(Install is classical IA v6 only)
Why? to experiment some originality.
I will miss my sweet Necro, some extra quest including hard nut to crack which I think should be opened in IA V7 to any kind of protagonist. I will also miss unsilencable chars.
I will be able to forge Judgement Day though, RB wielding it might be something worth experimenting (very) late game.
Prince in EDE will be met without helpers, this will be something worth experimenting too I think.
To stimulate motivation for another run, I like to give myself some silly objective, here silly objective will be: "fight Layenne with judgement day in hand!" (also means fight Supreme leader before TOB, fight Ancient dragon before TOB,...and without godlike protag...)
Party is organized according the principle of physical brutality
all custom 89 Kxp
Permanent members:
RB protag (dual wielder, +++++ in flails then longsword then shortsword) 18/32 18 17 13 6 7
Half orc Kensaï (2H wielder, +++++ in staff then hallberd last 2H sword) 19 18 19 12 12 7
Half Orc Barbarian (2H wielder and late dual wielder ++ in staff and 2H sword, next will see ..) 19 18 19 10 10 5
Dual Berserker 7 -> cleric, (dual wielder +++++ in hammer then club ) 18/15 18 18 7 18 5 (he won't read scroll nor understand quantum field theory this one...)
Temporary hires:
Swash, to be switched with Valygar after lockpicking a lot
Sorceress to be switched with Imoen.
One cheat/cheese: will give Imoen same xp as sorceress when joining in spellhold. To lessen cheat/cheese, will not modify Imoen spellbook though I don't like it, all the more for a solo sorceress party.
Run:
Laboratory, no mail of the dead, don't know why
, clua it since with dungeon be gone installed I have it..Early quests and fights (suna, circus, montaron, Maevar...)
Unseeing eye
Trademeet and druids
D'Arnise apart Torgal level
Windspear outdoor
Umar Hills (apart Valygar joining)
Temple ruins outdoor
Copper coronet
Lilarcor
Aran First mission (no coward gameplay here, easy way was to join with pretty Bodhi
)Sorceress gains IH after second mission (contact)
Free slaves, reputation is 20
Get bag of holding
Dismember Mencar and his gang
Temple ruins, open way to thax
Finish Torgal
Clear catacombs in cemetery (leave vampires alone for the moment)
Mekrath lab, open planar prison
Various minor quests, join Valygar
Finish Bodhi
Planar prison, because phosphorous! quite easy when not triggering yuan-ti group with warden.
Further sewer cleaning (lich, ashideena, horrid, party)
Founder
Windspear dungeon, free child and kill the great Samia, protag is level 14 (1.7 Mxp)....No vecna, but a +3 staff (for kensaï or barb) which is good!
Various minor quests
Sphere; Lavok (2 gems 3 lords), golems, demons, exit.
Various quests
Screaming statue
Thax: IH or potion of haste and normal weapons. Cleric backstage casting ZoSA, restoration (lesser and one greater one), PFLD,...
Shade lord (easy)
Kangaxx (barbarian and staff of strength)
various quests
leave for Brynnlaw (protag 2.23 Mxp)
Asylum first floor, climb up, want to try unusual (for me) order of doing things, that is: crystal, lich and lords, vampire lord, tome, librarian (did not get any cloak here, no cloak on librarian, no cloak on pupils).
Irenicus, after chunking lonk the sane.
Sahuagin city
Underdark
Mind flayers, kuo-toa near bridge
Beholder dungeon, once having brought an end to beholder race, hesitate going straight for mighty one....Go for it! (protag is level 18, just above 3Mxp).
Protag used one scroll of pfld, took turns with Valy (with AoP) and Barbarian (rage!) hitting dracolich. Fight was easy....not 100% sure but think dracolich had less pfmw than usual (I usually go there with much more xp) and used wail less often. Mighty one fell! No great loot (was expecting staff of rynn)
Second drow ambush (near stairs)
First drow ambush and globe machine
Mushrooms and dwarf village
Kuo-toa dungeon, Prince, Demon knights
Illithids, Brain outsmarted by brute force.
Drow city, qilue, first mission, boz, ....
Exit underdark
Various areas, meet kruin in Tethyr forest (Valygar just got racial combat)
City, forge a lot, sewer, Vecna was here! Crom is mine.
Troll mound (so easy with so much +4/+5 weapons)
Chaos (by punches, never before did I kill it this way)
Windmaster
Firkraag, method was bashing, switching from magical weapons (for warlords) to normal (for Kraag)
Umar (Imp went down first, Imoen then peeled Umar)
Guarded compound and corridor (after a rest)
Lady Vanya first mission
Lord Roenall
Lady vania second mission
Leave for WK, First two floors cleaned, then some forging
Back to meet Green Wyrm, news for me here is that fight will 1) last more than 2 rounds 2) involve all party
Fight was quite epic, B->C and protag left alone against wyrm with a greater djinni
Wyrm critical, Protag down to emotion, B->C out of IH and with no spells left
Djinni scored 8 damage, Wyrm dead....next round djinni unsummoned....
Finish Maze, clean all apart Gythianki lair at Lum the Mad level
Back to city, finish gong quest, prepare for a fight I quite fear with such a party, Grave lich in gate district
No problem in fact, CC 3*limited wish on Imoen, B->C rushed to lich who decided to silence him, Imoen out of silence
Limited wishes were timestop, rabbits and globes. Double TS+alacrity in Wish during first timestop, lich dead once weapons resumed
Time to meet Orcus
No use of PFLD scrolls (want to forge hesperus this time!)
Just 6 barb essences (2 for cleric, 1 for each of other fighters)
Too easy IMO (no master vampires....)
Back to WK, Supreme Leader
Fight was Homeric
Anti-inquisitors had to be put down by sword (all 4)
Imoen Wished no rest at all! Meant that soon noone was under IH (apart RB having 2 inner IH left)
Decided to wait for Supreme to be out of spells and out of Hlas (body equilibrium,...), thus my preciously saved (few) HLAs Smite and CS put to good use (taking care to propel supreme against a wall he would not go through)
Skull face imprisoned Valygar and Kensaï (one freedom scroll gone)
Saladrex did not have any chance against such party (cleric even went bashing instead of staying back out of silence)
WK Level 5
Riddles
Lich/skeleton ambush
Horde, 350+ arrows collected...
Golem ambush, just 10 lesser golems.
Globes.
4 blue and 4 green without any trouble. 3rd purple let RB alone wielding hesperus/phosphorous under automatic mode, he succeeded.
3rd red no problem (just a coin and a gem)
4rth red more problems, had to be fast (overall 1 coin and 2 ambers, just 8 chunks in bag for Thor someday)
4th purple, another epic fight
RB alone in the beginning with some summons, party out of room near portal. RB starts with Risk decrement (propels liches west), then uses ring and potion to prevent stellar gravestones chunking him on the spot.
once pfmw near expiring on graves, Kensaï, barb and Valy run to help protag, one lich down (hesperus helped)
Meanwhile Imoen is wishing while cleric GR, got one TS+Alacrity, end of which another lich down
Enduring spells after that, Valy falls, Imoen uses scroll to PWkill one lich (thus taking silence and being out of the game)
Protag stunned, Barb kills last grave
Open first lock
Cruise through golems and raks, just hesitate a bit before black dragon which might also be a pain (how many pfmw to endure?), in fact was easy (took hardwood first, then waited, not that many pfmw)
Open way to tree of life
Protag reaches level 30, good!
Back to WK
RL years since I fought Demon lord, was quite a nice fight!
Imoen summoned and removed magic from afar (no luck with Wishes, nothing worth any help), other 5 taking death lords as they came
Demon AI and pfmw could not be dispelled (Imoen and cleric too low level most likely), so waited a bit after all death lord waves terminated (never any residue from previous wave with those 5 big punchers)
btw most commonly used weaponry is:
RB hesperus/FoA +4/phosphorous
Valy katana/rimed club/celestial fury
Barb Poseidon/ staff of the Ram
Kensaï Staff of strength/dragon breath
Cleric Crom/ashideena
Back to elven city to sell all my loot, more than 250 000 gp in pocket
Party level 26-30, no unsilencable caster, against Ancient dragon and acolyts, odds are poor....
3rd attempts was the good one
Basically getting rid of helpers was easy and fast, surviving lower fire resist + firestorm + greater doom + breath + firballs was not
Once wyrm had no more pfmw, though Kensaï was dead, no big problem
Cleric and Imoen silenced twice, because dragon propelled a victim where they were standing and hiding, dragon followed victim and thus found two marvelous candidate for silence...
Check for the first time greatest scalps of party, result quite funny:
Protag: Dracolich
Kensaï: Spider Queen
Barbarian: Ancient Dragon
Valygar: Ice Golem
Berserker->Cleric: Orcus
Imoen: Coin Golem
Azamantes was a pain, somehow worse than ancient dragon. Fear and Hideous laugh are a real bane for this party, lich used imprisonment well...
Finish WK (will need all xp available for Demon Prince)
Back to city, forge JD
Meet Prince near tower
Some good omen, when party stepped in WK area, Prince was waiting out of sight, so could buff before meeting him.
Elemental golem and death lord dead when another elemental gated
Noble marilith, two abyssal, one elemental and a gem golem down, party punches Prince
Noble Marilith and escorts spawn
Death lord appears
Mariliths again, Cleric DW on protag (IIRC somewhere CC 3*FoD happens...)
Elemental golem, Imoen Wishes rest, may be winner here, will see.....
Mariliths, Demon Prince starts raining fire...
Death lord gates while 2 abyssal left and valygar bites the dust burned by Prince
Another Death lord, Valygar is raised
Party alone against Prince,
Long wait for AI to end, experience of previous run pays (patience and caution)
Kensaï put an end to Demon Prince life.
No reload, RB wins the right to wield JD!
Back to city, nearly forgot cowled wizard and zallanora, exterminate all those.
Bridge District, use rogue stone found on Sion.
Imoen killed Layenne (said I wanted to meet her with JD in hand, not kill her with JD...)
Shyressa, Revanek and Vaxal had a short time
Solo RB dual wielding hesperus/JD was great against shangalar
Tree of life
TOB
Illasera
Saradush, sent RB dual wielding hesperus/JD against vampires, quite fun
Gromnir, Karun the black nearly got us; Adhw rain fell Valy, cleric and KensaÏ, fortunately Imoen could cast 9th level spell and summoned a Deva.
Marching mountains (EFGs go down fast by weapons with this party!)
Beren and Imix without trouble and time wasted (IH was on for some rounds after both were dead)
Skeletons were IMO another perfect test of solo RB with hesperus/JD (only other help some summons, great fun)
Burn hearts
Party lvl/mpv right now
RB 34/Dracolich
Kensaï 33 /Demon Prince
Barb 33/Ancient Dragon
Valygar 29/ Ice Golem
Ber7->Cleric36 / Orcus
Imoen 28/Layene (yeah!)
Yaga, nice fight
First elite fire giant went chasing a spider, so waited for waves
Got rid of waves one after the other, roughly same method:
- Imoen under alacrity RRoR *3 then breach on fighter/mage
- meanwhile all 5 punchers get rid of cleric, assassin and fighter (they take hp fast!)
- F/M breached, F/M killed
- then kill EFG
- then next wave
EFG of the beginning killed afterwards, then cleric shot implosion on Yaga, Yaga was cut to pieces
No wish rest, apart debuff not a lot of spells cast.
Oasis, upset, my first ToB reload here. It is never reported in journals nor messages, but IMO this is one of the toughest fights in Improved Anvil (apart for a 4 mage party) if taken "as it should", i.e. stepping in and fight, not moving to PP when just arrived in Oasis (and enemies still "blue").
First two rounds are usually (for me) telling whether party has a chance or not to win
Round 1:
Imoen Alacrity (has CC stoneskin/pfmw/Spell turning)
Protag IH (then attacks nearest captain, lucky JD hit triggered pfmw)
Kensaï djinni
Barb Spider
Cleric Foreknowledge
Valygar CWN (should have forged boots of the ranger lord...)
Round 2
Kensaï Hardiness
Barb Hardiness
Valy Hardiness
Imoen rains IH
Cleric Shiel or Archons
Once all under IH, Attack golems
Once gem and priests killed, Imoen debuffed both mages
Tombleten was a pain, Djinni and barbarian kept him occupied (barbarian fell), then long time with him, RB wielding JD was at a pain keeping Jamis at bay while hardiness (why is it undispelable?) expired.
Amkethran, various quests, moving to meet half brothers
Go to place where boss is easier IMO for party, so Sendaï lair
Clean tunnels, usual inventory overflow, forge a lot (dragon lord,....)
Deeper into Sendaï lair, lucky that Odamaron did not use Imprisonment (would have costed a lot to buy freedom scroll...)
Enter Sendaï's room
Valy (mask +5/phosphorous), Kensaï (dragon lord) and Barb (Poseidon) take pet, fast killing, no roar
RB JD/thetruth takes one web
Cleric spiders then moves to safe alcove to summon and GR from afar
Imoen rain spells and summons
Wait for Sendaï protection to wear off
Third challenge done in PP
Time to face dragons (Not at ease at all thinking about Abazigail....)
Draconis, simple attack with normal weapon, clear dungeon.
Plan for Abazigail was:
- human form cleric dispels magic (is level 39)
- rush attack dragon form with normal weapons (not sure when thinking of it Abi is immune to normal or not) while Imoen back wishing (hoping for IH on party, enemies or not)
Plans have sometimes a tendancy to go awry in front of reality.
Not this time, first time for me with no Necro protag in IA V6 Abazigail falls no reload.
Balthazar, ready to face last challenge in PP then EDE.
EDE was done, with great difficulty, mainly because not as many barbarian essences as usual (some 18, means no 100% physical resist for all fighters without HLAs/items), no godlike Necro or Vagrant and no divine helpers (Pasha or swanmays).
Getting rid of summons (golems and Raks) was not a walk in the park to say the least.
Won when Prince was after djinni somewhere along with an ultra golem, so party could get rid of Supreme, one ultra and their summons without being troubled by Raks (unfair? cheesy? I make no claim).
After this, party rushed to Prince, first rak bunch spawned, party focused on Ultra apart protag who went hunting noble raks.
Imoen then wished-rest with no consequences, another greater djinni to keep Prine occupied...Party then took care of other ultra
Second rak bunch spawned seconds before Ultra fell
Third Rak bunch appeared when just one an amber was still around
When helpers no more, Prince still had not triggered one AI!
Lot of reloads on this first part, Pasha, Necro, a fully geared Vagrant and swwanmays are nothing but godlike help in EDE (at least for me).
Once Prince alone, I would say he has no chance against party. Protag (JD/thetruth) Kensaï (dragon lord), barbarian (poseidon) and Valygar (katana/phosphorous) decrease Prince HP fast (did not use potions of magic protection because I did not like dispel magic), Cleric remains far away to GR, cat figurine...
When Prince invulnerable, Protag can tank Prince alone no problem with some summons while AI fades.
Oils of resurgence were put to good use btw.
Imoen used IH, summons and Wish-rest (Some 4 with consequences IIRC).
Noticed in one of my failed attempts something: if you save in EDE (while enemy out of LOS) and reload, 6 horrid raks spawn (I just try reload, did not think to try rest and I erased save, so if someoene knows what happens if party rest, for the sake of curiosity, let me know)
Something else (bug?), about ring of free action; I used it on protag or Kensaï, after a universal purge magic, I could not rebuff IH on "ring of FA wearer" (of course removing ring before casting IH or using inner for protag). Only IH that was effective was Wish-IH. Don't have problem when ring worn by improved boots of ranger lord user btw (only have to re-equip)
Protag ended with 10.3 Mxp, less than a Necro at same stage (some 400-500kxp less I would say).
