Drunken HC Randomness

Feb 24, 2004
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Preface
I've decided since I had to do a restart that I would play HC only. I also happen to like drinking. One could argue that these two activities do not mesh well. On the spur of the moment I decided that, what the hell, I would still play HC D2 while drinking. The obvious solution was to create characters that I would not feel bad about losing. So I decided I would randomize their skills. I also decided they would aim to wear only set/unique items, quest only on /players8 (with exceptions below), and that I would swap characters after each waypoint achieved. (Edit: slight change, see rule 2)

My drink of choice is Jager Bombs. Jagermeister, I have discovered, is one of the very few liquors my body can handle without wanting to...reverse flow. Straight-up Jager doesn't taste the best, add some Red Bull and it's delicious!

Rules
1. Playthrough will only occur while I am drinking.*
2. Character order will be determined randomly. After that, all characters alive must stay within one act of each other.
3. All skill points gained through level-ups will be placed randomly. Skill points earned through quest rewards and items are free to be placed/saved as I wish.*
3. Set/Unique items must be used for each item slot as they are found. I may use a 2-handed item instead of a 1-hander + shield. The mercenary's item slots are included in this requirement.
4. No runewords allowed.
5. All seven characters will have a shared item stash pool. However, there will be no sharing of items across characters. (i.e. If I happen to find a Rixot's Keen, I cannot use this item across multiple characters).
6. No S&E to avoid death.
7. Playthrough will be modified /players8*:
-It is OK to kill enemies in areas already cleared in a previous session while traveling to new areas​
-Certain extremely dangerous areas will be reduced to /players1:​
1. NM Travincal - Council only due to FE Bremm Sparkfist. The entirety of Travincal save the council chambers will be cleared in a prior playthrough.​
2. NM Ancients - again, to prevent deaths due to NM FE bug still existing.​

* These rules will likely be far more relaxed in the future. Current thought is to allow free placement of all skillpoints upon reaching Hell difficulty, and lowering the /p8 requirement to /p3 for Hell.


Current Standings - Listed By Play Order
Code:
Name        Class    Level    Location
Gavin       Pal      28       Kurast Docks
Arlana      Ass      21       Lut Gholein
Blaine      Nec      20       Lut Gholein
Malia       Ama      20       Lut Gholein
Jamilah     Sorc     21       Lut Gholein
Caddock     Barb     20       Lut Gholein
Aethelwulf  Druid    20       Cold Plains

Skills
Code:
Prayer            3
Resist Fire       1
Resist Cold       2
Resist Lightning  1
Defiance          1
Might             3
Holy Fire         3
Thorns            2
Holy Freeze       1
Sacrifice         3
Holy Bolt         4
Zeal              1
Vengeance         1
Conversion        1

Saved:            2 (DoE/Rad)

Code:
Tiger Strike          3
Dragon Talon          2
Fists of Fire         2
Dragon Claw           2
Claw Mastery          1
Psychic Hammer        3
Fire Blast            2
Shock Web             1
Blade Sentinel        3
Charged Bolt Sentry   1

Saved                 1 (DoE)

Code:
Skeleton Mastery  4
Raise Skeleton    4
Clay Golem        1
Teeth             3
Bone Armor        2
Poison Dagger     1
Amplify Damage    2
Dim Vision        1
Iron Maiden       1

Saved             1 (DoE)

Code:
Jab               2
Poison Javelin    2
Lightning Bolt    2
Plague Javelin    1
Inner Sight       2
Critical Strike   3
Magic Arrow       2
Fire Arrow        4
Multishot         1

Saved             1 (DoE)

Code:
Ice Bolt         1
Frozen Armor     4
Frost Nova       1
Charged Bolt     3
Static Field     1
Fire Bolt        4
Warmth           4
Inferno          2

Saved            1 (DoE)

Code:
Howl                1
Find Potion         1
Taunt               1
Shout               1
Find Item           1
Sword Mastery       3
Mace Mastery        1
Polearm Mastery     2
Spear Mastery       2
Bash                4
Leap                1
Double Swing        1

Saved               1 (DoE)

Code:
Firestorm            2
Molten Boulder       2
Arctic Blast         2
Werewolf             2
Lycanthropy          2
Raven                3
Poison Creeper       2
Oak Sage             1
Summon Spirit Wolf   2
Carrion Vine         1

Saved                1 (DoE)

Gear
So far all stat point placement has been Strength to 40 to equip Ring Mail (I know it's only 36 req, but I like putting points in 5 point blocks early game). Druid and Sorceress get 3os Large Axes, Amazon keeps Javelin and gets a bow to get use out of them while she can, the rest equip 2os Scepters with 3os Large Shields. Topazes get put in helms/body armor (of course!). Weapons get sapphire/emerald/ruby (scepters skip out on the ruby). Those with shields are obviously putting diamonds in them.

Zero set/uniques found thus far, no surprise. Standout find:
Code:
Tangerine Boots of Charged Bolt
Boots
Defense: 2
Durability: 12 of 12
Required Level: 4
Fingerprint: 0xbb5fb727
Item Level: 10
Version: Expansion 1.10+
10% Chance to cast level 3 Charged Bolt when struck
Lightning Resist +9%
Shopped boots found by the barbarian Caddock. His rare ring was a close second, but the stats are kinda meh. Not much competition for standout item thus far!

Random Thoughts
I find it strange how Werewolf comes packaged with 20% IAS at level 1, yet it is still slower than attacking while in caster form.

Alcohol Consumed This Session
10 fl. oz. of Jagermeister

***************************************************

That's all for this first post. I hope to be able to provide some entertainment in the coming weeks with each character's progress. This session I started drinking as soon as I rolled the first character, and didn't really feel the effects of the alcohol until I started the sorceress (fifth character).

Perhaps you'd like to make a friendly wager? What area of the game do you believe will be the spot for me to lose my first character? Speaking for myself, I think I can take all seven to Act I Hell (probably). Closest guess gets super kudos!
 
Last edited:
Edited first post with 2 important rules I forgot:
  • No S&E to avoid death
  • No runewords
Reminder to self: Grab some Captain Morgan's Long Island Iced Tea for next weekend to mix up the drinks!
 
Edited first post with 2 important rules I forgot:
  • No S&E to avoid death
  • No runewords
Reminder to self: Grab some Captain Morgan's Long Island Iced Tea for next weekend to mix up the drinks!

Well you're a bit hard on this...you may allow some runewords, like Ral Tir, Thul Thul Ort Ral, Ral Ith Tal Dol, Eld Tir Lo Mal Tal, or even Jah Tir Ber xD
 
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Lol love it. Sorta like Beerbelly Stoutliver project from old forum that never got concluded afaik. Jagermeister? Absolutely digusting! But best of luck and looking forward to the updates!
 
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Reactions: Vildecor
Ha! I remember reading the adventures of Beerbelly Stoutliver. A shame he didn't finish the project. Hopefully I'll manage to get further! With seven characters in tandem, no less. I doubt I'll drink as much as I did last night each time, however. Will have to space the drinks out a bit more, especially during longer play sessions.
 
I’ve changed up a couple of things for this. I will play these characters any time I feel like drinking, not just on the weekends. I’ve also decided against swapping characters after each waypoint. This will prevent the desire to binge drink in order to try to keep the progress “even” and will also make writing and reading progress reports easier.

I need to pick up some beer. Liquor will need to be on special occasions! (Ugh...yeah slight regret after that first night)
 
I’ve done the alcohol and d2 thing over a couple weeks and it ended poorly lol. Good luck though friend
 
Update time!

Gavin has slain Andariel and completed Act 1!

Screenshot028.jpg

This session was the third for him this week, and I'm still only halfway through my drinking session tonight, so my assassin will be getting some love next. Here's how the randomizer decided to place skills for Gavin:

Code:
Prayer        3
Resist Fire   1
Defiance      1
Might         3
Holy Fire     1
Thorns        1
Holy Freeze   1
Sacrifice     3
Holy Bolt     4
Zeal          1

Saved:        1 (DoE)

Pretty much a hot mess that I expect to get worse. Please no more points in Holy Bolt! Chipped topaz luck seemed pretty crappy as well, with the first one not dropping until reaching the Black Marsh. After that, they started rolling in pretty quickly. Gavin found a total of 3 S/U items this Act: Arctic Furs, Blood Crescent, and Arctic Binding. Arctic Furs initially went to the mercenary to keep my MF up. When the belt dropped, I wore both pieces for the juicy 40% MF partial bonus on the belt. Total MF so far = 129%!! Blood Crescent is a pretty sweet find! Definitely a candidate for upgrading.

Levels and last waypoints reached will be updated in the first post. Skillpoints I think will not. Each update will have the skillpoint totals listed. I also feel like I should make use of respecs. Perhaps after Normal and NM cow level is finished, I use a respec and randomize the skills again. This will have the additional benefit of a better chance of skills further down the skill tree able to have more skillpoints placed in them since level requirements won't be a factor.
 
We used to have a "Random" tournament, where every competitor had to use an RNG to set their skill points. That was rough, and led to a lot of really challenging... "Builds." Please don't be too committed to this ideology, as it is incredibly rough in the mid-late game. We actually want you to succeed, reach Guardian, or at least ENJOY your character unto its... successor, that will defeat Baal.

HC Can be rough, especially in some very unfortunate circumstances. Being... impaired... can be even more challenging and detrimental. I know this from experience, and I truly want you to succeed more than anything. A Guardian is a Guardian, regardless of what rules you make, or, in this case, break. GET GUARDIAN!

I'd definitely be up for another ISOLATION random tournament, to be honest.
 
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I definitely agree that the most important thing is to make sure I enjoy the characters I play. Once my UT 99er zon gets settled into LK running, I'll probably drop the requirement to play these characters while drinking (though if I am drinking, these will be my go to characters), as I think that's the most cumbersome requirement. Depending on what gear drops and how the skills fall, I may loosen up on the amount of random skillpoints for hell.

I honestly don't mind if these guys bite the dust, as I have other (non-restricted) HC characters as well.
 
We used to have a "Random" tournament, where every competitor had to use an RNG to set their skill points. That was rough, and led to a lot of really challenging... "Builds"
...
I'd definitely be up for another ISOLATION random tournament, to be honest.
What do you mean by Isolation? The current restrictions due to Covid? Because I wanted to host another iteration of Vang's random tournament somewhere around the end of the year. If enough people want to do this earlier as long as Covid is impairing our lives, I might be persuaded to do this earlier :)

I would opt for the "easier" route of some random chosen skills at the beginning of the tournament and against placing EVERY skill point at random - that does indeed result in tedious gameplay because 5 points in each skill just won't suffice for Hell... And I would recommend the same to you for this challenge, @Vildecor !
 
Yeah, just due to people having more time. I am still working, but it relies on people going away and traveling; something that just isn't happening, and I'm down to a few long-term clients.
As such, I have more time on my hands, and would be up for something new again. As to my emphasis, I can't recall what I meant. Maybe I had a thought of some way to work the current situation into the rules, but I'd go against making characters isolated (no mercs.) Maybe there's some other ideas, though.
 
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