True Ironman Survivors Competition (BG1 Tutu)

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Leaderboard (by number of restarts)
Decados - 0
Apeman - 0
Aik - 3
DM - 4

Obviously I just suck.

Hi all.

Earlier, Aik offered me the following challenge:

As I was getting bored of studying and my Meatshields game anyway, I accepted his offer.

Here are the rules:
* No BG2 spells. Aik's wizard is required to wipe his extra known spells from memory at startup.
* No kits.
* No NPC relocation.
* No mod NPCs
* Core Rules
* Survivors: must kick dead NPCs out - no raising
* Ironman: if you're dead, game over

We are using Unfinished Business and BG1 Proficiency tweaks. We are NOT using the Higher HP On Level Up mod OR the Max HP for Joinable NPCs components!

Feel free to join in if you wish.

This is my character:

Caerwyn
Half-Elf, Cleric/Ranger
Neutral Good

Stats:
16
16
18
10
18
10

A pretty good roll. A bit cheesy, yes, but not minmaxing.
Her racial enemy is Spider. Cloakwood, here I come! (if she survives that long)
++s in Blunt Weapon and Missile Weapon, plus a default ++ in two-weapon fighting (though I don't think I'll use this until lategame - too dangerous)

Her spells: CLW, Sanctuary, Command Word: Die. Shanks and Carlos ain't got nothing on me.

She started the game with a very impressive 13 HP.

I went with C/R because, from my last survivors experience, hitting things and healing friends is the most important role in a party. C/R will be able to fulfill both of these roles. Besides, I have SANCTUARY, and I'll be able to runaway from everything! (Does Sanctuary protect you from traps? Anyone know?)

You might think her role will overlap too much with Yeslick's, though if you think she'll survive to meet Yeslick, then I applaud you for your support.



Story
The first adventure went very well, and I KOed Shanks and Carbos in one hit. But then BG2 crashed and I had to restart!

In my second round, I started with 170 gold, and I decked myself out and brought Studded Leather for Imoen, but I forgot to pick up a sling for myself. I'm wearing Splint Armour and using a Large Shield, and I have a very nice 1AC. Should ensure my survivability a bit.

In the wilderness, I picked up Xzar and Monty. We defeated a band of gibberlings, got to Gorion, and ran away from two wolves. In the Elminster-area, we faced two additional groups of gibberlings. I'm glad to say that Caerwyn can withstand some pressure - she's been frontlining very well, taking minimal damage from gibberlings. Monty almost died here, with 1HP left, but he quaffed a potion in time.

We decided to head towards the FAI - Khalid and Jaheira are handy. Along the way we picked up the Ring of Prot + 1, which was given to Caerwyn. 0AC!

There were two dire wolves around here, which we had to run the hell away from. Xzar got bitten on the arse for 3HP, which almost killed him.

Now we're at the FAI. Tarnesh is up next.

We picked up the Ring of Wizardry, let Xzar stock up on Larloch's, and rested successfully. The battle with Tarnesh was uneventful: we got rid of his Mirror Image with Larloch's and Magic Missile (wand), and then simply hit him. A Guard wandered over and stole our kill, though. I'm not complaining.

Xzar successfully copied Magic Missile and Armour, but failed at Burning Hands. Of course, Burning Hands is way too dangerous to use anyway, so no complaints.

We picked up Khalid and Jaheira and ranged weapons for everyone. Khalid got a longbow, which was rather expensive - I consider it an investment since someone else can always inherit it.

Picked up quests and rested. None of us are actually hurt, but I'm not taking any unnecessary risks. Next stop: Beregost.

The trip to Beregost fared well. The only real challenge were two Dire Wolves - Jaheira entangled one, and Caerwyn Command Worded the other. We were able to pelt them with arrows.

Generally, Khalid and Caerwyn serve as frontliners, while the rest of the party pelt things with ranged weapons. Jaheira could thereotically be a frontliner, but her AC is too low (8).

At Beregost, we headed straight to Feldepost's, hoping to rest up before Silke. But inside, Montaron aggravated Marl and Dunkin into attacking! Stupid BG1 NPC mod! We had to suffer a -4 reputation for killing Dunkin.
XP was nice, though, and nobody died (phew!).

Rested, then headed to Silke. We managed to kill her without any trouble - disrupted both her spells. Jaheira levelled up, with 10HP!

Just like my first run-through, this is going suspiciously well. Hmm, let's face the ogrillions next.

 

Right - I've finally got the damn thing all set up.

Name: Mira
Class: Illusionist
Race: Human

15/18/18/18/8/8

I was going to have 18 strength and less dump stats, but DM whined. I don't care if he thinks this is min/maxed though 8 is a perfectly normal stat.

Update:
I have survived two attacks by diseased gibberlings but now - DIRE WOLVES! TWO OF THEM! Can our fledgeling bhaalspawn survive? Frankly, I doubt it.

Update2:

It's ... over.
http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/Aikynaro/screwed.jpg
I was fleeing from the dire wolves, when I ran into a group of xvarts. I ran from the xvarts and ran into a group of diseased gibberlings *and* an ogre. A diseased gibberling took down all five of my hitpoints in one shot moments before we left the map.
So alas, Deathmage wins.

 

TuTu at low levels are very difficult, even without mods. Gibberlings and xvarts spawn in hordes and sometimes, game puts horribly strong monsters around:I battled TWO Dread (not even Dire!) Wolves in the Gorion's death site! Ofcourse, being the challenger I am, I reloaded until I got them (was tough for lvl 1 characters) but xp boost was nice.

Dire wolves are very dangerous for their level, they almost always hit and they hit hard. Actually, something is wrong with my game. It is either mods, or every critter employs his weapons very well, I play on core and an xvart kills Immy with a hit of 8 dmg, without a critical hit mind you, that must be beyond the critter's damage range, it has a short sword 1-6 dmg and no STR bonus or whatsoever, something is fishy...but I never, ever play an ironman game anyway!

I salute you for your brave effort though. May Tymora smile upon you!

 

Alright, I am retrying.

Name: Ranar (yay random name generators)
Class: Illusionist (because I'm persistent)
Race: Human
Stats: 18/18/18/18/8/9 (total 89 - hells yeah)

Now, let's hope there are less overpowered diseased gibberlings in our path this time.

 

Aik sucks.

Between Entangle and Command Word we were able to pelt the ogrillions, and got the ring. Gave it to Khalid.

We've been resting before we leave any town for the spells, because I don't want to face wilderness areas unprepared.

There were THREE Flaming Fists waiting for me, presumably because of my low reputation (7). They were all decked in plate armour and everything! I was absolutely terrified, but Khalid managed to negotiate safe passage for us.

In the next area, we faced some hobgoblins and bandits, but we killed them all with arrows. Arrived at Nashkel successfully. Neira went down easily - we struck her with Command Word and basically beat her until she was dead. She didn't even manage to get her Rigid Thinking off. Might sell the Helm of Infravision, as it's absolutely the most worthless magical item ever. Upgraded Jaheira's armour to Splint Mail, she now has 4AC and might be eligible for front line combat.

Got Gorion's dream - but Caerwyn got Larloch's instead of CLW! Oh well, 4HP can be helpful in the right situations.

We picked up a Stone-to-Flesh scroll and an antidote, and headed to the carnival. Along the way we took the +1 reputation from Oublek - we need the stuff. We ignored Minsc for now.

We had to see the Amazing Oopah show, of course, but he turned psycho and attacked. His first hit was a shocker - a 11-HP attack on Caerwyn herself! With 2 HP left, she quickly quaffed a potion, and Command Worded him while we killed him with arrows. As you might have noticed, it's an incredibly useful spell.

The prepared scroll turned out to be not so useful after all. Jaheira, through interaction, got me the scroll for free. Looks like BG1 NPCs has its advantages, too.

We then headed into the tent-with-the-mage-dude. Initially the fight went well, and Xzar disrupted his Mirror Image (which would have made it a lot harder). We were going well beating him up when he cast - dun dun - HORROR. It affected everyone, and we were running around like headless chickens - and I could only pray that he doesn't target Caerwyn. Fortunately, he shot a Melf's at Khalid, and another one at Xzar. Both survived. A few rounds later we shook off the fear; both quaffed a potion as we ganged up on him once more. But the effect was not gone, and both took another round of damage. I had Xzar quaff a potion, but the third aftershocked killed the poor bugger. However, Monty soon avenged him with a mighty critical hit.

So there's our first casulty - I should have been more careful, and came back after I had my Command Word. I asked for information from the girl, but she upped and left! Didn't even give me anything! What a dick.

With our new slot we picked up Branwen - why not? She started at level 2. Almost forgot to loot Xzar, so went back and found that.

What to do now is a bit tricky. The obvious solution is to storm the mines, and use Xan as my second mage. I don't want to use Edwin just yet, and in any case a mage is not essential at the moment. However, do we have enough power to storm the mines by ourselves? It may be prudent to pick up another fighter to fill our rank, as neither Caerwyn nor Khalid are very good warriors.

Back to Nashkel, first, to pick up equipment. Was worried about armour, then I remembered the Ankheg Plate! I do feel a little bad for using it, but hell, like Aik isn't going to take advantage of it.

Caerwyn now has an impressive AC of -2; Khalid -0; Branwen 0 and Jaheira 4. I think this is enough to brave the mines.

 

Everything is ruined forever.

So, Monty was proving himself a tank killing diseased gibberlings, and we decided to not go off the path to get the ring of protection +1. Everything is fine. The plan for Tarnesh is to leave everyone around the corner to avoid the horror and have Xzar talk to him.

So far so good - he mirror images and horrors Xzar. We burst out and realise suddenly that we should have let Monty take the fall - Xzar gets hits with Larloch's, after all. Anyway, he kills Xzar, and then *kills Monty*.

I colour spray him, and manage to hit a guard as well - so now the guards are red. Immy and I flee into the inn and much to my surprise, the guard follows! Forgot that tactic doesn't work anymore...

So, yeah, now we're running around the inn and about to try and fight our way out with Khalid and Jaheira. Wish us luck.

Update:
We slew three of the guards in our escape (the others aren't hostile, thankfully), and our reputation is now 3. Turns out we can't afford to buy a better reputation, so I'm going to risk my life getting this girl's ring back before the better half of my party leaves.
http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/Aikynaro/montyxzaralas.jpg

 

Assuming that Aik does not mind, I think I might take you up on that.

First however, I'll have to do some fiddling around with my Tutu installation- I've got more than the accepted mods installed and I'm not overly confident that my character can play survivor with the SCS stuff. Are other tweaks (I'm thinking along the lines of infinite stacking) allowed?

Oh, and hats off to Aik for trying to play a mage (!) in a BG1 ironman survivors game. Crazy.

 

Mines

The first half or so of the second level was rather boring - we wiped out the kobolds with our missile weaponry. Imoen levelled up after we returned the dagger, I invested her points in Find Traps and Open Locks.

When we were clearing the level, Monty randomly got shot by a 9-HP arrow and died - that was all his HP. Can they even legally do that much damage? It wasn't even a critical! His death is annoying, but not terribly important. Now I have a spot for Xan, and his role was unnecessary.

Though now I've reviewed his kill count and he actually had the second highest kill (after Caerwyn) - so maybe he WAS important after all.

However, we just ran out of healing potions! We do have three clerics, but things are looking slightly dodgy.

And...crap.

My suspicions were confirmed. On the next level - which must be cursed or something - the first band of kobolds we met attacked us with great ferocity. First, they somehow sniped off Khalid, and managed to seriously wound Jaheira, who snuck away and healed herself. Meanwhile we continued the assault, but the deadly, dastardly kobold fired an arrow and struck Imoen down! Truly, the lack of potions was our doom. Alas. This does not bode well for us at all, for this level has several traps. To make things worse, Caerwyn's mace broke, and now she has to make do with a club.

Fortunately, we do have three healers left. It seems like the trio of brave women will have to adventure with considerable skill and caution. Stay tuned, sirs and madam, and as always, feel free to bid on the next death.


@Decados: I don't really have anything against infinite stacking - IMHO they just make the game easier. Unless Aik has any objections?

 

Stack away - that's really just a convenience thing.

My adventures have been going relatively well - We've made it to Beregost and picked up Kagain, headed back up north and took down two groups of xvarts, found his caravan, and killed Marl (who nearly killed Imoen!). Now it's time to gear up and take on Silke ( ).

 

Dead.

Died through stupidity: I had cast Sanctuary for the battle, and it remained afterwards. So I thought...
"Hmm - why not set off some traps while I'm at it?"

Yeah, turns out it doesn't work like that. :'(

Anyways, next character.

 

YES! Silke is down in three hits!

Anyway, I'm off for now. Be back with more exciting adventure in a few hours - or tomorrow.

(I can't believe I've wasted so much time playing the crapheap borefest that is NWN2 when all I needed was to go back to BG1...)

 

Seems like an interesting challenge, but a little easy. No BG2 spells makes things tougher, but lack of SCS and 'core' difficulty makes it too easy for me. Anyway, I wish you all best of luck.

 

Alas! Kagain has fallen.

We were ambushed by three flaming fist mercenaries (it's amazing how our reputations drop so low when we're playing the more desperate iron man games). Kagain absolutely failed to talk us safe passage. At first things were looking okay - until the first hit nearly took Kagain out. The plan changed to running like hell with ranged attacks pelting them from behind.

Finally we got them in decent positions, and Khalid and Kagain ganged up on one of them while Jaheira and Garrick distracted the other two and Immy and I shot those up from behind. Then Garrick's stopped being distracted and came in behind Kagain. We took out one, but then the other dealt the fatal blow.
Here is how our most bittersweet scene looks: http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/Aikynaro/kagainalas.jpg

On the bright side: Three plate mail! Holy crap! We don't have anyone to wear the third one yet, and I'm still not sure who it should be. I don't want to go after Dynaheir yet, so not Minsc - which pretty much leaves Branwen and I'd like to keep her in reserve. Also, we need an empty spot (hah - like we won't have plenty) to get Xan out of the mines when we get there.

Oh well - guess we'll hang onto it - although yeah, ankheg mail is just around the corner.

And just as a note of full disclosure - I picked up the ring of wizardry outside the FAI, which makes my character vaguely useful in a fight.

Update:
We made it to Nashkel pretty easily - picked off the hobgoblins one by one and then ran into some bandits (which I swear aren't normally there...). But when I got to Nashkel - shock! The soldiers were hostile! We hightailed out of town.
I'm hoping it's because my reputation is 4 and that we can be friends again later, because I don't want to slaughter/be slaughtered by the entire town.

Update:
Argh! Ruination! Imoen and Khalid are dead!
I went to the carnival to see if I could raise my reputation there due to the afore mentioned problem with the city watch. The only thing I could think of was saving the mage in the tent, and while I wasn't exactly confident, I figured we had enough magic missiles, darts, and throwing knives to disrupt him.
Well, the problem is that all of those except magic missile actually have to hit, and except Jaheira, we're all first level.

His mirror image was disrupted, but he got off his horror. Similar situation to what Deathmage had, actually. Only Garrick kept his head. He melfed Khalid then Immy. Khalid died before the horror wore off, while I was able to get a healing potion into Imoen. However, I figured that as the second shock didn't take her HP down below half way, I should save a second healing potion until it had.
Well, shock three killed her.

And to round everything off - I didn't save the girl anyway.
So, we lack a thief - the nearest one is all the way over on the coast. We can't enter Nashkel. We no longer have a tank (although Khalid is a pretty crap tank). Things are looking grim.
Screenshot: http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/Aikynaro/khalidimoenalas.jpg

Er, also - wtf: http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/Aikynaro/badasswtf.jpg
I'm pretty damn sure this isn't the normal dialogue...

Update:
Once more, it ends. It is probably for the best.
After the failure at the carnival, I decided to take my group north. I remembered a certain cow there that needed saving in exchange for reputation.
Unfortunately, a large number of demihumans that kill people like me were also there. Such as two ogre berzerkers and a bunch of hobgoblin elite.
We ran circles around the ogres for a while and thought that maybe we could take them out with a bit of cheese. Then we hit the hobgoblins. I was hit by a poisoned arrow and ran for it, drinking a healing potion. Jaheira was hit and also poisoned, but healed me the second time. Somehow I missed the third wave of damage and was busy trying to get the party back together so we could hightail to less DEAR GOD WHY?! ground. I noticed the damage an instant too late, and split instant before I hit pause to drink another potion, I was dead.
http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/Aikynaro/mealas.jpg

The *really* stupid thing is, I think I had an antidote in my inventory.

 

Well after having to uninstall all the Tutu mods and then reinstall the relevant ones, I started my attempt. My first thought was to go for either a F/C or R/C, but decided that as DM had already done that, I would go for something different. I wanted someone clad in heavy armour to ensure that at least I survived, so ended up going for a plain fighter- a class I haven't played for quite a while.

Name: Macharius
Race: Half-elf
Alignment: True Neutral
Stats: 18/93 , 18 , 18 , 10 , 9 , 11

I put my starting proficiencies in Long Swords and Long Bows. I ended up going for True Neutral as my alignment because this would allow me to romance either Branwen or Shar-teel, depending on how my reputation goes. And assuming I live long enough.

Candlekeep was no problem- I purchased splint mail, a bow, a sword, a shield and a helmet. Did the various errands and then was on my merry way. Outside the fortress, I met up with Imoen and together we payed our respects to Gorion (ie looted his dead body). On the way to the edge of the map we encountered a pair of wolves (thankfully ordinary ones)- I was mildly concerned for a bit, but, with an AC of -1, Macharius easily tanked the pair of them.

From there, I elected to skip Xzar and Montaron on a whim and moved straight to the Friendly Arm. Well, straight apart form a couple of gibberling groups. At the Friendly Arm I did start to regret not picking up the earlier duo when I remembered Tarnesh stood in my path. Turns out that I had nothing to worry about- he did manage to get Horror off, but Imoen made her save and promptly dropped him with her next arrow.

After Macharius had recovered his wits, both of them went inside to pick up Jaheria and Khalid. We then bought some more armour so that Jaheria wasn't walking around in just leather. This also gave me the opportunity to roll my eyes at Khalid's weapon proficiencies- why does seemingly every NPC capable of putting pips into 2-weapon fighting insist on doing so? Regardless of his preferences, Khalid will be sporting a large shield in his off-hand rather than another bastard sword.

The road south was a straight-forward hack-and-slash all the way down to Nashkel's carnival. I considered doing Silke in order to get Garrick (and therefore some spells soon), but decided it was a touch too risky- if she got Lightning Bolt off then it could well be game over already. Therefore I decided to come back later with a more complete party. Branwen was an easy pick- easy to get to, can wear heavy armour and has healing magic; I always feel better playing with 2 divine casters around me. Plus it gives me the possibility of a romance while on the road.

After buying some equipment from the nearby merchants (other than the badass who wouldn't actually sell me anything- we must not have looked cool enough for him), we tackled Zordral. Fortunately, his Mirror Image was disrupted in a flurry of missile weapons and Branwen made her save against his Horror, allowing her to save the day with a speedy Remove Fear. After getting the whole party back in action, Zordral was swiftly toppled and we received an antidote for our troubles. This was also enough to boost Jaheria up to level 2.

The party then stopped for the night at Nashkel itself and met Neira. A succession of lucky disrupting arrows and missile form Imoen's wand ensured that the would-be assassin never put anyone in any danger. The following morning the party left to investigate the Nashkel Mines disturbance.

So far things have been pretty easy- I've currently a lot of missile fire and two dedicated fighters. Currently no mage, but I think I'll see how long Xan lasts when I've defeated Mulahey.

Party:
Macharius
Imoen
Khalid
Jaheria
Branwen

 

I started a new PC last night. Bromlin, a dwarven F/T. 18/8x strength, 16 Dex, 19 Con. Started with 13HP (an auspicious number). This time, I considered his proficiencies more carefully - ++ in missile weapons, + in axe, and + in Single Weapon Fighting. I got him a Heavy Crossbow and that will be his main weapon.

I have a radical new strategy for this round. Last time, Caerwyn very rarely got hit with her large shield and her ankheg plate - it was when the kobolds targeted other members that we got owned. The problem, partially, is that everyone had ranged weaponary so the enemy could target anyone. So this time, we will designate a non-PC tank who fights exclusively on the frontlines, while the rest of us pelt them with arrows. And if he dies, fine - I don't care as long as it's not my PC.

This designated tank was decided to be Ajantis, so we headed straight for the FAI. We skipped Xzar and Monty, ran the hell away from a band of xvarts, gibberlings, and wolves, and managed to kill Tarnesh without trouble, although a bloody guard stole my kills again. The upside of this game is that it really makes you confident - I'm not even worried about Tarnesh anymore.

We picked up Khalid and Jaheira, cleared the hobgoblins, then got to Ajantis. Fortunately there were no ankhegs, and we quickly scurried back. With BG1NPC, Ajantis has a family shield that gives him shield proficiencies for free. A bit cheesy, but perfect for my tactics, as now he has an additional -4 AC vs missiles. He also started at level 2 with 20 HP.

We managed to kill the ogre with Ajantis on the frontline, and reached Beregost - Jaheira, however, got taken out by some bandits. We took Kagain there to round out our party, and took down Silke without trouble. She is also quite easy if you position your party around her before the fight begins. Since we needed magic, I had Garrick join too, but he didn't have any spells yet. D'oh!

We continued clearing to Nashkel without any problems (and Aik, those 4 bandits seem to be always there - they killed Xzar on my very first run). Against Neira, however, our lack of magic began to be a problem. On my first run, I quite effectively Command Worded her to her death, but this time there was no such like. She got Rigid Thinking on Ajantis, and then entangled us. Ajantis then smote Kagain to death (so much for honour), though we killed her without further casulties. Rested and got CLW. Looking at Branwen next, followed by the mines.



@Decados - nice character. I was thinking about an Elven fighter, as that would give an additional +1 in Longbow and Longsword.
Well, good luck in the mines, and watch out for pesky koboldings.



Update:
Well, we got Branwen. Didn't want to tackle Zordral - there would be no reward as we don't have a mage right now.
Went back to Nashkel and bought a Plate Armour for Branwen. Her survivibility is far more important than Khalid's. Ajantis has the ankheg armour, with 0 AC (his Dex isn't too good). Loaded up on weapons, now braving the mines.

I should note that I was extremely fortunate and looted an oil of fiery burning from one of the ogres around Gorion's corpse - this might come in handy when I fight skeletons, but it could equally easily be my doom.

Update:
Cleared the mines easily, and got Xan. But then Nimbul horrored everyone and Magic Missiled Bromlin to death.
I reloaded and tried again (unofficially, of course, but I was just angry) - and this time he went down in a matter of seconds. Oh well, such is life, I guess.

The designated arrow-bait worked very well, though, and we went through the mines with no casulties. Ajantis barely got scratched.

A few advice for those crazy enough to try a similar adventure:
* Don't take ANY risks. Don't be conservative with potions - you'll be rolling around in money, but companions are one-time only.
* NEVER become complacent. The moment you do is the moment you die.
* Plan every battle as if it is your last - because if you don't, it will be.
* Clerics are the most important thing ever. Spell Disruptions are generally rare in BG1, and CLWs are the difference between life and death.
* Command Word is one of the most potent spells against a single opponent - you can take down most bosses with it. I used it on Mulahey successfully.
* Think about companions carefully. An extra NPC is an extra share of XP you have to split - for someone who may very well die soon. I picked up Garrick this round and rather regretted it, as he did not seem to have any real value.
* Similarly, consider mage spell allotments - don't have a mage scribe a spell if he can't cast it yet, because chances are he'll die before he can.

 

I have started anew, with a half-elf mage/cleric female (the only custom portraits that don't look *terrible* are female. Why do people use bad 80s fantasy covers for portrait images?) called Lye. 11/12/18/18/18/9

Things started well - picked up Monty and Xzar - even killed some wolves. Tarnesh went down in two hits. Killed the hobgoblins and got the ring.

We then headed south and into two packs of gibberlings. Monty went down first with two quick hits. Khalid and Jaheira waded in and were surrounded, while the rest of us pelted from behind. After a while I picked up my morningstar and waded in as well.

And then Jaheira died.
Well, at least I won't have to listen to her anymore.
http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/Aikynaro/jaheiramontyalas.jpg

Update:
Things have gone exceptionally well. We've cleared the mines and killed Nimbul. The party now consists of Kagain, Khalid, Imoen (level 3!), and Xan - Xzar was killed by kobolds in the mine while we were sleeping.
Power Word Kill is making things exceptionally easy - and now I have Sleep too, which is even more powerful. If this keeps up I'll win the game with two first level spells.

Update:
Everything is ruined forever.
Things were going fine - Xan died to some flinds up at High Hedge, but we'd picked up Kivan and things were going okay. Did a little bit of pottering around before heading to Larswood, where I found a bandit that seemed willing to let me join. Seeing this route worked out so well last time I took it, I asked to join and he took me to the bandit camp.

Then everything started sucking.

Tazok came out, and the guy started calling me a prisoner - then everyone went hostile and oshi-.
Still, deciding to make the best of a bad situation, we attacked Tazok with everything we had.
Then Khalid died.
Then Kagain died.
Then Kivan died.
Then Imoen died.
It was awful! Powerful bandits and hobgoblins, plus Tazok. Imoen could have made it if she didn't have a morale failure.
I drank a potion of invisibility, and am currently standing around wondering what to do next. All our equipment is there - I'd like to take that with me a lot. But I'm not sure that I can do that while invisible without dying horribly. There's a chance - but it's pretty damn risky too.
http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/Aikynaro/everyonealas.jpg

Update:
Misc is now dead, killed by hobgoblins on the way to rescue Dynaheir. There's no way I'm storming the gnoll fortress on my own and most of the reason to do so is now dead, soooo...
Yeah. Things are looking pretty bad. I need a tank and the only one left alive is living with the basilisks. I think I'll pick up Branwen and Garrick next and see if together we can get enough XP to level - then go and find Safana.

Update:
Once more it ends.
Garrick died rather quickly while we were scraping for gold and xp south of Beregost. It seemed like Branwen and I would be able to make a fresh start though. We killed some more hobgoblins and then returned to the Nashkel mine area to see if we could find anything to kill.

On the way back from there, we were ambushed by hobgoblins. 'No big deal', thought I - we both cast Sanctuary and prepared to flee.
Unfortunately, there were four melee hobgoblins - and they all surrounded my character. I probably should have used Branwen to distract them, but I didn't want her to die either. So I took off my armour and cast sleep, hoping it wouldn't disturb the Sanctuary.
It did, and it seems I lost initiative quite badly because I couldn't get down the invisibility potion in time.
http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/Aikynaro/mealas-1.jpg

We had been in quite a sad state for a while - at one point spending our last three gp on crossbow bolts. All told, it might be best that it ended this way.

 

This seems to be a fun, although frustrating, variant I have yet to play. I might just join in. Give me a day for the installs and character creation.

Edit: Is het NPC mod allowed. This seems to be the perfect opportunity to test all NPC's figuring a lot of them will and need to be replaced?

 

You can use the BG1 NPC mod if you want (I am), though be warned - they add interjections and tend to throw the game off what you might be familiar with.

No mod NPCs allowed, though.

 

After Aik's experience with Tazok, I think I may delay that fight for a little while.

@ Aikanaro: That's a pretty cool portrait for your character. Can you remember where you got it from?


My party's update:

We entered and cleared out most of the mines without a problem, but ran into a problem crossing the trapped bridge- I had Khalid absorbing arrows so that Imoen could come in and remove the traps. However, he evidently did not appreciate being used as bait and decided to charge! By the time I realised what was going on he had set off to traps which, even after quaffing a healing potion, was just enough to kill him. Khalid now has the dubious honour of being my first loss.

Now lacking a tank that wasn't my 1st level fighter, the party retreated north to Beregost and picked up Kagain. Naturally, he had wasted two pips in two-weapon fighting. We then went further north to complete his mini-quest and ran into 2 dread wolves. This resulted in much running around and firing of arrows, which payed off as we didn't lose anyone. The bandits themselves proved to be no problem and the party returned to the mines.

Multiple Command Words ensured that Mulahey was a push-over. On the other hand, the skeletons managed to take Kagain down to 1 HP! Fortunately, we took them out before they struck the fatal blow. On the way out we took Xan, who memorised Sleep and a couple of other spells and then failed on both Identify scrolls. What did he think we had taken him for? Ah well.

We then fought with Nimbul and won without any losses, although a soldier did get a critical and stole the kill. Next up was Greywolf in order to get his sword, plus the emeralds. By this time Branwen had access to Hold Person which made the fight a piece of cake. After clearing the area, the party decided to start heading towards the Gnoll Stronghold. While I currently have no need of Dynaheir, the Gauntlets of Dexterity would be very nice for Kagain to have.

Losses:
Khalid

Party:
Macharius (3)
Kagain (2)
Imoen (3)
Jaheria (2/2)
Branwen (3)
Xan (2)

 

Quick update.

Twice I tried the same character - an elven fighter. He had really good rolls including 18/00 strength, but somehow he got killed by kobold (first run) and then gibberlings (second run). Both in one hit, too. I've lost faith in him.

I've imported Caerwyn from a fresh file (so no cheating here), trying her again. Currently in Nashkel with Imoen, Kagain, and Kivan. I haven't headed up FAI way yet, though. Might pick up Branwen and then brave the mines, or perhaps wipe out some hobgoblins around FAI.

Kagain is my designated damage-soaker, but I have some reservations about him. Perhaps I should pick up Ajantis too?


@Decados: I'm both glad and jealous of your successful career - good luck.