Some experiences of a Tactics newbie

[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.

[Armen]

i'm new to tactics too - it's great isn't it?

undead are scary now arent't they? have a wander up to the umar hills - you'll enjoy it

i just got stopped dead by Maevar too - i was toyng with cheesily summoning some skeletons in the basement before presenting the evidence - not sure how the duration would work though - it certainly makes you think [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Hank Parsons]

Tactics Improved Druid's Grove is fun too... until you get to improved Faldorn. She's, like, almost impossible.

[rily83]

Continuation.....two great battles lined up!

Improved Maevar--This was easier than i thought. Nalia webbed and Aerie stinkin clouded the middle of the room where their attack was to come out from. Keldorn dispelled magic at that same point just as the assasins were running in. Nalia followed with greater malison and Aerie with confusion. This left most of them confused/webbed/sleeping. Meanwhile my party was practicing their archery. The cleric was taken out by arrows and flamestrike. Maevar was throwing several melfs minute meteors at Keldorn, but i managed to get true sight up. Aerie continued an endless barrage of hold persons leaving the enemy helpless. Finally the party surrounded the protectionless Maevar and pummeled him to goo. Strangely the imp was affected by hold person (bug?)

Improved Guarded compound--Tackling Maevar gave me the confidence to try the guraded compuond. I had to change Yoshi for Jaheira due to insect plague. My party was level 11ish with no mage spell above lvl6 and no cleric spell accept for one flamestrike and one insect plague. My strategy was a slight variance of the Maevar one. Buffs were: protection from evil, chant and most importantly, the 2nd lvl mage spell resist fear. Immediately upon going up the stairs, Keldorn did a dispel and Nalia followed up with malison. Aerie walked to the side and did not cast anything since she would be hit by lighting from Koshi(reload information). Then when hit she cast confusion. Ja did her insect plague on the cleric. By this time 5 skeleton warriors had been summoned and two winter wolves. A skele warrior tried to disrupt Aerie but his ice bolt missed fortunately. Koshi, Sion and the Neo Orog Marauder were confused, Koshi getting a damageless but stunning hit on Aerie after the spell was cast. My fighting force converged on Koshi as he was still the most dangerous, but luckily he was hitting a skele warrior to near death for me. After Koshi fell it was the thief's turn then the Neo Orog. Neo Orog Marauder guy ran downstairs in a confused state of mind. Aerie pelted the skeles with holy smite while Nalia's fireballs, cloudkill and web combi took out the wolves and the cleric. Sion remained a danger since i had nothing possible to dispel spell trap. Minsc stepped onto a trap accidently and the main force was trying to get the skeles off his back while he was held. Sion's magic resistance left him only injured and he was starting to get his bearings. It was a do-or-die situation and my party charged. He drank a potion bringing him to full health and recast prot. from magical weapons. My party switched to normal weapons immediately and began whacking through but he got a greater malison in. Jus before he cast his next scary spell, my PC got through wif a normal Katana disrupting it. Sion, in a state of shock, was finished off with an amazing critical from Minsc. And yes, celestial fury is now mine..........my precious.....

Well currently doing Umar hills, a scary place. Why are there so many liches there? Shade Lord sure has a lot of hired help, besides the dragon. Pit Fiends are insane in more ways than one, killing mummies and skeles before i do. Strange that protection from evil happens to be the best spell for the whole area. Now fighting my second lich, a real tough spellcaster.... Man tactics is hard.

[Armen]

[img]smile.gif[/img] nice account

it's evil in those ruins now isn't it? i could have used keldorn for the pit fiend and i just left lich #2 for another day - if felt very . . . roleplaying . . . to just do what had to be done and get the hell out of their

[Hank Parsons]

keep up the instant replays, i like seeing what is going on out there in tactics land

[Dundee Slaytern]

Consider the usage of Emotion:Hopelessness. It is the same level as Confusion, but the effects are better... much better.

Other than the tip, nice account of your journey. Have fun! [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Riftmaker]

Emotion is an awesome spell. I love it.

Greater Malision then Emotion.

[rily83]

I realised my posts are kinda spoily.....in the how to kill something way. I will be less spoily from now on esp when refering to locations and quests.

Somewhere near Umar hills-- The 2nd lich in some temple ruins was incredibly unbeatable. I couldnt take out his protections so i had to leave the battle for another time.(Nod to Armen)

Shadow dragon(whose location is a mystery)-- I really expected more from tactics, but maybe it was the *item* which prevented the dragon from noticing Yoshimo's *things on the floor*. I didnt even have to pull out the usual lower resistances followed by powerful offensive spells routine. Keldorn's dispel jus took out the stoneskin and the dragon was still clueless after that. My level 12ish party just watched him writhe around in agony. Aerie took the kill using magic missile w/out any lower resistances.

Red Dragon(whose location is a mystery)-- Same strategy as above, but a lot more elaborate. Firstly, Yoshi's *things* could still be put in the chamber, just much further away, like at the bottom of the steps. Dun buff up near him cos he will notice but a distance away was fine. Everyone had fire resistance, either from the dragon helm, the dragon shield, helm of defense, fire resistance ring and the cleric spell. Then 2 skeletons were summoned, chant, prot from evil and resist fear was cast. Yoshi ran to the top of the stairs away from the main action. The 3 tanks(myself, kel and minsc) surrounded him in different positions. Nalia cast pierce magic, Aerie lower resist, lowering a total of 12+21% while kel dispelled the skins again. Red dragie flew into a rage, blowing one red hot dragie breath at Yoshi and blowing my PC and a skele away. Red dragie: Yoshimo was immune to your damage. Thanks to Aerie's spell. The remaining tanks rushed in valiantly, ready to soak some pain even as Aerie prepared her next lower resist. Nalia cast a magic missile, which had 3 out of 5 hits. Red dragie blew again and everyone was sent flying towards the stairs. The skeles recovered amazingly quickly and were charging again. Red dragie did his usual remove magic and lower fire resist spells, however as he began walking towards the stairs, he was hit by a barrage of Yoshi *things* making him badly wounded. He desperately began a heal spell, but Aerie did a lighting bolt and Nalia a minor sequencer filled with missiles, interrupting him. The skeles and the tanks annoyed him without doing any real damage. Finally, the traps did another round of damage, laying him low. He din even have time to do all the fun stuff listed in the readme file. Damn.Lesson learned: Even in tactics, Yoshi's *things* proved invaluable. Stoneskin(a nice touch) is too easily dispelled. Anyone in chapter 2 or 3 could beat dragons with the right strategy(sad but true).

It was roughly around this time that my game screwed up. In a moment of folly, I reinstalled Nalia's mod because the romance was not starting. Then I realised I had overode my WeiDu mods with a non-WeiDu one. Now my game is incredibly bugged up with all the wrong conversations coming up and no backup dialog file, so i had to uninstall everything including SOA and TOB. Came at the right time too, cos i have finals soon. Almost a divine intervention. So my tactics journey has ended.

Lessons learned from my game:
Never mod a non-WeiDu after WeiDu ones.
Cheap tactics still work to a large extent.
Spirit trolls are not spectral trolls. Far from it actually.
Get some gd equipment from the other adventuring parties around like in the Waukeen's inn and under the Temple district sewers before taking on Tactics improved areas.
Always have protection from evil on because Pit Fiends pop up everywhere in Amn.
If you cant win, run away, esp from liches who pack an insane punch but are only worth 22k exp.

Questions raised: How the hell do i get Nalia's romance to work? Did I install it wrong? The install instructions are not as clear as i hoped.

PS: Hey Dundee, you from Spore too right? I stay in Tanah Merah. Enlisting this year. 11 dec. Crap, only 2 wks to party after As.

[Hank Parsons]

Originally posted by rily83: I realised my posts are kinda spoily.....in the how to kill something way. I will be less spoily from now on esp when refering to locations and quests...... maybe it was the *item* which prevented the dragon from noticing Yoshimo's *things on the floor*.

Honestly, that format just wasn't as fun to read. Didn't sound like a story anymore. Just put Spoiler tags and then go ahead and tell it [img]smile.gif[/img]

Originally posted by rily83: Lessons learned from my game: Never mod a non-WeiDu after WeiDu ones. Cheap tactics still work to a large extent. Spirit trolls are not spectral trolls. Far from it actually. Get some gd equipment from the other adventuring parties around like in the Waukeen's inn and under the Temple district sewers before taking on Tactics improved areas. Always have protection from evil on because Pit Fiends pop up everywhere in Amn. If you cant win, run away, esp from liches who pack an insane punch but are only worth 22k exp.

Great lessons!! Take note, players. rily83 made good points.