@Grum While I like the general idea you have, I think some of that wouldn't work with no-reload runs: Imagine playing a mage and having a crit bypass your stoneskin. With the low hps you can just drop dead on the spot.
I believe high difficulty should all be about calculating risks, not just having to avoid them all together all the time (where the game turns into metagaming completely). With the current model instal-death is possible, but avoidable.
With what you'd propose it would seem unavoidable in some situations and I'm uncertain as to wether I'd like or dislike that. I wouldn't want your system as a replacement for Legacy of Bhaal, in other words, but it sure might make for a heart racing alternative.
@Grum While I like the general idea you have, I think some of that wouldn't work with no-reload runs: Imagine playing a mage and having a crit bypass your stoneskin. With the low hps you can just drop dead on the spot.
I believe high difficulty should all be about calculating risks, not just having to avoid them all together all the time (where the game turns into metagaming completely). With the current model instal-death is possible, but avoidable.
With what you'd propose it would seem unavoidable in some situations and I'm uncertain as to wether I'd like or dislike that. I wouldn't want your system as a replacement for Legacy of Bhaal, in other words, but it sure might make for a heart racing alternative.
Just my two cents.
I read what you say and agree.
That said...look at this run. He is skipping fights all together just because they take so long. 60 expensive darts just to kill 1 crash mob that would die in under 4 seconds on normal. Fighting a random spawn of kolbods taking as much time to kill as it would usually take to take a low level party through the entire nashkel mines?
I'm sorry but...what is the target audience of legacy of bhaal? It seems to be designed to players who enjoy kiting. And it then knocks it up a knotch to where kiting is mandatory.
I'm not saying that it shouldn't exist. I'm just saying that it seems to turn the entire game into the most drawn out, mind numbingly long combat style possible.
I honestly shudder to think about what it will be like when we see Legacy of Bhaal Firkraag...
It probably ain't that much fun for the average gamer, I agree.
I guess balancing out the hardest difficulties in games must be one of the hardest things to do, in and off itself. I enjoy what they did in terms of spell casting abilities and AI, though. Maybe that's more of the route which they should have explored.
Don't forget that this is the 'Iron Man Daigle' challenge, making this even more ridiculous than a regular LoB run. There is no opportunity to build a solid party than can take these mobs down efficiently, as the PC is restricted to mostly solo-play, and NPCs will never have the chance to level up. The PC is constrained to a non-melee character, yet is also not a full-blown mage - not that I think a straight mage will do much better in the BG xp range.
So yes, the kiting seems extreme and will certainly not be fun for everyone (or even most players?) but is taken to a further extreme in this specific play through.
I am certainly enjoying reading about the challenge, and the solutions found to problems I might otherwise have thought insoluble.
As mentioned earlier in the run, I am not sure that the ducal palace encounter will be possible, especially in an iron man no-reload play through, but I also did not think it would have been possible to get this far in the first place either, so we shall see!
If comparing this cloak with druid's shapeshifts into a wolf and a bear, I have to mention that the cloak can be used unlimited number of times during each day. You need STR to carry items and move faster - turn into a wolf. You need to cast spells - turn into a human again. You need to increase your damage and APR - turn into a wolf. And you can repeat it as many times as you need. While a druid will have only several tries a day to turn into an animal.
And then you add the fact that the wolf's attacks from the cloak count as magical weapons...
Also, a character can buff himself with spells, and turn into a wolf to increase his fighting abilities. For example, Phillip protected himself against Horror, casted Shield, Mirror Image and Minor Spell Deflection and faced Tarnesh. After using Annagazar's Scorcher on the mage and poisoning him with an arrow, Phillip turned into a wolf and it was enough to kill the mage faster than the buff wore off.
Which brings us closer to another subject, ofter raised here, the last time by @Grum. I see how the fights become faster as the game progresses and Phillip gets more sources to win fights. The fights now are not so long as they were against Nashkel kobolds. THAC0 is better, there're spells and wands now. I'm very interested to see what the future has for Phillip, but so far, even with all these restrictions @GreenWarlock mentioned about party members and crappy stats, I see that in order to overcome LoB enemies I have to use not only kiting.
Any crowd-control spells have a lot more sense in this mode - Hold (Person, Monster, Undead), Paralyze start to mean even more when enemies have so many HPs that you can't kill them "under 4 seconds on normal".
As for the hardest setting, to me it would be adding SCS to the LoB mode, as SCS improves enemy AI and alters main fights a bit. But it's a question of future. Right now everything is about Phillip the Jester.
Well, after spending several weeks in Baldur's Gate taverns, which Phillip could allow himself after solving the sewers problem and becoming quite popular in the city, our Jester understood the Iron Throne organization was quite powerful and had many allies. It would be hard to face them without some preparation. Phillip needed all spells he could potentially use in the fights against the Iron Throne.
So, hunting he went, ankheg hunting to be precise. Nearly 1k of XP for one of these beasts was a good reward, so that Phillip could reach his much desired 4th level spells.
This is how Phillip took on ankhegs in the LoB mode. These beasts can inflict insane damage, so Phillip needed more HPs. Vampiric touch helped here. In order to minimize the chance of being ever hit, Phillip used Mirror Image. To be able to move faster, Phillip turned into a wolf. After all that buffing, Phillip kept trying his newly bought Wand of Paralysis, until it worked. After that, the wolf form provided enough APR to finish any ankheg till the effect of Paralysis wore off.
Soon, he had a lawn full of ankheg shells.
Then Phillip decided to sell them. But how, taking into account their huge weight? The trick was to create a pile consisting of all the shells, move as close the the border of the map as possible and then use the Quick Loot feature to take all the shells from the pile.
XP and money. Very convenient.
After selling the first group of shells, Phillip went hunting again. He still needed to kill about 70 of those beasts.
Interesting run! I've been experimenting with a solo sorcerer LoB no-reload and am pretty sure that the only fight difficult in principle (the need to concentrate for long periods makes them all difficult in practice for me ) is the one at the palace. I've got a couple of possible approaches lined up, but nothing that seems particularly promising, so will be watching your tactics with interest ...
Comments
I believe high difficulty should all be about calculating risks, not just having to avoid them all together all the time (where the game turns into metagaming completely). With the current model instal-death is possible, but avoidable.
With what you'd propose it would seem unavoidable in some situations and I'm uncertain as to wether I'd like or dislike that. I wouldn't want your system as a replacement for Legacy of Bhaal, in other words, but it sure might make for a heart racing alternative.
Just my two cents.
That said...look at this run. He is skipping fights all together just because they take so long. 60 expensive darts just to kill 1 crash mob that would die in under 4 seconds on normal. Fighting a random spawn of kolbods taking as much time to kill as it would usually take to take a low level party through the entire nashkel mines?
I'm sorry but...what is the target audience of legacy of bhaal? It seems to be designed to players who enjoy kiting. And it then knocks it up a knotch to where kiting is mandatory.
I'm not saying that it shouldn't exist. I'm just saying that it seems to turn the entire game into the most drawn out, mind numbingly long combat style possible.
I honestly shudder to think about what it will be like when we see Legacy of Bhaal Firkraag...
I guess balancing out the hardest difficulties in games must be one of the hardest things to do, in and off itself. I enjoy what they did in terms of spell casting abilities and AI, though. Maybe that's more of the route which they should have explored.
So yes, the kiting seems extreme and will certainly not be fun for everyone (or even most players?) but is taken to a further extreme in this specific play through.
I am certainly enjoying reading about the challenge, and the solutions found to problems I might otherwise have thought insoluble.
As mentioned earlier in the run, I am not sure that the ducal palace encounter will be possible, especially in an iron man no-reload play through, but I also did not think it would have been possible to get this far in the first place either, so we shall see!
If comparing this cloak with druid's shapeshifts into a wolf and a bear, I have to mention that the cloak can be used unlimited number of times during each day. You need STR to carry items and move faster - turn into a wolf. You need to cast spells - turn into a human again. You need to increase your damage and APR - turn into a wolf. And you can repeat it as many times as you need. While a druid will have only several tries a day to turn into an animal.
And then you add the fact that the wolf's attacks from the cloak count as magical weapons...
Also, a character can buff himself with spells, and turn into a wolf to increase his fighting abilities. For example, Phillip protected himself against Horror, casted Shield, Mirror Image and Minor Spell Deflection and faced Tarnesh. After using Annagazar's Scorcher on the mage and poisoning him with an arrow, Phillip turned into a wolf and it was enough to kill the mage faster than the buff wore off.
Which brings us closer to another subject, ofter raised here, the last time by @Grum. I see how the fights become faster as the game progresses and Phillip gets more sources to win fights. The fights now are not so long as they were against Nashkel kobolds. THAC0 is better, there're spells and wands now. I'm very interested to see what the future has for Phillip, but so far, even with all these restrictions @GreenWarlock mentioned about party members and crappy stats, I see that in order to overcome LoB enemies I have to use not only kiting.
Any crowd-control spells have a lot more sense in this mode - Hold (Person, Monster, Undead), Paralyze start to mean even more when enemies have so many HPs that you can't kill them "under 4 seconds on normal".
As for the hardest setting, to me it would be adding SCS to the LoB mode, as SCS improves enemy AI and alters main fights a bit. But it's a question of future. Right now everything is about Phillip the Jester.
No matter, it will only prove a slight delay.
So, hunting he went, ankheg hunting to be precise. Nearly 1k of XP for one of these beasts was a good reward, so that Phillip could reach his much desired 4th level spells.
This is how Phillip took on ankhegs in the LoB mode. These beasts can inflict insane damage, so Phillip needed more HPs. Vampiric touch helped here. In order to minimize the chance of being ever hit, Phillip used Mirror Image. To be able to move faster, Phillip turned into a wolf. After all that buffing, Phillip kept trying his newly bought Wand of Paralysis, until it worked. After that, the wolf form provided enough APR to finish any ankheg till the effect of Paralysis wore off.
Soon, he had a lawn full of ankheg shells.
Then Phillip decided to sell them. But how, taking into account their huge weight? The trick was to create a pile consisting of all the shells, move as close the the border of the map as possible and then use the Quick Loot feature to take all the shells from the pile.
XP and money. Very convenient.
After selling the first group of shells, Phillip went hunting again. He still needed to kill about 70 of those beasts.
Paladins and Rangers try their luck
Shakti the warlord from the Underdark wins the HoMM3+BG map