Long time I did not play a vagrant
Wanted a party with many casters, like a lot Jaheira new kit, so:

starting;
Vagrant +++ 2 weapon style, ++ flails ++++ axes 18/63 18 19 9 15 12
Jaheira (from start)
Avenger: 18 18 16 10 18 5 +++ quaterstaff ++ lance
swash (to be dropped soon; this was planned, quite convenient to early lockpick), just maximise (100) lockpick and find traps, then maximise pickpocketing (for petty loot)
Undead hunter (don't ask me why I created one to drop it so soon after)

Plan is to join Neera, Nalia and later Imoen in the long run, will temporary hire some other NPCs around.

Laboratory
Get Bala's axe (80% miscast magic on hit) on cambion, Nice!
Djinni gives sword of chaos
circus
slums
Join hexxat and Nalia, UH leaves. Hire Hexxat though I hate her (filthy vampire using a poor girl she murders) because nice quests and a bag of holding preventing inventory headache.
Buy scrolls (emotion and mmm) for Nalia
Meet real hexxat, Cemetery (hexxat first quest brings some 7 kxp /char, party of 6)
Way back to slum, Suna Seni
Hexxat dominates cleric whose GC falls suna and goons, 2 clan spirits summoned, Nalia runs away (out of area of chaos) the emotion
Nalia with MMM and one clan spirit finish cleric (after letting him Call lightning once on suna), swash with arrows and a hunter pummel mage
Vagrant and two avengers were confused all time (they helped very little)

Visit docks, get maevar quest, lockpick a lot
second ambush, get montaron quest
rest in CC, clean some slavers
Montaron quest finished
Ployer curse
Beastmaster and tabitha (clan spirits great here!)
Start De'Arnise Keep (no serious fights)
Back to city, vist bridge for the first time
Tanner, gravediggers, meet thieflings, get horn, meet Nalia
Gov district, get valygar quest, umar, free viconia, meet Jan
Cemetery, decline bodhi, somme selling, start hexxat quest part 2 (some 16 Kgp/char)
Temple district, start quests and steal necklace
Waukeen, buy containers (potion and scroll), upgrade horn and forge gloves
Finish fallen paladins, maevar quest
Pick anomen (leave Hexxat in CC, btw hexxat does not need to be inculded in party so that her quest can be done, enough to pick her, IIRC some 7-10 days at least have to flow between each) Hate him, but I will need cleric soon (illithium)
Finish illithium quest (no ghost children hurt, very lawful good handling of situation)
Start chapter 3, first mission
protag over 500 Kxp, join Neera then (swash leaves) because I figured on previous runs she joins at 500 000 xp if protag reaches this cap (don't know if there is other caps for her)
Start Neera quest, Jaheira taken as hostage by robbers and then harpers appear (funny to have those two events in a row)

Back to city
Harper house (vagrant survived with 1 hp and held because a clan spirit took attention from harper mage since he was slicing him to shreds)

Trademeet, druid grove, Ithafeer,
Try and get belm from spiders!
Avengers memorized chaotic commands, free action, wondrous recall
buffs were bless/chant/protection from evil 15' radius, avengers holy power and acid shield, DUHM for all 4 who can, combat stance,...
key was to have Nalia (Neera GM was important to maximise holy smite effect) "lure" web at entry corridor as near from exit as possible
Avengers summoned clan spirits out of web near spiders (if clan spirit are caught in web, they die fast)
Acid shield very unpleasant for spiders btw
Just one potion used, invulnerability on vagrant (on top of II by Nalia)
2 reloads (to figure trick to trigger web out of clan spirits, they are quite sensitive to it!)
protag 575 Kxp, never did it so early!
Vagrant has 4 APR (with axe on main hand and Belm off hand)

Collect reward in trademeet, help Tiris

Anomen knighthood (what a prick this one, but I need a cleric for the moment being)
Resume Neera Quest, finish it (SoA part that is), protag 656 Kxp
Hire Hexxat to finish 3rd part (and last for SoA), anome left
Sewers under temple district, troll for Roger, free Haerd'halis (imp fight was long, here clan spirits did not last because did not cast CC on them)
Go down to look for a beholder
On my way back (for the first time) of temple, recover Ashideena (see belm fight for details, only difference is that I took care to cast FRee Action on clan spirits)
Spiders were pulped without any chance for them.
Beholder killed (rod, secret word, breach and pound), start cleric stronghold
Open planar prison
Kill Gracen

Copper coronet, sewers, lilarcor, fight undead bunch but not greater crawler (have just +3 club and short sword)
Lack of +3 weapons does not mean slavers can't be exterminated
Avenger casting Giant strength on vagrant and themselves (add DUHM for the 3) means 24 STR for druids and 23 for Vagrant, it hurts! (under haste with combat trance, avengers have 3 APR with staves/lance, not ridiculous either)
clan spirits and acid shields are really naughty..
that said buffs, one clan spirit summoned while entering near cleric of Cyric (other is summoned later, point is to have vagrant, Anomen and one avenger pounding haegan)
slavers wiped
Reputation 20, protag 870 Kxp

To get some more +3 weapons, en route to keep
fight yuan-ti mage and vengeance trolls together
Nalia levels to 12: Improved Haste!
Glaicus died without time to summon spiders (never happened to me before)
Keep viper and spiders clan spirits and bears kept for viper (did not use them with Glaicas)
Nalia with arrows of piercing, vagrant frostreaver and anomen club+3 kill iron golem
No rest since before Glaicus
Going for yuan-ti Jaheira leaves for harper house, so a little delay.

Back to keep
Avengers destroy spiders
Vagrant and clan spirits destroy yuan-ti (after 2*secret word and breach), Neera with Larloch interrupters prevented him from casting.
FoA is forged

Hesitate, go down in keep
Meet Torgal
Anomen (FoA +3), Jaheiar (staff +3 bought in trademeet), avenger (club +3) all under giant strength an IH take golem
Vagrant and clan spirit go for Torgal, Nalia (breach and lower resist) and Neera (Larloch interrupter) help a lot
Apart Mister prick (Anomen) who fell to gem golem lucky blows, no problem

Start stronghold

Quick party overview at this point

Vagrant 972 Kxp, AC -3, frostreaver/belm, MPV: Raffiya (hexxat quest, quite pitiful result for party leader, 51% kills in game though)
Jaheira 970 Kxp, AC -2 , staff +3, MPV: Torgal
Avenger 972 Kxp, AC -3, staff of thunder/club +3, MPV: Glaicus
Anomen 752 Kxp, AC -3 , FoA/shield, MPV: Yuan-ti mage
Nalia 904 Kxp, AC -1, Short sword of backstabbing/short bow, MPV: gem golem (yeah!)
Neera 949 Kxp, AC 5, staff +2, MPV: Unseeing eye (yeah!)

Kill chaos, last harper encounter right after

Umar hills, outdoor quests and finish Darcin Cole and rune mages

Temple ruins
Shadow Jailor (clan spirits great!!!) and first ambush (2 skeleton lords, 2 one Golems and 2 greater mummies)
Rest, second ambush (same as first one), open way to dragon.

City, Nalia funeral, recover bag of holding, Nalia abducted, Mencar, cleric stronghold (second advice given), crypt king and queen
Remove spiders from catacoombs, kill Païna
Copper coronet, buy lance of kuldahar (+3) and staff of arundel, get Lilarcor
Hire Korgan time to do book quest (and give 3rd advice in temple)
Anomen back; get Aran third quest, Terminsel gives pin, protag levels to 12 (put a 5th "+" in axes)
forge ring+2, cloak +3, harper's ward and morningstar +3
Kill minotaurs guarding kangaxx

Attack vampire lair, both avengers level-up (means clan spirit have +3 weapons now and shield of archons, very good assets), on reward Neera levels (pick RoF, breach anb PFME)

Planar prison
Elite Bounty Huntress was a nightmare, had of course to wear her protection out without using my RRoR scrolls.
Warden was easier
start theater stronghold
Should have made calculations, I miss 25 000 gp to forge phosphorous!

Finish cleric stronghold
Kill sewer party, kill horrid rak
Forge phosphorous

Go to windspear
start quest, Liberate dryads, enter dungeon
Rhuk made short work of clan hunters (though I buffed them carefully), good thing was one of his dispel magic landed on them and not a party member
Golem ambush (one coin 2 gems and a bone golem)
Many undeads
Djinnis, open way to tomb
Werewolves and minor golems
Second golem ambush, then add CC/FA/NPP and fight vampires, then Taazok and co
Conster and lords terminated, finish quest.
Start paladin stronghold, finish it (apart holy avenger of course)

Kill my first amber golem (surprinsingly easy, clan hunters under prot from lightning and IH, vagrant and 2 mages got it)

Party at this point:

Vagrant 1.76 Mxp, frostreaver/phosphorous/belm, MPV: Gem Golem
Jaheira 1.66 Mxp, staff +3/lance of kuldahar, MPV: Torgal
Avenger 1.66 Mxp, staff of Arundhel/club +3, MPV: Chaos
Anomen 1.42 Mxp, FoA/shield, MPV: Adamantite golem
Nalia 1.58 Mxp, katana+3/Tansheron bow, MPV: gem golem
Neera 1.63 Mxp, staff +2, MPV: Unseeing eye

Leave Anomen near sphere, time to join Valygar and open it
Enter sphere
First golem ambush (2 gems, 2 coins a bone)
Lavok no problem
Swanmay protected from cold did all the job with support from Mages (3 RRoR from scroll and breach), anomen not very lucky took CC 3*ADHW, costed one scroll of raise dead
Neera levels, after hesitation took MS V (other candidates were RRoR, sequencer, mordy)
Tolgerias, buffs where prot from cold and IH on warriors (vagrant, anomen and avengers), Vagrant with belt of inertial barrier and Jaheira with pin took risk not to be under pfme
All warriors buffed with Giant strength and DUHM (vagrant had phosphorous oh) took non magical weapons
No CC 3*ADHW from tolgerias, add prot from fire and fire room, then ice room
Rest before golem parade (Engine room)
2 gems and 2 coins, not a walk in the park, Nalia levels (she unfortunately has only RRoR to cast at 7th level)
Avengers (with summons) could block (running together to jam corridor) and exterminate the two other bunches (bone, 2 gems, 2 coins). One attempt to take them all was enough to convince me it was not the solution to take all 10 golems together..
Anomen levels to 14 (greater restoration!)
Demon plane, no problem
Finish sphere, send solamnic home, start mage stronghold
Protag reaches 2 Mxp (2.000.345 to be accurate)

Screaming statues
First spawn, just vagrant under IH with potion of invulnerability and bless (dual wielding frostreaver/phosphorous)
Second wave, vagrant, 2 avengers (Giant strength, DUHM, Defensive Harmony, Chaotic commands, stoneskin, NPP, combat stance and acid shield)
Anomen restored the 2 druids afterwards
Third wave
summons (Swanmay, salamanders, clanhunters under stoneskin, acid shield and Shield of archons)
Everybody with full buffs
Anomen ready to cast GR in the backstage
mages raining minor disruption
No problem

Temple
Thax did not have time to cast heal, never killed him so fast
Nalia earns his skin, her spelltrike then breach well timed for vagrant, clanhunters and swanmay to terminate it!
Shade lord had no chance
Get reward, strat ranger stronghold, talk to squirrel

Protag 2.088 Mxp

City, theater, talk to squirrel
Forge shadow dragon scale armor (for vagrant), gloves for Jaheira

Kill fouder, vagrant, jaheira and one clan hunter did the punching, other avenger and mages down, anomen stayed out of vengeance storm, had a well timed GR.
Giant strength as pre-buff (only thing not dispelled)
Staff of Rynn!

Protag 2.1 Mxp (not a lot of xp to be gained before cap...)

Finish hard nut part 1

How could I not try Samia and party?
They were never wiped so fast (party and skeleton together)
2 clan hunters, swanmay, 3 salamanders, 2 bears, buffs, giant strength for avengers and anomen, IH on all including hunters, kaol dead in seconds, rest of party in 3 rounds (pfmw on nalia not expired)
Neera started a Larloch interupter on chak, legdoril hit by a salamander lost spell too vagrant lost 45 hp, no hp loss on other party members...Slaughter
Only thing that could turn better would have been finding vecna!

Windmaster dead (does not like acid shield at all this one), easy fight too.

Protag 2.15 Mxp

Forge druidic circlet, Nature's gift (both for jaheira) and water's edge +4

Party is really powerfull, hesitate for next step between:
- Teshal
- Firkraag
- Troll mound
- Illithid lair in sewer (most challenging by far, main problem would be alhoon I think)

Kangaxx cannot be won (so liches for golden bones not necessary)
Grave lich in gate I might try (using a dirty and a bit expensive trick)
Do not for the moment consider finishing theater, mage or ranger stronghold (so no umar) because xp cap is close
Roenall is for chapter 6 (to maximise loot!)
As usual don't fancy going to WK before chapter 6
guarded compound, leave it for chapter 6 (could be won IMHO, but at the cost of many precious ressources like potion of barbarian essence and of vitality)

Teshal it is, no reload!
Long buffs (some may not like it, confess I like buffing my party)
Clan hunters under IH/giant strength/acid shield/shield of archons
3 salamanders
1 swanmay
2 bears
Full buffs (including prot from fire for lich eventual DB or Comet)

Avenger with staff of arundel goes for teshal
Jaheira with staff of Rynn (founder loot!) goes for one grandlord descending stairs
Vagrant phosphorous/water's edge +4 goes for grandlord near teshal
clan hunters on warlords
Neera LI then breach teshal (failed to interrupt storm)
Nalia rams lich then DU, sequencer 3*minor disrupt undead on grandlord
Anomen goes for planetar then retreats ready to GR

Once Teshal and grandlord dead, Vagrant helps for grandlords
No big problem, sent a salamander to lich to keep it occupied far away
clan hunters and swanmay sliced in no time by skeletons (they did some damage though)
Fight lasted some rounds, no more IH in the end (mainly because long buff sequence)
Once lich was alone, took dispel magic on an avenger then sent vagrant under prot from lightning and pfme (last 6th level spell)

On exit, kill a lich for golden bones

protag 2.18 Mxp

Tried Troll mound, vengeance trolls did best my party there, two tries were enough to convince me of it. Killing king and queen is somewhat easy, getting rid of horde of vengeance troll is not.

Party made a trip to windspear, was wipped by firkraag and warlords

So much for my glorious plans, lol.

Ranger first quest, take a batch of clerical scrolls
Kill a lich in bridge district
Students forged a dagger (I did not get in inventory btw) and are ordered to make ADHW scroll
Tried grave lich in gate (twice), one attempt was close, alas not enough pfme scrolls in the end (was a bit upset, could cope with two stellar gravestones without chunk)
Crushed trying illithid lair (in first room, twice, gave up)

Strongholds missions,
Neera levels, pick animate dead, Chain lightning and sequencer
Protag 2.259 MXp, time to leave
Forge boots of speed, ring +2
Take boat

Meet Imoen in spellhold with 2.349.521 xp! that was close...(thought i had a small margin, lucky me!)
pick RRoR and sequencer for Imoen for 7th level spells
Soon Jaheira levels, 3 7th level spells!
Second floor
Hulks, minor undeads, mist, tome,
Crystal shard:
buffs, prot from lightning on all (top summons included), oil of resurgence on vagrant and avengers, regen on vagrant
Lot of skeletons, one by one ambers fell
Librarian and cat
Third floor

Mithril golem was just horrible
Made a mistake not to buy MANY oils of resurgence before asylum, podered a lot picking limited wish instead of RRoR for Imoen, may be should have, problem is I only have one scroll of RRoR and Nalia can cast only one 7th level spell, so felt compelled to pick RRoR and sequencer was also very necessary
Vagrant drank all oils I have (3, alas) and under regen from Jaheira
Careful to renew summons, move away to recover
So many bleedings on vagrant that once golem dead, he nearly died from it (even drinking potions of superior healing)
End of trial second avenger levels

Irenicus and asylum scouts, avengers and clan hunters were efficient, 2 PWkill landed (on Imoen and Neera), problem is I retreated vagrant a bit so that he was not caught in the middle of many asylum scouts, Jon advanced a bit, so all party in LOS..Fortunately party has many scrolls of raise dead
All 3 mages level-up, took ADHW for Neera and MSVI for Imoen, vagrant gets a second swwanmay
Buy oils of resurgence stock in temple (and belt) before taking boat

Shark city, nothing worth to mention, Jaheira levels to 15 just in the end.

Underdark
Illithids, elementals
First drow ambush, Buffs on summons (free action, Chaotic commands) take some RL time but pay cash!
Globe machine (after drow ambush)
Gnome village
First rest in underdark
Balor near pit
Kuo-toa patrols in south east caverns near bridge, rest party.

Second drow ambush (easier than first, summons a plenty, vagrant drinks potion of free action after purge)

Enter beholder lair
Clean beholders without resting
Rest before maze
Maze
Very painful time with whisper spiders (one raise dead scroll lost)
Guardian
Neera levels, pick mordy (this one if meant for mighty one soon) and spell trigger
Maze sigil, one reload, vagrant finished with 2 STR.. sorceresses under improved mantle (scrolls), Nalia pfmw, Creeping doom from jaheira and ADHW from Nalia and Neera, the latter twice, Imoen summoned trolls

Mighty one
1 reload because too few death wards memorized
1 reload (and a painful one, seconds from killing dracolich but gambled to hit instead of drinking a healing potion and lost)
Exhausted Dracolich pfmw with vagrant and summons (I have many!) skeletons, mordies are really good, trolls not that bad, clan hunters with shield of archons, IH and DW from their creators do very good too! swanmays a bit weak
In the end two mages (who have no more summons or IH to cast) get silence one after the other (never noticed Dracolich firing a third silence) to allow avengers under full buffs (GS, DUHM, RM, IH, SoA, DW, Stoneskin and Combat stance) come pounding, very important they are not silenced to renew stoneskins and/or DW

Exit Maze

Western dungeon
Kill kuo-toas
Alicorn lance spell is a nice one to use here btw
Sacrifice to altar
Buffs do not include stoneskins for avengers (don't want to be breached!)
prot from fire/cold for every fighters (swanmays, clan hunters, avengers and vagrant), 4 mordys
Avenger fell, but no big problem here (mordys and swanmays killed 2 demon kinghts by themselves)

Eastern dungeon
Slice illithids and then meet big brain:
Use limited wish CC (3 trolls on hit for Imoen)
all 3 mages have sequencers and triggers loaded with RoF (means 18 RoFs on elemental in 2 rounds)
prot from cold/fire/elec/acid on fighters (memorized regen and Anaconda at 7th level for avengers, don't have PFE with mages)
Very hard time there, lack fighting power and elemental golem punches hard
Since I can't come in the room with summons already buffed, party loses a huge strength
key was to surround elemental golem with mordys while avengers and Vagrant pound it
Clan hunters were focused on brain golems
Mages helped a lot (summons and RoF)
Still a difficult time there
When party in, avangers on the left kill ulytharid then summon clan hunters
Nalia goes left and summon mordy
Imoen (CC 3*Trolls from limited wish) and Neera both summon mordy, then take purge, read a pfmw scroll
Vagrant kills illithid right, then hulk, lures elemental north (before purge)
Swanmay summoned near vagrant who joins with Nalia and avengers (anti clockwise move) then kill elemental
One coin and one gem had time to spawn
2 raise dead scrolls (one because brain damage on a raised Imoen!) and many potions gone too (just 2 oils of resurgence left)

Talk to Adalon, enter drow city
Nothing difficult, kill all drows on leaving,
Both avengers have ritual now
start chapter 6

Party overview:
Vagrant 3.81 Mxp, frostreaver/FoA +3/phosphorous/Water's edge+4, HLAs:CWN/hardiness, MPV: Elemental Golem
Jaheira 3.93 Mxp, staff of rynn/impaler, HLAs: ritual, smilodon, MPV: Dracolich
Avenger 3.65 Mxp, staff of Arundhel/club +3, HLAs: Ritual, MPV: cat'o nine lives
Imoen 3.65 Mxp, martial staff+3, HLAS: IA, MPV: Amber golem
Nalia 3.60 Mxp, blade of the roses/Tansheron bow, HLAs: energy blades, MPV: Amber golem
Neera 3.66 Mxp, staff +3, HLAs: DB, MPV: Unseeing eye

Forest areas
Kruin (in Tethyr forest), no big problem, summons, buffs (including summons), just one gem golem spawned
Troll mound
Umar
Firkraag (avengers ritual great here!)

City, forge red coral armor, staff +3, staff of strength, indigo ioun stone, silver sword (for later upgrade), 3 rings+2, ring +3
Scrolls of memory boosting are the crucial point for my upgrade plans, need 2 for Neera's robe, 2 for Nalia's Ring, have just One right now...

Illithid compound
No vecna first room (Layenne or Ancient Dragon it is now)

Guarded compound in temple district, corridor (2 ambers, 2 coins and 1 gem)
Summons are really good!

Grave lich in gate district, greater swanmay did 90% of the job

Visit keep, recover ruby of the gods, start shimmering light quest
Kill enchanter
Kill diviner
on my way to radiant heart, fight Roenall

Finish shimmering light (elite dopleganger was a real pain! fortunately swanmays do good against it)

Forge staff +3, golem slayer, improved cat figurine
Finish gong quest


Hard nut part 2
upset cowled wizard when buffing outside lair where evisceration waits

Idea was to summon a lot (clan hunters, greater swanmay, planetar, CC 3*mordy) and save at least 2 mages from storm, then, after restoration, attack.
Fight looked hopeless until I drastically changed tactic:
Instead of summoning, vagrant and avengers killed an exterminator before restoration (meaning no second wasted to cast)
Imoen got caught and was PWkilled soon, bad, she is a great asset
Good thing is Nalia and Neera were untouched
after restoration, avengers focused on Falahar, mages breached, Falahar died soon.
Vagrant could kill dark planetar and Pitre meanwhile
an assassin died mass attacked (and breached), then another
Avengers then climbed upstair to take care of archer while Vagrant and summons were left for mage, Imoen raised could RRoR mage, end for him.

Assassin lair, really one of my favourite fights, more difficult without a Necro, but very enjoyable still.
Have now first clue to meet grandfather of assassin (another great fight, top 3 IMO in IA)

Back to city to collect reward from Lady Vanya and forge cloak +2,

Grandfather of assassins
Many summons, buffs (including clan hunters), mages loaded with CC 3*ADHW on hit nearest enemy (apart Nalia, did not bought scroll, I am a miser) and trigger 3*CL
Important to have fighter going first to meet GFoA
First move is Nalia breaches GFoA, Imoen and Nalia alacrity
Vagrant and avengers focus on their target, crowd here make it difficult, soon Jaheira has to change target (cannot reach GFoA)
Mages alternate breach/ Chain lightning/ ADHW
Two coordinators to deal with (not 100% sure but think GFoA summons others if left alive too long)

On reward vagrant and Jaheira level, both take critical Strike HLA

Party overview:
Vagrant level 21, 4.60 Mxp, frostreaver/FoA +3/phosphorous/Water's edge+4/crom faer/short sword of the mask, HLAs:CWN/hardiness/PA/CS, MPV: Firkraag
Jaheira level 21, 4.75 Mxp, golem slayer/impaler, HLAs: ritual, smilodon, implosion, NR, CS, MPV: Dracolich
Avenger level 19, 4.35 Mxp, staff of Arundhel/staff of strength, HLAs: Ritual,Smilodon, NR, MPV: Elemental Golem
Imoen level 20, 4.42 Mxp, staff of rynn/sling of everard, HLAS: IA, EB, DB, MPV: Amber golem
Nalia level 20, 4.40 Mxp, blade of the roses/Tansheron bow, HLAs: EB, planetar, DB, MPV: Amber golem
Neera level 20, 4.40 Mxp, staff +3/sling of arvoreen, HLAs: DB, IA, EB MPV: Unseeing eye

Fry 5 cowled enforcers group, then upset highest members of the order
Get second mission from Lady Vanya

Decide to go to cemetery (means lose Jaheira because romance)
Vagrant and avenger did the job first stair (apart vampire mage that needed debuff)

Dowstairs, clanhunter under GS/IH/SoA/regen took care of one grandlord, mages turned vampires to ashes, vagrant and avenger killed master vampire then bodhi
Party alone against 5 grandlords (2 seriously wounded), no big problems
Go to temple ruins to resurrect Jaheira (who missed a lot of xp!)

WK
level 1
ice, fire and slime room in level 2
Back to city to forge (want more summons and magical enhancement!) golden spider, greater djinni ring, Nalia'a enhanced ring
Finish WK2, chromatic demon was sliced fast

Green wyrm, definitely harder than with a (lone) Necroprotag
Neera used 5 timestops to debuff, no big problem with avengers and vagrant punches

Forge boots of the ranger lords, FoA +4, start good, bad and ugly quest, then back to maze


Severe beating by tieflings, will be back later

Good, bad and ugly quest, forge and scrifice green wyrm plate

Very hard time for final fight
Summons, all I can, buffed summons (prot from electricity, GS,..)
Use something on the verge of cheese, no claim, Nalia mazes Auriel (lost twice because 2 natural restoral too few to keep her alive)
Clanhunters , avengers and vagrant pound ultra with a greater swanmay, all other summons on elemental
Mages wait one round then improved alacrity (apart Nalia), idea is to be under alacrity when purge to rebuff and destroy amber golem
Ultra falls, auriel still mazed, 3 elementals and 3 gems around, nearly no summons left
destroy gem near ultra (and all party) then focus avengers and vagrant on elemental
Mages renew summons
One elemental falls, but situation is very bad, got second sub-summons, 2 coins (full health), 2 lightly wounded gems, a wounded elemental, a seriously wounded elemental, avengers and vagrant have to retreat to heal then come back, mage do not renew summons fast enough
use my last 9th level spell tu summon a planetar who heals vagrant and jaheira punching elemental (other avenger retreated to heal)
Second elemental dead
Jaheira goes for 2 coins and 2 gems grouped together (crunching summons) a bit apart from last elmental attacked by vagrant and avenger
Auriel reappears, golems rush to her, no means to heal her...lost!

Change completly
Maze Auriel (sorry!)
Kill elemental near ultra (vagrant and avengers on it)
attack other elementals
purge, mages kill amber
second elemental dead, a coin gates, jaheira takes it while other summons and party kill third elemental
Alone with ultra, but with MANY summons alive
3 ambers later.. lost again!

5th attempt
Did overwish before fight, got rest, summoned another horde of summons (and buffs them, though it means first horde buffs expire or are shortened)
This time avengers, vagrant and 2 greater swanmays go for ultra
Vagrant activates CWN after taking around 80 damage (has 192 hp)
Nalia Mazes auriel
All other summons take 2 elementals
Neera and Imoen trigger alacrity just before purge (attempts lost mean timing is good now), exterminate amber
Meanwhile summons kill an elemental
a coin and a gem gate
Vagrant having no more hardiness has to retreat a couple of times to regain hp
Jaheira with golem slayer, her pin and stoneskins does great job against ultra
Ultra dies, after downing avenger, all foccu on elemental
elemental near ultra dies, gem golem follows
last elemental gates another gem, Nalia falls casting PFE on vagrant
Auriel unmazed
golems killed
Raise and collect loot

Back to city to collect gem and nice scrolls, then cabin for reward

Orcus
Nalia and Neera load trigger and sequencers with minor diruptions
Imoen and Nalia CC pfmw and MS VI*2 (Imoen) mordy*2 (Nalia) on it
Nalia contingency pfmw on hit
everybody Chaotic command
Avengers GS/DUHM/Acid shield/ritual/trance/regen/Shield of Archons IH from mages
Vagrant 3 barb essence and hardiness
Jaheira use a scroll of prot from evil 15' radius (collected from messenger of the light)
Defensive harmony
Climb down
mages summon Djinni and spider, had time to cast some triggers and sequencer (Imoen silenced first, then Nalia, then Neera)
Vagrfant and avengers CS (vagrant FoA+4/crom, Jaheira golem slayer, avenger SoS)
4 grandlords dead, 3 wounded when vampires appear
vagrant switches to lakesider and attacks vampires (after gulping potion of clarity because breached by orcus)
Orcus alone before first lord wave, eliminated fast
party punching orcus (and damaging it a lot)
Second wave, bad, avengers ritual ends, Orcus silences both, they still have some stonekins (cast before entering and not renewed) on though (had I known would have renewed it)
Orcus RRoR, breach and FoD on Neera who falls
vagrant summons swanmays
third wave
Imoen out of silence is stunned on the spot by Orcus (good move from demon)
Nalia out of silence summons planetar
long wait for pfmw to end, summoning,
Jaheira kills Prince of undead
So easy..(compared to previous endeavour), btw never used so few (3) barbarian essences here in any previous runs.

Lady Vanya second mission

Back to WK maze
Thieflings, buffs, pfme, mass invisibility, all mages energy blades
Mage casts true seeing instead of pfmw, is wiped, others follow in grave

Demon knights, mass attack under full buffs (mages with energy blades), a bit too stritforward, both avengers and Nalia mop the floor, still battle is won
Final room was easy (shield of archons and giant strength not dispellable)
After gambling, need to go to city to buy a remove curse scroll, forge rimed club, cutthroat +5, 2 rings +2, a ring +3

Enter WK 4, clear illithid lair and north rooms, will be back later

Deliver lanthorn

Party overview:
Vagrant level 24, 5.96 Mxp, MPV: Green Wyrm
Jaheira level 24, 5.85 Mxp, MPV: Orcus
Avenger level 24, 5.63 Mxp, MPV: Spider queen
Imoen level 23, 5.77 Mxp, MPV: Amber golem
Nalia level 23, 5.70 Mxp, MPV: Amber golem
Neera level 23, 5.73 Mxp, MPV: Unseeing eye

City in the trees
Apart order of fights (left golem bunches for the end), nothing worth mentionning, no rest needed (of course harpist house and Nizi not done yet)

Harpist house
Undispellable buffs, pfme+IH+ regen on both avengers
enter, all 3 mages start alacrity, Vagrant runs to greater elemental
Avenger runs west, to vaoid purge, then attacks noble rak
Jaheira runs east and summons clanhunter between raks and golem (she was supposed to but did not avoid purge)
Once alacrity on, mages machine gun RM, summons and RoF
Vagrant, once summons keep greater golem occupied, helps killing raks
Raks dead (had a coin then an Amber golem summoned, Amber was cut to pieces by mages)
Add little by little big summons (swanmays, smilodons, djinni) to trolls and salamanders
Took some more purges, plan was to get rid of secondary golems before finishing greater (did not want to risk having to sustain both greater elemental and amber puches, on top of a purge if bad luck)
In the end no more ambers, 3 gems and 2 coins on top of initial coin and Amber
Harp is ours

Dragon
Summons, buffs,
Right way of proceeding was to mass attack Nizi and hardwoods, avengers and vagrant focusing on hardwoods one after the other. Meanwhile mages after a spellstrike were breaching (cast and run away) at the cost of silence landing true sometimes, but 3 mages meant nizi was naked when all 3 silenced
After a (most unwelcomed) heal, dragon fell
Avengers don't have firepower to match Kensaï or RB, but they are pretty resistant in some situation (here they had -27 and -29 against crushing weapons, even after creeping doom removed and forbade stoneskins, not a lot of hardwood punch landed, with regen on, no danger at all (vagrant had to retreat twice to drink potions)

Temple, tree of life (kill 2 parasites), get mirror, exit area.
Vagrant 10.000 xp from getting swanmay queen


Golem ambush (WK4), hard time there, no milking at all (6 lesser spawns overall)
Serious beating in gythianki lair, will be back later (may be much later)

Twisted Rune
Gang exterminated without any problem (nor reload)

Key (I think) was that clan hunters, greater djinni and swanmay queen buffed (pfme/prot from fire, GS, regen, IH...) and that all other summons (swanmays, smilodons) were protected from fire

Nalia and Imoen under alacrity debuffed Layenne
Vagrant and Jaheira killed Shyressa (after a breach)
Avenger killed Revanek (after a breach)
Neera was grave silenced in the beginnig (no time to run out of Shangalar Los), out of fight

Summons tanked Vaxhall and Shangalar

Shyressa dead, vagrant killed Layenne (who could not trigger her double-timestop) with help from Nalia and Imoen (Energy blades!) while Jaheira helped finish Revanek
Vagrant then turned to vaxhall, who died under summons/vagrant +4 weapons. Vagrant took 2 gravestones during beholder killing, Nalia used cat figurine then Jaheira NR

Vagrant then turns to shangalar, Neera silenced no more casts timestop, when "normal conditions retrieved", vagrant CS dual wielding FoA +4/Crom, shangalar pulverized.

Good thing: I can forge Neera's robe (Thanks to scroll of memory boosting)
Not that good a thing: Vecna is to be taken from ancient dragon...

Big headache about forging;
2 permanency scrolls potentially to be found before demogorgon, one on saladrex (this I could obtain if I can cope with Supreme leader), one on ancient dragon
I would need one to forge JD, 2 to forge FoDW (to forge 2 +3 flails that is), need 2 to forge corrosive lance (one to forge a +3 lance, other for corrosive lance itself), since I just have 2, difficult choice to be made..

btw, forged long ago silver sword to later forge githzerai blade, since Nalia cannot use this one, just lost 7500 gp (silver sword has a value of 0)

Supreme leader reloaded!

Nalia CC foreknowledge/GOI/ST on enemy seen
Imoen CC foreknowledge/MSVI/MSVI on enemy seen
Neera CC foreknowledge/ST/MSVI on enemy seen
triggers loaded with CL, sequencer with LB (imoen with RoF she does not have spell)

Buffs a plenty (including prot from electricity, death wards on mages, IH/haste for all)
use cat figurine free action instead of limited wish globes to be protected from slow, crucial to run through doors fast, globes and disastrous pathfinding prevent this.
Mages AI (from scroll) before climbing down
Vagrant used 2 barbarian essences potions (important, he will be breached from hardiness, have to resist Supreme attacks and anti-inquisitors later on, without those, even under CWN and oils of resurgence, did not make it)

Completly different handling than usual I have (with necro protag)
Party runs straight for golem summoner rooms
CCs put monsters that occupy (very little) northenmost giths
no milliseconds spent idle of doing anything apart running south then east, party goes through south door, then rushes in final room past supreme leader and his troops
Mlar and hracknir just summoning first coin and gem when party reaches them
Jaheira (impaler) goes for Mlar under CS
Avenger (SoS) for hracknir under CS
Vagrant summons swanmay queen (on supreme leader band, she will block all but leader for a quite long time) then attacks hracknir (phosphorous/crom)
Nalia greater djinni, pfmw on it right at start, this one will keep many minor giths around it for quite some time
Neera noble spider, Imoen MSVI, then all 3 start alacrity
Alacrity on, mages RRoR Supreme leader and cast some DB/ADHW on minor giths
Jaheira terminates Mlar, just stone and clay summoned, she swaps to golem slayer and pounds hracknir who fells fast too (only 4 golems, never ever had so few here!)
Mages, under alacrity, RM then rain lightning on anti-inquisitors and giths, while vagrant (lakesider/crom) attacks them
Mages cast energy blades before end of alacrity, they will finish one anti-inquisitor and many giths with those.
Avengers kill golems (gem, coin, clay and stone) then go for anti-inquisitors then finally help swanmay queen clean giths
Very intense and nice fight, Supreme is pounding vagrant all the time, vagrant keeps it occupied far away from rest of party, summon swanmays
Mages summon trolls, salamanders and (few) yuan-tis
Avengers summon smilodons and clan hunters, supreme is using HLAs one after the other
After regen from SL, Imoen wishes (has 5 left, just used one alacrity), got a rest, end of supreme leader (even without rest, honestly think he was doomed, had no more Hlas, no more spells, vagrant and avengers landed a lot of punches)

Demilich followed after a rest (Nalia with many layers and memorized freedoms, 2 needed), was expecting flail, did not get it
Dragons should have good loot in this dungeon!

Saladrex, mass attack (druids under ritual of course), mages energy blades (at start to remove first stoneskin)
Summoned djinni, spider, swanmay queen (healed by Natural restoral, she is a mean bastard)
Dragon fell, no danger
good loot! flail, girdle of fortitude, helm of defense, staff of the ram (of course)

Finish level

oct 24th update

Horde (peacefully) and enigma

ambushes (golems and undeads)
Globes
blue and green easy (all 4)
first 2 red and purple okay
vampires, easy
Ice and elemental golems, was overconfident first time, with a bit more preparation, mages machine gunned the two ice, the elemental easy
Grave liches were easy (when I think years ago nightmares I had with those)
Vagrant was alone with many summons (made assumption avengers breached were to be crushed by stellar gravestones, with 4 graves around...)
Neera used timestop to "waste" rounds of pfmw on liches, then mass punch took them one by one (summons alone killed 2 graves, vagrant and some summons the other 2)

Fight I feared most is Ultra and GEG (red 4th)
Was allright in fact, 3 ambers and a gem summoned and 2 purges

Open first seal

Walk out
Kill demon lord
No big trouble, party was quite good
Burn mortal was unexpected...Neera went down and Imoen was close.

JD could be forged if great wyrm is vanquished..

City, empty pocket, 500 000+ gp!!!
Forge 2 flails +3, FoDW and girdle of lordly might

Back to WK

Ancient Wyrm
Buff
dowstairs, summon swanmay queen, 2 smilodons (kept clan hunters for later on), a troll, djinni and spider
Eliminate helpers (avengers on elite nishru with staff of the ram and SoS), vagrant on salamander and effrit, mages under CC 3*ADHW to soften those (price nalia silenced)
Fight going on, Imoen and Neera silenced because dragon ran (fast!) to catch a propelled troll, bad thing is that vagrant was targeted (no more CS/hardiness for a while)
Imoen wishes bring 2 breaches, restoration
Alone with dragon, vagrant uses potions to sustain wyrm inferno
Mages summon
Got wish rest
Army of summons attacking a dragon out of pfmw with vagrant and 2 avengers
Dragon is nearly out of spells, critical, casts an emotion (or greater command, don't remeber exactly)
Vagrnat is down! (mages sold out of any useful spell)
Summons fall one after the other, avengers punch, luckily stoneskin can't be breaches,
Jaheira got the kill
5 reloads here, once again, buffing summons pays! (clan hunters well buffed are quite good!!!)
Main problem was mages were silenced a lot casting breach
Not the same thing with a necro protag, understatement.
Second toughest fight for my party so far (first was auriel by far), also very frustrating sometimes because dragon can obliterate (literally) a char in a blink with fire, and this fight is long.

Open second seal
Etheral trip
Open third seal, kill azamantes , open last level

City, sell all, 350 Kgp+
Forge Judgement Day and Thor

Demon Prince

Horrible time here, meeting Demon and his minions with no time to prepare was disastrous for this party
after 3 or 4 rounds, fight was lost or helpless during my fisrt 3-4 attempts
Best start I could devise in the end was:
mages had CC foreknowledge/IH/pfmw on self on hit
As soon as enter area summon swanmay queen/greater djinni/spider, avengers stoneskins (if not sliced in seconds), Imoen Wish (hoping for breach, pfme or 25 stats)
Then all mages alacrity, rain RoF/remove magic/breach/summons/LMD/VT..
Key was for me to get rid of death knight and elemental golem as fast as possible (roughly when first extra minion summoned)
once minions are less numerous, try to create time and space to populate with summons, swanmays, salamanders, yuan-ti
summon and buff 2 clan hunters (GS and prot from fire from avengers or mages, regen and stoneskin from hunters) which requires 3 full rounds
Meanwhile vagrant (JD/FoDW) tanks Demon and minions
Task looks easy, summon, (if mariliths rain RM and breach), kill minion, pound Prince, then resum after next minion
Did not count reloads, most of them because pressure kept increasing and party was extinguished little by little
Including minions from start, after 4 elementals (2 coins and a gem overall), 3 death lords, 3 marilith bunches, Demon was killed..by a clan hunter!
Had 2 Wish-rest in winning try, they were precious!

Vagrant quest

When going to city for pennyroyal oil, forge ring+3 and cloak+2
With some level less, think that vipers in tree would have been near impossible (too few CS, creeping doom, Spells to destroy elemental)
Basically, mages and swanmay queen (without taking too much damage) get rid of elemental while others (no time to summon/buff clan hunters) hit vipers
Once elemental down, NR on queen, then keep her away from fight (but not too far of course), mages summons (yuan-tis, trolls)

Mirrored grandlord easy (no need to gate swanmay)
Mirrored windmaster, had to gate a greater swanmay, since no rest aftre viper fight, party was drained in the end, fight to terminate elemental and a gated gem was quite hard
Rest, thought I would just have to fight spiders, have to go through grandlord and windmaster again...

Recover holy water , blazing mirror
Horrible time (again!) with mirrored golem
Mordy and djinni only summons that can live underwater and be of any use
Basically, it was a nightmare to keep queen alive, kill elemental while tanking mirrored golem
Just horrible and frustrating (because very little to do apart hoping for example both elemental and mirror would not attack queen together)
Good thing is Vagrant levels

Party overview:
Vagrant level 28, 7.40 Mxp, MPV: Green Wyrm
Jaheira level 29, 7.27 Mxp, MPV: Ancient dragon
Avenger level 28, 6.96 Mxp, MPV: Spider queen
Imoen level 26, 7.22 Mxp, MPV: Amber golem
Nalia level 26, 7.13 Mxp, MPV: Amber golem
Neera level 26, 7.17 Mxp, MPV: Ice Golem

Bloodstained mirror
Very linear, summon swanmay, punch while running swanmay around to keep it alive
Summon second swanmay when first vanishes, run it around until warrior and anti-ranger dead
then golem tribe to punch through
Used 2 barb essences and oils of resurgences (JD here is not good while swanmays are alive because if you get pfmw, all enemies turn on swanmays...afterwards, to eliminate golem, just equip vagrant with it and put automatic mode on)

Wooden mirror
Thought it would be too much, but just one reload (chunk of Neera)
Avengers Ritual quite good here
Vagrant summons queen south, Jaheira with golem slayer (and ready to NR queen) goes for elmental, with mages under alacrity
One mage is usually interrupted casting alacrity, has to resume
CC include pfmw, potions of magic shielding for vagrant and mages
vagrnat and avenger focus on ghosts (just 2 left when second summon of whispers), drowned soul left for the end (also lost first try because focuces vagrant on it insted of ghosts)
Okay, JD helped more than a lot here! (both avengers hit the dust late fight)
Much easier than mirrored golem!

pond is closed (does not offer anything), may be made a mistake not to grab oils before going for last mirror (so long I did not play a vagrant...)

Master of mirrors
3 utter defeats
Change tactic
undispellable buffs (Foreknowledge, GS, ritual..)
Vagrant drinks 3 barbarian essences (physical invulnerability)
Once Master speaks, Neera, Imoen and Jaheira (all on vagrant right side) run east (out of MM Los), vagrant summons swanmay queen near them
Nalia and avenger run west (they were on the vagrant left) out of MM LOS
Vagrant then lures webs south (runs, drink magic shielding), then goes north on one ghost spider (other MM follows)
Jaheira, Neera and Imoen kill elemental (spells and punch), then, at the cost of jaheira down (after using 2 NR on queen), kill 2 whispers and damage badly a third thanks to a Wish-rest (Chromatic orb and VT is good there, Imoen and Nalia had nearly 200 hp)
Nalia summons (sent to central MM who has exhausted a lot of damaging spells on vagrant),
Avenger takes time to summon and buff a clan hunter, then runs along the wall all the way to Neera and Nalia (to heal swanmay queen and pound spiders)
Had to endure a whisper spawn more (4 8 legs horror more!)
Got rid of spiders, summons on "fake" MM, vagrant and summons wait for central MM buffs to expire
Summon another queen (elemental disposed easily), central MM down, other MM "arises"
Not that difficult now

With this (high level) party, funny that most difficult fight in vagrant quest was after all mirror golem...
Side note, Valygar and Cernd (and I would say a RB) are really nice assets here!

Chose potions from pound, 5 is too few!!!!!! (axe is nice, but will not be worth now)

OCt 31st update

Did many tries to kill demogorgon, failed, confess this fight looks too much for my skills

Maximum buffs, 2 rows of summons (Wish-rest)
Vagrant drinks 3 barb essences to get 100% physical resist (permanent fire resist would be better here)
Best compromise I found out was to have Neera runnig east

Imoen and Nalia near Belcheresk
All start alacrity
Vagrant and Jaheira run for Nulonga
Avenger on Exarch
Imoen with Vecna/AoP and foreknowledge has maximum speed casting (Neera does not have RRoR)
Second Neera (robe/foreknowledge)
Third Nalia

After several tries (ashamed to confess how many) , could achieve to kill:

Exarch
First Move when Imoen is breach on it, then all summons and avenger kill him within Alacrity duration ( With another breach from Imoen)

Nulonga
Imoen peels it, then breach, renew peeling and breach, vagrant and Jaheira (who is IHed by Imoen after being dispelled) kill Archpriest fast

Belcheresk
Peeling, breach, lower resist *3, then VT (from mages who have at least 100 fire resist) or AA/chromatic orbs from mages who don't have 100% fire resist

Saint Kargoth
A real pain this one, its aura/level drain that goes through Absolute immunity is nasty, killing went through punching and spells after debuff/lower resist (AAs mainly, VT might work, but aura and level drain is a no no for this method))


Tried to resist until Rozvankee is out of SI:DIV, but could not, after intial vargoyles and Abyssal (which I could dispatch quite painfully), second wave was stretching party's capacities to the limit (Vargoyles are just horrible to kill because of their AC/regen)
Could not dispatch this second wave when Demogorgon summoned 3 more abyssal, party fled (portal is reopened) overwhelmed under vargoyles and abyssal,

This flight is cheesy/cheaty, but confess I could not cope reload and abandoning nice loot I got from killing those 4 monsters...(Cloak +3, ring +3,...)

Will be back later (with very few hope to win I confess, cannot cope with tons of vargoyles/abyssal, only chance could be to kill Demog with vagrant and pray summons disppear when Demon prince dead...),

I lack greater restoration (did not count reloads because chunk, Protag dying from burning,..) and levels to debuff Rozvanke, fire power to remove vargoyles (those are really a pain, more than exarch)


Hell
Hardwoods felt like goblins after Demogorgon helpers

TOB

Illasera, Gromnir, Marching mountains
Main thing is to "manage" vendors so as to get best price (what a chore btw!)
Forge foebane +5, corrosive lance, noble staff of fire, staff of the ram +6, aslyferund chain, improved boots of ranger lord
Neera's quest (before entering temple in marching mountains)
Forge ring +4
Finish marching mountains, vagrant hits level 30 (resistance bonus welcomed)
Wanted to milk elemental golem, summons killed it before even one lesser summon..

Yaga was easy, Avengers are quite good at killing elite fire giants, 3 mages are a real power, buffed summons were tough guys.
No problem eliminating waves one after the other, even had moments to wait between waves because no more enemies to pound.

Time for one of the most difficult fights (IMHO): Oasys

last update


Oasys done no reload
Not the most tactic fight
Basically vagrant drank 3 barb essences, then was invulnerable and took all enemies (including tombleten in the end)
Avengers fell after 3 rounds (they ran south east after a stoneskin to take gem golem, alas tombleten followed and downed them)
Mages under alacrity wroke havok on enemies for some 2 rounds, but storm hit them and Imoen and Nalia went down
Neera, running for her life pursued by Jamis survived thank to Absolute immunity, and Jamis going for Vagrant (only those 2 standing, no more summons)
Vagrant killed enemies one by one, even when stunned by Jamis smite, never in danger
Had to wait for Jamis alone to raise dead with planetar (appearing with 1hp near Jamis is bad!) while Jamis took interest in swanmays

Party overview in amkethran
Vagrant level 31, 8.71 Mxp, MPV: Green Wyrm
Jaheira level 33, 8.44 Mxp, MPV: Ancient dragon
Avenger level 32, 8.11 Mxp, MPV: Spider queen
Imoen level 29, 8.37 Mxp, MPV: Amber golem
Nalia level 29, 8.32 Mxp, MPV: Amber golem
Neera level 30, 8.53 Mxp, MPV: Ice Golem

Do all city quests

Sendaï lair
Clear all in first level (Thelynns really is a nice fight!), then spider tunnel.
Exit, sell to smugglers (to maximise price and make space)
Forge ASoS, cloak +2, ring of Gaxx (For Jaheira, she does not wear armor to don it)

Abazigail lair

Draconis is much easier with a necro! (in fact has no chance against a Necro)
It was finished with normal weapons (bastard silenced my 3 mages one after the other)
Forge a most useful vanilla item for my party: Hindo doom +4 (GR!)

Blue dragon
Human form dispellable by mages (Remove magic lvl 30)
Dragon killed by punches and fire, silenced Nalia and Neera, but took spellstrike from Nalia and breach / trigger 3*lower resist/ DB*3 under alacrity from Neera, Imoen finished it
Third pocket challenge
Forge FoA +5 and a ring+2

Back to Derro tunnels
Sell loot (because inventory overflow)
Back to Sendaï lair, ready for drow ambushes and a mighty grave lich
Two groups done in a row
3rd one disposed of
Lich was a nice and long fight
I shamefully discovered late that lich could be dispelled by mage, shamefully realized this late that mage level-up was modified in IA 6.2 (Neera level 32 and some game to go, before reached this level above 10Mxp), which is quite nice!

From lich till Sendaï door, no rest (to recover some pride) Vagrant really is invulnerable late game dual wielding FoDW/JD

Most fun during first phase (while clones around) is to summon all my allies while buffing, killing sendai clones and drow fast enough to have buffs last, but not too fast to organise buff casting and summoning, really like it!
A painful reload when fighting Sendaï, Jaheira chunked by web golem (83 damage on a non critical hit!) while fight was going allright
Second run was the good one, longest fight ever here because vagrant and one avenger dual wielding water edge +4/spectral brand +5 only could touch web golems, btw piercing strike with avenger bonuses was a quite good combo here, alas for just 3 rounds.
Ixil spike was put to good use pinning pet most of the time (malison helped a bit too), no earthshaking roar at all (though it took some time to down pet, vagrant could not reach it so punched web golems from start to end (of Sendaï). Jaheira and avenger with thier lances were more than decent.
Spiders were terminated in no time by mages under alacrity who then debuffed sendaï, renewed summons, (btw energy blades against web golems is very poor, even with giant strength on)
No Wish-rest, had option once, but prefered hardiness, anyway resting main motivation was to renew summons, but I have many yuan-tis left to summon with 3 mages, and those do last a lot!

Kill mercenaries
Kill balthazar
Sell all I won't take to EDE (not all, keep phosphorous, sword of the mask, cutthroat,...)
forge 3 rings+2, 2 rings +3, ring+4, dragonlord +5, nothing more I could forge (not enough rings +1, just one left), have some money (selling scrolls I could even have a LOT of money)
If I had kept components, could forge poseidon, but useless for this party (dragonlord is of very few use too, but I love to forge this weapon)

Tried Demogorgon and rozvankee, lost, admit defeat, Party cannot win there
Best thing was having vagrant (close from invulnerable) tank Demog and be surrounded by abyssal, problem is that rest of party can't kill rozvankee: too many vargoyles which kill summons too fast, both avengers even though rozvankee is debuffed by mages, cannot kill her, she spams vargoyles over vargoyles, some abyssal arrive too, not possible.
Can't figure a means to take my party through
Admit defeat, period.

Last room in PP, vagrant levels to 35

EDE

avengers memorized mass heals as unique level5 spell pick, to heal elder swanmays during Prince AIs
Army of summons
All 100% physical invulnerability aprt Imoen and Neera (because they cast fast, so main use is magic, not weapons, and because damage they could deal is so pityful)
After Prince, all go south to punch supreme (apart Neera and Imoen)
Once supreme dead, vagrant stays to finish elemental and ready for raks
Avengers go for south east ultra, then north one
Supreme (one elemental, no secondary golem) and 2 ultras (not one amber gated!) never died so fast (second ultra died just after Rak spawn, Prince kept close from party, so no rak summon delay)
7 elder swanmays alive at this moement (ultras killed 4, supreme 1)
Rak wave eliminated in no time
Avengers mass heal army of summons
First AI from Prince
Second AI
Third AI
Wish-rest (without consequences of course)
second Rak wave
4th AI
Third and last raks
5th AI
6th AI
Prince gives up

Claim mortal Life in throne



A party that cruised through EDE could not best Rozvankee and Demogorgon....

updated a bit (currently in WK3)

Looks like a really interesting party composition. Can't wait to hear how you deal with ugly thief ranger quest or the other harder SOA golem fights, since you seem to be somewhat light on damage.

With two avengers I would have considered starting scimitar/club dual wielding for the custom one (since Jaheira starts with staff/spear). Treefolk club/water's edge +4/gloves/innate is a lot of damage.

Some of your early fights you say you don't have +3 weapons - the clan spirits hit with +3 quite early (maybe when the avenger is level 11?) and the druid level 6 spell mountain bears also have +3. Quite useful versus greater crawler and in de'Arnise fights. I recovered Lilarcor once before leaving the city, meaning I only had the +3 club from the beastmaster and avenger and mage spells (haste/free action on the summons IIRC).

The Bodhi romance experience loss is quite painful - might be nice to add some quest XP to resurrected companion.

Good luck!

True that damage power comes a lot to very much from summons ! My combat preparation involve a lot buffing summons, okay it means long buffing time, you have to like it (I do), but some buffing sequences can turn summons into very naughty weapons.


Very good point, stupid me I forgot about water's edge +4 (and belm early), I am trying to build what you say on custom avenger, but I might be too late in terms of proficiencies



IIRC clan spirit have +3 weapons (and it was quite decisive in planar sphere) once druid has 1.25 Mxp (level 12, but not 100%sure), your point about dealing with beastmaster is sound.




Painful for loss of xp, I concur (some 130 000 xp loss IIRC), I back your suggestion
Quite difficult too in some cases, especially losing Jaheira who is my second most powerful fighter. Nevertheless, I have to confess Bodhi final fight went easy with this party, while other fights where I believed party would cruise ok were (planar sphere room engine) or are nightmarish (thieflings in WK3 maze for the moment). This is one thing I really like when building "extremist parties" in IA, you really have different experiences.



Thanks a lot Bulian!

Some more content added

currently late chapter 7, 3 choices (and of course fight with irenicus in tree):
- Twisted rune
- WK4
- Vagrant quest

Congrats on saving Auriel! I think that will be your toughest fight. Well, demogorgon, of course, will be much more difficult. You can always read the scroll and skip that fight, however.

thanks, but I'm afraid I'm not done yet, was just crunched by supreme leader (2 attempts for pityful result each time), when party cannot summon during pre-buff, well lack of fighting power is really bad...

You could try CC improved tensers, foreknowledge, MS6 if you get desperate. Do you have golem slayer and Thor already?

Updated journal

WK4 finished

@bulian: I had crom and golem slayer (a must with this party I would say) critical thing in fact for Supreme Leader was to run as fast as possible to golem summoners (a thing I usually don't do as fast as I did here)

Updated journal, put a tag oct 24th update before latest update

vagrant quest finished, hardest fight (by far) in it was not the one I would have suspected at all...

updated journal (tag OCt 31st update)

tried without success to kill demogorgon, utter failure

Right now in ToB

Good luck with Oasis - I think you have enough firepower!

Here are a couple of suggestions for Demogorgon though I've only fought that battle just before EDE meaning my mage was high enough to dispel the real boss's (e.g. Rozvankee's) SI:Div.

SPOILER!

The demongorgon battle is the hardest battle I've ever played.I doubt if any less powerful party could get through it.The bosses should be nerfed to some extent,especially Rozvankee...

Well, we tried to put some FR lore into that fight, when designing helpers and their abilities.

Demogorgon himself is a real demon prince, he might be weaker due to years of imprisonment, but he still should be a formidable opponent.

All other enemies are his followers:
Belcheresk is right hand of demogorgon, which alone is a prove of his power
Saint Kargoth is the very first death knight, he had many years for training and improvements on top of him being death knight.
Nulonga was an almost immortal follower of demogorgon(we tried to implement his "immortality" but making it interesting and balanced was extremely hard).
Rozvankee is a female lich pirate and she's master of creature creation, her magic her to bring vargouilles and other enemies to the battlefield. She's a combo of a potent pirate(that's why she has such great offensive skills) and a lich.

All these little bosses have their fair share of experience in fights, some strange abilities that are rare in FR and are almost legendary beings. Player can face them or listen to Helmits and seal the demon away.

IIRC, Rozvankee will be nerfed in next IA release IIRC, players will be able to find some of her new weaknesses and use them against her, though she'll still be a monster!

@bulian: thanks for advices for demogorgon fight, will see that in my next run

@chaser: I was thinking the same of EDE in IA V5 (won it just once IIRC, did not count failures)... so maybe hope exists
Confess Demogorgon fight is the hardest I ever had too

@sparrowjacek
Design is very nice, this has to be accounted for!
Only problem is difficulty, my personnal feeling is that abyssal and vargoyles (apparently everlasting) spawn is much more difficult than coping with helpers
For example, though I think I never had so much reloads before reaching acceptable result for thi fight (and I do remember Dracolich, Yaga, old ones,... that looked to me impossibly frustrating before I could cope with those in IA V6), in the end, with my party that has weaknesses but also great strengths, I think in the end I would win against rozvankee and Demogorgon, maybe another helper too, but for those secondary summons (vargoyles are close from exarch Kazuul in terms of resilience)

But this fight design and animation is just a great job, and this has to be said (written)

Well... the fight should be focused mainly on 6 enemies, abyssal escorts and vargouilles should be only some annoyance (and bombers should be deadly after some -res from demogorgon and co. ) IIRC single melee user isn't able to defeat a vargouille alone within reasonable amount of time(though they're weaker to some types of damage) due to insane regeneration and high DR... maybe something could be done about it? This fight should revolve around designing countermeasures against Demogorgon and his powerful followers, first 3 rounds can usually tell whether a players can win or should reload, so it might be really frustrating that you lose just because too many fighters have to pound 1 little summon that interrupts all your spells!

You get a point, Vargouilles being a real pain in the... neck is true, they can be extremely annoying and if party doesn't have enough melee power and allow second wave to appear while some bosses are still around(apart from Rozvankee that is) - that party is 95% doomed.

Critto did really great job by writing all these scripts to make this fight as entertaining as it is now, but some minor changes in stats can be surely done for new version if we ask

I'm begining to feel an urge to play once again, mainly to test new NPCs and try to tackle demogorgon fight with a standard party that I lead from chapter 1!

Yeah, there will be some nerfing. I haven't give a thought to the summons yet and whether their power should be diminished somewhat. It will be impossible anyway to make the encounter challenging for all sorts of parties. Reducing power of enemies would make it easier for the more well-rounded, classically powerful parties.

Personally I am OK with leaving the fight undoable for some party compositions.

Nice write up nicoper! I like seeing how people tackle certain quests... I've never really done certain battles before SpellHold, like Teshal, that would give me fits. And I would never go for Dracolich until I'm finished with every other bit of experience I can get in the Underdark. Good job!

I guess I should try buffing my summons some time - I never really do, but I guess it makes a difference.

Avenger kit is nice and make Jaheira a really good party member!

Hideous - you really should try buffing summons! My tests prove that Clan spirit(from Avenger) with full buffs(like giant str, IH, prot. from elements) can defeat elemental golem if his iron skins casting is not interrupted and minor summons are entertained by some other party members/summons

And nico has 2 of them!

Yes indeed!

Clanhunter is usually buffed like:
- prot from fire and/or cold; giantstrength (from avenger who summoned it), sometimes add DW/NPP/CC/FA, a regen may be added too...
- protection from element/IH/II (from mage) options of pfme/ prot from electricity/ghost armor to be considered
- stoneskin/acid shield/shield of archons/regen (from self)

in 3-4 rounds, you have a Titan on the field!

Avenger with energy blades under ritual/combat stance/critical strikes may also change some perspective about range attacks efficiency (and be quite good when you want slashing weapons for avengers)....

journal finished (put a "last update" tag)

Had to bend the knee before Demogorgon and Rozvankee, they still haunt WK basement

Congratulations! Impressive crew. You make EDE sound so easy when in reality it is not, even with a literal army.

@bulian:
Elder swanmays are really good in EDE! they basically eroded a LOT ultra golems (north one was ttacked by some summons too) and did good against supreme
Avengers with ASoS and golem slayer (buffed under CS with double regen on) did great damage to golems too
then elder swanmay + vagrant with mass heal from avengers were eroding Prince HP fast,
Used CS (on vagrant/avengers) for supreme and last 2 AIs from Prince, keeping a pace of one round mass heal/one round CS for avengers

Easiest EDE ever for me

Party was quite powerful indeed, but not enough for demogorgon (a RB instead of Nalia and a Kensaï instead of second avenger would have been welcomed there....)