This will be my first attempt in doing a No Reload challenge. I'm playing with Core Rules and a slightly modded game (a few things from BG2Tweaks).
So I'm starting out easy with Garreth (NG, Human, Fighter - ** Longswords, * Two-Handed Weapon Style, * Sword & Shield Style).
Did some errands in Candlekeep before leaving with Gorion.
Imoen joined the group (might use SK to make her a multi- T/M later on, if she is still alive) Made our way to the Friendly Arm Inn, we found some magical rings along the way. Luckily it was night so Imoen could stealth which made the fight with Tarnesh very short, interrupted his Mirror Image and he was dead before he finished the next spell.
Khalid & Jaheira joined the group and we decided to find Joia her ring. Before returning the ring the group encounter a drow chased by a Flaming Fist soldier, the soldier didn't have a good enough reason to turn on Viconia so it ended with us killing him, giving Garreth a nice piece of armor too.
She didn't at all seem to be like how the books described the drows so she too joined the party. After returning the ring to Joia it was time for some carn..*erm* ogre hunting.
Khalid volunteered for kiting duty and the rest of the party attacked from distance. The ogre managed to do a couple of attacks toward Khalid but they all missed. We found Unshey's girdle but it looked magical so until we know more about it we are keeping it.
Reached Beregost where the group met a strange mage girl, Neera. She was too was hunted but this time by red wizards. We helped her out and she joined our group. Need to keep an eye on her though, wild magic does sound dangerous.
Later Imoen showed up with a magical mace, she says she won it on some kind of bet, but I don't know. Viconia will hopefully make good use of it.
Lastly we just heard about the reward on Bassilus, though everyone thought it's best to get a little bit more experience before confronting a mad cleric with that kind of bounty on his head.
Decided to check out Beregost a bit more before leaving. Another assassin was waiting for Garreth at Red Sheaf Inn. Karlat should have prepared a bit more though, surrounded he was no match for a group of six.
Also, met a funny short fella at the inn, he wanted help retrieving his lost sword from some Gnolls. It sounded like a good start to get some experience so the group headed west to High Hedge.
The place was crawling with Skeletons, Ghouls, Gnolls and Spiders. Everyone managed to survive but it was a close call for Jaheira Found Perdue's sword though.
Before heading back to Beregost the party explored south of High Hedge where they came across Melicamp. Not able to dispel his pollymorphed state they agreed to bring him back to Thalantyr at High Hedge.
Unfortunately, Melicamp didn't survive the Antichickenator (missing out on a good chunk of exp )
Jaheira is impatient and demands that we travel to Nashkel so Bassilus have to wait a bit. Nothing special happens on the travel, we find some letter we might deliver later.
Arriving at Nashkel we agree to help the Mayor with the Mine problems, though who knows what is down there. Need some more experience before taking on that task.
Another assassin waiting for Garreth at the inn. Neira didn't stand a chance. A Command from Viconia and Neira was dead before she could stand up again.
Found an Ankheg Armor, since it's quite light Viconia (who is rather weak) got to use it. Also heard about a bounty for some emeralds that a sculptor stole, didn't seem too hard of a job.
But first we wanted to check out the Carnival, it was quite entertaining. Bought some potions, they didn't turn out to be of much use for me but made quite a profit on them. Helped another lady with a irritating wizard. He resisted Viconias Command but we managed to beat him anyway. Robes doesn't help much when six people are wailing on them.
After the Carnival, we headed towards the Mine, meet some half-orc named Dorn, our group is quite solid at the moment so we didn't bring that brute with us, he told us that we could find him at the Friendly Arm if we changed our mind.
No intention on going down the Mine but we heard this was where Prism was making his statue so a good place to check for the emeralds. Encountered Winter Wolves at two locations too, which was quite nice the pelts sold for quite a lot. Found Prism, he promised us everything he owned if we protected him from some Greywolf instead of taking the stones, we agreed to do so. Garreth borrowed Viconias gear for this since Greywolf seemed like someone dangerous. The fight went well, Bless, Chant and Hold Person, Greywolf didn't resist and was soon eating dust.
Prism managed to complete his life work, and was so happy he died from an heartattack or something. We collected the emeralds and brought them back to Oublek in Nashkel.
Thinking it was time to deal with Bassilus the group headed out into the wild to make their way up to where they last seen him.
On the way they had to unfortunately clear an entire village of Xvarts and some bears they worshiped. Also met Drizzt and helped him out with some Gnolls and found the Half-Ogres that Bjornin from Jovial Juggler had told us about.
Getting closer to Bassilus some Bandits demanded all our valuables, we told them to go away but they refused which ended up with Neera sleeping them and after that the fight was kind of done.
One of them had very nice Short Sword +2, Imoen got to hold on to that one.
Time to deal with Bassilus, we pre-buffed with Remove Fear, Bless, Chant. He truly was mad, thinking I was some relative of him. Managed to make him destroy his own skeletons which probably was a good thing, since they where quite some. Only Bassilus left, Jaheira start with casting Doom and Viconia follows up with Hold Person. Bassilus managed to resist though. After which he managed to cast Rigid Thinking on Garreth but that was no big problem and then Entangle was cast on Imoen and Neera, both which used ranged weapons so that didn't help him much.
Selling some magical weapons we found and the reward for Bassilus, Garreth bought himself a nice Full Plate Mail from Taerum. It was expensive but hopefully worth it (now at -5AC).
But first we wanted to check out the Carnival, it was quite entertaining. Bought some potions, they didn't turn out to be of much use for me but made quite a profit on them.
I think the potion that sets your Int to 25 is *very* useful, I save this until quite late in the game, when I want to make sure I scribe those difficult to get high level scrolls e.g. Stoneskin, Greater Malison etc.!
But first we wanted to check out the Carnival, it was quite entertaining. Bought some potions, they didn't turn out to be of much use for me but made quite a profit on them.
I think the potion that sets your Int to 25 is *very* useful, I save this until quite late in the game, when I want to make sure I scribe those difficult to get high level scrolls e.g. Stoneskin, Greater Malison etc.!
Ohh, thats true. Didn't think about that. Well I'll probably got enough money to buy them back once(/if) I get there
------------- Ohh my. The group decided it soon was time to check the Nashkel Mines, but taking the long route along the coast down to Nashkel.
We encountered a what seemed friendly Siren. Though after a bit of talk she gave Imoen the kiss of death. After beating her she explained her situation and we agreed that if she resurrected Imoen we would help her against her captor.
Turns out it was a Ogre-Mage that held her captive. We managed to interrupt his invisibility, but before we beat him he succeed in casting a Lightning Bolt that killed Neera. Shaol the Siren was happy for her freedom.
We decided to continue exploring the area before heading back to Beregost's temple. That didn't last long, we encountered a group of Ogrillions and a Ogre, we managed to stay alive but Viconia was severely wounded and we had no healing magic left. So the temple seemed like a good option by now.
After resurrecting Neera and healing our wounds we returned to the area, found some more Sirens though these where not as friendly as Shaol and it really didn't look good for a while. Interupted one of them from turning invisible and soon there after she was dead, the other two sirens however managed to Charm Garreth, Viconia and Khalid. With a bit of luck Neera had just recently learned level 2 spells and could cast Horror on her Charmed group members. The sirens didn't stand much of a chance when they where alone.
Continuing south along the coast the group reached a lighthouse where they helped a mother with some wolves. Close by they saw some sirens too but avoided them for now.
Later they came across an archaeological site, they agreed to guard the workers for a while. Unfortunately once they reached the inner chambers, the diggers went mad and we had no other option then to defend ourselves. Also Imoen couldn't keep her fingers from some items, and brought some kind of idol with her outside which summoned some kind of guardian.
It wasn't too hard of a fight, Khalid to a hit or two before the guard died.
We also found Nashkels former guard captain, Brage. We managed to guess his riddle and it seemed like he regained some of his sanity, then escorting him back to Nashkel.
Finally, time to check out Nashkel Mines. Had no problem dealing with the Kobold's infesting the mines.
Once we reached the lower levels of the mine we found Mulahey, a half-orc. The fight was quite straight forward. Neera slept the Kobolds he summoned, Jaheira cast Doom and Viconia, Hold Person. No one was in any great danger. Turns out there is much more behind all this then just some "poisoned" mine. We should try to find this Tranzig.
Freed Xan and returned his Moonblade, though we didn't want him in the group.
After exiting the Mines we encounted some amazon warriors and this was a really close call. One of them managed to Hold Garreth, Khalid, Jaheira. But with Horror, Command and some luck Viconia could keep them from killing Garreth. Patching our wounds we continued exploring and met a strange wizard that totally misunderstood us. In the end we had to fight him and two Mustard Jellies. Poor Jaheira had some bad luck and got slowed and hit twice before she could run away. The rest of the group was victorious.
The plan was to help Neera finding Adoy but now with Jaheira dead. Our plan changed and a visit to Nashkel should be done. The five man group finished exploring the mine exit area without much issue before returning to Nashkel and resurrecting Jaheira.
Decided to try a fighter/mage for like the 20th time, never been able to get one off the ground. Rolled a 93 on like my 6th click and figured I'd go with it rather than sit around for hours trying to get better.
Mayweather (big boxing fan here) half elf, fighter/mage, chaotic good 16 18 18 17 8 16
got a 15/17/15 munchkin archer (rolled only once of course) that might actually go somewhere. now at nashkel, lvl 2. imoen, jaheira, minsc (khalid died to kobolds, of course)
mods I installed seriously screw the balance of the game. kobold arrow poison that deals like 4 damage/second, and Minsc was lvl 7 (!) when I recruited him (with party level being 2). but it´s still harder than vanilla so I don´t care too much
Decided to try a fighter/mage for like the 20th time, never been able to get one off the ground. Rolled a 93 on like my 6th click and figured I'd go with it rather than sit around for hours trying to get better.
Mayweather (big boxing fan here) half elf, fighter/mage, chaotic good 16 18 18 17 8 16
Decided to try a fighter/mage for like the 20th time, never been able to get one off the ground. Rolled a 93 on like my 6th click and figured I'd go with it rather than sit around for hours trying to get better.
Mayweather (big boxing fan here) half elf, fighter/mage, chaotic good 16 18 18 17 8 16
Blimey! That's a good roll!
When it comes to no reload, I don't even get started unless I get something like that. Too much time and care going into one character to have them be not strong enough. Sadly my best two rolls, a 97 on a bounty hunter and a 100 on a blade, both lead to characters dying at level one, lol
Lian & Co did some more exploring dissed the deadest dart thrower in captivity bashed some braggarts from Amn, gnashed the Nashkel mines kobold population, mutilated Mulahey addled and annihilated the Amazons at the exit - nerfed Nimbul and transfered Tranzig to the Nine Hells.
Edwin became the first NPC death - not playing no rez with this group but decided to limit the number of rez per character to 2 just to keep things interesting.
Current levels are: Lian & Monty F 3/ T 4, Dorn, Kagain & Edwin 4, Viconia 5.
Probably off to the coast next maybe after Ulcaster and the far end of Firewine from the Hobbit hole altho I think we will go to the FAI & bring Neera into the group long enough to ID our gear while our rep is low enough to drop Monty for her without him leaving for good. (Currently rep 11)
Going to give this another go. Hopefully I can avoid death by Lycanthrope this time around.
Group consists of:
Inquisitor using a 2-Handed Sword A Ranger to be dualed to Cleric at level 3, using Hammers and Flails A Half-Elf Bard, no kit, using a Crossbow A Berserker who is going to be dualed to a Thief at level 3 An Elven Archer using Longbows A Kensai who will dual to a mage at 3 using Axes
Going to be playing on Core rules, so none of the boatloads of HP that I'm used to.
Lian & Co progressed about as I mentioned in the last update - took on Ulcaster and Hobbit village taking down the Firewine ogre mage and his buddies from the hobbit hole (I almost never do all of firewine anymore).
When we hopped over to FAI and added Neera in to have her ID some items she progressed her dialoges to the point where Adoys Enclave appeared on the map. Now I have never done Neeras quest so I decided taking a level 1 (36 exp) Neera to the Enclave was probably not how I wanted to be introduced to her quest so we will leave it unspoiled for now until I get a decently leveled Neera in one of my runs and do it well. (So don't post any unhidden spoilers if you comment to me about this LOL)
We headed off to the coast where our reputation took a nose dive. Dorn took offense at the little runt who offered ANYTHING to kill the freaking bear on the bridge and Dorn took a couple of heavy swipes from those paws before it fell so when the runt then offered 50g Dorn smacked him with that big old sword of his and the runts head rolled into the river. Bam - rep drops from 11 to 7. So we make our way up the far side of the river and Dorn sees a shapely gal in plate armor and goes over to talk to her - she turns out to be a paladin and calls us a bunch of rogues and attacks in spite of the 6-1 odds and dies for it - Bam rep drops another 2 points to 5.
Now I get the rep drop for the runty guy - killing an innocent - but the holier than thou paladin gave us no option at all so as far as I can see she was no innocent she was going to murder us becuase she "sensed" (her words) we were rogues - I can't recall if this encounter worked this way in the original or not - .
We moved on - answered Brages riddle wrong and killed him took his body to the temple. Couldn't get the archeological dig to move on after trying to "rob" the boss in his dialoge and then agreeing to help the evil one in his - the boss won't open the last area even after resting twice so I guess it's stuck and we moved on.
Lian cleared most of the sirines from the lighthouse map by himself one by one with stealth & arrows of biting - left the Pirate cave alone for now and left the hobgoblins in the east for later too. We took about 4 lightning hits while doing the sirines - that scares the crap out of me every time it happens LOL.
Back in Beregost for some R&R then we will probably do the map north of the Pirate cave.
Lian & Monty are F 4/T 5 and the rest are all 5 (Dorn, Vic, Edwin, Kagain)...
EDIT: Short update - We went to the map north of the lighthouse - the nymph? would not speak to us so we killed her (5K exp) and her old man showed up and we killed him too - I wonder if this was due to our rep (that she had nothing to say) - she did break into her "save me dialoge" halfway through the fight with her but we were having none of it and she went down quickly with no kisses for us.
Cleared the map and went back to Beregost it got a little dicey when we uncovered a couple sirines at once but there dire charms failed on Dorn and they went down fast once Lian shot them each with an arrow of biting to keep them from casting - will decide where to go next tomorrow - maybe the Firewine map (just the above ground section) or maybe we will go bandit hunting.
Lian & Co headed off to Firewine and cleared the above ground map giving Dorn some nice new gauntlets then we picked up Mr Mystery in Larswood and left Monty guarding the tower while we cleared the rest of Larswood and Peldvale - didn't try to join the bandits - I find it less dangerous in no reload to snipe out the bandit camp from outside.
Couple of weird things along the way -
first off there was no wand of fire in Ulcaster - now we did enter - thought better of it- then left - then came back later and cleared it and the wand is usually laying on the floor (not in a container) so maybe it disappears if you don't get it the first time you enter (I heard the scimitar in cloakwood 1 does this - haven't been that far yet myself)
The other weirdness just happened when we went back to FAI from Peldvale - we entered the main room and I sent the party over to the corner on the right by the bar and first Dorn and then Vic headed off to the extreme right when they got halfway across the floor - Dorn went through the kitchen door and then right through the back wall and Vic didn't even bother with the doorway and walked right through 2 walls - I paused and wrangled them back where they belonged but I have never seen that before! I left the bar and made a new save outside then quit the game for a fresh restart.
Mr Mystery looks decent and between he and Edwin we are well equipped with arcane magic altho I am not a big fan of the pointy hat casters and I often have 2 priests rather than two mage types if I have my druthers.
I'm thinking Bandit Camp next altho there is an off chance we will do the ankeg farm and maybe sneak into Ulgoths Beard and check out the local Walmart while we are up in that neck of the woods altho I can't think of anything there we really need atm.
Lian and Co headed for the bandit camp - sniped the outside guards then entered the main tent and crushed them to goo - the mage got off a horror but only Kaigen was effected and they went down without much fanfare. Cleared the rest of the camp and grabbed the loot heading back to FAI then down to Beregost where we sold 39 of our 40 scalps to Officer Via -
not certain whats next on our agenda - probably some ankeg farming and associated quests before entering cloakwood...a +1 to rep for the farmers boy would take us out of the despised zone (currently 7)and probably help with purchases/selling.
Lian is about to get his fighter level to make him F 5/T 5 and Kagain is almost to F 6, Dorn & Edwin at 5 and Vic & Mystery at 6. Group is doing well but I miss having a second healer to keep down the potion use and resting we will definately have to stock up on potions before cloakwood (if we make it that far LOL)...
Def agree with Wanderon about having 2 priests better than 2 mages, especially in BG1. Mages basically useless for the first couple levels and even at end game one is generally plenty to cast haste and throw in a fireball.
This game with a fighter/mage though I'll probably end up using two since the PC is going to be mostly buffing himself with his spells.
I was thinking about dual/classing imoen for the other if I live long enough. If you do it at level 6 you can just about max out traps and locks and still get to the top mage level. Anybody else have thoughts on this?
@morehouse dualing Imoen certainly works but I don't know if it's a solid plan for a no reload game (assuming your primary focus is to beat the game without reloading) dualing Imoen especially at level 6 generally means exp farming which by it's very nature tends to be dangerous business with no reload option.
On the other hand if your main focus is to make the game as challenging as possible - go for it!
If I have 2 mages already (or a bard and a mage of some description) I don't usually dual Imoen, partly because I find dual-classing tedious and find it quite disruptive for my game, particularly for thieves, but also because some of the higher level scrolls can be hard to come by, especially if you fail to scribe a few (one of the reasons I tend to hang onto the Red Potion that raises your Int to 25 until I need to learn Stoneskin etc.). Also, trap laying can be fun :-)
I plan on picking up Coran about the same time as I would dual Imoen, so she would be a little bit of dead weight for a while but I would be able to make up for it. If I go with that I was thinking about eventually pumping up Coran's trap setting and using Imoen as a high level mage who does my traps and locks.
The goal is definitely to go through without dying, but I'm most worried about dying during the high level parts of the game, Durlag's Tower, Sarevok, etc. So by that time I would have a max level mage who can also do traps.
...although I guess if Imoen steps on a trap in the Ulcaster Ruins and is perma-killed by a fireball, dont need to worry about it, huh? Yikes... going to be kinda strange when she shows up in Irenicus' dungeon if I make it that far.
Im doing a no reload run for the first time. PC is the picture below and my party is currently Dorn, Viconia, rassaad, kagain and Neera. I do no raising of the dead (I find it immensely stupid from a RP point of view, and besides it adds to the fun to let the dead be dead and find new companions). So far Khalid, Montaron and Jaheira have fallen. I am currently in Nashkel thinking about entering that cursed mine. My lack of a thief (I really wanted all the new ones plus kagain for tanking) makes me hessitant though.
At the risk of starting a pointless forum argument (God bless this forum for having so little of that) I'm wondering why people take issue with using resurrection in a hardcore/rp style game? To me raising the dead, as long as they aren't destroyed beyond recognition, is just part of the world that the game takes place in. It is just another magical ability your characters have, no different than magic missles or anything else as far as I can see.
At the risk of starting a pointless forum argument (God bless this forum for having so little of that) I'm wondering why people take issue with using resurrection in a hardcore/rp style game? To me raising the dead, as long as they aren't destroyed beyond recognition, is just part of the world that the game takes place in. It is just another magical ability your characters have, no different than magic missles or anything else as far as I can see.
I like playing with no rez not necessarily becuase I don't think it belongs in the game world but becuase it makes the game more challenging (if I want to keep my companions) - I am likely to be more careful about how brash I act with them thus perhaps changing my playstyle a bit - and also becuase when they die it may force me to change my playstyle even more to accomodate their replacement thus taking me out of my comfort zone and giving me an opportunity to play in a different (perhaps entirely new) manner.
I used to do a No Reload No raise dead in ID2 where I had premade characters at different levels and depending on where I was when I lost a party member I would choose a random character from a list I had prepared for that general vicinity - it made for very interesting party combos and lots of fun.
Death only becomes a minor annoyance (inventory management lol) after chapter one or so because you have so much money. The 75 roll no reload no res is the most interesting BG game I've run by far.
Lian & Co went ankeg hunting and set up a future favor from Umberlee - made several trips carrying the shells to Thunderbutt - I love not having to drop the shells to sell one at a time and that he still buys shells after making the armor. We ordered the armor on the first trip and it was ready for Vic by the time we made the last trip down (for now) adding considerable gold to the coffers on top of paying for the armor
Perhaps it's enough to pay 20k for the shadow armor for Lian who is currently still in studded leather + RoP @ +2 AC with the bow equipped and +1 with Varscona.
Kagain is -5 with dex gloves, full plate & med shield +1. Vic is -5 with ankeg and sm shield +1 and Dorn is -2 with ankeg and RoP.
Mystery took one too many hits from an ankeg and had to be raised - was surprised to see 1000g when we picked up his gear.
Lian is F5/T5 with about 2k to go for T6 and Dorn is about 2K from 6 - the others have a ways to go for a level with Vic, Kagain, & Mystery at 6 and Edwin about 6K from 6. Probably heading for Cloakwood next - hope it goes better than last run...
still wish I had a second priest we may have to drop one of the mages when we get to BG for Quayle or Tiax - or then again maybe not - probably shouldn't plan that far ahead in a no reload game anyway LOL
I plan on picking up Coran about the same time as I would dual Imoen, so she would be a little bit of dead weight for a while but I would be able to make up for it. If I go with that I was thinking about eventually pumping up Coran's trap setting and using Imoen as a high level mage who does my traps and locks.
BTW Coran starts with good stats in Open Locks and the stealth skills, but not much else, I would focus on these first, and Imoen on Find Traps initially, then focus one on Set Traps, one on Pickpockets, if not dualling.
Comments
So I'm starting out easy with Garreth (NG, Human, Fighter - ** Longswords, * Two-Handed Weapon Style, * Sword & Shield Style).
Did some errands in Candlekeep before leaving with Gorion.
Imoen joined the group (might use SK to make her a multi- T/M later on, if she is still alive)
Made our way to the Friendly Arm Inn, we found some magical rings along the way.
Luckily it was night so Imoen could stealth which made the fight with Tarnesh very short, interrupted his Mirror Image and he was dead before he finished the next spell.
Khalid & Jaheira joined the group and we decided to find Joia her ring.
Before returning the ring the group encounter a drow chased by a Flaming Fist soldier, the soldier didn't have a good enough reason to turn on Viconia so it ended with us killing him, giving Garreth a nice piece of armor too.
She didn't at all seem to be like how the books described the drows so she too joined the party.
After returning the ring to Joia it was time for some carn..*erm* ogre hunting.
Khalid volunteered for kiting duty and the rest of the party attacked from distance.
The ogre managed to do a couple of attacks toward Khalid but they all missed.
We found Unshey's girdle but it looked magical so until we know more about it we are keeping it.
Reached Beregost where the group met a strange mage girl, Neera. She was too was hunted but this time by red wizards. We helped her out and she joined our group. Need to keep an eye on her though, wild magic does sound dangerous.
Later Imoen showed up with a magical mace, she says she won it on some kind of bet, but I don't know. Viconia will hopefully make good use of it.
Lastly we just heard about the reward on Bassilus, though everyone thought it's best to get a little bit more experience before confronting a mad cleric with that kind of bounty on his head.
Another assassin was waiting for Garreth at Red Sheaf Inn. Karlat should have prepared a bit more though, surrounded he was no match for a group of six.
Also, met a funny short fella at the inn, he wanted help retrieving his lost sword from some Gnolls.
It sounded like a good start to get some experience so the group headed west to High Hedge.
The place was crawling with Skeletons, Ghouls, Gnolls and Spiders.
Everyone managed to survive but it was a close call for Jaheira
Found Perdue's sword though.
Before heading back to Beregost the party explored south of High Hedge where they came across Melicamp. Not able to dispel his pollymorphed state they agreed to bring him back to Thalantyr at High Hedge.
Unfortunately, Melicamp didn't survive the Antichickenator (missing out on a good chunk of exp
Jaheira is impatient and demands that we travel to Nashkel so Bassilus have to wait a bit.
Nothing special happens on the travel, we find some letter we might deliver later.
Arriving at Nashkel we agree to help the Mayor with the Mine problems, though who knows what is down there. Need some more experience before taking on that task.
Another assassin waiting for Garreth at the inn.
Neira didn't stand a chance. A Command from Viconia and Neira was dead before she could stand up again.
Current Status:
Garreth, 2. Imoen, 2. Khalid, 1. Jaheira, 2/2. Viconia, 3. Neera, 1.
Also heard about a bounty for some emeralds that a sculptor stole, didn't seem too hard of a job.
But first we wanted to check out the Carnival, it was quite entertaining. Bought some potions, they didn't turn out to be of much use for me but made quite a profit on them. Helped another lady with a irritating wizard.
He resisted Viconias Command but we managed to beat him anyway. Robes doesn't help much when six people are wailing on them.
After the Carnival, we headed towards the Mine, meet some half-orc named Dorn, our group is quite solid at the moment so we didn't bring that brute with us, he told us that we could find him at the Friendly Arm if we changed our mind.
No intention on going down the Mine but we heard this was where Prism was making his statue so a good place to check for the emeralds.
Encountered Winter Wolves at two locations too, which was quite nice the pelts sold for quite a lot.
Found Prism, he promised us everything he owned if we protected him from some Greywolf instead of taking the stones, we agreed to do so. Garreth borrowed Viconias gear for this since Greywolf seemed like someone dangerous.
The fight went well, Bless, Chant and Hold Person, Greywolf didn't resist and was soon eating dust.
Prism managed to complete his life work, and was so happy he died from an heartattack or something.
We collected the emeralds and brought them back to Oublek in Nashkel.
Thinking it was time to deal with Bassilus the group headed out into the wild to make their way up to where they last seen him.
On the way they had to unfortunately clear an entire village of Xvarts and some bears they worshiped.
Also met Drizzt and helped him out with some Gnolls and found the Half-Ogres that Bjornin from Jovial Juggler had told us about.
Getting closer to Bassilus some Bandits demanded all our valuables, we told them to go away but they refused which ended up with Neera sleeping them and after that the fight was kind of done.
One of them had very nice Short Sword +2, Imoen got to hold on to that one.
Time to deal with Bassilus, we pre-buffed with Remove Fear, Bless, Chant.
He truly was mad, thinking I was some relative of him. Managed to make him destroy his own skeletons which probably was a good thing, since they where quite some.
Only Bassilus left, Jaheira start with casting Doom and Viconia follows up with Hold Person. Bassilus managed to resist though. After which he managed to cast Rigid Thinking on Garreth but that was no big problem and then Entangle was cast on Imoen and Neera, both which used ranged weapons so that didn't help him much.
Selling some magical weapons we found and the reward for Bassilus, Garreth bought himself a nice Full Plate Mail from Taerum. It was expensive but hopefully worth it (now at -5AC).
Current Status:
Garreth, 3. Imoen, 4. Khalid, 3. Jaheira, 3/3. Viconia, 4. Neera, 2.
-------------
Ohh my.
The group decided it soon was time to check the Nashkel Mines, but taking the long route along the coast down to Nashkel.
We encountered a what seemed friendly Siren. Though after a bit of talk she gave Imoen the kiss of death.
After beating her she explained her situation and we agreed that if she resurrected Imoen we would help her against her captor.
Turns out it was a Ogre-Mage that held her captive.
We managed to interrupt his invisibility, but before we beat him he succeed in casting a Lightning Bolt that killed Neera.
Shaol the Siren was happy for her freedom.
We decided to continue exploring the area before heading back to Beregost's temple.
That didn't last long, we encountered a group of Ogrillions and a Ogre, we managed to stay alive but Viconia was severely wounded and we had no healing magic left. So the temple seemed like a good option by now.
After resurrecting Neera and healing our wounds we returned to the area, found some more Sirens though these where not as friendly as Shaol and it really didn't look good for a while. Interupted one of them from turning invisible and soon there after she was dead, the other two sirens however managed to Charm Garreth, Viconia and Khalid. With a bit of luck Neera had just recently learned level 2 spells and could cast Horror on her Charmed group members. The sirens didn't stand much of a chance when they where alone.
Continuing south along the coast the group reached a lighthouse where they helped a mother with some wolves. Close by they saw some sirens too but avoided them for now.
Later they came across an archaeological site, they agreed to guard the workers for a while.
Unfortunately once they reached the inner chambers, the diggers went mad and we had no other option then to defend ourselves.
Also Imoen couldn't keep her fingers from some items, and brought some kind of idol with her outside which summoned some kind of guardian.
It wasn't too hard of a fight, Khalid to a hit or two before the guard died.
We also found Nashkels former guard captain, Brage. We managed to guess his riddle and it seemed like he regained some of his sanity, then escorting him back to Nashkel.
Finally, time to check out Nashkel Mines.
Had no problem dealing with the Kobold's infesting the mines.
Once we reached the lower levels of the mine we found Mulahey, a half-orc.
The fight was quite straight forward. Neera slept the Kobolds he summoned, Jaheira cast Doom and Viconia, Hold Person.
No one was in any great danger.
Turns out there is much more behind all this then just some "poisoned" mine. We should try to find this Tranzig.
Freed Xan and returned his Moonblade, though we didn't want him in the group.
After exiting the Mines we encounted some amazon warriors and this was a really close call. One of them managed to Hold Garreth, Khalid, Jaheira. But with Horror, Command and some luck Viconia could keep them from killing Garreth.
Patching our wounds we continued exploring and met a strange wizard that totally misunderstood us. In the end we had to fight him and two Mustard Jellies. Poor Jaheira had some bad luck and got slowed and hit twice before she could run away. The rest of the group was victorious.
The plan was to help Neera finding Adoy but now with Jaheira dead. Our plan changed and a visit to Nashkel should be done. The five man group finished exploring the mine exit area without much issue before returning to Nashkel and resurrecting Jaheira.
Resurrected:
Neera: 1
Jaheira: 1
Current Status:
Garreth, 4. Imoen, 5. Khalid, 4. Jaheira, 3/3. Viconia, 5. Neera, 4.
Mayweather (big boxing fan here) half elf, fighter/mage, chaotic good 16 18 18 17 8 16
mods I installed seriously screw the balance of the game. kobold arrow poison that deals like 4 damage/second, and Minsc was lvl 7 (!) when I recruited him (with party level being 2). but it´s still harder than vanilla so I don´t care too much
Edwin became the first NPC death - not playing no rez with this group but decided to limit the number of rez per character to 2 just to keep things interesting.
Current levels are: Lian & Monty F 3/ T 4, Dorn, Kagain & Edwin 4, Viconia 5.
Probably off to the coast next maybe after Ulcaster and the far end of Firewine from the Hobbit hole altho I think we will go to the FAI & bring Neera into the group long enough to ID our gear while our rep is low enough to drop Monty for her without him leaving for good. (Currently rep 11)
Group consists of:
Inquisitor using a 2-Handed Sword
A Ranger to be dualed to Cleric at level 3, using Hammers and Flails
A Half-Elf Bard, no kit, using a Crossbow
A Berserker who is going to be dualed to a Thief at level 3
An Elven Archer using Longbows
A Kensai who will dual to a mage at 3 using Axes
Going to be playing on Core rules, so none of the boatloads of HP that I'm used to.
And killed by bandits on the map SSE of Beregost. Better than wolves I guess...
When we hopped over to FAI and added Neera in to have her ID some items she progressed her dialoges to the point where Adoys Enclave appeared on the map. Now I have never done Neeras quest so I decided taking a level 1 (36 exp) Neera to the Enclave was probably not how I wanted to be introduced to her quest so we will leave it unspoiled for now until I get a decently leveled Neera in one of my runs and do it well. (So don't post any unhidden spoilers if you comment to me about this LOL)
We headed off to the coast where our reputation took a nose dive. Dorn took offense at the little runt who offered ANYTHING to kill the freaking bear on the bridge and Dorn took a couple of heavy swipes from those paws before it fell so when the runt then offered 50g Dorn smacked him with that big old sword of his and the runts head rolled into the river. Bam - rep drops from 11 to 7. So we make our way up the far side of the river and Dorn sees a shapely gal in plate armor and goes over to talk to her - she turns out to be a paladin and calls us a bunch of rogues and attacks in spite of the 6-1 odds and dies for it - Bam rep drops another 2 points to 5.
Now I get the rep drop for the runty guy - killing an innocent - but the holier than thou paladin gave us no option at all so as far as I can see she was no innocent she was going to murder us becuase she "sensed" (her words) we were rogues - I can't recall if this encounter worked this way in the original or not - .
We moved on - answered Brages riddle wrong and killed him took his body to the temple. Couldn't get the archeological dig to move on after trying to "rob" the boss in his dialoge and then agreeing to help the evil one in his - the boss won't open the last area even after resting twice so I guess it's stuck and we moved on.
Lian cleared most of the sirines from the lighthouse map by himself one by one with stealth & arrows of biting - left the Pirate cave alone for now and left the hobgoblins in the east for later too. We took about 4 lightning hits while doing the sirines - that scares the crap out of me every time it happens LOL.
Back in Beregost for some R&R then we will probably do the map north of the Pirate cave.
Lian & Monty are F 4/T 5 and the rest are all 5 (Dorn, Vic, Edwin, Kagain)...
EDIT: Short update - We went to the map north of the lighthouse - the nymph? would not speak to us so we killed her (5K exp) and her old man showed up and we killed him too - I wonder if this was due to our rep (that she had nothing to say) - she did break into her "save me dialoge" halfway through the fight with her but we were having none of it and she went down quickly with no kisses for us.
Cleared the map and went back to Beregost it got a little dicey when we uncovered a couple sirines at once but there dire charms failed on Dorn and they went down fast once Lian shot them each with an arrow of biting to keep them from casting - will decide where to go next tomorrow - maybe the Firewine map (just the above ground section) or maybe we will go bandit hunting.
Couple of weird things along the way -
first off there was no wand of fire in Ulcaster - now we did enter - thought better of it- then left - then came back later and cleared it and the wand is usually laying on the floor (not in a container) so maybe it disappears if you don't get it the first time you enter (I heard the scimitar in cloakwood 1 does this - haven't been that far yet myself)
The other weirdness just happened when we went back to FAI from Peldvale - we entered the main room and I sent the party over to the corner on the right by the bar and first Dorn and then Vic headed off to the extreme right when they got halfway across the floor - Dorn went through the kitchen door and then right through the back wall and Vic didn't even bother with the doorway and walked right through 2 walls - I paused and wrangled them back where they belonged but I have never seen that before! I left the bar and made a new save outside then quit the game for a fresh restart.
Mr Mystery looks decent and between he and Edwin we are well equipped with arcane magic altho I am not a big fan of the pointy hat casters and I often have 2 priests rather than two mage types if I have my druthers.
I'm thinking Bandit Camp next altho there is an off chance we will do the ankeg farm and maybe sneak into Ulgoths Beard and check out the local Walmart while we are up in that neck of the woods altho I can't think of anything there we really need atm.
not certain whats next on our agenda - probably some ankeg farming and associated quests before entering cloakwood...a +1 to rep for the farmers boy would take us out of the despised zone (currently 7)and probably help with purchases/selling.
Lian is about to get his fighter level to make him F 5/T 5 and Kagain is almost to F 6, Dorn & Edwin at 5 and Vic & Mystery at 6. Group is doing well but I miss having a second healer to keep down the potion use and resting we will definately have to stock up on potions before cloakwood (if we make it that far LOL)...
This game with a fighter/mage though I'll probably end up using two since the PC is going to be mostly buffing himself with his spells.
I was thinking about dual/classing imoen for the other if I live long enough. If you do it at level 6 you can just about max out traps and locks and still get to the top mage level. Anybody else have thoughts on this?
On the other hand if your main focus is to make the game as challenging as possible - go for it!
The goal is definitely to go through without dying, but I'm most worried about dying during the high level parts of the game, Durlag's Tower, Sarevok, etc. So by that time I would have a max level mage who can also do traps.
I am currently in Nashkel thinking about entering that cursed mine. My lack of a thief (I really wanted all the new ones plus kagain for tanking) makes me hessitant though.
I used to do a No Reload No raise dead in ID2 where I had premade characters at different levels and depending on where I was when I lost a party member I would choose a random character from a list I had prepared for that general vicinity - it made for very interesting party combos and lots of fun.
Perhaps it's enough to pay 20k for the shadow armor for Lian who is currently still in studded leather + RoP @ +2 AC with the bow equipped and +1 with Varscona.
Kagain is -5 with dex gloves, full plate & med shield +1. Vic is -5 with ankeg and sm shield +1 and Dorn is -2 with ankeg and RoP.
Mystery took one too many hits from an ankeg and had to be raised - was surprised to see 1000g when we picked up his gear.
Lian is F5/T5 with about 2k to go for T6 and Dorn is about 2K from 6 - the others have a ways to go for a level with Vic, Kagain, & Mystery at 6 and Edwin about 6K from 6. Probably heading for Cloakwood next - hope it goes better than last run...
still wish I had a second priest we may have to drop one of the mages when we get to BG for Quayle or Tiax - or then again maybe not - probably shouldn't plan that far ahead in a no reload game anyway LOL
https://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/16308/firebeads-quest-thethoril-will-not-give-the-scroll/p1