The continued adventure of Naomilais Greensleeves, elven cleric of Helm...
We stormed the seven suns compound and discovered the owner being held in a cell in the basement. Apparently his business had been taken over by dopplegangers! We cleaned house and eliminated the doppleganger infestation. Next it was on tho the merchan's league where we found out another doppleganger infestation. This one got ugly as Jaheira was slain and the rest of the group badly hurt. this fight used up quite a few of our magic resources. After we revived Jaheira and healed at the temple of Gond.
Next we reported our finding to Scar in the Flaming Fist compound. He praised us for our efficiency and offered us another job investigating disappearances near the front gate. We delved into the sewers and met a crazed ogre mage and his pet carrion crawlers. We managed to kill 2 carrion crawlers before the mage cast a spell of confusion. It effected everyone in the party. Shortly after Safana was killed by the ogre mage's magic missile spell. Khalid was still fightinf a carrion crwler and killed it. Jaheira was paralyzed by the last carrion crawler, as was Khalid. Naomilais was still meleeing the ogre mage and landed a vicious blow that split his skull and killed him out right. At this time the confusion spell wore off and Imoen and Naomilais were able to kill the last carrion crawler that had been atacking the paralyzed Khalid and Jaheira. We made yet again another vistit to the temple of helm to revive Safana and heal *We should be have signed up for the frequent fighter program...) we then returned to Scar to report. He was pleased with our results and gave us a bonus for retunring the victims belongs to their families.
We met with Scar yet again, but this time he directed us to Duke Eltan, who wanted us to directly investigate the Iron Throne. We were finally going to take the fight to the true enemy behind all the plots we have run across on our journey. We accepted and made our way to the Iron throne, making a stop to buy a few wands from the Sorcerous Sundries store (Monster Summoning and Paralyzation wands). We took stock of our assets: We were all fully healthy and not exhausted, well equipped, and still had a good store of magic in the form of wands and potions. We entered the Iron Throne expecting a confrontation, not a mass exodus of merchants! We were able to bypass the guard at teh first floor and the second floor. Then we went up another floor and we found out about Sarevok's acolytes. Naomilais cast remove fear to bolster the team and we proceded up the stairs. *Here I paused my game to assist my wife with a task, but to my dismay I came back to my computer to find my daughter had closed my game in order to play one of hers, so I reloaded from the newest autosave (just after my visit to the Sorcerous Sundries) and did the first several floors again, just as I had before...even casting remove fear again. *
This is what we were expecting coming into the Iron Throne. Sarevok's acolytes knew who we were and were actually left here to stop us! After a brief dialogue we open up with a charge of Baeloth's fear wand, an explosion potion from Khalid and another from Safana, Jaheira atempted to charm the nearest heavily armoured enemy, Naomilais cast silence 15 ft radius, and Imoen waited to summon in several monsters to aid us after the initial volley. The enemies were all wounded to some degree. Jaheira's charm failed, as di Naomialis' silence spell. Imoen summed a host of gnolls in the midst of their casters. Khalid stepped forward and killed a doppleganger that neared Imoen. Baeloth followed up his assault with a web spell, but just before he did Khalid was hit by a flame arrow spell and almost killed, Safana was killed (again) by a flamestrike spell, and the bane of any parties existence... one of the enemy casters had cast confusion, which affected everyone but Baeloth. Baeloth then cast 2 more web spells on the same area and 2 charges of his wand of fear. All of the enemies were rendered helplessly afraid of stuck in the webbing, except one thief that had chased Khalid (who was down to 1 HP) down into one of the back rooms. The confusion wore off before the web or the fear and Imoen started blinding enemies (she went 3/3) and Naomilais cast Hold person (2/2 on the fighters) Khalid managed to drink 2 healing potions and kill his assailant. Jaheira strated in on the parlyzaed fighters as did Baeloth. Naomilais and Imoen then switched to slings to damage the blinded enemy casters. The enemies were soon all slain. The party looted the corpses and the rooms and found incriminating evidence against the Iron Throne, but their main query had eluded them and was currently en route to Candlekeep!
The group returned to Duke Eltan with the correspondance they had found, after reviving Safana once again at the temple of Gond. He gave us a book to cover our entrance fee into Candlekeep and bade us good luck on our further investigation into the leaders of the Iron Throne.
I'm still playing this one, but thought that was enough for one post...
Naomilais is currently level 6 and has a whopping 24 HP!
The party is currently at the gates of Candlekeep at
OOC: I think I'm going to write stuff in my journal now, since I cleaned out the Cloudpeaks and the mines in one session. Tell me if you guys like this style, or the previous one, or what, please! Also: Ingame, while running up to the Half Orc Mulahey, the soundset said this: "I'm on it like ugly on an orc!"
Many things have happened since I wrote last, I think I'm going to use this to keep track of my adventure, should another decide to read it someday.
I had decided to hunt for the nefarious artist Prism. I went through the Western Cloudpeaks, searching. I saw many people and things but avoided them all.
I eventually ran South of the Nashkel Mine, and was going to the Eastern Cloudpeaks, when a face in the mountain drew my eye. I went to the face in the mountain, to find Prism, as he was described, carving the rock. The sun was setting to my right when Prism came down. I startled him and he asked if I was with Greywolf. I asked him who that was, and a strong-looking soldier in leather armor walked up. I promised to defend Prism while he finished his final work, and the man in armor called himself Greywolf and demanded Prism's head. When I told Greywolf that Prism was nearly done his greatest work, Greywolf attacked me. Prism quickly pulled up his platform, to avoid Greywolf.
We fought into the night, I was ducking, weaving and then vanishing while he was wildly swinging. He never hit me once. I dealt the mortal blow, and went back to Prism. Prism finished his masterwork, the Queen Ellesime, then killed himself, the emeralds were on his body.
I decided to then go to the mine. I hid in the shadows, except to kill a kobold here or there, but a miner with Kylee's dagger saw me, and gave me Kylee's dagger. I then stayed in the shadows down into the second level of the mine. I found Kylee, and gave him his dagger, then descended into the third level of the mine. As soon as I entered, I sensed a trap and dealt with it. I had thought there would be more traps, so in the shadows, I carefully made my way through the mine. I found two traps across a chasm and another three at the shaft that led to the 4th level of the mine.
As soon as I reached the floor, an arrow clattered against the wall. I had been seen! I quickly ran up to the Kobold and killed it, and then hid in the shadows once more. A cavern opened up, a big cavern with a moat and a gigantic roundish rock in the middle. I saw an entrance behind 3 kobolds, and weaved my way between them and ducked into the rock.
It was not what I expected. The crack I was going to use as a staging ground to kill the kobolds turned into a chamber, with a bedroom inside. Inside I saw a halforc, and elf, and several kobolds. I killed the kobolds. I drank my potions and ran up to the Half Orc and called him ugly, big mistake. He called in allies and attacked me. I ran around the corner quickly, killed his minions, and then attacked him using my hit and run tactics. I eventually killed him, took his stuff, and left the elf to starve in the cavern, since he was helping the Half-Orc.
I returned to Nashkel, and when I got there, I found a large mansion. I went raiding, and was attacked by a noblewoman and a naked guard, after killing them both, I finished my sweep of the house, and went further into the village.
There I found and armed soldier that was talking to a hamster, due to the two attempts on my life so far, I treated him as another threat. He died to my blade, and then i went to see Berrun. Berrun rewarded me, and ran away. I don't know why he ran away though. I next went into the temple of Helm where I learned of the commander Brage, and how the temple wanted him alive, while the guards wanted him dead.
I then sold all of Mulahey's stuff, except for his short sword. On exiting the store, I found out a man named Nimbul who talked in third person, had been hired to kill me, I thought that he was just another one. I attacked, then he started flinging spells around. I ran, and escaped the village.
I fled into the Cloudpeaks, and decided to fight those that I had passed by before. I found the child Albert still looking for his dog. He gave me a chew toy, and I continued South. I rounded a rock, and saw a duo, one of darts, and one with a pike. I ran, but the one with the pike followed me, so I let him talk. He proceeded to be highly aggressive and flashy, so I decided to be the same. He attacked me, and I poisoned him. He died swiftly, and I went to kill his buddy who was the "Fastest Dart Thrower in the Sword Coast"...
I snuck up on Zal, and hit him hard. We proceeded to fight for a good 20 minutes, when I finished him off. A winter Wolf then found me, and chased me North and then West. I found Rufie, and then remembered the belt the belt I had gained from Gorion. I attacked the Winter wolf, who could not hit me, and then went to Albert...
Turns out Albert was a demon... Who would've ever known... Gave me a crummy stone too... I decided to go back to where I found Rufie, and see if there was anything there. On the way there, I found a hunting party. Their leader Sendai decided to lead a hunt against me, so I used Imoen's wand against her. She chased me around that section of the Cloudpeaks until I spent Imoen's wand on her. I tripped on a rabbit hole that had scrolls in it during my run. I then returned and killed both of her cronies.
I continued West towards the coast, when I ran into a Nymph. She was complaining that people were trying to chop her tree down, so to shut her up, I agreed to help. I found out that the two of them were idiots, and that all they were doing was harming nature. I stealthed, and hit the special one as hard as I could, chopping through his arm and freezing it at the same time. Then, the one called Caldo chased me around the mountain, and the wilderness seemed to aid him. In the end, I killed Caldo and saved the tree. I noticed I was out of healing potions, so I went back, killed Nimbul, and then bought 20 healing potions.
I returned to Beregost. Once there, I found a bard named Garrick who offered me a job. I accepted and he took me to his mistress Silke. She offered me 300 gold to do her job. I accepted, and found out I had been press ganged into a fight. I told Silke that she best give me a higher reward for her work, and she agreed. I then attacked the three who were "threatening" Silke and killed them all fast. I then talked to Silke, and all she gave me was the measly 300 gold. She then laughed in my face when I asked for my higher reward, so I poisoned my blade, stealthed and hit her with Varscona. I then killed her gGarrick and then entered the Red Sheaf Inn with my blade still poisoned. A Dwarf ran up to me when I entered, and I tried to hide in the shadows but failed. He found me, told me I had a price on my head and attacked. I killed him swiftly, and then I went to Taerom and bought my new black armor. On leaving his store, Elminster and a kid both spoke to me. The kid talked about going to see an Officer Vai...
I went and talked to Officer Vai. She wants me to kill bandits for her, when I am one person, and she has a party? She can kill her own bandits.
I've reached Mulahey's lair with my female half-orc Assassin, Montaron, and Edwin.
I have Montaron tanking in ankheg armor with a shield and short sword at AC -5 and a Shield Amulet. Haven't tried the Shield amulet but it IIRC it should lower his AC by at least 1 or 2 points. Monty can also be buffed with with a Protection from Evil scroll which lasts for 1 turn (a minute).
I think I'm going to have to rely on Monty to draw the fire from kobolds and skeletons. He has 3 healing potions. Unfortunately the only other potion I have that will be useful for combat is a Potion of Clarity.
Edwin has the following spells prepared:
4 Sleep 2 Blindness 1 Charm Person 3 Horror.
IIRC, everyone in the party is forced to enter the lair. What I can't recall atm, though, is whether some party members can then go outside, while others remain in inside the lair. If so, I want to keep Edwin out of harm's way, as his spellcasting is crucial. Edwin also has a wand of Magic Missiles with six charges left, with which he might be able to disrupt Mulahey's casting.
What I would most like to do is see if I can manage to have Edwin cast Horror or Charm on Mulahey to prevent him from calling forth his kobold and skeleton lackeys. I have also found that in some cases Blindness sometimes has the target spellcaster just stand there dumbfounded. But I'm reluctant to use it if Mulahey will just call his minions anyway. Charm or Horror would seem to be better choices...
The PC has AC 2, so she's pretty vulnerable to an onslaught by the kobolds and skellies. She has 3 healing potions as well. I will have to use her backstabbing ability with Poison for at least one hit on Mulahey, probably to launch the fight just to ensure that she gets it in. (She uses a quarterstaff.)
So the question is how to position the characters in Mulahey's lair to accomplish this...
I don't know about moving people in and out of the lair, as I've never tried. I'd definitely use Blindness and attempt a poisoned backstab. It's good that you have 2 Blindnesses, just in case he saves. Horror and Sleep will be great on the kobalds. I wouldn't have much faith on Charm Person (as they get a +3 bonus to their save). I'm pretty sure that Shield will not help if your AC is already so low.
Put Edwin and charname by the chest and put Monty in between the entrance and Mulahey. The kobalds and skeletons will come from the entrance (and maybe from where Xan is...I forget). Regardless, I think the safest place is by the chest, as the summons would have to run past Monty to get to the rest of the party. I wouldn't worry about Mulahey attacking Edwin/charname, I'd worry about skeletons and kobalds.
If you get off the blind and/or poison, Mulahey is as good as dead. With 3 Horrors and 4 sleeps (how the hell do you have so many spells? What level are you?), those kobalds will be taken out easily. The skeletons are the only thing that you would worry about, but Monty with -5 AC (-7 with Protection from Evil), as long as he stands between the skeletons and Edwin/charname, you should be fine.
...I should have rerolled the party: Marlannan had Faldorn, Coran, Skie, Alora, and Quayle in his party. I was going for a ... Solo run, I guess, through the first 4 chapters...
Not that we're rules-lawyering this by any means, but the Classic rules state you can re-roll if three or more party members aren't available until chapters 4-5.
Next up: Krisdove Hawksdeath, a LE half-Orc woman who hates wizards (wizard slayer). 9 rerolls. Going Classic with Kivan, Coran, Kagain, Khalid, and Rassad.
Wow, that is a martially powerful line-up! Kivan and Coran is such a powerful archer duo, and you have a half-orc WS and Kagain to tank. Rasaad can throw darts (higher APR than the sling, I believe...). But, myself, I wouldn't be shy about using Rasaad to try to stun mages at every opportunity; and otherwise to tie up enemy archers by making them switch to swords. If you give him a Shield amulet it helps, although whether you can regularly afford to recharge (sell and buy back) it is questionable.
Oh, I knew I could reroll but it was such a ridiculous roll that I wanted to try it.
I was really excited by the all fighter party and really annoyed at my hubris. I forget how fragile you are at the beginning of the game...
Tell me if you guys like this style, or the previous one, or what, please!
It's an interesting read in a couple of respects. First, in just following a solo run for the tactics and general course of the game. Secondly, it's interesting to see how a Chaotic Neutral Assassin (with just slightly low normal Wisdom) gets roleplayed by any particular player (on a solo run no less).
Victasaadi is an assassin, after all. So killing Minsc, for example, was not surprising.
I had the impression she was Evil from the beginning of the tale, however (eg, the way she treated Imoen, attitude towards Gorion's abilities), and yet she seemed periodically to be doing helpful things for folks as well, so I was a little confused. But then this morning I went back and looked more closely and saw that she is CN. So it all makes more sense.
Also: Ingame, while running up to the Half Orc Mulahey, the soundset said this: "I'm on it like ugly on an orc!"
That's a gem, lol.
Looks like you're having a great run so far, choosing your battles carefully, and in some cases fleeing. As you're going to have to do, obviously to have a chance to fight another day.
I would think that you're going to have to assemble a good assortment of potions such as Oils of Speed, other potions to protect against mind alerting spells (Clarity, Magic Blocking, etc.), a Ring of Free Action, etc., Ring of Invisibility, Algernon's Cloak, etc., as spells are going to pose the greatest hazard for this character. If Victasaadi kills many innocents as she goes (eg, Algernon), she'll probably also have to spend some money at a temple periodically to get rep up.
I would think it's going to be a challenge to distribute skill points here, as you only get 15 Thieving points per level for an Assassin.
Also, I would imagine that the bassilisk map is just too risky; although if Victasaadi is using any ranged weapons, with Korax's help you can probably get at least one level from them. Once Korax goes hostile that's it for bassilisk hunting, unless you can afford enough potions of mirror eyes.
I don't know about moving people in and out of the lair, as I've never tried. I'd definitely use Blindness and attempt a poisoned backstab. It's good that you have 2 Blindnesses, just in case he saves. Horror and Sleep will be great on the kobalds. I wouldn't have much faith on Charm Person (as they get a +3 bonus to their save). I'm pretty sure that Shield will not help if your AC is already so low.
Put Edwin and charname by the chest and put Monty in between the entrance and Mulahey. The kobalds and skeletons will come from the entrance (and maybe from where Xan is...I forget). Regardless, I think the safest place is by the chest, as the summons would have to run past Monty to get to the rest of the party. I wouldn't worry about Mulahey attacking Edwin/charname, I'd worry about skeletons and kobalds.
If you get off the blind and/or poison, Mulahey is as good as dead. With 3 Horrors and 4 sleeps (how the hell do you have so many spells? What level are you?), those kobalds will be taken out easily. The skeletons are the only thing that you would worry about, but Monty with -5 AC (-7 with Protection from Evil), as long as he stands between the skeletons and Edwin/charname, you should be fine.
Thanks for the advice!
I think I may have Darthyra use the Shield amulet, as it sets base AC to 4, so IIRC you're right that it will be wasted on a AC -5 character. (Darthyra has AC 2.)
Yeah, I think Monty definitely needs to be positioned at the main choke point, for sure.
The main risk here is that Mulahey successfully casts Hold. Because if either Edwin or Darthyra gets Held by him, I think this game will be over.
I know Mulahey stays neutral until he finishes his dialogue, but he will approach when he sees a party member, saying, "Hmph, what are you doing in here?!" I can never quite remember the mechanics of this, but I will have enough time to get Monty, Darthyra, and Edwin positioned before he goes hostile? And again, Darhtyra has to be in stealth to get the backstab, so I would think that will place Edwin in close proximity to Mulahey.
As for Edwin's spell slots, he's level 3 and he has the Ring of Wizardry. (They just completed to the bassilisk map, although they killed only bassilisks and avoided Mutamin and the party of cocky adventurers spoiling for a fight.)
Tell me if you guys like this style, or the previous one, or what, please!
It's an interesting read in a couple of respects. First, in just following a solo run for the tactics and general course of the game. Secondly, it's interesting to see how a Chaotic Neutral Assassin (with just slightly low normal Wisdom) gets roleplayed by any particular player (on a solo run no less).
Victasaadi is an assassin, after all. So killing Minsc, for example, was not surprising.
I had the impression she was Evil from the beginning of the tale, however (eg, the way she treated Imoen, attitude towards Gorion's abilities), and yet she seemed periodically to be doing helpful things for folks as well, so I was a little confused. But then this morning I went back and looked more closely and saw that she is CN. So it all makes more sense.
Also: Ingame, while running up to the Half Orc Mulahey, the soundset said this: "I'm on it like ugly on an orc!"
That's a gem, lol.
Looks like you're having a great run so far, choosing your battles carefully, and in some cases fleeing. As you're going to have to do, obviously to have a chance to fight another day.
I would think that you're going to have to assemble a good assortment of potions such as Oils of Speed, other potions to protect against mind alerting spells (Clarity, Magic Blocking, etc.), a Ring of Free Action, etc., Ring of Invisibility, Algernon's Cloak, etc., as spells are going to pose the greatest hazard for this character. If Victasaadi kills many innocents as she goes (eg, Algernon), she'll probably also have to spend some money at a temple periodically to get rep up.
I would think it's going to be a challenge to distribute skill points here, as you only get 15 Thieving points per level for an Assassin.
Also, I would imagine that the bassilisk map is just too risky; although if Victasaadi is using any ranged weapons, with Korax's help you can probably get at least one level from them. Once Korax goes hostile that's it for bassilisk hunting, unless you can afford enough potions of mirror eyes.
Funny thing is, I actually randomly rolled the only full out solo I've done a No-reload on before. Doing things a bit different, also roleplaying my character so that she sees everyone who is not law enforcement that has a weapon is a possible assassin. She is going to be spending alot of money at the temples, right now she is at despised 3, killed the Doomsayer near Brage with hit and run tactics, etc. I'm going to do my best to have her avoid basilisks unless I have a friendly ghoul to tank them for me. The other Assassin was on Tutu, and was a Chaotic Neutral male half-elf with nearly maxed stats.
Note: I noticed myself when I read my first one that I was almost writing for a normal CE character. Thanks for the pointers though. I'll post yesterday's write up later today, night all!
The continued adventures of Naomilais Greensleeves, elven cleric of Helm...
We entered into the Great Library of Candlekeep, where we were confronted by many of our former mentors and friends. We came across an off fellow named Koveras, but we didn't accept his supposed gift from Gorion. Further along we confronted the leaders of the Iron Throne, but with the greatest respect for the hallowed grounds of the Great Library stayed our quest for justice. When were were leaving the Great Library we were detained by the Gatewarden for the murder of the Iron Throne's leaders, who we had left not long ago with the promise of meeting outside to settle our accounts. We cooperated as we knew we were innocent. We were rescued from our unjust imprisonment by Tethoril, who was able to teleport us to the catecombs beneath Candlekeep.
One the first floor we were exploring several side passages and Safana was clearly not up to the task of trap detection (only 50) and was killed (this is getting really old) by a dart trap (after taking a magic missile trap and another blast from the dart trap, as it re=loaded). We collected her body and items and made our way deeper into the catacombs where we were we faced with dopplegangers taking the form of my old mentors and friends, even Elminster and Gorion. We knew them for what they were and fought our way through to a natural cavern where we found a group waiting for Sarevok (Naomilais was scouting ahead invisibly, courtesy of Imoen). We opened combat up with a scroll of Confusion and a charge of the wand of monster summoning. The confusion took affect of 2 of the 4 and the monsters drew the fire of the others. One of the confused casters killed himself and hurt another of his party, as well of several of our summoned hobgoblins by casting lightning bolt in the narrow cavern. Imoen followed up with a charge from her wand of paralyzation on the most heavily armored of them and the confused enemy archer dropped his final magic wielding companion and the now paralyzed fighter. Baeloth used his wand of fear, successfully, and we were able to kill the last enemy. After this fight we encountered several spiders, but were able to slay them with minor damage to our group. Naomilais, still invisibly scouting, found 2 Greater Basilisks near the cave's exit. Baeloth used a scroll of fireball to injure them from afar and Khalid downed a potion of mirror eyes and stepped up with his bow to finish them off. We exited the cave.
This brought about chapter 7
Day: 20 Hour: 10
We made our way to the FAI to revive Safana and heal, before going to Baldur's Gate.
1) Pick Pick Barby X CN 4 (not rolled) V3 with Kivan, Rassad, Minsc Xan & Neera (no thief no priest)
2) M Elf Dragon D. LN 5 (82) V2 with Xan, Kaigan, Ajantis, Jahs, and Quayle (no thief)
3) M elf Cleric Helm Pick (LN) 1 (78) V5 with Coran, Ski, Khalid, Rasaad, & Jahs (no thief until chap 4)
4) F Human Druid Totemic TN 8 (82) V3 (I hate that voice LOL) with Imoen, Rasaad, Shar, Khalid, & Neera
5) M Half-elf FMT X CG 9 (79) Pick with Khalid, Safana, Quayle, Imoen, Viccy
I liked the possibilties of # 1 from a warrior plus artillery standpoint but Cloakwood with no thief no priest and no reloads doesn't compute well. Same for # 2 with no thief.
# 3 is a possible altho IIRC Coran is not spec'd for traps right out of the box which means either cloakwood disaster or wasting game time to get him leveled some more which doesn't help speed game.
# 4 & 5 look to be the best of the bunch with # 4 taking the edge for a full party of 5 or 6 (with or without Rasaad) and # 5 perhaps a dark horse as a smaller party with just Khalid, Viccy and Imoen until Chap 5 to give the FMT a chance to level.
Re: fighting Mulahey with my trio of Assassin, Monty (tanked out), and Edwin, it was easier than I expected. The dialogue option "um yes, fool...Tazok sent me!" buys you time to position your party members until you open the chest. (First you have to kill the four kobolds over by Xan, but that's nothing.) Pretty much everything @dstoltzfus had suggested is the right solution for a three member party such as this.
I actually spaced out on selecting Poison before the backstab. But Darthyra critted Mulahey on the second hit after the backstab. So between the backstab and that, Mulahey was nearly dead anyway.
Edwin was able to interrupt Mulahey's first spell with the Missile wand; then Blind him. Edwin killed him with the next wand missile.
The final chapter of the adventures of Naomilais Greensleeves, elven cleric of Helm...
We arrived in Baldur's Gate and made for the Flaming Fist compound only to be attacked by the guards there. A few charges of our wands of fear made everyone iside run away from us. We made our way to Duke Eltan and killed his doppleganger healer. We then took Duke Eltan to the Harbormaster, as he requested of us.
Next we entered into the base of the Iron Throne once again to find it in disarray. We made it to the top floor where we confronted Sarevok's mistress and her ogre bodyguards. The fight was hard and Khalid and Imoen were slain as the result of the mage's confusion spell and the ogres. We perservered and learned that there were assassins in the Undercity and gained Sarevok's journal.
After a stop by the temple of Helm, we made our way to the Blushing Mermaid tavern, where we had heard we could gain admittance to the Undercellar. We were confronted by an Ogre assassin, but manged to bluff our way passed the rather dim witted thing. We entered the Undercellar and dealt with Slythe via force of arms... ours proved the stronger. Next we did battle with Krystin, I say battle, but we sent our summons in to open the attack and she cast a cloud of poisonous gas as them, slaying them all instantly, but she had misjudged to area of the spell and was caught in her own spell, dying moments later (Oh, the irony!). We collected their invitations to Sarevok's promotion ceremony.
We then returned to the Blushing Mermaid and rested for 8 hours, as it had been along 3 days. After resting we made our way to the Duchal palace and made it to the ceremony. When we interrupted with proof of Sarevok's crimes, he signaled and his assassins attacked the remaining 2 Grand Dukes. We fought them off, but as the last one fell and attention was redirected, Sarevok went into a rage and started to attack us. He was pulled a away from the combat by a teleportation spell. Belt consulted with his deity and was able to send up to the place where Sarevok was sent, which turned out to be the thieves guild.
We followed after him into a huge maze, where we lost Khalid in a fight with doom guards and Safana to a lighting bolt trap she missed detecting (Safana dying is getting REALLY old). We went back to the temple of Gond for healing and returned to chase Sarevok. We made it to an abandoned city underneath Baldur's Gate, where we came across a group from the Iron Throne looking for Sarevok as well. We did battle for some time, but in the end we came away victorious.
The group was in good shape as we came to an abandoned temple to Bhaal, which is where Sarevok was making his last stand. We entered and confronted Sarevok and his henchmen. We had managed to paralyze Tazok and almost kill him. Angelo was blinded and Sarevok was dealing with the summons of Imoen and Baeloth as Khalid, Jaheira, Safana, and Naomilais were dealing with Semaj. Samaj was brought down to Near Death and then he cast cloudkill, instantly slaying the majority of my level 6 party, including Naomilais. Our journey ended just before we could accomplish our last objective.
Day: 22 Hour: 3
Final Character: Naomilais Greensleeves Level 6 Elven Cleric of Helm (HP 24)
It was a good run, but not much I can do when cloudkill can instantly kill anything level 6 or lower (5th or lower instantly and 6th with a failed save at a -4) oh well. It was a good run. I think I'll have to try again, as I was so close. Now to impart my wisdom to other brave souls attempting this run.
1) Wands are AWESOME, use them and potions and scrolls liberally. 2) Healing: Buy lots of potions and make frequent use of temples... they may cost a bit, but money wasn't too bad to come by and time is. 3) Avoid areas you don't have to go to, with maybe the exception of the basilisk area... just too much good xp there. 4) I dualed Imoen to a mage at level 5... bad idea, do it sooner or not at all (level 4 sounds good). I had to deal with Safana and her 50 in find traps and she died in a lot of places due to it. If you don't have a thief... there are certain areas where it is going to hurt badly, do so at your own risk. 5) Take your time (not in game, but through use of pause and in between playing) rushing will get you killed faster than anything else. 6) Avoid all non-essential encounters. Unless the reward is worth the risk, don't do it. 7) Scout ahead and lead in as many encounters as possible with horror, web, confusion, sleep etc... enemies that can't fight back are free XP and loot.
What I would do differently: I would have done the basilisk area with just Imoen and Naomilais and leveled up higher. I also would have dualed Imoen at 4th level.
Thanks guys. I already re-rolled for attempt number 2. I'll post on it later.. and I'll even have pictures now as I fixed my wireless card on my old desktop!
I have to say that this was quite a joy... I think I enjoyed sharing my progress with you guys more than playing.
And yes @ChildofBhaal599 I'm still hoping to beat your record...
Sucks to see what you have struggled so carefully to keep alive go poof at some point, but you shake it off and roll another. I think it helps (?) that it's a little like crack when you start rolling up a new best of five.
Here’s the continuation of the story of Jagen MoonShadow, also known as Jagen H’gar.
I use the classic rules of this tournament, playing at the insane difficulty. This is the very first rolled character and his companions after the previous attempt was ended by an ambush. Every rest takes 8 hours.
Once again I’ve realized that the insane difficulty dictates it’s own pace that can not be compared with other levels of difficulty. And the reason is simple: when even a xvart hits a fully-armored Vikky for 8 damage, and a party tries to take him down for about 1 minute because of fatigue, and there’re 6 other enemies awaiting not far away – I understand that I can’t rush the game.
After assembling the whole party again Jagen went to the map to the north of the Gnoll Stronghold. An ambush with a polar bear didn’t pose a great threat as well as a polar bear at the bridge. Although the party didn’t got the boots with the protection from cold (due to a disliked reputation and Vikky’s max 14 CHA) this map was a useful one in terms of EXP. Several ogres here and there, bandits… buts we run out of healing potions. Dorn reached the 3rd level and got 7 HP. A crossbow proficiency was chosen.
Finally we came to the Gnoll Stronghold. Everyone was tired, there were no spells available (the last rest took place in the Mulahey chamber). And that’s why this map in term of real time was the longest for this party. The role of a tanking character was taken by everyone – as someone became seriously wounded, another party member became a tank. DEX gloves helped Dorn in his shooting attempts and CHA manual made Edwin look a little better. Jagen was lucky in terms of in-game time: it was a dark night the majority of this area, so attacking from the shadows really helped to hit a target.
The hardiness of the party (1-5 HP left) can be seen on the following screenshot:
At last! All the guarding gnolls were defeated, this Rashemen witch found her fate, Edwin offered his services for a year. The feeling of relief is sweet!
Travelling back to Naskel took many hours. As always, though. I’ve found put that healing at a temple is rather cheap and very convenient. This time we bought all the healing potions available and 5 antidotes at the temple and went to Beregost. Still without a rest we came to the inn having enough money to buy the scrolls. For the battle with Tranzig Dorn used his Poison weapon ability and although the fatigue became even bigger we managed to defeat him.
With the first rays of the morning sun spiders at the Landin’s house were sent to abyss. Having bought the short bow+1 (only 100 gp was left after it) and gotten the lighting wand the party travelled to the FAI. There Landrin gave an essential gp and the potion of Genius was bought at last so that Edwin managed to memorize Blindness, Web, Friends, Sleep, Shield, Grease and Charm. He only failed the Burning hands spell – this is not a problem though. Jagen took the EXP from completing the belts quest but realized the item itself was more important than the life of this gnome (the rest of the party was rather glad that reputation became 5 as the result of this act).
I use the classic rules of this tournament, playing at the insane difficulty. This is the very first rolled character and his companions after the previous attempt was ended by an ambush. Every rest takes 8 hours.
Once again I’ve realized that the insane difficulty dictates it’s own pace that can not be compared with other levels of difficulty... I understand that I can’t rush the game.
Even at Core Rules (which is what I'm acccustomed to playing at) I'm at the point now with this challenge where I'm unconcerned about time. I'm just doing whatever I have to do to survive as far into the game as possible.
I’ve found put that healing at a temple is rather cheap and very convenient.
Yeah, without a healer (which most often happens here, because there aren't that many in the game to begin with) you find that using the temple to heal whenever you can is the way to go!
1) Wands are AWESOME, use them and potions and scrolls liberally. 2) Healing: Buy lots of potions and make frequent use of temples... they may cost a bit, but money wasn't too bad to come by and time is. 3) Avoid areas you don't have to go to, with maybe the exception of the basilisk area... just too much good xp there. 4) I dualed Imoen to a mage at level 5... bad idea, do it sooner or not at all (level 4 sounds good). I had to deal with Safana and here 50 in find traps and she died in a lot of places due to it. If you don't have a thief... there are certain areas where it is going to hurt badly, do so at your own risk. 5) Take your time (not in game, but through use of pause and in between playing) rushing will get you killed faster than anything else. 6) Avoid all non-essential encounters. Unless the reward is worth the risk, don't do it. 7) Scout ahead and lead in as many encouters as possible with horror, web, confusion, sleep etc... enemies that can't fight back are free XP and loot.
Point number 6 is so true. I know it all too well. And yet I so often find myself drawn to encounters that will yield good loot and XP, and every so often it ends badly.
I just let my PC get killed by Silke because I wanted her stave + 1 for backstabs. But I could actually have purchased at the smithy instead. I've taken care of Silke without any problems countless times, and figured this should be relatively easy with Assassin, Montaron (as tank) and Edwin. But my Assassin missed the backstab! Then Silke saved twice against Edwin's Blind and Horror spells and fried my PC with a lightning bolt.
I was going to try taking on Bassilus next, but that would only have worked with the right spells, and Bassilus succumbing to them (sometimes the target saves). So even had the PC not died at Silke's hands, there was a strong chance death lay right around the corner anyway.
Anyway, I agree that the wisest thing to do is always avoid any encounter that poses unnecessary risk!
4930 738 LE male half-orc Cleric/Thief Gragold Hawksdeath, the Crypt-Kicker 3 re-rolls - Male5 Kivan Neera Branwen Dynaheir Faldorn
Still mulling whether I should take Neera or not... The odds of a decidedly bad outcome from Neera's spellcasting is actually quite low--just a smidge over 1.5%. Otherwise a spell resulting in gems in the pocket or producing a flock of birds is, to my mind, basically equivalent to the target saving against the spell. But I also have Dyna, so I can easily do without Neera...
That said, I've by now taken the attitude to just enjoy what I can from each game for the unique challenge it offers, for however far I can make it. So from that vantage it could be kind of fun to take Neera.
It'll be Classic rules.
(Before long I may try a RPed game, maybe even without meta-gaming, just to sample the experience with a random no-reload party. But I don't think I'll try that until I get a party that seems to work well for the roleplayed approach. With this party I don't see a good chemistry for that.)
What is the farthest anyone has made it in x number of days using "preferred" classic rules, which is Core difficulty? (Other elements of preferred are no auto-pausing, heal normally upon rest, and no custom scripts.) Because that should go on the Leader Board for Classic as well, along with @ChildofBhaal599's amazing completion at Normal with auto-pausing selected.
Also, do we have any other results to post for any of the other categories? Before long we will have one for @GemHound's RPed run. But until then do have any other result to post on the Leader Board?
Also--the "preferred" game being without auto-pause being used... I'm happy to change that if folks feel that auto-pausing is normal enough for how folks regularly play--or, for that matter, that it deserves to be 'normalized' for no-reload gaming. Myself, I have never used the feature until now. It definitely helps tremendously for this challenge, though, and it's a standard feature of the game engine.
Anyway, I just assumed that most people use Core Rules (a poll someone ran here a while back confirmed that, IIRC). And similarly, my best guess is that most players do not use it.
Come to think of it, I'll run a poll for that to see whether most folks use auto-pause.
Anyway, your thoughts about auto-pause as an element of "preferred"?
("Preferred" results will always trump other variations on the Leader Board, although we will also feature variations from "preferred" under 'Best Thus Far' for any category.)
@FinneousPJ Wow, Khalid and Jaheira aren't found at the FAI if you complete the mines first? Was it that way in vanilla? Or is this a BG:EE enhancement? I mean, I guess it does sort of make sense, though I would not have expected that either!
Both Khalid & Jahiera and Xzar & Monty disappear if you don't speak to them before completing Nashkel mines - this was true in Vanilla as well.... Xzar & Monty of course leave immediately if you speak to them but don't recruit them - but IIRC recruiting them and then dropping them somewhere while your rep doesn't make them unhappy will keep them there all game.
Jahs & Khalid stay if you turn them down and I'm pretty sure they will stay all game as long as you spoke to them but it's possible they will leave once the mines are done if you never took them into the party - they too will stay where you drop them forever if you take them on board and release them while your rep doesn't make them unhappy.
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We stormed the seven suns compound and discovered the owner being held in a cell in the basement. Apparently his business had been taken over by dopplegangers! We cleaned house and eliminated the doppleganger infestation. Next it was on tho the merchan's league where we found out another doppleganger infestation. This one got ugly as Jaheira was slain and the rest of the group badly hurt. this fight used up quite a few of our magic resources. After we revived Jaheira and healed at the temple of Gond.
Next we reported our finding to Scar in the Flaming Fist compound. He praised us for our efficiency and offered us another job investigating disappearances near the front gate. We delved into the sewers and met a crazed ogre mage and his pet carrion crawlers. We managed to kill 2 carrion crawlers before the mage cast a spell of confusion. It effected everyone in the party. Shortly after Safana was killed by the ogre mage's magic missile spell. Khalid was still fightinf a carrion crwler and killed it. Jaheira was paralyzed by the last carrion crawler, as was Khalid. Naomilais was still meleeing the ogre mage and landed a vicious blow that split his skull and killed him out right. At this time the confusion spell wore off and Imoen and Naomilais were able to kill the last carrion crawler that had been atacking the paralyzed Khalid and Jaheira. We made yet again another vistit to the temple of helm to revive Safana and heal *We should be have signed up for the frequent fighter program...) we then returned to Scar to report. He was pleased with our results and gave us a bonus for retunring the victims belongs to their families.
We met with Scar yet again, but this time he directed us to Duke Eltan, who wanted us to directly investigate the Iron Throne. We were finally going to take the fight to the true enemy behind all the plots we have run across on our journey. We accepted and made our way to the Iron throne, making a stop to buy a few wands from the Sorcerous Sundries store (Monster Summoning and Paralyzation wands). We took stock of our assets: We were all fully healthy and not exhausted, well equipped, and still had a good store of magic in the form of wands and potions. We entered the Iron Throne expecting a confrontation, not a mass exodus of merchants! We were able to bypass the guard at teh first floor and the second floor. Then we went up another floor and we found out about Sarevok's acolytes. Naomilais cast remove fear to bolster the team and we proceded up the stairs. *Here I paused my game to assist my wife with a task, but to my dismay I came back to my computer to find my daughter had closed my game in order to play one of hers, so I reloaded from the newest autosave (just after my visit to the Sorcerous Sundries) and did the first several floors again, just as I had before...even casting remove fear again. *
This is what we were expecting coming into the Iron Throne. Sarevok's acolytes knew who we were and were actually left here to stop us! After a brief dialogue we open up with a charge of Baeloth's fear wand, an explosion potion from Khalid and another from Safana, Jaheira atempted to charm the nearest heavily armoured enemy, Naomilais cast silence 15 ft radius, and Imoen waited to summon in several monsters to aid us after the initial volley. The enemies were all wounded to some degree. Jaheira's charm failed, as di Naomialis' silence spell. Imoen summed a host of gnolls in the midst of their casters. Khalid stepped forward and killed a doppleganger that neared Imoen. Baeloth followed up his assault with a web spell, but just before he did Khalid was hit by a flame arrow spell and almost killed, Safana was killed (again) by a flamestrike spell, and the bane of any parties existence... one of the enemy casters had cast confusion, which affected everyone but Baeloth. Baeloth then cast 2 more web spells on the same area and 2 charges of his wand of fear. All of the enemies were rendered helplessly afraid of stuck in the webbing, except one thief that had chased Khalid (who was down to 1 HP) down into one of the back rooms. The confusion wore off before the web or the fear and Imoen started blinding enemies (she went 3/3) and Naomilais cast Hold person (2/2 on the fighters) Khalid managed to drink 2 healing potions and kill his assailant. Jaheira strated in on the parlyzaed fighters as did Baeloth. Naomilais and Imoen then switched to slings to damage the blinded enemy casters. The enemies were soon all slain. The party looted the corpses and the rooms and found incriminating evidence against the Iron Throne, but their main query had eluded them and was currently en route to Candlekeep!
The group returned to Duke Eltan with the correspondance they had found, after reviving Safana once again at the temple of Gond. He gave us a book to cover our entrance fee into Candlekeep and bade us good luck on our further investigation into the leaders of the Iron Throne.
I'm still playing this one, but thought that was enough for one post...
Naomilais is currently level 6 and has a whopping 24 HP!
The party is currently at the gates of Candlekeep at
Day: 20 Hour: 7
(To be continued....)
http://imgur.com/GX7xLAv,S6ArXwy,BluMe4c,Qdqn0hy,jT8Deum,u8vskNo,DFPbmgp,AqMsQVU,UCAAdYg,0XFDfkT,NfvtGKP,wC71rEA,dsYqriM,xLNx284,BRpo1kt,TsY6ZWJ,WtKTTgr,2yA0pnA,opJVbQk,CQEJTqk,suNuSWI,a0vYxpw#0
Many things have happened since I wrote last, I think I'm going to use this to keep track of my adventure, should another decide to read it someday.
I had decided to hunt for the nefarious artist Prism. I went through the Western Cloudpeaks, searching. I saw many people and things but avoided them all.
I eventually ran South of the Nashkel Mine, and was going to the Eastern Cloudpeaks, when a face in the mountain drew my eye. I went to the face in the mountain, to find Prism, as he was described, carving the rock. The sun was setting to my right when Prism came down. I startled him and he asked if I was with Greywolf. I asked him who that was, and a strong-looking soldier in leather armor walked up. I promised to defend Prism while he finished his final work, and the man in armor called himself Greywolf and demanded Prism's head. When I told Greywolf that Prism was nearly done his greatest work, Greywolf attacked me. Prism quickly pulled up his platform, to avoid Greywolf.
We fought into the night, I was ducking, weaving and then vanishing while he was wildly swinging. He never hit me once. I dealt the mortal blow, and went back to Prism. Prism finished his masterwork, the Queen Ellesime, then killed himself, the emeralds were on his body.
I decided to then go to the mine. I hid in the shadows, except to kill a kobold here or there, but a miner with Kylee's dagger saw me, and gave me Kylee's dagger. I then stayed in the shadows down into the second level of the mine. I found Kylee, and gave him his dagger, then descended into the third level of the mine. As soon as I entered, I sensed a trap and dealt with it. I had thought there would be more traps, so in the shadows, I carefully made my way through the mine. I found two traps across a chasm and another three at the shaft that led to the 4th level of the mine.
As soon as I reached the floor, an arrow clattered against the wall. I had been seen! I quickly ran up to the Kobold and killed it, and then hid in the shadows once more. A cavern opened up, a big cavern with a moat and a gigantic roundish rock in the middle. I saw an entrance behind 3 kobolds, and weaved my way between them and ducked into the rock.
It was not what I expected. The crack I was going to use as a staging ground to kill the kobolds turned into a chamber, with a bedroom inside. Inside I saw a halforc, and elf, and several kobolds. I killed the kobolds. I drank my potions and ran up to the Half Orc and called him ugly, big mistake.
He called in allies and attacked me. I ran around the corner quickly, killed his minions, and then attacked him using my hit and run tactics. I eventually killed him, took his stuff, and left the elf to starve in the cavern, since he was helping the Half-Orc.
I returned to Nashkel, and when I got there, I found a large mansion. I went raiding, and was attacked by a noblewoman and a naked guard, after killing them both, I finished my sweep of the house, and went further into the village.
There I found and armed soldier that was talking to a hamster, due to the two attempts on my life so far, I treated him as another threat. He died to my blade, and then i went to see Berrun. Berrun rewarded me, and ran away. I don't know why he ran away though. I next went into the temple of Helm where I learned of the commander Brage, and how the temple wanted him alive, while the guards wanted him dead.
I then sold all of Mulahey's stuff, except for his short sword. On exiting the store, I found out a man named Nimbul who talked in third person, had been hired to kill me, I thought that he was just another one. I attacked, then he started flinging spells around. I ran, and escaped the village.
I fled into the Cloudpeaks, and decided to fight those that I had passed by before. I found the child Albert still looking for his dog. He gave me a chew toy, and I continued South. I rounded a rock, and saw a duo, one of darts, and one with a pike. I ran, but the one with the pike followed me, so I let him talk. He proceeded to be highly aggressive and flashy, so I decided to be the same. He attacked me, and I poisoned him. He died swiftly, and I went to kill his buddy who was the "Fastest Dart Thrower in the Sword Coast"...
I snuck up on Zal, and hit him hard. We proceeded to fight for a good 20 minutes, when I finished him off. A winter Wolf then found me, and chased me North and then West. I found Rufie, and then remembered the belt the belt I had gained from Gorion. I attacked the Winter wolf, who could not hit me, and then went to Albert...
Turns out Albert was a demon... Who would've ever known... Gave me a crummy stone too... I decided to go back to where I found Rufie, and see if there was anything there. On the way there, I found a hunting party. Their leader Sendai decided to lead a hunt against me, so I used Imoen's wand against her. She chased me around that section of the Cloudpeaks until I spent Imoen's wand on her. I tripped on a rabbit hole that had scrolls in it during my run. I then returned and killed both of her cronies.
I continued West towards the coast, when I ran into a Nymph. She was complaining that people were trying to chop her tree down, so to shut her up, I agreed to help. I found out that the two of them were idiots, and that all they were doing was harming nature. I stealthed, and hit the special one as hard as I could, chopping through his arm and freezing it at the same time. Then, the one called Caldo chased me around the mountain, and the wilderness seemed to aid him. In the end, I killed Caldo and saved the tree.
I noticed I was out of healing potions, so I went back, killed Nimbul, and then bought 20 healing potions.
I returned to Beregost. Once there, I found a bard named Garrick who offered me a job. I accepted and he took me to his mistress Silke. She offered me 300 gold to do her job. I accepted, and found out I had been press ganged into a fight. I told Silke that she best give me a higher reward for her work, and she agreed. I then attacked the three who were "threatening" Silke and killed them all fast. I then talked to Silke, and all she gave me was the measly 300 gold. She then laughed in my face when I asked for my higher reward, so I poisoned my blade, stealthed and hit her with Varscona. I then killed her gGarrick and then entered the Red Sheaf Inn with my blade still poisoned. A Dwarf ran up to me when I entered, and I tried to hide in the shadows but failed. He found me, told me I had a price on my head and attacked. I killed him swiftly, and then I went to Taerom and bought my new black armor. On leaving his store, Elminster and a kid both spoke to me. The kid talked about going to see an Officer Vai...
I went and talked to Officer Vai. She wants me to kill bandits for her, when I am one person, and she has a party? She can kill her own bandits.
I've reached Mulahey's lair with my female half-orc Assassin, Montaron, and Edwin.
I have Montaron tanking in ankheg armor with a shield and short sword at AC -5 and a Shield Amulet. Haven't tried the Shield amulet but it IIRC it should lower his AC by at least 1 or 2 points. Monty can also be buffed with with a Protection from Evil scroll which lasts for 1 turn (a minute).
I think I'm going to have to rely on Monty to draw the fire from kobolds and skeletons. He has 3 healing potions. Unfortunately the only other potion I have that will be useful for combat is a Potion of Clarity.
Edwin has the following spells prepared:
4 Sleep
2 Blindness
1 Charm Person
3 Horror.
IIRC, everyone in the party is forced to enter the lair. What I can't recall atm, though, is whether some party members can then go outside, while others remain in inside the lair. If so, I want to keep Edwin out of harm's way, as his spellcasting is crucial. Edwin also has a wand of Magic Missiles with six charges left, with which he might be able to disrupt Mulahey's casting.
What I would most like to do is see if I can manage to have Edwin cast Horror or Charm on Mulahey to prevent him from calling forth his kobold and skeleton lackeys. I have also found that in some cases Blindness sometimes has the target spellcaster just stand there dumbfounded. But I'm reluctant to use it if Mulahey will just call his minions anyway. Charm or Horror would seem to be better choices...
The PC has AC 2, so she's pretty vulnerable to an onslaught by the kobolds and skellies. She has 3 healing potions as well. I will have to use her backstabbing ability with Poison for at least one hit on Mulahey, probably to launch the fight just to ensure that she gets it in. (She uses a quarterstaff.)
So the question is how to position the characters in Mulahey's lair to accomplish this...
Put Edwin and charname by the chest and put Monty in between the entrance and Mulahey. The kobalds and skeletons will come from the entrance (and maybe from where Xan is...I forget). Regardless, I think the safest place is by the chest, as the summons would have to run past Monty to get to the rest of the party. I wouldn't worry about Mulahey attacking Edwin/charname, I'd worry about skeletons and kobalds.
If you get off the blind and/or poison, Mulahey is as good as dead. With 3 Horrors and 4 sleeps (how the hell do you have so many spells? What level are you?), those kobalds will be taken out easily. The skeletons are the only thing that you would worry about, but Monty with -5 AC (-7 with Protection from Evil), as long as he stands between the skeletons and Edwin/charname, you should be fine.
I was really excited by the all fighter party and really annoyed at my hubris. I forget how fragile you are at the beginning of the game...
Victasaadi is an assassin, after all. So killing Minsc, for example, was not surprising.
I had the impression she was Evil from the beginning of the tale, however (eg, the way she treated Imoen, attitude towards Gorion's abilities), and yet she seemed periodically to be doing helpful things for folks as well, so I was a little confused. But then this morning I went back and looked more closely and saw that she is CN. So it all makes more sense. That's a gem, lol.
Looks like you're having a great run so far, choosing your battles carefully, and in some cases fleeing. As you're going to have to do, obviously to have a chance to fight another day.
I would think that you're going to have to assemble a good assortment of potions such as Oils of Speed, other potions to protect against mind alerting spells (Clarity, Magic Blocking, etc.), a Ring of Free Action, etc., Ring of Invisibility, Algernon's Cloak, etc., as spells are going to pose the greatest hazard for this character. If Victasaadi kills many innocents as she goes (eg, Algernon), she'll probably also have to spend some money at a temple periodically to get rep up.
I would think it's going to be a challenge to distribute skill points here, as you only get 15 Thieving points per level for an Assassin.
Also, I would imagine that the bassilisk map is just too risky; although if Victasaadi is using any ranged weapons, with Korax's help you can probably get at least one level from them. Once Korax goes hostile that's it for bassilisk hunting, unless you can afford enough potions of mirror eyes.
I think I may have Darthyra use the Shield amulet, as it sets base AC to 4, so IIRC you're right that it will be wasted on a AC -5 character. (Darthyra has AC 2.)
Yeah, I think Monty definitely needs to be positioned at the main choke point, for sure.
The main risk here is that Mulahey successfully casts Hold. Because if either Edwin or Darthyra gets Held by him, I think this game will be over.
I know Mulahey stays neutral until he finishes his dialogue, but he will approach when he sees a party member, saying, "Hmph, what are you doing in here?!" I can never quite remember the mechanics of this, but I will have enough time to get Monty, Darthyra, and Edwin positioned before he goes hostile? And again, Darhtyra has to be in stealth to get the backstab, so I would think that will place Edwin in close proximity to Mulahey.
As for Edwin's spell slots, he's level 3 and he has the Ring of Wizardry. (They just completed to the bassilisk map, although they killed only bassilisks and avoided Mutamin and the party of cocky adventurers spoiling for a fight.)
Note: I noticed myself when I read my first one that I was almost writing for a normal CE character.
I'll post yesterday's write up later today, night all!
We entered into the Great Library of Candlekeep, where we were confronted by many of our former mentors and friends. We came across an off fellow named Koveras, but we didn't accept his supposed gift from Gorion. Further along we confronted the leaders of the Iron Throne, but with the greatest respect for the hallowed grounds of the Great Library stayed our quest for justice. When were were leaving the Great Library we were detained by the Gatewarden for the murder of the Iron Throne's leaders, who we had left not long ago with the promise of meeting outside to settle our accounts. We cooperated as we knew we were innocent. We were rescued from our unjust imprisonment by Tethoril, who was able to teleport us to the catecombs beneath Candlekeep.
One the first floor we were exploring several side passages and Safana was clearly not up to the task of trap detection (only 50) and was killed (this is getting really old) by a dart trap (after taking a magic missile trap and another blast from the dart trap, as it re=loaded). We collected her body and items and made our way deeper into the catacombs where we were we faced with dopplegangers taking the form of my old mentors and friends, even Elminster and Gorion. We knew them for what they were and fought our way through to a natural cavern where we found a group waiting for Sarevok (Naomilais was scouting ahead invisibly, courtesy of Imoen). We opened combat up with a scroll of Confusion and a charge of the wand of monster summoning. The confusion took affect of 2 of the 4 and the monsters drew the fire of the others. One of the confused casters killed himself and hurt another of his party, as well of several of our summoned hobgoblins by casting lightning bolt in the narrow cavern. Imoen followed up with a charge from her wand of paralyzation on the most heavily armored of them and the confused enemy archer dropped his final magic wielding companion and the now paralyzed fighter. Baeloth used his wand of fear, successfully, and we were able to kill the last enemy. After this fight we encountered several spiders, but were able to slay them with minor damage to our group. Naomilais, still invisibly scouting, found 2 Greater Basilisks near the cave's exit. Baeloth used a scroll of fireball to injure them from afar and Khalid downed a potion of mirror eyes and stepped up with his bow to finish them off. We exited the cave.
This brought about chapter 7
Day: 20 Hour: 10
We made our way to the FAI to revive Safana and heal, before going to Baldur's Gate.
We saved here Day: 21 Hour: 7
(To be continued....)
1) Pick Pick Barby X CN 4 (not rolled) V3 with Kivan, Rassad, Minsc Xan & Neera (no thief no priest)
2) M Elf Dragon D. LN 5 (82) V2 with Xan, Kaigan, Ajantis, Jahs, and Quayle (no thief)
3) M elf Cleric Helm Pick (LN) 1 (78) V5 with Coran, Ski, Khalid, Rasaad, & Jahs (no thief until chap 4)
4) F Human Druid Totemic TN 8 (82) V3 (I hate that voice LOL) with Imoen, Rasaad, Shar, Khalid, & Neera
5) M Half-elf FMT X CG 9 (79) Pick with Khalid, Safana, Quayle, Imoen, Viccy
I liked the possibilties of # 1 from a warrior plus artillery standpoint but Cloakwood with no thief no priest and no reloads doesn't compute well. Same for # 2 with no thief.
# 3 is a possible altho IIRC Coran is not spec'd for traps right out of the box which means either cloakwood disaster or wasting game time to get him leveled some more which doesn't help speed game.
# 4 & 5 look to be the best of the bunch with # 4 taking the edge for a full party of 5 or 6 (with or without Rasaad) and # 5 perhaps a dark horse as a smaller party with just Khalid, Viccy and Imoen until Chap 5 to give the FMT a chance to level.
Maybe I'll try both of them...
I actually spaced out on selecting Poison before the backstab. But Darthyra critted Mulahey on the second hit after the backstab. So between the backstab and that, Mulahey was nearly dead anyway.
Edwin was able to interrupt Mulahey's first spell with the Missile wand; then Blind him. Edwin killed him with the next wand missile.
Anyway, thanks again to @dstoltzfus!
We arrived in Baldur's Gate and made for the Flaming Fist compound only to be attacked by the guards there. A few charges of our wands of fear made everyone iside run away from us. We made our way to Duke Eltan and killed his doppleganger healer. We then took Duke Eltan to the Harbormaster, as he requested of us.
Next we entered into the base of the Iron Throne once again to find it in disarray. We made it to the top floor where we confronted Sarevok's mistress and her ogre bodyguards. The fight was hard and Khalid and Imoen were slain as the result of the mage's confusion spell and the ogres. We perservered and learned that there were assassins in the Undercity and gained Sarevok's journal.
After a stop by the temple of Helm, we made our way to the Blushing Mermaid tavern, where we had heard we could gain admittance to the Undercellar. We were confronted by an Ogre assassin, but manged to bluff our way passed the rather dim witted thing. We entered the Undercellar and dealt with Slythe via force of arms... ours proved the stronger. Next we did battle with Krystin, I say battle, but we sent our summons in to open the attack and she cast a cloud of poisonous gas as them, slaying them all instantly, but she had misjudged to area of the spell and was caught in her own spell, dying moments later (Oh, the irony!). We collected their invitations to Sarevok's promotion ceremony.
We then returned to the Blushing Mermaid and rested for 8 hours, as it had been along 3 days. After resting we made our way to the Duchal palace and made it to the ceremony. When we interrupted with proof of Sarevok's crimes, he signaled and his assassins attacked the remaining 2 Grand Dukes. We fought them off, but as the last one fell and attention was redirected, Sarevok went into a rage and started to attack us. He was pulled a away from the combat by a teleportation spell. Belt consulted with his deity and was able to send up to the place where Sarevok was sent, which turned out to be the thieves guild.
We followed after him into a huge maze, where we lost Khalid in a fight with doom guards and Safana to a lighting bolt trap she missed detecting (Safana dying is getting REALLY old). We went back to the temple of Gond for healing and returned to chase Sarevok. We made it to an abandoned city underneath Baldur's Gate, where we came across a group from the Iron Throne looking for Sarevok as well. We did battle for some time, but in the end we came away victorious.
The group was in good shape as we came to an abandoned temple to Bhaal, which is where Sarevok was making his last stand. We entered and confronted Sarevok and his henchmen. We had managed to paralyze Tazok and almost kill him. Angelo was blinded and Sarevok was dealing with the summons of Imoen and Baeloth as Khalid, Jaheira, Safana, and Naomilais were dealing with Semaj. Samaj was brought down to Near Death and then he cast cloudkill, instantly slaying the majority of my level 6 party, including Naomilais. Our journey ended just before we could accomplish our last objective.
Day: 22 Hour: 3
Final Character:
Naomilais Greensleeves Level 6 Elven Cleric of Helm (HP 24)
Strength: 16
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 13
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 17
Charisma: 13
It was a good run, but not much I can do when cloudkill can instantly kill anything level 6 or lower (5th or lower instantly and 6th with a failed save at a -4) oh well. It was a good run. I think I'll have to try again, as I was so close. Now to impart my wisdom to other brave souls attempting this run.
1) Wands are AWESOME, use them and potions and scrolls liberally.
2) Healing: Buy lots of potions and make frequent use of temples... they may cost a bit, but money wasn't too bad to come by and time is.
3) Avoid areas you don't have to go to, with maybe the exception of the basilisk area... just too much good xp there.
4) I dualed Imoen to a mage at level 5... bad idea, do it sooner or not at all (level 4 sounds good). I had to deal with Safana and her 50 in find traps and she died in a lot of places due to it. If you don't have a thief... there are certain areas where it is going to hurt badly, do so at your own risk.
5) Take your time (not in game, but through use of pause and in between playing) rushing will get you killed faster than anything else.
6) Avoid all non-essential encounters. Unless the reward is worth the risk, don't do it.
7) Scout ahead and lead in as many encounters as possible with horror, web, confusion, sleep etc... enemies that can't fight back are free XP and loot.
What I would do differently: I would have done the basilisk area with just Imoen and Naomilais and leveled up higher. I also would have dualed Imoen at 4th level.
The End.
Congrats! Great run - 22 days to the final battle is very very fast...
Thanks guys. I already re-rolled for attempt number 2. I'll post on it later.. and I'll even have pictures now as I fixed my wireless card on my old desktop!
I have to say that this was quite a joy... I think I enjoyed sharing my progress with you guys more than playing.
And yes @ChildofBhaal599 I'm still hoping to beat your record...
I use the classic rules of this tournament, playing at the insane difficulty. This is the very first rolled character and his companions after the previous attempt was ended by an ambush. Every rest takes 8 hours.
Once again I’ve realized that the insane difficulty dictates it’s own pace that can not be compared with other levels of difficulty. And the reason is simple: when even a xvart hits a fully-armored Vikky for 8 damage, and a party tries to take him down for about 1 minute because of fatigue, and there’re 6 other enemies awaiting not far away – I understand that I can’t rush the game.
After assembling the whole party again Jagen went to the map to the north of the Gnoll Stronghold. An ambush with a polar bear didn’t pose a great threat as well as a polar bear at the bridge. Although the party didn’t got the boots with the protection from cold (due to a disliked reputation and Vikky’s max 14 CHA) this map was a useful one in terms of EXP. Several ogres here and there, bandits… buts we run out of healing potions. Dorn reached the 3rd level and got 7 HP. A crossbow proficiency was chosen.
Finally we came to the Gnoll Stronghold. Everyone was tired, there were no spells available (the last rest took place in the Mulahey chamber). And that’s why this map in term of real time was the longest for this party. The role of a tanking character was taken by everyone – as someone became seriously wounded, another party member became a tank. DEX gloves helped Dorn in his shooting attempts and CHA manual made Edwin look a little better. Jagen was lucky in terms of in-game time: it was a dark night the majority of this area, so attacking from the shadows really helped to hit a target.
The hardiness of the party (1-5 HP left) can be seen on the following screenshot:
At last! All the guarding gnolls were defeated, this Rashemen witch found her fate, Edwin offered his services for a year. The feeling of relief is sweet!
Travelling back to Naskel took many hours. As always, though. I’ve found put that healing at a temple is rather cheap and very convenient. This time we bought all the healing potions available and 5 antidotes at the temple and went to Beregost. Still without a rest we came to the inn having enough money to buy the scrolls. For the battle with Tranzig Dorn used his Poison weapon ability and although the fatigue became even bigger we managed to defeat him.
With the first rays of the morning sun spiders at the Landin’s house were sent to abyss. Having bought the short bow+1 (only 100 gp was left after it) and gotten the lighting wand the party travelled to the FAI. There Landrin gave an essential gp and the potion of Genius was bought at last so that Edwin managed to memorize Blindness, Web, Friends, Sleep, Shield, Grease and Charm. He only failed the Burning hands spell – this is not a problem though. Jagen took the EXP from completing the belts quest but realized the item itself was more important than the life of this gnome (the rest of the party was rather glad that reputation became 5 as the result of this act).
2 7 12 10->2 10->7 7 5 15 24 23 1 10
Male
Half-Orc
Multi
F/M/C -> F/C
Pick -> LE
7 rerolls
Voice 5
khalid
skie
shar-teel
ajantis
faldorn
This class feels really powerful with 19 STR&CON. I'm hoping to make it to the final battle!
Already in Nashkel @ 4 days.
Great run, enjoying it!
I just let my PC get killed by Silke because I wanted her stave + 1 for backstabs. But I could actually have purchased at the smithy instead. I've taken care of Silke without any problems countless times, and figured this should be relatively easy with Assassin, Montaron (as tank) and Edwin. But my Assassin missed the backstab! Then Silke saved twice against Edwin's Blind and Horror spells and fried my PC with a lightning bolt.
I was going to try taking on Bassilus next, but that would only have worked with the right spells, and Bassilus succumbing to them (sometimes the target saves). So even had the PC not died at Silke's hands, there was a strong chance death lay right around the corner anyway.
Anyway, I agree that the wisest thing to do is always avoid any encounter that poses unnecessary risk!
4930 738
LE male half-orc Cleric/Thief
Gragold Hawksdeath, the Crypt-Kicker
3 re-rolls - Male5
Kivan
Neera
Branwen
Dynaheir
Faldorn
Still mulling whether I should take Neera or not... The odds of a decidedly bad outcome from Neera's spellcasting is actually quite low--just a smidge over 1.5%. Otherwise a spell resulting in gems in the pocket or producing a flock of birds is, to my mind, basically equivalent to the target saving against the spell. But I also have Dyna, so I can easily do without Neera...
That said, I've by now taken the attitude to just enjoy what I can from each game for the unique challenge it offers, for however far I can make it. So from that vantage it could be kind of fun to take Neera.
It'll be Classic rules.
(Before long I may try a RPed game, maybe even without meta-gaming, just to sample the experience with a random no-reload party. But I don't think I'll try that until I get a party that seems to work well for the roleplayed approach. With this party I don't see a good chemistry for that.)
Also, do we have any other results to post for any of the other categories? Before long we will have one for @GemHound's RPed run. But until then do have any other result to post on the Leader Board?
Also--the "preferred" game being without auto-pause being used... I'm happy to change that if folks feel that auto-pausing is normal enough for how folks regularly play--or, for that matter, that it deserves to be 'normalized' for no-reload gaming. Myself, I have never used the feature until now. It definitely helps tremendously for this challenge, though, and it's a standard feature of the game engine.
Anyway, I just assumed that most people use Core Rules (a poll someone ran here a while back confirmed that, IIRC). And similarly, my best guess is that most players do not use it.
Come to think of it, I'll run a poll for that to see whether most folks use auto-pause.
Anyway, your thoughts about auto-pause as an element of "preferred"?
("Preferred" results will always trump other variations on the Leader Board, although we will also feature variations from "preferred" under 'Best Thus Far' for any category.)
Jahs & Khalid stay if you turn them down and I'm pretty sure they will stay all game as long as you spoke to them but it's possible they will leave once the mines are done if you never took them into the party - they too will stay where you drop them forever if you take them on board and release them while your rep doesn't make them unhappy.
This was true in Vanilla as well.