True Ironman Survivors Competition (BG1 Tutu)

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@Decados: the BG1 NPC mod seems to relocate Safana's thief skills entirely into Detect Illusions, which is 1) Entirely useless and 2) Not in BG1. I suggest looking up her initial stats and using Shadowkeeper to redistribute the points.

 

Hm, a wild mage in this...it's one cow surge away from death there...I have to join in this too, if I get the time...

 

Eldoth died rapidly against wyverns, which would be no great loss except that we were forced to abandon everything he was carrying while fleeing for our lives from the entire fricking enemy population of the map. He was carrying all the stuff I'd planned to give to Yeslick, including full plate mail, ring of protection, shield +1, and a mace +1. Thankfully Faldorn had the ring of holiness...

We stormed the mines with not that much difficulty. The only problem when facing Davaeorn was that Coran freaked fighting the battle horror (forgot to cast protection from fear - big big mistake) and spent the battle nearly getting killed or getting poor Faldorn killed who had to run around trying to heal him.

Seriously though, the mustard jelly in the back room was more frightening that Davaeorn (In fact, that was terrifying - I saw what those things did to Garrick).

Since then I've slain a bunch of ankhegs (pretty easy, really) and commisioned some additional ankheg armour, gotten the body for the farmer, and helped out Tenya (the child priestess of Umberlee)

 

Argh, I completely forgot to loot Mulahey's corpse. I could use that holy ring of his. Oh man I have backtrack entirely IIRC the cave you escape from collapsed.

How long until stuff on the ground vanishes in a dungeon/corpse?

 

I just looked at my previous post- if I'm going to update like that I should probably start using spoiler tags in an attempt to keep the entire post from becoming The Wall of Text.

Congratulations Aik, you may be running out of party members but you've passed my current progress and are now leading the race to Sarevok.

Righty-ho, thanks for the warning. I'll change her immediately after getting her.

 

I've found that stuff disappears really quickly. I left Eldoth's stuff for 32 in-game hours and there was nothing left at all there.

 

Average items have a 24 hour decay, only key items will stay longer than that. Some areas seem to have a slower decay time but I think that's just where I used quicker travelling routes to them.

 

Argh! Dynaheir is dead!

This is what happens when you get cocky and walk into mage duels without preparing yourself! You end up with everyone horrored and everything ruined forever! Gah! Dynaheir had so many good spells - getting someone to replace her will be expensive and painful, but we need another mage because Elyea just doesn't quite cut it. Excellent for a backup, but not as the key mage.

Anyone else and I would have struggled to finish the game, maybe, but wouldn't be annoyed like this. Dynaheir has been a constant in the party for a long time, and this was such a pointless, stupid fight to die in (the necromancers at the top of Sorcerous Sundries - one of them just wouldn't stop melfing her).

Anyway, I guess this means I'll go and get Edwin. Hopefully he already knows fireball...

 

24 hours. Sigh. Here's for hoping that travelling from Nashkel to the mines only takes 8 hours. The prospect of going through the mines again is not one I look forward to.

@Aik
Horror is indeed one of the most annoying spells in the first game. So few make their saves it seems.

 

I don't get why only aik apparently bother with the bassilisk area! It's just the sweetest spot to go early for some easy exp with protection from petrification and/or that ghoul thing.

 

IMOEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37/Deathymage/Baldr105.jpg?t=1245811205

She got taken down by the bastard Hobgoblin inside Tazok's tent - shot down by his Cold Arrows. However, the rest of the fight proceeded rather smoothly with Xan's Horror and our dedicated tanks.

I should have had her drink an invisibility potion.

Now, this is going to be a problem. Immy was our dedicated trapfinder, and now we have no thief. Coran would be a great choice, except he has very crappy Find Trap skills, so I think we have to pick up Safana now.


Update:
HOLY CRAP XAN

We didn't want to open that chest and advance without a thief, so we went outside. Another motivation is that we can kill the bandits and steal all their scalps before Vai disappears.

Yeah, didn't go so well. My heart is still pumping from the assault.

The Tenhammer bastard advanced towards us and I had my tanks engage. However, it soon became clear that we are faltering - so we decided to flee. Last time I had good luck in charming Tenhammer, but this time it was not to be, and we were running out of spells. So we turned tail and fled.

Along the way, Xan got shot to death by stray arrows.

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37/Deathymage/Baldr107.jpg?t=1245811307

He was carrying important scrolls (Fireball!), so Caerwyn turned back. The cunning plan was to have everyone target her, then cast Sanctuary.

Yeah, didn't go so well.

Tenhammer disrupted her spell with a massive 17-HP attack, and Caerwyn was soon dying. HOLY CRAP HOLY CRAP. She just managed to dodge the arrows, drank the oil of speed, and ran the hell away with everyone else.

We fled to Beregost successfully. Scary stuff.

Unfortunately Xzar and Monty's not there. I'm thinking of Safana and Edwin.

And oh crap, Xan had the Ring of Wizardry... :'(

We buried the noble man near the Beregost Obelisk so everyone can remember his virtues.
http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37/Deathymage/Baldr108.jpg?t=1245811333

Update:
We went to Nashkel and Minsc automatically joined the party, then we picked up Coran.

On the way to second Cloakwood, we got waylaid by ettercaps. No problem, I thought. Coran could show off his new skills, and Minsc could beat them up easily. Dynaheir soon got poisoned, but we had antidotes to spare; she drank one and ran away.

And then set off a trap. Web.

I didn't even KNOW that you can have traps in random encounters.

The whole party except Dynaheir was webbed, and the ettercup rounded on Caerwyn. A few bites later she was dead.

To add insult to injury, she LEVELLED UP seconds before she died.


So yeah, I'm officially disqualified - but I'm going to continue with this party.

 

Elyea has died.

Things were going well. Breaking into houses all over BG and seeing all the interesting things inside.
Unfortunately, what is 'interesting things' in normal BG is not 'DEAR GOD HOLY ****ING **** WE'RE GOING TO DIE RUNRUNRUNRUNRUN!' in ironman tutu.

It was the house filled with Invisible Stalkers, Doom Guards, and Helmed Horrors.

As soon as I realised this, we backpedaled the hell out of there. They followed.

Faldorn died on the doorstep. Elyea was forced to flee left, the rest of the party right. Everyone was following Elyea, so they seemed to be okay.

Then an invisible stalker hit Edwin, and he had a morale failure. This was bad. Coran and Yeslick engaged the invisible stalker and then the doom guard that came up. Elyea did a lap around the block, bringing a helmed horror with her. We started retreating towards the exit where Edwin was running around uselessly, but he changed direction. Again the fighters attacked to buy Edwin time to get a grip and/or go and panic elsewhere.

Elyea slipped off to the side to recover Faldorn's equipment. Coran was injured, and drank one of our many potions of invisibility. I finally managed to get all of Faldorn's stuff onto either Elyea or Yeslick. I was ready to have Yeslick drink down a potion of invisibility and then retreat, hoping Edwin would survive but too bad if he couldn't.

And then an invisible stalker kills Elyea in one hit, from full health.

Lessons we learnt from this playthrough:
Mage/thief is a pretty good combination. Spells get your AC low, you don't need to wear armour to be effective in either role, you can easily be the group's main thief as well as secondary mage, and you have no need to put yourself in harms way to fully utilise your class skills.

We also learnt that invisible stalkers are extreme badasses and you should drink the potion of invisibility immediately upon encountering them. Better yet - just stay out of that house. Seriously - if you don't know which one it is, go and look up a walkthrough. Make a very large note somewhere you will see it - if you can surround it with flashing lights, do so. *DO NOT ENTER*. You will die.

 

Poor Aik.

On my end, things are not much better. Here's how it went.

I forgot to mention that Ajantis died from pure stupidity earlier - I had pumped up Kagain to open the lightning bolt trap, but...didn't. Ajantis opened it and got shot through the heart.

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37/Deathymage/Baldr111.jpg?t=1245826768

I had a party of six, three frontliners, a sniper, a mage, and two clerics. Minsc and Coran were proving to be pretty deadly killing of spiders, and Branwen had just levelled up. I thought "Hmm - let's try take on Centeol." The problem was, I didn't have fireball, but Branwen got level 3 spells and I thought a glyph of warding would do just as nicely.

Yeah.

We went into the game and called her fat, then battle began. Spiders surrounded us on all sides. Minsc died first. Coran second. Then the spiders crawled towards us, and one by one, in a mass of confusion, my allies fell - Branwen, Dynaheir. I stared in horror as there were suddenly just me and Kagain left - we fled the cave; they followed. We ran the hell away for a very long time, until at last Kagain was caught by the ettercaps, and killed.

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37/Deathymage/Baldr115.jpg?t=1245826769

With only Caerwyn left, she slingshotted everything she could see to death, and picked up the Full Plate and Gloves of Dexterity from Kagain, pumping her AC to -6.

She charged into the cave - ironically, there were only two spiders left, and she killed them easily. Centeol was docile; a mod had made her give up after a short while (not that I think she did anything anyway). So I killed her and the spiders after much running around and slingshoting. Slowly she gathered all the loot of her companions, and put it into Centeol's stash. It was a sad affair.

http://i667.photobucket.com/albums/vv37/Deathymage/Baldr116.jpg?t=1245826769

The REALLY stupid thing was, we had an oil of Fiery Burning.

So - now running out of companions, Caerwyn has ran back to Nashkel and collected Edwin, then Viconia, then Shar-Teel. Edwin defeated her with two Melf's and lots of running around. Now we're on our way to Safana, currently massacreing xvarts. The plan is to skip Eldoth and get Faldorn, and presumably someone will die before I get to Yeslick. The complication is that everyone has low HP - Viconia and Edwin are in their 20s; Caerwyn has a number of remarkably crap rolls and only has ~30 HP despite her 4/4 level. Shar-Teel is doing slightly better with ~30, but that is horribly for a frontliner (indeed, the sole frontliner - Kagain had a monstrous 44 HP). She's doing okay with the Longsword +2, though. Everyone is level 4.

Looks like it's time to do a complete turn to Team Evil. I should do some shopping while my reputation is still high...

 

Quick update: Jinx struck again!

Both healers dead - single surge. (She is getting good at this party annihilation business.)

First Melicamp the Chicken got blown up to little pieces (which was a fitting omen) and then, mere minutes later, the party comes up to a pair of hobgoblin archers. Meh, I wasn't worried - we're in full health, what could possibly go wrong? Just to be on the safe side, Xan Mirror Imaged and Jinx cast Shield... big mistake.
The thing surges, goes Burst, and voila, BOTH Branwen and Jaheira are dead, from full health, no less. Xan apparently made his save. Go figure.
Both hobgoblins end up crispy too.

So, I picked up Minsc and Dy (with Jinx surging her robes on fire in the process)... and stopped playing for today (exam guilt ).

Thalantyr had a point: "I wish you "inteligence" - "luck" runs out."

 

This is harder then I thought. I'm just so glad you guys all suck too

So Kivan died against the trio of Amnish adventurers. Alexander sure showed Kivan who was the best archer :you have potions, use them!:

Not much later a few skeleton bowmen followed me around, so I rearranged my party so the tanks were up front. The skeletons pop out of the shadow, keep on going, target Dynaheir.......critical hit

So my party is down to four now. I guess I'll pick up Xan tomorrow and I'll stick with 5 party member for a while.

 

Ok, I'm in as well!

Decided to get to it as Wu Fu, a LN monk: str18 dex14, con 16, int 8, wis12, cha14. Has some practice with slings and darts, his extra speed comes handy with ranged weapons and running away...

Here it begins (in a story form)...

Spoiler

From the war-journal of Wu Fu, a warrior monk:

1st day: Gorion, dead. Imoen, dead. On the run from Candlekeep. How did this happen? The morning after Gorion was murdered and I could do nothing but run away, Imoen found me hiding in the bushes. It was nice to see a friendly face. As Gorion had told me to do, we had to get to the Friendly Arm Inn. Quite soon we met two nice gentlemen, named Xzar and Montaron, who said they'd help me if I'd help them. Something about the Nashkel mines. Fair enough, but first I had to go and see my father's body to say my final farewell, I could not believe he was dead. The blood from the battle had already drawn the beasts of the wild to feast on the bodies. Two wolves. They attacked us. Xzar and Montaron rushed into battle, but they proved not to be skilled enough to deal with the ferocious wolves. Montaron's throat was ripped to shreds no sooner the fight had begun. Imoen, my dearest childhood friend was slain. We could do no more than watch in horror. Xzar was of no use. I think the loss of Montaron was too much for him to bear. He ran away, managing to keep himself safe while I had the wolves following me. I took my darts and my sling and managed to slay the wolves by keeping my distance and pelting the beasts with bullets.
...
We headed east. An old man dressed in red yammered something. Can't remember. No sooner he left our company we were attacked by a slew of gibberling. Decided to run away, the gibberlings surrounded us from almost all directions, a couple of worgs or some other beasts had joined hunting us with the gibberlings, but we ran away faster than they could follow. Got to the Friendly Arm Inn. A fellow met us right outside the inn's door. A wizard, a bounty hunter, after my hide. He cast mirror image, then Horror, but Xzar was unnaffected and I had taken my distance from the mage so the spell did not reach me. The guards of the inn attacked Tarnesh and chopped him down, but before he fell he slew Xzar with a Magic missile. I was alone again, but not for long since as Gorion had said, I found old friends of his named Khalid and Jaheira. They said we should head to Nashkel, just like Xzar and Monty. Off we went...

Summary: Imoen, Xzar & Monty all dead. The path to revealing mysteries and revenge continues with Wu Fu, Khalid and Jaheira.

 

Seems like both Aik and DM had a shot of poor luck there. I was considering doing that high-level house just to see if I could do it first time without losing anyone. Perhaps just before Sarevok, I'll see.

IIRC, the only encounter that has traps is the one where you face ettercaps- it has web traps. I don't remember any of the others having.

Ok, now for my update:

When I posted last, I had just lost Imoen and was looking for a second thief. Well, I went for Safana who, it turns out, was level 6. A pleasant surprise- I thought I'd have to spend a while training her up. As DM pointed out, Tutu screwed up her thief skills, so I spent a while looking online for what they ought to be, but couldn't find anything on the matter. In the end, I decided to Shadowkeeper her to pretty much what Imoen was on.

To get past the Sirines we summoned a wall of skeletons to absorb the Dire Charms and surround the enemy. This allowed the party to sit back and pelt them with missile fire easily. Made it to the area's cave no problem and chopped up its guardians. Now Safana should be happy with me.

We returned to Beregost to buy supplies for Safana (and to pick up an Anheg Plate). Turns out that she must have been using her feminine wiles on Macharius, as he cheerfully bought her Shadow Armour, Crossbow of Speed and the Dagger of Venom. She had better start pulling her weight!

The rest of the mines was a complete walk in the park- even Davaeorn was a push-over. On the way to the big city, we did the zombie area and sorted out the Tenya-fishermen dispute by returning her bowl. In BG we killed off the Sorcerous Sundries mages by Wand of Fire-ing them repeatedly. Most recently, we've met Lothander and have the scroll to remove his geas and have done the first of the thief guild side quests.


@Olimkrig: The Basilisks would be an excellent area once the party has a mage to cast the required spell. I didn't bother mainly because I felt we were powerful enough once we had Xan- I don't intend on clearing every single area out, just focussing plot central ones and anything that happens to be on the way.

 

Nice going Decados. You'll probably be the first to actually finish this variant.

Are you planning to hit Durlag's tower before killing Sarevok? It certainly would add to the challenge.

 

First run over.

Wu Fu, Jaheira and Khalid got all killed by a couple of ogre mages in a random encounter east of Peldvale.

There was absolutely no good reason to journey that far. But in the morning, before my first cup of coffe I just thought "what the heck" and went there.

Khalid fell to megic missiles, Jaheira paniced and was killed by Melf's acid arrows. Wu Fu was burned to crisp by Agannazar's scorcher, tried to run away before the second burst of fire, but since Jaheira hadn't died and was panicked, there was no escape.

Not going to make the same mistake again.

Starting a second run as a Stalker. I'll kill 'em all this time around...