Okay, here is the chart for the pure dice rolling method of character generation. For this method you don't use the random number generator, but rather the WotC D&D Dice Roller (see here). I'll link this in the topic starter as well. The advantage of this system is that it gives a more even chance of drawing the classes and subclasses that are squeezed into Drone's original system and my update to it (Sorcerer and Monk and their kits, and Barbarian).
Decided to give this a try; thanks for the excellent challenge.
I rolled a male elf barbarian. Neutral evil with 0 rolls, which is definitely a change for me: I tend to play under the assumption that my character is a, you know, child of a dead deity and so has good stats. So these are a *nice* change.
18/12 19 17 8 7 8
the random name was Iannan Woodsoul.
My team is: Edwin Minsc Dynaheir Xzar Xan
So, on the plus size, I have mages up the wazoo and they're all available early. No their or cleric outright, but that's okay: barbarians roll a d12 ... Right?
Put 2 pips in two-handed sword and bows. I realize now that I should have grabbed long sword and dagger and tried to dual-wield but I like the classic barbarian setup. Minsc will be the dual wielder with the stupifier and a mace +1. I debated when I should dual Xzar to cleric (he's the best choice since he only needs the wisdom tome) and decided I'd make the decision when he got to level 2.
Did the usual quests in Candlekeep (except Firebead because he's broken) and used my barbarian muscle to rip through the star sapphire chest -- and used that money to get me some additional healing potions. Chunking Carbos was fun. Shank was less fun because my two-handed sword broke in Candlekeep, something I've never had happen before.
After good-riddance (read:Gorion) died, I robbed Imoen of her stuff and then picked up Xzar (we both killed Montaron, together). Then it was off to the friendly arm inn ... For a reason which eludes me? Force of habit, I suppose.
Handled Tarnesh without a problem (he fired his mirror image and then Xzar hit him with a Larloch's. Iannan took him out with a shot from his composite longbow, because sometimes you can hit the correct image?) and, after going into the Friendly Arm, wondered why I was up there are all in the first place? Oh yeah, the Ring of Wizardry (given to Xzar alongside all the throwing daggers he can carry). Xzar failed to learn any of Tarnesh's spells (which started a theme for wizards).
Headed down to Beregost with the goal in mind to rack up as much XP as possible before Nashkell. Did Marl, Marianne, Zhurlog's (sic?) boots, and Silke's quest by accident (I killed Feldepost's men for their potions of defense; I will clean up Silke later). I was trying to get to level 2 before I talked to any other NPCs but couldn't get enough easy XP before I had to go get Minsc.
And then, I thought I saw the end of my second no-reload run (first was an attempt with a cavalier who got pasted by Unshey's ogre); just little old Iannan and Xzar, level 1 both, surrounded by bandits.
I had Xzar fire off a Larloch's while I raged for extra hp. Then Xzar went down like a pincushion and I took three hits. Drank a healing potion and ... ran off the edge of the map (but not before I stopped to pick up a certain ring).
That was a close one. Any class other than barbarian, and I'd be starting game 3 right now.
Continued on after raising Xzar, down to Nashkell. Grabbed Minsc and kitted him out (ankheg plate, stupifier, other accoutrements) and then ran into the inn to handle Neera. Against 2 archers and Xzar's Larloch's minor drain spam, she was taking a dirt nap real soon.
After ignoring Edwin (not talking to him at all), I ran down to the gnoll stronghold via the xvart map and the bridges map -- upon which I avoided all conflict en route to gnoll stronghold. Killed Gnarl with a charmed Hairtooth and then told Hairtooth to turn around while we turned him into a pincushion. Grabbed the tome a charisma (for Xan eventually) and then I quickly busted dynaheir out of her pit.
Returned to Nashkell and grabbed Edwin, since he wanted to keep an eye on Dynaheir. Headed into the mines with only Xzar and I level 2. What could go wrong?
The only sticky situation I found myself in was caused by path finding. Xzar kept off running down empty corridors only to encounter kobolds. He never died though, which was nice.
I solved the traps problem with healing potions and barbarian/berserker rage. Minsc did the first two sets of traps (I confess I went the wrong way so had to burn 5 healing potions total) and Iannan did the second. Which I did in the stupidest way possible: instead of, you know, taking the traps 1 arrow at a time, I took them all at once. And had 3 hp left out of 34(?) or so (got 13 points on my second hit point roll). Nothing healing potions can't solve.
Popped into mulahey's lair to get Xan and ran out of the mines. I had only killed what I needed to kill and I didn't want to take on most of the game without a cleric. So it was off to durlag's tower.
My plan was this: send Minsc in, completely naked and invisible. Get the wisdom tome because there's only 1 trap that doesn't hurt you. Then run back, past the helmed horrors and doppelganger, and get the tome identified.
It worked the first time. I stripped Minsc naked (except for the dexterity gloves, a dumb choice since I had a potion of agility -- for extra stealth percentage) and ran him in to Durlag's Tower. Got the tome after a short period of hostility (read:dire charmed) and then back out of the tower. But it was bright outside and I couldn't see, so I exited to the General Settings (I play on ipad) and turned up a slider. And I came back to the title screen. The game had reset...
I loaded up my most recent save -- of course I had not made a save after I got the tome, this was a no-reload challenge! -- and sent a naked Minsc back to his doom. Because I didn't want to wait for the stupid dire charm to wear off again, I berzerked Minsc, grabbed the book and headed outside. Past the doppelgänger who had followed Minsc to the tower because his stealth failed. Up to the helmed horrors, where I restealthed before I started to sneak past them.
And then berserk Minsc decided it would be a great idea to punch one of them and go yellow. And then get totally plastered.
After some quick calculation (no, a party leveled 1/2 could not take two helmed horrors with our meager resources) I decided that the best solution was to fly a kite. So I sent my barbarian down to retrieve Minsc's corpse and the book of wisdom. I raged, just to be safe.
That was a good plan. I took 24 points of damage -- enough to nearly kill me -- from two hits when I picked up Minsc's stuff. And then we high-tailed it out of there, including the local merchant, who I last saw fleeing the helmed horrors that were chasing me.
I raised Minsc and headed off for some basilisk farming. I wanted to get Xzar to level 3 before he became the party cleric so I could use him as a thief/identifier as well (fill his first level spots with identify and his 2nd level spots with find trap and knock respectively) so Korax was very useful. However, he met his match when I accidentally ran my entire party into Mutamin's gang: he hit Korax with 2 melfs acid arrows which took him down to nearly dead. Xzar had just dual classed so he had no healing spells. So, I tried to wander into more basilisks (since they don't do physical damage) but alas, I wandered into the adventuring party on the basilisk map.
Korax and charm person saved the day. I missed out on some XP because the adventuring party killed Peter (the fighter that I charmed) but I scored some excellent treasure (I also lost Korax because he was nearly dead when the fight started). Headed back to Beregost to sell crap, then to high hedge to get spell scrolls, and then I'll try to take on sirine's and the golem cave... On second thought, maybe I will just attempt to progress with the main quest.
And that's where I stopped last night. I am going to keep playing but I will leave up to the rest of the community/players whether or not my results will count officially (because I did reload for a bug and didn't take the same exact path on reload). Either way, I am going to keep playing the challenge.
Another failed attemp, this time I had rolled a female halfing swashbuckler with 79 stats points. The party was ajantis, eldoth, xan, faldorn and coran. I leveled my swashbuckler to lvl 3 before recruiting ajantis and eldoth (he is in the area N of beregost with SCS). Then I recruited both of them (ajantis was lvl 4 with 32HP and eldoth was lvl 3 with 15HP, really good for this kind of game). I went to the gnoll fortress with my 3 party members and everything was going great, I had ajantis tanking (AC-5) and eldoth and my swasbuckler supporting him at distance and it was working out great. I was going to do the mines as I wanted to recruit xan as soon as possible (everybody was level 4, so xan would probably been level 4-5 as well) but I thought, hey, since I'm in beregost I may kill Bassilus for the reward and buy the crossbow of speed... but SCSed bassilus is a tough nut to crack. So that's it, still in chapter 2. Men what a buzzkill. I usually don't use none of this NPCs (besides Coran) and I was really enjoying the game.
By the way I made I full reinstall of the game and SCS, I wanted to try the mines without the "improved mulahey battle" and "improved kobolds" components to check if the spawing kobolds bug was still there. I guess I'll check another time
i like the other one better. it is simpler. also, i liked stuff like higher chance for no kit and low chance for pick.
Yeah, I kind of prefer the version that uses the number generator myself. It's easier, and I don't mind that it's a little quirky with a multi-class, monk and sorcerer plus their kits, and barbarian being just a bit higher odds to roll.
I wish I had time to do this more as I'm hopelessly addicted, now. I have some other priorities I have to attend to, but I will still try to chip away at a one of these games, in a rare spare half hour here and there, just because.
I'm torn which is the best of two out of three that I just rolled:
Only 2 ability score re-rolls could really gimp what otherwise could be an awesome character. But I love even just the idea of a dwarven assassin!
And the party is pretty darned balanced. Ajantis, Jaheira, and Viconia in ankheg armor is a solid front line. Also got my thief, and I've got healing and a mage.
With the cleric I could do a lot. I guess I'd choose the Priest of Lathander kit regardless of what else I do.
If I go human I could dual-class to Fighter early. I could also dual to Thief, which would be interesting. The extra attack per round with Boon of Lathander woud be sweet, athough if only cleric levels count for the duration of the spell, then it wouldn't last long, as I'd probably dual pretty early (Cleric 3 or 4).
But I'd also be tempted to make him a half-orc CG Cleric of Lathander with 19 Strength. (This is the one I would probably go with in the spirit of never having played such a character.)
The party rocks. Zomg.
I'd pretty much have to dual Shar-Teel to Thief right away. But a trip to the bassilisk map would get her to Fighter 3 right out of the gate.
Ok, new run, the third “random, no reload” attempt, only this time I made it to chapter three, so I thought I’d post it.
First thing, my installation: I have SCS with all AI enhancements except: - “Improved chapter 2 end battle” and “kobold upgrade”, because kobolds keep spawning even after mulahey is dead, making impossible to finish the fight. - “potions for NPC”, that’s a little too much for me I use the option 3 of “smarter mages”, that is, no pre-casting and, following the recommendation of the author, the option 1 of “smarter priests”, which allow them to pre-cast.
I rolled the following numbers for charname: 7404 and 511 Male, elf, multiclass Mage/Thief, chaotic neutral, one roll and voice set 1. His name is Graven Carter. I was unlucky with the one stats roll, just 77 points: STR 8, DEX 19, CON 7, INT 18, WIS 10, CHA 15 (+1 with the tome of leadership). I’m going the “archer/mage” way.
For the party members I rolled 11, 22, 14, 16 and 26, that is Garrick, Safana, Kagain, Kivan and Viconia. Kagain and Viconia will be front liners and everyone else will be shooting arrows from behind. I wish I had more magic power in the party, and I really don’t need Safana, but maybe I can dual her to mage.
Chapter1 I did the usual stuff before recruiting any NPCs: pick every lock everywhere, Joia’s quest, Marl, Firebead… There is a wand of lighting in Beregost very easy to find, and it is a great item for a mage at the beginning of the game. In fact, thanks to this very wand and a sleep spell I was able to kill the spiders in landrin’s house and, along the reward, take almost 2000xp for this quest. In the end my mage/thief was level 2/2 before recruiting his companions. The idea is, the higher level is charname, the higher level are NPCs upon recruiting them. Bingo! Kagain was level 4 with 43HP, Viconia was level 4 with 18HP and Kivan was also level 4 with 27HP. Then I decided to recruit Garrick. Silke was a headache: she managed to save from everything in Viconia’s arsenal, killed kivan with a sequencer of 2xmagic missiles, and knocked Kagain out with a sleep spell. Finally her spell book was drained and the party killed her. I recruited Garrick: level 4 with 15HP.
Chapter2 From Nashkel the party went straight to the Gnoll Fortress, exploring the area south (Sendai) and south-west (waterfalls) of Nashkel by the way: lots of loot and xp. Back to Nashkel, to the mines we go. For those interested, I found no bugs in Mulahey’s fight.
Chapter3 I decided to explore the area the party comes to when it leaves the mines, lots of xp there. First I fought the bounty hunters. Not really difficult, I threw everything at them: silence, grease, lighting, hold… It’s worth noting that Zeela and Telka start the battle invisible and will try to score some backstabs. Grease was certainly helpful. Then I went to the Revenants cave. Big mistake. Under SCS it has the ability to hold person with zero casting time, the effect is just like the basilisk’s petrifying gaze, but it holds you instead, and it is still quite tough on melee. It held and killed Kagain and Viconia in few rounds but I managed to kill it using all my magic missiles and magic ammunition. I had to go to Nashkel and back, but at least I survived. Right now I’m in Beregost, everybody is level 5 but charname, who is 3/4. I have just killed Tranzig and I don’t know what to do next. I feel the party isn’t powerful enough to assault the bandit’s camp. I guess I could go and recruit Safana, but the lighthouse area is also quite difficult. Maybe basilisk hunting? I'll post and update next time I play.
By the way, scribing scrolls is a nightmare. Even charname, with 18 intelligence, fails to scribe quite often.
Looking over my last update - I forgot we were going to do Greywolf so no Varscona yet - did Bassilus and was surprised that the proper dialoge choices now kills all his skelly minions again - the other times I did this in BGEE it left them alive but they did not go hostile when Bassilus did (but would go hostile if you attacked them) - wonder when that changed??
Did Melicamp on the way back to Beregost and he survived - this is several times in a row now - after failing about 80% of the time when the game first came out - scary...
Took out Tranzig and went to Larswood and joined the bandits - Krolun was wandering the camp bashing things open since Imoens lockpick is still at 25 and he made the mistake of putting on a pretty unidentified ring he found which turned out to be cursed so they did Tazoks tent with Krolun looking like a ghoul - slowed his walk but otherwise he was unaffected and they took them down only losing Garrick to poison.
Didn't take on the rest of the camp - went back to FAI and removed the curse and raised Garrick and are headed to Cloakwood where we pick up Coran and then Yeslick (if we get that far) - have to make a side trip down to Beregost on the way to Cloakwood to grab the Hammer we stashed there for Yeslick - hopefully Coran can use a composite longbow as I gave Garrick longbow too so he can use the one from the bandit camp and maybe actually hit something occasionally.
been a while. this is my old inquisitor, minsc, mystery, safana, kagain, kivan from a few pages back.
i loaded to find i was still in the basilisk area. killed the basilisks and the adventurers. corax died to the adventurers, and i was left running around taking out the one with plate mail with my bow. got kagain, kivan, and safana and took care of the sirines. gave constitution tome to minsc. i eventually realized i have no healer, but i barely made it out of the mines, switching tanks to whoever had good health and giving them good armor. went to get baeloth, and found about 20 gibberlings there when i met him, so we ran after we were done so as to not lose any of my currently damaged members or use a potion of explosions/burning. i have been staying alive through healing at the temples, and now also have about 50 healing potions. going to cloakwood now, where my last inquisitor died. i know now what to do if i am ambushed in there.
No I was giving advice to ChildofBhaal599 who had just said he knew what to do if ambushed in Cloakwood...LOL
We in fact were just ambushed in Cloakwood after exiting Corans map and Krolun was the only survivor which meant we had to leave all the mundane equipment behind - BTW I can't believe Coran at level 3/3 has only a suit of plain leather armor either - or I would have brought at least some studded leathers for him.
so back to FAI to raise them all and then down to Beregost to outfit them again putting a serious crimp in our budget - the rest of which I am tempted to spend on antidotes and purple heal potions so I quit for the night and will see what tactics tomorrow brings to mind - I hate Cloakwood LOL
so we wasted about 4 - maybe 5 days with this ambush currently at day 18 in Beregost which means 19 to get back to Cloakwood - hopefully we can get to the wyvern before Coran takes a powder - can't recall if getting a wyvern head is enough or if we have to cash it in as well???
No I was giving advice to ChildofBhaal599 who had just said he knew what to do if ambushed in Cloakwood...LOL
We in fact were just ambushed in Cloakwood after exiting Corans map and Krolun was the only survivor which meant we had to leave all the mundane equipment behind - BTW I can't believe Coran at level 3/3 has only a suit of plain leather armor either - or I would have brought at least some studded leathers for him.
so back to FAI to raise them all and then down to Beregost to outfit them again putting a serious crimp in our budget - the rest of which I am tempted to spend on antidotes and purple heal potions so I quit for the night and will see what tactics tomorrow brings to mind - I hate Cloakwood LOL
so we wasted about 4 - maybe 5 days with this ambush currently at day 18 in Beregost which means 19 to get back to Cloakwood - hopefully we can get to the wyvern before Coran takes a powder - can't recall if getting a wyvern head is enough or if we have to cash it in as well???
that sucks, but at least you lived to continue unlike my other guy. we seem to be neck and neck on time too. hopefully i will get in there without hitting something like that, because my group is getting really powerful. good gear, everybody is level 6. would hate to lose this gear, especially when i am currently broke. but i still have to leave the camp. plently of money here
I'm guessing that you were ambushed by wyverns? That is really tough. The key to Cloakwood, I have found, is have Coran scout with Imoen finding traps right behind him. Use Coran to fight, elven-style (hit and run with a bow) and lead all of the nasties back to an area where the rest of your party is waiting to pick them apart and slice them up (if necessary). It might take awhile, but it's totally worth it, and it feels good when you pull it off flawlessly.
In case no one read about the death of Panfire Loyalar, the surefire way to beat Tarnesh is to use the spell Shield and the potion from upstairs Candlekeep Inn (or just Shield, as it makes you immune to his only weapon: magic missles).
I went with my awesome party (Kivan, Shar-Teel, Edwin, Viconia, and Tiax) led by the half-orc Cleric of Lathander, and I pushed it too far in the bassilisk map.
I had only Kivan, Shar-Teel, and Edwin at this point. I had purchased two scrolls of Protection from Petrification for Edwin to cast. The first one I cast on Shar-Teel and had her drink the one Oil of Speed I still had from Imoen. As a Fighter her THAC0 and APR was best, so I had her take care of the bassilisks to the south.
Everything going swimmingly. But then she leveled and it was time to dual her! So I had to have another character kill the bassilisks to the north, protected via the second scroll.
And I made the error of risking my PC as the one to take out the bassilisks to the north. I thought I had enough time on the second scroll of Protection from Petrification to kill them all. I got down to the last one! But the spell ran out. Gah.
I should have used it on Kivan, obviously. I figured I had enough time for the scroll to last to take them all out. Darn.
@Lemernis, good run man . Strange having a half-orc a cleric of Lathander. He's now a monument to Lathander's glowing morning light in Mutamin's Garden.
I can see that I have a lot of reading to do to catch up on others' adventures. Just from a quick skim looks like some really interesting stuff!
Okay, new game:
Zangold the Ugly Lawful Evil Dwarf Assassin
Quarterstaff + Two-handed Weapon +
Only 2 ability score re-rolls, but fortunately I did alright:
Str 18 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 10 Wis 10 Cha 9
Party:
Jaheira Ajantis Viconia Dynaheir Faldorn
I'm starting to appreciate that the beauty of this system is that without using it, how else would I have ever played such a character? This little guy is a blast. I just love seeing a dwarf backstabbing with a stave--and a poisoned one to boot! (I guess there must be a tiny little spike on the staff, hehe.)
Above is the order in which I intend to assemble the party.
Not wyverns - ettercaps ambush between Cloakwood 1 & 2 with fatigued crew planning to rest at the start of next map - two sleep spells and one horror did nothing and I was unable to find any web traps but was afraid to try to kite them or keep the squishys running away for fear of setting one off so I let them die eventually and hung on with my half-orc until he stupified all 4 into submission and went around picking up the pieces to rez the team.
After buying an essential equipment that included a wakizashi , a short bow and some arrows, a buckler, a studded leather armor from the Winthrop's Inn, Jagen H’gar walked around Candlekeep, completing all the quests and killing two mercenaries. Carbos has been backstabbed into pieces.
So, the elven +1 THACO bonus began to be felt from the near start.
After leaving Candlekeep (automatic rest #1 after Gorion’s death) and parting with Imoen, Monty and Xzar, Jagen walked around the first area, killing several gibberlings and two wolves. The first one has been killed by a trap (simple, not special) and the second one has been backstabbed.
Without any troubles Jagen came to the FAI. Scouting in the shadows, he noticed a single mage standing in front of the tavern. There seemed to be something strange in his look, so Jagen decided to set his special trap not far away. Success! 65 point in ST helped to set both traps without failing. Jagen revealed himself to this wizard, Tarnesh was his name and as soon as the mage became an enemy, retreated a bit to the trap. Tarnesh casted a mirrored image that saved him from any harm but didn’t save him from slowing down. The guards began to fight with him, Jagen stood at the borderline of sight and used a wand of MM to finish Tarnesh off and to get EXP. Voila!
Because this is a speedy run Jagen didn’t rest at the inn and completed the Joia’s Flamedance Ring quest.
This has helped Jagen to reach the 2nd level, get 5 HP (not bad) and put 20 points more into ST.
After selling some staff Jagen went to Peldvale to get Vikky. After coming to the area he rested (rest #2) to be able to set a trap. Not far away from Viconia a special trap has been set (Jagen failed to set a simple trap first) – it was the reason a Flaming First solder didn’t even touch anyone.
The new Bonny and Clyde set off to Beregost. Upon reaching a fetishist Ogre they rested (rest #3). Jagen managed to set a special trap and Ogre’s belts became ours.
@Zalson What a great read, sounds like a wild ride! I love how this type of game forces strategies that one would otherwise probably never dream of doing, such as how you ingeniously had Minsc grab the tome for Xzar from Durlag's.
A reload for an obvious technical glitch is fine, I'll amend the rules as such.
I laughed when I read that you rolled Minsc, Dynaheir, and Edwin all in the same party! Also enjoyed that your barbarian ripped open the locked dresser in Candlekeep.
@Lemernis Glad you enjoyed it; I'm having a blast too. At first I was a little disappointed when I rolled Edwin, Minsc and Dynaheir consecutively. But Xan and Xzar evened it out. I've never used Xzar as a cleric before.
Glad to know I'm still in the running. I think I'm more comfortable with roleplaying now that I don't fear arrows as much. I've never gone this long without identifying stuff; right now, I've only swapped to identify when I've needed to sell magical items.
Well we wasted a few more days getting Varscona and taking out the Vampiric wolves near the Beregost temple before venturing back into cloakwood - once there we took the shortest route to mines possible passing up the spider nest, scimitar +2 (no ones using them), & the druids, - we did take out the nymph (?) on the wyvern map and lost Garrick in the process, took out the wyverns so Coran would not leave and then went right to the mines. (with enough of Garricks DNA & body parts to raise him later in Kroluns backpack)
We managed to get past the courtyard fight without losing anyone else.
Note:I have found if you head north a ways from the gate to the courtyard (outside the compound) you can almost always rest without interruption and we did so twice - once before the battle and once after then we entered the mines.
Once there we once again took the shortest route - bypassing everything else - we picked up Yeslick and made our way to Daveorn who took out both thieves with a lightning bolt but we manged to take him down eventually and played inventory tetris to take as much gear and loot as we could out then flooded the mines and headed out of cloakwood one map at a time -
We made it to the last jump (back to FAI) before we got ambushed by 4 ettercaps again but managed to take them out without losing anyone else (no web traps) and got to FAI and raised our 3 comrades and picked up gear and ammo and sold off our loot.
It just occured to me that we lost our wyvern skull someplace along the way - I left one in the container in the cave just in case I wonder if we will have to go get it to make sure Coran doesn't leave???
Comments
I rolled a male elf barbarian. Neutral evil with 0 rolls, which is definitely a change for me: I tend to play under the assumption that my character is a, you know, child of a dead deity and so has good stats. So these are a *nice* change.
18/12
19
17
8
7
8
the random name was Iannan Woodsoul.
My team is:
Edwin
Minsc
Dynaheir
Xzar
Xan
So, on the plus size, I have mages up the wazoo and they're all available early. No their or cleric outright, but that's okay: barbarians roll a d12 ... Right?
Put 2 pips in two-handed sword and bows. I realize now that I should have grabbed long sword and dagger and tried to dual-wield but I like the classic barbarian setup. Minsc will be the dual wielder with the stupifier and a mace +1. I debated when I should dual Xzar to cleric (he's the best choice since he only needs the wisdom tome) and decided I'd make the decision when he got to level 2.
Did the usual quests in Candlekeep (except Firebead because he's broken) and used my barbarian muscle to rip through the star sapphire chest -- and used that money to get me some additional healing potions. Chunking Carbos was fun. Shank was less fun because my two-handed sword broke in Candlekeep, something I've never had happen before.
After good-riddance (read:Gorion) died, I robbed Imoen of her stuff and then picked up Xzar (we both killed Montaron, together). Then it was off to the friendly arm inn ... For a reason which eludes me? Force of habit, I suppose.
Handled Tarnesh without a problem (he fired his mirror image and then Xzar hit him with a Larloch's. Iannan took him out with a shot from his composite longbow, because sometimes you can hit the correct image?) and, after going into the Friendly Arm, wondered why I was up there are all in the first place? Oh yeah, the Ring of Wizardry (given to Xzar alongside all the throwing daggers he can carry). Xzar failed to learn any of Tarnesh's spells (which started a theme for wizards).
Headed down to Beregost with the goal in mind to rack up as much XP as possible before Nashkell. Did Marl, Marianne, Zhurlog's (sic?) boots, and Silke's quest by accident (I killed Feldepost's men for their potions of defense; I will clean up Silke later). I was trying to get to level 2 before I talked to any other NPCs but couldn't get enough easy XP before I had to go get Minsc.
And then, I thought I saw the end of my second no-reload run (first was an attempt with a cavalier who got pasted by Unshey's ogre); just little old Iannan and Xzar, level 1 both, surrounded by bandits.
I had Xzar fire off a Larloch's while I raged for extra hp. Then Xzar went down like a pincushion and I took three hits. Drank a healing potion and ... ran off the edge of the map (but not before I stopped to pick up a certain ring).
That was a close one. Any class other than barbarian, and I'd be starting game 3 right now.
After ignoring Edwin (not talking to him at all), I ran down to the gnoll stronghold via the xvart map and the bridges map -- upon which I avoided all conflict en route to gnoll stronghold. Killed Gnarl with a charmed Hairtooth and then told Hairtooth to turn around while we turned him into a pincushion. Grabbed the tome a charisma (for Xan eventually) and then I quickly busted dynaheir out of her pit.
Returned to Nashkell and grabbed Edwin, since he wanted to keep an eye on Dynaheir. Headed into the mines with only Xzar and I level 2. What could go wrong?
The only sticky situation I found myself in was caused by path finding. Xzar kept off running down empty corridors only to encounter kobolds. He never died though, which was nice.
I solved the traps problem with healing potions and barbarian/berserker rage. Minsc did the first two sets of traps (I confess I went the wrong way so had to burn 5 healing potions total) and Iannan did the second. Which I did in the stupidest way possible: instead of, you know, taking the traps 1 arrow at a time, I took them all at once. And had 3 hp left out of 34(?) or so (got 13 points on my second hit point roll). Nothing healing potions can't solve.
Popped into mulahey's lair to get Xan and ran out of the mines. I had only killed what I needed to kill and I didn't want to take on most of the game without a cleric. So it was off to durlag's tower.
My plan was this: send Minsc in, completely naked and invisible. Get the wisdom tome because there's only 1 trap that doesn't hurt you. Then run back, past the helmed horrors and doppelganger, and get the tome identified.
It worked the first time. I stripped Minsc naked (except for the dexterity gloves, a dumb choice since I had a potion of agility -- for extra stealth percentage) and ran him in to Durlag's Tower. Got the tome after a short period of hostility (read:dire charmed) and then back out of the tower. But it was bright outside and I couldn't see, so I exited to the General Settings (I play on ipad) and turned up a slider. And I came back to the title screen. The game had reset...
I loaded up my most recent save -- of course I had not made a save after I got the tome, this was a no-reload challenge! -- and sent a naked Minsc back to his doom. Because I didn't want to wait for the stupid dire charm to wear off again, I berzerked Minsc, grabbed the book and headed outside. Past the doppelgänger who had followed Minsc to the tower because his stealth failed. Up to the helmed horrors, where I restealthed before I started to sneak past them.
And then berserk Minsc decided it would be a great idea to punch one of them and go yellow. And then get totally plastered.
After some quick calculation (no, a party leveled 1/2 could not take two helmed horrors with our meager resources) I decided that the best solution was to fly a kite. So I sent my barbarian down to retrieve Minsc's corpse and the book of wisdom. I raged, just to be safe.
That was a good plan. I took 24 points of damage -- enough to nearly kill me -- from two hits when I picked up Minsc's stuff. And then we high-tailed it out of there, including the local merchant, who I last saw fleeing the helmed horrors that were chasing me.
I raised Minsc and headed off for some basilisk farming. I wanted to get Xzar to level 3 before he became the party cleric so I could use him as a thief/identifier as well (fill his first level spots with identify and his 2nd level spots with find trap and knock respectively) so Korax was very useful. However, he met his match when I accidentally ran my entire party into Mutamin's gang: he hit Korax with 2 melfs acid arrows which took him down to nearly dead. Xzar had just dual classed so he had no healing spells. So, I tried to wander into more basilisks (since they don't do physical damage) but alas, I wandered into the adventuring party on the basilisk map.
Korax and charm person saved the day. I missed out on some XP because the adventuring party killed Peter (the fighter that I charmed) but I scored some excellent treasure (I also lost Korax because he was nearly dead when the fight started). Headed back to Beregost to sell crap, then to high hedge to get spell scrolls, and then I'll try to take on sirine's and the golem cave... On second thought, maybe I will just attempt to progress with the main quest.
And that's where I stopped last night. I am going to keep playing but I will leave up to the rest of the community/players whether or not my results will count officially (because I did reload for a bug and didn't take the same exact path on reload). Either way, I am going to keep playing the challenge.
I ran a gnome barbarian earlier and I thought that's class that might pull this off. Good luck!
Men what a buzzkill. I usually don't use none of this NPCs (besides Coran) and I was really enjoying the game.
By the way I made I full reinstall of the game and SCS, I wanted to try the mines without the "improved mulahey battle" and "improved kobolds" components to check if the spawing kobolds bug was still there. I guess I'll check another time
I'm torn which is the best of two out of three that I just rolled:
Male Dwarf Lawful Evil Assassin (2 Ability score re-rolls; Male2)
Dynaheir
Viconia
Faldorn
Ajantis
Jaheira
Only 2 ability score re-rolls could really gimp what otherwise could be an awesome character. But I love even just the idea of a dwarven assassin!
And the party is pretty darned balanced. Ajantis, Jaheira, and Viconia in ankheg armor is a solid front line. Also got my thief, and I've got healing and a mage.
____________________
Male, Pick Race, Cleric, Pick Kit (6 Ability score re-rolls; Male3)
Tiax
Edwin
Viconia
Kivan
Shar-Teel
With the cleric I could do a lot. I guess I'd choose the Priest of Lathander kit regardless of what else I do.
If I go human I could dual-class to Fighter early. I could also dual to Thief, which would be interesting. The extra attack per round with Boon of Lathander woud be sweet, athough if only cleric levels count for the duration of the spell, then it wouldn't last long, as I'd probably dual pretty early (Cleric 3 or 4).
But I'd also be tempted to make him a half-orc CG Cleric of Lathander with 19 Strength. (This is the one I would probably go with in the spirit of never having played such a character.)
The party rocks. Zomg.
I'd pretty much have to dual Shar-Teel to Thief right away. But a trip to the bassilisk map would get her to Fighter 3 right out of the gate.
First thing, my installation: I have SCS with all AI enhancements except:
- “Improved chapter 2 end battle” and “kobold upgrade”, because kobolds keep spawning even after mulahey is dead, making impossible to finish the fight.
- “potions for NPC”, that’s a little too much for me
I use the option 3 of “smarter mages”, that is, no pre-casting and, following the recommendation of the author, the option 1 of “smarter priests”, which allow them to pre-cast.
I rolled the following numbers for charname: 7404 and 511
Male, elf, multiclass Mage/Thief, chaotic neutral, one roll and voice set 1. His name is Graven Carter.
I was unlucky with the one stats roll, just 77 points:
STR 8, DEX 19, CON 7, INT 18, WIS 10, CHA 15 (+1 with the tome of leadership). I’m going the “archer/mage” way.
For the party members I rolled 11, 22, 14, 16 and 26, that is Garrick, Safana, Kagain, Kivan and Viconia. Kagain and Viconia will be front liners and everyone else will be shooting arrows from behind. I wish I had more magic power in the party, and I really don’t need Safana, but maybe I can dual her to mage.
Chapter1
I did the usual stuff before recruiting any NPCs: pick every lock everywhere, Joia’s quest, Marl, Firebead… There is a wand of lighting in Beregost very easy to find, and it is a great item for a mage at the beginning of the game. In fact, thanks to this very wand and a sleep spell I was able to kill the spiders in landrin’s house and, along the reward, take almost 2000xp for this quest. In the end my mage/thief was level 2/2 before recruiting his companions.
The idea is, the higher level is charname, the higher level are NPCs upon recruiting them. Bingo! Kagain was level 4 with 43HP, Viconia was level 4 with 18HP and Kivan was also level 4 with 27HP.
Then I decided to recruit Garrick. Silke was a headache: she managed to save from everything in Viconia’s arsenal, killed kivan with a sequencer of 2xmagic missiles, and knocked Kagain out with a sleep spell. Finally her spell book was drained and the party killed her. I recruited Garrick: level 4 with 15HP.
Chapter2
From Nashkel the party went straight to the Gnoll Fortress, exploring the area south (Sendai) and south-west (waterfalls) of Nashkel by the way: lots of loot and xp.
Back to Nashkel, to the mines we go. For those interested, I found no bugs in Mulahey’s fight.
Chapter3
I decided to explore the area the party comes to when it leaves the mines, lots of xp there. First I fought the bounty hunters. Not really difficult, I threw everything at them: silence, grease, lighting, hold… It’s worth noting that Zeela and Telka start the battle invisible and will try to score some backstabs. Grease was certainly helpful. Then I went to the Revenants cave. Big mistake. Under SCS it has the ability to hold person with zero casting time, the effect is just like the basilisk’s petrifying gaze, but it holds you instead, and it is still quite tough on melee. It held and killed Kagain and Viconia in few rounds but I managed to kill it using all my magic missiles and magic ammunition. I had to go to Nashkel and back, but at least I survived.
Right now I’m in Beregost, everybody is level 5 but charname, who is 3/4. I have just killed Tranzig and I don’t know what to do next. I feel the party isn’t powerful enough to assault the bandit’s camp. I guess I could go and recruit Safana, but the lighthouse area is also quite difficult. Maybe basilisk hunting?
I'll post and update next time I play.
By the way, scribing scrolls is a nightmare. Even charname, with 18 intelligence, fails to scribe quite often.
Looking over my last update - I forgot we were going to do Greywolf so no Varscona yet - did Bassilus and was surprised that the proper dialoge choices now kills all his skelly minions again - the other times I did this in BGEE it left them alive but they did not go hostile when Bassilus did (but would go hostile if you attacked them) - wonder when that changed??
Did Melicamp on the way back to Beregost and he survived - this is several times in a row now - after failing about 80% of the time when the game first came out - scary...
Took out Tranzig and went to Larswood and joined the bandits - Krolun was wandering the camp bashing things open since Imoens lockpick is still at 25 and he made the mistake of putting on a pretty unidentified ring he found which turned out to be cursed so they did Tazoks tent with Krolun looking like a ghoul - slowed his walk but otherwise he was unaffected and they took them down only losing Garrick to poison.
Didn't take on the rest of the camp - went back to FAI and removed the curse and raised Garrick and are headed to Cloakwood where we pick up Coran and then Yeslick (if we get that far) - have to make a side trip down to Beregost on the way to Cloakwood to grab the Hammer we stashed there for Yeslick - hopefully Coran can use a composite longbow as I gave Garrick longbow too so he can use the one from the bandit camp and maybe actually hit something occasionally.
i loaded to find i was still in the basilisk area. killed the basilisks and the adventurers. corax died to the adventurers, and i was left running around taking out the one with plate mail with my bow. got kagain, kivan, and safana and took care of the sirines. gave constitution tome to minsc. i eventually realized i have no healer, but i barely made it out of the mines, switching tanks to whoever had good health and giving them good armor. went to get baeloth, and found about 20 gibberlings there when i met him, so we ran after we were done so as to not lose any of my currently damaged members or use a potion of explosions/burning. i have been staying alive through healing at the temples, and now also have about 50 healing potions. going to cloakwood now, where my last inquisitor died. i know now what to do if i am ambushed in there.
We in fact were just ambushed in Cloakwood after exiting Corans map and Krolun was the only survivor which meant we had to leave all the mundane equipment behind - BTW I can't believe Coran at level 3/3 has only a suit of plain leather armor either - or I would have brought at least some studded leathers for him.
so back to FAI to raise them all and then down to Beregost to outfit them again putting a serious crimp in our budget - the rest of which I am tempted to spend on antidotes and purple heal potions so I quit for the night and will see what tactics tomorrow brings to mind - I hate Cloakwood LOL
so we wasted about 4 - maybe 5 days with this ambush currently at day 18 in Beregost which means 19 to get back to Cloakwood - hopefully we can get to the wyvern before Coran takes a powder - can't recall if getting a wyvern head is enough or if we have to cash it in as well???
In case no one read about the death of Panfire Loyalar, the surefire way to beat Tarnesh is to use the spell Shield and the potion from upstairs Candlekeep Inn (or just Shield, as it makes you immune to his only weapon: magic missles).
I went with my awesome party (Kivan, Shar-Teel, Edwin, Viconia, and Tiax) led by the half-orc Cleric of Lathander, and I pushed it too far in the bassilisk map.
I had only Kivan, Shar-Teel, and Edwin at this point. I had purchased two scrolls of Protection from Petrification for Edwin to cast. The first one I cast on Shar-Teel and had her drink the one Oil of Speed I still had from Imoen. As a Fighter her THAC0 and APR was best, so I had her take care of the bassilisks to the south.
Everything going swimmingly. But then she leveled and it was time to dual her! So I had to have another character kill the bassilisks to the north, protected via the second scroll.
And I made the error of risking my PC as the one to take out the bassilisks to the north. I thought I had enough time on the second scroll of Protection from Petrification to kill them all. I got down to the last one! But the spell ran out. Gah.
I should have used it on Kivan, obviously. I figured I had enough time for the scroll to last to take them all out. Darn.
Chiding myself now for forgetting rule number one in a no-reload game: always protect the quarterback.
Oh well, on the plus side now I can get on to playing the Dwarven Assassin who's leading Jaheira, Ajantis, Viconia, Dynaheir, and Faldorn.
Okay, new game:
Zangold the Ugly
Lawful Evil Dwarf Assassin
Quarterstaff +
Two-handed Weapon +
Only 2 ability score re-rolls, but fortunately I did alright:
Str 18
Dex 16
Con 15
Int 10
Wis 10
Cha 9
Party:
Jaheira
Ajantis
Viconia
Dynaheir
Faldorn
I'm starting to appreciate that the beauty of this system is that without using it, how else would I have ever played such a character? This little guy is a blast. I just love seeing a dwarf backstabbing with a stave--and a poisoned one to boot! (I guess there must be a tiny little spike on the staff, hehe.)
Above is the order in which I intend to assemble the party.
Not wyverns - ettercaps ambush between Cloakwood 1 & 2 with fatigued crew planning to rest at the start of next map - two sleep spells and one horror did nothing and I was unable to find any web traps but was afraid to try to kite them or keep the squishys running away for fear of setting one off so I let them die eventually and hung on with my half-orc until he stupified all 4 into submission and went around picking up the pieces to rez the team.
<img src="http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/8143/59678964.jpg">
After buying an essential equipment that included a wakizashi , a short bow and some arrows, a buckler, a studded leather armor from the Winthrop's Inn, Jagen H’gar walked around Candlekeep, completing all the quests and killing two mercenaries. Carbos has been backstabbed into pieces.
<img src="http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/1664/48440833.jpg">
Shank even managed to injure Jagen a bit but fell because of the accurate shot from the short bow.
<img src="http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/6149/15698484.jpg">
So, the elven +1 THACO bonus began to be felt from the near start.
After leaving Candlekeep (automatic rest #1 after Gorion’s death) and parting with Imoen, Monty and Xzar, Jagen walked around the first area, killing several gibberlings and two wolves. The first one has been killed by a trap (simple, not special) and the second one has been backstabbed.
Without any troubles Jagen came to the FAI. Scouting in the shadows, he noticed a single mage standing in front of the tavern. There seemed to be something strange in his look, so Jagen decided to set his special trap not far away. Success! 65 point in ST helped to set both traps without failing. Jagen revealed himself to this wizard, Tarnesh was his name and as soon as the mage became an enemy, retreated a bit to the trap. Tarnesh casted a mirrored image that saved him from any harm but didn’t save him from slowing down. The guards began to fight with him, Jagen stood at the borderline of sight and used a wand of MM to finish Tarnesh off and to get EXP. Voila!
Because this is a speedy run Jagen didn’t rest at the inn and completed the Joia’s Flamedance Ring quest.
<img src="http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/4156/47676443.jpg">
This has helped Jagen to reach the 2nd level, get 5 HP (not bad) and put 20 points more into ST.
After selling some staff Jagen went to Peldvale to get Vikky. After coming to the area he rested (rest #2) to be able to set a trap. Not far away from Viconia a special trap has been set (Jagen failed to set a simple trap first) – it was the reason a Flaming First solder didn’t even touch anyone.
<img src="http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/29/34073953.jpg">
The new Bonny and Clyde set off to Beregost. Upon reaching a fetishist Ogre they rested (rest #3). Jagen managed to set a special trap and Ogre’s belts became ours.
<img src="http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/8065/80109959.jpg">
A reload for an obvious technical glitch is fine, I'll amend the rules as such.
I laughed when I read that you rolled Minsc, Dynaheir, and Edwin all in the same party! Also enjoyed that your barbarian ripped open the locked dresser in Candlekeep.
He looks like David Spade, lol. But I mean that in a good way (fistfight at 1:44):
Glad to know I'm still in the running. I think I'm more comfortable with roleplaying now that I don't fear arrows as much. I've never gone this long without identifying stuff; right now, I've only swapped to identify when I've needed to sell magical items.
Well we wasted a few more days getting Varscona and taking out the Vampiric wolves near the Beregost temple before venturing back into cloakwood - once there we took the shortest route to mines possible passing up the spider nest, scimitar +2 (no ones using them), & the druids, - we did take out the nymph (?) on the wyvern map and lost Garrick in the process, took out the wyverns so Coran would not leave and then went right to the mines. (with enough of Garricks DNA & body parts to raise him later in Kroluns backpack)
We managed to get past the courtyard fight without losing anyone else.
Note:I have found if you head north a ways from the gate to the courtyard (outside the compound) you can almost always rest without interruption and we did so twice - once before the battle and once after then we entered the mines.
Once there we once again took the shortest route - bypassing everything else - we picked up Yeslick and made our way to Daveorn who took out both thieves with a lightning bolt but we manged to take him down eventually and played inventory tetris to take as much gear and loot as we could out then flooded the mines and headed out of cloakwood one map at a time -
We made it to the last jump (back to FAI) before we got ambushed by 4 ettercaps again but managed to take them out without losing anyone else (no web traps) and got to FAI and raised our 3 comrades and picked up gear and ammo and sold off our loot.
It just occured to me that we lost our wyvern skull someplace along the way - I left one in the container in the cave just in case I wonder if we will have to go get it to make sure Coran doesn't leave???
Currently at Chap 5 : 29 days 2 hours...