It's that traditional time of year again!

Winter has landed once again in the UK, my bones twitching through and through with the desire to fire up the ol' Icewind Dale once again and prepare for snow!

24 hours in over the last two weeks and I have to say, each time I play it the game offers new challenges and rewards.

This year I'm going with a Halfling Fighter, a Human Ranger, an Elven Thief, an Human Druid, A Gnomish Illusionist, and a Human Bard. This could well be my first ever run without a Cleric in tow.

While finding the campaign easier each year, I still found myself performing a battle reload when my natural personality trait of impatience led me into a sea of monsters I underestimated with horrific consequences.

But in the main, I'm really getting into my characters as per usual.

My lead fighter has an AC of -7 already, making him immune to all but critical hits from most average monsters - the sword and shield tank. Currently weilding a very nice +2 Longsorwd with added fire damage.

My second fighter - the two-handed weapon specialist - isn't far behind with an AC of -5 and she was recently awash with +1 weapons, but has recently sacrificed specialism for a one handed +2 axe and shield.

My thief is coming along rosy, both Lock Picking and Pick Pocketing already up to 100%, with Trap detection and Stealth at an even 50%. A classic dagger backstabber, he has nice +2 dagger, but mainly assists in battles with ranged weaponry, recently changing from a +1 Sling to a +1 short bow, the +1 and +2 arrows now in good supply, as are fire arrows.

The Druid is holding the fort nicely, covering for the absence of the cleric with sound healing and blessing skills, but also just moving into power spells, such as the OP static charge and some other niceties such as a fire spell and a decent animal summons spell. The only character to not have had a weapon upgrade the whole game, still using a wooden stick to bash people, she has favoured a +1 sling the whole game so far.

The Gnome illusionist is a really feisty treat. He has a +2 dagger, but that's mainly for the bragging rights. When his compendium of power spells, such as Chromatic Orb, Melf's Acid Arrow, Fireball, various Summons wear out, he still has some cool tide-turners up his sleeve, such as mass Haste for group buffing and Mirror Image for personal defence.

My Bard is surprisingly good at power spells, especially with the Necromancy spells which the illusionist is not allowed to use, such as the monster shocking Skull Trap. An adept all-rounder, she also wields a +2 Mace and a +1 Bow of speed, just in case. Her new favourite toy is a nordic Horn of Valhalla which summons 2-4 beserking Vikings who charge at the enemy with massive two-handed swords until either they or the enemy are dead. She also has Black Night chess piece one-time-only summons she hasn't wanted to use up yet. If totaly out of use, she can sing a song and boost everyone's stats. She is currently also the team's scout with her invisibility spell.


Most recent battle:

3 Elite Yuan-ti (hardcore lizardmen) archers standing behind a brutal floor trap guarding the door to the Yuan-ti barracks.

Illusionist casts Shield and then Mirror Image on self, then walks to just before the trap and unloads a catalogue of spells onto the archers. As his Mirror Images get picked off, the Thief comes in and finishes the archers off with some normal arrows then disarms the trap.

All now outside the door, the main tank Halfling opens up and rushes in, then rushes out, a few Yuan-ti take the bate and follow. The Yuan-ti are soon dispatched under a hail of cold steel, sling bullets and arrows. The halfling rushes in and out again, but no more takers.

The druid casts Bless, the illusionist casts Haste, and "to death and glory!" they all rush in to the middle of the room. The two fighters split up and take an archer each. The thief starts pronging the leader with fire arrows. The illusionist, bard and druid just start cracking out random spells, whatever's left.

Ak, I 'horror' my own fighter and he stands there helpless. My bard rushes in and casts invisibility on the guy. Two Yuan-ti archers down, 4 to go (plus 8 supporting sword bearers). My thief gets distracted by a wandering swording Yuan-ti and my bard and illusionist decide to take out one of the remaining archers.

Whoops again, my druid causes more damage to my illusionist and bard by setting them and the Yuan-ti archer on fire - abandon stations. Luckily the thief has managed to defeat his attacker and can now finish off the 'irritating' archer - feweeee.

What's my ranger been doing all this time? Chasing down the other archers, one-by-one with 6 sword bearers in hot pursuit. Luckily, she's hacking down the archers quicker than the sword bearing Yuan-ti can catch up. Uh-oh, only 23/74 HP left though! Healing Potion time!

One quick swig later and she's now able to be assisted by the fire arrows and slings. The remaining Yuan-ti drop like flies.

Now to rifle the room of all its goodies and head back to the tavern for a rest before some hardcore vendor buying and selling. Ooo, and someone's leveled up!

And to think, this is just the room near the start of the corridor towards the current stage's end boss...

Can't wait for the next session!

TL;DR - wasn't meant for you.

Yes indeed, good times!

Duplicate.

I found this image on-line to add a bit of visual recognition to the words. This isn't my posse, but it's the exact location, I can't find a pic of the entire room-full.



This team is having even more trouble than I did. Firstly, they rested after defeating the archers outside (the bodies have evaporated) and secondly, their health bars (the red shading climbing up the player's pictures) are extremely bad considering they look like they're attempting a 'stay outside' uber-patient tactic (or they have run out after a failed inside assault).

It's great that I was able to find a screeny on-line though, it helps to identify that other people consider it one of the most memorable fights (of many). If I find one of inside the room I'll edit it into this post.