Solo Cleric through Weimer Land

[Rataxes]

Inspired by wally p's first post here on IW, I'm attempting to walk a lone Priest of Helm all the way from the dirty steelbarred cage to godhood ascension. Will update this thread as I go along.

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Settings
Insane Difficulty
Tactics mod installed
Ascension mod installed
Oversight mod installed

To those not familiar with the Priest of Helm, it is essentially a pure cleric with two nice features:

• He may cast True Sight once per day per 5 levels.
• He may use the Seeking Sword ability once per day per 10 levels.

Now, True Sight needs no further explaination, but the Seeking Sword is a more intriguing ability. When used, a +4 enchanted Long Sword with +4 THAC0, +2 ApR, and 2D4 damage will occupy your main-hand for a duration of 1 round/level, during which you cannot cast any spells. The meager damage and lack of an elemental component aside, the +2 ApR bonus of the Seeking Sword is enough to make the Priest of Helm a more powerful melee fighter than what most other classes could be on their own accord.

With the premise out of the way, on with the game:

The dice flew for a good five minutes before the lawful good elven cleric Thomas rolled an unusual 94, which were distributed as below:

STR 18
DEX 18
CON 17
INT 12
WIS 18
CHA 11

CON needed to be at 17 instead of 16 so I could use DUHM to regenerate life en masse when resting at lvl 9 instead of at lvl 12, and there's really no reason to raise DEX above 18 since I intend to visit level 4 of WK before the Nine Hells. Race being elven is entirely for the +1 THAC0/Dmg bonus they enjoy with the Long Sword, which is what the Seeking Sword is classified as. Besides, they look less like marshmallow men and more like athletic warriors than humans.

So Irenicus had his bit of monologue, and a few flashes later, Imoen came to rescue me. "No Imoen, whatever's out there is looking for me, and ME alone. You'll all be safer if you let me go alone and clear the way for you."
Short story: Beat it Imoen

I let her fix those gizmos behind the painting first though...

Armed with a plain War Hammer and aided by DUHM I slowly wittled down the summoned Ogre Mage with not-so quick Hit'n'Run charges. 1 attack per round and a speed factor of 7 makes this sort of impossible, but he went down anyway, after I had used every single potion and healing spell available to me. A rest followed, and now with access to Sanctuary, I chose to just walk through the first half of the first level, stopping only to, for the first time, use the Seeking Sword to take down the pair of Golems.

Greater Otuygh, Free Action seemed to only negate one casting of the Dolorious Decay, and so I only fought him long enough to trigger his regen and then ran away. After the regen wore off, I summoned half a dozen skeletons meant mostly to be cannon fodder, but they actually killed the cyclops by themselves! Nothing more interesting occured up until the confrontation with Ilyich. Getting past the traps in the Portal key room was a matter of biting the bullet, the spear trap shaved off 76 out of 79 HP, but the key was retrieved, and my business in that room was done.

Ilyich & Co was dealt with in 5 phases:

• Killed the Glabrezu with a combination of Spiritual Hammer and Prot from Evil. Trapped in the central room with no way out, the poor thing was utterly helpless, though a certain amount of doorslamming was necessary to get enough time alone with him. Kudos to wally p for notifying that Prot from Evil actually works on the Glabrezu, it's supposed to only work on summoned demons, but I guess this one for some reason counts as such.
• Nailed the Golem by playing tag with him right by my skeleton squad in the central room. The Golem was too caught up in the game (AKA, he doesn't seem to be able to switch targets) to realize my skellies were pounding him to pieces.
• Only the duergars were left, and Rasputin was first up. Led him to the central room where I promptly cast Doom followed by Hold Person while he was busy fighting my skeletons, didn't last long once he got held.
• Next, Ilyich. He's a tougher nut to crack, so I had to once again slam all the exits shut once he was in the central room by himself. I let him chase my skeletons while I waited for his Barbarian Rage to fade away so I could hold him. Lots of stop-motion micromanagement with my skeletons followed, since Ilyich only needs two hits to down a skeleton, and my number was down to 3. Had to make sure the skeleton he was chasing was at all times moving straight away from him and always made large sweeping turns around the room since it was the only way to keep him out of striking distance, while also keeping myself and the two other skeletons well outside Ilyich's attention range. The rage eventually wore off and only one skeleton was lost in the process. Doomed him, cast Hold Person, Ilyich saved, cast another Hold Person, Ilyich saved again, too bad for him I had three more in storage! He finally failed on the fourth Hold Person and was history after that. I did at first skip the fancy microplay and instead attempted to overpower him Mano a Mano, using every buff spell and other combat booster I had available. But even with a THAC0 of 3, 4 ApR, -5 AC, and 15 average damage, my 3 healing potions weren't enough to outlast his 3. Would've been pretty neat though, a pure lvl 8 cleric beating the early game's most powerful fighter in a melee showdown.
• With only Zhivago and Karamazov left, the time was ripe to overcharge them. Slept once to gain the aid of the Acorn summons, and then made sure to run into Zhivago to trigger his Deva casting. Walked away, waited 2 turns, and then confronted both of them in the library with 2 skeletons, 2 nymphs and 1 moose behind me. I cast Doom on both, and with me and the two nymphs lobbing Hold spell after Hold spell on the both of them, it didn't take long before they failed their saves and became hapless victims to my surviving skeleton and badly injured moose.

At this point I reached lvl 9, meaning full life restorations with DUHM whenever I rest. Nothing left on the 1st level caused any noteworthy problems, the cambion died to a pair of skeletons while I tanked with the newly acquired Full Plate. Not much trouble on the 2nd level either, sent in 4 skeletons to distract the mephits in the mephit portal room while I went in equipped with the Seeking Sword and took out the portals one by one. The vampire fell just as easily to the Seeking Sword and a Holy Power/Righteous Magic/DUHM combo. A few turns and a lot of running around later, I finally saw daylight.

First part ends here, I'll continue the report later this evening.

[ 04-13-2005, 08:39 AM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Good. Luck. And have fun! I know I'm having a blast with Faldorn. So I'll leave you with a "Have fun and don't get killed. Much."

[wally p]

random question: what did you use to change his alignment because in my setup, I had to make him some part neutral as part of the Helm kit.


go, thomas!!

[Xen]

Great job Rataxes! I still have a few games to finish (that`s a lot) becuase I have many on hold. But I am happy for my Blade who need to kill cetain ToB Bhallspawn who is a Drow and then the Final Battle...


Oh and that Drow with Oversight Mod is one hell of a Spellcaster. I went grey becuase of her! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Rataxes]

Time for the second part. Things get pretty thick on SPOILERS from here on, just thought I'd mention it.

After emerging in Waukeen's Promenade and having Imoen robbed from me right I went ahead with the standard procedure. Did the Circus Tent and left Aerie with her Quayle. I ran into Mencar's crew and figured that with such menacing attitides they were surely up to no good and so decided to punish them. Summoned up my Acorn friends, nymphs froze the mage and his pet nicely with their Hold Monster spells, and me and the moose chunkified Brennan before he ever had the chance to use a potion. Holy Power -> Righteous Magic -> Draw Upon Holy Might -> Seeking Sword, and the Priest of Helm is starting to look like the melee monster I had thought him to be. At lvl 9 with those buffers activated, he has a THAC0 of 2, hits for 25 dmg and does so 3 times per round, though it does only last for a little less than a turn. Mencar and Smaeluv barely lasted long enough to finish off my moose.

After a good nights sleep I strolled by The Adventurer's Mart and left 150 pounds of junk poorer, but a Fortress Shield and a few Oils of Speed richer. Equipped like a proper Tank with -11 AC I was off to the Slums district. Reluctantly accepted the services of that cockney wannabe Bayle and went straight to the nearest tavern. Exterminated the slaver activity in the region with little trouble, had no comfortable means of disposing of the trolls at that point so I opted to instead knock them out and escort the girl to safety. The trolls may try to escape from the locked cell of the abandoned boat best they can, don't think I saw much in the way of troll food while I was down there. The loot gathered by ridding the area of slavers garnered me enough cash to finish my dealings with Bayle for good.

Didn't look forward to further dealings with a thief guild, but at least they were up front with their business, unlike that slimy woman who approached me earlier that day. Met with Aran and decided to carry out the first two assignments immediately. With Chaotic Commands and Amulet of Power, the vampire was even less of a threat than the two traitorous thieves, didn't even have to whip out the HP+RM+DUHM+SS (HRDS) combo once.

Level 11 had been passed after my investigation of the Harper Hold and the captive thief was resolved, and I had access to the mighty Aerial Servants when I started to clear out the Bridge District. Dracandros and his merry men didn't last long against the HRDS combo and the Holy Smites raining down from time to time. In the "investigation" (running into Rejiek Hidesmans house and start whacking him) of the Skinner murders, the basement encounter with the two Rune Assassins, usually the most difficult part, was effectively neutralized by True Sight and a Aerial Servant tanking for me.

It was time to return to the Docks and deal with that übercheesing Gnome Illusionist/Fighter who was rumoured to sneak around in other peoples homes. For all the cheesiness this little guy possesses, he doesn't seem to be very bright. I first lured him downstairs, away from his two annoying familiars, and proceeded to cast Sanctuary once we were both down there. With Prot from Evil, DUHM and Defensive Harmony activated, I could calmly stand there and drain away all his gazillion layers of Stoneskins with the Seeking Sword, he managed to score a single critical in 1 turn, and that was all he got. In all that time he didn't once try to cast a single spell, just kept swinging at the air. Once his Stoneskins were all gone, I got off another Sanctuary to cast in peace, and then it was time for the HRDS combo, this time accompanied by an Oil of Speed. The Gnome died fast, almost as fast as his two familiars. They weren't really weren't the sharpest tools in the shed either, attempting to foil me with a web and a spider, this when they both had ADHW's just waiting to be released.

Finished with the Docks for a while, nothing but a few Liches holed up in different places left there. I'll continue the report tomorrow.

[ 04-13-2005, 08:45 AM: Message edited by: Rataxes ]

[Rataxes]

Originally posted by wally p: random question: what did you use to change his alignment because in my setup, I had to make him some part neutral as part of the Helm kit. go, thomas!!

Well that's odd. The only common alignment denominator for Priests of Helm should be the lawful part. In my game you can choose to be either Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, or Lawful Evil, which I suspect is as it should be.

Of course you can always use ShadowKeeper if you want another alignment.

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

Ah, but in BG2, you need to be any neutral. That's what I dislike about the priest classes.

I don't like the fact that you can have a CN Helmite and a LE Talessian... Not one bit.

[Assassin]

Nice job Rataxes... My entertainment for the day, so far. [img]smile.gif[/img] Got any ideas on what kind of project I could attempt for my first rendezvous with BG 2 in 8 months?

*edit* Avatar [img]smile.gif[/img] After almost a year of posting, I have 500 posts. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 01-29-2004, 08:09 PM: Message edited by: Assassin ]

[Nerull]

Originally posted by Illumina Drathiran'ar: Ah, but in BG2, you need to be any neutral. That's what I dislike about the priest classes. I don't like the fact that you can have a CN Helmite and a LE Talessian... Not one bit.

That's one of the things that the Oversight mod fixes. It makes clerics be within one "step" of their god's alignment. Thus:

• Lathander (NG diety): can be LG, NG, or CG (can't do true neutral, though, so just like before)
• Helm (LN diety): can be LG, LN, LE, or true neutral.
• Talos (CE diety): can be CN, NE, or CE.

This also changes which stronghold you get as a generic cleric (single, multi, or dual classed). Thus, if you are CN, the cleric of Talos will approach you instead of the cleric of Helm after the "speech".

Thus, that is the reason he is a Lawful Good Priest of Helm.

[wally p]

ahhhhh i understand! that seems much more reasonable that the system as implemented currently.