When advancing to T2, there is a new group in the prison cell. They are adventurers from Thay, but they aren't all Red Wizards. In fact, there is a rivalry going on between the two mages and the rest of the group (including a thief, cleric and fighters), which you'll witness whenever you pass the cell on your way to the Great Insightful One.
TIER 2
Bugged Beholder Hint: something about protecting weaker party members Reward: 26032 XP, 4000 gold Strategy: Ankhegs are idiots; they appear in melee range. Move casters away, cast sleep as usual. Seriously, this battle is silly and ideal for farming some quick XP and gold. The ankhegs appear right under you, which disables their ranged attack. Did this fight twice to get @Eudaemonium's assassin levels back.
Don't have the gold, bought a soundproof backpack.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events: Anduin: purchases Haste, Fireball; memorizes both Southpaw: memorizes Animate Dead Eudaemonium: purchases Spell Thrust, Flame Arrow (memorizes FA) FinneousPJ purchases Paws of The Cheetah (I'd usually give them to the tank, but being a rakshasa and all, it fits better. Also, Eye of Helm has no feet. )
Friendly Neighborhood Spider Beholder Hint: Cast area spells. Reward: 32540 XP, 4500 gold Strategy: Buff before beaming in. Move casters away from arrival area to avoid web; cast Horror, Sleep, Glitterdust; Command Sword Spider and target with melee, poison druid; summon skellies.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events: FinneousPJ: Ninjato +++
Night Knives Beholder Hint: Undead, don't underestimate divine spells - according to the Bugs section, this isn't what the Beholder should say, so ignore. Reward: 44386 XP, 5000 gold Strategy: Buff before beaming in. Spam fireballs and Glitterdust; nothing makes an archer less useful than being blind. Summon skellies to distract northern group of thieves. Trigger SW Grease trap; it hurts the thieves more than you. Keep spamming Glitterdust; use ranged weapons when possible. Divine magic isn't 100 % useless, but it's rare to successfully Hold the thieves. I'm not sure what they are - I read vampires or some sort of undead, but Hold Undead doesn't do anything and they have no level drain. They are basically nasty archers and have a trapped arena.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events: Eye of Helm: Axe ++ Samus: purchased Invisibility 10" and memorized it Anduin: Sling +, memorized Haste and Fireball Southpaw: accidentally used Turn Undead on Anduin; luckily Eye of Helm has 17 charisma and will hopefully delay further in party conflicts.
The next fight will be the Ogre Mage and his summoning portals. I really hope I can avoid the Deafness bug. It's hard to give any strategic advice since it's random what summons will appear, but generally, the idea is to have Eudaemonium poison his darts and target the portals, Samus beams in invisible and follows the melee (whoever has more trouble/enemies pile up) to confuse; she'll have backup fire spells in case there'll be trolls or slimes; the melees target the first summons of the nearest portals, Anduin glitterdusts/horrors/sleeps and Southpaw summons skellies and takes out the Ogre Mage after Eudaemonium spell thusted him. We'll see how it goes.
@kidcarnival I want you to come clean NOW! How many times have I died in this run? The number quoted is 476! As far as I remember I have only died once! And that was an accident!
And can you tell that Mindflayer @Southpaw to stop tapping my skull... I do not have an aged vintage brain in there! (It gets removed in the mummification process!)
( MindFlayer Southpaw sits in a comfy chair dressed in a red housecoat, slurping some strange liquid from a big jar thru a straw. Something floats in that liquid. Something resembling an old human brain. )
@kidcarnival I want you to come clean NOW! How many times have I died in this run? The number quoted is 476! As far as I remember I have only died once! And that was an accident!
And can you tell that Mindflayer @Southpaw to stop tapping my skull... I do not have an aged vintage brain in there! (It gets removed in the mummification process!)
Technically your undead @Anduin it means you do not die...
Well... Yes... Technically... But I have feelings! Needs! I get acutely embarrassed if I have a leg chopped off! Plus the team forgot to send me a card last Mummies day!
With my mages I load up on melfs minute meteors before heading into the arena... It singes the ol' bandages but its worth it to put a mini meteor in the enemies button holes...
Before the Ogre Mage battle, I re-did the thieves and avenger fights again to level up Eudaemonium and Southpaw, and to justify consoling the second Wizard Staff for Eudaemonium. He pretty much solo'd the druid by poisoning both the sword spider and druid, the rest of the party walked around and killed off confused mini spiders with Samus singing.
Before the Ogre Mage battle, I did the following to prepare:
Samus: purchases Burning Hands (memorized 3 x), Haste - general idea is that she goes invisible after buffing outside the arena and only breaks stealth in case there are trolls or slimes that need fire to kill.
Eye of Helm: purchases Gift of Peace to have some sort of tank resemblance - I kinda forgot to buy better armor for the frontliners and couldn't afford Full Plate or Plate +1; so yeah, resistances for the mephit weapons was the next best thing I could afford
Eudaemonium: purchases Invisibility 10", Short Bow +1, 160 arrows; console Wizard Staff Red; general idea is staying fully ranged; use the bow for the duration of poison weapon; then switch to staff and only melee if neccessary
Southpaw: memorizes Protection from Evil 10", Defensive Harmony
Ogre Magus & Portals Beholder Hint: Endless force of enemies; cut down supply. Reward: 65079 XP, 5500 gold Strategy: Buff outside with Chant, Protection from Evil 10", Haste, Invisibility 10". Opening moves after checking the first summons (1 slime, 1 quasit, rest various mephits; slime and mephit are the nearest): Southpaw casts Defensive Harmony; Eudaemonium casts Spell Thrust on Ogre Magus; hits the moment his defenses go up (lol'd a bit); FinneousPJ rushes the portal with the slime; targeting the portal. Eye of Helm rushes mephit portal, also targeting the portal. A second mephit moves closer, so Samus goes to sing on that side - the mephits attack each other (and are immune to each other's attacks, thanks a lot, fate). Southpaw summons a skeleton that immediately gets enfeebled, but still serves it's purpose to keep the quasit busy. Eudaemonium poisons weapon and targets the Ogre Magus; Anduin is busy Glitterdusting the mephits. So far, so good; all plans worked. Then things go a bit downhill... FinneousPJ gets enfeebled, but is standing between a pillar and a wall; the slime for some reason tries to get to the casters, but doesn't fit through. 90 HP rakshasa is amused and just stays where he is, casually hitting the slime with 5 strength. The portal is luckily already dead, as well as the one attacked by Eye of Helm, who moved on to the next portal. Left behind are 2 confused mephits that attack each other with their ineffective weapons; whatever, let them be for now. Samus moves closer to Ogre Magus, who fails casting until he gets out a Melf's and nearly kills Anduin, while the quasit interrupts Southpaw's second skelly casting. Samus moves closer to confuse the quasit, who returns to hitting the skeleton and confused mephits; Southpaw heals Anduin. Eye of Helm has successfully killed another portal, but also gathered a group of admiring followers - a flesh golem and 2 mephits, on the way to the last portal. The Ogre Magus dies, and Eudaemonium can target the slime - that still lives, for some reason. Guess 5 strength isn't enough to kill pudding. Anyway, after Laying Eyes, Eye of Helm can kill the last portal and start hitting the mephits; Southpaw's trusty hammer takes care of the golem; Anduin and Eudaemonium kill the still confused mephits and quasit, who still hadn't managed to kill the skeleton (lol).
In short, my backup plans about trolls and slimes were all for nothing; I didn't use a single fire spell in the battle. Only Eye of Helm got hit with Deafness, no level drains, and I feel I didn't get any really nasty summons. I'll probably do this battle again because this felt a bit... cheesy to cut through everything with the only tight spot being Anduin losing 2/3 health. Other than that, only the frontliners got injured - still half the HP at any given time. Having more deaf party members would suck a bit, so if I repeat this battle, I probably only document the strategy and re-load to the current game with all party members at level 6 - 7. If I re-do this battle, at least 3 would level up again.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events Anduin: purchases and memorizes Greater Malison, Emotion Hopelessness Eudaemonium: purchases Remove Magic, Melf's Minute Meteors, Improved Invisibility (memorizes II) Eye of Helm: purchases Fallorain's Plate +1 Turns out Anduin isn't angry with Southpaw after this battle. Quite the opposite; he seems to like Southpaw and has promised to create a statue of him once we are back in Baldur's Gate.
So... I did the Ogre Magus again twice. The first time, I got exactly the same summons as above, got no new Deafness, no enfeeblement, and the 2 frontliners killed the portals in no time, with no injuries of anyone. This obviously defeated the purpose of a strategy against different summons, so I reloaded and tried again. Second try was a success as I got everything that's nasty: 1 quasit, 2 wraiths, 1 flesh golem, 1 gray ooze.
The general strategy still stands: Rush at portals, ignore summons with frontliners; use jester to confuse whatever gets close to the casters (best position for invisible jester is between the first pillars; also confuses the Ogre Magus, and everything mephit-y on the way across the arena), DUHM the cleric to protect the casters while they disable the Magus; if the slower summons are the closest (in my case the gray ooze) use the time to summon a skelly for further distraction.
I had Eudaemonium Improved Invisible - spell thrust magus, poison weapon, focus on magus. I took a small risk moving both him and Anduin between the 2 NE portals, near the gray ooze. Got lucky, the ooze kept targeting Eye of Helm on the portal. FinneousPJ - still in regular plate and with no further gear (except a normal helm and Paws of Cheetah) - slaughtered the 2 SW portals and one of the wraiths without a scratch; Southpaw hammered the golem and the skelly kept the confused quasit busy. The Ogre Mage managed to cast Stinking Cloud before dying, and it briefly knocked Samus out - the only problem with that was - the second wraith and the ooze were also in the cloud, as the only hostile survivors. Idiots. Samus saved a round later, I could evacuate the cloud and Anduin fireball spammed the ooze and wraith.
Only Eye of Helm and Samus leveled up, and since there's no new Deafness, I'll go with that. Probably re-doing ankhegs or something minor to get 2K gold and buy FinneousPJ a decent armor; after the wraith slaughterfest, he really earned it.
The Ogre Mage managed to cast Stinking Cloud before dying, and it briefly knocked Samus out - the only problem with that was - the second wraith and the ooze were also in the cloud, as the only hostile survivors. Idiots. Samus saved a round later, I could evacuate the cloud and Anduin fireball spammed the ooze and wraith.
Ouch! That hurt....
Hey, at least I was gentleeye enough to wait until you left the cloud before fireballing!
That is in fact something I often encounter - that I have to move you aside before fireballing. The stunning look weapon you use attracts a lot attention!
I finished T2 - quickly repeated the ankhegs and bought FinneousPJ a Fallorain's Plate +1 and changed Eudaemonioum's spellbook (Remove Magic added) and then went to fight the Thayan adventurers. For some reason, my backpack was protesting, but I still have Deafness going on, so yeah...
T2 Final Battle: Thayan Adventurers Beholder Hint: The difference between opposing lines lies within rather than without. Umm, what? I̕ hat̨e̵ you͘,̴ ́Elm̢i͏nśte̷r.͠..̕ Why̧ did͟ ͡yo͟u ̵c̡urse̡ ̴me͘ t͟o ҉ex͟i̧s̀t̡ i͜n the̸ b̵ackp̷ack ̴of̷ ̡a ̷di̡mw͏i҉t̵ li͡ke th̶at? Reward: 130896 XP, 40000 gold Strategy: Buff with Protection from Evil 10", Haste, Improved Invisiblity (Eudaemonium, Anduin), Invisbility (Samus). Defensive Harmony, DHUM. Rush group in middle (Blackguard or what it is; one of them can poison weapon, making her the first target - Lucille) with FinneousPJ and Eye of Helm; move Samus near them. Command rest with Southpaw; then summon skellies. Casters Remove Magic and Spell Thrust the two wizards; Anduin follows up with Greater Malison, Emotion; Eudaemonium poisons weapon and hits the wizards. If one turns invisible, Detect Invisbility from Anduin. Send skellies after the caster not under fire.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events Southpaw: Mace +, memorized Cure Serious Wounds, Dispel Magic Samus: memorized Invisibility 10" Eudaemonium: purchased Robe of Evil Arch Magi Anduin: purchased Pale Green Ioun Stone, Boots of Etherealness
It was a tough choice how to spend the gold. Upgraded weapons would be in order for the frontliners, but the casters were both still in Traveler's/Knave's Robes, so I decided to upgrade them a bit. Samus rarely has to use weapons and basically never gets injured, so her upgrades will mostly be spells I can cast before beaming in and possibly some amulet or ring for better saving throws. I do want the One Gift Lost for FinneousPJ to make him sort of a suicide bomber (minus the suicide part) and he needs a few resistances, so Ballista's Passport or Gift of Peace is on the list, too. Southpaw needs better armor and Ashideena (he'll be the main damage dealer in the fight against the golems); Ring of Sune would be nice, but 13K is a bit above my budget for now.
In the prison cell, we now meet Hogarl, a fire giant. He'll be the T3 final battle enemy. The shops have new gear, what I forgot to mention above, and the NPCs have new dialogues. Najim beams in and tells Baeloth there is some incident in a room of pain.
To prepare for the first T3 battle, the only thing I did was have Southpaw memorize Flame Blade (x 2) instead of Hold Person.
Trolls and Fission Slimes Beholder Hint: Keeping the fallen dead is not easy; dispose of the bodies. Reward: 152712 XP, 8000 gold Strategy: The slimes are idiots/slow/ranged, which means: cast a Fireball (or Flame Arrow or something) on each while they are away from the mosh pit that will build between the pillars. This is where the melees will most likely end up with the hasted trolls. Samus moves nearby to confuse them, the casters do the fireballing of the slimes so long and Southpaw casts Flame Blade. (One cast lasts long enough; I memorized 2 for the off chance that a slime would target Southpaw and the first attempt might fail.) By now, the trolls are unconcious and Southpaw can stroll over to kill them while the melees go kill the slimes. The slimes would split and spawn 2 new ones if they hadn't been hit with fire-something before, but that is not an issue here.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events Anduin: purchases and memorizes Animate Dead, Chaos (Chaotic Neutral Necromancer) Eudaemonium: purchases and memorizes Breach; Amulet of Power (faster wizard slaying/dispelling) Southpaw: purchases Ashideena +2 (next battle is against the golems) FinneousPJ: purchases One Gift Lost 5 charges
Golems and Shambling Mound Beholder Hint: Use enchanted weapons. Seriously? Reward: 183254 XP, 10000 gold Strategy: So this is a tough one for katana fanboys, I guess. It's all about blunt weapons here, however, magic should not be underrated. Eye of Helm (Flail), @FinneousPJ (Ninjato) and 2 skelly summons serve as nothing but meat shields in this battle, with a tiny bit of damage from the flail. @Southpaw and his hammer do the damage. The arcane casters go in invisible; @Samus sings; @Eudaemonium and @Anduin cast Glitterdust, Greater Malison, Emotion, Chaos; poison what can be poisoned and that's the entire strategy: have the blunt weapon user(s) do the damage, everyone else keeps the golems busy/out of the fight. This does obviously work better if you have more than just a cleric, but I didn't have the gold to buy anyone else a useful weapon. Oops. Took a lot longer than with a hammer wielding frontliner.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events Samus: purchases and memorizes Improved Invisibility FinneousPJ: purchases Rashad's Talon +2 (main hand); Ballista's Passport Eye of Helm: purchases Ring of Fire Control
@KidCarnival - Can I join the fray? I'd normally be a Thief or a monk, but in BP, you don't really need these. Because of the needs of your party composition, I'd leave the choosing to you. - human Avenger/Shapeshifter - human Stalker - human Blade
(both the latter dualwielding wakizashis/daggers or some other shorter swords. True Neutral or Lawful Evil.)
Try Black Pits with 6 level 40 Monks, its easy, actually, I recently did it, and it took me seconds to kill Baeloth, so he couldn't release the Beholder. If you make your Monks with 18 strength, 18 dexterity and 18 constitution, you're not going to spend the money in other things that weren't Potions of Explosions, Potions of Fire Breath, etc, to kill the Fission Slimes. Maybe in Potions of Fire Resistance for the battle against The Elemental Fire Plane.
@Southpaw How did you get your tentacles on a vintage brain?!? I shou~
~Southpaw is your friend, donate a portion of your brai~
Ahh! What the blazes was th~
~Southpaw requires money to further aid his patron Lathander, for the good of al~
SOUTHPAW! HAVE YOU EATEN MY BRAIN! Where is he? No. First find a potion of Clarity, then go complain to @Kidcarnival , maybe @Samus can get me a new bra~
~Southpaw has not eaten Anduin's brain. Southpaw only eats cauliflower~
Yeah. Cauliflower does kinda look like a brain when it's boiled... But the red stuff all over it still looks suspicio~
~Strawberry sauce.~
Ok. Uhm... I really like that I am spamming all those monsters with fireballs! Keep me learning those AoE spells!
On a completely different note, I have had a quick look at my stats. 18 int is so me!~
~...tasted more like an 8...~
Errr... Yes I am very tasty! So why the 8 in Charisma? I have cleaned my bandages and even put in a few sprigs of mint and myrrh in between the layers... I smell at least like 16!
Everything would be easy as pie with any combination of 6 level 40 characters. I see no point in that. I do have level cap removed for BG (and never got even close to the high level cleric spells I wanted, because restarteritis), but I won't exceed level 10 in this run. That's the unmodded limit, and it would be pointless to write a guide/strategy advice a la "so you just use a werebear on Drizzt lol".
The stats are all "best out of 10" rolls, so not all are ideal and I minmaxed a bit. Necromancer has 16 min wisdom (@Anduin should really have known better than to push every suspicious button), this was a classic "sacrifice outer beauty for inner beauty" case.
The general T3 strategy is to have the 3 arcane casters beam in with Improved Invisibility with the split: Samus - pre-battle buff spells; sing in fights and move around to confuse (jester song ignores magic resistance, and becomes a permanent spam of a level 5 Confusion spell) Anduin - crowd control and AoE; after the next (ice) battle, I'll add Ice Storm Eudaemonium - wizard slayer, lower saving throws, strip away defenses I'm a bit tempted to get the 2 Fire Shields for the elemental battles, but I'll see how far I get with the current protections, save some gold and get Anduin the Neutral Arch Magi robe instead.
Ice Salamaders Beholder Hint: Winter is coming. Reward: 229068 XP, 12000 gold Strategy: Buff outside as usual. Usually, it is "keep moving and disable the cleric first", but in this case, the Ice Storm went off on the other side of the arena, so I skipped "keep moving" and just moved the casters out of the mosh pit. FinneousPJ killed the salamander heading toward the casters, while Southpaw summoned a skelly and then DHUM'd and Flame Bladed and joined the melee mob. Now that Samus has Improved Invisibility, I had her use the Burning Hands. Anduin and Eudaemonium glitterdusted mostly.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events Anduin: purchases and memorizes Ice Storm Eye of Helm: purchases Full Plate; give Fallorain's Plate +1 to Southpaw
Anyway, I am a bit torn about the final battle - do I fight the Beholder? I've roleplayed this a bit - Samus doing all the shopping/NPC talks except the Beholder, giving the Paws of the Cheetah to the rakshasa instead of tank, taking Chaos and Animate Dead for the mummy instead of Minor Sequencer for Sleep/Glitterdust and such; and in the final battle, FinneousPJ is supposed to take out Elan Garaq and Eudaemonium (hopefully) kills Baeloth. It would be out of character for Eye of Helm to kill his idol. Might let the duergar live until the two others are dead; the general strategy against the Beholder isn't that complex - distract with tank who hopefully has good saves against the attacks and holds the Beholder long enough in melee for the ranged attacks to kill him.
Next is the Fire Giant battle, which should be interesting because I have no shorties in the party and it's all about saving against the earthquake attack. Guess I'll look what amulets, belts or cloaks I can give the frontliners; both already have fire protection rings.
Comments
TIER 2
Bugged
Beholder Hint: something about protecting weaker party members
Reward: 26032 XP, 4000 gold
Strategy: Ankhegs are idiots; they appear in melee range. Move casters away, cast sleep as usual. Seriously, this battle is silly and ideal for farming some quick XP and gold. The ankhegs appear right under you, which disables their ranged attack. Did this fight twice to get @Eudaemonium's assassin levels back.
I̪'͉̩͍̩̰̤̠m̲ ͍̤n̯̤̭̙͚̺o̮̼̳t an̳͙̤̥ ͉͕̩̙̯a̝̤̲̮ș̻̞̖s̼͙̩̙̥͔͙a̹̤͕͍̙͍s̳̬̥̮s͉̠͚̦ͅͅi̠̩͍n!̘̰̜͙
Shut up or backpack.
G̣̰̠̯͔i̮ṿ̣̗͓̳e ͓͙m͈̯̤͎͎̪e̼̳̟̮ͅ ̖̠͍̝a͔̮̰͇ ͈̯̳̙W̭͖̰̣͉͙i̦̬̜̦̪ẓ̩̗̰̣a̭͍r̗̻̳̩d̤̰̺ S͙̮t̯̟̲ạ̻̠̲f̠̺͚̤̘̼̺f.̳̼̖ ̹̦̹̠͈̦ͅI̟͚͎̻̳̬ ̗h̙̪͈̗̦̗a̙͙̙̤veͅ ̣͉ͅa̮̙̥̟r̫̱̝m̦̹̹̪̭̹̞s̤͔̖ to̗̖ ̩̬̥͇̪͈̰u̪̬se̲̟̝̞͎̣ ̜͎i̜͙t̖̙̹̤͕̝.̙̩͓ͅ
Don't have the gold, bought a soundproof backpack.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events:
Anduin: purchases Haste, Fireball; memorizes both
Southpaw: memorizes Animate Dead
Eudaemonium: purchases Spell Thrust, Flame Arrow (memorizes FA)
FinneousPJ purchases Paws of The Cheetah (I'd usually give them to the tank, but being a rakshasa and all, it fits better. Also, Eye of Helm has no feet.
Friendly Neighborhood Spider
Beholder Hint: Cast area spells.
Reward: 32540 XP, 4500 gold
Strategy: Buff before beaming in. Move casters away from arrival area to avoid web; cast Horror, Sleep, Glitterdust; Command Sword Spider and target with melee, poison druid; summon skellies.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events:
FinneousPJ: Ninjato +++
Night Knives
Beholder Hint: Undead, don't underestimate divine spells - according to the Bugs section, this isn't what the Beholder should say, so ignore.
Reward: 44386 XP, 5000 gold
Strategy: Buff before beaming in. Spam fireballs and Glitterdust; nothing makes an archer less useful than being blind. Summon skellies to distract northern group of thieves. Trigger SW Grease trap; it hurts the thieves more than you. Keep spamming Glitterdust; use ranged weapons when possible. Divine magic isn't 100 % useless, but it's rare to successfully Hold the thieves. I'm not sure what they are - I read vampires or some sort of undead, but Hold Undead doesn't do anything and they have no level drain. They are basically nasty archers and have a trapped arena.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events:
Eye of Helm: Axe ++
Samus: purchased Invisibility 10" and memorized it
Anduin: Sling +, memorized Haste and Fireball
Southpaw: accidentally used Turn Undead on Anduin; luckily Eye of Helm has 17 charisma and will hopefully delay further in party conflicts.
The next fight will be the Ogre Mage and his summoning portals. I really hope I can avoid the Deafness bug. It's hard to give any strategic advice since it's random what summons will appear, but generally, the idea is to have Eudaemonium poison his darts and target the portals, Samus beams in invisible and follows the melee (whoever has more trouble/enemies pile up) to confuse; she'll have backup fire spells in case there'll be trolls or slimes; the melees target the first summons of the nearest portals, Anduin glitterdusts/horrors/sleeps and Southpaw summons skellies and takes out the Ogre Mage after Eudaemonium spell thusted him. We'll see how it goes.
A̻͉̦͉̞s͖̫͕͍͍ ̤̖̰̪l̹͚̤̭̹on̯̮̫̪̰̼g̘̤͈ͅ ͙ạs̻̙ ͍̖̯̤y̜̘͙͚o̝̥̱̫u̱̞̠͙͍ ̹̯do͎͔̠n̝͖̜̤̞'̥t͔̺ ̬̹̗̺go̼̹̞ ̪̫un͚͎̳̯ͅA̫̻R̪͇M͉̳͔E͓̺̱D̝,͈̺ ̰̭̻̘̘̠̦yo̤̬̯̠̳ͅu̫̞̖̘̲̰'͉̣̺l̲̼̲̺̠̲l ͉̬̟͙͚̟̹b͕̜͕͔̣e̥̟̹ ̦̘͈͈̜̦f͖̻ͅi̹͔n̯̦̼̙̟̣̜e̖̪.͍͈͇
You know, I always thought Xzar would make a fine familiar...
And can you tell that Mindflayer @Southpaw to stop tapping my skull... I do not have an aged vintage brain in there! (It gets removed in the mummification process!)
( MindFlayer Southpaw sits in a comfy chair dressed in a red housecoat, slurping some strange liquid from a big jar thru a straw. Something floats in that liquid. Something resembling an old human brain. )
Yer brain mate ? Dunno. Never seen it...
With my mages I load up on melfs minute meteors before heading into the arena... It singes the ol' bandages but its worth it to put a mini meteor in the enemies button holes...
Before the Ogre Mage battle, I did the following to prepare:
Samus: purchases Burning Hands (memorized 3 x), Haste - general idea is that she goes invisible after buffing outside the arena and only breaks stealth in case there are trolls or slimes that need fire to kill.
Eye of Helm: purchases Gift of Peace to have some sort of tank resemblance - I kinda forgot to buy better armor for the frontliners and couldn't afford Full Plate or Plate +1; so yeah, resistances for the mephit weapons was the next best thing I could afford
Eudaemonium: purchases Invisibility 10", Short Bow +1, 160 arrows; console Wizard Staff Red; general idea is staying fully ranged; use the bow for the duration of poison weapon; then switch to staff and only melee if neccessary
Southpaw: memorizes Protection from Evil 10", Defensive Harmony
Ogre Magus & Portals
Beholder Hint: Endless force of enemies; cut down supply.
Reward: 65079 XP, 5500 gold
Strategy: Buff outside with Chant, Protection from Evil 10", Haste, Invisibility 10". Opening moves after checking the first summons (1 slime, 1 quasit, rest various mephits; slime and mephit are the nearest): Southpaw casts Defensive Harmony; Eudaemonium casts Spell Thrust on Ogre Magus; hits the moment his defenses go up (lol'd a bit); FinneousPJ rushes the portal with the slime; targeting the portal. Eye of Helm rushes mephit portal, also targeting the portal. A second mephit moves closer, so Samus goes to sing on that side - the mephits attack each other (and are immune to each other's attacks, thanks a lot, fate). Southpaw summons a skeleton that immediately gets enfeebled, but still serves it's purpose to keep the quasit busy. Eudaemonium poisons weapon and targets the Ogre Magus; Anduin is busy Glitterdusting the mephits.
So far, so good; all plans worked. Then things go a bit downhill... FinneousPJ gets enfeebled, but is standing between a pillar and a wall; the slime for some reason tries to get to the casters, but doesn't fit through. 90 HP rakshasa is amused and just stays where he is, casually hitting the slime with 5 strength. The portal is luckily already dead, as well as the one attacked by Eye of Helm, who moved on to the next portal. Left behind are 2 confused mephits that attack each other with their ineffective weapons; whatever, let them be for now. Samus moves closer to Ogre Magus, who fails casting until he gets out a Melf's and nearly kills Anduin, while the quasit interrupts Southpaw's second skelly casting. Samus moves closer to confuse the quasit, who returns to hitting the skeleton and confused mephits; Southpaw heals Anduin. Eye of Helm has successfully killed another portal, but also gathered a group of admiring followers - a flesh golem and 2 mephits, on the way to the last portal. The Ogre Magus dies, and Eudaemonium can target the slime - that still lives, for some reason. Guess 5 strength isn't enough to kill pudding. Anyway, after Laying Eyes, Eye of Helm can kill the last portal and start hitting the mephits; Southpaw's trusty hammer takes care of the golem; Anduin and Eudaemonium kill the still confused mephits and quasit, who still hadn't managed to kill the skeleton (lol).
In short, my backup plans about trolls and slimes were all for nothing; I didn't use a single fire spell in the battle. Only Eye of Helm got hit with Deafness, no level drains, and I feel I didn't get any really nasty summons. I'll probably do this battle again because this felt a bit... cheesy to cut through everything with the only tight spot being Anduin losing 2/3 health. Other than that, only the frontliners got injured - still half the HP at any given time. Having more deaf party members would suck a bit, so if I repeat this battle, I probably only document the strategy and re-load to the current game with all party members at level 6 - 7. If I re-do this battle, at least 3 would level up again.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events
Anduin: purchases and memorizes Greater Malison, Emotion Hopelessness
Eudaemonium: purchases Remove Magic, Melf's Minute Meteors, Improved Invisibility (memorizes II)
Eye of Helm: purchases Fallorain's Plate +1
Turns out Anduin isn't angry with Southpaw after this battle. Quite the opposite; he seems to like Southpaw and has promised to create a statue of him once we are back in Baldur's Gate.
Hey, why did it get dark so sudden?
The general strategy still stands: Rush at portals, ignore summons with frontliners; use jester to confuse whatever gets close to the casters (best position for invisible jester is between the first pillars; also confuses the Ogre Magus, and everything mephit-y on the way across the arena), DUHM the cleric to protect the casters while they disable the Magus; if the slower summons are the closest (in my case the gray ooze) use the time to summon a skelly for further distraction.
I had Eudaemonium Improved Invisible - spell thrust magus, poison weapon, focus on magus. I took a small risk moving both him and Anduin between the 2 NE portals, near the gray ooze. Got lucky, the ooze kept targeting Eye of Helm on the portal. FinneousPJ - still in regular plate and with no further gear (except a normal helm and Paws of Cheetah) - slaughtered the 2 SW portals and one of the wraiths without a scratch; Southpaw hammered the golem and the skelly kept the confused quasit busy. The Ogre Mage managed to cast Stinking Cloud before dying, and it briefly knocked Samus out - the only problem with that was - the second wraith and the ooze were also in the cloud, as the only hostile survivors. Idiots. Samus saved a round later, I could evacuate the cloud and Anduin fireball spammed the ooze and wraith.
Only Eye of Helm and Samus leveled up, and since there's no new Deafness, I'll go with that. Probably re-doing ankhegs or something minor to get 2K gold and buy FinneousPJ a decent armor; after the wraith slaughterfest, he really earned it.
Here are the party members and what they are under the changed appearance:
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr020.png
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr021.png
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr022.png
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr023.png
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr024.png
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr025.png
A group photo, taken after the intro cutscene (Eudaemonium is still a mage-looking assassin, and later turns into a thief-looking mage): http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr028.png
B-Plan Team
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr030.png
Hobgoblins
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr031.png
(Forgot to take screenshots in Necromancer and Ogres fights)
Krancor The Old Party
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr033.png
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr035.png
Sleeping Ankhegs
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr036.png
Blind Night Knives
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr039.png
Ogre Magus (which reminds me why I couldn't buy decent armor... I bought the Cloak of Displacement, lol)
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr040.png (Battle 1)
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr041.png (Battle 1)
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr046.png (Battle 2)
G̶r̶eat̷,͏ ͟y̶ou͝ ̡f̸o͠ŕgot͠ ̸ha͠lf t͢he ̛ba̵ttl̢es҉!̨
Why is my backpack talking...?
I finished T2 - quickly repeated the ankhegs and bought FinneousPJ a Fallorain's Plate +1 and changed Eudaemonioum's spellbook (Remove Magic added) and then went to fight the Thayan adventurers. For some reason, my backpack was protesting, but I still have Deafness going on, so yeah...
T2 Final Battle: Thayan Adventurers
Beholder Hint: The difference between opposing lines lies within rather than without. Umm, what? I̕ hat̨e̵ you͘,̴ ́Elm̢i͏nśte̷r.͠..̕ Why̧ did͟ ͡yo͟u ̵c̡urse̡ ̴me͘ t͟o ҉ex͟i̧s̀t̡ i͜n the̸ b̵ackp̷ack ̴of̷ ̡a ̷di̡mw͏i҉t̵ li͡ke th̶at?
Reward: 130896 XP, 40000 gold
Strategy: Buff with Protection from Evil 10", Haste, Improved Invisiblity (Eudaemonium, Anduin), Invisbility (Samus). Defensive Harmony, DHUM. Rush group in middle (Blackguard or what it is; one of them can poison weapon, making her the first target - Lucille) with FinneousPJ and Eye of Helm; move Samus near them. Command rest with Southpaw; then summon skellies. Casters Remove Magic and Spell Thrust the two wizards; Anduin follows up with Greater Malison, Emotion; Eudaemonium poisons weapon and hits the wizards. If one turns invisible, Detect Invisbility from Anduin. Send skellies after the caster not under fire.
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr047.png
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events
Southpaw: Mace +, memorized Cure Serious Wounds, Dispel Magic
Samus: memorized Invisibility 10"
Eudaemonium: purchased Robe of Evil Arch Magi
Anduin: purchased Pale Green Ioun Stone, Boots of Etherealness
It was a tough choice how to spend the gold. Upgraded weapons would be in order for the frontliners, but the casters were both still in Traveler's/Knave's Robes, so I decided to upgrade them a bit. Samus rarely has to use weapons and basically never gets injured, so her upgrades will mostly be spells I can cast before beaming in and possibly some amulet or ring for better saving throws. I do want the One Gift Lost for FinneousPJ to make him sort of a suicide bomber (minus the suicide part) and he needs a few resistances, so Ballista's Passport or Gift of Peace is on the list, too. Southpaw needs better armor and Ashideena (he'll be the main damage dealer in the fight against the golems); Ring of Sune would be nice, but 13K is a bit above my budget for now.
In the prison cell, we now meet Hogarl, a fire giant. He'll be the T3 final battle enemy. The shops have new gear, what I forgot to mention above, and the NPCs have new dialogues. Najim beams in and tells Baeloth there is some incident in a room of pain.
To prepare for the first T3 battle, the only thing I did was have Southpaw memorize Flame Blade (x 2) instead of Hold Person.
Trolls and Fission Slimes
Beholder Hint: Keeping the fallen dead is not easy; dispose of the bodies.
Reward: 152712 XP, 8000 gold
Strategy: The slimes are idiots/slow/ranged, which means: cast a Fireball (or Flame Arrow or something) on each while they are away from the mosh pit that will build between the pillars. This is where the melees will most likely end up with the hasted trolls. Samus moves nearby to confuse them, the casters do the fireballing of the slimes so long and Southpaw casts Flame Blade. (One cast lasts long enough; I memorized 2 for the off chance that a slime would target Southpaw and the first attempt might fail.) By now, the trolls are unconcious and Southpaw can stroll over to kill them while the melees go kill the slimes. The slimes would split and spawn 2 new ones if they hadn't been hit with fire-something before, but that is not an issue here.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events
Anduin: purchases and memorizes Animate Dead, Chaos (Chaotic Neutral Necromancer)
Eudaemonium: purchases and memorizes Breach; Amulet of Power (faster wizard slaying/dispelling)
Southpaw: purchases Ashideena +2 (next battle is against the golems)
FinneousPJ: purchases One Gift Lost 5 charges
Ỳou ̸f͘or͡g̶ot͜ t͡he̴ s͞c͟rèen͡s͘h͠ot a͜gąin͏, y͝ou͢ ͞íllite̢ra̸té i͞diot͏.͞
How is this possible?! How can Baeloth stand there and be in my backpack at the same time? WHICH IS THE REAL ONE?!
Beholder Hint: Use enchanted weapons. Seriously?
Reward: 183254 XP, 10000 gold
Strategy: So this is a tough one for katana fanboys, I guess. It's all about blunt weapons here, however, magic should not be underrated. Eye of Helm (Flail), @FinneousPJ (Ninjato) and 2 skelly summons serve as nothing but meat shields in this battle, with a tiny bit of damage from the flail. @Southpaw and his hammer do the damage. The arcane casters go in invisible; @Samus sings; @Eudaemonium and @Anduin cast Glitterdust, Greater Malison, Emotion, Chaos; poison what can be poisoned and that's the entire strategy: have the blunt weapon user(s) do the damage, everyone else keeps the golems busy/out of the fight. This does obviously work better if you have more than just a cleric, but I didn't have the gold to buy anyone else a useful weapon. Oops. Took a lot longer than with a hammer wielding frontliner.
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr050.png
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events
Samus: purchases and memorizes Improved Invisibility
FinneousPJ: purchases Rashad's Talon +2 (main hand); Ballista's Passport
Eye of Helm: purchases Ring of Fire Control
~Southpaw is your friend, donate a portion of your brai~
Ahh! What the blazes was th~
~Southpaw requires money to further aid his patron Lathander, for the good of al~
SOUTHPAW! HAVE YOU EATEN MY BRAIN! Where is he? No. First find a potion of Clarity, then go complain to @Kidcarnival , maybe @Samus can get me a new bra~
~Southpaw has not eaten Anduin's brain. Southpaw only eats cauliflower~
Yeah. Cauliflower does kinda look like a brain when it's boiled... But the red stuff all over it still looks suspicio~
~Strawberry sauce.~
Ok. Uhm... I really like that I am spamming all those monsters with fireballs! Keep me learning those AoE spells!
On a completely different note, I have had a quick look at my stats. 18 int is so me!~
~...tasted more like an 8...~
Errr... Yes I am very tasty! So why the 8 in Charisma? I have cleaned my bandages and even put in a few sprigs of mint and myrrh in between the layers... I smell at least like 16!
~*sigh*~
The stats are all "best out of 10" rolls, so not all are ideal and I minmaxed a bit. Necromancer has 16 min wisdom (@Anduin should really have known better than to push every suspicious button), this was a classic "sacrifice outer beauty for inner beauty" case.
The general T3 strategy is to have the 3 arcane casters beam in with Improved Invisibility with the split:
Samus - pre-battle buff spells; sing in fights and move around to confuse (jester song ignores magic resistance, and becomes a permanent spam of a level 5 Confusion spell)
Anduin - crowd control and AoE; after the next (ice) battle, I'll add Ice Storm
Eudaemonium - wizard slayer, lower saving throws, strip away defenses
I'm a bit tempted to get the 2 Fire Shields for the elemental battles, but I'll see how far I get with the current protections, save some gold and get Anduin the Neutral Arch Magi robe instead.
Beholder Hint: Winter is coming.
Reward: 229068 XP, 12000 gold
Strategy: Buff outside as usual. Usually, it is "keep moving and disable the cleric first", but in this case, the Ice Storm went off on the other side of the arena, so I skipped "keep moving" and just moved the casters out of the mosh pit. FinneousPJ killed the salamander heading toward the casters, while Southpaw summoned a skelly and then DHUM'd and Flame Bladed and joined the melee mob. Now that Samus has Improved Invisibility, I had her use the Burning Hands. Anduin and Eudaemonium glitterdusted mostly.
Quest for Buttoned Cardigan Events
Anduin: purchases and memorizes Ice Storm
Eye of Helm: purchases Full Plate; give Fallorain's Plate +1 to Southpaw
http://i693.photobucket.com/albums/vv294/KirisahSuns/Black Pits/Baldr052.png
Anyway, I am a bit torn about the final battle - do I fight the Beholder? I've roleplayed this a bit - Samus doing all the shopping/NPC talks except the Beholder, giving the Paws of the Cheetah to the rakshasa instead of tank, taking Chaos and Animate Dead for the mummy instead of Minor Sequencer for Sleep/Glitterdust and such; and in the final battle, FinneousPJ is supposed to take out Elan Garaq and Eudaemonium (hopefully) kills Baeloth. It would be out of character for Eye of Helm to kill his idol. Might let the duergar live until the two others are dead; the general strategy against the Beholder isn't that complex - distract with tank who hopefully has good saves against the attacks and holds the Beholder long enough in melee for the ranged attacks to kill him.
Next is the Fire Giant battle, which should be interesting because I have no shorties in the party and it's all about saving against the earthquake attack. Guess I'll look what amulets, belts or cloaks I can give the frontliners; both already have fire protection rings.