Rissa, half-elven cleric/mage: Part 4
Orrin’s assault on the bandit camp in my previous run had been a messy affair. Consequently, I was feeling a bit uneasy when Rissa arrived there with Raiken. Do we have a good plan? Will it work? What can go wrong? These were some of the questions that kept popping up in my head while Rissa was walking around the camp, searching for the chest with the precious Firebreath potion.
Despite my concerns, there was one thing that played to our advantage and that was Rissa’s helmet – plain and ordinary as that may seem, combined with MIs and her superb missile AC, the chances of getting hard-pressed through a sequence of critical hits were comfortably low.
Suffice to say, Rissa has handled the entire battle with total confidence, barring one potentially dangerous moment into which I maneuvered her. Her buffs were green ProFire scroll + Potion of Fire Resistance, green ProCold scroll + Potion of Cold Resistance, Vampiric Touch, Shield Amulet charge, Remove Fear, Strength (arcane), Oil of Speed, Potion of Regeneration, ProEvil (divine), MSD, Chant, DuHM, and a Greenstone Amulet charge. She also exchanged the Ring of Holiness for Batalista's Passport for 127% fire resistance and was wearing the Claw + Cloak of Displacement + Girdle of Piercing + Boots of Avoidance. Finally, the plan was to clear the main tent in her robes, retaining her arcane spells, and switch to ankegh plate before engaging the remaining bandits out in the open.
She entered under Sanctuary and, as soon as her aura cleared, smacked Venkt on his head with Aule's.
We followed up with a Wand of Fire scorcher, which unfortunately failed to finish him. In turn, the mage wasted his first round by tagging Rissa's skeleton warrior that had followed us into the tent with Sleep.
In the second round, Venkt upped his game and brought abjuration into play. A successful dispel could be worrisome and I immediately reproach myself for not burning that newly acquired Firebreath potion for an instant kill when we had the chance. In an attempt to shut down the spellcasting, Rissa activates her Necklace of Missiles…
Oh, wow - well done! Rissa gets one point for removing Venkt and the Remove Magic threat, one point for finishing several archers at once, and one point for narrowly avoiding civilian casualties. Poor Ender Sai got cremated by accident during Orrin's run, so I was certainly glad to seeing him only getting gently kissed by the fire this time around.
We finished Britik and the remaining bandits with Aule's + Blindness + Holy Smite.
Eager to meet the rest of the camp, Rissa released the prisoner, raided the chest with the documentary evidence under 100% electricity resistance (via Potion of Insulation and Boots of Grounding), refreshed her short duration buffs (ProEvil, Chant, MIs via scroll, and DuHM), donned the ankegh plate and stepped outside.
Potion-quaffing, hammer-wielding, full-plate-clad Taurgosz can be scary, but less so if you can him instantly knock out with the Wand of Paralyzation.
Rissa lights up the stage with a scorcher and, utilizing her speed advantage, tries to assemble the incoming bandits into a tightly packed group.
As soon as we get some traction, she taps into more AoE resources. Holy Smite comes first.
Followed by Sleep.
Enter Wand of Fire fireballs.
And Wand of Fire scorchers for the finish.
Well, that should do. Rissa collects what loot she can, takes a rest (we're expecting the assassin ambush any minute) and, turning her back to the huge cloud of smoke still rising from the remains of the camp, sets off for the Friendly Arm Inn.
For the record, she's just reached her cleric level 7 and has gained access to divine L4 spells. Furthermore, she's just 3000 xp short of her mage level-up, at which point she will effectively hit the BG1 cleric/mage cap at L7/L7.
Regards,
B.
