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Random Party Survival Challenge

Wandering_RangerWandering_Ranger Member Posts: 175
Note before starting: If you are an RPer, you will enjoy this. If you are a powergamer, you will not.

There are many challenges out there, but this one is unique in the sense that you use a randomly generated party (their stats are definitely not good) and do what you can with it. Its rules are designed to simulate the perils of adventuring in a realistic manner.

The RP potential is great. Imagine this "call to adventure" poster posted in various cities across Faerun:

"To all those of noble and steadfast hearts; the town of Easthaven in the Dale puts forth a call for hardy adventurers to join on an expedition in order to vanquish an unknown evil plaguing the town of Kuldahar. We leave in a month's time from the date of this notice, in early Mirtul. Own provisions required - potential (unguaranteed) treasure to be split between the expeditionary force."

Usually, when you make a party, you make a well-balanced one. But would this be so? Who would answer a notice like the above? Maybe a well-balanced party, but maybe not. The odds do seem random. Even more so when you consider that the survivors of the avalanche - your party - just happens to have everything it needs. Why should that be the case? Especially when you consider that this call to adventure - in the arse end of Faerun - would only be answered by the desperate, average adventurers down on their luck, who are looking to make a name for themselves. No well-to-do adventurer/mercenary would go tromping about in the North without a VERY good reason.

This particular challenge is how good of a survivalist you are, what clever tactics and strategies you can use in the frozen wastelands of the North with your random party, and what kinds of tricks can you discover to make it through. Make no mistake, this is meant to be (and is) hard. It is meant to simulate an actual perilous journey in an unforgiving environment, which I feel it does well.

RULES:

- Randomly generate your party here: https://bgautochar.com/ - No adjustments of any kind. What you roll is what you get.
- 6 characters (OPTIONAL: Go to random.org and simluate a number between 1 and 6 for how many party members will be involved)
- Once you have made your entire party, appoint the leader slot to the one with the highest charisma.
- Difficulty: Core Rules
- No helmets allowed except magical ones (gotta cop them crits - the enemies do!)
- You may resurrect characters, but if they perma-die, then they are gone forever. Survival is not guaranteed on this adventure. How many will make it through till the very end (if any)?.
- No reloads
- If you fail to scribe a scroll, too bad
- About weapons: If you get assigned a specific STYLE when your character is randomly generated, you must stick with it for the duration. After all, whenever you watch shows, read books, each character has their own flair, style of combat, etc. So, if for example you get "single-weapon style," then your character can ONLY use single weapon style - no shields, etc. Sometimes your randomly-generated character will get several different styles, in which case you can use either/or. If you get no weapon styles, you can put the pips into whatever ONE TYPE of style you want when you get to the appropriate level. Note that if you start off with a weapon style, you may NOT put points into any kind of specific style, and must stick with your assigned style for the duration. This adds to the "feel" of each character.
- You may not use any weapon you are not proficient with. If you want to use a weapon with a certain character, you must wait until you can put a proficiency with that weapon.
- Specialist mages must have at least 1 spell from their spell-school memorised in each level of their spellbook.
- No Max HP on level up. All random.
- "Rest until healed" option disabled, though you may rest several times in a row - as much as you want, in fact (adventuring parties would take months off sometimes, and there is no real time limit in IWD - it never feels like a rushed game.) This rule is so if you are resting in the wilds, you have to risk triggering ambushes several times as opposed to once, to reflect the real dangers of the tundra.
- If more than one member of your party is fatigued, you MUST rest at your earliest convenience (one voice can be ignored - two, however, would not be). No making 3 day, 16 hour journeys back to Kuldahar, either. That's just unrealistic with a fatigued party. Rest where you are.


VARIATIONS:

If you want to play a specific alignment party, then keep rerolling until you roll the first six characters of that alignment. I find it better to have random alignments because this rag-rag bunch of misfits wouldn't all be aligned. Professional adventuring parties would be the exception, if you want to RP that.

MY PLAYTHROUGH:


My first party was a disaster:

It consisted of:

Elf Fighter
Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric
Dwarf Assassin
Half-Elf Transmuter
Human Conjurer
Half-Orc Fighter/Thief

I was fortunate enough to get a well-balanced party - however I played it on hard difficulty, which means I got a total party wipe in the Ogre cave outside Easthaven. That is when I decided that for this challenge, core rules would be more than sufficient. It is already difficult enough. Two mages was painful, especially since I didn't take sleep with any of them. Lesson well-learned.
Post edited by Wandering_Ranger on
JuliusBorisovilduderino

Comments

  • ShinShin Member Posts: 2,345
    If it's meant to promote RP, maybe additional rules to consider should be prohibiting engine abuse, e.g. no taking advantage of line of sight, closing doors, and other "clever tactics" that a DM wouldn't allow.

    Also, perhaps significantly limit the use of kiting: a general limitation of the infinity engine's pauses between movement and attack animations is that you can generally avoid most attacks as long as you keep moving, even when an enemy is faster than you are. Put on boots of speed, and you're all but untouchable. For more realistic RP, assume you will either have to engage or flee (abandon the area altogether) once you are spotted (unless they are realistically much slower than your party members, e.g. slimes, certain undead creatures), rather than feeling you can get away with presenting your back to the enemy again and again.
  • Wandering_RangerWandering_Ranger Member Posts: 175
    This challenge really is tough without adding to it. Try it and see. And boots of speed I thought were a given to not use - anywhere (IWD or BG). They are a broken item.
  • ShinShin Member Posts: 2,345
    I don't doubt that it's tough, it's more that with some scenarios ramping up selected aspects of difficulty tends to lead to increased cheese in other areas to compensate. E.g. you create a weak party but then rely more on engine limitations to keep them alive anyway, compared to creating a strong party but leaving them stuck in melee.
    Balrog99JuliusBorisov
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,364
    This challenge really is tough without adding to it. Try it and see. And boots of speed I thought were a given to not use - anywhere (IWD or BG). They are a broken item.

    I don't agree about the boots of speed. By your logic then having a monk or barbarian would already be 'op'. You'll never get 6 speed items so it's not that big of an advantage, especially with the huge numbers of enemies you face in IWDEE. A normal party of average adventurers would be able to use those boots to advantage the way they're arguably supposed to be used (scouting, getting enemies to chase you into an ambush, etc...).
    JuliusBorisov
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,364
    Hmm, one think I don't like is the weapon styles don't often match up with actual weapon skills. since you're promoting the RP aspects of this party I find it highly unlikely that a character would devote training in say, two weapon fighting, and then only know how to use a bow or a 2-handed sword. I would suggest that you should be able to substitute one weapon to match an assigned weapon style.
    JuliusBorisov
  • Wandering_RangerWandering_Ranger Member Posts: 175
    Balrog99 wrote: »
    This challenge really is tough without adding to it. Try it and see. And boots of speed I thought were a given to not use - anywhere (IWD or BG). They are a broken item.

    I don't agree about the boots of speed. By your logic then having a monk or barbarian would already be 'op'. You'll never get 6 speed items so it's not that big of an advantage, especially with the huge numbers of enemies you face in IWDEE. A normal party of average adventurers would be able to use those boots to advantage the way they're arguably supposed to be used (scouting, getting enemies to chase you into an ambush, etc...).

    No, by my logic the boots of speed are OP. Says it right there on the tin.

    Monk and Barbarian have their speed as part of their class. Having other classes, like say clerics, who aren't supposed to be fast using the boots makes them OP.

    But play however you want.

    As to the weapons, well, you build up to it. If you get assigned two-weapon style, for example, and a two-handed sword as a proficiency, then learn some one-handed weapon when you get to the appropriate level.

    Again though, play how you want. These are just my homebrew rules and the game is actually amazing with them.
    Balrog99
  • martinistripesmartinistripes Member Posts: 20
    I've been playing IWD years (I think since not long after the original release date), and still not completed it because I don't allow reloads. But this random party idea takes it to a whole new level!
    Balrog99Wandering_RangerAerakar
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,364
    Balrog99 wrote: »
    This challenge really is tough without adding to it. Try it and see. And boots of speed I thought were a given to not use - anywhere (IWD or BG). They are a broken item.

    I don't agree about the boots of speed. By your logic then having a monk or barbarian would already be 'op'. You'll never get 6 speed items so it's not that big of an advantage, especially with the huge numbers of enemies you face in IWDEE. A normal party of average adventurers would be able to use those boots to advantage the way they're arguably supposed to be used (scouting, getting enemies to chase you into an ambush, etc...).

    No, by my logic the boots of speed are OP. Says it right there on the tin.

    Monk and Barbarian have their speed as part of their class. Having other classes, like say clerics, who aren't supposed to be fast using the boots makes them OP.

    But play however you want.

    As to the weapons, well, you build up to it. If you get assigned two-weapon style, for example, and a two-handed sword as a proficiency, then learn some one-handed weapon when you get to the appropriate level.

    Again though, play how you want. These are just my homebrew rules and the game is actually amazing with them.

    I agree, play how you like. I'm just curious how you'd train in 2-handed weapon style but not be proficient in any 2-handed weapon. Shadow practicing?
  • Wandering_RangerWandering_Ranger Member Posts: 175
    I've been playing IWD years (I think since not long after the original release date), and still not completed it because I don't allow reloads. But this random party idea takes it to a whole new level!

    If you run through it, let us know how it goes!



    [/quote] I agree, play how you like. I'm just curious how you'd train in 2-handed weapon style but not be proficient in any 2-handed weapon. Shadow practicing?[/quote]

    You, as a player, know that you will put pips into two-handed swords in a few levels time, to match the fact that you randomly got allocated 2-handed weapon style. So it's a "future point" that has been allocated to you. Your character, you can RP, just learns the two-handed style at the same time you put the pip into two-handed swords (or whatever 2h weapon you are going with).

    It's just about increasing the theme and roleplayability.
  • ilduderinoilduderino Member Posts: 773
    May give this a go, rolled a few parties to see how it would work, the real kicker is getting no healer at all and wow good dexterity on a front liner is hard to come by
    Wandering_RangerJuliusBorisov
  • Wandering_RangerWandering_Ranger Member Posts: 175
    Aye indeed. But I have found that such runs really make you get to know the game better... it forces you to be creative, try new potions, spells, and other tactics that you wouldn't do with a traditional setup.
    ilduderinoJuliusBorisov
  • karlsteggerkarlstegger Member Posts: 19
    Did you ever finish this? I think it's a great idea and will certainly give it a shot when I'm done with my current BG-run.

    As for the generator, I rolled up about 100 chars yesterday but not one time did I see someone with pips in longsword...do you know if it's a coincidence or if it's simpy been left out? Also, just saw one Druid (an Avenger). Saw lots of Halflings and Gnomes and plenty of characters with pips in club, staff, spear, sling...it seems like there's a tendency to come up with characters, weapons etc. that are normally not the most used...or is it again just a coincidence?
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