Therset Legenddawn the Wealth of Tufts, my spear-wielding adventurer, is a bit of an anomaly: he lost the use of his shield hand in his very first quest, but has since gone on to slay countless beasts, night-creatures, bandits, an ettin, and even a cave dragon, surviving without the benefit of his shield, something which I remember used to be impossible in any earlier version. He has high agility, but doesn't even have a very great dodging skill—still sitting at Competent. Nor does he hide behind an army of countless henchmen; the only traveling companion he has ever had is his right-hand man, the maceman Ibu Lizardyor the Dim Oracles of Venerating, whom Therset picked up at Stoppeddots, a backcountry fortress near his hometown of Outragecups. (Ibu has acquired quite a history of badassity in his own right. Once I could swear some bandits gave him red wounds in the lungs and legs, but just a few hours of sleep and not a single trace of wounds were left on his body, not even scars. That's probably a bug, but I'd rather chalk it up to superhuman recuperation.)
Therset and Ibu are now known as legendary heroes throughout the many kingdoms and races of the Planes of Dawning. But now they have been tasked to face their greatest ever foe: Nici Parchedflare the Jade Spark of Brands, a dragon who since the dawn of time has been terrorizing the Nations of Surprise. The dragon is unique among Therset's previous enemies in that it breathes fire. Right now I'm a little worried for Therset, who can't fight and use a shield at the same time. I haven't played enough to know whether you can dodge through dragonfire or otherwise survive it at all without using a shield; do you guys have any experience in this matter?
tl;dr: The new Adventure Mode is fucking amazing.
Edit: Went and fought the dragon anyway. In Therset's second round of combat, he had a good shot at its head; I took it, and the great dragon lay dead in front of the man. It fell before it could breathe a single flurry of firebreath, and I'm left wondering if dragons still even have firebreath in this version.
Therset's companion Ibu is not quite so lucky, as his left foot was bitten clean off by the dragon before I could finish it off. Hopefully he doesn't bleed to death before we get out of here; I've grown quite attached to the old bastard.