Dragon Disciple Poverty Run BGEE (complete)
Mush_Mush
Member Posts: 476
Hey guys relatively new to forums but used to play BG alot in the old days, last couple of months I've been blasting through the saga again with handfuls of warm fuzzy nostalgia.
Been reading up on forum posts and noticed one about the cleric thief poverty run which looked interesting, decided to give it a go and play as the DD. Figured its an excuse to play the underpowered kit (added difficulty and some RP flavour aswell as a reason to make my first discussion thread
I've played through solo on BG before as a sorcerer but that was using all items and was on core with the exception of protecting the dukes it was pretty easy we shall see how this goes.
So as it stands got a 94 rolled char in less than 15 mins rolling (:D) and just left candlekeep killed a wolf and a couple of gibberlings without any trouble.
First two spells: armour and blindness. Planning to make a run to get find familiar soon.
Any and all suggestions/comments welcome
Been reading up on forum posts and noticed one about the cleric thief poverty run which looked interesting, decided to give it a go and play as the DD. Figured its an excuse to play the underpowered kit (added difficulty and some RP flavour aswell as a reason to make my first discussion thread
I've played through solo on BG before as a sorcerer but that was using all items and was on core with the exception of protecting the dukes it was pretty easy we shall see how this goes.
So as it stands got a 94 rolled char in less than 15 mins rolling (:D) and just left candlekeep killed a wolf and a couple of gibberlings without any trouble.
First two spells: armour and blindness. Planning to make a run to get find familiar soon.
Any and all suggestions/comments welcome
Post edited by Mush_Mush on
10
Comments
How do you will roleplay it?
I mean, after all he's a Dragon Disciple, he has Dragon blood in his veins; how could he bear the vow of poverty with the Dragons' Greed palpitating inside you stronger and stronger?
He should go on suffering greatly and always under the weight of hard temptation to grab as much loot as possible... O,o
EDIT: Almost forgotten: Welcome on this forum! ;D
Essentially pride. He is descended from dragons he has no use for lesser race trinkets and feels he is more than capable of dealing with anything using his power alone. Possibly even a secret loathing for the petty greed his brethren possess; a trait he perceives as a weakness. That's what I'm going with anyhow haha.
I attached a pic to my initial post but doesn't seem to show up unless I click edit, is that normal?
ah there we go had to click insert image my bad lol
That's an interesting interpretation!
He could (as Dragons usually gather all the precious loot - gold, gems and powerful artifacts only - in a lair of their own) collect all gold - gems and peculiar items, the most unique and precious ones- and gather all of them in a hole, or in a well hidden place. Essentially you collect and store, but don't use anything. ;P
This could be a good characterization for your DD as in poverty run
Anyway, if I was you doing that gathering thing I would equip myself with a gembag (coughcoughNeeracoughcough); Unique items are pretty rare so I'll be forced to unload only once in a while; gold has its own slot so no problemo (but I can't recall if there's the chance to unload the gold amount in a container or not...).
That been told, you're not forced to do anything you consider not fun as I said, mine was just a suggestion. ;p
Good luck with your run!
Good luck with you run, I'd definitely follow it.
And about tips: wands are your friend, take that ring from the FAI map ASAP... Wait... And this is why your run would be so interesting!
PS: Are you playing Insane or Core this time?
As for the race my last playthrough was as an elf so it was more for change of scenery than anything I guess and I also like the portrait
Sleep doesn't work on undead and is useless after certain point but it is a great spell for most of BG I did consider it.
I personally think DD is underpowered though the lack of 9 spell casts doesnt quite compare to the attributes you gain in exchange imo. It's not horribly underpowered by any means but I really would have liked the ability to choose your dragon type heritage on creation and gain more breath attacks as you progress 1 is not enough
Find familiar is a problem I really don't wana waste a spell slot choosing it yet casting the scroll is technically breaking the rules >.<
And even if... the earliest you can obtain the scroll is from Nimbus' dead body in chapter III, which is sort of late.
>As for ferret I never knew they could actually disarm traps, interesting learn something new every day.
Anything with a thieving button can technically disarm traps. It's just that some of these creatures have 0 in Find Traps. The rabbit doesn't have that button, sadly
>the advantages of being elven arnt so overwhelmingly potent that it matters too much
Well, far from being game-changing or anything, but as a sorcerer you just gain a -1 AC without sacrificing anything. And that Mind Shield is a godsend in such a huge variety of situations...
Are you allowed to use consumables? Do potions count as items?
Yea those nashkel mine kobolds are guna be a pain without sleep, its guna be a struggle, will probly do some ankeg farming first try n get a couple of levels under my belt first Yea I totally agree which is why I'm always elven lol but like I said change of scenery n all wanted to change it up and it is a challenge afterall
So whilst passing through Peldvale I came across a bandit, was happily beating him to a pulp as per standard procedure when he decided to bolt when near death, I pursued only to reveal an elite bandit who was just outside sight range who nailed me with a single frost arrow
*Mordukhavar reloads*
The kill strike...
Anyway, if I were doing a poverty playthrough with Dragon Disciple, I would probably go a LE elf and do something like:
Learn Find Familiar, Sleep.
Shoal (5,000 xp).
Learn Protection from Petrification.
Basilisk farm at Mutamin's garden (22,000 xp).
Learn Invisibility, Melf's Acid Arrow.
Kelddath Ormlyr and the sirines (13,000 xp).
Learn Skull Trap.
Shandalar (26,000 xp) - set 8-10 Skull Traps behind him, then use Mustard Jelly familiar form to trigger them. Hurgan (5,000 xp).
Learn Haste.
Drizzt (12,000 xp) - run in hasted -> dragon breath -> get out/invisibility -> rest and repeat, he doesn't regenerate hp.
Start the critical path. I would hit level 8 by chapters 6-7. Minimal engagement, always travel invisible.
With SCS installed, the final battle would be nearly impossible to win, but all the rest is fairly trivial. Without SCS, the final battle is a breeze, as you can lure Sarevok outside.
Nice solid plan, my spell choice will be very similar to that with the exception of PfP and sleep whereas I will have Blindness and Armour. Want spells that scale well so I'll be able to use them in bg2 if needed.
As for XP gain Im guna wing it for now not guna plan out the whole thing too much guna go save melicamp next and probably kill silke on the way thats about as far as planning goes atm xD
After killing my first Ankheg north of the friendly arm inn I proceeded to head south back to Beregost, Along the way I encountered another Ankheg and a rogue bandit both of which I dispatched easily enough. Upon reaching Beregost I met with somewhat feminine rogue named Garrick who had a job offer on behalf of some thespian extraordinaire however I dislike being manipulated so proceeded to slay his employer.
I then headed east to search for some so called powerful wizard. Any opportunity to test ones power is not to be passed up, met with a chicken on route with an uncanny ability to speak English, turns out to be the wizard's whelp and led me straight to him I allowed him to re-constitute the fool then blinded him and crushed his skull. Oddly underwhelming.
Continued my travels south towards the town of Nashkel killed several beasts enroute was approached by yet another mysterious assassin in the inn, made some speech about lord of shadows before she died. A man there requested I look into the iron shortage for him at Nashkel mine.
So here I am in Nashkel currently level 4, so far so good still alive at least
Unless of course you're a sorcerer.
I never pick the wish spell except for when i solo'd ToB one time dont like them nothing worse than using up your last level 9 cast to get "create random potion" as your best option -_-
If i was doing a no reload poverty run i wouldnt be going near the mind flayer lair uness i was taking ssme serious cheese with me lol impressive to get that far though
In the end your character doesn't mean to keep them, he's found a book and he sits down to read it driven by curiosity.
He reads it and then he starts to feel a strange sensation: without having the time to realize what is happening *POOF!* the book disappears, leaving CHARNAME with the feeling that something is changed in him.
;D
CHARNAME, roleplaystically speaking, doesn't know that is a magic book that increases a stat by 1 and then disappear - thing that in terms of game mechanics puts that in the consumables group, but not if you (your character) consider it a simple book that you could read and gain possible knowledge, and then just drop after reading it... and then: surprise! The book disappeared and something happened. You can't know what happened to you, you'll discover it in the future and you might or might not correlate your "enhancement" to the book.
Also, despite the Stat Tome icons are all the same, I would bet that all these books covers and sizes are greatly different to each other, not counting that each one of them is about a different topic, so it is not taken from granted that all of them were created by the same wizard or such, and CHARNAME has little chances to pre-emptively understand that the book he just found is a super-rare and magical book - IIRC the description says that the books looks like a simple manual - and yeah, there are 3 WIS tomes, but these books clearly can't be the same tome or the same edition, regarding the same specific topics (let's say that every copy you find examine in depth a peculiar school of thought or philosophical doctrine) or CHARNAME wouldn't be able to gain advantage from the same book twice (as per D&D rule, not IE mechanics).
The same can't be applied to other consumables: your character knows that drinking a potion will empty the bottle and the liquid inside has magical properties; he knows that a spell scroll is magical and that it disappears after use, and that he can take advantage from it in various situations by using the spell written on it; same for wands, etc.
Also all of them are known to be valuable in economic terms AND you have to carry them until you need them.
Said that, I stand my opinion: avoiding meta-knowledge, stat tomes can be read by CHARNAME in a RP poverty run.
EDIT: typo
Welcome to the Forums, and thanks for sharing your experience with us. I, and with me many fellow forumites, love Reading other people's playthroughs
I'll be following your progress. And re: the tomes. I think the question is: what is important to you? The tactical (poverty) challenge, or the immersion? If the former, then drop the tomes. If the latter, then read them. As @Metalloman said, your carácter doesn't identify and read tomes think 'Yes! A stat increase!' They read them and somehow they become, stronger, nimbler etc.
I have just completed Nashkel Mine at level 6 atm and spell choices are as follows
Blindness __________Scorcher-----------Skull Trap
Armour-----------Invisibility
Find Familiar
MM
(Yes MAA is a good spell and very useful interrupt but I will defend to my dying breath that scorcher is better and also fits the theme
(btw, dragon breath at the xvart camp is fun lol)
Avoiding meta-knowledge? How do you propose to do that? Just curious, since I've seen this phrase pop up over the course of several discussions here.
It's totally unrealistic to assume anyone is able to avoid meta-knowledge -- obviously, once you have completed the game for the first time, the information stays in your memory cells. If you begin thinking along the lines of: "Well, I shouldn't go to the Lighthouse area now, since there is a +1 Con tome there, and my character couldn't have possibly known that", you are still very much guided by meta-knowledge. Why _shouldn't_ your character go there at that point?
Are we assuming the character can only use explicit clues he gets from NPCs + common sense? Alright, that will effectively limit his/her exploration zone right down to the critical path. After all, if Gurke gives you a quest regarding his lost cloak, while the mayor of Nashkel says there is some serious issue at the mines, it's totally unrealistic to go after the cloak. There will always be much more pressing business along the critical path.
Tl;dr: I don't think challenge runs should be mixed up with roleplaying. Especially the solo poverty ones: it's already totally implausible that you don't accept anyone, whether good or evil, into the party, and even less so that you prefer to run around naked, unless we assume your character suffers from acute mental illness. Why try to roleplay the unroleplayable?