LOB No Cheese Fun Run with added RealTank(™)

taniwha

LOB No Cheese* Fun Run with added RealTank(™)
*Ok, there’s minimal cheese, but it’s more like cottage cheese so does it really count?

What I’m aiming for:
A very fun run with extended, tactical, difficult battles. Nothing so impossible that it requires cheese**. Minimal downtime. Rediscover the challenge of every quest/area and having to use (non-cheesy) old-school tactics to win fights!

Self-Imposed Rules (No judgement on people who do these things, they just don’t float my boat personally)
LOB difficulty BUT increased dam turned off (Insane way too easy, full LOB dam requires cheese)
No mods. (I’m on iPad anyway and can’t be bothered with workarounds)
No arcane magic cheese - No project image or simulacrum or mislead from mage (or thief with mage scrolls/wands)
No summons (I want to see My toons tearing through the mobs, not skellies or planetars!)
A real tank (DD) that actually tanks! (Probably the most difficult thing given that AC virtually useless without cheesing mage protections which I’ve always hated.) So minimal setup cheddar needed:
**Tank has DoE from beginning (for phys resist)
**Tank has iMoD for level drain defense from beginning.
No equipment cheese (imports, duplications, money cheats)
Minimal resting
No pre-buffing. (This stuff is so boring!)

Difficulties expected:
Doing enough damage fast enough so that tank survives, especially as mage damage relatively nerfed by LOB mode, and archer dam resisted by so much.
Managing adds / protecting squishies
Certain bosses’ damage output (from LOB huge thac0)

5-Char Crew:

Main Tank
Dwarven Defender.
Tomes: +1 con, +1 cha
DoE + Shield + shield profs (I love that shield profs actually useful in LOB to make tank able to survive ranged). DoE + iMoD dual wielding for fighting undead.
Strengths: tanking physical dam. Insane saves. Insane hp. Good thac0. Great AC (though this doesn’t matter much as resist dam > AC)
Weaknesses: maze/imprison, massive damage spikes.
Tactics: go in first and go in alone. Gain Aggro. Weather the storm.

Off tank + buffs
Dwarf F/C
Tomes +3 wis
Weapons: 1h + shield
Strengths: good thac0, low AC, good hp, cleric spells!, turn undead, great saves
Weaknesses: Slow casting, maze/imprisonment
Tactics: Chant (for reducing enemy saves) then other buffs. Fight as needed.

Melee Damage
Dwarf Berserker.
Tomes: +1 str
1h + 2-weapon profs. 2-h + profs later for standing behind tank tactics.
Strengths: maze/imprisonment immunity. Great thac0. Great saves.
Weaknesses: physical dam due to low AC for melee, level drain (until iMoD)
Tactics: go in second, defend squishies, tank adds, pummel high threat enemies

Ranged Damage + Interrupter + disabler
Elf archer.
Tomes +1 dex
Shortbow + long sword + shortsword profs.
Strengths: insane thac0, damage (though I know many mobs resist piercing), range, Hide in Shadows, disabling anti-mage/high-threat with Called Shots
Weaknesses: saves, maze, imprisonment, physical dam, magical dam, level drain. Basically don’t get hit.
Tactics: go in 3rd & hidden, target spellcasters then target high-threat/main tank’s enemies. Doom for hard enemies.

Utility + Disabler + Anti mage + Damage
Human swashbuckler 10 > mage (thief skills 100 locks, 100 find traps, 100 detect illusion)
Tomes +1 int
1h/sling + shield
Strengths: thief skills, disabler spells, buffs (imp haste, imp invis), anti-mage spells, damage
Weaknesses: low hp, low thac0, non-targeted magic dam (until protection spells)
Tactics: Go in last & invis, breach spellcasters, support the tank: Greater Malaison > disabling spells, buffs as needed


Questions:
Are there any parts of SoA or ToB that would be impossible with this setup?
Will a 5 char crew level too slow in the late game? Can I still hit level cap? (Would prefer not to cheese spell scrolling or farming xp)

Tresset

@taniwha Your thread was caught by our forum's spam filter. I have restored it and verified you so that this should not happen again.

taniwha

@Tresset Thanks. Any idea why this posted ended up in the German Language section of bg2ee? Should be in English. Can I move it?

Tresset

taniwha said:

Any idea why this posted ended up in the German Language section of bg2ee? Should be in English. Can I move it?

I am not sure how that happened. What's more, I thought I had already moved it to the English section earlier today after restored it. I have moved it to the English section (again) for you. Feel free to move the discussion if it somehow moves back to the German section.

Borek

At 1st glance i would say that you should be fine, LOB is nasty but without SCS the vast majority of enemies will be fairly straight forward. You may have some issues Vs Kangaxx form 2 and Demi-lich in WK, but only if you refuse to use Prot.Undead scrolls or cheese it by just sending in 1 protected character rather than the whole party.

taniwha

*edited post to be 5-char plan rather than the orig 4-char*

Borek

Shouldn't be any problems with that set up, XP will be fairly fast since 4 of them are effectively single class.

taniwha

Thanks @borek I’d better stop talking about it and go roll the toons eh

Grond0

Low AC is useful even in ToB. With the tactics you suggest above you'd probably be better off giving the dexterity tome to your DD (allowing him to either improve AC or wear better bracers than the gauntlets of dexterity). There is no difference for the archer whether attacking at 19 or 20 dexterity (and in the late game he would hit everything with a 2 anyway).

taniwha

Going well so far. Biggest issue is not actually defense, but thac0 of low level characters not being enough to hit nasties much. Only the addition of the high level weapons at the start let anyone even scratch a Memphit. Geared up a little better now and scratching more often, but nice long battles of attrition, which is what I was hoping for.