Critto's v5 journal Options

[critto]

Thanks for your comments, Kerkes!

1. I think I will try and take Cernd for this run. We'll see how it goes.

2. Yeah, I figured. I've made an assassin for my party, I only left Irenicus' dungeon and I already don't like him. I guess I'll just switch him with Valigar Or with f/t, for that matter. Valigar is cool but I prefer to have somebody with traps and locks skills, since using sorcerer for that stuff is just too annoying for me. Oh, is all that backstabbing forgeable stuff (grandfather of assassins, etc.) usable by f/t? It says 'usable by thief', does that mean 'single-class thief' or 'any thief'?

By the way, what's the opinion on paladins? Are they okay or that 'Enemy evil clerics will control undead and turn paladin' thing makes them less useful? I've made a cavalier as a 2-h weapon expert for my party, but this makes me wonder if I shouldn't have.

This post has been edited by critto: Mar 13 2009, 03:10 PM

[Frazurblu]

Cavalier is definetly the way to go as their immunity to fear makes them unturnable (AFAIK). This will be changed in v6 so enjoy it while you can

[Kerkes]

Clerics won't turn any paladin, for as long as it's custom and not your protagonist. You can take an Inquisitor also, and he won't be turned by clerics, only Keldorn and your protagonist (if not Cavalier) will.

Grandfather of Asassins is usable by multi f/t.
Paladins are Ok I guess, altough I would skip over Avenger sword. I find DoTC much more useful.

[critto]

So, I finally made a decision regarding the party composition and started to play slowly in my spare time. Decided to try and write a more detailed walkthrough-style report, if nobody minds. The comments are most certainly welcome. I will update this post with new adventures while I play as per Skiret's request to keep journals in one post.

My current party consists of human cavalier, minsc the berserker, half-elven fighter/mage, half-elven ranger/cleric multi, human swashbuckler and elven sorceress (whom I'll switch for Imoen this time, I think).

Well, anyway, I want to see that JD sword and the grand fight, so I've choosen a single-classed good-aligned warrior (wanted to go with the berserker first, but decided not to). Slightly fixed Minsc was choosen on occasion of me missing his banters ("Boo is outgraged! See his fury? He's small, so look closely. It's there, trust me." - priceless). f/m was choosen since I think it's quite helpful to have one fighter with mage buffs, and blade turned out to be too powerful. r/c was brought in order to introduce a bit more fighting skills to the group at cost of reducing his effectiveness as a divine caster. Swashi is just an experiment: I want to see for myself how exactly (in)effective the pure thieves in IA are.

First of all I've made most of the minor vanilla city quests, raised some initial capital and paid Gaelan Bayle. I haven't gotten out to the out-of-city areas yet, I'm planning on doing it a bit later, when my prot will be strong enough to face Faldorn in 1-on-1 battle (he's a lawful good cavalier, so pure fighting here, no spell disruptions). I've also did both random encounters (Suna-Seni and another one) and improved Copper Coronet. Somewhere in-between these actions I've made one +2 dagger for swashi. The second one we'll find in De'Arnise keep.

After that I went on a little exp-raising adventure: 2 levels of the De'Arnise Keep (except Glacias and the Keep Viper), vanilla stuff in Windspear hills, Umar Hills and Trademeet. Then I've gone for the druid grove. Did everything except Faldorn (my lvl9 paladin couldn't beat her, those damned bears are really annoying). Came back to Trademeet, closed the Ihtafeer quest and bought Blackblood club for my r/c.

After that I've got back to the slums and gone for the sewers. Left Greater Crawler for later date and decide to storm the slavers stockade.
SPOILER!

Okay, here's the report. It is not written in round-to-round basis, but gives the main idea of events that took place during the battle.

Party enters through the back door. Buffs: haste, protection from evil, chant, enrage for minsc, SI:Enchantment for sorceress. Then we go in.

Sorceress starts emotion on the cleric.
Prot goes for the cleric with help of the swashi.
Minsc attacks Haegan.
f/m casts slow in direction of the cleric and joins Minsc.
r/c casts hold person on Heagan and also joins Minsc.

Some of the assassins and slavers fell to Emotion.
Swashi and prot are holding the ground.
r/c's Hold person seems to have taken effect on Heagan (no 'saving-throw made' message and the corresponding animation flows over his head), though he still fights actively. Nevertheless his hp's are going down quite fast. Sorc helps with fire arrows.

Mage came to help his comrades.
Prot and swashi are getting overwhelmed. Prot falls to greater malison - emotion trigger. Swashi is all by herself.
Sorc fires another emotion.
Heagan is near death.

Heagan falls. Minsc immediately goes to distract the mage.
r/c joins swashi in battle against the main troops.
f/m is killing the left-over goons near the Heagan's position.
sorc refreshes Haste.

The rest is simple. Mage's SI soon wears off, then Breach and he's history, so are the rest of the troops with him.
The second pack of enemies (golem, mage and goons) are easy. Emotion does the job. Golem is easy too, since I have three chars with piercing weapons.

Two little notes. First of all, the "two halbers +1 = halberd +2" upgrade seems kind of pointless to me. Even though we can get both +1 ones freely (Anarg and Slave Golem), the upgrade itself costs 10000 gp, while I can buy halberd +2 from Ribald for lesser price. I bought one for Minsc after the slavers, the reputation was 18 and the cost was about 4-5k gp.
The second note about swashi. I quite like this character. Though she's not that effective in battle against single tough enemies like Heagan, she's quite useful in distracting and keeping busy the minor troops while Minsc applies the butt-kicking. Back to the report, anyway.

After the slavers I decided to retrieve Lilarcor, Minsc needs +3 sword and a companion for the debates Party goes back to the sewers.

Greater Crawler
SPOILER!

I don't have a lot of +3 weapons. In fact, only r/c has a pair of +3 clubs. So, f/m joins her with the Phantom Blade. Another buffs: Haste, Free Action and DUHM for r/c (actually, I wanted to use Rightious Magic, but forgot to memorize it before resting).
After that it's quite easy. The thing fell just when f/m used up his last stoneskin.

Lilarcor guardians:
SPOILER!

Emotion and blunt weapons are the key things in battle against the rat packs.
The shadow lover is way more dangerous, since he drains strength quite fast and party doesn't have a lot of str potions, so I have to carefully monitor the condition of my characters. Otherwise, it's pretty much the matter of simple "haste-and-slash".

Party levels:

prot - 10.
minsc - 10.
f/m - 9/10.
r/c - 9/9.
swashi - 12.
sorc - 11.

UPDATE: time for some more exp harvesting. Fought guardians near Pai-Na's hideout. I hate spiders.
Went for sewers, I haven't been there yet. Finished Roger's Sea Troll quest. Did the Unseeing Eye quest. Accepted cleric's stronghold.

Decided to go back to De'Arnise keep. Fought Glacias and the Keep Viper first.

Greater Yuan-ti:
SPOILER!

Pre-buffs: chant, bless, mirror image, stoneskin, haste, chaotic command for f/m, SI:Enchantment for sorceress, enrage for Minsc.
Whisper confuses prot, but dies quickly nevertheless.
Greater Yuan-Ti arrives. Minsc goes to welcome him.
f/m and sorc start Secret Word from scrolls.
Greater casts Remove Magic on Minsc.

r/c joins Minsc.
prot severely injured after spider, so he heals himself with "lay on hands".
Greater casts Greater Malison on f/m.

sorc starts another Secret Word.
f/m starts Lower Resistance.

Greater casts sequencer on r/c, she falls all three saves, whereas Minsc saves against all three
f/m starts another Lower Resistance.
prot and swashi go to help Minsc in battle.

sorc starts Emotion.
Greater uses scroll to read True Sight.

f/m fires Magic Missile (to get read of mirror images, mostly).
sorc starts another Emotion (first one was no luck).
Greater casts feeblemind on prot.

Greater falls to Emotion.
The battle is finished. The rest is done by melee attacks.

Very funny thing happened here: my prot got feebleminded and his condition wouldn't go away (even after 16 hours rest)! I tried resting even more and he still remained feebleminded. Thankfully, "Dispel Magic" took care of it.

Forged Flail of Ages +3. Now it is time to finish off Tor'Gal.
SPOILER!

The buffs were very similar to the Greater Yuan-ti battle. I also used 3 fire giant str potions and 1 hill giant to improved THAC0 of my warriors. Took me 3 reloads before I decided to use them.
I don't like to fight in the hall where Tor'gal resides, so I lure him and his goons to the umberhulks room.
Tor'gal slows down a little before going in, so we get about 1 round to do some damage to one of the trolls.
When Tor'gal enters, everybody attacks him, except swashi - she engages the trolls.
Sorc distracts the gem golem, so he won't bother the warriors. Stoneskins and mirror images help her to stay alive. Meanwhile she helps swashi to finish off trolls with acid arrows.
Shortly after that Tor'gal dies, and so does the Gem Golem.

Went back to the city, sold the loot, took care of some stronghold duties.
Decided to kill Pai'na.
SPOILER!

I hate spiders!
Anyway, Free Action is necessary here. Also, my sorc hit level 12 after Tor'gal, so she had Improved Haste, which is nice.
Greater Yuan-ti left us a couple of Chain Lightning scrolls which are quite useful to get rid of small spiders.
The most trouble here are killer spiders (char fails save against web - he's dead). Pai'na isn't that hard, it just the matter of breaching her in the beginning of the battle.

Afterwards I went for the guild contact.
SPOILER!

This battle is quite easy. Improve-hasted warriors took care of Gracen with help of Breach from sorc, while f/m (with Amulet of Power) kept Vampire Bride busy.

Cleared most of the vampires in Bodhi's lair. Not Tanova though, she's too tough for the party right now. Prot leveled up and got access to the second level priest spells, so I decided to give duel with Faldorn another go.
SPOILER!

That was quite fun, actually. I cast Hold Person on her (thanks to Kerkes for the hint) and started to beat her. When she was badly wounded the spell effect was gone, but since she had no ironskins, I was quite successful at interrupting her spells. In the 'near death' condition she just fell unconsious! And for some reason my paladin wouldn't hit her anymore. Though picking up the staff from the ground did the trick: the duel was won (not really in a paladin style, but what the heck)!

The second duel was won easily since character can wear all his equipment. It's funny though, that the great druid gets 10 thousands gp after winning the duel. Like it's some kind of pit fight rather then the challenge for the druid's title. Anyway, I did first druid stronghold quest and went back to Trademeet. Got a lot of exp and gold there, finished off Rejiek for good. Returned to the city, forged Treefolk's Arm +4 and Mace of Disruption +2, both for r/c.

Went to the temple ruins. Shadow Jailor:
SPOILER!

Skeleton lords are quite challenging at this point.
Buffs: Improved Haste, Chant, DUHM, enrage, stoneskins and ironskins. Everybody uses blunt weapons.
The key here is to divide skeleton lords and the jailor. f/m and r/c, having magical protections, take care of lords, while prot and Minsc beat the jailor. Even with this scenario both prot and Minsc got badly injured and had to consume some potions during the course of battle.

The treasure column in Mazzi's cell gave me one Ruby Ray scroll. Treasure, indeed! Random undead spawns turned out to be pretty tough, so I made a decision to forfeit the exploration of the dungeon until later date.

Returned to the city, forged a Morning Star +3. Performed some stronghold duties, went to rescue Haer'dalis. Also bought some healing potions from Roger. Returned the mirror to Raelis. The troup got busted by bounty hunters, but it's too early to execute a rescue mission yet.
Decided to try battle with Mencar's party. Bought scrolls of Greater Malison and Hold Monster.
Took 2 reloads, the first time swashi got killed.
SPOILER!

Buffs: Chant, Haste, Improved Haste (for warriors), enrage.
We go in. Swashi attacks the thief.
Prot and Minsc attack Mencar.
r/c attacks Smaeluv (or something, the barbarian).

f/m starts Greater Malison on Pooky.
sorc starts Hold Monster on Pooky.

The fight begins.
Thief goes invisible. Swashi activates detect illusions. Unsuccessful.
Amon got held. Pooky made his save.

sorc starts Emotion.
f/m starts Slow.

Pooky casts Greater Malison.
Thief goes invisible again, hits swashi bad. She drinks healing potion.
f/m casts Slow and goes to help r/c.
Sorc casts Emotion. Amon got hit, everybody else's saved.

Pooky casts Slow. We got hit by it. Everybody, except prot and Minsc, failed saves.
sorc starts another Emotion.
Thief tries backstab on swashi again, but gets detected by her.
Mencar activates hardiness, but that doesn't help him. He dies.
Minsc goes to help swashi. Prot goes to help f/m and r/c.

Pooky and Amon got unconsious. Wo-hoo!
Smaeluv falls.
Thief tries another backstab (unsuccessfully, again) and dies shortly afterwards.
Pooky and Amon are history soon enough.

Went to Windspear Hills. Cleared everything except Samia, Conster and Firkraag. Returned to the city, sold loot, forged Halberd +3 for Minsc and Improved Dragon Helm for f/m. Also paid a spell-casting license fee and finished cleric's stronghold.

Went to pirates' hideout.
SPOILER!

Pre-buffs are the usual: stoneskins, mirrors, chant, enrage, improved haste, free action, chaotic commands.
Party goes in. Everybody, except sorc, attacks captain.
Coordinator's buffs kick in.

Sorc casts Emotion.
Coordinator casts True Sight.

Captain: GWW.
Sorc casts SI:Abjuration (presumed that coordinator will fire Ruby Ray).

Captain is dead.
Coordinator casts True Sight.
Fighters concentrate on pirates.

Coordinator breaches f/m. f/m refreshes stoneskin.
Swashi and prot drink healing potions.

Coordinator breaches f/m again. f/m refreshes his skins again.
And he breaches again, scumbag!
Swashi retreats to the exit (she doesn't need to be around when damaging spells will start to fly).

r/c tries Silence.
Coordinator throws another breach at f/m, which is strange since he had only mirrors at the time.

Coordinator casts remove magic.
Sorc tries remove magic also, unsuccessfully, of course.
Coordinator fires Malison and 3xFoD contingency at f/m. He dies.

That's it! sorc fires one precious Ruby Ray scroll. SI is down.
Fighters proceed in melee.
Coordinator: Absolute Immunity.

Swashi comes to dispel illusions.
Coordinator: Mirror Image and Contingency: Fire Shield.

Coordinator casts slow.
Sorc casts haste.

Coordinator casts spell sequencer with divination buffs.
Swashi dispels his invisibility.
Sorc breaches him.

Coordinator's contingency: Stoneskin kicks in. He also uses on Absolute Immunity scroll.
Sorc casts breach.

Coordinator fires 3xChain Lightning trigger. Minsc is killed!
And that's it. He has no protections, so he's down. My fighters kill him.

Decided not to reload, though it's shameful that Minsc got killed.

Sold most of the loot, except for some items. Now, I am very low on money, so I have to consider what items do I want to forge. I can make +2 cloaks, but some of my chars (f/m and swashi) still need +3 weapons for spellhold. So I'll have to prioritize and make equipment for them first. I am also low on permanency scrolls, have only one left. And I will need a lot of them later on.

Rested and fought Borinall.
SPOILER!

Buffs are the usual. Protection from lightning is very important here.
Party enters the house and immediately circles Borinall. f/m stands on the left, so he could also take hits from Amber Golem. The fight begins. Everybody concentrate their attacks on Borinall. When rune assassins appear, f/m and r/c stop hitting Borinall and focus their attention on them (poison attacks are nasty!). Swashi takes care of minor goons, then comes to help with the assassins. Sorc breaches Borinall. Once he's dead, we finish off the golem.

Party levels:

prot - 11.
minsc - 12.
f/m - 10/11.
r/c - 10/10.
swashi - 14.
sorc - 12.

UPDATE: Decided to go back to the temple ruins and battle the Shadow Dragon.
SPOILER!

I haven't made a complete log of my battle, since I forgot to take notes from the start.
The buffs were the usual. DUHM was also used to increase the strength of r/c and prot. r/c also had Zone of Sweet Air memorized.
Sorc casts Lower Resistance to initiate the battle.
Everybody goes into melee. Dragon uses two contingencies first, but Breach takes care of them.
After that he either attacks in melee or tries to breach f/m (he's got enough stoneskins, to keep dragon busy). He also refreshes PfMW a lot, but sorc got enough breaches. Death fogs are no problem, since r/c has ZoSA.
Dragon managed to heal himself once, but that didn't helped him much. He was dead soon enough.

Thax dropped Blade of Roses (random treasure, as I figured), which is nice, since swashi now have a +3 weapon. Went back to the city, forged Shadow Dragon Armor for swashi. Finished the rest of vampires in crypts, reported back to Aran, but refused to go to spellhold yet.

Now it was time to rescue the actors from planar prison.
Elite Bounty Hunter & Co:
SPOILER!

Buffs are the usual, plus Chaotic Commands.
Sorc and f/m cast Magic Missile on cleric.
r/c and swashi proceed to battle the goons.
prot and Minsc go for EBH and hounds.

EBH casts PfMW from scroll.
Cleric casts Greater Command, everybody saves.
Sorc casts Magic Missile on cleric.
Swashi finishes off the rest of goons.

EBH breaches f/m, he refreshes it.
Prot and Minsc drink potions of fire resistance. They switch to normal weapons.

EBH breaches sorc this time. Sorc refreshes stone skins.
Prot and Minsc drink healing potions.

EBH: PfMW.
The fight continues.

EBH: Remove Magic.
Prot and Minsc take heavy damage.

Sorc casts Emotion.
EBH unconsious! That's fortunate, I gotta say.

Prot and Minsc both drink another potion of fire resistance and start hitting EBH.
EBH's SI wears off. Sorc casts Breach. End of story.

Warden:
SPOILER!

This battle is easier than the previous one. Four improved hasted warriors mopped the floor with Warden quite fast.
First we disposed of two hounds. Then the Warden came with an escort of two mordy swords. Two Ruby Rays were immediately fired at him, followed by pair of breaches. He tried to protect himself some more with stoneskins and hardiness, but they were breached too. Swords were taken care of with Death spell. Swashi was distracting the hounds. She's got very nice AC (the highest in the party), so they hit her only on rare occasions.

Returned to the city, sold the loot. Forged Morning Star +3 and Phosphorus +4. Went to Planar Sphere.
Halfling Warriors:
SPOILER!

Pre-buffs, then party goes in.
The first one to appear is Togan the archer. Prot, Minsc and r/c attack him.
f/m goes to distract the mage.
Sorc casts SI:Enchantment (forgot to do it while prebuffing).

Mage casts True Sight.
f/m attack Entu (the warrior or something).
Togan is dead. Minsc goes to help f/m.
Prot and r/c attack the cleric.

Swashi tries to dispel mage's illusion buffs.
Entu does quite a lot of damage to Minsc. He drinks potion.
Mage summons mordy sword.
Sorc casts Fire Arrow at Entu.

Cleric is dead. Prot and r/c attack Entu.
Minsc tries to retreat, but falls (dammit!).
Mage casts Greater Malison.
Entu dies.

Mage casts 3xFinger of Death on f/m. He saves (if he failed, I would've reload).
Everybody's hitting mordy sword.

Mage fires spell sequencer (emotion, etc.).
Swashi and r/c fall to Emotion. Prot and f/m got slowed.
Sorc casts Haste.

Mage casts Wilting. Party takes damage.
Then he Breaches f/m.
f/m refreshes Mirror Image.

Mage continues to fire damaging spells at my party.
His SI wears off. Finally!
Two breaches and he's dead.

This fight and battle with Pirate Coordinator were really hard without Ruby Ray. Battle with EBH could've been the same, but I got lucky with Emotion there. Now, I have only 5 RR scrolls with me and I need them for Lavok and Tolgerias.
Lavok:
SPOILER!

After the dialog appears, Prot and Minsc rush for Lavok.
f/m and sorc start casting Ruby Ray from scrolls.
r/c and swashi wait for golems to appear.

Sorc casts another Ruby Ray. f/m prepares to Breach.
Lavok: PfMW.
Golems appear.

Lavok casts Ruby Ray at sorc.
f/m casts Breach.

Lavok uses scroll of PfMW, but sorc's Breach already in the air.
Minsc got hurt by golems badly, he retreats. f/m and r/c take his place.

Lavok uses another PfMW scroll, but sorc strikes with Breach pre-emptively.
Prot delivers the final blow. Lavok falls, golems disappear.

Demon Plane (took a couple of reloads):
SPOILER!

Very exciting battle. Pre-buffs: Improved Haste, DUHM, Free Action, Enrage.
Free Action is very important here. If character gets held - he's dead. It's good to have f/m on board. He can take considerable amount of blows without being actually hurt. The key here is to get rid of Skeleton Lords fast. So all warriors attack them, one at a time. Then the demon. Mazureshi (spelled this wrong, didn't I?) are annoying, but not that dangerous. They can be taken care of after the main enemies are dead. Summons are good to divert their attention for a couple of rounds.

Tolgerias (took 2 reloads):
SPOILER!

After pre-buffing (Improved Haste, stoneskins, mirror images, SI) party goes in.
Prot goes for Planetar. Minsc, swashi and r/c go for the side-kick mage.
f/m and sorc start the last ruby ray scrolls on Tolgerias.

Mage summon mordy sword.
Tolgerias casts True Sight.
Planetar casts Greater Command in the same moment sidekick casts Malison!
Prot and r/c fail the save.
f/m casts Slow.

Tolgerias Ruby Rays the sorc. She recasts SI again.
f/m finishes off planetar, goes for the sidekick.

Tolgerias breaches f/m. f/m refreshes stoneskin.
Sidekick's physical protections wear off. Minsc scores a critical, sidekick's gone.

Fighters attack mordy.
Tolgerias Ruby Rays the sorc again. She recasts SI again.

Tolgerias uses scroll (dunno, what it was).
Fighters finish off mordy. Go for Tolgerias.

Tolgerias breaches f/m. He refreshes the skins.
Prot and r/c wake up.

Tolgerias casts Remove Magic. Most of the buffs are gone.
Sorc casts Emotion.
Swashi retreats (ADHW's might start flying very soon).

Fighters deal heavy damage to Tolgerias, but also takes quite a lot from Fire Shield.
Tolgerias fires 3xFoD at f/m, he saves (haven't even noticed this one at first).

Fighters has punched through stoneskins and r/c has delivered the final blow. Tolgerias is finally dead, with his SI still active.
Taking an active action here against Tolgerias is very important. I failed to win the first time because I didn't attack him after the goons, wanted to wait out his SI, so he's gone mad with ADHW's and Comets, which is a most certain reload at this stage.

Battle with golems in engine room wasn't that hard. The structure of the battlefield allows to change character positions and heal them if needed. Since I had f/m with magic buffs, I didn't use many potions.
Returned to Lavok and finished the quest. Accepted mage stronghold, sold the loot, paid Ribald for Solamnic Knights, attended to some stronghold duties, forged a +2 ring and cloak. Went to the druid grove, fought spiders in Ogre Tower in order to retrieve Belm for swashi. Returned to the city and sailed to Brynnlaw. Levels are a bit low, but I don't have any encounters which I want to try now.

Party levels, toughest enemy disposed, weapons.
prot - 13, Torgal, dual-wields Phosphorus and Flail of Ages, also has Frostreaver +3.
Minsc - 13, Thax, wields Lilarcor, Cleric's Staff, Halberd +3.
f/m - 11/11, Bone Golem, wields Borok's Fist and Arbane's Sword in main hand, Short Sword +2 off-hand.
r/c - 11/10, Amber Golem, wields Treefolk's Arm and Club +3, also has Mace of Disruption.
swashi - 16, Greater Yuan-Ti, wields Blade of Roses and Pixie's Prick in main hand with Belm off-hand.
sorc - 13, Beastmaster, wields Staffs of Fire and Air, mostly for summoning purposes.

To be continued...

This post has been edited by critto: Apr 6 2009, 03:09 PM

[Raven]

SPOILER!

r/c's Hold person seems to have taken effect on Heagan (no 'saving-throw made' message and the corresponding animation flows over his head), though he still fights actively. Nevertheless his hp's are going down quite fast.

He's immune to hold, I guess he should also be made immune to the hold animation that appears above his head.

[critto]

He's immune to hold, I guess he should also be made immune to the hold animation that appears above his head.

Agree. I also noticed that if character is held and "Free Action" is being cast on him, then hold effect wears off, but the animation still exists.

[Kerkes]

Some toughts of mine just for you:

Swash is very good actually. Up until you exit Underdark, he's awsome. Just get that +3 buckler upgrade for him + Belm + Bluntness Girdle. However, from my experience, low Hp, inability to use Hardiness and such will get him killed on a regular basis in late fights, like Chromatic Demon. Takes a lot of micromanagment. As I said, in early and mid-game, you'll love him. He-ll get better in a month anyway.
For item upgrades - I believe (I'm not sure about it) that +2 Halberd you can buy is actually Suriys (or something) halberd. It is a +2 halberd. But not the one you can upgrade to a +3 wpn. Your point is valid however, there are upgrades for +2 flail which are more expensive than the flail itself.
For partty composition / well, good luck. I never played multi rang/cler in IA. You get Restoration very late, and with your party (swash, berserker, cavalier) you will need it as soon as possible.
Faldorn will be very hard without spell disruption. Very, very hard. Those bears are deadly when your AC is 6.. Or, uninstall Multi Stronghold and let Cernd beat the crap out of her. Or some spell slots (SPOILER!

Hold person could work on her).

[critto]

Swash is very good actually. Up until you exit Underdark, he's awsome. Just get that +3 buckler upgrade for him + Belm + Bluntness Girdle. However, from my experience, low Hp, inability to use Hardiness and such will get him killed on a regular basis in late fights, like Chromatic Demon. Takes a lot of micromanagment. As I said, in early and mid-game, you'll love him. He-ll get better in a month anyway.

Yeah, I know. Things could get tough for swashi in mid-late game. I even considered to dual her into fighter until it's too late, but decided not to. Micromanagement indeed is an issue with swashi but it's kinda fun. So, I'll just play and see what happens

For partty composition / well, good luck. I never played multi rang/cler in IA. You get Restoration very late, and with your party (swash, berserker, cavalier) you will need it as soon as possible.

Good point here too. I thought of it while planning the party. But I've seen some positive opinions on r/c's in IA, so decided to try one for myself. Well, anyway, it's an experiment of sorts.

For item upgrades - I believe (I'm not sure about it) that +2 Halberd you can buy is actually Suriys (or something) halberd. It is a +2 halberd. But not the one you can upgrade to a +3 wpn. Your point is valid however, there are upgrades for +2 flail which are more expensive than the flail itself.

This halberd is indeed "Suriys something", but Cromwell can forge a +3 weapon from it, I just checked After all, it just a Halberd +2 (judging by its primary name and stats). "Suriys" is a part of the description only.

Faldorn will be very hard without spell disruption. Very, very hard. Those bears are deadly when your AC is 6.. Or, uninstall Multi Stronghold and let Cernd beat the crap out of her. Or some spell slots

Agreed. I've thought about using Cernd to win this battle, but I'm unsure if everything will be okay because of these re-installs (I've already started thief and cleric strongholds).

[Sikret]

SPOILER!

r/c's Hold person seems to have taken effect on Heagan (no 'saving-throw made' message and the corresponding animation flows over his head), though he still fights actively. Nevertheless his hp's are going down quite fast.

He's immune to hold, I guess he should also be made immune to the hold animation that appears above his head.

This has been already fixed in v6 since a while ago.

I also noticed that if character is held and "Free Action" is being cast on him, then hold effect wears off, but the animation still exists.

There is no way to fix this one.

[critto]

Updated journal post with some new adventures.

[Sikret]

@Critto

Casting Ruby Ray spell from a scroll on an invisible target is possible only because of a bug in the vanilla game. This is fixed and blocked in v6. Don't do that as long as you are playing v5. According to your report, you (probably unintentionally) did it with the Pirate Coordinator.

[critto]

Casting Ruby Ray spell from a scroll on an invisible target is possible only because of a bug in the vanilla game. This is fixed and blocked in v6. Don't do that as long as you are playing v5. According to your report, you (probably unintentionally) did it with the Pirate Coordinator.

Unintentionally, indeed. Haven't thought at the time that such action could be illogical (as I understand, it would be impossible to perform the same trick with RR from memory?).
Well, the whole scenario felt wrong somehow anyway. Even with the loss of two characters, Coordinator has fallen quicker than I expected (due to the scroll bug, apparently).

[Raven]

Casting Ruby Ray spell from a scroll on an invisible target is possible only because of a bug in the vanilla game. This is fixed and blocked in v6. Don't do that as long as you are playing v5. According to your report, you (probably unintentionally) did it with the Pirate Coordinator.

Unintentionally, indeed. Haven't thought at the time that such action could be illogical (as I understand, it would be impossible to perform the same trick with RR from memory?).

Yes, that's right, and it's because, even though the game shows Improved Invisible characters as translucent/partially visible when they have taken some offensive action (so they can be the target of physical attacks), they are still actually supposed to be invisible to your characters. So they should not be targetable with single-target spells whether cast from memory or from scrolls.

Unfortunately the game does allow you to target such characters with single-target spells cast from scrolls, which means players probably do this not even thinking that really it should not be possible (since misleadingly the enemy is visible to the player).

[critto]

Well, I think this little experiment is over. I've been playing with my current party, and I find it a bit ineffective for IA. Mostly, because of three things (two of which were pointed out by Kerkes):
1. The effectiveness of swashbuckler drops dramatically during the course of the game. She was doing nothing, basically, in Underdark, except maybe for an occasional dispel of enemies' illusions or a fight with the sidekick goons. I figure she won't become more effective later on without fighters' HLAs. I guess, we'll have to wait for IA6, where swashbucklers will be improved by Sikret.
2. Lack of pure cleric. r/c is a really good tank, but having a 12-13 level cleric in Underdark doesn't really help. Some fights I find nearly undoable (I'll write an example a bit later).
3. Not enough magical firepower. f/m progresses in levels very slowly, and having a single sorc is not enough to handle all the magical stuff.

To summarize, this party is not as effective as I first considered. I am playing the Underdark part, and some battles are basically undoable for me. For example, I am stuck right now with Noble Djinni (Deirex' treasure cave). He's too tough to kill in melee (has anyone actually accomplished such a thing?), and I do not have enough magical power to kill him before he regenerates or finishes off my fighters (who might've hold on if only I had pure cleric with Greater Restoration on board). I won't even mention the battle with the Demon Knights in Demogorgon temple...
I guess, maybe I just not skilled enough to play with that kind of party yet, but well, as Sikret has written in IA's readme, one should draw a learning curve for himself. I find the current game a little too tough for my liking, which kind of takes out the fun, and what's the point of playing the game without having fun? So I'll drop this party for now and maybe start another one. Well, anyway, sorry if someone liked the idea of me writing the report, since, obviously, I won't be publishing it now. Not for that party, at least.

This post has been edited by critto: Apr 22 2009, 06:59 PM

[Raven]

To summarize, this party is not as effective as I first considered. I am playing the Underdark part, and some battles are basically undoable for me. For example, I am stuck right now with Noble Djinni (Deirex' treasure cave). He's too tough to kill in melee (has anyone actually accomplished such a thing?)

Sure, it's very possible.

Describe the problems in the battle (i.e. what exactly is killing you) if you want and I will try to give some advice. Even if you don't continue with this party, maybe it'll help for the future.

[matti]

SPOILER!

Good fighters. Two or three, imp. hasted and protected form fire. Always works. :]

[critto]

2 Raven, matti:
Thanks for your input. I did try melee fight with Djinni, but here's a few problems I have encountered:
SPOILER!

I attack the Djinni with two my best warriors (cavalier prot and Minsc). I equip them with items, which grant protection from fire, and buff with the same spell and Improved Haste, of course. As Djinni appears they both attack him, while sorc and f/m dispel his protections with Ruby Rays and Breach (funny thing is, f/m doesn't have access to 7th level spells yet, so he casts the spell from the very same RR scroll located in that cave). At first, my fighters are beating Djinni quite effectively. But this is where the problems begin. More precisely:
1. He lowers fire resistance, and I don't have any means to increase it once again, since I don't have any potions of fire resistance.
2. As the fire resistance drops, they start to take damage from the fire shield. The funny thing is, even when they hit Djinni, he doesn't take any damage, I get only "successful hit roll" and "damage from fire shield taken" messages in my log. I thought it was some kind of magical protection, but it doesn't make any sense. If it was stoneskin, it should be gone quite fast with that amount of hits, if it's PfMW, I should get "weapon ineffective" messages, which I don't. Breaching the Djinni also doesn't seem to work. Maybe I missed something in message log, but I examined it pretty thoroughly.
3. Djinni hits my fighters quite hard (with their AC being around -10). And I don't have Greater Restoration to heal them both quickly. And they don't have any Hardiness yet, being one or two levels away from HLAs.

This post has been edited by critto: Apr 23 2009, 07:55 AM

[matti]

Yeah, that's why fighters and mages (single-class) shines in IA. Your party suffers rather greatly in the "butt-kicking for goodness" department - not enough good fighters, not to mention that taking only one mage in the party was a very risky and actually brave decision. :]

SPOILER!

Buff your entire party to the wazoo, let your fighters drink strength potions, equip them with potions of resurgence and potions of speed, latter are very important, let your fighters quaff it the next milisecond imp. haste wear off, coz your mages are too low level to refresh imp. haste I assume, cast all offensive divine spells and put your r/c in the fight. Noble Djinni is powerful but he is alone (he's sidekick is a wuss) and it's really important to make all your fighters beat on him mercilessly and without interruption. Attack with swashbuckler and r/c first, making them priority target (even sacrifice them, that is) for he's counter-attacks and you'll finally break him.

[Raven]

2 Raven, matti:
Thanks for your input. I did try melee fight with Djinni, but here's a few problems I have encountered:
SPOILER!

I attack the Djinni with two my best warriors (cavalier prot and Minsc). I equip them with items, which grant protection from fire, and buff with the same spell and Improved Haste, of course. As Djinni appears they both attack him, while sorc and f/m dispel his protections with Ruby Rays and Breach (funny thing is, f/m doesn't have access to 7th level spells yet, so he casts the spell from the very same RR scroll located in that cave). At first, my fighters are beating Djinni quite effectively. But this is where the problems begin. More precisely:
1. He lowers fire resistance, and I don't have any means to increase it once again, since I don't have any potions of fire resistance.
2. As the fire resistance drops, they start to take damage from the fire shield. The funny thing is, even when they hit Djinni, he doesn't take any damage, I get only "successful hit roll" and "damage from fire shield taken" messages in my log. I thought it was some kind of magical protection, but it doesn't make any sense. If it was stoneskin, it should be gone quite fast with that amount of hits, if it's PfMW, I should get "weapon ineffective" messages, which I don't. Breaching the Djinni also doesn't seem to work. Maybe I missed something in message log, but I examined it pretty thoroughly.
3. Djinni hits my fighters quite hard (with their AC being around -10). And I don't have Greater Restoration to heal them both quickly. And they don't have any Hardiness yet, being one or two levels away from HLAs.

OK here is some info/tips, hopefully some of it will be useful:

SPOILER!

The Noble Efreet is immune to Breach, as you suggested. He isn't immune to normal weapons though, so you can still hit him while he is using PfMW. I imagine it was stoneskin that was preventing you seeing any damage appearing in the log box.

I took a look at your party and I can understand why you could be having trouble. I agree that your main problem is probably the lack of 7th level divine spells (for Regeneration or Greater Restoration). Additionally your multiclass characters will probably have some difficulty scoring hits consistently.

Despite what I said about it being possible to win with fighters/melee, I think it's better you use a combined arms approach and make sure your magic users contribute to damage-dealing as well. The Efreet does not have very high Magic Resistance (a couple of Lower Resistances and it'll be gone), nor does it have good resistances to elements other than fire. Because your fighters will take more damage from the Fire Shield the longer they have to attack you should concentrate your offensive spells on the Efreet at the same time. Throw a Doom and Greater Malison then pretty much any non-fire attack spells (ADHW if you have it, Chain Lightning, Melf's Acid Arrow, Magic Missile etc.).

As far as the Efreet's damage-dealing goes, iirc its main offensive powers besides its own attacks and the Fire Shield are Fireball and Incendiary Cloud. Both of these spells can be avoided even without fire resistance, using Zone of Sweet Air to clear Incendiary Cloud and using the Limited Wish option 'I wish to make my party invulnerable', which gives your characters Minor Globes of Invulnerability for a short time, to block Fireball.

[critto]

2 matti:
Well, actually, my sorc has enough experience to be able to refresh IH, cast ADHWs and so on It's just my fighters usually were killed before their IH got dispelled. As for sacrifices, it is not really my thing, but I will consider that as an option Still, summons would probably serve better as a meatshields, unless Djinni knows Death spell (of which I am not sure).

2 Raven:

SPOILER!

I took a look at your party and I can understand why you could be having trouble. I agree that your main problem is probably the lack of 7th level divine spells (for Regeneration or Greater Restoration). Additionally your multiclass characters will probably have some difficulty scoring hits consistently.

It is true, indeed. Well, it's more the lack of divine spells. I am quite okay with the multiclasses not being big damage dealers, since it's not their main purpose.

SPOILER!

Despite what I said about it being possible to win with fighters/melee, I think it's better you use a combined arms approach and make sure your magic users contribute to damage-dealing as well. The Efreet does not have very high Magic Resistance (a couple of Lower Resistances and it'll be gone), nor does it have good resistances to elements other than fire. Because your fighters will take more damage from the Fire Shield the longer they have to attack you should concentrate your offensive spells on the Efreet at the same time. Throw a Doom and Greater Malison then pretty much any non-fire attack spells (ADHW if you have it, Chain Lightning, Melf's Acid Arrow, Magic Missile etc.).

Well, I did try a combined method too, but the same problems were standing on my path to victory in this battle. But I will give this battle another shot, for sure. I never imagined this battle to be so tough, actually. In my previous run I won it quite fast using magic only, but I had three mages firing spells at Djinni.

Thanks for the hints, I will try them later on, when I have some free time.