Crafting a successful no-reload SCS core rules group
So I had a great time carefully progressing through SCS no-reload until certain fights proved too much for me. With the experience (aka metagaming knowledge) of my current minimal reloads group I'm hopeful to craft a group that can overcome the title challenge.
Is this something you have or would attempt?
What are your thoughts on how to do this?
Here are some thoughts I'd had:
- A mixture of custom characters (for OP kits) and NPCs might be best to be able to recruit the NPCs at level 5 or 6 for effective free XP.
- Wizards are the biggest challenge, particularly CC that they use like horror, sleep, confusion etc
- from above, tactics to counter the spells is important
----greenstone amulet
----berserker kit
----ranged characters avoiding the AoE
----chaotic commands (level 5 divine spell - Druid only in Bg1)
----potions
Too much time on my hands maybe ...
Is this something you have or would attempt?
What are your thoughts on how to do this?
Here are some thoughts I'd had:
- A mixture of custom characters (for OP kits) and NPCs might be best to be able to recruit the NPCs at level 5 or 6 for effective free XP.
- Wizards are the biggest challenge, particularly CC that they use like horror, sleep, confusion etc
- from above, tactics to counter the spells is important
----greenstone amulet
----berserker kit
----ranged characters avoiding the AoE
----chaotic commands (level 5 divine spell - Druid only in Bg1)
----potions
Too much time on my hands maybe ...
0
Comments
I'd definitely get a Berserker and Barbarian in the line-up. Inquisitor seems a good fit here too.
In the SCS game I have planned, although not a no-reload game, I'm going to try an Assassin dualed to Fighter who has Grandmastery in Darts and hurls Darts of Wounding and Stunning. She'll also have two pips in Crossbow in order to try using the Light Crossbow of Speed with Bolts of Biting. With the stacking Poison Weapon kit feature for an Assassin, that's going to be a whole lot of poison damage with either darts (4.5 APR) or the crossbow (3 APR)--and Hasting will add another APR. This could be a devastating mage killer.
And you'll need some powerful spellcasters to strip the enemy wizards and priests spell buffs.
I love challenging fights even more than a regular SCS user, as I edited scs.ini to add 3 levels to every spell caster in the game. But no-reload challenge does not attract me. I already play minimal reload, that is, load only on protagonist death.
You need to pick your fights, and completely eliminate the danger to make a no reload work. No matter how good your saving throws are, you really shouldn't be in a situation where you must make a saving throw or 'die' (basilisk gaze, sirine charm, green slime touch, ghoul/ghast paralysis, hold person spells, etc.) Like, you have -10 AC and a save vs paralysation of 3, you think you can go toe to toe with ghasts safely? No! One critical hit and you roll 1 or 2 in your saving throw and you are dead. The end. Never engage in melee with ghouls/ghasts unless you have protection from undead or free action or negative saving throws, all which can be attained with scrolls/potions/spells etc.
Basilisks? Animate Dead.
Sirenes? Animate Dead.
Spellcasters? Animate Dead and Summon Monster. Repeatedly, until they run out of spells.
Summon your front line, summon your "bait", and never, ever risk your party. With a thief to play frontline commander for your Summons and a team of mages to keep your enemies busy fighting the fodder, rather than your people, your basic protection becomes "you are never the target".
So...
A main character with a Faerie Dragon familiar, for guaranteed enemy immunity whilst resting, ideally CG Mage/Thief for scout/puppet mastery.
Ranger/Cleric sub for Animate Dead and slinger dominance.
The rest can be just plain "underpowered" NPCs without even remotely denting your chances of domination, or left blank entirely, which makes Invisibility + Sanctuary no risk resting much simpler.
Hopefully later it'll balance out more.
I figure either a bard or Druid (cl 10) or inquisitor (cl 12 with 1.5x cl) should definitely be in the lineup.
Is getting +50% darts/round really worth losing x4 backstabs and shorty saves on a pure thief as an example?
I'd go daggers over darts. With 19 strength (from one source or another) you end up doing some serious damage throwing 3.5 daggers/round and can apply poison via dagger of venom backstabs.
I think my current single custom character group that ill try is something like:
Illusionist/thief charname with staff of striking
Yeslick tank
Coran damage dealer/locks/backstabs
Dorn damage dealer
Faldorn healer/summons
Baeloth boom!
Identical to my current group besides charname class from cleric to illusionist.
@Pantalion
Summons are definitely great and I've used them quite a lot but there are quite a few fights where they wouldn't be an option due to the time to summon and buff.
Plus, I like to actually have fun.
I was thinking something like:
Berserker (7)/Druid (9) w/Scimitar*****
Berserker (6)/Cleric (8) w/Stupifier (and Ashideena)
Berserker (7)/Thief (8) w/Scimitars*****, crossbow*
Berserker (5)/Mage (9) w/longswords*** and daggers **
Skald (10) halberd, longbow, greatsword
Helm cleric (5)/thief (9) w/staff of striking
Fits my playstyle of as many in melee as possible. Beginning game would be hard until a healer becomes available but the group would be godlike eventually.
Personally I'd consider a Ranger 3 > Cleric for the Stupifier dual-wielder. He'd also come on-line fast relative to the Druid, so you would never have a healer gap.
So, here's my party (loosely based on BG2 tactic's mod Red Badge Poison Encounter, jejeje)
main character: human dual assassin 5--> fighter 8 (when maxed), dual wielding dagger of venom and scimitar+2 (i'm not killing drittz), grand mastery in daggers & 19 strengh (so high APR and damage), every skill points into stealth, posion weapon ability twice a day, 60+ damage per backstab (and on top of that there are so few (if any) enemies immune to backstab). He only needs 42000 xp to complete the dual process, which is quite early in the game. I keep him in leather (shadow armor) and used shadow keeper (EE version) to change his avatar back to thief. Main damage dealer.
Human Dual berserker 3 --> cleric 8 (when maxed), grand mastery in maces (stupifier, staff mace+2), tanking with full plate + shield + berserker rage (why would you need summons for killing sirines?), 21 wisdom with the tomes (too bad he can't cast lvl 5 spells), quick dualling process
Human Blackguard 8 (when maxed), high strengh, full plate, 2-handed sword & style, backup archer, really good abilities
Elf swashbuckler 10 (when maxed), 20 dex, crossbow of speed & those nice poisoning crossbow bolts. Takes care of traps&locks and set a trap every now and then
Gnome multi cleric/illusionist (7/7 when maxed). Spells, spells, spells, i'm not even giving him a sling
Half-Elf Conjurer 9. Main arcane caster
I use lots of buffing and disabling spells combos with my casters (i.e. haste+pro evil 5'+defensive armory for me and malison+slow+silence for them) and then use poison ability for a quick ending fight. Still have to go through ToSC fights but so far... really fun.
SCS makes this game so much fun!
But since that's not the case in EE, they'll largely ignore them until your party is stunned, confused, or disabled via other means. The same applies for Tutu.
And OP, my Skald would love your party. +2's for everybody!
With that many dual classed characters, expect a lot of frustration if you're running that team through one play through. I have two dual classed characters as I speak in a party of five and it's kind of tedious.
Skald 10 ( Silke
Avenger 7
Wizard Slayer 6/ Druid 5
Assassin 6/ Mage 5
Monk 6
It was just a 4-man party, but after dualing, brought in my Monk since the WS is a Druid for a few more levels.
This is not a legit party, just customs I want to use later on in multiplayer. Once the duals are leveled, I'll put in my Cleric from a previous play through for buffs and to cap them.
Melee is the antithesis of Hardcore runs. You cannot ever compensate for the power of Random, you can only avoid the situations where it comes up. Yes, it applies more to solo, but it never stops applying, melee is where you sent your
lowly peonsfighters to go die.Of course, if that's how you enjoy it, that's fine, personally I find dual classing in general to be as enjoyable as stabbing myself in the eye with a spoon, but it's more important to play the way you enjoy than it is to play in the most optimal way, even with a hardcore run.
@Copastetic1985
The thing about cautious summoning play, is that your main party is rarely, if ever, a target in the first place. Your thief is always hidden, and your summons are always moving ahead of them. As the only viable target they can see, summons will always be their target of choice, with only your scout being in any real danger of collateral damage.
I've tried using summons like in vanillia and like most of us have everytime we've played this game over the years. To me now, its about 30/70 thing. 30, being in your favor that the AI will target the summons.
In my recent runs with the mod, I only give my Cleric two slots for Animate, and keep one Wand of Summoning with at most ten charges to use throughout the game. They're that useless to me from my experience with SCS.
Don't expect more than one wave of summons though. After its wiped out the wizards tend to go invisible and start looking for whoever summoned it.
For instance: I was heading to Knoll Stronghold. Rested before leaving for next zone. Tank intercepted initial aggro from the three Ogre Berserkers after they had targeted my Skald, further away than my tank, Monk, and Druid.
Backed the backline up some, sent Monk in who had half health. Even though all three Ogres were swinging away at my Fighter, all three instata targeted Monk and killed him right as he approached. Then went back to the tank.
They target smartly. The creator did a good job.