Tales of a Tal Tamir's Lone Elf Conjurer

A response to this:
http://www.co8.org/forum/showthread.php?p=94953#post94953

And so begin the "Tales of a Tal Tamir's Lone Elf Conjurer"

Co8 v5.7.2

Point buy elven wizard as a single person in a party. No NPC recruitment (unless they are an escort quest).

Male elf, average height for an elf, white hair in a braid, voice set "power hungry".
Alignment: Neutral Good

Stats:
STR: 11
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 16
Wis: 8
Cha: 8

Starting equipment:
200 arrows
Longbow
White Robe
Eyeglasses
Scholar's Kit
Rat Familiar named "Hath"
Longsword

Starting feat:
Spell Focus (conjuration)

School focus: Conjuration
Schools Banned: Evocation, Necromancy

Starting spells: Charm Person, Color Spray, Grease, Mage Armor, Sleep.

Class skills (maxed): Concentration, Spellcraft
Cross Class Skills (all maxed out): Appraise, Tumble, Survival

I noticed I forgot to get summon monster 1, so I bought a scroll at the shopmap and scribed it to spellbook.
tried to test the various summons only to recall why I didn't get it... summon monster has a duration of 1 round per CL... at CL1 it lasts 1 round. useless...

initial prepared spells:
color spray, sleep, mage armor

I just recalled I had previously altered the XP gain multiplier to be 1.00 (PnP values)... the default setting for the module IIRC is 0.72 (used as a method of balance), and in 5.7.2 it was changed to 0.6
So I am going to restart...

Alright, I have switched it back to 0.6
now to start a new game. Note that being an elf is a problem for such a challenging attempt... as they are inferior to humans IMAO... but I will try it nonetheless.

Alright, I rolled less money this time... I also failed my copy scroll spellcraft check, as such I don't have summon monster 1 (I have the scroll, I don't have it ready).

 

Alright, started the game... one day while walking down the street, blah blah... hear a scream from a nearby alleyway. (NG opening vignette)...

start by going into combat mode. Casting mage armor...

Go into the alley... "murderous theif" says "you have seen too much, prepared to die.
Combat starts. He wins initiative, he shoots at me, scores a hit against my AC of 17 and he deals 8 damage, killing me...

Reload shopmap and try again...
I think I will be more aggressive. I knew he was hostile and a murderer and had no reason to approach... So I will go hostile instead of running towards him until he attacks.

Alright... second time is a charm...
Cast mage armor on myself... cast sleep spell. He fails his save.
I run towards him, swap to a longsword (from longbow) and coup de grace him... he dies and I gain 180XP.

Went to church of St. cuthbert first thing... paid 10gp to the poor to gain entrance. Talked to terjon, gave him canonness ydey's pendant and gained 180XP, talked to him and gained all quests and map locations he can give. Stole a bunch of scrolls and potions on the way out ... looted the well that is hiding some money and gems...
then its time for FedExing all around town... sigh.

And I reached level 2 after converting the leatherworker (by using the potion of heal on his brother)... level up then more fedex for me. Learned Detect Secret Doors and True Strike. Also successfully copied my scroll of summon monster 1.
prepared spells: sleep x2, summon monster 1, mage armor.

and that is it... without social skills i was unable to complete any of the fed ex quests.. i couldn't even catch corl because the dialog with the badgers is bugged.
I completed:
opening vignette
know when to fold them
terjon wants more followers.

time to go to the moathouse...

first giant frog, fails its save against sleep, coup de grace.
Go back to town, rest.
come back, face a second giant frog. it makes its saves against both sleep spells. I try to maneuver so i can escape combat but it kills me.

of course, I should I have made some scrolls. I would have had 2 more attempts to cast sleep on it that way.
I will try it again later that way...

 

Good luck, this will be lots of reloading. A wizard, even more so an elf, will be getting killed all the time, especially on early levels. Unless you double-class to fighter early on, of course. A sorcerer would've been easier, at least for the social skills. Regardless, you'll be gaining XP at a rate that will put you at level 10 before going very deep into the Temple.

 

No multi-classing!

The purpose of my original 1 elf wizard party was to get the mage up to third level, then go to the Welcome Wench and add the other 4 members of the party and equip them with the gear captured by rhe mage. This was back in the unpatched vanilla days. After I got the mage up to third level. I saved and used that save as the starting point for several games with various parties. I didn't discover Co8 until 2005.

Her name was Amandera (who's namesake I will be seeing later today) and her picture was the profile of the brown haired, pointed-eared lady with a pony tail. Her stats were:

str 14
dex 20
con 13
int 17
wis 13
cha 9

I don't remember her starting equipment, but I bought her Studded Armor, a Long Sword and a Short Bow. (You had to kill Lareth's Guard Lieutenant to get a Long Bow.) She had spell failure a lot, but I meleed her through a lot of encounters. 5 foot step back, ready for approach, hopefully not be surrounded, repeat. Die over and over.

Good Luck!

 

I've only been to Texas once in my life and I don't ever recall seeing no elves of any kind while I was there! Are they down by the border or do they sneak in from mexico? oke:

 

I dunno man, I like challenges but a straight-up wizard run w/o multiclassing seems more like masochism. I like to make crazy parties that, with some luck, can get through the game with few or no saves. Like a rogue/mage or evil cleric or druid single-man party.

 

I did a enjoyable run through KotB with a straight wizard illusionist elf. The idea being they can't hit me if they can't see me! I chose elf so I could max out dex from the begining (18+2 baby!). I also thought it wise to fight with a rapier and finesse. +5 to hit and all the blur spells didn't make him half bad!

 

Why not go with charm person, then seek out some random encounters and pick up a meat shield pirate, brigand, or lizard man. Keep them the whole day, they don't take away XP, and allow you to sit back with spells and arrows.


Later on, move up to charm monster, and pick up some real baddies for meat shielding. I suggest the umber hulks.

 

I would get some npc friends until he is level 3-4. Why did you ban evocation? You dont like fireball?

 

Long hair and Ten-Gallon Hats, Pardner! :wyatt:

 

Would it be possible for the single wizard to take on Iuz? Or are you just going to try to avoid that fight?

 

This works like a charm, actually (pun intended). Except for this tactic, a sorcerer would be better, cause they're better at spamming same spells.

 

the problem isn't being a wizard... in fact its easier as a level 1 wizard vs a level 1 fighter... tough opponents like a 32HP giant frog which SWALLOWS you have a 50% chance of dying when I cast sleep on them. The challenge is that there is only one of me and this game is designed for a party.

When I reach level 3 I need a party much less, since a level 3 wizard has access to web. I would be using it every battle...

This is practice... my goal is to eventually try this without dying once . (that would be difficult).

the biggest problem with the elf is that he sacrifices an extra feat (And extra skillpoints which would have allowed me to take social skills) for what is basically a few martial weapon proficiencies... Although swapping HP for DEX (AC and ranged to hit) is also not idea, its not that terrible because, well... AC and to hit are good.

Anyways, I tried to solve more "social" quests with charm person...
So I went to finniken and charm personed him... he made the save and he and his kids went hostile... lets try again.
Second time I tried he failed the save... his two daughters and 10 year old boy attack me and him, he starts beating them up (all 4 deal non lethal damage). I switch out to me sword, check the non lethal box, and knock them all down.
Then I initiate conversation with him...
And after helping me beat up his own children he is still as rude and tells me to get the hell out of his house...
pass some time and all the children get up and get hostile, while charm wears off and he also goes hostile...

Also, wow charm person is basically DOMINATE but without direct control of their actions... they should NOT be attacking their own children for me.

A wizard is ahead of a sorcerer by spell level. And being specialized diminishes the sorcerer's advantage... at some points to nothing. ex: level 3 the wizard has 2+int modxday SL2 spells, sorc has none, level 4 the wizard has 3+int mod a day, sorc has 3+cha mod a day, level 5 wizard has 3+int mod still, but has gained 2+int mod level 3 spells, sorc on the other hand gets to 4+cha mod SL2 spells.

Besides, I need web ASAP.

Because at the time I didn't realize that the game treats charm person as dominate monster.

I needed to ban something, and this was the safest. If I need to down a room I use cloudkill... fireball before level 10 isn't doing that much damage anyways, and it ruins web (which I am gonna use, a LOT).

Well, last time I saw him was vanilla... this time I think it might actually take me enough effort to kill the final boss for iuz to show up...however, as a neutral good party I:
1. Don't have the luxury of murdering lowbie NPCs for XP and their stuff which I could do very safely. (furnoks ring of invisibility would be WOW)
2. Do get the luxury of having st. cuthbert help me.

 

alright...
made 5 scrolls of mage armor, 5 scrolls of true strike, 5 sleep, 5 summon monster 1, and 5 charm person. cost 25XP and 300gp (for all 25 scrolls).

prepared spells are now:
summon monster 1 (specialist slot), 2x sleep, 1x charm person.

I have invested originally in survival over diplomacy or sense motive... the social skills would have let me do better on the fedex quests... survival improves my chances to avoid being surprised in the wild... but maybe I should have gone with diplomacy... if it could have made me reach level 3 faster (and thus web and belt of freedom of movement known as "vest of escape") then I would be golden.

back to the moathouse...
used scroll of mage armor. I could trigger the frogs with summon monster 1 because i know where they are, but that is cheating... so... run forward...

first frog, tumble away, cast sleep, it falls asleep... coup de grace, its dead.
as soon as it dies second frog triggers... uh oh... i fail tumble, but it misses, I sleep it... and it falls asleep. I run to coup de grace it... and instead trigger the third frog... tumble successfully... i am out of useful spells, luckily i have scrolls. I am going to run around in circles and cast sleep on it from scrolls until it falls asleep, then coup de grace both frogs and run back to town.
Alright, it failed its save on the first sleep scroll... i finished off both of them... 3 dead frogs and I am now 540xp richer... of course, i wasted 2XP worth of scrolls which I need to remake.

I should have gone with improved initiative instead of school focus conjuration. School focus conjuration in of itself is useless... but it lets me take augment summoning... however, I think at level 3 i will go with craft wonderous items after all... that vest of escape is simply too good to pass up. level 5 craft magic arms and armor, level 6, augment summoning (Since I already took the prereq)

Alright... back in town... rested, made 2 new scrolls. cost 2XP and 24gp.
I'd like to see a single fighter beat 3 giant frogs in the moathouse without any rest or prep between them

back to moat house... used scroll of mage armor...mmm... a 5th frog? i don't remember that one...
it makes its first save, it hits me for 5hp, I am down to... 2? was I injured and not noticed?
It fails its second saving through though and falls asleep, i slit its throat and leg it back to town... rest until healed... 4 days rest.
Replenish used scroll for 1XP and 12GP. making me 179XP ahead thanks to that last frog.

Back into the fray... shame I am out of frogs, they were excellent XP.
I explore around and I stumble across a back entrance... I enter... immediately I am attacked, my initiative sucks, The archers and the swordsman miss, the guy with the greataxe hits me for 11 points, I am at -1, dead.
Reload....
I will try sneaking around at all times now. not "cheating" is kind of tough, I new it was a bad idea to enter from that door since they immediately attack, but I don't want to metagame too hard.

as an interesting aside, it seems that scrolls use your int modifier for DC instead of the minimal to cast them... 14 vs 11 as they should.
I go in the front door... ambush! I run... i sleep two archer brigands and run... a swordsman gives chase... charm, he fails... back into the fray... another comes, he makes his save against a charm (scroll)... i run next to the one I charmed, but his AI broke, he just stands there, he makes his save vs scroll of charm... I get hit, I am now at 4HP. I decide to sleep him and kill him.. it works. I then hit the charmed one from afar, having decided to cut my loses and escape. He runs take some damage, down to 3HP, but runs...

Combat end, 180XP gained, and the loot of one brigand. I say heck with it and leg it back to town... 3 days rest to reach full health.
I alter my spell selection:
3x sleep + 1x mage armor.
This time I have a plan, draw them one by one... sleep and slay.

I take a hit from an archer... i use up 3 sleep spells and 2 sleep scrolls... i manage to coup de grace 3 swordsmen before some of my previous sleeps expire... i cut and run. leaving their corpses unlooted. I sleep for 3 days to recover HP. I will be back... replenish my stock of sleep scrolls... 4 more scrolls.

and I reach level 3... However, instead of leveling up right away or running to town to level I start looting.. here i am heavily encumbered with lower AC and I come across a bandit that i missed... he goes first, critical hit, 12 damage. Not enough to down me had i been level 3, but enough to kill my level 2 self... this is a mistake I will not repeat. From now on, levelup as soon as allowed to... I reload, been a while since I saved, in fact, before i even started fighting the bandits... no matter. I know what to do... i go back, sleep two archers, take a hit, run, two follow... one goes down, other makes a few saves but eventually goes down too... thank god for scrolls.

I keep it up, sleep and slay... ding... level 3... if I didn't have sleep i'd have used color spray... without it? grease and a bow. or maybe charm person if the AI wasn't so dumb.

I level up... take up craft wonderous items... web (it wins!), and knock (for vest of escape)...
uh oh... vest of escape requires level 4. I could have taken a more effective spell than knock and taken knock at level 4. Or maybe even purchased knock... mmm... I need a trip to burne to buy some spells actually.

I buy a bunch of spells from burne... level 2 and 3 spells I don't have.
SL2 spells prepared: Web, Summon monster 2, protection from arrows.

Now I can use web to immobilize everyone, while plinking with my bow, and being protected against arrows.

I leave... and I get my first random encounter, a 1xgoblin, 1xhobgoblin... good thing I have some survival... i choose to engage.
tougher because i didn't have an option to buff first, but sleep and slay works. I noticed that coup de grace with bows doesn't consume arrows so I no longer need to keep switching back and forth to my sword.
back to town to heal.

second random encounter, a ghoul... I would normally avoid it as its sure to kill me, but I am curious to try a fight against it (web it, then plink with a bow)...
I notice that now that I am level 3 there are random encounters.

Accidently ran into the web (i was in the swamp and the navigation AI sucks).. reload... from now on i move with the move command so i can see the path it takes..

entered the ruined tower in the moathouse... attacked by a giant spider... got webbed... summon monster 2, celestial dog... it did some damage. I kept on failing my concentration check to cast in a web, then the spirder was making his save against sleep... followed up by using 2 scrolls of summon monster 1, no choice, it just summoned an owl... and scrolls of sleep. eventually it fell asleep.. I coup de graced it. i will rest here and prepare knock to open the locked chest.
found scrolls and 2 neutralize poison potions... learned new spell, protection from evil. Will sell scrolls of forbidden school, for now I will keep the potions. I will also scribe new sleep scrolls.