As per title.
The numbers haven't bloated (some increase noted) and I can cheese every trick in the book without getting much unfair advantage.
I do not think the battles will play out the same a second run-through. There's an element of die-roll swinginess that won't repeat.
Notable battles:
Githyanki patrol:
I got smashed. Both sides had 2 dead each and I was losing battle of attrition, so used final round of haste to flee and rez. Came back and 4 on 2, and with me getting surprise (Astarion assassin), it was an execution. Note to self, the Retreat button is a tactical option.
Wood woads:
Lucky break! The new patrol patterns and the mephits' mud spray are nasty but a void bulb into a cloud of daggers got all the mephits. A quirk of initiative had them all immediately die, making a slog a cakewalk.
Arcane tower autonomaton:
A fight in 3 acts. I knew I should've just taken they story win and but I just had to recite the provoking poem. Anyway, used 4x roaring thunder arrows plus Gale sacrificing himself in a failed attempt to thunderwave robot off the tower. Finally succeeded, wait for act 3. Then had Karlach and MC throw lightish animated armours off the roof - oddnumbered Str scores matter! SH expending all slots on healing as usual. Robot returns and SH throws a bomb in his face, flinging MC down 2 levels too. Was a race to finish final armour before it could execute dying MC.
Gnoll fanglord:
No great drama, except this time I couldn't stop the gnolls tearing apart caravan survivors. They literally gorged corpses to heal themselves. This was the first battle where I had to pull all the stops to just survive.
Hag:
Another battle of survival. Don't have magic missile so used Thunderwave on two illusory doubles. One was Ethel and down the chasm she went, with her loot and her hair. Battle over in round 2, but I'll take a win. Great change of pace, you can't assume this'll happen again.
My party is addicted to Potions of speed. We can never buy enough. Always scouting for them and delighted when found.
Oh yeah, I'm swapping in and out party members depending on tactics. This kind of works well, but tricky. Come Act 2 I'm going to need to scout hard to pull this off, but satisfying when it works.
Overall, loving it. Excellent work!
