Playthrough entirely without combat

I'm early in an attempt to see how far I can get in the game without attacking anyone. Running away is acceptable.

Character is a halfling with pickpocket/picklocks/persuasion. I got out of Shrouded Hills without attacking anything. The only unskippable battle is with that stupid halfling who attacks you at the end of the bridge. I picked up a potion of haste and ran away from him. Fast traveled to Tarant and managed to get there without encountering anything.

Once getting to Tarant there have been a large numer of missions to complete without any battles. I got up past level 10 easily. Unskippable battle #2: P. Schulyer and Sons. Just used a potion of haste again to run past the first two levels. There are no opponents to attack on the bottom level, as I talked my way out of the final battle. Used a scroll of exiting to leave. Never even took a hit.

I'm up to level 13 now and starting to run out of tedious missions that don't involve combat (Ashbury and Blackroot included). I'm going to have to get through the Black Mountain Mines soon. Any ideas on the best way to clear the mines? Potions of haste will only work so well. My weaking character can barely take a single hit from a level 1 rat.

Prowling? Magic/invisibility? What should be investing in?

 

Your thread is probably best in the Arcanum subforum instead of general discussion, but don't sweat it.

As to what to invest in, I made a very similar build that revolved around not killing anyone and was also playing a halfling (see here). In general Prowling and Invisibility, as you say, is the way to go. You do have to kill one person in the whole game towards the end (which I also detailed in the build post or the one after it) but other than that no combat is achievable, albeit a bit tedious.

 

Thanks for the link to your character. I see you did sort of cheat a few times though, using people in your party to attack instead of yourself.

The one thing I am still curious about is with Prowling and Invisibility. With master Prowl can you just walk right by wild animals? With invisibility can you just walk though the Black Mountain Mines? That's the main question I have before I invest points in those skills.

 

Prowling is not 100% invisible, but keeps you hidden when you use silent weapons, like a boomerang. If you're sneaking and encounter animals in the wild, you start off as hidden in the encounter, and can just continue travel w/o combat.

Invisibility makes the BMC mines a walk in the park.

Using expert+ prowling PLUS invisibility is ultimate: you can attack and/or run in turnbased mode, and/or cast spells without being revealed.

I like to use body of air plus invisibility plus sneak to move in fast turn based mode. The body of air stops you from accidentally punching someone as you run by, and gives +10 movement.

You can blitz-burgle the entire city of Tarant in about 30 sec gametime with this method, or breeze through the BMC mines in about 30 sec real time.

 

I think "cheat" is a bit strong, I wasn't looking for a zero combat build like you - just for a no kills build. It sounds like you're using turn based, in which case using a potion of haste on the halfling on the bridge is a viable means to get away from him - in real time like I play it isn't because the guy usually blocks of the bridge so you can't get around him (it also makes it much harder to get away from wilderness encounters too). I guess I could have tried running away until he was unconscious in the opposite direction, but as I said the main thing here was to not kill anyone so using Sogg worked just as well. In terms of roleplaying the character I thought he wasn't really bothered about seeing someone roughed up so long as they didn't die, that was pacifistic enough for me.

About killing the guards at the end of the game, you literally have to so that you can progress. If you can find a way round I'm all ears but I tried everything I could think of and couldn't find anything would work. Dominate Will, provoke guards then cancel Dominate Will seemed like the most elegant solution without any other options, I guess you could just give up and remain stuck in the Void forever for roleplaying consistency but that feels like a very unrewarding option. Besides I like to play characters who can compromise on their morals when pushed, it demonstrates character development or at least the dire circumstances of the situation.

With regards to your questions, ytzk has covered them splendidly.

 

It would have been cheating on my system. I can see that you had different requirements and different goals. Also playing turn based has given me some advantages that you didn't have.

I appreciate the input. I haven't had much chance to play the character the last few days. But I will make some major progress tomorrow.

 

Cool, let us know how it goes.

 

I got through the Black Mountain Mines (scroll of invisibilty, potions of haste and just ran away from everything possible). Finished the Isle of Despair easily. Also finished the Wheel Clan. Need to get to Stillwater next. I mentioned when I posted this I was at level 13, I was wrong I was only at level 11. Now up to 13. The leveling progress is painfully slow.

The biggest issue I'm currently having is that I don't feel comfortable fast traveling, so I'm farming scrolls of teleportation. And that takes way too long. In hindsight I should have made this character more magical as I would have had Invisibility and Teleportation without farming scrolls. Even still I'd have to be at least level 15 to get them, and I'm pretty far in the game and still at level 13.

 

Charm animal + stun is a cheap insurance against random encounters.

 

Got a good amount further into the game. Am level 16 now. Doesn't sound impressive but it's actually a lot of progress when you don't gain any experience for killing things. I've impressed myself with some workarounds to quests. Like in that quest in Stillwater where you rescue the wizard from the ogre. I used a scroll of Dominate Will on the ogre, let the wizard go, then released the ogre and ran away.

Been using potions of haste to run away from most random encounters. Currently saving my points to go towards learning Invisibility. In hindsight I should have put more points into magic earlier and less points into charisma and persuasion (at least early on).