An adventure in a small party - A rogue, a monk and a wizard

This is to be a thread about a playthrough with 3 adventurers:

A Barb / Rogue
A Rogue / Monk
And a Monk / Wizard

BUILDING:

Human Barb 1 / Rogue 19 - Gets every benefit from Rogue with a nice d12, movement and rage bonus`and the main reason to choose Barb instead of fighter... SURVIVAL. Will use a Falchion.

Halfling Rogue 5 / Monk 15 - But will do Rogue 1/Monk 15 before taking the other rogue levels for maximum Monkness early on. Will dual weild Siangham.

Human Monk 1/ Wizard 19 - Is a wizard, plain and simple. Just dipped in that monk pool for the WIS AC

They are worshippers of Vecna, whose rule is not meant to be known, but start out disguised as Hexorites (LE vignette).

This is a semi-no-reload game.

I consider fair the following: If you have had success on a given fight/task and after it the game crashes and when you attempt it again you fail, you get a "fair" one time reload to attempt it one more time.
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I will start this report in the middle of the moathouse quest. They are all level 4 right now and the team is working well.

The wizard (witch in my case) is actually more of an enchantress. Focused on crowd control to better suit the needs of the two light rogues. Right now she has 4 Daze/ 3 Sleep / 2 Tasha's H L. Spell Penetration and Focus Enchantment (althou she is NOT a Specialist wizard)

The Halfling Monk gets better AC and better hide/move silently, but uses sianghams because they are the only light and small monk weapon to use with finesse by a halfling.

Both the rogue and monk will max out UMD on top of tumble, hide and move silently because in smaller parties I find it best that everybody can do their own healing and be flexible to help out with a scroll or wand when needed.

The rogue is a blast with the falchion, and I'm looking forward for that Keen bursting falchion later on. The movement bonus is good and puts him on par with the monk (since the monk is a halfling and isn't actually the most mobile monk)

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....everything has been cleared but the last bugbear room.

The two rogues are positioned a few feet before the door while the enchantress throws a sleep spell in the room, making one bugbear fall.

The attack alerts the others and they swarm the corridor but with no time to make attacks. The witch puts one more to sleep but ends up taking a lot of damage.

The rogues follow the raging bugbear while dancing around him to always hit with sneak attacks. In the end, a fungi is summoned to help and kills off the bugbear. The sleeping ones are put to rest and the very last one gives the party enough XP for lvl 5.

Right now I think I want to face the final fight in this level (4) to soak up a little more XP, but this being a no-reload game, I won't risk it. Specially when with only 3 chars, I'm bound to hoard XP in no time with plenty of safer opportunities to hold back a level later on...


On to the Lareth fight...

 

The enchantress chose Web and Bear's Endurance as her new spells for this fight.


The invisible rogue (using a ring that once belonged to a deceased rogue with a british accent that died a backstabbing death in a dark alley in Hommlet), scouts the room.

Lots of possibilities..., he thinks.

After buffing, all 3 carefully sneak though all of lareth's men and into his room. The monk and the rogue prepare to attack Lareth, but not before the witch casts web outside the room. All but 1 lieutenant was webbed, and then, in a flurry of sneak attacks Lareth gets down to Badly injured.

Then it's the enemy's turn:

Lareth does me a great favor by trying to dispell the Web, and failing, but that actually seems to dissolve the webs on the ground, while keeping every soldier with cobwebs on them and still "Webbed!".

I'd never seen such screw up by an evil mastermind before...disappointing. - Jaroo Gengi, the Lawful Evil monk

Then, due to the excitement of this last Lareth fiasco, I move the witch without 5'step and she gets down to 1 HP from an AoO by lareth. This my friend, is when I was glad I took that leveling before the fight and gained some precious 3 HP along with it...

From that point on, the battle was won. One fungal companion to help in the fray and with free mobility in the midst of sleeping and webbed guards, we could pick them off easily. Stopping to heal the occasional crossbow hit once or twice. Easy peasy...

The moathouse was done and with no ambush waiting outside, the party gets back to hommlet to check out the spoils of war....



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That's it for today.

The thing with the dispel and web actually seems to be a bug. His dispel FAILED but the webs on the floor vanished. I was gladly surprised by it. Saved me a lot of potions and bolts.

This party rocks. I usually suffer from boredom before I finish the temple but i have been making progress and last time actually got to clear out dungeon level 4 for the first time before the idea for this trio popped into my head and I abandoned that game.

I usually go for 4 levels of fighter in any melee char I make and I realized that this makes my game boring as I usally have a generally "full build", at least feat-wise, by lvl 10 or so. And this comes with the price of reaching lvl 10 in any single class and making the char more unique earlier. This run focuses on single classing and enjoying the benefits of it.

More to come...tomorrow.:yes:

 

Small but fun progress was made today!


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The spoils of the fight in the moathouse were many and Bother Smyth did not want to take lareth's items off my hand, so he suggested the traders up north. The trio complied and sold them a pair of boots, then got back to Brother Smyth and spoke to him again to see if he would change his mind, as the traders did not offer a good price for the items. He coneceded and bought all our stuff, except for the boots that were already sold.

Then, it was time for some giant hunting. They had seen the giant in Emidry meadows before but were too afraid to tackle it then. Now it was the time, with web and ray of enfeeblement. But on the journey there, an assassin ambushes them!


The assassin was a little buggy and did not initiate dialog (maybe because my face PC was invisible?) and the screen was reeealy laggy. So I pretended that he spoke and initiated combat in the most favourable way, of course...


The enchantress, being quick on her feet, quickly got far away and casted Tasha's Hideous Laughter on the assassin, who immediatedly got down on his knees and started laughing like a madmen. The rogue and monk made short work of this incapacitated target.

On his body, a note (and loot). They knew those traders smelled fishy...


In hommlet it was time to settle things with the traders. Sending an assassin after someone wasn't a light offense and they knew that if they were willing to do that, they would not go without a fight. So the party buffed up a little and got in.

After being confronted, Gremag started shouting for help but the 3 ebony assassins had the initiative and pelted him with sneak attacks while a fungi was summoned.

Rannos ran to the fray quickly and did not do much before being put in a deep laughing state by the witch. The man-at-arms was just standing there, missing every shot and getting owned by acid attacks from the fungi.

Gremag announced his escape. But before he could do so, he got a small case of a falchion being buried in his skull. Rannos was incapacitated and was killed by the monk a little later and was never able to escape.

Revenge was served still red hot. And now the group had a lot of powerful and yet unusable items in their hands...

...oh well... quick cash.

The money was well spent in scrolls for the enchantress. She now had a nice selection of spells for future levels.

The band rests and prepare to finally tackle the giant before heading to Nulb.


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Awesome that both traders were killed! That's the first time i've done that. I attempted this fight once before the time of this report. Gremag was charmed but in the end he still escaped with Rannos. But after, there was a ghost space in my party where Gremag should be. This being Troika's game, I decided not to risk any weird bug with quest flags and such and reloaded. On the second attempt, they were both killed. From what I've read, now there won't be a house ambush. Nice!

Moar tomoroarrrrrgh!

 

Giant slaying during lunch break! Yey!

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The band headed to Emidry Meadows to slay the giant. Our rogue approaches with a scroll while invisible and fails 2 times, although without alerting the bear (even thou it still enters combat mode after a failure). When he finally succeeds in emulating the magic device, the bear saves the spell and comes after him.

The other two were far back north and the giant was none the wiser to the attack, so the bear follows alone. It was time for plan B.

The rogue leads the bear behind some rocks where the ambush awaited. Jiranda, the black witch (in title and skin color) uses her voodoo magic to create a noxious gas cloud that sickens the bear. It is now helpless to our attacks and it falls without leaving a scratch on the party.

Now this leaves the giant. He was going to be tougher for sure...

...Or so they thought.

From out of sight, the witch summons dreadful spider minions that weave a gigantic web around the giant. Helpless, it can't get out of the web in time. Bolts start raining on him while the witch weakens him with rays of enfeeblement. Now it is impossible for him to escape the hold of the webs. For good measure, a stinking cloud is also layed upon him to enable the monk to approach safely and make this job end sooner. The sickened state does not last long thou and the monk retreats to continue attacking from afar.

It takes some time, but just as the rays of enfeeblement were starting to wear off, the giant falls. Its head, severed to bring back to the smith in Hommlet.


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Nice quick and clean fight. More later today.

 

Just a tiny bit more now...


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Nulb lied ahead. The shady town was fit for the band of Vecna worshippers.

A visit was paid to every merchant and now, with new magical tatoos, the monk's ability do avoid blows started to shine while even the enchantress, due to her own monk upbringing, was dodging blows better than the Rogue!

A little bit of digging revelaed that a Furyondian was in town. Otis, brother of that disgusting drunk from Hommlet. He had to die, for Vecna, the one eyed, one armed lich appeared to Gerard, the rogue, in a dream. But his death should be a secret to all.

Daylight was the best opportunity, as it turned out, since Otis hanged around in that isolated shop of his. While the apprentice was far away, the band quickly dispatched of Otis. And a fungi was summoned to consume his remains. (MWAHAHA!).

Jiranda, the black witchwas specially pleased with this sight.

There was some good old bar brawling going on and in the first time, the monk's sneak attack made Tolub accuse Jaroo Gengi of being a cheater. That... well. Wasn't a good a idea on Tolub's part. To make an evil monk have a grudge for you...

But now wasn't the time and the brawl went on a second time. This time the monk waited a round before attacking and still beat the crap out of tolub. (I actually had to beat him 4 times because he kept getting unconcious on the last hit and did not complete the quest)


After their little fit of evilness and a little fun in the tavern the band went on to do some Gar fishing that proved to be almost fatal. The Sea Hag was toublesome to dispose of (she always is) but thanks to Stinking Cloud, she was the only real threat to be worried about. Both the frog and the gar were disposed of without hiccups. One carefully dispatched in silence before engaging the Hag, and the other after the combat.

Back in Nulb, in the tavern. The shady barkeep wanted the owner dead...


...No problem! They took her to a secluded alley and disapeared with her body.

Back in the tavern it was time to settle some business with those pirates...

...and it couldn't be simpler! One fireball and BAM! down like flies they went. But the goon was scraped and wasn't happy. Oh well, now Skole has to die too.


This was during daytime. The band waited until nightfall, when Tolub came to the tavern only to find every one of his companions dead to deliver pain and death to him.

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Ba

 

The broken tower fight:


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The band pratically wiped Nulb clean (including Rentsch and Wat, without getting their quests). Grud died too! For sending them on that Gar fishing deathtrap.

Now it was time to head to the temple. The front entrance did not seem well guarded enough, so the three dark assassins thought: "This must not be the quickes way to where true power lies in this Temple", and so they looked for another entrance.

Soon, they stumble upon a lone scout..


...well, that's one more than in the main entrance...

He dies before uttering a word and then, after checking out the peephole they knew they were on the right path.

This was going to be a fun fight...


Entering, the Brigand Leader shouted war and chaos ensued. Arrows from all the corners of the room and soldiers charging like madmen towards the three dark heroes!

Our rogue got to be first of the band to attack and rushed to the wizard. But the wizard did not suffer a fatal wound! Then the monk followed on the same footsteps. Still the wizard lived!

Then the brigand leader came towards the witch. She hadn't been affected by the silence spell and was ready to answer the attack.... with dark charms.

The brigand leader fell for the spell and was now a berserk force against his own soldiers.

The tides were changing in our favor.

Next round, the wizard falls and one fireball helps to reduce the number of incoming arrows and bolts.

The rogue took a couple of hits, including a inflict serious wounds spell, but managed to get away and heal himself. The monk was a ghost in the middle of the battle chaos. The enchantress now had a brigand leader fighting off goons for her and was free to use Tasha's on the enemy witch. Success.

Next round the battle turned completely in our favor with a sleep spell to further reduce the number of goons.

From then on, a Web was cast to hold off the remaning soldiers and the two warriors and the charmed leader finished eveybody that was still alive.

The leader died a horrible death in the hands of the witch. Who carved out his eyeballs with her crossbow bolt. She is a mean..... itch, this witch.

The battle was won and a path to the deep temple was open. That's where the band shall go next...

...............................................

This was a fun fight. And the buffs SAVED my hide. I chose Displacement and Gaseous Form in the last levelup in Nulb. And those two were ESSENTIAL to keep the rogue alive.

He only has 35 HP and 24 AC right now and if it weren't for those two spells, he would be dead, and problably the rest of the party. The fight was long and the buffs started to wear off in the last few rounds, and immediately, the rogue started getting hit hard and I had to cast Web to stop the madness and get him healed.

The halfling monk showed his greatest strength: AC. With mage armor he reached 31 AC I think. Also a must have spell for big fights with lots of tumbling like this one. The enchantress was not far behind with her 30 AC (1 monk level ftw). She did not get hit once in the entire fight, later on she did cast mirror image, but not even the images were hit. No disrupted spells by arrows.

Now the build starts to show its strong and weak spots. The rogue is not fit to be a frontman, and the fact that he is weilding a big Falchion makes me forget this from time to time. He does have great cleave. Witch is nice for a stationary type of fighter, but I cannot rely on that too much until I can get him to 30 or so AC. And even then, I have to give him buffs to soak up some damage in fights like this where you have to tumble a lot or stay put. No hit and run possibilities. Haven't used much of barb Rage yet due to the AC loss.

The monk's AC is unbelivable. I even gave the +3 ring to the rogue to even things out a little bit, otherwise the monk would reach 33 AC. Later I can pick up haste to further improve this. But, reaching lvl 10 in wizard levels is becoming a priority. That's why I'm going the risky route to DL3.
So I can fully craft magical weapons. Because the sianghams are painfully weak without sneak attacks. And even then, +1d6 is not that much. Just enough to get me through the early game. I will not have holy damage with this build. Only axiomatic fists with the monk, but I plan on having a shock burst/cold burst/keen weapon by that time.

The witch is my favorite char. Got nothing to say about her other than she is awesome and Viva los enchantment spells. I NEVER like playing mages, but this one, being able to hide for a first strike like a shadowmancer of sorts is just my type. Will create more elaborate chars with this focus later on.

[/B]

 

This is nice- hope you survive the lower levels! :thumbsup:

 

OH , THE HUMANITY!

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The adventure continues on to DL3. Two small doors are in the way and after carefully checking them out, the group soon sees a lone rogue and a wizard.

A lone rogue? Pff... this must be that date in the year where we celebrate the birth of an important figure and give each other presents in this world and not some other place where this date might be called something weird that doesn't make any sense to these characters....like Christmas or something.


They knew the path was too well guarded for this to be just a simple rogue. So they pepared. Mentally, phisically and magically.

The band went in silently. The halfling monk is exceptional at sneaking and doesn't need invisibility. The rogue still does. Both waited by the door, outside.

JIRANDA SENDS OUT A STINK CLOUD!

This reveals that the rogue is noone other than the one who ordered the heroes killed back then. Smigmal.

Smigmal is not affected by the cloud and rushes toward the door while sumoning two assassins.

One of them gets sickened and is not a threat. The other actually runs toward the door along with smigmal. They suffer AoO's.

The enchantress has a shot at another spell, or to run... The space for running is short and she is bound to encounter a dead end soon. She casts Tasha's on Smigmal but the Bandit leader resists!

The rogue and monk manage to get to her, but she is set on the witch. But before they can do anything for her. The assassin reaches her and one critically critical attack later.... the enchantres falls unconscious.

They try to hold off both attackers with the monk and his AC while potions are cast on the witch.

The monk becomes a target and start to suffer sneak attacks. The witch is revived with a small amount of HP but when she gets up, the assassin with ANOTHER critical attack. Finishes her. She lies DEAD!

Now the adventurers feel like they bit more than they could chew. The monk was dodging blows allright but smigmal's AC was tremendous and it was best to focus on the assassin first. And so they did and manage to kill him at the cost of half their HP.

Some healing was done but that ate up precious time. Enough for the cloud to vanish and the other assassin to become able again.

Smigmal got down to badly injured and vanished.

The potions were gone and there was only one chance. Trying to use a raise dead on the witch. The rogue focused and attempted while the monk fended the assassin off. but to no success.

Then, the monk took a fatal blow and this seemed to be the end of this rogue's life.

There was one chance now... rage and hope for critically hitting him with the falchion.

But time was not on our side. Nor the dice gods. And Gerard, the rogue. Perishes.

...
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This was the end of these adventurer's lives. This is no reload and it thaught me one thing. DO NOT PLAY WHILE SLEEPY.

Tactics were all wrong. That was a winnable fight. Even thou the dice killed me, it was no excuse.


Shame. Shame. Shame.


But hey... I already got a Dual kukri weilding ranger going, and his brother, a Bard accompanies him on his adventures. I also got a little bored with the whole Evil party. It is nice, but no dialog in the game really translates that and you have to keep imagining stuff to make it interesting. Either that, of kill everyone in sight and ignore all quests. Witch is not fun for me.


Also got another idea. The witch sisters. One Evoker and one Enchantress (specialists). Is it doable to do this game without a face char? Because I like the idea of a Monk 11/Ranger who excels at hand-to-hand and is a longbow specialist tattoo wearing Wildling with 4 in CHA and barely speaks. I have the build all thought out. But the Monk restriction on leveling kills me, as the char only takes shape after lvl 10 or so. With 6 ranger levels, he abandons the use of armor and start to transform into a "wild monk" who retains his bow skills. He would accompany the sisters.

 

I've always thought of sorcerers as being good candidates for specialist wizardry- do you think that might work for you?

 

They don't actually get a specialist feature right? They just are natural specialists depending solely on your spell choices as far as I know. It could work as well. And the monk/sorcerer is a well documented build. Also, the sorcerer can actually use diplomacy, right? If it does, then it is a no brainer for the witch sisters I'm thinking of.

As for the monk/ranger. I also thought of a run where he is accompanied by his brother. A monk/druid. One is an archer while the other is a shapeshifter to soak up damage. When they have to switch... the archer can quick draw a couple of Kukris (i know, not monk weapons, but I like them better for the 18-20 crit range) while the other casts spells.

Whooo ho ho ho... I really need to start this game right now. Shame that my current ranger is neutral and cannot take monk levels.

 

Ever thought of doing a ranger/cleric? Back in the ancient days of online MMO's AOL had a D&D based game by SSI called Raven's Bluff(?). Since you needed actual gold to train to raise levels (and gold had weight, so the amount needed to raise would severely lower your movement in battle), a popular build was to create a ranger/cleric- the reason for which was to have the ranger cast Bull Strength to enable you to carry the needed amount of gold and cleric for general healing and whatnot. Having a dual classed cleric might make it easier than just surviving on any found or purchased scrolls, wands or potions to survive...

 

I know of Ranger/Clerics from Baldur's Gate. I find it a class combo hard to fit in RP, because to me, a Ranger that focuses on the divine is ... a Druid.

Right now I'm running a Rogue/Ranger, Bard, Monk/Sorc trio of siblings. In the beginning, I thought Ah Fong sold kukris and rushed to Nulb with a Ring of Invis. (stole lareth's diary without a fight) to get them for my ranger to dual wield. When I got there and realized they were sold by brother smythe all along, I hired Otis and went back. Now I have Otis just smashing things for me while my fragile party gets stronger. Even the Hill Giant fell to Otis with a little lucky bard enchantment thrown at him first to disable him.

I am growing to love bards too. Damn those are some cool dudes to have along with you.

 

"When the going gets tough, the Bard goes drinking".

 

Ahh, the original Bard's Tale. What a great game. :thumbsup:

 

After lurking on this site for over 8 years, I will surface just this once to say thank you for posting these stories of your adventures - I look forward to them for my lunchtime reading!