BG3 Honour Mode: strategy & tactics (many spoilers)

[Black Elk]

The plan worked!

This will be my new routing from now on probably, since I can hit the 3rd long rest timing and get the Durge scene without the Vampire scene interrupting it. I was going to recruit Astarion after Durge, then do the night bite. But I think if I delay recruitment until we have the Underdark unlocked or have progressed far enough, he will eventually just reveal himself as a Vampire in casual conversation rather than needing the bite. He's pretty useful for traps though, so I figure I'll just get him for the Charlatan mirror in the Blighted Village.

We answered the Wither's question with deeds, and got a scroll of see invisibility hehe. Arron had a potion of vigilance for us, which is pretty nice. We saved Arabella from the Shadowdruids. Not sure yet how I want to manage Kagha, she's sorta in our lane for the whole shadow thing. We'll have to see once I get to the Swamp if I can remember to do all the things that need doing for that. In any case we stole a tadpole from Nettie and bought the Healing Ring from Volo, knocked out Alfira with a Blessed Hold person. I failed the first one -20 attitude, but landed the second in TB mode so good to go. I get 3 shots since 3 characters with that spell here. Bounced to the Emerald Grove Environs and then did Scratch and Lump. We got the Horn and Dog in the crew, so basically set. I'm trying to avoid the Swamp cause I think Gale will need to quaff a STR potion to hang through the Goblin Camp for Minthara knockout, which is the next big play.

I just gotta remind myself to explode Priestess Gut this time, so I don't get screwed by a war drum from outside the room hehe.

Otherwise though so far so good/villainous lol

 

[Black Elk]

In my headcanon this is the RP point at which Shadowheart becomes a Death Cleric...

Basically right after the first Durge scene, when we rescue Barcus from the Windmill and get Lae'zel her fancy silver boots. I feel like it works pretty well, basically she's being torn between Shar and whatever just cracked off with Withers back in the Dank Crypt. In Act II I figure all the Myrkul stuff can be sorta handwaved as having to do with Shadowheart being respec'd in this way, to match our more Shadow Sorcery theme. She'll get Scatch we I imagine as being sent by Selune and Silvanus to help bring her back towards the light. Like independent of whatever nonsense God Gale and I get up to. Lae'zel I figure has her priorities pretty well covered, so Shadowheart would be the weak link probably on team Villany. I always have her go Plat in order to make sure Jaheira comes along in Act III, but this time I will frame that more like Uncle Leland going White in the hair or something of that sort, so we can keep riding the Death Cleric wave and toll the dead and such.

I noticed that her default Stat Block as a death cleric changes all the Attributes, and so she gets a +2 to charisma compared to Trickery Shadowheart, which also seems on brand for this one haha. I think I will probably just keep those defaults and try to work around it as part of the challenge.

 

[Black Elk]

Just did the Owlbear again, I was a little nervous that Gale's Bladesinging BS might trip me up but we ended up just bursting it down with flame rays and quickened magic missiles. This was a good thing as Lae'zel missed both menaces and I'd forgot to prep command with Shadowheart. I was prepared to burn a speed potion with the last bonus action, but then didn't need it cause she got off the guiding bolt.

So far I've used the Eyes of the Shadow spell to steal Shadowheart some better armor from Damon's chest, and to escape the Flind. I nearly got us killed by forgetting to rest and recharge the Illithid Wisdom for that one. Had to deposit a couple hundred GP into the Wither's savings account after that fight. Then we accidentally got Mirkon killed with a misplaced Silence bubble. The Harpies went right for him, hadn't seen that happen in a while. I'm sure it was all Gale's fault lol

Earlier we had managed to dynamite Priestess Gut according to the plan, but then Roah spotted us looting her corpse through the walls! I mean See Invisibility is one thing, but she must have X ray vision or Daredevil hearing or something. In any case it meant I couldn't quickly escape to the Underdark via the secret passage so that was another instance of Darkness working out alright, since I was able to fast travel from the cloud.

We took a detour to the Zhents to try and buy some better dyes, spoke with the dead for a super savers coupon on that. I gave Shadowheart the gloves of Thievery since I think she's going to have to be the lockbuster on this one. I left Karlach and Wyll at camp to hold down the fort and keep on eye out for Vampires, while we go try to Spring Volo from jail and catch the Cub at the Goblin camp.

 

[Black Elk]

I wish the regular non enchanted equipment had more visual variety and some reason for existing beyond lvl 4. In BG1/2 we couldn't combine Enchanted armor with other specialty items that gave a big boost up to Armor Class, so there was a reason to hang onto some stuff. You know to keep the Chainmail or the Full Plate whatever, since those could then be paired with magical rings or amulets and whatnot. In BG3 they did away with all that so there's every incentive to just wear whatever is going to provide the best AC overall, only downside being the look of things. Enchanted Longbows that look like spikey death.

My dream BG4 trailer would probably just have Lae'zel saying "Ch'k" and then sheathing a silver sword into a scabbard at her belt. Cut to black, nothing else.

Second teaser trailer could introduce the 10' pole and new bonus actions like 'touch' and vault tremor lol. First full gameplay trailer just shows a party of 6, with 6 dog companions hehe. Maybe the Mantle becomes self aware in the next one, like the Spawn of Doctor Strange and that magic carpet from Aladdin. All the dogs just attacking it and playing tug of war.

In a World... without capes...

heheh

Of course we let the Owlbear Cub live, I could never go that dark. Though I feel certain I've eaten Scrambled Owlbear eggs for breakfast like a hundred times by accident lol

 

[Black Elk]

I goofed the bladesong and got Minthara killed immediately after Lae'zel had knocked her out! Alas

All that setup and then Gale's flashy force damage attack screwed us!

Go figure lol.

Basically I'd been using Gale as the primary healer since his bladesong climax gives that AoE heal, ends up being more useful than Shadowheart's healing word most the time, except in that instance I guess. I find myself not caring quite as much, since it was out of our hands. Probably because I'm playing as a Half Drow, and she was half in our lane anyway.

I gave Minthara's boots to Shadowheart, kept the spikersilk armor and pajamas for myself. Guess that solves the problem of what to wear lol

I think we're too far along to bow out at this point, we'll just have to press on as the lone Drow in the crew. This probably changes up the endgame plan. I'm glad I kept Karlach alive now. We gave her the bullwark gloves for AC, since I think I might need a shield for this next part. It's kinda weird with the Shadowblade, if I have the dagger equipped it will default to 2 handed with the Shadowblade and drop the shield. I messed that up a couple times. Sometimes the animation shows just the shadow blade other times it gets a short sword model with that vfx, sorta inconsistent though. I think it happens if I fast travel between waypoints after casting it. The Shadow spells seems sorta hit or miss to me. Like it works well for my main, but then sorta messes up the rest of the party for targeting, or sometimes the enemy AI will do strange things to run around the AoE type spells, so it's a bit unpredictable. Wizard Bladesong was more fun that I thought though. Basically Gale can fly around doing all sorta of ridiculous maneuvers. I'll probably give him crushers ring. With Minthara already dead there's no real method to taking down the Goblin camp in sequence. I will probably camp and hit the Zhents for more dyes, see if we can find some black and azure maybe since that usually looks decent. I can never remember, one of them will dye the mantle mostly black, which I think makes sense given the Shadowy theme.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

I just lost a run because I discovered that I won’t be able to get the gloves of thievery unless I murder one of the Zhents from the pirate/gnoll cave (I’m a paladin, so that crosses a line). Ugh.

Sometimes a bad choice or shitty roll can land you in untenable circumstances in this game, sigh. I appreciate the variety of outcomes, but some of them are just shitty. I mean, Lae’zel getting murdered by SH or slitting your throat in camp because you fail a roll… That’s not fun for me, it’s just a buzzkill. Those are the kind of instances where I’ll reload.

 

[Black Elk]

Yeah that sounds pretty frustrating. I'm not sure what the best route there would be for a standard Lawful Good sorta Paladin. There are a couple ways to swing the Gnoll encounter, none of which seem particularly Good. The simplest is to use Illithid Wisdom, and draw the Flind's attention to the cave. It kills Rugan and Ollie, then another roll to kill the remaining Gnolls, then a final roll to eat itself. Speak with the Dead on Rugan to interrogate him. These are all pretty high rolls though and seem like the obvious villainous line.

Other options might be to Flee the combat immediately after the battle is joined, then return for the aftermath. In that case the Gnolls will continue their attack and Rugan and Ollie will already be dead. I think this might be the most probable, since one could RP that whichever character enters initiative just didn't realize what was going on. Perhaps a scout character would return to camp to give the Paladin a heads up, gather the rest of the party or better weapons or whatever. Not particularly heroic, although I suppose it depends who's in the party, maybe a character with fewer scruples could do the Zhent stuff apart from the group and see whether that triggers anything with the Oath? Depends whether speak with the dead is outbounds I guess. Could be Shadowheart breaks off on her own or something to reconnoiter, then gets into trouble, while the Paladin is otherwise occupied. I sometimes give her that Amulet if there is no better amulet for her to wear. I tend to play the protagonist as omniscient though, since the worm connects everyone's thoughts the way I see it, so that would probably have consequences back at camp, but mechanically it might work in the moment.

Seemingly the most straightforward would be to defeat the Gnolls and try to save the people in the cave, but I've seen this go a couple ways though. Either Rugan and Ollie will come out of the cave neutral yellow after the fight and initiate a convo, or they agro hostile. I think if there are AoE type spells or maybe a flaming surface or cloud of daggers etc. I remember sending them red just as soon as they started jogging over when fight with the Gnolls resolved. I think for the convo options, one is to sorta play dumb and not press them about the contents of the cargo etc. In that one Rugan will tell the player about the hideout, and the player can tell them that the Waukeens rest has been burned to the ground. You can also cut a deal with them, but I think that would be harder justify. There's no way to telegraph to the game the motivation for whatever dialogue choice. You know like maybe a disembling Harper would try to learn more information or uncover whatever Zhentish plot is going in the region before closing the dragnet there. Paladin wouldn't be like my top choice for undercover work though. Direct confrontation would lead to the enemies going Hostile and having to at least knock them out, but then to get Zarys to unlock the Merchant one would have to play dumb at that part. Seems sorta not the most desirable approach for a Good party, probably a bit of a bust

I agree there are way too many consequential rolls, where the player has incomplete information and often there isn't a lot of parity between the different option. Top option might net the player an entire Act III questline, second option the character is just like permanently dead, and the player has to prognosticate and decide whether to burn inspiration. I would just reload constantly until I got the results I wanted with like 100 save games cause that's how I would general play BG, just deep in muck. The Honour thing is sorta hit or miss for me, I would probably just continue on the Custom Difficulty and keeping the legendary bonuses and such, but for some reason I'm all hooked on it now.

In this one we got the Hag's hair, but couldn't save May. I'm not sure how we'd sleep at night honestly, but then I guess the Drow half wouldn't need to lol. I burned 3 inspiration for Owlbear Medicine, then packed it in for the night.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

If I were a biology student, I’d genetically engineer an owl bear for my dissertation.

 

[Black Elk]

Yeah the ascended Owlbear Cub is pretty wild. I really don't recall the Owlbear ever feeling quite so synonymous with D&D as it does in this game, to the point where if you asked people to randomly list creatures from Dungeons & Dragons I bet Owlbear is a top mention now. That's a hit for Larian I guess. The floofer plush, adorability and memorability lol.

This is one of those things though (similar to the Wither's zombies) which I find frustrating. I can see half a dozen different ways the Owlbear experience could have been improved here had the game been given an expansion.

More than one Owlbear Egg, in case the player Rapa Nuis it hehe

Owlbear Eggs that are randomized for different colored Owlbears or different Owlbear personality types

Multiple Owlbear cubs with different special abilities, basically like the Yoshis

An Owlbear Island? Again like Yoshi's lol

A barding school for Tactician/Honourable Owlbears, where we can weigh in on the design of the armor.

Owlbear helmets with different riffs on the plumage, some sort of Rooster Stylist

Owlbear with a backpack, so Owlbear can play the mule

Name the Owlbear

I mean I could just go on and on and on.

It's like the Wither's zombies for me. Potentially a winning concept, but could have been developed more. I think the cultist Hirelings should have been characters recruited from among the recently deceased. Instead of just randoms, it could have been Sazza or Kagha or Sister Lidwin or whoever. Alfira is top candidate for Durge being haunted. Having zombies with personalities that could fight again - one last time! I just really also like the idea of dressing up the skeletons and such. They had basically the perfect set up on that for a villainous Durge. But then if the player is say a Paladin or a Druid, I think they should have provided a different sort of recruitment angle from among the living for that.

In this run Twin Haste almost did me in. For some reason I thought I could get the drop on the Gith raiding party, instead Lae'zel failed her deception check vs Voss and he commanded Sarth Baretha to slay us. I got pinged by the first crossbow bolt dropped Haste. Tried it again, again Haste got dropped lethargic. We'd already used the Ogre horn so it was do or die. Die we did, but then came back because of Shadow Sorcery death's door bonus. Gale came correct with the Bladesong to keep us on our feet while Scratch ran interference. Sarth Baretha would be a top choice for Zombie recruitment, but I think Shadowheart reduced her to a pile of smuldering necrotic ash lol. Good thing though, cause I thought it was going to go TPK. Instead we regrouped and got the Gith Greatsword just in time to party.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

In this run Twin Haste almost did me in. For some reason I thought I could get the drop on the Gith raiding party, instead Lae'zel failed her deception check vs Voss and he commanded Sarth Baretha to slay us.

Yeah, that’s another one of those tough rolls. Game over if you’re under levelled.

 

[OrlonKronsteen]

So I hit the owl bear cave last night. For the first time ever, I was successful on my ‘animal behaviour’ roll, or whatever it’s called. I could see that the mother just wanted to protect its cub. As a paladin, I couldn’t justify attacking, so I left. No cub in this run, but it feels right. I like how that turned out, despite it not, well, turning out. I think honour run for me will be accepting most of what the game throws at me, with the exception of a few really unpalatable outcomes.

As for combat, I will re-roll once or twice, but a loss after that will prompt a resignation, as in chess. All of which is to say, I’m following my own compass.

 

[Antimatter]

I'll try handling my next playthrough with as few reloads as possible, but considering there are still bugs in the game, and I only played through it once, and never tried the extra difficulty, I won't be enabling the Honor mode.

Re-rolling once or twice for combat sounds reasonable. As for dialogues, I plan to install the mod removing the Inspiration Points cap, as it never made sense to me to cap those. I don't like metagaming in such games, so a decision to go with only 4 Points sounds like something encouraging metagaming, where you should know in advance where you are going to get a point and when you want to spend it.

I admire Black Elk's determination and read his posts with great interest, but I want to be able to actually finish this game without starting over for XXth time.

 

[Black Elk]

Yeah that seems like the best possible outcome for the big birds! The Righteous Path! hehe. The Owlbears would probably be way better off not encountering the party at all, least in my case hehe.

I have perpetual restartitus, so of course I rolled up a Bladesinging D'wizard of the Stars for another multiclass absurdity...

Swamp Din!

I was intrigued by the green Dye we found in that one chest, and the promise of a Multi Class combo with the 10/2 split - 10 lvls in Druids (Circle of the Stars) and 2 in Wizard (Bladesinger.)

This Din has a minor nerf imposed by taking Druid Class before Wizard even though it's worse mechanically, just to have the flashier icon display by the portrait I guess lol. I just did an even split 2/2 for the first 4 levels so it would feel like I earned it. Basically he is limited to light armor with no shield and always needing to hold a scimitar for the Bladesong. I think even having a torch in the off hand screws that ability, so a full commitment to the double scimitars and nothing much better than the leathers or padded armor.

Dragoborn is definitely the worst race, with zero proficiencies or bonuses, along with a mostly pointless breath weapon. The Dragon Star Form gives us a better Breath Weapon than our standard Xenomorphy acid though, and has a wider cone and deals radiant dmg with a bonus action that can be reused each turn, so that's pretty cool. Works with Bladesong for floating around and dazzling the enemy. Unlike the regular Wildshapes, the Star Forms don't give any bonus HP and player can still cast all their spells and such. I just shift I wake up in the morning after casting longstrider. Bladesong covers the Healing on teh go, and we got all the versatility coming over from the Wizard spell list allowing us to write stuff down (once the slots are unlocked.) The delay on first Feat is pretty rough though, also just being 2 levels off the power curve during in the early part of the game. Being a Wizard makes this somewhat easier to manage, albeit a little more expensive in gold. I still take Friends for one of the cantrips, since I'm less persuasive as a D'wizard Din compared to say a S'wizard Din. A lot of the Druid convos in the Grove are easier to smooth over, and Arron has the cut rate deals for "following the first circle", whatever that means lol. I used my same route as last time, delaying Astarion recruitment to get the Durge scene out of the way and save Alfira from certain doom. Arron witnessed our crimes, but then let us off with a warning and a reminder about our super saver's discount.

Went after the Gith Raiders right away after that, to try and get Lump killed, just so we could steal his Circlet for the Wizard Multi-Class thing. Got out clean there, but then I I botched the Silence Bubble in the Swamp, so no Hags hair this run.

I think to save May and get the Hair the important part is to make sure the space behind the fireplace is also covered by the Silence bubble. Otherwise Ethel will still call her to the heart of the lair once the sanctuary block runs out. I could tell things were off when she was just hanging out and waiting for the clock to run down since I think Mayrina leaves initiative once the Hag runs for the door. Here I was able to have Shadowheart Command her at the threshold, then mow her down. This frees almost everyone inside the lair, so basically a better outcome for the Swamp people I suppose. We took the hit for the team on that one, even though May was a total ingrate about it lol.

I think we probably have more going on than we know what to do with, but I liked the color spread. I think just a regular D'wizard of the Stars might be stronger than a Bladesinger D'wizard of the Stars, since then there are no Armor or weapons restrictions, but the Bladesong Climax thing is almost ridiculous enough to make up for it. I think I will be Dex Glove and Int Circlet dependent, also drinking more Strength potions than usual, but it's got the vibe hehe.

 

[Black Elk]

I still question whether or not Honour Mode was even a worthwhile idea at all, especially since it's so at odds with how I played BG1/2. Ends up being the most Meta thing I could possibly conceive of for a D&D campaign. All my Dins are like Shiro in that Monsters and Mana episode of Voltron Legendary Defender lol https://voltron.fandom.com/wiki/Monsters_&_Mana

I mean I've built a suspension bridge out of my disbelief, and yet the game still has all these little clips and quirks that'll collapse that back down in a heartbeat. With a dozen new Subclasses and all their various multiclass iterations, there will probably glitches baked into this thing forever now. They'll probably have to do a definitive edition anyway, even though they said they were moving on, cause I bet it takes like 5 years to actually debug a game on this scale hehe. I mean for a game that they didn't even finish working on in earnest until a couple weeks ago, I gotta imagine that's a long road. And then by that time, I think there will be so many mods on my install that the goalpost will have moved a mile away. I was just looking at this one... "Longbows without Spikes"

Longbows without spikes

Remove spikes from longbows

www.nexusmods.com

There's just a lot on Nexus to recommend it, but then it's hard to know what will endure or continue to be supported compared to whatever is available for the built-in Mod manager. It's tough for me to motivate. I agree about the inspiration no cap as a possible solution, since that would basically give the player a way to redo whatever roll, but still with a cost in Inspiration. Or maybe that could then be a method of scoring a run? Like based the total inspiration whatever that might be, probably in the hundreds of inspiration points depending on the party size. Tactician Enhanced was pretty fun, so I imagine I might check that out again at some point.

Meantime Swamp Din is still working on the mad science experiments to figure out how these Circle of the Stars Druids work. The main problem I'm anticipating is that I will have too much Star Druid redundancy when I invariably want to run Jaheira this way too. Swamp Din may need to be sacrificed on the altar there, because the party of 4 is sorta too narrow for reduplication. Basically I want the full party of 6 which would allow me to have Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Karlach, Minthara and Jaheira all on the same team. I'd cut everyone else loose probably and just roll with the gals, since they're all so powerful. But then when I need to shortlist, I feel like by Act III I always want Jaheira and Lae'zel in the crew. Shadowheart and Karlach to get benched, and if I don't have a Sorcerer for the Globe, then Gale suddenly becomes essential to my comp.

I don't think I've used Photo Mode even one time since the day patch 8 dropped lol

 

[Black Elk]

Now that I have Swamp Din and a backup Witch within striking distance, I'm just about at the point where Pink Din might have the confidence to fight Ketheric.

But before that I had yet another idea which I wanted to explore. I'm not super into the speed run concept, but I had a thought for a Ditch Dashagain style campaign, where I just ignore like all of Act I and see if we can manage the Shadowlands under levelled and without most of the cash/loot from the first part of the game.

I think the route on this is pretty straight forward. Conceit would be that rather than listening to Zevlor, instead Din decides to go the other direction. Seems sensible enough, I mean either running away from all those hotheads, or just doing the cautious thing to make sure no more goblins were brining up the rear. It'd be like a 50/50 if not going to the Grove, whether the party would notice Gimblebock and his crew by the Dank Crypt, or else head to the Bridge into the Blighted Village and Scratch. Prior to that I took the path of least resistance from the Nautiloid, so only like 30 xp from that initial Imp fight that's unavoidable, but still rescuing Shadowheart and such to command Zhalk to drop the flaming Sword. Rather than blowing like 30 minutes on that stuff, or several hours doing my normal route from the beach I just kinda charged. Instead of facing the intellect devourers, I had Shadowheart climb the rocks to free Gale from the Netherese portal, then warped to that waypoint to recruit him. We freed Lae'zel from the Cage for my core party of 4. Skipped Astarion entirely. I let curiosity be my guide, got into the fight at the Grove, but then went immediately to the Blighted Village rather than meeting up with the Tiefs or Druids. I figure at this point, we have basically no information, other than what Lae'zel said about the Creche, so sorta anything goes.

Red eye'd Dins trend toward chaos I find. We used Illithid Wisdom on the first Goblin we met. Recruited Scratch and Shovel into the fold, rescued Barcus from the Windmill, persuaded Lump to give us the horn etc. Decided it was a good time to rest and restore the spellslots that got burned back at the Gate fight. This first rest was the Alfira scene, where she mentions the Grove and how excited she is to introduce us to everyone. The morning Durge on that is pretty rough, but again I figure that the Grove is probably the last place we'd want to go after that sort of night. Like pretty much opposite direction, so that's what I did. Went to get the Dagger +1 on that hill, and then down the broken Bridge to recruit Karlach. From here without any combats really, we're already at lvl 3, so just enough to take on the fake Paladins. This was a tight fight, we came out ahead. Rested again to heal our wounds. This prompts the rest scene where Wyll invades the camp. Illithid Mind Meld shores up the situation. We hear a little bit more about the drama at the Grove, but nothing that would have us doubling back that direction immediately. Instead there is a burning Inn, and at that point I think Wyll learning about his dad being captured would supersede whatever else is going on in terms of his priorities.

From this point on the perch overlooking the Mountain Pass, it seems like as logical a place as any to follow the Drow raiding party. All told this takes me about half an hour from the beach, doing the low impact stuff but not really skipping things that wouldn't be sensible to skip given the situation or just the random chance that the party might have taken a left instead of a right somewhere along the road.

I discovered a place on the map I hadn't seen yet, in like 5 years of playing Act I with a blood stone under a rock for the payoff lol.

Basically that little creek you can follow from where Karlach is located back towards the bridge. Couple hidden mounds I'd never come across before, I got super excited for that! If we can hit lvl 4 to the Mountain pass, that should be pretty challenging. Like the little note says bitterly challenging for a party at my level, so that has me intrigued if I can pull it off without padding the xp and the Gold. I figure Wither's will show up eventually, though we haven't met him yet. If Wyll and Karlach bounce, because of whatever at the Grove, I figure that sorta works too. I mean we can just imagine they went off and did whatever heroic things, or not. Though I kinda figure that would be a weird break since the party has no clue yet about what's going on with Halsin and the Goblin camp. I mean Florrick said go, so we go! Right? Right

hehe clearly Lae'zel is itching to get down there to the Creche, so I think it all sorta makes sense. I'm not sure what we'll be leaving on the table, probably a couple grand in gold and xp, but cutting several hours off the slog. I think it really depends on whether it feels right. I took my inspiration from the idea that maybe it was best we just never even meet the Owlbear or like half these NPCs. I'm curious which failsafe things occur when we just charge into Act II this way. I'm guessing the Tiefs and Minthara all die somehow doing this, but maybe a few make it out alive. Guess we'll find out soon enough.

 

[Black Elk]

That worked pretty well. I got nervous facing the Gith Raiders at lvl 3, so I doubled back to the beach to get the Speed potions and recruit Astarion. I figure if ditching out on Act I this would be the place to try and get Lump killed. My plan this time was to summon the ogres then retreat into the Cloud of Darkness and hide while they killed each other. We almost got dropped, which I think would have dismissed the Ogres potentially, but death's door brought us back. Shadowheart landed the Hold person and Lae'zel drank the speed potion to detonate that smokepowder satchel we got off Barcus. Once Sarth Baretha was out of the equation the Ogres turned the tide and prevailed. I was hoping they wouldn't notice us still hiding in the Darkness, but they spotted me and demanded the gold. I passed Deception for 2500 gp check, then hit the hay. This gave us the Mizora scene.

Next morning I head back down the road and do the Flind fight so we could get a Tadpole without having to double back over the bridge again, and hopefully get the Ogres killed that time. Slept again to get the Mantle. The beats worked pretty well, the Gnolls and Ogres killed each other, so we teamed up with the Zhents in the cave. Hit level 4 at the Hideout and awarded with the honorary crossbow. Brem was our first merchant encountered. I bought the gloves of thievery and an invisibility potion just to be on the safe side.

Leaving for the Mountain pass triggered the artifact, and then an automatic rest after the area transition, where Withers and Raphael both showed up like double or nothing I guess. Then the dream visitor after the sleeping bag.

It's not too bad, maybe an hour all told to try for the Gith Creche at lvl 4 and just charging. Like a semi-speed run I guess, but trying to give myself some sort of chance to maybe prevail lol

I thought Karlach might split, but she seems to be along for the ride so that's a plus.

 

[Black Elk]

Trying to make it through the Creche at lvl 4 was pretty ridiculous.

Probably should have killed the Zhents and taken all their smoke powder barrels to nail Ch'rai. As it happened we only just barely made it out alive, with Shadowheart casting Sanctuary and dashing for the door past half a dozen angry Githyanki. Somehow we managed to kill Jeera for the DEX gloves, although everyone else died playing 'throw me the mittens.' We had to rob Withers to do the 3 for 1 resurrection. Good thing I bought that Invisibility potion from Brem or we'd have been totally fucked.

I was kinda surprised how little XP I was earning going through all this stuff with the Astral Prism and such. I think this is because Exploration XP scales with main character level, and also inspiration XP is not shared with the entire party, so this seemed pretty lowball. I mean I assumed that we'd hit lvl 5 somehow just by jogging, which may have been overly optimistic lol.

The design for XP awards and level progression out of ACT I is basically backwards or the reverse of what I'd want, which is some way to advance the game into the second Act without too much fuss. The amount of XP awarded from combats compared to story progression is also pretty uneven. What I mean is that are all these little ways to eek out extra XP if one lingers in Act I and treats every encounter like a completionist challenge, it's possible to hit lvl 10 well before the Ketheric fight. I think it's possible to hit lvl 12 before even entering Act III if one does a bunch of stuff out of order, or delays the exploration in some areas. I saw that tip from Melth as well, where the same area explored for like 10 xp at the outset, will become like 100 xp later on, if the Character simply waits until they're a higher level to explore that same spot. To me this is all a bit weird. I mean I get it, the advantage of being over-levelled is pretty hardcore compared to being under levelled, but it also takes forever.

Since the first half of the game has been played to death, and a lot of the new stuff with subclasses doesn't even come online till higher levels, it seems like a more desirable approach would be to do the XP catchup on the backend if we blow through Act I. You know, where simply getting to the Shadowlands along the path of least resistance might have the party at say lvl 5/6 automatically. I mean I think trying to handle Moonrise at lvl 6 or Ketheric at lvl 8 would be very challenging. Pacifist neutral run is similarly pretty tough if one is avoiding a lot of the combats. I know there are ways to glitch out the game, since I've watched the speed runs where the whole campaign is handled in under an hour, but this isn't really what I want. If I can simply get to Act III, then it's possible to nail a bunch of flaming fist guards in Rivington, but the issue is just getting to that point in a sensible amount of playtime, or where it feels like the route might still make sense for a party that's not paying attention to the many clues about where to go and what to do next.

To me it would be a better "challenge run" to advance the plot like that, with rocket boosters, rather than ignoring Merchants or Potions or Withers, or doing other things like that to self nerf, but it's still a grind. Effectively I'd like the option to avoid that grind and skip ahead to Act II, or even Act III, with whatever the bare minimum would be in terms of XP/GP so that it's still doable/entertaining, but I'm not sure it is. The Ketheric fight is such a funnel. No way to talk around that one. If I could skip over the things I've done a thousand times and just have that be the hardcore mode, I'd probably go for that every time, if it still felt satisfying for the narrative. We'd be light on loot and lower level, if that makes sense, but then the game seems to be designed in the opposite sort of way. I'm sure I'll have to murder a bunch of Kobolds to catch up. Go figure lol.

Out by the skin of our teeth on that one, with the lighting inside our mouth still bugged. Must be our Dragon breath, fully awakened lol. I wanted to try and kill Elminster, since I think that would even the score on XP, but I think that's a pretty raw deal for Gale. We'll have to see how far off the power curve we are, when we get past the Death shepherds in this next part. Fingers crossed!

ps. I think I may have to reconsider the path of least resistance to at least include a minor detour into the Underdark. My goal was to sorta avoid the Grove and the Goblin camp entirely, trying to keep the route on the side of the map near Scratch, Waukeen's rest, Karlach, the Paladins, Gnolls/Zhents etc. The rationale being that this is actually still very close to our starting point on the Beach. Just from the random choice of going left or right at various intervals, should be possible to get immediately killed by a Dragon somehow. I mean this has been my impression of D&D cRPGs ever since the old days of floppy disks and dos. I like the idea of somehow blundering into the Gith fight as one of the very first things that happens, which really only requires a couple jumps, and a gift for doing the exact opposite of whatever the first serious NPC we meet suggests that we should be doing lol. I think for such a plan to still meet the minimum system requirements of not getting insta merc'd in the Shadowlands, we will need smoke powder. Enough smoke powder to make sure the Gith Creche is achievable without just running away from everything and using invisibility to avoid stuff. If we kill the Zhents to take all the smoke powder this gives us a way to deal with Ch'rai or later Ketheric via barrelmancy, but the gap between lvl 4 and 5 is so steep that I'm pretty sure I need to unlock the Myconid village somehow in a way that doesn't feel like a complete detour. I think best option is probably the secret Elevator in the Zhent hideout, since this brings us right there. We can recruit Glut nail a hook horror, then sneak past the beholder to try for the Club of STR 19, which isn't too bad. I mean thinking about trying to hit the easy stuff along the way so it's not a complete bust, we can grab Phalar Aluve and the Ring of Acid damage and such without going too far off the beaten path, or risking deadly combat with the Bulette by using Lae'zel's jump ability. I think if I do that, then I can hit lvl 5 reliably by killing Kobolds and such, and be slightly less dependent on Lump and his crew. Not sure, but might try that next time, cause I have a sneaking suspicion we're about to get TPK'd at the Last Light, the way things have been going thus far lol

Whatever time I saved blowing past the early stuff at the Grove I made up for by taking like an hour to dodge those Ghouls...

Shadow's are pretty scary!

 

[Black Elk]

I hid from the Drider. Saved Harper Lassandra from Undead Yonas and the Shadows. Then saved Isobel and Jaheira from Marcus and the Winged Horrors. Apparently still not enough to hit lvl 5. I mean just sorta seems like they'd hurry me up on that one lol. Shadowheart pretty much saved the day with quick thinking and Sanctuary. I had her down a potion of vigilance for top initiative before the brawl ensued.

Hopefully we can persuade some Thorms for this last mile on XP, cause it's pretty tough so far without the Extra attacks or Lvl 3 spells. I'm surprised we're all still alive to be honest. Well everyone except Halsin. I wonder how he even made it that far? He must have been just ahead of us trying to pitch camp when the Shadow curse did him in I suppose.

Seems like a long road yet to the top of Moonrise

ps. The hideous spider person got me! Alas

Seems Cloud of Daggers wasn't quite enough to get the job done lol

 

[Antimatter]

Wow, you really accelerated there. It's amazing how a low-level character could reach Act 2 that smoothly. Too bad it didn't work out but I guess it would have happened sooner or later, as this game is balanced for having ~equal levels for your party and enemies.

 

[Black Elk]

Yeah I completely botched it there thinking I could peel off a couple minions with a void bulb and the dagger cloud. I thought if I could kill that one guy who has the Fireball spell we could just lay down a Shadow and bounce to try and kill Karniss once he's alone (I didn't want to face him on the roof.) I think it might have worked if I'd used persuasion to get the Lantern, but I chickened out initially lol. Gale we botched by forgetting to check in with him or feeding him any powerful magical items, so he must have ditched us on the area transition and I just didn't notice. Elminster never appeared. I also goofed the thing with Marcus and the all those crazy hands that he spawns if the Tiefs are all already dead. I think if I had just fought that battle we'd have hit lvl 5 which might have made all the difference. Shadowlands would doable with something like a fireball or haste spell or whatever, it's just foot dragging it to 6500xp that seems pretty hard without doing a bunch of encounters. I think a Non-Lethal routing would be easier than a Pacificist or Cowardly route that just tries to avoid combat and hit the big lvl 5 power spike mostly via jogging.

Knocking out enemies nets the majority of the XP available, but I was curious how much I could cut out of Act I. I think trying to avoid the Grove and the Goblins is pretty rough, I'm sure the move is to do the exact opposite and farm a bunch of easy XP there where the beats are obvious, but I'm intrigued by whatever might be the fastest way to sort of skip ahead. Then take that as the minimum baseline for a challenge run, potentially the insomniac run that Red Eye din has trying to prepare himself for. I don't think I can pull off the only resting when forced style of play as a Sorcerer, but I think it would be fun to try and get all the way to the Shadowlands just completely sleep deprived. Like trying to the campaign in say 2 weeks as opposed to 2 months or whatever I usually do, hitting my sleeping bag all the time. Next time I will definitely take Invisibility as my lvl 2 spell instead of the Flame rays which proved mostly pointless hehe. I will probably buy all Brem's invisibility potions too, since if I'd just had one more I might have escaped instead of getting caught up in the Drider's web. Not doing the Goblin/Druid thing just leaves a lot on the table, but it's also pretty tedious to make that same circuit chatting up all those same people each time. Darkside Din just wants to follow the quick and easy path to lvl 5 power, one that doesn't take 5 hours to achieve, though I guess it's basically an hour per level judging by the final clock. I just need to make a slightly cleaner run. I think I would be annoyed that Minthara is probably dead if skipping out so early. Also with no shot on the Hag's hair. It's probably easier to just initiate the Grove fight and try to knock Minthara out there keep the Tiefs and Alfira alive, do some light Underdarking before making my same hurry up move vs the Creche. I think I expected more rewards from exploration, but they were all pretty light. The big XP gets seem to come from killing stuff or knocking the stuff out. Like for example we got no XP from telling that one Harper that the Drider had already passed, so doing all the same sort of encounter resolution stuff, but get nothing for avoiding conflict. I guess that's the theme, it's high drama and battles or bust sort of, but I think the difference between lvl 4 and lvl 5 is sorta the space between doable and not so much heheh.

Maybe next week!