Remorrah and priestesses. Hildury and Sir Nord tank the big worm while Jaemal blasts the priestesses. This is becoming our go-to tactic.
Lord Rengar wasn't as tough as he looked. Two tanks and Jaemal handle him easily.
Things got interesting in the battle against Sherincal. First, we scuffled with her necromancers in the hallway below, pulling out one their pet crystal golems. Sir Nord, Hildury, Valeero, and I were very, very busy with it. I ordered Jaemal and Nikosh to back down the north hallway, since they could do nothing against the golem.
The two of them managed to draw Sherincal's attention! Luckily, she gave us a long speech, which was kind of funny, since we were whacking at a crystal golem the whole time she gave it, and then she continued to chat amiably while we fought the golem. We got information out of her that the Order of the Chimera was blocking the pass between Neverwinter and Targos, on the orders of "Isair", and "Madae". We also found out she was a half-dragon. Oh boy.
Then, she sent two mooks to attack us while she retreated somewhere. I was actually relieved that we didn't have to start fighting her while we cleaned up all the mooks.
When we got around to giving chase, we found her on the steps to the Ice Temple proper, having setup an ambush. When we tried to ascend to attack, her priestesses pulled a lever, causing the stairs to collapse! Hookay, ranged weapons and spells battle it is, then. Jaemal was once again the star of the show.
That man makes me wish I'd studied magery instead of becoming a bard, sometimes. My music makes magic, as well, but darn, nothing so impressive and showy as all those Fireballs of Jaemal's.
We finally managed to destroy the stair collapsing mechanism and bring our melee fighters up against Sherincal. Sherincal cast Horror, and Hildury succumbed and ran. Valeero cast Resist Fear, but while we were distracted with helping Hildury, Sir Nord almost died! One hit point! He gulped a potion of Extra Healing, but was only brought to fifteen hit points. He was forced to flee. I don't know what I will do if a party member actually dies, because we have *no* way to get anyone raised!
Darned if I didn't get the deathstrike myself, with a well-shot bolt from my magic crossbow! I feel a bit less useless now. I'd like to think that my buffing magic is contributing to our survival, but it doesn't feel as satisfying to play the supporting role constantly buffing others, when I could be shooting my crossbow, engaging in swordplay while protected magically with Mirror Images, or even casting Chromatic Orbs.
EDIT: This post journals half a day's play - I may post more this evening, as my party is about to spend the afternoon in the Ice Temple. We still haven't found a second diamond, or even a normal ore weapon to fix Oswald's ship. I'm getting worried that we may have missed a component somewhere. I'm hoping to find the second diamond somewhere in the Ice Temple.
Hookay, I think I'm going to end this IWD2 run now. The Ice Temple is both a labyrinth, and a puzzle dungeon. I am starting to remember some very bad things about IWD2, which have made me stay away from it all these years.
First, there are manifold places where your farther progress depends upon finding a secret door of some kind. Second, there is a puzzle in almost every dungeon, the solving of which depends upon several clues, that you may or not find, and possibly many hours of play before you need them, and those clues do *not* appear in your journal. Third, the labyrinthine nature of all the dungeons means that there is usually some door somewhere, to the blacked out part of the dungeon, that you will never find unless you find that door, even if it is not a "secret" one. Of course, it is not marked on your map.
I have already come up against two places where I had to lose my immersion in the game, shut it down, and go out to the internet and find a marked map in a walkthrough. I've had to sort through walkthroughs that don't help at all, because they don't tell you how to find the parts of the dungeon map that you can't access, spending precious leisure time searching multiple times until I could find an annotated map that would show *exactly* where the missing door could be found.
Grrrrr. I do *not* find this kind of thing fun, at all. It's satisfying to figure out relatively easy puzzles and clues on your own in some well-designed rpg's, but, if you have to consult a guide to have any hope of continuing to play, I consider that a very *badly* designed rpg.
So, yeah, I looked up the info I needed to keep playing on the first floor of the Ice Temple, but the fact that I *had* to look it up, and leave the game, and ruin my roleplaying immersion, has soured me on IWD2. I may or may not come back to this run at some point.
After exiting the mine the next obvious battle is the three assassins for which Solomon began buffing. Mage Armor, Shield, Mirror Images with Color Spray, Blindness, Skull Trap and Invisibility ready. As I recall this group is normally three, this time it was five. They all had Potions of Speed too, right off the bat I figured this might be my first reload.
Solomon opened with a Skull Trap, it interrupted one of them spell casting. He followed up with Color Spray while they all quaffed potions. That momentarily left only two of the five conscious. Solomon set to work on them but was missing and they began hitting so he used his Wand of Summoning to surround them. The battle turned as the other three regained conscious.
From here a Blindness on one of melee attackers while the summons occupied two others, followed by a very quick kill of their spellcaster. This harkened the end as it were, another fell immediately, then Solomon helped his summons finish the last two and finally killed the blind one. All in all it went very smoothly, but they were capable of quite a bit of damage and had saving throws gone differently perhaps so would have the battle.
I was surprised to find some very nice bows, and arrows, on the `extra` attackers that are not normally there. One was a +2 short bow with +1 attacks per round. Combined with the Arrows of Acid +2 I started to think Drizzt was within reach. Off to Fisherman's Lake, stopping by High Hedge to pickup Melf's Minute Meteors and Robe of the Battlemage. For those that are unaware in IR the "Archmagi" robes are replaced, this one has +2 THAC0 +2 AC +10 HP. Solomon would need the THAC0 and once Boots of Speed were in his posession it would usurp the Traveler's Robe as his favorite.
A quick stop in Beregost to meet Tranzig. He threatened Solomon with magic, Solomon killed him with a single Lightning Bolt. It was amusing considering the conversation.
And on the way... Xvart massacre.
With the bow Solomon was sporting a THAC0 of 4 with 4 attacks per round. Not bad. My first idea was to block off the route to the island using Invisibility, a very easy trick but not so easy when you have no party to make invisible, you need a narrow corridor to block. Unfortunately one of my mods put an end to that, the entrance to the island was moved to the north side of the lake and made so wide you couldn't possibly block it.
After that I got the idea of using summons to start the fight, an Invisible familiar to provide sight, and then use said summons to lure Drizzt to the lake. Surely with the entrance so far away even the updated pathfinding wouldn't work. Unfortunately that just wasn't very viable, the summons are too slow, the range of the wand and bow too low, and so on.
So after much consideration, and ensuring a Potion of Invisibilty was handy, I opted for the age old summons and range approach. With only 5 charges on the wand and with this being BGT with a max of 5 summons at one time we're not talking about the screen filling mega armies of old. They had to buy just enough time and it would be close.
Solomon used every THAC0 improving buff he had and got down to a THAC0 of 0. Dropped the summons on top of Drizzt and started attacking. As usual Drizzt went through them very quickly and Solomon didn't hit him once. I was concerned. Then I noticed his rolls: 2, 4, 5, 3. He can hit, he just can't roll. Obviously that would change so I kept with it.
With only 1 charge on the wand left Solomon started hitting consistently. Drizzt was looking dead, then the last charge on the wand expired. As Drizzt plowed through the last of the summons he was at "near death" and started working on Solomon. Knowing how low he must be Solomon tossed out an explosive potion (forget the name) which unfortunately almost killed him, but fortunately did kill Drizzt... and the battle was over.
A brief, uneventful trip through the Gnoll Stronghold, Dryad Falls and forest yielded a CHA tome, Gauntlets of Dexterity and gold. The gauntlets are +2 DEX in IR bringing it up to 21 for Solomon and another -1 AC bonus. After selling everything he had enough to purchase the Cloak of Displacement (-2 AC, -4 vs missiles) and a Ring of Free Action (Dushai is spared I guess).
On the way through the Beregost Temple area Solomon found a cave. This is apparently a DSotSC area. Inside were Ghouls, Vampiric Wolves, a Bear with Blur and other buffs (a Druid?) and three ghosts of Torqion. Torqion wanted a Vampiric Sword and a potion to be free, Solomon decided that was too much trouble and killed them on the spot. Inside he found Scrolls of Monster Summoning II and Cloudkill, a Wand of Chain Lightning and another CHA tome. Personally I'm not crazy about a mod adding tomes, but since CHA is worthless anyway who cares.
Inside the temple Solomon met Pellmater a Mage from the town Restenford. This is the beginning of the Secret of Bonehill. I have never played this content, I can only assume that it will be largely under level for Solomon due to it being in Chapter 4. It will be interesting to see if I make it through without hitting my first reload. Given Solomon's strength and immunities I think he will.
Solomon is at this point levels 7/8 using Robe of the Battlemage, Helm of the Watcher, Gauntlets of Dexterity, Greenstone Amulet, Cloak of Displacement, Boots of Speed, Golden Girdle, Ring of Wizardry, Ring of Freedom, Icingdeath and Twinkle. These are with Item Revisions, a list of descriptions can be found here if interested.
All told Solomon is immune to Blindess, Deafness, Charm, Confusion, Domination, Fear, Feeblemind, Hold, Sleep, Stun, Psionics and anything movement impairing such as Web or Entangle. He has an AC of -10, -16 vs Missiles, -14 vs Slashing. THAC0 is at 5/7 and in fights he's typically using Color Spray, Web, Lightning, Skull Trap and Monster Summoning II to augment melee. The AC in the character record is off by 2 because Cloak of Displacement modifies attacker rolls instead of his AC.
Still at 0 reloads.
I'm going to make an effort to get more action shots, I keep forgetting because I'm worried about dying.
Hookay, I think I'm going to end this IWD2 run now. The Ice Temple is both a labyrinth, and a puzzle dungeon. I am starting to remember some very bad things about IWD2, which have made me stay away from it all these years.
First, there are manifold places where your farther progress depends upon finding a secret door of some kind. Second, there is a puzzle in almost every dungeon, the solving of which depends upon several clues, that you may or not find, and possibly many hours of play before you need them, and those clues do *not* appear in your journal. Third, the labyrinthine nature of all the dungeons means that there is usually some door somewhere, to the blacked out part of the dungeon, that you will never find unless you find that door, even if it is not a "secret" one. Of course, it is not marked on your map.
I have already come up against two places where I had to lose my immersion in the game, shut it down, and go out to the internet and find a marked map in a walkthrough. I've had to sort through walkthroughs that don't help at all, because they don't tell you how to find the parts of the dungeon map that you can't access, spending precious leisure time searching multiple times until I could find an annotated map that would show *exactly* where the missing door could be found.
Grrrrr. I do *not* find this kind of thing fun, at all. It's satisfying to figure out relatively easy puzzles and clues on your own in some well-designed rpg's, but, if you have to consult a guide to have any hope of continuing to play, I consider that a very *badly* designed rpg.
So, yeah, I looked up the info I needed to keep playing on the first floor of the Ice Temple, but the fact that I *had* to look it up, and leave the game, and ruin my roleplaying immersion, has soured me on IWD2. I may or may not come back to this run at some point.
Thank you for listening.
Funny, I could never get into IWD because I always felt the "RPG" part of the RPG was missing. It's more of a dungeon crawl which to me just gets boring fast. Puzzles are great in moderation. But when it's all the time that just makes it really really annoying.
Well Brightaxe and Company managed to clear the Goblin Fortress after wearing the trail between Targos and the Fortress into a long muddy rut 3 feet deeper than the land on either side carrying dead comrades back to be raised and trudging back to the fort.
It reminded me why I came up with a No reload - No Raise dead game option after months of playing ID2 originally. I did so by making use of the dozens upon dozens of characters I had created and played to different levels over the months of play by setting them up in "adventurer pools" available to me at different stages (& places) of the game to randomly choose from to replace current fallen comrades.
It made for some very oddball parties and some even stranger multi-classing on a few in order to shoehorn them into the type of character I needed at the moment but at least we didn't spend half our game time running back and forth raising dead until we had a healer who could do so in the field (provided it wasn't he who died).
Sadly I no longer have those dozens of characters available and creating random characters and then cheating them up to appropriate levels doesn't really do it for me. I had a history with those characters since I created them with a concept in mind and then played them up to whatever level they ended up at so it really felt like I was picking up an adventurer we just happened to stumble upon (and had to make due with whatever faults or foibles he/she might have compared to the rest of the current group).
Strategy got very interesting as well when you ended up with a Ranger, three rogues, a bard and a monk to face Sherincal with...LOL
In any event I put Brightaxe and Co aside for a while and went back to BGEE to see what sort of characters I had sitting around in Chap 1 left over from my shortest lived no-reload campaigns that might deserve a fresh start - perhaps I'll drop in later to let you know what I came up with.
Well after fooling around with various ideas for a new BGEE run I put together a multi-solo group with 3 PCs and slots for 3 NPCs that I expect to fill with Imoen, Dorn, & Neera and probably swap Neera for Mr X later when the whole wild magic thing starts to get a bit old or maybe swap her for Edwin even earlier as I am a bit weary already after a few hours with her in another group I was fooling with LOL.
The PCs are:
Sensiima Sweetbow - Human F CN Skald - 16/18/16/18/10/16 - Longbow * Bastard Sword * Leader - singer - back up magic user.
Grubnik the Gruesome - Half-orc M CN Fighter/Cleric - 19/17/19/10/17/8 - Mace* Sling* S&S** Cleric - tank
Left Candlekeep - picked up Imoen, Xzar & Monty - went to FAI & spoke to Dorn - turned down J&K - cleared the Hobs - lost poor Xzar on the way to Beregost and picked up "Wild Thang" (dropping dead Xzar).
Currently playing on Normal as it seems to make the wild surges less lethal - may ramp it up to Core later.
Dropped Monty off on Silkes corner and the five made their way eventually to Nashkel where they were recruited by Edwin who joined them and they soon encountered Dorn taking him aboard and sending Wild Thang off to the FAI to sulk.
Adventure reared its cloven hooves as the gang made it's way to the coast where the witch was dispatched in a shower of body parts and lace by Dorn and Edwin became our indentured mage for a year (gritting his teeth) and hoping against hope he should he live so long.
We plundered our way back to Nashkel where it seems the guards made Minsc and Hamster pie leaving only his sword and sweaty armor in a pile beside the road.
A mage at the circus gave us a run for our money - literally scaring all but Edwin and Elfire into running around the tent chirping like yellow bellied sapsuckers while he and Edwin faced off and Elfire swung his mighty scimitar to little avail with Edwin dying just before Dorn shook off his feathers and splattered mage all over the tent.
Against our better judgement we raised Edwin and told him the hours he spent dead would not count on his service record and to try to stay among the living if he ever wanted to be free of us.
Sensiima is Bard 3 (almost 4)
Grubnik F2/C2
Elfire Druid 3
Immy Thief 3 (almost 4)
Edwin Conjurer 2
Dorn BG 2
reloads - 0 Deaths 2 (one preplanned)
Dorn is clearly carrying the load with 55% of the partys experience for the game in spite of being with the party only about half as long as the others - that said I suspect the real reason for the party success is Sensii singing in the background almost all the time charging them up to be more effective.
On a side note I will be SO glad when this annoying bug that causes ranged fighters to run up into melee range is finally fixed...sigh
Cranked the difficulty up to core before heading into the Nashkel mines - no problems there but the Amazons at the exit cancelled our order and we reloaded and headed back to Nashkel without facing them.
This by the way clearly defines the difference between a no reload and a minimum reload game for me - had I been playing no reload chances are about 10:1 I would have left this fight for later rather than risk it and if I did decide to face them at that point would have been much more sneaky about it perhaps with a sprinkle of cheese on top.
WE did stir up an ankeg on the trip back and I think I will set Thunderbuns to work on some armor for either Dorn or Grubby before we go off in search of Dorns next victim. Nimbul got his mirror image up but Edwin took most of it down and then Grubnik hit him with a command and Dorn sliced and diced him for stir-fry. Dorn got his boots - Gubnik has the girdle and Elfire the first ankeg plate making our three tank types very solid at -1, -2, & -4 respectively before Sensii sings another -2 bonus to them.
Sensiima is now Level 4 with a cat familiar and Imoen is level 4 also and Dorn will gain level 3 very soon.
Oh Nashkel Mines, how I loathe you...Well I actually have no problems with most of the areas in Baldur's Gate. *cough*
Also, apologies for not updating. College classes and playing Heroes of Might and Magic 3 for the first time. Sadly, I had to use cheat codes because some of those scenario/mission things are hard.
Update on my IWD2 Run.
The group had left Targos on Oswald's ship. Only to crash land somewhere in the wilderness. Anaialee could only sigh at this horrid luck, and started to think that maybe she should have learned the spell...Luck.
Oswald had tasked Anaialee with finding the materials needed to fix his ship. Which she had found several wooden planks, a diamond, and some spider's silk.
"Oh, if only the Spider Queen could see us now." Rizdaer had quipped towards Anaialee as she had gathered the Spider's Silk.
They had also destroyed some Lycanthropes, and Yetis.
Then, they came across a man who was being pelted by rocks being thrown by giants. It was a damned miracle he wasn't dead...maybe he learned the 'Luck' spell. With that the group had killed the giants. Valeero had cast Bless on Anaialee, Hildury, Nikosh, and herself. While Anaialee cast Shield, and a Fireball at the giants.
Then the group tried to heal man, only to have him die. However, before dying the man told them about 'Andora'.
The group returned to the ruins of Oswald's ship, then headed towards Andora.
When they went to Andora, Anaialee noticed that these druids and rangers were servants of Auril. First Malarites, and now Aurilites. What the Nine Hells is Icewind Dale? A convention of minor god's servants?! No matter what they did, they were forced to fight after Sherincal killed the leader's wife.
Party: Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 6/2 Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 9 Rizdaer - Fighter - 7(9) Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 9 Nikosh - Rogue - 8 Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/4
Reloads: 0
Notes: Seriously, next they're going to run into some other minor god's followers and Anaialee is just going to be like "I don't even know why I'm surprised anymore." Heh.
The group went forward, into a den of...AURILITES?! Anaialee just sighed in anger. They cleared out the Aurilites, fighting anyone or anything that sided with them.
Then, the group came across Sherincal. They destroyed her helpers. Then went straight for her, even though she went up the stairs and pressed the lever. Nikosh and Anaialee cast Magic Missile after magic missile. Valeero cast some healing spells upon Sir Nord, and bless as well. Then, Sherincal came down the stairs that she had used the lever on, and got smacked to death by Sir Nord's sword.
Party: Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 8/2 Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 11 Rizdaer - Fighter/Rogue - 8/1(11) Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 11 Nikosh - Rogue/Wizard - 8/2 Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/6
Reloads: 0
Notes: Ahh, Sherincal. Why did you go down the stairs? *shrug* Also, after this, I may start a...self-insert, with a different name than my own of course, playthrough of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, or something or other. Depends on if the BGEE Patch comes out when I get done with IWD2 or not.
I've spent the last week or so moving. Solomon completed Secret of Bone Hill, which I typed up, but it has left me with a dilemma.
First, Secret of Bone Hill falls prey to the all to typical "give player way too much stuff" routine of mods. From memory he acquired a belt with free Bless, a Ring of Regeneration, Ring of Air Control, a staff with various per day abilities including Chain Lightning, something like 40+ spells from 2nd to 8th circle. Yes, 8th. Why the hell does a mod targeting Chapter 4 BG1 have free 8th circle spells?
I haven't reloaded yet, but I have saved a lot, I could go back to the save just before SoBH and simply skip it. However that leads to my dilemma; Solomon is too powerful.
Normally I find IR/SR to be well balanced, but for a F/M the AC stacks too easily. He sits at -12. I don't think that's even possible in Vanilla, except maybe with potions and/or a Cleric buffing you. Very little will actually hit him without a natural 20. Blur drops it further to -15 AC, then there's Stoneskin and Mirror Images too. Vs missiles he's down in the -20 range.
I've figured out that I can reasonably easily get him to -10 using either IR or SR, or around -7 in Vanilla. However if I'm going to drop IR/SR then I've just eliminated a couple of the big mods that stood in the way of playing EE. That brings its own dilemma given then pending `open beta` patch that may be a few weeks away. Last but not least, removing IR will essentially force me to play the "remove armor, pre buff, put armor back on" game which I find highly immersion breaking given he should be wearing robes.
So I'm going to think about it, play some Rome 2 (even though CA ruined it) and come back to it later.
Wow. I really like the IWD character photos. I've played the female 'cleric' above when I played once and had each NPC represent one of my children or brothers - the blonde above I played as my oldest daughter.
Good stuff Draith012...real good stuff.
Question for the group. I am considering playing a group of all ''self made' NPCs w/my PC in BG/TotSC.
How do I do that? I've done it before but forgot. I know I start like I'm gonna play a 'Mulitplayer' game but once I get in there I get confused. No problem generating characters and saving them to the player character file but I can't remember how to get them all into my party.
Question for the group. I am considering playing a group of all ''self made' NPCs w/my PC in BG/TotSC.
How do I do that? I've done it before but forgot. I know I start like I'm gonna play a 'Mulitplayer' game but once I get in there I get confused. No problem generating characters and saving them to the player character file but I can't remember how to get them all into my party.
Any help is appreciated.
CT
The way you get them into the party will become evident as you go through the steps to begin a MP game which is what you need to do - start a MP game - (choose the create game option) choose your team - and begin (click the check marks next to each character then click done) you will then enter Candlekeep as usual -
then (assuming you don't want to continue to play in the MP mode and wish to move the game to SP mode) - simply save the game (using a title you will recognize)- then exit all the way out to desktop - go to your BG or BGEE directory - find your MP save folder - enter the folder - copy the save game and paste it into the regular save folder-
Start the game choose Single player - Load - and find your new save on the load screen (note it may be in the "middle" someplace rather than at the top or bottom). You are good to go...
Anaialee and her party entered the temple filled with, you guessed it, Aurilites.
They came across a high priestess named Caitin or something like that, Anaialee wasn't really good with some of these names. Anaialee cast Stoneskin, magic missile, Melf's Minute Meteors, Mirror Image, and some fireballs. Hildury summoned some undead, as well as used Summon Creature I. Nikosh cast some magic missiles. Lastly, Valeero cast Bless, and some healing spells.
After some exploring around they found another High Priestess, Lysara. Anaialee doubted that Lysara wanted to be there, to be their enemy. However, Anaialee wasn't going to bow down to Auril, or anyone for that matter. The fight basically went the same as with the other High Priestess, except Valeero cast Chant, and was unable to cast some other spells for a while.
After some more exploring, it was time to go downstairs.
Party: Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 8/2 Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 11 Rizdaer - Fighter/Rogue - 8/1 Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 11 Nikosh - Rogue/Wizard - 8/2 Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/6
Reloads: 0
Notes: I hate the downstairs part of the Ice Temple.
Also, on the self-insert playthrough, it'll start in chronological order, aka Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale 2, Baldur's Gate, and Baldur's Gate 2. The latter will be dependent on the patch, and the November 15th date, because I prefer to be able to play the Enhanced Edition. Also, her name will be Shelby, which is what my dad would have named me in the first place. She'll be a wizard, a Diviner to be exact, who will dual to cleric.
Well, I'm back! Was traveling home from Alaska when I had a car accident and was stranded in Canada for 5 days but finally made it home. Looks like I got a lot of reading to catch up on >.>
After much consideration I'm going to continue with a few modifications.
First, I'm going to go back to pre-SoBH and skip it. I don't consider this a reload per se since it is being done entirely to avoid overpowered items/experience and because Solomon has not yet died. When I get DSotSC and NTotSC I'll have to evaluate those.
Second, I'm going to choose to use a different set of items and buffs that bring the AC down to around the -5 to -8 range. In other words I'm going to force it to be something in line with what I could similarly accomplish in Vanilla. I haven't decided for sure what that will look like, but it will involve cutting Shield and/or Mage Armor from buffs and/or removing Helm of the Watcher and Gauntlets of Dexterity.
For example one possibility is replacing Helm of the Watcher with an Ioun Stone (probably just a +20 Lore one, makes sense in terms of RP) and Gauntlets of Dexterity with Bracers of Defense AC 6/7 and dropping Mage Armor and/or Shield entirely. That would put his AC in the -5 to -8 range, depending on whether the bracers are 6 or 7 and whether or not he uses Shield. Other possibilities would be keeping everything the same but dropping Mage Armor entirely (puts him at -6), or dropping Gauntlets, Ring of Protection and Helm of the Watcher and Shield but keeping Mage Armor (-6 again).
Of course some of these could result in a slight boost in other areas (e.g. dropping the ring opens up a Ring of Wizardry for more spells) but I consider this fair as I could accomplish same in Vanilla.
The group has covered quite a bit of ground since last update - managed Dorns next encounter, dropped by to see Tranzig, took down Bassilus, the snotty trio from Amn, the fastest dart, & Brage - finished Silkes quest then took her out as well but passed on Alberts dog (too nasty to be bothered) - cleared out the half-ogres but left Drizzt alone in case we decide to take him on later and generally cleared up some of the southern encounters.
Hmm, when I click on 'Create Game' I put in my Session Name, my name & click New Game or Load Game, but nothing happens when I click them. I'm using BG Tutu. I think I could get it but something ain't working here. Oh well, I'm still putting interesting characters out there for use whenever I figure it out. CT
Cleared some more southern maps - Ulcaster map & dungeon, Gullykin did the adventurers & smelly hobbit ->Ogre mage and his closest buddies (I never do any more of the firewine dungeon any more those kobolds are just too annoying with their fire arrows and only 7 exp LOL)
Firewine above ground - got the bracers for Grubnik then just barely made it through the crazy lady /ogre mage fight he took out both Grubnik & Elfire as Edwin didn't have a dispel magic to take out his protections so it took forever to kill him. Cleared most of the map just east of Ulcaster (cow map but we avoided the cow) and eventually headed into Larswood and picked up Mr Mystery (dropping Edwin who said he would wait but I'm not sure how long). Cleared the rest of that map and went to FAI to unload swag.
Tense moment when we stumbled on a basilisk in an unexpected random encounter between Durlags (unloading loot only) and Ulcaster - but Edwin scared him with a spook spell and we took him down quickly.
The party explored the second level of the ice temple. They killed Aurilites, and monsters left and right.
Then, they gained the key to the Priestess Oria's room. A fight was started, then Oria broke her staff and became a spirit. To which, the group returned to the Battle Square, and turned on the proper mode. It only took a couple of arrows, and a couple of hits from Sir Nord and Rizdaer for Oria to fall.
Once completing all the things needed, the group returned to Nathaniel, gave him the items that he needed to return to Oswald with, and then proceeded onwards to Kuldahar.
Party: Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 9/2 Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 12 Rizdaer - Fighter/Rogue - 8/2 (12) Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 12 Nikosh - Rogue/Wizard - 8/3 Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/7
Reload: 0
Notes: I actually had to break out a walkthrough guide for level two... Oh well, at least we aren't at going into the forest and getting lost several times.
The concept party creation bug bit me again last week - another no mage concept is the first one. This one is IWD style - all PCs no NPC companions and looks like this:
Leader & main PC -Magebane Malone - M Human LG Inquisitor 18/99-18-16-8-13-18/ Two handed sword**, Longbow*, THWS*
Buulo the Bear - M half-elf NG Cleric/Ranger 18/00-18-16-8-18-12 Mace**, Sling**, TWS**
Millini Madstaff - F Human TN Beserker (dual to druid level 2 - 4) 18/78-18-14-6-17-17, Staff**, Dart*, THWS*
Sierra Spidersbane - F Elf NG Archer 18/95-19-16-12-14-10, Halbred*, Longbow**, THWS*, TWS**
Billican Bigblade - M Halfling NG Fighter/thief 17-19-18-10-10-8, Longsword**, Sling**
As you can see I didn't nerf anyones stats - but we are after all playing with no arcane casters (grin).
This group is currently waiting for me at the FAI but I just can't get the idea of some sort of woodland cult or "coven" party - no arcane casters just a mix of druids with a thief of some sort and maybe a ranger thrown in so I'm off to fool with that...
I think this may be an interesting group - currently just out of Candlekeep - Imoen donated her potions and wand to Wilena and the adventure is about to begin.
Well I gathered the Coven and ventured forth - the darts and slings are fairly effective for the low level enemies we face early on - Tarnesh went down fast and having no need of the Mage ring our purses are bulging for this early in the game.
It appears the animal summons for the Totemic is bugged - I'm pretty sure this is a known issue but can't recall any details. The shapeshifters werewolf shape is pretty powerful with 2 attacks doing 8-13 damage (17 Thac0) but with only 9 hps he's still pretty fragile right now altho he gets to -2 AC with shapeshift and buckler.
Wilena is a terror with her compound bow and once we grab the boots she should be able to scout fairly effectively (currently 30/30 Hide/MS with 35 OL & 45 Traps).
Milini is tanking for now with staff in Plate mail with 3/2 attacks doing 8-13 damage (17 Thac0) - undecided at what level I will dual her at - what levels does she get weapon pips - 3 & 5? She would get a second rage at 4.
I'm approaching this as minimal reload but with a more no-reload feel - probably limiting myself to a half dozen reloads or less. Maybe no more than 2 per chapter as well.
So far 0 Reloads - 1 death Belladonna (random encounter skellies and ghast)
@Wanderon, I like your concept, but I see you have an Avenger, who will get arguably some of the best mage spells for BG1 (Chromatic Orb, Web, Lightning Bolt, etc.). So you'll actually have some access to arcane magic, there.
@SapphireIce101, those darned puzzles are the reason I stopped my IWD2 run.
Good luck and well-wishes to all who are still playing in the challenge.
@Wanderon, I like your concept, but I see you have an Avenger, who will get arguably some of the best mage spells for BG1 (Chromatic Orb, Web, Lightning Bolt, etc.). So you'll actually have some access to arcane magic, there.
.
While those spells may be similar (or even identical) to spells that may be cast by some cursed arcane demon spawned mage if they have been granted to the Avenger by the druids deity no doubt the message the deity is sending is one must sometimes fight fire with fire.
Does not nature provide brilliant colors that with the deities help might be used harm her foes? Is the spiders web not a part of natures ways? If the druid can call lightning to strike her enemy is it not possible her gods may help her to direct those bolts herself on occasion? Do not many within the natural world cloak themselves so well they appear invisible? Does not the skunks spray or the snakes venom the insects swarm or the mushrooms bite cause chaos & confusion in those it strikes? Could not the druids deity show her how to link natures lighting together into bright and dangerous chains to harm one enemy after another before it desists?
No I see no arcane abominations here - natures path has just taken a small detour to help protect the lands from these cursed magelings and we will drive them from the land like lemmings o'er a cliff before we are done...
@Belgarathmth - I think its the Puzzles that make IWD2 a wee bit more unique than some of the other IE games, just as PS:T's writing makes it more unique. However, IWD2 seems to have some errors in continuity sometimes.
Here is an update!
Mere minutes after leaving the Ice Palace, the group came across....some more damned Aurilites. They were dispatched easily with Valeero using her domain spell, Flamestrike, and Anaialee using a fireball.
The group made it to the village, and were hired to go find some lost children. So, they investigated, went into the woods, and defeated the person who captured the children. Anaialee and Nikosh cast Melf's Acid Arrows on Frost Trolls when they were near death. Hildury and Valeero cast healing spells. Anaialee cast Minor Globe of Invulnerablity on herself. Valeero cast Bless on as many people as she could, and Anaialee cast Haste on Rizdaer.
Party: Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 9/2 Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 12 Rizdaer - Fighter/Rogue - 8/2 (12) Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 12 Nikosh - Rogue/Wizard - 8/3 Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/7
Reloads: 0
Notes: Ugh, the forest, this is where I wish I took Diriel, since you can actually cheat your way out of trying to search for these areas yourself, and have him just take you there.
Quick update on the Coven group: Took out Silke, rescued Wild Thang (and sent her packing minus her bag) cleared the road areas south of Beregost and the half-ogre & Cow area. Everyone got a level - Wilena only a thief level for F1/T2 - everyone else is level 2.
Need to make a decision about when to dual Milini and Baila to druid & cleric respectively - I'm tempted to wait until level 4 for Milini for another weapon pip and another rage maybe even 5- undecided about Baila - probably going to dual her right away tho since she would get minimal value with more Beastmaster levels (unless I'm forgetting something.)
Anaialee talked to the Barrow ghost, and found its Chalice. Along the way Valeero had to cast several Turn Undead spells.
They found the thief that stole the chalice. He was already dead, so they returned to the Barrow ghost, and gave him back his chalice.
Party: Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 10/2 Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 12 Rizdaer - Fighter/Rogue - 8/2 (12) Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 12 Nikosh - Rogue/Wizard - 8/4 Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/8
Reloads: 0
Notes: Just need to go into the forest a couple more times... Also, I started playing Temple of Elemental Evil with the Circle of Eight Modpack again... Made a lawful good party on that one.
Also, I started playing Temple of Elemental Evil with the Circle of Eight Modpack again... Made a lawful good party on that one.
Ironman? (grin)
I've never been able to finish that one - once I got down near the bottom levels the game slowed so much it was unplayable - I think that was true with or without Circle of Eight altho I have not tried it on a new puter or with a GOG version.
I doubt I'll be trying the GOG version anytime soon as I probably already have enough games to keep me going until either BG2EE comes out or maybe Wasteland 2 (altho that is sort of a "freebie" from backing Tides of Numenera and I'm not even sure I'll like it enough to spend much time with it.)
Comments
Battles of note:
Remorrah and priestesses. Hildury and Sir Nord tank the big worm while Jaemal blasts the priestesses. This is becoming our go-to tactic.
Lord Rengar wasn't as tough as he looked. Two tanks and Jaemal handle him easily.
Things got interesting in the battle against Sherincal. First, we scuffled with her necromancers in the hallway below, pulling out one their pet crystal golems. Sir Nord, Hildury, Valeero, and I were very, very busy with it. I ordered Jaemal and Nikosh to back down the north hallway, since they could do nothing against the golem.
The two of them managed to draw Sherincal's attention! Luckily, she gave us a long speech, which was kind of funny, since we were whacking at a crystal golem the whole time she gave it, and then she continued to chat amiably while we fought the golem. We got information out of her that the Order of the Chimera was blocking the pass between Neverwinter and Targos, on the orders of "Isair", and "Madae". We also found out she was a half-dragon. Oh boy.
Then, she sent two mooks to attack us while she retreated somewhere. I was actually relieved that we didn't have to start fighting her while we cleaned up all the mooks.
When we got around to giving chase, we found her on the steps to the Ice Temple proper, having setup an ambush. When we tried to ascend to attack, her priestesses pulled a lever, causing the stairs to collapse! Hookay, ranged weapons and spells battle it is, then. Jaemal was once again the star of the show.
That man makes me wish I'd studied magery instead of becoming a bard, sometimes. My music makes magic, as well, but darn, nothing so impressive and showy as all those Fireballs of Jaemal's.
We finally managed to destroy the stair collapsing mechanism and bring our melee fighters up against Sherincal. Sherincal cast Horror, and Hildury succumbed and ran. Valeero cast Resist Fear, but while we were distracted with helping Hildury, Sir Nord almost died! One hit point! He gulped a potion of Extra Healing, but was only brought to fifteen hit points. He was forced to flee. I don't know what I will do if a party member actually dies, because we have *no* way to get anyone raised!
Darned if I didn't get the deathstrike myself, with a well-shot bolt from my magic crossbow! I feel a bit less useless now. I'd like to think that my buffing magic is contributing to our survival, but it doesn't feel as satisfying to play the supporting role constantly buffing others, when I could be shooting my crossbow, engaging in swordplay while protected magically with Mirror Images, or even casting Chromatic Orbs.
EDIT: This post journals half a day's play - I may post more this evening, as my party is about to spend the afternoon in the Ice Temple. We still haven't found a second diamond, or even a normal ore weapon to fix Oswald's ship. I'm getting worried that we may have missed a component somewhere. I'm hoping to find the second diamond somewhere in the Ice Temple.
First, there are manifold places where your farther progress depends upon finding a secret door of some kind. Second, there is a puzzle in almost every dungeon, the solving of which depends upon several clues, that you may or not find, and possibly many hours of play before you need them, and those clues do *not* appear in your journal. Third, the labyrinthine nature of all the dungeons means that there is usually some door somewhere, to the blacked out part of the dungeon, that you will never find unless you find that door, even if it is not a "secret" one. Of course, it is not marked on your map.
I have already come up against two places where I had to lose my immersion in the game, shut it down, and go out to the internet and find a marked map in a walkthrough. I've had to sort through walkthroughs that don't help at all, because they don't tell you how to find the parts of the dungeon map that you can't access, spending precious leisure time searching multiple times until I could find an annotated map that would show *exactly* where the missing door could be found.
Grrrrr. I do *not* find this kind of thing fun, at all. It's satisfying to figure out relatively easy puzzles and clues on your own in some well-designed rpg's, but, if you have to consult a guide to have any hope of continuing to play, I consider that a very *badly* designed rpg.
So, yeah, I looked up the info I needed to keep playing on the first floor of the Ice Temple, but the fact that I *had* to look it up, and leave the game, and ruin my roleplaying immersion, has soured me on IWD2. I may or may not come back to this run at some point.
Thank you for listening.
Now I'm wishing for a Danny McBride NPC.
After exiting the mine the next obvious battle is the three assassins for which Solomon began buffing. Mage Armor, Shield, Mirror Images with Color Spray, Blindness, Skull Trap and Invisibility ready. As I recall this group is normally three, this time it was five. They all had Potions of Speed too, right off the bat I figured this might be my first reload.
Solomon opened with a Skull Trap, it interrupted one of them spell casting. He followed up with Color Spray while they all quaffed potions. That momentarily left only two of the five conscious. Solomon set to work on them but was missing and they began hitting so he used his Wand of Summoning to surround them. The battle turned as the other three regained conscious.
From here a Blindness on one of melee attackers while the summons occupied two others, followed by a very quick kill of their spellcaster. This harkened the end as it were, another fell immediately, then Solomon helped his summons finish the last two and finally killed the blind one. All in all it went very smoothly, but they were capable of quite a bit of damage and had saving throws gone differently perhaps so would have the battle.
I was surprised to find some very nice bows, and arrows, on the `extra` attackers that are not normally there. One was a +2 short bow with +1 attacks per round. Combined with the Arrows of Acid +2 I started to think Drizzt was within reach. Off to Fisherman's Lake, stopping by High Hedge to pickup Melf's Minute Meteors and Robe of the Battlemage. For those that are unaware in IR the "Archmagi" robes are replaced, this one has +2 THAC0 +2 AC +10 HP. Solomon would need the THAC0 and once Boots of Speed were in his posession it would usurp the Traveler's Robe as his favorite.
A quick stop in Beregost to meet Tranzig. He threatened Solomon with magic, Solomon killed him with a single Lightning Bolt. It was amusing considering the conversation.
And on the way... Xvart massacre.
With the bow Solomon was sporting a THAC0 of 4 with 4 attacks per round. Not bad. My first idea was to block off the route to the island using Invisibility, a very easy trick but not so easy when you have no party to make invisible, you need a narrow corridor to block. Unfortunately one of my mods put an end to that, the entrance to the island was moved to the north side of the lake and made so wide you couldn't possibly block it.
After that I got the idea of using summons to start the fight, an Invisible familiar to provide sight, and then use said summons to lure Drizzt to the lake. Surely with the entrance so far away even the updated pathfinding wouldn't work. Unfortunately that just wasn't very viable, the summons are too slow, the range of the wand and bow too low, and so on.
So after much consideration, and ensuring a Potion of Invisibilty was handy, I opted for the age old summons and range approach. With only 5 charges on the wand and with this being BGT with a max of 5 summons at one time we're not talking about the screen filling mega armies of old. They had to buy just enough time and it would be close.
Solomon used every THAC0 improving buff he had and got down to a THAC0 of 0. Dropped the summons on top of Drizzt and started attacking. As usual Drizzt went through them very quickly and Solomon didn't hit him once. I was concerned. Then I noticed his rolls: 2, 4, 5, 3. He can hit, he just can't roll. Obviously that would change so I kept with it.
With only 1 charge on the wand left Solomon started hitting consistently. Drizzt was looking dead, then the last charge on the wand expired. As Drizzt plowed through the last of the summons he was at "near death" and started working on Solomon. Knowing how low he must be Solomon tossed out an explosive potion (forget the name) which unfortunately almost killed him, but fortunately did kill Drizzt... and the battle was over.
A brief, uneventful trip through the Gnoll Stronghold, Dryad Falls and forest yielded a CHA tome, Gauntlets of Dexterity and gold. The gauntlets are +2 DEX in IR bringing it up to 21 for Solomon and another -1 AC bonus. After selling everything he had enough to purchase the Cloak of Displacement (-2 AC, -4 vs missiles) and a Ring of Free Action (Dushai is spared I guess).
On the way through the Beregost Temple area Solomon found a cave. This is apparently a DSotSC area. Inside were Ghouls, Vampiric Wolves, a Bear with Blur and other buffs (a Druid?) and three ghosts of Torqion. Torqion wanted a Vampiric Sword and a potion to be free, Solomon decided that was too much trouble and killed them on the spot. Inside he found Scrolls of Monster Summoning II and Cloudkill, a Wand of Chain Lightning and another CHA tome. Personally I'm not crazy about a mod adding tomes, but since CHA is worthless anyway who cares.
Inside the temple Solomon met Pellmater a Mage from the town Restenford. This is the beginning of the Secret of Bonehill. I have never played this content, I can only assume that it will be largely under level for Solomon due to it being in Chapter 4. It will be interesting to see if I make it through without hitting my first reload. Given Solomon's strength and immunities I think he will.
Solomon is at this point levels 7/8 using Robe of the Battlemage, Helm of the Watcher, Gauntlets of Dexterity, Greenstone Amulet, Cloak of Displacement, Boots of Speed, Golden Girdle, Ring of Wizardry, Ring of Freedom, Icingdeath and Twinkle. These are with Item Revisions, a list of descriptions can be found here if interested.
All told Solomon is immune to Blindess, Deafness, Charm, Confusion, Domination, Fear, Feeblemind, Hold, Sleep, Stun, Psionics and anything movement impairing such as Web or Entangle. He has an AC of -10, -16 vs Missiles, -14 vs Slashing. THAC0 is at 5/7 and in fights he's typically using Color Spray, Web, Lightning, Skull Trap and Monster Summoning II to augment melee. The AC in the character record is off by 2 because Cloak of Displacement modifies attacker rolls instead of his AC.
Still at 0 reloads.
I'm going to make an effort to get more action shots, I keep forgetting because I'm worried about dying.
It reminded me why I came up with a No reload - No Raise dead game option after months of playing ID2 originally. I did so by making use of the dozens upon dozens of characters I had created and played to different levels over the months of play by setting them up in "adventurer pools" available to me at different stages (& places) of the game to randomly choose from to replace current fallen comrades.
It made for some very oddball parties and some even stranger multi-classing on a few in order to shoehorn them into the type of character I needed at the moment but at least we didn't spend half our game time running back and forth raising dead until we had a healer who could do so in the field (provided it wasn't he who died).
Sadly I no longer have those dozens of characters available and creating random characters and then cheating them up to appropriate levels doesn't really do it for me. I had a history with those characters since I created them with a concept in mind and then played them up to whatever level they ended up at so it really felt like I was picking up an adventurer we just happened to stumble upon (and had to make due with whatever faults or foibles he/she might have compared to the rest of the current group).
Strategy got very interesting as well when you ended up with a Ranger, three rogues, a bard and a monk to face Sherincal with...LOL
In any event I put Brightaxe and Co aside for a while and went back to BGEE to see what sort of characters I had sitting around in Chap 1 left over from my shortest lived no-reload campaigns that might deserve a fresh start - perhaps I'll drop in later to let you know what I came up with.
The PCs are:
Sensiima Sweetbow - Human F CN Skald - 16/18/16/18/10/16 - Longbow * Bastard Sword * Leader - singer - back up magic user.
Grubnik the Gruesome - Half-orc M CN Fighter/Cleric - 19/17/19/10/17/8 - Mace* Sling* S&S** Cleric - tank
Elfire Oaklord - Half-elf M TN Druid - 18/18/16/8/18/15 - Scimitar* Sling* - Divine caster/healer
Left Candlekeep - picked up Imoen, Xzar & Monty - went to FAI & spoke to Dorn - turned down J&K - cleared the Hobs - lost poor Xzar on the way to Beregost and picked up "Wild Thang" (dropping dead Xzar).
Currently playing on Normal as it seems to make the wild surges less lethal - may ramp it up to Core later.
0 reloads 1 death (preplanned)...
Dropped Monty off on Silkes corner and the five made their way eventually to Nashkel where they were recruited by Edwin who joined them and they soon encountered Dorn taking him aboard and sending Wild Thang off to the FAI to sulk.
Adventure reared its cloven hooves as the gang made it's way to the coast where the witch was dispatched in a shower of body parts and lace by Dorn and Edwin became our indentured mage for a year (gritting his teeth) and hoping against hope he should he live so long.
We plundered our way back to Nashkel where it seems the guards made Minsc and Hamster pie leaving only his sword and sweaty armor in a pile beside the road.
A mage at the circus gave us a run for our money - literally scaring all but Edwin and Elfire into running around the tent chirping like yellow bellied sapsuckers while he and Edwin faced off and Elfire swung his mighty scimitar to little avail with Edwin dying just before Dorn shook off his feathers and splattered mage all over the tent.
Against our better judgement we raised Edwin and told him the hours he spent dead would not count on his service record and to try to stay among the living if he ever wanted to be free of us.
Sensiima is Bard 3 (almost 4)
Grubnik F2/C2
Elfire Druid 3
Immy Thief 3 (almost 4)
Edwin Conjurer 2
Dorn BG 2
reloads - 0 Deaths 2 (one preplanned)
Dorn is clearly carrying the load with 55% of the partys experience for the game in spite of being with the party only about half as long as the others - that said I suspect the real reason for the party success is Sensii singing in the background almost all the time charging them up to be more effective.
On a side note I will be SO glad when this annoying bug that causes ranged fighters to run up into melee range is finally fixed...sigh
Cranked the difficulty up to core before heading into the Nashkel mines - no problems there but the Amazons at the exit cancelled our order and we reloaded and headed back to Nashkel without facing them.
This by the way clearly defines the difference between a no reload and a minimum reload game for me - had I been playing no reload chances are about 10:1 I would have left this fight for later rather than risk it and if I did decide to face them at that point would have been much more sneaky about it perhaps with a sprinkle of cheese on top.
WE did stir up an ankeg on the trip back and I think I will set Thunderbuns to work on some armor for either Dorn or Grubby before we go off in search of Dorns next victim. Nimbul got his mirror image up but Edwin took most of it down and then Grubnik hit him with a command and Dorn sliced and diced him for stir-fry. Dorn got his boots - Gubnik has the girdle and Elfire the first ankeg plate making our three tank types very solid at -1, -2, & -4 respectively before Sensii sings another -2 bonus to them.
Sensiima is now Level 4 with a cat familiar and Imoen is level 4 also and Dorn will gain level 3 very soon.
That's it until at least Sunday...
reloads - 1 deaths - 2 (1 preplanned)
Also, apologies for not updating. College classes and playing Heroes of Might and Magic 3 for the first time. Sadly, I had to use cheat codes because some of those scenario/mission things are hard.
Update on my IWD2 Run.
The group had left Targos on Oswald's ship. Only to crash land somewhere in the wilderness. Anaialee could only sigh at this horrid luck, and started to think that maybe she should have learned the spell...Luck.
Oswald had tasked Anaialee with finding the materials needed to fix his ship. Which she had found several wooden planks, a diamond, and some spider's silk.
"Oh, if only the Spider Queen could see us now." Rizdaer had quipped towards Anaialee as she had gathered the Spider's Silk.
They had also destroyed some Lycanthropes, and Yetis.
Then, they came across a man who was being pelted by rocks being thrown by giants. It was a damned miracle he wasn't dead...maybe he learned the 'Luck' spell. With that the group had killed the giants. Valeero had cast Bless on Anaialee, Hildury, Nikosh, and herself. While Anaialee cast Shield, and a Fireball at the giants.
Then the group tried to heal man, only to have him die. However, before dying the man told them about 'Andora'.
The group returned to the ruins of Oswald's ship, then headed towards Andora.
When they went to Andora, Anaialee noticed that these druids and rangers were servants of Auril. First Malarites, and now Aurilites. What the Nine Hells is Icewind Dale? A convention of minor god's servants?! No matter what they did, they were forced to fight after Sherincal killed the leader's wife.
Party:
Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 6/2
Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 9
Rizdaer - Fighter - 7(9)
Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 9
Nikosh - Rogue - 8
Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/4
Reloads: 0
Notes: Seriously, next they're going to run into some other minor god's followers and Anaialee is just going to be like "I don't even know why I'm surprised anymore." Heh.
The group went forward, into a den of...AURILITES?! Anaialee just sighed in anger. They cleared out the Aurilites, fighting anyone or anything that sided with them.
Then, the group came across Sherincal. They destroyed her helpers. Then went straight for her, even though she went up the stairs and pressed the lever. Nikosh and Anaialee cast Magic Missile after magic missile. Valeero cast some healing spells upon Sir Nord, and bless as well. Then, Sherincal came down the stairs that she had used the lever on, and got smacked to death by Sir Nord's sword.
Party:
Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 8/2
Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 11
Rizdaer - Fighter/Rogue - 8/1(11)
Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 11
Nikosh - Rogue/Wizard - 8/2
Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/6
Reloads: 0
Notes: Ahh, Sherincal. Why did you go down the stairs? *shrug* Also, after this, I may start a...self-insert, with a different name than my own of course, playthrough of Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, or something or other. Depends on if the BGEE Patch comes out when I get done with IWD2 or not.
First, Secret of Bone Hill falls prey to the all to typical "give player way too much stuff" routine of mods. From memory he acquired a belt with free Bless, a Ring of Regeneration, Ring of Air Control, a staff with various per day abilities including Chain Lightning, something like 40+ spells from 2nd to 8th circle. Yes, 8th. Why the hell does a mod targeting Chapter 4 BG1 have free 8th circle spells?
I haven't reloaded yet, but I have saved a lot, I could go back to the save just before SoBH and simply skip it. However that leads to my dilemma; Solomon is too powerful.
Normally I find IR/SR to be well balanced, but for a F/M the AC stacks too easily. He sits at -12. I don't think that's even possible in Vanilla, except maybe with potions and/or a Cleric buffing you. Very little will actually hit him without a natural 20. Blur drops it further to -15 AC, then there's Stoneskin and Mirror Images too. Vs missiles he's down in the -20 range.
I've figured out that I can reasonably easily get him to -10 using either IR or SR, or around -7 in Vanilla. However if I'm going to drop IR/SR then I've just eliminated a couple of the big mods that stood in the way of playing EE. That brings its own dilemma given then pending `open beta` patch that may be a few weeks away. Last but not least, removing IR will essentially force me to play the "remove armor, pre buff, put armor back on" game which I find highly immersion breaking given he should be wearing robes.
So I'm going to think about it, play some Rome 2 (even though CA ruined it) and come back to it later.
Good stuff Draith012...real good stuff.
Question for the group. I am considering playing a group of all ''self made' NPCs w/my PC in BG/TotSC.
How do I do that? I've done it before but forgot. I know I start like I'm gonna play a 'Mulitplayer' game but once I get in there I get confused. No problem generating characters and saving them to the player character file but I can't remember how to get them all into my party.
Any help is appreciated.
CT
then (assuming you don't want to continue to play in the MP mode and wish to move the game to SP mode) - simply save the game (using a title you will recognize)- then exit all the way out to desktop - go to your BG or BGEE directory - find your MP save folder - enter the folder - copy the save game and paste it into the regular save folder-
Start the game choose Single player - Load - and find your new save on the load screen (note it may be in the "middle" someplace rather than at the top or bottom). You are good to go...
Have fun!
Quick update.
Anaialee and her party entered the temple filled with, you guessed it, Aurilites.
They came across a high priestess named Caitin or something like that, Anaialee wasn't really good with some of these names. Anaialee cast Stoneskin, magic missile, Melf's Minute Meteors, Mirror Image, and some fireballs. Hildury summoned some undead, as well as used Summon Creature I. Nikosh cast some magic missiles. Lastly, Valeero cast Bless, and some healing spells.
After some exploring around they found another High Priestess, Lysara. Anaialee doubted that Lysara wanted to be there, to be their enemy. However, Anaialee wasn't going to bow down to Auril, or anyone for that matter. The fight basically went the same as with the other High Priestess, except Valeero cast Chant, and was unable to cast some other spells for a while.
After some more exploring, it was time to go downstairs.
Party:
Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 8/2
Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 11
Rizdaer - Fighter/Rogue - 8/1
Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 11
Nikosh - Rogue/Wizard - 8/2
Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/6
Reloads: 0
Notes: I hate the downstairs part of the Ice Temple.
Also, on the self-insert playthrough, it'll start in chronological order, aka Icewind Dale, Icewind Dale 2, Baldur's Gate, and Baldur's Gate 2. The latter will be dependent on the patch, and the November 15th date, because I prefer to be able to play the Enhanced Edition. Also, her name will be Shelby, which is what my dad would have named me in the first place. She'll be a wizard, a Diviner to be exact, who will dual to cleric.
First, I'm going to go back to pre-SoBH and skip it. I don't consider this a reload per se since it is being done entirely to avoid overpowered items/experience and because Solomon has not yet died. When I get DSotSC and NTotSC I'll have to evaluate those.
Second, I'm going to choose to use a different set of items and buffs that bring the AC down to around the -5 to -8 range. In other words I'm going to force it to be something in line with what I could similarly accomplish in Vanilla. I haven't decided for sure what that will look like, but it will involve cutting Shield and/or Mage Armor from buffs and/or removing Helm of the Watcher and Gauntlets of Dexterity.
For example one possibility is replacing Helm of the Watcher with an Ioun Stone (probably just a +20 Lore one, makes sense in terms of RP) and Gauntlets of Dexterity with Bracers of Defense AC 6/7 and dropping Mage Armor and/or Shield entirely. That would put his AC in the -5 to -8 range, depending on whether the bracers are 6 or 7 and whether or not he uses Shield. Other possibilities would be keeping everything the same but dropping Mage Armor entirely (puts him at -6), or dropping Gauntlets, Ring of Protection and Helm of the Watcher and Shield but keeping Mage Armor (-6 again).
Of course some of these could result in a slight boost in other areas (e.g. dropping the ring opens up a Ring of Wizardry for more spells) but I consider this fair as I could accomplish same in Vanilla.
The group has covered quite a bit of ground since last update - managed Dorns next encounter, dropped by to see Tranzig, took down Bassilus, the snotty trio from Amn, the fastest dart, & Brage - finished Silkes quest then took her out as well but passed on Alberts dog (too nasty to be bothered) - cleared out the half-ogres but left Drizzt alone in case we decide to take him on later and generally cleared up some of the southern encounters.
Current levels and usual weapon:
Sensiima - bard 5 - mostly sings otherwise bow (chainmail)
Elfire - Druid 4 (almost 5) - wielding +1 club or +1 sling w buckler (Ankeg)
Grubnik - F 3/C 4 - Stupifier + sm shield +1 (Plate mail)
Dorn - BG 4 - Rancor +1 (Ankeg)
Imoen - Thief 5 - bow mostly occasionally Varscona or Harrower (Telbars studded leather)
Edwin - Conjurer - 4 - sling & spells (Travelers robe)
I think we could pick up Mr Mystery now but I am not sure whether I want to use him or Edwin yet. (suggestions about that choice welcome)
Hmm, when I click on 'Create Game' I put in my Session Name, my name & click New Game or Load Game, but nothing happens when I click them. I'm using BG Tutu. I think I could get it but something ain't working here. Oh well, I'm still putting interesting characters out there for use whenever I figure it out. CT
Cleared some more southern maps - Ulcaster map & dungeon, Gullykin did the adventurers & smelly hobbit ->Ogre mage and his closest buddies (I never do any more of the firewine dungeon any more those kobolds are just too annoying with their fire arrows and only 7 exp LOL)
Firewine above ground - got the bracers for Grubnik then just barely made it through the crazy lady /ogre mage fight he took out both Grubnik & Elfire as Edwin didn't have a dispel magic to take out his protections so it took forever to kill him. Cleared most of the map just east of Ulcaster (cow map but we avoided the cow) and eventually headed into Larswood and picked up Mr Mystery (dropping Edwin who said he would wait but I'm not sure how long). Cleared the rest of that map and went to FAI to unload swag.
Tense moment when we stumbled on a basilisk in an unexpected random encounter between Durlags (unloading loot only) and Ulcaster - but Edwin scared him with a spook spell and we took him down quickly.
Current levels:
Sensiima - bard 5 - mostly sings otherwise bow (chainmail +1)
Elfire - Druid 5 - wielding +1 club or +1 sling w Buckleys buckler (Ankeg)
Grubnik - F 4/C 4 - Stupifier + Lg shield +1 (Plate mail)
Dorn - BG 4 (130 exp for 5)- Rancor +1 (Ankeg)
Imoen - Thief 5 (1300 exp for 6)- bow mostly occasionally Varscona or Harrower (Telbars studded leather)
Baeloth - Sorcerer 6 - spells /darts or sling - robe of archmage.
1 reload - 4 deaths (1 preplanned)
The party explored the second level of the ice temple. They killed Aurilites, and monsters left and right.
Then, they gained the key to the Priestess Oria's room. A fight was started, then Oria broke her staff and became a spirit. To which, the group returned to the Battle Square, and turned on the proper mode. It only took a couple of arrows, and a couple of hits from Sir Nord and Rizdaer for Oria to fall.
Once completing all the things needed, the group returned to Nathaniel, gave him the items that he needed to return to Oswald with, and then proceeded onwards to Kuldahar.
Party:
Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 9/2
Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 12
Rizdaer - Fighter/Rogue - 8/2 (12)
Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 12
Nikosh - Rogue/Wizard - 8/3
Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/7
Reload: 0
Notes: I actually had to break out a walkthrough guide for level two... Oh well, at least we aren't at going into the forest and getting lost several times.
Leader & main PC -Magebane Malone - M Human LG Inquisitor
18/99-18-16-8-13-18/ Two handed sword**, Longbow*, THWS*
Buulo the Bear - M half-elf NG Cleric/Ranger
18/00-18-16-8-18-12 Mace**, Sling**, TWS**
Millini Madstaff - F Human TN Beserker (dual to druid level 2 - 4)
18/78-18-14-6-17-17, Staff**, Dart*, THWS*
Toolate Tempersnap - M Dwarf LN Wizard Slayer
18/95-16-19-12-8-8 Axe**, S&S**
Sierra Spidersbane - F Elf NG Archer
18/95-19-16-12-14-10, Halbred*, Longbow**, THWS*, TWS**
Billican Bigblade - M Halfling NG Fighter/thief
17-19-18-10-10-8, Longsword**, Sling**
As you can see I didn't nerf anyones stats - but we are after all playing with no arcane casters (grin).
This group is currently waiting for me at the FAI but I just can't get the idea of some sort of woodland cult or "coven" party - no arcane casters just a mix of druids with a thief of some sort and maybe a ranger thrown in so I'm off to fool with that...
Leader - our friend from the Magebane group:
Millini Madstaff - F Human TN Beserker (dual to druid level 2 - 4)
18/78-18-14-6-17-17, Staff**, Dart*, THWS*
Acer - M Human TN Totemic Druid
18-18-15-7-17-15 Spear*, Sling*
Belladonna - F Human TN Avenger
16-18-14-7-18-15 Staff*, Dart*
Baila Bearspeak F Human CG Beastmaster (dual to cleric probably)
18/98-18-18-8-18-8 Staff**, Sling*, THWS* TWS**
Ebony M Half-elf TN Shapeshifter
16-18-14-8-18-15 Club*, Dart*
(Ebonys mate) - Wilena Wolfkin F Elf CN Fighter/thief
18/99-19-16-10-10-16 Longbow**, Longsword**
I think this may be an interesting group - currently just out of Candlekeep - Imoen donated her potions and wand to Wilena and the adventure is about to begin.
Well after the Giants game...LOL
It appears the animal summons for the Totemic is bugged - I'm pretty sure this is a known issue but can't recall any details. The shapeshifters werewolf shape is pretty powerful with 2 attacks doing 8-13 damage (17 Thac0) but with only 9 hps he's still pretty fragile right now altho he gets to -2 AC with shapeshift and buckler.
Wilena is a terror with her compound bow and once we grab the boots she should be able to scout fairly effectively (currently 30/30 Hide/MS with 35 OL & 45 Traps).
Milini is tanking for now with staff in Plate mail with 3/2 attacks doing 8-13 damage (17 Thac0) - undecided at what level I will dual her at - what levels does she get weapon pips - 3 & 5? She would get a second rage at 4.
I'm approaching this as minimal reload but with a more no-reload feel - probably limiting myself to a half dozen reloads or less. Maybe no more than 2 per chapter as well.
So far 0 Reloads - 1 death Belladonna (random encounter skellies and ghast)
@SapphireIce101, those darned puzzles are the reason I stopped my IWD2 run.
Good luck and well-wishes to all who are still playing in the challenge.
Does not nature provide brilliant colors that with the deities help might be used harm her foes?
Is the spiders web not a part of natures ways?
If the druid can call lightning to strike her enemy is it not possible her gods may help her to direct those bolts herself on occasion?
Do not many within the natural world cloak themselves so well they appear invisible?
Does not the skunks spray or the snakes venom the insects swarm or the mushrooms bite cause chaos & confusion in those it strikes?
Could not the druids deity show her how to link natures lighting together into bright and dangerous chains to harm one enemy after another before it desists?
No I see no arcane abominations here - natures path has just taken a small detour to help protect the lands from these cursed magelings and we will drive them from the land like lemmings o'er a cliff before we are done...
(insert winky emoticon here! )
Here is an update!
Mere minutes after leaving the Ice Palace, the group came across....some more damned Aurilites. They were dispatched easily with Valeero using her domain spell, Flamestrike, and Anaialee using a fireball.
The group made it to the village, and were hired to go find some lost children. So, they investigated, went into the woods, and defeated the person who captured the children. Anaialee and Nikosh cast Melf's Acid Arrows on Frost Trolls when they were near death. Hildury and Valeero cast healing spells. Anaialee cast Minor Globe of Invulnerablity on herself. Valeero cast Bless on as many people as she could, and Anaialee cast Haste on Rizdaer.
Party:
Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 9/2
Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 12
Rizdaer - Fighter/Rogue - 8/2 (12)
Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 12
Nikosh - Rogue/Wizard - 8/3
Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/7
Reloads: 0
Notes: Ugh, the forest, this is where I wish I took Diriel, since you can actually cheat your way out of trying to search for these areas yourself, and have him just take you there.
Need to make a decision about when to dual Milini and Baila to druid & cleric respectively - I'm tempted to wait until level 4 for Milini for another weapon pip and another rage maybe even 5- undecided about Baila - probably going to dual her right away tho since she would get minimal value with more Beastmaster levels (unless I'm forgetting something.)
Anaialee talked to the Barrow ghost, and found its Chalice. Along the way Valeero had to cast several Turn Undead spells.
They found the thief that stole the chalice. He was already dead, so they returned to the Barrow ghost, and gave him back his chalice.
Party:
Anaialee - Sorceress/Ranger - 10/2
Sir Nord - Paladin of Helm - 12
Rizdaer - Fighter/Rogue - 8/2 (12)
Valeero - Morninglady of Lathander - 12
Nikosh - Rogue/Wizard - 8/4
Hildury - Barbarian/Battleguard of Tempus - 4/8
Reloads: 0
Notes: Just need to go into the forest a couple more times... Also, I started playing Temple of Elemental Evil with the Circle of Eight Modpack again... Made a lawful good party on that one.
I've never been able to finish that one - once I got down near the bottom levels the game slowed so much it was unplayable - I think that was true with or without Circle of Eight altho I have not tried it on a new puter or with a GOG version.
I doubt I'll be trying the GOG version anytime soon as I probably already have enough games to keep me going until either BG2EE comes out or maybe Wasteland 2 (altho that is sort of a "freebie" from backing Tides of Numenera and I'm not even sure I'll like it enough to spend much time with it.)