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"Maybe this time" [NO-RELOAD THREAD]: "The Tale of TEN THOUSAND Trials"

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  • kcwisekcwise Member Posts: 2,287
    Another hero heads for Amn! Fun stuff! :)
    BlackravenJuliusBorisovMusignylolien
  • JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,714
    And Kathlen has joined Durak in an adventure to Amn. You win was with a certain flavour, @Blackraven , "just like old time, except for a torture and all". Only 8 updates for BG1 - I wonder how much it will take for BG2:)
    Musignylolien
  • YgramulYgramul Member Posts: 1,059
    Congratulations, @Blackraven , for recording the first victory of the thread. May Kathlen fair as well against Irenicus next.
    BlackravenJuliusBorisovMusignylolien
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    @Gotural, Awesome!! All hail Anselm!
    GoturalkcwiseJuliusBorisovlolien
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    A new game has begun.

    Imber has fallen in BG2, but she lives on through another avatar, named Zey, after another character of the same book. This party is also randomized, with messed up ability scores, resistances, AC, movement rate, THAC0, damage bonuses, kits, casting time and speed factors, and some other kooky effects on top.

    Our Charname this time, Zey, is a Monk with the Shapeshifter, Stalker, Wizard Slayer, and Swashbuckler kits.
    image

    I love that portrait. I forget which website I got it from... some woman who makes very elaborate and pretty masks.

    As a Wizard Slayer and as a Monk, Zey is basically incapable of equipping any items, ever. She will spend virtually the entire game in werewolf form. She has awful physical damage resistances, and terrible saves despite her being a halfling, but she has an MR boost on top of her Wizard Slayer levels and has a fantastic +5 to hit and damage, not counting her Swashbuckler bonuses. And as a Stalker, she starts out the game with a 3x backstab multiplier. She won't be very safe in melee, though. Right now, unbuffed, there's not a single character in this entire party that has HP over 60.

    Along with Zey, we have Fobie, a recurring character in my games, usually a goofy bard. He's still a bard here, but now he comes with the Assassin and Cleric of Helm kits.
    image

    His AC and THAC0 are god-awful, and in general he's a very messed up character, who fills in no particularly useful role. But he has a ridiculous ability along with a crippling disability.

    Fobie, through amazing luck, has Improved Alacrity, just like Imber did. And unlike Imber, he has a -3 bonus to casting time, synergizing perfectly with his aura cleansing. But there are two things stopping him from hurling out tons of damage spells at once.

    First, he has major penalties to his 1st- and 2nd-level spells, getting only one slot for Mirror Image and nothing else. Second, he has 2 INT (supposed to be 1, but it doesn't matter). And since Item Revisions removes Potions of Genius and Potions of Mind Focusing, he will NEVER learn a new spell. He is forever stuck with the ones he has at the beginning of the game, and he cannot even cast spells from scrolls. If I ever turn the difficulty back down to Normal, however, he should be able to learn some new spells.

    Basically, he can cast a bunch of 3rd-level spells (he has some extra slots there) and that's as much as he's good for. But since he can throw out four Flame Arrows, which in Spell Revisions are spread across multiple targets, in a single round, he will be indispensable in the early game.

    Next, we have Marilyn Blueapple, an old hand from my IWD runs, a warm-hearted dwarf, who in this run will be a Paladin/Mage/Thief.
    image

    Marilyn has the Stalker kit, like Zey, as well as the Wizard Slayer kit, but in a cruel twist, he is also cursed with the Wild Mage kit... one of the worst, indeed, you can pick for a no-reload run. I'm not even sure I'll keep him around, since his wild surges are such a huge risk. As a triple-class, his levels will be rather low, and that only increases the likelihood of a bad roll on a surge.

    He has a lightning fast casting speed, with a -3 bonus, and can therefore cause all kinds of mischief if we abuse Nahal's Reckless Dweomer, which casts as if under the effects of Improved Alacrity. The Wild Mage kit will also allow him to cast 9th level spells, which no one else in the party can ever do. If we're desperate, he might just be able to change our luck, but otherwise he's just there to disarm traps and unlock chests.

    His combat stats are miserable, too, despite his high STR, and a combination of poor AC, low HP, and bad resistances mean he's very, very easy to kill. He does have a marvelous save vs. spell, but that's about it. His strengths and weaknesses combine to form a very ineffective character overall (for a no-reload run, anyway), but the sad thing is that I didn't have many better options to pick from, since I only generated 10 characters from which I picked my party.

    On a lighter note, we have Snowy Tae, another descendant of my IWD runs, a motherly gnomish cleric/thief. She has a penalty to casting time, but she's our only source of high-level divine spells, which we sorely lacked in Imber's run.
    image

    She has the Inquisitor and Bounty Hunter kits, which mitigate her low stats. Her average ability score is a six, and she can't even swing a short sword without a spell to help her out. But she does have two spectacular bonuses to her combat stats: her THAC0 is set to -6, and she has a damage bonus of +5. This would work better on a fighter, but in my install, clerics are able to use bladed weapons, which means she'll be able to use darts and speed weapons.

    Finally, we have Sala Tora, a temperamental human bard with a rather ill-fitting Jester kit.
    image

    She also has the Cavalier, Kensai, and Assassin kits. A bard with the Kensai kit is normally a powerhouse, but Sala Tora has big penalties to hit and damage, which she won't overcome until much later in the game, making her crazy STR more useful for her carrying capacity than dealing damage. On top of that, she has the slowest movement speed in the party, limiting her ability to get around.
    The only reason she's useful is her physical damage resistances: she will be immune to weapon damage just as soon as she gets the Cloak of the Sewers. But until then, she doesn't stand a chance in melee combat: with major penalties to her 2nd- and 4th-level spell slots, high AC due to her 2 DEX, a hit point total of 27, and little ability to run away from her attackers, she cannot hope to survive getting targeted by the enemy.

    Aside from Zey, whose abilities complement each other quite nicely, the whole party is a collection of dysfunctional powers, incapable of serving a standard role. They will require a lot more management than Imber and her group, but Fobie will greatly simplify the early game with his ability to spam Fireball and Flame Arrow.
    GoturalkcwiseJuliusBorisovlolien
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @Demivrgvs: By the way... the Stalker version of Haste appears to remain area-effect, even as the wizard version is single-target. It does have the SR stats, though, with the bonuses to save vs. breath, THAC0, and the altered "fatigue" penalties.
    kcwise
  • DemivrgvsDemivrgvs Member Posts: 315
    @semiticgod yeah sorry. Kit Revisions gives the Stalker a different set of kit-specific spells (Swift Invisibility, Swift Haste, Non-detection and Improved Invisibility) and I forgot about vanilla's stalker-only spells. I'll fix the inconsistency thanks.
    kcwise
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    Those Nymphs are awesome @semiticgod! Are those vanilla Nymphs? Do they scale as you level up (as in aTweaks)?
    GoturalkcwiseJuliusBorisovlolien
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @Blackraven: No, they won't scale. Unfortunately, the effect is not casting a spell, but using using an .eff file, in this NYMPHSU, which only summons a nymph, no leveling or anything. If it was a spell file, then you could have a leveled summons, or more than one effect, but those nymphs are all they'll ever be.

    I could still replace the relevant .cre file, if I wanted. But I don't see that being necessary anytime soon.
    kcwiseBlackravenJuliusBorisovlolien
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