Nereniel, Half-Elf solo Skald, 1st update:
Too lazy/impatient for group play with / journaling about William Tell, my legendary marksman, I decided to to try something new (for me): to solo a Bard. I know that Blades are actually quite popular solo characters, and I know that a successful no-reload trilogy run has been achieved with a Blade (Saros Shadow Follower, not sure whether solo or in a party). And Alesia_BH succeeded with a Jester. I'm going to see how I'll fare with my first solo Bard, a Skald, which is my prefered Bard kit.
I'm doing this in BGT with the Rogue Rebelancing mod with all the components affecting Bards installed: pnp dualwielding, Bard kit revisions, Bard HLA revisions, proper spell progression for Bards, and additional equipment for Thieves and Bards. (Besides RR I've got my usual difficulty improving mods installed such as Hard Times, aTweaks, SCS I/II v21, Ascension, but also a couple of tweaks that should make things slightly easier, such as multiple protection items, bigger item stacks, containers for sale, full hitpoints for all creatures including charname, importation into SoA of a number of items, including Cloak of Balduran.)
Like most people probably, I always like to use a character's class/kit-specific abilities as much as possible to create more or less unique playing experiences. In the case of the Skald, the special feature is of course the battlesong. In order to make something out if that song, my character will try to work with summons a lot. Unfortunately most of BG1 offers little in terms of summons, so the first part of the game doesn't really contain much action with song-buffing, though there is some.
Meet Nereniel:
I'm roleplaying his alignment in that he won't commit any overtly evil acts (his alignment inclines more toward good than evil). A very nice 96 roll allowed for pretty much optimal stats although I might have put more points into CON for experimentation with Familiars.
Nereniel started out proficient in what I perceive as nordic weapons to fit his profile as a Skald: Hammers (for Ashideena) and Axes (for their throwing variant). However, relying almost solely on ranged attacking, his Throwing Axes soon proved too slow (1 APR) and expensive for Nereniel. Their nice STR bonus didn't weigh up against those disadvantages. The problem was remedied by investing the level 4 proficiency pip in Darts.
His first quests were the relatively safe quests between the FAI and Nashkel. On his first visit of the FAI area Nereniel didn't approach Tarnesh at the entrance (he wouldn't deal with that one before reaching lvl 6), but he did bring Samuel to Gellana and he brought Joia her ring. In Beregost Silke and Karlat were shunned but all other quests - including those added by the Mini-Quests and Encounters mod - were done. The same goes for Nashkel. Thalantyr failed with Melicamp, but nevertheless 10k XP and thus level 5 were relatively easy attained.
Amongst the 'safe' early-game quests I tend to consider Charleston Nib / Brage on the south coast, accessible via the High Hedge and Lighhouse areas. But Nereniel traveled from the north, I think the FAI, to the (previously unlocked) Lighthouse area and was uncomfortably placed in the northern part of the map, not even close to an area exit. He had to flee from two groups of Hobgoblins, including arrows of biting pelting Elite archers.
He failed his save at least twice and so saw his health decline at an alarming rate, with no antidotes at hand to stop the poison. He had to use up most of his stock of healing potions to keep himself alive.
There were various confrontations that Nereniel solved by playing his battlesong while the rabbit familiar would do the killing. It led to a number of bizarre scenes, such as these:
Thus the Rabbit familiar with its outstanding AC turned out to be a good pick for a familiar, though I realize the Pseudo-Dragon would have been even more effective (which is another reason why I kind of regret having gone TN rather than NG, besides having no access in SoA to the in my install upgradeable Azuredge until UAI).
At 20 rep and 20 CHA thanks to Lord Forshadow's Ring and Algrnon's Cloak, Nereniel bought the Deep Red Ioun Stone for +1 DEX at teh High Hedge as well as the Robe of the Neutral Archmagi he was surprised to able to use. (No idea which mod makes those robes available to Bards.)
A critical hit by a Gnoll Slasher that badly injured Nereniel's bunny taught the Bard to be more careful with his familiar, but that didn't mean the rabbit was going to stay in Nereniel's pack for the remainder of the game. One of the animal's roles was to serve as bait for non-ranged enemies like Greywolf and for the Basilisks (thanks to its petrification immunity). Speaking of those monsters, Nereniel had some difficulty there with Mutamin, as seems to happen to me all too often. Korax failed to hold the Gnome and was subsequently killed off. It left Nereniel with three options:
- leaving the area without killing Mutamin, one Lesser and one 7k XP yielding Greater Basilisk;
- trying to stun the wizard with darts he had picked up in the Ankheg cave using Invisibility (a spell learnt from a scroll bought at Thalantyr's);
- trying to charm Mutamin using Lord Foreshadow's Ring of Human Influence.
I believe the charm ability of the ring isn't as powerful as that of Algernon's Cloak, but it hit the Gnome anyway. (Had the attempt failed, then Nereniel would have immediately tried to get away and go invisible.) Mutamin was petrified and subsequently shattered by the Basilisks (all loot except some gold destroyed).
With Mutamin out of the way, the two Basilisks were easy pickings. Nereniel left the area as a lvl 7 Skald. At the Ulgoth's Beard inn he bought the Returning Frost Dart +1 (which, not surprisingly, deals +1 frost damage in addition to giving a 5% chance of slowing the target.)
His second visit to the Lighthouse area was much more pleasant than his first. Invisibility and successful trap detection/removal by the rabbit (the familiar's second role) allowed Nereniel to plunder the pirate cave.
In the Cloudpeaks Nereniel had no dealings with Sendai & Co, but he did do all other quests. His confrontation with Vax and Zal resulted in a near death experience when Nereniel managed to kill Zal just before the bandit's dart would stun him.
In the Nashkel Mines the number of Kobolds on the 3rd level was problematic. First of all they blocked the path toward the level exit. This problem was solved by Skulltrapping the blocked pathway.
But that caused a second problem: after Nereniel became visible and went invisible again, the Kobolds kept following him and trying to surround him.
Nevertheless a quiet spot was found where Nereniel and his familiar could rest (this was useful especially for spell memorization purposes).
Mulahey was stunned, and most of his lackeys Skulltrapped. The Skellies/Kobolds that survived the explosion were dealt with in melee combat, with difficulty.
Outside the Mines Narcillicus was force-attacked and slain after he had summoned his Green Slimes, and the Dagger +2 was received from Hentold. Back in Nashkel the guards killed Nimbul for Nereniel, but he dealt with Neira himself. He survived another close call there when he barely maaged to go invsible before her Hold Person would freeze him.
When the hold effect wore off, he looked around, saw no one nearby, and killed off Neira with a Skull Trap.
In Beregost Tranzig wasted most of his spells on Nereniel as the Skald fled between floors, but he did Blind him. The battlesong was then sung, and Rabbit released to finish off the mage.
Both Lamalha and Molkar and their respective gangs attacked Nereniel in Beregost (at different moments). Like the Kobolds they would follow invisible Nereniel even inside and outside buildings. Nereniel lured most of his foes one by one into the Jovial Juggler where Officer Vai and her Flaming Fist colleagues would help him out.Halacan was unwilling to cooperate however; he slew Officer Vai and her colleague, leaving it up to Nereniel to finish the Gnome himself.An Algernon's Cloak charm (one of only three) worked on Molkar. He was set on Morvin, and encouraged by Nereniel's song, managed to kill the Dwarf.Molkar was then ordered to stand in a quiet corner of the inn, where he would receive a Skull Trap from Nereniel. He fell not much later to the Skald's darts.
Two darts of stunning helped Nereniel deal with Bassilus and obtain the Ashideena.
The bounty was mostly spent on potions and a few scrolls, with which Nereniel traveled to the Bandit Camp he infiltrated via Raiken. He didn't fight Tazok (because of an insta-kill risk), and went the bandit leader's tent invisible and buffed with Shield and a potion of Absorption. He released Ender Sai and emptied the chest, and could have simply gone invisible again and leave, which would have been sufficient to continue the plot. Instead, he cast Web from one of his two scrolls, threw a potion of explosions on the held group, and cast a Skull Trap to kill most of his enemies.The survivors were dispatched with ranged attacks.
Nereniel is now getting ready to explore the Cloakwood forest in search of a hidden Iron Throne base, the organization behind the bandits according to Ender Sai.
Retour en haut
Will post an upate soon.
There is a Dwarven Fighter/Thief in Amn (haven't posted about him), but that's in a BGT install I'm having problems with after removing one mod and adding another, so I'm not likely to continue that run.
