Reluhdra - straight fighter solo (ToB)

Remove all ads!

Decided to try to run a solo fighter through SOA against which I could compare the experience of playing Lerrahud.

Simple background - Reluhdra is a straight fighter, having studied under the weaponsmaster at Candlekeep for years. Though ostensibly Gorion's ward, Reluhdra spent most of his time with the Keep's weaponsmaster, foregoing any attempts Gorion made to teach him magic, respect for religion or even certain useful things like swimming. OTOH, he did like card tricks and developed exceptional dexterity, though no thieving skills. The result is the following initial stats - 18(80)/18/10/10/10/10. His manic-depressive attitude is unpredictable enough to render him friendless and he kinda likes it that way. Thus, he has an alignment of CN.

Gameplay rules - some inspired by REAL Man, others just being "fair and realistic"
1. Can use **whatever** he finds or can buy that is available to any straight, no kit, fighter. This includes any and all Bonus CD items.
2. Will avoid any cheese tactics other than necessary hit and run tactics when facing multiple enemies. So, no fake talk, no luring enemies to doorways and trapping them there, no attacking blue circled enemies, etc.
3. As many reloads as necessary to get as far as possible with the following restriction - If any particular battle requires 6 reloads, story/game stops before a 7th reload unless GOD figures it is his (GOD's) fault.
4. All Bhaalspawn abilities are "fair game" and usable for as long as they last except that Slayer ability will be used as little as possible.
5. Dual-weilding is allowed as that is specifically allowed to the class AND BG designers, as well as most players/postes, don't seem to feel that this is a cheesey or overpowered game feature.
6. Rest - Reluhdra will rest as necessary in order to heal or to regain at least three Bhaalspawn abilities.
7. Buffing before a battle is not allowed - at least unless or until the character has actually encountered and attacked or been attacked by the enemy. Retreating, buffing and re-attacking is allowed so long as some damage has been sustained by the character. This precludes GOD-knowledge interference as much as possible while ensuring that "average" intelligence is allowed to be exerted.
8. Also to ameliorate the impact of GOD-knowledge, will use a modified "straight-ahead" approach for directions for path selection. This will allow, even force, the character to encounter opponents that GOD might otherwise have him avoid at times.

Note...BG2-SOA&TOB is installed with all current official patches, the Bonus CDs. No other (teamBg for instance) fixes or augmentations will be installed or used.

Storytelling aspects will be far less than with my previous stories. Bare essentials will suffice for the purpose of exploring this enterprise while allowing interested parties to follow the progress of the game.

I will use the following system to rate the battles/encounters (modified from someone whose name escapes me right now)
Easy ------ +
Medium ---- ++
Hard ------ +++
Very Hard - ++++
Impossible - +++++

I may include a significant narrative here or there to reflect anything truly interesting or unusual that happens....

 

Reluhdra - when you move the letters around, that's Lerrahud. Well, well, well. Let Reludra take up the gauntlet of anti-cheese!! (Why does he have such a low con, though?)

 

And when you spell Lerrahud backwards it's Duharrel...

And why not a low con?

Anyway, I wish you both a good luck and a fun game!

 

Yeah, since you complained about Lerrahud's skimpy hitpoints, I would have thought a high CON would have made a better comparison...

 

To answer a few comments..
CON is not of primary concern to me usually. A CON of 10 is considered "average" and Lerrahud's CON didn't, per se, appear to truly adversely affect him except for low starting and advancing HP. So, rather than swing to the other extreme, say an 18 CON, I figured a more "honest" comparison was to limit the CON. Also, I never used the Girdle of Fortitude on Lerrahud....

This is not a totally anti-cheese game. Hit and run is allowed, for instance, so long as contact/damage is taken first. But, REAL Man has inspired me to an extent and I felt that this was appropriate for the challenge I have set myself.

As for the anagrammatic names, they represent the connective tissue between the three stories.
------------

Forgot to mention, starting HP were 64. (This represents a significant increase over Lerrahud who finished up with only 70-something HP.)

Starting Proficiencies
Long Sword ++
Long Bow +
Singe Wpn Style ++
Two Weapon Style +

Time/What completed/difficulty
Day 0 Hr 21 - Irenicus dungeon - + Level 8
...Mail of the Dead +2, Helm of Balduran, LS+1
Day 2 Hr 02 - Circus Tent - + Level 9
...Ring of Human Influence, Girdle of Piercing
Day 02 Hr 04 - Slums - Corhvale and friend - +
Day 02 Hr 08 - Copper Cornet - Free the Slaves - ++
...Tuigan Bow, Blade of Roses +3
Rested to heal
-------more to come as game is played------

 

What a different style for you... true brevity... but will there be interest in such a skeletal chronology of events?

 

Hey drm - whadaya want from me buddy? If you don't like the style or the story, don't read it.

---------
Day 03 Hr 22 Copper Coronet Sewers - ++ (unbelievably poor rolls against the slimes & otyugh)
...waylaid by Muggers atop the Coronet enroute back from Temple for healing - +++ (again, just a sequence of bad rolls)
...Liacor..purchased The Sleeper +2
Day 04 Hr 14 Waylaid enroute to Trademeet - ++
Day 04 Hr 20 Brought Renfield back to Harper's Hold - + (faced muggers in Docks District)
Day 06 Hr 05 Mad Cleric Docks District - +
Day 06 Hr 07 Prebek - +++ Stunned, charmed, confused, had to rest and drink numerous potions to heal
Day 06 Hr 08 Investigate Montaron's disappearance - No combat
Day 06 Hr 09 In process of talking to Docks District people, invited in to speak with Renal. Received MaeVar treachery quest.
Day 06 Hr 10 Received Unseeing Eye quest from Oisig. Wasted a fair bit of time walking around town and talking to almost every commoner, guard and killing some rats for the fun of it while waiting for darkness. Also, got seriously drunk at the Coronet while picking up some rumors.
Day 07 Hr 03 Stole Priestess of Talos' necklace for MaeVar - No combat. Fighter Level 10.
Day 07 Hr 09 Cleared out Slavers Boat/Compound - ++ Numerous potions of Extra Healing
Day 07 Hr 21 Wellyn's teddy bear - no combat
Day 07 Hr 22 Freed bruied alive man - no combat
Day 07 Hr 22 Waylaid by bandits enroute slums - + Horrified them.

--------more to come as events warrant--------

Player note - so far, all this has proven is that rolls are EVERYTHING in this game, meaning crpgs, as in pnpD&D. Though he started with much higher HP and STR/DEX stats, he has had his share of difficult fights so far. Then again, I think I am taking a few more "chances" with this character than I did with Lerrahud due to alwasy being aware of his lower HP/stats overall. I can say that I have had to reload a few times, however, not nearly as many and usually because I wasn't watching quite closely enough. That resulted in a delayed retreat - or getting stunned by spells.

 

Well with this stats he can at least wear good stuff and can also be a good ranged fighter.

One question: KJ, how many hours have you lpayed last month? And how many hours did you sleep?

 

The skeletal report fits the goal of the game. Reluhdra is intended to test a specific tactical constraint, so what those of us who are interested in the question want to see is where he runs into difficulty.

With Duharrel we were more interested in the storytelling, and with Lerrahud it was somewhere in the middle.

Keep on, Kai. (-:

 

Thanks guys for understanding and the supoprt. This really isn't a story, per se - as pointed out by tjekanefir. It is being detailed here for comparison by all who raised questions concerning the importance of ability stats in finishing the game...

As also pointed out, by me, in trying to "scientifically limit" the variables affecting any change in the game results, I chose the stats I did to emphasize the straight fighter class strengths only - while eliminating or minimizing any effects by high stats in "non critical ability" areas for the character.

Finally, the skeletal format actually speeds up the game play/reporting because I don't have to be "creative"... Each of the other stories required more than one rewrite each time I posted - though the poor typing and misspellings may appear to dispute that.

As for gameplay, I play as the mood suits me... sometimes as many as 20hours a day on weekends, other times as few as .5 hours. I know that I have spent over 100 hours in one week playing when I had nothing else to do between semesters. Last month? Maybe 200 hours? I really don't know.

 

Don't take my comments so personally. My forum hero is extremist - brusque is my middle name, not mean.

 

i guess skelatal suites the purpose well enough but nothing could be as good as lerrahud

 

I guess it was the moderators who changed this, but doesn't it say in the first message in the thread that he's only going through SOA?

 

My apologies people.. got caught up in "life"... Then, wonder of wonders, my nephew had gotten on the pc and played and saved over my game. My last uncorrupted by his game save is so far back that I may as well start over....

Sorry.. Game ends here. Again, My aoplogies.

And if the mods want to delete this due to its short life and incompleteness, I wouldn't be offended.

 

No need to apologize to us. You're the one whose game got wasted.

I'd have a little talk with my nephew about how playing on other people's computers is a privelege that bears along with it the responsibility NOT TO DELETE THINGS FROM THE COMPUTER, but then, that's just me... (-: