Journal, part 2.
Chapter 6Clear small areas
Activate Ruling De'Arnise keep and lands (with c:createcreature ("kpprun01"))
Temple Ruins, this time liches are easy. However, they are accompanied by Skelton Warlords and we don't have any +4 weapons, besides Jaheira's Spear. So trolls & smilodon's take care of 'em.
breeze past thaxssillya
Shade Lord:
There's a potential unlimited xp "cheat" here, as shadows from the altar generate 420exp/per shadow. So we whack the entourage, feeblemind shade lord and leave dd whacking some shadows, and physically go to the local coffee shop for coffee pick up and come back to find dd still whacking shadows. not sure how many we get but maybe some 150 or so. it evens out nicely as DD with ring of regenration & hammer +1 will whack a shadow just when the next one appears and their damage is mitigated by the ring of regen. This generates about 10k of exp per character, so we don't exploit it that much. still, it's a nice bonus.
Firkraag, summon an army - dodge the death spells a little bit. so 2x earth elemental, 2xtrolls, 2xswanmay, 2xsmilodon + clan hunter.
enter watcher's keep and clear the 1st floor, so everything besides spider queen.
***
Hmh. Jaherira makes a level. CS has a weapon +4, so do trolls + Smilodons. And swords work as +4 weapons. In addition, Jaheira has a spear +4. Is that enough to whack the spider queen? ***
Spider Queen, I think we get all of the spawns. Towards the end it is just summoning a single killer/whisperer spider or so, and then nothing. Spider Queen is whacked mostly by a supercharged (so under GS+IH) Clan Spirit + double smilodon + 4 x trolls and a greater swanmay (I think it can hit the queen). Swords are amazing here, especially in a cloud of soothing fog / under regen, the spiders are really weaponless against them. Some troubles with webs, but Shaman has FA + we have really good limited wish capabilities for re-charging spell slots, as both Neera + S/M has LW.
Statues & the rest of WK level 1
***
And almost everyone makes a level, besides Jaheira (S/M is about 30k from next level as well). PC at 4,3 mexp and we have at least wk level 2 to go, and since we get the flail head from wk level 2 we would have another nice weapon +4. As in we have Smilodon, Trolls, Jaheira, CS + Vagrant + Greater Swanmay which can hit the Troll King. Hmh. Shaman is 390k away from next level, with it we would have a fighting chance to dispel Kruin. (edit: oh, Shaman doesn't have dispel....). We have 12 6th level spell slots, which gives us a nice room to buff our crew + the most important summons.
Stuff to do, Wk level 2, troll mound, de'arnise keep, ranger quests and Bodhi. We won't jump to Chapter 7 because of Anciet Priest though. We are 1 scroll away from having three scrolls of "ray of fragmentation", which we'll need to get the Golem Slayer for Jaheira, solving her problem with missing weapons +4 immediately. We also have numerous super items to forge in Githzerai Blade, Ioun Stone, Supreme Shelter etc. We are much looking forward to getting all of them. Perhaps we should also do Huskar Lord's armour, hmh. ***
ranger protector of umar hills, pt 1 - whack tombehelten
ruling the de'arnise keep (maid)
ranger protector of umar hills, pt 2
de'arnise keep (moneylenders)
ranger protector pt 3, the umar thing (activated, we don't do it yet)
de'arnise keep (flood)
wk level 2, neera soloes chromatic demon (turn into a chicken) and efg (whack using acid damage).
Troll King & Queen, goes very smoothly. we think we get all of the vengeance trolls, which fall to 3xsunfire + dragon's breath + cone's of cold. Ac maxing DD is surrounded by 12 or so trolls, luckily we were smart enough to drop pff & pfc on him before, so S/M keep dropping sunfires from one side & neera Cones of Cold from the other side,
Pink up dragon hat from
Wind Master***
if we go to graveyard, the turnish encounter activates at playhouse and Kruin is blocking our way to the city. This is unintentional. Party at the moment, we could up levels a little bit still or we could faec Kruin now. Hmh. Then again, our remove magic capabilities are currently non-existant, but if we make a level to 21, the difference in levels is only 4 - as in Neera has a 10% chance of dispelling Kruin. A 10% chance per remove magic, 3xtrigger and 7xunder alacrity (all 3rd levels slots) gives us 100% chance. This is enough for our non-reload approach.
The Crew:Vagrant 4,6 Mxp, AC -15, 171HP, frostreaver / FoA+4,staff +3 / shield of harmony, MPV: Firkraag, Total exp. 27%
DD 4,5 Mxp, AC -21 , Dwarven Thrower / Kneecapper / Stonefire / Darksteel Shield, MPV: Elemental Golem, Total exp. 25%
Jaheira 4,5 Mxp, AC -6 , staff +3 / Spear +4, MPV: Dracolich, Total exp. 34%
Neera 4,5 Mxp, AC 0, Cleric's staff +3 / Sling of Everad, MPV: Chromatic Demon, Total exp.4% (chapter 12%)
S/M 4,5 Mxp, AC -8, Solemn Duty / Club +3 / Belm, MPV: Cat'o'nine lives, Total exp. 5%
Aerie the Shaman 4,5 Mxp, AC 1, staff of arundel +3 / sling +4, MPV: Chaod, Total exp. 3%
Spells:Neera1st: Armor, Chromatic Orb, Magic Missile, Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, Shield
2nd: Agannazar's Scorcher, Blur, Melf's Acid Arrow, Mirror Image, Resist Fear
3rd: Flame Arrow, Remove Magic, Slow, Vampiric Touch
4th: Emotion, Greater Malison, Polymorph Other, Stoneskin
5th: Breach, Cone of Cold, Lower Resistance, Spell Immunity
6th: Chain Lightning, Improved Haste, Protection from Magic Weapons
7th: Limited Wish, Mordenkainen's Sword, Ruby Ray of Reversal
8th: Foreknowledge, Monster Summoning 8, Spell Trigger
9th: Chain Contingency, Dragon's Breath, Improved Alacrity, Recast Vital Energy, Wish
Shaman:1st: Armor of Faith, Bless, Doom, Mend Light Wounds, Spirit Ward
2nd: Alicorn Lance, Barkskin, Charm Person or Mammal, Resist Fear, Resist Fire & Cold, Slow Poison, Soothing Fog
3rd: Call Lightning, Men Medium Wounds, Protection from Fire, Protection from Cold, Spiritual Clarity, Zone of Sweet Air
4th: Cause Serious Wounds, Free Action, Mend Serious Wounds, Protection from Lightning, Spirit Fire, Spiritual Weapon
5th: Chaotic Commands, Entropy Shield, Insect Plague, Iron Skins, Mend Group, Recall Spirit,
6th: Harm, Impervious Sanctity of the Mind, Mend Body, Primal Ward, Wonderous Recall
7th: Animal Summoning IV, Creeping Doom, Elemental Summoning, Ethereal Retribution, Healing Ward, Implosion, Sense of Limbo, Storm Shell
***
Bodhi Doesn't go smoothly at all. The first time we almost make it, but we are not sure what happens to our summoning CS? it doesn't appear (most likely summoning limit) then numerous tries because a positioning. Skellys are troublesome, for we are much lacking blunt weapons +4. Luckily we have swords, which are good at tanking Skellys + shaman to heal them. And we have limited wishes to re-up the Shaman. In the end Skellys are handled by Vagrant, trolls, smilodon + CS (while S/M + Jaheira tank). DD tanks Bodhi throughout, of course. Jaheira, Neera + Shaman make levels.
Surface Party
Return Lanthorn and we make levels again.
Kruin Since we are in the vicinity, we give Kruin a little bit of a shot and
WE CAN DISPEL KRUIN NOW! Olé! So we prebuff extensively, start the fight with 2xswanmay, 2xsmilodon and triple fire elementals. Dispel Kruin and whack (Jaheira), milk all golems. DD tanks all the way. PC at 4.8Mexp points.
***
Sell some stuffs, monies at 550k. Forge: supreme shelter, huskar lord's armour, silver sword/githzerai blade, shadow dragon scale & red coral armour. pick up amulet of master harper from Ribald. oh and water's edge +4.
A note about the S/M.
With soul armour, ring +4, ring +2, cloak +2, githzerai blade and amulet of master harper it reaches base -20 AC. Then we can further lower effective ac by -3 via armor/shield (1st level arcane spells), girdle of bluntness (-4 vs crushing) and THE -20 AC base with any combination of TT/Foreknowledge/Blur/Defensive harmony/Improved Insivibility (<= which probably gives a +4 AC bonus, but it just isn't stated anywhere (at least it used to)). Those, together with skins + swashie bonuses *should* make for one hell of a tank. Starting a fight vs golems at -31AC which we can further lower with entrophy shield (by -6) and Swashbuckler bonuses for -3 ... to -9 means our effective vs crushing should be at -34 to -40 without entropy shield, with entrophy shield we should be able to reach the maximum of -20 vs damage type, meaning we'll have a maxed out AC of -44. The problem is though, that the bonuses require long casting times (like foreknowledge) or do not work against golems (like blur). But I think we'll try this character vs golems so that we'll start with Foreknowledge/TPT, and when they run out we'll use a trigger to re-up skins, GS and Tenser's transformation (as it gives -4 to ac) + great Thac0. So the S/M should be safe.
The end result should be -15 Thac0, effective ac that is from -30 to -39 (depending on weapon type & bonuses), backed up by skins (a lot of skins, since it's a full mage). Without bonuses from Shaman. And with TT S/M has about 200f HP's. It should be enough.
Maximising tanking:
So quite soon we should have in addition to DD with -30 effective non dispellable AC & 45% non dispellable DR, a Vagrant that reaches 85% DR, has almost 300 hp and can do real damage via H2H a S/M, that hovers around the same Thac0, with 200hp, but is blessed with effective -35 ... to -40 ac or so with mirror images, skins, fireshields and and the whole shabang. Oh, and belt of the skillfull blade giving it +10% damage to attacks with both water's edge & githzerai blade. Main hand damage should be from 26-37 pts per hit. ***
return yoshimo's heart (+200k exp, wohoo!)
lord roenall at de'arnise keep
pick up scrolls from messenger
last part of playhouse, sell the playhouse to higgold
talk to squirrel (so start squirreled away)
whack shadow thieves at shadow thieves hq
forge golden spider figurine (it's such a great tank with Shaman!)
Ancient Priest, for we need the staff +3
Whack the steam elemental prince
forge golem slayer
shade lich (prekangaxx)
ashideena guardians
while we're here, we do theshal (Neera rror's protections + dispels pfmw, dd tanks theshal + spawns etc. throughout. dd has -39 or so vs slashing start of the fight. they have no chance. 4 bone devils spawned.
***
I don't think we are swapping the DD, like our original plan was. The DD is immensily powerful. While it will lack, in dps/apr's, it is like a cheatcode in so many different encounters. We would need to swap the Vagrant, but we don't want to do that either for Swanmays are just ridiculously effective**
shade lich @ bridge district
kangaxx (S/M + Vagrant + Jaheira + CS whack it, a little bit of troubles here since we can't dispel the lich form.). we get the ring, how nice!
to umar hillls, pick up scrolls, talk to squirrel
to trademeet and pick jewel casket
to bridge district, talk to squirrel
squirreled away assasin's, part 1
mystery of the jewel casket fight
assassin's hideout at bridge district (just fight in the storm)
umar witch, I think we get all of the spawns. ac maxing dd is yet again superb here, as we can just drop him in the fight with a few potions and it will basicly whack them skellys by himself. It has -30 something vs slashing + nondispellable 45% DR. this fight all in all totalled about 75k exp / character. That's quite good.
ancient mage, whack it first, then dd takes the aggro of the elementals, as always and the rest move in to whack when spawns appear. get all 12 spawns.
ancient golem, get 10 spawns (should be all), DD tanks ofc. DD starts the fight with -29 and we can further lower it to -36 (via defensive harmony + entropy shield)
***
sell some stuffs and monies at 350k. we go forging and come back with ring of greater djinn summoning, rings +2, ring +3, cloak +2 and so. and 3 pairs of boots of speed. monies at 5k. Maybe it's time to give Aerie her personal item, when we have the required gold.
We are thinking that she shall get an armour.
AC 1
+2 spells per level
-3 to saves vs death.
That's it. We use studded leather of thorns as a template. Cost is a scroll of memory boosting, scroll of fireshield (red) permanency scroll and 75k in gold. So much alike Aerie's hammer, but not as powerful. Should be in line with other personal equipment of the mod. And should make Aerie a very powerful Shaman. ***
activate mystery of the shimmering light
finalize paladin stronghold (talk to the chap at order of radiant heart, it gives 35k exp or so) & activate assassin's (so talk to Vanya)
enchanter at druid grove
illusionist at temple district
elite doppleganger
free roshan, get protector of the woods
guarded compound, enter with alacricities + gs's + foreknowledges, dd has defensive stance. bombard with spells until we get dispelled, then apply protections. dd moves in and takes the aggro of everyone, for half a round or so, or so until 5 trolls are spawned and they go to help the dd. We stun stralman (power word stun). since Neera has casting time bonuses S/M is still great with a assortment of spells that have very low casting time (mm's, aa's, images & blur's, remove fear, luck's, remove magic's, skins, pfmw's, ih's, power words, absolute immunities etc.). and can of course launch the all triggers.
ancient lich
***
We go and "forge" the armour for Aerie the Shaman (so we dump the stuffs needed for the armour). Our creq is coming together nicely and we keep improving our already formidable capabilities. Ole!
The S/M is quite nice, we are in dire need of 6th level spell slots so her 9th level slots are usually filled with absolute immunities, hence we prefer IH's & GS's over PFMW. We are beginning to be truly scary. DD is awesome. We also get Nature's Gift for Jaheira. We are already much looking forward to getting the Crom Fayer, even though it will cost us some utility. ***
geg at guarded compound - dd blocks a doorway (with a gem & an amber on it). defensive stance is non-dispellable & the dd has effective -30vs crushing, also non-dispellable. which we can further lower to -37vs crushing (defensive harmony + entropy shield) he can tank for ages. we wait until all spawns are out and then have ourselves a proper all-out brawl. geg + 9 golems vs dd, vagrant, jaheira, s/m, 2xgreater swanmay, 2xswanmay, noble spider, greater djinn, 2x smilodon and the clan spirit. oh and 3 troll & 2 greater yuan-ti's (all properly buffed up of course). Shaman absolutely dominates with -1 in casting time (foreknowledge). they have no chance. When the brawl is over everything besides greater yuan-ti's & a troll survive. Neera turns 3 ambers into chickens. Since we're not really RROR'ing or summoning swords in this fight, we can recharge immensily through limited wish. Shaman is especially the beneficiary here.
treasure in the ice. prebuff upstairs, summon army downstair and everyone whack icegolem. it's gone in 1,5 rounds or so. Neera takes initial purge & pfmw's. the most difficult thing is keeping the elemental alive until we get all of the spawns. dd tanks yet again. Shaman (-1) provides support to summons & the elemental
. get all 6 spawns, easily.
Marvella finale. Summon an army, dodge the initial ADHW's and towards the end shaman keeps both Pasha & Elemental Golem alive. I think we get all of the spawns, unfortunately Pasha gets the kill for the last gem, so we lose out 24k of exp. We get the elemental though. Should have whacked them in the opposite order.
Assasin's at windspear hills. regenerating swords in soothing fog while entropy shielded. they have zero chance. Dd runs in the beginnig head first into the crowd, Shaman follows with regen + entropy shields. Swords from CC's. Neera (IA) + Vagrant move in from the south side, Neera remove magic's Coordinator's invisibilities and Vagrant + 2xSmilodon whack them into oblivion. Then we tank with swords under /regen / soothing fog/ entrophy shield. IT's not even particularly close. We get maybe 8 golems. we make about 150k exp/character here. and 120k in gold, without selling stuffs.
Limak, we khelben's wharding whip & turn golems into chickens. DD with ac maxed (-35 effective or so) crushing tanks throughout.
***
We sell some stuffs and forge amulet +2, buckler +3 and ring of protection +4. monies at 45k. We are a little bit frustrated for we through Neera's Robe requires the robe of the neural archmagi, but it doesn't. We could have already gotten Neera's Robe. Instead, we forged Githzerai blade + some other stuffs. Dammit. Well, luckily we know the location of an additional scroll of memory boosting and have resources & monies. ***
pick up note from table
Suldanesselar, we need a few levels (Jaheira is just 25k away from next one, then we can dispel Shangalar or should be able to at least)
we do some testing here and find out that free action protects from Stun. Ole. Suldanesselar, summon army, whack. Rest, whack the drow + spider + nabassus. Suneer gives no exp?
Go for black drake, enter, summon an army. DD goes to face golems, S/M goes for drake (secret word deoesn't work vs spell shield, even through it should - so S/M get sense of limbo, she RROR's and then pierce shield's the drake). Turn Amber golems into chickens (6xLR triggers from both Neera + Imoen). Since we can breach it, it's not a problem. 3 regen solves creeping doom, or the insect spell (S/M takes it).
And we need a scroll of memory boosting so we're headed to twisted rune.
Twisted rune, summon an army & prebuff. whack vampire, dd takes care of the fighter, neera takes layenne and shangalar gets killed by remove magic's & regenerating pff'd Swanmays & some other summons. Then we just wait out Vaxall. done and done. pick up loot & scroll of memory boosting,
***
fix Neera's Robe! Yay! ***
whack cowled wizards
pick up scrolls from messenger of the light
start the good the bad and the ugly
whack cowled wizards (2nd batch)
illithid hideout, enter with active ia's + 6xadhw triggers & minor army (cs, smildon, noble spider etc.) and anhilate. For
geg+alhoon, open the door and draw out the regular illithid. rest. enter again. s/m takes initial purge + adhw with ih+pfmw+pfme trigger. geg goes for maxed out dd (with non-dispellable -34ac vs crushing). swanmays go for alhoon. Neera de-buffs alhoon, who is quickly whacked by swanmays. dd makes a little bit of sweep and is attacked by geg. we run to the other room, dd blocks a doorway and we wait until all spwns are out. Then we have proper brawl, our crew + army vs. 10 golems. They don't have a chance. Shaman heals, Neera turns golems (maybe or so 3) into chickens and we whack Geg with CS's (from Vagrant + Jaheira).
forge crom fayer, yay!
whack viper queen
pick 48 sided garnet
say goodbyes to vanya
whack another batch of cowled wizards (3rd), we improved invisibility Neera + SI:Divination Neera, and they can still target her. hmh.
Grandfather of Assassins. This is such a fun fight. Enter Neera debuffs coordinator #1, which is whacked by a troll & DD. DD gets a little bit stuck but luckily there's smite / comet's to clear the way. Regenerating swords in soothing fog are tremendous here, they tank throughout. We whack assassins & elite assassins with h2h & call lightnings (from Jaheira, Shaman + Vagrant). A very effective way of getting rid of the swarm, as a single limited wish recharges 3 call lightnings, among other spells. In the end it's just a few swords, a few rune assassins, 9 master assassins and the grandfather. Short sword of Mask here. How nice! Crew makes about 200k in exp / character from the fight and almost 200k in gold (without selling the loot).
report the demise if the assassins @ order of radiant heart
green wyrm, neera pretty much soloes, but dd gets the killing blow.
Supreme Glem, AC maxed dd tanks with -39vs crushing (take SoA + entropy shield for DD) . it's "easily" enough. we milk 2 elementals out of the supreme golem. we just don't know how we can protect properly from elemental backlashes to prolong this and SoA from CoA runs out in 1 turn, which limits our tanking quite a lot. But the tactic of summon an army while dd tanks and shaman heals reigns supreme here as well. Though DD takes so much elemental damage that when we whack the supreme golem, Shaman triple regens him and still the DD needs additional mending. Mend group is just brutally effective here, our original plan was to spirit shift the Shaman so it could participate in the final whack but without Shaman's "mend group" 's our entourage would have been wiped out. 235k of extra exp from this, no resources consumed at all.
We are a little bit pissed off, since we were supposed to milk everything from all ecounters, but we just don't know how to do it with this. Ditto for GBU. hmh.
We take back the lost reputation (trademeet + tent) and continue happily on our way.
forge boots of the ranger lord, ole!!
where is the belt of the inertial barrier?!?
wk level 3, the teleports - hybrid tiefling (BoiB here, haha) causes some troubles, for we are ill prepared but otherwise no troubles with our advanced capabilities (PC at 6,6Mexp).
Slave Wraith, wait for the summons and whack. Also note to self: always whack the slave wraiths, more exp that way.
gamble with gambion for spectral brand & wish from gambion
whack gambion
wk level 4, whack mindflayers & clear level besides golem ambush & githyaki
deck of many things, Vagrant takes STR and S/M takes hitpoints.
forge rimed club +4
time to try our tanking, I think
***
We want the Noble Staff of Earth for the following encounters, especially GBU finale. But, we don't know where the staff of earth +2 is? We were a bit vexed about the HP gains from the deck of many things, as Neera would have needed them and of course that would have been a nice been for Vagrant as well, whom we are planning to max out. The reason we've been so much of the content before WK is the Supreme Golem fight.. ***
Geg @ Suldanesselar. Requires numerous reloads to get the sequencing right. S/M takes initial purge + adhw's, DD tanks geg. We just get 7 spawns here? I though there was supposed to be 9. Towards the end there's a purge and we've summoned an army. Then we just move in to whack. The -40DD is quite difficult to hit.
Supreme Leader. So many reloads, for initially we botch the start, then the next phases (as limited wish glabes are broken). Then a few times because something completely random, like PC gettting hit with a critical 3 times a row. Anyway, it's much fun, this fight. Our final case has Neera almost dropping as SUpreme Leader psionic mind blasts her, then breaches, then comets and Neera has literally 1 hitpoint left. Jaheira comes in and dispels and Shaman heals her. Inquisitors are handled by regenerating Smilodons + DD + Swanmays + CS. In the end Swanmay queen & noble spider (under 2xregen+ih) tank the leader all the way. PC comes and gives the final blow. It's nice, we can dispel the leaders mage spells quite effectively & recharge through limited wish. Anti-inquisitors fall to critical striking DD / PC mostly.
Demi lich; it tries to impronment Shaman who has an active rite. Turn golems into chickens. Then whack demi-lich. Usuno's blade here, ole! Now we can forge Hammer of Thor!
***
Maybe it's time for a little bit of a break now. Our team, pre-break:Vagrant 7,07 Mxp, AC -12, 199HP, K'logarath + & FoA+4,staff +3 / Staff of Rynn, MPV: Greater Elemental Golem, Total exp. 26%
DD 7,04 Mxp, AC -26 , 221HP, Crom Fayer & Supreme Shelter (Belm/SSoM - off hand), MPV: Green Wyrm, Total exp. 22%
Jaheira 7,26 Mxp, AC -8 , Golem Slayer / Spectral Brand + Yamato, MPV: Limak, Total exp. 32% (chapter 20%)
Neera 7,0 Mxp, AC 0, Cleric's staff +3 / Sling of Everad, MPV: Chromatic Demon, Total exp.6% (chapter 10%)
S/M 7,02 Mxp, AC -18, Githzerai Blade & Water's Edge, MPV: Supreme Golem, Total exp. 10% (chapter 20%!!)
Aerie the Shaman 7,03 Mxp, AC -10, Staff of arundel +3 / sling +4, MPV: Xiper Queen, Total exp. 2% (chapter 3%)
Stuffs to do: Rest of WK ... (there's a lot left!)
Demon Lord's Messenger
Judgement Day - fight (we don't have anyone who can use the sword through)
GBU finalle (planning to do this when I get agreat wyrm scale)
Lord Wetlander Quests @ Suldanesselar
Spirit at Underdark
Lich @ City Gates
Orcus
Zallanota***