The Hero and the Kat take Kuldahar

Zeno_42

So my RPG party "The Hero and the Kat" are officially on their way to Kuldahar!



See the write-ups on them at my web site if you're interested in more detail.
https://zenosziggurat.com/rpg-parties-hero-and-the-kat/


Rules & Mods
====================
- Bethany NPC
- Minerva NPC
- "Might and Guile" - just the Bard (Loremaster) and Fighter (Corsair) kits
- "Talents of Faerun"
- Lava's expansions (Kuldahar, Our Lady Dreamless, etc).
- Assorted voice packs
- Sword Coast Strategems

Self-imposed limitations:
- No stats over 16 except Roland's Charisma. None of these folks are superheroes. This means Bethany and Minerva's stats will be tweaked downward a bit to fit in. Stats are also largely picked by me, to fit the characterizations these folks have always had for me.

- "If a kit don't fit, its not legit". I'm not forcing any of these folks into kits unless they really match. As discussed below.

Characters

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Roland "The Hero" DeSalle:
Human Paladin (No Kit) LG
S:16,D:10,C:14,I:13,W:14,Ch:19


This is the one character allowed to be "super"... and its his charisma. This is an older Captain Carrot with shades of Don Quixote in DND form. It fits.

Kitless because none of them fit him. Closest would be Cavalier, but he has no hangups about ranged weapons and is far more concerned with things that routinely affect regular folks than he is about Dragons and Demons.


Katarina "Kat" Kitovski:
Human Thief (No Kit) CG
S:12,D:16,C:12,I:15,W:12,Ch:15

This is Roland's smirking, sly partner-in-crime. She's the CG to his LG - dedicated to his cause, but she goes about things in a very different way. Kitless because again, none of them fit. If I had to pick one it would be swashbuckler, but giving up backstab is just not her.


Francisco "Falcon" Fernandez:
Human Fighter (Corsair) TN
S:14,D:16,C:14,I:12,W:10,Ch:8

Essentially Inigo Montoya if he actually accomplished his goal at the outset, and then failed at figuring out what to do with himself afterwards.


Tessandra "Tess" Tagliatova
Half-Elf Bard (Loremaster) NG
S:12,D:14,C:12,I:16,W:12,Ch:12

A loner who's desperate to learn more about old elven magic, music, and history. Has always straddled the line between Bard and Mage, and the Loremaster kit (similar to the original in the old Complete Bard's Handbook) allows her to do just that.


Minerva NPC
Gnome Fighter/Thief (Artificer) NG
S:12,D:16,C:12,I,16,W:10,Ch:13
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/79339/v1-1-minerva-a-gnome-fighter-artificer-npc-for-iwd-ee
Minerva's portrait just didn't fit with the style of my others, so with apologies to the author I've substituted one I generated to match Roland and company


I just love the concept for the character. And Roland and company actually had a very similar mate back in the day, who just never stuck around in my imagination the way the other three did. (Nicollo "Nails" Nazaretti - a Gnomish inventor dreaming of rediscovering lost Gnome and Dwarf technology). He was more of a custom crossbow afficianado than a knife-thrower, but overall Minerva fits with the others pretty well - in both aptitude and attitude.


Bethany NPC
Human Shaman (Town Medium)
S:10.D:15,C:11,I:13,W:16,Ch:15
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/88348/mod-bethany-npc-for-iwd-ee

I haven't yet managed to manufacture an AI portrait that feels like it honors the character outline.
And the built-in portrait fit well enough with the others in style that for now I left it as-is.

I found the idea for the character - an "I see dead people" shaman who would rather be a fashion designer - interesting. And Roland is the one team-leader in my portfolio who would be likely to accept her as she is and encourage her to strike out as a hero. I really want to see how she reacts to things like the Vale of Shadows, the Severed Hand, and Dorn's Deep.


===============================================================
And off they go!

I'm especially looking forward to when they meet Nym (the drow merchant in the Underdark). Tess would be horrified that he was the cause for all that happened. Kat would be disgusted, with shades of wondering how close she herself came to being that callous before meeting Roland. Roland would be working *very* hard to maintain his composure and make a sound decision. And Falcon, given his personal history, would run the b***d through before he even finished talking.

Bethany and Minerva... I'll just have to see when I get there.

atcDave

Looks like fun!

Yeah Nym is so repellent. He’s one of the few “fights” I have no qualms about starting myself.

Zeno_42

So far (partway through the Vale of Shadows) the biggest differences I'm finding from my typical runs are:

1) Because Roland *always* gives folks a chance to resolve things peacefully first, I can't go with my typical ambush tactics (sneak up with someone stealthy to get a good view, smack em with web, stinking cloud, entangle, etc, then pelt them with arrows and lay down AOE spells until the stragglers make it through to be cut down). Doesn't so much matter in the Vale of Shadows, but that's going to make Dragon's Eye harder.

2) SCS - particularly the "call for help" feature - has made combat far more chaotic and unpredictable. In most of the tombs I've hit in the Valley I get extended battles as all the nearby rooms pile in on top of the initial engagement.

3) As a result of (2) I've found making Roland tanky very important - so he can attract and absorb the initial attention. Would have gone sword and board for him anyway, but that just cements it. I've also had to tweak Kat's AI and micromanage her a little - so that rather than diving in immediately she stealths around to the back and then engages once Roland and Falcon have absorbed all the attention. I've found Bethany's Shaman spirits invaluable. The steady stream of new bodies to absorb blows - even if they don't do much damage - really helps manage the big brawls.

atcDave

I think having someone really tanky on point is always a good idea, even in stock IWD. well, unless you’re always invisible. The game loves to pound on that first character through the door.

Zeno_42

Those last few rooms on the bottom level of the Vale of Shadows were a real doozy with SCS. The whole area ganged up all at once - including the mages. Definitely required different tactics to when you can kite and draw to wipe them out piecemeal. But that's making the game much more interesting for me - simply because my opponents are grouped differently and the flow is so different. Heading out to do some of Lava's content (Skinwalker and Lady Dreamless) and then off to the Vale of the Forgotten God!

Zeno_42

The Temple of the Forgotten God was easy... too easy. Just the layout meant even with SCS the giants and priests all dribbled in in easily manageable bunches. Dragon's Eye has been far more challenging. On the first level almost all of the Lizard men on the level started barrelling in as soon as I entered. The brutes and such were manageable, but the constant stream of Shaman's and Hold Person was a real issue. Had to constantly watch adds appearing on the edge of the screen and have Tess, Kat, and Minerva on "pincushion the spellcaster" duty.

The main battle with the Lizard King went pretty easily. They all aggroed on sight - so not much disadvantage from Roland wanting to talk. And Bethany and Tess letting loose with Entangle and Stinking Cloud immediately after tied up most of the room. Then they could unload with the likes of Skull Trap and the Writhing Fog while the others dealt with the lizards who rushed in before lockdown.

The worst fight so far was actually the first one on the second level... because fighting the spiders, trolls, and beetles in the first little room to the south brought the *entire* brigade of beetles from the tunnel barrelling in from above a few moments later. Had to reload and lay traps, entangle, etc behind me in the corridor to contain that before initiating the other fight. Don't usually like meta-gaming that hard, but didn't see any other way to survive the rush of 30 explosive, stunning beetles. Just had Kat sneak down the tunnel to check things out, and decided she anticipated the ambush.

The Talonite priest & troll fight at the altar, however, went about as usual. Even with Roland popping his head in to say "hi" first, Tess and Bethany were ready to unload the fireworks when he pulled back for a strategic regroup. Then it was the usual pin-em-down, melt-em, and have Falcon and Roland deal with anything that got through. Only surprise was that once that battle was finished, the Talonite High Priest and a few compatriots were actually waiting for me over by Mother Egenia. But with Kat, Tess, and Minerva each picking one to pelt with spell-interrupting missiles while the others came in to finish them off it went pretty quickly.

atcDave

Things like having all the beetles show up at once is why I dropped SCS a few years ago. It just requires so much meta gameplay, I really don't like that. I think that was even pre-EE. Everytime I start thinking I should try it again I read something like this and think naw...
But it is funny how a little change can make it tougher than the Ziggurat!

Zeno_42

I have mixed feelings about how SCS works in IWD at the moment. I really like how it changes the flow - it means I can't play through on autopilot because I know everything that is going to happen before it happens. The Vale of Shadows (at least until the bottom level - that was a bit much) and the top of Dragon's Eye were much more fun when I didn't know what was going to hit me every time I started a fight.

But it makes the difficulty curve rather flaky - because now simple map layout and how it interacts with SCS has a huge effect on difficulty. I don't at all mind when the room or two next door spill in. That's to be expected. But when half the level seems to pile in all at once, or when I get hordes of beetles magically sensing that I'm fighting in a room that they have to traverse half the level to reach... that's a bit much. And I feel like some areas - like the Severed Hand - will be completely unworkable if every engagement calls in that whole level of the tower. It also totally ruins a few scripted sequences - like the Sending of Myrkul confrontation.

It looks like SCS is configurable after-install nowadays. Its changed a lot since I last messed around with it. I'm going to experiment a bit with the dials and knobs it exposes. Really if I just had a range slider on call-for-help or something that's the only thing I would touch in this playthrough so far.

Zeno_42

Getting back to this after being away. Just finished off Snowytoes Hamlet and preparing to march off to the Severed Hand. I've found a pretty good sweet spot for me in the SCS settings - which has turned off the worst of the irritating parts while still giving me a better tactical experience. The new Mage/Priest AI certainly made the final battle with Yux a real challenge. I had to go all out with everything from Minerva's traps to Kat/crossbow and Tess/Brand new Yuan-Ti Bow focused on taking down the snake mages before Yux got through my wave of delaying spells and Skull Traps and I had to switch my attention to her. Those mages were brutal with disabling spells if any of the four were not locked down immediately. Fortunately Hero with a bunch of potions kept her occupied long enough for the others to turn her into a pinata with anything ranged I could scrounge up that could hurt her.

Satrhan

Hi @Zeno_42 , interesting read. I was wondering what SCS settings you adjusted?
I'm playing IWD for the first time, just finished the Vale of Shadows. Playing on insane but with double xp and damage off, so mainly more enemies. I'm used to playing BG with SCS, so I'm noticing it's (so far) generally quite easy to just pull small subgroups and kinda cheese fights that way.
SCS make that a lot better/harder, but pulling half the dungeon is also not what I'm after.

Zeno_42

The newest SCS actually has GUI options. I set the basic difficulty to "Improved", and then under that there is a "Fine Tune Difficulty" button.




Under that you can click on various categories. I set the following:
- Misc->Basic: To disable calling for Help
- Mage-General->Improved
- Mage-Precast->Basic: I don't like them being able to "cheat" by instantly casting all their prep spells
- Priest-General->Improved
- Priest-Precast->Basic: I don't like them being able to "cheat" by instantly casting all their prep spells
- Fiends->Improved
- Dragons->Improved
- Beholders->Improved

Zeno_42

@Satrhan Also note that since its GUI settings its pretty easy to flip back and forth. So you can leave "Call for Help" on in places where its manageable, and turn it back off in places where it gets silly or breaks scripting.

Satrhan

Thanks! I haven't tried the latest version yet, so didn't know those are now options, neat!
Will have to play the call for help by ear then. I haven't played it before and trying to go with as few spoilers as possible.