Journal 7.0, diary of Aria Joyce, an auramaster, Updated: Final notes Options

[pekkae]

Hi

Welcome.

Yet another journal, as the weather is terrible and I have some time (well, a few days)

The rules:

- Auramaster PC
- Max HP's for NPC's
- No non protagonist related forging (though if auramaster doesn't get amazing equipment, we will most likely forge Vagrant's stuffs)
- One custom NPC (a fighter mage multiclass, we'll decide later which one)
- Rotating crew in the beginning
- We are looking to completely dominate and blast away all encounters
- Looking to try the new stuffs
- Tomes from bg1
- Starting exp from BGTotSC
- Insane all the way (well, except two early game liches & final part of the final )

Edit:And we have the following tweaks

- Multiple strongholds
- Simplified Economy
- A few class changes from IAtweaks
- Tower of Deception (we did it in chapter 6)

Let's see how far we can go.

This post has been edited by pekkae: Oct 14 2024, 07:39 PM

[pekkae]

Part 4 (ToB here)

Illasera, prebuff with something and whack away. 8 SGL's?

First challenge pocket place
Rescue father
Get back spellbook
Hideout for Elves
Get key from temple
Whack vampires
Betrayal at gates
Get key from barracks, enter castle through sewers, visit pocket plane & tavern

Gromnir, nondispellable Karun the Black is always a little bit of a drag for me, but other than that we are comprehensively overcompetent already.

***
Forge: Asylferund elven chain (F/I), improved cloak (F/I), ultimate horn of valhalla, ixil's spear (Jaheira), circlet of netheril, reinforced indigo ioun stone. monies at 60k, but we have a lot of stuff to sell (e.g. scroll). Now we just need the hammer and we can comfortably whack Demo. I think.
***

Do Neera's ToB quest here
Swamp
Marching mountains (EFG's get dispel + acid treatment)

Beren, ehh. We notice here that we are pretty much maxed, when it comes to levels. PC, Sibel, Jaheira all are level 39/38. Nalia can make a few levels, but it pretty much gives only better levels with a handful of spells (dispel magic mostly) and 1 hp per level - we're not going to even get more spell slots, these look like 7.0 changes btw. In earlier versions arcane casters could be developed until the very end. F/I and Valygar the Vagrant can make a few levels and it's useful, but that's it

Nyalee Whack skellys, get rewards. Then whack Nyalee. We milk maybe 15(?) rounds of spiders, as Nyalee can't really hurt us. She gets 2-3 creedom dooms away, but our triple priest setup can easily take them on. Didn't try maxing out the spider summons. Cast a few regen's on nyalee and Valygar whacks her with DoTC. It's nice for it interrupts her spellcasting.

***
Now it's just Yaga Shura left, before going for Demo. We were looking to maximize exp and for the fight to last for about 3 turns (so double SI:Divination for Razvankee). But I'm beginning to be inclined to the fact that it won't matter at all. So Maybe we'll just dispel the nasties and whack away. 5 rounds, no barbarian essences. At least those are saved for later. I'll try tanking the first few rounds with the clan spirit, ha!
***

Yaga-Shura This is so nice. They don't have a chance, we are comprehensively overcompetent already. One efg takes acid treatment, other takes lightning. Those greater lightnings & call lightnings come awfully handy here.

Demo Summonan army. max prebuffs. we forgot to breach belcheresk so we don't take it out by spells. doesn't matter. nulonga, belcheresk, rozvankee (sibel dispels it), st kargot, kazuyl, demo. 3 vargouilles and maybe 3 mariliths. CS, noble spider, planetar, swanmay queen and greater djinn survive. haha.

Oasis Always nice. Valygar is in a little bit of a pickle but luckily we have enough natural restorals.

Sibel finale 1st try we botch, as we have the wrong spells for auramaster. 2nd try we whack the GDL but while it goes it manages to whack pc, dammit. 3rd time's the charm Nice fight, great helpers! Auramaster yet again comprehensively overblownly effective here, haha. Was trying to get GDL with nature's fists but Jaheira got the kill. Now we have 2 x GW left (flask) for the finale. That LG is one badass.

Sendais enlave Blow through this. Whack the lich before it gets anything else than the trigger away. We don't take Sendai seriously, we forgot we can't turn golems into chickens anymore (or I didn't try it...) and there's a nasty deafness effect. Last time I played through this it was quite simple, this time much tougher but een ill-prepared party is powerful enough to make it on it's own.

Abazigail Destroyed by Nalia + PC. Bate with death spell/true sight, move in RRoR + 4xLR + complete anhilation. Nalia's spell repertoire gets it to "near death" and then PC continues with alicorn lances / implosions / flame arrrows / fists / bolts of the grove and abazigail takes maybe 500hp's of damage while near death. then falls.

***
Time for a few updates:

Some wares

4 scrolls of memory boosting
8 manuals of elaboration
14 permanency scrolls
26 potions of barbarian essence
we have 70+ scrolls of rror / pfmw / breach
750 000 gp (we didn't bother to sell wares in some time though)
oodles of strength / magic resistance potions.


Crew:

Arie Joyce (Auramaster): Level 39, 190HP, AC -20, Thac0 -6
STR 13, DEX 18, CON 14, INT 9, WIS 23, CHA 21
Stuff: Bracers Ac3, Druidic Circlet, Wooden Horse necklace, fruitful attempt, cloak of the high forest, Helm's gift, Belf of fire giant strength, Boots of haste
Weapons: Staff of Arundel / Reinforced Staff of Strength
MPV: Saladrex (with nature's fists, muah!)
total exp value 8% / 7%
percentage of total kill 6% / 7%

Sibel (S(9)/C): Level 39, 232HP, AC -23 (-35 vs crushing), Thac0 -10 (can buff to -24 or so)
STR 17, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 12, WIS 19, CHA 10
Stuff: Sibels Armour, Sibels Gloves, Reinforced HoB, Sibel's amulet, Supreme Shelter, Ring of Gaxx, Rop +4, Sibels cloak, Sibel's boots + girdle of crushing
Weapons: Sibel's Club / non-enchanted club
MPV: Spider Queen
total exp value 26% / 29%
percentage of total kill 23% / 28%

Valygar the Vagrant : Level 37, 376 HP, AC -25, Thac0 -17 /-13
STR 25, DEX 21, CON 19, INT 10, WIS 14, CHA 12
Stuff: Improved Corthala Family Armour, gauntlets of extraordinary specialization, reinforced indigo Ioun Stone, Amulet of Seldarine, cCoak +2, 2 x RoP +2, GoMM + boots of haste
Weapons: Axe of Gleaming Lava / DoTC / FoA +5 + Phosphorous +5
MPV: Orcus
total exp value 20% / 18%
percentage of total kill 23% / 18%

Jaheira: Level 39, 250HP, AC -20, Thac0 -3 (can reach -16 buffed)
STR 17, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 10, WIS 18, CHA 11
Stuff: Avenger's Dream, Paws of the Furious Cat, Reinforced Amber Ioun Stone, Harper's Ward, Rust Dragon Cloak, RoP +2, Rop +4, Belt of Minor Invulnerability (haven't gotten a single globe, haha), boots of haste
Weapons: Improved Silent Hunt +5 / Spear of Shrivel +5
MPV: Greater Dracolich
total exp value 15% / 18%
percentage of total kill 12% / 16%

Nalia (Fighter(9)//Mage): Level 34, 221HP , AC -14, Thac0 -7 (non buffed version)
STR 25, DEX 18, CON 17, INT 18, WIS 9, CHA 13
Stuff: Vecna, 2nd Sword Arm Gauntlets, Circlet of Netheril, Amulet of Power, Improved De'Arnise family ring, Rop +4, Cloak +2, boots of haste, girdle of cloud giant strength
Weapons: Damascus Steel Blade / The Answerer + Kazrah's Shield +4
MPV: Ancient Golem
total exp value 12% / 10%
percentage of total kill 17% / 14%

Neera: (Fighter / Illusionist) Level 25/22, 189HP, AC -15 (-21 vs crushing), Thac0 -14 / -12
STR 25, DEX 18, CON 18, INT 19, WIS 17, CHA 9
Stuff: Asylferund Elven Chain (/mage robe of elemental resistances), Legacy of Masters, Helm of Rock, Talisman of Greater Shielding, 2x Ring +2, Cloak +2, girdle of bluntness
Weapons: Crom Fayer + Githzerai Blade / Water's Edge +4 mostly
MPV: Ancient Dragon
total exp value 16% / 14%
percentage of total kill 16% / 14%
***

Forgot Balthazar and the pocket plane "challenges", just blow through. Valygar makes a level so he's now level 38. We are pretty miuch maxed.

Ede Well, we take the GW / Criticals here. It works tremendously fine & we make it on the first go. At one point Nalia has to trigger tensers + ih + pfmw to make it through a Raksasha wave.

Melissan More difficult now, but a little bit of a drag for yours truly. For the final's final part we switch to easy, so we don't finish on insane. Wish:Rest would be aswesome here, as our buffs are constantly ... gone. Not a favorite fight of mine, this one - to be honest . Pushing through (the Skelly things) on insane doesn't appeal, even though we should have the wares to match. Edvantar's gift with 100DR works awesome here.

***
At final save @ Melissan fight PC is at 12 Mexp, while the rest of the crew is at 11,6 MEXP. Valygar is about 150k away from level 39 thus being maxed. He's the only character left who has room to grow.

This was superbly fun again. A comprehensive spoiler about playing Sibel the S/C version follows:

SPOILER!

Never-ever-ever dual wield with her! (except for the 1st GAG encounter). She's more effective tank than anything except maybe the maxxed out 6.5 Hexxat.

***

This post has been edited by pekkae: Oct 11 2024, 12:50 AM