Darkamor the Assassin - A BGEE playthrough with minimal reload, RP as main challanges
NielsOfAsgaard
Member Posts: 26
Hello everybody
So I have played BG 1 through 2 times before, but never BGEE. I am very excited to make a playthrough of BGEE and I have decided to spice things up a bit and make a minimal reload + RP playthrough.
I must admit this is not the first time I have tried to do this, but found that I didn´t have the time to do it properly, so I decided to postpone the project.
Here are the rules
1. As few loads as possible (only when main character dies), when/if this does happen donate money to church as if you had resurrected the main character. (Also donate in small portions, so as not to get reputation out of the money)
2. Roleplay it!!! – Im going to play neutral evil, and I am going to take the evil way out when it makes sense (When it is not chaotic). This means that some quests will not give max output. However, I should elaborate my definition of neutral evil a bit. I try to stick to the definition that BG uses, I therfore try to take the most selfserving actions avalible to me. For exampel I will not do quests without the promise of a reward of some kind or the hint of a reward at least. However, I do not assume that my protagonist is retarded, and thus I will try avoiding trouble, unless the loot is worth it. In other words stealing and killing innocents is fine as long as you can get away with it, so I won't kill townspeople for 5 gold or for being annoying, and take a rep hit.
3. No prebuffing where unless it makes sense role playing way. I will prebuff if, for example, a farmer tells me there are undead in his house, and wants me to clean it out, I will buff up before going into the house.
Also I will probably let my mages have some long lasting buffs on, a lot of times. It just makes sense.
4. I’m not going to use the various overpowered treasure found in random spot on the maps like the Ankheg Plate Mail and Pearl found in a field in Nashkel.
5. I will make the playthrough on the difficulty called "Core rules",
So I have played BG 1 through 2 times before, but never BGEE. I am very excited to make a playthrough of BGEE and I have decided to spice things up a bit and make a minimal reload + RP playthrough.
I must admit this is not the first time I have tried to do this, but found that I didn´t have the time to do it properly, so I decided to postpone the project.
Here are the rules
1. As few loads as possible (only when main character dies), when/if this does happen donate money to church as if you had resurrected the main character. (Also donate in small portions, so as not to get reputation out of the money)
2. Roleplay it!!! – Im going to play neutral evil, and I am going to take the evil way out when it makes sense (When it is not chaotic). This means that some quests will not give max output. However, I should elaborate my definition of neutral evil a bit. I try to stick to the definition that BG uses, I therfore try to take the most selfserving actions avalible to me. For exampel I will not do quests without the promise of a reward of some kind or the hint of a reward at least. However, I do not assume that my protagonist is retarded, and thus I will try avoiding trouble, unless the loot is worth it. In other words stealing and killing innocents is fine as long as you can get away with it, so I won't kill townspeople for 5 gold or for being annoying, and take a rep hit.
3. No prebuffing where unless it makes sense role playing way. I will prebuff if, for example, a farmer tells me there are undead in his house, and wants me to clean it out, I will buff up before going into the house.
Also I will probably let my mages have some long lasting buffs on, a lot of times. It just makes sense.
4. I’m not going to use the various overpowered treasure found in random spot on the maps like the Ankheg Plate Mail and Pearl found in a field in Nashkel.
5. I will make the playthrough on the difficulty called "Core rules",
6
Comments
If you're playing BGEE for the first time, I'd suggest taking at least Dorn for the ride. (He should match your alignment and the banter fits best with a power-hungry neutral-evil CHARNAME. Rasaad won't do while role-playing and Neera is questionable - depends on whether you want Edwin or not)
It sounds quite promising and we will be happy to read about your adventure. May the Assassin's poison never end
Race: Half-Elf
Gender: Male
Calss: Assassin
STATS
Str: 16
Dex: 18
Con: 18
Int: 12
Wis: 15
Cha: 12
Total: 91
(And yes i did quit a few rolls to get a 91... I figured i needed it to make this play through, sorry powergamer habit)
Thife stats
Open lock: 65
Find traps: 10
Pick Pocket: 35
Move Silently: 20
Detect Illusion: 0
Weapon Proficiencies:
Long Sword +
Crossbow +
Not sure what im gonna do for healing though...
A good evil party could be;
You
Dorn
Shar-Teel - Consider duel-classing to Thief to cover the thief duties you can't spare points for
Viconia
Edwin
Kagain
Plenty of tanking power which suits BG1.
After living all my life amongst these dull monks my foster father has finally decided that we should leave. He evean said that we are not likely to return, which means i can finaly do some real thiven and not just the usual few gold pices here and there. If we aren´t returning there is almost no risk of getting into trouble.
I am sooo ready to get out of this place! And i am prepared should we encounter trouble on our way. I found this facinating book in the libery, not like all the dull ones with arcane inscriptions and stuff. This one described several types of poisons and their effect. I made one of them which i found particurly nasty, and even tried it on the Imoens cat. It worked perfectly and mister whiskers is no more, I am looking forward to trying it on something larger.
Well i guess i should also run some final errens to accumulate as much gold as possible before we leave..
By the GODS, While running errens and perparing I was attacked no less then 2 times by complete stragners.. I killed them both I selfe defence. But the worst part is that I was so taken aback that I forgot to try my poison on any of them...
I am however now ready to leave. I have stolen all i could get my hands on, however i am very annoyed that two nobels where awake in theri romes when i went to the inn, making it too risky to steal anything form those rooms. I dear not sell what i have stolen in candle keep in fear that people might wonder where I got such preasious gems from and why they look so much like the ones just stolen... I will have to sell it in the fiorst time Gorian and I come across.
Gorian was killed!!! Some armored man struck him down eventhough Gorian used his powerfull magic. And to make matters worse the stranger was after me!
I shall have to travel on alone to the friendly arm inn and meet these friends of Gorian, come morning.
Imoen found me this morning, and she is insisting to come with me. I could tell her how her cat died, which would probably make her leave, but her company might be of benifit to me. If the armored stranger comes i atleast have a meatshield now.
5 min later
I meet some interesting travelers names Xzar and Monteron, they where helpfull and would journey with me as long as i promiss to aid them in investigating the Naskal mines. I told them i would if they come with me to the friendly arm inn first, and so we did.
It was no trouble getting to the friendly arm inn. But upon arrival yet another stranger attacked me, this one a magic user. However he didnt have any time to cast his spells as all om my party reacted with great speed, and killed the assailant.
I meet Jahira and Khalid who where the friends Gorian talked about before his death, why he trusted these persons i do not know, they are silly people concerned about nature and "balance".
I sold the stolen loot from candlekeep and robed the other guests at the friendly arm inn blined. Then i proposed a toast to the memmory of my foster father. All my party joined in on the toast and somehow most of us ended up getting abit drunk all except Jahira and Khalid. During this bender we also got some interesting gossip about the situation in the region.
The following morning i went to do a bit of burglery but ran into a woman who tried to persuade me into hunting down some hobgoblins and returning her stolen ring from them. She offerend nothing in return however so i told her to piss off. We then went hunting for hobgoblings found the ring and sold it.
4 other guests peeked my interest at the inn
1. a very rued half orc who mistaked me for a servent, what and idiot.
2. A nobel man who also mistook me for a servant (hmm i sense a pattern and am reevaluating my apperance) However the nobel man wanted me to wash his GOLDEN pantaloons so I let him belive me a servant and took the pantaloones, they should be worth abit.
3. A dwarf who offered me gold to rid her house in Begarost from spiders and returning some stuff to her. gold is gold so i will do this at some point.
4. Another dwarf who asked me to hunt down an oger and return a belt it had stolen from her. I will hunt the oger but i might keep the belt for my self as it is suppose to be magic. The Oger will also be an excelent test for my poison.
We traveled towards Nashkel and first stop was Beregost. On the way we found the Oger with the belt, it was no tough fight for my poison worked perfectly!!! Great success. The belt was indeed magical and i am keeping it as the silly dwarf couldn´t possiblyt have anything to offer of equal or better value.
When we reached Beregost we encountered a Wild mage who had the nerve to drag my party and I into a fight with some wizzards. We prevailed and the wench wanted to join my party. She was obviously seeking protection in case more wizzards came after her, so i turned her down. The last thing i need is more strangers trying to kill me.
I went to the Felpost inn because we where told is was the most luxurious in town. However a drunk fool picked a fight with me... He lost but as he attacked me it was in self-defence.
After getting drunk at the Felpost, and a well deserved nights sleep, I went to look at the town. We bumped into old Firebeard from Candlekeep, and he promised us a reward for getting him a book. And so we did, hte reward turned out to be another book though and a scrool case but no gold!!! But him being a powerfull mage and all i didn't complaint.
When i entered one of the taverns I was attacked AGAIN, this time by a tough little dwarf. After killing him I found a note similar to the note the assailant in the friendly arm inn had carried, a bounty notice, with a bounty on my head. I have come to the conclusion that these assasins are probalby sent from the armored stranger who killed Gorian.
The folowing morning we meet a Bard who recruited us for his mistress, called Silki, to fight off some ruffians. It turned out whey where not ruffians but had some buisness relation to Skili, but a job is a job right, so we killed them anyway.
However as Skilie was clealey up to no good and not on the right side of the law, we killed her afterwards as well.
Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings do gain CON based saving throw bonuses. No other races do though. Only Warriors gain more than +2HP per level for high CON scores meaning ideally you could have left it at 15 CON knowing that you will get the Constitution Tome later on giving you 16 CON (and max HP).
Imoen was getting on my nerves, we had an argument where she accused me of stealing from the towns people in Beregost. Of course she was right, but I denied everything as Jahira and Khalid didn´t like the thought of me stealing either.
I finaly told Imoen to leave the party. She was allowed to leave with some basic equipment.
Shortly after while looking through town we met with a dwarf named Kagain who hired us to search for some lords child who went missing after a caravene belonging to Kagain was raided. However he lost interest in this shortly after we started looking and decited to stick to my adventuring group and help out in the Nashkel mines, for a cut of the reward. Imoen is now replaced with a much stronger meat shield, and he semes much less prone to object to my stealing from towns people.
However Jahira didn´t aprove of my choice in companions, and Kaigan seemed to be the last drop. She left with her excuese of a husband. They also left with some basic equipment.
After this, The party cinsisted of Kagain, Monteron, Xzar and myselfe. This is when we took the job offered by Silki, See the previous post.
After the whole affair with Silki we all went to the Jovial Juggler adn got drunk...
While killing some random monsters he finaly gained enough exp to level up.
Level 2 - had a great HP roll of 6
spent the thife points in Move silently and Hide in shadow.
The party now consisting of me, Monteorn, Xzar and Kagain, traveled to Nashkel. We met some Ogerilios who had killed a hafling messenger. We killed them and delivered the messsage to the woman it was intended in Beregost, she gave a nice reward for the message which was from her traveling husband. We then went on the road to Nashkel yet again. We met some hobgolbins on the way who had slaughtered some travlers. We slaugthered them in return. We also met some flaming fist mercenaries who thought we where assoicated with the caraven raiders who plauge the area. However i convinced them we where not and the y let us pass.
When we got to Nashkel we found a Balled man in front of the inn, who was showing off to some towns people. We initiated a fight by offering the towns perple 10 gold to smack the balled monk around. But the monk knew how to handle himself and won the fight easy. I had him join the group, to see if he is usfull in a real fight. He is named Rasaad.
When we got in to the inn Rasaad got a chance to prove his worth as we where attacked by another assassin. The assassin cast a spell of confusion which hit most of the party, though not me, Xzar and Rasaad. We killed the cleric assassin while the rest of the party was running around the inn wituout purpose. The biggest problem however was that Kagain killed a regular at the inn, in his confusion while screaming incoherintly, the rest of the townspeople was not pleased with this first impression of the group. But after explaining the sitiuation and donating a substantial amount of gold to family of the deseased and the local tempel they where appeased enough to not get in our way.
(Meta tekst - the kill gave a -2 rep and i was already low (8) because i did silki´s quest in Beregost, and I need 2 more to recruite Dorn, i donated 200 gold to raise my rep from 6 to 7, and another 100 gold to raise it from 7 to 8).
I met with the Mayor of Nashkel and he promissed a reward of 900 gold for solving the problem of the mine.
I was also mistaken for some bountyhunter called Graywolf, i played along and was given Graywolfs reward of 200 gold for some task he preformed hehe easy money.
Moments later however a madman asked me to help him rescue some woman. NOrmaly i would have done so if there was a reward involved, but the man was talking with his hamster, and I am not going on any fools quest to rescue a woman i doubht even exist, much less depend on a reward from a madman. When i turned him down he attacked us, he was easily overcome though.
We then went to the nearby carnival and experienced quit alot of things, most important was the following. While looking through the tent shops we encountered a wizzard threatening a witch. My comments on the wizzards intelect provoked him to attack us instead. He managed to get a spell of horror off, which struck most of the party and the fight therfore was a close one as Rasaad, Kaigain and xar all died. Monteron and i had to finish the wizzard.
The witch gave almost no reward so the only "payment" was the loot on the dead wizzard.
My dead comrads where ressurected at the temple at a hefty price. and then we went back to the carnival. Here we found a petrified woman whom we rescued with a scroll from the nearby temple. She turned out to be a priest of Tempus and a handy addition to the party, now that she was indebt with her life.
I also won 180 gold in the rollet!!! while visiting a gamlers tent. A amature thife tried however to pickpocked my winings so we slew him.
After all of this i decided that the Monk was not lifting his share in the fights i had seen him in and he was asked to leave. As he just joined the party he was not given any gear to keep.
I like how you make decisions according to your alignment, even though, say, in the case of the Greywolf scenario, you lost the Varscona sword +2.
I also like how you used the drinking mechanic and actually spent the gold to get everybody in your party drunk before sleeping - more realism. It stands to reason that an "evil" party would likely contain at least some drunks, i.e. people who don't try to control their appetites. I've never seen any other roleplayers do that before.
Good work, I look forward to more.
I didn´t forego the Varscona sword +2 though, but that is comming up.
I decited that we should go have a look at the mines, before someone else could do so and claim the reward.
While traveling from Nashkel to Nashkel mine we where amushed by a group of bandits, however before we could start the slaughter of these pathetic imbesils, a stranger intervened by attacking the bandits. We finished the bandits together with teh stranger who turned out to be the Half-orc who mistook me for an servant at the friendly arm inn. He seemed to know of me and I was intrigued by his powers in combat, although they do not surpass my own. We made a deal that I would aid him in hunting down what remained of his former adventuring group. They had betrayed him and now he wants them dead, the bandits we slew was the first 2. In return he will aid me in my quest to find out who is tring to kill me, and kill whom ever is.
We then continued to the mine area. We started out by investigating the land sorrunding the mine and not the depth of the mines.
We found nothing relating to the problems in the mine, but we found the "artist" who stole gems from the town of Nashkel. He beeged us not to stop his work as he was almost finished, this was very persuading as he also promissed us and i quot "I will give you all else that is mine". And so we began to wait for him to finish his work.
Funny thing happned though. The bountyhunter called Graywolf, came by to take the artist and the gems he stole, however he knew that we where the ones who claimed the bounty which was rightfully his, and thus he attacked us. He was easily killed though and he had quite some nice gear on him.
After finishing his work the artist died of what apeared to be an overdose of potions of speed, he didn´t even signe me over his house or anything, he just died... And even worse he didn´t have anything of substantial value on him besides the gems he stole, the basteard tricked us good.
we then went back to Nashkel to rest as the fight with Graywolf had wounded some of my companions, and also to collect the bounty on the gems. However the bounty administrator was not to pleased that we took the bounty belonging to Graywolf and he deducted quit a bit og gold from our reward for the gems
We hunted down some ogers and did some other minor reward yilding jobs for the townsfolk og both Nashkel and Beregost. Then we went back to Nashkel mine and through it. We met an abundance of Kobolds within the mines. When we reached the lowest levels we found some kind of inner cave which we explored. Here we found a very depressing Elf mage, who wanted to join the party, but if he let himselfe get captured by kobolds he can´t be worth much so I told him to bugger off. In the adjacent room we found however a half-orc prist of Cyric called Mulahey, who mistok us for henchmen of his superiors. It enden up in battle though he was no match for us.
We found a exit leading up to the surface quite a bit away from the mine enterence, this must be where the scume got into the mine. We used this exit.
Well it happened. I tried taking on the Amazon assassins, however i had some problems and the party died. I think i need to explain the situation as i am not sure how to tackel the situation. All died the party died until only Xzar and Darkamore where left, however all the amazons had also died except one of the archers. The final Amazon scored a critical against Drakamor, and killed him, then fired an poison arrow ad Xzar and hit him. He would most likely also die from this, making it a compleat partywipe.
I reloded the game to right when i got up from the mines, and tried again. This time I only lost Kagain who i just resseruct at the tempel.
However I got a little over confident and continued in the area where i suffered another partywipe to the Revenant and an Ankheg which i ran into when i was trying to kit and poke the Revenant. So the second reload came very close to the first.
Im not sure what to do with these compleat partywipes. The rules state that i should donate money to the tempel when Darkamore dies, but what happens when other characters die aswell? ALso donate money for them after the realode? Hmm i am still contemplating this...