Sigh... I have often wondered if it was even possible to die in the first Neera encounter as I have never come close to doing so...until today - after figuring out how to get my Totemic Druid to summon her spirit animal I opted not to rest before picking up Neera and the party (Imoen & Khalid) fell prey to horror and Corlove was for some reason the primary target of the remaining mage (perhaps becuase she was a bit mouthy prior to the fireworks starting - or maybe her darts just ticked him off -)
...As to having a sub-forum I'm not sure thats such a good idea - Having a sub forum might mean that only people who had enough current interest in any form of challenges might visit there and peruse the threads while having the threads in the general forum means every time they get updated to the top of the page everyone in the general forum sees them and may BECOME intrigued enough to peruse one and perhaps join in or even just remain a lurker who enjoys reading the game journals. I think thread traffic might actually diminish by putting them in a sub-forum.
In my country the following 5 days will be holidays, so I have to leave this amazing thread for this period...
But for sure I promise to come back. Although it seems the reports on the adventure of Jagen H’gar became less attractive for others (the last 2 posts got only 1 like overall). I wonder what's wrong with it? Should the approach to posting about it be changed? In what way? Or is it only coincidence? I'll gladly try to follow your advices.
Anyway I'm going to thank everyone here for a very pleasant atmosphere and interesting tales of unsung heroes that continue their quests, not vain at all:)))
For what it's worth, I've enjoyed your reports on Jaqen. I just never like any posts on the forum. Maybe I should start.
I'm not sure if @bengoshi will see this, but for him and @Zalson, one way to get more likes is to give more likes. I often "return the favor" when someone "likes" one of my posts.
I'm enjoying following this thread. I don't really want to try it myself at this time, but reading about other people's games is very interesting.
The party has been slogging around Nashkel somewhat willy nilly picked up the ankeg for Viccy (-5 with small shield +1) - had Viccy talking to Prism so Greywolf would have to get past her -5 AC but then made the mistake of RPing her reply which removed the whole Greywolf encounter completely - she was at least upset enough by his answer that she attacked him so we did get the gems and Khalid will have to make due with a +1 longsword when we can afford one I guess (maybe the Harrower if we feel up to taking on the Amazons which is somewhat unlikely)
Issues with Neira also again thanks to Ms Viccy who failed her save for rigid thinking when Neira popped up from her commanded nap. Neira still went down and the rest of the group hustled outside but Viccy took out an innocent before snapping out of it dropping our rep to 7.
Khalid died just before the final level at the mines so we dragged his sorry carcass back to Nashkel to rez him - after returning Khalid got his 2nd level just before entering Mulaheys who took forever to go down in spite of two successful commands (low level thac0 probably the main cause) but we eventually were successful without losing anyone.
I had planned to keep Walrry in plate until much later but had taken his plate off to ID something and then sold it by accident while we were back in town raising Khalid - which I did not even notice until we had taken down Mulahey LOL. This was followed by spell writing failure for every spell in Mulaheys chest (14 int)...sigh - we picked up some splint mail for Walrry until he finds something better (AC-1 w RoP)
Nimbul fell without casting a spell with a MM disrupting his mirror image and a command followed by panic when he rose back up and had to be chased down.
The group is currently watching Rassad dance wondering if they should speak to him now or wait...anyone know whose level determines his level when recruited? Party level or PC level?
Walrry - F1/M1/T1 Imoen - T 3 Viccy - C 3 Khalid - F 2
... does anyone else wish there was some way to obtain Neeras gem bag when she is not a party member?
Yeah, is everyone in agreement that it'd be fine to relax this rule in her case just to get her gem bag and then boot her?
I mean, on the one hand, one could argue it is an item that she comes with, and in order to get it you should have to roll her up as a party member. On the other hand, it's just a pain not to have the gem bag.
... does anyone else wish there was some way to obtain Neeras gem bag when she is not a party member?
Yeah, is everyone in agreement that it'd be fine to relax this rule in her case just to get her gem bag and then boot her?
I mean, on the one hand, one could argue it is an item that she comes with, and in order to get it you should have to roll her up as a party member. On the other hand, it's just a pain not to have the gem bag.
I sort of look at this as a design flaw - an item this useful to everyone probably should not have been tied to a single NPC companion in the first place - One might surmise that it was more or less intended that players that did not wish to recruit her could take her long enough to relieve her of it - if it had been their intention not to make it available to anyone possessing it they could have and perhaps would have done so.
I'm not sure if @bengoshi will see this, but for him and @Zalson, one way to get more likes is to give more likes. I often "return the favor" when someone "likes" one of my posts.
I'm enjoying following this thread. I don't really want to try it myself at this time, but reading about other people's games is very interesting.
I liked this post just to be ironic. That tends to be how I like things...
@Wanderon you might as well take Rasaasd now if you are going to, as there is no other reason for you to return to Nashkel and waste precious time, it's a big IF though.
The hit to xp with yet another party member who doesn't contribute anything spectacular to the group and the possible time/money loss trying to keep him alive are definite things to consider.
Although if you need cash his boots sell for a lot of gold.
@Wanderon you might as well take Rasaasd now if you are going to, as there is no other reason for you to return to Nashkel and waste precious time, it's a big IF though.
The hit to xp with yet another party member who doesn't contribute anything spectacular to the group and the possible time/money loss trying to keep him alive are definite things to consider.
Although if you need cash his boots sell for a lot of gold.
Yeah I did go ahead and pick him up for mostly those reasons - I'll decide whether or not to keep him when we see how much a time/money drain he turns out to be.
Wandavyre the Swift and her party have died in Tazok's tent at 13 days, 2 hours. It was quite demoralizing, as Neera and I die after maybe one cast (if we're lucky...I reloaded just to try a few tactics). Without pre-casting it looks nigh impossible for the level my party was in (2/3). Even then, on top of the extras that SCS provides, it adds 3 Blacktalon elites and 2 hobgoblin elites that immediately shoot the mages at the start.
I'm beginning to think now that we should offer a Minimum Reload Version of this challenge: reload if-and-only-if the PC dies. That would give us the pleasure and satisfaction of actually completing some games with these gloriously oddball parties.
For example, in my 'Let the Fates Decide' game that's how I'm doing it. And honestly I do appreciate the fact that I can keep the game going all the way to the end.
Pretty much every game I play is either no reload or minimal reload - challenge or not - but the adrenalin rush of the no reload tends to make the minimal reload feel quite mundane to me and I find myself losing interest quickly (especially if it begins as a no reload and has to be adjusted down to minimal after a death). I find it changes my tactics and general attitude towards what can or can't be done in combat when I know that if things go south I get a do-over.
On the other hand I think the minimal reload might be a better option for games more centered on roleplay aspects altho I'm not sure that the random set up we are using is the best vehicle for a heavy roleplay campaign particularly from the standpoint of the party choices being more or less forced on you with no opportunity to change it. To me that seems to limit rather than enhance the opportunity to roleplay but it does a good job to increase the challenge of combat with the less than perfect party structure.
For my money the "let the fates decide" model is a much better venue for heavy roleplay and more likely to remain interesting in spite of a minimal reload baseline since RP becomes more the point of the campaign and combat just a puzzle to solve along the way.
In any case I certainly have no objection to adding a minimal reload option and perhaps there could be some manner in which to score the game based on the number of reloads vs how far the party progresses.
Like a certain amount points awarded for each chapter completed perhaps scaled to the difficulty selected (core normal etc) and maybe also scaled to the chapters difficulty -(Chap 4 in Cloakwood perhaps ranking considerably higher than Chap 1 or 2 ).
Then a penalty could be assessed for each reload - perhaps scaling upward - the more reloads - the more each one costs?
Then of course you could also award points based on how awesome or gimped your random party turns out perhaps assigning scores to each available NPC with high end (useful) NPCs getting low or minus scores (their usefulness is their bonus) and low end ones getting high scores to reward you (increase your scores)for getting through with less than stellar companions...
Can anyone please explain to me how do I upload a screenshoot under spoliers tags? It's suppused to be [ spoiler]This is a spoiler[/ spoiler] but I just can get it to work
Well I tried with 2 of my 5 rolls and they met rather early deaths.
The Jester was killed by a worg in a random encounter.
The wizard slayer was petrified by the a basilisk. While fighting three basilisks, Korax the ghoul was one shotted by a greater basilisk, funny enough the wizard slayer was able to kill the greater basilisk in melee combat, before being petrified by a lesser basilisk.
My new run through is a female, elven, multi-class, Fighter/Mage/Thief, where I get to pick alignment (LN), 7 re-rolls, and female voice 2. Her companions are Skie, Safana, Ajantis, Branwen, and Quayle.
I got an 86 as my best roll and made her stats 18, 19, 11, 18, 10, 10. Due to having a triple class multi-class I am going to only pick up Ajantis and Branwen for this run.
I made it safely through Candlekeep, then the ambush area, where I evaded Imoen and collected the items from that ambush before heading east. I killed the ogre with a belt fetish here and retrieved the ring of protection. I then headed south to Beregost.
In Beregost I sold some of the loot I had acquired and then went east again. I went to the temple and purchased 2 healing potions and a scroll of stone to flesh. I once again traveled east to the basilisk area.
In this area I was able to recruit Korax and hunt all the basilisks successfully (21,000 xp) for level 3F,3m,4T. I then left the area and made my way towards Nashkel. Before going to the actual town of Nashkel, I stopped in at the carnival and picked up Branwen (lvl 5). Branwen died fighting the mage (i forget his name, who was holding a witch hostage. Branwen died in that battle after suffering from 3 melf's acid arrows and a morale failure. I then travelled to Naskel, where I raised Branwen and healed her (took 1000 gold, which I barely had) The we were off to pick up the Ankheg plate mail for Branwen. Next we went to the inn were we fought Niera, who managed to get both rigid thinking and then hold person on Branwen, not to mention almost killing Branwen before I could kill Niera. Branwen survived and we rested for 8 hours and after resting Branwen healed herself back to normal.
We took this time to save for later play.
I'm pretty sure we are at Day 3 late or Day 4 early.
Up next... the Nashkel mines.
I kept this one rather short because not much really happened and I don't feel the need to really get deeply involved until around the bandit camp encounter/cloakwood.
New characters are at such bad odds that one random encounter or bad toss of the dice can get them killed.
Breif update on Walrry & Co - after picking up Rasaad we went to Beregost returned the necklace to Firebeads neighbor and took on Tranzig.
For whetever reason we could not seem to hit Tranzig and the battle went on forever - both Imoen and Rasaad went down and between Khalid and Imoen we used up about a half dozen heal potions -
Khalid was silenced by Viccy and had a panic attack from his injuries which saved him from dying as he ran into the other room -
Tranzig saved against command (so he must be level 6 or higher) and hold and silence - Immys backstab failed, Rasaads stunning fist failed, Walrry chipped away a bit with a wand of MM after not being able to hit with any consistency with either a bow or 2 Hand sword - Viccy kept swinging the Stupifier but don't think she ever hit and Khalid couldn't seem to hit either (missing Varscona here).
Finally he surrendered but we were having none of it and we finallly took him down and went to raise our fallen - expensive battle between the heal potions and rez work.
Walrry is F1/M1/T2 Imoen T3 Viccy C3 Khalid F2 Rasaad M2
New run, post nº1. SCS & metagaming (can’t avoid either).
Rolls: 2107, 680, that is male human multiclass fighter/druid. I liked the idea of playing a dual class character in this no reload challenge, so my new character is Ianros Droverson, human Fighter to be dualed to Druid at level 3. I was lucky with the stat rolls and got a nice 86 total stat point. I picked proficiencies in daggers and two weapon fighting.
The party: 25, 17, 12, 16, 27. Tiax, Minsc, Imoen, Kivan and Xan. I always have a single class Cleric in my party, and I have never actually played Tiax or Xan (or druid class), so let’s see how it goes. I’m a bit worried with the HP rolls for Minsc, since he is gonna be the tank and he's no Kagain. Also, I'm plannig on dualling Immy to mage as soon as I can. I don't have high expectations with Xan and I guess Tiax can handle thieving duties.
Prologue & Chapter1. Picked Imoen (level 1, as always) and did the usual stuff, I didn’t want to risk with Tarnesh so I used the speed potion. Then travelled to Beregost and picked Tiax (level 2/2 with 18HP!) and Kivan (level 2, 16HP). Dualed Imoen and travelled to Nashkel.
Chapter2. Picked Minsc (level 1) and started my usual tour of the easy xp and nice loot: area south of Nashkel (Sendai), then west (waterfalls) and finally Gnoll’s Fortress. Ianros was already level 3, and with the Tome of Leadership he was finally ready to dual class to Druid. I picked scimitar and dart proficiency. We were nearby, so the party travelled to area north of gnoll fortress. Here everything went crazy. First thing, the party saved that screaming guy from the polar beard, but instead of rewarding me with the Boots of the North the guy just gave me 50 gold and 100xp. Of course I tried to kill him but he disappeared. Then talked to the paladin that wants your help with gibberlings. I knew that SCS spawns quite a lot more gibberlings, but I didn’t know that they spawn all over the place. I was quickly overwhelmed, so I thought “regroup and cast sleep”. Bad idea, Imoen died.
The mines were very easy to finish. I picked Xan, who was level 2 (7 HP). I was hoping he would be at least level 4. Yes Xan, at that level you are doomed. Out of the mines, the party explored the whole area. First thing, the battle with Lamalha’s party. Entangle and Silence won the battle, and I’m certainly starting to appreciate Tiax’s Summon Ghast ability. Unfortunately, Telka backstabbed Xan to death. He had been in the party for less than 4 hours. Worst thing is he missed all the xp in this area.
Chapter3. Day 12, Hour 20. Back in Nashkel everyone was fatigued but I thought the party could deal with Nimbul. Tiax casted Command Word:Die on him and I Xan used the wand of frosting. Again, very unfortunately, the cold damage killed Nimbul, who was turned into ice and then smashed into tiny pieces by Minsc. The party lost all the loot from him, so goodbye boots of Avoidance. What’s with the boots?
The party travelled to Beregost, killed Tranzig, made some purchases (arrows of biting are a must) and then explored Bassilus' area.
I tried to inscribe 4 spells scrolls with Imoen in chapter2, and she failed 3 of them so a new approach is in order. With money to spare the party traveled to FAI and bought all 4 potions of genius from the temple and then went to High Hedge. I bought as many scrolls as I could, and gave 2 potions of genius to Xan and Imoen. That is 25 INT and 100% to learn a spell. Their spellbooks are filled now.
Right now I'm still in chapter 3, day 17, hour 5. I'm going to explore the coast areas before going to bandit camp. Charname has completed the dualling process (Fighter 3 -> Druid 4) and is back on the front line.
Smacked by Flesh Golem in pirate's cave. I gave charname a potion of absorption, which gives +10AC versus bludgeoning attacks, not good enough. Two hits-in-a-row and charname bit the dust.
@Wanderon, I feel that. Every time I play a game now, after charname dies, I quickly lose interest. @Dexter, Tiax is awesome and very much under-appreciated, I think. He makes me want to make a cleric/thief charname, but why do that when you have Tiax? I hope that you have better luck in Tazok's tent than I did!
Also, I realize that SCS Saravok is immune to backstab. It really ruined the joy of my assassin game .
@dstoltzfus I wish I had more time to play Tiax, he is really useful. However it is a bit bothering that his pick lock/pocket skill is hidden under special ability button, so you have to click twice to perfom the most common thief action. But he is a great NPC, specially if you can recruit him right at beregost.
Well, the one I most preferred to play of five (half-orc Cleric/Thief) I got pretty dismal rolls on with only 3 re-rolls, so I passed on that one.
I'm going with my first EEKeepered PC because I rolled
4955 449
TN male half-orc Totemic Druid Belaver Darkeyes, the Brazen 4 re-rolls - Male6
Kagain Ajantis Safana Eldoth Baeloth
This party should be interesting because IIRC Ajantis doesn't like Kagain. I think he dislikes Eldoth as well. I can't remember if these tensions come to blows, though.
Once I get Baeloth, I'll actually have a balanced party. (Forgive me, as it's been a long time since I've played some of the classes and kits. Can a Sorcerer wear the Ring of Wizardry?)
I don't think I've ever played a Totemic Druid, at least not that I recall. So this should be interesting. The half-orc Strength probably isn't going to do me all that much good for this class, but I guess I'll see.
Edit: I abandoned this game when I arrived at the map for Safana and Ajantis took some poisoned arrows and they had no poison antidote. Wasn't really enjoying the class/party much, and knew I wouldn't get very far anyway. On to the next roll of five for me.
@Lemernis, that dex...good thing you are a druid. Yeah, the strength won't do anything. Enjoy the enhanced spirit summons though. I tried a solo reload with e totemic druid once...I was lazy and the summons aren't that OP. The bear has a chance to fear on hit...that'll be nice . Good luck. I think Ajantis physically attacks any evil party member...not sure though; it should be interesting.
@Dexter, just read the demise of your fighter/druid run. That was quite the risk . Good luck on your next run. Maybe it's the scotch, maybe it's your epic risk-taking, but I'm feeling motivated for another random run (I will have to be super-prepared for Tazok's tent this time )...after the Vancouver/San Jose game...
Well my run has been going pretty well so far, so I guess it's time to make it officialish.
Going best of 5, I got 9914 781 Male half-orc Berserker Lawful Evil (Rounded up to Chaotic Neutral), 8 rerolls, male1 voice
Alora Shar-Teel Viconia Montaron Baeloth
Good rolls all around, but with SCS I think I'll need it. Anyways, quick summary of what's happened so far. Quests done so far: Joia, Marl, Firebeard, Letter quest, Perdue, Noober, saved Rufie, saved the cat, Dryad's tree, Brage, Spiders in Beregost. Notable Encounters: Killed the Flaming Fist south of Beregost for armor, Neera buisiness, Karlat, Neira, the Belt Ogre, Tarnesh (finally), 4 ankhegs.
After all of that I was level 5 and finally started picking up my party members, grabbing Viconia, Montaron, Baeloth, and Shar-teel. Once I had all of them I headed to the Nashkel Mines, taking care of things with Dorn and Greywolf. The mines were pretty easy, though I didn't have the improved chapter 2 end battle installed (It was bugged last I checked, anyone know if it's been fixed yet?). After that I got the dagger from the area outside the mines, then went to the area below that and got the protection from magic scroll and the fire protection ring. I then journeyed to the Firewine Ruins and called it good.
After coming to this point I'm realizing I really should've planned things out better instead of wandering around vaguely, as it's already day 20 and 2 hours. My plan of waiting until level 5 to pick up npcs worked out pretty well, except for the fact that I just now remembered about the SCS option that allow me to choose npc weapon proficiencies and thieving abilities. The upside is that all the npcs seem to get max hp for those levels. The downside is that Montaron is left with high stealth and sneaking skills instead of traps or locks. Luckily, he can still disarm traps as long as Viconia them. The PC's stats are currently 53 hp, 19/18/19/9/3/13, with 3 pips in longswords and 2 in TWF.
Quick question, how do you take screenshots? Do I just need to make do with the print screen command?
@ICN, welcome. I had to get rid of the enhanced Chapter 2 encounter as well...it's still bugged from what I know. You are smart in the strategy of leveling and then getting NPC's. I've never noticed the NPC proficiency feature....maybe I don't have it enabled. I'm not usre about screen shots, though I think it was addressed earlier in the thread.
I would much rather spend too much time and safely succeed in a no-reload than worry about the speed factor (though I did lose my last one with a little impatience). Congrats on killing the ankegs, Karlat, and Tarnesh solo (though, I don;t know what level you were at the time). I tried to kill ankegs and Tarnesh with a level one berserker in the past with no success (Karlat hits really hard).
Comments
RIP Corlove Wyvernjack... 2 Days 16 hours...
Lets see if my FMT gets a bit further
Enjoy your vacation!
I'm enjoying following this thread. I don't really want to try it myself at this time, but reading about other people's games is very interesting.
The party has been slogging around Nashkel somewhat willy nilly picked up the ankeg for Viccy (-5 with small shield +1) - had Viccy talking to Prism so Greywolf would have to get past her -5 AC but then made the mistake of RPing her reply which removed the whole Greywolf encounter completely - she was at least upset enough by his answer that she attacked him so we did get the gems and Khalid will have to make due with a +1 longsword when we can afford one I guess (maybe the Harrower if we feel up to taking on the Amazons which is somewhat unlikely)
Issues with Neira also again thanks to Ms Viccy who failed her save for rigid thinking when Neira popped up from her commanded nap. Neira still went down and the rest of the group hustled outside but Viccy took out an innocent before snapping out of it dropping our rep to 7.
Khalid died just before the final level at the mines so we dragged his sorry carcass back to Nashkel to rez him - after returning Khalid got his 2nd level just before entering Mulaheys who took forever to go down in spite of two successful commands (low level thac0 probably the main cause) but we eventually were successful without losing anyone.
I had planned to keep Walrry in plate until much later but had taken his plate off to ID something and then sold it by accident while we were back in town raising Khalid - which I did not even notice until we had taken down Mulahey LOL. This was followed by spell writing failure for every spell in Mulaheys chest (14 int)...sigh - we picked up some splint mail for Walrry until he finds something better (AC-1 w RoP)
Nimbul fell without casting a spell with a MM disrupting his mirror image and a command followed by panic when he rose back up and had to be chased down.
The group is currently watching Rassad dance wondering if they should speak to him now or wait...anyone know whose level determines his level when recruited? Party level or PC level?
Walrry - F1/M1/T1
Imoen - T 3
Viccy - C 3
Khalid - F 2
I mean, on the one hand, one could argue it is an item that she comes with, and in order to get it you should have to roll her up as a party member. On the other hand, it's just a pain not to have the gem bag.
The hit to xp with yet another party member who doesn't contribute anything spectacular to the group and the possible time/money loss trying to keep him alive are definite things to consider.
Although if you need cash his boots sell for a lot of gold.
For example, in my 'Let the Fates Decide' game that's how I'm doing it. And honestly I do appreciate the fact that I can keep the game going all the way to the end.
On the other hand I think the minimal reload might be a better option for games more centered on roleplay aspects altho I'm not sure that the random set up we are using is the best vehicle for a heavy roleplay campaign particularly from the standpoint of the party choices being more or less forced on you with no opportunity to change it. To me that seems to limit rather than enhance the opportunity to roleplay but it does a good job to increase the challenge of combat with the less than perfect party structure.
For my money the "let the fates decide" model is a much better venue for heavy roleplay and more likely to remain interesting in spite of a minimal reload baseline since RP becomes more the point of the campaign and combat just a puzzle to solve along the way.
In any case I certainly have no objection to adding a minimal reload option and perhaps there could be some manner in which to score the game based on the number of reloads vs how far the party progresses.
Like a certain amount points awarded for each chapter completed perhaps scaled to the difficulty selected (core normal etc) and maybe also scaled to the chapters difficulty -(Chap 4 in Cloakwood perhaps ranking considerably higher than Chap 1 or 2 ).
Then a penalty could be assessed for each reload - perhaps scaling upward - the more reloads - the more each one costs?
Then of course you could also award points based on how awesome or gimped your random party turns out perhaps assigning scores to each available NPC with high end (useful) NPCs getting low or minus scores (their usefulness is their bonus) and low end ones getting high scores to reward you (increase your scores)for getting through with less than stellar companions...
The possibilities are endless...LOL
The Jester was killed by a worg in a random encounter.
The wizard slayer was petrified by the a basilisk. While fighting three basilisks, Korax the ghoul was one shotted by a greater basilisk, funny enough the wizard slayer was able to kill the greater basilisk in melee combat, before being petrified by a lesser basilisk.
My new run through is a female, elven, multi-class, Fighter/Mage/Thief, where I get to pick alignment (LN), 7 re-rolls, and female voice 2. Her companions are Skie, Safana, Ajantis, Branwen, and Quayle.
I got an 86 as my best roll and made her stats 18, 19, 11, 18, 10, 10. Due to having a triple class multi-class I am going to only pick up Ajantis and Branwen for this run.
I made it safely through Candlekeep, then the ambush area, where I evaded Imoen and collected the items from that ambush before heading east. I killed the ogre with a belt fetish here and retrieved the ring of protection. I then headed south to Beregost.
In Beregost I sold some of the loot I had acquired and then went east again. I went to the temple and purchased 2 healing potions and a scroll of stone to flesh. I once again traveled east to the basilisk area.
In this area I was able to recruit Korax and hunt all the basilisks successfully (21,000 xp) for level 3F,3m,4T. I then left the area and made my way towards Nashkel. Before going to the actual town of Nashkel, I stopped in at the carnival and picked up Branwen (lvl 5). Branwen died fighting the mage (i forget his name, who was holding a witch hostage. Branwen died in that battle after suffering from 3 melf's acid arrows and a morale failure. I then travelled to Naskel, where I raised Branwen and healed her (took 1000 gold, which I barely had) The we were off to pick up the Ankheg plate mail for Branwen. Next we went to the inn were we fought Niera, who managed to get both rigid thinking and then hold person on Branwen, not to mention almost killing Branwen before I could kill Niera. Branwen survived and we rested for 8 hours and after resting Branwen healed herself back to normal.
We took this time to save for later play.
I'm pretty sure we are at Day 3 late or Day 4 early.
Up next... the Nashkel mines.
I kept this one rather short because not much really happened and I don't feel the need to really get deeply involved until around the bandit camp encounter/cloakwood.
New characters are at such bad odds that one random encounter or bad toss of the dice can get them killed.
For whetever reason we could not seem to hit Tranzig and the battle went on forever - both Imoen and Rasaad went down and between Khalid and Imoen we used up about a half dozen heal potions -
Khalid was silenced by Viccy and had a panic attack from his injuries which saved him from dying as he ran into the other room -
Tranzig saved against command (so he must be level 6 or higher) and hold and silence - Immys backstab failed, Rasaads stunning fist failed, Walrry chipped away a bit with a wand of MM after not being able to hit with any consistency with either a bow or 2 Hand sword - Viccy kept swinging the Stupifier but don't think she ever hit and Khalid couldn't seem to hit either (missing Varscona here).
Finally he surrendered but we were having none of it and we finallly took him down and went to raise our fallen - expensive battle between the heal potions and rez work.
Walrry is F1/M1/T2
Imoen T3
Viccy C3
Khalid F2
Rasaad M2
Chap 3 - 9 days, 14 hours
Rolls: 2107, 680, that is male human multiclass fighter/druid. I liked the idea of playing a dual class character in this no reload challenge, so my new character is Ianros Droverson, human Fighter to be dualed to Druid at level 3. I was lucky with the stat rolls and got a nice 86 total stat point. I picked proficiencies in daggers and two weapon fighting.
The party: 25, 17, 12, 16, 27. Tiax, Minsc, Imoen, Kivan and Xan. I always have a single class Cleric in my party, and I have never actually played Tiax or Xan (or druid class), so let’s see how it goes. I’m a bit worried with the HP rolls for Minsc, since he is gonna be the tank and he's no Kagain. Also, I'm plannig on dualling Immy to mage as soon as I can. I don't have high expectations with Xan and I guess Tiax can handle thieving duties.
Prologue & Chapter1. Picked Imoen (level 1, as always) and did the usual stuff, I didn’t want to risk with Tarnesh so I used the speed potion. Then travelled to Beregost and picked Tiax (level 2/2 with 18HP!) and Kivan (level 2, 16HP). Dualed Imoen and travelled to Nashkel.
Chapter2. Picked Minsc (level 1) and started my usual tour of the easy xp and nice loot: area south of Nashkel (Sendai), then west (waterfalls) and finally Gnoll’s Fortress. Ianros was already level 3, and with the Tome of Leadership he was finally ready to dual class to Druid. I picked scimitar and dart proficiency.
We were nearby, so the party travelled to area north of gnoll fortress. Here everything went crazy. First thing, the party saved that screaming guy from the polar beard, but instead of rewarding me with the Boots of the North the guy just gave me 50 gold and 100xp. Of course I tried to kill him but he disappeared. Then talked to the paladin that wants your help with gibberlings. I knew that SCS spawns quite a lot more gibberlings, but I didn’t know that they spawn all over the place. I was quickly overwhelmed, so I thought “regroup and cast sleep”. Bad idea, Imoen died.
The mines were very easy to finish. I picked Xan, who was level 2 (7 HP). I was hoping he would be at least level 4. Yes Xan, at that level you are doomed. Out of the mines, the party explored the whole area. First thing, the battle with Lamalha’s party. Entangle and Silence won the battle, and I’m certainly starting to appreciate Tiax’s Summon Ghast ability. Unfortunately, Telka backstabbed Xan to death. He had been in the party for less than 4 hours. Worst thing is he missed all the xp in this area.
Chapter3. Day 12, Hour 20. Back in Nashkel everyone was fatigued but I thought the party could deal with Nimbul. Tiax casted Command Word:Die on him and I Xan used the wand of frosting. Again, very unfortunately, the cold damage killed Nimbul, who was turned into ice and then smashed into tiny pieces by Minsc. The party lost all the loot from him, so goodbye boots of Avoidance. What’s with the boots?
The party travelled to Beregost, killed Tranzig, made some purchases (arrows of biting are a must) and then explored Bassilus' area.
I tried to inscribe 4 spells scrolls with Imoen in chapter2, and she failed 3 of them so a new approach is in order. With money to spare the party traveled to FAI and bought all 4 potions of genius from the temple and then went to High Hedge. I bought as many scrolls as I could, and gave 2 potions of genius to Xan and Imoen. That is 25 INT and 100% to learn a spell. Their spellbooks are filled now.
Right now I'm still in chapter 3, day 17, hour 5. I'm going to explore the coast areas before going to bandit camp. Charname has completed the dualling process (Fighter 3 -> Druid 4) and is back on the front line.
Also, I realize that SCS Saravok is immune to backstab. It really ruined the joy of my assassin game
2401 384: male elf multiclass fighter/thief. Chaotic good, 8 rolls, voice 2
10 20 23 1 8: faldorn quayle shar-teel ajantis edwin
I used shadowkeeper to change his avantar into a thief
I'm going with my first EEKeepered PC because I rolled
4955 449
TN male half-orc Totemic Druid
Belaver Darkeyes, the Brazen
4 re-rolls - Male6
Kagain
Ajantis
Safana
Eldoth
Baeloth
This party should be interesting because IIRC Ajantis doesn't like Kagain. I think he dislikes Eldoth as well. I can't remember if these tensions come to blows, though.
Once I get Baeloth, I'll actually have a balanced party. (Forgive me, as it's been a long time since I've played some of the classes and kits. Can a Sorcerer wear the Ring of Wizardry?)
I don't think I've ever played a Totemic Druid, at least not that I recall. So this should be interesting. The half-orc Strength probably isn't going to do me all that much good for this class, but I guess I'll see.
Edit: I abandoned this game when I arrived at the map for Safana and Ajantis took some poisoned arrows and they had no poison antidote. Wasn't really enjoying the class/party much, and knew I wouldn't get very far anyway. On to the next roll of five for me.
Going best of 5, I got
9914 781
Male half-orc Berserker
Lawful Evil (Rounded up to Chaotic Neutral), 8 rerolls, male1 voice
Alora
Shar-Teel
Viconia
Montaron
Baeloth
Good rolls all around, but with SCS I think I'll need it. Anyways, quick summary of what's happened so far.
Quests done so far: Joia, Marl, Firebeard, Letter quest, Perdue, Noober, saved Rufie, saved the cat, Dryad's tree, Brage, Spiders in Beregost.
Notable Encounters: Killed the Flaming Fist south of Beregost for armor, Neera buisiness, Karlat, Neira, the Belt Ogre, Tarnesh (finally), 4 ankhegs.
After all of that I was level 5 and finally started picking up my party members, grabbing Viconia, Montaron, Baeloth, and Shar-teel. Once I had all of them I headed to the Nashkel Mines, taking care of things with Dorn and Greywolf. The mines were pretty easy, though I didn't have the improved chapter 2 end battle installed (It was bugged last I checked, anyone know if it's been fixed yet?). After that I got the dagger from the area outside the mines, then went to the area below that and got the protection from magic scroll and the fire protection ring. I then journeyed to the Firewine Ruins and called it good.
After coming to this point I'm realizing I really should've planned things out better instead of wandering around vaguely, as it's already day 20 and 2 hours. My plan of waiting until level 5 to pick up npcs worked out pretty well, except for the fact that I just now remembered about the SCS option that allow me to choose npc weapon proficiencies and thieving abilities. The upside is that all the npcs seem to get max hp for those levels. The downside is that Montaron is left with high stealth and sneaking skills instead of traps or locks. Luckily, he can still disarm traps as long as Viconia them. The PC's stats are currently 53 hp, 19/18/19/9/3/13, with 3 pips in longswords and 2 in TWF.
Quick question, how do you take screenshots? Do I just need to make do with the print screen command?
I would much rather spend too much time and safely succeed in a no-reload than worry about the speed factor (though I did lose my last one with a little impatience). Congrats on killing the ankegs, Karlat, and Tarnesh solo (though, I don;t know what level you were at the time). I tried to kill ankegs and Tarnesh with a level one berserker in the past with no success