Things to do in the beginning of a new game?
zavulon
Member Posts: 21
Starting a new playthrough... what do you always do in the beginning of a new game? For me it's:
(very mild spoilers)
Anything else? (no cheat codes)
(very mild spoilers)
- Adventurers Mart: buy gem bag and scroll case in the back
- Adventurers Mart: pickpocket Ring of Regeneration
- Watchers Keep: buy ammo belt and potion case
- Watchers Keep: get Case of Plenty on the first level (the only fight needed for that is mephits)
Anything else? (no cheat codes)
3
Comments
do the slaver quest at the copper cornent
go deal with the trolls at nalia's keep.
I must gather my party before venturing forth.
pick pocket to the 2 noble people sitting down outside in the promenade ( forget their names, but they actually have lots of different treasures on them )
go to the government district and do the same thing ( and everyone else inside the the council of six building )
keep resting outside of the circus tent ( due east ) until 3 of the "vampire" sequences go by to get more gems and scrolls
then, do the circus tent
then go to the vales of 7 dales (?) inn and take out mencar and his group of ninies for some neat items and treasure
then go to the copper cohornet and do the hendak quest and the slavers quest...
After a couple of other soloed quests rescue Aerie, take Jan and have them learn the scrolls he steal, then you can do an other couple of quests and you will find the other npcs well leveled.
A good early game leveling strategy is even better then obtaining early items like the Gaax ring or RoV.
A set of charged wands and some good money in the pocket are a good way to start.
Don't release Jaheria from her cage, in Irenicus's dungeon.
Edit: I like to call this tactic "Unleashing the Bees" due to how often I have Jaheira using Insect Swarm.
Eww
This is also my favourite early-game cheese.
Normally once I have Daystar I rest-cheese through the Umar hills, Sunray everything in the place to smithereens, collect Mazzy before she wastes all her pips on short sword and sell all the loot to buy an improved haste scroll.
In terms of loot, you get some nice early stuff from the party that ambushes you in the temple sewers
i kill this lich after i get the mace of disruption from bodhi's lair, then just send in someone with protection from evil, remove fear, and protection from fire ( the mage spell one, not the cleric spell ) and that battle is pie;
go in room, sit back a bit, the lich will time stop and summon a pit fiend, and then start casting all his big spells on the pit fiend, and once the lich's PfMW wears off, just go smack him all silly like with the mace until he falls, easy as pie
Once ToB got released I would clear as much of the first level of Watcher's Keep as I possibly could, especially the Quiver and Case of Plenty but most definitely the Golem Manual--even the lowly flesh golem is immune to nonmagical weapons and a *lot* of enemies early in the game don't have magical weapons.
But a gem bag, scroll box and a potion of Invisibility.
Talk to the extortionists in the slums.
Here it varies a tinsy bit. If I can kill the two goons I do, if not into the CC Bar and Grill. Talk to the peeps there, again if I can kill the idiot I will ask Surley to square us up.
Go to the bridge district. Talk to what’s-his-name and all of the peeps to complete the quest then leave the district stage right, stage south even. Okay, I don’t actually complete the quest at that time, gotta save that rep points. Usually I will initiate the Prison quest before I go, not really a biggie. Hopefully the girl selling potions is there and I can buy 2 more potions of Invisibility there. Again, no biggie.
Go to the temple district and initiate everything there.
Off to the government pow-wow place, hit up Delkin and Jan. So you can not appreciate this as much as you want, my game, my rules. Talk to Sir Sarles and then take Jan on a roundabout to unlock/untrap all of the mandatory doors. Honestly, I know how to circumvent every trap in the game so... not really cheating much. Usually back to the bridge district first then docks and after the gates to leave out of Amn, dropping Jan first.
Head to the Hills to unload the acorns. -1 potion of Invisibility.
Trademeet and at least initiate the quest then off to Druids grove. Invisibility and either complete the quest with an Invisibility pot or more often just grab Belm and head to Watchers Keep.
If I am playing a thief at this point I have the Ring of the Ram and just steal the bottle and kill the genies. If not I can finish the genie quest later. RotR + backstab makes short work of them. Hope you don’t have a critical miss or it can get iffy.
Buy the potions bag and usually at this point I can go straight to the Graveyard District and initiate the Weyland quest.
Go to CC and finish the quest. Most of the time I am at the point that I can get dialogue with the dark dwarf at this point so I do.
Off to the adventure’s mart to sell everything and buy the air ring.
Usually by this time I am carrying a dude in my backpack so I go to the docks and get rid of him. Use the Air ring to finish that quest with no risk to my precious self and go to the priest to buy 18 rep.
Bridge to finish that quest. 19 rep and go right back out to the circus tent in the Promenade to get the ultimate money saver, 20 rep.
At this point my game actually begins. I have done this so many times that I could probably do it in a coma. You have a good amount of money can buy anything at the cheapest price, with a ring and cloak of course. Most often I will get the Cloak of the Sewers then back to the Copper Coronet. Having some money, a +2 weapon of my choice and more that a little experience, the world is my oyster, time to explore.
Couple of things, if I use Invisibility pots I always replace them. I need three when I leave Amn. If I need the short sword from the “random”/mandatory encounter then I might have to take a bit longer to build up the funds to do all of that.
In all of that there will be 1 or most likely 2 random encounters that I want the loot from. Invisibility pots and run to set up the encounter more to my liking, if one or both happen while I am dragging Jan around it is a bit easier but I can’t count on that. More Invisibility pots are available if I need them, for a thief I try to use as little as possible so I can save as many as I can for Simmy backstab in ToB.
so i preferred to do quests like the temple ruins, 2 liches there and with each lich a demon that summons an other one every few rounds and has an hit that does like 1k dmg on top of his regular one, improved tor gal is worst ...
also, for a play trough optimized for power gaming and not rp, the order of the quests and things to do first depends on the party composition as in every quest you find items that can be useful to certain classes ie if you play a dwarven defender or have korgan in the party you may want to do early trademeet to get the returning hammer that only dwarves can use.
Circus Tent - May or may not keep Aerie
Kill muppets in tavern north of tent
Buy gem bag, scroll case at the Mart
Go to Mister Coo!, may or may not buy glasses of identify (see #2)
Class corresponding Stronghold
Visit Watcher's Keep for Firetooth crossbow and use chest on 1st floor for storage.
Shadow thieves because super easy xp + pickup Edwin unless he 100% conflicts with intended party.
Copper coronet - slavers part 1 and 2
My usual pattern at least.. from here on it's a matter of if i want Imoen early or not.
If not, whipe the table of sidequests.. if yes, then Imoen.. then whipe everything after underdark.