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Randomly Generated Character Playthrough/Challenge

PicklePepperPiperPicklePepperPiper Member Posts: 8
edited January 2016 in Challenges and Playthroughs
Says it on the tin: almost every aspect of character creation is randomised (I withhold voice set and naming rights). This includes weapon proficiency and ability scores. I'm also randomising party set-up, which should make for some fun mixing up. Party of 6 a requirement (if an NPC is chunked, I roll a new one). NPCs need to be acquired as soon as feasible - no XP hoarding for CHARNAME! For this first playthrough, I'm maintaining NPC pairings - if I roll someone for slot 6 who is in a pair, I roll again. Role-play will be kept in mind. I'm going to *try* to keep meta-gaming to a minimum, but hey, if I know exactly what to say to calm Marl down, that's just a happy coincidence, yeah? This will be a trilogy minimal reload (reload only on bugs or on CHARNAME death), and I will retain what characters are allowed over the transition to SoA, and roll new party members. If I roll Sarevok at the beginning of SoA, I roll a replacement and boot them out pronto upon ToB. Totally vanilla EE on Core difficulty. If I like these rules, I'll start incrementally adding mods with additional playthroughs. Eventually I'd like to run with UBI+II, Item Randomiser, Tweakpacks, SCS and NPC Project.

Bit of my own backstory: hi and nice to meet you all! I'm a former Bioware BG forum member, and then went to Bioware Social for a bit. It's been a couple of years since I've attended a BG forum, and I like the look of you guys. I've actually never finished ToB (finished SoA about three times) - the closest I got was killing Draconis with a solo Archer, but I ran out of a supply of oils of speed, so there was basically no point continuing. Hence the minimal reload here - I'd be damned if I don't finish the entire game!

So, some playthrough info:

There have been quite a few ways put forward to generate a random character, and I guess I quasi-follow the usual template (Drone's), although I've done up my own (far more linear) list for classes and roll for each individual facet - also no options for picking anything myself. If people are interested I'll let them know how I went about it. Ability scores (the biggie) are generated by rolling 10 times, and it's up to me if I keep the highest combined value or not - each individual stat *cannot* be adjusted up or down by more than four points, so wonderful if I get 90 but not so good if that comes with CON at 10 or something (highly unlikely but still). Weapon prof are determined by (after class selection) rolling a primary weapon then a secondary weapon OR a weapon style, and as weapons/styles are maxed out I roll additional ones.

Thus presenting:
image

I really lucked out with the scores. I had the option of maxing the top three, but that would have wound up with a stupidly low CHA and INT and my man is far too good for that. The original distribution as follows (with adjustments in brackets):
Roll = 87
STR 13 (+4 = 17)
DEX 14 (+4 = 18)
CON 15 (+2 = 17)
INT 15 (-4 = 11)
WIS 16 (-2 = 14)
CHA 14 (-4 = 10)

Weapons also lucky - primary weapon was Shortbow (better SoA shortbows than longbows!), and got Spear for secondary, so:
Shortbow **
Spear **
TW **

EDIT: Forgot to mention, I rolled Giant Spiders for racial enemy. Huzzah!

Party is:
Jaheira, so by extension
Khalid
Coran
Xan
Edwin

Well... that's a pretty damn fine party. No cleric is alright for BG1 portion. I'm not sure if I'll worry about keeping Edwin sated with reputation, as BG1 is also totally doable without two mages. The same problem will pop-up in SoA, but if he leaves I'll just roll another character.

So I guess game plan at the beginning will be to pick up J&K from FAI and leg it to Nashkel for Edwin, Gnoll's Stronghold to kill Dynaheir and then do the Mines for Xan. Being LG but of average intelligence, Lilith will be hoodwinked into thinking Dynaheir is evil. He'll also try to get to the bottom of Gorion's murder as quickly as possible, so side-quests will be sidelines a little initially. Anyway. Here I go.

-PPP
Post edited by PicklePepperPiper on

Comments

  • PicklePepperPiperPicklePepperPiper Member Posts: 8
    Freaking Tarnesh. If I'm not obliged to pick up J&K in a playthrough, I generally leave him a bit later than level 1. Took one reload to take him down, plus 3 healing potions when I eventually did. I may have used the entrance to the inn to ward off the horror spell, but I figure that's forgivable. Picked up J&K, return Joia's ring, and spoke to Dorn so I get the sequence before the mines (when I get there). Back on the road and I pick up the Girdle of Piercing from the ogre (I figure Lilith is pretty into monster hunting, once he spots their tracks). Beregost is just a quick stopover to calm down Marl, help out Firebeard and return the halfling's letter to Mirianne.

    Picked up Edwin in Nashkel (and ankheg plate for Khalid, but shhh), and legged it out to the stronghold. Lilith received his first ability (CLW), but I'm a bit distressed with how many healing potions Khalid is downing. Anyway, the DEX gauntlets should help. Swung around to pick up the CHA tome (and I guess, more importantly, three healing potions). Was glad to grab MM and LMD but Edwin, for all his lofty intelligence, was unable to learn either. Lilith gains only 4 HP on level up to 2 (dammit!). Decided best tactic for gnolls will be to pick them off one by one by sending Lilith forward, spotting them, then falling back to the other three. Worked pretty well. Dynaheir is pretty squishy so not any trouble there.

    Lost Jaheira (non-perma) and all healing potions on way back to Nashkel - ogre mage encounter. Upon entering Nashkel, I saw in my action bar that Minsc was apparently losing it and was promptly killed by the Amnish guards. I've never recruited Edwin in BG before, is that what happens when you kill Dynaheir? Anyways. Knocked off Greywolf for Khalid's new sword (Dorn's encounter left us with plate mail - between that and ankheg, RoP+1, shields and gauntlets of DEX, I have a front line of Jaheira and Khalid each with -3 AC. Not totally fantastic but I'll take it. Ranged weapons just a few clicks away). Rep of 16 making Edwin *very* itchy. I'm not sure how to RP dropping it, but at the same time just waiting for him to leave seems to defeat the point of rolling a random party. Maybe he'll wander off and slaughter an innocent without the party knowing. I can't wait until I install the happy patch.
  • PicklePepperPiperPicklePepperPiper Member Posts: 8
    I decided to splurge and pick up the large shield +1 for Jaheira. An extra -1AC always goes a huge way in early BG. With that it's time to face up to the mines (I had a go at Neira in the Nashkel inn to see how they were going, and the party's hitting things pretty consistently in a toe-to-toe). I've decided to actually zip by Beregost before doing so to give the rep a bit of a hit (won't divulge details, but it involves an isolated commoner and a paranoid Edwin).

    Lost Jaheira *again* on the third level of the mines, expensive shield and all. Pity, she had done such a good job of taking out those traps with her high(est) HP - it was the kobold commando with the fire arrows that did it (surprise). Lugged it back up to the surface to resurrect her, as there's no way Mulahey is going to be beaten without all hands on deck.

    Okay, mines round 2 - again Jaheira acts as our resident trap disarmer. Once I'm into fourth level, I outfit Jaheira with best gear to get -6 AC with -5 missile and -4 piercing adjsters. Next group of kobold archers is a breeze. Tactics with Mulahey as follows:
    - Send in Edwin with potion of invis
    - Quaff as soon as Mulahey turns hostile
    - Let the other three melee with spawns
    - When they clear, get Khalid to down a potion of hill giant STR, Jaheira casts Bless
    - Switch Lilith back to bows
    - Send in the troops, as soon as Mulahey starts to cast a spell Edwin uses wand of missiles
    - See how long he lasts

    Well... bummer. Almost worked. Mulahey proved a bit difficult to land a blow on, and Edwin's charges soon ran out (had 3 left when started the fight), so he was able to get a few Hold Persons out. Jaheira and Khalid were out, and Mulahey down to near death when he held Lilith AND Edwin. Will try again, except will get Lilith to use an oil of speed. Here we go...

    Did it, but Khalid and Jaheira copped it, again, because Edwin was slow on the uptake (read: I didn't get him to interrupt Mulahey's hold person in time). Hello Xan! Level up for Lilith again, 6 HP this time. A fairly good yield from scroll learning means the party now has sleep, charm person, web and identify. We'll take the long route through the mines back to Nashkel, as the party is feeling a little tender.
  • PicklePepperPiperPicklePepperPiper Member Posts: 8
    Okay, I've just realised why Lilith has become so inexplicably crappy - Edwin knocking off a peasant has resulted in a fallen stalker status. Why that didn't even occur to me before I did it is a mystery (probably because I thought it was a reputation under 6 that had to do it, but murder will do the trick). Bummer. I don't really have the heart to take Lilith through to BG2 ranger stronghold, nerfed as he is. I think I'll roll another character...
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,723
    Hello, @PicklePepperPiper , and nice to see a former bioware forum member here! I think it would be interesting to have a look at https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/17887/create-a-random-game-optional-no-reload-speed-game-contest-included-spoilers#latest - the OP there offers a good method to random your game.

    You have to pay attention to your reputation, if you play paladins and rangers. It's a pity to lose your status, but a new character is always interesting to roll :)
  • PicklePepperPiperPicklePepperPiper Member Posts: 8
    Thanks, @bengoshi , lesson learned! I rolled up another character, a M human CN skald, who's doing very well with Edwin, Imoen, Coran, Yeslick and Quayle. Have gotten significantly further with this party and am enjoying the synergy between lots of arcane spells, cleric buffs, skald's song and Coran's excellent sniping. Daevorn was a joke (arrow of piercing and two arrows of biting, done). I think I'll have to remove the minimal reload aspect from these playthroughs, as I'm not *so* experienced and sometimes I find myself wanting to play through battles again just to see if I can improve results. Not being able to get max rep for buying gear is a absolute pain (dammit Edwin!).
  • Eadwyn_G8keeperEadwyn_G8keeper Member Posts: 541
    I especially liked your description of Mulahey tactics with a small party. I almost always have a Lvl4+ party including Jaheira-Khalid, Imoen and Kivan at that point in the game and the mines are generally not a problem.

    On the other hand it might even be a good idea to treat such detailed tactics [same thing with dispatching Daevorn] within a 'spoiler-bar' as those are just the sort of things that it is wonderful to have to strategize for oneself on the spur of the moment. ~

    Just a thought.
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