Random / Realistic (ish) Challenge
Bazza
Member Posts: 57
Ok, so I've played Baldur's Gate a million and one times and wanted to make an interesting challenge / gimp the character so here it is:
Lets start at character creation.
Can only use a 75 roll - you can swap the values around but cannot increase/decrease and set them as you want.
So I went with a multi-class half-elf fighter/druid - which added the extra bonus of having a charisma minimum of 15, nice!
After a couple rolls I got: Then swapped INT for DEX
STR 11 -> 11
DEX 11 -> 16
CON 8 -> 8
INT 16 -> 11
WIS 14 -> 14
CHA 15 -> 15
Good to go, I also decided I can't put 2 pips into any weapon proficiency at level 1, so we got:
Quarter Staff *
Dagger *
Sling *
Two Handed Weapon Style *
Decided to give myself a bit of a chance and so am playing on core rules difficulty, not doing an iron man as its more funny to see how many times I die, but will not be resurrecting joinable npcs.
Almost all decisions are made with a dice roll, this is going quite fun/badly!
Other rules:
Can only rest at Inns and when tired, no pointless travel.
Can't attack non hostile npcs.
Roll dice to see if character will use unidentified items when first picked up, all items should be identified as soon as possible at a temple etc.
Roll dice for all dialogue.
Can't hoard items in containers.
Realistic equipment:
Can always carry a dagger or a club.
Can only carry -
Two other melee weapons, three if duel wielding, e.g one in the hand(s), one on a belt.
One ranged weapon or 20 throwing daggers or 40 darts.
One armour and helmet, equipped.
Two cloaks, gauntlets, girdles, boots, one equipped.
One shield.
12 potions.
60 arrows or bullets.
Highlights so far:
Dice roll saved me from the gender girdle!
Got Sonner's quest, yay! Told Tenya I don't want to deal with her or Sonner's bunch, doh!
Died a lot!
Didn't help Prism or meet Greywolf or get the emeralds!
Getting npcs is pretty tricky!
So far:
Pissed off Xzar and Monty at first encounter.
Can't even get into Friendly Arm Inn as killed by Tarnesh.
Left Kargain's dialogue.
Said no to Garrick - didn't even get Silke's quest.
Killed by Thayan Red Wizard during Neera's introduction.
Rasaad joined! (oh wow)
Minsc attacked, and then killed my Amn soldier.
Turned down Edwin, no gnoll stronghold for me!
Didn't rescue Branwen from her stone form.
Xan Joined! ...
Deaths so far:
2 x death to spiders in Landrin's house.
2 x death to Thayan Red Wizard in Neera's first encounter.
2 x death to Tarnesh.
1 x death to Hobgoblin in Friendly Arm Inn area.
1 x death to Hobgoblin in area north of Nashkel...
1 x death to war dogs in the barn in Nashkel mine map.
1 x death to Kobold Commando in Nashkel mines.
6+ deaths to Mulahay... might have to come back to this!
I want to add more consequence to dying, firstly donated 100 gold for each death at a temple, but this raised my reputation, even when at different temples does anyone know if there is a remove gold console command?
Will add some screenshots later
Lets start at character creation.
Can only use a 75 roll - you can swap the values around but cannot increase/decrease and set them as you want.
So I went with a multi-class half-elf fighter/druid - which added the extra bonus of having a charisma minimum of 15, nice!
After a couple rolls I got: Then swapped INT for DEX
STR 11 -> 11
DEX 11 -> 16
CON 8 -> 8
INT 16 -> 11
WIS 14 -> 14
CHA 15 -> 15
Good to go, I also decided I can't put 2 pips into any weapon proficiency at level 1, so we got:
Quarter Staff *
Dagger *
Sling *
Two Handed Weapon Style *
Decided to give myself a bit of a chance and so am playing on core rules difficulty, not doing an iron man as its more funny to see how many times I die, but will not be resurrecting joinable npcs.
Almost all decisions are made with a dice roll, this is going quite fun/badly!
Other rules:
Can only rest at Inns and when tired, no pointless travel.
Can't attack non hostile npcs.
Roll dice to see if character will use unidentified items when first picked up, all items should be identified as soon as possible at a temple etc.
Roll dice for all dialogue.
Can't hoard items in containers.
Realistic equipment:
Can always carry a dagger or a club.
Can only carry -
Two other melee weapons, three if duel wielding, e.g one in the hand(s), one on a belt.
One ranged weapon or 20 throwing daggers or 40 darts.
One armour and helmet, equipped.
Two cloaks, gauntlets, girdles, boots, one equipped.
One shield.
12 potions.
60 arrows or bullets.
Highlights so far:
Dice roll saved me from the gender girdle!
Got Sonner's quest, yay! Told Tenya I don't want to deal with her or Sonner's bunch, doh!
Died a lot!
Didn't help Prism or meet Greywolf or get the emeralds!
Getting npcs is pretty tricky!
So far:
Pissed off Xzar and Monty at first encounter.
Can't even get into Friendly Arm Inn as killed by Tarnesh.
Left Kargain's dialogue.
Said no to Garrick - didn't even get Silke's quest.
Killed by Thayan Red Wizard during Neera's introduction.
Rasaad joined! (oh wow)
Minsc attacked, and then killed my Amn soldier.
Turned down Edwin, no gnoll stronghold for me!
Didn't rescue Branwen from her stone form.
Xan Joined! ...
Deaths so far:
2 x death to spiders in Landrin's house.
2 x death to Thayan Red Wizard in Neera's first encounter.
2 x death to Tarnesh.
1 x death to Hobgoblin in Friendly Arm Inn area.
1 x death to Hobgoblin in area north of Nashkel...
1 x death to war dogs in the barn in Nashkel mine map.
1 x death to Kobold Commando in Nashkel mines.
6+ deaths to Mulahay... might have to come back to this!
I want to add more consequence to dying, firstly donated 100 gold for each death at a temple, but this raised my reputation, even when at different temples
does anyone know if there is a remove gold console command? Will add some screenshots later
Post edited by Bazza on
2
Comments
But I suppose @Bazza is just trying to have an interesting gameplay experience
@Blackraven: I tend to disagree on this kind of definition of CN, but this is only my opinion, however, I understand that CN is the kind of alignment where a rolling dice is more fitting for.
It's not my definition either, to me a CN character isn't arbitrary in his decisions at all, let alone insane. His guiding principle is personal freedom. So generally he'll do whatever ensures or enhances that freedom. Depending on life experiences, or personal preferences, he may well stick his neck out for others. A CN character with a soft spot for dogs is likely to help Albert and Ruffie reunite. On the other hand he may display behaviour that's detrimental to others, not for power or sadistic enjoyment, but rather because he feels his personal freedom is at stake. This is more or less the way I see it.
But as you said the fickleness you create rolling the dice for conversation options kind of fits with the way you are perceived by others as a CN character: extremely unreliable and unpredictable.
The adventure continues, with lots of death and encounters out of the norm...
Well last time my party had hit a brick wall that was Mulahey, the party was:
Tyimora - the level one fighter/druid
Imoen - level two!
Rasaad - level one...
and luck allowed us to recruit Xan.
But at 10+ failed attempts at trying to kill Mulahey, our band of misfortunate adventurers had to withdraw back to Nashkel, first time ever!
Luck was not with the party as Imoen and Rasaad got killed by a grey ooze...
Tyimora decided to head back to the Friendly Arm Inn to see if she could get some more help, finally got past Tarnesh, thanks guard! But lady luck did not like Jaheira and khalid...
Things were starting to get desperate, we headed to high hedge and managed to roll kindly for Kivan and after an ambush on the return trip to the mines managed to recruit Dorn, things were looking up!
Mulahey finally fell, it was a bit touch and go as Dorn was under rigid thinking and was getting dangerously close to our heroes.
With our renewed confidence we took on Nimbul... well usually this is simple, equip fighter with shield amulet, use, and bash... but Xan tried a colour spray, sent Dorn to sleep, Xan got killed by a MM, then Kivan. Luckily Nimbul had used up all his MM and Dorn woke up to end our misery.
Our team was depleted once more, but not enough to dispatch Tranzig without much trouble and so we headed off into the wilderness to find riches and possibly some more companions.
Safana was recruited, a much needed thief!
Shar-Teel was mocked, and walked away...
Viconia's cries for aid were ignored, doh.
After a half-ish successful team building exercise the party tried to infiltrate the bandit camp, this did not go well, first we met the bandits at Peldvale, who stole all our money.
The bandit camp was cleared without much trouble, even for our hungover adventurers, although a bit of cheese was used for the group in the main tent...
Sanfana decided to be a pain/greedy thief and the party had to head back to find some buried treasure, unfortunately she was rubbish at hiding and got punched in the face by a flesh golem, never mind!
And so we head to Cloakwood for a massive tiring journey, only resting at Inns, to hopefully pick up some more npcs!
The rolls were ok, we got Coran, which is a major bonus, but miss out on Eldoth, and thus Skie, and also Faldorn, but we managed to recruit Yeslick, our team is taking shape!
We also managed to kill some spiders and get Dorn a new sword on the second try!
The cloakwood mines went without a hitch and Davaeorn went down on the first try with the use of the magic defence potions, which was good because everyone was really tired by this point and only had one health potion left!
And so our adventurers have made it to Baldur's Gate, although we did all die again to Simmeon's gang...
Lastly we picked up the lovable Quayle, lucky as he's the last mage we can get, well I've not actually gone back to get revenge on the Thayan Wizard in Neera's intro, maybe later.
What does the dice have in store for our (un)lucky adventurers!
We arrive in Baldur's Gate and meet two delightful characters, Marek and Lothander, unfortunately the random rolls goes out the window for this quest which is a bit annoying. The first roll was to tell Lothander to piss off near the diviners tent, but you can't find Marek then and get the antidote, so there is only one way to complete this quest, which is annoying.
We also rescued the dead boy from the bitch queen, luck was on my side!
We helped out Scar with is problem with the Seven Suns, but declined his offer to run around in the smelly sewers, luck was on my side!
Of course we failed at getting anymore npcs, Tiax got offended by our response, and we tried to kill Alora, sickening I know, but she called the guards and we made our exit.
And so we infiltrated the Iron Throne, I was a bit scared at losing any npcs in the fight at the top, so I used a few potions! It was a breeze in the end.
Our next destination was Candle Keep, and it was time to ramp the challenge up a bit, I had read in another thread about removing all the gear the party has, so... our heros stuff is confiscated.
Tethtoril manages to get some of our gear...
We entered the Catacombs with:
Zero gold, no doubt this has gone toward bribing officials in Baldur's Gate.
Everyone gets 2 healing potions.
Tyimora - Quaterstaff, Ring of Holiness, Korevas Ring of Princes, violet potion.
Dorn - Spidersbane.
Coran - Longbow, 60 arrows, potion of perception.
Yeslick - Warhammer + 2, antidote.
Quayle - Club, wand of monster summoning.
No armour for anyone, eek! We can't rest in the Catacombs, only at Inns remember!
Dorn fell first, he was too slow at drinking an antidote after being poisoned by a phase spider.
Coran fell next to Prat in the caves, a throwing axe to the face, was out of healing potions by this point!
Yeslick bravely stepped up and killed everyone else.
Only Tyimora, Yeslick and Quayle exit the Candle Keep Catacombs alive, not quite snow white and the seven dwarfs...
How will they fair back in the City!
Ok the gang is back in the large city of Baldur's Gate, on their travels across the city they meet a wizard by the name of Ramazith, and accept his quest for nymph glory. What could our intrepid adventurers be stopped by during this mammoth task!? Yep, Ragefast's locked door...
But before that they are hailed by a Flaming Fist mercenary, Tyimora's guile is not that good and we kill him, then spend a lot of money in a temple to get our rep back up.
Without an open lock spell memorised to open Ragefast's door, we had to buy one of the strength potions and smash it open! Ragefast went down quickly and we set the nymph free, what nice people we are.
We returned to Ramazith's tower but on the way back, again we was stopped by a Flaming Fist mercenary, this time we surrendered, this did not go well...
Our mega lucky rolls managed to piss off Angelo and he killed Quayle, and put the rest of us in prison, we did manage to escape with our new best friend Neb, he is a nice chap!
With rage in their eyes Tyimora and Yeslick, an odd couple to say the least, returned to Ramazith's home to lay the smack down, a couple of deaths to ghasts and hobgoblin elites later we got to the top!
Ramazith did not go down as easy as Ragefast, his madness and the use of the lightening spell in such a confined space, and our laziness to go buy a couple of potions of absorption, killed everyone in the room about 3 times until we managed to silence him, first with a spell and then with Yeslick's hammer!
What will happen next to our brave adventuring couple? Dwarf + Half-Elf marriage? hobbit sized Dwarf-Elf children!? Only time will tell.
Or maybe we'll just try and rescue Duke Eltan, and get some revenge for Quayle!