journal of a 4 mages and 2 riskbreakers party Options

[nicoper]

First, a couple of words about history of this party.
After a third anvil runthrough, wanted some change, so played a bg2 run with tons of mods (no IA in it of course for compatibility reason).
Party was Mage protag, Imoen, Jaheira, Keldorn, Undead hunter and Anomen.
At the time, started to think about making some kind of holy-inquisition party for IA (something like necro protag, 4 paladins and 1 R/C), but of course gave it up (if only because of the turning paladin feature).
Tried to compose something close to this first idea, but everything was bringing me back to the traditionnal IA party (Necro or Vagrant protag, then Valygar/RB/Zerk etc.)
Thinking about this made me a bit upset, I wanted to have an original party!
After brainstorming about :
- Naturists in armor (2 vagrant, 2 protectors, 2 auramasters)
- Necro, R/C, Imoen, Valygar and 2 vagrants
- many spin-offs from those 2 basic lines, from which I finally decided to go for

............RRRRRRumble!...............

1°) Necro protagonist,
2°) Nalia,
3°) Sorceress,
4°) Riskbreaker
5°) Riskbreaker
6°)various NPC then Imoen

Why this:
In my 3 previous IA V6 runs, melee power ruled supreme, arcane was mostly support and debuffing, wanted to change that.
Always (since IA V0 5-6 years ago) relied on 2 handed weapon masters, since has to change!
Never used a mage (even the mighty Necro) in hand-to-hand fighting, this has to change too!


Do I expect to finish an IA run wis this party?

My sincere answer is
SPOILER!

NO

My reasons to be pessimistic (think about yours berfore reading if you like):
SPOILER!

EDE is a No-no, if I ever reach this stage, will try nonetheless, for the sake of it.
Undeads will make my life miserable (no means to PFLD apart the 6 scrolls to be found and PFMW)
I might greatly suffer (nervously, in RL) from lack of divine while my mages cannot Wish or RVE
High level golems (above elemental, ie: "not sensitive to magic") might end my party violently (I might even not be able to join Pasha Mahmoud btw)
Some early game fights where fighting power is important might have to be postponed later, but if I cannot go to spellhold with my level at a maximum (just under improved spellhold limit that is) party will blatantly fail Asylum examination.
Dracolich
Saladrex

Reasons to be Optimistic:
SPOILER!

Necro and Nalia have nice items, with sorceresses I will have mid-late game a quasi infinite spell stock to cast
- early game can have support from some divine (anomen, Cernd, Viconia)
- Spell showers from 4 mage (offensive or defensive) with near infinite combination/stock
- 2 supreme fighters mid-late game
- no inventory/forging headache
- Hope for my enemies who cast greater or grave silence they have more than 2!
- Less fighters means I can use barbarian essence potions more often
- WIsh and RVE (from 3 casters including one Necro) might compensate lack of divine in some (hope many) circumstances

Here I go:


Start with my 2 Riskbreakers (from both Necro and Vagrant previous runs) and custom sorceress (the one I use pre-spellhold in Vagrant run)

Meet Mr Begone
Circus
leave for slums
leave for docks
kill necromancer (usually do that after being given instruction to to enter harper's hideout)
rest in tavern (to trigger Jaheira-ployer quest)
go back to slums
kill ployer and mage
pick Nalia
pick Anomen
go to waukeen promenade to buy scrolls for Nalia (spend 3400 gp, have ~250 left)
back to slums
scribe scrolls, rest
visit backroom
First fight soo easy (3 emotion, then sleeping slaver slaughter)
Beastmaster and Tabitha did not stood a chance
After a spell shower, pelts collected, necro hits level 10, one riskbreaker gets a nice +3 blunt weapon.
Leave for cemetery (just welhin quest and uncle zombie)
Suna Seni and co dispatched (good for money and scrolls), first reload there
sell in Copper Coronet
On my way to gate, second ambush
So docks and Montaron
Then Gov district
On way back to Waukeen slaver ambush
both RB hit level 9, sorceress level 10.
Temple district (start quests)
Bridge district
tanner quest
Gravediggers
clean derelict house
buy potion (6000 gp)
leave for D'Arnise keep (Nalia is whinning), clear outdoor, basement, stop at yuan-ti mage door first floor.
Leave for trademeet, Pick Cernd (Anomen tossed with relief)
Druid grove (close issue with Ithafeer, one RB had 2 hp left, other RB 7)
Druids at cave entry earned me another reload (because no raise dead spell nor scroll, and it is too expensive in temple!)
then collect rewards in trademeet
Finish skinner quest (that is apart contact in umar hills)
Go to umar hills, all outdoor quest, pick Ilbratha (RB anti-ADHW tool)
Join Valygar (tell Cernd to go to grove)
At this point hesitate between two destinations, Athkatla or Temple ruins..
Party level 9 (both RB and Valygar) , 10 (Nalia) and 11 (necro and sorceress). This seems a bit too light to enter temple (shadow jailor and skeletons lords deserve a bit more power, improved haste if no other)
Slums, open sphere, pick yoshimo (Valygar back to his cabin),
Go to Waukeen, upgrade horn of Valahla
Temple district sewers
kill troll for roger
Mekrath lab, yuan-ti and minotaur earn me 3 reloads
Ingenous Imp costed another reload (Imp once was lucky enough to save 7 emotion, no less!!!, this while being malisoned!!!!)
Free haerd'halis, His troup will have to wait a little bit more to be freed from astral prison.
collect viconia (instead of Yoshimo) in Cemetery.

start serious business now (ie: IA noticeably improved fights).

Mencar & co, 1 reload;

SPOILER!

opening malison (necro) + emotion (Nalia) + emotion (sorceress) + Greater command (Viconia)
Result: everybody down apart Mencar (classical dwarf saving throws pride show!)
then Riskbreakers, flame arrows and breach took care of Mencar.
Amon eventually woke up, resisted 4 emotion more and downed 2 riskbreakers.
5 th emotion downed him, his protection were expired, so breach and AA from sorceress killed him
Viconia precious with free action (one of my purposes for bringing her around here), one when necro stunned other for sorceress

So victory, but at a cost
stay in den of seven vales to resurrect and heal
Go to dock to forge ring +2 and cloak +2 (start building AC for RB!)
money depleted to less than 1000 gp

Wondering what to do next, trigger chapter 2 talking with Gaelan Bayle, pick Yoshimo then start Maevar guild quest.
Finish Maevar quest (and decline stronghold)
Start Unseeing eye
Realize that with my party, undead are (at least at my current level and gear) more than a formidable foe!
2 (failed) attempts to overcome vampiric mists in room before unseeing eye cultist lair convinced me.
(btw, walking south in that chamber does not trigger mists)

Finish quest, sell loot, start cleric stronghold first quest.

Party level 10/11, but no improved haste so far (nor 6th level spells), have to harvest a bit more xp to switch to "more serious matters"

So go to De Arnise keep.............
............Which revealed itself a house of pain for my party
SPOILER!

Vengeance trolls were horrible to deal with, even if I could isolate Yuan-ti mage
Keep viper extracted a huge toll from us
Greater yuan-ti was easy, whisper spider just a nightmare (something like 10 reloads because of this 8 legged horror)
Glacias without Improved Haste proved just too much, stopped at his door

Leave keep for the moment, will try to find another place where both RB can reach level 11

Not a lot of choice if I want to gain serious xp, I have to complete chapter 3 (and pay 15 000 gp to someone)

So I pay to SPOILER!

A dark women with a nice body....
Why this?
Because undead are a pain for my party (amulet of power cannot be worn by fighters), plus it has been RL years since I joined Bodhi, so I turn to the dark side of the force

after 1st quest both RB are level 11 and so benefit from improved haste
after 2nd quest, Necro is level 12, but I have yet to figure where on hell I found an improved haste scroll in my first Necro run!
after 3rd quest (and boat waiting), Nalia and sorceress also reach level 12, I choose CL for sorceress as 6th level pick.

With that firepower improvment life seems to offer many opportunities for my party.
Back to De' Arnise keep, Glaicas is executed, wisely decide to postpone Torgal SPOILER!

IIRC there is a dispel magic triggering when torga is wounded to some degree, I might be short on improved haste at this moment

Then back to city get Lilarcor
SPOILER!

Mages and Viconia took care of undead ambush, then party rested and had a glorious no-rest 4 acts display:
act 1: first rats neutralized by mages and cared for by RBs
act 2: shadow lower was biggest piece of meat, taken by RBs (who activated their IH here)
act 3: greater crawler taken by RBs under Free action (and IH from shadow lover fight at the beginning)
act 4: 2nd rats neutralized and electrified by mages

Straight from Lilarcor and a rest, slaver compound. I found my IH scroll!!!!! (and my first permanency scroll)
collect reward, sell loot
finish cleric 1st quest

Buy potions worth 30 000 gp to Roger the Fence

Go to temple ruins
Should have bought a PFMW scroll (if available in some shop that is) before. At least I found one in the dungeon (but alas after the ambushes)
Shadow Jailor and first ambush (no lich) taken one after the other (to save potions)
Leave Thax and shade lord for later
Clear Windspearhill outdoor
Enter dungeon, deal with 2 undead groups, think I will meet Rhuk later
Back to city to do TOD quest (nice one btw, astral guardian was tough)
Then Cemetery, enter underground, deal with 3 spiders bunch (RBs under potions of invulnerability are great!) and Paina outside guardians
Rest, Paina and her pet fell. Necro is now level 13!
Clean second level, Join temporary Korgan to do book quest then drop him.
Visit Crypt king and queen (after which, cemetery is cleaned up until chapter 6, return of the Bodhi and Orcus!)
King and Queen did not last long (riskbreakers, CLs and AAs)
Then bag of holding, though at "usual" party level (9-10-11) I do this fight my current party was crushed, at present level everything went smooth (RBs dispatched captain and pirates, once SI:div expired, mages took care of coordinator)
Nalia is now level 13, one more level to reach heaven (RRoR)!
Back to keep to finish torgal
One of my most miserable situation in IA ever (some 20 reloads, many precious potions exhausted)
A serious clue as for my party weakness in terms of tank numbers, maybe strange but the fact is here, with my previous parties (Necro and Vagrant), even though UH was turned by Torgal, I could take Torgal sooner and without too much pain thanks to the 3 fighters remaining.
One less fighter and life is changed...(and Torgal is immune/highly resistant to most spells I can cast here)
In order to suffer less, I decide to forge Phosphorous, which means planar prison

EBH
SPOILER!

I save my 2 RRoR scrolls for later, so had to wait for her SI: to vanish
4 planar hounds later, EBH lay dead, having downed 2 chars, one RB and sorceress
Scroll harvest (I did not use any SI or any magic shield during fight, just stoneskins and pfmw)
here, 3 mages made a difference, they kept EBH occupied while the two RBs could take care of planar hounds and EBH summons, come close to viconia when injured,...

Intendant
SPOILER!

Horrible
just horrible
thought to quit playing my party there...


Did not count reloads
In the end, separating intendant from yuan-ti and minotaurs was key (as was luck in saves and RB's critical strikes)

Reward was worth it, IH scroll (2nd I found so far) and 2nd +2 mace...

Let's forge now, pay 10 800 gp for Mauler's arm and get THE weapon!
Killed my first amber golem (no reload! seems an eternity since I had a serious fight no reload with that party) and finish cleric stronghold
Sell loot, collect rewards, buy spell sequencer and spell turning from barnard in CC (another 4600 gp gone!)
Enter Sphere
Enjoyed a lot Kayardi and party (though Nalia downed)
Lavok downed one RB, but was striped of all his magic clothes by 3 mages
after 2 reloads (bad start sequence, very small details like positionning and anticipating what enemy will do next matter a lot) Leal'y did not last long (nor skeleton lords), maurezhi claimed a RB. hilt of truth and DU scroll are mine!
Now engine room....

Potion stock seriously depleted, met just two groups of golems (third one never spawned), finish sphere, start mage stronghold.
Deal with Roenall false accusation against Nalia
Go to keep, then Temple ruins
THAX
SPOILER!

fell easy to party
No "cheesy" method here (see my vagrant run)
Thax fell sorceress with 3 Fod (at once raised by viconia), silenced Nalia
Necro and sorceress could debuff thax' PFMW as they were raised, kept Wyrm occupied (RRoRing SI, shield etc from mages) summoned skeleton
RBs took relay beating wyrm (ran to viconia couple of times to be restored)
Viconia ZoSA and heal

Before meeting Shade lord, need nalia and sorceress to level (no more RRoR scroll in inventory)
Back to trademeet, take founder (one RB with phosphorous is enough)
Kill darcin Cole and rune mages in umar hills
Back to city
collect dagger from apprentice
Temple district, sewer party:
Draug fea dead first round
Gallobchair then tarnor dead second round (and Gaïus is naked)
Reengard dead third round
Zorl dead fourth round
Gaïus fell just after (but downed one RB with trigger 3*CL)

Potion stock replenished, Mages level!
Raksasa next to us is killed (cloak sold to Roger)
Since we are around, get down to pick ashideena (poor spiders werre crunched in less than 2 rounds)
Screaming statue was interesting
SPOILER!

Choose right spells
undead fear lightning, not fire (though logic would be to use fire against them)
Sorceress had memorized limited wish as 7th level spell, so had 3 of them to PFLD party
RB used their inner IH at beginning of 2nd wave

Back to Firkraag's lair
Rhuk transmuter killed by RBs
start cleaning level 2 (golem ambushes, vampires, tomb mist, mask guardians)
leave to sell some loot before meeting digdag
On the mood to tackle shade lord, we go to temple ruin
Shade lord was never easier (though one RB was raised and healed during fight), lasted 6 rounds.
Collect reward
Join valygar to talk to squirrel
back to city
collect robe of the apprenti
Go to bridge district
Prime assassinators were tough for my party (I had to use one of my most precious and few invulnerability potions)
sell
forge ring +2, ring +3 and amulet of hades
Go to sphere, ceremony with apprentice, meet Merella, get scrolls
kill steam elemental prince (no big choice as how!)
Get jewel casket quest
Back to Firkraag lair, kill conster (always fun) and free Garen's child.
Forge ring +3, cloak +2 and ring of djinni summoning
Go to meet Umar, first time in V6 I have this fight pre-spellhokd, worth the try, difficult task (would rate it above sewer party)
SPOILER!

3 mages were precious here
On the arcane side:
first round RRoR * 3 on Umar
second round breach on umar, RRoR *2 on IMP
third round breach(es) on Umar and imp as soon as they PFMW
On the riskbreaker side
Round 1 till breach lands on Umar round 2: elimination of 2 skeleton lords then planetar then 1 minotaur wounded
then kill Umar
then kill imp
then various spawns (including 2 whispers summoned by imp before he died

Spoiler might (falsely) let you believe it is an easy fight, it is not, positionning is critical at the beginning, figuring correct order in which to kill enemie's and the right party buffs (PFME from sorceress on RBs before fight) took me some time
RBs innate 15th level abilities also most precious here

Then leave for spellhold

Party at this moment:

Necro / lvl 14 / MPV: gem golem
Nalia / lvl 14 / MPV: Unseeing eye
Sorceress / lvl 14 / MPV: gem golem
RB1 /lvl 15/ MPV: THAX
RB2 / lvl 15 / MPV: Amber golem
Viconia/ lvl 15 / MPV: Yuan-ti mage

Do all quests
Lady galvena was easy, perth fell to unbuffed party, I am starting to believe in this party potential!
Say goodbye to viconia
buy for 9000 gp potions and belt (+4 Ac against blunt) in temple
leave for asylum
forgot trolls, they ambushed unbuffed party, but fell (1rst fight without divine support, limited wish cure helped here)

Meet Imoen (change a bit her spellbook)
Mages level (all 4)
From now on, party works like that: 4 Girls rule magic, 2 boys rule battlefield.
Death means reload
Level drain can be tolerated up to my 5 scrolls of restoration
No more divine buffs for my RBs, have just 3 potion of invulnerability left. The wait for RBs to reach level 17 and Chain breaker Stance will be a painful one!

Sorceresses' spells are

Imoen, level 14
lvl1: Lmd, shield, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, blurr, Melf AA, agannazar sorcher, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, prot from cold, FA
lvl4:GM, II, stoneskin, RoF
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead
lvl6:CL, IH
lvl7:mordy


Sastacha (my custom sorceress), level 15
lvl1: Lmd, chromatic orb, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, invisibility, Melf AA, remove fear, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, LB, FA
lvl4: fireshield blue, emotion, stoneskin, RoF
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead, SI
lvl6:CL, PFME, PFMW
lvl7:RRoR, limited wish


Start examination
Yuan-ti and minotaurs did not last more time then the blink of an eye (though no buffs from party, committed an error, one rb went too far in the corridor and was spotted)
yuan-ti party after riddles ok
minor encounters no problems
golem bunch was at first try like an adamantine nut to crack (party utter obliteration), with a careful party positioning and use of spells, a very nice fight!
sidenote, I also try to "roleplay" my rests (ie: no 32 days of rest in a row), after a fight, I use limited wish and potions (if no more wishes) to have party rest less than a day.

climd up second level
eliminate umber hulks
Tome easy at first run
6 skeleton lords (tough bunch!!! earned me couple of reloads) and shade lich (poor poor little creature) finally done. Another great fight, difficult, every move counts, if only because I cannot afford a dead party member. So great to have 4 mages against a lich, one keeps lich occupied while 3 others can on the spot "prepare a fighter for lich", which consists for me to cast prot from fire, PFME and IH on a fighter. One less potion of invulnerability.

Cat and librarian was a wonderful fight (very biaised comment from me, I judge it wonderful because no reload)
SPOILER!

coin golem lasted 2 rounds to mages (6 ROF + 2 sequencer loaded each with 3 RoF)
cats taken by RBs and skeletons
Imoen summoned mordys at the end (from 8th live critical that is)
mage used SI and shield (necro) to keep librarian occupied
RB with FoA/phosphorous then took down 2 lords
RB with blade of roses/belm took greater werewolves
then PFME on RBs (useless in the end), other mage take some distance from librarian
after first PFMW expired, librarian died before any further action
did not use potion, which was not necessary

Glad to have now one renewable healing device (cat figurine)
Dace and his master put to eternal rest (at the cost of 2 scrolls of restoration)
Both RB level (next level they get the Holy Graal, Chain Breaker Stance)

Now Asylum Crystal Parade

SPOILER!

Preparation:
RBs: blur, one drinks a potion of storm giant strength
2 mordy and 1 minotaur summoned (all 3 protected from electricity)
warrior from horn and kitrix
everybody in party protected from electricity apart Nalia and Necro who have it as contingency: enemy sighted

positionning:
Necro stays in north anteroom with mordies and Minotaur
one RB north, other west (near guardians spawning point)
Nalia, Imoen and Sorceress in west corridor


round 1
each RB kills a guardian, one turns to medecin man, other to third guardian (south one) and kills it
Necro and Nalia sequencer 3*ROF on north Amber
Imoen and sorceress RoF on north Amber

round 2
Imoen, Necro and Nalia RoF on north amber
Sorceress summons skeleton
both RB on medecin man

round 3
Sorceress, Necro and Nalia RoF on north amber
Imoen, attacked by amber PFMW
ADHW from medecin man hurts RBs and Nalia
both RB kill medecin man

round 4
Sorceress, Necro and Imoen RoF on north amber
Nalia, attacked by amber PFMW
RBs drink oil of resurgence
Minotaur and one mordy still fighting

round 5
Minotaur and mordy dead
one amber dead
Necro and Nalia PFMW
sorceress summons skeleton
Imoen summons skeleton

round 6-7-8-9
one amber occupied by sorceress and 2 skeletons (it attacks sorceress who just casts protective spells; mirror image and stoneskins)
other is pounded by RBs (who retreat when protection too negative) and bombed by mages
RBs drink another oil of resurgence
Mages summon or RoF
At the end of round 9 Imoen kills second amber

round 10
Quick overview at beginning of round
amber barely wouded
Nalia has no more useful spells left, nor does Imoen


Necro has 1 RoF and 6 vampiric touch left
Sorceress 4 RoF, 4 animate dead and 4 limited Wish, she is my only serious weapon now!
one RB has -75 elec. resist, other 100
one skeleton, two minor skeleton (imoen level 14) and one criticaly wounded mordy left

So summons and RB attack amber, sorceress starts limited wish, Necro RoF

AARRRGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Limited Wish fails for summoning limit, and I just had 4 summoned creatures!!!
I do not want to fail like that! It is not fair!

round 11
both RB (now 100 elec resist) and summons attack amber
Sorceress RoF
Necro vampiric touch
other mages cast MM (just in case)

round 12
one RB retreats (-75 elec resist!!)
Sorceress summons skeleton (one has died)
Necro Vampiric touch
other mages MM

round 13
Sorceress limited Wish
Necro Vampiric touch
other RB retreats (-125 elec resist !!!!)

round 14
Sorceress RoF
Necro Vampiric touch
amber is critical

round 15
no more summons apart rabbits
One RB regains 100 elec resist and engages amber, kills it at first stroke!

Victory!

Now exit to level 3
yuant-ti, trolls and minotaurs killed
then collect pictures, open rooms and corridor, kill werewolve nest, stone golem
Imoen levels
kill 2 vampires and make Bodhi flee
kill another Minotaur quartet
open exit door
Necro levels after another Minotaur quartet
Gauth killed
Time to take my first rest since before crystal fight; nearly no more spells, and fights coming (3 golems in close room and dreadful Mithril one) are taxing ones to say the least!
Seriously think Mithril golem will be party first failure (because of death risk)

Coin golems went down smooooothly
Now time to think of something to do to tackle Mithril juggernaut
two failed attempt lead to that conclusion: summons have to be renewed fast, RBs have to be lucky (mithril always hits, potion of invulnerability or not)
bad bad thing I just have 3 oils of resurgence left (should have bought some more in Brynnlaw temple!)
Limited wish as healing is inconsistent (heals 20 hp only, long casting time), so just have cat figurine, oils and potions to survive.
And to make things worse, if needed, I still suffer from the "brought back to 4" monster summoning limit.
Mithril dispels on hit any mage protection, so no way to use them as protective wall

SPOILER!

Sometimes, solution comes unexpectedly easy when one focuses not on theory but on what has to be done. My former philosophy and analysis about this fight look now a bit ridiculous :

Sorceress summonned rabbit horde after rabbit horde (4 overall)
RBs took care to retreat when seriously wounded (and bleeding)
oils and IH compensate bleeding ok
some skeletons as fodder (being careful to have no more than 3) were other actions

One attempt was enough

overall, 2 reloads for Mithril is not that bad

forge 3 boots
leave for final examination
Meet Saemon, prepare for final fight (IIRC asylum scouts are immune to RoF, so have to be creative to down six of them with my party)
Lonk executed
Join with lunatics

everybody downstairs

We lost one RB and sorceress to PW kill
since soon will be temple, collect their bodies and gear, party now reduced to 4 elements
Meet saemon again, exit, loot irenicus chamber, resurrect in temple and buy potion + scroll of restoration for 18 000 gp, sell loot.

Party when leaving for sahuagin city

Mors (Necro) lvl 16 / MPV: Gem golem / 4% kill
Imoen lvl 15 / MPV: amber golem / 1% kill
Nalia lvl 16 / MPV: unseeing eye/ 3% kill
Sastacha (sorceress) lvl 16 / MPV: Gem golem / 6% kill
Druss (RB) lvl 16 /MPV: cat'o nine lives / dual wield belm/blade of roses or club +3 /25% kill
hurl (RB) lvl 16 / MPV: Thax / dual wield FoA/phosphorous / 58% kill

Both RBs close from Graal

after cruising, land in shark city
sahuagin test was a pain (5 reloads), bad luck with saves!
Get tooth, both RB level, Yeah! CBS!!!!
start sahuagin termination

Prince and sea viper was just a walk in the park (because party has 4 mages!)
Collect reward, climb down to underdark

After some illithids at entry, elementals and kuo-toa, Imoen levels (to 16)
Ponder what to do, choices are the 2 drow ambushes, beholder or illithid dungeon
Rest party, memorize spells and trigger/sequencer
Drow ambush near stairs easy (Necro had time to cast PFMW before being held by web), Drow mage victim of 2*RRoR + breach before mages held or knocked down, RBs under potion of free action managed rest of fight. Necro's PFMW expired just when RBs finished drows, they could down the 5 spiders before necro too severely hurt! (CBS helped more thant a bit in this fight).

Choice reduced to 3 options, choose easiest one IMO: beholder lair.
Lair cleaned, open a staircase which will someday lead party to a big challenge...
exit lair, rest party (think it is my first time in IA where drow ambush and beholder lair done without rest)

Choice reduced to 2 options, since I fear meeting with elemental golem, take drow ambush
Too bad both riskbreakers miss a couple Kxp to reach level 18!

SPOILER!

buff just blurr, IH and drink potion of free action on Riskbreakers, 2 skeletons and 2 mordies
round 1
ADHW from Imoen, Necro and nalia, sorceress trigger 3*CL
RBs activate CBS then beat on spider

round 2
One RB attacks drow priestess
Other RB one Ghost spider (other ghost has been killed)
Necro and Imoen ADHW, Nalia and sorceress CL
priestess dies, RB turns to fallen deva

round 3
Ghost dead, RB takes whisper spider
Imoen held by web
sorceress CL
Nalia RRoR one mage
Necro ADHW
Fallen deva dies, RB turns to drow warrior

round 4
One whisper dead, other beaten by RB
Necro held by web
Nalia RRoR drow mage
Sorceress RROR mage

round 5
No more enemies apart 2 drow mages and one (invisible for the moment) whisper spider
all party mages held by web
RBs kill one mage, then spider
imoen released from web, ADHW flies

round 6
CBS ends, drow mage PFMW
all party mage held by web
Drow summons mordy
RBs take mordy

round 7
RB kill mordy
Nalia save vs web, RRoR fly, then one breach from Imoen (who saved against web), drow mage dead

free imprisoned ones
Alchra Diagott was a pain (because I did not wanted to rest after drow ambush)
Was forced to rest, Alchra then fell to DU
visit Svirfneblin village
kill balor (easy)
RBs reach level 18! AC bonus and Risk Decrement, good for the spirit!

Enter kuo toa dungeon

Beholder and 2 gauth fall against unbuffed Riskbreakers (though both are seriously wounded)
Sorceress limited wishes 2 cures
First bunch of kuo-toa has misfortune to be the Risk Decrement testbed
Second bunch was hard (don't know why, but 5 reloads)
Elves on bridge easy
Time to rest (no more spells nor abilities)
Third bunch, tough again (lack of AC!!!) sorceress and Nalia level!
Rest again before Prince

buff party (blurr/IH for boys, SI:necromancy for girls)
One mordy, 2 elite trolls
Haste on top of that
Nice feature of such party (and a player such as me who has a tendancy to believe one more buff would be better than current situation) no need to waste long RL time and game rounds buffing.

Enter Prince room
SPOILER!

round 1
each RB CBS then take a duke
Necro and Nalia RRoR mage
Imoen breaches Priest
Sorceress trigger 3*CL

round 2
Necro held
one RB risk decrement (was hit by both dukes)
duke 1 dead
other RB RD (hit by planetar)
duke 2 dead
one RB on planetar, other on Kuo toa captain
Planetar and monitor killed by RB
Imoen and Nalia ADHW
Sorceress CL

round 3
Sorceress falls to emotion (or so I think)
one captain dead, RB turns to priest
Imoen breaches Prince
Nalia breaches mage

round 4
Captain dead
Priest dead
both RB on Prince
Imoen and Nalia FA on mage

round 5
Prince dead
mage dead

Now demon knights

Had many reloads here, not because fight lost, but because one or more char down.
Was quite fun, I enjoyed it, mission is to protect 4 frail girls from demon spell tornados
Winning required some luck in having the possibility to find a quiet place for the girls

SPOILER!

buffs same as previous, apart girls who erect SI, spell turning, fire shields,... to distract demon knights (or so I hope)
PFME on everybody (ADHW hurts!)
of cours 3 skeletons summoned (kitrix sacrified)

round 1
positionning does not let me a lot of choice
one RB takes east demon, other south west
south west demon gets a skeleton
north and east demons both one skeleton
sorceress (near north demon) summons skeleton
necro takes double RRoR
sorceress one RRoR
necro spell turning
Nalia PFMW
Imoen PFMW

round 2
Nalia and Imoen try to stay safe west (where demon appeared)
south west one demon falls and RB takes the other (with skeleton)
other RB finishes (with RD) east demon
demon that was west is now in the middle of the room taken by RB who just killed east demon and one skeleton
north demon is occupied by one skeleton
Necro is stuck east, does not move for fear to take more than one trigger/sequencer/contingency

other three mages in western alcove trying to hide, sorceress with 4 hp left!


round 3
Demons cast RRoR on Necro, sorceress and nalia, all renew SI:abj
Imoen keeps aura cleansed
One wouded and one critical demon

round 4
Bad dice rolls from RBs
South RB is dispelled, has to renew IH
mages renew SI or spell turning

round 5
One demon (south) killed
both RB tank the same demon that dies
sorceress limited wishes healing


round 6
CBS end for both RB
2 demons to go
need a safe heaven for my mages!!!
RBs focuse on south demon, skeletons on north one
mage renew protection (while demon RRoR, it does not do something nastier)

round 7
south demon dies, mages rush south
RBs run north

round 8
victory!
2 skeletons ou of 3 summoned still standing

Many reloads, but each of them brought some satisfaction, if only the lively aspect to have mages running around protecting them as best as possible while not having enough tanks to engage more than 2 enemies at a time.

Once again, enjoyed it!

Buy a tremendously overpriced scroll of freedom
Kill Vital

Rest party

Enter illithid lair
Clean all, faster than I ever did. Mad dwarf replenishes potion stock.
2 Riskbreakers do represent a tremendous fighting power!

Big brain

My, my, that was a fight!
many attempts before finding the way to overcome this fight
did not take round per round, not that interesting

SPOILER!

after many failed attempts, buffs that were necessary:
party drank brine potions (protects against psionic blast hazards)
I used CC from limited wish, summon 3 elite trolls
PFE on the 2 riskbreakers
all sequencer and trigger loaded with RoF
cast giant strength on Nalia, Imoen and Necro with +3 staffs (to tank brain golem)

on entering, neutralize as fast as possible illithid and ulitharid, try not to have both RB purged

once purge lands, re-buff RB (potion + mage)

Then pound with everything you have elemental, RoF from mages, CBS from RBs

once elemental down, life is easy, just beware of purge when a mage is fighting a golem

also used my 2 last potions of invulnerability here

still, with my party elemental lasted over CBS' 5 rounds

Oh, Risk decrement is goood against brain golems

Exit, rest, meet adalon, enter drow city.

Get first mission (free matron)
Meet Boz and his gang
back to city, promise amariel to save her brother, recover a brain, challenge then rest (without extra pilows) in tavern.
take second quest (kill beholder)
third quest (helmet), on my way exterminate gythianki traitors.
Solaufein business
Upon entering temple, Imoen and Necro level
Exit, meet Visaj and get rope from him
eliminate Ghaunadaurians
frere slaves, rep is 20
sell and buy (for 40 000 gp, potions and a staff....)
Enter Deireix tower
RBs made short work of lich and lords
meet Jarlaxle
Let him live
Necro reaches level 18, choose planetar (planetar cast raise dead, heal, etc...and are quite good at fighting)

House Jae'llat (another fight I love, Risk Decrement is just poetry in this place, and a duo of risk decrement....)
Sell loot
On my way to temple, remember there is a second floor in Deireix tower
Noble Efreeti never fell so fast
SPOILER!

RB protected from fire
RRoR RRoR breach trigger 3*lower resist first round
then trigger 3*CL + 4 sequencer 3*AA + AAs....

Enter temple
give elder orb eye (sold other 2 artefacts)
Sorceress and Nalia level

Of eggs and bitches

Give eggs back to adalon
both RB level
before taking a lift to the surface, party will go deeper in the darkness to challenge the mighty one

start wandering in the maze
entry room
bone devils
empty room
deep shadow
empty room
empty room
deep shadow
empty room
entry roomempty room (former bone devil)
empty room
whisper spiders, easy (thank you planetar)
empty room
skeleton lord
Ghost spider and escort (a raise dead scroll in loot! never noticed that)
entry room
empty room
empty room
empty room (former spiders)
empty room
skeleton lord
another spider
Neo otyughs !!! notice a locked door here, have to find wardstone
empty room
a guardian and his helper did not survive till end of second round
empty room
deep shadow
entry room
empty room
empty room
ferocious deep shadows defended a wardstone, fell one RB (used planetar to raise)
cross again some rooms
stay in front of locked door
rest (5 otyughs interrupted camp, 6th attempt at sleep was good)
use maze sigil


SPOILER!

without planetar, so necro level 18, fight would have been impossible (or 150 reloads)

This fight took many reloads, but not as much as I had with first IA V6 party (see necro run journal)

Since fight is long, did not take round per round notes (did that already, takes too much RL, including reloads and so notes for nothing)

basically, the tips that made it (and of course luck, especially when saving wail)

mages have to stay back (out of dracolich LOS) under SI:Necromancy, or they are dead. As simple as that.

Leaves only RBs and summons to fight wyrm

Necro can provide twice in the fight a planetar who can restore, resurrect and heal (and fight, but not the highest priority for deva here)
Sorceress provides PFLD from limited wish (helps a lot against DRacolich breath)

summons that work quite good: skeletons and mordy, I had plenty of those with my mages here

Buffs for RBs: oil of resurgence, prot from acid (memorized some, I had 6 overall between Necro and Nalia, this for Wyrm's clouds), IH from Imoen (save RBs innate for as late as possible)

3 "eras" in this fight

first era = first two rounds:

round 1
one RB advances to meet dracolich, Necro and Imoen IH and prot from acid on other RB, sorceress trigger 3 skeleton, Nalia summon one skeleton

round 2
all mages SI:necromancy, RBs drink oil, dracolich met, attack begins

second era = many (do not spoil how many) rounds till dracolich has no more PFMWs

Both RBs take relay with summons (renewed from afar by mages)
once RB down, Necro summons deva, deva resurrects RB, mage rebuff RB and send him back to fight
keep deva back, it has 2 raise dead!
in my victorious attempt, was lucky enough to have Each Deva resurrect twice a RB (total of 4)
used both CBS and RD from the 2 RBs during that time


third era =PFMW expired from dracolich
at that time, dracolich has no more spells, but her dreadful breath (so sorceress uses limited wish), Mordys quite efficient, and pray for no chunk by level drain!


All in all, second era is by far the most difficult time, Dracolich has many spells to destroy party (once lost because could not revive a RB fallen to emotion)

Exit underdark
Meet elves
Want to get some more experience before meeting Kruin, so wander a bit
Clean Small Teeth Pass, north Forest (undeads!!!)
Enter Forest of Tethyr, start cleaning area, enter a cave, step on a trap. When Party exits cave, meet....SPOILER!

Kruin

Taken by surprise and low on spells, party is crushed.
Reload and prepare

SPOILER!

Not that difficult, one more reload (chunk by comet)
Deva and elite troll most precious
kruin has PW kill, so raised once (Imoen)

this fight was easier than I remembered (and my levels are lower than previous runs)

Et voilà!

Finish cleaning area, leave for city, meet Drizzt.
Arrive in docks, sell a lot
Forge indigo ioun stone, cloak +2, cloak +3,ring +2, ring +4

Bridge district, kill a lich
Temple District, down in the sewer, kill a lich. Then go back to unseeing eye lair, meet Teshal
SPOILER!

enter buffed with pfmw on
rush, kill ghouls

meet teshal, lich and skeletons
round 1
RB with phosphorous CBS then takes grandlord (teshal's one)
other RB Teshal
Necro summons planetar
Sorceress summons elite troll (and had 3 in CC)
Nalia breaches teshal
Imoen Wishes (PFME on party)

round 2
Necro DU on warlord
Sorceress DB
Imoen wishes 25 stats
Nalia DU on warlord
RB Risk Decrement kills grandlord (and wound other skull faces) then turns to teshal
teshal dead
RBs turn to nearest warlord and bone devil

round 3
2 warlords dead (RB and DU)
RB attacks grandlord
other RB Risk decrement to soften the meat
Nalia Pfmw
Necro pfMW
Imoen PFMW
Sorceress PFMW

round 4
Grandlord dead, one more to go
Necro and sorceress RRoR lich
Imoen Wishes for potion
Rbs kill other grandlord
Planetar kills fallen planetar
RBs terminate minor enemies

round 5
alone with lich
Necro and Sorceress prot from fire and PFME one one RB
Imoen mordy
Nalia DU on lich

round 6
CBS expires
Necro and sorceress prepare another RB
lich dispels magic, RB retreats
other RB (not touch by dispel) advances

round 7
lich hurt, CC 3*ADHW flies on Nalia who mirror image at once
DU from Necro

round 8
lich dies

Necro levels
No wonderful loot on teshal, but the scroll I came for (freedom)

Use a key I found long ago
Robe of Vecna and scroll of wish! boneblade +4 !

enter last room
5 reloads here, luck (wishes, hit rolls) had its part

SPOILER!

round 1
Buff + summon planetar, planetar true seeing
Imoen takes first purge then pfmw
Nalia, Necro and sorceress dragon breath on Alhoon, ALhoon dead
RBS activate CBS
RBs on greater

round 2
coin golem gates
all other mages RoF on coin golem
RBs Risk Decrement (to damage Greater as much as possible)

round 3
mages bomb-RoF coin that dies
RBs on greater

round 4
Gem golem appears
Imoen Wish make as if rested (very very good!, winner here IMHO because allowed RB to re-protect with hardiness and CBS)
mages ROF

round 5
purge from greater
RBs Hardiness
Mages summon and Rof

round 6
Necro and imoen IH RBs
Nalia RoF
Sorceress elite troll
RBs CBS

round 7
one gem golem down
Sorceress summons elite troll
Imoen Wishes (half hp on self!!!)

round 8
same as previous

round 9
purge frome greater (greater is critical)
on purge one RB goes down
Other RB activates IH
Imoen wishes 25 stat
Planetar casts raise dead


round 10
2 coin, one gem and greater
RB raised, uses cat figurine while Imoen IH
sorceress summons troll, Nalia skeleton

round 11
Greater falls at last!
hands uo undoing and RBs took care of the rest

Most splendid loot (hammer, ring of air control, scroll spell trigger)

Now forging of course
Crom Faer
Memory of The Apprenti
ring + 2
Soon a very unpleasant person might be around here (Limak)....

Now another philisophical moment, how can one protect Riskbreakers from imprisonment without a death ward?
Another input data: there is no way to avoid the un-avoidable
conclusion: live with it and act!

SPOILER!

Enter Kangaxx lair
+4 (or greater weapons): phosphorous, crom, boneblade and sling of everard
don't think mages can hit a demi lich (Thac0!)

lich form executed

demi lich form:
well, each time kangaxx cast imprisonment, Necro answered by freedom
4 freedoms later, Gaxx fell (I had one more)

Et voilà (again)

A grave Lich in gate district fell (good loot)
Sorceress and Nalia level

Have left to do in city
- slaver compound
- bodhi
- Orcus
- twisted rune
- hard nut to crack
- Merella's quests and old ones....

Or have to leave for wilderness..

party right now:

Mors (Necro) lvl 19 /MPV: Gem golem /weapons: boneblade/gear: Memory of the apprenti, scholastic cloak, boots of the north, ring of acuity, amulet of hades, ring of the ram
Hurl (RB) lvl 21 /MPV: Dracolich /weapons: (mh) FoA, ilbrata, (oh) Phosphorous /gear: ring +4, ring of Gaxx, cloak +2, amulet +1, boots of speed, belt of bluntness
Druss (RB) lvl 21/MPV: Elemental golem /weapons: (mh)Crom faer, blade of roses, club+3, frostreaver (oh) Belm/gear: indigo ioun stone, ring+2, ring +2, cloak +3, boots of grounding, amulet +1, belt of bluntness
Nalia lvl 19 /MPV: Unseeing eye /weapons: short bow +1 martial staff +3 /gear: ring +2, Nalia's ring, cloak +2, amulet spell protection, robe cold resist, belt of hill giant strength
Imoen lvl 18 /MPV: Amber golem /weapons: sling of Everard, cleric staff +3 /gear: cloak+2, ring +1, ring +1, robe cold resist, fetish of life (+3 save vs death)
Imoen's spells:
lvl1: Lmd, shield, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, blurr, Melf AA, agannazar sorcher, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, prot from cold, FA
lvl4:GM, II, stoneskin, RoF
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead, SI
lvl6:CL, IH, pfmw
lvl7:mordy, HoU, sequencer
lvl8: spell trigger, ADHW
lvl9: WISH
HLAs: Alacrity
Sastacha (sorceress) lvl 19 /MPV: Gem golem /weapons: sling of arvoreen /gear: ring +1, ring +1, cloak +1, robe of elec resist, bracers AC 4, amulet +1
Sastacha's spells
lvl1: Lmd, chromatic orb, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, invisibility, Melf AA, remove fear, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, LB, FA
lvl4: fireshield blue, emotion, stoneskin, RoF
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead, SI
lvl6:CL, PFME, PFMW
lvl7:RRoR, limited wish, sequencer
lvl8: spell trigger, ADHW, MSVI
lvl9: CC, RVE
HLAs: DB, Energy blades

Choose to finish hard nut before wandering

entered sealed house
Very tough fight for my party
RVE and Wish winners here
order of taking down enemies important:
Dracandros (real danger here)
Pitre
Falahar
Prime assassinator
Prime assassinator (once breached prime do not last long)
Exterminator
Valeria


Next join Jaheira for a few hours (leave Nalia on Bridge)
After Jaheira talks, reform party
sell all that is not necessary to forge improved cat figurine
371 gp left!

Leave city
My final destination is a red WYrm's lair, but I have places to visit before.
Go to keep to check whether everything is right, everything is not right, have two frauds executed
rest
Leave for druid grove
Troll mound;
Vengeance trolls downed Nalia, Imoen and Sorceress!
They are too powerful!
Collect loot (average, have seen better picks, but I like randomization a lot!)

Party goes to druid grove nearby to take a rest
Spirit gives a quest
Since I do not want to join temporary Cernd, will try to fight it with weapons!
Discover a nice spell versus Chaos apart THE druid spell, sorceress claims its scalp (with noticeable help from RBs)
get a gong

Forgot To visit another couple of places before Mr Kraag
Re-enter underdark
Re-enter a temple
On my way to umar, ambushed by false merchants, then messenger from the keep (Dykes problem)
Rest in Umar hills
Leave for Windspear
Enter dungeon

Wind master
SPOILER!

lasted less than 3 rounds
round 1: 2 triggers with 3*lower resist, then trigger and one sequencer with 3*FA
round 2: 2 sequencer 3*AA 1 sequencer 3*FA one minor sequencer 2*AA
round 3: dead
(RBs were pounding under no buff apart IH)
Forgot to protect against lightning!!

Samia and party
Since my method used with vagrant party might not work here (too few fighters), brute force will have to do.
Heavy fighting (DB, riskbreakers) took care of everything apart Kaol in a few rounds (3 to take humans, 2 for skeletons)
after, when alone with kaol, just pray for your save against comet-chunking
3 reloads
Kaol downed Imoen, sorceress and one RB
Second scroll of spell trigger in loot (for Nalia)

Firkraag
SPOILER!

Sorceress and Imoen got silenced performing trigger 3*lower resist
RBs took care of Warlords (With Imoen and sorceress until stoneskins off), Wyrm was acidified and electrified by Necro and Nalia
Three undead waves later wyrm was killed by necro

Tell Garren Wyrm is dead
Heading to Radiant heart
paladin duty 1 done
when coming back from paladin duty 2, summoned to keep because Roenall attacks
Bad! party is quite low level (no critical strike yet)
so
SPOILER!

just focuse the 2 RBs on lord Roenall, two well placed RD and breaches, Roenall dead, rest of the troup vanish
no big loot, but victory

When given 3rd paladin quest, just realize Limak is waiting for me!
fortunately, I never enforced magic rules in city, so just get a warning
The guy was not a problem (even if he downed Nalia and sorceress during fight)
no luck with with RVE though, 2 grandlords, agility and cure disease!
Protection from cold quite nice here

Finish paladin stronghold (vanilla that is)
so all stronghold finished (theater is so booring, long, expensive I do not finish it, though I like turnish fight very much)
Give gong back
Sell, forge ring+2, ring +3

Head to Cemetery
dispatch group of eminent (though they drain party, Planetar helps)
downstairs serious business, paladin come to help was killed (charmed while DB flying), poor guy
After that have to rest, twice a skeleton lord interrupts us

party before Meeting Bodhi:

Mors (Necro) lvl 20 /MPV: Firkraag (yeah!)
Hurl (RB) lvl 22 /MPV: Dracolich
Druss (RB) lvl 22/MPV: Limak The Mastermind
Nalia lvl 20 /MPV: Unseeing eye
Imoen lvl 19 /MPV: Amber golem
Sastacha (sorceress) lvl 20 /MPV: Chaos

Bodhi met and killed
Sastacha and Nalia level

Visit sphere (long time)
pick some scrolls

Exit town to find a beggar near a tent
When back in town, party summoned by Lady vania

Back to sphere, why is it so cold? (I do not like this fight!)
Some golems less later, talk again with Marvella

Join Pasha to my cause after a tough fight
SPOILER!

have DB and RD to separate enemies from pasha to allow him to live (I cannot cure him apart heal from Planetar)
Mages loaded wit RoF (seq and triggerrs) and RBs took down elemental fast
then Noble rak
Horrid Rak
(meanwhile Imoen had a lucky wish PFME on party)
all mages under alacrity (apart Nalia)
once Noble rak is down, things are easy
3 reloads

Will not rest again in sphere before more levels!
forge quarter staff +3 and staff of strength

Amongst inventory, 8 barbarian essences and 5 scrolls of protection from level drain

Orcus

SPOILER!

of course everybody pfld
buffs (protection)
4 barb for each RB (+ drink oils of resurgence)

round 0-1 (from entry till Grandlords spawn)
Necro and Nalia PFMW
RB open the dance with 2 Risk decrement
Each RB goes for 1 grandlord
CCs triggers:
sorceress PFMW/limited wish (invulnerability)/MS VI
Necro MS VI/MS VI /MS VI
Imoen foreknowledge/ mordy/PFMW

round 2
Necro alacrity then DU
two grandlord down (crom !)
3 mages silenced

round 3
Necro Alacrity, DUs (kills grandlord alone)
3 grandlords down

round 4
2 grandlords down
Necro PFMW

Necro (under alacrity) DU, DU,
Vampires spawn
Hurl Sunray from daystar (vampires do not like)
Necro 7*sunfire, pfmw, 8 FA, 9 AA, 8 MM
just one critical eminent and 2 master vampire left at the end of Necro display
Sorceress charmed
one grandlord goes down

round 5
eminent down
Necro DU on grandlord
One RB takes master vampire
another grandlord down
both RB on master vampire
one master dead

round 6
both RB on master vampire
necro casts giant strengt on self and attacks grandlord

round 7
skeleton lords appear
grandlord dead (one more to go)
RBs and necro on lords (better reduce number of enemies)

round 8
lords down sorceress
3 lords down

round 9
RBs and Necro on Grandlord
other on lords

round 10
grandlord dead, alone with Orcus

round 11
Skeleton lords appear
Necro Alacrity then MS VI (2)

round 12
necro (under alacrity) rebuffs then MS VI (2) and planetar
all lords eliminated
Planetar resurrects sorceress

round 13
Planetar heals sorceress

round 14
silence expires
both RB hardiness
lords gate
Mages pfmw


round 15
no more lords
sorceress MS VII


round 16+
pounding Orcus, waiting for his pfmw to expire
CC 3*FoD downded sorceress again (so planetar...)
mage renew summons
patiently wait
necro with staff of striking and under giant stregth pounds demon

And voilà!

One RB levels
Sell a lot (even some scrolls than can be useful) to forge Lord of the Underworld

Party righ now:
Mors (Necro) lvl 20 /MPV: Bodhi
Hurl (RB) lvl 22 /MPV: Orcus
Druss (RB) lvl 23/MPV: Limak The Mastermind
Nalia lvl 20 /MPV: Unseeing eye
Imoen lvl 19 /MPV: Amber golem
Sastacha (sorceress) lvl 20 /MPV: Elemental golem

Mages do have fighting potential!

Now figuring next stop:

Have left to do in city
- slaver compound (Tired of golems right now)
- twisted rune (challenge!)
- Mystery of the old ones (definitly too early)
- fry cowled wizards (can be done anyway)

Have left outside:
elven city (challenging)
Assassin hideout (easy)
WK (too classical)

Two groups of cowled wizard fried


So we enter

Guarded compound, because I need some xp to level Imoen and one RB. Once this is done, will have a try at something more "crunchy".
First floor cleaned
Mages cast CCs
one RVE (regen) and Wish (25 stat) on top of that
Second floor
SPOILER!

first round
Sorceress RVE (regen) , CC is 3*ADHW on hit
Necro Alacrity (failed) CC true seeing/foreknowledge/pfmw
Imoen Wish (failed) CC 3*mordy
wait for purge
Nalia Pfmw (has no CC)
RBs hardiness then both hit ketta


round 2
sorceress pfmw
Nalia DB
Necro alacrity (failed)
Imoen pfmw
one RB Risk decrement (to clear a bit enemies blocking us on top of stairs)
other rB tries IH and fails
ketta dead

round 3
one skeleton lord dead
other RB risk decrements
Necro puts some distance and DB
Nalia downed by trap (and storm)
Imoen fails pfmw again
RB fails IH

round 4
Necro RRoR sion
RB IH at last!
other RB fails IH
Imoen casts IH on RB
sorceress RRoR on Sion (failed)

round 5
gem golem and skeleton lord downed
one RB on Koshi
Sorceress breches Stalman
other RB attacks stalman
Imoen breaches Koshi
Necro pfmw

round 6
koshi dead, RB attacks Maferan
Imoen starts breach on Maferan
Sorceress RRoR Sion
Necro MS VI


round 7
stalman dead, RB turns to coin golem with cutthroat/phosphorous
Sorceress poisoned by assassin fails spell (breach on sion) and escapes
Necro breaches Sion
Imoen DB (to avoid assassin killing sorceress)
Sion SI
Maferan dead, RB turns to Olaf Rasmunssen

round 8
necro RRoR sion
another assassin poisons sorceress
Imoen breaches Olaf
Olaf dead, RB turns to Sion

round 9
Necro breaches Sion
Sion dead
Coin golem dead

Necro summons planetar to raise Nalia
Imoen and RB have levelled!
Cast Imoen's last level 9 spell, Wish for IH on party (so think I will postpone corridor for later)
Rest in temple
Frustration lead party to fry another cowled wizard patrol
Frustration comes from the fact Party wants to head for Twisted rune, but there still is this "corridor" guest lurking around.

Party rests in temple.
Cannot cast CC beacause of the 24 hours limit (and don't want to rest just for that!)
load triggers and Sequencers with RoF

just one purge
basically RBs and yuan-ti took care of Greater
mages were eliminating summons as they appeared (when greater down, one coin and one amber, overall 2 gem, 2 ambers and one coin)
Necro levels

Jhor the bleeder!!!!!, staff of Rynn!!!!!

Now heading to a lair of great evil

SPOILER!

Did many tries
could drop shyressa, revanek and layenne (without her unleashing her spell book)

next, shangalar drops stellar gravestones and vaxall has his f....cking rays, party obliterated

I once could manage to down shangalar, but party was reduced to 3 mages against Vaxall. Mages fought till the end, in the end Vaxall prevail.



Here I pay dearly not having one or two more pure fighters and ... not having greater djinni!

this is clearly a stop at this level

Out of anger, Fry another group of cowled Wizards
Rest
Fry Zallanora & co

Out of city, back to windspear, clean assassin lair
Report back to Lady Vania
Forge staff +3 and golem slayer

Out of imagination, go to WK.

First two floors cleaned no problem

Third level:

Mors (Necro) and Green wyrm
SPOILER!

Fight lasted less than two rounds
MOrs talks then
Alacrity
spellstrike
breach
trigger lower resist*3
lower resist (no need to be a miser!)
DB *5
FA*11
sequencer 3*FA
wait for db to land
Wyrm dead

Meanwhile green wyrm cast:
- RRoR
- Storm of vengeance
- trigger stoneskin/pfme/pfmw (just before dying)

Necro claims her second dragon (this one alone)

Tell planetar to heal Yakman, then leave dungeon, maze will wait a bit

Forge ring of greater djinni and thetruth, FoA +4 at Keep.

Fullfill Lady Vania second duty

party right now:

Mors (Necro) lvl 22 /MPV: Green Wyrm /weapons: golem slayer/gear: Memory of the apprenti, scholastic cloak, boots of the north, ring of acuity, lord of the underworld, ring of greater djinni
Hurl (RB) lvl 24 /MPV: Orcus /weapons: (mh) FoA +4, ilbrata,cutthroat, daystar (oh) Phosphorous /gear: ring +4, ring of Gaxx, cloak +2, amulet +1, boots of speed, belt of bluntness, crimson ioun stone
Druss (RB) lvl 24/MPV: Limak the mastermind /weapons: (mh) thetruth, short sword +3 (oh) Crom faer/gear: indigo ioun stone, ring+2, ring +2, cloak +3, boots of grounding, amulet +1, belt of bluntness
Nalia lvl 21 /MPV: Unseeing eye /weapons: short bow +1 martial staff +3 /gear: ring +2, Nalia's ring, cloak +2, amulet spell protection, robe cold resist, belt of hill giant strength
Imoen lvl 21 /MPV: Elemental golem /weapons: sling of Everard, staff of stregth /gear: cloak+2, ring +1, ring +1, robe cold resist, fetish of life (+3 save vs death)
Imoen's spells:
lvl1: Lmd, shield, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, blurr, Melf AA, agannazar sorcher, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, prot from cold, FA
lvl4:GM, II, stoneskin, RoF
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead, SI
lvl6:CL, IH, pfmw, GOI
lvl7:mordy, HoU, sequencer
lvl8: spell trigger, ADHW
lvl9: WISH, CC, Timestop
HLAs: Alacrity, DB, energy blades, planetar
Sastacha (sorceress) lvl 21 /MPV: Elemental golem /weapons: staff of Rynn +4 /gear: ring +1, ring +1, cloak +1, robe of elec resist, bracers AC 4, amulet +1
Sastacha's spells
lvl1: Lmd, chromatic orb, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, invisibility, Melf AA, remove fear, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, LB, FA
lvl4: fireshield blue, emotion, stoneskin, RoF
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead, SI
lvl6:CL, PFME, PFMW, GOI
lvl7:RRoR, limited wish, sequencer
lvl8: spell trigger, ADHW, MSVI
lvl9: CC, RVE, MS VII
HLAs: DB, Energy blades, alacrity, planetar



Not a lot of choice as what to do next:
- twisted rune
- old ones
- back to Keep
- elven city

In the mood to wander WK maze
Stop at level 4
Forge Nalia's Ring
Now party can cast 24 level 9 spells per day! (Nursing was sometimes difficult, but now worth the price!)

Too bad I have no more money left, visit to WK provided me with many items for many nice recipes (Girdle of lordly might, Noble spider, DoTC, Talisman of greater protection, Rimed club, Adamantite staff of strength)
May be I forged too many rings and cloaks too soon (No I didn't, they were precious for my Riskbreakers!)

Will now test old ones
Back to sphere

This time, I do not intend to have Necro attacking graves, will try to be a more active support in helping old one destroying those grave horrors since he has much more (improved) power than me.

First step Necro has to avoid undead asteroïds
SPOILER!

I always begin the only way I found preventing stellar gravestone shower on self:

round1:
CC foreknowledge/GOI/spell turning
contingency pfmw (otherwise graves hurts)
sequencer prot from fire/stoneskin/fireshield red

round 2
SI:Necromancy

round 3
Alacrity

then open to "creativity

Next help old one destroying grave liches

SPOILER!

round 3-4
Necro:
(from alacrity cast)
pfmw SI:Necromancy, spell shield, prot from fire, RRoR*2 on each grave, planetar, pfme, prot from fire on planetar, resist fear, spell turning

round 5-6
Necro Alacrity
Old one has finished one grave
Necro Pierce shield one grave (that renewed SI:necro), DU, DU, SI:Necro (peeled by grave),
Necro is stunned by lich!!!!

round 6
Deva heals Necro
Old one kills second lich

round 7,8
Old one, lich and Planetar fight

round 9
planetar panicked
Necro awakes and trigger pfme/pfmw/giant strength
Grave seriously wounded (CC 3*ADHW)
Necro is stunned !!!

round 10
Old one damages lich again
Lich wounds Necro

round 11
planetar panicked no more!!!
Necro seriously wounded

round 12
planetar heals Necro
old ones finishes job

Fun, was quite original compared to my first two runs....

Tell Morid to research a new spell

Exit sphere
Sell
Forge Girdle of lordly might
613 gp left!

To let time flow while Morid is forging, finish WK level 4 (apart Supreme for the moment), had illithid lair and a Golem family left there

Back to sphere,
Necro writes THE spell

Will have to wait a little bit more to allow Morid further research


Party righ now:
Mors (Necro) lvl 23 /MPV: Green Wyrm
Hurl (RB) lvl 25 /MPV: Orcus
Druss (RB) lvl 26/MPV: Limak The Mastermind
Nalia lvl 22 /MPV: Unseeing eye
Imoen lvl 22 /MPV: Elemental Golem
Sastacha (sorceress) lvl 22 /MPV: Elemental golem


Preparing for twisted run in Delosar inn, discovered something funny (and new at least for me in IA). Do not read if you want some surprise.
(spoiler has nothing to do with Twisted rune)
SPOILER!

All my mage have CC apart Nalia (did not find scroll, expensive to buy)

Not remebering how limited Wish worked, I figured I could memorize it and use the CC from it (CC I already used sooner in the game with sorceress IIRC)


Well, genie did not allow me CC (which is fair IMO), so I choose among renewable wish, randomly protection from evil on party, and....


6 vampire brides appeared!!!!

nice

Now use rogue stone
Enter lair

buffs IH hardiness and CBS on Rs (one used last pfld scroll)
mage stoneskin
3 yuan-tis, skeleton lord and greater djinni
talk to shangalar, attack

Below, scenario that could be named "Once upon a time in Twisted Rune"
Duel between Layenne and Mors (Necro)
SPOILER!

As soon as talk with shangalar over, necro runs north-west, against the wall, in Layenne's LOS but out of Vaxall. Once wall reached, Necro starts alacrity (be quick with spacebar!)

Necro has CC: foreknowledge/spell turning/true seeing
and Contingency pfmw (important, else shyressa might attack and interrupt)

Mors: starts alacrity
Layenne: buffs rise
....some heartbeats later....
M: alacrity is on
M: RRoR failed because Layenne invisible (this depends on timing reaching wall)
M: oracle (not necessary if Layenne not invisible), wait one second for Layenne to re-appear
.... Layenne visible .....
M: RRoR *3, breach, FA*5, AA*8 Layenne near death, wait (no need to cast further spells, she will not die right now!)
...Layenne invisible....
Layenne AI (under invisibility)
....Layenne visible....
M: breach
Layenne: Wish "make as if rested", she is returned to normal status
M: GM, DB*5, wait for DB to land...
...Layenne dead....

Meanwhile Shyressa and Revanek killed by RBs

Party now facing the uglys

RBs killed VAxall
Mors and imoen killed Shangalar

Compared to earlier crushing, have to notice that levels and greater Djinni more, and Twisted rune was easy.

Just wonder whether Nalia or Necro should scribe new found MS VII scroll
Now no choice, have to go visit a city in the trees (need something to start time machine)

City of golems and raksasas
22 golems (among which a greater elemental one) and 14 raksasas later have just left a black dragon lair to visit.

Since Necro owns a timestop scroll, return to sphere

Wait 3 days for time machine research hanging around in sphere
3 more days for woodden key
Give Morid mission to forge gold key while going back to elven city

Ready for Nizidramanii'yt the black

SPOILER!

Though no spell could harm nizi (MM, AA, VT, ADHW, FoD), Wyrm did not survive Necro's first alacrity (Spellstrike then 5 breaches made all RB blows land true

Then Yuan-ti (again), Djinni, skel lord, elite trolls helped tanking Hardwoods

No reload

open palace
Sell loot collected in Suldanessellar
Leave city (now returned to elves) for Athkatla
forge bastard sword +3, DoTC and talisman of greater protection

Spend 6 days in sphere to have Morid forge another key and a batch of barbarian essence
Leave him forging another key

To spend time, back to WK to test Supreme leader (have nothing else to do apart going to hell)

SPOILER!

Supreme leader was a challenge!

Let's first say that up to killing all anti-inquisitor (and so party alone with supreme one), mages cleaned the place (apart Mlar and Hr'a'cnir that is) in no time.
RBs under RVE from Necro killed Malr, Hrack' and golems

Then Supreme proved he was cast in another harder metal!

had to have him expire his pfmw
survive comets (3-4 do not remember exactly)
ADHW...
etc. etc.

Since my RBs did not have a big stock of critical strikes (3 each and one smite), supreme has means to recover, battle was long (think my longest Supreme ever)

but in the end mage quartet won the day with summons (that could relief a bit RBs)
Had 2 planetar, needed them badly (thrice one RB fell to Supreme)

When killing anti-inquisitors with Necro, had the feeling to be the emperor in star wars trying to fry luke skywalker...

Back to sphere may be?
SPOILER!

Girls in party shout: skull! skull! skull!

so

SPOILER!

It is possible for a 4 mage party to be cruel with a demilich and humiliate it (is it it? or her? him?) by not fearing anything it/she/he might do.

Girls enter under SI:abj, Goi, spell turning (those who can at least), foreknowledge, apart Necro 3 other mages under alacrity (just for golems you know!)
Riskbreakers IH only

climb down stairs
3 sequencers and 3 triggers each with 3*RoF means coin golem dead before moving a toe
then some Rof and RB pounding, gem down. first round not even finished
sorceress summmons rabbits, just because we wanted to see the reaction of a demilich before carrot eaters.
Demilich death spell, how miserable....
RBs activate CS and attack demilich, from this moment on, 3 girls sit down on the stairs and Necro will cast the same spell, only question, how many times

answer: 5

apart rabbit, casualty have been: RBs lost 16 hp each (some cloud)

Having had this great moment, boys challenge girls to find something smart for red neighbour next door

SPOILER!

was tempted to reload in order to have saladrex appear as one of my mage MPV
Nalia nearly claimed Saladrex hide
once Sal's pfmws were expired, 4 mages under energy blades did more damage than 2 RBs

Open 5th level
Exit to planar sphere
Get key, Morid is forging another
Sell, forge belt of cloud giant stregth and adamantite staff of strength (Imoen now hits hard!)
Leave city to spend some times, back to WK

Lich/grandlord ambush, was not careful so 2 RBs were downed fast by liches, while 1 grandlord was still around

No matter, mages finished undeads alone!
DU for Grandlord by Imoen (grandlord was "brought" to her by elite troll
Peeling of liches by Necro
Nalia sends Elite trolls
Necro + Imoen (Imoen under timestop for silence prevention) Disrupted Grave to death
Sastacha's Yuan-tis, protected from fire and magic energy killed shade (not 100% sure it was a shade) lich.
Aftermath Sashtacha summons a planetar and party is 6 again.

Party at this moment:

Mors (Necro) lvl 24 /MPV: Green Wyrm /weapons: golem slayer +5 /gear: Memory of the apprenti, scholastic cloak, boots of the north, ring +1, ring of greater djinni, lord of the underworld , gauntlet of specialization (Thac0 +1, +2 damage)
108 hp, AC -8, 16 STR

Hurl (RB) lvl 27 /MPV: Orcus /gear: ring +4, ring of Gaxx, cloak +2, amulet +1, crimson ioun stone, boots of grouding, girdle of lordly might
183 HP, AC -16, 25 STR

weapons:
Off hand: Phosphorous
Main hand FoA +4, DotC, Ilbratha, non magical katana (sometimes when needed get cutthroat from Nalia)
proficiencies: Dual ***, Flail *****, Bastard sword ****, club *

Druss (RB) lvl 27/MPV: Limak the Mastermind /gear: indigo ioun stone, talisman of greater protection, ring+2, ring +2, cloak +3, boots of speed, belt of bluntness
177 HP, AC -12, 25 STR
weapons:
Off hand: Crom Faer (or thetruth when blunt needed)
Main hand The Truth, yamato +4 (piercing), club +3, non magical longsword
proficiencies: Dual ***, longxword *****, hammer *****

Nalia lvl 24 /MPV: Unseeing eye (deserved saladrex) /weapons: cutthroat +4, tansheron's bow /gear: bladesinger chain, ring +2, D'Arnise enhanced ring, cloak +2, ring +1, amulet of spell protection, bracers of archery, boots of stealth, belt of stone giant strength
78 hp, AC -10, 20 STR

Imoen lvl 23 /MPV: Elemental golem /weapons: adamantite staff of strength, sling of Everard /gear: girdle of cloud giant strength, gauntlet of proficiency (+1 thac0), cloak+2, ring +1, ring +2, robe cold resist, fetish of life (+3 save vs death)
68 hp, AC 1, 25 STR!
Imoen's spells:
lvl1: Lmd, shield, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, blurr, Melf AA, agannazar sorcher, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, prot from cold, FA, LB
lvl4:GM, II, stoneskin, RoF, fireshield blue
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead, SI
lvl6:CL, IH, pfmw, GoI
lvl7:mordy, HoU, sequencer, DU
lvl8: spell trigger, ADHW, foreknowledg, MS VI
lvl9: WISH, CC, timestop
HLAs: Alacrity, DB, energy blades, comet, planetar

Sastacha (sorceress) lvl 24 /MPV: Gem golem /weapons: sling of arvoreen, staff of the ram+4 /gear: ring +1, ring +1, cloak +2, robe of elec resist, bracers AC 4, amulet +1
71 hp, AC -4, 10 STR
Sastacha's spells
lvl1: Lmd, chromatic orb, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, invisibility, Melf AA, remove fear, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, LB, FA, prot from fire
lvl4: fireshield blue, emotion, stoneskin, RoF, II
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead, SI
lvl6:CL, PFME, PFMW, GOI
lvl7:RRoR, limited wish, sequencer, spell turning
lvl8: spell trigger, ADHW, MSVI, foreknowledg
lvl9: CC, RVE, MS VII
HLAs: DB, Energy blades, alacrity, planetar, comet

Even I said it a 100 times already, I love this WK level!
Globes and Ancient wyrm are a kick!

Horde dealt with, but not "as usual"
Both Rbs fell, then when mages had to deal with horde, they had no choice but using methods I usually banned (timestop, emotion,...)
At the end , only Necro and sorceress standing, though.


Then did golem ambush in globes (not at all a walk in the park at the beginning with just 2 damage dealers)


Collected some globes, left WK leaving nice fights to do (ancient dragon, grave liches, superior golems)
Back in city
Sell loot
Forge cloack of arcane immortality, wave, rimed club (for Nalia)

Get key from Morid (no more keys to forge)
Hesitate, second travel to plane or ancient wyrm?


Tell Morid to forge potions (good bargain) and prepare for lesser force
Insert key, rest, prepare triggers, sequencers and CCs
walk out in plane

SPOILER!

heavy summon (I mean 3 yuan-tis, Greater Djinni and skeleton lord)
prot from cold on party (important)
classical IH/hardiness on RB
pfmw just at beginning of first wave
every mage has +4 (or more) blunt weapons, lords do not last long
just before end of lords (when 2 left standing) SI:necromancy on girls (no need to tell the story of mage versus 3*FoD)

Lesser force reappears
Necro alacrity
Imoen Wish (hardiness)
Sorceress RVE (regen, good)
Nalia energy blades

Insane Luck: Genie gives "breach apart II creatures"

otherwise, in my many other reloads, found out best compromise is to debuff balors little by little (debuff 1 or 2 max, either 2*RRoR + breach or spellstrike +breach) and finish balors (by sword)
this way, avoid to have to debuff twice (when trigger spell shield/pfmw/.. fires)

Then grandlord easy (provided girls pfmwed)

Then lesser force alone (time for girls to summon, RVE and protect themselves, best thing would be to save some contingencies for those moments)

Then 2 waves of greater bones, each RB drank potion of barbarian essence, that's it!
During those waves, 99% mages are ALL stunned, so pray no greater bone pays interest (they usually do not)

Rest
Pick some scrolls in lavok's office
Morid gives us potion, his last work for me, we say goodbye to him

Back to globe machine
execute vampires in less than 2 rounds (mage power!)
2 ice and one elemental golem disposed (mage power again, Necro downed an ice alone with mental agility*2, RoF and HoU!)

four grave liches without old one

SPOILER!

Mage power!
Necro alacrity, RVE mental agility, peels 4 liches
Meanwhile Sorceress and imoen under alacrity rain wishes
TS + alacrity for imoen: one lich down
end of TS, the two RB execute one graves (out of pfmw)
wait for "make as if rested", necro changes RRoR for DU in book
bingo!
last two graves disrupted to death (imoen shot 2 under timestop, necro 12)

end of story

Last golem ambush, as usual greater first, ultra last

SPOILER!

Yuan-tis, skel lord and Djinni
Necro and sorceress cast som RVE under alacrity before (look for regen, had 4-5 running)
just after purge, hardiness, pfmw and Necro Alacrity (to IH, summon...)
Then everybody (including mages under pfmw) on greater
Then RB patiently erode ultra while mages clean lesser summons
Imoen and her staff nearly got ultra in the end

Another lovely fight!

Loot is Nice, lot of amber, so Back to city to sell and Forge Hammer of Thor

Go to sphere to pick scrolls one last time (last because we won't be back)

Party at this moment:

Mors (Necro) lvl 26 /MPV: Green Wyrm /weapons: golem slayer +5 /gear: Memory of the apprenti,carmine ioun stone, scholastic cloak, boots of the north, ring +1, ring of greater djinni, lord of the underworld , gauntlet of specialization (Thac0 +1, +2 damage)
125 hp, AC -10, 16 STR

Hurl (RB) lvl 29 /MPV: Orcus /gear: ring +4, ring of Gaxx, cloak +2, amulet +1, crimson ioun stone, boots of grouding, girdle of lordly might
183 HP, AC -16, 25 STR
weapons:
Off hand: Phosphorous
Main hand FoA +4, DoTC, Ilbratha, cutthroat +4, non magical katana
proficiencies: Dual ***, Flail *****, Bastard sword ****, club *

Druss (RB) lvl 29/MPV: Limak the Mastermind /gear: indigo ioun stone, talisman of greater protection, ring+2, ring +2, cloak +3, boots of speed, belt of bluntness
177 HP, AC -12, 25 STR
weapons:
Off hand: Hammer of Thor (or thetruth when blunt needed)
Main hand The Truth, yamato +4 (piercing), club +3, non magical longsword
proficiencies: Dual ***, longxword *****, hammer *****

Nalia lvl 25 /MPV: Elemental Golem /weapons: rimed club +4 , sling of Everard /gear: bladesinger chain, ring +2, D'Arnise enhanced ring, cloak +2, ring +1, amulet of spell protection, bracers of archery, boots of stealth, belt of stone giant strength
79 hp, AC -10, 20 STR

Imoen lvl 24 /MPV: Elemental golem /weapons: adamantite staff of strength, /gear: girdle of cloud giant strength, gauntlet of proficiency (+1 thac0), cloak+2, ring +1, ring +2, robe cold resist, fetish of life (+3 save vs death)
69 hp, AC 1, 25 STR!
Imoen's spells:
lvl1: Lmd, shield, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, blurr, Melf AA, agannazar sorcher, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, prot from cold, FA, LB
lvl4:GM, II, stoneskin, RoF, fireshield blue
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead, SI
lvl6:CL, IH, pfmw, GoI
lvl7:mordy, HoU, sequencer, DU
lvl8: spell trigger, ADHW, foreknowledg, MS VI
lvl9: WISH, CC, timestop
HLAs: Alacrity, DB, energy blades, comet, planetar

Sastacha (sorceress) lvl 25 /MPV: Elemental golem /weapons: sling of arvoreen, staff of the ram+4 /gear: ring +1, ring +1, cloak +2, robe of elec resist, bracers AC 4, amulet +1
72 hp, AC -4, 10 STR
Sastacha's spells
lvl1: Lmd, chromatic orb, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, invisibility, Melf AA, remove fear, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, LB, FA, prot from fire
lvl4: fireshield blue, emotion, stoneskin, RoF, II
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead, SI
lvl6:CL, PFME, PFMW, GOI
lvl7:RRoR, limited wish, sequencer, spell turning
lvl8: spell trigger, ADHW, MSVI, foreknowledg
lvl9: CC, RVE, MS VII, WISH
HLAs: DB, Energy blades, alacrity, planetar, comet

Now, what could we do apart THE fight? (go to hell may be?)

So we went for Ancient Dragon

First thing is to deal with Wyrm having just 2 strong demage dealers (instead of 4 on usual parties I had before)
Key point was: Necro under enough Mental agilities that any spell (or entire spellbook for that matter) could be cast immedialty for some rounds (Necro also had 3 alacrities)
On top of buffs, Sorceress and Imoen overwished under alacrities, so party climbs down stairs with spell stock at full


Nalia, Imoen and sorceress stay back (in the middle of stairs), summon Yuan-tis and golden lion (to distract a bit Dragon helpers)

Necro and 2 RBs advance on DRagon, talk, fight

Necro first alacrity:
Spellstrike, breach, buff/debuff competition with Wyrm, Dragon RRoR, Necro Spell turning
ADHW (7) on Salamender Prince and Noble Efreet, both died with help of RBs
Absolute Immunity (Elite Nishruu was picking interest)
Once RBs finished with Efreet and Salamander, they Attack DRagon
Necro starts peeling of Dragon's pfmw

Meanwhile:
Elite Nishruu dispatched summons then attacks RBs
2 Wish from Imoen and sorceress (25 stats, wand, hardiness and potion)

Necro second Alacrity
REorganised spellbook if I get magical rest (to have many RVE if fight lasts and 2 AI if Nishruu attacks)
Dragon has no more pfmw
Rebuff of RBs (IH, prot from fire,...)
RVE for +50% hp (good if fireball/breath), regen, Mental agility, Magical rest (yeah!)
DRagon uses critical wounds

Necro Third (and last) Alacrity
DRagon has exhausted his spells, but still has buffet, improved fireball (took 2), and breath (took none, only breath dragon expelled killed an ELite troll)
DRagon brought to seriously wounded

Then fight lasted some ten-twelve rounds
Once Dragon critical, heals, buffet
4-5 rounds for RBs to bring dragon to critical again (Nishruu attacking RBs)
Dragon regen (side note: during regen dragon never left critical state thanks to RB pouding
WIshes and RVE make sure for RBs health

Dragon falls, Alone with Nishruu

Previous attempt made clear many things:
- RBs cannot kill Nishruu (similar fight as previous, RBS pounded Nishruu 50+ rounds, Nishruu just lightly wounded at best, most of the time at full health)
- Mages under AI, giant strength, IH....cannot kill Nishruu, they deal too few damage, even though Nishruu does not heal from magic, it has a natural regen that heals it; I once had 4 mages hitting Nishruu during 8 rounds (span for two AIs) for a global amount of 34 damage (pitiful), Nishruu was at full health.
- Summons (MS ..) are insta-killed
- Planetar do some damage (from Globe of blades) but can be insta-killed
- Only skeleton lord from LoU does some damage (3-4 each attack), but does not last
- GReater Djinni deals some damage but is eaten fast and shield heals Nishruu

How could Nishruu be killed?

SPOILER!

I consider this by far my "masterpiece" in terms of turning the odds of a battle that was fairly looking desperate

You may have noticed I did not use skeleton lord nor DJinni when fighting dragon
As soon as alone with Nishruu, Skeleton lord, Djinni and Planetar summoned near Nishruu
Though Djinni heals it with fireshield, Elite Nishruu's hits peels djinni of protection, so after a while DJinni heals Nishruu no more, just damages him.
Since Nishruu eats GReater Djinni fast, Planetar heals Djinni (while his globe of blades damages Nishruu)
Imoen and sorceress summons skeletons (Nishruu kills them in one blow, but it means one blow less on Djinni)
then massive Wishing (hoping for make as if rested)
Imoen already casted one Wish-rest, so RBs are ready to deal with consequences if needed
Sashtacha had a WISH-rest
One more skel lord, one more greater DJinni
Nishrruu Dead

YEAH!

Loot on Dragon splendid as usual (money, scrolls of WISH, MS VII, BBoD, spell shield, short sword of the mask, Hindo's doom, scales...)
Imoen levels (and picks AI)
Exit lair

Finish key guardians
After using skull both RB hit level 30

Have mercy with azamantes, do not execute him under timestop, just under alacrity (with a Necro, slight difference)

Open last seal
kill Demogorgon
Leave WK

Enter Elven city
Temple, open stairs
Rest before golems (another linear fight, regen/hardiness/critical strike)

Party before tree of life:

Mors (Necro) / lvl 26/ 7,64 Mxp
Hurl (RB) / lvl 30 / 7,30 Mxp
Druss (RB) /lvl 30 / 7,34 Mxp
Imoen / lvl 25 / 7,12 Mxp
Sashtacha (Sorceress) / lvl 26 / 7,37 Mxp
Nalia / lvl 26 / 7,38 Mxp

Hardwood quartet with just 2 fighters is not a walk in the park
Planetar precious (3 times needed to resurrect half of my fighting force)

Now hell

Goody-goody two shoes do not get rewarded (I know I say that everytimes here!)

Last fight no problem

Enter TOB day 271
party level 26-31

Rest before illasera (did not rest since entering temple in Suldanessellar)
Dispatch illasera
Pocketplane
Kill Sarevok
First chamber
Saradush, here we come!
after some quest forge circlet of netheril, golden spider figurine and mage robe of elemental resistance
Rest before Gromir (first rest since before illasera, party sold out)
Exit saradush, after cleaning some areas, forge staff of the ram +6, cloack + 2, noble staff of fire and ring +3

Now Fire giants, time to rest to memorize usefull spells (AA, LB and CL)
First level of temple cleared without problem
Now Berenn (sh.. he was cold chunked)
Skeleton marathon
Nyalee

And now Big Man
4 mages was great there, but only two warriors did compensate (for enemy)
One reload because imoen chunked
When Yaga alone, Yuan-ti hordes ensured that we where waiting for his resistance to decrease in all safety
2nd challenge in pocket plane

Mors (Necro) / lvl 28/ MPV: Green Wyrm
Hurl (RB) / lvl 33 / MPV: Orcus
Druss (RB) /lvl 33 / MPV: Ancient Dragon
Imoen / lvl 27 / MPV: Elemental Golem
Sashtacha (Sorceress) / MPV: Elemental Golem
Nalia / lvl 28 / MPV: Elemental Golem

next step oasis
Tombleten fell last
One of my fastest oasis fight ever, 4 mages under alacrity dispel and dispatch humans fast. Two riskbreakers that is 6 Risk Decrements over 3 rounds; result for gem golem is a state between wounded and critically wounded
collect all loot (good money!)
Enter Amkethran
Sell, have 300 000+ gp;
forge improved ring of Gaxx, 4 rings +2 and ring +3, gold reduced to 287 units.

Abazigail Lair
Necro claims her 3rd dragon (draconis), second alone
Necro misses 4th dragon when we upseted a bit Fll'Ysomething (who was killed by Riskbreakers)
Once a pain in the ... for vagrant party, Abazigail fell easy to.. Imoen! (With help from Necro, silence caught Nalia and Sashtacha)
Think Abi helpers should be made killable to make this fight even between Necro/Non Necro parties

Forge FoA +5
Another pocketplane challenge done

Day 288,
Party heading to Sendaï's lair
finished slave tunnels without rest (latest rest was before fighting abazigail! no refresh tthrough Wish nor RVE!)
loot tunnel, so many armors and weapons have inventory overflow (even though 2 bags of holding), so Party leaves to sell inb Amkethran.
All 6 party members have levelled !
RBs hit level 36, last AC bonus
forge ring +4, ring +2 and runehammer (don't know why, may be nostalgia..or pfld, even though useless now for the fights to come!)

Back to Sendaï
Spider corridor (loot is no problem in inventory this time)
Enter lich lair and drow patrols (to have fun, I like to send someone triggering two Drow platoons then fight them together, I cannot reached third platoon because of web lariat...)
those fights are nice!
Just think that if I do not visit smugglers cave, will miss it for good (and thought merchant down there had a nice ioun stone, he did not, or has it no more...)
Forge dragonlord hallberd

Rest in pocketplane because Nalia and Mors spellbooks have to be reorganized before meeting lich.
That is of course if saves ok (wise man says: greater bone golems laughs, magician cries)

enter under IH/hardiness/CBS for RBS, pfmw and SI:abj for mages
Odamaron's chef menu:
- bone golem, greater bone golem and 5 skeleton grandlords as teasers
- bone devil/greater Bone
- lord/ grandlord
- bone devil/greater Bone
- lord/ grandlord
- bone devil/greater Bone
- lord/ grandlord

SI:div expired
Debuffing, Necro Timestop then alacrity, 10 disrupt undead later, Odamaron lay dead for good this time.
3 pairs of bone devil/greater Bone as timestop legacy....
forge short sword of the mask +5
Thelynns and ogremoch fell to RBs
Captain eigessag did not see end of necro's alacrity
Illithids followed in grave, Imoen carved "no country for small krakens" on their door

Day 290: Stop before Sendaï' door
After 4 IA V6 runs, this fight is definitely my favourite TOB fight (second Ancient Dragon, third Supreme leader)
Main point in memorizing spells: Necro has 2 alacrity and 9 RVE

SPOILER!

First manage party action during statues
nothing special done during statues 1 to 6
while n°7 is around, RBs buff (hardiness, potion of invulnerability), mages SI:abj, foreknowledge, pfmw, summons (2 yuan-tis, djinni, spider, deva)
when finished, kill statue
Sendaï appears
both RBs on Pet (sword of the mask/phosphorous and yamato/hammer of Thor)
Necro alacrity then rains RVE (one grandlord, but enough regen that one golem hit on Imoen is cured at once, enough Mental agility that necro could empty her whole spellbook in an instant)
web holds Nalia, Imoen and Mors (for a fleeting second), wise was the decision to have for each CC triggering on helpless (pfmw/spell turning/ IH)!
Nalia downed, raised by planetar, casts AI, is back to normal thank to regen
RVE remove disabling effects does not "de-entangles" from web, his saves does!
Sorceress escapes barely golem beating, wishes a "make as if rested"
Imoen is chased by one golem (miscast magic is on her)

4 rounds later (2 smites duration)

in north alcove: Necro with Nalia (Nalia has no equipment), one golem blocks exit, 2 elite trolls attacking it
just south-east of them, Pet seriously wounded, beaten upon by 2 RBS and one planetar
west (on exit stairs) sorceress, in front of her, one grandlord and Noble spider wrestling
south east Sendaï and ghost spider attack another noble spider
east, imoen is running in front of other golem
problem: sendaï will finish spider soon, what will she do?

To make things easier for party, pet: earthshaking roar, every party member damaged and deaf, general spell failure (Nalia was casting MS VII, sorceress WIsh and Necro Alacrity, no small loss...)

Well, elegance requires to bow in front of my enemy's wit!
Only reason why party not blown to oblivion: RVE-regen (think 7 or 8 might be running)

Noble spiders are no more, deva is dead
One RB turns to Grandlord, Sendaï and Ghost run to him
Imoen goes down, golem joins pet against other RB
Sendaï does the worst thing IMO, starts to peel Necro!
Though deaf, mages try to cast

Feeling is that tide is turning low this round!

Next round, Grandlord and 2 minor spiders down, Necro could pfmw, 2 yuan-tis join
RB near pet is victim of miscast, misses hardiness and no more under IH!

Situation is quite desperate, need some divine help......deafness ends!!!!!!
Pet dies!!!!

Both RB on Web golem (hope that DoTC will make a show!)

Nalia summons a planetar, planetar revives Immy
Immy wishes for make as if rested

The tide is high!

Summons are renewed
Since one Web golem hits Nalia, Mors starts alacrity, interrupted
Nalia goes down
both web golems and Sendaï join their skills to tear Hurl into pieces. Small pieces.
planetar is blown out of existence
Sashtacha tries to summon one planetar, fails (deafness...)
Imoen summons planetar, fails (Sendaï suddenly pick interest in her)

is tide turning again?

No: Necro alacrity, rains RVE, at the same time sorceress summons a planetar who resurrects Nalia.

2 rounds after Nalia's awakening, one web golem down

Sendaï calls down dragon breaths and comets upon us
Nobody chunked, though imoen barely escapes death

Finally, second web golem falls.
Hurl is a bit upset with Cromwell, suspecting imp to have forged "Scratch from a Dozen Cut" instead of "Death of a Thousand Cuts".

Fight is won

Sendaï fell bravely

Then back to city to fight mercenaries and monks

Baltazar so stubborn!

Sell all I will not take to EDE, forge:
Aslyferund +5
scarlet ioun stone
spectral brand +5 (piercing armor!)
4 ring +2
1 ring +3

Last challenge in pocketplane done;

Party that will go for EDE:

Mors (Necro) lvl 32 /MPV: Green Wyrm /weapons: golem slayer +5, noble staff of fire /gear: Memory of the apprenti, scholastic cloak, ring +3, ring of greater djinni, lord of the underworld , gauntlet of specialization (Thac0 +1, +2 damage), belt of inertial barrier, scarlet ioun stone
134 hp, AC -13, 16 STR

Hurl (RB) lvl 37 /MPV: Orcus /gear: improved ring of Gaxx, ring +2, cloak +2, amulet +1, wong fei ioun stone, boots of speed, girdle of lordly might
228 HP, AC -20, 25 STR HLAs: 5*hardiness, Smite, 11*critical strike
weapons:
Off hand: Phosphorous
Main hand FoA +5, DotC, Ilbratha, spectral brand +5, dragon lord +5
proficiencies: Dual ***, Flail *****, Bastard sword *****, club * hallberd * katana *

Druss (RB) lvl 38/MPV: Ancient Dragon /gear: indigo ioun stone, talisman of greater protection, ring+4, ring +2, cloak +2, boots of speed, belt of bluntness
213 HP, AC -17, 25 STR, HLAs: 5*hardiness, Smite, 12*critical strike
weapons:
Off hand: Crom Faer (or thetruth when blunt needed)
Main hand The Truth, runehammer +5, short sword of the mask +5
proficiencies: Dual ***, longxword *****, hammer *****, short sword ***

Nalia lvl 31 /MPV: Elemental Golem /weapons: hindo doom +4, rimed club +4 /gear: Aslyferund +5, D'Arnise enhanced ring, cloak +2, ring +2, amulet of spell protection, girdle of fire giant strength
85 hp, AC -12, 22 STR

Imoen lvl 31 /MPV: Elemental golem /weapons: adamantite staff of strength /gear: girdle of cloud giant strength, gauntlet of proficiency (+1 thac0), cloak+2, ring +2, ring +2, mage robe of elemental resistance, fetish of life (+3 save vs death), circlet of netheril
86 hp, AC 0, 25 STR!
Imoen's spells:
lvl1: Lmd, shield, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, blurr, Melf AA, agannazar sorcher, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, prot from cold, FA, LB
lvl4:GM, II, stoneskin, RoF, fireshield blue
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead, SI, spell shield
lvl6:CL, IH, pfmw, GoI, pfme
lvl7:mordy, HoU, sequencer, DU, MS V
lvl8: spell trigger, ADHW, foreknowledge, MS VI
lvl9: WISH, CC, timestop, AI
HLAs: Alacrity, DB, energy blades, comet, planetar

Sastacha (sorceress) lvl 31 /MPV: Elemental golem /weapons: staff of the ram+6 /gear: girdle of stone giant strength, ring +2, ring +2, cloak +2, robe of cold resist, bracers AC 4, amulet of the seldarine, lavander ioun stone
78 hp, AC -6, 20 STR
Sastacha's spells
lvl1: Lmd, chromatic orb, identify, BH, MM
lvl2:knock, invisibility, Melf AA, remove fear, Mirror Image
lvl3:Remove magic, Vampiric touch, LB, FA, prot from fire
lvl4: fireshield blue, emotion, stoneskin, RoF, II
lvl5:breach, lower resist, animate dead, SI, spell shield
lvl6:CL, PFME, PFMW, GOI,IH
lvl7:RRoR, limited wish, sequencer, spell turning, HoU
lvl8: spell trigger, ADHW, MSVI, foreknowledge
lvl9: CC, RVE, MS VII, WISH
HLAs: DB, Energy blades, alacrity, planetar, comet

Additionnal items:
9 scrolls of AI, 15 of pfmw (4 mages has meant that many had to be used, so have much less than previous run, will have to do); 4 scrolls of WISH
25 potion of barbarian essence, 21 of magic protection, 16 potion of invulnerability, 2 potion of prot from fire, 5 potion of haste, 18 oils of resurgence, 100 potion of superior healing (think more than enough, other sold to forge)
cat figurine, golden spider figurine

Day 293, one (last of party maybe) rest and we will meet Prince

Getting ready
Spells:
(level 1 and 2 useless)

MORS:
lvl3: 7*Remove magic, 5*prot from fire
lvl4: stoneskin, 11*RoF
lvl5: SI, spell shield, 3*prot from electrivcity, 7*animate dead
lvl6: 2*PFME, 7*PFMW, giant stregth, 2*IH
lvl7: 12*HoU
lvl8: 3*prot from energy, 2*foreknowledge, 7*MS VI
lvl9: 2*Alacrity, 9*RVE

NALIA:
lvl3: 7*Remove magic, 3*prot from fire
lvl4: stoneskin, 9*RoF
lvl5: SI, 2*prot from electricity, 7*animate dead
lvl6: 2*PFME, 6*PFMW, giant stregth, 2*IH
lvl7: 6*MS V, sequencer, 4*HoU
lvl8: 3*prot from energy, foreknowledge, 6*MS VI
lvl9: Planetar, 2*AI, 4*MS VII, 2*energy blade

all sequencers 3*RoF

Triggers:
Necro: IH/pfmw/giant strength
Imoen: stoneskin/pfmw/IH
Nalia: IH/prot from electricity/pfmw
Sashtacha: stoneskin/pfmw/IH

Necro and Nalia contingency pfmw on 50%hp

Chain contingencies:
Necro: foreknowledge/pfmw/IH on enemy seen
Imoen: foreknowledge/pfmw/IH on enemy seen
Nalia: pfmw/prot from electricity/IH on hit
Sashtacha: foreknowledge/pfmw/IH on hit

Each Riskbreaker drinks 5 barbarian essence potion, under IH
Mors and Imoen stoneskin
Nalia and sashtacha stoneskin and protection from electricity
Greater Djinni, planetar and 3 Yuan-tis
protection from energy on both RBs, Necro and imoen
protection from electricity on Sashtacha
Some RVE from sorceress and Necro

Well, time to go now

Meet Pasha
Meet Prince


In next spoiler, which will be EDE story, I put those two tags here and there:
*pause*
*end pause*
just to give some information at some point of the game (real pauses there were hundreds!!) and try to make this long list a bit more lively...

SPOILER!

RL Time: 20:13 (think it is funny to keep track of this)

Both RBs, Pasha, Mors and Imoen go south to attack supreme
Nali goes west to attack Ultra (joined by greater djinni)
Sashtacha goes east to tank other ultra
Prince in the middle with yuan-tis and planetar
prince dispels magic on group near Supreme
Necro alacrity, rains RVE (after last RVE cast, refurbishing of level 9 spells, of course got one magical rest out of the 9 RVE cast), IH
RBs Smite
Before end of smite, elemental gates,
Necro still under alacrity rains RoF and Hou (imoen helps)
Pasha Mahmoud shows his tremendous fighting skills
Prince, after killing two yuan-tis in mere seconds comes to help Supreme
Sorceress and Nalia summon Yuan-ti close from respective Ultras
Smite ends on RB

*pause*
RL time: 20:24 (ok I took time to put down some notes)
Supreme wounded
Elemental wounded
*end pause*

Both RBs critical strike
two amber join
two Yuan-ti join
Nalia and Sashtacha resume pounding
Imoen Wishes for 25 stat
Necro (alacrity not finished) HoU on Elemental
Pasha drinks potion
Ultra (from the east) coming close from Prince and Necro
Supreme seriously wounded (halfway from goal!)
Alacrity ends on Necro, Necro resumes alacrity (meanwhile elemental took in the chest: 9 HoU, 11 RoF, 2 sequencer 3*Rof from Imoen end Necro)
Sorceress starts alacrity
one Yuan-ti dies
another Yuan-ti dies
end of Critical strike

RBs renew critical strikes
Sashtacha (under alacrity now) starts RoF bombing on one amber (is too far to attack elemental)
Supreme near death
Necro under alacrity resumes HoU on Elemental
Nalia renew pfmw
Prince DB (general jaw clenching)
Necro 4*RVE and prot from fire at once
RB critical strike ends
RB renew critical strikes

*pause*
Note: Prince DB has not landed yet
RL time: 20:43
Supreme critical
Elemental seriously wounded
no summon alive apart Djinni (fighting ultra and one amber west with Nalia)
everybody else south on a (too) close perimeter
dreadful moment near when raks should come.......
Pasha is wounded
*end pause*

RVE poll result: Mental agility/remove disabling effects/Mental agility/regen
Dragon breath lands, damage everybody (apart Nalia of course)
Necro out of HoU (under alacrity) MS VII
Imoen and Sashtacha pfmw (then sashtacha resumes RoF bombing, she is under alacrity, remember!!)

BREAKING NEWS:
Pasha kills supreme golem, he deserved it! (important info for those, if any, that doubt Pasha's strength)

One RB (Druss) turns to nearest Ultra, other to elemental, Imoen join cause to destroy ultra
Druss is slowed by Prince
Necro reacts: casts her two remaining RVE (remove disabling effect I got, but Druss remained slowed...another regen)
Necro Wishes

BREAKING NEWS:
Raksasas gate!!!! one bunch west and the other north-east of our Near-Supreme group!!!!

Hurl runs to the raks north-east leaving Pasha dealing with critically wounded Elemental (and a coin golem)
Greater Djinni dead, Nalia alone, casts MS VII
Djinni from wish gives hardiness
Necro renews pfmw
Imoen starts Wish (a make as if rested would be nice)
Necro MS VI, animate dead*2 near west raksasas
ADHW from raks rain from both sides, without the massive regen still in action, Imoen and Sashtacha would be down (did not had time to pfme those 2)
Necro has good saves and MR so did not get hurt, RBs too.
RBs critical strike ends

*pause*
yes, it is the critical strike launched after Prince cast DB that just ended! (see some 25 lines upward)
RL time: 21:05
Elemental critical
Imoen and a slowed druss are tanking Prince and one ULtra
South of them Necro and Pasha with elemental and coin, 3 raksasas taking interest in them
Hurl is attacking Noble rak north east
Nalia alone (hope her MS VII not interrupted) with other ULtra north west (good point, raks did not attack her)
Pasha is wounded (hope he won't get killed till I have a bit of "space" to summon planetar to heal, only means I got to help Pasha)
*end pause*

RBs renew Critical strike
ADHW from raks were not all "landed"; Imoen bites the dust !!!!
Pasha kills Elemental
Necro summons (trolls, skeleton) to delay as can be Raks
Druss tries to release pressure on Pasha, now surrounded by raks and golems, risk decrement, raks fly over the pocketplane
critical strikes end

RB renew critical strike
One Noble down, other noble summons more Horrids!!!!
Nalia Absolute immunity
one amber down
Hurl chases noble rak (want to stop him populating us with horrids)
Critical strike ends

RB renew critical strikes
One amber down
Sorceress starts wish from scroll (no more 9th level spells)
Hurl is in west chamber, with Noble and 3 horrids, Nalia drops a "preventive" remove magic in west chamber then starts summoning a planetar
Both ultra and Prince near necro, Pasha and Druss (situation is quite delicate)
Critical strike ends

RB renew critical strikes
Noble falls, but not without having gated 2 more horrids!
then couple of rounds where:
in west chamber Hurl cuts horrids, Nalia remove magic as backup

Druss starts working on an ultra golem
Pasha deals with Prince and minor summons
Imoen uses cat figurine to cure party
Sorceress summons
Nalia took time to summon a planetar, planetar raises imoen, otherwise nalia cast remove magic on raks
Imoen wishes with no great success, that is bad, she has just one more left and overall partty only has 3 scrolls of Wish to expect rest.
Planetar dies a hero, having healed seriously wounded Pasha!
Sorceress, with nearly no more spells to cast is chased by an horrid rak, runs to Hurl trying to lure the rak with her
Necro uses scroll of Wish
Imoen wishes her last wish for potion (a damned unlucky serie)
Hurls has no more critical strikes, Druss 3

BREAKING NEWS:
Necro wish result: make as if rested

*pause*
RL time: 21:59
One seriously wounded ultra
one undamaged ultra
2 horrids, one seriously wounded
6 ambers
Pasha wounded (this is very bad)
*end pause*

One round later, no more horrids, one amber less
Necro starts alacrity then 2 RVE (regen and remove disabling effects)
Greater djinni again
2 Yuan-tis

Next round, as soon as one ultra went down, we took a dragon breath on the chin
Mages try to clean ambers (RoF machine gunning), RB on ultra
Pasha is seriously wounded
Necro starts alacrity
Planetar is summoned
Planetar heals Pasha (second time Pasha's life is saved, or at least odds to make Pasha's life longer are drasctically increased), interrupted and killed by one amber!!
Pasha drinks a potion

Prince Universal Purge Magic !!!!!!!
Purge interrupts Necro's last alacrity!!!!
Both RB inner IH, Hurl interrupted

check resistance on RBs, -50 fire -125 electricity, we have known better days!
Imoen and sorceress Wish for crap!
Necro RVE for crap!
at this point, 3 amber left and ultra is wounded
One Yuan-ti one greater Djinni
Necro summons skeleton lord (hope will help against ambers)
one RB runs from ultra luring one amber (to release electrical damage)
other RB gets apart, followed by ambers and Ultra
Pressure on Pasha diminishes, Pasha recovers to wounded

*pause*
RL time: 22:32
*end pause*

Moment later no more ambers
Prince alone with seriously wounded ultra
RBs wait a bit apart from Pasha (helped by summons, skeleton lord and 2 Yuan-tis and Greater Djinni) to recover electrical resist, they both hit -128 !!!
On dying, Ultra left another Amber
Immediatly rak bunch appears near naked Necromanceress!!!
Both RB run to her help at once
Mors AI from scroll
Imoen remove magic (prevention!)
Nalia and sorceress send 2 more remove magic with a slight delay
3 rak meet their god faster than they expected!

*pause*
RL time: 22:44
*end pause*

Start fighting a now alone Prince (RBs, Pasha and summon)
Mage power: Cast all wishes left, get another "make as if rested" with no consequence (Sashtacha this time)
Pasha is returned to normal state
Lack of fighting power is paid dearly, Prince hp are going down very slowly, and if Pasha was not there, situation would be quite hopeless

Second and last Rak bunch is dealt with in no time
Now alone with Prince for (I hope) a long long time

*pause*
RL time: 22:44
*end pause*


Necro casts some RVE( need regen on both RBS, Prince deals good damage though both RBS under 100% resistance (blunt.piercing/slashing...)
Summons

Good thing, Prince first AI ! (at last)
Once again, here I pay cash my lack of warriors, in all my previous EDE, never had to wait so long for this moment!
we try to make good use of this buffing Pasha (pfme/pfe/prot from fire, which has no noticeable effect I have to say) while RBs and summon tank Prince
Sorceress RVE (in case grandlord, one RB can take care without interrupting his important job

*pause*
RL time: 23:09 (3 hours I am behind the screen!!!)
*end pause*

Resume pounding
first Wish "make as if rested" with consequences, at the same moment a fumbled RVE!
It took some time to dispatch Fallen solar, Elemental, grandlord and a coin golem, all the more since Pasha was propelled in adjacent room and I had to launch an expedition to find him!

Universal purge magic again
long fight..
good news (mainly because so many blows over such a long fight make for some odds to happen) Prince bleeds from DoTC!

Second AI from Prince

*pause*
RL time: 23:39
pause game, go to bed, pray computer does not crash during the night
Two thoughts before dreaming for real:
- It is very likely we will take down Prince (apart if RB chunked)
- It is sure I will not reload!

resumed next day at 10:37
*end pause*

Fighting Prince
one more universal purge magic

Potion stock (protection from magic, oil of resurgence) quite depleted!

Prince third AI

Universal purge magic

Prince 4th AI
Wil have to risk a Wish-rest with consequences, spells quite low, potions too....
Imeon falls to planetar and elemental
Pasha (close to Necro because Prince invulnerable) and RB down those two fast

Somewhere around this moment of the fight, had to renew barbarian essence on RBs

When resuming pounding on Prince, Prince is at full health
One RB and imoen had to be raised
potion no more apart 4 protection from magic I keep for adequate moments

Prince 5th AI

*pause*
RL time: 11:34
Take another break, hope no computer crash
resume at 14:38
*end pause*

Universal Purge Magic
mages summons, Necro and sorceress sometimes RVE (looking for regen!!!)


Prince 6th and last AI.....
Time to wIsh!
Nice that Yuan-ti keep Prince occupied...
But things turn bad, unlucky saves, heavy blows from foe, Druss and Sashtacha down!
RVE fumbles a grandlord...
Imoen starts Planetar
Party 6 again
then 5 when Prince downs Imoen
6 again after Sashtacha summons planetar
RB under critical strike pounding...

One last blow from Thetruth

At 15:22 RL time Prince admits defeat and leaves

Though much less powerful in EDE than my previous parties, those 6 prevailed, with due thanks to Pasha, yuan-tis and RVE-regeneration.
Apart useless potions of invulnerability, have nothing left in my inventory (that is loot on the floor useless, Cespenar is gone!)
First time in all my EDE V6 fights that Pasha was in serious danger to be killed.

This party did it!

Melissan and challenges were a joke

Party finished game at those levels:
Mors (Necro) / lvl 32/ 10,40 Mxp
Hurl (RB) / lvl 38 / 10,09 Mxp
Druss (RB) /lvl 38 / 10,12 Mxp
Imoen / lvl 31 / 9,88 Mxp
Sashtacha (Sorceress) / lvl 32 / 10,09 Mxp
Nalia / lvl 32 / 10,09 Mxp

~* THE END *~

[nicoper]

Glad IA is opened to all again. Thanks to Critto to have made this possible.

Here is the journal of a party with which I had great fun, hope this gives motivation or help to players...

[Mankrik]

What's the point that paladins can be turned by enemy priests other than limit the variety of class choices?
They are not overpowered especially with the nerf of inquistor's dispel magic ability.
So many classes and kits(Thief/bard/paladin,etc) and most multis are almost useless and a liability to a party capable of finishing the game- if possible at all.
These are not mentioned in the readme file,
Hopefully someone will write something -a beginner's guide maybe(party composition mostly)so newbies(me,yes)don't have to start too many new games or even cheat to actually finish a full IA run.

This post has been edited by Mankrik: Apr 13 2013, 09:36 AM

[critto]

Hey Mankrik, and welcome to BWL!

You have a point there. Unfortunately, an issue exists that not every possible class could be an effective asset in a IA party. This was a conscious decision, though, in an effort to gradually achieve a proper balance of tactical encounters in the game. It would be futile to try and attempt to re-work all of the classes at once. Working on IA is a slow, iterative process, as we test everything by hand and make it our business to make sure the game remains balanced and bug-free. Simply piling up additions to every class would've been disastrous.

There are still a lot of options to choose from, however, when creating a party that would prove effective and make it to the end. I will try to write a guide for the new players in the near future, as you suggest. For now, let me give you a short review of the options.

One of the best choices for the protagonist first run would be a Vagrant or Necromancer protagonist. These classes are powerful and have lots of fun extra content. Although another single-class mage or fighter protagonist, such as a Sorcerer, Kensai or Stalker, would work. In fact, even a druid protagonist is a decent fit for the party leader, as our current tests of IAv7, which is work in progress, show. It might be rough here and there, but overall, we do not have to tweak the balance a lot. You would miss out on lots of new content, though.

The most balanced approach at a party is to have three warrior types, one divine caster and two magic users. For fighters, any single-class ranger or fighter kit (with exception of Monk, Wizard Slayer and several paladin kits, perhaps) would work well. Kensai, Barbarian, Berserker, Riskbreaker, Stalker, Protector (Valygar has this kit now and is a great pick for a first run), Vagrant, Undead Hunter - all these are valid choices that have been tried and performed extremely well.

A slot for divine casters has many options: pure-class Cleric (or Viconia), Fighter->Cleric (or Anomen, if you prefer vanilla NPCs), Ranger->Cleric dual-class, Berserker->Druid dual-class, Auramaster (Cernd has this kit now). Some of our more experienced testers used Cleric/Mage and Fighter/Druid multi-classes effectively, but this definitely requires certain knowledge and experience with the game.

Slots for magic users aren't as empty either. Pretty much any single-class mage or sorcerer will perform well. Then there is Nalia. She's a decent Thief->Mage dual-class that comes with a personal item upgrade. But you can make a dual-class of your own. We have tried variations of Kensai->Mage and Berserker->Mage, and they did great.

Unfortunately, rogues are not a useful choice right now. Hopefully, we will amend that in the future. Perhaps, IAv5 would be more to your taste, as it's a bit more open in that sense, and you could have some fun playing with a Swashbuckler, Blade or Fighter/Thief multi-class in your party.

[nicoper]

@Mankrik

Though turned, Undead hunter are valuable characters (I personnaly like them)


2 "logic" choices as protag as Critto said, I personnaly would advise for a beginner who does not want to experiment too much frustration to postpone vagrant protag run after being familiar with IA V6. Vagrant quests are quite nice, but some fights are horrible in terms of frustration. I have been playing IA for years (many versions), have had some 15+ runs in IA V6, there is a vagrant fight here I lost with a party of 6 that could have won EDE with no problem made me at odds with vagrant protag.

Anyway, to give some useful hints, I would say that a Necro protagonist and 2 fighters to be picked among Valygar/Riskbreaker/Kensaï are enough to bring any pary of 6 till the end of the game.
Add it a dual Ranger->cleric or Berserker-> Cleric and a sorcerer, you can even take a thief as 6th slot.

Most balanced and very powerful (second to the one in this journal in terms of power)party I ever had was Necro, RB, Kensaï, dual R7->C and 2 sorceresses (with Imoen after spellhold)

This post has been edited by nicoper: Apr 14 2013, 11:38 AM

[Mankrik]

@critto&nicoper
Thank u for your response.
I really appreciate your effort on this mod-a slow and iterative process for a free mod,that patience and creative spirit is a rare quality to find nowadays.
Since you rework classes one at a time(a great attitude i think) ,I guess I'm gonna try the new classes/kits first.

[Krell]

Nice, nicoper, but I doubt this could be repeated on Insane difficulty, when most of the time characters get chunked upon death. Or it could be done only with multiple reloading.

There is a way to protect a Riskbreaker from Imprisonment with that many mages around. Also, there is a way to protect everyone from level drain. And you could enlist some extra help for the EDE fight - like 4 powerful fighters, for example, making it much easier.

[nicoper]

Nice, nicoper, but I doubt this could be repeated on Insane difficulty, when most of the time characters get chunked upon death. Or it could be done only with multiple reloading.

There is a way to protect a Riskbreaker from Imprisonment with that many mages around. Also, there is a way to protect everyone from level drain. And you could enlist some extra help for the EDE fight - like 4 powerful fighters, for example, making it much easier.

Hi Krell, I never played on insane, true that it would be quite hard (if you fancy try it ), but char chunk happens even on core (i call core slider on medium difficulty level), I am alas used to it

I know there is a way to be protected from level drain, used it, imprisonment without cleric or druid, I just cope with it and cast freedom, which way to protect from imprisonment do you mean ? (I am interested, I missed it ).

Enlisting extra help (I suppose you mean using a "trick" to enlist 4 NPCs) is something I personnaly consider as cheesy and do not use (I quickly add anyboby is free IMO to play as he/she wants, as far as they enjoy their play it is ok for me). Pasha Mahmoud is enough help IMO in EDE, a tremendous warrior this one...
Only thing I can say and warn about is that in IA (whatever version) some cheese or tricks (which are quoted in docs) can mess the game, so be warned.

My aim with this run was to have fun and see if this strange party could make it to EDE playing the mod sas it is advised to be played, and fun I had a lot .

[Vuki]

I highly doubt that IA can be done in a no-reload run. It is definitely impossible on insane no-reload. But I am not an IA expert, Nicoper and other experienced players could confirm it.

[nicoper]

I highly doubt that IA can be done in a no-reload run. It is definitely impossible on insane no-reload. But I am not an IA expert, Nicoper and other experienced players could confirm it.

As far as I am concerned, playing the mod according to the way its designer has made it, I will never be able to do it no-reload.
Impossible, well mathematic probability exists (after all, speaking for myself, I have been able to win all the fights, so even for me this probability exists ).
Nonetheless, I highly doubt IA can be done no reload with decent odds (there are many fight where, apart blatant cheat or cheese, it is imposible IMO to have a reproducible 100% winning tactic)

[crunk]

I highly doubt that IA can be done in a no-reload run. It is definitely impossible on insane no-reload. But I am not an IA expert, Nicoper and other experienced players could confirm it.

As far as I am concerned, playing the mod according to the way its designer has made it, I will never be able to do it no-reload.
Impossible, well mathematic probability exists (after all, speaking for myself, I have been able to win all the fights, so even for me this probability exists ).
Nonetheless, I highly doubt IA can be done no reload with decent odds (there are many fight where, apart blatant cheat or cheese, it is imposible IMO to have a reproducible 100% winning tactic)

What is the point of this "no reload" concept I see so many people refer to?

No-reload implies each strategy vs each encounter has been mapped perfectly for every aspect... positioning, exactly what spells will be cast at what time, enemy ability repertoire, and perfect knowledge of how the enemy script is programmed to respond to every environmental and player stimulus.

Reaching that point in ANY game usually means it is no longer fun to play because it has become formulaic. It would be like playing vs a 1900 elo chess program that is very decent but you've mapped out exactly how to play the game from opening to checkmate and is the same result with every iteration.

No reload assumes knowledge of the weakness of IA as a program/script instead of as a game or series of strategic fights; the same type of weakness is universal to all programs/scripts regardless of how well written it is. Why would you bother playing a game if not for the fun of discovery and challenge?

[nicoper]

I highly doubt that IA can be done in a no-reload run. It is definitely impossible on insane no-reload. But I am not an IA expert, Nicoper and other experienced players could confirm it.

As far as I am concerned, playing the mod according to the way its designer has made it, I will never be able to do it no-reload.
Impossible, well mathematic probability exists (after all, speaking for myself, I have been able to win all the fights, so even for me this probability exists ).
Nonetheless, I highly doubt IA can be done no reload with decent odds (there are many fight where, apart blatant cheat or cheese, it is imposible IMO to have a reproducible 100% winning tactic)

What is the point of this "no reload" concept I see so many people refer to?

No-reload implies each strategy vs each encounter has been mapped perfectly for every aspect... positioning, exactly what spells will be cast at what time, enemy ability repertoire, and perfect knowledge of how the enemy script is programmed to respond to every environmental and player stimulus.

Reaching that point in ANY game usually means it is no longer fun to play because it has become formulaic. It would be like playing vs a 1900 elo chess program that is very decent but you've mapped out exactly how to play the game from opening to checkmate and is the same result with every iteration.

No reload assumes knowledge of the weakness of IA as a program/script instead of as a game or series of strategic fights; the same type of weakness is universal to all programs/scripts regardless of how well written it is. Why would you bother playing a game if not for the fun of discovery and challenge?

Hi crunk

100% agree with you

[HTRT]

What is the point of this "no reload" concept I see so many people refer to?

No-reload implies each strategy vs each encounter has been mapped perfectly for every aspect... positioning, exactly what spells will be cast at what time, enemy ability repertoire, and perfect knowledge of how the enemy script is programmed to respond to every environmental and player stimulus.

Reaching that point in ANY game usually means it is no longer fun to play because it has become formulaic. It would be like playing vs a 1900 elo chess program that is very decent but you've mapped out exactly how to play the game from opening to checkmate and is the same result with every iteration.

No reload assumes knowledge of the weakness of IA as a program/script instead of as a game or series of strategic fights; the same type of weakness is universal to all programs/scripts regardless of how well written it is. Why would you bother playing a game if not for the fun of discovery and challenge?

You're right, usually people no longer have fun playing at that point. But people have different personnalities and different ways of getting fun out of a game. As far as baldur's gate goes, gamers usually don't like that kind of tactical challenge and I think it's pretty obvious when you read any baldur's gate forum including even this one. In my case I still enjoy new npc mods, played most mods of the type never ending journey, actually pretty much every mod out there. Maybe it's just an exagerated passion for this game, but it definitely has to do with a very high need for perfectionnism.

Improved anvil is just another dimension of my baldurs gate universe, and of course I don't play it for role playing. Your reasoning on scripts is true as well, but in this present case the ennemies are pretty smart, which makes it challenging to actually devise those tactics and learn knowledge about their behaviour and weaknesses. It makes a lot of changes to the game and instills a fighting dynamic that feels complete, without bug and fair.

That "no reload" stuff in a walkthrough or all those "took x y reloads" often read on this particular sub-forum is not a way of saying : hey look at me I won it with no reload. The purpose is to give the reader a feeling of how things went in general, what part was hard, what part that should have been hard has been easier than expected, etc. This is a tactical mod (lots of other features beyond tactics but mostly oriented towards tactics), so of course people will be discussing strategies, successfull ones, major fails, anecdotes of those fails with number of reloads, etc.

Some people are weird I guess but you are totally right that most people do not get gaming fun from playing it hardcore and mastering knowledge of behaviours.

By the way cool party Nicoper, must have been so frustrating to face those olympic sprinters vampires with your guys

[nicoper]

By the way cool party Nicoper, must have been so frustrating to face those olympic sprinters vampires with your guys

Party was very cool, my coollest in IA. Yes it was, but planetar and limited wish helped.

Btw, good job on insane! just thinking of facing torgal and gem golem on insane I have fits , so reaching spellhold....

[HTRT]

You would be surprised how in many fights you will notice almost no difference if you go with your best party/strategies... I was really scared at first to try it but I thought it was the next logical step after good success on core. Anyway I think it's worth an honest try, it can be really great (and IA is extremly epic by itself on core). And it's not like we are affraid of reloading (we did afterall play this mod for the first time at some point, so we did reload quite a lot )

[Sikret]

I highly doubt that IA can be done in a no-reload run. It is definitely impossible on insane no-reload. But I am not an IA expert, Nicoper and other experienced players could confirm it.

As far as I am concerned, playing the mod according to the way its designer has made it, I will never be able to do it no-reload.
Impossible, well mathematic probability exists (after all, speaking for myself, I have been able to win all the fights, so even for me this probability exists ).
Nonetheless, I highly doubt IA can be done no reload with decent odds (there are many fight where, apart blatant cheat or cheese, it is imposible IMO to have a reproducible 100% winning tactic)

What is the point of this "no reload" concept I see so many people refer to?

No-reload implies each strategy vs each encounter has been mapped perfectly for every aspect... positioning, exactly what spells will be cast at what time, enemy ability repertoire, and perfect knowledge of how the enemy script is programmed to respond to every environmental and player stimulus.

Reaching that point in ANY game usually means it is no longer fun to play because it has become formulaic. It would be like playing vs a 1900 elo chess program that is very decent but you've mapped out exactly how to play the game from opening to checkmate and is the same result with every iteration.

No reload assumes knowledge of the weakness of IA as a program/script instead of as a game or series of strategic fights; the same type of weakness is universal to all programs/scripts regardless of how well written it is. Why would you bother playing a game if not for the fun of discovery and challenge?

Hi crunk

100% agree with you

In general, I also agree with Crunk. However, the point is nobody has won IA without reloading the game since v4 (without cheating that is) and it has got even harder at v5 and v6. There are quite a number of battles for which there is no 100% guaranteed winning tactics without relying on some luck at some point. Note that we are talking about playing the game legitimately without cheating and without using in-game exploits (which is basically cheating in disguise).

As far as I know, there is only one person who has made the absurd claim of winning IA's recent versions without reloading the game but that person (Krell a.k.a Saros) is a known liar and cheater.

[HTRT]

I started the mod in serious at the beginning of version 5 and reloaded like a cofee addict in a pathetic run in which I went to spellhold at level 12 (on a berseker protagonist).
I didn't even know about improved haste or ruby ray of reversal at that point, so it won't be a surprise if I say I learned a lot in that experience
Solo runs or mind flayer time stop killing don't really prepare you for that