Tales of a Tal Tamir's Lone Elf Conjurer

damn moathouse rats... they kept on respawning and going hostile... i killed 6 and had 2 sleeping before the 9th finished me. They respawn way too fast...
reload.
I will avoid them for now.

opened the back door... used web... those that broke free got sleep + coup de grace, the rest i killed with archery. used up my 3 sleeps + 3 scrolls. also used summon monster 2 but it was insta gibbed by their commander.
I earned 1980XP and got to level 4... nice.

taking fox cunning and cat's grace to satisfy crafting requirements.

I decide not to craft anything yet, saving the XP for vest of escape first, followed by headband of int +2, then gloves of dex +2. I replenish my sleep scrolls, and add 1 daily cast of web and 1 daily cast of sleep.

I am looting the corpses of the bandits i previous killed, on the way back to town (heavily encumbered) I am ambushed by 3 bugbears and 3 goblins... they surprise me and go fist. I accidently web myself, and 2 of the bugbears break free and close in on me... they start skewering me, luckily i had my mage armor on from before...

I use sleep, a lot, I end up with 4/20 HP left, they are all asleep, coup de grace the whole lot...
on the down side, I can't really loot them because i am overburdened, on the plus side that was some good XP I just earned... I will toss away boots and gloves and loot the better stuff. i am low on gold (4000GP or so) which ineed to craft items. Maybe i will sell the potions of neutralize poison.

used fox cunning with eyeglasses to maximize appraise, sold the loot, sold the potions of neutralize poison.
Crafted vest of escape and headband of int +2

ambushed again... they went first and got me to 2hp.. from now on i cast mage armor before leaving town.
vest of escape proved its value, i was able to freely move about in my own web, they couldn't escape since i centered web on myself. so even if they broke free, they just moved near me and i took a 5 foot step and cast another sleep... slaughtered the bunch.

Crafted and sold a bunch of minor magic item for cash. To fund the crafting of gloves of dex +2... i am now broke. and my XP is 6008... but it was worth it.

 

alright, time to take on deklo... i swapped web and protection from arrows for more uses of summon monster 2... and i didnt need it, the spiders went down right away to sleep. took black jays ring and cashed in on their quest.
I normally would give jay his ring for free, but I need the money right now... so i took the cloak, most valueable item he offers, and sold it for 1750gp.
I still need to go back to the moathouse and finish looting, i think there were magic items on one of the guys that i didn't get.
Also got a masterwork longbow and a wooden elven shield. (2AC shield with no ASF or shield penalty)

Got surprised by two giant frogs... learned something interesting, the immunity to grapple from freedom of movement doesn't apply to the frogs grapple (or at all in this game)... got swallowed whole... that was embarrassing. but i expected to be immune to it due to FOM.
wait... seems FOM does work.. i "broke free" from being swallowed whole and just ran away. They got an AoO but meh, Now time to slaughter them. done, back to the inn, rest and out again... finally reached the moat house without triggering a random encounter... time to finish looting.
ah, no magic items after all, he was a bandit lieutenant, just normal gear.
Sold all scrolls but true strike and sleep. craft, sell, craft, sell... and now I got a headband of int+4...
I will continue until I have headband of int+6... I don't think I will do the same for gloves of dex though... leveling up to level 5 is more important than a few more dex points...mmm... actually, as long as I get it from random encounters its ok, but I fear a random encounter that would be too tough and end in my death.

encountered 3 lacedons... it was a long and tedious battle, but i used two webs and just plinked at them, when they escaped from one they went into the other, while i was moving freely through it. Actually, i will stall my progress until i have gloves of dex +6... because in gives me AC, to hit with a bow, reflex save, AND initiative... initiative being the most important of the bunch.

just got ambushed by a massive group of goblins and hobgoblins... my strategy was superb, the battle was epic... It is a shame i didn't record it. Stopping for now to set up fraps so I could record such a future encounter and upload to you tube.

 

had an interesting bug... i tried to replace a web spell (3rd spell out of 4 from the top) with fox cunning (to sell stuff at better price), it erased it and left a yellow box (aka, showing its my specialization slot)... ok, so i click on summon monster and it also becomes a yellow slot... clearled all spells, rested... and now I have 3 regular slots and 2 specialization slots instead of 3 and 1... I might have also removed my headband of int +4 at some point...
meh, I reloaded though, that would be cheating (if it doesn't flat out break my game).

Done some heavy crafting... down to 6007XP again and practically no money, but I now have headband of int +6, brooch of shielding, gloves of dex +2, cloak of resistance +1, and my trusty vest of escape.

Had a random encounter of two giant crayfish... died... bastards deal ~15 damage per hit, have 60hp, and are overall tough... high chance of breaking web...
I found great use for summon monster 2 though... summon fiendish small spider.
It delivers a strength sapping venom, and is immune to web.
had to reload there, I will be more careful, I simply got too cocky. I need to still treat enemies as a danger despite being loaded with magic gear...

 

I never realized people craft so much. Occasionally I will enhance weapons, but not a ton of wondrous items. Like I said before, I hardly ever buff. Maybe I just like a challenge.

Then again, I dont blame you if your soloing with a wizard. You need everything you can get.

 

yea, i am crafting up the wazoo... almost done... just need to upgrade gloves of dex to +6 (right now at +4)...
then i will craft and sell to be able to afford all unique scrolls of non banned schools from burne, buy and copy them to spellbook... then i will continue...

I had another death. A random encounter... 4 giant spiders surrounding me in such a way that i can NOT move out of that location. that was... horrible
yea, as a single wizard dimension door would actually be useful

also, concentration is used unsurprisingly often.

damn... game broke... if i leave homlet and then come back, i am "frozen" in place... i will load an earlier save and use console to award myself the correct amount of XP and GP...
later.

 

alright. I have reverted to a save from an hour and 20 minutes earlier (after turning in the last quest; before grinding random encounters )... used the console to give some XP and gold, crafted everything I should have, bought what i should have, then used the console to give same amount of total GP as before and set my XP to what it was before... essentially recreating the status of that corrupted savegame.

Time to continue.

And I encountered some giant lizards... not normally a threat but they won initiative, charged, and critted me for near max damage dealing 23 damage and killing my guy..
too bad too sad...

Maybe I should have gone with +con items instead of +dex items (I am limited to one or the other due to prerequisite spells... at least, until later levels when I take those spells instead of higher level spells).

at level 1 i should have taken improved initiative... initiative is very very important to win if you are playing one single character.

interesting, burne sells the spell knock. I did not pay attention to it... had I done so then I would not have taken it on levelup, instead taking bears endurance, and thus been able to craft +con items... which would have resulted in fewer to no deaths.

Perhaps on a future attempt.

 

Hey Taltamir, nice challenge you got going here! I got a question for you about crafting attribute enhancment items. Can you upgrade a +4 to +6? You mentioned uprgading your gloves of dex. I was under the impression that you could not and therfore I always wait until I have to gold and xp to go right to +6.

If I understand you correctly than you can upgrade. Can you clear this up?

BTW, all this effort with your elf-wiz and the 5.8 will be out soon. Doesn't that mean your game will not be compatable?
Anyway, nice run through here.

 

under PnP rules you can, in this game you can't.
when I said upgrade I meant "i sold my old ones and crafted +6".

Yea, it will not be compatible with 5.8... but I am too impatient

maybe I will restart the game in 5.8
I am learning a lot from this attempt. Further refining my strategy and skill and knowledge.
Maybe I will retry it in 5.8 with the stipulation that if I die I lose.

alright... done crafting for now.
I am back at 6004XP... but I have 8000gp, I have +6 dex gloves, +6 int headband, +2 Bracers of Armor, +1 cloak of resistance, and brooch of shielding. I have also purchased every spell offered by burne and copied it to my spell book, including higher level spells such as teleport, hold monster, dimension door, etc.

I noticed that at this point in the game his invetory does reset (erasing what I sold him), and there is a bit of randomness to it (some specific scrolls go away and later come back)...
My fully buffed AC is 24, I got a plenty of scrolls...

I decided against scribing scrolls of higher level. Copying them to my spellbook now is just to make it easier for me to remember which spells i have on level up (so i don't take them) and so that they don't take up inventory slots...
But it seems like cheating to scribe scrolls of summon monster 3 and other high level spells when I can't cast those yet. Also, scrolls get way too expensive in higher levels.

Well... no time like the now... time to hit the moathouse.

Great... i was fighting a giant tick, my spider disappeared, and the game broke and combat got "stuck" on its turn.
aaand... it got better after I alt tabbed to type it.

 

well ill be... lubash is scary! wasted 3 scrolls of summon 2 plus my own 2 castings... he just ignores the web, grease barely slowed him down (but it did help)... too many HD for the cripplers (sleep and color spray)...

I used flee combat.

then I tried the other side... well, LOTS of zombies and 2 green slimes
I think I will come back later... say, when I am a higher level.
i will go a few more rounds vs the zombies and slimes though.

well, that is tedious and time consuming... i killed the slimes but each zombie goes by itself (because it tries to break free) and there are lots of them, and they have lots of health, and they have DR vs piercing...

I escaped combat, I will go slay the giant instead.

 

And now you realize exactly why I was saying before that Web and Grease aren't as useful as they appear to be. It's not just Lubash, most big creatures do that.

You should've gotten Tasha's Laughter, that one works well on him. Buy a scroll maybe?

 

Web and grease are unbelievable... I always get web, grease, tasha's, and glitterdust.
having to choose between them, web and grease are my first choices by far. I would NEVER have survived as far as I did without web. (combined with vest of escape).

Tasha's hideous laughter would work on him, at a +4 to save. or i could just level up to 5th level and throw some monster 3 at him instead of monster 2... I have sued tasha on larger and bigger foes then him actually... i used it very effectively against the giant of emerdy meadows (which is stronger then a mere ogre).
I would love to buy a scroll of tasha's hideous laughter, but there is nobody selling it. And having to chose between the prereq for crafting +con items and tashas I have to go with the +con.

Anyways, I thought better of going after the giant... I went and did some random encounters until i reached level 5... I took craft magic arms and armor and for spells I took bear's endurance (craft con items) and heroism (improves skill throws, such as appraise and social skills).
I already had a bunch of level 3 spells that i bought from burne. Such as summon monster 3.

While summon monster is not all that in a group (its duration is way too short, the monsters too weak, etc)... I have found that summoning spiders provides me with poison attacks. Spider venom is 1d4 str damage initial 1d4 str damage final. they are immune to web too... so i web my enemies, summon some fiendish spiders on them, and watch as they get 2 attacks per round (1 regular attack, 1 AoO for enemy trying to break web)... damage is low, their AC is low, their to hit is low, and their HP is low... but since they get essential 2xCL attacks, they tend to get enough poison into the system to palalyze a lot of strong opponents... when paralized I can just walk up to them safely (they no longer attack or threaten... or move at all during their turn) and coup de grace them.

first thing I did after leveling was craft a +4 con amulet. my HP is now 10 points higher and my fort is +2.

New spell loadout:
SL1:
2x Sleep
2x Grease
2x Mage Armor

SL2:
Protection from arrows
3x web
Melf Acid Arrow

SL3:
Summon Monster III

well, it seems that unfortunately summon monster 3 cannot be used to summon 3 of summon monster 2 list as per PnP... that is a problem... it also doesn't have a venomous creature...

 

alright, it turns out that fiendish dire bats have the best AC and HP by far from the summon monster 3 list. and decent attack too...

I used two of those and a web to lock down that ogre, then i put a fiendish spider behind it (summon monster 2)... the spider poisoned it sapping it strength all the way down to 10 or 11 (his str modifier was +0 to break free)... at this point he was trapped in the web and i sniped him to death.

time for a break... its 3am on sunday... i gotta sleep, then study tommorow. I will continue this when I can. I might end up starting over in 5.8 with the goal of not dying even once.

I seriously consider playing a generalist... as:
1. The specialist slots are bugged and tend to break.
2. I have found that even with the extra slot I don't have nearly enough, and I must use scrolls to supplement my daily castings. So I use up more scrolls (and thus XP and GP which comes FROM XP)... but i get more flexibility... (while not all schools are of equal usefulness, they all have their use... ESPECIALLY for the solo wizard)

Some might have noticed that I am using a lot of spells and schools which I normally deride as useless... a major reason is that the mechanics and gameplay as a solo wizard are vastly different then a wizard who is part of a team. You have to make use of things that you otherwise wouldn't have bothered with.

EDIT: a problem with not specializing is, I would be going through more scrolls per battle, thus earning less XP, thus taking longer at lower levels where its most deadly... and I have yet be in a position where I need an evocation spell...
ah crap. I just realized I need them as prerequisites for crafting! now i will not be able to craft super weapons.

EDIT2:
interesting thing about summon monster 3... fiendish bat is the most powerful of the lot...
AC20 (highest of any monster summoned by SM3), Damage is 1d8+4, to hit is pretty good too, it has SR9, DR5/magic, and 44HP (the highest of any monster summoned by SM3)

 

If everyone did this, we would all learn how to use our wizards better.

 

One thing i learned using a party of 3, remember to use your character's inventory slots for extra space. I'm sure your Wiz isn't using all of his weapon slots, so fill it with a weapon to carry back to town to sell.

 

I tried that, but swapping weapons (at least in 5.7.2) simply dumps his current weapons back into his inventory...
I had to leave stuff before, I simply learned what was and wasn't worth carrying... boots, gloves, spears, certain bucklers... I can live without a few more SP...

besides, i could hunt for a random encounter that will give me some XP that i can then convert to GP freely...
It is interesting that I use XP to convert to GP, then i use XP and GP to craft scrolls... a really tough but low CR encounter CAN end up COSTING you money/XP. (so pick your fights, and strategy, carefully)...

it is a real shame giant centipede isn't an option for summon monster 3 btw...

anyways... I thought 5.8 was weeks away, and yet it was released today. I think i will restart with it...

however, I will first see if i can mod it so that eyeglasses work from inventory, not only is it extremely tedious to switch back and forth, it:
1. messes up my spells per day (which are a big buggy)
2. causes me to perform more area transitions and rests in homlet, both of which contribute to homlet breaking (which is an eventuality, a question of when not if)

I will also be playing a non specialist... i can live without the weapon enhancements actually, and the extra slots per day are nice... but they are bugged and it is really irking and requires a lot of fiddling (i constantly have to remove all my spells, remove my +int gear, put it back on, add back all the spells, then rest). So no specialization for me anymore.