Come and meet the fool trying a wild mage SCS no reload challenge.
Lekinf
Member Posts: 33
Dear all,
Welcome to the realm of chaos for this new no-reload challenge.
After my defeat in the course of last year in SoD with my blackguard (story here https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/65610/a-blackguard-will-seat-on-the-throne-of-bhaal#latest) I have been playing a little less. But if you playing this game for years like me, you know you have to come back after each break... And this time is it crazy-friendly!
I usually go for high HP pool champions in my tentatives, but for this challenge I want to try something new. A pure wizard. I have been thinking first about a Sorcerer, but I have read many playthroughs with and I wanted to offer something different to the community, and then I noticed that I never saw any completion with a wild mage.
So here is Cassandre:
Wild mage
Elven
STR: 18
DEX: 19
CON: 16
INT: 18
WIS: 8
CHA: 9
Strategy for the challenge:
Of course a wild mage seems (and probably is) an akward choice due the risks arising from wild surge, but let´s see how much I can mitigate the risks and how far I can go with this build.
Before starting the challenge I have analysed the wild surge effects and came to the following conclusions:
When using a spell, my main dangers which could lead to immediate end of the challenge are:
(i) Fireballs damages (centered on the caster, there are many fireball effects in the list). To protect myself, i will need fire resistance
(ii)held effects (caster held with no save...) to protect from this effect, I will seek for a free action ring.
(iii) Petrification. Against this, I have to improve my savings throws.
There are also other bad effects, but I think the main dangers are the ones above.
To avoid these risks as long as I can´t mitigate them, I have to do to things:
-avoid using spells as much as possible (focus on throwing daggers and later on, on wands)
-prioritize the use of other characters (as I would prefer avoid casting many defensive spells, I will have to be as much as possible out of range during fights.
Rules of the challenge:
-no reload (of course)
-SCS
-Core rules (i think the increased damages of improved difficulties would be too punitive for such a weak-character)
-Item randomizer (this should bring more chaos to the game, and prevent me from getting early on the defensive items I need to protect from wild surges)
-all items (including gems and potions) need to be identified before use. Furthermore, cursed items icons are randomised to ensure I can´t recognise them.
-many nice items have been removed from shops (like amulette of fireball and the shadow armor), I don´t know if it is a direct effect from item randomiser as I have plenty of mods installed I have never tried.
-lot of new encounters have been added, this should prevent me from knowing each time before a fight will take place and get prepared accordingly.
-I am not authorised to use items from mods which are stronger that Bgee normal items, nor to drop them and sell them (some mods add very hard encounters agaisnt strongs enemies which have absurdly strong items) among the items I find, I canjust use items which are already in nonmodded Bgee and weak items from Bg2ee.
-party allowed (this is not a solo attempt).
-spell revisions (I must have used several mods as I also see way more spells in my clerics spellbooks)
-tweaks in the classes of the NPCs (I have authorised the game to slightly change the classes of each my companions, it is the first time I use this mod, it will force me to play diffently that what I am used to do because otherwise I just seek for the same characters as usually).
Welcome to the realm of chaos for this new no-reload challenge.
After my defeat in the course of last year in SoD with my blackguard (story here https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/65610/a-blackguard-will-seat-on-the-throne-of-bhaal#latest) I have been playing a little less. But if you playing this game for years like me, you know you have to come back after each break... And this time is it crazy-friendly!
I usually go for high HP pool champions in my tentatives, but for this challenge I want to try something new. A pure wizard. I have been thinking first about a Sorcerer, but I have read many playthroughs with and I wanted to offer something different to the community, and then I noticed that I never saw any completion with a wild mage.
So here is Cassandre:
Wild mage
Elven
STR: 18
DEX: 19
CON: 16
INT: 18
WIS: 8
CHA: 9
Strategy for the challenge:
Of course a wild mage seems (and probably is) an akward choice due the risks arising from wild surge, but let´s see how much I can mitigate the risks and how far I can go with this build.
Before starting the challenge I have analysed the wild surge effects and came to the following conclusions:
When using a spell, my main dangers which could lead to immediate end of the challenge are:
(i) Fireballs damages (centered on the caster, there are many fireball effects in the list). To protect myself, i will need fire resistance
(ii)held effects (caster held with no save...) to protect from this effect, I will seek for a free action ring.
(iii) Petrification. Against this, I have to improve my savings throws.
There are also other bad effects, but I think the main dangers are the ones above.
To avoid these risks as long as I can´t mitigate them, I have to do to things:
-avoid using spells as much as possible (focus on throwing daggers and later on, on wands)
-prioritize the use of other characters (as I would prefer avoid casting many defensive spells, I will have to be as much as possible out of range during fights.
Rules of the challenge:
-no reload (of course)
-SCS
-Core rules (i think the increased damages of improved difficulties would be too punitive for such a weak-character)
-Item randomizer (this should bring more chaos to the game, and prevent me from getting early on the defensive items I need to protect from wild surges)
-all items (including gems and potions) need to be identified before use. Furthermore, cursed items icons are randomised to ensure I can´t recognise them.
-many nice items have been removed from shops (like amulette of fireball and the shadow armor), I don´t know if it is a direct effect from item randomiser as I have plenty of mods installed I have never tried.
-lot of new encounters have been added, this should prevent me from knowing each time before a fight will take place and get prepared accordingly.
-I am not authorised to use items from mods which are stronger that Bgee normal items, nor to drop them and sell them (some mods add very hard encounters agaisnt strongs enemies which have absurdly strong items) among the items I find, I canjust use items which are already in nonmodded Bgee and weak items from Bg2ee.
-party allowed (this is not a solo attempt).
-spell revisions (I must have used several mods as I also see way more spells in my clerics spellbooks)
-tweaks in the classes of the NPCs (I have authorised the game to slightly change the classes of each my companions, it is the first time I use this mod, it will force me to play diffently that what I am used to do because otherwise I just seek for the same characters as usually).
Post edited by Lekinf on
4
Comments
Note that in the EE it's not possible to eliminate the danger from surges entirely at high levels in the way you could in the vanilla game by using sequencers. You thus may want to be a little cautious at high levels about casting level 9 spells - the last solo wild mage I had in ToB imprisoned himself
Actually I decided not to go solo because I am afraid that one character won´t deal enough enough in SCS fight in the ducal palace against doppelgängers if they decide to focus on the dukes.
Very sad for you but I am already quite impressed you managed to go so far with this build. If you wrote the playthrough and still have the link, I would read it carfully.
Going so far and losing due to a bad wild surge you couldn´t protect against is quite unlucky, but I guess dealing with bad luck is an important part of this character.
I did also do a successful no-reload a few years ago on the old Bioware Forums, though that was easier than in the EE. Here's the final post from that run.
Incidentally there are a number of strategies you can use when playing solo at the palace, e.g.
- using the nymph cloak to charm all the guards and neutrals will give you a good chance against the dopplegangers by itself. You can support with darts of stunning and wand of paralyzation.
- to make victory more certain you can charm the nobleman that turns into the doppleganger mage. He won't then transform until the charm runs out, allowing you to fight him on his own. It's best to charm him first and then rest, so you don't have so long to wait after killing the others.
- if you want to risk casting spells then making Liia invisible will keep her safe (target the doppleganger shaman and mage first to prevent them revealing her).
so if you fancy playing solo then give it a go
Beginning of the run
Things started pretty smoothly, I did few quests in candlekeep, only skipping the antidote for the cow (because I like to keep it for myself) and running from the rats as an assassin tried to kill me and managed to hide in shadows (I would feel quite lame allowing a sneak attack on my lvl1 wild mage)
Right after the encounter with the armored figure, I went East and search for a ring of protection behind a rock... But it was not there! (good, my mod installation seems to work)
I went to kill the ogre at the east of the map, and receveid a magic leather armor instead of his usual loot (better and better). Happy to see that the game was ready to pose me an adequate challenge. I went to Beregost and completed few quests, then to the temple zone to kill few more monsters as they have no range weapon, then went south of Beregost to get back some magic boots from an hobgloblin.
I went more south and cleared few more places from the thugs around, avoiding groups which seemed to be able to pose significant threats (ranged enemies).
When reaching Nashkel, I visited the festival, checked for the ankheg armor (it wasn´t there!
However, I failed to save the cow of a farmer, and had to run from a group of bandit which used a potion of speed.
After killing thugs all around the sword coast, I decided to enter the mines of Nashkel. with a solid group, but things took an unfortunate turn of event.
In a middle of a fight with an armee of Kobolds that include a shaman, I send my tank (Kagain) to distract his spells from the rest of my group but I notice that is being quickly injured only to discover that his armor had been broken! All I have is a naked dwarf that serve as easy target for Kobolds and their arrows.
Kagain dies and the shaman throw a fear spell to Charname and the rest of the group.
I quickly spread all my team but Charname is in range of effect... I want to use a potion but... IT IS NOT IDENTIFIED, I can´t drink it (I would have taken the risk).
Charname is being feared and start running back, where even more Kobolds join the fight.
I try to send the rest of my team to protect him with all I have but it is worthless, they all have miserable armor and can´t prevent Charname to meet its (early) fate.
This run was long ago, but I still have good memories of it, and if I can erase from my memory all the parts where I have been running and kiting worthless mobs, I will definitively make another attempt.