I'm doing two simultaneous runs, a good Sorcadin run on Tactician and a dark urge, evil Berserker run in Honor Mode that follows along. The good party is basically acting as an advance team to remind me of the scary encounters, ambushes etc. but I've also never done an evil durge run so it's not exactly a 1:1 comparison.
The evil party is just shy of Act 2, but I'm playing with the only companions I have access to (because of my evil actions) and I'm roughly trying to play them on type. Astarion is a Gloomstalker Assassin, Lae'zel is an Eldritch Knight and Shadowheart is a Light Domain Cleric. We are cake walking at the moment, didn't really break a sweat through the Underdark and Monastery. I'm concerned at not having a true caster... But I'm also sort of intrigued at the viability of this party.
Counterspell is the big thing I'm worried about. The advance team is proccing it constantly. Also replacing Haste with potions would suck and I can't get the Haste bow (I assume, Dammon is dead). So far relying on cleric skills for AoE has been working okay.
Can I get away with using speed potions and maybe something clever like going full anti-magic and using Sussur blooms with some party tweaks?(edit: apparently that's not possible anymore, but still Silencing weapons etc.)
Or, should I bite the bullet and spec Minthara as something castery when I get her? If so, who do I replace?
Any suggestions welcome.
I'm a little late to the party, but this episode is everything I wanted from modern Trek.
I'm loving that the cadets are competitive but ultimately supportive of each other. I love that we spent an entire episode focused on Jay'den's backstory and the Klingons, without any tedious martial arts or (real) space battles but the stakes were still plenty high. I found the resolution, and the message (not letting go of the past, but letting the present in) to be excellent Trek.
Caleb is also proving to be a bit more of an academy-era-Picard style character (great at a lot of stuff, but arrogant) rather than the sort of troubled genius vibe in the first bit of the show. I am looking forward to seeing him, and the other cadets, developed further.
Holly Hunter is doing great, bringing her own style. Loved she had a history with the Klingon guy and advocated for her student. I get why she's rubbing some the wrong way, but she is masterfully handling the people around her, leading with empathy, and has been very effective.
Also love we got some classic Klingon music from the movies, it was a nice nod.
Overall, I think this show is finally taking real advantage of the far future timeline. It is a little silly that major diplomacy is being effected at the Academy but because the Federation is still finding its feet again and the fact that the world has been mixed up from 90s Trek, it makes the Academy a much more interesting lens on the world than it would have been if it was set in the TNG-VOY timeframe.