My Tactics Odyssey => Containing Spoilers Big and Small

[True_Moose]

Inspired by Ilyich and from reading accounts on other forums, I have decided to take off the gloves and engage in an all-out dual with the Tactics mod.

The mods I will be running are:

• Cirrerek's AI Scripts (not being used)
• Tactics (all except Ilyich - I still can't stand that dungeon)
• Oversight
• Banterpack
• Unfinished Business
• Ascension
• Turnabout
• Item Upgrade
• Moonfruit's Improved Battles
• Deeper Shadows of Amn (components not in Tactics)
• Solaufein
• Improved Asylum
• Improved Planar Sphere
• Ease of Use (true grandmastery, big stacks, shut up "You must gather your party")
• Dungeon-Be-Gone
• Rogue Rebalancing
• Kivan NPC
• Kelsey NPC
• G3Tweaks

So as you can see, a very heavily modded game. I have some others, like kits, installed, but those are irrelevant insofar as this particular run goes. My party will be good aligned, and built from a power player's perspective. As I am writing this at the end of chapter 3, which took me all of Saturday to do, I can see some flaws in my party that will be addressed, but I will stick with them regardless. And my lineup (thanks to Shadowkeeper) is:

Santarin - Human Swashbuckler
The PC and Bhaalspawn is very strong. I wasn't too concerned about the loss of backstab, since most mages and major enemies in the game seem to be able to see right through you anyway. He's sort of a support character - he isn't going to be the primary tank, but he'll be able to dish out some decent damage. He's going to dual wield, probably involving longswords and katanas. His hide ability will come in handy moving into and out of where I want him to go. The party scout. At level 15, I'm going to dual him to mage, primarily as a secondary nuker, rather than as a self-buffer.

Jaheira - Ranger/Cleric
The romantic interest. She is the only source of divine magic, but I'm allright with that, since I mostly use my clerics for buffing anyway. She will be on path to dual wield blunt things - one of the Item Upgrade clubs and DoE or something similar, most likely. One of my goals is to have her saving throws absolutely as low as possible, and to really tank her in combat.

Minsc - Wizard Slayer
Minsc is...well, I love the guy. Also, he's super strong and occupies the sole totally without magic slot in the party. I have him as a Wizard Slayer who will dual to thief. Munchkin? Maybe, but what the hell do you call Improved Bodhi and co. His aim is always going to be mages. He'll end up with two-handed swords in particular, but I'm thinking of having him also move up in daggers and dual-wielding for backstab. Eventually, Tor'Gal's Claw and Quietus will be his backstabbing combo.

Kivan - Generic Archer
From the mod. Lots of banter and available early, which I wanted. His role is pretty obvious. The archer is truly a sick class, especially early on, when you get the Tuigan bow. With grandmastery in bows, that gives you a nice round 5 attacks per round. Secondary mage killer behind Minsc, he really is a great fit. I think I'm going to dual him as well, but I haven't decided to what yet. The suspicion I'm getting is that I'm going to start running short on mage spells between my 2 or 3 dual-classed mages, so I'm hesitant to dual-him there. I'm leaning towards a thief, to make him another great hit and run specialist, especially with things like arrows of dispelling.

Solaufein - Fighter/Mage
He is what he is. He's going to be primarily self-buffing, as Santarin will take care of secondary nuking duties. Buff him up, run him into battle, crush some things. 'nuff said.

Kelsey - Sorcerer
Again, his role - fairly obvious. He hurts things. Badly. He is going to be the only arcane support until probably post-Underdark, but that's ok. As long as I have breach for that period, I'll be okay.

Next up - the early game.

[True_Moose]

The first priority was putting together the party. That was nice and easy with Kivan in the Promenade and Kelsey in the government district. Sold some stuff, went to the Slums, went to the Coronet. Using Kivan in particular to disrupt spellcasting, the guards around the slaves in the CC were very easy. Used Charm Animal when fighting the Beastmaster, again, no challenge at all. The Tuigan Bow and Kivan are a deadly combination, and made very short work of the guards in the Coronet. Agreed to help Hendak in the sewers. Got Lilarcor, which was pretty key, particularly when dealing with those goofy myconids in the corner of the sewers. After a quick rest, went upstairs into the Slaver Boat. Concentrated most of my fire on the Captain, with Kelsey disabling large groups with slow and Kivan picking off archers. Freed the slaves with no problems. One of Kelsey's encounters triggered when I left the boat, and by the time I got back to the Coronet, I had fought about 5 encounters in the Slums that weren't there before, including the Improved Battles Cohrvale, which was really just more easy loot. By this point, I had enough cash to pay off Mr. Bayle, and get the nice trinkets from the Shadow Thieves.

There were several things I wanted to do before I left for Spellhold.

• Buy the Shields of Balduran and Reflection
• Get Breach
• Get some sort of stronghold (I have the multiples patch)

Breach would be accomplished by simply levelling up. In order to get the Shields, I would have to raise some loot. I didn't feel comfortable yet taking on any of the big quests, mainly because of the best random spawns in dungeons component of tactics. So I started running around doing little things. First did the Circus, and then the UB Spider's Bane quest. Funny thing happened though. When I went to sell the Web Sack to Ribald, he offered me 48k for it. I thought "great deal," and did it. Then he had it for sale for 15k. How does that place stay in business? In any case, I had enough to not only buy the two shields, but also the DoE for Jaheira.

Restored Kalah for a Reputation point, then did the Harpers Quest. Prebek actually took a reload, I'm ashamed to say. The second time, Kelsey hit him with magic missiles before his protection went up. After that, I focused missile fire on his assistant, and melee on the flesh golem. The rest of the quest was no problem, and thanks to Santarin's fine theft skills, we emerged quite rich. Also did the Tirdir quest, as well as the Tanner's. I'm debating whether I should pursue the Human Flesh path for Minsc. Also, ran into the Crooked Crane, and right back out again, but now I have the Daystar.

Did Boo's Kidnapping, which, if you have never played UB before, you should install just for some of the dialogues in this quest. Hilarious.

Went through the sewers pretty easily. Took care of the party in the north end by drawing them off one at a time, then frying them with missiles and spells. Saved Haer'Dalis from Mekrath without any problems, thanks to Breach followed by Kivan, which has developed into an excellent tactic. With his five attacks per round, he can almost prevent his poor target from doing anything. He has a THAC0 of -2 at level 11, so he hits most of the time. If a mage has stoneskin up, simply use elemental arrows to disrupt his spells.

The Planar Prison quest was disappointing, to be honest. The only conflict of any magnitude was with the demon Thrall Master. But a couple of Lower Resistances later, and he was again toast. The Warden was pretty simple, especially once Kivan got into his grill. In any case, I got Jaheira Boots of Speed, which are turning out to be really invaluable - she's like a border collie herding sheep with our enemies sometimes.

Did a little bit of the De'Arnise Keep and the Unseeing Eye quests, but I decided against going there yet, and instead went to face Bodhi. Her minions were a cinch. Tanova, as always, was the most challenging, but using Kitthix combined with NPPed meleers took care of her pretty quick.

Bodhi, however was a different story...

[True_Moose]

Improved Bodhi
This fight was really irritating, took me awhile. I have totally underestimated the amount of magic I would need. It won’t be a problem after this point, really, once I get Solaufein and dual Santarin and possibly Kivan to mages, but was a huge pain for now. Everything I did seemed to fail - my melee dominance just was not working, and I didn't have enough magical guns to be able to gang up on her.

Eventually I settled on a tactic that relied on the one scroll of spell trigger I had. Looking at Infinity Explorer, Bodhi has a ton of magic resistance, but very little beyond that. The key is clearly taking down her MR and then slowing her.

Jaheira had three slots of Negative Plane Protection, which she cast on herself, Minsc and Santarin. I gave the Boots of Speed and the Amulet of Power to Kelsey, and loaded up a spell trigger, spell sequencer and minor spell sequencer. The spell trigger had 3 lower resistances, the sequencer 3 fireballs and the minor sequencer 2 magic missiles. I left the three melee specialists, fully buffed, in the lobby area, and moved Santarin into view of Bodhi and company by way of the pool in which we find the Mace of Disruption. As soon as Bodhi came into view, Kelsey launched the spell sequencer which destroyed her Grimward archers. I then ran for the main dining – do vampires eat? – hall. When Bodhi teleported in, hit her with the Trigger, which, took away 63% of her resistance, leaving her at a paltry 12%. Immediately cast Slow with my rock bottom casting speed. After that point, it was a matter of physically pounding her with Minsc, Jaheira and Santarin. I moved Yoshimo and Kivan into range and particularly Kivan joined in the mayhem. I thought I would be in trouble when my NPPs ran out, but luckily, she fixated on Kelsey, who alternated between health potions, stoneskins, and spells of fire arrow, magic missile and melf’s acid arrow. Unfortunately, right as she went down, she got in a lucky hit on Jaheira, killing her, but the XP Bodhi left was not great, and so I wasn’t too heartbroken.

Moved on to Brynnlaw, breezed through Lady Galvena's festhall and the associated quests. Used Minsc to get into the Asylum, I figure I'll take on Perth after I leave. Lost a point of INT to the demon, as well as Yoshimo, so through most of the Sahuagin city and Underdark I'll have 5 members, which is fine. Currently, having some issues with the Lich in Spellhold. Not the lich itself, but rather a pit fiend it summoned. I have never seen something do as much damage as it.

http://tinyurl.com/8v6ku

I have no idea why that happened, but it sucked. [img]tongue.gif[/img] In any event, it was nothing compared to what happened next.

http://tinyurl.com/c8rvh

After his Protection from Evil fell apart, he turned on the Lich, making my job pretty simple.

[ 02-19-2006, 03:05 PM: Message edited by: True_Moose ]

[True_Moose]

Ended up using a hit squad of four summons to kill the lich. Apparently, Improved Kitthix, a Nymph and two Ghouls with gMinionis enough to take down the better undead spellcasters. Who knew? Couldn't touch the pit fiend, so Protection from Eviled Jaheira, ran her into Dace's Lair, killed him and ran back. Went north, where I fought two balors (thanks toughest random spawns [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img] ) which weren't really a problem. Avoided killing the party in the corner, as they pretty much destroyed everything.

Don't know why this happened, which mod was responsible, but once, I rested and was attacked by 21 mages. I don't have a screenshot, because they made short work of me, but they all cast TimeStop. I figured I was dead anyway, so I went and made a sandwich.

The second half of the Asylum underground was pretty breezy too. The trolls and minotaurs were really easy, and the slayer took down Bodhi's group. The elder umber hulks were handled by Minsc with Lilarcor. The paintings threw me for a bit of a loop, particularly the mind flayer - ulitharid. I had Minsc open the door (he had Boots of Speed) and then run in random abstract patterns while Jaheira cast True Sight. It seemed even RPing logical to have Minsc run around like a chicken with his head cut off. Kitthix got him webbed and poisoned, and he was done. Got the final tokens by running in Santarin (with BoS) into the Golem room hidden, quickly unpicking the lock, grabbing what was inside and booking it out the door. On attempt #2 it succeeded.

I was really disappointed with the fight with Jonny-boy. Whether my allies were boosted by the Smarter Mages tweak or what, enemies, including Yoshimo, were no contest at all. Out of curiosity, I then did the combat using only eSeries scripts, and the exact same thing happened. Kind of a bummer, especially considering some of the headaches earlier in the dungeon.

On to our second major improved component:
Improved Sahuagin City
I walked into this one with a sense of apprehension. This particular component has taken its fair share of heat. I didn't find it super tough. Part of the problem is that the better AI actually helped my tactics. I armed Jaheira with the Shield of Reflection (I would imagine Physical Mirror would do the same thing,) and walk into their sightlines. Because she's using the SoR, I guess they go to melee combat. I then rush in my party, who quickly finish them. Just like Bodhi, the Sahuagins seem to have real problems switching targets intelligently.

One thing that I am finding out in this run is how good an improviser I can be. Looking at past posts for how to beat monsters in Tactics has not helped - often I have a totally different setup and equipment, often leaving important things behind (like wands.) So I've been using IE (I think I have a super-cheesy way of downing Firkraag, but that comes later.) In order to kill the Minor Avatar of Sekohlah, I had to use some Spears +3 and the Pixie Prick, as they were the only +3 weapons I had. Luckily, Kitthix again webbed him, and that made it easy. The Priestess with the Cloak of Cheese (TM) was pretty easy, for someone with her loot. Kelsey just kept casting Death Spell to take care of those Salamander look-alikes, and my fighters stayed on top of her. After Jaheira had both the Cloak and the Shield, the City turned into an episode of Bhaalspawn Gone Wild, as I ended up with more than 1000 of those bolts. The fight with the king wasn't too bad, as I had everyone except Jaheira book it out of there at the beginning. She had Ironskins and Armor of Faith, so melee wasn't bad on her. Then just moved everyone back in and finished off the Royal Guard completely.

[True_Moose]

On to the Underdark...
The Underdark I foresaw as being of two, separate elements. The first element, the main plot, was going to be straightforward. That would be my first task, as it meant I would end up with Solaufein. Second would be raiding the Mind Flayer dungeon for parts.

The plot was pretty simple. Had a big encounter with some drow right in front of the iron sphere. Isolating them made them pretty simple, and I loaded up on adamantium stuff. The Iron Globe had its tough parts. Not the Githyanki, but Raevilin Strathi, and particularly Alchra Diagott would be tough. Managed to hit Diagott with the MoD as he was teleporting in, which made that battle simple. The balor up by the svirfneblin were pretty simple too. Into Ust'Natha we go. Rescuing Phaere was, in all honesty, the toughest part of the Underdark plot. Those things had a nasty habit of int draining Minsc who, as we all know, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer to begin with. Threw him some Boots of Speed, had him run around while Jaheira cast True Sight. After that, stayed on top of them (Kitthix worked wonders.) The rest of the Drow quests are not really worth describing, since they were so easy. Ran a ghoul to the Cambion Knights' altar, they basically fireballed each other to death. Solaufein joined, and the fun began.

Illithids are, in Tactics, hell. Bodhi was frustrating, but nothing, nothing compared to these guys. I ended up using a ton of Chaotic Commands, and even more Power Word: Reloads in their stronghold, which was entirely done for the Blade of the Equalizer. I was not looking forward to the fight with the Master Brain, but unfortunately fate intervened. For some reason, the Mind Flayers I controlled circuited could not open the doors. I had to CTRL-J to the exit, without fighting this guy, which is too bad, cuz I wanted to see.

Back to the surface, got Drizzt and the Shadow Thieves on board as allies against everyone's favorite Super-Vamp. Killed the Gnome Fighter/Illusionist, who was pretty simple, after all his talking, especially when Minsc MRed his fireball and then drew him downstairs, right into the clutches of a bunch of ornery thugs led by a demi-god. Cromwell made for me 3 Rings of Preservation, Improved Aeger's Hide, The Equalizer, Improved Daystar, Throwing Impaler and the Silver Sword. On to finish off Tor'Gal.

I had cleared out the bottom half of the keep before taking on Bodhi, so there were few fights of note until Glaicas. He was pretty simple, especially with a good fire arrow from Kelsey. Beat up the Golems for the second flail head. Following that, the Revenge Spiders came for Solaufein. Looking at their resistance, fire in particular was a problem. Summoned Kitthix, as he would be immune to web, and Free Actioned Solaufein - they would go after him, he would have to run. As they spawned, managed to get Solaufein out of the way, and a Spell Sequencer of Flame Arrows finished off one of them. As they pursued Solaufein, Minsc and Kivan pounded on them from afar, and Kelsey bombed them. They fell pretty quickly.

Moved to downstairs. The Spirit trolls are really a cinch with True Sight. Used the doggy stew to get rid of the Umber Hulks. Buffed up in preparation for Tor'Gal. I managed to kill him on the first try, thanks entirely to a fluke. When I walked into his room with Santarin hidden, only Tor'Gal saw him! His lackeys can't see through invisibility. As such, I lured him back to the former umber hulk room. Kitthix managed to get in a web on him, and his poison somewhat neutralised Tor'Gal's insane regen. He fell real quick under the combined attacks of my party and summons.

Trademeet. Ah Trademeet. Really, an XP mine. Used Jaheira's charm animal early on, which made things a lot easier, since everywhere I went, I had a ton of allies. The troll mound was pretty smooth sailing, as was the encounters, although Kyland Lind was quite impressive. The secret, again was Kitthix's immobilization, combined with his poison, which, after Lind freed himself, destroyed his spellcasting. By the time I got to Faldorn, I had a gigantic crew of animals following me. More on that later. Fighting Faldorn was not fun. I ended up using the Cloak of the Sewers to troll, then engaging in combat, I landed three criticals in a row, which finished her.

The Brown Dragon from Deeper SoA then spawned outside. All my animals outside automatically attacked By the time I got out there, he was at Near Death, and three shots from Kivan ended him.

EDIT: In case anyone out there is reading, I have decided to dual Sartarin to a fighter. This means Kivan will dual to mage, which will be quicker than dualling Sartarin anyway. This means I'll have three guys capable of using arcane magic, and Sartarin will continue to fulfill his role of scout/lurer, which I have found invaluable, as well as gaining fighter HLAs.

[ 02-21-2006, 01:37 AM: Message edited by: True_Moose ]

[True_Moose]

Sorry to disappoint anyone actually reading, but my party just went down the tubes. The savegames are all corrupted, why, I don't know. I'm stuck in the Umar Hills and I can't get out.

[Stonewarrior]

Moose, very sorry to hear about your game. I was enjoying the read and was bummed when I got to the end.