class cleric. They just come a little bit later on. We are looking to utilize the revamped powers in their full extent and the highlight a few ways the newly acquired powers can be developed into "superpowers".

So yet again we are not aiming to survive, we are aiming to anhilate. Every an all content in the mod. We think we have what it takes. Ahem. Again.

The Rules

- No non-protagonist related forging (if we forge a protagonist specific thing, we'll reserve it if we change the protagonist)
- We rolled a 95 for our PC. (I have a screen cap to prove it, previous high was 93 pts)
- 92 pts for the custom character(s) we have
- We have tomes from bg1 to spread among the crew
- Max HP's for NPC's
- Rotating crew throughout
- Chromatic Demon drops the full circlet of netheril (not just the frame).
- 6.5 cloak for Hexxat (For late game comprehensively overpoweredness)
- We'll revamp blessing a little bit, or we reserve the right to do that
- Insane all the way

***

Cleric/Mage

The gnomish illusionist / cleric version. Get's her superpowers quite late in the game. We shall use variety of tactics from the start so should be quite useful throughout. We could have used Aerie for this, but we think the combination of her hammer + elven ancient experitse (+ IA) would off the balance, so we chose a custom PC for this. So we are thinking about giving the C/M IA + a little bit better stats in tradeoff for Aeries's superbly useful hammer + elven ancient expertise. And +1 Wisdom. A little bit more power later on, that's the way we like it. Gets IA at 6.8mexp, so our "cheat" comes in quite late. Plus we get to cast find familiar + we get vocalize in the beginnig. We'll be missing vampiric touches, a big minus.

Having a C/M though changes our composition, as we are used to playing with one full arcane & divine caster, one additional arcane + divine caster that is "half" the caster half fighter and two fighters. But the C/M sort of combines both the arcane & divine half-caster roles, leaving us with an additional fighter. How nice! We shall utilize this fully.

Ellidira Wildspring, gnomish Cleric/Illusionist: Str 11, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 14.


Jaheira

Early game comprehensively OP character. Summons Clan Spirits, so an additional damage dealing machine.


Neera

Because her personal item is superb. Early access to swords, trolls + 5 improved hastes.


Keldorn (Inquisitor)

The new armour makes Keldoen very, very deadly. Plus Inquisitor has numerous other fights where it shines. In the end Keldorn will trivialize the orcus fight, for example. Plus the instant access to 50% MR and 40% resistance to magic damage through the armour is tremendous. An additional bonus is that those dispel will be really handy in numerous fights as our dispelling powers are mostly down to Neera + Jaheira. So a third character with dispels is very welcome. We don't think C/M will have high enough levels to properly dispel, but we shall see when we are there.

(abtually Keldorn doesn't get along with Hexxat so we give Keldorns stats & equipment to Imoen. There's an additional bonus as we like having her around).


Hexxat

The most OP late-game character that is completely overlooked. Probably about 2nd powerful character in the game, after Cernd. And no-one uses her. It's silly.


The last slot

We would have wanted a Vagrant (so we would have taken a Vagrant PC). For the summons and late game superpowers. But we just could not do it. There's numerous fights where pure non-dispellable power rules over anything else. And this is what we are lacking and unfortunately Vagrant doesn't provide that, until little very, very late in the game. There's only one character, that completely rocks the "undisppelable" raw strength slot. That is the DD. Also the new improved abilities at 6.6 version & changes are tremendous for a DD. So we shall make a custom one to take along. We use Minsc as a template, for we like his dialogue . We have a pretty good idea how to supercharge this character to god-like levels later in the game, though it will definitely be a powerhouse from the start.

Dwarven Defender, STR 18:80, Dex 17, Con 19, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 18.


***

Chapter 0

***
DD takes constitution tome and dexterity tome. PC takes 3x wisdom tomes and charisma tome.
Skip the dungeon
***

Chapter 1

Kalah & circus tent

Chapter 2

Fite outside CC
Fite inside CC (just breeze through with cause serious wounds)
Join Nalia (the F/M)
Join Jan
De'Arnise Keep (clear first floor completely, make the stew etc. very easy xp + monies)
Killer Mimic thingy
Madaulf wants to make a deal with the village

***
Casting free action on DD doesn't make a difference with "defensive stance". The 50% movement rate still gets applied.
***

Faldorn (she has 0 chance against a C/M)
Druid Part 1 (gm+holy smite for the rats)
Adratha (null clouds, protecto from cold, clan spirit for kids & tank with c/m who has about -15 AC + skins + mirror images)
Heroes of Trademeet

***
We buy martial staff and ofc. the dwarven thrower! ooh la'laa! two weapons +3! We use the revamped ncause serious wounds / cause critical wounds extensively in the beginning. They work tremendously well here
***

Suna seni (requires numerous reloads, as we're ill prepared. interrupt cleric & emotion & spell theust away)
return neb's head
sir sarles

Chapter 3

mae'var questline talos (we visit the temple & buy the girdle of bluntness from her before activating this)
poisoned man
prebek (death spell)
xzar & montaron
return to harper hold
copper coronet backroom (beastmaster)
caretaker
tirdir
skinner murders
slaver stockade (we're quite early for this, it takes numerous tries... )

***
Forge Paws for Jaheira ofc. This approach with 4 offensive casters seems to work really well here. We can do a lot of damage by coordinating 4 flame arrows or so. One pure fighter is enough together with Jaheira, who can also buff.
***

Pai'na (so we can let go of Cernd soon)
Cernd's child
Book of Kaza (so join Korgan, then drop him)
Rasaad's quest
Neera's quests
Jan Jansen family troubles

***
Crew at 800kexp or so. 50k more to go before improved haste. Before heading of to next quest we forge cloak +2 for DD. With plate of the dark from fadel ironeye + shield of the lost DD now has effective -20AC vs all damage types (DD has ** in sword and shield style). Which we can drop with SoA + defensive harmony to -26. And of course then we have long lasting protection from evil, which gives attackers -2- So I think we're at -28 effective AC. Plus we have mirror images from ilbratha. That should be enough against pretty much anything at this stage.

The 6.6 changes in sword & shield style mean that shields are very effective in the early game. This is a game (tactic) changer. No more dual-wielding for all, as sword & shield - style is more powerful. Gold at 30k.

The crew is C/M, Jaheira, DD, Nalia (F/M version), Jan Jansen + Neera. This works wondefully well for we have enough fighting capability with extreme casting ability (hello 4x flame arrow per round).

***

De'arnise keep

DD is about non-hittable, as we can drop to -28AC vs. piercing (-23vs Crushing). And we can reach -45% DR already. So the whisperer spider is a breeze. We 1st disable spell protections then lower resistances + gm + hold monster the greater yuan ti. luckily the hold monster lands, we don't have many (both Jan + Nalia have it). The library room we manage to drop the yuan-ti mage with emotion/chaos. Vengenace trolls are weaponless against -28AC & 4xflame arrows per round. Glacius is a breeze. We get to 850k exp downstairs so we have IH for Tor'Gal. prebuff. Storm in. Neera takes the gem and the rest whack Tor'Gal, whose storm of vengenace & dispel both get interrupted. DD gets hit maybe 2 times or so. We don't even need defensive stance here. Then giant trolls & noble trolls and last we take out the gem. Much easier this way. Double SI:Abjuration (PC + Nalia) works tremendously well here. DD is amazing. We can throw him against noble trolls and don't even need defensive stance, with it we are at 35% DR.


Belm
Druid Grove part 2 (chaos, so pick up Cernd & drop Jan for a while)
Cult of the eyeless (We tried doing this earlier but a ghost spider blocks our way...?)
Fallen paladins


Start rescue garrens child

Rukh Conjurer - C/M can drop her AC to -24 or so. It's easily enough not to get hit. That plus skins, images + SI:Abjuration to keep the PfF up is easily enough. Super easy this way. DD takes the golem ambush with -24AC vs. crushing, but it isn't enough. We also need defensive stance and a few potions of rejuvenation. So no golem-tanking yet for DD, otherwise with super low AC the DD has been a revelation.


Mencar Pebblecrusher
Nalia's father's funeral
Riddle in the sewers

Sewer gang

DD with effective -28AC storms in. Gets hit once or twice. Low AC rocks. We have 3 RRoR's left.


Windspear hills

Meh. It's quite straightforward. We milk all skeleton lords for Conster. We don't get Paladin stronghold, for some reason(?). We've gotten thief, fighter and cleric strongholds thus far. And we need the pride of the legion. So we console in the item, I wasn't looking forward to those quests anyway. DD fares quite well against Skeleton Lords as well.


Free Haer'Dalis

***
We forge cloak +2 and the chaos potion. After careful consideration, it goes to Jaheira. So she's perma confusion immune.
***

Planar prison

We breeze through this. DD works yet again extremely well, as we can easily drop our AC vs. planar hounds (piercing) to -28 or so. He doesn't get hit + he makes a level so additional 0,5APR, hooray. If I recall correctly the hounds dispel chaotic commands, but as DD is near-unhittable it doesn't make any sort of difference. RRoR wares up to 5 scroll again. And we are quite close with Neera to getting RRoR. Since she's our main caster, we'll take swords as the 2nd 7th level spell.


Planar sphere

Could we just steal the belt from the knights? We didn't try it. As we are AC maxing, it would be a fun item to have against the skellys. C/M's blade barrier destroyes the halflings and the spiders. We turn some golems into chickens and have some fun with the demons. C/M has vocalize, we have the amulet of whispers so it's not that big of a deal. C/M is really good at tanking golems as well, as we can drop her effective AC to around -22 or so. With that AC, skins last much longer. I'm used to blocking Lavok's way, but it takes a while for all of the entourage to materialize. So Lavok moves around. I didn't remember him casting just breaches, but ok. We'll take it.


Temple Ruins

Shadows are defenseless against holy smite. DD soloes Shadow Jailor + entourage (with giant strength + ih + defensive stance) with a little bit help from 2-3x holy smites from PC. And a chain lightning from Neera. We turn the first lich into stone, it never works the first time we try it but what the hell. Thaxll'ssillyia we just whack. We have too much of breach capabilities with combat capabilities. Thax chooses to silence Jan, for some reason. That's fine with us ofc.


Founder of trademeet
Mook
Assasins at Balthis Estate
Guild Contacts

***
At this stage it becomes too repetitive. While our crew is nice and we like it a lot, we're just not going to make it, because it becomes too uninteresting.

So we make a bunch of changes, trying out a few different combinations to circumvent some of the limitations / annoying mishaps of the different setups. The goal is to comprehensively dominate the following encounters. As always.

So we change the crew & continue with:

Necro (PC)
Jaheira
DD
Shaman
Swasbuckler(9)/Mage
Multiclass F/M

The plan is to drop the Swashbuckler/Mage for a single class Swashbuckler after underdark and switch the F/I for Kel-Dorn the Inquisitor. We'll probably also try the Berserker(13)/Mage dual at some point and Valygar the Vagrant version. This also means that we have the most effective summons in the game (that was the plan), but with Necro, Shaman, Jaheira, Hexxat, Kel-Dorn & Valygar the Vagrant, we are probably a little low on IH capabilities. We could switch the Vagrant with Berserker(13)/Mage, which would have both amazing summons + much help with IH capabilities but we're just not sure yet.
***

This post has been edited by pekkae: Aug 24 2023, 10:29 PM

[pekkae]

Journal Part 2

Crypt King & Queen

We're far too OP for this. DD takes queen's aggro with SoA (from cloak of Atonement), -28VS crushing & 35% DR.


Bodhi

DD with -23AC & Azuredge breezes through the Vampire Lair upstairs. We buff a little for Tanova and even use a negative plane protection on the DD for that part. We don't need SoA downstairs as Shaman entropy shields and DD is just unhittable & whacks about 50% of the vampires with the first hit. This feels like vanilla content a little bit.


Screaming Statue

We prebuff a little, then whack first 2 waves. Then prebuff properly and whack the last wave.


Samia

We can target Kaol but none of the spells have any effect? Like we can cast RRoR but nothing happens. This is new. Chak gives us trouble for we win if we can disrupt the Creeping Doom. If not, we lose. The Skellys are pratically weaponless vs. DD with -35 (or so) AC vs slashing + 50% DR + Healing Ward. Shaman + DD rule this fight completely. Kaol always gives us trouble but as the Skellys are not a threat (as long as they focus on the DD) it's not particularly difficult.

I have a feeling this sentence will said out many a times with the following encounters. Though we could just cast regen from a druid for the DD, but the ranged one is just superbly convenient at this stage.


Limited Wish Quest

Pirates

This goes very smoothly. Swashbuckler/Mage casts tenser's tranformation pre-fight. She's very good with it + stoneskins. Max buffs, necro goes SI:Abjuration and once pirate captain is down & coordinator starts RRoR we full on assault coordinator with everyone. And the coordinator falls within a single round.

Ashideena guardians

***
We're almost at 2,2 Mexp. So probably the rune-thingy and then off to Brynnlaw we march. We don't have any boots of speed even. We'll get our first pair from the boot machine. We drop F/M and take Yoshimo along. We immediately dual him to a Fighter and level him up. We take grand mastery in Clubs. We forge rings of protection, cloaks of protection, Water's Edge +4 ja Jaheira's pin.
***

Brynnlaw

Lady Galvena

We max prebufff including invisibility 10" radius. We go after the mage directly using with wizard slayer axe + blackblood, (or try to). They both disrupt spellcasting. While it's not nearly 100% we manage this perhaps on the 3rd try or so, but I'm not sure if we had other weapons when we made it. Not sure if they made any difference, but 4 capable fighter-esque is pretty good here. The reason we're doing this is because our RRoR capabilities are nonexistant. And we ofc. forget the we could have spirit shifted shaman, for a 5th fighter-esque character.


Perth

DD soloes the coin 1:1. Armor of Faith (AoF) + Defensive stance + defensive harmony + maybe one entropy shield. And a little bit of healing from Shaman.

***
We whack some mists and Desharik sends us to spellhold. Yoshimo betrays us. PC at 2.32MExp or so. So around 30k below the limit. We are joined with Imoen the Swashbuckler(9)/Mage. It's nice to have a character that can use Tenser's
***

Golem Ambush

I personally think this is by far the hardest fight in the Spellhold. We always get extra golems here and dominating this has been superbly difficult before. Well, not so much with these.

The DD + Shaman combination is so strong we can easily afford to even milk some golems from the elemental. We make it on the first try. DD + Jaheira are in the room with the riddles while F/I runs to the ambush (with periapt of life protection). F/I leads the golems to the center where we have ourselves a golem whacking feast. DD + Jaheira take out the Rakshasha + Greater bone golem as they are at the back of the pack, then join the rest. It's not particularly even close. Low AC dominates this fight as well. As it doesn't matter how much damage the golesm do per hit, if they can't hit you.



Lich + skellys ambush

DD drops his effective AC to -29 vs slashing and tanks all of the Skellys by himself. We activate defensive stance and Shaman drops a healing ward + entropy shield. The rest just proceed to turn the lich into stone. Necro Wharding Whip, dispel illusions + we flesh to stone it.

***
We can already reach 60% DR with DD for 15% DR innate, 25% Defensive stance, 10% AoF (Cloak of Atonement) + 10% entropy shield. That and -33/-35AC means DD can just solo some of the fights. DD also has saves between -5 and -9 (it has -10 bonus to saves including defensive stance bonus). It's rather ridiculous. I think the DD is by far the most effective early game tank in the game and it's not even particularly close. The F/I is very nice as well though it's very different. It's sort of a revelation that the DR will be sort of pointless, if we can further lower the AC of a character. A few skins will last for ages at a later stage, if we have around -30...-35AC.
***

Ancient Tome

It's a little bit difficult to optimize, for our IH capabilities are annoyingly limited. We try something new with the ghost spider as in we cast "prismatic spray" on the spider entourage, it doesn't affect party members. And oh boy, WHY WASN'T I AWARE OF THIS BEFORE? It whacks half of the spider summons. Our favorite spell vs, spiders changes immediately to "prismatic spray". That with some GM's should be comprehensively deadly. DD can tank easily the elemental throughout the spawns, but we have a little bit of difficulties finishing the spawns as we are not that adept with piercing and we are sparing IH's until the end. Had we sorceror instead of Necro, we would just blow through this part. Though ofc. we couldn't have prismatic sprayed em then. DD has active regen throughout either from Jaheira or Shaman. Also, DD is under elemental protections (ofc) + entrophy shield. We try to get AoF but we don't get it. Anyway, quite doable without. I think this is the first time we finish with all of the spawns without resorting to any cheesy tactics (as in running away).


Crystal Shard kobolds

I dislike this fight. The micromanagement is terrible, the most difficult thing is keeping the NPC tanking from attacking the amber, ditto for the summons. DD enters and takes the initial chain lightnings with Storm Shell, but it's electrical resistance get lowered(?) DD takes SoA + entropy shield and we're at -34VS crushing. And 40% DR. And what shouldbe non-dispellable 100% resistance to lightning. We turn 2 golems into chickens and later notice, that the setting was on easy (we learned protection from electricity before the fight). We're much too bothered to play through this again.


Mithril Golem

DD tanks. It's not even particularly close this one, even on insane. We can drop DD's AC so low that the golem has a little bit of troubles hitting the DD. That 40% non-dispellable DR is quite nice thing to have here. The most troublesome thing here is positioning the rest of the crew so that they don't get targetted. We try to summon for distraction but the Mithril golem just stays on DD, for some reason. It doesn't make a difference. 5-6 regen's + non-dispellable DR overpower the golem.

No oils of resurgence used. No potions of regeneration. We even forgot that we had the green dragon potions (great for the character whacking the golem, IH + FA + Green dragon potion). And we would have 2 potions of barbarian essence, so we could up DD's nondispellable DR to 80%.


Irenicus

Asylum scouts are no match against a DD with 50% DR & -36AC vs crushing. (Base -20, defensive harmony -22, SoA -26, Girdle -30 + entrophy shield -36).


City o Caverns.

DD dominates these fights but we also insect plague & creeping doom the groups. Breeze through prince Vinyardi on back of DD tanking and the rest dishing out damage. It's very nice to have ADHW here, as we're usually with a Sorcerer so no high level damage dealing spells (for quite some time). But they seem to work quite nicely here. Even our F/I is really good here, for she reaches quite low AC which means her skins last forever.

***


Drow ambush #1

I recall this being quite the tight fight but, ah, no.

So we PfFire, IH + summon some help. CC for Shaman. We take AoF for DD, which is a mistake as whisper spider removes it. DD runs into the ambush from the right side to get improved web's, DD has such great saves that he doesn't get webbed. Necro + S/M (Swashbuckler/Make) run from the south with contigencies:sunfire on hit. Necro runs to the bunch, and we release sequencer GM+Emotion+Confusion + ST:3xsunfire. That's 5 simultanious sunfires + the sequencer. They do real damage here. The rest run from south to start whacking while Necro + S/M ADHW away. We forgot to strength up but it doesn't matter at all. DD defensive stances + shaman drops a healing ward on him and he takes pretty much everyone's aggro. We completely overpower the ambush and didn't even use SoA/Entropy Shield. We get a drow full plate which we equip immediately, now DD has base AC of -23. Nice!

Shaman makes a level and gets it's first HLA here? So we don't level him up for we want the easier version of dracolich. I'm not sure if it works like that. (edit: it does seem to work)


Drow Ambush #2

DD SoA & tanks the the Drow. For spiders we 4xanimate dead + CS + summon a sword. Max non-dispellable buffs (GS's & SoA's). Contigency Stoneskin on sight. Shaman drops a healing ward for DD. First whack spiders, then the drow. DD gets hit a few times. He has -33 Vs Slashing (-39 with entropy shield).


Dracolich

Muah. DD tanks the lich throughout, defensive stance all the way + SoA in the beginning. He's at -34 or so vs piercing starting the fight (non dispellable) plus that 40% non-dispellable DR. We quaff a few oils of resurgence and some healing from Shaman. Send in summons, DD whacks. Once it's out of death spells / fogs we start bringing in the proper summons - Skelton Warriors work really well here, especially when they are in a cloud of soothing fog, a superb passive healing method. Our Death Ward + Zone of Sweet Air capabilities are a little low, only Jaheira has them. But with 5x wondorous recall very doable. Essentially Jaheira pretty much death wards and zone of sweet airs throughout the fight.

Necro takes initial silence, we can nullify it with Shaman - if needed (we don't need to). Greater doom's are primal warded. Dracolich really doesn't have weapons against us.

Clear all common areas
Enter Ust'Natha
Rescue Phaere
Mage's proposal
Tavern
Eye-Tyrant
Svirneblin
Kua-Toa Prince
Mystery of the third colour

***
Yay, Necro makes a level here. So we can get 9th level spells. We have four sixth level spells still. Sorceror is so much better IH wise.
***

Efreeti
House Jael'lat
Swap eggs
Free slaves & Dolan Fadoon
Empty merchants

***
Efreeti falls to CO's + sequencer of AA's and 3xCone of Cold trigger. Maybe a hit or two from DD as well. Super easy with caster under IA. House Jael'lat is always such a fun fight. We do something we've never done before as in we buy the spear of withering. It's quite cheap as in 30k and it gives us a legitimate +4 weapon. We'll get Ixil's Spike in ToB but I think we're good spear-wise until then. We should have 3 (usable) weapons +4 after under dark so 2H Sword +4, Spear +4 and Water's Edge +4. Plus we have Kneecapper, which works as a +4 weapon vs golems. We should be ok.
***

Rest
Lesser Demon Lord
Anhilate city on the way out
Return eggs

Demon Knights

I think here we by mistake 3xRRoR a knight who has SI:Divination + II instead of ST+Goi+SI:Abjuration. So the RRoR does nothing . Well, it makes no difference whatsoever.

We remove magic a little bit (we have a sequencer with 3xremove magic). PFME under ST+GOI+SI:Abjuration for Swashbuckler/Mage + F/I (it's actually just a regular F/M, I think we've mistakenly called it a F/I previously). Necro takes PfE. Protection from fire, protection from cold and all the usual shabang (so armor, protection from evil) etc. for the crew. We summon two earth elementals, anaconda, smilodon and clan spirit. S/M takes tenser's partial transformation. S/M + F/M are very good here for their buffs are hard to dispel and they are immune to everything while having good/great thac0's & great durability).


Master Brain

We can easily tank an elemental to milk all of the spawns. Just move to the area where the dispels can't get us and we're good. Summons handle the brains golems, we focus on the elemental. It just takes a lot of time IRL. Anyway, we're almost in full health when elemental + 6 spawns are down, then we whack a few remaining brain golems (necro takes the first dispel with boots of speed).


Chapter 6.

WK Level 1.

DD Soloes.


Golem + Skelly ambush (fireplace room)

€#"€"#%€#%&#€&&%€!!!! We're used to just storming this, but no. We reload like 5 times. Then we make change the tactic. DD storms by himself and tanks as much as possible (with -30...-35 AC or so. The rest just pick up enemies one by one. Then it's not even close. DD makes it with one healing ward, a few entrophy shields and a few defensive harmonies. The warlords (or grandlords?) are troublesome for we are lacking weapons +4. We don't have a single +4 crushing weapon with us, since Rhynn wasn't with founder of trademeet. Well, disrupt undead works together with triggers & sequencers of disruptors. Swords fighting in soothing fog is stupendously good combination. Double soothing fog means they heal almost 25% every round automatically.


***
After the ambush we "cheat", as in we drag the drow chain +3 from underdark so Swashbuckler/Mage has it. The armour isn't where it used to be, so it might have been omitted. Well.

We're prebuffing for Firkraag a little bit and yeah, I don't think even our Shaman can dispel Kruin without 3 additional levels or so and that's a tall ask. Maybe we're just going to suffer through it and accept we're not going to get all of the spawns out of the fight. But we really don't want to do that.

Then we could just forge some of our "OP" stuffs as in at least supreme shelter, weapons +4 / +5, the uber-ioun stone etc. We need to change the crew quite soon after this, so we're looking to add the hexxat and maybe kel-Dorn the undead hunter. Why didn't I take keldorn the inquisitor, Kruin would be so much easier with him... oh, that's right, because everything else thusfar has been so much easier with the crew we hae.

We would probably venture out to WK, I see us clearing it until Green Wyrm but missing staff of Rhynn here makes a big difference. We have only the demon knights 2H Sword, Water's Edge + Spear of Withering we can use e.g. vs Spider Queen. And as spider queen will be much easier after Kruin, but Kruin won't be after spider queen we're not really sure on hot to play this out.

We try to sneak to the temple district to get it, but it doesn't look like it's possible.
***


Firkraag

Anyway, we prebuff for Firkraag, we are a little bit careful with spells selections. We prepare to anhilate the dragon with Necro, but forget the Skelly-summons. And how many rounds there is. DD is great against the Skellys, ditto for Jaheira (we perform ritual on her). We summon a few earth elementals, smiilodon and CS. F/M takes the initial silence, then moves to whacking away with a 2H Sword. Swashbuckler/Mage takes the 2nd one, which we then nullify with sense of limbo. Jaheira takes the third one (under ritual so nothing harm done) and then it get the 4th one away just before it collapses. How many does it have?

AC maxing DD overpowers here. Ditto for the Shaman.

***
We're at 3,9 MEXP. Any serious dispelling attempt starts at 4.25Mexp.

EDIT: Haha, we play-test this a little bit and manage on the first try. Then fail the next 12 tries. Not sure if I want to play this as a "once in 10 tries" tactic.
***

Kruin

Maximum prebuffs, as in all of DD, Jaheira, Swash/Mage + F/M have protection from all elements + skins + the whole shabang. Clan Spirit, Fire Elementals + A sword. Potions of storm giant strength for DD + F/M. Whack entourage, DD takes elementals, summons on Kruin. Necro stays on Kruin while everyone else whacks elemantals. DD + Shaman can dominate even a few elementals + a few summons. That's quite a lot at this stage. We milk 3 spawns per elemental and then whack the first elemental. Swords in a soothing fog, the combination is great. Low AC works wonders here again, especially perhaps we combine it with attaqcks from Soul Reaver.

Everything is fine until now until we lose, on our first try, for we don't even know why? On the 2nd try everything fine until thus far, but then an errorneous sequence botches us (Kruin suddenly death spells, Jaheira's Anaconda gets interrupted, I don't know why the elemental suddenly went after her). Necro's imp. mantle, which we just put up so that Kruin would target the summons, blocks Kruin so he breaches & whacks Shaman, who just doesn't get skins away fast enough.

RRRAAARRRRGH. While LOW ac keeps us very safe and we have a margin, this sort of mistakes collapses the fight.

We consider this fight done though, it's not that bad even for we are quite safe tanking with the DD and supporting with a Shaman. So we switch to easy, quaff a few potions of rejuvenation for DD and whack away both Kruin & the remaining elemental, which then spawn a gem still. We cheated and we're not proud of it. I'm though fairly confident that it's easily doable like this. The only thing that requires enormous consideration is how to strain one's resources as far as possible. I'm not sure if Soul Reaver works here vs the elementals, but if it doesn it's a great way of supporting low AC strategy.


***
At cromwells we forge Supreme Shelter, Indigo Ioun Stone and all the boots of speed we can. We find the grandmasters armour on Kruin, which is anoher pure cheat. But it's a nice item is quite usable but comes in way too late. And we need the shadow armour.
***

Ancient Priest

SI:Illusion doesn't work against deafness. It should. But it doesn't. DD takes aggro, he is without entropy shield -37VS slashing. The skellys can't really hit him at all. So it sort of takes away the difficulty-edge of it.

***
We forge adamantite staff of strength. Jaheira takes it. We are itching a little bit to change our crew. But we would like to try the Illithid hideout in the sewers, I don't think we are supposed to do this quite yet. But. Since were here, and we have a shaman... Well, we should get Wish, MotA and Crom Fayer out of this upping our "op" level to "comprehensively OP. So why not. We should be able to hit the GEG quite well already, for everyone besides necro has a weapon +4 and the GeG robably can't hit DD. Ditto for the Ambers.

hmh.
***

Finish Paladon Stronghold
Return Yoshimo's heart

Illithid hideout + Alhoon & GeG

The first room is irritating. And that's because our triggers are overly random. If we get the cleric before storm of vengenance, we're fine. We try this maybe 10 times but it gets botched every time for something like "PFMW on see enemy" doesn't trigger and a skelly interrupts our IA. Or something. Or ADHW triggers too early and doesn't hit anything. Finally we just IA with NEcro before entering the room and then we whack away. Drop cleric with breach + acid arrows (from sequencers). Mage is already on it's last legs, as 3xADHW hits it hard. We release 2xSS GM+emotion+slow/confusion triggers when entering (with F/M + S/M). DD takes as much aggro as possible, as usual. Shaman heals & entrophy shields & creeping dooms. CD is useless as everything it can affect is dead before it lands.

Next up is Alhoon + Geg. We prepare immensily. Then we give it about 100 tries. And no, we can't get past the beginning - no matter how we try to play it using the DD as a "runner". Our hypothesis was, that DD can tank the GEG which is true, but as it doesn't exactly "rock" the int-score, it's somewhat vulnerable to devour brain. Most of our attemps fail since the enemies move just enough to block the way, or something. So we don't really even get to test our approach, for something seems to come up every single time.

So it just doesn't work. Comprehensively annoyed, after 2 hours we give up and change tactics. This fight, in a long time, is one where our AC maxing DD can't just overpower the fight. Our plan was to DD run in to take the first dispel, then gets regen from Jaheira (start casting before entering so the sequence goes DD runs in, gets dispelled, gets regen from Jaheira and then takes ADHW with potion of magic shielding). Then draw the GEG out but we don't manage it until that, because x, y and z all the time.

Our hypothesis is that this might work, but the micromanagement of everything is probably far worst of any fight in the game. It's superbly difficult to manage everything you need to do while making sure the summons don't do something stupid like blocking the doorway or the corridor or in the wrong room or something. In the end we change the Necro to take the first dispel. To keep the enemies from moving, we use 4x potions of invisibility. for Necro, DD, F/M + S/M. It works much better, as the regular mind flayers don't see our creq coming but Alhoon & Geg do.

If we manage the following, we win (like 80-90%)

1. Necro manages to get the first dispel alone & manages to launch triggers to protect itself (they don't auto-launch on hit when dispel hits us)
2. We can whack the flayers before something nasty happens, umber hulks we deal with double 3xflame arrow sequencers (both F/M + S/M have them).
3. Geg should then aggro DD and we can separate Geg & Alhoon, Geg is lured to the previous room while summons go for Alhoon.

Lure geg south, keep summons on Alhoon. We dodge the second dispel with almost everyone, leave Smilodons and DD tanking the GeG (Smilodon's don't have anything to dispel.). S/M re-ups DD's IH while Shaman re-ups regen via healing ward and then entrophy shields. Then entourage back on Geg and we whack it before it gets the third dispel away. I think it was quite close. After 2nd dispel necro IA's, we try to use it as a backup to re-up IH's should it get the 3rd dispel away but we end up whacking a coin golem with minor drains, vampiric touches and rays of fragmentation. Geg stays on DD through the fight and DD doens't get thrown back not even once. Low AC overpowers the GeG.

(hmh. if we would manage to get past the first room this fight should be doable pre-spellhold as well. As we didn't really use HLA's here, besides the double smilodon)

***
We get our superpowers and we forge Crom Fayer, Memory of the Apprenti + Dragon Scale armour, Equalizer and Silver Sword. We don't need euqalizer for anything so I don't know why we forged it.

We say goodbyes to our friend the F/M and join Hexxat (which one can accomplish via the console). Our monies are near zero so we reach to the bottom of our bag to sell stuffs in order to buy Hexxat her complete cloak. We also say goodbay to our Swashbuckler/Mage, which has been a tremendous character thus far. We replace her with Berserker(13)/Mage, later on abbreviated only as "B/M". We're much looking for the next fights with our superpowers. We still haven't converted Amulet of Power, so we can use it against Vampires. We will be missing soul reaver, that is a tremendous minus.

Some notes thus far:

AC maxing is a viable strategy in the early game. It's super powerful, once you learn how to stack bonuses on top of bonuses on top of bonuses. The combination of DD + Shaman is especially superbly strong in the early game, even on insane. They trivialize many of the encounters and it's sort of fun that one can tank something like dracolich without need to worry or micromanage all the time. Soul Reaver is a tremendous weapon to support the low-ac strategy, as the Thac0 bonuses should stack up. I'm not 100% sure, but I think that's why the GeG couldn't hit our DD, as on top of DD's enormous AC the GeG had thac0 minuses.

Cloak of Atonement is superbly useful item for DD, for we can either Shield of Archons prefight or alternatively Armor of Faith, both of which bring quite the early game benefits for the price of 1 con. We mitigated this by givinbg DD the CON tome from BG1. Also the DD has super saves so it is quite difficult to get caught in spider (improved) web for example. As far a raw strength goes, this is combination is superb. And the access to SoA sort of removes any edge the Barbarian would have over the DD.

So we change the crew & continue with:

Necro (PC)
Jaheira
DD
Shaman
Hexxat
Berserker(13)/Mage
***

This post has been edited by pekkae: Aug 29 2023, 01:06 PM