In IWD2 you get less experience the higher your level is, so I decided to play through without leveling up until either I had reached the experience cap or could go no further. To make it slightly easier on myself I imported in some top-notch equipment. Suprisingly, until about halfway through chapter 4, my well-equiped level one party were doing better than a party gaining levels at the normal rate without good equipment. So to an extent, good items are more important than high levels.
I think Kagains CON is a godsend. In the kobold mines he was regenerating at a faster rate than he was getting hit. Until I played the game I'm playing now, with Kagain in my party, I found the kobold mines to be torture. With Kagain upfront, he can just tank anything they can throw at him.

And so the saga continues...

As he stepped out of the Cloakwood Forest for the last time, Humperdink's feet were more sore than he could ever remember them being, and his back ached from several nights spent sleeping on the ground. By the time the Company reached the Friendly Arms Inn, his only thoughts were of soft, silky sheets and the luxury of being waited upon once again. While the others in the group threw down a few meads and regaled the locals at the bar with the tales of their conquest, Humperdink slipped into a deep sleep. The events of the past weeks filtered through his thoughts...

With Minsc and Dynaheir now committed to Humperdink's service, the group had journeyed in the areas to the west of Nashkel as they headed north toward the Cloakwood Forest. At one point, they had entered a clearing and encountered a dark-skinned elf wielding two flashing scimitars, fighting a group of gnolls. The haughty elf approached the group and asked for help in fighting the gnolls. Minsc, Kivan, and Dynaheir were in favor of aiding this drow, since they recognized him as the hero Drizzt. Humperdink could not care less about helping such lowly scum -- a goody-goody two shoes like this. He declined to help, which angered the drow mightily for some reason. But it was Kagain's insult that tipped Drizzt into a frenzied attack. Luckily, Kagain's shield caught the first two attacks. The rest of the group ran to the north and found a safe island in the center of the lake that could be defended easily. Kagain quickly gulped down a potion of speed and led Drizzt on a chase through the woods. Eventually they came to the south shore of the lake, where the remainder of the Company could see them and take aim. Although they did not hit often, Minsc, Imoen, and Kivan landed enough shafts that the drow warrior weakened noticeably. Kagain took the opportunity to drink a potion of invisibility and disappeared from view, heading back to safety. One would think that a great ranger such as Drizzt could follow Kagain's footsteps along the shore of the lake, but perhaps he was too distracted with the flurry of arrows fired by the group and the gnolls that had followed him to the lake shore. In the end, it was a gnoll slasher that landed the fatal blow and Drizzt fell gasping to the ground. After Humperdink's crew cleaned up the rest of the gnolls, they collected Drizzt's belongings and continued on their way to the Friendly Arms Inn.

After resting for a night in the Inn, Humperdink spoke to Imoen. It had been quite some time since she had first joined his group. And although she vociferously objected, Humperdink had finally decided that it was time for her to part ways with the group. In the end she agreed to stay behind at the Inn, and would wait there should he need her company again. And so Humperdink led his Company of Minsc, Dynaheir, Kivan and Kagain in to the Cloakwood forest. Contrary to the rumors they had heard, the denizens of the forest were surprisingly easy to dispatch. It helped greatly that they came upon a rogue named Coran who was hunting wyverns in the forest and agreed to join the group as a guide. He was considerably more experienced than the others and would make a fine addition (although his theives' skills were somewhat lacking in the trap-finding department).

The greatest threat posed to the group came several days into the forest when they were ambushed at one point by several wyverns. They were virtually surrounded by the bloodthirsty creatures but Kivan saw a small trail through a thicket that the group could escape into without being followed by the wyverns. And so the group fled from the encounter, shaken, slightly wounded, but alive.

Humperdink found the journey through the forest to be highly distasteful. Apart from the encounters with tasloi, spiders, wolves, and other beasts, there were few opporunities for a well-cooked meal, and in order for the group to stay at their peak performance they had spent several nights sleeping in their trail cloaks. Needless to say, Humperdink had rarely slept in anything but silk, so the coarse wool, though warm, was hardly comfortable.

The next encounter with wyverns went more favorably for the group. Dynaheir used a blast of the Wand of Monster Summoning to distract the beasts while the archers in the group picked off wyverns one by one. It had been surprisingly easy. By this point, the group had become quite weary. Coran said that he could get quite a lot of prize-money for the wyvern heads, so Humperdink agreed to return to the civilized world for a brief respite. And so they returned to Beregost, where they recouperated, restocked, and collected a nice bounty for the wyvern heads.

Finally, there was nothing left to do but return to the forest. It was again many days journey, but the group found themselves finally at the gate of a wooden stockade in the middle of a clearing -- the Cloakwood Mine. The group had the cover of night, and after quickly dispatching the two guards at the entrance, Coran and Kivan advanced stealthily to scout out the rest of the complex. A short way inside they saw a heavily armed group of thugs blocking the way to the mine entrance. The battle was over surprisingly quickly after an oil of explosion tossed by Kivan and a web spell from Dynaheir followed by a Dire Charm that turned the tide finally in favor of Humperdink's group.

Inside, the group had several small skirmishes with guards along the shafts, and eventually on a lower level a hard battle with a small army of hobgoblins and human warriors. In the end, the group descended to the final level relatively unscathed and ready to face whatever they might find. Well, almost whatever they might find.

The battle horrors guarding the lower level proved to be an extremely difficult battle for Humperdink's Company, mostly because of their resistence to the usual technique used by the group (namely, archery). Plus, Coran's inability to locate traps meant that Kagain sustained a large amount of damage from several traps in the hallway and as a result was unable to go toe-to-toe against the battle horrors. In the end, it took two oils of explosion and several blasts from the wand of fireballs to weaken the battle horrors enough that they could be dispatched with one or two blows from Kivan and Minsc. Even more difficult was the powerful mage, Daveorn, whose ability to dimension door away from attackers and vicious lighting attack caused a great deal of trouble for the group. In addition, the party had a taste of its own medicine when Dynaheir was dire charmed. Luckily, she only had a few bullets left for her sling so she only proved a danger to herself as the war dogs she had summoned only a few moments earlier turned on her. In the end, the mage was dispatched after a long chase through his quarters.

The papers discovered by the Humperdink's Company clearly indicated that a group known as the Iron Throne, based in the City of Baldurs Gate, were responsible for the attacks on Humperdink and the tainting of the ore.

And so, after a very long journey into the Cloakwood Forest, the Company of Humperdink could look back and say that they would never return to those dangerous woods.

[ 10-02-2004, 09:40 AM: Message edited by: Neomi ]

This has proven to be true so far. I haven't cheated in any equipment yet, since Kagain got his full plate relatively early and he rarely gets hit anymore. Luckily there are few enemies that do more than 10 hp damage per attack. Traps and spells are a huge problem, on the other hand. Adding Drizzt's stuff helps as well, mostly for the THACO problems faced by 1st level characters.

I couldn't agree more. My only regret in taking him was that I didn't wait until later in the game so that he would be 3rd or 4th level. The Nashkel mines could have easily been done with Minsc as a tank.

Ok, so here's where I need advice on the conformation of the party. Keeping in mind that the characters join at a higher level based on the PC's experience level, and I'm never leveling anyone up in this game, who should I take in the group next? This is what I'm thinking:

Humperdink (F1) PC
Kivan (R2)
Minsc (R1) -> Paladin ----> Branwen
Kagain (F1) --------> Shar-teel
Coran (F/T 3/3) -------> Safana or other thief
Dynaheir (M1) -> (edit)Quayle ----> Edwin

Kivan is a great archer and I can't think of anyone else to replace him, even though he's only 2nd level. Any ideas?

Minsc will probably be replaced by that Paladin south of BG who will tank for a while until I go pick up Branwen toward the end (so that I'll have a decent cleric in the group)

Kagain is just such a great tank. I can't think of anyone else to replace him with, except maybe that Amazon warrior to the east, Shar-teel. Or, I could replace Kivan or Coran with Shar-teel and stick with Kagain despite his low level.

Coran's thieving is annoyingly bad, so despite his higher levels I'll probably switch him out for someone else toward the end. Any recommendations? Maybe I should keep Coran as my main archer and replace Kivan with a primary thief.

Dynaheir is definitely a goner. I'm only seriously considering (edit) Quayle because I can get him quickly and he should have at least 2nd level spells. Any other mages out there that I should consider? Is Tiax recruitable in BG city? Toward the end, I'll most likely take Edwin.

[ 10-02-2004, 09:05 PM: Message edited by: Neomi ]

And so the saga continues...

The Company of Prince Humperdink had explored virtually every inch of the Sword Coast south of Baldur's Gate. The only areas that had thus far been left untouched by Humperdink's minions were the backwoods town of Ulgoth's Beard and the forbidding tower rumored to contain the undead spirit of the great Dwarf warrior, Durlag.

They had vanquished dangerous foes and woodland beasts alike. Often the killing was for sport, as Humperdink especially enjoyed death orchestrated at his own whim. Occasionally the killing was for treasure, although this seemed somewhat distasteful to Humperdink. Most of the time, the killing was necessitated by the actions of Humperdink's mysterious enemies, shrouded in their secretive strongholds - deep in the mines of Nashkel and the Cloakwood forest. But somewhere in Baldur's Gate were the true answers to the questions that haunted Humperdink's otherwise comfortable sleep.

The group had undergone some changes in personnel, with the addition of the stalwart paladin and gnome cleric-mage after the dismissal of Minsc and Dynaheir. And so Humperdink led his minions into the great city to uncover more layers of the plot that now threatened to destroy the Sword Coast and himself.

OK, so I've lost steam a little bit on the narrative part of this story. But, Humperdink and his minions are still going strong:

- Finished iron throne investigation
- Finished several minor quests in BG city including Seven Suns, Yago's book of curses, the basilisk in the warehouse.
- Finished Candlekeep part 2 (killed the iron throne guys, of course)
- Finished catacombs

Here are a couple of tactical observations:

* I'd have to say that the catacombs were the toughest part. I don't have much ability to detect traps (Coran starts off with pretty pitiful thieving skills) so I ended up having to adapt quite a lot. One thing that helped were the potions of absorption that we had brought with us. Enough to make it through the hallway filled with lightning bolts without taking any damage (in fact, by trading the boots of electrical resistance around to different characters this hallway became a zone of healing rather than electrocution). I safely triggered a fireball trap with Korgan wearing a ring of fire resistance and drinking our only potion of fire resistance, and Quayle was able to avoid a couple of magic missile traps using a globe of minor invulnerability. I've never really needed to take these steps before, but it worked! Eventually. I was then able to clear out all the loot and take out the greater Doppelgangers without too much trouble. Take note that this strategy requires a significant amount of RELOAD KNOWLEDGE.

* Because of low-level spellcasters I've used lots of wands. Currently, I'm resorting to a nice wedge of carpetbombing cheese with a necklace of missiles/potion of explosions/wand of fire combo that usually softens up enemies enough that my archers can finish them off (examples, the guys at the top of the iron throne building, the iron throne leaders at Candlekeep, and Prat and his guys in the catacombs). I realize that this is very cheezy, but in a head-to-head contest my fighters just get toasted, so after reloading a few times I do what I have to do...

* Finally, I have been extremely disappointed about the low-level at which the NPC's get added. Humperdink now has about 66,000 XP yet still Edwin and Shar-Teel only join as 2nd level NPCs. Not enough to make me want to drop Kivan or Coran (who have most of the kills in the party), Kagain (who regenerates like a madman), or Quayle (who at least casts a couple of 1st level mage and cleric spells and can use any wand). So, the plan to progressively recruit higher level characters as Humperdink got more experience did not pan out. I even tested what would happen if Humperdink leveled up (to 7th level in this case) and Edwin and Shar-Teel still only joined at 2nd level!

And so the Saga of Prince Humperdink comes to a close. I don't really have the enthusiasm to write it in narrative form, but Sarevok is dead. Here are the final stats (before the battle with Sarevok):

Humperdink: Level 1 Fighter. 80,985 XP
Bracers of Defense AC 6, Helmet of Infravision, Ring of Protection +1, Boots of Avoidance, Nymph Cloak, Girdle of Piercing.
Weapons= Mace, +1, Light Crossbow of Speed, Necklace of Missiles.
AC 5, 10 HP, 3% of total experience value, 1% of total kills.

Ajantis: Level 2 Paladin. 47,863 XP
Full Plate Mail, Helm of Glory, Large Shield +1, +4 vs. Missiles, Gauntlets of Ogre Power, Ring of Protection +2, Boots of Speed, Cloak of Balduran, Girdle of Bluntness.
Weapons= Scimitar +5, Defender ("Twinkle"), War Hammer +2, Morning Star +1.
AC -7, 20 HP, 13% of total experience value, 10% of total kills.

Kagain: Level 1 Fighter. 80,907 XP
Full Plate Mail, Helm of Balduran, Large Shield +1, Gauntlets of Dexterity, Ring of Fire Resistance, Ring of Free Action, Boots of the North, Cloak of Protection +2, Golden Girdle.
Weapons= Throwing Axe +2, War Hammer +1.
AC -8, 21 HP, 10% of total experience value, 14% of total kills.

Coran: Level 3/3 Fighter/Thief. 33,821/33,821 XP
Shadow Armor (Ankheg Plate), (Large Shield +1), Bracers of Archery, Boots of Stealth, Cloak of Non-detection.
Weapons= Composite Longbow +1, Scimitar +3, Frostbrand.
AC 0 (-5), 27 HP, 26% of total experience value, 21% of total kills.

Kivan: Level 2 Ranger. 79,564 XP
Mithril Chain +4, Helmet of Defense, Gauntlet of Weapon Expertise, Ring of Fire Resistance, Boots of Stealth, Cloak of the Wolf.
Weapons= Longbow of Marksmanship, Halberd +1, Spider's Bane.
AC -3, 16 HP, 42% of total experience value, 49% of total kills.

Quayle: Level 2/2 Cleric/Illusionist. 24,705/24,705 XP
Robe of the Neutral Archmagi, Bracers of Defense AC 7, Medium Shield +1, Ring of Wizardry, Ring of Holiness, Boots of Grounding, Cloak of Protection +1.
Weapons=Sling +1, various wands
Spells= Four level 1 mage spells, three level 1 cleric spells.
AC 1, 11 HP, 3% of total experience value, 2% of total kills.

**************************************************

All maps in vanilla BG1 were cleared. The group did not visit the areas in the expansion set (I thought this would be suicidal and not much fun with such a low level group).

The last few battles were quite challenging and required considerably more cheese than the rest of the game:

1. Attempting to fight the skeleton warriors in the maze hand-to-hand with a group of 1st and 2nd level characters was completely suicidal, even with multiple uses of the wand of monster summoning. In the end, I resorted to casting invisibility (from scrolls) on everyone except Ajantis, who lured the skeleton warriors past the rest of the party, then gulped a potion of invisibility. With the skeles far enough away, Coran could safely disarm the traps (after drinking a potion of perception of course) and the group moved on, skulking away with their lives.

2. The battle with the Iron Throne group in the undercity was eventually resolved by massive simultaneous carpet bombing using arrows of detonation from Coran and Kivan, potions of explosions from Kagain and Adjantis, a blast from the wand of fireballs, and one from the necklace of missiles. One of the mages somehow was miraculously still alive but fell quickly to an onslaught of arrows of piercing, magic missile, and Larloch's minor drain (Humperdink's innate spell).

3. The battle with Sarevok was difficult as usual, but if there's anything you should know about BG1 it's the superiority of projectile weapons (see the kill stats for Kivan and Coran, above). After multiple attempts at fighting mano-a-mano, and losing miserably, I resorted to the cheesy tactic of multiple monster summoning. This allows the archers to pepper Sarevok with Arrows of Biting etc. from safely behind the front lines. A bit unsatisfying, but it does fit with Humperdink's personality.

Well, that wraps it up. This effort proves that BG1 can be finished without ever leveling up any group members. I think I'll take a break now.

[ 10-21-2004, 01:21 PM: Message edited by: Neomi ]

[img]graemlins/jumpclap.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/jumpclap.gif[/img] Congratulations Neomi [img]graemlins/jumpclap.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/jumpclap.gif[/img]

I am truly impressed with your accomplishment!

I don’t know if you deserve a medal for bravery and perseverance… [img]graemlins/imnotworthy.gif[/img]


Or a truckload of cheese to replace all that you used to get through the game… (j/k)

Once again- GREAT WORK!

[ 10-21-2004, 07:03 PM: Message edited by: javan ]

Oh dear god, please no more cheese! ;) My dairy quotient was so sky high during this game that it really makes me appreciate having well-developed characters with a variety of different ways to make it through any given situation. And so help me if I ever use another wand of fireballs may I be punished with an eternity of flame.

Thanks anyway, though.

My favorite flavor is medium cheddar, for future reference. Plus an occasional sharp cheddar to add a little excitement. The various California Monterrey Jack cheeses are also quite nice. Or an occasional Edam, or Gouda, or Havarti to spice things up. Ummm.... looks like I'll be going back to my all-dairy diet soon enough!

I'm impressed, with both your finesse and writing style (at least when you were sharing more). Way to go... I know it's easy to lose your fire midway through, believe me ;)