I'm debating a Gnoll or Flind playthrough
ObsidianShade
Member Posts: 69
Trying to decide between these, though I'll need to use EEK to do up the character properly. Looked up the racial adjustments and it appears to be +1 STR, -1 Int, -1 Cha for Gnolls, and while the same for Flinds, except for no Int penalty. Has anyone ever actually done this? I should likely lower the starting reputation to something just below the threshold of me being attacked on sight, leaving a bit of room to take a hit after I pick up Vi (who I usually grab after making it to the Friendly Arm Inn.
Animation wise, I think my weapon choices are limited to halberds and greatswords, which definitely limits me, at least in terms of immersion.
Animation wise, I think my weapon choices are limited to halberds and greatswords, which definitely limits me, at least in terms of immersion.
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Also, you might like to patch racetext.2da as well, so the race properly shows up as Gnoll in the Record Screen. If you want, I can put together a mod to do this.
Sounds like a fun playthrough! Also, you can mod other weapons to have the animations of a greatsword/halberd so you can use other weapons as well.
I don't think the loss of the race info on the record screen is a big matter. I wasn't expecting to get a paper doll, but at least that is supported.
At least finding a character pic wasn't a problem. While the internet isn't overflowing with Gnoll art, there are plenty of anthro hyenas. Thank goodness for furries, right? I'll post some screens tomorrow.
Also, maybe you should check the standard alignment for gnolls/flints. I dunno myself, but i figure they are mostly evil?
Party selection was tricky. Jaheira and Khalid tried to keep their promise to Gorion, but there were too many conflicts between two dominant personalities with Nix and Jaheira constantly clashing. They finally agreed to go their own way after Nashkel, but tragically died defending Nix against two assassins (Tristan and Isolde) south of Beregost.
In the end, this is who I ended up with:
It's a disparate group, but one I think could work together, even with two evil members. Right now Nix is third level, after a bit of adventuring around the area, and we're getting ready to hit the Nashkel Mine. I waited until I'd the chance to gain some levels, since there is a nasty Duergar hit squad waiting in those mines. The Gnoll fortress was a very, very nasty fight, but at least I got a +2 Halberd out of it.
Isn't it a little pointless to report a playthrough with cheated items?
On an unrelated note, I have noticed that Nix does tend to fall behind the rest of the party when moving, not because her rate is nerfed, but because of the hinky Gnoll walking animations.
This worked for time, but then from an area I'd just cleared on the way up, another mob of Gnolls respawned, putting them right behind us, and they went right for the ranged characters, who retreated, but into an area I forgot to clear first, which meant I was now surrounded on three sides, since Nix had just gotten drawn out another mob. Neither Vi, nor Bran had Hold Person at this point, and if my support had stayed put, they'd have been cut to ribbons. It looked like another reload (which would make my fifth in that area-two of which had been caused by DH assassins north of the bridge), but desperate to avoid that, I sent Bran and Teel to each hold off a mob singlehandedly, hopefully distracting them enough for ranged to reform, and begin doing their thing. Nix was in the best spot, since her problems could be dealt with one at a time, but the other pair got completely surrounded, and were slowly getting cut to ribbons. It took every healing potion left and all of Bran's Cure Light Wounds spells to even keep alive at that point.
Still, it worked. The gnolls stopped chasing Vi, Immy, and Alora, who rallied, and then used concentrated missile fire to first relieve Bran, who switched to her sling, and wipe out those facing Teel. Meanwhile Nix had worked her way through most of those who were left facing her. The rest of the battle went the way of the first part, with Bran joining the ranged contingent, since she was too far down on HP to melee anymore.
The final climax was Nix challenging the remaining Clan Leader to single combat, after dispatching his last pair of guards. That was a nasty fight, where Nix got torn a new one, but managed to land a lucky crit, which ultimately decided the affair.
Looking up the stats those things have:
STR: 20
INT: 9
WIS: 9
CON: 18
DEX: 18
CHA: 9
AC: -2
HP: 52
# Attacks: 3/rd
THAC0: 8 (modifed to 6 for the +2 Halberd)
This explains why I died three times to that one on at the top of the stairs leading to the fortress. Suffice to say if I'd known they were that tough, I'd never have tried to fight that final one in individual combat in the last engagement. (I actually just now looked up these stats in EEK!)
What she did have was that +3 throwing dagger I took from Isolde's corpse, after she killed Khalid and Jaheira with it. Immy had a +1 Shortbow, and Viconia a +2 sling and some +2 bullets, so very strong, so long as nothing actually closed with them.
I also wouldn't consider this pointless, either. This is a BG forum, and the topic is about a BG playthrough.
As for the playthough, though, it sounds like you're having a fun run so far!
I basically strode right in among them, which had several results, both good and bad. On the bad side, Alora took a poisoned crossbow bolt, and then was chunked moments later by the badass leading the bunch, after he saved from Viconia's Hold Person spell. Everyone else piled onto Shar-Teel like a band of skinheads at a bar mitzva, with the result she was poisoned and lost nearly all her HP right then and there.
The good thing about this scenario, however, was while Teel was taking it for the team, everyone was clustered right around her, so the next round Vi and Bran were able to dump more Hold Person spells which worked this time, catching nearly everyone in their radius, including the badass in the glowing golden plate armor. The thief and one fighter managed to avoid getting held, but another casting next round took care of that, and everyone was finished off with ease. Because I did more or less stroll right in the middle of the group, the Duergar clerics opted to melee instead of cast, which probably would have turned the tide in their favor, so I was grateful that didn't occur, though it cost me my mage.
The rest of the mines were easily cleared, especially with the loot taken from from those guys, and that gold armor looked good on Nix. Being down a mage, however, left a gap in the party, and no convenient replacement was onhand, at least not that I actually wanted in the party, so to I needed to fill in the gap while I waited for Imoen to get to 5th, before dual classing her. I decided on a bard, Morwen, found at the Jovial Juggler.
Morwen was a good choice, as she was pretty well equipped with custom items, and set up as an archer, making her a stronger version of Imoen, and an excellent addition to the party with her longbow, able to take over the role of party archer after Imoen dual classed to mage. Most of the rest of the game that followed was just mopping up bandits from unexplored areas, and trying to get Immy leveled up as quickly as possible.
The only thing that gave me any trouble were the mod-added goblin spawns. I suspect they are part of Dark Horizons, or DSotSC, but there are red colored xvarts, who are labelled as goblins, and if you run into a small group of these, they'll rapidly multiply into dozens, or even more, and just keep mulitiplying until you wipe out massive numbers with AoE spells like Fireball, or even better, Holy Smite. One batch I was able to kill (after two reloads) without resorting to that method, by just having Shar-Teel, Nix, and Branwen pop Oil of Speed, and letting them mulch their way through stupendous amounts of these things. Imoen, with her "Throwing Dagger of Death," Morwen with longbow, and Viconia with the Elemental Sling, that produces its own ammo, were (barely) able to keep the front rank from getting surrounded. By this point, Bran had a 21 STR, thanks to taking a Potion of Fire Giant Strength from one of the dead Duergar, and letting the dwarf at the Friendly Arm Inn combine it the Girdle of Piercing, for 10,000 GP. At this point both Nix and Shar-Teel both have 19 STR, Nix naturally, from being a Gnoll, and Teel from a +3 battleaxe that adds a point to STR. When I looted the bodies afterwards, I noted that that in places, they were stacked 12-15 deep. Not sure how many I killed total, but 150-200+ seems about right.
The equipment the party has right now is probably OP, but it really doesn't matter all that much, because most real battles are over before they begin, with a combination of Web, Hold Person, and Stinking Cloud, letting missile weapons from the back ranks do most of the killing. Having 4 spellcasters really does open up some tactics. For the most part, the front ranks really only deal with things like wolves and other stuff too incidental to waste spells on.
The biggest pro is you get a distinct looking character, who is something different. I created her as a half-orc, before EEKing her into a gnoll, which let me start off with a 19 STR, which is nice, and fell into the PnP stat adjustment for the race. On the battlefield, she's distinctive, (even when fighting other gnolls, and in addition to her regular voice, you also get the gnoll growling and barking when attacking for more immersion, which is a nice touch.
The downsides are mostly a comparative lack of customization, as all armors are going to look mostly the same on the character with minor touches, and the only weapon that shows up is the halberd. Other than that, attack animations are also limited to the single sweeping attack they get, which looks rather static and dull compared to a regular PC wielding the same weapon. The main thing that actually caused a problem was the character falling behind the rest of the party due to the gnoll walking animations. I could have probably fixed this with EEK, but instead waited to get Paws of the Cheetah, which took care of the issue.
Other than that, she's been fun, and a real beast of war on the battlefield. I finished up the Dark Side of the Sword Coast adventures with her last night, and she literally tore through the opposition, mulching enemies left and right, especially when hastened. Here are a couple of screens showing her in the aftermath of her latest adventures:
SoD, however, will mess up a lot of things, so I don't have it currently installed. I honestly would rather have the mods for the base game than SoD anyway, if I have to choose.
Or is this a mage free run and I missed it?
@ThacoBell Making Nix a gnoll was pretty easy, just a matter of changing her in EEK. I've enjoyed the character, and will probably play her all the way until the end of BG, though don't know if I'll export her to BG II yet. I used the slightly spoiled sounding voice (#2?) to give her a bit of character. I'm debating if I want to do some writing based on her, but my original outline meandered into NSFW territory including hijinks with me changing a certain belt into a "Girdle of Mixed Masculinity/Femininity" I'll give you a hint-it half worked, and explained why the poor ogre was especially desperate to get another to change it back!
This was actually an interruption of the game I already had going on, where I was playing Aoife, a Dwarven Defender, that I'm looking forward to resuming at some point. I barely made it to the mines, but I'm probably going to start over with her, so that I start from the beginning with some of the mods I added, Like Scales of Balance.
Gnoll fortress is very very very difficult with this set up and I even have added two trolls there manually. The battles were hard and required reloads but I did it. I gave up upon those pesky goblins that never die off, I think they are bugged because no matter how many you kill they keep spawning out of thin air. Maybe you need to kill a liutenant or shaman goblin to stop them from spawning? Don't know. At that point I stopped playing that crazy game. (Only to install improved anvil on bg2 to continue the craziness up to new levels unheard of! Lol)
Also, flinds don't actually wield two-handed swords. They use a special undroppable weapon called "flind1.itm" that uses "S1- Long sword" appearance. The two-handed swords you get as loot when you kill flinds are in their inventories.