Nicoper suggested that I journal my latest run so I will try to do so. I've beaten the game as intended a couple of times before so this is more of a relaxed run with some experimental modifications. Sharing all of them for transparency.

Install is vanilla + IA 6.0 + ToD + The Four

I've made the following modifications, most of which are for quality of life:

• Jaheira as R/C multi (may modify pin for her use, we'll see) - I like her interactions and quest
• Bag of holding at beginning (BAG31) - I hate the inventory game. Will use this one for items I will sell and red bag for quest items (to give a sense of how I manage this)
• Removed UAI-disabling scripts since they make my game run slower (circa 2013 PC so its probably something with my antivirus)
• Assume party came from BG1 and have applied stat books; characters otherwise rolled
• Adjust necro charisma to 20 - I rolled a 14 so assuming permanent friends
• I've also gone through and modified/eliminated many of the checks to the class and alignment of PC, so the ranger stronghold quests should be available. Will at least track the gold gained from this separately. This means theoretically JD sword could be available but for 250k GP its questionable that I will be able to afford it.
• Give 99 scrolls of identify and 99 scrolls of knock to PC, more if needed
• Modified yoshimo's thief abilities to 100 lock pick/detect trap and max pick pocket after - equivalent to starting a custom swashbuckler, i guess.
• Will adjust NPC XP to party XP once they join
• Adjust difficulty to max HP and scribe scrolls
• Allow RC multi to have GM in clubs (pure cheat, I know)

Challenge/restrictions:

• No party member should die in a fight - most difficult in Ch 2/3, I think, due to CC:3xADHW. If fight is won but then I do something stupid I may relax this and move on
• No crafting or purchasing special weapons (e.g. harmonium halberd/blackblood club) until Ch 6
• No purchase of scrolls (all must be found!) - key scrolls will be limited wish/freedom/spell turning/chain contingency
• No visiting Tower of Deception until Ch 6 - early RoP +2 and other good items + experience will be missed

Party is as follows:

• Necro LG - 15/8/16/(18->19)/18/20 (charisma rolled 14 and was adjusted to 20 via SK)
• RB 1 - (18/43)/18/(16->17)/12/18/3 (start 5* flail, 1* in 2 weapon, eventually flail/LS with 2* in SS and 2* in BS)
• RB 2 - (18/75)/18/16/12/18/3 (start 5* in WH, 1* in 2 weapon, eventually WH/BS with 2* LS 2* SS)/ Imoen will be reclassed as a riskbreaker (her stats actually are perfect for this) and replace RB2 in Ch 4
• Dwarven fighter - Evil - (18->19)/(17->18)/19/17/9/3 - may adjust class at various points, wanted to test dwarven defender kit from EE (but don't have EE), start 5* QS/1* 2-handed weapon, QS/Hal/2HS, will give him hardiness to start to emulate his class ability and SK in the physical resist at lvl 10/15/20. I missed enrage in many fights and will probably adjust to berserker for Ch 4 on (and take away corresponding resists). Starting in Ch 4 this guy became just a regular berserker.
• multi RC - (18/11)/18/18/16/21/3 switch to Jaheira and give her the same stats. Could have done this at the beginning I suppose but didnt think to do so until back at city from initial wilderness jaunt
• Yoshimo -> Cernd after initial spree

SPOILERS ABOUND BELOW - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!

Ch 1

• Say goodbye to Imoen, free Jaheira and Minsc
• Pick up Yoshimo (party of 6), probably next time just make a custom swash instead
• Disarm all traps and clear the chateau. Keep all items worth >10 GP (chain mail, composite bows, etc.)
• Sell items upon exit, gold is ~4200.
• Donate 1500/2000 gold to temple in promenade to raise rep from 12->14. This is probably a mistake as I'll explain later.
• Clear Circus, steal Aerie's robe, rep 15
• Head to slums and start Ch 2

Ch 2
Goal here is to clear the city of all containers/pickpocket where I can except for graveyard. I want to get as much XP as possible without triggering Suna Seni, which is quite a bit it turns out! There is a path that hits every area without triggering Suna Seni so quite a bit can be done. I'm still collecting anything worth > 10 gold at this point (chain mail, long bow, etc.).

• Slums - Plunder slums completely (WH +1 in borinall's house) and many good items from CC inhabitants. Disarm traps in sewer between CC and slaver ship but only fought the goblins. Pick up de'Arnise and Windspear Hills locations.
• Docks - Rob the Shadow Thieves, kill Prebek and company, visit Valygar's house and find out about Umar Hills, start shadow thieves quest, kill minotaurs (Hardiness was used here IIRC, tough fight at this level), open door to pirate lair, don't like the look of the guy in the corner and kill him - turns out he is a slaver but also has a nice full plate mail. Loot a battle axe +1 from container (and 3x +2 battle axe from minotaurs, too bad no one will use them)
• Govt - Rescue Viconia, get Umar Hills location (again), save Jan from zealous aristrocrats but refuse him
• Gate - open door to lich, say high to corrupt guards, open world map but head to...
• Temple - start unseeing eye, Sarles, and paladin cup quests. Here I could have stolen the necklace from the Talos organization and further advanced the thieves guild quests but I like to buy the belt and QS +3 (only weapon I will buy) from Talos, and didn't think of this. Extra cost from buying now vs at Rep 20 is probably < 3500 gold, which is why I think donating early was a mistake. In any event I don't think the Maevar fight would be winnable this early so this is only a minor point.
• Bridge - rescue paladins (mwuhaha), find out they need a cup, clear Saerk's stronghold (morningstar or flail +1 IIRC), get horn of Valhalla, clear skinner 1st and 2nd level (but not basement), turn in and get rep 16, pickpocket the dagger +2, get quest to rescue Haer'Dalis, and loot the playhouse. Also visit derelict house. In my previous games here I left the city after this point but decided to see whether I could do even more. BUG: Trap in derelict house is not disarmable, always goes off.
• Temple - get the cup. Here or at any of the other trips to the sewers I could have gone into the sewers to Roger but I've seen vampiric mists and am afraid of these
• Bridge - kill the paladins, difficult fight this early may have used the DD hardiness but can't remember. Halberd +1 here.
• BUG: Two pairs of "worn out boots" drop here which can't made into boots of speed. Potentially remove these to remove confusion or convert into proper ingredient.
• Temple - return cup, reputation 17.
• Gate - wave high to corrupt guards
• Promenade - pay ore merchant, sell a bunch of items to get ~17-20k gold (I didn't write it down)
• Slums - Shake down the duerger and find out I need to go to the bridge for illithium ore. Visit my friend in the shadow thieves and pay him.

So, every area cleared except for graveyard and temple sewers and Suna Seni avoided. I didn't write down XP but think it is around 250k at this point.

Ch 3

Goal here is to get as much XP as possible before Suna Seni and then clear normal Ch 2/3 fights. Samia and co will be attempted but Firkraag, Umar, Troll Mound, Kangaax, Alhoon, and Teshal will not. Watcher's Keep and ToD mod will also be left alone. I know Suna Seni can be beaten much earlier but I do think its a fight that relies a lot on luck/saving throws (at least for me) so I prefer to rig the odds as much as possible.

We start by leaving the slums and heading to the..

• Docks - talk to Aran Linvail and get AoP and RoP +2, its night time so I head to the docks for Mook quest. Also run into first vampire encounter. Since its Ch 3 the vampire attacks and is immune to +1 weapons. All I have is the sword of chaos +2 which is a problem but I also have a clerical wand of flame strike, so 4 charges later that vampire is toast. AoP protects from level drain. Talk to Mook but cannot save her, this vampire isn't immune to +1 weapons, and turn in quest to Aran. If I hadn't donated I think I could get reasonably far on thief guild quests here but I don't have the amulet so move on.
• Govt - turn in the head of Neb = Rep 18, give illithium to SIR Sarles
• Temple - turn in illithium quest. That's it for the city, though I guess I could have done a few things in the sewers or in the thieves guild line.
• Gate -> Umar Hills - vanilla quests, get Ilbratha and shield, also kill the rangers up near Valygar's house (surprisingly tough at this level). Say goodbye to Yoshimo and send him back to Copper Coronet. Pick up quest for silver dragon blood
• Trademeet - pick up Cernd, call out the guy who claims to have killed a dragon and he gives me 1000 gold for free, fight the lesser spirit spider at the top exit
• Druid grove - clear and then kill Faldorn - LMD/FA/Cone of Cold (only 5th level spell PC has), rest and kill Nithliri and then rakashas
• Trademeet - drop head and buy amulet of protection from djinni (~2400 gold), then turn in head. Turn in quests and help Tiris. Rep 20. Have ~50-60k gold but don't buy anything. Possibly could do de'Arnise Keep or Windspear Hills but don't like leaving an area partially cleared so head back to city.
• Temple - Buy staff +3 and crushing belt (~4400 gold) and then steal amulet from Talos church
• Slums - Copper coronet - fight with Surly and clear regular guards, cheese guards with offscreen emotion, press onto Beastmaster without refreshing spells, feign ignorance about intentions and quickly kill minotaur. Then focus beastmaster and finally Tabitha. Cernd uses death spell on lots of little animals and PC distracts. Help Hendak take out guards
• Docks - buy 2nd amulet of protection +1 from Maevar's merchant before completing thieves guild quests (rep drops to 19). Normal weapon rush on the mage and then run true seeing when fighting Maevar + malison/emotion. Take sword instead of guild (IMO the benefit of the guild is only a few thousand gold but requires a lot of effort, not really worth it. If the benefit to taking the guild was somewhat higher, the decision would be more interesting but I think I always take the sword. Plus I think this is the only +3 piercing weapon in the first part of the game that doesn't require purchase).
• Graveyard - clear surface level tombs and do vanilla quests (Risa/teddy bear/zombie uncle/buried alive). Rest and prepare for Suna Seni! I don't have a save here but think party XP is between 600-700k.

Prepare mightily for Suna Seni (e.g. rest)

Leave graveyard for docks and trigger the beast!
Suna Seni - greater command/emotion/haste, lol

We go on:

• Baron ployer, Harper hold, Last bandit group,
• Graveyard - Pai'na (death spell/breach/whack her til she explodes)/spiders (kill Vortex spiders ASAP)/lower crypts/royal family - kill Queen ASAP while tanking king
• Temple sewer - Roger's troll, avoid harder fights
• Temple sewer tower - yaun ti mage group (very hard fight here, a couple reloads), start mirror quest
• Temple sewer - imp - stay spread out - excellent fun at this level
• Unseeing eye area - clear only to get key from Gaal, AoP is great here to clear vampiric mists
• Cernd is whining, go get his baby (kill his nemesis but leave the lich alone), get Yoshimo
• Lower tombs in graveyard/temple sewers/sewer tower/harper hold - lock pick/disarm trap
• Buy Yoshimo a drink in CC to thank him and see a surly dwarf complaining about a book
• Get Korgan's book (graveyard/temple slums)
• Realize Korgan is a jerk and go get Cernd at Druid grove. Try for Belm and fail miserably
• Temple sewers rod area - random spawns of mummies and yaun-ti. These don't always spawn - not sure why but doesn't seem 100% right. The three gauth and shadow contingent across bridge are ridiculous at this point (Why do gauth have so many more HP than beholders but are worth less XP??), but we make it through. Get the rod. Skip spiders for nown.
• Temple sewers cult area - talk to the guy to unlock the stairs but then decide to give the rod to Gaal anyway. Fantastic fight at this point - room of cultists and a crazy strong beholder. Care (and a little cheese) with line of sight and eventually we down the beholder. One "elite guard" got away, I think, but overall quite good gains here. Return the rod.
• Undead city/beholder bridge - wave at the Teshal while slaughtering his citizens, off screen emotion the blind priests (how do they know I'm coming anyway?), profit
• Sewer tower - return the mirror, the guy tries to give me a slave, we don't like slaves so we kill him. Get the gem for Haer Dalis and company
• Temple - upon exiting am greeted by Jaheira's harper friends. We attack and kill the mage as quickly as possible. Turn in the beholder quest and get rep 20. Start priest stronghold quest 1 and buy some containers with our gold. Two scroll and two gem are enough for the game (~800).

Here I debate what to do - Amon, coordinator, slavers, or de'Arnise keep are options. RBs are lvl 11 here I think.

• Sorceror Amon - malison and 4 emotions eventually gets Amon to fall asleep. Get 3x RRR and a +2 warhammer
• Pirate coordinator - slaughter the captain and his groups, kill the mage without too much difficulty by attacking him for a bit while he casts a spell and then backing off before the roudn ends. He starts to read an AI scroll but we kill him before he finishes it. So only 4 scrolls gained. Only normal loots here.
• Decide to go for Torgal
• de'Arnise keep - clear first floor and outside, make puppy chow and rest by the wheel, whisper spider first and then yaunti - I think by true seeing, secret word, breach and pounding but it may have been by emotion. He didn't use any scrolls. Continue on afterwards and clear second floor including Glacias without resting. The damn Yaun-ti mages and vengeance trolls are so hard this early. Glacias doesn't stand a chance though. Clear golems in armory and two easy treasures. Complete FoA +3, and then rest. Keep viper isn't too hard, just tank with RC who has excellent AC and put some summons. Continue on and clear the bottom lair, put some dog food down even though Umber Hulks are dead (free XP), and rest.
• Torgal - buff well, including RB IH, Cernd is to attract the gem golem and tank him off to the side while PC breaches and throws MMM at Torgal and the rest of the team beats on him. RC runs in first to draw agro. This strategy works quite well but interrupting the Storm is quite challenging and hit or miss (lol). We don't get a storm but do get a WH +2 and a permanency scroll. We accept keep. PC XP is 995k, so we need some level 6 spells
• Slum sewers - Lilarcor, no great slashing weapons/proficiencies but shadow goes down eventually.
• Slavers - Truesight running, PC fires malison, Cernd fires emotion, RC and one RB go for Haegen, RB and 2H warrior go for cleric. PC gets IH and permenancy scrolls
• Druid grove - start Chaos quest and try for Belm. With 4x IH warriors its quite easy.
• Trademeet - 2H warrior tanks, PC casts malison before insects land, RC and Cernd call lightning, takes 10 total. Founder - 2x IH RB make short work. Find a nice staff here! Pockets feel heavy so we sell everything we can (keeping good scrolls, potions, etc.). Gold is 247k.

Here the goal is to finish up the city quests before doing windspear hills/shade lord/planar prison/planar sphere. I want a) as hard of spawns as possible, to clear the areas without leaving halfway through, and c) to minimize use of RRR scrolls (not that they're extremely valuable). So we complete the last city quests

• Shadow thieves quest 2 - only 1 bride spawns I think. PC XP is 1164k and I want 1700k for planar areas
• Bodhi's lair - rest but am visited by Dermin. So we'll try to clear the lair without resting. RC clears first floor except mage with no trouble. Mage goes down under pro cold/normal weapons. Second level is no problem. Back to first floor very low on spells. Send 2H warrior and RC the last named vampire and rest of party kills brides as they come. IIRC some level draining but not bad. Bodhi is cheesed as she spawns and she runs away. Success! We rest in the graveyard and are greeted by a messenger in red with a note
• Harper Hold - rejoin Jaheira and beat up some intruders.
• Temple sewers - recover other +2 warhammer from spiders. Rest, go for sewer party. PC debuffs gaius using 1x RRR and then breach, meanwhile RC and 2H warrior go for far cleric and 2 RBs go for near cleric. Clerics fall quickly and then we take down the plate wearers. Gaius is breached but we wait for him to start casting before we kill him. Loot 2x diamond necklace here. Buffs are still burning but I waste some time looking at the loot. Decide to go for rakasha. Kobold placement is annoying but Cernd has an emotion which silences the casters. Try to punch down rakasha before he uses AI but thats not possible. Lots of summons to distract him, his ADHWs hurt a lot but eventually we get him. A couple reloads here, would have been easy with better spells. Get cloak of the sewers which is actually quite nice for troll regeneration since I've stopped resting a ton.
• Borinall - amber golems are such a pain in the butt! Go in and feign ignorance that I'm looking for a shop. Buff party. Ask about ring and refuse to comply with his request so we fight. RC tanks golem when it spawns by PC, meanwhile RBs clear first assassins and then Borinall. I don't notice that hes under hardiness but eventually breach him. Very slowly whittle down amber, running out of stone skins on RC and switching to Cernd. PC is casting RoF and eventually he goes down. Turn in ring. PC XP: 1304k, gold is 248k.

Four major strongholds are key objectives that are left - windspear hils/planar sphere/planar prison/shade lord.

We go on.

• City - purchase ~ 8 restoration scrolls, these are key until Ch 6!
• de'Arnise keep - quest 1, pay 1k gold, 15.5k XP
• Temple Ruins - breach SJ, kill SL first and then SJ, clear vanilla mobs including summons on bridge and loot ioun stone, return to room with SJ, clear undead spawns by luring them to this room - liches are quite powerful at this level so we occupy him with summons out of LOS (cheesy? i make no claims) and then kill him. UD spawns are 1 lich, 1 SL, 1 bone golem and 3 mummys. Not good for XP but not bad. I think 1 rest per undead group but can't recall.
• Thaxy: Most fun Ch 2 fight by far! Normal weapons, use restoration scroll if warrior gets shadow breath, RC takes silence. Don't use spellstrike scroll or breaches.
• Shadelord: 2 PFME pells and 1xIH I think. Prebuff well but save 1x PFME in case RM from shade lord. Send RC north to tank SL and Umar. All fighters take out Patrick in ~1 round, then priority is SL->Altar -> spread out. PC 2xRRR and then breaches. Once breached and all minions are dead, fighters go for SL. Some time later, SL is dead. Warriors hit lvl 13 off of quest XP
• Windspear hills: vanilla stuff (Dryads/werewolves/etc.)
• Dungeon lvl 1: RC with AoP takes out mists solo, once all of those are cleared, go for Ruhk. Quite annoying fight I would say but we get a diamond necklace for our troubles.
• Dungeon lvl 2: Golem spawns are coin/gem/gem/bone, undead are annoying but manageable. Use RC with shield of harmony and AoP to take out vampire groups. Conster: Use MMM to peel some skins while fighters take out SL spawn 1 (RC and Cernd tank). Fighters kill conster in <1 round when he casts some stupid spell instead of PFMW. No spell scrolls used and gain book of infinite spells. SL are killed quite quickly and very little danger (surprisingly). Mistake here of not clearing the guardians. The ~100k XP would have been quite nice but RC thaco was too low. Get quest XP for saving child.
• Vanilla quests - de'Arnise keep quest 2, join paladin guild, paladin quest 1, ranger quest 1, finish cleric quests. Want 1700k XP before planar prison or sphere so get it where I can.
• Screaming statue - fire elementals are key here, dont need many heals (and don't have annoying skeleton warrior summon behavior, much improved IMO), dont use IH until after round 2. USe restoration scrolls if level on fighter dropped too low (they didn't until roudn 3). Prioritize eminent->brides->master->mists. Cernd is on standby with PFLD and PC waves "hi" from afar. Note that this fight is harder than the spellhold book which doesn't really make sense (e.g. make the book challenge harder).

XP is only 1660k, need more!

• Scrounge XP - Kill lich in temple (summons/wait out PFMW and burn remove magic before killing under PFME and IH. Same strategy for elemental lich in bridge district. Rune assassins in bridge district, turn in paladin quest 1 and start paladin quest 2, leave Cernd in city, stop by de'Arnise keep (quest 3) on the way to Umar Hills, complete the second ranger (ogres near cave) and paladin (kill the evil baron) quests and get Valygar. PC hits lvl 14! Return to the city. Finish the paladin quests, open the sphere and am BUG ambushed by vampires (even though Bodhi is dead!). Get Cernd and then head for the
• Planar Prison: Poor notes here. Used RRR/breach on elite bounty hunter. Double yaun-ti mage are hard but remove magic is working now which helps greatly. Clear to prison warding and get orb without resting, and then rest and buff well. Buff well and burn orb. BUG: Only 2 planar hounds spawn and no web trap! Approach warden from south (or he approaches us) and no yaun-ti spawn (fine by me!). RRR/breach/smash! No RRR scrolls used since he didnt refresh any defenses. Re-approach from north east and yaun-ti spawn, so we kill them. Rest, and 3 planar hounds and web trap appear. Rescue Haer'Dalis and co and steal his shortswords before wishing him well.
• I always save planar sphere for last because I am terrified of the engine room. Too many times of fighting ~12 golems at once due to pathing in there. Nothing more to do but go there now.
• Planar sphere - clear both halfling groups and spiders without rest, gauntlets here are quite nice. Rest and meet first golem spawn (2 gem/2 coin/bone - excellent!). Rest.
• Lavok - 2 gem/3 SL, PC and Cernd approach, Cernd takes gem golem agro and moves south below where RC is tanking and warriors are killing skeleton lrods. Kill gem golems while PC and Lavok trade RRRs. Once dead send fighter under Prot Cold/PFME north to Lavok. He removes magic so we send the other RB under PFME/cold to fight him. After his speech, we immediately go for (buffs are still active)
• "The Four" Guardian of the Robe. - kill lizards then SL, breach the cleric, and then kill him. Also clear the other room (scroll of giant strength!)
• Engine room area - rest and kill mages quite fast (normal weapons/haste/RRR/breach), clear vanilla area. Approach engine room area from cold room (no groups of golems spawn) and kill the spread out golems. Exit, rest, and re-enter from fire room. Golems spawn. Head towards engine and take out golems in NE first and then golems in NW. Careful positioning here wins the day. Rest and head to demon plane.
• Demon plane - nothing too memorable, SL -> greater demon -> other minions. Turn on engine and take Lavok outside. PC XP is now 2092, so almost 400k XP from planar sphere and planar prison!
• Samia - kill guardians, rest and buff well. PC blocks warlords while party is positioned in room. PC uses trigger (malison/emotion/slow, thanks for the idea Nicoper) and then Cernd casts emotions. Fighters interrupt clerics and then take out Kaol in <1 round (silly mages). No CC;3xADHW triggered. Clean up fighters while PC dances with warlords. Here 2HW tries to take out warlords with his staff but they have the same reach. 1 killed and 1 badly injured = 2 heals on fighter. I wait too long and he takes 1 too many hits and dies! PC backs off and other fighters take out warlords. Here I decided to not to repeat. Loot is unbelievable here- Vecna/belt of str 19/belt of inertial barrier!
• Empty bags besides scrolls, de'Arnise quest 4 (Roenall threat), gold is ~584k.
• Forge 2x Cloak of Protection +2, 7x Ring of Protection +2, 2x boots of speed, and Cernd's cloak and helm (520k gold). Normally would forge Phosphorous and WH +3 at this point instead of the boots of speed, though having 1x BoS is quite nice.
• Fund a wand from the apprenti (1000) and the bard playhouse (2000) and head to Brynnlaw with 2145k XP and ~61k GP in pockets.

Here if I had a berserker I could have gone for Kangaax but that was not the case. In general I think the DD-replica was disappointing. For a 2H warrior that can tank damage, probably the best (e.g. most OP) is a Berserker/Mage that duals after lvl 13 (to get the extra attack) or a barbarian, but to me GM + SS/PFMW > 70% damage reduction.

• Brynlaw - berserker dwarf, kill Chremy before rescuing the girl and childd (mistake - lose some XP), buy belt of crushing resistance from the temple, rob pirate lord house
• Gallena -forgot to memorize RRR, so fight lasts a little longer. Surprisingly (BUG?) many more guards then previously, 9 total, with halberd + plate mail. Mage used 2-3 AI scrolls. Rest.
• Mage house - PC RRRx3 and then breach (use 1x scroll since only 2 lvl 7 spell slots). Fighters kill coin golem and then mage. Second coin golem spawns while mage dies.
• Clear noble trolls and air elemental outside prison and enter the Asylum. Join Imoen (convert her to a RB, only change strength to 18/XX to match the first RB, otherwise perfect) and replace the 2H-warrior with a fresh dwarven berserker with the same stats and XP (to avoid SK bugs).

PC XP is 2245.

We go on.

• Asylum first floor - rest, clear floor (golems are 2 gem/2 coin/1 greater bone), get ring of regen, empty worn out boots, and spear +3. Rest and enter second floor.
• Second floor part 1 - Clear umber hulks and spawn (yuan ti) and then head to the book. Book challenge is quite easy - room for improvement here I would say. Warriors gain lvl 16 (2nd IH). Altar: Summon 5 skeleton warriors and buff well including party haste. Clear kobolds in first room, and keep the skeleton warriors in there with PC while fighters clear the crystal shard room. After chain lightnings, skeleton warriors tank 1 Amber as do PC and RC. Priority is guardians -> shaman -> golems. Hasted skeleton warriors are not as good as unhasted skeleton warriors :/ Rest.
• Second floor part 2 - First lich triggered by RC wearing boots of speed. Minions (4 SL/2 greater mummy) fought in eastern room and lich delayed in hallway with summons and buffed warriors. Three heals left after the fight so we go for librarian/cat. Kill coin golem and cat. Rebuff with IH after ~7 lives of cat. Once cat is down, the librarian spawns and we relocate the party. Cernd turns the bookworms into monsters and they attack. We kill them and then try to wait out the librarian. He casts TS followed by 3x ADHW at RC. Cernd tosses a yellow potion, and the RC lives with 10 hp! RB under PFME cleans up the librarian. We go on - Dace taken out by RC under AoP. Decide to try lord without resting. Turns out he's easy with RC and berserker. One breach from scroll and he's toast.
• Third floor - Memorize lots of summons (no limited wish scroll yet found!) and rest before entering. memorize lots of summons but no stone skin or iron skin for pc/cernd, RC and berseker take out yaun ti (forgot, didn’t take any remove magic) and use cloak of sewer to regenerate afterwards, slowly take out minotaurs with jaheira and berserker, send PC alone to scare off vampires, finish up last minotaurs, heal using platform, jaheira and berserker clear rooms, then all 4 fighters create a wall at entrance of larger room and kill werewolfs (use RB IH x1 here), RC tanks 2 coin golems and PC tanks last one, no stone skin broken, Cernd hits lvl 14 but go for mithril golem anyway. Buff well (haste/IH/prot evil/FA/chant/bless, RBs drink potion of invulnerability) and distribute oil of resurgence (6 in pack), cernd has 2 FA left, jaheira summons 2x animal 3 (2 bear 2 wolf), and cernd summons nymph, PC and cernd will not fight but renew summons and heal, cat figure used and 2 heals, mithril down, set spells for irenicus and rest
• Fourth floor - loot club from troll head, tell the warden going to cell and then whack him, irenicus fight: trigger: malison/slow/emotion (from some time ago) and 2x creeping doom and fire elemental, imoen (WH) takes out clones, jaheira and cernd tank golems, PC renews SI and then stoneskin, all mobs dead 4-5 roudns before SI:div wanes, spread out to avoid remove magic if he casts it, once SI:div is done jump him (all mage allies are alive and help) - no CC:3xADHW, accept offer from Saemon
• Brynlaw - trade items in bags for gold, PC XP: 2668k, gold:160k
• Sahaugin city - Duel: 3x remove magic, but the first 2 fail (even though PC is level 16). Only one summon taken which is killed by death spell. Eventually win with spells. Drow treasures are nice, clear city without rest. Rest before prince. Prince: jaheira tanks prince/summons with, 1 RB on mage north of pit, cernd casts creeping doom on vipers, mage/RB/berserker go for bottom mage and fighters. RB/berserker both slowed but eventually clear the bottom fighters. RB on north mage kills him quickly and helps with vipers. Kill prince afterwards. Prepare spells for drow ambush number 1 in underdark and rest.

We go on.

• Underdark main area - Kill mindflayers and elementals. Drow ambush - Contingency+ ST= 4xsunfire with invisible PFMW PC is quite good. Cleanup afterwards. Balor - no RRR so wait out his PFMW and then kill him. ST/GOI so secret word looks like it would work. Rest. Drow ambush #2 - several reloads, PC doesn't have a PFMW and keeps failing saves. Eventually kill spiders first while drow are distracted. Kill kuo toa without resting, main area is mine (except vishal). Visit Adalon and start city quests
• Drow city - Buy 6 yellow potions and rod of smiting (21000), gold is 150k. Clear fights in tavern. Rest and talk to Soulafein. Leave to rescue Phaere.
• Ambush - quite easy could be further improved. Afterwards rescue Phaere
• Kuo Tua - power through with physical damage, kill drow by exit. Leave dmons for now
• Beholders and "The Four" guardian - Rush beholder boss (survive ADHW) and then clear area, being quite careful to leave alone GEG in center. Rest and fight guardian of the crown. RC with girdle and AC-21 -4 = -25 is only hit 4-5 times whole fight. Don't milk but try to kill summons while avoid purges. 5 gem/5 coin
• Deeper Dark - first time trying this early before HLAs. Dracolich is one of my least favorite fights. Clear, rest after each getting key and before dracolich. RC gets drained halfway through, run out of deathwards, one last wail right when last PFMW ends, RB1 dies but is raised by Cernd, Dracolich falls (all party members alive)
• Drow city - Spare duerger and soulafein, kill deirex and save ammar (perm scroll), turn in blood (PC lvl 18), rest, execute noble efreeti (perm scroll), clear jae allat and switch drow eggs, sell everything except scrolls and key potions, finish and fully clear drow city. Gold is 320k
• Underdark - Turn in eggs to Adalon, rest, demon knights (limited wish - protection is huge here), clear entry way, sell all adamantine armor, final gold: 345 K, PC XP: 3636k

Here we leave the imprisoned mage (since no freedom scroll) and illithid lair, as I want to make sure to have 20 rep and the rep boost from freeing the slaves is quite nice to have. Turns out rep was not needed and that area could have been cleared.

Start chapter 6 - my goal here was to go to the temple district and fight alhoon, but it turns out that Kruin blocks that entrance! So options appear a little limited because of lack of +4 weapons.

We go on. On the board is Firkraag, Kruin, and Umar. Want rep from Umar so its Firkraag

• City - tower of deception (easy) and vampires in graveyard
• Windspear hills - kill windmaster (pro lightning, 1 heal from Cernd. Firkraag - kill warlords and punch down the dragon with normal weapons (breach not possible. Ring of protection from fire is great here.
• Forest of Tethyr - PC tanks Kruin under stoneskin, improved mantel, and AI. Survives comets with RoPF and ST: Pro fire/stoneskin. 3 comets total!! Warriors clear githyanki while Cernd and RC position elementals. Eventually SI:Div wanes and then spellstrike/breach with PFME buffed warriors
• City - playhouse - missed quest 2 XP here, sphere - got wand started ADHW scroll, forged Cernd staff and amulet of hades (115000), gold is 248k, kangaax - berserker + Cernd, hard nut to crack - buff well, summons on archer on platform, send RC to tank exterminator and kill planetar, PC and Cernd IA and then fire spells, warriors on assassin and then kill pitre/assassin/assasin/fadrah/mage/exterminator/archer, forge red dragon armor, wave, ioun stone, and PW (182500), gold is 78k
• Alhoon's lair - first room - PC and Cernd tank skeleton warlords under IA while warriors kill cleric/deva/mage (after debuff) and then clean up, clear second room using same buffs
• last room - draw out regular illithid, prepare spells and rest, few buffs but 5x skeleton warriors, RC goes left, PC goes right and casts IA then 3x RRR then ST:3x remove magic. Warriors punch quickly Alhoon down. Fight in top room (better than bottom room) and kill gem/coin as they spawn. No real opportunity to do damage to greater until all 9 lesser are dead. 6 gem/3 coin. Immediately forge CF (10k) and cat figurine (80k). PC XP: 3987k, gold 1k.
• Mage stronghold - steam prince punch downed under Pro Fire
• Druid grove - troll mound - RC and RB on noble trolls, 2HW and RB on troll king, PC IA and then debuffs, Cernd summons and then creeping doom on vengeance trolls. Get gong
• Trademeet - buy casket and staff of striking (3k)
• City- playhouse (3), get ADHW scroll start robe, noble marilith and escorts, turn in gong, sell gems, gold is 78K
• WK lvl 1 - PC XP 4090, clear w/o rest, 1 glorrd, spider queen (2x PoF after FA dispelled), PC XP: 4314x, RC got first HLA at ~4400k XP
• WK lvl 2 - clear floor (non-demon) w/o rest, spells on EFG + smash, both golem groups in air + spiders + room still only gave 5 golems (7 coin/6 gem), PC XP: 4456k
• de'Arnise keep - pay 5k to farmers, nothing to dikes, next quest is battle
• city - playhouse (rewrite script), prepare for gate lich and rest, get robe and sphere scrolls (3), forge memory of the apprenti (75k), gold is 10k, gate lich (DU/smash)
• guarded compound - clear all including GEG but not BUGGED The Four lich - First floor: IH on both RB, 2nd floor: IA on cernd and PC, Cernd uses FA, PC 2x comet, 3xRRR, 2 breach, heal using Rings/Cloak of Sewer/staff, RC summons 5x skeleton lords and takes purge. Kill minor golems on spawn, one bad purge halfway through. Cernd eventually tanks in armory alcove. Clear lesser golems and then GEG
• City - Sell gems and all ammo in belt, gold is 82k, forge Djinni ring (75000), gold is 7k
• Sphere - Do without resting: Ice golem/elemental (6 lesser, ok this was chesse (I don't think the others were cheese) but since doing pasha fight without rest I felt OK doing this) and then pasha (noble raka is priority, mage remove magic is strong enough for horrid and abyssal). Got killing blow on all enemies including elemental. Gained +2 rep (wasted). PC XP 4689
• WK lvl 2 - chromatic demon: explode enemies (8th amber golem), power attack stuns demon and smash him down. Rest and prepare for lvl 3. Goal is to clear dragon through to demon knights (we'll see!)
• WK lvl 3 Green wyrm: PC and Cernd explode worm (spellstrike, breah, lower resistance, malison, doom, ~18 flame arrows + comets etc.)
• WK lvl 3 maze - Continue on in WK lvl 3. Milk demon lord spawns (OK this is cheese too), tieflings: buff well and then kill tiefling physical damage first, same with demons (use critical strike to kill fast). Rest, kill demon wraith and loot book/ice scales etc. Many reloads of bets with Aesgareth, win scroll and spectral brand, kill Aesgareth on 3rd game. Clear entry hall of level 4 and exit.
• City - Playhouse (cleric), rest, Limak: occupy with summons until SI:Div wanes, breach and kill. Empty bags (not scrolls). Gold is ~340k. Buy mauler's arm (6800 gold), forge phosphorous (75000), truth (100000). Gold is 158k.
• Teshal - Kill skeletons and lich, 3 bone golems spawn
• Old ones - Trigger: Pro fire, Stoneskin, Contingency: PFME, CC: Foreknowledge, Spell turning, GoI. Rest. Old Ones: Roudn 1: Spell trigger, round 2: Si:Necro, round 3: IA, then RRR and help kill liches while keeping defenses up. Start RVE research
• Bodhi - Full clear no rest. Drizzt survived somehow but everyone else died.
• Underdark exit - Get stone for RotG, free and kill mage, clear illithid lair (miss githyanki afterwards somehow), turn in lantern. PC XP: 5750k
• City - playhouse (music), mage stronghold (rune), cowled wizards (2nd fight), rest and prep for TR, get RVE scroll, start potions (5000)
• Twisted rune - Key buffs: foreknowledge (PC), 3x truesight, IH, LW:NPP. PC and Cernd IA, PC debuffs Layene (3xRRR/breach) while Cernd refreshes NPP on warriors, who are fighting the vampire under hardiness. Shangalar distracted by Djinni and 1-2 other summons. Once Layene is 3xRRR (thanks to true sight) and breached, use FA to get her to wish. Meanwhile kill vampire and other warrior, breaching as necessary. Then kill Layene, beholder and Shangalar. Displacement of Shangalar via RB is quite strong here. No twisted golems
• City - Cowled wizards (3rd fight), scrolls in sphere (4th I think?),
• de'Arnise keep - Forge FoA+4, Destroy army, Roenall under unbreachable hardiness, loot 4k in collected taxes, 16k(!) in good will. Total gold:200k PC XP: 5849
• Umar - easy at this level
• City - Playhouse (Turmish mercenaries), last 3 (Roenall, umar, playhouse) without resting
• Windspear hills - Destroy army, forekknowledge + dragon breath + sunfire under Pro Fire/Trueseeing
• City - Turn in rune assassins, playhouse (rehearsal)
• Orcus - My favorite fight overall I think. Buff well - Foreknowledge, hardiness, IH, potion of invulnerability, Pro Fire. RC goes east to take silence, critical strike by fighters, Cernd/PC IA. RVE 3x, 1 regen, 2xphysical resist, LW:NPP, summons. IA for vampires is off by half a round, Cernd gets drained. Sunfire + dragon breath is very good against the vampires. So many PFMW, eventually he falls.
• Forge - Nearly empty pockets (still have all scrolls including clerical ones), gold is 408k. Buy WB (26k), shield (20k), forge LotU (90k) and necklace (60k) and BoS (50k). Gold is 163k. Saving gold for girdles/thor/dragon helm/DoTC.

Sphere - cant do any research, need TS scroll! Since the bard stronghold isn't finished that means either waiting around until the play is complete, skipping the play, or going for the anicent dragon via supreme leader. We go for the ancient dragon.

• WK lvl 4 - Buff very well (Pro fire/ice/cold/lightning), kill greater bone golems immediately (they debuff), then tank elementals (greater djinni/cernd/PC/RC), 10 gem/8 coin (some cheese here). Clear illithid lair and main areas. Rest
• Supreme leader - more giths than I remember, also sunfire isn't effective against githyanki. Send fighters to clear SE room of githyanki while summons are brought up. Distract SL with summons once he enters, by this time the SE room is cleared. Getting through the doorway into the NW room does not go smoothly - sunfire didn't do much. Eventually clear githyanki and start on golems while summons (djinni/planetar/ and a couple others) occupy SL. Take out golem makers slowly (this didn't go that smoothly I would say) and then anti-inquisitors. Outlast SL HLAs (soooooo many!!!) and then he goes down.
• Fight minotaurs without rest - quite good fight here with spell depleted party. Rest
• Demi-lich: PC under foreknowledge and IA casts 10 RoF, 5 VT, and 3 LMI. Coin down. Meanwhile, fighters critical strike gem. DL removes magic and imprisons a RB; PC casts freedom and Cernd refreshes DW. DL down! RVEx3 doesnt give rest or regens. Saladrex: Refresh buffs (not enough IH for all), rush to main room and surround the dragon as best we can. Normal weapons and beating, use 2x GR. Rest and prep for ancient dragon. Usuno's blade looted here!
• WK lvl 5 -Puzzle - free xp. Anicient dragon - buff: Pro fire/lightning/fore knowledge. Keep RC back out of sight. Fight: PC IA, RRR/breach/3x lower resistance/ST:3xLB, 9x LB = dead efreeti. Warriors pound salamander. RC summons djinni and tanks Nishruu after some time. Refresh IA and breach on PFMW only, 6 breach total I think. Dragon is down and then pound Nishruu. Nishruu regen is stupid, it works even against RB hard strikes. PC XP: 6538k
• City - Playhouse performance (79k XP, 10k gold), empty bags (keeping all scrolls and potions), gold is 335k, and forge thor (75), dragon helm (40), girdle of strength (30), lordly girdle (60), great wyrm plate (125), gold remaining = 5k,
• zallanora - quickly kill phac, outlast zallanora SI:div with summons (breach on RC and then remove magic, only 1 comet, BUG (I think) death scrolls in inventory even though she is surrounded by summons), sell some things, gold = 45k

Remaining SOA accessible areas are: a) Keep viper (Vanya says come back later), WK lvl 5 (globes/all keys/horde/undead ambush/golem ambush), c) Suldanesslar, and d) time machine fights. Could also do the extended ranger stronghold quests and/or JD fights (since custom modded game) but the XP and gold is certainly not needed. I probably will take a break from this party for quite some time since its so powerful. Given that, let's take a look at the party:

• PC: lvl 24, 6567k XP, MoTA,LoTU, guantlets of dexterity, circlet of netheril, ring of acuity, ring of protection +2, boots of speed, scholastic cloak MPV: green wyrm
• Berserker: lvl 28, 6497, XP, PW/staff of ram/soul reaver +4/blue dragon plate/helm of baludran/girdle (str 23)/RoP+2/RoP+2/CoP+2/AoP+1, boots of grounding, HLAs (in order): 3 hardiness/power attack/5 crit, MPV: Guardian of the Crown
• RB 1: lvl 28, 6497k XP The Truth/SSoM +4/FoA+4 OH: phos, indigo ioun stone, belt of inertial barrier, RoP+2/RoP+2/AoP+1/CoP+2, boots of speed, HLAs (in order): 3 hardiness/power attack/5 crit, MPV: Aincent dragon
• RB 2 (Imoen): lvl 28, 6496k XP, Thor/Cuthroat +4/Ilbratha OH: Foebane +3, Crimson ioun stone, RoP+2/RoP+2/AoP+1/CoP+2, girdle of bluntness, boots of speed, HLAs (in order): 3 hardiness/power attack/5 crit, MPV: Spider Queen
• RC multi (Jaheira): lvl 17/20, club +3/darksteel shield +4, great wyrm plate, gauntlets of weapon skill, improved dragon helm, ring of gaxx, boots of the woodland, girdle of lordly might, CoP+2/RoP+2/AoP+1, HLAs: contact with nature, power attack, critical strike (2), hardiness (1x), MPV: Bodhi,
• Cernd: lvl 28, Oak of the High Forest +4/Impaler +3, Bracers of AC 4, Circlet of golden flowers, girdle of bluntness, boots of speed, master of the high forest+4/RoP+2/RoP+2, HLAs: Monster summon V, healing touch x3, implosion, storm of vengeance, energy blades, fist (3x). MPV: Chaos
• Party resources: Ring of Djinni, Improved Cat Figurine, 19 Barbarian Essence potions (none used), 12 potions of magic protection, 7 potions of magic shielding, 5 potions of freedom, 45k gold, scrolls and healing potions worth several hundred thousand gold, 3 permanency scrolls, 4 manual of elaboration

Remaining key items to forge are: supreme shelter, warblade, DoTC, dragon lord halberd, boots of the ranger lrod and last boots of speed, Total: 580k gold, and then upgrade rings
Items I won't forge: cloak of arcane immortality (180k gold is not worth it), golden spider (too weak), scarlet stone (strange headgear for a caster, have circlet of netheril instead), royal elemental staff (good for B->M, not for mage), golem slayer (too expensive, PC has fighters for that task), rimed club (RC will get phosphorous in Ch 9), Limak's brain potion, Root of the problem (its a +3 weapon in a +4 weapon's world).

We go on. Note that I did the ranger stronghold quests below which are normally not available. When we left off, Vanya was saying she would have something so we rest in the city while casting spells care free in the city. Eventually she tells us about a...

• Keep viper - bludgeon to death critically and recover a nice gem
• Umar hills - rest a bunch and trigger Mystery of the Shimmering Light (annoying start to the quest to be honest), start the Gold Key in the mage sphere while waiting for Delon to spot the light
• Druid grove - Guardian of the glove (2xRRR/breach - quite easy) and then Enchanter (RRR/breach)
• City - illusionist, start bone key
• Umar hills - finish Mystery of the Shimmering Light
• Coty - talk to Roshan, get note #1, recover note #2
• Grandmaster of Assassins - sunfire + DB, warriors kill master assassins and then grandfather and then coordinators (remove magic doesn't work). 11 x rune (SS+1), 9x master (aquamarine), 12x elite (SS+2),2 coordinators. PC XP: 6755
• City - turn in grandfather rune assassins, 55k quest XP + 20k GP + 3 BE!!, turn in viper (25k quest XP + 10k GP+2 BE), sell looted goods (scrolls from Umar (4x) yield 30k GP), sell everything including scrolls - gold = 889k, green dragon scale (75), forge DL (200), boots of speed (50), BoRL (125), SS (90), WB (50), gold = 299k. Save gold for JD eventually
• Good/bad/ugly - start: PC XP 6838k, turn in green plate, use maze to save the NPC in danger, kill ultra ASAP, bleed elemental golems, 1 amber/10 coin/8 gem, PC XP: 7020k after quest xp,
• Sulda - stop off in uncleared forest and clear, head to sulda and rest before entering, clear whole city without rest, 1 amber/4 gem/3 coin GEG, no spawns on noble rakasha, no wish rest or good RVE either,
• Nizi - PC solo approaches, spell fight (spellstrike/breach/summon/breach), position so that plant growth hits only PC out of area. Once all PFMW are used, send in fighters. Hardwood golems tanked with skinned characters and djinni. Last restoration and healing touch used. Several reloads here. PC XP:7368k
• Watcher's Keep - demon lord - 14 deathlords + demon lord, remove magic effective vs PFMW. PC XP 7455, clear first three reds and undead ambush, last red - 4 amber/3 gem/3 coin, then golem ambush - 12 coin/12 gem. PC XP: 7806. Clear last globes - LW/sunfire/DB on vampires, FA for spiders. Horde - emotion/malison. Azamantes - crit strike before he refreshes first PMFW. Open all seals. PC XP: 8185k. Gold = 552k
• Time machine journey - Balors - SW/breach, 1 at a time followed by warrior chop, only 2 used ST, had a few spellstrike memorized; grandlords - easy, final boss - easy, need more planetar and remove fear next time. PC XP: 8341k, sell everything including scrolls, gold = 945k
• City - forge: 4x RoP +3 (240k), 2x RoP +4 (180k), CoP +3 (60k), 2x CoP+2 (60k), Cloak of arcane immortality (60k), 2x RoP+2 (60k), JD (250k), 35k gold remaining
• Watcher's Keep - prince spawns off screen, 4 noble marilith/3 elemental golem/3 deathlord, 2 gem/1 coin, not enough remove magic for marilith!!, demon prince eventually goes down PC XP: 8491k
• Demogorgon - read scroll (100k quest, talk to helmites get scroll 25k quest, kill demo 80k quest, talk to odren 20k non-quest). PC XP: 8699k , exit and CHEESE read scroll - 80k quest, PC XP: 8779k
• City - tested Krell's tactic killed temple district (7k gold, 30k XP pp) and Ribald (11k gold/ring of regen), thieves guild (11k gold, 5k XP pp). Reverted save.
• End of SoA: irenicus - heartwood golems cleared easily, irenicus 3xRRR + breach; PC XP: 8824k
• Hell - good path, lose 75k XP, 4 gem/2 coin, PC XP: 8819k

PC wakes up to a celebration in the elven city, gets bored, and heads south.

• Illasera - IA, RVE, foreknowledge - fight lasts < 2 rounds with warriors CS enemies
• Pocket plane - first challenge, summon all PCs and take their items, forge ixil spear (5) and helm of the rock (5), PC XP: 8918k
• Saradush - vanilla quests, 12 eminent vampires spawned,
• Gromnir - mages fight, remove magic doesn’t work on SI:div and don't have dispel magic, kill fighters then ancestor then gromnir, when SI:Div wanes kill last mage. Empty bags at temple inlcuding scrolls, gold 288k, PC XP: 9150k
• Forge - Forged Foebane +5 (5), circlet of netheril (5), staff of the ram +6 (5), enhanced oak of the high forest (80), golem slayer (165), gold 29k
• temple of mir - Try to clear through burning of heart without resting. cleared vanilla, got druid tear
• Fire Giant Temple - 6x elite fire giants outside, cleared all of temple including brennen and imix. 3 gem/3 coin on elemental, tanked while fighting everyone.
• Temple of Mir - without resting, return tear. RB with JD fights skeleton lords while party clears nyalee. Success! PC XP: 9492, 54k gold
• Yaga shura - 1 RVE wish, breah is faster than RRR, prioritize mage/cleric, then EFG, then fighters. PC XP: 9628k
• Oasis - PC XP: 9747, lots of RVE regen, RRR slower than breach, 14 gem golems. 2 mages, 2 clerics, 8 pikemen, a few captains
• Amkethran - Vanilla quests, kill faheed and loot his stuff, nearly empty bags to smugglers, then kill smugglers, gold is 322k PC XP: 9815, forge heartstone ring (5), save rest of gold (317k) until end
• Sendai's Lair - Clear outside drow through guards Theny… (PC XP 9921), clear spiders (perm scroll) and then slaves (13 +2 SS), (PC XP 10058), clear drow ambushes (PC XP 10167) and odamaron via remove magic and critical strike (10213), then ogremach/diathya (10247). Kill captain without rest but spells are too depleted, notably no lower resistance so 21 (!!) scrolls of PFMW used. Rest and kill him in < 2 rounds. Clear mind flayers (PC XP 10274k). Kill Sendai (PC XP 10398k).
• Abazigal's lair - Draconis - alacrity/RRRx3/breach then SS/breach/normal weapons (PC XP: 10412). 6x ADHW, ouch. Accidentally skip NPC quests (Nanoc etc.), get wardstone, turn in wardstone then kill dragon, slay Abazigal in a couple rounds (PC XP 10599 after cutscene)
• Amkethran - Kill mercenaries and sell everything - gold 745k, PC XP 10671. Forge FoA5, Hindo's Doom, SSoM +5, spectral brand (20k), Ring of Gaxx (120), Golden Spider (60), Imp Boots of Ranger Lord (50), DoTC (50), Carmine Ioun (40), NSoF (60), 2x RoP+3 (120), RoP+4 (90), Cuthroat +5 (75), 2x RoP +2 (60). Gold is <1k
• EDE - distribute items, buff well. Separate RC tanks prince while pasha tanks NW ultra. Rest of team kills supreme golem, 1st wave of rakasha, and then 2nd/3rd ultra golems and elemental. Total of 2 gem and 2 amber golems spawned. Lead prince into alcove and let pasha tell us when to attack. BE falls off after 1st near death AI. No wishes used. Used 24 PFME scrolls, 7 yellow potions, 14 potion of superior healing, and 23 BE. Probably only ~10 BE potions were necessary. PC XP: 11193.

Potentially interesting statistics:
Total game time: 134 days, 15 hr

• Final PC XP: 11190k, part of 6 the whole game
• XP gained during ranger quests: 630k
• XP gained in The Four and ToD: 140k
• XP gained in mage quests: 360k
• So XP for a mage who drains summons with no additional mods should be close to 10.3 M
  
  
• Gold spent on crafting: 4280k
• Gold spent on items/consumables/strongholds: 110k
• Total gold earned: 4.4 M
• Gold gained during ranger quests (assuming green dragon plate is bought/turned in): 320k
  • So ranger quests cover JD sword + 70k
• Gold gained in The Four and ToD: 110k
• Gold gained in mage quests: 180k
• So gold for a mage who drains summons with no additional mods should be close to 3.8 M

• Perm scrolls looted: 27
• Perm scrolls used: 20
• Manual of elaboration books looted: 11
• Manual of elaboration books used: 8
• Scroll of Memory boosting looted: 7
• Scroll of Memory Boosting used: 5

In ToB, the mod level1npcs worked fine with IA in my tests and even allowed to assign IA kits to the characters. You might consider using it, it's more user-friendly than hacking around in the editors, especially SK which has a tendency to corrupt the files.


The class ability also applies 50% slow to the character that affects his mobility in a huge manner.

Funny, that's something I used to do very often, apart that I turned Jaheira to a dual R->C
True she has nice quest, and if protag is male and you romance, a nice surprise with Bodhi chapter 6!

@critto: for hammer, I think it is the one in illithid compound (used to forge crom faer)

@bulian: I do no recall you could go to temple district avoiding kruin, are you sure of it?

Very pratical modifications,I like it!


Since the second time I play BG,I got the OCD that I can't endure any party member be killed(or imprisoned),if it happened,I'll reload…A little perfectionism,but interesting~Now you are doing the same thing,haha!

Updated with walkthrough through Ch 2.

Currently finished chapter 3, PC XP is 2145k, just spent 520k gold at Cromwell's (what does he do with all the gold, he could hire some help I think) and have 63k gold on hand. Hardest completed fight was Samia. What do you think I crafted? Bear in mind no weapons. Bonus points to whoever gets it right!

No I'm not 100% sure. I'll let you know if it works! The entrance I'm thinking of is up by Pimcilio's house (or something)



Good to know. Does your comment mean it only works during the TOB portion? I haven't used/am not familiar with this mod but did a quick lookup and it looks interesting.

Yeah but I think thats not such a big deal since most enemies dont run off and change targets. Difficult to simulate though without having the proper kit. Overall that ability hasn't been game changing, and I think I the berserker is probably better (rage and GM) at least on core. I couldn't decide what to do with this character but wanted a 2H weapon wielder who could serve as a tank. I have done the B->M thing too many times. I've never really done much with barbarians - their chain armor is a little "meh" and I really like GM. A paladin would be interesting but no GM and turning seemed like too much downside. That being said, for this fighter I will probably give him the improved flesh armor, so maybe a barbarian would have worked reasonably well.



It's good to keep your party on their feet

No, I meant it works with vanilla game (SoA + ToB).

Updated first post with first part of Ch 3. Preparations for boss #1 (Suna Seni) are complete!

There is a lot of writing here so details in future posts may become more sparse.

I couldn't reproduce this in EE. My thief detects and disarms the trap properly. bulian, could you send me the area file (AR0529.are) from vanilla for inspection?


This isn't a bug, strictly speaking, but will be addressed nonetheless in the upcoming release.

Suna Seni fight posted. Very epic fight.

Thanks!

Nice

Trap in vanilla always behave this way, cannot Be disarmed

@bulian
Nice suna😄

Sorry missed this request. Should be attached here.

Updated through completion of city quests. May be last post for a while though.

Since I'm further ahead with the run than with the journal, I'll share that I just finished the underdark with this party.



I was wrong this is not possible!! Maybe with potions of invisibility or something but I just sold all of those.

You play ToB, not EE, right? Did you encounter any issues with Glaicas (i.e., he starts talking off-screen)? Was it v6.1 or plain v6 of the mod?

I do not have EE, Glaicas seemed normal. v6.0

Updated through the start of the asylum.

Slowly catching up to party! Journal updated through the end of Chapter 4. Party is quite powerful so I'm playing a sub-game of minimal resting.

Updated through Underdark.

Do you play an evil necro? If not, how did you trigger this encounter?

Edit:

Ah ok... still how did you do it then?

Sorry for the confusion. Since I've made several playthroughs, I'm playing a modified version of IA6 that I changed locally using Near Infinity so that I can access all of the encounters with a single protagonist - well, the ranger and necromancer ones anyway, I'm not sure what druid quests are available. I tried to mention that in the first post. I didn't touch any of the items or class requirements though. The gold and XP from "the four" guardians are pretty miniscule, and I'm not using the robe (its pretty broken). In this case, I removed the alignment requirement for the encounter; I've updated the first post to reflect this.

If you want to try the encounter, you can either use the CLUA console to add him in (S!roec01) or temporarily change your PC alignment in SK. If you do the former, he has two skeleton lord friends so you should add them as well if he does not spawn. Missing the encounter will not affect your run through in any way though.

Currently the guardian for the Ring is broken in IA 6.0, so do not try that encounter; the best fight by far is the guardian of the Crown in Chapter 5, which if you have Cernd in your party you will get to experience. Both the guardian of the gloves and robe are quite weak in my opinion compared to other fights at similar levels of experience.

Updated journal through near the end of SoA (past ancient dragon). Party is on hold so future updates may take quite some time if they come.

Which bag it is? I am doing a technical run for testing purposes with Necro protag, had Limak's brain in the red bag, it ended up being rotten and disappearing.

Looks like the code to destroy the brain is in Cromwell's forge area. Looks like I had deleted that code too. I put the code back in and the brain disappears upon entering Cromwell's forge. My mistake, I think its working as intended.

Added post with rest of exploits through the end of EDE and put some statistics at the end. If I feel up to it later I will add a couple of additional character snapshots.

Now let's hope Critto can finish up 6.2 soon

Hi bulian,
you mentioned in your 'Necro run through' that you found a Spear +3 in Spellhold. Where exactly? Is it still there in IA6.2? I cannot find it

It is still there, in form of an item upgrade from spears +2

The vendor outside of Saradush in TOB sells a +3 spear. Other than that, Critto's cryptic answer means he removed it from spellhold.

FWIW, I would recommend forging golem slayer for an avenger and halberds for warriors instead of the spear for my 2 perm scrolls worth.

There are no vendors who sell +3 quarterstaffs.

Thanks bulian,
so Quarterstaff+ 3 needs to be forged. Good to know...
I will also go for Golem Slayer for Jaheira (Avenger) first but im trying also to forge the Corrosive Lance later. There should be enough Perm Scrolls.

Did you find a Buckler +3 (for Mazzy's shield)?

Buckler +3 also needs to be forged AFAIK, there's a couple of unique bucklers +1 (or +2) that could be found as early as CH2-3.

There may be a buckler +3 from a vendor in Neera's TOB quest but Im not 100% sure and it may not be a legitimate ingredient for forging (based on the item's ID). I'd be curious if you do forge that shield what you think of it. I havent yet tried it.