Legacy of Bhaal Iron Man Daigle run
JuliusBorisov
Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,760
Dear forumites, I introduce you an adventure of a jester, named Phillip Daigle, on the Sword Coast.
Rules:
No-reload
Legacy of Bhaal mode
Taking the third attribute roll as-is
-1 penalty to all saving throws
Some pre-history:
This is why if you name your character Phillip Daigle, you get a -1 penalty to saving throws.
So, to the character-creation process:
1st roll:
2nd roll:
3rd roll:
Hmm, yes, a very *fortunate* roll, 8-14-10-13-15-17. 17 CHA! So, we have a very charismatic jester here! Well, other stats don't matter if your tactics is right, I guess.
A small tweak to the biography:
And voila!
Meet @PhillipDaigle - pay attention to saving throws (they have a +1 penaly - all other bards start with 13/14/12/16/15, while this awesome bard starts with 14/15/13/17/16), proficiencies chosen according to Phillip (maces and clubs)
The Hard as Bhaals mode activated:
Rules:
No-reload
Legacy of Bhaal mode
Taking the third attribute roll as-is
-1 penalty to all saving throws
Some pre-history:
This is why if you name your character Phillip Daigle, you get a -1 penalty to saving throws.
So, to the character-creation process:
1st roll:
2nd roll:
3rd roll:
Hmm, yes, a very *fortunate* roll, 8-14-10-13-15-17. 17 CHA! So, we have a very charismatic jester here! Well, other stats don't matter if your tactics is right, I guess.
A small tweak to the biography:
And voila!
Meet @PhillipDaigle - pay attention to saving throws (they have a +1 penaly - all other bards start with 13/14/12/16/15, while this awesome bard starts with 14/15/13/17/16), proficiencies chosen according to Phillip (maces and clubs)
The Hard as Bhaals mode activated:
36
Comments
Our good guy Phillip set off from Candlekeep carrying as many items as he could (and mind you, 50 lbs is not much).
Before that, he managed to frazzle out old Firebead for 300 gp...
... bring bolt to Fuller and find a sword for Hull, help to cure the Dreppin's cow and bring back the Phlydya's book, of course, not forgetting to give a scroll of Identify to Elvenhair:
But sorry, Reevor, no rats killing from Phillip now, these monsters are too powerful for our 1st level hero. No risks in the Iron Man run!
The intro with Gorion showed a bandit hit Phillip 3 times from 3 shots:
Reaching the 5th level
Anyway, after looting what was once his beloved foster father, Phillip slowly reached Beregost. He was encumbered but singing created a good mood for him.
In Beregost, Phillip brought a book to Firebead and then calmly talked to Marl. After all, Phillip had 15 WIS to persuade a poor fellow that nobody was at fault in his son's death. It brought our hero his first level up, which was very lucky (the game is with random HPs) - full 6 HPs. BTW, I noticed the button "Back" on the level up screen was greyed out - maybe it's a feature of the LoB difficulty?
After that Phillip set off for Nashkel. He was cautious enough not to get attention of hobgoblins and took the shiny amulet from a corpse of a young fellow without any fighting.
In Nashkel, our good guy Phillip refused to be called Greywolf and thus got his reputation to 13. Then he patiently waited till a strange fella, Noober, stopped asking questions, and was rewarded with a set of ankheg armour found in the field.
Selling these items and getting money let Phillip buy a scroll of Protection from Petrification in the market, 3 scrolls of Invisibility, 2 scrolls of Sleep, a wand of Sleep and a bunch of healing potions.
Feeling confident enough, Phillip travelled to the east, in the search of basilisks. There, he met a ghast creature, Corax, which offered its help against other foul beasts. Maybe 17 CHA could charm even ghasts?
With the help of Corax and under Protection from Petrification, Phillip defeated his first basilisk and got the second level up. This time 5 HPs from 6, still lucky.
The help of Corax was very valuable - another 3 basilisks were down. Phillip got new 2 levels with 11 HPs (!). Maybe the realms compensate for bad stats and saving throws penalty? Or maybe Phillip Daigle just gets a favour of Mystra.
The fights in the Legacy of Bhaal take a lot of time, so there's a risk the Dire Charm spell on Corax will soon wear off. Here's Phillip now, a lot more experienced already if compared to the moment he left Candlekeep:
You don't have scs, right? If scs was made compatible, would you? LoB+SCS the thought alone scares me, tbh.
But this run is without the SCS, it's based on the tweets in the OP. Hmm, 7 days seems like a lot of time! Now our jester will have to think about managing his time and choosing quests right.
On their way to the following basilisk, Phillip and Corax met a gnoll. It became the first enemy on which the final blow was inflicted by our bard.
Very soon, the jester found himself alone fighing not only the basilisk but also his former friend - Corax. The Dire Charm effect wore off, but thanks to getting a proficiency at the 4th level and choosing long bows (for their additional THAC0 bonus if compared to short bows) Phillip now was a much better archer.
He even managed to shoot down another basilisk, this time completely on his own.
Then Phillip checked his watches: they showed he had only 2 hours left for his PfP effect. He also checked his quiver - he had no more than 200 arrows left. So Phillip had to decide which basilisk will be his last one on this area. Using the scroll of Invisibility, the bard explored the rest of the area, and found a suspicious gnome with a greater basilisk at his side. Using his invisibility, Phillip found a place where only this basilisk could see him.
Phillip still had a lot of doubts of whether he should try to attack it or not due to a potential end of his buff in the nearest hour. But in the end, Phillip decided that it was his only chance to get enough XP for the next level. "Better try and see what falls out!"
What a surprise it was when the basilisk didn't turn red after being hit!
It indeed was a present by Mystra, because the time spent on shooting this basilisk reached several hours. Even the PfP buff wore off. I even turned on the HP bars in the game setting to see how much life was left in this basilisk (without this setting one can't see it on the neutral creatures). Phillip had only 60 arrows left and the basilisk was "near death".
What a relief it was when the basilisk went down with only 17 arrows left. The level up brought 4 HPs this time (still very solid, taking into account it could be 1 each time).
Phillip had 23k XP now and, using his meta knowledge (after all, the jester is a game dev), he understood he needed 9k XP more to be able to use his possible companions to their fullest (with 32k XP bringing the maximum NPCs levels in the 2.1 version). The Mutamin garden showed that the LoB mode acquires a lot of attacks and the best possible THAC0 to kill enemies.
So, it was time for all nonviolent quests possible.
First, Phillip turned an adventurer, Tamah, from stone to flesh.
Then, being chased by xvarts, Phillip returned Rufie to Albert.
After that, Phillip helped Drienne with her dead cat - she said it could be raised by her daddy.
When travelling from the Dryad Falls to the Bear River Phillip was waylaid by a winter wolf. And this is how he got an idea of reaching as much XP as he wanted.
The belt of Antipode found on the Gorion's body made Phillip absolutely immune to the wolf's attacks. Yes, fighting this wolf with the LoB mode was a long process but it could be done without any danger. Phillip just had to travel back and forth between the Dryad Falls and the Bear River.
Later, folks in taverns and inns discussed a strange guy, a jester, who spent nearly a month killing winter wolves around Nashkel.
I'm curious to see how you intend to use the NPCs with the time limit restriction
(And will Phillip accuse Rasaad of trying to make money off of the fact that he's a Phillip-lookalike?)
The battle with one wolf took 12 (!) in-game hours. 1 APR with 18 THAC0 and an ordinary club + the LoB mode + a winter wolf = a 12-hours battle.
But it is completely worth it - 975 XP and a wolf pelt.
After killing enough wolves Phillip completed the last nonviolent quest before getting companions - he brought captain Brage to the temple of Helm and helped to cure his insanity.
Now Phillip had a reputation of 17 - the highest possible to be able to get evil companions.
Taking into account a 7-day limit (which will add an extra challenge to this run as travelling times alone take away many hours), he started with Xzar and Montaron.
At Day 35, Hour 8, the first companions joined our jester. Montaron put 65 and 70 points into Open Locks and Find Traps respectively. With Xzar, casting Skull Traps and Horror became possible.
Phillip needed a good ranged fighter and a tank, so he invited Kivan (Day 35, Hour 17) and Kagain (Day 35, Hour 21) into his starting party.
As Kagain asked to find a caravan and the party travelled to the north from Beregost already, Phillip decided to kill a fetishist Ogre here. This was going to be the first major fight.
When the party saw the Ogre, they were attacked by a group of Xvarts. Because I still didn't get used to the LoB mode, this fight was like a tutorial for me, teaching which tactics to use best.
I saw that the range of the bard's song was quite small, so Phillip had to stay close to the enemies and constantly kite, while Kivan attacked with his bow (other members of the team still didn't have any gear as because of the time limit it was decided the visit to the shopkeeper would happen later, as it was night at the time the team reached Beregost).
Actually, the jester's song was very helpful - although enemies often saved against it and the duration of their confusion was not long, it still made xvarts fight with each other and let Kivan to take them down one by one. But sometimes confused enemies started to wander around and found other party members instead of Phillip, which required constant control and switching places. I prefer to turn off AI and control everything on the battlefield.
Everyone survived this first mess.
The lonely Ogre wasn't a threat, because the jester's song greatly added to general kiting.
It may look like a meaningless fight, but it was the first one with the party and it showed me how to actually deal with LoB enemies at the beginning of BG1.
So far, because of 13 INT and time and money management Phillip didn't get a chance to learn any spells. For the time being he'll concentrate on singing while the rest of the party deal with enemies.
After that, Phillip travelled to the FAI, only to gather a ring for Xzar, and everyone returned to Beregost, to buy weapons and armors.
But first, with 65 in Pick Pockets, our bard stole the cloak of CHA from Algernon. With 19 CHA Phillip's smile was enough to convince any shopkeeper to lower his prices.
After buying everything they needed, the party set off for Nashkel, and there relesed Branwen from her stone sleep (Day 38, Hour 2).
Phillip gathered his first party and was ready to go to the Mines.
Phillip Daigle, 32 HPs, lvl 6
Montaron, 30 HPs, lvl 5/5
Xzar, 16 HPs, lvl 5
Kivan, 35 HPs, lvl 5
Kagain, 69 HPs, lvl 6
Branwen, 45 HPs, lvl 6
After arriving to the Mines area, the party decided to help Prism first. It turned out that meleeing Greywolf on the LoB is not a good idea (68 from 69 Kagain's HPs were taken away in several rounds), so Kagain began to kite while Phillip sang and others used their missile weapons. Confused Greywolf = Profit. And a shiny long sword named Varscona.
Our Phillip was a kind guy, so he helped miner Beldin. First of all, everyone retreated as far as possible from the kobold spawn place. Then, Xzar casted Horror.
Phillip was very curious and, to tell the truth, a little bit scared about ways of dealing with LoB monsters, and he knew the Mines were full of kobolds. So Phillip tried everything.
Horroring kobolds and then slaying them - the duration of this spell by Xzar is 1 turn, which is enough for finishing 3-4 kobolds if everyone attacks.
But it takes away spells and requires resting, which Phillip couldn't do due to the time limit.
Then Xzar was asked to use his two Skull Traps against a group of kobolds. These simple enemies, quickly killed in the normal game, have a lot of health, so 2 Skull Traps didn't finish them.
And again, it wasted spells and thus required resting. Really, this time limit begins to seem the hardest of the tasks during this run, not the LoB difficulty itself.
Of course, taking kobolds one by one and then confusing them worked, but still there was a risk a kobold would hit even the toughest tank (and insane damage meant a quick need of using healing potions).
To quickly run out of healing potions was not the best option. Using healing spells, again, required resting.
Kiting doesn't work well in narrow dungeons.
But then Phillip asked Kivan to attack monsters from the shadows, using his bow. As soon as a kobold was on the line of Kivan's sight, the ranger shot, and retreated in the same second. It let him restealth without a risk of a kobold moving to the party.
This worked better than anything else!
This is a wonderful feeling - on the LoB mode, even killing a single kobold feels like an achivement. Even a fight with a xvart is very dangerous. It makes the game feel very differently. I suspect that for the start of the BG saga it is especially true (because of the low HPs, not much gear and next to no magic), giving new emotions and surprising me after so many BG playthoughs.
And true enough, LoB makes you look even at Kobolds in a different way.
I know how hard this is...
The LoB mode is difficult indeed, but the full SCS mod also has made my games challenging, although in a different way. But it has given a lot of experience about how to be careful and patient. The closest I'm thinking about is my duo monks run on the Insane with the SCS. I actually see something similar here - next to no meleeing to survive.