FINALLY! - Off to a no-reload run with 1.2 patch and SCS. Wish me luck.
Ygramul
Member Posts: 1,059
Many many months after purchasing BGEE I can finally play it on my Mac: the 1.2 patch is finally released on the AppStore and after (a lengthy ordeal) I got SCS to work with it. So far so good. BGEE seems to have finally surpassed Tutu. About time!
Thanks, devs! My faith (and coin) in your work was well placed.
Here is my current nostalgia run:
[RULES: no-reloads; no-munchkining; no-metagaming; core Rules; most SCS components]
* Khemael - charname: Human Male Neutral Good - Fighter/Invoker multiclass (EEkeepered, naturally; role playing myself more or less [why, yes, as I am a Fighter/Invoker in real life...])
* Imoen - Sorcerer (also EEkeepered - spell picks: Blind, Shield; original stats; prof.: + slings)
* Neera - (using her *very* conservatively: no casting in public; never buff charname)
* Raasad - (I'm liking him so far; will try to keep him through BG2EE)
* Branwen - (may swap for Viconia later; definitely in BG2EE, if I make it that far)
* [rotating thief] - (plan is Montaron -> Safana -> Alora as I progress)
(It's unusual for me to not have Minsc and Jaheira, but I'm making room for Neera and Raasad this once.)
Story so far:
Managed to rescue Dynaheir (w/ Minsc in party temporarily) and now back to cleaning up the roads between Friendly Arm and Nashkel. I will brave the Nashkel Mines after I gain enough experience so that charname won't die by a pair of "arrow to the knee" from Kobolds.
Had a close call from a certain "Ogre with a Belt Fetish" -- he hit charname to within 1HP of his death. I ran the hell away and had Imoen "Blind" the Ogre and pelted him to death while Branwen healed me.
(Footnote: Blind is amazing for a lvl1 spell: killed Silke after Imoen Blinded her (took multiple castings to stick it) while I scattered the party across Beregost to keep her from Horroring everyone at once. (*) Also, what is it with Silke having Stoneskin?! Assuming she is a bard, she must be at least lvl 10! Not a fair challenge to a lvl 1 party.)
(*) Key to a no-reload run: never risk having to roll a saving throw, if you can avoid it.
Thanks, devs! My faith (and coin) in your work was well placed.
Here is my current nostalgia run:
[RULES: no-reloads; no-munchkining; no-metagaming; core Rules; most SCS components]
* Khemael - charname: Human Male Neutral Good - Fighter/Invoker multiclass (EEkeepered, naturally; role playing myself more or less [why, yes, as I am a Fighter/Invoker in real life...])
* Imoen - Sorcerer (also EEkeepered - spell picks: Blind, Shield; original stats; prof.: + slings)
* Neera - (using her *very* conservatively: no casting in public; never buff charname)
* Raasad - (I'm liking him so far; will try to keep him through BG2EE)
* Branwen - (may swap for Viconia later; definitely in BG2EE, if I make it that far)
* [rotating thief] - (plan is Montaron -> Safana -> Alora as I progress)
(It's unusual for me to not have Minsc and Jaheira, but I'm making room for Neera and Raasad this once.)
Story so far:
Managed to rescue Dynaheir (w/ Minsc in party temporarily) and now back to cleaning up the roads between Friendly Arm and Nashkel. I will brave the Nashkel Mines after I gain enough experience so that charname won't die by a pair of "arrow to the knee" from Kobolds.
Had a close call from a certain "Ogre with a Belt Fetish" -- he hit charname to within 1HP of his death. I ran the hell away and had Imoen "Blind" the Ogre and pelted him to death while Branwen healed me.
(Footnote: Blind is amazing for a lvl1 spell: killed Silke after Imoen Blinded her (took multiple castings to stick it) while I scattered the party across Beregost to keep her from Horroring everyone at once. (*) Also, what is it with Silke having Stoneskin?! Assuming she is a bard, she must be at least lvl 10! Not a fair challenge to a lvl 1 party.)
(*) Key to a no-reload run: never risk having to roll a saving throw, if you can avoid it.
Post edited by Ygramul on
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Comments
(To avoid confusion: I did not scatter prior to the meeting, only after she starts casting.)
(btw... "no munchkining", EEkeepers himself a f/m and sorcerer anyways ;D)
Touche. But... in my defense: I shadowkeepered from an Elf to Human for flavor, which is actually a handicap [no sword thac0 bonus; no charm/sleep resistance]. The Invoker kit is again for flavor. Though it *is* an advantage, it is not stronger than a gnome F/I, and I am foregoing all the Enchantment spells in return which are really powerful in BGEE.
re: Imoen as a sorcerer: I always wanted to have a run with that -- a Bhallspawn sister slowly growing in her power. In return, I lose the versatility of a Mage-Thief and have to "waste" a party slot on an actual thief. Imoen will specialize in meta-magic spells (Spell Thrust, Remove Magic, True Sight etc.). If we make it to BG2EE, the no-munchkin rule implies no Mislead or Project Image cheese to be used.
Additional, deliberate handicaps include:
- Neera (I never finished a no-reload game with a Wild Mage in party. This will be... interesting.)
- SCS AI and encounters (including harder end-of-chapter battles -- but I did not include rule-change components. E.g. smarter basilisks, but not 'improved' spiders). SCS mages are HARD!
- no vanilla magic weapons (replaced with "fine" items; making some early encounters tricky)
All in all, I give myself about 50/50 chances on finishing this: I have completed BGTutu no-reload runs twice before (2 out of about 10 runs).
But, I have yet to make it to even Spellhold once let alone finish BG2 on a reload run yet.
We will see how far this one goes...
I'm actually pretty fond of Invoker; after giving Dynaheir a chance I think her bad name is undeserved. Your 4th level spellbook is a little thin but Minor Sequencer is at least as good as Emotion and while I'm sad about losing Greater Malison your melee-light party could make good use of Teleport Field. I agree Illusionist is a bit better but Invoker is not so bad.
You can always use Mislead in a non-cheesy way... it's plenty powerful even if you don't abuse it (by leaving the image in another room or something)
Yeah, a no-reload with Neera without any other casters would be pretty tricky.
SCS mages are definitely a force to be reckoned with. It's not so bad in BG1 where PfMW is rare and many of them have trouble killing you on their own. Of course some of them are packing Sunfire... which ones those are I'll leave as a surprise
I've never tried the fine items mod. Sounds interesting. It only affects +1 items? Or does it remove stuff like Ashideena as well?
I forget if they've fixed this or if it was intentional all along, but last time I had her do the Destroy Gold surge, I lost 80% of my party's gold (This was several months ago). If such a possibility still exists and you're not going to reload, I might suggest hanging on to valuables rather than selling them, so you can rebuild your gold supply if Neera decides to burn it. Maybe finding an abandoned house to stash extra magical equipment once you reach a comfortably high gold count?
Yep. Until charname is strong enough to survive a Fireball to the face, I move Neera about 20ft away in encounters and cast toward the back of the enemy line. (Worked once very nicely toward a Hobgoblin encounter with a Sleep spell.)
re: Gold disappearance surge
I intend to run a stash in Beregost with some valuables, and purchase things as soon as possible rather than sit on the gold for long.
I estimated the chances of any specific surge happening through BGEE to be around 0.5 as follows:
- say, Neera casts 1000 spells through a playthrough => ~50 Wild Surges. (NEVER willingly uses Nahal's Reckless Dweomer). Any one Wild Surge will happen with about 50/100 chance.
i.e. you have about even chance to loose all your gold in a run to the end through with Neera.
(similarly, you have about even chance to cast "Petrify" as a surge -- hence my "Neera never buffs the charname" rule.)
Now that I think of it, Minor Globe could be really good on Neera. You run the risk of killing yourself when you first cast it but it will block a lot of the negative effects. I'm not sure if "hold self" works as per the spell or if it bypasses that but it should keep you safe from fireballs and stuff like "target self".
*** Basillus ***
A little girl warned us of a "crazy spook" while traveling west of Beregost and the surrounding (oddly non-hostile) undead gave us the hint that things were about to go down fast. I was not in the mood to amuse the mad cleric, so got myself confronted by about a dozen skeletons along with an SCS buffed priest!
No problem: Khemael (Fighter 2/Invoker 1) casts Shield and wearing Girdle of Piercing, so all these crossbows can't bother me while I tank everyone, right? Meanwhile, Imoen, Neera (from the sidelines, just in case), and Branwen unloads Blindness/Chromatic Orb/Hold Person at Basillus. He saves against all and begins casting. *gulp*. I hit him with Magic Missile -- pisspoor damage, but interrupts his casting. Just bought myself one more round. The ladies cast again: Blindness/[Wand of Paralysis]/Silence. Nope -- he saves against all and hits Khemael squarely on the chest with what appears to be a hammer of lightning! Ouch! Almost dead. Branwen rushes to cast Healing on me while I run away gulping a potion and Imoen casts another Blindness -- aaaand *bam* Basillus is blinded.
This fight is over.
Or so I thought.
Basillus runs back into the circle (which is surrounded by his skeleton minions) and casts Sanctuary followed by... I didn't even pay attention: Why bother, right? He'll be dead soon. So, I start cleaning up his undead minions. Then he strides back on, healed, and apparently *cured* of Blindness! (Forgot that clerics can do that.)
Basillus casts a Hold Person. Every body scatters away. Safana is held! I start pelting him with bullets to no luck (it downs on to me: not a single bow or crossbow user in my party! Err...). Neera tries again the Wand of Paralysis (not risking a cast in the middle of the retreating party). Basillus saves again.
... and casts Unholy Blight. Uh oh!
I try to scatter again but Rasaad is promptly killed. (He is lvl 2 only and had rolled 1 (one!) at his level up.) [PIC -- thanks @elminster for screenshot help]
This is beginning to go south as he still has about half a dozen skeletons. Then I cast my only remaining spell (thank you Evermemory!): Grease. It manages to delay the skeletal minions and slow down Basillus.
The remaining four of us throw everything and the kitchen sink at the greasy mad cleric who finally succumbs to the barrage -- followed by his minions. [PIC]
----
On the way back to Beregost I get waylaid: a dead Rasaad, wounded party, no spells left. Thankfully, it's just Xvarts. Khemael makes an example of them for bothering wounded warriors after gulping a potion.
And now, with Rasaad safely revived, we are kicking back in Beregost, wondering what to spend our 5000 coin reward money on...
I was hoping to save up for a Robe of Good Arcmagi. But that requires another 20 grand -- with Neera around, I probably shouldn't wait...
(Oh, here is a house rule I use: no "recharging" of items by selling and buying them back. So, the amulet won't be an endless source of Shield for Rasaad.)
Death by Sirine!
When Safana told me to go back and fetch her treasure against my better judgment, I should have told her to shove it.
Back to the drawing board.