[rily83]

I created my game after installing Tactics and Nalias romance mod. My class is half-elf barbarian(slightly strange in the forgotten realms concept). What i did was:

Starting dungeon--Dungeon be gone gave me an easy alternative over taking on Ilyich and his goons. From hints given by the Tactics readmes, its not impossible to take them on, but i didnt really feel like looting the whole dungeon again just to be ready to face Ilyich.

Waukeen's Promenade--Breezed through Aerie's quest but was surprised by the improved shadows casting spook, doom, fear and ability score drain on my party. Pebblecrusher was routine, though the mage had to be silenced by Aerie first. Yoshi's traps took care of Pooky and stunned Pebble, a fortunate side effect since i was aiming them at the mage. The nymph script was amazing with it casting the right spells incapitating Pebble's party. Mage was running around confused, Pebble being stunned, Pooky already dead, the thief dominated and the barbarian hacked to pieces by my party.

Slums--Slavers was no biggie, although there were more guards in the copper coronet, things went well as usual. What can i expect from enemies which give me 34 exp per kill?

Temple--Decided that i had to stock up on some equipment first, so went into the temple sewers to pick up Keldorn and take care of the party mulling inside. Stinking cloud and web left them rooted, cheesy fireballs, a Holy Smite and a cloudkill proved too difficult yet again for my opponents who were quickly sent to the next world. The only problem came from a beholder and two gauths and i decided to leave them alone until I came back. Tempted to collect CF but decided my party was not yet strong enough to handle that bunch without the right spells and equipment, worse of all I couldnt use my favourite "run down the stairs and play hit and run" tactic.

Nalia's keep--Horror of horrors........Spirit trolls! I got them confused with spectral trolls when browsing through the Tactics readme. Imagine what happened when I fought my first one. My party frantically bore arms on the beast even as Unholy blight, Greater command, and Flamestrikes fell aplenty. My favourite tactic was to send someone alone ahead to take the pain from a single spirit troll and then the party would converge and finish off the troll before a second spell. Kel's dispel magic was a lifesaver against Greater command, a spell which I dont believe i have ever seen used before in previous games. Torgal was insanely tough, though cheesy cloudkills and fireballs coupled with web took care of his friends namely a bunch of spirit trolls and two Yuanti mages. Yoshi's traps got Torgal to injured, and a hasted party with bless, chant, protection from evil, Defensive Harmony and two skeletons had trouble lowering his hp, the regen was that fast and his Ac too low. Strangely enough the enraged Torgal only had eyes for Minsc(or perhaps Boo?) resulting in my party surrounding him and getting in numerous free hits as he tried vainly to get his hands on Minsc, who was taunting him a distance away with Lilarcor screaming "Whos your daddy!". Nalia was sad her dad died but I could only feel relief at not having a meet the parents session early in the romance. Aunty was annoying as usual but Valen wasnt around to take care of that sadly enough. 12k exp for each troll made my party a little higher level than what one would normally expect.

Docks--Attempted the Maevar quest. The first few were simple and eventually i was ready for my big showdown with Maevar. My party went in, moderately buffed, Aerie did a stinkin cloud and Nalia web right in the middle. Two fireballs followed which seriously damaged our enemies though not lethal yet. Unfortunately, an innocent prisoner got in the way, resulting in a 5 pt reputation reduction. Reload. I tried Lighting and some Holy Smites this time. Holy Smite was weak due to Aerie's current level and lighting though effective, reflected on the prisoner again. Reload. I had to do this sans lighting with some Holy Smites and no other area damage spells. My party was slaughtered mercilessly. Being rather tired and defeated, i decided not to finish Maevar till i get the necessary spells. I went to pay a visit to old Kangaxx and found some new pals waiting. Instantly I ran out and tackled with a two-weapon fighter, several minotaurs and a skeleton warrior. The fighter drank potions like he had been in a dessert without water for days. When cutting him up i fully expected healing water to pour out of his wounds instead of blood. Meanwhile the skele warrior had a fun time with fear spells while i was distracted, which made the whole combat needlessly long. Fortunately, the liches had a lot of faith in their friends and were reluctant to come out and exercise their old bones. Minsc's running in and out made them waste countless gd spells. Eventually their skeletal heads figured that their friends had bitten the dust and they ventured out, where breach and my angry party members made short work of them. One died quickly while the other managed to summon two Hakeashars before yielding. The two Hakeashars chased Nalia and Aerie in circles and i collected an additional 6k exp each. We went in triumphant but there was still one surprise,a frighteningly good gnome fighter. But he was alone without the gd sense to run away earlier. I looted a ring of regen and a ring of protection +2, just the right things needed for a ring of preservation +2(Thanks WeiDu!) So it was a great day all in all despite Maevar still breathing.

And thats the end of my progress so far. I thought of some new ways to defeat Maevar but havent had the time to try them out. One involves greater malison and confusion. Another is something like skull trap(not sure of the area involved and hitting the poor bugger would be bad) and death spell since their hit points would be quite low at that point. Any suggestions without being too spoily would be gd. And any idea as to why my Nalia romance hasnt seemed to start would be appreciated.