do party members not receive XP if they're not in the party? This is going to be tedious...
This is what multiple playthroughs are for.
However, since the potential party members have such distinctive personalities, and some have very strong alignments for good or ill, and some may choose to leave your party during the game for reasons in or out of your control... you're never really thinking to yourself "damn, I need to swap members soon to keep levels the same". In fact, i've never thought that in any of my many playthroughs.
I think the writers/developers did a fantastic job in avoiding this situation, by making the NPCs so varied and story/alignment appropriate for the main character.
Just take who you like, and feel is appropriate for your character and/or 6-person party.
Ignore the rest, swap out losers as you find 'upgrades'.
the only issue would be that dualing out of swashbuckler so early would mean not really taking advantage of it's bonuses (primarily the AC), and the thief skills might wind up not being all that useful given how much of them you get at level 8 or whatever thieves start at. And thief doesn't open up as many fun weapon choices as kensai does.
When I did my kensai/mage one I dualed at 12 or 13 - I don't remember, whichever one gives you the extra to-hit bonus - and kicked everyone out of my party and kept learning and unlearning spells for xp.
I might just go straight swashbuckler though.
What do monks get that's cool? I've never played one.
Monks get Click Here to Win the Game. It's fun, you should try it at least once.
In all seriousness, they start off pretty frail - especially if you're doing a Tutu run through BG1 - but once you get somewhere into the low teens they just start destroying stuff. By the time you clear watcher's keep you could probably rip a dragon's head off solo.
I was going to play either wizard or monk. Wizards end up kind of blowing late into the NWN games though so I wasn't sure.
Hahahahaha
hahahahah
hahahaha.
Casters in BG2 are Jesus. They open with a spell that is pretty much "kill everything". They then go to "No seriously, kill everything" followed by "Without any save, kill everything. Even bosses. Everything"
Monks on the other hand go from "Hit it to death" to "One-shot the dragon" to "What's a party?"
I played through BG2 and the expansion as a monk, and honestly, it was insanely overpowered. You start out the game kind of weak, but by the end of it you pretty much wreak shit constantly.
Man, this thread is making me want to do another run of BG2, but I just finished it like 2 weeks ago and my DA is arriving tomorrow :?
So many things I haven't tried.
I was going to play either wizard or monk. Wizards end up kind of blowing late into the NWN games though so I wasn't sure.
Hahahahaha
hahahahah
hahahaha.
Casters in BG2 are Jesus. They open with a spell that is pretty much "kill everything". They then go to "No seriously, kill everything" followed by "Without any save, kill everything. Even bosses. Everything"
Monks on the other hand go from "Hit it to death" to "One-shot the dragon" to "What's a party?"
Oh well that'll be nice. The point at which I told NWN2 to go fuck itself was when I realised they didn't put time stop in the game.
They put time stop in BG2. They put it in hard. And your opponents will use it like the dirty bitches they are.
Irenicus; Time stop
Irenicus: Death spell
Irenicus: Death spell
Irenicus: Death Cloud
Irenicus: Fireball
Irenicus: Fireball
Irenicus Fireball
Irenicus: Laughs. Die bitch.
They put time stop in BG2. They put it in hard. And your opponents will use it like the dirty bitches they are.
Irenicus; Time stop
Irenicus: Death spell
Irenicus: Death spell
Irenicus: Death Cloud
Irenicus: Fireball
Irenicus: Fireball
Irenicus Fireball
Irenicus: Laughs. Die bitch.
That's the thing about mages in BG2. Your mage has to be ready for several fights. Every other mage just has to be ready for one.
And then you get dragon's breath and all is right with the world again.
do party members not receive XP if they're not in the party? This is going to be tedious...
Usually you just pick your people for that playthrough and just don't use any of the others. Its not really like Mass Effect or Dragon Age where you'll find occasion to be switching people out.
And if I remember right each potential party member is autoleveled to within your current xp bracket when you meet them, so if you met Edwin at level 10 he'd be 9-10, but if its at 15 he'd be 14 and so on.
Raynaga on
0
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
There's always the option of just giving party members you never bring with you XP up to a level or two below you to make it not suck.
They put time stop in BG2. They put it in hard. And your opponents will use it like the dirty bitches they are.
Irenicus; Time stop
Irenicus: Death spell
Irenicus: Death spell
Irenicus: Death Cloud
Irenicus: Fireball
Irenicus: Fireball
Irenicus Fireball
Irenicus: Laughs. Die bitch.
ToB gets a fair share of enemies that completely ignore Time Stop though, so it can end up biting you in the ass.
[Sorry about the double post, didn't realize you can't edit when jailed]
Raynaga on
0
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
There's not that many of them though, and the tactics that involve timestop typically are used to disperse of groups of powerful enemies of which I don't think there's a single instance where more than one enemy on the screen at a time is immune to time stop.
Though I would add, that spell list is missing Improved Alacrity. That spell is so absurdly broken.
How does one develop an immunity to the stopping of time anyway? I mean how often would that have to come up for one to work up a resistance? Also, would it not become incredibly tedious to be the only person immune to the stopping of time in a world where the effect is used with comparitive frequency? You'd be trying to do your laundry and the machine would keep pausing because on the other side of the continent Elminster had elected to bugger about.
Tube on
0
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
How does one develop an immunity to the stopping of time anyway? I mean how often would that have to come up for one to work up a resistance? Also, would it not become incredibly tedious to be the only person immune to the stopping of time in a world where the effect is used with comparitive frequency? You'd be trying to do your laundry and the machine would keep pausing because on the other side of the continent Elminster had elected to bugger about.
In D&D Time Stop doesn't actually stop time. The spell speeds you up so fast that for you, the perception of reality is that everything is stopped.
How does one develop an immunity to the stopping of time anyway? I mean how often would that have to come up for one to work up a resistance? Also, would it not become incredibly tedious to be the only person immune to the stopping of time in a world where the effect is used with comparitive frequency? You'd be trying to do your laundry and the machine would keep pausing because on the other side of the continent Elminster had elected to bugger about.
Yeah, its mostly high-level dragons, some lich characters, and a few others I think. But nothing sucks worse than casting Time Stop so you can start tossing some Horrid Wiltings, Dragon Breaths, and other AoE goodness and discover that all you did was freeze your party and turn a fight that was six adventurers vs. dragon into just you vs dragon.
It's sort of the game's way of saying "Hi PC, there are Powerful arcane and mysterious creatures about, you're going to have to learn something other then the Time Stop Spam combo".
Robman on
0
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
Though really, as a mage, 1 on 1 is still fairly skewed in your favour. Of course, your party members will want to stab you in the back later for causing them to be defenseless for 4 rounds.
How does one develop an immunity to the stopping of time anyway? I mean how often would that have to come up for one to work up a resistance? Also, would it not become incredibly tedious to be the only person immune to the stopping of time in a world where the effect is used with comparitive frequency? You'd be trying to do your laundry and the machine would keep pausing because on the other side of the continent Elminster had elected to bugger about.
In D&D Time Stop doesn't actually stop time. The spell speeds you up so fast that for you, the perception of reality is that everything is stopped.
How does one develop an immunity to the stopping of time anyway? I mean how often would that have to come up for one to work up a resistance? Also, would it not become incredibly tedious to be the only person immune to the stopping of time in a world where the effect is used with comparitive frequency? You'd be trying to do your laundry and the machine would keep pausing because on the other side of the continent Elminster had elected to bugger about.
In D&D Time Stop doesn't actually stop time. The spell speeds you up so fast that for you, the perception of reality is that everything is stopped.
Which would make it even more infuriating.
nah, our hypothetical peasant doing his laundry would never notice if eliminster is in the next town over casting spells like he's the Flash.
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
You know what I had a hard time running against in my first playthrough. Mind Flayers. Nothing was worse than sitting there and watching my whole party get stunned and the Mind Flayer nonchalantly walking up and devouring everyones brains, one by one.....
Thank god when I ran through as a monk he had the saves to beat it. And then even later I realized they gave you potions to deal with it. Then I cried a bit on the inside. But seriously, Mind Flayers are awesomely ridiculous.
The greatest RPG fight I ever experienced was in ToB with the Ascension mod running.
If I remember correctly, I was running Wizard PC, Edwin, Viconia, Korgan, Imoen, and Valen (the vampire fight/rogue you can download from weidu's site). We all enter into Abazigal's chamber. Now normally you walk up to him, have a conversation and it's a fight against a Dragon + 4 Salamanders. With Ascension running it was the salamanders, 7 different drakes with poison and stoneskin, some silver dragon who had priest spells (including HEAL, that bitch), and Abazigal himself with 2 life bars starting off as some crazy human form kensai that had whirlwind and all those good epic level abilities.
Head in, immediately throw down a time stop trap and start summoning some Mordaken Swords to keep the big guy busy. Time trap pops and I had Valen kill a few drakes with her level drain. After that it was basically a giant fuck-all melee to kill the other Dragon and other minions who basically rush you, then to kill Abazigal twice. When I finally got to Abazigal in dragon form, I threw everything I had at him, every single offensive spell for the three of my mages, even getting Viconia to throw up divine power and harm. It was crazy, after like an hour of pauses and straight balls to the wall boss fight, I ran out of things to use and had my main character die to some spell effect.
Then I find out that Ascension bugged my game so that Abazigal couldn't die. Fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
How does one develop an immunity to the stopping of time anyway? I mean how often would that have to come up for one to work up a resistance? Also, would it not become incredibly tedious to be the only person immune to the stopping of time in a world where the effect is used with comparitive frequency? You'd be trying to do your laundry and the machine would keep pausing because on the other side of the continent Elminster had elected to bugger about.
In D&D Time Stop doesn't actually stop time. The spell speeds you up so fast that for you, the perception of reality is that everything is stopped.
Which would make it even more infuriating.
nah, our hypothetical peasant doing his laundry would never notice if eliminster is in the next town over casting spells like he's the Flash.
as far as I can tell, though, there's no range limit to Time Stop. Which wouldn't matter if you don't resist it, time goes on as normal.
But if you do, you have to keep in mind that someone, somewhere is casting horrible death magic, and you're sitting there waiting for the fucking spell to expire so you can rejoin the goddamn world. And in BG2, it seems everyone knows timestop so
How does one develop an immunity to the stopping of time anyway? I mean how often would that have to come up for one to work up a resistance? Also, would it not become incredibly tedious to be the only person immune to the stopping of time in a world where the effect is used with comparitive frequency? You'd be trying to do your laundry and the machine would keep pausing because on the other side of the continent Elminster had elected to bugger about.
In D&D Time Stop doesn't actually stop time. The spell speeds you up so fast that for you, the perception of reality is that everything is stopped.
Which would make it even more infuriating.
nah, our hypothetical peasant doing his laundry would never notice if eliminster is in the next town over casting spells like he's the Flash.
as far as I can tell, though, there's no range limit to Time Stop. Which wouldn't matter if you don't resist it, time goes on as normal.
But if you do, you have to keep in mind that someone, somewhere is casting horrible death magic, and you're sitting there waiting for the fucking spell to expire so you can rejoin the goddamn world. And in BG2, it seems everyone knows timestop so
oh, I see what you mean. Like, if you're abazigal, it would constantly be something that bothers you.
on the other hand, I'm relatively happy with that outcome
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
On the other hand, imagine the pain that would result in boobies being fondled at super-crazy-time-seems-to-be-stopped speed. Like think of the force involved with the D/T thing. And now imagine there's only one dude in town with the saving throw against time stop.
My favorite moment from BG2 was self-induced, pretty much.
I guess I'm in the minority, but I really liked Aerie, and always took her.
So we were fighting the Shadow Dragon in that ruined temple, and it was hard going. I had a mostly melee party and Aerie was my only mage. I thought I was going to have to reload when suddenly *BAM* he's just gone and there's a pile of ashes on the ground. I didn't have a clue what happened so I went through the events log.
"Aerie casts Disintegrate."
From her personality, I immediately got a vivid image of her just staring... slack-jawed... at her finger. I laughed for some time... until I realized she cost me some sweet dragon leather armor.
Whenever you get the chance to add someone to your party, refuse them. They always say they'll be waiting at X location. Go check a FAQ or something and figure out which classes you want, and then go get them. If you've never had anyone in your party before, they will automatically be at your level once you get them; this is the only way to functionally "share" experience.
Best to stick with one party throughout an entire game, really.
Cherrn on
All creature will die and all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai.
Whenever you get the chance to add someone to your party, refuse them. They always say they'll be waiting at X location. Go check a FAQ or something and figure out which classes you want, and then go get them. If you've never had anyone in your party before, they will automatically be at your level once you get them; this is the only way to functionally "share" experience.
Best to stick with one party throughout an entire game, really.
I'm no mechanics expert and I hate doing min-maxing maths, but this is seriously true. Cherrns entire advice is really good.
It doesn't actually matter alllll that much if you want to pick up someone new at some point during the game. They'll only be a couple levels behind, which won't be all that consequential, and they'll catch up pretty quickly anyway.
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
hold your head high soldier, it ain't over yet
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Yeah, since levels matter a hell of a lot less than the tactics you adopt in battle (I've killed the red dragon with a single level 13 bard before, in melee combat), catching party members up is no great deal.
How does one develop an immunity to the stopping of time anyway? I mean how often would that have to come up for one to work up a resistance? Also, would it not become incredibly tedious to be the only person immune to the stopping of time in a world where the effect is used with comparitive frequency? You'd be trying to do your laundry and the machine would keep pausing because on the other side of the continent Elminster had elected to bugger about.
In D&D Time Stop doesn't actually stop time. The spell speeds you up so fast that for you, the perception of reality is that everything is stopped.
Which would make it even more infuriating.
nah, our hypothetical peasant doing his laundry would never notice if eliminster is in the next town over casting spells like he's the Flash.
as far as I can tell, though, there's no range limit to Time Stop. Which wouldn't matter if you don't resist it, time goes on as normal.
But if you do, you have to keep in mind that someone, somewhere is casting horrible death magic, and you're sitting there waiting for the fucking spell to expire so you can rejoin the goddamn world. And in BG2, it seems everyone knows timestop so
You could see Magic Resistance as being highly sensitive to magic.
When someone is casting Time Stop on another continent, that person is too far away for you to notice the magic. When the mage is in the area, you sense the spell being cast or feel structured magic enter your sphere of sensitivity and (either consciously or not) take appropriate steps to compensate for the effects.
In this instance, you either imitate the spell or piggyback on it, allowing you entrance to the same moment the caster is using, so that you can respond to the implied threat.
Time stop is often unavoidable in BG2, it's a classic double-edged sword.
Thankfully, you don't find yourself on the 'business' end of it very often.
The best defense i've found is a good offense - anything and everything you can do to interrupt a potential caster saves me many times more often than spell protections.
I love fast-firing missile weapons (slings/darts/arrows/xbows), undead summons, animal/monster summons, clickable instant-cast inventory weapons (wands of magic missiles, ring of the ram), etc.
Sure, they don't do much damage, but a stunned/interrupted caster is helpless.
Many spellcasters lead off with a contingency of stoneskin, protection from magic weapons, and protection from normal missiles.
I keep regular swords/daggers/maces (anything fast) in the quick weapons slots of my melee characters, and a bunch of +1 or better missiles for my ranged characters.
The would-be spellcaster is peppered with many many fast attacks, which have the best chance of interrupting spells and quickly eating the stoneskin.
zhen_rogue on
0
AegisFear My DanceOvershot Toronto, Landed in OttawaRegistered Userregular
edited December 2009
That reminds me of something I always forget to do: give my melee characters a non-magical weapon for rainy days.
the only issue would be that dualing out of swashbuckler so early would mean not really taking advantage of it's bonuses (primarily the AC), and the thief skills might wind up not being all that useful given how much of them you get at level 8 or whatever thieves start at. And thief doesn't open up as many fun weapon choices as kensai does.
When I did my kensai/mage one I dualed at 12 or 13 - I don't remember, whichever one gives you the extra to-hit bonus - and kicked everyone out of my party and kept learning and unlearning spells for xp.
I might just go straight swashbuckler though.
What do monks get that's cool? I've never played one.
They get lessee... Every two levels their ac lowers by 1, your fists increase in damage every few levels as well, at level 25 they are 1d20 +5 weapons, at 20 you get perm immunity to normal weapons, at 14 you get like.. 4%? innate MR which applies retroactively, per level(capping at 78%). You get Quivering Palm which is straight death if the target fails the saving roll(Killed firkraag and the shadow-dragon with this in a single hit). You get thief abilities, barring lock picking and untrapping, and your movement speed starts off doubled or so and increases every few levels. Your pretty much immune to ranged attacks.
Generally when you hit level 15 or so your a very tough, spell resistant fighter... at 25+ you are simply death incarnate. My level 40 monk killed Demogorgon(yeah, finally did it) solo in about 20 seconds. The showdown with Irenicus in the Tree was a joke, just stood around and watched him throw useless spell after useless spell at me until his immunities wore off, then put my fist through his head. Basically I got level 18 or so before I headed to spellhold and the rest of the game since has been a cakewalk, maybe a half dozen fights that I even had to think about doing more than simply beating things to death with my bare hands.
We will see if TOB offers more of a challenge or not...
Posts
This is what multiple playthroughs are for.
However, since the potential party members have such distinctive personalities, and some have very strong alignments for good or ill, and some may choose to leave your party during the game for reasons in or out of your control... you're never really thinking to yourself "damn, I need to swap members soon to keep levels the same". In fact, i've never thought that in any of my many playthroughs.
I think the writers/developers did a fantastic job in avoiding this situation, by making the NPCs so varied and story/alignment appropriate for the main character.
Just take who you like, and feel is appropriate for your character and/or 6-person party.
Ignore the rest, swap out losers as you find 'upgrades'.
Monks get Click Here to Win the Game. It's fun, you should try it at least once.
In all seriousness, they start off pretty frail - especially if you're doing a Tutu run through BG1 - but once you get somewhere into the low teens they just start destroying stuff. By the time you clear watcher's keep you could probably rip a dragon's head off solo.
Hahahahaha
hahahahah
hahahaha.
Casters in BG2 are Jesus. They open with a spell that is pretty much "kill everything". They then go to "No seriously, kill everything" followed by "Without any save, kill everything. Even bosses. Everything"
Monks on the other hand go from "Hit it to death" to "One-shot the dragon" to "What's a party?"
It felt awesome.
So many things I haven't tried.
Oh well that'll be nice. The point at which I told NWN2 to go fuck itself was when I realised they didn't put time stop in the game.
Irenicus; Time stop
Irenicus: Death spell
Irenicus: Death spell
Irenicus: Death Cloud
Irenicus: Fireball
Irenicus: Fireball
Irenicus Fireball
Irenicus: Laughs. Die bitch.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
That's the thing about mages in BG2. Your mage has to be ready for several fights. Every other mage just has to be ready for one.
And then you get dragon's breath and all is right with the world again.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Usually you just pick your people for that playthrough and just don't use any of the others. Its not really like Mass Effect or Dragon Age where you'll find occasion to be switching people out.
And if I remember right each potential party member is autoleveled to within your current xp bracket when you meet them, so if you met Edwin at level 10 he'd be 9-10, but if its at 15 he'd be 14 and so on.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
ToB gets a fair share of enemies that completely ignore Time Stop though, so it can end up biting you in the ass.
[Sorry about the double post, didn't realize you can't edit when jailed]
Though I would add, that spell list is missing Improved Alacrity. That spell is so absurdly broken.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
In D&D Time Stop doesn't actually stop time. The spell speeds you up so fast that for you, the perception of reality is that everything is stopped.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
A wizard did it
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
The spell that removes casting delay basically turns a high-level mage into a face-eating death machine.
Which would make it even more infuriating.
nah, our hypothetical peasant doing his laundry would never notice if eliminster is in the next town over casting spells like he's the Flash.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
Thank god when I ran through as a monk he had the saves to beat it. And then even later I realized they gave you potions to deal with it. Then I cried a bit on the inside. But seriously, Mind Flayers are awesomely ridiculous.
Head in, immediately throw down a time stop trap and start summoning some Mordaken Swords to keep the big guy busy. Time trap pops and I had Valen kill a few drakes with her level drain. After that it was basically a giant fuck-all melee to kill the other Dragon and other minions who basically rush you, then to kill Abazigal twice. When I finally got to Abazigal in dragon form, I threw everything I had at him, every single offensive spell for the three of my mages, even getting Viconia to throw up divine power and harm. It was crazy, after like an hour of pauses and straight balls to the wall boss fight, I ran out of things to use and had my main character die to some spell effect.
as far as I can tell, though, there's no range limit to Time Stop. Which wouldn't matter if you don't resist it, time goes on as normal.
But if you do, you have to keep in mind that someone, somewhere is casting horrible death magic, and you're sitting there waiting for the fucking spell to expire so you can rejoin the goddamn world. And in BG2, it seems everyone knows timestop so
oh, I see what you mean. Like, if you're abazigal, it would constantly be something that bothers you.
on the other hand, I'm relatively happy with that outcome
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
On the other hand, imagine the pain that would result in boobies being fondled at super-crazy-time-seems-to-be-stopped speed. Like think of the force involved with the D/T thing. And now imagine there's only one dude in town with the saving throw against time stop.
I guess I'm in the minority, but I really liked Aerie, and always took her.
So we were fighting the Shadow Dragon in that ruined temple, and it was hard going. I had a mostly melee party and Aerie was my only mage. I thought I was going to have to reload when suddenly *BAM* he's just gone and there's a pile of ashes on the ground. I didn't have a clue what happened so I went through the events log.
"Aerie casts Disintegrate."
From her personality, I immediately got a vivid image of her just staring... slack-jawed... at her finger. I laughed for some time... until I realized she cost me some sweet dragon leather armor.
STEAM
Whenever you get the chance to add someone to your party, refuse them. They always say they'll be waiting at X location. Go check a FAQ or something and figure out which classes you want, and then go get them. If you've never had anyone in your party before, they will automatically be at your level once you get them; this is the only way to functionally "share" experience.
Best to stick with one party throughout an entire game, really.
I'm no mechanics expert and I hate doing min-maxing maths, but this is seriously true. Cherrns entire advice is really good.
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
You could see Magic Resistance as being highly sensitive to magic.
When someone is casting Time Stop on another continent, that person is too far away for you to notice the magic. When the mage is in the area, you sense the spell being cast or feel structured magic enter your sphere of sensitivity and (either consciously or not) take appropriate steps to compensate for the effects.
In this instance, you either imitate the spell or piggyback on it, allowing you entrance to the same moment the caster is using, so that you can respond to the implied threat.
Thankfully, you don't find yourself on the 'business' end of it very often.
The best defense i've found is a good offense - anything and everything you can do to interrupt a potential caster saves me many times more often than spell protections.
I love fast-firing missile weapons (slings/darts/arrows/xbows), undead summons, animal/monster summons, clickable instant-cast inventory weapons (wands of magic missiles, ring of the ram), etc.
Sure, they don't do much damage, but a stunned/interrupted caster is helpless.
Many spellcasters lead off with a contingency of stoneskin, protection from magic weapons, and protection from normal missiles.
I keep regular swords/daggers/maces (anything fast) in the quick weapons slots of my melee characters, and a bunch of +1 or better missiles for my ranged characters.
The would-be spellcaster is peppered with many many fast attacks, which have the best chance of interrupting spells and quickly eating the stoneskin.
Currently DMing: None
Characters
[5e] Dural Melairkyn - AC 18 | HP 40 | Melee +5/1d8+3 | Spell +4/DC 12
They get lessee... Every two levels their ac lowers by 1, your fists increase in damage every few levels as well, at level 25 they are 1d20 +5 weapons, at 20 you get perm immunity to normal weapons, at 14 you get like.. 4%? innate MR which applies retroactively, per level(capping at 78%). You get Quivering Palm which is straight death if the target fails the saving roll(Killed firkraag and the shadow-dragon with this in a single hit). You get thief abilities, barring lock picking and untrapping, and your movement speed starts off doubled or so and increases every few levels. Your pretty much immune to ranged attacks.
Generally when you hit level 15 or so your a very tough, spell resistant fighter... at 25+ you are simply death incarnate. My level 40 monk killed Demogorgon(yeah, finally did it) solo in about 20 seconds. The showdown with Irenicus in the Tree was a joke, just stood around and watched him throw useless spell after useless spell at me until his immunities wore off, then put my fist through his head. Basically I got level 18 or so before I headed to spellhold and the rest of the game since has been a cakewalk, maybe a half dozen fights that I even had to think about doing more than simply beating things to death with my bare hands.
We will see if TOB offers more of a challenge or not...