A v6 run on Insane before v7, Yes let's do it! Options

[HTRT]

Bored with faster than light mind flayer rampages under time stop and stimulated with Black Wyrm Lair's renewal, I decided to start a whole new IA v6 experience and share its exciting moments here.
I want it to be as exciting as possible for me and (perhaps) a training ground for V7 ! The title was right, the game will be played on insane.

I know IA v6 is hard enough but with 6 or 7 completed walkthroughs I couldn't control the excitement and decided to try it on insane.
(At the time of this first writing, my party is in spellhold right before the lich and skeleton lords guarding the library and Dace. I took lots of notes during the playthrough and it is very recent,
so informations will be accurate.)

THE RULES :

BG2 clean fresh install with TOB then TOB official patch, the Baldurdash TOB fixpack 1.12(non-weidu), the recommanded ease of use
components as prescribed in the Installation document of the mod's documentation, IA v6, dungeon be gone (the compatible version). That's it.

Way of playing the game : As intended with improved anvil v6. Fighting fair and heroicly, no pathetic headless chicken retreats,
no exploits and debug mode simply deactivated. A 6 members party at everytime (except the very beginning if I pick NPCs).
No baldur's gate 1, no TOSC, so everyone 89k XP (a TOSC imported necromancer would have many level 5 picks, whereas a 89k one will struggle to fill his level 5 spell slots early
on). This also means no stats tome whatsoever.

About resurection/raise dead : If a character is chunked I will reload. Usually I won't raise a dead party member during the fight except if said fight is really really hard,
intense and well played at the moment and the party member coming back will actually be a key to winning the fight. I won't raise dead during battle because I was just
blatantly careless.

(In most cases anyway, I will either win the fight with no casualty or suffer catastrophic casualties and be forced to reload. Until now there's been only one case of raising
a dead party member from the dead and continuing the battle, but that attempt eventually failed and was forced to reload and then won with no casualties (this happened in samia's
party first try)...I'm just saying that the door will always be opened to that, but in practice rarely used because in Improved Anvil usually a casualty rarely comes alone )

About retreating a character focused in melee : Will only do it in obvious cases, not to purposefully abuse the AI as much as possible. A concrete exemple could be :
risk breaker gets hit by gem golem for 98 damage, game is paused for badly injured. That riskbreaker on core would have suffered 49 damage and could quaff a potion to stay
as long as possible in melee (in IA in general, fighting instead of fleeing is almost always extremly superior as a tactical choice). But with 98 damage and anotherlets say
92-102 coming in really soon, potion is not going to change anything, plus my party is not bound to spartan law.

No tower of deception : a very great mod, arguably well improved by improved anvil, but I think the first segment of the mod
(tower) is way too much rewarding and not hard enough as a prespellhold quest. Furthermore, it can act as a substitute to achieve
crucial levels early on when the choices of quests to do disminishes. So in other terms it's like a free ticket for example to
get ruby ray of reversal before some hard fight whereas without TOD you would have had to face a much more crude reality, because
XP is strongly limited in IA.

TWO HOUSE RULES :

RULE 1)

Maximum HP on hit dices.

EXCEPTION TO RULE 1 : NPCS added to party. They will stay as they are and their proficiencies won't be tweaked either, although
they will get maximum dices as they level up with the party, like any other character in the party.

Justification :

1) Insane

2) There's something I dislike with playing a game's difficulty level with a dice in a context of tactical challenge mod.
As a matter of fact I wouldn't mind at all playing a handicapped 61 hp level 13 fighter IF I KNEW that a greater bone golem, for
example, could be handicapped in such a way sometimes (with random dices). But that is not the case. Monsters always have their fixed amount of hit
points. One could argue that this fixed amount of hit points represents an average of hit dices and I couldn't really tell him
wrong, but somehow I have trouble buying that story.

RULE 2)

100% success with arcane scrolls scribing.

Justification :

1) I'm NOT failing to scribe the new Necromancer spell. I'll save myself the shame of reloading for scribing spells.

WAY OF IMPLEMENTING HOUSE RULES :

No mod. Only temporary set difficulty slider to the lowest level only to scribe spell and/or level up, then immendiatly set it
back to hardest. Never play with the slider during battles.


***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS***

Now that I have your ***SPOILERS*** ATTENTION ***SPOILERS***, I will talk briefly about spoilers. As of this moment in this
thread, basically everything that follows constitute major spoilers of Improved Anvil v6 and (especially) if you are new to the
mod you should NOT read any of it and keep the pleasure of discoveries for yourself. I will be talking of my party composition,
reasons, quest orders, optimized tactics, lots of spoilers on loot ennemy weaknesses, behaviours, etc. Since the tactics worked
very well on insane and in most cases with no reloading at all, it might really spoil the fun of playing encounters for new IA
players (although they require a lot of concentration and focus to successfully execute, as expected from insane difficulty).

So in other terms :


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DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU ARE DISCOVERING THE MOD


DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU ARE DISCOVERING THE MOD


DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU ARE DISCOVERING THE MOD


DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU ARE DISCOVERING THE MOD


DON'T READ FURTHER IF YOU ARE DISCOVERING THE MOD


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Now that being said, let's talk buisness !



THE PARTY

I thought about it for a loooooooooong long long time, confronting all the experience I have with the mod with the perspective
of double damage from everything. I will save you all the reasonning, as I will simply tell what the party will be, with general
hints about composition, development and proficiencies, what I do not want, what I want, etc.

1) Protagonist : Human Necromancer. (an IA v6 walktrough worthy of that name is either played as necromancer or vagrant in my humble
opinion) With approximately as many runs played with either vagrant or necromancer, I can tell personally that playing with
the vagrant is generally a much harder playthrough. Since I'm a beginner with IA v6 on insane, I will obviously go with what I
consider to be the easiest path. Aside from that, the necromancer will of course provide excellent arcane firepower, buffing
and debuffing.
Potential of 25% physical resistance(65% with wish hardiness)

2) Custom made : Human Ranger level 7 dual cleric. Full plate/shield AC tank with clerical spells, including iron skin. AC is really
important even more in insane, but I will have opportunity to talk about that later.
Potential of 10% phyisical resistance, but iron skin at will eventually.

3) NPC : Valygar (protector) Decent AC, excellent later on. Good resistances due to his specific items, clerical spells including
armor of faith. So 50% physical resistance eventually, good armor class, mental equilibrium.

4) Custom made : Half orc barbarian. Not terrible AC, barbarian rage for flexibility, lots of hit points, physical resistance, no backstab.
Potential of 70% physical resistance(warblade10%).

5) Custom made : Human Riskbreaker. Good damage output even in the beginning with proper positionning. Only one character dependant
on ioun stones (aside necromancer). Amazing later on, he will turn the tide of some late game battles that can get pretty physical.
Potential of 60% physical resistance.

6) NPC : Cernd (auramaster) Great tanking, spellcasting, buffs, abilities. He will add controlling the tide of battles.
He will be one of the early game stars of this party alongside ranger/cleric and barbarian.
Potential physical resistance : 30% (110% with wish hardness and aura of invulnerability(fitting name for that ability!))

General idea : Why all those clerical spells ? Isn't that bad ? Won't it suck late game ? The reasonning behind this party
is that I am fully aware that success on insane will depend on heavy, heavy minute control on battles. As tempting as a bunch
of riskbreakers chunking and getting chunked may sound, reality is that a gem golem will hit for more than a hundred hit points
sometimes in one single punch. In order to pull this off, I need a party with a lot of flexibility and multiple powers. All of
this will become clearer as the walkthrough progresses, but in my head it was clear that I needed greater restoration "at will",
mental equilbrium, skins(stoneskin/ironskin), immunity to level drain, summons (I will be using nymphs a lot early on with skeletons.
In most of pre spellhold adventures I will be relying on a group of 5 clerical fire elementals as my summoned army. This is one
example of how ranger cleric and cernd were a great asset in this success). Necro will assume arcane casting alone, which according
to all my previous walkthroughs doesn't badly need to be augmented early on. Later on he will of course dominate a lot. This means
only one source of "arcane pressure" for ennemy mages but I don't mind paying that price. I am well aware that a kensai would be a lot better
late game than a barbarian in terms of damage output, but in this context I'd much rather invest in defense/control/stability over damage.
Riskbreaker is my main argument for late game and I'm pretty sure he will relish the challenge.

Quick review of why not other classes ? :

Berseker single class warrior : Love that guy, but taking 30 damage after rage instead of 15 feels so retarded that I couldn't bring one if only for that reason alone.
Kensai : Two weapons wielding you should go for riskbreaker instead, for two handed weapons specialist I prefered the barbarian
Vagrant(non protagonist) : Tempting, but not optimized enough in terms of gear timings/usefullness. I have very decent summoning potential already.
Archer : I will be using missile weapons often early on, and even in a few late game fights missile weapons have their place, but this guy is way too specialized compared to
missile weapon effectivness.
Cavalier : Not on the level
Inquisitor : True seeing is good, but I have it. I can't see his dispel magic being that crucial. Other than that, I don't want to play with fire (turning from ennemy clerics) and in general he just wouldn't fit and be too weak.
Swashbuckler : Decent, but definitely not on the level for this particular run.
Skald or blade : No clown allowed in this party
Monk : I know his fists are really hardened but I doubt his skin will resist when punching a golem made of diamonds.
Wild mage (or specialist or sorcerer) : I believe necro will handle it. Wild mage not on the level.
Berseker dualled to mage : A very decent character for vagrant runs, doesn't fit here.
No Anomen ? : He's fighter, not ranger.
No Nalia ? : When I pondered wether to take her or not it just came to her vs cernd because everyone else really had to stay, and in my book cernd wins (by no small margin)
No multiclass ? : Not on the level of this run...to be honnest even in vanilla or SCS I really fail to see how
No shorties ? : Human required for most of party spots classes...only legit was barbarian but with +1 to saves instead of +5 I'll go with half orc anyday.


So what's the plan with developping those characters ? Approximately, here is the way proficiencies will be spent and weapons used (roughly) throughout the game.
It is in my humble opinion one of the best ways to make out the most out of weapons during the entire game (as well as having weapon types arguments most of times against most of ennemies).

Necro : *staff *sling *dart *dagger Weakest quarterstaff +1 sling into staff+3/staff of air sling+2 into late game staff (elemental/golem rod) and/or staff of the magi with sling +5. Nothing complicated here.

Ranger/cleric : **club **mace **flail (*sling *two weapon style (in cleric without ranger)) *sling *two weapon style ** warhammer *two weapon style **quarterstaff **two handed weapon style **sword and shield style **single weapon style club +3 best sling available with best shield available into flail of ages into late game phosphorus with fortress shield (25 str with holy symbol)

Valygar : (**katana **club *long bow ***two weapon style) **axe **warhammer **short sword (...)family blade MH nature club OH into frostreaver/club +3 MH stonefire OH into late game family blade+5/short sword of mask+5 MH hammer of thor+5 OH (25 str)

Barbarian : **two handed sword **two handed weapon style **quarter staff **spear **halberd (...) sword of chaos+2 quarterstaff+1 into lilarcor+3/martial staff+3(or rynn+4 who knows...)/spear of kuldahar +3 into late game soulreaver+4/warblade+5(10%physicalresist)/staff of the ram+6/poseidon +5/dragon lord+5 ($$$$$$$$$$$$$) (he is of evil alignment) (23 str belt of cloud giant, 25 barb rage)

Riskbreaker : **long sword **short sword **two weapon style *****flail ***long sword ***short sword (highly doubt level 39, but that's the idea) enchanted long sword +3 short sword of backstabbing +3 arbane sword +2 namarra +2 etc into phosphorus MH belm OH into late game thetruth +5/flail of eternity+5/cuthroat +5 MH angurvadal +5 OH(with girdle of lordly might = 25 str)

Cernd : (*quarterstaff *scimitar *dagger *sling) *two handed weapon style *spear (...) staff of the high forest/sling into staff of arundel +3/staff of fire +2 quickslot (fireshield can come in handy) into late game oak of the high forest/ixil's spike +6/spectral brand+5 with belm offhand


WOW THAT'S A LOT OF $$$

As I said this is a roughly briefing of the plan... there's no rocket science in that and I don't expect to get everything forged, although I don't buy consumables unless absolutely necessary and I pick up almost everything when I loot (including even mundane items to sell).
Yes I will be buying stuff (like staff of arundel, jewelry, spear of kuldahar) under 24 charisme (18 + 6 from friends spell) and 20 reputation.





Now, about the run itself. I kept a save file before most battles, so it would be possible in theory to re-play them in an authentic way or even maybe record them. In fact,
I will only provide the summary of my notes in this writing, but if enthusiasm is raised about one particular fight, maybe more details can be added later on.

I will be using a (VERY) conservative quest order. I want this to go as smoothly as possible, so no I won't tackle conster at level 10 with irenicus dungeon wands and dressed
with tabitha furs. I will play it really safe and do the quests in an (in my humble opinion) easy order.

I hope the English will be of decent quality as well.

Reloading : I'm not playing this with the intention of never reloading. But with good IA experience I won't be fooling around either. I love baldurs gate and sometimes
I play it without focusing and being careless, but for this run I will have to concentrate. So most of the strategies used won't be offical "no-reload strategies", they will
much rather be "no-reload-unless-you-got-careless strategies". Many fights up to now took several minutes to plan and prepare, carefully casting the prebuffs etc(sometimes as
long as 30 minutes of planification, just to ensure the fight will be won and that if hes lost at least I will have a very well prepared set up to reload with and try again.

I will not be taking any fight for granted....so yes I will rest before almost anything and prepare throughoufully. On core rules I usually love to "endure" fights and complete
a lot of stuff without resting...but in this particular run we will temporary ignore our adventuring insomnia problems and rest a lot.

By the way, upon reading this walkthrough you may think something like : hey how did you know that ? why did you know monster X was vulnerable to effect Y ?...
As I said after 6-7 legitimate runs and a lot of curiosity, the amount of mysteries has dropped dramatically. This is even more a reason for some people to refrain from
reading this because the spoilers will be huge.

So for the last time, be cautious not to ruin any gaming experience of yours while reading this.



One last note before starting, sometimes I will refer to positionning, proper positionning, etc, or you might just wonder how come a certain character of mine is not being crushed
by a golem.

In Baldur's Gate, the north south east west coordinates of the screen rotated with a 45 degree offset offer excellent positions for fighters using one hand weapons. In such a position,
the fighting range is maximized. (By the way, spears have very limited weapon range, but not nearly as pathetic as daggers).

To make it clearer, think about the watcher's keep level 3 maze first floor when you enter it. We clearly see those N S E W directions. If you attack from lets say south-east,
your risk breaker will hug the golem. Said golem will then feel a urge to punch that helmless face and you don't want that to happen on insane (and to be honnest you are playing with fire if you
let that happen early on on core difficulty as well, but more errors are allowed in that case).


(Speaking of errors, just as a useful information, 3x chain lightning triggers will actually chunk you on insane, so that's one more source of chuking to know about)


Oh I forgot...Predictions... To be honnest I can foresee some fights being not really harder on insane than core, an obvious example coming to mind would be kangaxx.
I know my party is not that rude on the physical damage output field and it may have the consequence of making some fights last longer.
I can see purged fights being hard (house in suldnasselar, greater elemental golems in general, master brain from illithid city) and I can see mithril golem being really hard.


One (real) last thing...Pre-spellhold missions. I plan on doing all the standard stuff (main quests etc).
About "hard but doable" prespellhold fights :

Kangaxx : I will do it (although luck on randomization and forging decisions will make it the hardest fight in the whole lot up to now, precisions will come later)

Samia party : I will do it (very spectacular fight)

Umar witch : I won't do it (not rewarding enough for the risks and efforts)

Troll mound : I won't do it (see umar witch AND one of the reasons why kangaxx was hard)

Teshal undead town : I won't do it (see Troll mound)

Wind master : I won't do it (I didn't even bother considering it seriously...protection from lightning dispelled, I remember damage being pretty huge on core, so x2 is no thanks)

Firkraag : I won't do it (fighting him on core before spellhold is doable but really really hard fighting legitimately...I decided to skip it on insane because I'm playing
Baldur's Gate, not starcraft broodwar final in World Cyber Games)

Now enough with theorycrafting, let's move into action !



=============================================================== IT BEGINS =============================================================================


Awaken in dungeon, Irenicus is kind enough to resist the urge of power word killing protagonist on sight.

Say bye to imoen, pick some mundane equipment from the nearby chest, talk to tom bombadil and get out.

Loot shadow thieve corpses in plain sight of waukeen's promenade people.

Go slums, gaelan, avoid 2 thugs near inn, enter inn, nalia's quest, firkraag's quest

Run to government district, talk to delon, run to gate district, trademeet's quest.

Leave athkathla in such a haste that the guards ask us if a pit fiend is running after us. We know just how much back alleys of Athkathla can be dangerous...

Umar hills. Do nothing except spare rangers pick valygar.

Trademeet. Kill animals, pick cernd, kill other animals.

Travel to druid grove to avoid Cernd's annoyance at not going there. Kill the troll near the spot where you arrive.

Back to umar hills do all minor buisness, pack stuff and go to winspear hills. Do all exterior job.

Travel back to waukeen's promenade. Do circus.

Go slums kill the 2 thugs, pit duel in copper coronet.

Attack the slavers.

Beastmaster : skeletons nymphs and dogs haste chant bless etc. minor spell sequencer 2x magic missile. Fight : Necro greater malison, Valygar doom on beastmaster, Cernd flame arrow on beastmaster (interrupt spell), rangercleric silence. Tabitha on cernd (mirror image iron skin), emotion beast master falls, I think valygar charmed the grizzly, minotaur and tabitha just didn't know what to hit and fell. This fight is not really different on insane because honestly if tabitha attacks an unprotected character on core that character will probably die pretty fast anyway.

Sell stuff pay 15k to shadow thieves (less than 100 gold left)

Head to docks, clear prebek's house

Mook's quest cleric ranger and barbarian stand on front, preventing vampire from hitting unprotected guys

Start maevar

Suna Sei : Riskbreaker uses ilbratha mirror image and heads to the left (north west) in order to take the chaos spell from mage. Necro magic missile on cleric interrupts greater command. Cernd casts emotion, rangercleric doom on eldarin, valygar doom on assassin, barbarian goes rage. Riskbreaker confused. Necro casts haste Cernd casts insects. True sight to reveal unconscious assassin.
Fight took long, stinking clouds and nymphs were used eventually. Everything hits hard, but our summons do not take double damage. (Thats bad news for mister Pasha Mamoud, he better have his hardiness ready!)

Talos temple

Wounded man

rayric gethras' tower (spare him for now)

Druid grove

Faldorn : My party was pretty exhausted when I reached faldorn...decided to try the duel for fun. Used domination as first spell and it worked. Used her to summon animal III, she summoned 2 winter wolfs =), necro and wolves then killed her easily. Was fun, unexpected and a good variation to the usual nuking fest.

rest + first druid grove quest

rakshashas

elite troll and trolls : death spell on trolls and melf's minute meteors, magic on noble troll and physical attacks with enchanted long sword +3, nature club, club +3

cernd's quest

help viconia

Murder rayric gethras in cold blood, he casts a remove magic, true sight, greater malison, disintegrate on a mountain bear, he gets charged and dies.

find out what happened to montaron

maevar

(Party :

necro : lvl 11 77hp AC 2 quarterstaff +1 sling +1 proficiencies : *quarterstaff *sling
stats : most powerful vainquished : stone golem total kills : 12 %

ranger/cleric : lvl 7/9 133hp AC -9 club +3 sling +1 medium shield +1 proficiencies : **club **mace **sling **flail **warhammer **two weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Hareishan total kills : 18 %

valygar : lvl 9 99 hp AC -6 family blade +2 mainhand flail+1 offhand proficiencies : **katana **club *longbow *axe ***two weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Beastmaster total kills : 18 %

barbarian : lvl 10 hp 168 AC -3 sword of chaos +2 quarterstaff +2 staff spear +2 composite bow proficiencies : **twohandedsword **quarterstaff **two handed weapon style *spear
stats : most powerful vainquished : Ihtafeer total kills : 22 %

riskbreaker : lvl 10 hp 121 AC 2 short sword of backstabbing +3 mainhand arbane's sword+2 offhand proficiencies : **long sword **short sword **two weapon style *flail
stats : most powerful vainquished : Noble troll total kills : 16 %

cernd : lvl 11 hp 64 AC 5 staff of high forest +2 sling proficiencies : *quarterstaff *scimitar *dagger *sling
stats : most powerful vainquished : Minotaur total kills : 12 %
)

buy reput to 14

get shield of the lost

wellyn

horn of valhalla

tirdir

expose tanner (careful with rune assassin, ranger cleric charges him and blocks him with his iron skin as he drinks his invis potion to backstab somoene frail)

upgrade horn of valhalla

fallen paladins

Clear estate of saerk farahd estate of its loot and lifeforms in a very lawful good way

graveyard minor encounters but no crypt king and no underground (as I said I'm currently in spellhold before library guardians and I still haven't met the orphan and Kamir)

sir charles

tiris trademeet

crypt king : Good positionning, iron skin mirror image bears minor air elementals

spider ambushes : buffs emotion melee + tanking cure poison flame arrow

orcus' room

paina : haste free action death spell larloch's minor drain. Was close, a lot of mass cures/heals were used.

shadow thieves contact : chaotic commands positionning remove magic flame arrows

roger the fence troll

sewer rakshasha : bears minor air elementals haste buffs emotion on kobolts...had to reload here, first time ranger cleric took the abidalzim for 250+ damage (that dreaded spell will most likely remain a big threat for the whole game). Next time valygar took it and saved vs spell.

mekrath's imp : put it down with malison emotion greater command

minotaur/yuanti mage/greater yuanti/umberhulk folks : very close, necro confused right away by umber hulk (was quite naive with SI:enchantment thinking yuanti mage wasnt going to put necro down), valygar hit and knocked away by minotaur (almost killed by that)

haerdalis gem/raelis summoning

lower reaches

gauths : cloud kill malison web emotion greater command, tank skeletons and missile weapons

unseeing eye : secret word breach malison doom flame strike flame arrow death ward

reputation now 20

buy mauler arm, staff of araundel, jewelry and containers

chaos : easy with this party and earth elementals from necro, necro gets killer insects hurt a LOT, polymorphed into troll, NOT HASTED, potions, namarra, multiple sources of heal

mencar and party : malison emotion command everyone on mencar + 5 fire elementals

buy spear of kuldahar

lilarcor

carrion crawler : free action, buffs, weapons +3, earth/fire elementals

rats : emotion/greater command

shadow lover : he hits really hard...risk breaker short sword of backstabbing +3, barbarian spear of kuldahar, necro staff-spear +2, doom malison and conjure insects (level 3 version)

ashedeena : free action buffs chaotic command, sword spiders summons, globe of blades + malison...1 or 2 reloads to get it straight...party can die pretty fast with specific protections removed, positionning had to be carefully planned out and globe of blades maximized

(party :

necro : lvl 12 78hp AC 0 quarterstaff +2 sling +1 staff-spear +2 proficiencies : *quarterstaff *sling *dart
stats : most powerful vainquished : Unseeing Eye total kills : 8 %

ranger/cleric : lvl 7/11 137hp AC -11 club +3 sling +1 barok's fist +2 shield of harmony +2 proficiencies : **club **mace **sling **flail **warhammer **two weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Chaos total kills : 19 %

valygar : lvl 11 105 hp AC -8 family blade +2 mainhand nature club+1 offhand proficiencies : **katana **club *longbow *axe ***two weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Mencar Pebblecrusher total kills : 14 %

barbarian : lvl 11 hp 171 AC -5 lilarcor+3 quarterstaff +2 spear of kuldahar+3 composite bow proficiencies : **twohandedsword **quarterstaff **two handed weapon style *spear
stats : most powerful vainquished : Pai'na total kills : 22 %

riskbreaker : lvl 11 hp 136 AC 0 short sword of backstabbing +3 mainhand namarra+2 offhand arbane's sword+2 ilbratha+1 proficiencies : **long sword **short sword **two weapon style *flail
stats : most powerful vainquished : Ghost Spider total kills : 22 %

cernd : lvl 12 hp 66 AC 5 staff of araundel+3 sling proficiencies : *quarterstaff *scimitar *dagger *sling *two handed weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Minotaur total kills : 11 %

)

bodhi's hideout

tanova : endure her, summons and buffs, then killed her with ranger/cleric (fought with exhausted party, so was not a walk in the park)

Slavers or De'arnise ? I need a staff +3 for dearnise...Decided to go with :

slavers : ranger cleric globe of blades and evil smite charges cleric and the mass of soldiers nearby, necro breaches cleric and fireballs on his ranger cleric ally (protected from fire), cernd flame arrow on captain, fighters on captain + doom and valhalla warrior/kittix, malison on mage + emotion, multiple instances of true seeing to counter assassins (was really tough for riskbreaker, had to move a lot and let those assassins get revealed, cause backstab way too dangerous on insane)

buy martial staff +3 for barbarian (could have been a little mistake...it was for gem golem and all the blunt weapons opponents prespellhold, but I could have found rynn on trademeet's crypt guardian later on before spellhold, which didn't happen)

kangaxx's minotaurs : web doom and missile weapons

dearnise keep

yuan ti : haste true sight protection from electricity secret word lower resistance malison emotion command breach (chaotic commands on everyone) skeletons as summons

library : improved haste true sight chaotic commands and summons from items (joloon kythix berseker) doom (dit it after yuan ti without resting)

glaicas : tackle him with haste breach and dual fire shield tanking(remove magic for his magic shield potion) and 5 fire elementals

keep viper : improved haste doom good tanking 5 fire elementals and conjure insects

torgal : OUCH...enchanted mace +3 everyone has crushing +3 except necro plan was to breach torgal attack with improved haste and 5 fire elementals with usual buffs chaotic command etc necro and cernd go near gem golem for tanking, valygar and ranger cleric doom on giant trolls, focus torgal then giant trolls then gem golem...there was a huge problem and it costed many reloads (more than 4) because I was stubborn.
I remember from core rules that sometimes, torgal will cast his spells and be impossible to interrupt...dunno if this was terrible luck or has anything to do with insane, or maybe damage divided by 2 helped me, but anyway torgal just kept forcing his spells like 80% of the time...I kept fighting getting hit by dispel magic, storm of vengeance...but I just couldn't win, storm of vengeance is way too much pressure on insane.
winning strat : so I decided to change order of kills...instead of the usual torgal-giant trolls-gem golem it was gem golem-giant troll-torgal and I made sure to get torgal's spells with only 1 character always...cause no matter how hard an amount of punishment he received, including larloch's minor drain, his spells would land without interruption. Even conjure insects' chance of miscast didn't help much, so I really had to retreat the character targetted by his spell.
Was won first try with that new style.
funny thing is torgal had always been so easy in every walkthrough I had done in the past lol

shadow jailer : I love to go in ruined temple at this stage of the game because I prefer to fight 2 ambushes of skeleton lords/greater mummies/bone golem without a lich. ( It wasn't our of fear, it's just that
I have the opportunity to fight 3 similar liches with kangaxx's quest so it's pretty much the same thing everytime (fight against kangaxx will detail how liches should be dealt with prespellhold))
Anyway back to shadow jailor, used enchanted mace +3 chaotic commands and dual fire shield tanking with skins, mirror images, good positionning and 5 fire elementals

forge : ring +2, 2x cloak +2, morning star +3

rest of shadow temple : good preparation and position (free actions in spellbook to use during battle if need be, no need to overbuff really)

borinall/amber golem : protection from lightning on everyone (even the 5 fire elementals), true sight, enchanted long sword + 3, proper tanking lower resistance doom malison and minor sequencer 2x glitterdust, mass cure and improved haste (focus borinall, rune assassins, amber golem)
made sure golem would only attack skins and made sure not to allow my lightning resistances to go too low (risk breaker can get pretty enthusiast in fights vs golems with crit combos and kill himself fast on such an amber monster, remember 2x damage)

belm : improved haste globe of blades malison emotion greater command chaotic commands free action, no trouble here, party was quite stronger than vs ashedeena

firkraag dungeon entrance (used greater command on hobgoblins...chieftain diddag fell to it lol, he didn't show up afterwards alongside tazok which is fine (otherwise 2x the loot)...made the fight vs tazok easier but let's be honest it is by no means a hard fight anyway..so I didn't reload after that incident)

mist swarms : ranger cleric and barbarian attack with skeletons, improved haste and buffs with malison + globe of blades combo, no trouble

rakshasha conjurer : quite tricky and long real life to play...didn't reload but really felt like I could have reloaded several times..used protection from fire (duh), fire elementals and lots of other summons (he's a formidable physical fighter and id rather have him slice open a sword spider than hit one of my frail party members(especially frail with insane))
he casts fast and the scenario of remove magic as you charge him and kobolt kamikazees deciding to appear at that specific moment is hard to predict (would have been cataclysmic)
he fell to a desperate charge (all in) because my ressources were depleting really fast...he hit really hard a few party members, was close

dungeon

golem ambushes : fire elementals good tanking/positionning(by good I mean flawless of course...can't afford to get hit) improved haste

vampires : ranger cleric and barbarian improved haste globe of blades malison

tazok : charge kill profit

leave maze and conster alone

forge : cloak +2

pirate hideout : 2 reloads to get it right (buffing sequence wasn't changed...it was just a little hard to execute because I didn't use iron skin and you can't pre-summon your summons)

so as I said don't use iron skin on ranger/cleric neither with cernd
go full buffs with protec lightning/fire, dont use protection from magical energy (3 instances in spell book) yet..they are to be used during fight and for the final stage (murdering the mage)
focus pirates dispel magic from cernd malison from necro...had spell immunity abjuration and a death ward in reserve (I prefer to cast it as a live counter to the coordinator's choice because cernd can cast it quite fast)
one instance of true sight for the end
one breach spell for the pirate captain(a few scrolls if need be) one breach for coordinator, 3 spell immunity
summons = skeletons during battle, items, contengency protec fire, doom on pirates/leader, focus the pirate leader and breach at the right timing to maximize damage output and get rid of him ASAP,
keep spirit armor OR chaotic commands active on valygar at all times to make sure he can use mental equilibrium (he has to stay clean...otherwise youre kind of counter productive with a protector)
one instance of death spell
some healing spells
what actually happened : had to focus minor pirates first and emotion them, then pirate captain then coordinator, we make sure coordinator casts death spell first (on kithix), joloon gets summoned fast and charges the coordinator right away to pressure him in melee and have him cast a melee protection spell (I constantly kept the menace of a physical rush active on him to make sure he uses lots of spells other than abi dalzim(abi dalzim = good game we're done))
coordinator died in a funny way...sometimes a character (player or ennemy) casts a spell impossible to interrupt (like torgal, but this really rarely happens, like one time out of 20 or even more)...pirate coordinator cast a finger of death impossible to interrupt on malison'ed necromancer without death ward and aura not cleansed on cernd...only way to interrupt such a spell is with death itself, and barbarian scored a might blow on the coordinator right before finger of death was finished casting
we used some missile weapons from afar to help a little with critical hits (darts) to soften some skins (we only had one character with protectio from magical energy left...the 2 other instances had been dispelled, but now coordinator had no remove magic)

forge : cernd's cloak

Now what to do ?Planar sphere, warden, conster or shade lord ? can do sewer party and firkraag's maze guardians/tomb mist founderoftrademeet for xp...only conster and warden give ruby rays (have 3 from mencar and 1 from spot near mazzy), so logically my usual core difficulty order is to go warden then conster then planar sphere then shade lord...warden gives ruby rays and allow me to forge phosphorus right away, but im truly affraid of insane warden...

I go for founder of trademeet : contengency haste, contengency stoneskin, chaotic commands, iron skin, mental equilibrium, blunt weapons and joloon, needed good positionning and waited this long to fight him because of his globe of blades...I needed decent saves to avoid bazillions of slashing damage points so it was a good timing to kill him
Unfortunately, no staff of rynn... I really wished I had found it, cause I don't want to forge staff of strenght pre spellhold, I much prefer to use those 2 last permanency scrolls for the necro amulet and a pair of boots of speed...so I will have to think about all of that later

Now firkraag maze guardians : immunity to fire, proper tanking and improved haste attack with fire elementals, rince and repeat 6 times

tomb mist : chaotic commands improved haste, healing, instances of true sight (multiple), oracle, mental equilibrium and go hunting ! track him down

warriors just got level 13 (very good level)

(party :

necro : lvl 13 79hp AC 0 quarterstaff +2 sling +2 proficiencies : *quarterstaff *sling *dart
stats : most powerful vainquished : Unseeing Eye total kills : 8 %

ranger/cleric : lvl 7/13 141hp AC -15 morning star + 3 sling + 3(arla) barok's fist +2 shield of harmony +2 proficiencies : **club **mace **sling **flail **warhammer ***two weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Chaos total kills : 24 %

valygar : lvl 12 108 hp AC -10 frostreaver +3 mainhand club +3 offhand mana bow + 3/tansheron bow +3 proficiencies : **katana **club *longbow **axe ***two weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Gem golem total kills : 15 %

barbarian : lvl 13 hp 177 AC -9 lilarcor+3 martial staff + 3 spear of kuldahar+3 heart seeker + 3 proficiencies : **twohandedsword **quarterstaff **two handed weapon style **spear
stats : most powerful vainquished : Amber Golem total kills : 22 %

riskbreaker : lvl 13 hp 143 AC -2 flail of ages +3 mainhand belm + 2 offhand arbane's sword+2 ilbratha+1 proficiencies : **long sword **short sword **two weapon style **flail
stats : most powerful vainquished : Torgal total kills : 20 %

cernd : lvl 13 hp 68 AC -1 staff of araundel+3 proficiencies : *quarterstaff *scimitar *dagger *sling *two handed weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Gem golem total kills : 8 %

)

sewer party : (gaius has no chain contengency) we go with typical buffs and fire elementals. We used dispel magic from cernd and ranger cleric, ruby ray on gaius from necro (scroll, but worth it in order to kill gaius faster and loot more scrolls of improved mantle), malison, silence from ranger cleric, emotion, then secret word + emotion + greater command + doom from valygar on gaius
Even tarnor fell to emotion

elite bounty hunter : need to endure her cause only 3 ruby rays(really much needed for warden) we didnt use summons (wanted her death spell scrolls), we used skins and good AC
from ranger cleric, breach her as soon as her spell immunity is off

rest of prison : the 2 yuanti mages with greater yuantis and minotaur and some thralls must not be understimated...especially on insane. I used crowd control tactics with missile weapons : cloud kill, acid fog, emotion, greater command, smite evil, chain lightning, slow, web, glitterdust, etc and lets not forget globe of blades ! I wanted an easy time here and that's what I got.

warden : OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH....

I of course made sure to face the entire party...warden AND 2 yuan ti mages and 2 greater yuantis and minotaur. (it is possible not to get next to warden from the right side, hence preventing yuantis from spawning, but I wanted to fight like intended)

Fact is I just didn't have the brute strenght required to face those guys...I didnt use iron skin on ranger cleric or cernd. I went full buffs with death ward active on necro (chain contengecy 3x finger of death), chaotic commands on valygar, full arsenal on ranger cleric with freection as well and even protection from acid.
Ranger cleric was chosen to charge warden in melee and remain stuck with her to prevent the armada of dogs. In order to actually tackle that lot of powerful opponents, we used
a lot of crowd control including many instances of entangle from valygar ranger cleric and cernd(by the way the save is supposed to be made at +3, but party members and even ennemies failed it a lot even without malison, so maybe there is something weird with that spell currently)
used cloud kills and acid fogs, had an emergency zone of sweet air to charge warden at the right moment. Only ranger cleric with buffing arsenal was in that chaotic mess of clouds, plants, web, etc. I didn't use stoneskin on necro either (reason is that stone skin or iron skin is just a reason for ennemy mages to use breach...but breach dispels protections from fire/lightning etc, which is bad news).
However, I kept an emergency stone skin/iron skin in everyone's spell book in order to force a breach (instead of a very nasty spell) or simply as a survival emergency to

It actually took only one reload to win this fight, but I meant my OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH.

First time ranger cleric wasnt close enough to warden, she used lasso, good bye.

Second time : warden was killed in a very heroic way in a pretty desperate situation. I don't recall everything from this situation, but its the kind of situation extremly crucial in which opponents could kill a lot of your guys in many different ways.
For example, necro was casting breach despite having 19 hp and no death ward (say hi to power word kill). But I really really had to take her down...Even worse, warden had cast
remove magic on ranger cleric...had to dispel those clouds asap thanks to cernd's fast casting speed, otherwise ranger cleric would have died to acid and poison damage (x2)
A breach and good blows finished warden...then I was faced with obvious truth, there was absolutely no way I was gonna be able to face the rest (including 2-3 surviving dogs(warden summoned very limited amount of dogs, which was my plan))
so even if I dislike that, I was forced to execute a martial retreat. Not a panic mode lets all get out whoever survives survives. I planned the retreat carefully because I still had to make the most out of my buffs and some control spells that were still going on in the area.
If I had retreated in a chicken way, my powerful buffs would not have lasted enough to kill everything. It's important to keep in mind that in insane I just can't let a greater yuanti hitting somoene without skins, thats way too much damage.
So we retreaded while making the most out of our powers, many potions were chugued, when the last yuanti mage fell, 2 casters had zero spell in their spellbooks and necro had only identify left. That was really quite a fight ! Good memories forever with that one haha.
Special thanks to mental equilibrium as well. I'm really happy with the party I chose. In spellhold I still cannot think of a party that would have been better overall since the beginning.

forge : morning star +3, phosphorus

conster : 5 fire elementals, buffs, rangercleric and cernd position themselves not to get breached (they do use iron skin here), 18/100 str for valygar (strenght spell), improved haste,
no protection from magical energy here...the plan is to kill him really fast and furious style under insects effect. I had one raise dead spell memorized just in case things got desperate(being forced to eat the triple abidalzims for exemple)
free action on necro and cernd (power word stun no thx) no spell immunity on necro (greedy for ruby ray scrolls )
fight goes : greater malison on conster, summon insects from cernd and ranger/cleric...unfortunately it was hard to land an insect spell...usually he saves approximately 50% of times but this time
he decided to save 4 in a row, necro was debuffing him with ruby ray. (A little problem here, possibly needing to get fixed : I've encountered that in every v6 run. The first legal breach that lands on conster (by legal I mean no SI:abjuration) does NOT remove his stoneskin...but it does remove everything else it should remove.)
so eventually we breach but have to peel through his stoneskin, meanwhile first and second waves had been killed by rest of party and elementals, but when that breach landed we had to focus on conster. He cast another melee immunity spell, another breach, we really had to kill him, third wave spawned and started hacking and slashing their way to party, but I wanted conster dead. Eventually he fell (under insects he had no other behaviour than refreshing melee immunity, I suspect it hindered his abi dalzims from firing because he remained badly injured and worse for quite some time (at least enough to fire it with little delay).
conster dead, third wave was pretty hard because party's initial momentum + summons weren't quite the same they used to be at the beginning. Eventually party members positionned themselves, ranger cleric had 2 more ironskins, so victory was easy.
Still have to be extremly careful with the 3 other fights, even the great barbarian can go down extremly fast when attacked by skeleton lords.

I now have 8 ruby rays of reversal and 2 absolute immunity scrolls

forge : ring +2

planar sphere

halfing party : fire elementals buffs go with malison emotion insects (invisibility potion saved valygar from that furious halfing archer, with only 3 arrows valygar was forced to quaff that potion he could not even retreat fast enough under haste)

cleric level 14 !

rest of the level

valygar level 13 !

lavok : buffs except protection from magical energy, globe of invulnerability + si:abjuration, ruby rays on lavok (needed 5) rest take care of golem + lords, we had 5 fire elementals.
We sent one fire elemental right away on lavok to make sure he uses a melee immunity spell (and would keep getting threatened of a quick throat slit) gem golem hits riskbreaker for 100 damage (that wasn't a critical hit, anyway I have ioun stone)
riskbreaker took care of breached lavok with protection from magical energy and his risk breaker improved haste, assisted with fire elemetnals

anecdote : against shadow jailor risk breaker didnt have ioun stone yet...he got hit by one skeleton lord, other skeleton lord simulteanously scored a critical hit on him and he got chunked violently. It's important to be as focused as possible during those fights, very few mistakes allowed.

demon plane : at this stage I know my party proved in many fights that it could take this fight easily (well still with a lot of focus, but easily in relative terms) so I decided to try something new with that battle. I sent necro alone with si:abjuration, haste, stonesking, dual fireshield, free action and used protection from magical weapons. The demon uses normal attacks so he pierces through the skin which has to be renewed. Eventually he casts silence, but by then lords are either badly injured or injured, so rest of party comes in lightly buffed and kill everything easily

necro level 14, fighters level 14 !

tolgerias : won't go for the kamikaze normal weapons rush attack...anyway I have level 14 necromancer. buffs, death ward on necro ( 3x fingers), ranger cleric uses creeping doom, 5 fire elementals, tolgerias magic resistance on creeping doom, other mage is affected though
no real difficulty here

fire and cold rooms : efreeti down to malison + emotion (he's not hard but if you understimate him too much he can become a nuisance and I decided to take no fight for granted)

engine room : took the secure way...one golem party at a time, improved haste on fighters, free action/remove fear on everyone, perfect positionning, hit those golems, repeat, repeat, loot and finish quest

forge : ring + 2

(party :

necro : lvl 14 85hp AC -1 quarterstaff +2 sling +2 proficiencies : *quarterstaff *sling *dart
stats : most powerful vainquished : Unseeing Eye total kills : 7 %

ranger/cleric : lvl 7/14 143hp AC -15 flail of ages + 3 sling + 3(arla) barok's fist +2 shield of harmony +2 proficiencies : **club **mace **sling **flail **warhammer ***two weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Chaos total kills : 24 %

valygar : lvl 13 111 hp AC -12 frostreaver +3 mainhand club +3 offhand mana bow + 3/tansheron bow +3 proficiencies : **katana **club *longbow **axe ***two weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Gem golem total kills : 14 %

barbarian : lvl 14 hp 180 AC -9 lilarcor+3 martial staff + 3 spear of kuldahar+3 heart seeker + 3 air elemental staff +2 proficiencies : **twohandedsword **quarterstaff **two handed weapon style **spear
stats : most powerful vainquished : Amber Golem total kills : 23 %

riskbreaker : lvl 14 hp 146 AC -2 phosphorus +4/short sword of backstabing/adjatha the drinker+2/ilbratha +1 mainhand belm + 2 offhand proficiencies : **long sword **short sword **two weapon style **flail
stats : most powerful vainquished : Torgal total kills : 23 %

cernd : lvl 13 hp 68 AC -1 staff of araundel+3 staff of fire +2 proficiencies : *quarterstaff *scimitar *dagger *sling *two handed weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Gem golem total kills : 7 %

)

party 1,83 million XP (still haven't touched any stronghold)

shade lord : pondered wether to go melee or spells...this guy has relatively weak followers (conster for example has more melee power siding with him) but he himself is a good fighter and his aura inflicts magic damage (double in this case) plus 3x abi dalzims...no pre-casted summons...
decided to go with spells (that worked wonderfully)
we summon stuff as we enter, necro begins ruby rays of reversal, secret word, lower resistance, breach etc, we make sure shade lord is kept pressured in melee, we get rid of
all the followers and eventually split valygar cernd necro and ranger cleric from afar, using call lightning after call lightning, necro sequencer 3x lightning bolt
shade lord died really fast(call lightning hits him so hard under greater malison) and clean, no abi dalzims fired, he was busy fighting summons, riskbreaker and barbarian had just retreated before the badly injured status
That was a particulary stormy night in the umar hills.

hard nut to crack : maximum melee buffing +5 fire elementals, get the cowled wizards warning here

ranger/cleric now 7/15 !

slaughter two kangaxx pieces liches (details of vs lich will be found in incoming kangaxx fight)

screaming statue : first wave : 5 skeleton warriors with haste, ranger cleric no haste
second wave : 5 skeletons warriors with haste, ranger cleric and barbarian with haste
heal skeleton warriors and barbarian
improved haste on all fighters, although riskbreaker and valygay dont join the fray, they are only to act out of despair, globes of blades righteous might and SUNRAY!, sequencer malison confusion slow, barb uses aim from heartseeker and focuses master vampire with ranger cleric, skeleton warriors fight mists
no real trouble here (I know this fight can be done much sooner...but I really see no reason not to wait for skeleton warriors, the xp reward is not huge and the permanency scroll doesn't hasten forging phosphorus at all

shadow dragon : no stoneskin on necro (need death ward and stoneskin = pretext to breach), protection from acid on everyone, cernd mirror image stoneskin negative plane protection tanking, lots of zones of sweet air, restoration, greater restoration, cure blindness, for mandatory rushes after a breath, didn't use spellstrike because of silence on necro anyway, so didnt memorize breaches either (only 1 instance, rest was protection from acid...cernd uses 5th level spots for other stuff)
was pretty challenging and cool..that wing buffet hits for like 34 damage instead of 17, which is a lot on the frail valygar
shadow dragon used heal twice, he eventually fell to an heroic killing blow from barbarian(just like against the pirate coordinator) as the party really wasn't in good shape anymore to tackle the improved hasted wyrm

Now should I forge staff of strenght or necro amulet + boots of speed ? Staff of strenght means another +4 weapon (since no rynn), making kangaxx manageable (barbarian rage, pouding with the staff, no stress here) and making other fights like troll mound or teshal possible as well
problem is if I dont forge the amulet I might have some trouble against firkraag post spellhold, because I definitely want to kill him before kruin (I want to gather all the xp I can before taking on kruin, which I predict will be very hard to kill)
I decided that troll mound and teshal werent worth the trouble anyway. Without forging anything I went for paladin stronghold.

mage in umar inn : Must be taken entirely seriously. Didn't pull a Firebead Elvenhair on that mage (you can still exit the building during the fight, which wasn't blocked most likely because this fight is not intended at all to be important).
Still had to play my best just to make sure everything went well...really can't afford chain lightnings, abi dalzims...let's not even mention dragonbreath/comet.

Some stronhold stuff to get more xp (could have been done much before but I'm never quite sure how much xp ill have at that point, so I use that to adjust)

fighters level 15 (very good level)

forge : amulet of hades, boots of speed

no more gold for now, so be it !

kangaxx : That was awful...really awful...and it had nothing to do with insane difficulty. I'm refering to the demi lich part.
Let's first take a look on how to deal with non grave liches in general prespellhold. We use buffs but no protection from magical energy yet, we distract her with illusions,
melee pressure, SI:abjuration, death ward, summons and since they have many protections from magical weapons spells, cernd always have a few chain lightnings in order to interrupt
abi dalzim spells or a weird alteration spell that doesnt seem to be ruby ray (time stop most likely, no thanks) be careful to remove the lich's illusion before interrupting with
chain lightning, cause illusion might stop it

Ok now the demi lich part...oh my god. For kangaxx, had to use ring of the ram to propel him northwards. That took more than 10 reloads and the very sad thing is that every
reload took at least 45 minutes to play. That was so stupid of me lol. But many would die for the One Ring. Problem was only riskbreaker and ranger cleric had affinity
with flails...but that demi lich is pretty well scripted and really hostile to such fighters. She uses remove magic every 3 rounds(sometimes more, but minimum 3 rounds) so I had
to retreat out of her sight everytime she was casting her third spell...throwing phosphorus at another character to try damaging her..barbarian despite having no flail proficiencies
could hit her a little sometimes...that was really a huge micro management lots of movements
In the winning attempt of this nightmare, cernd and valygar were imprisonned (bioware npcs are not a hassle to get back into the party), necro heroicly (luckily) survives an abi dalzim with 20% magic damage resistance from amulet of hades and a succesfful save vs spells
Finally riskbreaker scores the death blow as demi lich is almost done casting remove magic on him (at that point in the fight had no other option than continue hitting her hoping for the best).
I had of course tons of death wards with wondrous recall and 2 divine casters...but the problem was the improved haste spells, which were limited, and demi lich's regeneration etc, plus her other spells are not exactly what we could call friendly (having -50 fire resistance on insane does not feel comfortable)
Boots of speed helped quite a lot here and will be a wonder to have in spellhold as usual. Ranger-cleric puts the One Ring on his finger with a dark look in his eyes.

samia's party : the last battle before spellhold, and truly a fantastic one. I really wanted to do that fight because it's just too awesome prespellhold and a little too easy
after spellhold. Fought at the intended spot (near the 2 dragon items, not where you initially encounter samia by telling her you changed your mind). So basically in that spot
your party is trapped like a bunch of rats, with 3 warlords spawning from behind and samia's party occupying the only exit room. As in many battles of improved anvil, even on
insane difficulty, it is in your interest to stand your ground and fight well instead of panicking and fleeing in a very grotesque (if not pathetic) way throughout samia's party, trying to find sanctuary in other rooms, but doing that only give samia's party free rounds to cast stuff, your buffs will expire, and skeleton warlords do not care at all. It will actually be a lot worse, because you will be fighting warlods on the front with samia's party behind hurling spells at you.
So no, the only way is to hold your ground and fight properly.

Preparation : buffs, 5 skeleton warriors in your back, no improved haste, necro's level 6 picks are protection from magic energy, globe of invulnerabilty and protection from
magical weapons

strategy : necro stands in the doorway, followed in a straight line (all with line of sight in the samia room) by ranger cleric, cerd, valygar. risk breaker and barbarian will
fight the 3 warlods with meticulous positionning and the 5 skeleton warriors, joined pretty quickly by valygar (meticulous positionning as well) and ranger-cleric (he tries to absorb hits and was superb in the whole fight thanks to armor class...more details on this after this battle's report)
necro activates PFMW before looting the dragon items, so 1 round of PFMW is wasted when samia appears, but that was necessary, time is crucial here (he is under dual fireshield as well). THen they spawn, necro uses remove magic, cernd uses dispel magic, ranger cleric uses creeping doom, valygar uses doom on chak, barbarian barbarian rage, risk breaker improved haste.
Second round : necro uses sequencer greater malison + confusion + emotion, cernd uses emotion, ranger cleric uses doom on either samia or fenric, same for valygar, then both join in the fray with warlords.
Third round necro casts sequencer in order to cast 3 other spells in 2 rounds (level 7 spell slots serve no other purpose here). He will unleash another greater malison + confusion + emotion. Cernd another emotion, fighters battle the warlords well. Necro blocks the doorway but is advanced too, so kaol is pressured in melee as well. This is important because otherwise you won't have all that time to cast.

now what actually happened...

first try : That was really well played although I failed my second sequencer (casting it on a nearby ennemy fighter which was somehow trapped in the zone's geography...the 3 spells only hit that guy, not his friends.)
I used entangle which was only a nuisance to me, not the ennemies. All opponents died except kaol, legdoril and one skeleton warrior (not warlord), we had everyone alive (we had to raise riskbreaker during the battle and have him heal securely near the treasure spot because he got one-shot-K.O by fenric ironblade backstab from invisible potion (156 damage !, not a critical hit)
Unfortunately, an armageddon comet landed on windspear hills and the forgotten realms would suffer from nuclear winter for the years to come... (in other words, kaol cast comet on ranger/cleric and valygar, valygar 127 fire resist, ranger cleric 25 from dragon shield. Only viable options were potion of icedust, but valygar andranger cleric aura not cleansed, same for nearby characters except necro which was in the samia party room...tried to run and use it through the doorway, but the geography of the zone blocked the potion and ranger cleric got violently chunked despite being at full hp with 25% resistance)

second try : this time, no waste of time with entangle or other non sense. Chak down to emotion and insects, akae kills himself on dual fire shield necro (he is a very enthusiastic fighter) when necro's PFMW runs out after firing his second sequencer, he lets fenric ironblade in our room, then take position on the door again to prevent samia from joining him (she doesnt have enough attacks per round to be a threat to stoneskin in a round)
fenric ironblade says It's a trap ! quaffs invisibility potion and hits the pious valygar for 110 damage (valygar had 114 hp, we can say thanks to armor of faith for saving him). Valygar backs instantly quaffs a superior healing potion and backs off, fenric gets murdered, necro keeps SI active despite kaol's attempts, necro lets samia in then goes out side to fire melf's minute meteors on unconscious chak (his iron skin had been destroyed by the creeping doom), then necro
gets in our room again and something unexpected happens..despite all his buffs a very simple and lucky hold person from legdoril paralyzes necro ! under si:abjuration its impossible to use mental equilibrium, this means trouble...

and now...something really funny happened (and to be fair I think I deserved it) kaol decided to step in on the doorway and block the door just like my necro did...he stood there until the very end of the fight. That was funny irony...he really took his revenge there. Fortunately barbarian and risk breaker were on the other side (samia party room) killing legdoril.
The fight became extremly dangerous at that point...we were stuck in the treasure room with samia in pretty good health and kaol had debuffed paralyzed necro, then used breach...as soon as he used breach valygar used mental equilibrium to remove paralzysis
then necro casts protection from fire on himself, we try to leave the room like chickens but kaol reminds us that this is a fight to the death...he just blocked that doorway perfectly and was determined not to move a simple inch.
Kaol casts remove magic on valygar, valygar rangercleric necro and cernd all get dispelled...ouch ! (samia is fighting the skeleton warriors which were all still alive)
we get protection from lightning back from the 2 divine casters and protection from fire from valygar and necro (valygar resist fire/cold)
then kaol remove magic again...we know he doesn't care about his own life and is ready to collapse the entire dungeon with a comet and bury us all
new lightning/fire protec, ranger cleric vulnerable to fire, but necro had kept his aura cleansed (no protec fire on him anymore anyway) and used potion of icedust...
comet propels the 4 party members on samia which was force moved (was pretty funny...its like we actually collided with her) we used that opportunity and samia surround to
kill her(her hardiness was no more active) new buffs still (lightning/fire) ranger cleric uses iron skin, which kaol breaches (fieeew) samia dies !
risk breaker in the other room (oh by the way mountain bears were pressuring kaol, but he really didnt care about them, his eyes were injected with pyromaniac intents)
so as I was saying risk breaker in the other room used ilbratha for mirror image...kaol uses true seeing, he attacks kaol, kaol removes magic on riskbreaker (the 4 stuck party
members kept casting/drinking to get resists against dreaded fire/lightning). Riskbreaker retreats barbarian takes over drinking an oil of speed...kaol breaches on cernd
ranger cleric uses woundrous recall for 2x protection from lightning (remember, 3x chain lightning would chunk us permanently), he buffs himself and valygar, necro uses protection from magical energy on ranger cleric, ranger cleric makes sure
to crawl on the wall (no line of sight with kaol, which was like at the door's level, not the wall. ranger cleric boots of speed, draw upon holy might, preparing for glory.
kaol greater malison on barbarian, slow on barbarian (we are waiting for his last absolute immunity to end...
kaol being abi dalzim on barbarian (oh my god) necro runs quickly and casts larloch's minor drain (amulet of hades) on kaol, spell casting failed ! yay ! (although I still had that raise dead spell to get barbarian back, but it was time to charge, not to cast a raise dead during a whole round)
ranger cleric charges kaol with flail of ages, kaol casts chaos on ranger cleric (kaol still had stoneskin, but necro was casting breach), chaos is saved (had another mental equilibrium in case), kaol uses power word silence on ranger cleric...it seems he is out of options !
kaol goes down, no casualties, fantastic !

On the loot : VECNA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was pretty sad when I found out trademeet crypt had no rynn...but this vecna is going to be awesome. In fact, the only decisive advantage it will provide me over finding it in the illithid sewer lair is against kruin. That will help a lot. Now I'm happy too because it means I will have memory of the apprenti for twisted rune (not wanting to face groups of twisted golems...)

by the way...I realized afterwards that I had ring of the ram...so when kaol blocked the door maybe I could have knocked him away (although the ring usually doesn't work against humanoid mages...dunno why, for example it didnt work on perl the adept)

went to castle dearnise take gold in library and tell Lord Roenall to bring it on.

clear inventory, sell maximum stuff

won't forge cernd's improved circlet because I found vecna and want the fastest memory, and I won't forge his potion either because I have ranger cleric for creeping doom

forge : ring + 2, ring +2, ring + 2

12562 gold left

2084789 xp on necro

(party :

necro : lvl 14 95hp AC -5 martial staff +3 sling +2 proficiencies : *quarterstaff *sling *dart
stats : most powerful vainquished : Unseeing Eye total kills : 7 %

ranger/cleric : lvl 7/15 145hp AC -17 flail of ages + 3 sling + 3(arla) barok's fist +2 shield of harmony +2 or saving grace +3 proficiencies : **club **mace **sling **flail **warhammer ***two weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Chaos total kills : 24 %

valygar : lvl 14 114 hp AC -12 frostreaver +3 mainhand club +3 offhand mana bow + 3/tansheron bow +3 familyblade+2 nature club proficiencies : **katana **club *longbow **axe ***two weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Prime assassinator total kills : 14 %

barbarian : lvl 15 hp 183 AC -11 lilarcor+3 martial staff + 3 spear of kuldahar+3 heart seeker + 3 air elemental staff +2 proficiencies : **twohandedsword **quarterstaff **two handed weapon style **spear *halberd
stats : most powerful vainquished : Shadow dragon total kills : 22 %

riskbreaker : lvl 15 hp 149 AC -4 phosphorus +4/short sword of backstabing+3/adjatha the drinker+2/ilbratha +1/sword of dragon+2 mainhand belm + 2 offhand proficiencies : **long sword **short sword **two weapon style ***flail
stats : most powerful vainquished : kangaxx the demilich total kills : 24 %

cernd : lvl 13 hp 68 AC 0 staff of araundel+3 staff of fire +2 proficiencies : *quarterstaff *scimitar *dagger *sling *two handed weapon style
stats : most powerful vainquished : Gem golem total kills : 6 %

)

SET SAIL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

vampires in brynlaw

insane dwarf : haste good positioning, no damage taken, he got overwhelemd

ginia tale

perl the adept : ruby ray, buffs, ring of ram didnt work but at least interrupted spellcasting, creeping doom (which he resists), he died in a rush attack without triggering his 3x abi dalzim

galvena festhall : same scenario than perl the adept, except 5 skeleton warriors, and being extra careful with the zone's physical layout

clear outside of asylum

get admitted with high charisma

a bad dream

level 1 of spellhold

golem/rukh ambush : prepare to the max, zone of sweet air, tank with skins and attack from proper angles, everyone was placed meticulously and it went very well

book on second level : no details here...at this stage with such an advanced party it's easy

soft spawns of level 2

Now my saved game is before entering the room in front of the library. I must say I am extremly glad to have made it that far without much trouble. (kangaxx was just dumb...next time I will just skip it or forge staff of strenght if no rynn, or have a berseker or barbarian with phosphorus, cause killing him that way was just too dumb)
The big heroes of this party as of now have been notably ranger/cleric and cernd, as predicted. Those 5 fire elementals were a tremendous asset in many important battles early on.

I feel pretty confident for the future of this run, and it for sure is an exciting one ! I can see amber golems/kobolts being relatively easy thanks notably to creeping doom.
Just have to play it cool...amber golems don't reproduce, so no need to hurry that much in killing them. We have skins after all.

I would conclude this first draft with little thoughts on armor class....I used to think (pretty much all of us thought that at some point in baldur's gate) that armor class
gets pretty much irrelevant later on in the game (and pretty early in improved anvil against certain opponents). But that is really false. I know it can be hard to believe this when you get into the fight with -26 armor class and first thing that happens is skeleton warlord hits 18 : hit 58 damage
but you have to view this by a statistical perspective... if opponent has such a tach0 that he will hit you on 11-20, in that fight vs that particular opponent while tanking him on several hits/time your ac acts pretty much like a 50% physical resistance. This gets a little less satisfying with ridiculous amounts of damage per hit, but yet the idea still stands.
But not only that...high armor class can be paired with other means of defense...such as iron skin for example. Now if your opponents hits 1 time out of two, it means your iron skin lasts twice longer. This makes a huge difference. In my battle vs samia's party, ranger cleric had -24 armor class vs warlords (-21, -3 with golden girdle)...that actually means something, especially with protection from evil and defensive harmony, which mean -27 AC. Combine that with iron skin and those dangerous warlords will actually struggle.

Just my 2 cens on AC and improved anvil.

I don't know how fast this run will continue, but I guess that's enough to read for a while.

Thanks for reading and have fun with baldur's gate !