Drizzt-slaying at level 1 (LoB difficulty)
Tisamon
Member Posts: 209
First of all, it's a well-known fact that LoB Drizzt is buggy, the problem being LoB mode 'increases' his ApR to 0. So, if you want to experience the LoB Drizzt the way he should be (and probably will be in the next patch), put the attached .cre file in your override folder. It's a simple solution that decreases his natural non-LoB ApR to 9, thus enabling him to attack 10 times per round on LoB, as intended.
Secondly, about that Drizzt-slaying thing. There is a hard and an easy way to do it. No exploits involved in both. Let's start with the hard one.
1. I rolled a 100 pts elf barbarian (no kidding, 100 pts, Str 18/94 -- a screenshot of a roll attached). Rationale: elf - elves are 90% immune to charm, and Drizzt's script won't try to Dire Charm elven characters; barbarian - +2 movement speed is essential, you'll see why.
2. Bought a sling and a lot of bullets. And I mean it: a lot. Think about it this way: a LoB Drizzt has 356 hp (92x3+80) and casts Cure Medium Wounds X1 once he is at 50% hp, which gives us a grand total of 370 hp. The gnolls are going to get him down to ~250 hp. You can only hit him on a natural 20. A bullet stack size is 80. You will deal the average of 6 dmg per hit. Do your math. 10-12 ammo stacks is the optimum, IMHO.
3. Talked to Gorion, Chapter One started, immediately walked all the way down to Fisherman's Lake. Found Drizzt, let the gnolls damage him, then proceeded to kite him around the large rock to the south of his original location, scoring critical hits every now and then with my trusty sling.
4. This is quite an ordeal. A true test of patience that will steal several hours of your precious real life time. Eventually, though, Drizzt will fall -- he can't catch up to a barbarian -- and, you know the drill: level 4 off the bat, the best armor a barbarian can don in BG1, plus Twinkle & Icingdeath. Oh, by the way, another advantage of +2 movement speed is you can actually outrun him in such a way he remains off-screen and... save your game. For the disbelievers, I have the whole process recorded with fraps (will upload if requested).
Now, the easy way I promised to tell about. The only thing it requires is stormy weather (common in Fisherman's Lake area).
Here, see for yourself.
The very first time it happened, I was probably at least as surprised as Drizzt was. It happened a couple of times after that, so it's surely not a one in a million chance (both rain and lightning probability in AR4200 are 50%, if you are curious). You don't get the 12,000 xp this way, of course. The Mithral Chain and the scimitars are yours anyway, though.
Secondly, about that Drizzt-slaying thing. There is a hard and an easy way to do it. No exploits involved in both. Let's start with the hard one.
1. I rolled a 100 pts elf barbarian (no kidding, 100 pts, Str 18/94 -- a screenshot of a roll attached). Rationale: elf - elves are 90% immune to charm, and Drizzt's script won't try to Dire Charm elven characters; barbarian - +2 movement speed is essential, you'll see why.
2. Bought a sling and a lot of bullets. And I mean it: a lot. Think about it this way: a LoB Drizzt has 356 hp (92x3+80) and casts Cure Medium Wounds X1 once he is at 50% hp, which gives us a grand total of 370 hp. The gnolls are going to get him down to ~250 hp. You can only hit him on a natural 20. A bullet stack size is 80. You will deal the average of 6 dmg per hit. Do your math. 10-12 ammo stacks is the optimum, IMHO.
3. Talked to Gorion, Chapter One started, immediately walked all the way down to Fisherman's Lake. Found Drizzt, let the gnolls damage him, then proceeded to kite him around the large rock to the south of his original location, scoring critical hits every now and then with my trusty sling.
4. This is quite an ordeal. A true test of patience that will steal several hours of your precious real life time. Eventually, though, Drizzt will fall -- he can't catch up to a barbarian -- and, you know the drill: level 4 off the bat, the best armor a barbarian can don in BG1, plus Twinkle & Icingdeath. Oh, by the way, another advantage of +2 movement speed is you can actually outrun him in such a way he remains off-screen and... save your game. For the disbelievers, I have the whole process recorded with fraps (will upload if requested).
Now, the easy way I promised to tell about. The only thing it requires is stormy weather (common in Fisherman's Lake area).
Here, see for yourself.
The very first time it happened, I was probably at least as surprised as Drizzt was. It happened a couple of times after that, so it's surely not a one in a million chance (both rain and lightning probability in AR4200 are 50%, if you are curious). You don't get the 12,000 xp this way, of course. The Mithral Chain and the scimitars are yours anyway, though.
6
Comments
I wonder if it is possible to script an NPC walking and kiting around in circles. Thus would make this ordeal much easier
Btw, you are one of the creators of EET, no? If I'm not mistaken, can you please send me a beta of your Ironman mode (with that messed-up rest thing, yeah) from EET Tweaks?
Maybe you wanna join our LoB + SCS challenge @Tisamon? You can put in no-reload as @Grond0 or @Blackraven if you like. Or play the whole challenge as a level 1 char. Okay - that was joking. I had some fun with your old "IWD Warrior Challenge" - maybe you remember. We need some competent Clerics. Or Druids. Or Bards. Or Rangers. Or Paladins. Or Shamans!!! Its up to you!
I can surely try it. SCS+LoB? I tried a mix of Weimer's Tactics (as I find it more challenging than SCS in more ways than one) and Improved Battles + LoB up to a point. A cleric or a druid sounds fine, yes. Any race/class restrictions?
The ideal playthrough should contain Baldurs Gate → Tales of the Swordcoast → Siege of Dragonspear → Baldurs Gate 2 → Throne of Bhaal.
If the challenge is about finishing the game, TotSC is not mandatory, it's really just a bunch of difficult side-quests. As for all the rest, only the critical path is mandatory, one is not required to clear the Sahuagin city or to obtain a stronghold, for example, right?
Also the component isn't updated to work with v2.3. It is here if you want to take a look, https://github.com/K4thos/EET_Tweaks/blob/master/EET_Tweaks/EET_Tweaks.tp2#L2818
It'll need an update to work properly in the current version of the game given opcode 338 works properly.
P.S. You may also post in our challenge-thread. If you like!
All right, I understand. One last question: is rolling a character in IWDEE, then exporting it to BGEE acceptable? (IWDEE, like the original IWD, allows elven druids.)
P.S. I would be REALLY interested how you get past Coalition Camp attacks or Belhifet!
Coalition Camp attacks = trolls & ogres wave, wizards wave, etc.?
Another important question in this context is: am I allowed to deploy allied units during the attacks (archers with fire arrows etc.)? Or, during the fight with Belhifet, am I allowed to make use of an ally (cyan circle) Caelar? Accepting her into the party is clearly a no-no, that's a solo challenge.
Using allied Caelar is also okay for me even though @Grond0 might disagree in this point. At the end its up to you as i dont want to determine every single detail.
Did you guys use Korax to farm basilisks? He's not a party member, technically.
Well, now that you mention it: I usually limit myself to either 3 spells/3 items/1 non-rechargeable consumable per campaign, or 2 spells/2 items/1 consumable, depending on a class I play. More precisely, the quickslot spells (3 for a druid, 2 for a cleric) + one weapon, one chest armor, one trinket. Unmodded BG1 and Tactics-enhanced SoA are doable this way, but I've never tried SoD or ToB.
There are two problems with this approach. First of all, it's very hard for a non-caster. I've done the unmodded BG1 with a Barbarian (Mithral Chain, Twinkle, Sandthief's Ring, Tome of Strength), but it felt extremely awkward and silly -- for example, the Slythe fight. There is also a terminology issue. What is a consumable? Is a tome a consumable? Technically, yes, no doubt. But it limits me to one tome only. Is Stone Ally a consumable? Probably yes, as it sits in a consumable slot and has a finite number of charges (not X/day). Is Efreeti Bottle a consumable? Probably not, as it's 'infinite', and that feels wrong. Etc., etc.
Barbarian is very powerful - i used one in our challenge and got till Ascension Amelyssan - where she failed.
Looking at the whole challenge i would say: SoD is the hardest part - especially the Attacks at Coalition Camp and even more Belhifet. The last one was the only battle that came somewhat close to the Ascension final - at least its the battle where i have the most fails so far. Some classes will suffer horribly there. For instance: I cant see how a Monk is going to survive Belhifet at the moment. Maybe you can find a way?
Anyway, I'm going to try the SCS+LoB challenge the moment I finish my SoA Tactics run with EET. Exploring the new possibilities, you know
As a sidenote, I think EET will eventually become the norm for us the hardcore crowd. The mod, beyond its obvious merits, works very smoothly and adds an Ironman mode, so...