First-Run Advice: [Branwen or Xan in the Nashkel Mines]
Eadwyn_G8keeper
Member Posts: 541
My party: Charname[FM-CG Halfelven Level 3-3 18/76-18-17-16-12-10]
Imoen [Lvl 5]
Jaheira [Lvl 3-4]
Ajantis [Lvl 4]
Minsc [Lvl4]
Kivan -- Trade Bait even though I would love to have his help with the Bandits later.
We do not have access to "Web" as could not justify killing Borda with Good Party. We do have the Wands of Fire and Frost. Planning to purchase Full Pate Mail and Dagger of Venom from Thunderhammer Smithy and already have the Comp Longbow +1, Varscona, Ashideena, Halberd +1, 2 Ankheg Mails, Large and Medium +1 Shields, Ring of Wizardry and usual assortment of other goodness.
If Xan needs to be rescued it would be interesting to get to him with only 4NPCs and then, once we finish the Mines, bid him farewell and rescue Branwen [who might decide to wear the GenderChange Belt as a disguise while she plots her revenge-in which case I need info on cusomizing 'her' portrait, something with a little more ooomph..
On the other hand, its curious how seemingly impossible was the idea of trying something out, calmly knowing that I could reload and run Plan B within an hour or two, at the most... Somehow, in my imagination that whole Reloading because of a Mission Failure -- such as not having essential area spells like Fireball, Web or this Stinking Cloud I have read about -- seemed like tangled knots that would take at least a month to unravel...?? Funny Monkey-Mind!
I suppose Branwen would have Animate Dead. Will Xan have Fireball?
Thanks for your comments.
Imoen [Lvl 5]
Jaheira [Lvl 3-4]
Ajantis [Lvl 4]
Minsc [Lvl4]
Kivan -- Trade Bait even though I would love to have his help with the Bandits later.
We do not have access to "Web" as could not justify killing Borda with Good Party. We do have the Wands of Fire and Frost. Planning to purchase Full Pate Mail and Dagger of Venom from Thunderhammer Smithy and already have the Comp Longbow +1, Varscona, Ashideena, Halberd +1, 2 Ankheg Mails, Large and Medium +1 Shields, Ring of Wizardry and usual assortment of other goodness.
If Xan needs to be rescued it would be interesting to get to him with only 4NPCs and then, once we finish the Mines, bid him farewell and rescue Branwen [who might decide to wear the GenderChange Belt as a disguise while she plots her revenge-in which case I need info on cusomizing 'her' portrait, something with a little more ooomph..
On the other hand, its curious how seemingly impossible was the idea of trying something out, calmly knowing that I could reload and run Plan B within an hour or two, at the most... Somehow, in my imagination that whole Reloading because of a Mission Failure -- such as not having essential area spells like Fireball, Web or this Stinking Cloud I have read about -- seemed like tangled knots that would take at least a month to unravel...?? Funny Monkey-Mind!
I suppose Branwen would have Animate Dead. Will Xan have Fireball?
Thanks for your comments.
0
Comments
don't worry about Naskhel mines, it's piss easy, especially with the gear you have... last time I did that nobody was over lvl 3-4, I had exactly one magical weapon, and Shar-Teel in the middle of regaining her fighter levels... on insane. just take care of traps, they can hurt you the most.
Now, if we had bought tainted potions on a first encounter and then were to run across him again on the way back to Nashkel there would be ample justification, even from Paladin POV, for an unscripted attack. A Potion of Healing that does not do the job is pretty serious stuff.
The first time--I was bypassing Xvart Village on my way to whack Neville and Co. but had to genocide the little buggers anyhow on the return trip. [This was well prior to beginning Minsc-Dynaheir Quest] So I can definitely see on 2nd run that encountering Borda twice would result in "Web" obtained within my sense of 'alignment restrictions'.
But, OMG, is the whole Xvart Village respawning!?!? -Perish the thought!
Forgot to mention that we also have Dynaheir stashed in Belching Dragon at Nashkel at @ same Level she was when we rescued her. She does not have Fireball.
Yes, most of the Xvart village respawns, although not their leader and his bear, nor the outlying guards up the hill at the back.
As for your OP ... I reckon you're pretty heavy on warrior classes and pretty light on both arcane and divine casters. If I were in your position, I'd retire 2 warriors and take both Branwen and Xan (or Dynaheir), since Jaheira and Branwen and (especially) your Charname are all capable of tanking if given the right equipment. I'd probably put your Charname in the front line to fight, using his mage abilities mainly for support before and after combat, with one remaining dedicated warrior beside him, and use Xan/Dynaheir as your primary mage. Obviously you keep Minsc if you want Dynaheir, but if you want Xan then it'd be pretty arguable between Minsc/Ajantis/Kivan as the one to keep, they're all competent in both melee and ranged, with Kivan having the edge for ranged and Ajantis for melee and Minsc between the other two, so it's a matter of your preferred combat style.
If you're sure that you only want one of Branwen and Xan (or Dynaheir), then I'd take Branwen, but in that case I'd dual Imoen to mage later on - she makes a fine mage. Some would dual her right now or at level 6, but personally I prefer to dual her at level 7 so that she gets more thief skills. (And level 7 is the canonical solution - when you meet her again in BG2, she'll have been dualled to mage after 7 levels of thief.) However, that leaves you without a thief for a while until Imoen gets those thief skills back, so you'll very probably need to swap in another thief temporarily at that stage, and therefore drop one of the others until you can swap back ... one way to handle this would be to swap out one of the two remaining warriors and bring in Coran, a capable fighter/thief.
Both Kivan and Branwen have Quest-lines to pursue. Ajantis does not have an interesting purpose and -since I have given the Gauntlets of Dexterity to Minsc- in my Campaign, his inherent Tank stats are not all that great. Once I have purchased the Big Ticket items in Beregost, Jaheira's Charisma [+Cloak] should suffice... Hmmmm. And Branwen more than covers for his lost Heal ability...
I'm considering having Jaheira be En Pointe with Dagger of Venom, Darts, Belt of Piercing and Lrge Shield +1. With 4 Archers supporting her, she will probably have to do very little Melee. One hit from DoV and she can fall back to let Charname, Minsc or even Kivan [with Studded Armor +2 and Halberd +1] finish the Melee. That would only be a problem if OP is surprised and needs Jaheira to cast Entangle ASAP...
That Melee strategy also suggests some Ad Hoc early XP farming to improve HP for Charname and Jaheira
on future runs .... Of course by then I will probably have BG:EE and other options...
Also, re Borda: [Before Minsc-Dynaheir Quest] Deal with the Xvarts on the way to Borda, Neville and Co [which can be role-played as looking for Kivan's Bandits] then encountering Borda again, with prejudice, and exiting N. to Drzzt and the HalfOgres map which also role-plays well as Bjornin's Quest. Sounds like a solid storyline if the game will allow us to encounter Borda twice...!!
re Coran: I am concerned that exchanging Kivan for Coran until Imoen gets her Level 7 Mage/Level 6 Thief game on will get me a Thief who is stealthier than either Ranger but sucks at Finding Traps. I might try to find some way that most of the Basilisk XP goes to Imoen and Charname...
Alas, Ajantis!! Gonna miss you big guy...
But even now the time foretold draws near.
When up and down the Sword Coast,
Its varied denizens both high and low,
Shall raise a glass and toast with cheers,
Or else full shiver in their venomous dreams,
As news is shuffled and choicest rumors grow.
Let fall or swiftly sew, ye wights, all wintry schemes,
For legends bloom, and Eadwyn Silvermaqne...is Here!!!
A fully-charged Wand of Fire has 50 charges of Fireball and Agannazar's Scorcher, but you've got to re-charge it in a shop for that, which is expensive. The key point about level 7 is you can get her Find Traps and Open Locks to 100%. But yes, none of the traps and locks in BG1 (so far as I recall) need fully-maxed skills, and only a few in BG2, so level 6 skills will suffice most of the time for the most important skills. Both have stated enemies upon whom they are seeking revenge, yes, so that's certainly true from a roleplaying perspective. However ...
But you have the Belt of Piercing, even though you're roleplaying Paladin-like justifications for your actions? I'm surprised you didn't return it to its rightful owner. Or did you avoid speaking to that quest-giver? Interesting question ... but I think not, so far as I recall you only get the one chance at him, although maybe I'm wrong about that. When you first get him, yes. But if you get him at his maximum first-joining level, he'll be F5/T5 and close to levelling up to F5/T6, so you can soon put all the skill points from levelling into Find Traps, and then he's not too bad at it - good enough to cope with the Cloakwood Mine, for example. (Which I've just proved today with Coran as thief in my own current run.)
I like your poem/ballad about your character!
But you have the Belt of Piercing, even though you're roleplaying Paladin-like justifications for your actions? I'm surprised you didn't return it to its rightful owner. Or did you avoid speaking to that quest-giver?
You have a point there and it is definitely targeted on "The Juice". The Ogre was a first adventure after the initial shock trauma of Gorion's Murder and Tarnesh's attack at FAI. The Paladin perspective of Ajantis was as yet unmanifest as Charname is Chaotic Good, and Jaheira [Party Leader at the time] True Neutral. Somehow the question of how to Identify and when the NO-NO Belt made me completely forget about returning them as a question of importance. Had not really gotten into the story at that point. At sea, which BTW is pretty much the state Charname would have been in. will think more on this. TY.
I like your poem/ballad about your character!
It seems quite possible in that location, to quickly arrange the Party so as to allow trapping Borda, when he arrives, long enough for the shoddy potion to be inspected and a fight to ensue. Borda has Magic Resistance to Detect Evil.
Or it may be that -even if you have Borda lockedin place with your NPCs- the moment you go to your Inventory to Right Click the 'Murky' Health Potion he gets free. Maybe turning off the NPCs AI before going to Inventory screen...
So that, my quibble re: the scripted Shakedown threat from a Good party being unnatural [unless it includes Edwin who might well have heard of Borda] does not absolutely exclude "Web" from my Grimoire. Anyhow, I am going to try doing without Web until Ulgoth's Beard....