Reminder of the channel where the let's plays of Arabel characters in goldbox games is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbd5i31qcMfeaUMz3jtvAzQ
I hope sometime this week to do the writeup of the party and then the first session of Champions of Krynn.
https://nodebb.cityofarabel.com/topic/45576/pool-of-radiance-saga-arabel-edition
Followup to this, now we're doing a play of the Dragonlance Gold Box games, the Heroes of Krynn series.
Composed of the following games:
Champions of Krynn
Death Knights of Krynn
Dark Queen of Krynn
The party is already decided:
Arvan Denethial / Knight of Solamnia
Elestra Thundersword / Fighter
Oliver Baba / Ranger
Borin Battleborn / Dwarf
Victoria Coltsbury / Magic-User
Ophirae Miavyre / Cleric
A proper writeup will be done when close to time.
After Action Report for Pools of Darkness (Act Five)
Campaign complete!
Numerous events happened during the finale, detailed below.
Ky'ran, through the POWER OF TORM, turned a lich in the first encounter with one.
During one wipe, Calder and Yurin were charmed by white dragons, leading to them killing the party.
Geralt may've been the first to achieve Epic leveling due to thief's faster level progression.
Lilyis killed the first dragon encountered, a blue dragon posing as a cloud giant.
Lilyis solo killed an entire Zhentil Mage group, estimated 12 to 16.
Lilyis solo killed 2 Ancient Red Dragons
Ky'ran dealt the final blow on Thorne, a superpowered ancient red dragon.
Calder dealt the final blow to Manshoon's personal beholder servant.
Ky'ran killed Kalistes, a Marilith sworn to Bane.
Geralt killed the first Rakshasa Rajah encountered.
Calder killed the first Banshee encountered, a servant of Marcus, a cleric of Bane.
Ky'ran killed Marcus.
Yurin killed Tanetal, a Glabrezu lieutenant of Bane.
Calder killed the first Death Tyrant encountered by the party.
Ky'ran killed Arcam, a high-ranking beholder within the Mulmaster Beholder Corps.
Deirdre turned Cadorna, a traitor NPC from Pool of Radiance.
The wielders of the artifacts gained from Bane's lieutenants: Kyran, the Talisman of Bane, Calder the Horn of Doom and Lilyis the Crystal Ring.
Calder killed Xoham, an Elder Orb servant of the Balor Gothmenes, the top lieutenant of Bane.
Lilyis, wielding a Vorpal Long Sword, dealt the final blow to Gothmenes.
Calder, Ky'ran and Geralt died during the final battle, sacrificing themselves to drop the final remaining monsters.
The party's kill count has to be genocide in levels, I couldn't keep track of all the dragons, drow, Bane minions and other assorted monsters slain on the way to saving the day. The text descriptions in the final dungeons implied it was straight out of Doom.
The biggest death trippers this act: THE ENTIRE PARTY. Usual cause of death: Minion of Bane dragonbreath or Pet of Kalistes Disintegrate. Calder and Yurin IIRC were the biggest targets, with Geralt and Lilyis right behind. Estimated death count is double digits for each member, minimum.
In bizarre incidents of near TPK, Ky'ran would solo entire swarms, demonstrating how absurd paladins actually are.
The difficulty curve in Pools of Darkness was extreme. Even on easiest level, the sheer number of AOE/magic spammers could take down a well-equipped and leveled party. This is because of how strong, regardless of difficulty, the Pet of Kalistes (Disintegrate spammers with save-or-die poison bites with -2 save penalties) and Minion of Bane (Blue) with lightning breath spam actually are.
End of Pools of Darkness levels:
Ky'ran Level 29 Paladin
Geralt Level 32 Thief
Calder Level 27 Ranger
Yurin Level 24 Thief
Deirdre Level 29 Cleric
Lilyis Level 25 Mage
After Action Report for Secret of the Silver Blades (Act Four)
Remorhaz: 13
Pyro-Hydras: 11
Iron Golems: 16
Adult or Older Dragons: 42
The party also saw numerous firsts!
Deirdre killed the first Iron Golem
Calder killed the first Adult Dragon, an Ancient Red Dragon
Geralt killed the first Remorhaz
Yurin went berserk as a result of Umber Hulk magic
I might be mixing it up, but Lilyis killed a dragon or golem, maybe even a Storm Giant
Yurin, with a DEVASTATING backstab (sneak attack in 3E+) killed the Golden Warrior, the elite bodyguard of the final boss
Ky'ran dealt the killing blow to the Dreadlord, a Banelich that was sealed away for 300+ years
The big death trippers this act were Lilyis, Calder and Yurin. Usually from dragonbreath or double Lightning Bolt.
Note: Difficulty appears to be spot on with Veteran going via New Game+ Limited. One short segment towards the end proved extremely difficult due to circumstances, so I moved it to Novice to clear the two battles, putting it to Champion for the final segment immediately after.
Start of Pools of Darkness:
Ky'ran 8 FTR/15 PAL
Geralt 8 FTR/18 TH
Calder 8 FTR/ 15 RNG
Yurin 9 FTR/17 TH
Deirdre 7 PAL/15 CLR
Lilyis 7 RNG/15 MU
After Action Report for Curse of the Azure Bonds (Act Three):
The party killed four Black Dragons!
Yurin killed a Dracolich.
He also killed a Dark Elven Lord with a huge backstab blow.
Ky'ran got run over by a horse ridden by Princess Nacacia. (Yes, that Nacacia)
Lilyis killed Geralt with a Fireball more than once.
Deirdre was chosen to become a member of the Swanmays.
Lilyis killed two avatars of Moander, the god of rot and corruption.
Unexpectedly, the hero killing Tyranthraxus (this time possessing the body of a Storm Giant) was Porkpie once more.
Calder appears to be a magnet for death magic and hold person magic.
Note: Will be doing offscreen grind to get them to level caps before moving on to Secret of the Silver Blades.
Party Status:
End of Curse of the Azure Bonds (before grinding)
Ky'ran 8 PAL
Geralt 8 FTR/9 TH
Calder 8 RNG
Yurin 9 FTR/10 TH
Deirdre 7 PAL / 10 CLR
Lilyis 7 RNG / 11 MU
Start of Secret of the Silver Blades (will start when hitting the cap for each class)
Ky'ran 8 FTR/11 PAL
Geralt 8 FTR /12 TH
Calder 8 FTR / 11 RNG
Yurin 9 FTR / 12 TH
After Action Report for Hillsfar (Act Two):
Ky'ran was chosen as the single party member to do a Hillsfar run.
In the process of adventuring in Hillsfar, he proved himself an excellent marksman, beat minotaurs, lizardmen and even an armored knight in 1-on-1 combat within an arena, using quarterstaves.
Ky'ran's further adventures involved him breaking into a cemetary to retrieve lost Fighter's Guild documents, investigating a murder-robbery, foiling a framing attempt by a corrupt Advisor to the King of Hillsfar and breaking up a slave trading ring!
Party Status:
Pool of Radiance
Ky'ran 8 FTR
Geralt 8 FTR
Calder 8 FTR
Yurin 6 FTR/7 TH
Deirde 6 CLR
Lilyis 6 MU
Start of Curse of the Azure Bonds:
Ky'ran 1 PAL (Previous 8 FTR)
Geralt 1 TH (Previous 8 FTR)
Calder 1 RNG (Previous 8 FTR)
Yurin 6 FTR/ 7 TH
Deirdre 7 PAL/8 CLR (Previous 6 CLR)
Lilyis 7 RNG/8 MU (Previous 6 MU)
Note: Deirdre and Lilyis were remade with their previous XP levels to accommodate for Ranger and Paladin being unavailable in Pool of Radiance.
After Action Report for Pool of Radiance (Act One):
Lilyis is a boxing machine, as she killed many things unarmed before she could have access to spells with AOE.
Calder gave his life (he got raised later) to help the party brute force an ungodly maze and skip ahead to the endgame's location.
Private Porkchop is a dragonslayer, as he managed to kill an ancient bronze dragon with two swings.
Thanks to the goofy scaling of Pool of Radiance, the party is now responsible for likely hundreds of dead goblins, kobolds, orcs and more. The monster deities and Bane are not happy
No voting so I'm making some choices.
New Game+ Limited
Yes Limbo
Adept Difficulty (may raise to Champion if still too easy with gear)
In picking NGL, I realized to keep the game difficulty overall balanced, I needed to increase the monsters' power as well. Akin to DMs balancing for certain levels of gear/consumables/levels, this is meant to provide an equal playing field. Limbo Cheese is just to make it a house rule due to game nonsense.
Also looking to do the first one in a few hours (like 3-4) or Saturday due to Final Fantasy XIV being down for maintenance.
Yes, there was a Cloudflare-related outage that affected Discord and other services/sites that used it.
Here are the polls.
https://www.strawpoll.me/18203435 New Game+ Poll
https://www.strawpoll.me/18203440 Limbo Cheese Poll
https://www.strawpoll.me/18203445 Difficulty Selection Poll
I'll run them for a few days.