This is a continuation thread from Rena Ryuuguu's journey in SoA. Rena is a Human pureclassed Assassin. Her companions include Imoen, Jaheira, Minsc, Sarevok, and Kelsey( a mod NPC).

Just like the SoA thread, this thread will contain lots of progressive spoilers within. If you do not wish to be spoiled, avoid reading on. ;) Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the ride!

Part of the experience so far has been the experimentations with lesser used spells and abilities. Additionally, I have been using this gamerun to brush up on my coding skills with regards to constructing the AI. Most of the battles were handled by AI Scripts. Manual handling was only done when necessary, usually in Boss-level fights, or Modded fights.

It has also been refreshing to use skills such as the Rogue HLAs, Avoid Death and Greater Evasion. They have been surprisingly useful, and allowed Rena to fight in melee, even though she is only a pureclassed Assassin. Multi/Dualclassed Fighter/Thieves should seriously consider getting some of these skills, instead of wasting their HLAs on Greater Whirlwinds.

Alchemy and Scribe Scrolls have been so-so. Of the two, I would say Alchemy is the better one. Most of the scrolls are pretty generic, and if it were not for my AI Scripts, they would rarely get used. The potions generated from Alchemy however, can indeed be very useful; especially if you manage to get either the Potion of Superior Healing, or the Rogue's Potion of Frost Giant Strength.

To my surprise, pureclassed Assassins can tank in most of the fights. Offensively however... Rena is better off picking off her targets with her Crossbow.

Sarevok packs a mean punch with the Firetooth Crossbow.

I simply cannot get enough of the Power Word:~ spells! Extremely low casting times, ignores enemies' saving throws, and has effects that can drastically turn the tides to your favour. I am torn between choosing Power Word Kill or Bigby's Crushing Hand for memorisation. The former has the cool instant-slay effect, the latter has the HAND. Power Word Stun is also devastating to opponents who are not immuned to stun.

~~~~ ~~~~

Soon to be posted, Rena's first ToB fight.

The following battle has been dramatised from its' original context.

~~~~ ~~~~

"Jaheira. I see-"

"Yes Rena. I have noticed. Shall we assume the worst?"

"Given the oh-so-enlightening speech by the Ancient Blockheads, I suppose so..."

"Sigh, and here I thought we could have some lasting peace after Irenicus."

"As did I... as did I."

~~~~ ~~~~

Moments later, a confrontation brewed between Jaheira and the intruders.

"You're not Rena Ryuuguu! Where is she?"

Jaheira chuckled softly to herself, "So predictable." Asserting a firm gaze, she glared at their adversary. A Bhaalspawn named, 'Illasera', one of the infamous Five that now plague the Sword Coast. Illasera wielded a bow, and Jaheira figured that she must be a crackshot to be so confident in brandishing it about. "Hmm...", Jaheira thought to herself.

"Answer me! Where is she?"

"And if I choose not to oblige you?"

"Then I shall be forced to make you... To me, my brothers! Let the Black Reavers once again show why we are not to be played with!"

Three brutish looking Humanoids emerged from the vegetation, with one looking particularly monsterish.

"Ha! See what you have wrought upon yourself! Now the five of us... five... five? Trieze? Trieze, where are you? I said to come out now!"

Jaheira smiled, "If you are referring to a badly dressed Mage, I believe my Mountain Bears are snacking on him now. You should have seen his face when he accidentally stepped onto Rena's Spike Trap. Such a quaint expression. Truly one for the ages."

"Da-damn you! I will not have you make a fool out of me and my men! At them!"

The Black Reavers charged forward and engaged Jaheira and her companions in battle. They no longer had their Mage support, but their physical prowess was not to be underestimated.

"And now you die!", one of the Black Reavers shouted, as his weapon made contact with Minsc the Ranger. He never got to say another word though, as a shadowy figure materialised behind him and whispered, "After you."

"It's HER!", Illasera shouted, as she backpedalled to reanalyse the situation. She tried to track Rena with her bow, but Rena laughed and stealthed away. "Where is she? WHERE IS SHE?"

"I'm here!", Rena answered with glee as she reappeared next to another Black Reaver and ended his life before he could change the look of surprise on his face. Rena laughed some more and slinked away into the shadows.

"Damn you! Come back here and fight me if you dare!"

"Your opponent is me!", Jaheira shouted as she kicked aside the body of the Black Reaver she had just vanquished.

"Get out of my way, Druid!", Illasera snarled as she fired an Arrow of Dispelling towards Jaheira. Her shot flew true and struck Jaheira, before rebounding back to Illasera. "Argh! What manner of trickery is this?"

"This!", Jaheira replied. She had closed the distance between her and Illasera, and after raising one of her hands up high, she slammed the Shield of Reflection into Illasera's face with all her might.

~~~~ ~~~~

"Aw shucks... I only got three of them..."

"At least you got the majority."

"Yeah... but I was kind of hoping for more."

"Oh can it, Rena," said Imoen, "You're beginning to sound like Nalia. At least you killed something. Me? I'm still Dragonless, and my record sheet sucks. Even Kelsey kills more than me, and he's a borderline pacifist!"

"Wow... you're unusually edgy today," Rena said, with surprise in her voice.

"I-I'm sorry, Rena. I didn't mean to snipe like that... I... I just feel a bit different. I- Haha, look at me. Getting my undergarments all in a twist!", Imoen chirped.

Rena did not know what to reply. Perhaps it was just stress, and nothing more.

Or so she thought.

~~~~ ~~~~

To be continued...

Coming up next! Brother in Arms! Imoen learns bad habits from Kelsey! More backstabbings! And Kelsey kills again!

I have a question, backstab is septuple? Wasn't it octuple in one of the previous SoA screenshots? I thought then that one of the mods uncpas it. Or is it an item you were using then and aren't using now?

The assassin, unlike the thief is allowed to do septuple damage. If I recall, in the Better Thieves Stronghold mod, you get, at the end, the Shortsword of Ollidamara. It's a +4, I believe, shortsword, that adds 1 to your backstab multiplier, thus enabling the octuple damage.

Just my 2 cents.

Isn't it just Quietus +4, a weapon from Item Upgrades that gives a +1 to backstab?

Either or ;)

I don't have the Better Thief Stronghold mod. The Octuple damage is from Rena's wielding of Quietus from the Item Upgrades mod.

I stopped using it though, because I prefer to have the higher chance of Critical Strike from Single Weapon Style.

Drat. I was close though [img]smile.gif[/img]

I prefer the Short Sword of Backstabbing, which aVENGER's Rogue Rebalancing mod makes more like its PnP counterpart: It adds +1 to your Backstab multiplier, and becomes a +5 weapon (I believe it still strikes as +3, though) when used by a Thief.

I am not a fan of the Gloves of Backstabbing, however. Swashbucklers should not be allowed to erase their Backstab limitation through cheesy items--nor should Assassins be able to pull off Elftuple (whatever x11 is) Backstabs whenever they want.

Undecimtuple.