An unexpected party
GreenWarlock
Member Posts: 1,354
Having a lot of fun with my latest play through, so I thought I would share. I rolled the highest stats I have ever rolled for a PC (99 point cavalier) so opted to go for some simple restrictions, and failed on all counts 
I set out for a no reload, no resurrection, no metagaming play through, and have mostly ended up with a 'minimal' rather than 'no'. I would also play a fairly direct path through the game, following the script as a Lawful Good paladin should...
First death was trying to figure a way to beat Tarnesh without metagaming - no chance, his magic missile is instant death to a 1st level character, especially if wounded on the way to the first healing station after Candlekeep. So I allowed a reload, and metagamed slightly by casting 'detect evil' to know I should prepare for battle.
My second death was overconfidence dealing with Mulahey - he managed to hit me with a mind effect I thought I was immune to, and the remains of my party could not bail me out in time.
In general though, the most dangerous enemy is out-of-game tiredness. Playing just before falling asleep has seen more NPC deaths through careless slow reactions than anything else - losing Jaheira to spider poison in Beregost was the most annoying.
Minsc gave me an excellent excuse to deviate and hit up the gnoll stronghold, what paladin can resist the damsel in distress quest? Sadly, he did not survive the assault himself, falling to a gnoll just as we reach the pit containing his witch. My main problem at this part in the game was regularly losing weapons that my front line relied on - we completed the gnoll fortress without any skilled weapons, still at low level. At least Rasaad could cope sans hitty-stick.
I have since lost just about every NPC along the way, and although I always play a part of 6, this is the first time I have really had to get familiar with playing a smaller party, and seeing the xp rise a little more quickly as a consequence.
The first of two minimal-resurections came for Ajantis. He had been a stalwart of my party of 3 (2 paladins and Imoen as thief) for much of the game, so when Kahrk targeted him and refused to let him run away, and my other characters chasing Kahrk naturally failed to engage him long enough to hit, I deemed he had earned himself a second chance. Sadly, I think the guilt of breaking my no-res rule got to me, as he died again quite carelessly two maps later, and there was no coming back from that.
Around this time Imoen hit 6th and turned Mage, and I realized, after cleansing the bandit camp, that a paladin had a duty to clean up the whole sword coast and make it safe for the law abiding traders to travel and resume business (not a blatant xp grab while Imoen regained thief levels, honest
As a two-person party we traveled widely through the sword coast, righting wrongs and mostly slaying monsters that did not hide in trap filled dungeons.
At some point we encountered Safana who I had not particularly used before, and suddenly I had a thief again! And shortly after, I recruited Coran and Imoen regained her thieving, suddenly I had three! At this point I am looking ahead, thinking that now I have thieves it is time to clear out the mines and recruit Yeslick, and probably round out my party with Quayle, so that I had at least some cleric and a second caster. At this point, I stumble over Faldorn, who I have never taken in my party before - so this could be fun. (Note - at this point I have lost every other recruitable NPC before Baldur's gate, admittedly killing the evil ones myself. I completed no bonus content for the new ones, so no bonus items, specifically no big fisted belt
The odd thing with Faldorn at this point is that she is SO far behind in XP terms to my main character - 10k vs. 90k. Druid levels are cheap, so I am hoping she will come good by the end of the game, but this is now an interesting new challenge for my - I am building up a party for the end game where, for the first time, there is a good chance that most of the NPCs will be far from the level cap.
Anyway - second NPC resurrection was triggered when I sent Coran hiding in shadows to try an audacious backstab on Hareishan in the mine, followed by a fireball to clear the troops. Unfortunately, he got crowded in and could not escape the fireball blast, so I granted him a one-off resurrection for trusting in our stupid plan and playing along. So far, just the two violations on no-res.
So now I am trying to meld a party unlike any I have run before, with a wide disparity of levels and xp:
Charname Paladin 7 135,000xp
Imoen Thief->Mage 6/8 20,000 + 110,000xp
Coran Fighter/Thief 6/6 39,000/39,000xp
Faldorn Druid 7 53,000xp
Yeslick Figher/Cleric 6/6 32,000/32,000xp
Quayle Cleric/Mage 6/6 43,750/43,750xp
I am back out of BG, heading to Candlekeep but taking a quick diversion through Durlag's tower. Yeslick has the gauntlets of dex, and Faldorn is making a surprisingly useful front line with a gauntlets of ogre power, a +2 spear, and Ankheg plate. No +2 club though, as I was nice to the druids (more lost kit!) Coran gets to play the specialized archer role, and occasionally sneaks around for a backstab (another new skill to master!)
Quayle is a little out of sorts for me - if he is in the party he is often my recipient of the gauntlets of ogre power, to boost his slinging and make a handy pack mule. Boosting the lowest strength on the party is often a good win, now I must cope with generally low strengths, as Yeslick is without the big fisted belt, and CharName has yet to find the strength tome below Candlekeep. He has just snagged the second Wisdom tome from Durlag though, the last of the books outside the catacombs, so he has some mighty stats. Also, a cavalier with Spider's Bane and the helm of defense has some spectacular immunities and resistances (also, Ballista's passport and boots of grounding)
So now I'm getting ready for the end game, perhaps only two more play sessions. This will probably be the first play through I deliberately do not do all of the content (no werewolves, ice island, basilisk map, red wizards map, lower reaches of Durlag and return to Ulgoth's beard) and hit the BG under city with only two character on xp cap, and the rest a level or two shy. Plus, if I lose anyone else between now and the end, I have only Alora left to recruit!
Generally, playing a more direct style has been a lot of fun - even finding the excuses to wander around the coast to pick up xp and items (most in character). Coping with the regular loss of NPCs along the way has been alternately entertaining and traumatic. Until I got the final six together, I don't think I had a party of more than 4 ever leave a map (I think I briefly hit 5 on one map, but we did not all make it to the end).
Living with consequences of lost kit and characters has definitely been fun, and I am sure some will point out I am still playing a monstrous PC, and not adding any mods like SCS (I avoid all mods on principle - support on the Mac is sparse enough as it is) so still having an easy time of it
On balance, I think the surprise of the party has been kitting up Faldorn to be a useful member of the team. She is looking far more useful than I expected, as someone I routinely ignored as arriving too late in the game when the party is fully formed. The low xp feels like it will never catch up, but the even cheaper druid levels definitely compensate. Still hoping to see Iron Skins before the end of the game
I set out for a no reload, no resurrection, no metagaming play through, and have mostly ended up with a 'minimal' rather than 'no'. I would also play a fairly direct path through the game, following the script as a Lawful Good paladin should...
First death was trying to figure a way to beat Tarnesh without metagaming - no chance, his magic missile is instant death to a 1st level character, especially if wounded on the way to the first healing station after Candlekeep. So I allowed a reload, and metagamed slightly by casting 'detect evil' to know I should prepare for battle.
My second death was overconfidence dealing with Mulahey - he managed to hit me with a mind effect I thought I was immune to, and the remains of my party could not bail me out in time.
In general though, the most dangerous enemy is out-of-game tiredness. Playing just before falling asleep has seen more NPC deaths through careless slow reactions than anything else - losing Jaheira to spider poison in Beregost was the most annoying.
Minsc gave me an excellent excuse to deviate and hit up the gnoll stronghold, what paladin can resist the damsel in distress quest? Sadly, he did not survive the assault himself, falling to a gnoll just as we reach the pit containing his witch. My main problem at this part in the game was regularly losing weapons that my front line relied on - we completed the gnoll fortress without any skilled weapons, still at low level. At least Rasaad could cope sans hitty-stick.
I have since lost just about every NPC along the way, and although I always play a part of 6, this is the first time I have really had to get familiar with playing a smaller party, and seeing the xp rise a little more quickly as a consequence.
The first of two minimal-resurections came for Ajantis. He had been a stalwart of my party of 3 (2 paladins and Imoen as thief) for much of the game, so when Kahrk targeted him and refused to let him run away, and my other characters chasing Kahrk naturally failed to engage him long enough to hit, I deemed he had earned himself a second chance. Sadly, I think the guilt of breaking my no-res rule got to me, as he died again quite carelessly two maps later, and there was no coming back from that.
Around this time Imoen hit 6th and turned Mage, and I realized, after cleansing the bandit camp, that a paladin had a duty to clean up the whole sword coast and make it safe for the law abiding traders to travel and resume business (not a blatant xp grab while Imoen regained thief levels, honest
As a two-person party we traveled widely through the sword coast, righting wrongs and mostly slaying monsters that did not hide in trap filled dungeons.At some point we encountered Safana who I had not particularly used before, and suddenly I had a thief again! And shortly after, I recruited Coran and Imoen regained her thieving, suddenly I had three! At this point I am looking ahead, thinking that now I have thieves it is time to clear out the mines and recruit Yeslick, and probably round out my party with Quayle, so that I had at least some cleric and a second caster. At this point, I stumble over Faldorn, who I have never taken in my party before - so this could be fun. (Note - at this point I have lost every other recruitable NPC before Baldur's gate, admittedly killing the evil ones myself. I completed no bonus content for the new ones, so no bonus items, specifically no big fisted belt
The odd thing with Faldorn at this point is that she is SO far behind in XP terms to my main character - 10k vs. 90k. Druid levels are cheap, so I am hoping she will come good by the end of the game, but this is now an interesting new challenge for my - I am building up a party for the end game where, for the first time, there is a good chance that most of the NPCs will be far from the level cap.
Anyway - second NPC resurrection was triggered when I sent Coran hiding in shadows to try an audacious backstab on Hareishan in the mine, followed by a fireball to clear the troops. Unfortunately, he got crowded in and could not escape the fireball blast, so I granted him a one-off resurrection for trusting in our stupid plan and playing along. So far, just the two violations on no-res.
So now I am trying to meld a party unlike any I have run before, with a wide disparity of levels and xp:
Charname Paladin 7 135,000xp
Imoen Thief->Mage 6/8 20,000 + 110,000xp
Coran Fighter/Thief 6/6 39,000/39,000xp
Faldorn Druid 7 53,000xp
Yeslick Figher/Cleric 6/6 32,000/32,000xp
Quayle Cleric/Mage 6/6 43,750/43,750xp
I am back out of BG, heading to Candlekeep but taking a quick diversion through Durlag's tower. Yeslick has the gauntlets of dex, and Faldorn is making a surprisingly useful front line with a gauntlets of ogre power, a +2 spear, and Ankheg plate. No +2 club though, as I was nice to the druids (more lost kit!) Coran gets to play the specialized archer role, and occasionally sneaks around for a backstab (another new skill to master!)
Quayle is a little out of sorts for me - if he is in the party he is often my recipient of the gauntlets of ogre power, to boost his slinging and make a handy pack mule. Boosting the lowest strength on the party is often a good win, now I must cope with generally low strengths, as Yeslick is without the big fisted belt, and CharName has yet to find the strength tome below Candlekeep. He has just snagged the second Wisdom tome from Durlag though, the last of the books outside the catacombs, so he has some mighty stats. Also, a cavalier with Spider's Bane and the helm of defense has some spectacular immunities and resistances (also, Ballista's passport and boots of grounding)
So now I'm getting ready for the end game, perhaps only two more play sessions. This will probably be the first play through I deliberately do not do all of the content (no werewolves, ice island, basilisk map, red wizards map, lower reaches of Durlag and return to Ulgoth's beard) and hit the BG under city with only two character on xp cap, and the rest a level or two shy. Plus, if I lose anyone else between now and the end, I have only Alora left to recruit!
Generally, playing a more direct style has been a lot of fun - even finding the excuses to wander around the coast to pick up xp and items (most in character). Coping with the regular loss of NPCs along the way has been alternately entertaining and traumatic. Until I got the final six together, I don't think I had a party of more than 4 ever leave a map (I think I briefly hit 5 on one map, but we did not all make it to the end).
Living with consequences of lost kit and characters has definitely been fun, and I am sure some will point out I am still playing a monstrous PC, and not adding any mods like SCS (I avoid all mods on principle - support on the Mac is sparse enough as it is) so still having an easy time of it
On balance, I think the surprise of the party has been kitting up Faldorn to be a useful member of the team. She is looking far more useful than I expected, as someone I routinely ignored as arriving too late in the game when the party is fully formed. The low xp feels like it will never catch up, but the even cheaper druid levels definitely compensate. Still hoping to see Iron Skins before the end of the game
10
Comments
The best change I made was making it so that I can use Charm Person to get into Baldur's Gate itself before Chapter 5, letting me pick up Quayle, Tiax, Skie (whom I have never used), or Alora (I always use her to replace Imoen now because Alora is a better thief).
Another problem on the iPad was accidental clicks, like drinking potions in your quick slot on accident, which especially in early game made me reload(I didn't count those though), but that's not relevant.
Beyond that, if you have Imoen with you, her two arrows per round plus you hacking away can sometimes disrupt Tarnesh's spells. But yeah, MM against 1st level is brutal.
I start off right from bg2 nowadays, as I find bg1 too much of a chore. Low levels are not as much fun to me, but your approach makes it plausible, I may try it in a next playthrough. I have an idea, I can edit most if not all temples in the game to omit raise dead from their list of services. After all, only a very high level cleric can cast it and it is not likely each and every small temple will have one. I can add a few raise dead scrolls for sale or as a special treasure in Durlag's to compensate for this. This will definitely make the game a lot more challenging and fun IMHO. Hmm I need to think on this.
So now we have just emerged from the catacombs below Candlekeep, and have an appointment with destiny awaiting back at the Gate. Charname stats are now a godly 19/19/19/10/21/19 (10 is Int) so he is well on course to inherit his legacy, like it or not, as long as he does not need to solve any sudoku.
As usual at this point, I observe I have been hoarding too much throughout the game again. Yeslick has a stock of over 20 giant strength potions of various grades which we are exceedingly unlikely to use, plus another 60 health potions. Meanwhile, the potion and scroll cases are bursting at capacity with stuff I will probably never use, but at least I have run down a couple of wands this game.
Probably one last session this evening will see the final showdown. Char Name and Imoen have already maxed XP, no-one else is close, but we may be able to max-level as few NPCs who cap out around 120k, it will be close.
Generally, it seems the main danger is the early game, where no-one has any hits, and the end-game where there are some bigger challenges you need to prepare for. Mid-game is fairly safe for a mid-level party, as long as you are not tired/careless, and are not running too wide an xp gap.
Already planning my next run which will probably be a solo pacifist cleric/thief (my first solo run). Looking ahead, the main problem I see for solo/pacifist is the coronation - how will I be able to deal with the dopplegangers? Lots of crowd control scrolls I guess, and big heals on the dukes. Anyway, that is for the next run.
2 reloads (Tarnesh and Mulahey)
3 chars allowed 1 res. each
Ajantis (died a second time, did not return)
Coran
Faldorn
Char Name and Imoen did a chunk of the middle game as a duo (or trio with Ajantis) so hit the xp cap. Quayle hit his level cap just as we hit the Thieves Maze, and no-one else capped, but most were just a level or two off full at the end.
That was a lot of fun - now for the next run, the pacifist solo gnome cleric/thief!