Vapourware BG1 ironman with an average Joe paladin

[gunman]

Game: vanilla BG1 as installed from GoG (no mods)

Rules:
- only 3 rolls are allowed for character attributes (initial roll + 2 re-rolls)
- no points transfer from one attribute to another
- as little metagaming as possible (eg: no prebuffing unless danger is iminent by either scouting or dialogue warnings)
- no evil aligned NPCs allowed in party, no stealing, no pickpocketing, no lying for personal gains
- obviously no reloads

Character creation
===========
Since min-maxing of attributes is not possible, and with only three rolls to pick from, it is hard to evaluate which attribute is more important than other.
What I looked for, in order of importance:
1) Intelligence of at least 9 (8 before tome), to be able to use items and read scrolls in BG2. Also being illiterate in Forgotten Realms is shameful.
2) High DEX for AC and ranged weapons adj. DEX can be raised with potions and gauntlets, but since my character is an average Joe, he most likely won't be the main tank, but ranged fighter/off-tank, so the gauntlets of DEX will go to someone else.
3) CON is important as more HP means more survivability in unexpected situations. Potions can be used in risky encounters. As long as CON is not in the HP penalty range, it is OK.
4) STR is the least important. For boosting STR when needed there are a lot of potions to be found. STR helps in melee and for carrying a heavy armor + heavy shield + a lot of stuff, but since the average Joe won't be the main tank, STR is the least important.



And the result is:
Hartke - Level 1 Paladin
STR 12 / DEX 15 / CON 13 / INT 13 / WIS 15 / CHA 17
++ Long Swords, ++ Missile Weapons (crossbows)

After doing quests in Candlekeep and fighting two assholes named Shank and Carbos (when he found that shooting the crossbow in melee gives a -8 to hit penalty), Hartke left Candlekeep with Gorion. Ambushed on the way to Friendly Arm Inn and seeing Gorion killed, he had to continue together with Imoen and succeeded reaching FAI without being ambushed by the dreaded bandits.

As they arrived to FAI, the first serious fight occurred on the doorsteps of the inn, with a mage named Tarnesh. Even if he managed to mirror image himself, the oil of speed and the wand of missiles quickly destroyed his defense and he was killed as he was unleashing his second spell.

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

baldur's joe

 

[abnaxus]

this should be Bhaalspawn avatar

 

[MicoSelva]

Hey, gunman . Good start. Good luck on your journey.

What are you using to capture video from BG1?

 

[gunman]

Fraps for capture and VirtualDub for encoding.

Anyway, let's continue.

After departing FAI, met the ogre near Coast Way as indicated by Unshey. Jaheira cast entangle and the beast was killed with arrows from a safe distance. At level 1, a single hit from the ogre means instadeath.



Arriving in Beregost, the first thing was to check the local smithy. Sold the ring of wizardry in order to afford the full plate email for Khalid, and bought a quarrel of +1 missiles for everybody, to help disrupt enemy spellcasters. Silke was dispatched before she could get off a single spell, she only managed to land a hit with her +1 staff on Jaheira.



Then we met another bounty hunter, a tanky dwarf named Karlat. A long brawling ensued, Khalid being too heavily armored to be hit by Karlat, while the party's THAC0 was too high to hit the dwarf, so both sides kept swinging at each other for a long time until Karlat hit the floor.



In Nashkel, learned about the troubles in the region and recruited Minsc. In the local inn, another bounty hunter and another kill for our party. Imoen used the wand of missiles with careful timing in order to disrupt each of Neira's spells.



Noticed that each of the bounty hunter's scroll mention a higher and higher reward. While the note picked up from the cold body of Tarnesh mentioned a reward of 200 gold, the note from Karlat mentioned 350 gold and Neira's reward was 680 gold!

 

[gunman]

I'm planing a band of paladins, with humans only, covering all the basic specialties (tank, priest, mage, thief), good or neutral aligned.

Ajantis is a must have, being the only paladin NPC in the game, and he is an awesome tank anyway.
PC - the second paladin
For priest role, best would be Brawnen, follower of Tempus
For mage unfortunately there is a single human non-evil mage NPC, Dynaheir, and she comes with that dimwit, and I don't want an accident to happen to him, so my plan is to dual Imoen to a mage the moment I recruit another thief.
For thief I plan on recruiting Safana, and later replace her with Skie, since she comes from nobility, which is important in a band of paladins.

 

[MicoSelva]

there is a single human non-evil mage NPC, Dynaheir

Apparently you forgot Xan.

And if you are counting multi-classed mages, there are also a few gnomes who can cast mage spells.

EDIT: oh yeah, humans only. Indeed, I missed that.

 

[gunman]

You missed the part about humans only

 

[Severian Silk]

Thread title sounds like an unusually nerdy gay porno.

Jaesun

 

[gunman]

After picking up Branwen from carnival, decided to travel to Gnoll Stronghold before investigating Nashkel mines. In the Xvart village, Khalid charged in the middle of a horde, and with his wimpy level 1 hitpoints got himself killed by two simultaneous critical hits from Xvarts.



For the rest of the map Branwen took the point, at level 2 having more hitpoints than Khalid or Minsc. She successfully tanked a cave bear, although being almost mauled to death.



Back to Nashkel to raise Khalid, then onwards to Gnoll Stronghold, where Dynaheir was found but had to let her go together with Minsc. On the way back, the party was ambushed by an ogre mage, quite a brutal encounter for a level 2 party. Khalid panicked twice and I thought I'll lose him again, but eventually won without any casualties.

 

[gunman]

After returning from the Gnoll Stronghold, onward to Nashkel mines. Exploring the mines surroundings, came across Prism and helped him, having to dispatch Greywolf. Greywolf made his save from hold person spell, but with full plate armor, gauntlets of DEX and prot. from evil on, Khalid had enough AC to avoid being hit by him except on critical.



Deep inside the mines, Hartke and his band found the source of the troubles in the person of a half-orc priest named Mulahey. Branwen cast held on him and he was easily killed.



Exiting the mines in an area far east of Nashkel, the party came encountered a band of amazons on a hunt for Hartke's head. Here the necklace of missiles bought in Nashkel carnival came very handy for disrupting multiple casters, and two uses wiping most of them. Another use of the necklace was for eradicating from a distance the dreaded green slimes summoned by a crazy wizard's experiment.

Back to Nashkel with plenty of loot and with the temporary addition of Xan to the party. Being fatigued, headed toward the Nashkell inn only to be ambushed by yet another bounty hunter, Nimbul. Applied business as usual when fighting mages: Branwen cast remove fear on party, since Horror seems to be the favorite spell of all mages in Baldur's Gate, while Xan cast Magic Missiles from scrolls to remove Nimbul's images. However, Nimbul managed to let loose a full powered Magic Missile on Khalid, who kicked the bucket for the second time. Xan finished Nimbul with the powerful wand of frost found near Nashkel mines (and it seems in BG1 wand of frost does not destroy the loot, which kind of makes sense, why fireballing does not destroy equipment while freezing does?)

 

[gunman]

After resting in Nashkel, the adventurers decided to explore the Cloudpeak Mountains west of Nashkel and hunt winter wolves for their pelts. The voyage was lucrative, returning to Nashkel with no less than 5 pelts which were sold to Nashkel store for 2500 gold. Among the notable equipment found were the Bracers of Archery and the Girdle of Bluntness, looted off the corpses of bandits roaming the area. The bracers were equipped by Hartke whose THAC0 with a light crossbow went down to 14 at level 4, and the girdle was equipped by Khalid, whose AC modifier vs piercing was already extremely good against piercing attacks, and replacing the Girdle of Piercing with Girdle of Bluntness offered more protection against some hard hitting monsters such as Ogre beserkers.

After resting, they headed to Beregost on the tracks of the Tranzig, part of the plot involving the Nashkel mines, but they choose to travel parallel with the Trade Way, through the hills south west of Beregost, in order to get rid of the half ogres who fortified there, as requested by paladin Bjornin. North of there they came across the madman Bassilus, who was surrounded by undead minions. Necklace of Missiles was useful in clearing quickly all those undead crossbowmen, while Bassilus was incapacitated by blinding, and then was charmed by Xan in order to extract more information from him, but all he was mumbling was about the importance of family.



Also came across an unfortunate apprentice of the mage Thalantyr, Melicamp, who has been polymorphed into a chicken. They offered to escort him to High Hedge in order to have Thalantyr revert the transformation, but in the process Melicamp was disintegrated.

Back in Beregost they found Tranzig in Feldepost Inn and he was quickly dispatched, getting evidence of a bandit lair in the Wood of Sharp Teeth. Now they had enough money to buy the Light Crossbow of Speed for Hartke. With 19 popularity and Xan casting friends, in order to raise charisma to 22, the price of the crossbow went down to only 6000 GP. Also some enchanted bolts were bought for dealing with the more dangerous enemies. With a THAC0 of 13 with regular bolts at level 4 and 2.5 APR, the ranged paladin Hartke is the most lethal party member. Against boss fights, gulping a potion of agility to boost DEX to 18 will reduce THAC0 with another -2.

 

[gunman]

Next stop, the Sword Coast. Jaheira was kissed by Shoal the nereid, controlled by an ogre mage, and was instantly slain, but was raised on agreeing to release the nereid from her captor. Sometimes I was killing her to fast, before she had the chance to trigger the second dialogue, and the ogre mage did not appear. Now I looted from his corpse a very nice helmet: Helmet of Defense "Gift of Peace":

Against sirines, the crossbow of speed proved very effective on disrupting their charm spells. Travelling south, they needed to rest but they were awakened by sirines, and also aggroed some worgs and hobgoblins elite which created a hairy situations were several party members came close to death.



On the same map they recruited Safana while dismissing Xan, and Imoen dualed to mage (being a level 5 thief). Raided the pirates cave, then traveled further south along the coast, coming across an excavation site that was best left undisturbed ...

... and captain of Nashkel's guards, Brage, who was under the influence of a cursed sword. He was taken to the temple of Helm to be taken care of.

Deaths so far:

Khalid - 2 (xvarts, Nimbul)
Jaheira - 1 (Shoal the Nereid)

 

[Mustawd]

Popamole BS.

 

[laclongquan]

Pity post because one month and still not beyond page 1.

 

[gunman]

Haven't been able to play more than a couple of hours per week lately because RL and also I'm playing some other games in parallel. I'll pick it up soon, no need to hurry.

 

[gunman]

Popamole BS.

Glad you like it. More is coming soon.

 

[Gauldur's Bait]

Moar.

 

[gunman]

Back in Nashkel, Hartke used the Manual of Bodily Health found in the pirate's cave to raise his constitution from 13 to 14. Although no extra HP were gained, every point of STR/DEX/CON will matter once he will gain the ability Draw Upon Holy Might. After resting, their went exploring the gibberling infested mountains east of Nashkel, where they came across a heavy wounded man Samuel who needed to be carried to the temple near the Friendly Arm Inn. Jaheira consumed a potion of strength in order to be able to carry his body (although no one knows how she managed to carry it so many hours over the world map long after the potion's effect ended).

At Friendly Arm Inn, Hartke's party decided to investigate the area north of the inn, where they approached the paladin Ajantis. Khalid and Jaheira were finally booted, as Ajantis took place in the what seems to be the final party. Initially I planned to replace Safana with Skie, but then I realized that for this it is needed to recruit Eldoth, an evil aligned character. Some ankheg hunting and off to the bandit camp they go.

The leaders of the bandit factions scattered around the camp, Ardenor Crush, Garclax and Taugosz Khosann, were quickly dispatched, and for the band in the leader's tent, pre buffing with chant, bless, protection from evil and remove fear made the fight a breeze.



An excellent +3 longbow of marksmanship was looted off the corpse of a bandit. Although no one from the party was currently using a bow, this longbow was going to be kept in inventory for future use by Ajantis, once he will find a good two handed sword.

After talking to Ender Sai and reading the letters found in a chest, the trail led to the Cloakwood Forest. However they decided to explore the rest of the wood of sharp teeth, Larswood and Pelvdale, where the infamous Black Talon Elites roamed. Although Ajantis' -6 base AC plus modifiers vs missile were enough to avoid being hit except on critical, the big number of black talons meant that two criticals in a row were quite likely and enough to kill him, so Branwen's memorized 3x Hold Person came very useful there. The party came across a drow woman named Viconia that begged for help, but it was revealed she was running from the long arm of the Flaming Fist, so as paladins they decided it is rightful for them to have her. The evil bitch became hostile and managed to cast hold person on Ajantis, but she was dispatched before being able to do any harm.



Next they headed to the High Hedge, to buy more level 3 spells for Imoen who was quickly gaining levels in her new class (currently level 4). They sold the entire loot of enchanted arrows from the black talons for good money, and bought the Robe of Good Archimagi for Imoen. Also all the bandit scalps were turned into cache at officer Vai in Jovial Juggler inn. Before heading to Cloakwood Forest, they decided to explore Ulcaster ruins and Firewine Bridge first for more treasure, since buying the shadow armor for Safana is tempting.

 

[gunman]

Got killed after fighting the ogre mage under Gullykin village. Killed him, but before he died he managed to cast a confusion, which hit 3 of the 5 characters, inlcuding PC. Imoen tried to use the wand of paralyzation to stop them from wandering, it worked on Ajantis, but the PC kept saving, so he agroed the wizard down the corridor which let loose a lightning bolt. I had no dispel magic spell ready (Branwen was confused too), so I had only Imoen with level 1 and 2 spells and Safana. I could have tried to cast invisibility, which I had memorized, on PC, but would have worked only if he moved, the moment he attacked someone random the spell would break. Also I had a wand of fire which I could have used to nuke the area the wizard was located, but then again, if he would not have died quickly the end would have been the same.

Next try would be with an average Joe mage

Meanwhile I'll play some Icewind Dale 2 to detach from this unpleasantry.

 

[Gauldur's Bait]

Beer will fix it.

 

[gunman]

I'm using some Targos wine instead

 

[Gauldur's Bait]

I'm using some Targos wine instead

 

[GarfunkeL]

You made it surprisingly far in an ironman BG1. My ironman BG1 game ended before reaching Friendly Arm Inn :D