@Aasim, thanks for your view. Less interested then in that mod I think.
***
I will definitely continue Victor's more roleplayed party playthrough, get Thani as far through ToB as I can, and give Stormlord Urval a second chance. I was going to go with Urval first but need to sort out a few issues / possible bugs with the kit in my install. So here's a completely new character: LN Dwarf Bounty Hunter Elaim.
I aimed (as usual for an 88+ roll), and was rewarded handsomely for my patience. Starting proficiencies were clubs and shortbows. First 40 skill points went to Move Silently, a skill that would be further developed up to 120 (at which point Elaim would start investing in his trap setting and detection skills).
Elaim carefully adventured his way to level 5 by undertaking low risk missions such as:
- the Candlekeep and Beregost quests (including Mini Quest & Encounters mod quests, but excluding killing Karlat and Silke),
- dealing with the Hobgoblins south of Candlekeep for the Boots of Stealth,
- the FAI quests (though she kept the Girdle of Piercing),
- saving Melicamp (as per custom Thalantyr failed to retransform Melicamp),
- babysitting and even chatting with Noober in Nashkel,
- killing Half-Ogres for Bjornin,
- rescuing Samuel the Deserter,
- helping Charleston Nib and saving Captain Brage on the South Coast.
There was one slightly precarious moment for Elaim in the carrying out of these quests: at level 3-4 he forgot to HiS in order to sneak past Tarnesh when leaving the FAI (as he had done upon arrival). Tarnesh could have cast Sleep on Elaim, but deft footwork allowed Elaim to timely step back into the inn, HiS, and leave unmolested. (He'd slay the Mage later.)
I think that for Thieves there are more interesting items to buy than for most other classes, except perhaps Mages, but Hard Times shop prices are awfully high. This is why Elaim made sure that both his Reputation and his Charisma scores reached 20 before he started to spend gold on nifty items. For the 20 Charisma score Lord Foreshadow’s Ring of Human Influence and Algernon’s Cloak were welcomed. As to the latter item, Elaim had only one potion of master thievery to bring his Pickpockets score up to 60. Needing three attempts, he barely managed to snatch Algernon’s cloak before its owner went hostile.
Having been exceedingly parsimonious until shop prices would be at their lowest, Elaim could afford to buy the Shadow Armor (17.8k GP, at Feldepost’s), the Deep Red Ioun Stone that grants +1 Dex (6.6k GP, at the High Hedge), and – after killing Aldeth Sashenstar and selling his diamond and bastard sword – a green scroll of Protection from Petrification at the Nashkel Carnival and a Composite Short Bow +2 (5.1k GP) in Ulgoth’s Beard. The ioun stone and the bow are Rogue Rebalancing items. Most of the Dwarf’s gold proceeded from selling Imoen’s Wand of Magic Missiles and the Travenhursts’ Wand of Lightning (which for some reason, and thank the Gods for it, sold for 10k and 12k GP respectively).
Elaim then felt ready for a potentially rougher encounter: Mutamin and his pets. After he had slain the majority of the Basilisks (all but one Lesser and one Greater in Mutamin’s direct vicinity), he recruited Korax to see if the Ghoul could hold the Gnome. Korax failed, causing Mutamin to go hostile. There was no risk for Elaim because he was HiS. He had Korax bait the Lesser Basilisk away, so that he and the Ghoul could kill it.
Korax then held the Greater Basilisk, but got Magic Missiled to death by Mutamin who then ran off as he couldn’t see stealthy Elaim. The Dwarf proceeded to pelt the Greater Basilisk with arrows. He kept a potion of invisibility at hand should Mutamin decide to return and remove Elaim’s PfPetrification before the Greater Basilisk was dead, but the Gnome didn’t show up. Thus Elaim could kill the last of the Basilisks in relative peace. It helped him reach level 7 and raise his set traps skill to 65.
Hidden in shadows, Elaim searched for Mutamin, and when he found his foe, placed three out of a possible four traps just out of the wizard’s sight (only one set trap attempt failed). He then appeared behind his foe and softened him up with a backstab for 20 dmg. Elaim drank a potion of invisibility just before Mutamin Horrored him, perhaps this wasn’t necessary, but at least it kept him safe.
When the panic effect had worn off, Elaim lured Mutamin toward the traps; they killed the Gnome.
Down south, he dispatched rivaling Bounty Hunter Greywolf, a much more ruthless practicioner of the bounty hunting profession than Elaim, with traps and arrows. Her intervention yielded him Greywolf’s Halberd +1 and Prism’s emeralds.
A similar approach didn’t exactly work as planned against Zal (eastern Cloudpeaks). First, Vax was lured away – he wasn’t very interesting for Elaim – so that three traps could finish off Zal. Not all the traps triggered however, and even a backstab didn't finish him off, so Elaim was lucky that his opponent missed with his first dart of stunning before the Dwarf slew him with an arrow. He picked up the Bracers of Archery that, together with the +1 DEX ioun stone and his enchanted short bow, gave him a respectable ranged Thac0 of 11.
In the same area Elaim shunned Sendai but he did fetch Rufie for Albert. All western Cloudpeaks encounters were done, and even further west, near the Gnoll Stronghold, the Dwarf slew Hairtooth and Gnarl with traps and arrows to pick up the CHA tome (completely unnecessary but I’m still too much of a sucker for stat increasing tomes to forgo it).
Elaim traveled back to Beregost to slay Karlat, to sell loot and to purchase the Weary Cudgel club (+1 Club with 25% chance upon hit that target must save vs death or become fatigued, another RR item). With that club he thought he’d dispatch a couple of Flesh Golems in a cave on the coast, but three Sirines thought otherwise. On his way to the cave Elaim had barely hidden in shadows and was expecting to easily bypass the first trio of Sirines, when an abrupt fail at HiS made him visible.
He immediately quaffed a potion of invisibility (his last), and decided to enter the cave anyway. Inside, invisible still, and checking for traps, he saw a Sirine show up behind him, as unexpected as it was undesired.
Elaim stoically disarmed the first trap but inadvertently triggered the second. He managed to empty the treasure stash, gulped down a potion of clarity, got blinded by (at this point) two Sirines with clouds of fog, and had to grope his way out. Immediate HiS allowed him to leave the area untroubled.
The loss of valuable XP and potions was of course partially offset by the good loot. But Elaim is not comfortable traveling without potions of invisibility, and reaching level 8 before entering the Nashkel Mines now becomes less probable. He still needs about 20k XP for that. Ankhegs could provide that XP, but I’m not sure whether I like fighting them with a Thief without Boots of Avoidance / Claw of Kazgaroth.
Retour en haut
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