Icewind Dale no magic items challenge run

[O_Bruce]

Hello there!

I want to work on idea I had for quite some time now, and that would be playing through basic campaign of Icewind Dale without use of magical items. It sounds like something very hard to pull off and with some problem-solving potential

Restrictions of the playthrough are as follows:
- I cannot equip any magical items. Nothing my characters wear can be enchanted
- Above restricion applies to ranged weapons ammuniton
- Use of the wands is prohibited
- Scrolls of protection are prohibited

Potions are okay to use, as I feel this leeway would be welcome in my first playthrough of this sort. Additionally, spellcasters are allowed to use spell scrolls they would be normally able to. So, mage can still use scroll of magic missile, priest still can use scroll of chant etc. And finally, temporary magical weapons created from spells (like blessed hammer etc.) are allowed.

With above said, I'd like to introduce you to my trio of adventurers, right after equipping themselves at Pomab's shop, starting with Dabb:

This fine specimen of a warrior and cleric will serve as the main frontline fighter of the group. Being partially a cleric, he'll also have acces to healing and support spells, and most importantly of all, he'll be able to conjure an enhanced hammer, which I predict will be main mean of dealing with adversaries immune to non-magical weapons. He is proficient with hammers and sword-and-shield fighiting style. Dabb isn't very intelligent or charismatic, both of traits due to accident with a swing during his youth, but Lim loves him all the same.

Speaking about Lim...

Obviously, she serves as a spellcaster of the group, but also as a negotiator who speaks on behalf of the party. She is trained with using a sling, and among her starting spells are Spook, Sleep and Color Spray.

And finally, last member of Allmighty Trio, Hina:

A fighter/thief specialized in the ranged combat, will most likely end up as the main damage dealer of the party. That and her skills as a thief will prove her to be an extremely valuable asset. I don't suppose she'll end up backstabbing many things, so handling traps and locks aside, she'll focus on using snares when needed.

As you can see, all of above characters are gnomes, so that I wouldn't be sad if the challenge fails. That being said, this is a test run, so I don't quite know what to expect.

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Anyways, the beginning of the game in Easthaven is not that different to a normal playthrough. I've dealt with some basic quests, like helping Grisella with her pest problem, helping Johenn with his dreams, getting rid of the wolf inside of Aspel's workshop, convincing an alcoholic to forsake his drunk ways and returning the fish to Damien from small group of goblins (Dabb suffered some damage in the process).

The Allmighty Trio decided borrow some things from Pomab - like scroll of Chromatic Orb - with intend of making up to him after the adventure is over. Let's hope nothing strange happens to Pomab until then. Anyways, Lim took a risk and managed to add Chromatic Orb to her list of known spells.

The orc cave was a bit more involving. Dabb suffered some more minor wounds, cured by a healing potion. Against orcish shamans, interrupting their spellcasting with Command did wonders. There was a random magic treasure inside the chest in the north-western part of the cave: it was ring of lesser resistacne. Of course I cannot make use of it, but it will sell.

The main combat encounter of the cave is in the southern chamber, featuring Ogre as the strongest combatant. Before that, Hina attempted to set a snare and failed in a spectacular fashion, feeling pressure of enemies watching despite there not being any. The girl needs to work on her nerves, that's for sure!

Dabb was used to lure some the enemies to the tight spot, and to draw attacks from orcish archers. With Dabb's sword-and-shield style, large shield, 18 dexterity score and splint mail, his ac against missiles was effectively -5, so no arrow managed to graze him. Lim casted Sleep, renering majoriy of hostile combatant useless, those still standing were dealt with Hina and Dabb. Then, Dabb proceed to wake up sleeping enemies, since his attacks deal the biggest average damage per hit (8.5). That also included ogre, which was woken up by attack and then Spooked by Lim. After that, he was nothing but a target practice.

Afterwards, The Allmighty Trio gave Hrothgar a full report, did some more business with Pomab and then left for an adventrue. Aside an avalanche started by frost giants, the journey to Kuldahar was not that eventul, and certainly it was not much different from the standard playthrough: Dabb's was great at tanking goblins, including archers, the Orc leader in the windmill was put to rest with Command, while his comrades died. The small boy was saved, Lim learned Blur spell, then found out about the ogre's headache problem. Some more goblins died, then even more goblins died, and then some beattles also died. Kuldahar has been reached.

Lim, speaking for the entire party, agreed to help Arundel in finding the source of evil responsible of the strange events around Kuldahar. While at it, she found out how to cure the ogre's headache problem, and after their business with Arundel was done, the Allmighty Trio decided to help the poor creature with its problem.

First real change of the challenge: items normally considered useful in the standard playthrough now are good only for selling. Like this cloak for example:

It enabled Dabb to buy himself a new plate armor and allowed Lim to buy plenty of scrolls from Orrick, bisit Olaf to purchase 10 healing potions and potion of mind focus. Thanks to that, Lim was able to memorize several new spells to her arsenal, including Magic Missile, Cat's Grace, Web, Mirror Images and Identify. She also cast Find Familiar from a scroll, gaining a cat, who's about to get really comfy in the backpack.

Hina helped the local inn owner, Aldwin to confess to his sins about his actual ownership of the place. After getting some rest, the Allmighty Trio spend some time in tavern, having a lively chat with Lysan - such a lovely barsmaid! Afterwards, they headed out into the Vale of Shadow, being able to rescue Mirek from a tundra yeti. They have found out about Mirek's brother, and decided to helpe the poor man while at their main mission.

And so, they arrived in the Vale of Shadows

 

[JustKneller]

At first I thought this would be an easy-ish challenge. I have done runs with sub-optimal parties with no issue. But, one thing strikes me and that's enemies that need a magic weapon to hit (which I think includes wights and mummies from the Vale of Shadows). You can get around it with the fourth level spell enchanted weapon, but then it's like, you might as well use magic weapons. I suppose your cleric will have magical stone or spiritual hammer, and your Illusionist will have a lot of options, but your Fighter/Thief will be out of luck (unless you use enchanted weapon). I'm kinda surprised you went with an illusionist for this one, though. I almost always take a bard instead due to a magic-users outleveling the spells available (especially in a small party).

I'll be watching this one. IWD is my favorite IE game.

 

[O_Bruce]

@JustKneller
That's interesting, because I thought most people would immediately think of Yxunomei and her immunity to +1 weapons and below. Some of the things you mentioned I'll be adressing in this update though

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Our Allmighty trio started out with exploring nearby crypts. Surprisingly (in role-play sense; in gameplay, it makes perfect sense at this point), non-magical weapons were able to harm an slay lesser shadows. Dabb's turn undead skill proved to be invaluable during the trio's endeavor: skeletons and most ghouls were reduced to moving target practice.

The carrion crawler was spooked by Lim's ilussions, allowing the party to easily slay the creature

Dabb leveled up and put the first proficiency point into Flails/Morning stars. In this playthough, it doesn't really do much: but quality morning star would probably be better than ordinary hammer for most of the battles in the near future. Hina also acquired new rogue skills, mostly in setting up snares.

Something to note that I utterly overlooked:

Due to his brain damage, with 7 intelligence, Dabb cannot read priest scrolls. I utterly forgot about this fact, and this might bite me in the butt later on. Altenratively, I'd make the character drink intelligence-affecting potions before using scrolls, and that's unorthodox to say the least. Anyways, I screwed up.

Hina has "borrowed" a gate key

The Allmighty Trio haven't forgotten about Mirek's plea to find his family's heirloom. Hilda's snare helped in bringing down one of Yetis, while Lim's Color Spray briefly stunned their chieftain, making fight much easier.

The family heirloom has been found:

Out of sheer curiousity, the party decided to explore nearby cave: it looked like it was recently occupied by someone of civilized races; it was also guarded by several yetis. chromatic orb failed against one of those beasts, and Dabb had to relly on Command to increase the chance of victory. Luckily, the party surived with some minor wounds.

Exploring more tombs, crowd-controlling undead left and right...

And Dabb reached level 4 of priest!

Now, let's adress the shadowy elephant in the room: enemies immune to normal weapons. My main plain was to use weapons made from spells - like Spiritual Hammer, Moonblade etc, and in case of Hina, most likely Enchanted Weapon (even though I have no memory of where you get that spell in Icewind Dale). It isn't a bad plan in theory, but in practice it started not well either.

Turns out, Spiritual Hammer doesn't account for weapon proficiency or lack thereof, and also doesn't get bonuses from stength. As result, the spell eneables me to create +1 weapon for a brief time, with which Dabb is less effective than normal - he does 7-10 damage per swing with 1.5 attack per round; with Spiritual Hammer, he does 3-6 damage, with 1 attack per round. It is rather bad when you need to summon two such hammers to deal with one Shadow.

With no permament magic weapons, not only my characters are not able to get additional bonuses to thier combat abillities, using them also can make them less effective. And even if I manage to obtain Enchanted Weapon spell, a 7-10 dmage counting as +3 weapon is still inferiot to 10-13 damage counitng as +3 weapon. It is notable part of the challenge and I predict it will stay that way.

Not to mention my other stats, like AC, saving throws, resistances and so on cannot be passively raised just like that they could be in typical playthrough.

I'll need to pivot to using more offensive spells on such ocassions. Before entering two last tombs, the party returned the family heirloom to Mirek

After spending some time on preparation, mostly related to buying more ammo from Colan, healing potions from Oswald (sorry for calling you Olaf in the preivous post, you wonderful little bastard) and re-memorizing spells, the party returned to Valley of Shadows in search of Evil. The exploration of the tombs proceeded slowly but carefully, mostly thanks to Dabb's turn undead abillity.

Hina has "borrowed" yet another key - this time to Kresselack's tomb. And this one will also be explored slowly, but not as safely as the previous ones. Many of basic undead enemies can be turned at this point of time, but that doesn't count for Wrights, undead priests or Myrkul's Sending. I had a plan of silencing the priest, but I failed at it execution, and Dabb was held, so Hina and Lim went to their comrade's rescue. Myrkul's Sending was another matter however:

As you can see, the battle against this creature looked more like playing tag rather than duel to the (un)death. Ultimately, I needed to use more offensive spells than what I would like to defeat it, and that's a shame, since I was hoping to saving some to face the mummy in one hidden area in on this level. I guess I need to think how to and learn to manage my resouces better.

Until the next update!