"Spirits in the Snow" - IWD:EE Solo Shaman Playthrough on Insane
Rik_Kirtaniya
Member Posts: 1,742
So I was originally considering doing a solo monk run of IWD:EE on insane, when I found that that stuff's already been done by other folks many a times, and I kinda lost the enthusiasm for that idea. There are documented runs on YouTube for solo monk HoF. Uggh... 
Then I remembered that nobody has yet made any documented run on a solo Shaman playthrough in IWD:EE, let alone on insane, since this was a new class released by Beamdog with the 2.5 patch, and well, nobody bothered doing it yet. And I thought, "There's my chance for glory and bragging rights!" And so here I am.
First things first. Rules. I am playing with @argent77's Improved Shamanic Dance mod, which besides fixing the vanilla shamanic dance, also adds a handful of shaman exclusive items into IWD:EE (since monks have their exclusive items in this game, why can't shamans? Also, none of that is any OP stuff, you can check the mod's description). The only other modification I made is EEKeepering +150 lore points to my shaman just in order to save the hassle of running to town mid-dungeon-crawl in order to identify the items. This is just for the sake of convenience and I don't think is cheese. Everything else about the game is unaltered.
Well, with that being sorted, let me just show the stat roll I got, so you can know it's genuine and not EEKeepered (which is what I otherwise do most of the times
).
As you can see I could have easily done with just 80 points (since I would prefer to keep at least 9 INT for scrolls and stuff and WIS can only be lowered to 12). Anyways, I assigned the rest of the points like this.
Here's the game settings. (Bonus damage received by the player for Insane difficulty is enabled.)
And here's the protagonist of my run.
(EDIT: A couple more things that I would like to say. Firstly, I have previously completed this same challenge run with a dragon disciple, and did it halfway with a ranger/cleric, which I didn't complete because it got too easy. I had started this run with a shaman previously, but the movement restrictions with the vanilla shamanic dance made me quit that run since it became pretty frustrating after some time. Secondly, the mod which I have installed changes the dance in that I can move my character while dancing, but at a significantly reduced speed. Everything else is the same, that is, I cannot attack, cast spells and so on, while dancing.)
Then I remembered that nobody has yet made any documented run on a solo Shaman playthrough in IWD:EE, let alone on insane, since this was a new class released by Beamdog with the 2.5 patch, and well, nobody bothered doing it yet. And I thought, "There's my chance for glory and bragging rights!" And so here I am.
First things first. Rules. I am playing with @argent77's Improved Shamanic Dance mod, which besides fixing the vanilla shamanic dance, also adds a handful of shaman exclusive items into IWD:EE (since monks have their exclusive items in this game, why can't shamans? Also, none of that is any OP stuff, you can check the mod's description). The only other modification I made is EEKeepering +150 lore points to my shaman just in order to save the hassle of running to town mid-dungeon-crawl in order to identify the items. This is just for the sake of convenience and I don't think is cheese. Everything else about the game is unaltered.
Well, with that being sorted, let me just show the stat roll I got, so you can know it's genuine and not EEKeepered (which is what I otherwise do most of the times
).As you can see I could have easily done with just 80 points (since I would prefer to keep at least 9 INT for scrolls and stuff and WIS can only be lowered to 12). Anyways, I assigned the rest of the points like this.
Here's the game settings. (Bonus damage received by the player for Insane difficulty is enabled.)
And here's the protagonist of my run.
(EDIT: A couple more things that I would like to say. Firstly, I have previously completed this same challenge run with a dragon disciple, and did it halfway with a ranger/cleric, which I didn't complete because it got too easy. I had started this run with a shaman previously, but the movement restrictions with the vanilla shamanic dance made me quit that run since it became pretty frustrating after some time. Secondly, the mod which I have installed changes the dance in that I can move my character while dancing, but at a significantly reduced speed. Everything else is the same, that is, I cannot attack, cast spells and so on, while dancing.)
Are you ready? Let's begin!
Post edited by Rik_Kirtaniya on
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For my initial two spells, I chose Cure Light Wounds (doesn't need any justification) and Sunscorch (best level 1 divine spell! Will be of great help dealing with the hordes of undead in the game, blind effect is also nifty though quite short lasting, overall pretty solid spell). The special ward spell that shamans start with is totally useless to justify casting it ever. (Just don't use it.) Initial proficiency points spent in Dagger and Shortbow. It appears I started with 80 gold pieces, so just as any solo run in IWD should start, I break into Pomab's second floor and loot all the stuff which I immediately sell, and use the money to equip myself with studded leather (since hide's missile and piercing ACs are really poor, and I would be facing lots of missile based attacks early on), a helmet and a buckler (sadly the only type of shields Shaman can use, don't remember if there are any good bucklers in this game). The dagger looted from upstairs is a good starting weapon. I don't waste money in buying a bow since I'll soon get one from the fish stealing goblins.
Oh, and I buy a bottle of wine so that this man gives me an easy 2400 XP.
Jhonen's quest gives me another 4800 XP. Sweet.
That pushes me right to level 3, and I take Entanglement as my 3rd level 1 spell. It's good to restrain enemies, but has two disadvantages. One, it still allows ranged enemies to shoot at me, and two, which is specific to IWD and does not happen in BG is that "large" enemies are not affected by this spell, a problem which you'll see soon in the first cave. Anyways there's nothing better to take at the moment (since Armour of Faith is not useful until late on with more levels in my pocket).
I next do Apsel's and Grisella's quests, and as you would imagine, using spirits summoned by dancing right now are pretty useless, since they do no good damage at all. You'd be best to avoid using them right now.
Anyways, here are they in action.
Doing these quests takes me to level 4, and I take Alicorn Lance as my first level 2 spell. Nice damage for early game and the penalty to enemy AC isn't too shabby. I also get writhing fog automatically as a shaman, and even though it has a very low damage, it is probably the only level 2 AoE damage + debuff spell that any class has. Think of it like a combo of Stinking Cloud and Snilloc's Snowball Storm, but a little dumbed down. The total damage is 10d3 cold spread as 1d3 per round over a turn, and the slow effect only takes place 20% of the time and also needs the enemy to fail a save vs death. Not too good, but what more can you expect from a level 2 spell? Also, did I mention that it's caster friendly?
Fish stealing goblins are made short work of using Entanglement + Writhing Fog.
I take one of the shortbows and then buy some arrows from Pomab. Sling could have been a more optimal ranged option (since they add strength to damage), but since shortbows are a shaman special thing, I take it just for the flavour. Also, I can still use throwing daggers, just in case. Also, I spend my next proficiency point in Axes. Considering my shaman has only 1 APR in melee and will probably have that for the most part of the game, a two-handed axe is very useful, as it can fell down orcs in just one or two hits.
Orc caves aren't too hard, and I mostly use my TH axe and shortbow to bring down the smaller groups. For the larger center group, I use the entanglement + writhing fog combo, and the rest is kiting and shooting.
The final room is pretty challenging on Insane since it spawns 4-5 ogres instead of 1, and they one-hit-kill you with the bonus damage enabled. I cast one entanglement + writhing fog combo to hold back as many of the orcs as possible, since ogres being large are unaffected by entanglement. And then lured the ogres to the central room. Then I did this.
I cast writhing fog in the center of the room, let the ogres move into it, and then ran around the perimeter of the spell, shooting at them once in a while. In that way, I manipulate them to chase me, but they remain in the fog all the time, taking all the damage. The slowing effect of the fog helps somewhat. It takes two casts of the fog and a few sunscorches, but soon they all drop down dead.
And with that, I reach level 5. I choose Armour of Faith (since my 5th level 1 spell will come very late), and for level 2, since there are no spells that are absolutely necessary to me (strangely enough Resist Fire/Cold is not available in the shaman spell list in IWD. I cannot possibly imagine why), so I took Good Berry. And guess what, its IWD version is amazing! Just have a look.
These will save me a lot of money on health potions, since the latter only heal 2 more points than IWD goodberries. It'll be a nice way to spend my remaining level 2 spell slots before resting. This also makes cure light wounds obsolete for me. (See below.)
I go back to Easthaven and get the quest XP for checking out the caravan and also finding that contract for the fishmonger guy. Next I deliver Hrothgar's supply list to Pomab and get that XP. So this is what I end up with at the end of the prologue, without any XP grinding and all.
Not too shabby. Now all that's left is to spend a minute and mourn for Hrothgar's imminent death using my awesome meta-knowledge foresight (
EDIT: CRAP! It looks like Goodberry doesn't work according to it's description, it just creates a single berry that heals 5 HP. No way I'm taking that spell.
EDIT 2: So I took Charm Person/Mammal instead, since it's too early to take Barkskin, Find Traps isn't useful since I know where all the traps are with my meta-knowledge (will probably still take it later since there is nothing useful here) and Beast Claws is not necessary since I already have 19 STR and moreover, I would avoid engaging in melee with most enemies. That's the only choice I found sensible since the awesome Resist Fire/Cold is missing in the list.
If you don't mind full party runs, check my party in a thread I've made
Here you can see a single goblin marshal taking damage from two of those auras simultaneously. You know what this means. More power.
For Uligar, I paid him a nice tribute with my usual fog and vines.
Luckily, he dropped the Applebane, so I now have a +1 weapon for the greater shadows in the Vale if they get too close.
I next clear the goblins in the mill, and rescue the little kid for some sweet XP.
And with that, we come to the end of Chapter 1. As you can see below, I am almost level 6 by now, so I'll be getting some improved summons soon. Will have to see how well they hold up against stuff.
I'll also get my first level 3 spell with that, which will without doubt be Moonblade, since there's a lot of undead hordes coming up pretty soon, and there's no better spell to deal with them. Also, writhing fog will become useless in the Vale of Shadows, so I will have to use other means to deal damage. For some time, at least, there's no AoE damage spells in hand. Let's see how good the level 6 summons can be.
Next post will start from Kuldahar onwards.
(Perhaps it'll get more attention there too.)
I go and have a talk with Arundel, just in order to progress the main questline. Next stop is Conlan's smithy to see if he has anything good. Why are your stuff SO pricey, Conlan? No wonder you don't get any customers.
I next barge into the second floor of the inn without even talking to the little man below.
Yeah, gimme that XP!
Aaaand level up! Mold touch looks really interesting, though a bit risky to use. But it is probably a thing I might consider taking later on.
Maybe if I can get some way to improve my saves vs spell. Another tactic could be to send in a normal summon (when I get one) to take in the aggro, quickly sneak in and cast mold touch on the enemy, and retreat back to a safe distance and start dancing and watch the wildfire burn them. It might work... or it might not. We'll see later on. For now, it's Moonblade!
Why must everything in the town be so costly?
Don't mind me borrowing your sling Hjolder.
You smell yetis, Mirek, I smell more XP.
Let's try out the new summons this time! Ooooh, boar spirits and bear spirits! This makes me want to quote Dani's famous line, "Is it just me, or are they looking kinda... THICC?"
Woah, muh bois be real tough! How long was it, like 2 or 3 rounds? That's a HUGE improvement over the level 1 summons!
Well, looks like we are done here. Onwards to the Vale of Shadows!