Amin Humbledow's adventures very nearly came to an early end.
Amin had become fond of his newly acquired item: the Wand of Sleep. It helped him recover the sword that one of Beregost's halflings, Perdue, had lost to a group of gnolls. It also saved his life when a huge ogre ambushed him north of town; he is now wearing Elves' Bane and boosted his AC vs missiles to -5.
Our priest decided it was time to hit the road south; protected by Sanctuary, he soon reached Nashkel. Everything seemed quiet and peaceful down there... until he opened the door of the inn. He immediately spotted the danger at the other side of the room and his sixth sense told him: cleric. Making great use of Hold Person himself, he thought it would be a good idea to drink a potion of freedom.
Neira approached, made it clear that compassion was not part of her vocabulary and started her incantation, immediately followed by Amin. And to my astonishment she cast: Rigid Thinking. That's a 3rd level spell, meaning Neira is actually at least lvl.5. Who would have thought? I expected a lvl.2 spell, obviously hold person and this caught me by complete surprise. And the spell... landed. Bummer. Fortunately it did not interrupt Amin, who seconds later cast Hold Person and the spell... landed.
So here we have a rigid thinking hobbit facing a held cleric-assassin.
What do you do in such a case? that's right, you open the manual. Hold Person lasts 1t, that much I knew I almost never use rigid thinking, so feverly flick the pages and it says... lasts 24t !!! that's it. Amin has 1t to either kill Neira (he will attack her only once, dealing a whopping 4 dmg) or luckily hide in one of the inn's room. Which he did not.
I am contemplating the end of my run when suddenly... rigid thinking vanishes! - pause - another manual error, I look into NI and that's right, the spell lasts only 1t just like Hold Person. Which gives me a fraction of a round advantage to decide what to do before Neira is freed. She could cast rigid thinking again, but this time I get to cast first. I go ->Hold Person again... and it lands, she is interrupted, held and killed.
Wow. Very near death here. Clerics and druids are pains. They are often under-estimated. The only safe best against them is the Greenstone amulet, which Amin does not have yet. Lesson learnt. May Lathander continue to bless that hobbit a little longer...
@Wanderon: best of luck to Sam, good recovery in the Bassilus fight and sorry to hear that Imoen is now burried 6 feet under. Perhaps one day someone will recover her remains and resurrect her, who knows? ;-)
@Wanderon: best of luck to Sam, good recovery in the Bassilus fight and sorry to hear that Imoen is now burried 6 feet under. Perhaps one day someone will recover her remains and resurrect her, who knows? ;-)
Well actually she is lying on top of the grass like a misshapen purple flower becuase Kivan misplaced his shovel +2 somewhere near High Hedge... ;-)
with this thread being so prolific I really hope for some more people to put up videos of their runs, ironman is certainly the most exciting kind of let´s play!
I put up some more parts on my youtube channel btw (AinaGrey). some party members already "might" have died due to challenges certain mods added (to my utter surprise) :-(
You can detect and disarm traps whilst magically invisible
Ok, thanks all for clarifying that. Arcane invisibility spell would also do it then, but you need to make a hasty exist once you've opened the container - i.e. with an oil of speed, but I would hesitate to use one (and same for invisibility potion) in that cave. But that's just me.
Why would you hesitate to use these potions? They're meant for situations like this!
I am contemplating whether I should take Amin Humbledow into that cave. I do not exactly know the effect of all the traps in there (3 traps I think?), but one of them at least is a save-or-die. Amin can melee the golems but needs severe buffing. All in all it is a big risk in a solo no-reload when PC is not a thief; but the reward might be worth it - the tome, but not only that ;-)
I wouldn't risk the caves with a non-thief unless severely buffed, and even then I don't think it's worth trying to take on the Flesh Gollums - just grab to loot and then go invisible again!
Both of these potions can save your life, or suddenly turn a battle in your favour. In my last successful no-reload, it was an invisibility potion that litterally saved my PC's run while he was cornered and unable to move vs stronger melee opponents. Some solo classes would have a tough time winning the final battle without one, or several, of both of these potions. They are in limited numbers. So IMO, they need to be used with caution. It is only a matter of estimating whether that cave's loot is worth the investment ;-)
As for Amin Humbledow, going into the cave buffed yes, but against what exactly? not all of those traps deal damage, I got killed in a recent run by a save-or-die in that cave and could not see what spell was triggered. Potion of Magic Blocking might do the job, but imagine Beamdog has put in there a 6th level insta-kill...
Sam and Kivan were looking at an uncanny stone sculpture of a striking woman while wandering the Nashkel Carnival.
Sam recalled Imoen had picked up a stone to flesh scroll at the Beregost Temple and when he questioned her about it she had said "Hey-a you never know - old Puff-guts used to tell me a story about a stoned trollop he found hiding in the cellar one night" -
Sam related this to Kivan with a few embellishments and Kivan rolled his eyes and shrugged saying what the hells it's worth a shot.
Sam dug the scroll out and Kivan showed him how to turn it right side up so he could read the enchantment and with a flash-crack and a huge sucking sound which turned out to be the first drawing of a long held breath a warrior maiden of Tempus appeared in the flesh - literally - as the enchantment caused her stone clothing to crumble around her and she snapped open her eyes and jumped into Kivans arms and he quickly wrapped his cape around her and wandered off behind a tent telling Sam he would be right back.
A few hours later Kivan found him near the beer tent and introduced him to their newest team member Branwen now outfitted in some of Kivans spare armor and Kivan grinning like an idiot while Branwen went on and on about Tempus and Tranzig. The newly formed trio picked up some more essentials for themselves and wandered off to the south looking for the Nashkel mines.
As they slipped into a cleft in the rocks they were accosted by a pair of brigands with a small party of bandits and as thier negotiations with the unscrupulous pair went downhill the brigands party suddenly started falling like flies. A huge half-orc warrior appeared and after chastising the bandits leaders he attacked the brigands from the rear as Sam & company joined the fray. The half-orc was near death when Branwen cast a healing spell on him and soon after the dust settled and the brigands were lying in pieces.
The half-orc Dorn offered to join the group and Sam and Branwen agreed while Kivan was much less enthusiastic but Sam told him to get over it and they moved out after looting a few fine pieces from the fallen. The group found Prism the artist and protected him from Greywolf taking the bounty hunter down in a tough fight and gaining a wondrous new sword for Sam called Varscona - he whispers to it as he applies an edge when they sit about the campfire.
A trip to Nashkel to empty their packs and they got a clue as to where another of Dorns enemies might be hiding - Sam was in no hurry to head under ground at the mines and so off they went in search of Dorns foe. The found her east of Nashkel and took her down hard the half-orc swelling with pride and arrogance as she fell and anxious to move on to his next foe but Sam bid him wait a bit and Kivan talked the group into taking a wounded soldier they found to the FAI and so they did.
Sam is now Level 3 thief - one more level to get his beserker skills back - will decide next whether to drop Dorn for a while at FAI to level Sam faster or keep him on for now ( party has average rep so he should stay avaiable). Jahs and Kahlid are still at the Inn but I'm pretty sure I will have to speak to them before we enter and finish the mines if I wish to keep them available - will check on Xzar and Monty when we leave here too.
The continued adventures of Amin Humbledow (2), the solo LG Halfling Priest of Lathander.
After the near-catastrophic episode vs Neira, the hobbit started working his way in and around Nashkel, trying to help whomever was in need. He heard the sad tale about capt. Brage, located him and convinced him to hand himself over to the temple of Helm.
Amin then went to check out the mines site. He would have to investigate further one day, but decided for the time being to give a hard times to those undead creatures roaming freely in the region. As he slinged a ghast to death, he was extremely pleased to find in the loot a potion of invisibility. Further east he put his scroll of prot. vs undead to good use. Looted several caves and used his spiritual hammer spell to take down a powerful creature: a revenant.
Amin Humbledow was already a lvl.5 priest (+5 HP) with access to a new wide variery of powerful spells. He decided he would try them out around the place he now called home: Beregost.
Flicking through his spellbook while seated on the marbles of the great temple, Amin wondered... hmm... animate the dead... was that not somewhat off-limits for a priest of Lathander? well if he got the power to cast this, then the Morning Lord must have somehow seen some use to it.
He incantated his spell on the outskirts of town and summoned... 2 skeletons. And they would obey him. As he started leading them in the streets of Beregost, horrifying all pass-byers...
...he stumbled upon a young elvish mage, Neera, who needed protection. He and his undead allies defended her against wizards of Thay, and then let her go her own way. Later he used the skellies to face a spider infection in one of the southern houses.
News go fast in a provincial town, and folks had complained. He got called before Keldath Ormlyr who was impressed to see that the youngest of his priests was already capable of wielding lvl.3 spells. He however ordered him to do so outside of town, and thought that maybe Amin's new powers would be potent enough to tackle Bassilus by now. Keldath also mentioned about a magical weapon hidden in a chest somewhere in Beregost, a mace, that he had stored there for lack of a better use at the temple. Amin had to drink a potion of strength and cast DUHM to open the heavy chest, and he was now proudly wielding the amazing Stupefier.
As he reached the FAI, Amin was approached by a mage he did not know. Remembering his late father adviced, he quickly cast protection vs fear - one is never too cautious ... and for the 3rd time in a few days, someone had a bounty on his life!
Tarnesh - such was his name - resisted Silence but his Horror failed to impress the hobbit.
Tarnesh managed to fire a volley of magic missiles just before he got held, and beaten to death.
->question: on the above screenshot, it says "Tarnesh- Save vs Spell: 12". I am assuming this is the roll, and checking in NI Tarnesh does save vs spell at 12. However targets who save vs Silence roll with a -5 penalty: I do not see this -5 modifier and am wondering whether it actually applies or not. Anyone knows? could not tell for sure in NI.
On a side note, you can disarm and detect traps from hiding in shadows. However you will start to vanish from hide as soon as you click on find traps, giving you about one round to detect it, run, then re stealth and disarm.
Regarding my Jester duo run with Safana (who I haven't yet picked up), I think I've decided to *not* allow myself to recharge wands, to avoid excessive cheese and make the game boring, but due to the fact that I won't have access to the Elven Chain (not taking Dorn along and it drops too late now to take him temporarily) I'm considering allowing myself to recharge the Shield Amulet by selling/re-buying - do you think this could be considered acceptable for a Bard?
Regarding my Jester duo run with Safana (who I haven't yet picked up), I think I've decided to *not* allow myself to recharge wands, to avoid excessive cheese and make the game boring, but due to the fact that I won't have access to the Elven Chain (not taking Dorn along and it drops too late now to take him temporarily) I'm considering allowing myself to recharge the Shield Amulet by selling/re-buying - do you think this could be considered acceptable for a Bard?
Yes I do. A no-reload run is a difficult achievement and it is perfectly legit to re-charge items via shops.
Regarding my Jester duo run with Safana (who I haven't yet picked up), I think I've decided to *not* allow myself to recharge wands, to avoid excessive cheese and make the game boring, but due to the fact that I won't have access to the Elven Chain (not taking Dorn along and it drops too late now to take him temporarily) I'm considering allowing myself to recharge the Shield Amulet by selling/re-buying - do you think this could be considered acceptable for a Bard?
Yes I do. A no-reload run is a difficult achievement and it is perfectly legit to re-charge items via shops.
Do you think re-charging wands would be excessive, though?
Do you think re-charging wands would be excessive, though?
No I do not think it is excessive. Then it is up to you to decide what kind of a challenge you want for yourself; quite a few wands exist in several copies throughout BG1 anyway. I was myself recently pondering whether to re-charge some items or not (and I mostly had in mind the greenstone amulet which for me is by far, the most powerful re-chargeable item in a solo run). I have not decided yet in my current run with Amin Humbledow; he took on Neira and Tarnesh earlier than I usually do, using respectively a potion of freedom a prot. vs fear. It almost cost me my run against the cleric as she caught me off guard with rigid thinking ;-)
Do you think re-charging wands would be excessive, though?
No I do not think it is excessive. Then it is up to you to decide what kind of a challenge you want for yourself; quite a few wands exist in several copies throughout BG1 anyway. I was myself recently pondering whether to re-charge some items or not (and I mostly had in mind the greenstone amulet which for me is by far, the most powerful re-chargeable item in a solo run). I have not decided yet in my current run with Amin Humbledow; he took on Neira and Tarnesh earlier than I usually do, using respectively a potion of freedom a prot. vs fear. It almost cost me my run against the cleric as she caught me off guard with rigid thinking ;-)
BTW is the Ring of Invisibility that you can get in Ulgoth's Bear a rechargable item or a use-per-day item? If the former, I fully intend to recharge it for my Jester, as Invisibilty + Jester Song = Good Times
Still not 100% sure what to do about wands, though, I'll see how things go. Have recently bought the Wand of Sleep (comes with 20 charges) as that's only really useful early on, so thought I might as well make the most of it while I can!
BTW are there any items that protect vs. Fear (including potions)? I'm a little wary of tackling Tarnesh due to his ability to cast Horror, but don't really want to tie up my only level 2 spell slot with Remove Fear, as want this for Invisibility...
@Oxford_Guy: sandthief ring in UB's is a rechargeable item (although very expensive - ~2k gp / charge IIRC). I usually do not recharge the wand of sleep, 20 charges is plenty to tackle the beginning of the game (unless you run into each spawn on every map...).
The item that comes to mind vs fear is the Greenstone amulet, which basically protects vs every nasty disabling spell in BG1. There might be other items as well, cannot remember... lvl.1 cleric spell Resist Fear is cheap, has an AoE, cast time of 1 and lasts for 1hr (I know you're playing a bard though). It is a very good spell.
@Oxford_Guy: sandthief ring in UB's is a rechargeable item (although very expensive - ~2k gp / charge IIRC). I usually do not recharge the wand of sleep, 20 charges is plenty to tackle the beginning of the game (unless you run into each spawn on every map...).
The item that comes to mind vs fear is the Greenstone amulet, which basically protects vs every nasty disabling spell in BG1. There might be other items as well, cannot remember... lvl.1 cleric spell Resist Fear is cheap, has an AoE, cast time of 1 and lasts for 1hr (I know you're playing a bard though). It is a very good spell.
Looks like I have a shopping list for Ulgoth's Beard... Do you have any idea how much the Greenstone Amulet costs at middling reputation?
Greenstone Amulet ~6K (10 charges) Sandthief Ring ~20K (8 charges)
Thanks - the Greenstone Amulet looks the better deal, at least until I'm swimming in cash late game. What other good stuff is there to buy (and prices) at Ulgoth's?
Greenstone Amulet ~6K (10 charges) Sandthief Ring ~20K (8 charges)
Thanks - the Greenstone Amulet looks the better deal, at least until I'm swimming in cash late game. What other good stuff is there to buy (and prices) at Ulgoth's?
+3 staff comes to mind and IIRC it's the only store that stocks the highest level mage spell scrolls (and a few high level preist scrolls IIRC)
- Cloak of Displacement (~6K), a must have (but graphical effect is painful to watch so I usually pass) - a very nice harp if you're a bard (~10K) - 2 magic wands (~7K each)
- Cloak of Displacement (~6K), a must have (but graphical effect is painful to watch so I usually pass) - a very nice harp if you're a bard (~10K) - 2 magic wands (~7K each)
Scimitar Sam took the party North from FAI where they ran into some ankeg and started culling a few from the herd in spite of the obvious danger - with Dorn along they figured they could carry almost a half-dozen down to Thunderbutt in Beregost which would almost pay for a set of ankeg armor - Dorn got smacked pretty good by the first spitting beast but Branwen Nightinggale patched up right away - then we had two jump out at once and they both must have hit Dorn together becuase he dropped like a stone and Branwen was unable to stir him. We finished off the fight and managed to carry 3 shells and what was left of Dorn if we walked slow and headed off to Beregost - we sold the shells and took Dorn out to the woods and left him with Imoen - maybe he could tell her some stories about trollops and plug-tales to while away eternity.
We geared up and headed south where we ran across the infamous Drizzt after killing all but one of the gnolls he was whining about ourselves - we let him run along home to his mommy - and snuck around to find the half-ogres that we heard were hanging out here - we found them and left them dead and put down a small band of wanna be bandits before heading back to Beregost to reconnoiter and decide where to go next.
Losing Dorn didn't really break my heart - I was looking to do a more nuetral than evil group anyway - Sam leveled to thief 4 and got his beserker back and added a 4th pip to scimitars - his traps are up to 80 and MS/HIS is 65/15 without the boots - I think I will keep him in plate mostly for now weilding the Wazi +1 and Varscona and let Kivan scout and snipe.
Now that Sam has his beserker back I can go with a larger group so I'm going to think about who to bring along - I'll need to speak to both Jahs & Kahlid and Xzar and Monty before entering the mines in order to keep them available for later on if needed and I have room for either pair as it's just Sam, Kivan & Branwen right now. Minsc & Dyna might be a decent option becuase I could do their quest - then come back and get Edwin thus completing his quest also. Then I can keep or drop Minsc & Dyna (they will stay where I leave them as long as our rep is nuetral-good) and grab one of the other pairs before entering the mine.
Choices choices... and no more play time until Fri - maybe not until Sun...
Comments
Amin had become fond of his newly acquired item: the Wand of Sleep. It helped him recover the sword that one of Beregost's halflings, Perdue, had lost to a group of gnolls. It also saved his life when a huge ogre ambushed him north of town; he is now wearing Elves' Bane and boosted his AC vs missiles to -5.
Our priest decided it was time to hit the road south; protected by Sanctuary, he soon reached Nashkel. Everything seemed quiet and peaceful down there... until he opened the door of the inn. He immediately spotted the danger at the other side of the room and his sixth sense told him: cleric. Making great use of Hold Person himself, he thought it would be a good idea to drink a potion of freedom.
Neira approached, made it clear that compassion was not part of her vocabulary and started her incantation, immediately followed by Amin. And to my astonishment she cast: Rigid Thinking. That's a 3rd level spell, meaning Neira is actually at least lvl.5. Who would have thought? I expected a lvl.2 spell, obviously hold person and this caught me by complete surprise. And the spell... landed. Bummer. Fortunately it did not interrupt Amin, who seconds later cast Hold Person and the spell... landed.
So here we have a rigid thinking hobbit facing a held cleric-assassin.
What do you do in such a case? that's right, you open the manual. Hold Person lasts 1t, that much I knew I almost never use rigid thinking, so feverly flick the pages and it says... lasts 24t !!! that's it. Amin has 1t to either kill Neira (he will attack her only once, dealing a whopping 4 dmg) or luckily hide in one of the inn's room. Which he did not.
I am contemplating the end of my run when suddenly... rigid thinking vanishes! - pause - another manual error, I look into NI and that's right, the spell lasts only 1t just like Hold Person. Which gives me a fraction of a round advantage to decide what to do before Neira is freed. She could cast rigid thinking again, but this time I get to cast first. I go ->Hold Person again... and it lands, she is interrupted, held and killed.
Wow. Very near death here. Clerics and druids are pains. They are often under-estimated. The only safe best against them is the Greenstone amulet, which Amin does not have yet. Lesson learnt. May Lathander continue to bless that hobbit a little longer...
I put up some more parts on my youtube channel btw (AinaGrey). some party members already "might" have died due to challenges certain mods added (to my utter surprise) :-(
As for Amin Humbledow, going into the cave buffed yes, but against what exactly? not all of those traps deal damage, I got killed in a recent run by a save-or-die in that cave and could not see what spell was triggered. Potion of Magic Blocking might do the job, but imagine Beamdog has put in there a 6th level insta-kill...
Sam recalled Imoen had picked up a stone to flesh scroll at the Beregost Temple and when he questioned her about it she had said "Hey-a you never know - old Puff-guts used to tell me a story about a stoned trollop he found hiding in the cellar one night" -
Sam related this to Kivan with a few embellishments and Kivan rolled his eyes and shrugged saying what the hells it's worth a shot.
Sam dug the scroll out and Kivan showed him how to turn it right side up so he could read the enchantment and with a flash-crack and a huge sucking sound which turned out to be the first drawing of a long held breath a warrior maiden of Tempus appeared in the flesh - literally - as the enchantment caused her stone clothing to crumble around her and she snapped open her eyes and jumped into Kivans arms and he quickly wrapped his cape around her and wandered off behind a tent telling Sam he would be right back.
A few hours later Kivan found him near the beer tent and introduced him to their newest team member Branwen now outfitted in some of Kivans spare armor and Kivan grinning like an idiot while Branwen went on and on about Tempus and Tranzig. The newly formed trio picked up some more essentials for themselves and wandered off to the south looking for the Nashkel mines.
As they slipped into a cleft in the rocks they were accosted by a pair of brigands with a small party of bandits and as thier negotiations with the unscrupulous pair went downhill the brigands party suddenly started falling like flies. A huge half-orc warrior appeared and after chastising the bandits leaders he attacked the brigands from the rear as Sam & company joined the fray. The half-orc was near death when Branwen cast a healing spell on him and soon after the dust settled and the brigands were lying in pieces.
The half-orc Dorn offered to join the group and Sam and Branwen agreed while Kivan was much less enthusiastic but Sam told him to get over it and they moved out after looting a few fine pieces from the fallen. The group found Prism the artist and protected him from Greywolf taking the bounty hunter down in a tough fight and gaining a wondrous new sword for Sam called Varscona - he whispers to it as he applies an edge when they sit about the campfire.
A trip to Nashkel to empty their packs and they got a clue as to where another of Dorns enemies might be hiding - Sam was in no hurry to head under ground at the mines and so off they went in search of Dorns foe. The found her east of Nashkel and took her down hard the half-orc swelling with pride and arrogance as she fell and anxious to move on to his next foe but Sam bid him wait a bit and Kivan talked the group into taking a wounded soldier they found to the FAI and so they did.
*************************************************************
Sam is now Level 3 thief - one more level to get his beserker skills back - will decide next whether to drop Dorn for a while at FAI to level Sam faster or keep him on for now ( party has average rep so he should stay avaiable). Jahs and Kahlid are still at the Inn but I'm pretty sure I will have to speak to them before we enter and finish the mines if I wish to keep them available - will check on Xzar and Monty when we leave here too.
After the near-catastrophic episode vs Neira, the hobbit started working his way in and around Nashkel, trying to help whomever was in need. He heard the sad tale about capt. Brage, located him and convinced him to hand himself over to the temple of Helm.
Amin then went to check out the mines site. He would have to investigate further one day, but decided for the time being to give a hard times to those undead creatures roaming freely in the region. As he slinged a ghast to death, he was extremely pleased to find in the loot a potion of invisibility. Further east he put his scroll of prot. vs undead to good use. Looted several caves and used his spiritual hammer spell to take down a powerful creature: a revenant.
Amin Humbledow was already a lvl.5 priest (+5 HP) with access to a new wide variery of powerful spells. He decided he would try them out around the place he now called home: Beregost.
He incantated his spell on the outskirts of town and summoned... 2 skeletons. And they would obey him. As he started leading them in the streets of Beregost, horrifying all pass-byers...
...he stumbled upon a young elvish mage, Neera, who needed protection. He and his undead allies defended her against wizards of Thay, and then let her go her own way. Later he used the skellies to face a spider infection in one of the southern houses.
News go fast in a provincial town, and folks had complained. He got called before Keldath Ormlyr who was impressed to see that the youngest of his priests was already capable of wielding lvl.3 spells. He however ordered him to do so outside of town, and thought that maybe Amin's new powers would be potent enough to tackle Bassilus by now. Keldath also mentioned about a magical weapon hidden in a chest somewhere in Beregost, a mace, that he had stored there for lack of a better use at the temple. Amin had to drink a potion of strength and cast DUHM to open the heavy chest, and he was now proudly wielding the amazing Stupefier.
He took the road north.
Tarnesh - such was his name - resisted Silence but his Horror failed to impress the hobbit.
Tarnesh managed to fire a volley of magic missiles just before he got held, and beaten to death.
->question: on the above screenshot, it says "Tarnesh- Save vs Spell: 12". I am assuming this is the roll, and checking in NI Tarnesh does save vs spell at 12. However targets who save vs Silence roll with a -5 penalty: I do not see this -5 modifier and am wondering whether it actually applies or not. Anyone knows? could not tell for sure in NI.
So the die that was rolled came up 17, he took a -5 penalty, so he saved at 12.
Still not 100% sure what to do about wands, though, I'll see how things go. Have recently bought the Wand of Sleep (comes with 20 charges) as that's only really useful early on, so thought I might as well make the most of it while I can!
BTW are there any items that protect vs. Fear (including potions)? I'm a little wary of tackling Tarnesh due to his ability to cast Horror, but don't really want to tie up my only level 2 spell slot with Remove Fear, as want this for Invisibility...
The item that comes to mind vs fear is the Greenstone amulet, which basically protects vs every nasty disabling spell in BG1. There might be other items as well, cannot remember... lvl.1 cleric spell Resist Fear is cheap, has an AoE, cast time of 1 and lasts for 1hr (I know you're playing a bard though). It is a very good spell.
Sandthief Ring ~20K (8 charges)
- Cloak of Displacement (~6K), a must have (but graphical effect is painful to watch so I usually pass)
- a very nice harp if you're a bard (~10K)
- 2 magic wands (~7K each)
We geared up and headed south where we ran across the infamous Drizzt after killing all but one of the gnolls he was whining about ourselves - we let him run along home to his mommy - and snuck around to find the half-ogres that we heard were hanging out here - we found them and left them dead and put down a small band of wanna be bandits before heading back to Beregost to reconnoiter and decide where to go next.
***************************************************
Losing Dorn didn't really break my heart - I was looking to do a more nuetral than evil group anyway - Sam leveled to thief 4 and got his beserker back and added a 4th pip to scimitars - his traps are up to 80 and MS/HIS is 65/15 without the boots - I think I will keep him in plate mostly for now weilding the Wazi +1 and Varscona and let Kivan scout and snipe.
Now that Sam has his beserker back I can go with a larger group so I'm going to think about who to bring along - I'll need to speak to both Jahs & Kahlid and Xzar and Monty before entering the mines in order to keep them available for later on if needed and I have room for either pair as it's just Sam, Kivan & Branwen right now. Minsc & Dyna might be a decent option becuase I could do their quest - then come back and get Edwin thus completing his quest also. Then I can keep or drop Minsc & Dyna (they will stay where I leave them as long as our rep is nuetral-good) and grab one of the other pairs before entering the mine.
Choices choices... and no more play time until Fri - maybe not until Sun...