Suicidal Gnomes - where will they get to?

[Aerich]

MG, if you manage to pull this thing off all the way (and even if you stop now), you will have set yourself firmly in the annals of the best and craziest gamers ever. In terms of patience and gutsiness, this ranks right up there with solos, not using 'pause', and starting HoF from scratch.

How do you keep yourself pushing forward? I would have broken down and levelled up at least a couple characters by now.

I am shocked and amazed that you made it through Dragon's Eye, never mind the Severed Hand and Upper Dorns. On Easy mode or not, to have four badges with 6 lvl 1 characters... [img]graemlins/jawdrop.gif[/img]

[Midget Gems]

Thanks Aerich. I now have all six Badges and an appointment with the Reverand Brother P. I even found time to complete a couple of quests for XP that I don't need - I now have just over 1 million XP each for my 5 Level 1 Gnomes.

I get the feeling the next fight is going to be almost impossible, I often struggle to do it with a normal party. Any fight where I have no place to run to gives me big problems.

[Midget Gems]

To celebrate the dubious honour of reaching the 3rd page of this thread, I thought I would give a quick résumé of the party, so that latecomers would know what is going on without having to read all the previous posts.

The Suicidal Gnomes

At the start this was to be a mini-adventure, I set out with a party of 5 Gnomes to see how far I could get without using any Level-Up’s. My initial target was to maybe complete the Prologue and Chapter 1 on Insane difficulty setting, then as the fights became too tough I would reduce the difficulty and then finally bow out in a final battle against impossible odds (somewhat akin to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). Indeed this was almost the case in Dragon’s Eye, but we survived the onslaught of the Cold Wights on DE3, plus the traps and mega-battles on DE5, to continue with our adventure deeper into IWD. As the Chapters went by we have acquired better equipment, together with a stock of potion and scrolls, so we are still in good shape. The difficulty setting is on Easy and the party as we press on towards the final (suicidal) showdown is as follows:

Fighter Level 1 HP=12 Sword & Darts
Fighter/Mage Level 1+1 HP= 9 Axe & Dagger
Fighter/Thief Level 1+1 HP=10 Bow & Short Sword
Cleric/Thief Level 1+1 HP= 9 Mace or Sling
Cleric/Mage Level 1+1 HP= 6 Sling & Hammer

HP is supplemented by special items that gives additional points.
XP gained so far, but not used, is about 1 million each, enough for about Level 10 to 12 if I used it.
Weapon choice is continually changing, as it is sometimes better to have a weapon with special abilities even if the character does not have proficiency with it. For example, additional spells or resistance to fire are features that are well worth having. Sometimes I even equip a ‘cursed’ item just for the extra spells it provides.
Our favourite attacking spells (sadly) are Magic Stone and Magic Missile - I am happy just to do some damage no matter how small it may be.
Perhaps the single biggest problem we have faced is the ‘call to arms’ feature. As long as we can pick off the bad guys a few at a time then we are fine, but getting out-numbered by a dozen or more monsters is bad news. That’s when we have to retreat and resort to the age-old trick of fighting in doorways and at choke points.
Obviously, reloads are the order of the day with this party, but I try to avoid using Raise Dead unless the situation is desperate, I guess I have used it about 5 or 6 times so far.

[Midget Gems]

As expected I am having a great deal of trouble with Brother Poquelin. This fight involves everything that my party can’t handle and my first feeble attempts have so far hardly put a scratch on him. The good news is that I have a sack full of spell scrolls that might enable me to win the fight. However there are so many ways in which to deploy these resources, both in attack and in defense, that it could take an age to find that winning combination - if it exists. Things were so much simpler in the beginning when I had very few resources and I just used whatever came to hand. Still I shall keep trying.

I wrote this downbeat message and left it ready for posting, but now I have tried a few more times since then. I can now begin to see that there are some weaknesses to exploit and some powerful spells that can help me, so I can see the beginnings of a tactical plan. As always luck will play a vital part in this because saving throws play an important role, but my Gnomes are feeling more optimistic (and less suicidal) at the moment.

[Midget Gems]

Game over – or not as the case may be!


Spoilers, inevitably


So how do you know if the adventure is finished?
In the case of my Gnomes their mission was to die with honour in battle, so the game could end at any point. But the actual plot goal is to destroy the evil that threatens the ‘Dale and that is what we have done. We took on Big Brother Poquelin and killed him – completely dead – so the game stalled and couldn’t move on. We gained XP for killing him, but nothing else. The game did not continue as intended, so we could in all fairness claim victory, since the evil has been vanquished.

The problem is almost certainly that we killed him too much! In an effort to find any spell that would beat his magic resistance and saving throw, my Mages fired off any spells that came to hand. I had hoped a stun or hold spell might do the trick but in the end I got him with Finger of Death, which of course means he is permanently dead, so the plot is broken. Or to look at it another way my Gnomes have saved the Dale.

Oh well, looks like it’s time for another re-load.

[ZFR]

Let me be the first one to congratulate you on completing this one (you arent serious about reloading, are you?).

That was an amzing piece of work. If few months ago I were to make a list of impossible things to do, finishing IWD with level 1 gnomes would be placed somewhere near the top.

So I guess now it's time to finish HoW with level 1 halflings?

[Marty4]

Congrats, you broke the game! Seriously, I am completely in awe of you getting this far. I am sure we all would be amazed even if you have to stop now, but I bet you are going to reload and continue the game, right? Good, luck, and may your valiant midgets fight on!

[Dundee Slaytern]

Poquelin threw a hissy fit over being owned by Lvl-1 Gnomes and hanged the game.

[Midget Gems]

Game over – or not


Spoilers, inevitably


Well you knew I'd have to go on, so next time we stayed clear of the death spells and got him with a Chaos spell. He lost his marbles for long enough for us to do him in. With Brother Poquelin and now Pomab out of the way, that just leaves Belhifet himself.

As expected my first attempts were a disaster, but with a little experimentation we were able to find a combination of defensive tactics that could keep us alive long enough to have chance to do some damage to him and his buddies. While we can eventually get rid of the Golems, we’ve had no success against Belhifet. It appears that because all my Gnomes have poor THACO then the number of hits is so infrequent that we can’t do enough damage. In all the previous fights we have been able to use magic to overcome this problem, but Belhifet has such good resistance and saving throws that nothing I have tried so far can touch him.

So it’s time to stop and re-think the situation – if I can’t find a way to boost my attacking skills, or beat his magic resistance, then it could well be ‘game over’. Any suggestions would be welcome and if anyone has a figure for his AC, then this may help to gauge the magnitude of the task I face.

Ps. Thanks for your comments and encouragement.

[Soothsayer]

Needless to say, this is very impressive...

Im afraid I cannot help much with the whole Final Boss issue, but beleive me, if you came this far only a fool would give up now.

So make it happen MG, make it happen...