True Ironman Survivors Competition (BG1 Tutu)

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It seems, after all, I have a limitless patience for this game.

So - new character - half-elven mage/thief with a focus on stealth and backstabbing. The plan was to get a small team of competent characters and avoid those small-but-deadly fights and instead get to the heart of the matter. The planned team was me, Imoen, Kagain, and Branwen.

Things went well - we collected all the freebee magic items, picked up Kagain and did his thing, then headed off to Nashkel and picked up Branwen.

The mines were going very well up until that little bridge area. Kobolds came up behind us while I was focused on the battle in front and Imoen was shot dead.
http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/Aikynaro/imoenalas.jpg

We cleared out the rest of the mines with no further troubles, and picked up Xan.

Next stop, Nimbul. Things did not go according to plan.

He makes his saving throw for the command word kill, and mirror images. We know we're in trouble here, but try and get some hits in - no such luck.

He starts casting horror. I know what this means and make everyone run like hell in different directions. Kagain saves, Xan doesn't - everyone else is out of range. Xan is then taken out by a magic missile (four of them!). No great loss, but we try and hang back to let the soldiers handle it. They can't hit him either though.

He catches sight of Branwen and I and we start running for the other side of town. We're doing well when HOLY CRAP MAGIC MISSILE HEADED STRAIGHT FOR ME!

I had forgotten entirely that Shield protects from magic missile, which is why I'm not dead.

Branwen, however, didn't make it. She was magic missiled in the face from close range after he got up from her last power word kill. At this point he was near death, and Kagain arrived as reinforcements. Finally, after losing half the party, we took him down.
http://i875.photobucket.com/albums/ab314/Aikynaro/branwenxanalas.jpg

So now I need to work out who to put on my crack team of adventurers. Viconia - being the only other cleric at this point - gets a spot. I think Ajantis might take up the other, because Viconia probably can't fill Branwen's place as secondary front liner quite so well.


@Decados:
I found that portrait here.
And yeah, wow - you seem to be going well.

 

Meet the leader of another party of ironman gamers.

Apeman the Ranger
STR: 18/56
DEX: 18
CON: 14
INT: 14
WIS:10
CHA:10

Nice stats overall I think. I figure with this kind of variant the best defense is an all missile offense. I skipped on Constitution a bit there because I do not plan to send Apeman to the front.

So we start. I do all the minor quests in Candlekeep without taking a hit. First of I buy a composite long bow. With two proficiencies in long bow I do 5/2 attacks per round with a Thac0 of 16. No problems with the two assassins. Finally I confront Gorion and we are off into the wilds!

We get the familiar cutscene and Gorion is killed and Immy joins my party in the morning. I pick up some scrolls and gems from the corpses the ogres. At this point the NPC mod is already kicking in and the writing is surprisingly good so far. Nice little dialogue which captures the spirit of Imoen quite nicely.

To the west we venture where we meet the likable psychos Monty and Xzar. They join me and the four of us travel to the Lion's way. Here I take the chance to go north a bit for the ring of protection but two wolves stand in my way and almost kill Immy, Montaron and Xzar. Luckily they all survive with either one or two hitpoints left. With the wolves slain I collect my prize and go straight to the Friendly Arm Inn.

Tarnesh is next. Disrupting his first spell with one of my arrow he falls quickly and thanfully to one of my companions so I get the experience. Inside Khalid and Jaheira join me and I rest up. Outside I quickly find the ring of wizardry which is given temporarily to Xzar. I sell all my scrolls and end up with about 700 gold whith which I buy range weapons for everyone and some splint mails for the ones who can use them.

North we go killing some hobgoblins on the way. The power of missiles become clear now as they fall down before they can even reach the group. I find Joia's flamedance ring among the fallen and decide to keep it for when I really need a reputation boost. North from the FIA we meet up with Ajantis who gladly joins my group. I had to kick out Monty and Xzar but I won't miss them. I know where they are if one of my companions bites the dust.

On to Beregost where, on the way, we encounter a few minor battles with gibberlings and xvarts. They are easily dispatched. In Beregost I only stop to rest in the Feldepost Inn. I calm down our big, but not so smart, man Marl for a nice experience boost. South I kill the ogrillons standing over a slain halfling. After that I get stopped by three flaming fist guards. Seemingly they are not pleased by my sweet smile and thinking our group are bandits they are attack. One of the guards hit Ajantis for 12 hit points and I resort to running circles around them with our paladin while the rest of the group transform them into hedgehogs. In the end I am three plate mails richer .

Nothing noteworth in the Hills above Nashkel so I power through. At the Inn Neira falls quickly as all her spells get disrupted except a harmless entangle. In the end I recruit Edwin, equipping him with the ring of wizardry giving him 6 first level spells. Too bad they are all color spray .

So far so good. No deaths although three very close encounters, those damn wolves always seem to hit.

Party:
Ajantis
Apeman
Khalid
Jaheira
Imoen
Edwin

I lack some serious healing power however so I am thinking about kicking out Jaheir and Khalid and replace them for Branwen. Don't know about a six member. I'm also quite fearful of the Gnoll fortress which I have to tackle to keep Edwin and I'm also not sure if Ajantis and Edwin will play nice nice

Next update with screenies

 

Spent the afternoon getting a bit further on. I went along the bottom of the world map in order to get to the Gnoll Stronghold and cleared out two intervening areas. In doing so I returned Rufie, saved a Dryad's tree (after some stern words from Jaheria) and fought with a trio of Amnish warriors. I can't remember their names off the top of my head, but it was the group with two archers and a scimitar-wielding leader. They proved to be surprisingly dangerous and I went through many potions trying to keep Macharius and Kagain alive. In the end, Branwen's Hold Person and Command Word spell saved us (just) and we picked up some nice loot.

At this point we had quite a lot of stuff, so we headed north to Beregost to sell some of it off. While we were there, I found that we had enough money to buy a set of Full Plate, which Macharius immediately equipped. We also took the opportunity to kill Silke, Tranzig and the Red Sheaf assassin, as well as pick a fight with Marl. We finished by clearing the spider infested house and picked up the reward from the gnome in the Friendly Arm.

Now restocked, the party returned to the Gnoll Stronghold and picked up the Gauntlets of Dexterity and the Tome of Charisma. We quickly chopped through the gnoll, aided by a few Sleep spells, and rescued Dynaheir. As I had no room for her, I sent her to wait at the Friendly Arm in case of Xan dying.

When I play, I rarely equip unidentified magic items- while I know what they are, it always seems to me to be a bit foolhardy for adventurers to use items that may be cursed. At this point in the game, Xan had failed to learn 3 Identify scrolls and the party was carrying quite a lot of stuff. So we headed to High Hedge and bought another scroll, which Xan actually understood.

Next we went to Larswood and cleared out the bandits there. Declined the offer of joining the bandits as I wanted to assault the camp normally. Peldvale then got the same treatment and we saved Viconia from the Flaming Fist (mainly to get his plate mail!). Oddly, she then had nothing to say to me, so I guess she won't be able to join the party later on. Ah well.

We recently took the bandit camp without any losses, although Khan came very close to taking out both Kagain and Macharius. The mage in the tent also had a good shot with his Melf's Acid Arrows, but both Jaheria and Branwen had CLW spare.

At this point, it feels like I've built up about enough momentum to not have to particularly worry about anything due to come up. Once you've past the first few levels (which it looks like DM's fighter was unlucky with), the only concerning thing would be some lucky disabling spells taking out the party tanks and giving the enemy free reign. Other than that, I can't see too many problems ahead.

A bit of advice to anyone dealing with the Black Talon Elite: the ice arrows these guys fire are pretty lethal to unarmoured characters, so make sure someone heavily armoured, like Korgan, is the first to explore sections of the area. Personally, I would advise heaping all your protective gear onto that one tank and having him rush the group. With enough anti-missile stuff, you should only be hit by the occasional arrow and rushing them will force them to draw swords while the rest of your party pelts them from afar.

Kagain is certainly good at tanking, but now and again something will take his HP dangerously low- ogres or Khan, for example. Because of this, I would recommend having a second character capable of stepping in while he falls back. On the other hand, with both Kivan and Caerwyn, you may be able to skip the second tank. If you take both Branwen and Ajantis, there would be no space for a mage, although that isn't a complete loss- fighters are very useful in BG1.

I see we have a promising tactician amongst us!

If you take out J&K for Branwen, perhaps Kivan would be a suitable replacement for Khalid?

I found the gnoll fortress to be pretty easy, to be honest. Some of the creatures on the way there were more dangerous (eg Dread Wolves). Just make sure that you have access to Sleep and you'll find the groups of Gnolls much less problematic.

 

Some mechanical question. If I recruit an NPC and then immdiately kick him out (then sending him to the FAI, via the BG1NPC mod), is his level "set" ?

For example, I would like to charge into the Mines with a team of 6, but if everyone survives and I can't take Xan, then he'll presumably disappear. The alternative is to let him join and kick him out, but then he might be permanently stuck at level 2, and that will be underpowering when I return to get him at, say, level 4 (assuming I live that long).

@Decados: I swear those gibberlings can smell fear - I've never had any trouble with them before, and now they're killing me left, right, and centre.
How did you get Dynaheir to wait at the FAI? Did you let her join and kick her out?


Update:
Okay - ran up and down doing minor quests and got Branwen, Kagain, Imoen and Caer levelled up before we tackled the mines. It went very smoothly, and we enlisted Xan to complete our party. Nimbul went down easily with Command Word. We finished a couple of quests, stocked up, etc. Then we headed towards the gnoll stronghold.

Along the way Kivan was slain by a winter wolf - he had a grand total of 90 kills in the party! He was replaced by Ajantis (level 4!). We've currently just cleared out the gnoll stronghold, and everyone is around level 4. Kagain, Branwen, and Ajantis form my frontliners, while Imoen, Caerwyn, and Xan hang out at the back. I got some pretty bad HP rolls earlier, so Caerwyn's HP is only 26 (she has 18 Con!), whilst Branwen once levelled up with 2HP! It's all very annoying. To balance things out both Kagain and Ajantis are in their mid-30s and can tank fairly reliably.

I have to admit I reloaded earlier - but that was because I faced a serious scripting problem that's probably from BG1NPC. We were clearing out the bandits who had gotten Kagain's caravan, but instead of attacking, Kagain kept walking towards the body and then back towards Branwen. He died as a result of his stupidity, and I reloaded angrily. The next time we managed to kill them despite Kagain's retardedness, but then he kept speaking to the PC nonstop. Obviously a problematic solution. So we reloaded again and this time avoided the bandits altogether. It is a violation of the rules, but I think it's justifiable in this account.

 

R.I.P. Ajantis

I foolishly went after Greywolf perhaps a bit too soon. Command bounced off and Ajantis went head to head while the other shot their arrows. I could have made it but I tried to color spray him with Edwin. Of course I missed and actually hit Ajantis who went down like sack of potatoes. Now the only one who actually can use a long sword is dead

Change of plans then, I'm picking up Minsc as a tank and I had to go to the Gnoll fortress anyway. First I recruit Branwen as a healer and I travel to the high hedge for Kivan and a sleep spell for Edwin. I nearly got killed when a stupid ghast paralyzed me. Fortunately my party managed to kill it before it could kill me.

I rushed through the areas which lead to the Gnoll fortress. Once there the sleep spell did all the work and I recruited Dynaheir to may party. I kicked out Edwin because I need minsc for tanking. If one of them dies I can always re-recruit Edwin and Tar-sheel for example.

Current party:
Minsc
Kivan
Apeman
Branwen
Imoen
Dynaheir

All are level 2 except minsc and dynaheir. I'm going to finish the little quests at FIA, Beregost and Nashkel before I hit the mines.

 

That's a nice, balanced party you have there, Apeman. Good stuff!

I forgot to report that I had also taken down Greywolf. As Decados suggests, Hold Person is absolutely fantastic against him.

I think the key to maintain PC survival is to never wade him into front-line combat - Caerwyn has been pretty cowardly and shooting slingshots all game, but she's surviving fine.

 

My character has actually died once, but I was curious enough about the party setup and irritated enough about the stupidity of the death (wandering around in the wrong area looking for Viconia and oshi- four red mages trying to kill me which I never remember doing so previously).

So, yeah, I guess that disqualifies this game.

Still, things have been going okay. Kagain died due to ettercap in a cave (I *strongly* recommend having excess antidote - it's horrible watching someone gradually die and having absolutely nothing you can do about it). I picked up Minsc and went and cleared the gnoll stronghold. We made a pretty good team - killed lots of ogre berzerkers and hobgoblin elites around the area just before the stronghold and all ended up around level 4.

Unfortunately, Minsc has since been killed in Larswood by Black Talon Elites, which puts a big hole in my confidence that I'll be able to take on the Bandit Camp. The dynamic of the game has changes a lot since the early levels though - we no longer have to fear death quite so much so long as we're prepared.

And while avoiding frontline combat seems a good idea, I'm finding my character to be very good for slipping in behind enemy lines. She can reach the archers that are otherwise blocked and draw their attention until the tanks arrive - Shield is a really nifty spell.

 

LOL, the exact same thing just happened to me only in the reverse order of characters. Minsc just bit the dust in Beregost. Bows + cramped space + huge spider = dead ranger. Picked up Kagain though.

On towards the mines!

 

I would join in, but I boxed up all my games for a few weeks between moves. Plus, I have no clue where that particular box is now I'm really tempted to go on a great search for it though!

Never mind, the search was certainly not a 'great search.' I found it after about two minutes... In my defense though, I looked for about an hour yesterday and found nothing.

Time to think of a character as I install everything.

 

Indeed - once you survive the mines (or thereabouts) and get your party up around level 3, you no longer have to worry about dying from a single hit. Just don't do anything stupid and you will generally stay alive.

Having 18 Cha is really helpful - BG1 checks Charisma much more than BG2. Pick up the Ring of Human Influence. For example, Perdue (the spider lady at the FAI) gives you six antidotes if you look pretty enough!

My problem now is that my reputation is too high (18), and if I do any more good deeds Kagain will leave me. How can I lower my Rep without having to kill some random bugger?

Alternatively, does anyone remember where the Helm of Opposite Alignment is?

 

First of all, a slight correction: I babbled in my last post about someone called Khan, mainly because I couldn't remember his full name. Turns out that it's Taugosz Khosann. Vaguely close, I suppose.

I'm not entirely certain, but I think the npc's level would be set the first time you meet them- after that their level is constant.

And yes, to get Dynaheir to wait at the FA I let her join and then immediately kicked her.

Yeah, it makes sense for reloads to be allowed when a bug kills the game. I've run into that one before. I solved it by having Kagain sit out of LOS of the entire encounter- he never got a chance to look at the body, but his follow-up dialogue triggered just fine.

I shouldn't laugh, but how appropriate it is for Edwin to cause Ajantis' death; I can't imagine an evil mage would be happy with having a paladin as a travelling companion!

Agreed wholeheartedly- I almost lost Kagain to poison earlier today.

I would recommend someone capable of wearing heavy armour- mages are horribly vulnerable to a single lucky hit. Having the PC be able to cast healing would be a nice touch.


Okay, time for my own update:

After clearing the bandit camp, I wasn't sure exactly what to do next- go to Cloakwood or do some levelling? I chose a compromise- go to Cloakwood after doing the Anheg area. Pretty straightforward overall- Kagain proved too elusive for the Anheg to hit often and, when they did, I had two healers on standby. Rinse, repeat.

Next we hit Cloakwood area 1 and cleared it out without an issue. We met Coran, who we sent to the Belching Dragon at Nashkel. Saved Aldeth and, in doing so, received Jaheria's quest.

Cloakwood area 2 was a slow one- I was careful to disarm all the web traps with Imoen as one unlucky encounter could easily kill a party member. For those who make it in here: be careful to keep an eye of where Phase Spiders are teleporting- their poison deals 5 damage a go, so always have a spare few antidotes. Sword spiders are also a priority- their damage builds up fast.

An Oil of Firey Burning followed by an Animate Dead cleared up Centeol's hideout, although a dialogue with Xan triggered where he dispelled her illusion, allowing her to teleport away instead of being pincushion by the rest of the party. No matter.

After a spider ambush on the way, the party hit area 3 and encountered Eldoth, who we sent to Feldepost's Inn. We killed off the druids easily enough and prepared for area 4. Unfortunately, we ran into a problem: as soon as we entered the area, a druid called Beador cast Iron Skins and then the game crashed. In the hope it was a one-off, the party tried again- no success. After a bit of trial and error, I found taking Jaheira into the area was making her quest trigger and then the game crash. Solution: leave Jaheria behind while the other cleared the area.

The Hamadryad near the start charmed Kagain, causing an amusing amount of fleeing from him by the other party members, but we survived without loss. The cave of wyverns almost got the better of Kagain- without Jaheria I only had two Delay Poisons memorised. Naturally, Kagain got poisoned three times. In horror, I realised that I had accidentally left my two antidotes on Jaheira. Fortunately, after some panicked searching, I found that we had a single Elixer of Health.

After that, we headed back to the Friendly Arm for a quick restock, before going straight on to the Mines. The evil party waiting for us was not as dangerous as I remembered them to be. Silence from Branwen, Horror from Xan and Call Lightning from Jaheira made them look like complete amateurs.

Level 1 of the mines was uneventful and we soon broke into the level 2 prison. We decided to save the slaves and gave 100 gp to Rill. Yeslick was then sent to the Friendly Arm.

I knew the battle before the stairs could be problematic because of the mage, so after opening the door, I had Branwen cast Animate Dead ahead of us in order to absorb the worst of the spells. The plan was to then close the door until all the skeletons had been fragged by magic. Well, it half worked- Hareishan cast Lightning Bolt on the skeletons, which then proceeded to bounce all around the small room ahead of the party. Unfortunately, there was a guard standing in the way of the door and we failed to kill him in time- the Bolt eventually got a good angle to shoot down the prison block, straight along the line of my entire party.

I managed to get Branwen and Xan out of the way in time (otherwise the mage would have been fried), but Imoen failed her saving throw and, despite being uninjured, died horribly.

Xan's Wand of Fire took Hareishan to Almost Dead and a couple of arrows finished her off. Sleep then eliminated the rest of the guards and the level was clear. Still, that was an unpleasant reminder not to underestimate mages. They're easy to kill, but can take party members with them.

So I now need a new thief for the party. Coran would be a viable option, but I've played with him a lot before, so I'd rather someone else. I've never used Safana, so I think I'll try to enlist her before going any further down the mines. Unfortunately, she in an area with Sirenes, which I've not been looking forward to facing. Hopefully this won't be too painful...

 

I've a problem. Namely: running out of characters.

We picked up Ajantis and went to get Shar-teel while we still had a man alive that's capable of beating her, and also killed a good number of bassilisks along the way.

Unfortunately, Shar-teel kicked Ajantis's arse, and a bug prevented us from fighting her again. Then I gave the wimpy option in hope it would do something useful, and she walked away. Yeah...

Then Ajantis got killed when we fought the adventurers in that area. Fortunately, the rest of the party (that being Elyea (level 3 mage, 4 thief at the time - since leveled), Viconia (level 5), and Dynaheir (level 4 then - 5 now) are competent. They were pretty easy to kill, really - sure, a lot of sleep spells, rigid thinking, and hold persons went into it - but overall...

We now lack a main frontline fighter. Viconia has an AC of -5 (-10 vs slashing weapons), so she's been backing up the main tank, but without a tank at all we're going to have problems. We picked up Garrick to use as cannon fodder, and then had a thought: Khalid and Jaheira! And Xzar and Monty!

Yeah - doesn't work like that. Seems they only stay around for that chapter and then they're gone for good.

So yeah.

I'm wanting to attack the Bandit Camp, but am pretty worried that we won't be able to make it. Garrick is now dead, incidently - we went to the area west of Nashkel to get the lightning bolt scroll there so Dynaheir has something more useful to throw around than dispel magic, and a mustard jelly killed him in one shot. No great loss - if we had someone else to take his place.

I think I'll pick up Safana and then make an attempt. As it is my character has been stepping up to the front line more than is probably healthy, and it will be nice to have someone to share backstab/emergency front liner duties with.

If Viconia or Dynaheir die, I am going to be very upset.

Update:
I forgot about Kivan! All is well.

Well, except that the game now crashes every time I try and enter Beregost - which really really sucks, because I have a stash of equipment there.
Oh well - bandit camp time, I guess.

Update:
Bandit camp went very, very poorly. We only just escaped with our lives, and didn't even make it to the tent. Had we stand to fight even a few more rounds, we'd be looking at TPK.

 

this is a really interesting thread, by the way

 

The Bandit Camp is clear, but it has cost us dearly - Viconia has fallen. When I get to her, Faldorn will be filling healer role until I find Yeslick, who will probably become our full time cleric.

We've also killed the assassins out west of Nashkel for their loot (I thought they had a magical bow on them, but it seems I was mistaken). Amusingly, I have now bought up the entire of Nashkel's supply of healing potions.

And we can get back to Beregost now - there's a utility for fixing saves corrupted by that particular crash, which makes me extremely happy.

 

You guys are playing way faster then I could ever do currently. Stupid Job

Hopefully I can tackle the mines and kill Mulahey tonight and of course not loose another party member. I'm seriously running out of fighters here.

 

I can't seem to stop myself from playing, despite the many other things I should be doing.

So yeah - Kivan's dead. Phase spider and he just couldn't chug down antidotes fast enough. The party is now Elyea (5 mage/6 thief), Dynaheir (6 invoker), Coran (5 fighter/6 thief), Faldorn (5 druid), and Eldoth (5 bard).
Eldoth is along purely as cannon fodder. I figure if he can distract someone from killing Coran for two hits before dying - that's probably worth it. I guess this signals a change in strategy - but we're in pretty desperate straights here, and so having a living fighter is much more important than getting lots of xp.

We had some pretty hairy moments - the cave with the guy and his wyverns and the fat spider thing (I thought about not doing that, but really wanted the sword). Liberal use of fireball is helping.

 

This is an excellent thread! Very entertaining, keep up the good work guys!

 

Victory!

No deaths this update

I cleared the area south of Beregost as I made my way down to the mines. I nearly shat my pants though when I encountered three ghasts. Luckily they are slow and I racked up 3x 650 exp. Got the potions there in the cave and the boots of stealth from the knobgoblins

Nothing happened in the area north of Nashkel so I went to the mines. I was hoping for some winter wolves on the outskirts of the mines but no such luck, I could have used the money.

The mines were pretty uneventful. Got hit by a few kobold arrows but Kagain with the girdle of piercing and the gauntlets of dexterity is pushing -5 against arrows, after Nimbul that will be -10. Better watch out Black Talon Elites. Mulahey was easy as hell, Branwen got a hold person off and it took effect. The kobolds and skeletons were childsplay.

So on to the real challenge.....Nimbul. I cast remove fear to ward of horror if he chooses to cast it and a bless for the extra Thac0. I move closer and the battle is on. He starts casting and...........

Kivan and Dynaheir score a hit, with an arrow of all things, his spell is disrupted. Here I thought I actually had a chance. Next thing I almost did a victory dance. Kagain scores a critical hit with his axe.......24 damage!!

Chunk

That was easy.

I tried to take a screenshot but I only get a black picture. It's probably my video card because I also see squares when I play.

Next up: levelling and clearing all areas available excluding the bandit camp. I'm saving that one for last.

 

I'm tempted to join in with this

I'll sort out my run through in BG2 then have a play I think It's a little awkward switching between installs for now!

 

I hope wild mages are allowed in this...

EDIT: My mistake, looks like they aren't - which I guess disqualifies Jinx. I'll still play her run to a fun, and hopefully explosive ending of all involved.
So here goes:

Jinx,
Elf, Wild Mage
10/13/17/18/10/18

- her special talent - causing other party members to die.

On the first try she justified her name and was killed by the very first assassin in Candlekeep, with his first attack (blame it on player stupidity )

Second try was much, much better - current party is level 3, past Nashkel mines (Xan is level 2, though) and includes:
Jinx - just asking for the killer surge (surprisingly lethal with a sling, though)
Branwen - my absolutely main tank with spiritual hammer, hold person and AC of 0 (Plate), also my main healer... the VIP of the party
Ajantis - keeping the minions busy so the rest can kill them off
Jaheira - sling + healer
Xan - around for the sheer conversations on impending doom - Charm aside, keeping him out of melee is my main past time so far
Imoen - bow + traps, locks

The main idea of the run was that Jinx will perish from her own surges long before the enemies get near. So far, however, she is still alive (and teamed up with Xan for bonus hilarity) - not that she didn't have her moments - and people around her are most certainly doomed.

Deaths:
Khalid - Jinx did it - we were up against the girdle ogre, and Jaheira had cast Entangle. Just to be safe, Jinx backed it up with Sleep - which Surged and HELD Khalid in front of the ogre while he pommeled him to death. It would have been a rofl moment if it weren't so sad. Jaheira actually managed to heal him - once, but wasn't fast enough the second time.
Garrick - he was along merely because I had a free slot in the party, and somehow stayed alive till the 2nd level of Nashkel mines - where, predictably, Jinx ran out of spells. Party decided to rest... and then her luck kicked in - rest was interrupted three consecutive times by kobolds with pointy arrows. Healers tried, but by time three Garrick took a straight on hit that nuked his HP to O. (arguably, another instance of player stupidity - but I blame Jinx ) Next time rest was *not* interrupted.

I would like to get Kivan and Minsc at some point - but am quite happy with my current party as well - having two healers works like a charm (potions are still the main currency though )

TBH, this run was more a result of luck and running then brains. Jinx seems to have both Ty and Besh on speed-dial.

I ran from the first group of Xvarts *four* times until I managed to kill them.
Getting to the mines took forever, mostly in near death mode.
I still run away from wolves - winter, dread, whatever. Party drew the line with Cave bears though - we fought those.

Currently poking around the countryside - Nimbul is dead, as is Greywolf (Hold Person, hurray!) and the fastest dart thrower dude.

The objectives of the Jinx run have shifted slightly - if they must die, I'd like to have as many party members fall victims to Jinx's surges as possible.
Bonus points for keeping Xan alive as the final surviving party member (Jinx aside).

Oh yeah, I tried having Jinx cast Shield in front of Mullahey's lair - she stepped up in front of the kobolds, with a self confident grin... and I got a "Combat ready!" surge instead... with the arrows buzzing. She was milimeters of portrait away from death. Priceless.