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How to avoid XP in the Firewine dungeon

LoldrupLoldrup Member Posts: 291
For those of you who loath XP, here is how I (mostly) avoided getting it while completing the Firewine ruins:

* Obviously, one shouldn't give the old armour to the six ghosts, as that alone grants 1500 XP
* When approaching Lendarn and the Ogre mage, I equipped Imoen with Talo's Gift (boots with 50% electrical resistance) and Batalista's Passport (ring with 40% fire resistance) and had her drink a potion of 50% fire resistance and a potion of 50% electrical resistance (can't remember the name). Lendarn is quite fond of the lightning bolt spell and both him and the Ogre mage loves the fire arrow spell.
I had Imoen run straight past Lendarn towards the Ogre mage, pulling all the minions with her on the way. Shortly after Imoen reached the Ogre mage, Lendarn's first Lightning Bolt went off and caused a carnage in the Ogre mage's room. Though injured, the Ogrillions still managed to hit Imoen twice, bringing her down to half health (12HP). At this point Imoen had already been confused by the Ogre mage, but she held her position as a target for Lendarn's second Lightning Bolt. This killed the Ogre Mage and left only a single injured Ogrillion and an uninjured Kobold shooting arrows at her.
Imoen, still confused, did the right thing: attacked the remaining Ogrillion, which she (eventually..) managed to kill!
In the meantime I sent my main troops in to deal with Lendarn. As they all have really bad THAC0, and Lendarn had cast Improved Invisibility, nothing much really happened from that. Garrick hit once with Chill Touch, while Jaheira suffered his Fire Arrow spells. I had my charname Enchanter ('Eclatan') cast charm person on the remaining Kobold, which I then sent to attack Lendarn as well. After a short while, the Kobold managed a hit, and Lendarn lay dead by its feet. As a thank for its heroic deed, I surrounded it and pelted it with blunt blows on its head.
Thus I ended up only getting XP for one Ogrillion and one Kobold in the boss fight. Neat! When Lendarn fell, Imoen was already back to her old self and I went to Mr. Luckyfoot to collect my reward, which, thankfully:
* Only consisted of 250 GP! No XP! :D

At this point I still had one Charm Person spell memorised. Encouraged by my success, I felt like trying out how much this spell could do for me against the 4 mercenaries on the lower edge of the map. Eclatan went forward and immediately cast the spell, successfully, on their fighter. She watched in awe as a plethora of spells way beyond her ability was unleashed on him by his former comrades. When things came quiet, the fighter stood Enfeebled and near death.
Eclatan poked around in her scroll cage to see if she could find some extra fun with the Charm Person spell. She found two scrolls! After using those, and a potion of Invisibility, both their fighter and their priest lay dead. She decided to let the two gnomish types live, so all she had to do was loot the bodies. Unfortunately, looting dispels Invisibility (in v1.3) so she quickly had the two gnomes on her tail. While dodging them, she also concocted a following of two Dire Wolves. Narrowly avoiding death by jaws, she made it back to the rest of the party, which joined her wild panic run towards the western edge of the map. To complete the hostile entourage, a Ghast showed up, snapping after both Jaheira and Dynaheir. Luckily both attacks missed and the fearfull heroes could escape back to Beregost with the mighty loot: a chain mail +2.
Unfortunately they're not allowed to use chain mails until after the bandit camp. Oh well.., now at least it's ready :)
Post edited by Loldrup on
tbone1

Comments

  • UnderstandMouseMagicUnderstandMouseMagic Member Posts: 2,147
    Small brain explosion here. :o

    I admire your tactics, but who loaths XP?
    Can there be such a thing?
    tbone1Aerakar
  • LoldrupLoldrup Member Posts: 291
    edited July 2017

    Small brain explosion here. :o

    I admire your tactics, but who loaths XP?
    Can there be such a thing?

    I loath XP because it makes me higher level and thus quickly very powerful and thus the game somewhat more boring.

    I just made a run through the Xvarts village. Holy cow, I had to reload around 40 times before I made it through. The problem is, I don't want to face Ursula the cave bear. Firstly because she quickly chews through my (studded) leather-clad party, secondly because she gives lots of XP. Ursula would always reach me and gnaw my bones before I could grind through Nexlit the Xvart and his hefty entourage. Even with the help of Color Spray on the Xvarts I wasn't able to get past. After trying long and hard with Entangle and Command to slow Ursula (she has crazy saves), my final success came down to my mage Eclatan successfully freezing Ursula with a dart of stunning.
    Which makes me realize that I should probably allow special darts to be thrown by party members who are actually proficient in darts. Else they never hit and are kinda useless. My standard rule is that no one may use weapons in which they are proficient. Special darts are so rare that I can afford the 'luxurious' exception on them. And I'm not allowed to buy them from shops.

    Here is my full rule set in its latest edition:

    No character is allowed to use weapons for which they have any proficiency points. Exceptions:
    - Thieves and mages may use melee weapons in which they have proficiency (but not specialisation!).
    - Special darts (stun and poison darts) may be used by anyone with any number of proficiency points in darts.
    - When fighting monsters for which specific weapons have bonuses against, it is okay to fight with these weapons even when one has proficiency or specialisation in it (except for the hammer 'The Knee-capper’. For small enemies (650XP and below) you shouldn't use it with proficiency points).
    - When fighting Karoug it's okay to use weapons in which one has any number of proficiency points.
    To pay for their privilege, thieves are not allowed to backstab mages.
    No purchased special ammo. Use only the special ammo you can find in the wild.
    No Web, Sleep, Horror, Silence, Glitterdust or Hold Person spells. You may however cast these from scrolls. Thus you can use these scrolls as 'special sauce’, just like potions.
    You may at most use the Command spell only once (successfully) against any given foe.
    No ranged weapons may be used against spell casters. This includes magically concocted ranged weapons such as Melfs Minute Meteors, but not the less powerful spell 'Magical Stone' (are there others?)..
    No magic missile spell against spell casters.
    Wizards may only be slain after all their minions have perished.
    No Fireballs against humans.
    No Dorn beyond his quest line.
    No dual wielding fighters.
    No short duration prebuffing before fights.
    Disallowed items:
    - all wands, except the Wand of Magic Missile.
    - Gauntlets of Dexterity.
    - Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
    - Rings of the princess or similar items.
    - Ankheg plate.
    - Drizzt's equipment (except if you actually kill him!).
    - Chesley Crusher.
    - The Stupifier unnerfed (on Android).
    - Dagger of Venom may not be used against spell casters.
    Magical items may not be sold (too rich too soon). As an exemption, items obtained through Pick Pocketing may be sold.
    If you ever need to kite an enemy for more than a short time, run away and come back later.
    The following enemies gives too much XP bonus and are therefore disallowed from being slain: Dread Wolves, Winter Wolves, Ghasts, Sirenes, Polar Bears, Golems, Basilisks, the Revenant, the undeads around Durlags Tower (except the two at the bridge). They may however be attacked late game, but still only as little as possible.
    Try to think twice before completing a quest: do you really want **2000** XP for saving Melicamp the Chicken? Or 500 XP for handing over a short sword to that halfling in Bereghost? Or 900 XP for talking down Marl? (I haven't visited Feldepost Inn yet - for that reason). Skip finalising such quests till later in the game where the extra XP doesn't matter. Stay low level - stay tense!
    Highest level of armor allowed for each chapter:
    Chapter 1: Leather,
    Chapter 2: Leather,
    Chapter 3: Studded leather, Hide armor,
    Chapter 4: Chainmail,
    Chapter 5: Splint mail,
    Chapter 6: Plate mail,
    Chapter 7: Full plate mail (Ankheg is never allowed).
    No equipment swapping during battle (potions, scrolls, ammunition exempted).
    No potion stacking using the same type of potion in a stack.
    No sleeping before half of NPCs are tired (and no fake travel to make them tired ;)
    When specialist mages reach level 3, they must dedicate half of their spell slots (rounded down) to spells that belong to their specialist school. The highest spell level the caster has access to is exempted from this rule.
    Once one of your party members reaches 5000 XP, you may only level up a party member when all members are ready to level up. After that, the next level up will have to wait until the condition is met again, and so on.
    You may morf to maps to pick up the NPCs you want.
    You may change the class of one NPC.
    You may NOT change character’s proficiency points.
    For one NPC, you may swap one stat for another.
    You may fix the HP of NPCs that had unfortunate level up rolls before they joined you.
    You may not change NPC thieves’ thieving skill points. Those are part of their personality.
    Post edited by Loldrup on
  • Mantis37Mantis37 Member Posts: 1,173
    You can install an XP reducing mod. Even an item/ treasure reducing mod too. I find no-reloading gives me adequate challenge though, especially with SCS.
    AerakarArctodus
  • LoldrupLoldrup Member Posts: 291
    Mantis37 said:

    You can install an XP reducing mod. Even an item/ treasure reducing mod too. I find no-reloading gives me adequate challenge though, especially with SCS.

    How can no-reload be fun, when you have to play it **very** safe? (very safe = not living on the edge = very boring (presumably..))
  • TheGraveDiggerTheGraveDigger Member Posts: 336
    Loldrup said:

    Mantis37 said:

    You can install an XP reducing mod. Even an item/ treasure reducing mod too. I find no-reloading gives me adequate challenge though, especially with SCS.

    How can no-reload be fun, when you have to play it **very** safe? (very safe = not living on the edge = very boring (presumably..))
    You have it backwards. No reload is the closest you can get to "living on the edge" in this game, you make one mistake and it's all over. Knowing you can lose everything adds a special kind of "fun" that you just can't get with reloading.

    For added "fun" try no reload and no raise dead.
    Arctodus
  • DreadKhanDreadKhan Member Posts: 3,857
    Not using autopause/pause and restoring the 'no pause during equipment fiddling' thing would be pretty nasty for casters. Solo sorcerer would be a nightmare imho.
    tbone1
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