New challenge run: random everything.

Pecker

I played through the game a couple times, and being so familiar with the system, I found it to be pretty easy. I can never seem to hold myself back from picking powerful classes and rerolling stats. So to force myself out my comfort zone and maybe try some new things (I've never really used a thief or a druid), I decided to just start a new run where I randomized almost everything. I generated random numbers using random.org and created my characters according to the results with just a few stipulations:

- I need at least one healer (it's just too annoying without one).
- No Monks (no fun having a chacter who's dead weight most of the game).
- If I roll a weapon proficiency that my character doesn't have the strength to use I can reroll it.
- Once I roll a weapon proficiency I can choose an appropriate weapon style.
- I can choose a portrait (otherwise it's just looks dumb, ha).

Other than that, everything is randomized. When I rolled my characters, however, I got somewhat lucky in regards to these stipulations. None of them ended up affecting me.

I'll be playing according to these rules:

- Core rules (I haven't tried core yet and I found insane to be too easy with the xp boost).
- No rerolling stats or redistributing them.
- No max hp on level up.

So with all that said, here's what I ended up with:

1. Adam Sandler - Male, Half-Elf, Ranger, Lawful Good, 13/13/15/13/14/12, Spear ++, THWS ++, TWS ++

2. Judy Dench - Female, Half-Orc, Assassin, Lawful Evil, 14/13/13/10/15/15, Short Sword +, SWS +

3. Ron Pearlman - Male, Halfling, Barbarian, Chaotic Good, 15/14/14/8/13/15, Two-Handed Sword ++, THWS ++

4. Child Molester - Male, Elf, Barbarian, Lawful Neutral, 13/15/9/15/9/14, Flail/Morning Star ++, TWS ++

5. Also Judy Dench - Female, Half-Orc, Priest of Tempus, Chaotic Good, 18/13/15/13/13/12, Mace +, SaSS +

6. Kristina Rose - Female, Halfling, Bounty Hunter, Lawful Evil, 12/12/10/16/17/11, Quarterstaff +, SWS+

So all things considered I didn't roll too terribly and got some interesting characters. You don't see a half-orc assassin everyday, ha. Not having any arcane casting kinda sucks. No haste, emotion buffs, or cat's grace hurts quite a bit, but at least I have the cleric buffs. Strength of one and defensive harmony are crucial.

If you like this idea feel free to make your own random parties and post what you get below.

Drizzts_Fat_Cousin

1. Lana del Rey - Female, Human, Bard
2. Hannibal Lectre - Male, Human, Assassin
3. Fiora Laurent - Female, Human, Kensai
4. Jesus Christ - Male, Human, Priest of Lathander
5. Nicolas Flamel - Male, Human, Transmuter
6. Jackie Chan - Male, Human, Sun Soul Monk

Pecker

Haha, looks like fun. I was kinda hoping for a kensai myself but didn't get one. Looks like it might be pretty challenging with no real tank until you can get the level 3 and 4 mage armor spells. Good luck.

Drizzts_Fat_Cousin

Pecker said:

Haha, looks like fun. I was kinda hoping for a kensai myself but didn't get one. Looks like it might be pretty challenging with no real tank until you can get the level 3 and 4 mage armor spells. Good luck.

Your Judy Dench character made me guffaw.

kensai

That 's not true random if you restrict to have a healer. And no monks rule and reason behind it kinda contradict with "getting out zone of comfort" idea.
Imho

Wowo

Sunsoul Monk is pretty decent in any undead heavy content.

Pecker

kensai said:

That 's not true random then you restrict to have a healer. And no monks rule and reason behind it kinda contradict with "getting out zone of comfort" idea.
Imho

I made no claim that this was a "true" random run. Should I have randomized my portraits, names, and sound sets too, just for the sake of "true" randomness? That wasn't the point. I just wanted something new, interesting, and fun so I added a few minor stipulations. Playing without a healer is just tedious. I don't want to sleep for 3 weeks every time I take damage. And I've played with monks before. A monk with non-maxed stats on core rules is going to be dead weight pretty much all game. That isn't fun or interesting.

Audaces

Ok, I've rolled my six random characters. I randomized everything, but with fighter types I only rolled twice for weapon proficiencies and put two stars in each weapon type. I took first stats roll that came during creation and I picked random names (adjusting them slightly to match the gender - so Garyl became Garylia).

I was very lucky to get all basic types in, although I do have two thieves, a vanilla and a bounty hunter. Oh well, what can you do.

Here are the details:

Taibine - Female TN Dwarf Thief - 15/12/17/14/13/10. *Longsword, *Shortbow. Nothing special here, I guess. I'll put points in all skills, prioritizing OL and FT.

At-Isol - Male CG Elven Cleric (Moonknight of Selune) - 10/13/11/16/15/13. *Mace, *Sling. My only cleric and the only male on the team. The kit comes from Scales of Balance and I am quite eager to give it a go.

Buruina - Female LE Human Bounty Hunter - 10/12/13/13/18/16. *Club, *Dart. My other thief, she'll specialize in traps (obviously) and HiS/MS. Too bad about the Dexterity, I could dual her to a cleric.

Enora - Female CE Half-orc Berserker - 12/17/17/6/10/13. **Short sword, ** Mace. My first fighter. I actually quite like her stats, they look damn good on a berserker. I think I'll go 5* maces and maybe dual wield later on.

Garylia - Female LE Gnome Fighter/Illusionist - 14/18/13/16/11/6. **Dagger, **Flail/Morningstar. Now here's a lucky roll, isn't it! With 18 dex and plenty of spells she'll be the tankiest of them all. I'll definitely make her dual wield stuff. Flails and daggers fit her LE alignment.

War'agei - Female CG Gnome Illusionist - 13/16/13/16/8/15. *Sling. Say hi to the gnomish Neera - with her CG alignment and 8 Wis she's definitely a bit unreliable. 13 Constitution means she'll need to stay back and hope she doesn't get hit.

Well, that's the six of them. I could use another fighter instead of a thief, but you can't have everything, can you... at least I'll have two backstabbers running around. Funny thing, both thieves have 12 Dex. Clumsy gals, them. The rest of the team are OK-ish. Except for Enora, who's Ork-ish.

I feel they'll have no problems beating the game. I'm going to play on Core with no max hp on level up.

Pecker

Ha, looks good. Very nice rolls on your fighters, although the 12 strength is gonna be rough, and your cleric is even worse, ha. No big shields or the heaviest armors. I found low strength scores to be the most annoying thing about my run. My ranger and barbarian can barely carry the equipment they use plus a few potions.

You also kinda got screwed with your berzerker's weapons. Maces aren't easy to come by. I just got to lower dorn's and my cleric is still using just a mace+1, ha. I guess you'll have to buy the one from Conlan or go into the expansion area. Good luck.

Wowo

Audaces said:

Ok, I've rolled my six random characters. I randomized everything, but with fighter types I only rolled twice for weapon proficiencies and put two stars in each weapon type. I took first stats roll that came during creation and I picked random names (adjusting them slightly to match the gender - so Garyl became Garylia).

I was very lucky to get all basic types in, although I do have two thieves, a vanilla and a bounty hunter. Oh well, what can you do.

Here are the details:

Taibine - Female TN Dwarf Thief - 15/12/17/14/13/10. *Longsword, *Shortbow. Nothing special here, I guess. I'll put points in all skills, prioritizing OL and FT.

At-Isol - Male CG Elven Cleric (Moonknight of Selune) - 10/13/11/16/15/13. *Mace, *Sling. My only cleric and the only male on the team. The kit comes from Scales of Balance and I am quite eager to give it a go.

Buruina - Female LE Human Bounty Hunter - 10/12/13/13/18/16. *Club, *Dart. My other thief, she'll specialize in traps (obviously) and HiS/MS. Too bad about the Dexterity, I could dual her to a cleric.

Enora - Female CE Half-orc Berserker - 12/17/17/6/10/13. **Short sword, ** Mace. My first fighter. I actually quite like her stats, they look damn good on a berserker. I think I'll go 5* maces and maybe dual wield later on.

Garylia - Female LE Gnome Fighter/Illusionist - 14/18/13/16/11/6. **Dagger, **Flail/Morningstar. Now here's a lucky roll, isn't it! With 18 dex and plenty of spells she'll be the tankiest of them all. I'll definitely make her dual wield stuff. Flails and daggers fit her LE alignment.

War'agei - Female CG Gnome Illusionist - 13/16/13/16/8/15. *Sling. Say hi to the gnomish Neera - with her CG alignment and 8 Wis she's definitely a bit unreliable. 13 Constitution means she'll need to stay back and hope she doesn't get hit.

Well, that's the six of them. I could use another fighter instead of a thief, but you can't have everything, can you... at least I'll have two backstabbers running around. Funny thing, both thieves have 12 Dex. Clumsy gals, them. The rest of the team are OK-ish. Except for Enora, who's Ork-ish.

I feel they'll have no problems beating the game. I'm going to play on Core with no max hp on level up.

Unfortunately can't dual the thief without 15 dexterity as well.

Audaces

Wowo said:

Unfortunately can't dual the thief without 15 dexterity as well.

Yeah, I know that. And she's the only human I have, so not much is going to change, unless I do reruns and hunt for those potions that convert Strength to Dexterity. Can't see it happening.

On the plus side, I have access to three sets of traps and I really like that. Orc Cave was a piece of cake thanks to my traps. It's a poor man's fireball early on if the enemies approach in a group.

As for my berserker's weapon choice - well, what can I do. I rather like having a half-orc berserker and a mace seems straightforward enough for her to use it Besides, I've been playing enough with longswords and morningstars, I'm pretty happy to try out different weapons.

I've made it lazily to the Vale of Shadows so far and there have been no major problems.