Alastria v3, Human Transmuter: Early Adventures, Part 2
I'm pleased to say that Alastria has made progress. I am not pleased to say that I haven't. I am exhausted. Barely functioning. I'm sitting in one of those black faux leather airport chairs with a $17 Starbuck Americano on the seat next to me. I thought the coffee would help, but I'm too tired to drink it- too scared that'll spill it all over my laptop. Life is not treating me kindly, and my escape, this game, isn't treating me kindly either. In fact the game is more infuriating than the airport. One man is to blame. If you know me then you know who.
The session wasn't all bad. We started by nixing some Gnarl and Hairtooth, seeking to raise funds for the Dagger of Venom. Hairtooth was dropped by lobbing Skull Traps over Gnarl.
Gnarl was dropped with wolf paws. All in all a satisfying win.
Gnarl and Hairtooth aside, Alastria's battle plan these days is buff, disable, flip. She buffs with Strength, Shield and Mirror Image. She disables with Color Spray and Chromatic Orb. She finishes in wolf form, with Heart of the Golem in her off hand. This works- really well, actually.
I've long lamented the Cloak of the Wolf's lack of utility. Those days are gone. In fact, Relair's Mistake is full on OP now. This is a result of three changes. I support two of them. The other is busted and should be patched.
The first change is that added APR from Haste effects now stacks with the Cloak of the Wolf APR bonus. That's really nice. I've requested that multiple times over the years. The second change pertains to the wolf forms handling of strengh. L2 Strength cast before the flip now carries over, allowing Alastria to rock 18/50 in wolf form without pulling a sequencer. Again, nice.
The third change, the busted change, relates to the handling of off hand weapons. Off hand weapons can be wielded in wolf form. That alone is suspicious. The crazy thing is they can be wielded without dual wield penalties, regardless of proficiencies. So, a 1APR character with no proficiency point in dual wielding can now fight at 4APR with no penalties at all. That's full on loco. And since L2 Strength now carries over, the damage isn't awful either. Before long, Alastria will be rocking 4PR with a solid THAC0 and exceptional strength, protected by Ghost Armor, II, MI, Blur and a reserve MI + Blur Sequencer. If you warriors out there are getting jealous, you should be. It's no joke.
For now we're using a lesser version: 3APR, Strength, Shield and MI. That setup may not be optimal, but it's still respectable. It's getting the job done in the early game at least.
I don't usually rescue Dynaheir in my solo games. But since we're still in need of a Blindness scroll, I thought we'd punk the pooches, hoping for a lucky drop. Here we see Alastria getting a little cocky. She stunned this one with COrb and then straight up punched him in the face. Weird flex, but give the girl a break: her dagger broke- iron crisis and all.
In the end the mission was a partial success. We rescued Dynaheir but we didn't find a Blindness scroll. Blindness synergies really well with Alastria's strategy. It's a shame she doesn't have it.
Our next stop was Durlag's Tower for yet more gratuitous XP hunting. This time we took down the basilisks. We meleed them in wolf form under Pro Pet. That damage came from that random doppelgänger over by the stairway.
The ankeg lair followed. Alastria's -2 Color Spray is death to ankhegs. They were finished in wolf form.
Only one ankeg landed a hit. Alastria countered with a MI + Invisibility sequencer. I'm playing with innate sequencers for this first time in this run. It’s a welcome change, nudging me into using my sequencers more.
With our XP looking strong, we resumed building our item set. That brought us to Greywolf and Melium. Both fights were super smooth. One bordered on too smooth. Thanks to a level up and a Potion of Intelligence x 2 memorization session, Alastria now have the slots and spells she needs. We’re looking forward to Polymorph Self, ofc, the wolf form is looking strong, buffed with Ghost Armor, Strength, MI, Blur and II. Against Greywolf, who was running Oil of Speed, Alastria opened Chill Touch, preferring human form while she went to work with her disablers. Malison was first.
Followed by Hold Person
From there is was din-din time for the wolfie-wolf. Munch, munch.
The Melium fight was even less dramatic. An opening Dart of Stunning won that one.
Sendai and Co met a similar fate, disabled via Malison->Hold Person and then dropped by the wolf. I’ll be using disablers far more with Alastria than I do with most of my casters. Transmuters need to be more proactive about neutralizing threats, especially in BG2.
Finally, Vax and Zal. Same game plan: buff, disable, flip. I’d say more, but I’m pretty sure you get the idea. Plus I’m posting from my phone in a hotel bar and it’s more than a little awkward.
Assuming this complimentary pisco sour does its job, I may actually get some sleep tonight. If so I’ll see you tomorrow. If not I’ll post on Mulahey and Nimbul in about 30 minutes.
As for the tale of woe I alluded to in the intro, that’ll have to wait for the next post. Hopefully -hopefully- tomorrow.
Cheers (literally),
A.
