Let's try this again... Half-Orc Eldritch Knight PC (LoB + SCS + roleplay + tons of mods)
TheArtisan
Member Posts: 3,277
So I never finished my half-orc fighter/mage/thief playthrough a few months back because I got up to the City-of-Caverns then I tried messing around with my mods while on vacation and accidentally overrode my backups so I couldn't do anything when my game got wrecked. 
Since then I haven't really had the motivation to start over and I've mostly been modding here and there. Now that I'm feeling up for a bit of a challenge again I took the time to rebuild my game and start over.
WeiDU.log
https://gist.github.com/ArtemiusI/1318b2ca2853e73cafebc6e36ee2eb40
WeiDU-BGEE
https://gist.github.com/ArtemiusI/80a3daf9e58e9bbae99797d8277807dc
The innate bonuses are pretty big but I don't think the abilities will make or break fights that often. Maybe Shatter Spell will turn the tides of a mage battle here and there. The other two are kind of just cool to have.
I'll see how far I get this time. Hopefully, so long as I've learned my lesson, no more technical issues will mess up the run for me.
Since then I haven't really had the motivation to start over and I've mostly been modding here and there. Now that I'm feeling up for a bit of a challenge again I took the time to rebuild my game and start over.
Difficulty/Settings:
- Legacy of Bhaal - I've developed a bit of a love/hate relationship with this setting. Although I still think it's horribly flawed I've found a certain thrill in overcoming the starting difficulty and making my way to the top. This time I'm doing it proper by keeping double damage on and having regular xp progression. Since I'm not playing a triple-class this time I think doubled experience is overkill.
- Sword Coast Stratagems - I've upped the difficulty here quite a bit as well. I've turned random spawns to almost-highest (everything except liches) and (probably going to regret this horribly down the road) HLAs for all applicable casters. Everything else is the same as my previous playthrough (except Party's Items Taken Away at Spellhold, that one ruined my game)
- Ascension - Assuming I ever get there. I enjoy ToB unlike most so this is the part that I'm actually looking forward to.
Rules:
I'm not all too keen on enforcing rules. Most of the time I end up breaking them anyhow. Nonetheless, I'm keeping this playthrough as roleplay-oriented as possible, so powergaming is kept within the realm of reason. That said I'm still going to have to abuse a few tricks here and there because I'm really not that good.Mod List:
Most of my mods don't go a long way towards making the game harder. If anything the bonus experience, gold and items will probably only do the opposite. Regardless, for anyone who's interested in the mods I use:WeiDU.log
https://gist.github.com/ArtemiusI/1318b2ca2853e73cafebc6e36ee2eb40
WeiDU-BGEE
https://gist.github.com/ArtemiusI/80a3daf9e58e9bbae99797d8277807dc
My Bhaalspawn
I have used this character over the course of several years and he is still by far my favorite. This time I designed a fitting (albeit super cheap) kit for him.The innate bonuses are pretty big but I don't think the abilities will make or break fights that often. Maybe Shatter Spell will turn the tides of a mage battle here and there. The other two are kind of just cool to have.
I'll see how far I get this time. Hopefully, so long as I've learned my lesson, no more technical issues will mess up the run for me.
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The party then return to Beregost, where they encounter a local who's put himself in a sticky situation. Naturally, the heroic party agrees to helping him. Of course, they'll have to deal with Karlat at the Red Sheaf first.
Imoen is using the Dagger of Venom here. Note that Karlat was held by the backstab. I decided to try something different this time rather than playing her as a standard thief dual-classed to mage in BG1, as EET will transfer her BG1 levels into BG2 so I want to invest more into her thief levels. She is using my assassin rework with the paralysis backstab effect. I don't think this is overpowered because with a +2 modifier and enemies' saving throws this is actually the second time it's worked this whole game (silencing backstab was used successfully against Tarnesh). Imoen's low strength means her kit abilities are more used for utility rather than raw damage. I may keep her as an assassin for the entire game or dual-class her to have a secondary mage at a higher level, not sure yet.
A happy ending for all. Well, except Karlat.
There is one more thing to deal with before making the journey south to Nashkel, and that is:
Exterminating the spiders brings Imoen up to level five, giving her the handy Hidden Blade passive.
Inside of Landrin's house is an item I've never seen before, added by a recent version of BG1 Romantic Encounters. It is a rather familiar-sounding poem:
The book can be used as a quick item. Inside is a flowery love letter from Camryn, who we met earlier within Candlekeep:
We bring the letter to Tamah, who we saved earlier:
With everything dealt with, at least for now, the party makes the journey south.
We add Rasaad to our party for the moment. Not planning on keeping him but I want his dialogues so that his quest will start once we reach Baldur's Gate.
He does make a surprisingly good first impression by stopping Neira's Unholy Blight from wiping my party though.
We travel eastwards to check out the carnival. Of course it's not a real show without some blood being spilled at the end of the day.
We even manage to win some gold along the way.
The tent with Zordral and Bentha had another one of BG1RE's books, as well as another love letter.
We make our way back to town and save a little boy from a wyvern.
Little wyvern vs. Big wyvern!
We return to Beregost to deliver the letter to Tamah. She found the contents rather embarrassing.
We then travel back towards Nashkel, taking a wrong turn (on purpose) getting a nice Two-Handed Sword +1 for our trouble.
I put the cursed Gauntlets of Might (Item Revisions altered Gauntlets of Fumbling) on Rasaad. It does penalize his AC by 2 (which is made up for by his boots) and THAC0 by 1 but bumps his Strength up to the sweet spot of 19. Not that it makes much difference at the moment, since I then exchanged him for Dorn.
We follow Dorn's questline and go past the Nashkel Mines, slaying Greywolf in the process (with the help of a very good surge from Neera)
Dorn kills Kryll and we boot him. His rants on taking revenge on his former allies were unnerving the crew and I don't need him anyways for the moment, though he will return later once the city is open to us. We then do a favor for Lena and bring Samuel back to the Friendly Arm Inn...
...where we then pick up Dorn's temporary replacement (who admittedly isn't much better morality-wise)
Immediately upon un-stoning him, Verr demands that we return to the stone circles where an enemy of his is waiting.
Since this guy is a copy of Nimbul he's fairly tough at this point, but our fairy dragon eats his spells up with ease and he goes down eventually, also giving us a nice suit of chain mail. The Chain Mail of Transgression allows casting so it'd be great for Garrus, but I give it to Verr for now.
A dialogue occurs with Verr and we are forced to rest. Upon waking, we are greeted with this wild maniac.
Now this fight is absolutely ridiculous (Rhialto has a variety of high level spells including Horrid Wilting, as well as the Assassination HLA with x5 backstab). If it weren't for his lack of defensive buffs (basically amounting to one PfMW at the start and a Fire Shield) I'd have no choice but to run. But thanks to his atrocious AI which led him to burn a ton of spells on Jaheira's summons and our familiar, he eventually becomes vulnerable. This is actually the first instance of my eldritch knight kit's Shatter Spell making a huge difference, and it was mainly due to afflicting him with spell failure since this guy has the totally not unfair at all uninterruptible spellcasting. Ugh. One time (and only one, he never did it again) he cast a strange spell called Glyph of Wild Magic, which... well, I was too flabbergasted by the effects to take a screenshot so here's what it does according to game files:
Level: 4
Range: 40 yards
Duration: 1 round/10 levels
Casting Time: 3
Area of Effect: 30' radius
Saving Throw: Special
A glyph of wild magic is a powerful inscription magically drawn on the ground or any other surface. The glyph will remain there until someone comes too close, at which point it will explode and create one weave disturbance for each creature within a 30' radius. Each disturbance causes a multitude of wild surges, targeted at random creatures (including the caster, should he still be nearby).
For every 10 experience levels of the caster, the disturbances remain in existence for 1 round, though it is possible to dispell them prematurely by causing a distortion with physical or magical means.
Naturally, the spell's outcome is completely random. Victims can be strengthened by the wild surges, or they can be completely annihilated. The larger the number of creatures within the area of effect, the more chaotic the outcome, and the higher the probability that the glyph will cause a lot of damage.
Taking a break for now as my brain recovers from "WTF-did-I-just-witness" mode.
On the body of our target is this rather powerful summoning book:
We remove Verr afterwards. I wasn't going to keep him anyways but he's been underperforming and frankly, I don't need him either. So now we pass through the Firewine Ruins as a party of five, and decide to test out our new magical book on Kahrk.
They really didn't accomplish much. Even with their high hit points, I still ended up having to kite Kahrk around for five minutes to wear out his spells before quaffing two Potions of Invulnerability to tank his blows while Imoen eventually backstabbed him to death.
We proceed towards Adoy's Enclave, complete Neera's quest, and pick up the Stoneskin scroll for Garrus.
I don't plan on keeping Neera around for much longer, but she can stay for now as I don't really have anyone to replace her with at the moment.
Ugh. Finally wiped out the whole Bandit Camp in one battle. Third successful attempt of my life. Notably, the only time I didn't have a dedicated archer, and it was by far the most difficult, even after finding a new chokepoint to make things easier. Party is around level 6-7.
I hate this fight with the burning rage of a thousand suns. What's already one of the most unfair battles in the entire game considering the party's awful starting position and the enemies' plethora of area of effect spells is made worse by the fact that said spells are almost impossible to interrupt. Occasionally one of the casters will take a dozen hits yet still get their spell off successfully. Good thing I have a beefed up invincible Khalid.