Solo Swashbuckler in Improved Anvil (full of SPOILERS), (and some screenshots) Options

[thetruth]

Well I wanted to solo IA (or at least try) and I have been thinking to make the attempt with a F/M, but recently I finished BG1 with a solo Swashbuckler and decided to import him in BG2 and give it a try.

My Swashbuckler soloed BG1 with Easytutu and some mods (among them the Grey Clan Episode 1 and Sword Coast Stratagems both very challenging and well made mods) and is currently in chapter 2 of SoA.


Some things about him:

STATS (rolled an impressive 94 and after the tomes from BG1):

STR: 19
DEX: 19
CON: 19
INT: 17
WIS: 9
CHA: 19

He is human, chaotic good and started BG2 specialized in Long Swords, 2* in Two Weapons style and 120+ score in Hide in Shadows (Stealth is useful even for a character who can’t backstab).

Mods:

- Improved Anvil of course,
- Multiple strongholds component from EoU (for the improved stronghold battles of IA) and True GM (not for my Swashie anyway)
- Tower of Deception

I decided to start BG2 on insane. Not the best idea for a mod like IA, but since my Swashbuckler soloed BG1 on insane I didn’t want to lower the difficulty. Also I will try to not use any weapons/items out of the original game.

Note: I know very well that probably I don’t have any chance to defeat the ToB tougher enemies with him, but I will try at least to finish the SoA part of the game (if possible).


About my progress so far:

After Irenicus’ dungeon I did the Circus, went to the Slums for Gaelan (without entering the C.Coronet – didn’t want to take any quests I would not be able to complete any time soon) and then went at the Docks to start my stronghold’s quest.

Here I made a big mistake. I forgot at all about the improved Suna Seni encounter (wasn’t improved yet when I had tested the mod ) and so I was ambushed by her everytime I tried to leave the Docks district. Unfortunately I couldn’t leave Athkatla (hadn’t visited the Gates yet and had overwritten my saved game) and so I was “trapped” in the Docks and the only way to “escape” was to fight her.

Fortunately I could find some gems and easy money in MaeVar’s guild and with the money I bought the only useful item I could find at the Docks, the Nymph’s cloak (charm once/day) from MaeVar’s guild.

So I hide is Shadows and then left the docks. Was still invisible when I was ambushed and immediately I ran to the northern part of the area. Only the Mage followed my invisible character and while the Cleric was casting True Seeing, I have managed to charm her with the cloak. The cleric followed (fortunately the rest of them stayed at the centre of the area) and with the help from the charmed Mage I have managed to kill him.

Then sent the Mage to kill herself and my Swashie hasted and with backstabs (with x1 multiplier ) managed to kill Suna Seni and the others (most difficult was their Assassin – but I had divided him from the rest of the group and fought only himself after the others were dead).


This was the first challenging fight of the game. After that I did mostly quests from the original game which Sikret didn’t improve like:

- Viconia and Jan from the Government District
- Minor quests in Umar Hills (Ibratha sh.sword)
- Trademeet and Druid grove (and the only +4 enhanced weapon of early game – Flame Tongue)
- Murders in the Bridge district (Ibratha + Berserker warrior + oil of speed helped a lot against Rune Assassins)
- Graveyard quests
- Harpers
- Thieves quests and MaeVar (Rings of Air control and Ring of Energy help a lot against unimproved Mages)


I will update for any further progress (if anyone is interested of course ).

[Raven]

Thetruth this thread looks great - I'm looking forward to reading about how your character gets on!

I'm glad you're writing about soloing IA since soloing is my favourite way to play BG and I find playing with a single character far more interesting and rewarding than playing with a party.

I reckon the SOA part of the game may well be doable by your Swashbuckler - I have recently completed this part of the mod (plus WK) with a solo Barbarian, although admittedly only on Core difficulty, and with using lots of IA items I would have thought the Swashy's flexibility would make things easier for you though.


Btw, with the Suna Seni encounter, I remember Suna's Mage protecting herself with SI: Enchantment and Minor Globe. So shouldn't these spells have blocked a charm effect? I guess maybe the Nymph's Cloak doesn't count as a regular charm spell?

This post has been edited by Raven: Jun 17 2007, 07:30 PM

[thetruth]

I reckon the SOA part of the game may well be doable by your Swashbuckler - I have recently completed this part of the mod (plus WK) with a solo Barbarian, although admittedly only on Core difficulty, and with using lots of IA items I would have thought the Swashy's flexibility would make things easier for you though.

My main concern are enemies with very low AC, ph.resistance and high regeneration (like the Elemental golems and others).
I am not sure if a Swashbuckler can kill them especially with other enemies around.
He can have 10 ApR with WWs but at the same time he gets a -4 penalty to THACO and dmg with WW active.
I will see how it goes against the El.golem in the G.Compound.

Btw congratulations for your Barbarian . Which was the most difficult fight?

Btw, with the Suna Seni encounter, I remember Suna's Mage protecting herself with SI: Enchantment and Minor Globe. So shouldn't these spells have blocked a charm effect? I guess maybe the Nymph's Cloak doesn't count as a regular charm spell?

Yes you are right. Some spells from items/weapons are not treated like normal spells and go through protection spells.

[Raven]

Btw congratulations for your Barbarian . Which was the most difficult fight?

Overall the most difficult fight was probably the Chromatic Demon - I only could really think of one weapon that dealt enough elemental damage to defeat it, and this relied on it being in fire element form, so this fight took many reloads!

The main problem was that I had to kill an Amber Golem before the Demon since I wanted to forge Hammer of Thor and didn't know whether there were any more amber chunks later in the game Summons like Noble Spider and Greater Djinni were really essential for me in fights like this .

With my Barbarian I took no WW or GWW, using instead Boots of Greater Agility and dual-wielding Belm/Cutthroat +5 to get 9 attacks so I could spend all my HLA on Critical Strike. In SOA this worked well, but in the harder fights later e.g. demon prince of Judgement Day I ran out of CS and then my THAC0 was not really good enough to hit the demon consistently.

[Sikret]

Btw, with the Suna Seni encounter, I remember Suna's Mage protecting herself with SI: Enchantment and Minor Globe. So shouldn't these spells have blocked a charm effect? I guess maybe the Nymph's Cloak doesn't count as a regular charm spell?

Yes you are right. Some spells from items/weapons are not treated like normal spells and go through protection spells.

Yes, and as you can see in the mod's documents, we have already fixed some of them (ex: Wand of Spell Striking and Ring of Air Control) to actually cast those spells rather than mimicking the effects. (thetruth's use of the cloak was ingenious and brilliant though)

[Vardaman]

What is the Tower of Deception mod? Does it add a new location/quests?

And does anybody have any suggestions for any mods to install that add some good early game quests? IA adds a ton of epic level fights and improvements but less early game things to do. I'm not complaining; I'm just wondering if we could flesh it out.
The improved Copper Coronet is a great example. It's tougher but not insane for a low level party to take on. I was laughing out loud when Tabitha's Power/critical attack threw my thief backwards and out into the fighting pit area.

Another small thing that I was impressed by was the improved minotaurs. They're no longer big stupid roadbumps. They're a little tougher, give better XP and drop decent equipment to sell.

[Baronius]

What is the Tower of Deception mod? Does it add a new location/quests?

A new location? Surprise: a tower! Yeah, new areas and area graphics, a big quest, and so on... Its third version is under development (with some novelties and minor changes), but the current version is also fully functional and bug-free.

For more information about the mod, visit its website. Should you have any questions or problems, please visit its forum on our Forums.

[coaster]

I enjoyed Tower of Deception, but I don't recommend going there too early if you have IA installed.

[very small spoiler]
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One of the enemies is modified by IA and can be pretty tough. IIRC you also cannot leave the Tower until you have defeated that enemy.

[Marceror]

This is good stuff thetruth. Looking forward to future installments.

Are you sure you don't want to add yet an extra layer of challenge and try to beat the game using nothing BUT that cloak of CHA?

[thetruth]

Thanks Marceror . Did some progress doing almost all the quests untouched by Sikret, but have to stop for some days (uni exams).

Are you sure you don't want to add yet an extra layer of challenge and try to beat the game using nothing BUT that cloak of CHA?

Hehe I started this game saying that I won't use IA's items, but sthg is telling me that it will be a really brief game (have to find out soon how fast I can kill the really tough enemies like the El.golem).

Anyway I will try to update soon.

This post has been edited by thetruth: Jun 22 2007, 12:54 AM

[Stu]

I enjoyed Tower of Deception, but I don't recommend going there too early if you have IA installed.

I did it on core difficulty with a lvl 8-11 party and it seemed like an absolute walk in the park compared to the IA battles (Beastmaster, Torgal, Mencer pebble crusher, Greater Yaunt Ti, coin golems etc). Just make sure you have a +3 weapon or two -this piece of advice is in the readme file.

And does anybody have any suggestions for any mods to install that add some good early game quests?

Tower of deception was a good one, sorry to second guess you coaster . You should get a bit of cash out of it, a bit of xp and it shouldn't be too difficult if you have a couple of breaches, access to fireball and a few +3 or greater weapons.

@thetruth - WOW. What level is he at and how on earth are you going to take out improved mages/liches without spells like breach and ruby ray? (other than very carefully)

[Shaitan]

And does anybody have any suggestions for any mods to install that add some good early game quests?

There's some nice ones found in QuestPack, and Unfinished Business also ads some nice extra xps. But beware, some of the extra quests conflicts with IA, if you ask for it I could give you more details about that.

This post has been edited by Shaitan: Jun 22 2007, 11:43 AM

[thetruth]

What level is he at and how on earth are you going to take out improved mages/liches without spells like breach and ruby ray? (other than very carefully)

For the moment I keep my Swashie away from Sikret's creatures .
Will do first any unmodified quest and then later I think that I will have some powerful options (UAI, Timetraps).

Liches and Mages will be a problem, but at the moment I am worried more for enemies with reg., good AC and ph. resistances.
I am sure that elemental resistances (potions/scrolls/items) and the FoA will help, but unfortunately R.Magic and Mages' protections will be a problem (will have to outlast them).

[Raven]

@thetruth - WOW. What level is he at and how on earth are you going to take out improved mages/liches without spells like breach and ruby ray? (other than very carefully)

The best way I have found to take out mages/liches in the early to mid parts of IA is simply overwhelming melee assault - not bothering to use spells at all except for buffing.

Many of these enemies do not use PfMW right at the start of the battle and it is possible to knock down their stoneskins/mirror images in just a couple a rounds even with a single character (especially with improved haste and dual-wielding, or in the Swashbuckler's case WW). Provided you can survive the feedback damage from fireshield and deal enough damage when the stoneskins do come down you can kill liches/mages before they use even a single PfMW. If you are using FOA or another weapon which inflicts elemental damage you will also interrupt the lich's attack spells even if they don't actually take the damage.

This is certainly true of common liches and all the Athkatla ones (Grave etc.) plus many mages.