Journal 7.0, diary of Aria Joyce, an auramaster, Will take time 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)

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: Jul 14 2024, 01:44 AM

[pekkae]

Part 1

***
Irenicus's Dungeon
***
Join minsc the Berserker and Jaheira the Avenger
Imoen + PC take care of the encounters with mm / flame arrow + emotions mostly.

**
Chapter 1
***
Pc takes wisdom tomes.
pick up Sibel
loot thieves guild
start mae var's questline
loot mar'vars
save Viccy
pick up Jan, drop Yoshimo
Loot Saerk Farrah estate
solve skinner murders
start fallen paladins
steal necklace, loot talos temple
return cup
finish mae'var (we have already 6th level spells so it's a walk-thru)
investigate CC (elemental + 3 bears + CS with haste + pfe are easily enough)
buy 4 points of reputation (1200, 1500, 2000, 2500)
start sir sarles
return neb's head
finish sir sarles

umar hills
chickens
mimics blood
madaulf + pick up shield

trademeet
whack attackers
faldorn (with auramaster is really simple)
adratha
start buried ambitions
nyalee (haha, death spell is awesome here again)
dealing with genies
heroes of trademeet

windspear hills (besides the dungeon)
helping tiris in trademeet (one of the merchants sells a potion of power - we buy it. we're collecting those)
but staff +3, it goes to Jaheira
whack shadows at temple ruins
whack anath & get note here
whack bandits (between areas)

go to trademeet, pick up rasaad
city gates, pick up location of abandined amphiteater
heretic temple, max exp & whack everything
convince rasaad to join the temple
whack dark moon heretics left

back to the city
suna seni
return renfeld
littleman
xzar & montaron (death spell Prebeks)
return to harper hold

**
crew at 700k exp, except Sibel who is at 630k. Sibel makes a level so we can now drop Jan. But we can't do that yet as his personal quest hasn't triggered. So we'll wait for a little bit. We forge Yeti hide and sell some stuff. Monies at 80k or so.
***

Neera's quests (I guess they were approximately here or so?)
jan's personal quest
pick up nalia (se we're finally at 6 party members)
drop neera, pick up custom fighter/illusionist (str9:, dex:18, con:18, int:19, wis:17, cha: 11)

***
so we're with PC, Jaheira, Minsc the Berserker, Sibel, Nalia the F/M, Custom F/I
***


whack slavers (the attack between areas)
to de'arnise keep
the most troublesome is great yuan-ti, for the dispels. luckily nalia has SI. tor'gal goes down on the 2nd try.
ployer
forge paws of the furiois cat (Jaheira's for now but will later be with PC)
clear sewers (cc, haste, fa + chain lightnings do wonders)
slaver stockade (double web + whack cleric + so we can tank with images as well!) get ih! yay. well, nalia has one 6th level slot. haha.

***
crew at 1 - 1.05 Mexp points. nalia takes con tome + int tome. ole!
***

sibel's quests: fix tree, get sibel's stuffs, talk to reginald, clear ambush and go back (the new maps are superbly beautiful and the quests were nice! I have 2 coins left though and I have no idea where the item is?)
unseeing eye
whack as many cultist as possible
rescue garren's child, get all skellys ; we're running out of room - Sibel hits like a truck

***
we're going to pick up valygar and drop berserker, but the berserker is such a nice character for vampires so ... I think it's the vampires next. then we do the sphere and we'll leave planar prison as the last spot. also king & queen, pirates, screaming statue, strongholds, pebblecrusher, limited wish q and a few other minor quests are not done
***

de'arnise pt 1
cleric pt 1
nalia fathers funeral
paladin pt 1
rescue nalia from roenalls
paladin pt 2
paladin pt 3
mook
guild contact (with berserker + nalia it's a walk in the park)
cleric pt 2
bodhi's whack everything upstairs
sleep and fo ambush, then lassal, then bodhi. we get just a few vampires from lassal.
get exp from thives
cleric pt 3

temple ruins (we cheated the liches, as we don't have an effective way of whacking them at this stage. and I dislike relying in flesh to stone. plus we have an auramaster, so liches will be a walk in the park almost immediately after we get HLA's)
thax
shade lord
ba-battle

***
the crew is almost at 1,8mexp points. we have oodles of stuff to do; hexxat's quests, planar sphere, samia and screaming statue. not sure if we can fit anything else before spellhold, not even the stronghold quests. Planar prison we leave post spellhold. Maybe the sewer gang as well.
***

de'arnise pt 3
cleric finale

***
next up: pick up valygar the vagrant and to planar sphere we go.
***

since we can't pick up valygar without launching the next ranger quest, we launch it here
ranger protector part 1 (tombhelten)
planar sphere, storm through halflings + spiders + another set of halflings. Rest, whack ambush; rest, Lavok, tolgerias + elemental rooms. rest; demon plane, rest; engine room.
sibel's quest next thing triggers when we're out (crew at 2.05Mexp, we have the room to do screaming statue + something else still)

***
a note about "tactic's here". we just bash through, no tactics necessary. for example demon's plane with get all demons: prebuff (we have 4x IH and we use em all; Valygar, Sibel, CS + Nalia. Summon anacond, 2x aerieal servants, swanmay + CS. Haste, bless, PFE for everyone. SI:abjuration for F/I + Nalia. Amulet of whispers for Nalia. HP+RM+DUHM for Sibel+Jaheira. GS (Jaheira has 1 for F/I. If Valygar gets into trouble we can double regen him prefight, but it's not necessary.

Tactic: See demon, full on assault with everything we have. Main demon goes down in 1 round or so.
***

screaming statue
de'arnise keep pt 3(?), so borinali
send knighs to their plane & speed up mage stronghold with console (it's "APPRENTIBUILDTIMER"). This is crucial, we get reaching ring here so we have extra 6th & 7th level slots.
samia, goes very smoothly - we of course have sub-optimal spell choices but such is life as always. CS tanks Kaol until the end.

***
crew at 2,16mexp. just 70k more and we're off. There's something strange with Nalia? whenever we pick up an item (say reaching ring for example), her portrait icon is marked grey as if she can not use the item, even though she can.

hardest fights so far:

Ambush at Jaheira's quest
Liches at temple ruins

We're terrified of letting go of Jaheira. The New staff is wonderful with her. But the new staff should be very good with an Auramaster as well. Hmh.

Visit cromwells and forge: Circlet of Golden flowers and boots of haste. We have the ingredients for water's edge, but we don't have anyone who could properly use it.

stuffs to do that we would normally do pre-spellhold (just as reminder to myself to do these once we can continue)

- hexxat
- belm
- lilarcor
- king sthrom's guardians
- squirreled away
- sewer raksasha
- korgan's quests
- borinali
- limited wish
- founder of trademeet
- ashideena
- sewer gang
- mekrath
- planar prison
- king & queen
- pirates
- fighter stronghold,
- bard stronghold
- mage stronghold (the rest).

next: drop Jaheira, pick up Hexxat. Do her quests (should be about 50kexp/per character so we need to go to Spellhold then.

got a note for Sibel, is there anything I should do before continuing to chapter 4?
***

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jun 19 2024, 11:49 AM

[pekkae]

Part 2

korgan's quest
mage stronghold finale (the rune imprisonment thingy)
join clara, free hexxat
join hexxat, drop hexxat (we hope she'll wait at CC)
pick up Jaheira
whack harpers
realize that we need to do pai'na, in case we want to take on spider queen post spellhold but before Kruin. so do pai'na and get all spawns (rigid thinking works here).

***
and we're at 2.22Mexp. We can't fit anything else.

would have wanted mazzy here already, but Jaheira is just so immensily powerful she's very difficult to replace. well, maybe after spellhold. we have immense casting capabilities btw. Our plan was to take Mazzy because she can use a full plate, can take the pally's gauntlets and she has an effective use of Judgement Day. And she can tank. But we're actually just not sure where we would need mazzy to tank, as we have that wholly covered I'd say. I mean, we don't even need to use Nalia or F/I for tanking.

Voila the Crew:

Auramaster (PC)
Valygar the Vagrant (we fix Valygar to 19 con)
Sibel
Jaheira
Nalia (Iatweaks regular F/M version)
Custom F/I

Sell loot, monies at almost 300k, forge several rings of protection +2, ring +3, nature's gift. monies at 60k or so.
***

Chapter 4.

whack dwarf
ginia minor q
galvena, 6 guards
perth, 2 coins (perth doesn't summon any more after we hold him (it's either hold person or hold monster).
desharik sends us to spellhold
talk to dradeel (but I can't make him talk).
sibel talk gives out additional, argh.

***
land in maze and pc is at 2.38Mexp, that was close.
***

liches
vampires
librarian
ancient tome (we think we got all spawns from ghost spider)
crystal shard kobolds, pfl & pfc and we basicly just mass heal. forgot we had swanmays.
spider ambush + get exp from clearing the area. we get 3 rounds (there should be 4th round of spawns, but it's just overly boring so we don't wait for it...)
golem ambush, get 5 spawns from elemental, sibel whacks bone golem. We probably could have made it to all 6, but we're running out of skins. Well, PC has 4 skins left at the end (thanks to wonderous recall). We're hoping for a power surge pre-Kruin. Hmh. We do have Soul Reaver then. If it works vs elementals, it should be a "life saver" for us. otherwise the Kruin fight will be very, very tight even with our tanking capabilities.
mithril golem (nalia tanks it with effective ac of -32 / -33 (she starts with -36), it doesn't stand a chance. no oils of resurgence / barbarian essences used).

***
Note: We don't even use IH that much, usually on Sibel. Especially gem golems last only a few rounds, their are very straightforward. Mithril golem being an exception.
***

irenicus, low ac rules here though we forget irenicus's CC. it realeases only when he's "near death" but it does manage to whack almost everyone. by some miracle, not permanently though. nalia & elemental & pc handle the murderes's, we raise & greater restoration and off we go.
clear ambush, there are sort of fun with our triple-priest, get new iouns stone! ooh, a perfect fit for Jaheira!
whack desharik (at his home)
exit isle the new way
whack the isle
next chapter
whack saemon
whack everything in city'o'caverns
side with king
whack prince
whack everything still standing

***
PC at 3,3Mexp. She's 200k away from HLA's. So looks like we need to head to "the great one" quite fast. Rest of the crew at 3,0mexp or so.
***

flayers
portals
kua-toa groups
elemental lair, besides ancient golem
to dracolich
deep shadow room - haha, we 4xweb here and it works like a charm!
dracolich
drow ambush #1
victims of imprisonment
demon at svirneblin village

***
PC makes a level and gets HLA's! We pick implosion as the first HLA. Smilodon will be next. Some very useful new HLA's!
***

clear western tunnels
drow ambush #2
enter city
n'astar
rescue phaere
tavern monsters
tavern pit-fights (turbo-charged F/I just breezes through everything)
eye-tyrant
qilue
svirneblin
fail at prince, decide to come back a little bit later. argh. we are about 100k away from IA, which helps out tremendously with numerous fights here.
deirex
mystery of the 3rd colour

***
Nalia makes a level at mystery of the third colour, so we have both "freedom" + ia now. ole! now we can whack noble efreeti efficiently.
***

mage's proposal
prince
whack drow near entrace
house jael'lat
noble efreeti
return blood & eyestalk to ardulace
free slaves & dola fadoon
swap eggs, betray phaere
improved demon fite (argh! we're not prepared for this, it's nigh-undoable - less we go waaaay back, argh)
whack everything on the way out
demon knights - fight (this is such is a nice fight!)
clear entrance

'***
we have ancient golem + illithid to do in Underdark.

Now we just have to decide what we'll do next as in "pre-Kruin". Sibel needs 1-2 levels to be able to comfortably dispel. We are not certain about how we can manage the double elemental. We do have soul reaver (F/I can use it), so that might help. Hmh. Where's Vecna ... ?

Crew between 4,05Mexp (PC) to 3,56MExp (Sibel)
***

mind flayers at underdark (get all 6 spawns), goes rather smoothly until our contigency:stoneskin doesn't trigger and Nalia gets whacked. the elemental was on it's last legs and summons were almost done with the brain. well, we consider the fight won and move on.
small teeth pass
north forest
forest of tethir

***
Next we'll go to WK to get enough exp for 2 levels to Sibel, then we can dispel Kruin with enough success. The elemental at mind flayers goes so smoothly I'm not anticipating that much troubles with Kruins elementals. Should be quite easily doable. Nalia reaches about -30 (or so), so the elementals have hard time hitting her. Not sure if Soul Reaver works but I'll check. one hit from SR and the elemental should be able to hit maybe once in 2 rounds or so. This means skins will last very, very long.
***

wk level 1 (rest before ambush, spider queen - word of wisdom is tremendous here)
ambush, this is such a fun fight. we always summon an army and have an all-out-blast.
spider queen, we try to get al of the spawns but not sure if we manage it - regenerating sword here are superb as well as regenerating greater swanmay.
wk level 2
clear almost everything, rest & do elemental + get all spawns & steam elemental prince.

***
Sibel is just 26k away from level 23, which should give us decent chance of a dispel. Crew at 4-4,5Mexp. The wk level 2 elemental goes very smoothly, it has tremendous troubles hitting Nalia. That's how we'll beat Kruin's double eg. It seems Soul Reaver works (we get hit pretty much only on criticals(
***

clear rest of wk level 2, rest and
turn chromatic demon into a chicken. manageable with Nalia & AoP (support from PC & F/I through). there was new stuffs here, great!
here's where we have a look at the next druid/buried ambitions battle, but as we are ill-prepared (completely wrong spells as usual), we re-course. we need 35k to get PC to 21st level, which means almost insta-dispel for Kruin. So what's the easiest fight we can do ... well, we are pretty competent vs vampires. So.
Bodhi, haha - we happily whack skeletons while greater swanmay, archdeva & clan spirit keep bodhi busy. no gifts here, too bad - but we do get foreknowledge. the perfect spell for us!! Nalia takes it immediately.
Return lanthorn, make levels

***
pc makes a level and she'ss now at 21 so we should be able to dispel Kruin. And we just got extra help with elementals (as in foreknowledge). So I think it's time we whacked Kruin, forge a few important items and then off we go to master the next druid quest
***

Whack yuan-ti's, trolls & a spider group that didn't materialize before
Kruin, dispel + get all spawns. Nalia tanks, we abuse terrain a little bit though here
Next De'Arnise keep & forge FoA +4
Firkaraag, doesn't stand a chance (vs 3x swanmays, cs, 2x smilodon, earth elemental, 4x aerieal servants etc...). we get the all important batalista's passport from here, so off to forging we go, but before, pitstops
almost forgot king sthrom's guardians. since we can dispel them, they aren't any problem.
sell stuffs (monies at 870k). since we sell to Joluv, we are at CC.. hmh. ... There's Sibel's stuff to do.
We do it here, so we save Reginald here (haha, auramaster completely dominates this fight, very easy with maxed out auramaster)
Sell rest, monies at 900k or so.
visit ribald's, come back with pfe & cc scrolls, Nalia takes em.
talk to squirrel to start squirreled away (forgot before)
docks, a druid approaches informing is about an attack. olé!
forging: indigo ioun stone, boots of speed (the boots from spellhold work), supreme shelter, nalia's ring, ring +2, cloak +2, fruitful attempt, noble spider figurine and the chaos-potion. We don't have anything else to forge though.
we would forge ring of greater djinn summoning here, but ... we don't have a scroll of summon djinni(?!?) I have no idea if I've missed it somewhere. Hmh. (edit: haha luckily we sell now only to a few merhcnants, so we sold a scroll to Joluv - we buy it back and forge the ring of greater djinni summoning.
We could re-up the adamantite horn here, but we're not exactly sure about whether we'll have enough amber wares (we have 2 chunks at the moment), so we don't do it.

***
325k left. next to the next chapter of the druid quest. now we have the spell slots + the right spells.
***

to druid grove, once we are here Nalia is just 1,5k away from next level. and we need to double rest in order to set triggers for the next fight, so we rest, get belm (get 6 spawns), do triggers and rest

Buried Ambitions, next part, such a nice fight!! (it sort of boils down to "you have 2 rounds, what are the most effective actions you can take" - and that sort of decides whether you win or lose). Auramaster is tremendous here, at some point she is surrounded by 5-6 werewolves and Ferran Gau (or what's it's name). We make it on the 2nd try (after we understood the pace of the fight). This was great and challenging, even for a little bit experienced mod-dweller like myself. Our lone pure fighter, as in Valygar the Vagrant who is usually just lurking around (he doesn't have a way of protecting itself) can use a missile weapon here! ooh and it works wonderfully for the wolves are running away!
To windspear hills
Get scroll
Whack windmaster
To Umar hills, talk to squirrel
King & Queen
Pirates
Lilarcor
Visit five flagon's basement to start planar prison
since we're at bridge district we also start limited wish quest and talk to squirrel
We take Hexxat's quest here (we don't actually do these, for they are mind-boggingly boring)
Sewer Gang
Sewer Raksasha
Talk to Mekrath
Whack imp
talk to roger & buy all rare potions
jump to bridge district, rest
Clear Mekrath's & return mirror
Pre-kangaxx lich @ sewers (liches are so nice with an auramaster, F/I makes a level and she gets ger first HLA (we take 6th level slot))
Ashideena Guardians

***
We make a decision here. We're most likely going to forge Avenger's armour and upgrade the staff. The Black Onyx amulet is very, very troublesome for us - for the cost is too high way too high. We can't sacrifice the AoP. It's a crucial piece of equipment for us that travels between PC, Nalia & F/I depending ion the fight. Hmh. So we console in Cernd's stuffs, we're going to give them to PC & Jaheira will get Avenger PC's equipment. We think this is a fair balance. It's like playing with an Avenger PC and Cernd in the party. Well, PC has 18 dex but besides that.

We visit cromwells and forge cloak if the high forest, water's edge +4 (we forgot before) and boots of speed. Only 170ke left. We have githzerai blade and rings upcoming. Realize we need more, much, much more. Where do we have golems and Skellys next ...
***

rest at five flagons to get night and go downstairs to open the portal
do squirreled away assassins (we prioritize this because we need the basic rings of protection)
and jump immediately to planar prison. do initial encounter, re-buff and destroy everything besides warden. rest.
warden - ooh what a swarm of hounds here!!! nalia enters with 3xadhw, so no more thralls. For Warden We try all types of spells to knock it out (hold monster, emotion, hold person, polymorph other, feeblemind), because we want additional hounds. But we can't knock it out. Anyway, it's much fun. We use archdeva, cs, noble spider & greater djinni here.
buy warblade from Ribald
sell stuff to Joluv, monies at almost 300k - we are missing one manual of elaboration for the next stuffs so we whack the
city gates lich (implosions + bolts of the grove gets the job done, Nalia's CC de-buffs it)
Forge githzerai blade, warlord's blade => damascus steel blade! uuh! Nalia now has 3 APR (6 under IH, in a few levels we have grand mastery and thus 3,5 & 7 APR) and can reache fighter-like Thac0's (with TT/Chmapions Strength). We are beginning to be very scary. I'm quite happy I saved that amber previously.

Marvella pt 1, steam prince
Activate pt 2
To trademeet, sleep & recharge
Founder of trademeet (since we forgot before, Rynn here - how nice also triggers work here even through it's a dead magic zone)
Return mantle
De'Arnise Keep next part (moneylenders)
to bridge district, finish Marvella pt 2. (with the fight of course)
Borinall, oblitera (get 6 rune assasins here)
Temple Ditrict to finish both dawn ring & pally stronghold (we forgot before)

***
We don't have much chapter 2-3 things to do anymore, just limited wish & some strongolh duties - less I forgot something. Maybe 1-2 levels for Sibel, so we can do twisted rune (she has a chance to dispel Vaxall then) and maybe we should pick up MS8 from trolls. Plus there's green leaves armour as well. We could use that for Valygar every now and then (he get to 55% DR with it). We forge two rings +2. We need 4 more rings +1 and then we can forge a ring +4, which we are in *dire* need of.

Nalia is pretty good in a fight, not overblownly effective but enough to make a difference. This is a character that I always wanted to play. A full mage who is also immensily powerful in H2H.
***

we opt for the easy stuff, so to druid grove we go
get gong
whack trolls @ troll mound entrance
troll mound (they have literally no chance vs us, maybe 15 vengenace trolls ... ?)
return gong
lich at bridge district
sleep at sea's bounty and a messenger informs us about a flood, we don't do it immediately but
pre-kangaxx lick & finally kangaxx
solve flood-situation
Umar Witch (15 skellys we counted, not sure if there was any more - we get both skeleton lords & skeleton warlords (or what's their name)

***
I've been trying to find next Sibel encounter, but I have no idea where it might be?

Thusfar our MVC (most valuable character) is probably the Auramaster. It's superbly effective in almost all of the fight.

We've developed the auramaster as a healer mostly (towards the Shaman), so it mostly has healing and buffing duties (she has 3 natural restoral HLA's after implosion & smilodon). On most fights she has a combination of pff/pfl/cc/fa + regeneration + occasional heal / natural restoral. And she can then of course call lightning, use insect spells or bolts of the grove/unleash eenergy (especially vs liches) and whatever the situation required. And she can of course tank. We haven't cast perfect camouflage not even once. She's usually a backup, ready to go. And on fights where there's mass-damage, we have mass-cures to bail us out. It's tremendously effective and auramaster has the most effective use of that insanely good spell in the game (sorry Shaman).

On saving reginald-fight basicly she just jumps in and goes ia, then CC's everyone, then NPP's on every character that doesn't have a nondispellable one (so Valygar + F/I). This is while Nalia's pfmw triggers and she start ia, with pfmw + cc she can't be hurt. Then they buff and we just anhilate. We have 4 APR from Sibel, 6 from Jaheira, 6 from Nalia, 8 from Vagrant (if can dual wield, which isn't given) and 8 from F/I. With fighter thac0's (or at least can be buffed to fighter thac0's. It's extremely efficient.

Valygar is the one ccharacter we need to babysit all the time. It can't of course take on golems or skellys on it's own and we are very hesitant about throwing him into a fight. So we use him as a precision weapon or we use ranged attacks (axe +3, the missile version from underdark). It's works nicely, especially vs werewolves, as they tend to start running away at some point.

I though about writing a longer spoiler-story on the ba/ferron gau fight, but I'll leave it for later. But basicly I just used a tactic similar to what I use with the windspear assassins fight. That seemed to work well enough. (though it wasn't nearly as effective as vs. assassins).

***

Tower of Deception we do here. Just breeze through it. It's a little bit broken.

***
The tower of deception sword is superbly useful for us - for it lets us dodge the insanely annoying bug as in getting hit by an elemental and skinning up immediately sometimes leads to skins being interrupted (and the fight being lost), even though the character was already hit (character gets hit, pause, skins and they get interrupted). The rewards for this part are completely overblown, but it doesn't make a difference at this stage at all.

So we're trying to think where there's golems + skellys, which will help us with monies & exp, which we both need. Hmh. So we do know of a place ... so off to planar sphere we go. But we make a pitstop
***

Squirreled away assassins at bridge district (the trick is not even trying to disrupt pitre)
pick up ioun stone
pick up old stone
Since we are here, we do Twisted Rune: first we try to whack Shangalar with PC (implosions/unleash energy/bolts of grove) but it doesn't work (not enough spells yet). Next we just buff a few summons and they get the job done. We are trying to dispel Vaxall (Sibel), but after 5 tries or so Vaxall's protections run out. So we whack it. Vecna here, how nice!

***
Sell wares, forge ring of protection +3 and use it to forge a ring of protection +4. Hmh. After testing, We urgently need another one. They are expensive though. We need to go to Suldanessellar quite soon to pick up a few essential components for forging (the protector + staff of woodlands among others). Plus Suldanesselar has the elven chain. But. There was a few fights which were doable only in chapter 6, but I don't remember what they were. Ancient priest perhaps? Well. Sphere has both golems (why is it so cold down here) and skellys (ancient priest), so maybe we should head there next?
***

Ancient priest, the trick here is not to summon as our summon will whack ancient priest in no time. 14 skellys. I don't think there was any more. we suffer through 2 storms (they seem to be unlimited) but don't get any spawns anymore. Are the storms new, I don't recall these previously.
Marvella, pt 3 (treasure in the ice, get all 6 coins/gems)
We aim to go for TheShal, but the "Ustrain" encounter from ToD triggers here. It's pretty much over before it even begins, as Auramaster destroys everything - Ustrains missing improved invisibility doesn't matter at all (would have just dispelled it anyway).

***
There's waaay too powerful equipment here with Ustrain, including both reaching ring & ring of acuity. We consider those items general rewards and sell them to Joluv (reaching ring, ring of acuity + staff of power). We keep the bronze ioun stone + boib (edit:it dispappeared at some point later on), but we don't equip them for now. BoiB we keep because there is only one in the game and IA doesn't have enough useful belts for everyone, so we might equip it later on. When we actually get it. We need a level for Jaheira before we'll go for Pasha. We'll take natural restoral, so we can heal the elemental properly.
***

TheShal, no summons. We are way too OP for this already. Liches are such fun with an auramaster in the crew. 3 bone devils here. A few characters gain levels here.
Visit Suldanesselar, we hope we got everything we needed to do in chapter 6 before jumping here. Not sure of course. Summon army, buff everything and whack away. Leave Geg + Raksashas house & black dragon for later. Get new nice Sibel encounter here! PC makes a level giving her 4 natures's fists. Time to take down some Raksashas real soon.
New Sibel encounter. Takes a few tries to master it.
Lord Roenall (we always and up with indestructible roenall, not sure if that's the idea - since we can't dispel it nor can we breach him we remove the protections via ctrl + r after 10-15 rounds or so and finish the fight.
Time for next Sibel stuff so we prepare as in Forge Silent Hunt +5 & it (along with numerous other items) go to Auramaster for the following encounter
Meet leather golem & off to cc we go
Meet Virtus, whack another golem (I'm glad I saved BoBS + archdeva really good here)
Sell wares, monies at 330k.

***
We forge Sibels amulet here and we're about to forge a ring +4, but after pondering a little bit we don't do it. We have one already, we can get another one later on (gift from a deity after defeating a particularly strong opponent!) as well as a cloak +3. So we could get more ac earlier and overall +1 ac to a character, but the cost is 270.000gp. We could use that somewhere else. So we forge a few rings +2 in addition and we are at 130k. Sibel has non-dispellable -36 vs crushing now. We can reach -40. That's enough for anything in the game, I think, even the SG @ WK. We are at 6.0Mexp (+/- 200k or so)
***

Time to try out our golem whacking superpowers next!

Ancient Golem (since we forgot before, get 10 spawns, sibel just soloes for most of it)
Hop on to the avatar to collect magical pull and since we are now comprehensively OP vs golems, we go for ...
Ancient Mage (since it's revamped, we don't make it on the first go.) Anyway, summons for ancient mage while Sibel happily and carelessly tanks away both elementals, Jaheira, Sibel & Vagrant whack the spawns. The latter part is a bit unneccessary. Sibel can tank 2 elementals + spaws by herself without breaking a sweat, she's more OP than the 6.5 Hexxat, which was thusfar the most unhittable character I have played (when supported by a shaman). Those elementals have literally no chance, Sibel doesn't need a Shaman though.

***
We realize that we've miscalculated our need for rings +4 previously, by what can only described as "comprehensively". We don't need 2, we need 5 or so. That's sort of a relief, as we don't have anything to forge that much. I havent' found judgemenet day essences either, not sure if those have been removed or if there is something else going on. We try to figure out the assassins hideout here, since we are in the vicinity but decide to postpone it a little bit. This is because our only pure fighter will be in a lot of trouble here and we're not looking to be in trouble. We're looking to obliterate. We need an additional Ring +4 to do that and CF would be really good here as well.

At this stage we would switch Jaheira for Mazzy. We haven't needed the CS in quite a while but since we decided to forge Avengers equipment we'll play with this composition. I't comprehensively OP and the triple - priest isn't overkill, it's actually superbly useful. And Judgement Day is omitted, so we don't have the most devastating weapon for Mazzy. Also, there are numerous superbly powerful equipment which we don't have access to like Judgement Day, Golem Slayer/Undoer, Pally's Bracers and a few others.

We are about 700k away from Wish being useful (F/I's Illusionist reaches level 18), as in we prebuff with it to save those 6th level spell slots.
***

Back to the city
Bard stronghold, next chapter

Marvella finale (Pasha). Haha, we have a new strategy here centered on the Auramaster. Summon a few aerial servants and two regular swanmays. A few non-dispellable prebuffs. Talk, debuff, Auramaster goes IA while both mages trigger IH+PFMW+PFME+Skins (+ Nalia CC launches foreknowledge + TPT + Soul Armour), Auramaster then destroyes raksashas (Nature's fists & debuffs the remaining raksasha and the mariliths) while rest of the crew move in to anhilate -> raksasha, mariliths and then we just wait. We also up-Pasha with all elemental resistances and double regen and up-regen after each spawn. Pasha gets the killing blow on the elemental, again. %€#%€#&&

Duchess triggers here. Our non dispellable buffs get dispelled. It looks like our mages are no wizards, when it comes to buffing our crew. We play through this for about an hour (so perhaps 200 lag's, until we realize whacking the helpers is useless). We reload, only to notice that ... There's a bug here, that messes up things completely - need to quit the entire game, not even a relouad helps. When transported to the council of six building, Tolgerias initiates dialogue (we killed him already in the sphere), and the game messes completely up. We get past this point maybe once in 10 tries. So we load our last save (after an hour or so), switch to easy and push through. Will conclude all things I've noticed at somepoint here.

Meet a strange merchant
Meet a strange, but nice golem
Opt for the easy and familiar stuff and go to Guarded Compound (upgrade horn x 2 & forge ring +2 before), walk in, whack. Sleep. Enter upstairs with active aura clensing and some contigencies. anhilate until we get dispelled and then buff. Proceed to happily whack away.
Ancient Lich, well. We're like overcompetent already. There's only a vampire here, but since we have non-dispellable NPP for PC, Sibel, Jaheira, Nalia and F/I can just PFMW it's quite sraightforward. The trick is not to summon any help, for they will whack the lich in no time.
Geg @ Compound. Enter.. Get stuck in the doorway and wait until all spawns are out. Summon an army, wait for a dispel, release spawns + geg and have absolutely a complete blast whacking golems. They had no chance. Army vs. geg + minions (We count 8 minor golems, argh - so we just missed one). Sibel with a little help (a few IH's could probably solo through all of it).
Alhoon + Geg, Initial room: have a blast (no summons for we are waaay too op for this already). Next lure out flayers, enter, Nalia debuffs + swanmays go for Alhoon (it gets whacked), GEG goes for Sibel; lure out all spawns, whack everything and have a complete blast. Vagrant was in trouble but there isn't anything golems can do vs a properly developed auramaster healing the Vagrant. No amber golems. Boohoo. Protector of the second here, how nice - time to get Valygar his armour!

***
Nalia reaches level 24 at guarded compound, giving her 5* in two handed sword. That's 7 APR under IH. Pretty good for a mage. Counting the Clan Spirit, we have 6 full fighters in our crew. Everything besides the PC is extraordinarily good in H2H. End of GC PC is at almost 7 mexp points. Hmh. Maybe I start evaluating wether I should go and do the next buried amnitions battle. We are beginning to be completely OP.

We forge valygar's armour, staff of stregth, improved cat figiuine (wish scrolls are pretty much useless for us), amber ioun stone, ring +3 and Jaheira takes the green leaves armour for now. And of course we forge the CF, so F/I now has numerous uber-weapons available (CF, Gitzerai Blade, Water Edge +4)
***

We test our "op-nedness" level with the new Sibel encounter below CC vs the pool + gag's. Akward re-grouping for we are very vulnerable to silence. Made it through on the first try after Sibel got the silence alone (well, PC + Jaheira are protected). They didn't have a chance. Auramaster completely dominates yet again. Didn't take the help.

Wk level 3, takes sides at bloodwar, betray demomns, whack everything and exit before meeting supreme golem. Get dragon scales & red star garnet, also BoIB here. Toughest one is always Hybrid Tiefling, Get 5-6 skellys with Salve Wraith. Those level draining things are pretty much useless vs. us (We could just SoAx3, Valygar with AoP & mages with PFMW).
Aesgartoh, get Wish + Spectral Brand + way out. Then Whack.
Pick up roby of the gods
Visit Umar Hills to triple check that the ranger quests are not launching (no, didn't get 'em).
Since we are in the vicinity, and we've been postponing this - I think it's finally time to tackle Assassin's at Windspear Hills (Valygar should be able to clear this.... though we are still not sure. Is -25 enough... :/). We get 9 golem helpers, not sure if that was all. Sibel happily & carelessly whacks away and doesn't get hit even once during the fight. The master assassins stop moving at some point. Valygar gets whacked in the very end, luckily not permanently. Should have not used him vs. master assassins & guildmaster.

Note to self: Never use fighters ... in a fight.

***
To-Do list:

Buried Ambitions - next chapter
Vanya Part 2
Limak the Mastermind (not sure if we should do this)
Bard stronghold finale
Orcus
Suldanesselar: Black Dragon, Geg + Raksashas and Tree of Life
Green Wyrm & Supreme Golem -> rest of WK (there's "oodles" left here)
I think that's it?

Crew:
Arie Joyce (Auramaster): Level 30, 114HP, AC -13, Thac0 3
STR 13, DEX 18, CON 14, INT 9, WIS 23, CHA 21
Stuff: Bracers Ac3, Druidic Circlet, Wooden Horse necklace, fuitful attempt, cloak of the high forest, RoP +2, BoIB, Boots of haste
Weapons: Staff of Arundel / Staff of Strength
MPV: GEG (with nature's fists, muah!)
total exp value 5% / 5%
percentage of total kill 5% / 7%

Sibel (S(9)/C): Level 31, 157HP, AC -22 (-34 vs crushing), Thac0 -9 (can buff to -22)
STR 17, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 12, WIS 19, CHA 10
Stuff: Sibels Armour, Sibels Gloves, Indigo Ioun Stone, Sibel's amulet, Supreme Shelter, Ring of Gaxx, Rop +2, Sibels cloak, Sibel's boots + girdle of crushing
Weapons: Sibel's Club / non-enchanted club
MPV: Spider Queen
total exp value 39% / 36%
percentage of total kill 28% / 32%

Valygar the Vagrant : Level 27, 189 HP, AC -19, Thac0 -13
STR 20, DEX 18, CON 19, INT 10, WIS 14, CHA 12
Stuff: Improved Corthala Family Armour, 2nd sword arm gauntlets, Crimson Ioun Stone, Protector +1,, cloak +2, 2 x RoP +2, random girdle + boots oh haste
Weapons: Mostly K'logarath +4 / Flail of Ages +4
MPV: Elemental Golem
total exp value 12% / 18%
percentage of total kill 18% / 14%

Jaheira: Level 28, 148HP, AC -11, Thac0 -3 (can reach -16 buffed)
STR 17, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 10, WIS 18, CHA 11
Stuff: Green Leaves armour, Paws of the Furious Cat, Reinforced Amber Ioun Stone, Brooch of Vagrant Blades, Improved Yeti hide cloak, 2xRoP +2, random girdle, boots of haste
Weapons: Golem Slayer or Yamato + Spectral Brand
MPV: Dracolich
total exp value 14% / 20%
percentage of total kill 13% / 19%

Nalia (Fighter(9)//Mage): Level 9/25, 133HP , AC -13, Thac0 (non buffes version)
STR 21, DEX 18, CON 17, INT 18, WIS 9, CHA 13
Stuff: Vecna, Gauntlets of Aln Zek, Helm of the Rock, Amulet of Power, Improved De'Arnise family ring, Rop +3, Cloak +2, boots of haste, girdle of hill giant strength
Weapons: Damascus Steel Blade / Staff of Rhynn +4
MPV: Ancient Golem
total exp value 17% / 11%
percentage of total kill 16% / 10%

Neera: (Fighter / Illusioonist) Level 20/18, 125HP, AC -11, Thac0 -14 / -10
STR 25, DEX 18, CON 18, INT 19, WIS 17, CHA 9
Stuff: Elven Chain, Legacy of Masters, Helm of Balduran, Priapt of life protection, 2x Ring +2, Cloak +2, random girdle,
Weapons: Crom Fayer / Githzerai Blade + Water's Edge +4 mostly
MPV: Greater Ambut Golem
total exp value 14% / 12%
percentage of total kill 18% / 13%
***

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jul 13 2024, 08:23 PM

[pekkae]

PArt 3

Upgrade the flask. Hmh. Well, this is new.. We choose lasting one and take option #1. We are in dire need of it. Decide the rest later. (edit: OOOOOH!!!! THIS GIVES US IDEAS!!!!!!)
Forge a ring +3, turn it into a ring +4 and forge 2-3 rings +2. Monies at 100k.
Chat with Vanya, to trigger the next Q
opt for the easy stuffs next, so rest of Suldanesselar before next Vanya + Bard stronghold activates.
Harpist House, meh. Auramaster makes Raksashas explode and Sibel pretty much *soloes* the GeG. This is something that no-other character has been able to do and believe me we have tried.
Black Dragon, Summon an army. Double regen on Swanmay Queen. Draw hardwood golems out of Dragon's sights where they get attacked by our army and we whack away. 2 of them decide it's good idea to whack the queen, who, with double-regen can handle even two hardwood golems. Send a summons to keep Drake busy. It takes a little bit to whack golems but once they are done it's just a few breaches / dispels away (both mages get silenced) away. Once the dragon is badly hurt Auramaster just finishes it, as she is tremendously effective here yet again.
Finish Suldanesselar, so get items, summon guardians open the portal in the temple
We have no idea where "the protector" is? Hmh.

***
Next is either Buried Ambitions next part (I guess it's the rust dragon fight), Green Wyrm + Supreme Golem or finish rest of quests in Athlkathla. We are missing numerous items though, including periapt of proof vs poison, the protector and mage robe of fire resistance. Could anybody point out those locations? Can they be in WK ... ?
***

I gave a shot to the next BA fight here, but it looks like we need a few more levels. Especially Vagrant is in "comprehensive" trouble here all the time. Also as we don't know what's coming we make numerous big mistakes, like the F/I starting the fight with black blade of disaster. I'm looking to up a few levels (2x hardiness more) and the Vagrants AC to -24 (+ the miniscule minuses it gets), so up the helmet, belt and get a few proper weapons for him. After that, it's "showtime" with Rust Dragon (I guess).

Green Wyrm, debuff & lr via triggers and auramaster pretty much soloes. Periapt of proof vs poison here. Such a nice fight this one.

Supreme Golem, this is one of the most difficult fights in the game, if not *the most difficult*. So we prebuff & enter. Sibel takes purge magic, a few swords get CC'd (they end up being non-factors). Sibel tanks SG throughout, Valygar tanks elementals throughout. Auramaster is there as Sibel's backup and F/I, Jaheira + Nalia have themselves a golem whacking fiesta. This was fun. Haha. At some point we get a little bit confused which elemental is which, so we don't get all of the spawns. We get maybe 25-30 coins/gems here. Not that much tactics required, pure simple whack away. This used to be immensily difficult requiring enormous attention to detail to master even 1-2 elementals, but here we are happily and carelessly whacking away. Once all elementals are done, we summon an army, buff and whack the SG in between dispels. It takes about 2-2,5 rounds I think.

(edit: we play it through again and we get 35 helpers + elementals!. Ooh!!!!) Crew between 7,4Mexo - 7,9Mexp.

3 x Elemental Golems at Machine of lum the mad - levell. Sibel soloes. Once spaws are out (well, there 2 coin or so left) the rest of the crew walks in and we anhilate. This is ridiculously easy. They had no chance. It wasn't even close.

Clear the rest of the level, besides Supreme Leader + past the oils. Visit Athkatla for bard + Vanya
Turnish Encounter at Bard stronghold
Viper Queen, it doesn't stand even a remote chance vs us.
Next bard - stronghold thing (rehersal)
take deck of many things here, wisdom for PC and HP's for Valygar, since we forgot before (Valygar now has 232 HP)

Supreme Leader. Prebuff, blast through, they have "a snowballs chance in hell". This is so much fun. I think is a little bit tougher now(?), and nice that the githyaki now function a it more properly. Anyway, they are in the wrong league. Leave the blacksmith forging gem golems live and get 8-10 gems(?) out of it. In the end we always triple(?) x regen a Swanmay Queen and IH it. She tanks the leader until almost the end. Then we just move in and whack. It was a little bit tough.

Demilich, well Auramaster dominates

Saladrex, well, Aurmaster dominates (once we get magic resistance down auramaster soloes prettymuch here again. Dragons are so nice when we are completely overblownly effective( Forgot Saladrexes CC. Doesn't make a diffenrece. Well, F/I gets whacked but we raise her and off we go.

Machine of Lum the Mad; cha for PC, Con for Nalia, Wis for F/I, Int for Nalia, Dex for Jaheira, STR for Sibel
Finish the bard stronghold

***
Sell stuffs to Joluv and we are at 380k in monies, forge GoLM -> GoMM, Volcano -> Axe of Gleaming Lava and HoB to the +2 version and we're pretty much out of monies. Need to upgrade Phosphorous and we need 2x Rop +2 and 1x Rop +3. I'm glad I didn't sell those rings +1. Vagrant is coming together quite nicely.

Forging list:

Ring +2
Ring +2
Ring +3
Mage Robe of Elemental Resistances
Phosphorous (the new one)
***

Whack some Cowled Wizards, they didn't take notice before. Well, good that they do now.
No demon messenger (for we have Angurvaldl or what's it's name....). So I think this means no judgement day fite. That's too bad. I was much looking to harvesting those golems

Undead Ambush at final seal (sl+gl+skellys), auramaster destroys liches & the crew move in to destroy skellys

Elemental Ambush (4x eg + 2 bones), Sibel soloes the initial batch while rest whack spawns (this is rather easy).

Finish globes, besides 2 golem ones and the last undead one, as we need different sets of spells for those ones. The 2x ice golem + elemental should be a breeze through. But the geg + ulta, I think we need to ponder a little about that. PC + Sibel + Jaheira make levels here.

***
Maybe back to Athkatla soon, do we have enough to forge Phosphorous? And where can we get additional rings +1. Sell stuff, scrape the bags of holding for anything sellable worth of money and we come back with 100k, only to find out that we don't have an additional piece of amber for forging.

Well, I do know a place but it looks like the BA battle needs to still be postponed just a little. And we'd need about 60k more to forge a few rings +2, and we need an additional +2 one as well (we're out of rings +1, or we have 6)

List of fights left (in SoA):(as a note for myself)

Orcus
Zallanora
BA - finale
A few bigger fights in WK
Suldanesselar tree of life things
Hell
+ We could whack thieves etc. in Athkatla. Hmh.

***

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jul 16 2024, 03:55 PM

[pekkae]

Part 4 (ToB here)

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jul 16 2024, 03:55 PM

[pekkae]

Part 5, notes etc.

Our cheats & tweaks:

- Valygar the Vagrant got 19 con. (Valygar has 18 con, protector gets -1 so 17 and Vagrant gets +1 ,so he should have 19)
- We didn't do the liches at temple ruins.
- We skipped over Hexxat's quests, but got the exp!
- We took elven chain from underdark for a while
- There's a chance you won't get Vecna at all, if you do Samia in the wrong order. We just added Vecna at some point later in the game (I think with twisted rune).
- We lost a fight somewhere, tanking an elemental. It was near death and we lost because Nalia's contigency:stoneskin didn't trigger, as it should have. We considered the fight won and moved on
- We blew through Sibel village and didn't max out coins, until we reloaded much later on and had a closer look and maxed out coins. But we gave Sibel the most op gift anyway, hence we had succesfully completeld the quest. We didn't "take" the other rewards for maxing out the coins.
- We gave F/I permanent spell slots, instead of her using the reaching ring and then switching over to a Ring +2 (=> the end results is the same, without the overly annoying swapping of rings during a fight)
- Sibel got permanent boosts to thieving skills once we found ring of danger sense + ring of lock picks. Didn't bother with the other ones (pick pocketing gloves etc.)
- "Alchemy" gives us unending availability of alchemy potions, without the need to rest in between. (we use potions of defence & potions of regeneration). For simplicity, Alchemy could be revamped to providing 5 potions at once and the player could choose which ones. The end result is the same, without the annoying bits.
- We got the full helm of the rock in chapter 6. it doesn't make a difference (the abilities aren't useful) but the animation is much nicer. We deducted 5000 gp for it.
- We finished duchess on "easy", for we couldn't re-try because of a bug we encountered.
- We re-upped reputation after the SG fight with console. We could have just made sure throughot the game we have easy access to + reputation points, so the end results is the same. Without the annoying micro managment. We're not really here for that.

Possible "bugs"

- Speak with animals cancels Sibels' quest (if you cast speak with animals at sibels village)
- Silent hunt's (+4 version) spells seem to be "cast" at level 10? (at least mirror images)
- Silent hunt's (+4 version) hits which trigger beneficial spells count as "spell cast" for cowled wizards
- Master of the high forest doesn't give +25% resistance to magic, it sets magic resistance to 25%.
- The onyx amulet says it's wearable for any mage, when it is only for single class mage & ones that have 18 wisdom ... ? It looks like an amulet that would be a nice addition for any mage through, it won't be mod-breaking but provides a nice boost.
- A number of items, like "red coral gem" kept disappearing from inventory. I think it was with pirates but later on I didn't have it. I spent good half an hour digging through my bags of holding (had 4 at the time) and gem bags (3) and the 2-3 merchants I frequently sold to. Only to discover that when consoling it in, it disappeared. I don't know what is the point? I think I had the loosened forging restrictions in place, though I don't use items that I'm not supposed to forge, unless that's explicitly stated. I think this just makes play testing more difficult.
- Noble Spider description says 100hp, when in fact it has 150hp (as it definitely should, it's awesome! )
- The Sibel encounter, when getting the gloves, on my initial attempt I think I whacked the mage first (with implosions), which made the sub-sequent tries a lot harder.
- Duchess quest launches tolgerias to the council of six building (we didn't talk to Tolgerias previously, just whacked him the sphere). This messes up the game completely.
- We can cast spells outside in Amn? We got the initial warning from the cowled wizards earlier (from using SIlent Hunt), but later on we can cast away freely.
- Fight at temple of Rillifane (Suldanesselar) doesn't give any exp
- Sibel couldn't use case of the plenty (so can't equip it)
- Sometimes casting 2nd level cleric spell "draw upon holy might" also completely heals the character (saw this with Sibel 1-2 times)


Top-3 toughest fights list (under development):

- Golem Ambush at spellhold
- Kruin (resorted to terrain "abuse")
- Supreme Golem
(- BA finale looks troublesome for us, we'll see once we make it)


Feedback

General:

- I much appreaciate the attention to detail, great job dear Sirs!
- Archedeva is really, really good. It's puts the planetar now into shame, though a planetar has it's moments when it shines too.
- Adding numerous "needed" items throughout the game is nice, like to oils of resurgence at mithril golem. Also I appreciate the addition of RRoR scrolls throughout as well as some additional permanency scrolls. They add flexibility.
- But there are too many permanency scrolls now. I had maybe 8 extra ones in chapter 6 already and nothing to forge with them.
- I'm missing the 6.6. beta's cleric rebalancing changes. Overall I think it had numerous well thought of changes that were ably balanced.
- New areas look superb & the new monsters graphics are so nice, they rejuvenate the game!
- Sibel's quests are nice, though I think the rewards need to be toned down, especially for the talks. They look, well, overblown. As documented in this journal, I've never had so many quests (xp) left for chapter 6 in the games. I think this is because of the additional exp gained from BA & Sibel.
- Loved the fact that werewolfes were not completely resistant to missile damage (and they kept running away), so Valygar the Vagrant was very valuable in those fights using a throwing axe (instead of just moving in as a precision weapon since he can't get hit that much).

Spells & HLA's:

- Nature's fists are now a difference maker vs. raksashas! They are really potent now adding to the mixture on how to deal with them. And they make the Auramaster so much more powerful.
- The HLA additions were nice and seemed to be quite well balanced.
- I think the ability to turn golems into chickens should be re-instated. It was a useful "power-gaming" technique that almost no-one was using and it of course made the arcane casters (much) more powerful. Would suggest a tradeoff of if a golem was turned into a chicken, the loot it was carrying (so gems/chunks/coins) would be destroyed. So there would be a tradeoff.

Equipment:

- I though there was an initiative of nerfing the excessive Necro stuff. Now it basicly got an upgrade (with the Undoer).
- Some of the new items (or old items but upgraded version of them) are now completely OP in my humble opinion. So in a way, they are in line with Necro's equipment. Would definitely reserve those equipment for PC only (like Barbarian Dream & Riskbreakers equipment).
- I didn't play with Vagrant's equipment, as acquired items kept disappearing so no feedback from actual fights from those, but since I just did a playthrough on a Vagrant and he had more than 300hp in the end with almost 100% elemental resistances and constant 9 APR, he was already powerful enough. Now there's just ... more. At least on my playthrough I didn't need those upgraded stuffs. An upgraded Vagrant can now reach about 350-360 HP's ... that seems like quite a lot.
- We did develop Valygar the Vagrant into comprehensively OP levels, by giving him numerous new items, which I don't think are that OP, but actually add a nice blend of new to the game. And they give you much variety to try out different things & approaches (new upgrades to morning stars, belts, axes and helmets especially).

Classes:

- Auramaster is now probably the most overblowly effective spellcaster in the game, though I wasn't that big of fan of the upgraded equipment (they were troublesome for us). That's nice because Auramaster is also one of my favorite classes
- Defender of Arvoreen looks like a really tremendous addition to a party. Mazzy look like about the best fighter companion in the game.
- Keldorn needs the judgement day to function, otherwise he will be kind of a drag to play - as you need to babysit him until the very end.
- Wild Mage looks like it's now a proper choice and Neera gets improved gear! It looks like it's balanced nicely, it has numerous advantages and a big disadvantage (as far as I can tell WM only reaches -3 in casting time, -4 with blessings?). This looks like a great job!
- Imoen's amulet works now like it should work. Take Imoen + Cernd for most OP brutal spellcasting overpoweredness or Imoen is nice complimentary caster to an Auramaster protagonist.
- Minsc can now reach 100% DR for a turn, at least this diminishes the op-factor of RvE:Regen and of course he can be breached. But still. Like ... why?!?
- Minsc isn't as powerful as a generic Barbarian (for a generic LG Barbarian can use the gauntlets....)
- Avenger is still too OP in my book, but it's better balanced now. Jaheira is still the most OP NPC, besides the new addition of Sibel.
- So about Sibel. She ...
=> reaches better AC than anything in the game in any version of the game (outcounting maybe the 6.5 Hexxat)
=> while doing more damage per hit than anything in the game in v. 6.5. (outcounting possibly the biiffed up rb / swashie with on-hit effects).
=> the damage doesn't vary, but it's consistently maxed (for RM maxes out damage, Kensai gets this ability for 1 round. Sibel for 20 rounds).
=> while having better elemental resistances than the Vagrant through most of the game
=> and having access to full range of cleric spells
=> while having numerous additional spells for the most important levels
=> and reaching better thac0 than anything besides the Kensai & maxed out Swashbuckler in the game
=> while having better permanent casting time bonuses than Necro

=> In my game I just buffed her up & let her whack away. I don't know what is point of nerfing other classes while then providing such a character? Before reaching the Sibel's gloves but post getting armour & club we had exactly 2 fights where she was in trouble, where we needed to heal her or rest of the crew came to her rescue. Once at Twisted Rune (vs. both Shangalar & Revanek) and once at Umar Witch vs. a few Skellys (though at UW she had improper buffs). At some point we just stopped caring, buff a little and leave her whacking away. The most troublesome part about tanking with Sibel is that she does so much damage she kills the golems too fast, which is not a problem when you are surrounded by 4 elementals.. With the right equipment, she doesn't even need a regen (she heals for 20 hp per round without regen/oils). The only thing she needs is an IH. In larger fights continual cure + re-upping those spell protections becomes necessary.

A final notes!

Even though there is a little bit of criticism here, I had an absolute blast. Again.

Thank you for upkeeping and developing the mod. I have had so much fun with this!

I'm sorry I didn't make it to the BA finale yet. I'm not sure when I can continue this but it looks like super nice part now, as we don't even need to babysit the Vagrant anymore! (it reaches -24 with effective being less + it has almost 300 hp + extensive perma immunities!)

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jul 16 2024, 04:07 PM

[critto]

clear ambush

SPOILER!

That's the golem ambush?

[pekkae]

Yup. That's it.

[Sikret]

Sibel hits like a truck

Yes, Sibel is designeed to be a "battle-Priest", the type of cleric who does not stand back just to cast spells, but the type that gets involved in hand to hand fight (while casting spells when needed as well).

According to our tests, a dedicated warrior such as a single class berserker or barbarian with the right equipment can compete with Sibel closely, while a dedicated "glass cannon" such as a Riskbreaker or kensai can surpass Sibel's kill rate.

[pekkae]

Sibel hits like a truck

Yes, Sibel is designeed to be a "battle-Priest", the type of cleric who does not stand back just to cast spells, but the type that gets involved in hand to hand fight (while casting spells when needed as well).

According to our tests, a dedicated warrior such as a single class berserker or barbarian with the right equipment can compete with Sibel closely, while a dedicated "glass cannon" such as a Riskbreaker or kensai can surpass Sibel's kill rate.

Yup, looks like it. Those criticals are awfully efficient.

Personally I like Sibel a lot for it combines two character classes, that I always have tremendous difficulties fitting into the crews I have as in the thief and the cleric. And that combination is a little bit useless without Sibel's stuffs.

[pekkae]

allright.

I'm off & I'll get back to this later (in a few weeks or so maybe).

Thanks for all the work you've put into this. I've had much fun with this, yet again.

Some notes from 6.5(/6.6) to 7.0!

Avenger looks like it's now better balanced. But it's still overly powerfu, compared to many of the fighter classes. It gets to 25STR & fighter thac0's with 6 APR in chapter 3. Why pick a fighter when an Avenger is just so much more powerful. And then there's the clan spirit.

Shaman goes from the most powerful priest of them all (probably) to quite the mediocre character, who's not even the best healer in the game anymore - as late stage auramaster is better (if developd properly), with insta-casting of low level healing + nature's restorals + 16-18 spells per level. And in addition to healing, the Auramaster is one of the most effective damage dealers in the game.

7.0 stuff: I hope Auramaster PC gets something special, as at this stage where I'm playing Cernd is just more competent and he'll get the cloak + staff which are superbly powerful. Giving the auramaster PC stuff equivalent of the Vagrant (let alone Necro) would likely make it overkill, but still I hope there's exquisite rewards.

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jun 17 2024, 07:55 PM

[Sikret]

Avenger looks like it's now better balanced. But it's still overly powerfu, compared to many of the fighter classes. It gets to 25STR & fighter thac0's with 6 APR in chapter 3. Why pick a fighter when an Avenger is just so much more powerful. And then there's the clan spirit.

I have played one full game (test run) with an avenger protagonist and I can assure you that he was not overpowered at the end of chapter 3.

For the majority of SOA, his best armor was Shadow Dragon Armor. At the end of ch3, He had 4 APR with combat trance and improved haste (before you ask, I saved Tabitha's hide for another item upgrade introduced by Sibel mod).

When the avenger's buffs were dispelled in any battle, his THAC0 was nowhere close to a warrior's THAC0. Just checked my saved game at the end of ch3: my protagonist had THAC0 = 3 with a +4 quarterstaff, while my Riskbreaker had THAC0 = -7 with a +3 axe (both without buffs).

But yes near the end of SOA the avenger became really tough thanks to forging the new druidic armor and cloak.
Overall, I think the avenger kit is fine and balanced.

[pekkae]

Managed to find some time yesterday to finish a few fights.

We're almost at the cap, so need to go to spellhold.

[SparrowJacek]

got a note for Sibel, is there anything I should do before continuing to chapter 4?

From what I remember, you can continue, you won't miss the next part of her quest

[pekkae]

From what I remember, you can continue, you won't miss the next part of her quest

Thanks! Will mark it down to do that.

[bulian]

Another great journal as always. I'd suggest you relax your personal rules on forging restrictions, at least for some experimentation. SPOILER!

You'll see why once you get to Ch 6 - there is a new crafter who provides new items that are VERY powerful. I'm personally curious for feedback on them from others.

[critto]

got a note for Sibel, is there anything I should do before continuing to chapter 4?

No, the next stuff will continue as you get more XP. Feel free to go to Spellhold.

[pekkae]

Another great journal as always. I'd suggest you relax your personal rules on forging restrictions, at least for some experimentation.

Thanks. Well, this one's not so detailed, I even forgot some of the quests (like Neera's, haha). I added them now.

Ok, looking forward to meeting that crafter. And hence I have high level dispel available I think I should have easy access to chapter 6 (Sibel should be able to dispel Kruin, which means I just have a few elementals to worry about. Luckily our tanking capabilities should be top-notch).

No, the next stuff will continue as you get more XP. Feel free to go to Spellhold.

Allright!

I figured yesterday a way to get all the coins and got the rewards + maxed out Howard's item. Which I didn't do on my run. So anything I missed out on the Sibel quest on the run, besides the xp+howards's leather crafting secret item? Originally I got somewhat mislead by the reported bug, that ended the whole questline.

And I didn't figure out what to do with ingredient "A"?

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jun 19 2024, 11:41 AM

[pekkae]

Also, a question regarding next steps.

#1

I'm going to forge Nature's gift.

My plan was to hit spellhold between 2,3-2,35 Mexp; clear the spellhold xp cap and then quaff away the potion, is that doable? (I remember I've had problems with the golem ambush, as in I got the ice golem there even though PC was under the cap but my elvish F/M has surpassed it (because of elven ancient expertise)).

#2

Alternatively I could go on another route here - since I have oodles of stuff to do I could probably max exp pre spellhold with the quests available (+ should re-do Sibel) + do some chapter 6 quests (theShal, Firkraag, Trolls etc.) and then start spellhold with HLA's (should be doable, even on insane).

As in:

- hexxat
- belm
- lilarcor
- king sthrom's guardians
- squirreled away
- sewer raksasha
- korgan's quests
- borinali
- limited wish
- founder of trademeet
- ashideena
- sewer gang
- mekrath
- planar prison
- Bard stronghold
- king & queen
- pirates
- fighter stronghold,
- bard stronghold
- mage stronghold (what's left)
- Dorn's quests
- Anomen's quests

And then hop to more advanced encounters:

- Firkraag
- Finish pally stronghold
- Trolls
- TheShal
- WK Levels 1+2+3

... and then guarded compound is probably doable + the sewer geg as well.

This post has been edited by pekkae: Jun 19 2024, 12:03 PM

[Sikret]

So anything I missed out on the Sibel quest on the run, besides the xp+howards's leather crafting secret item? Originally I got

SPOILER!

Did you give chunk of amber to the librarian?
Did you give Samara Fruit to Reginald?

It is fine not to optimize coins in your first run. If everyone was supposed to reload and reload until they get the optimized result, all games would become similar to each other.
SPOILER!

Ingredient A is just there to annoy you and prevent you from optimizing your coins. Don't buy it next time.