Fairie Tales

[CeterumCenseo]

Again inspired by a thread on Steam, I started thinking about Fairies a bit more in-depth. How would a team of 6 Fairies perform in this game?

Typical teams include one fairie character or none and the fairie is mostly a caster. Then there is of course the Fairie Ninja, famous for his unique op CoC, and the seemingly challenge of challenges, the solo fairie fighter. But larger teams including multiple fairies are less common. I recall a discussion about a team of fairie Samurai, Ninja, Monk and Lord from vysionier some years ago.

Alright, time to design a team.

Fairies are different from all other races in Wizardry 8 by their limitations:

Carrying capacity is cut by 1/3. So while a non-fairie Fighter with 100 STR and 50 VIT can carry 300 pounds of weight “in the white”, as a fairie she can only carry 200. Practically, this limitation is not that effective, because the heavy armors cannot be worn by fairies anyway.

Armor: Fairies can only wear special gear for Head (quest items, helm of brilliance, standard ninja cowl, Flynn’s, fairie specific cap with low drop chance), Body&Legs (AC far below standard equipment for most classes), Boots (quest items, Ariel’s). No gloves except doll’s, no shields, most cloaks, no real limitations in misc.

Weapons: No limitations daggers, few on Staff and Wand. Swords is ok: No 2Hds, no Bloodlust, but Fang and Ivory Blade, LightSword of course, if it drops. Spiked Spear in the polearm section is “good enough”, axes are not missed anyway, of the maces only Bullwhip, Prisoner’s and Vampire. Looking at ranged weapons, fairies cannot use x-bows, but most normal bows, including StrongBow and modern weapons, even a rocket launcher (what did the designers smoke back then?), but no Blunderbuss.

Starting equipment: Fairies generally start with Fairie Stick and Dagger, paper armor, potions and dust. In some incarnations, they get items they cannot use: Longsword for fighter, Mace for Priest. No Cherry Bomb on the Alchemist, no Katana on Samurai, no throwing equipment on Sam and Ninja. This means that most classes need to fight their ways through in the LM with Fairie Sticks and, better or daggers, unless a char is lucky to find a weapon from a chest or monster drop. If not, Burz offers most of the starting weapons for all classes, except polearms.

Attributes: Fairie race has high values in INT, DEX and SPD, and is low on PIE, STR and VIT. Compared to other races, fairies are far behind in melee offense (damage and attack rating) and defense (VIT and armor limitations). Learning curves of most skills are good, because many skills have INT, DEX or SPD as governing attributes.

Class check for fairies:

Fighter: The fighter plays quite normal. She can run basically in the same style as any other race, main difference is lower max starting STR. A dracon can start with 75 STR and can powerstrike at L10, a fairie with max 59 STR gets powerstrike at L15 earliest. Fairie cannot use shields or 2 Hd swords. She can use DW setups (Sword/Dagger only) or 2-Hd with Polearm or Staff. Armor is on the low end, but I found that even clad in Plate Mail, a fighter is hit almost always anyway before L15, so I did not expect big differences In damage taken between fairies and other races.
Skills are straightforward: Melee and ranged skills, additionally DW depending on the setup. Artifacts is nice in situations, when magic/AoE capabilities come in handy.

Ranger: Ranger is a good class for a fairie, because she can use most weapons from the ranger’s roster. Only swords are a bit tricky, because both fairies and rangers have sword limitations. Polearm and staff make probably better choices for fairie Rangers. Not daggers, the damage is too small, except Sprite’s, but that’s luck or grind. A fairie ranger needs to take care of her carrying capacity, because of ammunition.

Ninja: Fairie Ninja is an option in any standard party, in a fairie party even more. Ninjas have too many useful skills to develop; finding a good balance between melee (Staff of course), ranged (autopenetrate with thrown weapons), magic and physical skills (Locks) is a challenge, and subject to personal preference. With grinding, they can be all developed simultaneously, if one has the patience. Fairie ninja can make use of most ninja weapons, but the CoC is too good to be missed in such a party. The fairie ninja can use standard ninja gear.

Samurai: Very good, he can use all 1h sam swords, even Muramasa, and all 2Hd staves a Sam would like to use, irrespectively of race. Samurais should be developed like fighters, they just cannot use polearms.

Monk: This class has a big problem: He has no minimum requirement for STR and VIT in his profile. So despite the 35 bonus points of a fairie monk, he can get maximum 37 STR and 42 VIT, which severely limits his effectiveness in a party. A pity, because many of the limitations of fairie race and monk class overlap..

Valk/Lord: Not the best choices, they both start as apprentices. This means they are 20/25 attribute points behind Fighter and Samurai = 4-5 levels, and up to 10 levels compared to other races. Like the monk, only for lovers of tougher challenges.

Rogue: daggers and backstab are a deadly combo, and the fairie rogue can wield all daggers including Thieves’. She has a similar issue as the monk, no STR and VIT in his profile. Dagger forces her to stand in the frontline. Daggers are standard equipment for fairies, so she can start skill development on day 1. Starting her as a samurai with 54 STR, 50 VIT and 54 DEX, she can switch to Rogue at L2, while losing a few initial points in L&T and Dagger. If you want her to do ranged combat as well, develop her thrown and/or Artifacts skill as well before she gets Thieves’ Dagger, typically around L12. In a fairie only party, she would be first choice for Locks&Traps. Don’t forget dual wield development at level up to maximize effectivity of the dual Thieves’ daggers. In total, the rogue is a bit tight in points: Dagger, Close Combat, DW, L&T, Artifacts or Thrown.

Gadgeteer/Bard: They are hampered by their limited carrying capacities. Gadgets and instruments of higher levels weigh an awful lot and in a fairie only party, this becomes probably a major issue, despite the special STR enhancing gear for these classes. Bards and Gadgeteers have no VIT requirement in their profiles, so they start a bit fragile, or need to resort to dual classing. Of the nice bard specific equipment, only the randomly dropping Ariel’s and Prospero’s can be worn.

Special casters and bishop: Mages and psionics do not really suffer from fairie class gear limitations. VIT is a concern for casters, except for priests, so depending on player’s game style and maximum frustration level, some additional points in VIT might be required for the AoE heavy battles. STR is mostly irrelevant for casters. For many classes, fairies are the fastest way to Powercast and Snakespeed, and building a first strike caster is easier with a fairie than with most classes. Bishops, priests and alchemists will most likely miss the additional stability given by shields. This and their low VIT, except for the Priest again, makes them no good candidates for a wide frontline (= put all party members in right, center and left quadrants, leave front empty). Skill points will mostly go into magic disciplines first. Specialist casters raise their magic skills very fast, so after some levels, level up points are available for ranged combat and/or artifacts, for those situations when magic is not needed. Only the bishop, who probably won’t have any spare point left to invest outside magic schools and realms for a long time. Focusing the bishop on 2 schools is a good idea, otherwise grinding is needed or higher level spells need to wait.

[CeterumCenseo]

I built my own fairie party quite traditionally:

Fighter, STR/SPD, Sword, Dagger, Dual Wield, Bow.

Ninja, STR/DEX, Staff, Throw&Sling, Close combat/Alchemy.

Samurai->Rogue, STR/DEX, Dagger, Dual Wield, Bow, L&T (t&s would have been better than bow)

Alchemist, VIT 50, then INT/DEX, magic, throw&sling, ranged combat

Priest, INT/PIE, magic, mace

Bishop, VIT 50, then SPD/SEN, Psionics, Wizardry, later Divinity, Realms.

Game rules: Expert level, Semi Ironman, No grinding skills or abiding in areas for xp or items.

No items in party inventory for this game. A test, because I tend to take way too much equipment around which I never use, so I wanted to see how a game without party inventory would play: Each party member only had its 8 personal slots to carry everything, potions, bombs, ammunition and temporary quest items.

Summary of the game:

I did almost all quests and areas, except the unexplored area in Mt. Gigas and the 3 Retro Dungeons. Game ended at L21-23. The party was very stable, wiped once on the Umpani obstacle course, but never in battle. Some reloads to answer Al-sedexus questions correctly, which I didn’t remember quite well, because I don’t play this quest often. Only a few tough battles, most difficult was the Soul Eater, where I had some luck to survive with one movable char.

The game played surprisingly similar to a game with a “normal” party. The differences were more in the details: In the first half of the game, it was stronger in magic resistance, and weaker in melee, without the high char STR and Bloodlust. Armor limitations were insignificant throughout the game. In the second half of the game, the additional magic protection of fairies was not noticeable at all, they got insaned and turncoated frequently. In melee, a 2Hd Sword on the fighter would have sped up some fights. Despite “cheap” equipment, I was a bit short of money in the second half of the game, not all useful stuff could be always bought immediately. Playing without party inventory was no issue.

[CeterumCenseo]

Walkthrough. I really tried to keep it short

Game started surprisingly easy. Many low level monsters for good exp and skill development and little challenge. Gregor was webbed and killed in no time. No equipment found on the way, bought all weapons from Burz: Quarterstaff, Rapier, Main Gauche, Bullwhip, Bo. Alchemy and reached 50 already in the lower monastery on the specialists, so point investments at level-up were shifted to ranged (Alchemist) and melee (Priest) skills from L5 onwards. Wide frontline with 5 chars, only the bish in the background. No casualties or critical situations so far. Priest identifies mixed stuff, but requires many attempts.
First challenge in upper monastery: L7 Poison Seekers vs. L5 party. Party killed them 2 by 2, with camping in between. On Arnika Road party fled from Highwaymen and Iron Weeds. In Arnika, party upgraded weapons (Diamond Epee, Poison Daggers) and spells. Not all items were available. To kill the Golem in the bank, fighter was put in the front, Superman potion and protect/heal her by the casters, supporting damage when possible. Party left Arnika with Bishop on L8, Wizardry 45 and X-Ray. This made the next steps much easier

1st exploration: Umpani: Thanks to X-Ray, the party could pre-plan encounters in advance and avoid possibly overwhelming monsters. It turned towards the Umpani camp, joined the Umpani and did the obstacle course (only wipe). Bought all available spellbooks from Kunar, money was plenty. The Ninja also got a Hayai-Bo. On the way back to Arnika road, in total 5 fights with brigands while staying in a corner and camping between fights. Hogar was taken out as well. First casualty: Bishop was killed by a Crimson Poppy, due to inattention. He was revived before the battle ended.
Compared to other parties until then, this one was faster and noticeably weaker in terms of physical damage and CtH, but definitely viable in all situations. Of the weapons, only Bloodlust was really missed at this level. Magic resistance felt significantly better, Sleep and Terror had much less effect . Damage taken was felt to be on more or less the same level. Stealth was still below 20 on rogue and ninja. For many encounters, the monsters were still faster than the blitz bishop, despite heavy investment. No issues from carrying capacity were observed.

2nd Exploration: Trynton – Swamp – Marten’s Bluff: With exception of Monstrance and Make wounds spell, everything was on board. Road to Trynton was easy. Surplus loot was left on the ground. The visit to the fountain in Trynton pushed the Alchemist to 100 INT, opening up powercast. Reflextion would follow on her next level-up. Melee damage started to become more important than magic, because melee hit rate was raising, and even low level weapons like poison dagger and diamond epee were good enough on a berserking fighter or backstabbing thief in this phase of the game. Rogue got her first Thieves Dagger from the Don. Unfortunately the fashionable new Midnight Cloak turned out to be a non-fairie item, so a waste of money. None of the chests in Trynton and Rattkin Tree contained anything especially useful, but some of Guardian Traps. One was triggered, but the party survived. Breeders and Don were left unharmed, too low level.
The Oak saplings could not be defeated in the open, not with magic or ranged nor in melee. Party referred to standard tactics, lured them to a spot where party could cast spells, but not the trees, then it was easy,
The Swamp only contained frogs and poison seekers: Time for revenge for the Upper Monastery. Crock only offered none of the L4 spellbooks, as expected. The party collected fake AD and a Sane Mind ring for the bishop, for future insane situations.
In Marten’s Bluff, only the T’Rang porter was activated. No communication with T’Rang yet. Returning to Arnika, the party could show off their damage potential vs Juggernauts (for now just one by one). Magic AoE power was quite irresistible: Fireball, Ego Whip, Whipping Rocks, Magic Missile on the Bishop, Noxious Fumes and Acid Bomb on the Alchemist and Whirlwind on the Priest, additionally Devil Dusts. The party could hold the wide frontline with ease, thanks to debuffs like insanity, lure, sleep, freeze and web. The Ninja was appointed Primary Healer and Light Caster. Only by letting her heal after battle and cast light before camping, brought her Alchemy ultimately to >80.
In Arnika, all ingredients for the Zynaryx were complete. For the Ebon staff, the Gem was still missing.

3rd Exploration: Marten’s Bluff – Monastery: Bishop was still far below 30 in Divinity, so the L3 spellbooks had to wait. On the next visit to Marten’s Bluff, all item spots on both levels were pillaged, but taken were only Brilliant Helm, spellbooks, Ebon Gem and some potions and ammunition. Back in Arnika the Zynaryx was acquired and the purchase order for the Ebon Staff submitted.
Then the party moved north for the Demonsting Bow. Arnika Road was quite busy, Brigants were still a bit critical, so better stay in the corners, Highwaymen, Crusher Crabs and Plants were already battled in the open, no issue thanks to magic.
In a tough encounter with Greater Seekers in the lower Monastery –first time I met them there-, party was hit heavily, despite Missile and Elemental Shield, because the seekers were 2-3 levels above the party. The party succeeded to kill first 2 and then another 3 without taking casualties themselves, despite temporary paralysis on both chars who could cure it. On the way back to Arnika, the casters reached L11. The Alchemist took Elemental and Toxic Cloud, the Priest Heal All and Portals. The Alchemist used one of the found Portal spellbooks to take the portal spell at L12 for 2 picks at L13.
Melee worked meanwhile reasonably reliable: Fighter berserking with the Epee, not really great damage, but 2x2 attacks. Ninja with Hayai Bo, also reliable 2x1 attacks. Rogue with 2x Thieves Dagger, end game weapon for her, did not hit greatly yet, and the backstab multiplicator kicked in sporadically only. Melee damage from casters was negligible.

4th Exploration: Umpani – Mt. Gigas – Mt Wilderness: Arm and L2 pass were taken out of the stash to get on with the Umpani Quests. More temporary deaths on casters occurred. But all in all, even these encounters vs strong monsters were safe, and dead party members resurrected before the battle was over, so no XP was lost. I noticed the Turn Undead ability of Priest and Bishop was cast at thrown distance only. Party activated the Humpawhammer, also opened the door on Arnika Road for the shortcut. After special training, teleport back to Arnika, to get rid of no longer needed quest items, 2 passes and the arm, blocking valuable item slots. Back to Umpani Basecamp via the T’Rang Roadhouse. Party got the quest for the Mook alliance, teleport back, exchange Chaos Moliri with fake AD, back to Balbrak. The XP bonus brought Bishop and Ninja to L11 and Rogue and Fighter to L12. Ninja’s promotion was postponed some time, she was at 28 Alchemy now, and I wanted to give her the first L3 spell when she advanced
Party went to N Wilderness and headed to the cave with the Brute Hogar guardian. Party carefully prepared for battle, but Hogar was instakilled in the first round, don’t know from what. The golem guarding the bridge was killed before he reached the party. Party went to Bela for a first ComC and an Ankh of Might, which was given to the fighter. After a battle Golems vs Elementals, new weapons were retrieved from the waterfall cave, the SoD, the Winterwand and some good ammo for future use.

5th Exploration: Idol Quest: First stop at Crock. He offered many L4 spellbooks, party ran into cash problems for the first time. A portal was set in Crock’s home by the bishop and then the party left S to Marten’s Bluff again and the Idol. A battle vs Blood Drinkers and Tiger Mosquitoes almost went the wrong way. Despite L7 Magic Screen and L4 Elemental Shield, chars were blinded or paralyzed. 2 were killed, and only the Alchemist’s dots prevented the wipe. With everyone in shape again, idol was taken, and the bish disappeared, rendering the portal at Crock useless. At least the bish had cast a high level X-Ray before he was “gone missing”. The first leg to Crock was easy. Further to Brekek, they met some Rinjin Sentries, this time no issue vs their AoE magic and kicks. The battle vs. Brekek was surprisingly tough this time, because he paralyzed the fighter temporarily, and it took time to take down 600 HPs. The way back was uneventful. Complete again, the party moved on to Trynton. The Serenity Helm was given to the fighter for additional resistance vs. insanity.
The Don did lots of damage and the party had problems to get through his dodge chance. Finally the SoD paralyzed him, and then he died one turn later. He dropped the Cane, now the ninja could equip cane and winterwand, the SoD was handed over to the Alchemist. Now 3 chars, Rogue, Ninja and Alchemist wore endgame equipment.

6th Exploration: Bela – Wilderness Clearing – SE Wilderness: Arnika Road and N Wilderness are easy, Mt. Wilderness not so. Many “strong” and “powerful” enemies, their magic attacks bit into the HPs of the party, ignoring Magic Screen and Elemental Shield. Heal All and GA were often required.
In the Wilderness camp, Diremares got through the 150%+ mental resistance of the Fairies, including a PL7 Soul Shield. Exception was the fighter, protected by the Serenity Helm. Biggest threat was a Hogar, who knocked the fighter in front unconscious and killed the Alchemist behind. Not a big issue, but a reason to change the formation vs such enemies: Fighter in front, rogue and ninja in the central slot, and the 3 casters in the back.
Back in the SE Wilderness, they collected usable stuff in the gazebo and went up to the Cathedral. The fight was normal. Party had some good luck with backfiring Death Clouds by the Lords and some bad luck from Elementals not dying fast enough to get 2 rounds of melee damage off, causing casualties, and a single round of Death Wish killing three party members at once. But the party stayed alive as a whole, no reload was required and everyone was up again in time for some fat XPs. Party took the boomerang shuriken and Fang and some other valuable stuff (Giant Swords and Plate Mail) for dearly needed cash and portrd out to Arnika, when all personal inventory slots were full. The cash was immediately reinvested in spellbooks and rez powders from Braffit.

[CeterumCenseo]

7th Exploration: Mt Gigas – Bayjin: Party set a portal at Yamir and ported out to the portal at Crock. From there onwards to Bayjin. Lots of insects and Flesheater Slimes, causing more temporary casualties with their many, many spit attacks. The Rynjin guarding the entrance to Bayjin were not difficult. This time, magic protection worked better, and the party tried to get into melee distance with them asap.
More Rinjin on the other side, then the first Rock Crabs. Firestorm would have been nice, but was not available on the bishop yet. The “Lightsword” chest didn’t contain anything useful. The battle vs Rynjin Chief & Company was more difficult than expected, as they got reinforced from other monsters at the wrong moment. With 1 party member dead and 2 insane, the party had to retreat into safety and regroup, before they killed of the complete group and, last, the Chief himself in melee. Jan-Ette dropped a scroll of something. No luck this time with drops. Glumph was saved and immediately ported to Yamir. Mission accomplished: Money, XP, Arnika, coordinates.

8th Exploration: Bayjin – Sea Caves: First some Medusas from Crock for the upcoming battle with Nessie. In Bayjin, more Rock Crabs, Rynjin, Acid Wings, now Firestorm was available on the Bish (L14).
Equipped the Scuba gear, costing 6 coveted item slots. Bucaneers dropped a Mystery Ray, given to the rogue, and 2 sets of Armor Piercers. Then I went to see Nessie. At L26 really mighty vs the L16-18 party, but it worked with no problem thanks to some luck. Resistance provided by PL7 shields was not enough vs spikes of Concussion and Earthquake, but the fast bish got always the first pick to heal a critical char, and the priest took away any Draining Clouds. Party stayed at thrown distance. The Ninja’s autopenetrate consistently caused damage from BS and a full stack of poison darts, the others only fired when BoS was not active. Davy Jones only had crap this time.
The way onwards to the Sea Caves was remarkably quiet, only one battle against Psi-Sharks, so the party took out the Dweller Caves and their enforcement of Squids. Here I found that the Fairie battle was more difficult because than typical, especially the Flayers did lots of damage. No casualties, but a couple of times close. Effectivity in melee damage was still low, too many misses. Party summoned 3 Elementals for help and distraction. Of the cave treasure, only some darts and arrows were usable.
The cave with Hook and rope cost the party 90% of its gold thanks to a Philosopher’s Bane trap. Another short critical moment, when the slippery ride down ended just at the jaws and claws of Dank Beetles, some levels above my party, and taken from behind. Fortunately only one bug could attack due to close quarters, and his 4 attacks were completely deflected. After turning around, the battle was easy.
The Guardian of the crypt and his company were not really motivated this time, no clouds or heavy AoE, the battle was short. The Destinae Dominus in its hands, the party ported out immediately and put the DD into a stash. The Ninja now had her own portal, thanks to primary healer assignment and investment into Alchemy. In Arnika, stuff from the Caves was sold for total 150k cash, among them the Renaissance Lute, of course, and an Estoc de Olivia.

9th Exploration: Bela – Mine Tunnels – Marten’s Bluff: Party took all stuff needed to get Z’Ant’s quests done at once: Flag, Chaos Moliri, Eau de Rapax. First a visit to Bela. Acid wings were no issue anymore, even without elemental shield. Level changes the game. Ninja set her portal there and got a nice ComC, the forth for the party. Portal to Crock, again no Amulet of Healing and no Stiletto, bad luck also on the fifth visit. In the Mines, lots of traffic and long battles, but no risk for the party. In Marten’s bluff, they took the lift up to the upper floor, killed the Raven Rapax and delivered all 4 Missions at once. A short visit to Sadok, but he didn’t have even one of the missing low level bish spellbooks. Crock’s portal was now relocated to Z’Ant, in preparation of the Alliance quest.

10th Exploration: Alliance Quest: In the Rapax Away Camp, more Rapax downstairs this time than usual, but it didn’t make a difference. Battle took longer than an hour because of the animations of magic spells cast by each single Templar or Templar Knight in each round. They required healing occasionally, but mostly the battle was about walking to the next Templar and kill him or her until the whole area was finally clear. Loot was ao 2 parts of Divinemail Armor, no useful items for Fairies. On the higher level were only the tower archers and a small group, then Rodan and Drazic were freed. Teleport to Yamir, first speech, teleport to Z’Ant, second speech, teleport to Yamir again, mission to the mountain top. No enemies this time, destroy the ship, teleport to Yamir, finished. Get xxxxp, then back to Arnika.

11th Exploration: Rapax Rift and Castle – Savant Tower: No issues in the Rift. Most stuff stayed on the ground, only the Flamestaff from the High Priestess replaced the Ebonstaff. They killed El Dorado, the party distracted him with a couple of Elementals, then went down and killed friendly Al-Sedexus before talking to her. Lavalord and Rafe were not visited yet, Courtyard was taken out in melee, was much more effective than the mass spells Asphyxiation, Nuclear Blast, Earthquake and Falling stars, all just arrived and available now. With each battle, Cane and Fang hit more reliably, so any opponent was taken down several hundred HPs per combat round. The fighter was not as impressive as with the good 2handers, which a Fairie is excluded from, but quite consistent all in all.
Rapax castle took long this time. Battle in the Throne Room was done in relatively short time in melee.They talked to the Al-guys for the initiation and were interrupted several times by new attacks. The Elementals were no problem, the bish as only male was chosen as the “strongest” warrior, with 26 STR!!!. I had to reload a couple of times (my second non-ironman behaviour), until I had the riddles answered in the correct sequence. For some strange reason, when everybody was friendly, Sexus became “red” without any reason, I did not even talk to him. So another reload, it did not happen again, so it was a bug. Party bought the last ComC and a Strong Bow from Ferro, also some ammunition, no usable spellbooks were offered. I left a portal in front of his desk. I took the 2nd Brilliant Helm from the Armory. No visit to the cellar this time, instead the party went over to the NE tower, moved up, opened the door to the playroom, collected doll gloves and armor and gave them to the fighter, I think it was the first game of >20, where I had use for these pieces of armor. King’s and Queen’s chests didn’t provide anything remarkable. I only kept the Thunderstick (slightly better statistics than WW) and a Flynn’s Cap. Then I ported back to Arnika first, picked up the ingredients for the Ivory Blade and the 3 artifacts. From Ferro, back through the Court Yard to kill the Lavalord. The poor belly guy was paralyzed in the first round, couldn’t even summon his sprites. Party took the Staff of Ashes, then ported to Ferro. Another trip upstairs and through the portal into the Savant Tower.
No Slashers this time, only berserkers, but more destroyers than usual. No problem, also the Behemoth survived only 3 rounds. Another nap in Arnika, then to the T’Rang porter, Rapax Rift to Rafe, delivered the staff. The undead Rapax were not considered as Rapax, did not worsen my relationships with them. Going back to Ferro, the Blade wasn’t ready yet. So I went to Ascension Peak with Fang.

12th Exploration: Ascension Peak: First encounter with L22 maddening gazers was a bit sobering, because they turncoated fighter and ninja despite their race bonus, PL7 soulshield + equipment bonus (gown, valentines, serenity helm). It is not good to have fighter or ninja insane or turncoated, and casualties happened. But blitz bishop almost guaranteed first strike even without haste, in order to uninsane or unturncoat Ninja or Fighter before damage happened. Once the bish was turncoated as well, and the priest paralyzed, most critical situation with this party until then.
Party paid Amit’s fee, then no further encounters on the Knowledge branch. The enlightened Spirit was easy as always, the 2 unicorns again turncoated and frightened vs PL7 Soulshield. They were themselves pretty invulnerable while their BoS was active, so the party used the opportunity and ran away with the turncoated buddies, to avoid them slashing at their comrades. Then the DD was delivered and the party took another nap before doing the next branch. At this stage I did not notice any difference between this and a normal party, not for good (it is vulnerable to mental magic) not for bad, because 100 STR of a Fairie is as good as 100STR of a Lizard, healing was plenty to counter lack of armor. Some modest invest in VIT on the casters helped as well to survive a few hard hits.

In the middle (Life) branch, the battle plains took very long, but the party was able to handle them easily and keeping their position. The Prince killed himself with a backfired Instant Death, the demon daughter was a bit tougher and summoned 8 offsprings , which extended the battle even more. I noticed that the ninja took extreme high amounts of damage from Magic Missile spell, so I checked her divine resistance, and found that CoC (+50) and Healing amulet (+50) were too much in combination with Soul Shield and magic screen -> overflow. I unequipped the amulet, and problem was resolved.
After this battle, bitter wings flew in immediately after, followed by another group of the same type. They did high poison damage with their breath attacks, up to 55 per round. Only restoration potions saved the day. After a sleepover in Arnika, only few monsters, and nothing dangerous.

The left (Chaos) branch was hard. Souleater killed 4 of the party, turncoated the 5th and put the last one in insanity. Party ran away for 13 consecutive rounds, before the Soul Eater gave up and the effects went off. And this with PL7 shields! Never so close to a wipe than in this fight. The second attempt was a bit luckier: No turncoats on the meleers, and the high party damage brought him down after some time. Otherwise also lots of battles, which took long, but were not critical, but more deaths against death wish and quicksand. Ninja was most affected.
Finally the CM was also delivered. The party did not have the 100k cash for the Ivory blade. It could have made money from potions in Arnika, but it wasn’t worthwhile and the game almost done.

In the final battle, the DS threw a lot at the party with his powergloves, instead of the usual spawn of more minions. Ninja, Fighter and Rogue did not hit often, but hard, so the DS’ 1000 HPs were gone in a few rounds. The Fairies ascended nicely, I enjoyed their very nice comments on their new roles.

Final result: Differences between the fairies and a normal party was more in the details than in general style of play. The magic resistance bonuses were noticeable only in the first half of the game. Melee was the opposite. A bit weaker without the high STR and Bloodlust, later they caught up, except for a missing 2Hd Sword on the fighter.

Better armor was rarely missed, rather the regen bonuses on some items, RegenRobe and Infinity Helm, which the fairies had to go without.

Unfortunately, only 4 fairie portraits for 6 chars were available.

I was surprised that the party ran out of money in the 2nd half of the game. I do not know for sure, if this was because I left most of the loot on the ground. Otherwise the “no party inventory” rule was no big issue, only occasionally requiring some shuffling between personal inventories for potion brewing and staying white in carrying capacity.

The 4 portals gave nice flexibility.

The Ninja ended up at Alchemy 82 without any grinding, only with healing after battle, light casting, potion mixing and a points invested at level-up.

Re-switching the cursed weapons after each battle was a bit tedious and I often forgot, but didn’t matter for outcome of battles.

[mpnorman10]

Nice! Other than advising against lava swimming during the obstacle course (helpful tip) and cautioning against pretty demons who ask questions it sounds like your party did well.

It sounds like your entire party was high on res powders, consuming them like candy, especially against Souleater, but they got the job done.

I am surprised you did not have Antone cook up a second instance of Zynaryx Plate.

[CeterumCenseo]

Total death toll was 30, ranging from 3 deaths (priest, fighter) to a maximum of 9 (Alchemist). Ninja (8) was close.

One of my solos once survived the lava bit in the obstacle course, with high resistances it is possible.

For a second Zynaryx I would have needed another strand of spider silk. You know, no reloads. I was happy to get one!

[mpnorman10]

Revisiting Trynton commons and the Mount Gigas caves is a good way to snag additional spider silk, for future reference. Of course fighting spiders, especially Cavern Spiders, can be a bit nerve wracking, especially higher level ones with powerful webbing.

[CeterumCenseo]

mpnorman, thanks for your advice.This will help me in future endeavors.

This party was designed if an all Fairie party was viable under the preconditions explained, and if the differences to normal parties were heavy. One of the most obvious limitations of the fairies is they cannot wear most armor pieces. In the game itself, the effect of being hit and taking damage more often than Golden Breastplate/Platinum Greaves/Infinity Helm was noticeable, but not at all game changing.

In these games, I typically do not "hunt" for random drops or ingredients, I take what the game drops and nothing else. In this game, I missed most the vampire chain, the best m&f weapon for a fairie, because that wing would not drop. In other games, I would maybe have saved just before a battle with Vampire bats and reloaded, until a wing dropped.