My NRP Project (Spoilers inevitable)

[Leslie]

I'll post here some of the progress with my 6th or 7th attempt at beating the game on Insane with a full party of original non-modified NPC's and doing it as a no reloads game. If my party members get chunkified (beyond resurrection) i'll still try to beat at least SOA part of the game. I have TOB installed and XP cap remover from Baldurdash (level 40).

Mods installed: Tactics v20, Ascension 1.4.17, Ease of use (some of it), Rogue Rebalancing pack 3.11, Item Upgrade v31, Banterpack v3, Kelsey, Solaufein and Tashia (all 3 not important for this game).

This is of course powergaming although I try to avoid cheese as much as possible. Difficulty is set to Insane but I do cheese somewhat when I level up to gain max HP (I change to Easy).

For my PC I chose Sorcerer because I believe that he is best able to protect himself (Contingency, Chain Contingency, Stoneskin, PFMW, Mirror Image, Prot. from Energy, Spell Immunity, ...) and at the same time do a lot of damage.

My tanks need to be stoneskined (ironskined) because on Insane dragons and other nasty creatures (Greater Mummies, Golems, Giants, ...) do 60 and more damage per hit. The only ones in the original SOA are Jaheira and Haer'Dalis.
Then I need a thief, where Jan fits perfectly as a backup mage and an excellent thief and also being able to protect himself. His HP on the other hand are pathetic. When I picked him up he had 36 HP.
I also need a full time cleric for protection and buffing - Chaotic Commands, Prot. from Evil, Resist fear, ..., and I chose Anomen because my last guy is Keldorn and he doesn't get along too well with Viconia (high MR).
I chose Keldorn for Carsomyr and being mage killer with high MR. Otherwise he will be flank attacker or crossbow man especially when I get hold of Kuo-toa paralyzing bolts.

Another cheese that I use is that I have another party:
PC - Swashbuckler, Jaheira, Kelsey, Solaufein, Minsc, Anomen.

With this party I play some of the tough fights first to really learn the tactic of my opponents. Later I play with the no reloads party.
But most of the game will be played only with NRP - the foreknowledge is already in my head. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Leslie]

The Ilyich Gang

I picked up Imoen, Jaheira and Minsc, equiped them (Jaheira club, sling and shield, Minsc twohanded sword and long bow) and out we went.

I scout ahead with Minsc and try to get Duergar guys one by one out of their ambush. The goal is to have stoneskinned Imoen run around Minsc and Jaheira while they kick the followers butt.

Duergar Mages are more tricky - but you can actually HIS, shoot at them and move out of their sight before they react. When I got rid of his stoneskin (5 hits, Minsc stealthed and hit him and I helped with MM's.

Then I got rid of the mephits (Iomen helped with Minor Globe if Invulnerability), golems (haste and attack) and summoned some fodder for the Otyugh, while we all kicked him. When he was near death I attacked from distance with MMM's. Then we picked up Helm of Balduran and detrapped the nice room, then there is the running game with the Duergars guarding the portal. When they were finished I picked up Yoshimo, and went back to the oval room (Otyugh room) and tried to set some traps. Yoshi set two and he lured out Galabrezu who can see invisible. I lured him to traps and finished him with MM+MMM tactic. Then I went to where the dryads are to make my first rest. When I woke up 3 duergars showed up. I ran away from the mage and killed the other two fighters with the run around tactic. My next target is monk Rasputin - he is fast and can stun you so I tried to get Yoshi set some traps - he actually set three (with his 35 in set traps ). I lured Rasputin to traps (on of them slowed him (Bounty hunter's special trap from Rogue Reb. mod)) and finished him with magic and ranged weapons.
The similar tactic happened to Ilyich, whose club Jaheira used to kill Golem while it was attacking stonskined Imoen under Mirror Image.

Karamazov was quite tricky but died to Yoshi's 64 dmg backstab and Zhivago was also not so difficult when he was alone.

The I made one mistake. When I got the Sword of Chaos my plan was to rest on that plane and get out as soon as duergars show up. So I rested and clicked the exit too fast (before they showed) so they appeared when I got out. I ran towards the Cambion room but forgot to disable the trap on the floor. Jaheira died when she was hit for 74 dmg. I though it was over but it is one of those recurring traps. So in a few moments Yoshimo gets a stab for 50 dmg. So while I was fighting two duergars I had to detect traps and disable them. Luckily one of them fell under Emotion spell from my Sorc.

The rest of the dungeon was easy compared to this. So Me, Yoshi, Imoen, Minsc and dead Jaheira came out of the dungeon on a nice sunny day.

[Xen]

Nice job Leslie! [img]smile.gif[/img] Good work and try to stay alive this time.

I also just made the dungeon and I am preparing to fight Illyich & CO. and I pretty much die every time. Must persist.

[ 06-06-2004, 04:18 PM: Message edited by: Xen ]

[Jaradu]

No reloads?! *gulp*

Good luck with that, I enjoy reading this type of stuff [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

[Leslie]

Athkatla quests

I got rid of Yoshi and Minsc, did the Tanner quest alone which helped me level up to level 10.
Then I picked up Anomen (who raised Jaheira) and Jan. Then helped Jahiera get cursed and uncursed, started the Unseeing eye and Planar Prisons quests so that could get Keldorn and Haer'Dalis. Then we are briefly off to Trademeet where we kill Genies so that I receive Shield of Harmony which will be Jaheira's best friend for a while. Then we went back to the Temple area and kill the sewer party with cheesy web+cloudkill+fireball+everything else tactic.
Then Jan gulps 3 Potions of Master Thievery and cheeses with sell in steal tactic from Roger the Fence. When I had around 200.000 gp I bought the Strength (Hill giant) girdle for Jaheira, Robe of Vecna (me), Mercykiller Ring (Jan) and stole some scrolls and a nice ring.

So that's an ideal start for now.

Then I finished the Slavers quest where Keldorn got a new talkative funny sword.
Also did the Xzar quest, doublecrossed Sarles and got hold of some Ilithium. Then we went to the Five Flagons Inn to start the rescue of one of my comrades.

[Bozos of Bones]

Originally posted by Leslie: I'll post here some of the progress with my 6th or 7th attempt at beating the game on Insane with a full party of original non-modified NPC's and doing it as a no reloads game. -SNIP-

That's how I beat some games(IWD 1 and recently IWD 2 including HoF). I call it Life mode, because there are no reloads(chunkification means back to start of chapter) and the diff is as high as it gets.
Respect, man! Good luck!

[Leslie]

Planar Prison rescue

My party buffed (Stoneskin, Ironskin, Chaotic Commands, Haste, ...) and went into the portal. We were immediately attacked by a bunch of bounty hunters. Keldorn activated True Sight and revealed a small guy trying to backstab me through stoneskin. Jan summoned some wolves with Wand, Jaheira threw herself in the thickest of battle while Anomen shot a Holy Might and helped with his Sling of Seeking. I helped with MMM's and a couple of other spells meanwhile. I let the mage guy have fun with the wolves while we finished the reamining hunters. Then I waited for his Sequencer (2 Fireshields + Improved Invis.) and Keldorn's True Sight and then I Breached him and attacked with all power and he was gone in one round.

We quickly dispatched the other 3 thralls, being careful with the mage who can cast lightning bolt among other annoying spells.

Then Jan scouted ahead and saw a group of Yuan-Ti mages and their fighter friends and decided to soften them with two Cloudkills and a Fireball as a desert. Some of the fighters came out of it but were sent to Had pretty quickly.

Then we summoned some more helping animals to kill the wyvern, air elementals and the Master of Thralls. Nothing special, just hack&slash under Ch.Comm. + Prot. from Fear.

We advanced further after destroying the Orb and heard a fight going on. We asked our summoned animal friends to check it out. They didn't make it. Soon the Warden was in our sight and fell quickly under True Sight, Breach and long range attacks. BTW, he had Spell turning on and my MMM's came flying back to my head before I realized what was going on.
There were still four Yuan-Ti mages there and I used the familiar Cloudkill+Web tactic. These guys actually ended one of my previous attempts at NRP. Casting Lightning bolt's, MM's, Skull Traps on Insane can cause terrible damage so I fight them now from a distance or at least one at a time.

Haer'Dalis rejoined our party and we had a scheduled meeting with a certain Cowled Wizard who was about to push up some daisies.

[ 06-07-2004, 02:55 AM: Message edited by: Leslie ]

[Link]

How can you doublecross Sir Sarles before finishing the Unseeing Eye?

[Armen]

Originally posted by Link: How can you doublecross Sir Sarles before finishing the Unseeing Eye?

they're unrelated apart from the prompt - you can talk to the priest that gives you the sir salres quest before you do the UE quest

[Leslie]

Maevar's demise

Rayic Gethras didn't stand a chance. His invisibilty spells were countered with Keldorn's True Sight and his protections were removed with Breach. That happened twice and then Jaheira, Keldorn, Anomen and Haer'Dalis attacked all together and soon he was pushing up daisies.

We did some minor quests to gain Maevar's trust and then Edwin helped us get the revealing documents. We showed the evidence to Renal and agreed to eliminate the traitor.

The entering floor was filled with shadow thieves. Jaheira went ahead and played her own solo fight while the rest of us fought together with Hold Person, Glitterdust, Slow and various weapons.

Before going down to the cellar Anomen buffed us with Chaot. Comm., Prot. from Fear and Prot. from Evil.

The scenario downstairs is this: Jan casts 3 webs to slow down the enemies, sorc throws a carefully aimed cloudkill (to avoid killing the prisoner - big rep. loss if it happened), Keldorn True Sights, Haer'Dalis hastes everyone and we wait.
When we notice the bad guys getting caught in the web, I help them with Greater Malison , Jan casts Chaos and Anomen throws in 3 Holy Smites. And all the time we attack them from range - slings, crossbows, MMM's, ...
Oh, and I also served one or two Emotion spells who knocked down Maevar. When total chaos ended there were only the summoned skeletons which were promptly turned by Anomen and one assassin and Maevar were still unconscious. Soon they were history.

We also cleared the top floor where Jaheira showed that Anishai bi..h who owns whom.
Jan found some trapped doors and some gems to his delight.

We reported back to Renal and he rewarded us nicely with gold, a sword and a lot of XP.
Now we need some rest, most of the guys are already complaining.