Infinity Engine Ironman Extravaganza

[Shannow]

I tried another go at IWD2. I thought I had a better understanding of 3rd ed rules and could get through... Well, shits and giggles but no cigar. After some early close calls (my barbarian running like a little pussy with 2/81 hp against the first troll encounter but surviving) the damn horde stronghold was the end of me. Worg riders teleporting in, drummers hiding out of sight, first an add of two trolls and then after my frontliners were down but my casters were wearing the trolls down another add came from the south with some orc shamans... If the trolls hadn't repeatedly save against my chromatic orbs, if my characters had saved against the enemy Hold spells...
Considering that trolls seem to hit with nearly every strike even against armored opponents I'd say that their BAB was somehow borked.
No pics, didn't get far anyway. And I somehow doubt it's possible.
Was still fun since I survived three encounters where things were looking bleak and where I'd normally reload.

I don't think I'll try again since stuff like the trolls and teleporting worg riders already felt far to overpowering and I remember the Drowned Dead being worse...

 

[GarfunkeL]

Time to necro this beast up. I don't have IWD installed, so it has to be BGT. I've never tried to run a full arcane party, so that'll be the theme of this ironman run. I'm not going to reach Sarevok since I have SCS installed, including all the extra-difficulty challenges. It'll be interesting to see whether we even reach the bottom of Nashkel Mines. Still, having to play super-carefully should be a refreshing variation on the game. So let's do this!



Firstly, let's meet our Bhaalspawn, the protagonist of the story:

Oh yes, it's our very own Black Cat herself. Stats are min-maxed, I think I rolled them about thirty times or so. Couldn't use CHA as a total dumpstat or BC would hex me. The amount of XP she has is from doing all the quests in Candlekeep. Don't ask me why she has 12 HP instead of 6. I think one of the mods I have doubles the protagonists starting HP. In any case, it's not going to make much of a difference. Why is she mage/thief, you might ask? That's easy. There are 5 NPC wizards you can recruit in BG1:

• XZAR - necromancer
• QUAYLE - cleric / illusionist
• EDWIN - conjurer
• DYNAHEIR - invoker
• XAN - enchanter

So the gnome will take care of healing (I use BG1 NPC Project which moves him from Wyrm's Crossing to Nashkel Festival) but Black Cat will have to take care of traps and locks. I could have used Imoen and then dual-classed her to generalist wizard but everyone is sick and tired of Imoen so fuck that. Also, thanks to mods it'll be possible to keep Edwin and Dynaheir from killing each other. We'll see if I can even reach Xan - clever ones might have already guessed that I listed the NPCs in the order that I'm going to recruit them. But I will recruit and use other NPCs as cannon fodder until I've made the arcane team, so there probably will be deaths. In case one of the chosen five kicks the bucket, they will be replaced by the bards and then Imoen who will be dual-classed at some point, to keep the TEAM ARCANE juices flowing. We'll see how it goes.

There's her humble inventory after leaving Candlekeep. Short swords for backstabbing (won't happen until we get invisibility, as I'm putting all points into into traps), crossbow for general pew-pew.

And there's Imoen as we recruited her.
We bury Gorion (yes, it's possible now, thanks modders) and meet up with these two gentlemen:

Wonderfully weak assassin. I expect him to die shortly.

Delightfully insane necromancer. Hopefully I can keep him alive.
We've looted the Ring of Protection +1 and the Ring of Wizardry, leading us to the first challenge - killing that wizard assassin at the steps of Friendly Arms Inn. Stay tuned!

 

[GarfunkeL]

Tarnesh went down, though the battle was quite hard, thanks to SCS buffing him up few levels and allowing him to insta-cast Shield and Mirror Image. Good thing Xzar woke up when he did and got off his last Larloch's Minor Drain, which ended up killing Tarnesh.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Oh yes, it's our very own Black Cat herself. Stats are min-maxed, I think I rolled them about thirty times or so. Couldn't use CHA as a total dumpstat or BC would hex me. The amount of XP she has is from doing all the quests in Candlekeep. Don't ask me why she has 12 HP instead of 6. I think one of the mods I have doubles the protagonists starting HP. In any case, it's not going to make much of a difference. Why is she mage/thief, you might ask? That's easy. There are 5 NPC wizards you can recruit in BG1:

Why didn't you use CON as a dumpstat? ST probably too.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I rolled enough times so I didn't have to. CON, up to 16, is useful in 2nd edition - especially in BG with SCS installed, as enemy spellcasters love to target my spellcasters and I don't want this ironman run to end the moment someone throws an single direct damage spell against Black Cat.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Update 2.

So Black Cat made her way to the Friendly Arms Inn and recruited Jaheira & Khalid. We also stole everything that we could.

Man, they are a crappy duo.

Thus the party is ready to move onwards! First target, that Ogre with a belt fetish.

During the party Khalid got hit hard. While Jaheira managed to heal him, he panicked and ran south, first hitting a group of gibberlings and xvarts and then a group of bandits, with obvious results:

Yup. Poor Khalid didn't last long. I'm not even going to bother with showing his stats, he had only gotten the XP from killing the ogre and a few gibberlings.

Not to be outdone, Montaron failed his stealth check, several times in a row:

And joined the Club of Dead Heroes. Good job, you runty assassin. At this point I was all "no worries, Jaheira is alive, we'll focus fire on that bitch of bandit first and-"

KILLED BY A GIBBERLING?!?!?! Sweet merciful Bane, that's bad. She was supposed to drink a health potion but didn't have time. Oh well, time to run away:

I did the whole "run in circles" thing with Imoen using the Wand of Magic Missiles to blast the Caravan Bandit Leader every now and then while Black Cat and Xzar tried to shoot her, with very little luck. Naturally I bumped first into more Gibberlings and then to a Wolf party. Ok, fuck this shit, I won't care if I lose dead people's equipment, time to evac north to the Inn. But as I was almost at the map exit:

There she lies, bleeding and quite lifeless. I think it was the Dread Wolf that ended Black Cat's promising career as a Heroine and a Bhaalspawn.

****

Well, this ended sooner than I thought but that's low-level AD&D for you.

 

[Shadenuat]

Pooir kawai catsu D:

Okay, I'll play the sad BG nerd. I'll also break the rules and run a multiplayer. Don't be afraid, I won't last long.
It's TUTU + NPC Mod.

Allow me introduce to you a spy group on a service of noble slavelords of tall and majestic and crispy-majestic-und-antique, bold and bald (though not everyone, and one because of a joke not being truly alive) and bloody red group of The Wizards of Thay (or just "Thay").

Starring:

Spoiler

1) Ruberd, though friends call him just Rubi, and that was his idea to roll 6 times 3 3d6's for stats to everyone using my Warhammer dice. To no surprise, leader ended up the worst at rolling of the bunch, barely scrapping stats to become a mage at all. I think I should just stick with my Eldar and don't touch those for anything else.

2) The emanation of bald Thayan beauty, Sophy, armed with dangerous wooden darts which size arguably makes them only effective at killing cats, but nevertheless with 3 attacks per round made Sophy the most damaging character in a group D:

3) A gentleman most elegant, galant to ladies, forever necromancer, a weird piece of animated bone... Bones. He does't talk much, though. But his manners are still top notch.

4) One of the two partymembers who got decent rolls, always angry gnome Ignacius.

5) A support character made completely for lulz, lady Oracle, who rolled stats so well (the smallest was 14) that I had to roll a good amount of time to actually give her them, and still rolled 1 less D: Well, she's fucking Diviner after all.

6) A guest star, serving as a better person at talking with whores and getting constantly drunk, brave little man, scout and scoundrel, you know him, you love him, -... I just ran out of portraits really. Oh, and his rolls are almost as terrible as leader's.

Story, Part I-VII:

Spoiler

I. Equpping the most powerful weapon in the game for the most characters - a sling, we are able infiltrate Candlekeep for our own means and slay an assasin serving unknown group. Bloodhooded heroes then proceed through the dark forest to witness death of Gorion, and, to play it safe, also get rid of an annoying twat, certanly a spy and a Bhaal child, Imoen.

II. Thay loot Imoen's and Gorion's body and find strange scroll, which reveal to 'em the location of arch nemesis Harpers, who they are going to hunt down. Names Khaleed and Jaheira sound like a wardrumm and Thay fastens to Friendly Arm Inn for their prey.
Alas, on the road they get ambushed by dire wolves, bears and few packs of gibberlings. Surrounded, they use their last Charm spells, but one monster passes his save and eat's noble lord Tyrion's face.

III. With the body of a fallen red comrade, Thay meets servants of Zentharim and decides to get rid of 'em. Group rests for few hours and gets ambushed three times in a row, loosing their cleric and diviner. Still, they cast Charm on of Zenth and he kills his brethren, and then they put other asleep and finish him.
By some luck, they find a diamond inside a hollow tree.

IV. After meeting with Elminster and changing their underwear, being that scared of hero of Harpers who could kill them with a single cloud from his smokepipe, Thay use their magic detection skills to search and find protective ring inside a stone pillar, and proceed near western part of the location right into the Tavern. It welcomes them with sunshine and bright banners. They take their time to recuperate and re-learn their spells.

V. Right on a doorstep, strange lone mage misjudges them for their last victim. Thay laugh it him, and use three Charm Persons on him. They order poor charmed slob to cast his magic missiles on himself, and he dies from his own magic. Irony.

VI. Party sells diamond and ressurects their friends. They proceed with some menial tasks, like hunting for a lost flamedance ring...

VII. ...and slaying beltfetish ogre. Of course, Harpers also get some.
Just as direwolves, gibberlings, xvarts, regular wolves and who knows what else. Thay were particularly amused when they had to kite three direwolves, as they heared that only some regular wolves should've be huntin here.

Parth VIII-XIV:

Spoiler

VIII. Hearing rumours of one of their brethren in Nashkel seeking help to slay a Rashemi witch, and other gossip about new power rising, Thay walk south. Here they meet some bard and, for their joy, Charm him and send to his death fighting a group of xvarts.

IX. They arrive at Beregost and start collecting money for long journey south. In a tavern, they meed quite and aggravating fellow. They decide Tyrion to talk to him, which obviously ends in a brawl. Wizards effortlessly Charm filthy peasant and send to fight his drunken buddy, after that - finish him.

X. Boldly, Thayans decide to take out evil sorceress who is in a possesion of The Stick. They ambuch her and her bard, but somehow lady Silke resists about four Charm spells and start murdering them while being invisible, starting with good old evil cleric Ignacius. Thay charm some brigands and Garrick, and Silke kills them also.

XI. In the end, leader (who hid most of the combat behind a house and just gave wise comands to his comrades) and Oracle emerge the only victorious. They argue of who would get The Stick, until leader gets a dart in the eye and agrees that Oracle deserved artifact more, as that was she who finished Silke after Bones got last pretty pink lights turning him in not really pretty combination of pink goo and burnt bone.

XII. Most of the loot was again used to raise party up and they had to do some quests for locals to pay their debt to the temple of Lathander back.
For example, those spider never remembered them being insects, succumbing to sleep spells. Or maybe they just never heard newest gossip from their insectoid brethren about 3d edition. Anyway, they were easy prey.. for Thay. Ohh, we need a bard in a group to make song with this rythm.

XIII. At last, road south. Everyone in group reached next level of experience, and Tyrion got hands on awesome boots of Shadow, allowing himself to scout ahead without fear of being noticed. So Thay just send a dwarf to scout, then threw Sleep spells for afar and used ranged weapons, clearing the road and it's surroundings of anything, namely: ogrilons, hobgoblins, bandits, ghouls, ghasts...
Rubi got +1 HP after his level up, thus making it incredible 5 HP. Remember that for the future. Oracle bitch got +5, becoming a tank of a group with incredible for a 2d level Wizard 10 HP.

XIV. Finale. Drunk of their sucess, group reaches Nashkel and is readying themselves in a local inn to meet their brother Edwin, drinking, gambling and spellslingin, when a powerful priestess appears and says she is another assasin to kill Ruberd. Thay mockingly charm her and priestess runs around using her most powerful spells on herself, ending with Confusion. Thay laugh at priestess as she mindlessly kills one of poor drunkards, and look as she runs outside blabbering.

Ruberd leads the party outside of an inn to finish her off, when priestess turns back suddenly and, still confused, gives leader a kiss of her hammer to the face.
Naturaly, a hit was strong enough to instantly lower Red Wizard's HP from 5 to 0 and thus splitting his skull and goring everything around with his brains. Not even allmighty Pause saved him.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Fucking classic. Thanks for that!

 

[Shadenuat]

Trying similar approach for IWD1 made me think about how badly Infinity Games actually simulate "low" AD&D which people think they are. Roll 3d6 once for each stat for average 10-12 character my ass. I have a feeling that Infinity chargen makes more than 24 rolls and picks highest and then randomly gives to some stats. Or maybe it's 4d6 for each with dropping lowerest. I have no idea how game manages to get 18's so often other way, for example. At least BG did't have level cap of 20 or close, my god my god... ..before ToB of course.

 

[Supercuts]

What up all, I'm here to tackle the whole damn thing without dying once or reloading (decline: with the exceptions of bugs and unknown rules tests). I was drawn to this LP for a couple of reasons: 1) I love these games, but I have never beaten the first one and only gone through the second + expansion once like 5 years ago. 2) I just graduated and I'm going through the job search phase. While fruitful, this entails a lot of waiting on other people and hangin' at home, so I have the time on my hands anyways. 3) It doesn't appear that anyone has actually made it through all three games, or even any of them! There are some unverified claims, but I find them suspect at best. This is the real deal, and you can follow me every step of the way.

I should note right off the break that I am not an expert in the engine, nor am I going to try and 'meta-game' (read: use cheesy engine exploits in combat) my way through. I installed an ass load of mods following the GoG guide, but none of them should make the game any easier.

tl;dr ----

BGT, Mutha-fuckin' Ironman

Note: I am crossposting in the LP section

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/lets-try-to-ironman-the-baldurs-gate-trilogy.86285/

 

[Supercuts]

Character Creation

In picking an Ironman character, I know I want somebody who won't have to be a tank but who will have some staying power/high HPs. I decided to go with a kensai. I know it's a bit cliche but it's new to me.

That didn't even take too long! Sweet stats! I didn't use a true dump for RP reasons, and I kept Int high in case I go for mage later. He looks tough, but really he's a soft and cuddly neutral good.

Picked up Imoen (I skipped posting about all that Candlekeep crap; nobody cares). In reading up online everyone says to duel her to mage, but right now I need a thief. Her low str means that she has to use ranged weapons, wasting awesome thief backstabs until I have ways to boost her strength.

Picked up these two on the way to Friendly Arm Inn. TBH, I really don't want them for long (I'm not going for evil) but I need the extra bodies so I don't get smoked out by Tarnesh on the steps of the Inn, which is one of the few fights I actually remember. I figure if they die, who cares?

Wow, good thing I took those two devious bastards with me. What you are seeing here (sorry for the poor brightness) is my whole party except Montaron (sp) running with fear - I think it was a horror spell - and Tarnesh dead thanks to the evil bugger and a helpful guard. I should have used Imoen's wand of missiles off the break to interrupt his spell but, alas, I did not. Close call for the first real fight! I have some more to post but I'll wait and see if this gets any interest first. I'll be cross posting in the ironman thread. Plus, I'm looking forward to some good Baldur's Gate is the best/worst game ever debates.