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