Why this? I should probably test some stuff I
made out, given it's available as a public download for SR-SCS users. Given my install; I don't feel as if No-Reload is very viable - hence I made this thread for my run. It will be played as a no-reload for all accounts bar my PC's death, should it come to that.
Install consists of Item/Spell/Kit Revisions, Refinements, Ascension, SCS (all hardest options bar "hardest spawns" and "more annoying trolls"), some tweaks of my own, nerfed XP table, and some Rogue Rebalancing items (mostly for Critical hit protection in BG1 - I won't be using RR bows, darts or similar - just some hood RR puts in Ulgoth's Beard and a +1 club from Beregost).
Anyhow, this is the protagonist - a human swashbuckler with godly stats.
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As you can see from his WIS score, the intention is to dual him to a cleric. It will be a late dual however, since I use my own swashbuckler kit revision
- is considered ambidexterous (+2 off-hand THAC0)
- starts with +2 bonus to Armor class, which increases by one every 4 levels, up to +6 at level 17
- gains +1 bonus to his Breath saves at levels 2, 10 and 19
- from level 4, Swashbucklers gain "Swift parry" ability. Each of their melee hits has a 20% chance to grant the swashbuckler an immediate extra attack and a +2 AC bonus vs melee. This ability improves at levels 12 and 19, granting the swashbuckler +1 luck and +2 to his melee damage for the next round.
- at level 14, gains a permanent +1 Luck bonus.
- at level 15, can use "Evasion" HLA 1x/day
Disadvantages:
- cannot backstab nor benefit from backstab multiplier increasing items.
- cannot set traps.
From this - the best level to dual is actually 14 or 15. The caveat is that he shares the same XP table as everyone else (1,7 x thieves' base progression), so level 14 comes at 1,500,000 XP (contrary to 880 000 in vanilla). That's a long way for that fantastic +1 Luck bonus - but it's worth it.
Since most of the bonuses this kit gets are activated in melee combat, he will be played strictly as a melee character, and will be using clubs. Clubs are low-damage (1d4 base) weapons with Item Revisions, but they have a decent speed factor, won't break in BG1 and have few versions with fantastic on hit effects. Also I need a break from my regular flails pick.
Progress so far- I soloed quite a bit to get some XP under the belt before I assemble my party. Ofc, one must choose battles carefuly - gnolls in particular are awful since they crit for massive damage. Spiders aren't fun either with bad death saves on this character.
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I bought Mirrored Eyes potions from Thalantyr and went basilisk hunting - avoided Mutamin for now since he's a death sentence for a solo character.
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I tried to cheese Mutamin a bit with Korax, but it didn't work. Korax is immune to petrification, but SR changes petrification into a permanent hold-like effect. The poor ghoul isn't immune to that (maybe I should change it..) and dies, while I run to Duralg's.
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Using the poor stealth skills (I invested into Open Locks, few points in Find Traps, few in pickpocket) I manage to sneak past the Battle Horrors and kill the basilisks on top, gaining level 7. With that done, it was time to gather my troops. First, Edwin. I love Edwin, he's incredibly powerful with his imba amulet. My main gripe with him is that his BG2 quest is quite hard with SCS if you want to get him quickly. Be that as it may - he levels up on joining so starts with level 3 spells - and knows Haste. SR reworks haste into a single-target spell, but this causes some little AI problems. I tweaked it myself - now it adds +6 to movement speed and + 1/2 apr, lasts two turns, has AoE and is followed by fatigue (-2 THAC0, movement, AC when expires). Imp.Haste is better on all accounts: AoE, +2 AC, +2 breath save, +1 apr, immunity to slow and no fatigue afterwards. It's still much nerfed compared to vanilla Imp.haste (Kit revisions' Whirwind HLA actually works as vanilla Imp.Haste, albeit for only two rounds). None of SR Haste spells doubles the rate of regeneration (or poison).
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Now I had enough money to buy the hood with critical hit protection, coupled with Pro Acid scroll I clear the Ankheg farm (mostly for Fire wand) and go to kill Dynaheir; removing all obstacles on the way.
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Bad things happened on the way to gnoll fortress - this one being the worst. A lone Ogre-mage charmed my protagonist instantly. This would have been a reload should Edwin fail his save....
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Alas, he didn't, and Ogre had no more spells bar two Chromatic orbs. Edwin killed him with Acid Arrows (on a sidenote, I use my own specialist mage revisions, which leads to Edwin loosing both Divination AND Evocation - means no Fireball, Magic Missile and similar. He doesn't really get any bonuses instead, in PnP conjurer gets some but they're utterly nonsensical so.....bleh. I wanted to buff his summon capabilities but it's not as straightforward since I want AI to have the same benefits as my own. Evocation loss isn't so bad with SR anyway.).
After killing Dynaheir, I return to Durlags. This time I don't need stealth, since Edwin is more than capable of killing the Horrors.
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I clear out the guardian's floor up to those two slimes; they're a bit too tricky to tackle for now. Dopes are as well, but fireballs cut through mirror images....
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Next, Beregost (spiders), FAI (get Jaheira & Khalid. Yes, Khalid. He's a fighter-mage on my install), talk with Dorn.
Up to Ulgoths, pickpocket Dushai. Twice.
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Get some quick levels for them...
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Note the Ogre Bersekers here. I tweaked the berserker class from Kit Revisions a bit. (this applies to both PC and enemy berserkers).
Once a berserker takes damage, he has a chance (rather high, 50%) to go into Frenzy for 12 seconds. What this does is give him a massive melee damage bonus (+8), a small measure of physical resistance (10%), he takes less spell damage (1 point per die), looses 4 AC points, has +4 to save vs spells and -10 penatly to any breath save he needs to make.
At later levels, he also regenerates rather quickly in this state. This makes Ogre Berserker something you want to stay as far away as possible. Exploiting their poor Breath saves, we kill them at range. This all makes sense only with Spell Revisions (breath save penalty is *bad*).
With that said and done, it was time to visit Nashkel and adopt Dorn. I don't value his kit much, so I use
my own version of itthis time.
He keeps his Fear immunity & poison weapon while loosing NPP, he looses the Aura (which is a *spell* in vanilla EE anyway, not an aura) and gets a proper aura (reworked) later on; + he gains some innate spells to boot. It's the first kit I ever made so I'm fond of it.
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I've also swapped his stats - DEX is reduced to 14, while CON is increased to 16. Due to him being a paladin kit, he retains his spellcasting (I didn't plan on this when making the kit, it's a fighter kit on old engine) but that's fine. He ends up quite being quite powerful I guess...
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With him on board, I kill Bassiluss and Greywolf, and get back to finish what I've started with Mutamin. This went horrible, tbh. I had one single Mirrored Eyes potions here. It lasts 5 turns with revisions, but I made all potion buffs dispellable. Poor Khalid gets all his buffs removed asap.
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This is bad. Khalid runs back to the party; and all of Muta's basilisks follow him. Crap.
Edwin summons some archers; while Dorn gets petrified asap.
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I get rid of one basilisk, while Edwin summons more fodder.
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Things get progressively worse as Jaheira gets charmed and poor Khalid succumbs to Sleep and gets petrfied.
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Following that, Edwin manages to nail the basilisk with Acid Arrows, while protagonist kills the now out-of-spells Mutamin.
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I have a habit on buying Stone to Flesh scrolls with SR - and now I put them to use. Note that characters which are petrfied aren't really "dead" - even PC can be petrified and reverted back provided you have the means to do so.
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This has a side effect of not breaking loot or bugging out romances.
With that done, I clear the spider wood north, and return to main plot by killing Mulahey, amazons and Tranzig.
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