I'm sure everyone has seen Leslie's NRL thread and its inspired to me to tell some of my NRL experiences, if they keep going that is.

Here's the breakdown of my party at their current levels, I started off with all custom made characters-

PC Sorceror level 15
Berserker/Druid level 11/13 Throwing Spear of the Unicorn
Inquisitor level 13 Foebane, Azuredge
Ranger/Cleric 10/11 Flail of Ages, Pitchwife
Jan Jansen 12/13 Torgals Claw
Kensai/Mage ??(you'll read why I can't tell for sure ahead) Lilacor

My name is Suoroth, I escaped from a wretched dungeon(Tactics,Insane) with four companions losing one along the way. Not long after though we picked up a much funnier gnome turnip lover. Prior to this day we've travelled all across Athlaka, (forgive me if I mispell every proper noun in the game). We've seen just about every inch of that town minus the areas that are rumored to have liches. Long hikes have taken us to Umar Hills, Windspear Hills and a Druid Grove that we may never revisit. We've yet to encounter any dragons however. We also stopped at another dungeon called Watcher's Keep and went two levels below. We've done all sorts of errands to the point where there are no more easy tasks ahead. That is why today we had to set out for a beholder lair.

Unfortunately we haven't made it to that lair yet. Our curiosity got the best of us and we poked our noses into a town of Undead. A lich took notice of our presence and began chanting the words that would summon a most powerful fiend. That was our queue to get the hell out of there. We escaped briefly and began casting our regular buffing spells - Protection from fear, evil, fire and magic on everyone. Then some select other protections mainly on my kensai/mage, Jan and myself. Being buffed to the max my K/M went in first to engage the lich and his friends but the Pit Fiend had destoyed the entire town except the lich. Right behind my SI:Abjuration protected K/M was my Inquisitor, our plan being to use Dispel Magic to strip the Lich of its protections. No such luck. So this means the lich is going to get off his timestop. It does and hits my K/M with a spellstrike. I guess my SI wore off because I was stripped bare. Right after that the lich casts imprisonment on my most powerful party member.

Since this is a no reloads I began to panic, without being able to reload this really puts an actual fear of dying into the game. I DO NOT want to go back to Irenicus' dungeon! Since I panicked, I wasn't thinking at all. I summoned a Mordy sword so that triggers the Pit Fiend. Great! Here's where I really numbnutted it - I forgot that PFEvil was keeping the demon at bay so I never cast it on my Mordy Sword. Then scared as I ever was I began to run away, another big mistake because in the distance I can hear the Lich start to summon us back to him. A brief moment of dizziness and the next thing I know the remaining five of us have had all of our magic stripped and are in the back corner of the Undead area between a lich and a Pit Fiend amidst my own two cloudkills and a teleport field. And now the Pit Fiend can see us.

This is when I finally remembered that the PFevil was keeping the fiend from seeing us. I cast mirror image on myself and Jan in case a fireball was coming, then we ran through the cloud of acid. My berserker Druid went berserk and threw his mighty spear at the demon. My Ranger/Cleric had to chug a potion of superior healing and my Inquisitor was right next to the lich so she choked up on Azuredge a little and struck. Thank Helm. The lich fell to the power of the axe. I have a chance! After killing the lich she cast Pfevil on herself and headed to my Ranger/Cleric to do the same. Jan summoned up two fire elementals with the staff of fire in the meantime. They served as fodder for the demon but with each hit the demon slows an opponent so I couldn't run fast enough and I couldn't cast fast enough. The demon demolished the two elementals in about three swings and was coming after me. I just managed to cast an insurance ironskin with my R/C, the one closest to the demon when it cast remove magic and swung away. R/C dead but not chunked.

I pretty much lost track of time at this point. My hands were shaking. I was yelling at my son to leave me alone for one minute because I had to finish this battle. And I probably wasn't breathing. But I did manage to cast the final PFevil on my Sorceror and make it out of the town with four living members, one reviveable body and the knowledge that I could bring back my savior K/M at some point later in the game.

I wasn't planning on sharing my NRL experience until I had gotten a little further but I had to get this off my chest, it was exhilerating. BTW is the first available Freedom scroll in the Underdark? I need one bad.

[ 06-30-2004, 02:04 AM: Message edited by: SpongeBobTheDestoyer ]

Yes, that's what NRL game can do to you. ;)

It really is the only way to play the game for me right now. Maybe I'll finish my solo Assassin on Core one day too.

Yes, your first scroll of Freedom will be available when you leave for Underdark. You can actually get one from
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Minor Avatar of Sekolah, when (IF!) you kill him.

BTW: Don't forget to buy Spell Shield scroll from that Duergar (he also has Freedom) in Underdark. They are very rare. It might get useful against Beholders.

[ 06-27-2004, 11:47 AM: Message edited by: Leslie ]

Moving on to the beholder lair-

I was a bit nervous after losing my kensai/mage, I figured he would go in ala spell shield along with my cleric/ranger and clean house. As it was my c/r did it mostly by himself with "the shield", and Jan popping in now and then and then drinking an invisibility potion before he could be targeted. The area was easier than I thought but I think that there were some beholders missing. There was one gauth near the front, a group of 3 beholders and 3 gauths in the southwest area, the lone beholder in the very northeast, a gauth near the rift and the unseeing eye itself. I thought there was a group just to the left of where the eye spawns but maybe I'm confusing this den with the one in the Underdark. Anyone know for sure?

After this I thought I might head to spellhold so I could get my freedom scroll. I decided to pick up another body though, Mazzy "the machine gun" Fenton - if anyone does get chunked later on she'd have some experience this way too. So I got her and whoa, she's wearing chain mail armor, nice. Time to go get some better armor. I guess I could make a pitstop at Firky's crib.

I spent about twice the time buffing my guys than it took to slay the mighty dragon itself. Kudos to Mazzy, she hit him with one arrow of dispelling and then her simalcrum(Vailor's Helm) hit him with an arrow of striking. My Inquisitor used the light crossbow of speed and Jan firetooth, both of them firing bolts of biting. Berserker/Druid using his throwing spear and r/c his sling, it was pretty much target practice that Firk could do nothing about. He couldn't wing buffet all of us at once since we weren't standing in a firing squad position. So he's dead and now my Inquizzy is the best looking little avatar I've seen - blonde female pally wearing red dragon scale armor, wielding Carsomyr and a Citadel helm on top, so sweet.

Now I'm off to spellhold. On a sidenote, I did not know that when my berserker/druid goes berserk his ironskins keep the post berserk damage from hittin'. I likes dat.

O, I didn' know that either. On Insane that damage rises to 30 and that is very dangerous. I'm starting to like Berserker/Druid. ;)

Do you plan to use normal or upgraded Impaler with him?

That is a good question because my THACO is better with a normal +3 spear than it is with the upgraded +3 Throwing spear of the Unicorn. And it doesn't matter if I'm using it as ranged or melee. I don't remember how much better right now since I'm at work but it's significant. I suppose the Berserkers lack of prowess with ranged weapons is applied and the Unicorn spear, once upgraded, only strikes as a ranged weapon either way. Maybe a bug. So I may just keep the Implaler normal since I want my B/D to do more tanking with his ironskins and berserking. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Well I was wrong about the spear's THACO, must have been the beer talking, all is well so I will most likely upgrade the Impaler. And I may use the Spear of Withering if the poison goes through stoneskin. ;)

Spellhold went well, no scares, no close calls. Bohdi's maze was another story. I solved some tricky riddles first and then grabbed a much needed Bag of Holding and some other equipment. Then I moved on the portal that I collected three special gems for. I began with my usual Project Image to cast protection from magic energy and prot fr fire on everyone. Then a couple of Chaotic Commands and Death Wards from my Druiserker and R/C. Most importantly I had to be protected fr evil. This time I was ready for the Pit Fiend that I knew would be coming. The demon gates in after I kill a greater werewolf and goes invisible so I cast True Sight with my Inquizzy. Demon come demon go, as soon as its invisibility is dispelled it disappears again. It doesn't stay still which is a good implementation - why some monsters just stand in one spot for an eternity baffles me. I need something for him to attack so I get well out of his range and summon a Mordy sword and send that in alone. The fiend won't attack the sword, it only casts remove magic 800 times. I use my Horn of Vhalla summon and then the demon attacks, so I let loose from a distance, Those +3 arrows from Watchers Keep are coming in handy but dwindling fast. We get the Pit Fiend down to badly injured and he gates in another one. Great, forget this we'll come back later.

We made our way to the area with the lich and crazy Jan volunteered to go in first all alone. He was buffed from before and added blur, mirror image, minor spell turning, PfMW and most importantly SI Abjuration. The Pit Fiend here goes into a frenzy and all heck breaks loose. Jan is mostly a decoy for the lich. The fiend attacks one of the members of the Undead group but the rest see my Inquizzy sneaking up to cast dispel magic so they flock to her. The lich's timestop goes off but he can't break Jan's protections, after a bit his MMM's start hitting though. At the edge of the hall my Inquisitor is fighting undead and the rest of my party is backing her up. These greater mummies are slow to take down and they're blocking my way in to help Jan. The turnip lover is holding his own in there hitting the fiend with Torgal's Claw when along comes another gate. Soon after, Jan's SI must have worn off because he became stripped of all protections. Think fast. A door nearby allowed him the chance to run in and hide from the fiend but I could not leave the lich's sight because then comes the teleport and remove magic-chaos-chain lightning trifecta. So I left the door open and that allowed the lich's Mordy sword to follow me in. A hit from that and a MMM from the lich brought Jan down to a couple of hit points. At this point I had to run in with my PC so Jan could swig a potion of invisibility. PC with SI Abjuration already intact he casts PfMW so he was safe for the time being and the new decoy.

Okay, I'll try to wrap this up quickly. Undead in the hall get taken down and then the lich falls to an Azuredge hit. Jan is standing in a corner buffing. I'm hitting the Pit Fiends with skull traps and Holy Smites and they each gate in a fellow demon. With my True Sights going it looks like a nightclub in Hades with a strobelight on. I figure I need to get Dace's digits before my PfE wears off. Just in case it does wear off my PC, druiserker and Mazzy loot the area and head to the right while the others head for Dace. We speak briefly and he runs out to attack. A demon spots him attacking us and swoops in for the kill. We finish off the vamp quickly with the help of the fiend. We acquire his hand a get the heck out.

We death spelled some Umber Hulks on the way out and went back to the portal where the demons were no longer there. Grabbing that loot we headed over and made it past some Yuan Ti with a cloud kill. We kept going without much happening until we talked to Bodhi and made our way out. Next up - fish city.

I've made a lot of progress, just haven't posted any. Next up is Improved Irenicus! This is the farthest I've made it in any of my NRL attempts. To be on the up and up though, I did reload once in this game. I had Cernd battle Improved Faldorn on his own without knowing that he would lose. I got really steamed after he lost and shut off my PC. Later I went back and beat her with the tactics I posted in SixofSpades' Improved Faldorn Thread. Other than that I can say I haven't had one reload.

I did recently lose two other members of my party unfortunatly. I used a freedom scroll to get my Kensai/mage back but he got chunked in the poison based encounter. He got hit with bloodbane and failed his stun save, two seconds after he got chunked I fininshed casting timestop with my sorceror and could've saved him. Bummer. I also lost my cleric/ranger in the Chosen of Cryic encounter from the rogue rebalancing mod. Venturius' backstab for 126 or so, ouch.

Once my sorceror was able to cast timestop and Improved Alacrity there weren't many battles that posed much of a threat. For me the four that did were - Kangaxx, Improved Bohdi, Poison based, and Chosen of Cyric. These battles required actual tactics instead of just timestop.

I was able to get by Kangaxx by using SI Abjuration and Alteration with my pc, Jan and kensai/mage and berserked with Druiserker. I always hit his first form with the ring of the ram to push him into a corner so his demilich form can't see my other characters that can't protect against imprisonment. Energy Blades and Item Upgrade weapons did the trick here.

Against Improved Bohdi I thought I would lose because my sorceror got nailed with the cloud of bats, and that seemed to last forever. But running from her and having her target Jan with PfMW on pretty much nullifies her attacks. The Throwing Impaler did wonders here.

I like the Chosen of Cyric encounter but for once the tables are turned and the enemy gets to prebuff and you don't. I should have protected against confusion right off the bat and then run around like hell. Instead I chose to throw up ironskins and stoneskins to protect against backstabs but one them has a trigger with greater malison and chaos so I had a couple guys stand there confused.

I made the mistake of protecting myself from poison in the Red Badge poison encounter. Yeah. The bloodcaster shoots over some cloud of something into the center of the area but it's not poison becuase I had the ring of gaxx, the amulet of Ilmater, and protection from poison scrolls but still got nailed by it. Go figure.

I don't know if I should go up against Johhny with the four members I have left - Sorceror, Inquisitor, Jan and Berserker/Druid or if I should pick up one or two others. I guess it couldn't hurt because they could be used as decoys if nothing else. I can't decide. Someone care to offer some advice on that?

Seeing has how Hell itself is on the cheap side when handing out EXP, you're not going to lose anything by recruiting extra party members, except maybe some items (if they die and you can't collect their gear before you kill Irenicus). They're not going to much help in the fight, though--they can help kill the Sword and the Orb, but they'll be essentially useless against the Wraith, Dragon, and Jon himself.

Don't recruit anyone you might want to take along in ToB: Wait until you get to the Pocket Plane for that, when they'll be higher-level. If you recruit them now, you'll be handicapping their EXP for the rest of the game.

I was lucky when I met the Chosen of Cyric. I've never fought them, I actually didn't know that this was another part of RR mod. So when I got out of Bodhi's lair a had most of my spells consumed. So I relyed on my wisdom (18) and I made it through without a fight. ;)

Then I made a save (that was with my NRL party) and reloaded to see how the fight goes. Hell, yeah, Venturis can backstab through Stoneskin. I tested it twice! :mad:

Your party is almost the same as mine when I fought Jonny. The only difference is that I had Haer'Dalis and you have Druiserker.

Sorcerer and Project Image are incredibly powerful. You don't need to recruit new NPC's. How do you intend to kill Wraith of Wrath? Energy Blades in Time stop? Critical strike from Inquisitor if have any? Spike traps from Jan?

Haer'Dalis would be the best addition but I'm going to save him for TOB. I feel like I'm missing a ton of melee punch without my kensai/mage and cleric/ranger. So I will add Mazzy. I've already gotten her a little experience. -Ponders some more- And if I had Edwin I could give him all the high level scrolls I don't need. Hmmmm. Heck I've also thought about addind Viconia, with her high MR she could probably run around healing everyone and still be pretty safe. I'm so wishy washy.

If he targets a Mordenkainen's Sword then I'll have Mazzy take care of him with Gesen. If he doesn't, I'll have to improvise. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I think I'll save these for the Orb like you did in yours. That thing put a hurtin' on me before this version of tactics, and in this one it says it's protected by SI Aburation. (I think that was your idea Six. Thanks! :mad: ;) )

I also forgot to do the ritual and Pontifex. I will have to go there and pray I don't lose anyone else.

Wraith has AC of -20. What is Mazzy's THAC0 with Gesen? If her THAC0 is -5 she'll hit him on every fourth shot, but I doubt that her THAC0 is so low.

Check that out before you fight.
Hey, it's a NRL game. You don't go out there and hope! You must know what you are doing. ;)

So check out the Pontifex stories too.

Good luck!

BTW, I already started an evil NRL game with Kensai/mage (dualled at 9), Jaheira, Viconia, Edwin, Korgan and Jan.

(It took me 4 hours real time to get out of the dungeon. :mad: )

I think Mazzy's THAC0 is easily -5, she's a fighter with grandmastery in shortbows and a high dexterity to boot. Give her the bracers of archery and you have a low THAC0 to say hello to.

Just realize that Wraith of Wrath also has 300 HP and I believe is immune to all other damage except physical. So electrical damage from Gesen will not affect him.

And if you assume of THAC0 of -5 and damage around 10 per hit (and GM patch + Improve haste which gives you 9 ApR) then she hits him approx. twice per round for 20 damage. So it takes you around 15 rounds to kill him. If you count critical hits then even sooner. But it is still a long way to go.

In my game Haer'dalis killed him in 1.5 rounds in Time stop. :D

The Wraith has a base AC of -20, so when you factor in his DEX and Ring of Gaxx, you're looking at -26. My last party steamrollered right through him, but when it's led by a Level 15/18 Kensai->Mage whose Simulacrum can read TimeStop scrolls, it's nice to be able to ignore things like AC. (The weird thing is, even though all attacks under Time Stop are supposed to be auto-hits, I had an ApR of 9, yet only 4 or 5 of those would connect. It took my Simulacrum 3 TimeStops to kill the Wraith, even with the massive damage he was doing with every hit.)

The Orb's SI:Abj was indeed my suggestion, but frankly I still haven't seen any difference--neither of my Tactics Version 20 parties have had much difficulty with him. Of course, I usually don't even see the Orb until the Dragon and perhaps the Sword and/or Wraith are dead, so his best protections will have worn off my then, leaving him very vulnerable to the old chop-chop.

Viconia's MR (indeed, any MR) makes no difference in this fight, as Irenicus's damnable Shatter Magic lowers MR by 50% each time, and of course Jon-boy can Shatter Magic until the cows come home.

New thought--perhaps my Kensai-Mage's low apparent ApR wasn't an illusion: It might be that the Level Drain caused by casting Simulacrum knocked the character back into the Dual-class, meaning his Kensai half was rendered Inactive again. This would give him the same ApR as any other pure Mage, Dualwielding with Improved Haste: 4.

I got Mazzy up to level 16 since I took her to spellhold when my kensai was Imprisoned. Her THACO with Gesen is -7 right now with the bracers of archery and Helm of Balduran. Equipped with +2 arrows it becomes -9. And she will make it to level 17 by the time I do the ritual, Pontifex, Suldenesalar and Hell Trials. Heck maybe 18 but I doubt it.

[img]graemlins/crying.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/crying.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/crying.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/crying.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/crying.gif[/img]

Wow! Tell us what happened!?

I got careless. Whenever I get close to the final battle I start rushing through the rest of my quests. I didn't have to reload since my protag didn't died but I have no desire to go on really with the loss of two more companions.

I picked up Mazzy and headed off to do the ritual. I wasn't paying attention while I was fighting some battleragers and totemists when a shadowstalker snuck in and backstabbed her for 196. No Mazzy kinda hurts after you guys scared me with the Wraith's stats. Disappointed, I went ahead and finished the ritual sort of half heartedly hitting whatsherface with a panic in the end.

Moved on to Pontifex and took care of him. I was able to get his protections down with a couple seperate RRoR, I think. He still had the little spell turning frisbe underneath him but my spells still got through. A few Ice Storms from Jan is really what did the trick with him.

After this I packed everything up and gave Elhan the Lanthorn and headed to their city. Like I said before I always have a problem rushing at the end, here especially. So I just ran up and down their sidewalks meleeing everything and then headed for N'izidragonguy. I even rested first. I don't think I've ever been beaten by this dragon before so I didn't even bother to buff much, just PfME and fear. I figured I'd walk right in and timestop yada, yada. I started casting timestop and decided to lead in with my Inquisitor and a dispel magic. I walked right into a dragon breath of 108 damage and before I could get out of range got hit for 136. Inquisitor chunks everywhere. Dumbest thing I did here - forgot to equip Carsomyr. Her MR with that is 85, so I probably wouldn't have taken damage from the breath. After I killed the dragon and looted it I walked out without getting my dropped equipment either.

I don't feel very ambitious about finishing this thing off. I kinda want to start a new one. If I do, my next party is gonna be an all kit party - I'm thinking Skald, Bounty Hunter, Wizard Slayer, Stalker, one of the cleric kits, and one of the specialist mages.

Sorry to hear that. These games make you stay focused until the end. It's a good practice for life situations. ;)

I'm having fun with my evil NRL party (already in the Underdark) but I miss on a lot of XP since I'm soooo evil. :D

I poisoned the Druid Grove (1000 XP from that evil sucker whose quest I accepted, bah), killed the Sahuagin since I had no plans to be their puppy (no XP!), I plan to kill Adalon (missing 60000 XP per person!), ...

And I already have plans for a little custom NRL party without the Sorcerer.

I like your idea of a kit party. (starts planing ...)

DAMN! It looks like you've picked up the pace from that 4 hour dungeon exit. ;)

I think that's one of the reasons I lost interest in my game. Same spells over and over. If I ever use another Sorceror I'm going with a complete spell makeover.

I agree. PRATI tactic becomes boring. ;)

Here's my next really powerful party on paper:

Jaheira (cleric/ranger) - FOA, Fulcrum, MoD
Minsc (berserker->druid at level 9) - Water's Talon + Belm (grandmastery in scimitars :D )
Imoen (fighter/thief multi) - Tuigan (Gesen), Impaler, SoTR
Haer'dalis (Blade) - Cfury + Kundane (Scarlet Ninja-To)
Aerie (mage/cleric) - hmm, spells ? ;) Maybe I'll have her dualwield something [img]smile.gif[/img]
PC (kensai/mage) - grandmastery in twohanded swords - Lilarcor, Silver Sword, Staff of The Magi, Dragon's Breath Halberd

They should do fine, right? :D

On my 2nd run through of Tactics, I'm finding Imp. Iren. to be just too hard. Even with my godlike stats (19/18/19/19/19/25-uglysticked) which are justified to me since i'm soloing a neutral evil child of a diety, I still cant even kill anyone other than the wraith! First I trap the area with time traps, since even without prior knowledge, it's obvious that there will be a big fight ahead. Once I lose my cloak of cheese and amulet of power, I head over to the wraith and kill him easily with my 10 ApR. But then I can't see jon to kill him, the sword of greed just takes too much time to kill with the spells I want to use, though i could throw in a imp alac and kill the sword. By now my time stops have run out and i'm screwed since Jonny shatters all my protections and without the cloak of cheese to protect me from the orb, I'm toast.

when I did my first run through, I had 3 customs, a Barbarian, theif, and sorc and pretty much cheesed my way through it with ~10 fallen planetars, which I DONT want to have to resort to again.

And as a side note, Waters talon is much better than crom faeyr, so I cant understand why you lose crom rather than the talon.

I'm sorry for the dumb question, but, Sponge, are you playing SoA with ToB, just SoA, or SoA with some mod i dont know? Sorry for the newb question, hehe, but you guys keep talking 'bout some stuff that I'm not quite familiar with hehe.