I'll be offline for most of this weekend, so I wanted to put up one more post before then. Didn't get as far as I would've liked, but ah well.
Quests: Finished Sir Sarles, Half of the Bridge Skinner Murders, and the 1st part of Haer'Dalis's Quest
- After some careful consideration, I chose to dismiss Anomen from my party so that I could continue to use Hexxat on my team. Anomen might align with my team better, but Hexxat has skills the team needs (already have melee-ers and divine casters). Guess I'll have to find another compatible NPC for my team. I'm thinking Haer'Dalis, since I'm hoping with his darker outlook he'll have some fun banter with her.
- Yoshimo had some banter with Hexxat. Interesting.
- On my way out of the graveyard district, I encountered Wellyn. Quickly completed that quest. Had to fight Llynis; guess my cha wasn't up to snuff to talk my way out of it.
- Got the encounter for Renfeld, but after defeating the bad guys, the quest wouldn't trigger. He just lay there like a lump. Guess that means I'm not doing that quest this time around.
- Went to Bridge District to continue my completion of the Sarles quest and to start Haer'Dalis quest; unfortunately there was no way for me to avoid the trigger for the skinner quest, so I'll have to do that one now too. Ah well, that's the fun of the partial quest completion clause. Stopped by the play house quickly to get the beginning of the Haer'Dalis quest from Raelis Shai.
- Took out Neb et al. Easy peasy: I really should have started the difficulty at "core" instead of "normal", but I really wanted to be sure I could finish my first challenge attempt…
- Talked to the courtesan and the beggar for clues to the murderer, and took it to the tanner (good-aligned meta-gamer: I knew if I took it to the captain first, he'd end up dead, and at the time, Loren didn't know if the tanner was guilty. She was just going to the tanner to see if he could identify the piece of elephant leather and tannin.
- The ghasts were no contest since I got them with a hold undead early on, but the potion-drinking thief in the corner almost got Yoshimo (he went down to like 4 HP). Pulled him back, put a potion of extra healing in him + some healing thanks to Loren, and let the others take the thief down. The mage (forget his name) didn't last long either; not sure if it was a silence spell or some wounding darts that got him this time, but his spell casting was disabled by the 2nd or 3rd round.
- Finished the first part of the skinner quest by talking to the captain (now, after fighting the tanner, so that he could live), being careful to avoid triggering Neera's cut-scene. Sorry, Neera, but I'm going to use Haer'Dalis in this run.
- Went to Government district: delivered ore to Sir Sarles, and Neb's head for some extra coin, then continued to Temple District to pick up Haer'Dalis.
- I guess all the other times I've been in the temple sewers, I've gone to the middle first, and not up along the top, because Tanor the Hatchetman was still there. Ah well. I have plenty of money (and don't really want to get the trigger to continue the main quest yet), so I just paid him to leave me alone.
- A group of goblins spawned shortly thereafter. I guess that's what I get for taking the coward's way out.
- Went into Mekrath's lair. I followed the lines of dialogue that ended up with me challenging Mekrath (Me: "Oh, you think he's a thief? I thought you kidnapped the poor tiefling for his stone, my bad." Him: "Grr…I see how it is. Attack!") I tried to disable him with a silence, but Loren was a little too close. He saved vs. spell, I ended up silenced. -.- Either way, he cast protection from normal weapons and protection from missile weapons as his primary defense, so team melee took him down quick, and the skeleton he summoned too. Loren didn't need to talk to turn undead).
- A regular and ice salamander spawned in the room on the way to the altar with Haer'Dalis's stone, so I had to fight them too. Went too quickly into the room with the altar, and Hexxat took massive damage from one of the traps. Disabled the one on the alter itself, though.
- Continued to my temple, Lathander, to finish the Sir Sarles quest, to rest, and to check if I had another stronghold quest trigger waiting for me (nope). Because I'm a cleric, I got a choice between the ring of holiness, the armor of faith, and the staff-spear. Obviously I'm not going to choose the staff-spear, since my girl doesn't have any pips in staves. Finally chose the ring of holiness, because having more spells isn't likely to become obsolete, and the armor probably will before the end of the game.
- Accepted the follow-up mission from Dawnbringer Sain: get the ring of Lathander back from the Talassans. Rested at the temple. Got a rep complaint from Haer'Dalis: I might need to do rep management if I keep taking these good-aligned quests. No complaints from Hexxat yet, oddly enough.
Reputation: Popular (15) Gold: 13,443
Loren: Level 9 Priest of Lathander Notable Equipment includes Sling of Seeking +1, Mauler +2 (backup), Mail of the Dead +2, Saving Grace +3, Helm of Balduran, Amulet of 5% Magic Resistance, Girdle of Fortitude, Ring of Holiness
Minsc: Level 9 Ranger Notable Equipment includes Lilarcor, Dragon's Bane +3 (backup), Composite Long Bow +1 (backup), Full Plate Mail, Helm of Infravision, Ring of the Princes, Sewer Cloak, Girdle of Bluntness, and dex gauntlets
Jaheira: Level 8/11 Druid/Fighter Notable Equipment includes Quarterstaff +1, Sling +2, Plate Mail + 1, Cloak of Protection +1
Hexxat: Level 12 Thief Notable Equipment includes Arbane's Sword +2, Neb's Nasty Cutter (off-hand), Dart of Wounding (backup anti-mage weapon), Short Bow + 1 (backup), Skin of the Ghoul +4, Cloak of Dragomir (as needed)
Yoshimo: Level 9 Fighter / Level 10 Bounty Hunter (inactive) Notable Equipment includes Yoshimo's Katana +1, Katana (off-hand), Long Sword +1 (backup for off-hand), Heavy Crossbow of Accuracy (backup), Plate Mail +1
Aw what the hell, let's do this. Importing my BG1:EE character:
PC Name (optional): Marel PC Gender (optional): Female Alignment: True Neutral Race: Human Class(es): Thief Starting Stats: STR 19, DEX 19, CON 18, INT 12, WIS 11, CHA 14 Starting Proficiencies: + Long Sword, + Quarterstaff, + Crossbow, + Single Weapon Style Game(s) + Expansion(s): BG2:EE + ToB (if I ever get that far) Difficulty Setting: Insane Clause(s): Limited Reloads, Limited Mods, Partial Quest Completion
First time playing on any difficulty above Normal so this is going to be fun. So far I'm out of Chateau Irenicus, only having had to reload three times... using the main character to scout ahead with only 75 points in move silently is a risky habit :P. But this is nothing compared to my usual abuse of the Q and L buttons whenever something doesn't go exactly to plan.
Has anyone ever tried a "no pauses" playthrough, where the space bar is off limits? No micro-managing commands during battle- all commands need to be given in real time. You'd need to take full advantage of hotkeys and the game would become more of a button masher, but it seems like it would be interesting. Never tried it myself though.
Done quests: Investigate and destroy the cult of the eyeless The de'Arnise keep has been cleared Find the kidnappers who buried Tirdir Bring the poisoned man to his friends Find the Nether Scroll for Edwin Locate a caretaker for the orphan Risa Save Jaheira from Baron Ployer's curse Find proof of Mae'var's treachery Solve the "skinner" murders in the Bridge District Free Hendak and the slaves
Open quests: Gain the services of Sir Sarles for the temple Thieves' guild stronghold Animal trouble in Trademeet Find out what happened to Montaron The hunt for Valygar Corthala Meeting with Valen's mistress Neera's hidden refuge Journey to the Windspear Hills Collect the fee for Gaelan Bayle
Been switching around NPCs more than I usually do, which might bite me in the ass later if I end up with an under-leveled party - but I want to do more of the NPC-dependent sidequests this time around. Think I might do Keldorn's quest and drop him, then go to Trademeet to pick up Rasaad.
Will comment more later, but I took a break from Lia due to finishing BGEE on my Blade, just to find out things like the spell Wraithform are bugged. Instead I'm either going to finish up later or make my Wizard Slayer's party. The only downside is that while I have a pretty good idea of who I want in my WS's BG2EE party, I'm kinda iffy on what kinda party I'm going to run with her in BG1. Rasaad and Imoen seem the only locks atm. Ajantis and either Kivan or Coran seem likely, and maybe round it out with Brawen.
(For the record, my WS BG2EE party will be Keldorn, Valygar, Rasaad, Anomen (considered aerie but decided to pass) and then Yoshimo -> Imoen.
- Decided to spend a little money at my temple for the boots of electrical resistance, the anti-charm helmet, some healing potions, and a few protection scrolls (protection from the undead, which'll be useful later on). I'll be doing a few more side-quests, so the money shouldn't be an issue, and I kinda want to wait to trigger the next step of the main quest at this point.
- Went back to the Bridge district to do Haer-Dalis's quest. Will really need to do some rep management, since all of my neutral characters are complaining. Surprisingly, still no rep complaints from Hexxat (the 1 evil character I'm traveling with).
- Went to the playhouse, and had Haer'Dalis cast haste before he was dragged off the team through the portal. The bounty hunter party waiting on the other side was no match. For a change of pace, I had Hexxat use arrows of biting (I was able to assign her a prof point in bows, but still no pips in darts yet) and Yoshimo use bolts of biting (forgot I had some of those) against 1 yuan-ti mage, and Loren got the other one with a silence spell. After that, it was simply a cleaning up operation. Also, if you have artificially enhanced strength and add "draw upon holy might" on top of that, the strength bonuses stack (sweet!). Need to see if get to keep the properly stacked bonuses if I switch mauler in on top of an already-case holy might spell. My pure cleric ended up with a THACO of 9 and an AC of -7. By Lathander, she can buff up to the front-lines! She was a juggernaut of pure destruction. I was also able to take out the 1st group of thralls on the same set of buff spells.
- Rested before going onto the next group of baddies (the one with the wyvern). A bit of fore-planning made this section easy: glyph of warding (the salamander saved, but I got the yuan-ti mage and the ice salamander but good, followed by silence (cast sufficiently far away from my party, so none of mine were caught by accident), which got the mage (the point of that spell), and they were pretty easy for team melee to wipe up. Cherry on top: I was able to successfully cast domination on the wyvern, so I was able to use it against the thralls and the warden + air elementals in the next room. Pretty much a perfect battle.
- I used my chaotic commands to protect my two casters (Jaheira and Loren), tried my last silence spell on the warden. The warden saved, but the yuan-ti mage behind him was disabled. I tried to disable the warden again, this time with Jaheira casting insect plague while Loren summoned a skeleton in the hopes of protecting Minsc, who was stunned. In the end, the plague was unneeded, since Hexxat got him with an arrow of biting. This didn't stop the contingency he had from really hurting my team, though. I'm pretty lucky Hexxat didn't die. In the end, it was Minsc that bit the dust, sadly. Stun is a deadly move when you've got opponents wailing on you.
Disclaimer: Part of me wishes I was doing a full no rez run at this point.
[Spoiler]It was the west side of beregost, born and raised, at high hedge, where Dynaheir spends most of her days. Buying up, scribin, memorizing all cool, castin some magic missile outside of the school...
Alright I actually think I started in the Beregost blacksmith, but that doesn't allow for a fresh prince parody off the top of my head.
2 Big things stand out today:
1. I started earlier fully intending on trying to not go in quest order, but after also realizing that I had literally quick-loaded 3 times in a row I quit without saving and went back to my fighter/cleric intending on continuing later.
2. I did end up quick loading on the main quest I did earlier today just out of sheer frustration..........but NOWW ON WITH THE SHOW!
Lia: {So we're going to go to Cloakwood right? Progress on with the main quest.}
ME: No, I think I'm going to send you to the Firewine Ruins. It's mostly filled with kobolds and there are some nice gloves you can get there.
Lia: (But we literally JUST destroyed the bandit camp, shouldn't we quickly catch them unawares?)
Me: Yes you did, but you won't. First of all you've already gone to Beregost, Nashkel, done the stupid stuff for Neera AND we went to the gnoll fortress. We don't know what kinda opposition they're going to have in Cloakwood, and the camp wasn't exactly a walk in the park remember.
Lia: (I LIVED!, just because anytime we do a story quest and get to the end boss a buncha people think its time for a dirt nap isn't MY fault.)
Me: Well good thing I have this thing called a mouse to influence you, to FIREWINE RUINS NAO!
Lia: (Mutters and grumbles swearing revenge) (Hey if the Bridge is ALL the way over there, why do they dump us as far away as possible, this stinks. And Skeletons really? I HATE SKELETONS. Do you know how many arrows I waste on these guys. Can't we find some nice juicy CLOAKWOOD spiders or something. You know my HATED enemy).
Me: Look there's the guy for your gloves kill him. Ez pz, ok.......Now their should be an ogre mage down around here somewhere..............(death screen).
Lia: (Way to go genius, you know you COULD listen to the ranger about where to go.)
Me: shut up shut up shut up, I swear I kept Xzar around you too long. Anyway rest up, that place is filled with traps. Ask Dynaheir, NICELY this time, if she'll memorize a invisibility spell for us.
Lia: (Look at my kill count, now look back to me, now look at my kill count, now back to me. We don't need an invis, we have ME!. I have a high enough hide in shadows for anything indoors. Don't worry about it of Heir to Minsc, Imoen and I will get th....................(death screen)).
Me: Where's my I told you so button
Lia: (Something, something cloakwood......Fine)
Cue today's major cheese, casting invis on Imoen and having her de-trap the entire ruins before walking through with my party. I did quickload once here cause I accidently popped a trap with like 70% of the map explored. That said I popped 2 others and didn't reload them...........of course they didn't kill her either (Imoen: YA AND IT STILL HURTS. IT HURTS I TELL YOU. I'M A THIEF NOT A MAGE, I CAN'T JUST THROW PROTECTIONS UP TO DEFEND MYSELF.)
Lia: (Ya you be nice to her, she's my sister.)
Anyway, traps are done, both quests done (the wizard and the ogre mage both went down super easy. Quickdraw McLia (Lia: the quickdraw part is fine, but what's up with the McLia.......you need some better lines), managed early spell interrupts on both that nullified every spell they tried to cast.
I Turn in the quest in Gullykin, and stumble upon ANOTHER band of assassins. I focused Lia on the mage (Lia: I think they get the idea that you like me turning mages into target practice) and had Dynaheir cast a deafness on the cleric, effectively removing both casters from the fight. The rest as they say is cleanup. This ends today's tal................(Lia: Oh no it doesn't. Don't even try. I think I'll finish this part up since you want to forget it and don't wanna embarass yourself.)
Lia: (So the entire time we were on the Gullykin map, I had this nagging thought in my head that there was something on this map towards the southeast we had to worry about. We mopped up the assassins alright, but something was still bothering me. Still the "Mouseclicker" as they'll hereby be referred to, decided to explore some more........
Right into an Ankheg pit........poor Minsc and Khalid were dead before they even knew what hit them. No no wait it gets better. Rather than "Mouseclicker" sending us back to Gullykin, he insists we go to the Beregost temple to rez these 2.
No sooner do we, "gather our party to adventure forth" *coughcoughrezdetail*, we end up getting ambushed by a buncha bandits. Ya those bandits, you know the one who's camp we just wiped out. Well apparently things at the mine are secure enough because they sent about 10 after my hide. *Sniffs* poor Imoen took a dirty nap. I hastely grabbed HER belongings too, and ran towards beregost temple (now the fastest place for lifesavers Raise dead spells. AFTER dropping 1200g on Khalid and Minsc combined, Mouseclicker realized they couldn't afford Imoen. We had to run all the way over to beregost, rest cause it was the middle of the night. Then sell all that precious loot, then run back and rez Imoen. I swear that Mousecli----.)
That's enough Lia. Anyway, that's the story, still up on gold and experience, still no one turned into chunky soup. If my blade playthrough is any indicator, the chunking prolly won't happen until Durlag's or Werewolf Isle, which has me INCREDIBLY worried.[/Spoiler]
And with that, I'll try to keep Lia going, she's a devastatingly powerful character, and when I use her stealth as well actually quite fun. That said I tend to enjoy the write ups even more than playing her. My fighter/cleric is flying through the content right now, cleaning up some areas before she goes to the Bandit camp herself, and I still have the Wizard Slayer to get started. I had considered posting the WS log here, but A. I don't know if I'm going to do one and B. anything other than a no arcane party is asking for trouble with a WS, and I still plan on Dual-Classing Imoen so that's ruled out too =/
Late Edit: Due to the high probability of forgetting, I'm making a note that I dropped the rules down on my game back to Core, simply due to other characters I'm playing. Chances are I won't remember to bump it back up for my archer, but maybe I'll also get less irritated at most of my party imploding at times.
@Dragonspear You can post journey logs without running a formal challenge if you'd like. And the write-ups are a lot of fun, I'd agree. Yours are quite funny. I hope you keep posting!
Challenged the Umar Hills quest. Lots of fun!
- Haer'Dalis had a level-up that I missed waiting for him from the last session, so now he's level 11.
- Went to my temple to check for another temple quest. This time, one was there waiting for me. I told the dwarf he needed to make reparations to the family, rested, and then went on my merry way. Oh! Also drained my gold stores by identifying a bunch of my equipment. Forgot that a bunch of my stuff had useful charge abilities.
- Got a bit of dialogue from Hexxat. Apparently her employer is going to give her an assignment soon. I'm interested to see what the rest of her quest will look like.
- I've decided to replace Minsc, the NPC that died in my last journey log, with Valygar, so I've gotten his quest listing in my journal by talking to Tolgerias of the Cowled Wizards.
- All the quests I've done up until this point have been in the city, so imagine my surprise when the Umar Hills were still grayed out! Went to the city gates so I could leave Athkatla.
- Got to Umar Hills with no encounters. Got quest from Jermien to go get Mimic's blood. Selected the wrong option with Jeb, so I lost out on the gem in the chicken "quest".
- Continued out into the woods of Umar Hills in search of Merella's cabin and Valygar. Found Merella's cabin first. Contemplating using Mazzy for Mazzy's quest, then dumping her (or living through her conflict with Hexxat), then getting Valygar, since I prefer to use the NPC that owns their quest. Hmm…yes, I think I'll do that.
- Found the orgre north of town, and promised to talk to the villagers on their behalf (I hope I don't get another +1 rep, or I'll really need to do some rep management).
- Found a random scroll lying on the ground just north of the monster group. (???) Don't remember that from before…
- Continued to the Umar Hills Temple. Forgot how spooky the ambiance was here. Good bit of world-building here. Spoke to Anath to enlist her to help me defeat the shade lord in Amaunator's temple. (Considering I did the Unseeing Eye quest first, where we witness the end of Amaunator, one could imagine Loren to be the cause of this unrest. From an RP perspective, I imagine that's exactly what my character is thinking).
- Got a test of Loren's "turn undead" ability: she's able to explode shadows now. I got to the temple, and I was a bit nervous, since there were like 6 all running at my team, but then suddenly 3 of them exploded on the spot, and 2 more started running away. Go, Loren, Priest of Lathander!
- I was doing okay until Loren took a hit from a shadow (too close to the melee, I guess) and got affected by hold. Luckily, the fighting moved away from her pretty quickly, though, so she didn't take any further damage.
- I sent Hexxat to turn the stained glass (poor werewolf Anath, giving her life to the cause), but was surrounded by shadows and shade wolves for her troubles. Something hit her for an ability drain to her strength, but she still had 18 str, so she's still the strongest character I've got right now. She…held up incredibly well, all things considered. I was able to break the line of shadows and make it to the entrance, where the light took out the shadows.
- Entered the temple, and cleared my way to Mazzy. As I've said before, I like complete quests with their associated NPC, so I took her on (dangerous, since I know that if I'm not careful, she'll have a conflict with Hexxat). Loren also took an ability drain from one of the shadows down there, but by the time the undead were all cleared out, both her and Hexxat's drain cleared up on their own, which was good.
- I think this is going so easily for me because my characters have enough levels at this point that they're able to better brute force their way through. That, and I'm still playing at a pretty low difficulty setting.
- Had some trouble locating the 3rd piece of the sun symbol. -.- Had to resort to the internet to figure out that I had to go back to the talking head and answer some questions in order to get the last part.
- Next, I did something risky that really paid off. I rested (after picking proper spells, of course) and then I CHALLENGED THE SHADOW DRAGON. I set up a wall of summoned meat shields, sacrificing the first skeleton to the shadow dragon's death spell. 2 more nymphs, a fire elemental, some wolves thanks to Hexxat, the summon horn warrior, and a bunch of random monsters thanks to Haer'Dalis. I buffed with protection from evil 10' radius, armor of faith (me and Jaheira), and draw upon holy might (my character only), plus bless, chant, chaotic commands, resist fear, and haste (and others I probably forgot). Then, the team started wailing on it. It took the shadow dragon a really long time to start attacking back, and when it did, I would check to see who it was targeting, pull them out of range, and make them zig-zag behind my attackers to keep the dragon walking and not attacking as long as possible. If it started to cast a spell, I'd pull my characters back, since almost all of its spells were area effect spells like horror (though, I think I lost the fire elemental and the monsters that way). And it worked! OMG, did it work! I didn't even lose a single party member! w00t!!! If a party member did take a hit, I had A LOT of healing potions waiting so that while they were zig-zagging, they could drink to their health. I also noticed that Hexxat had a lot of good luck (might've had something to do with the luck spell Haer'Dalis cast on her): she scored quite a few crits, which definitely helped. The hardest part was the breath weapon (or whatever it is that pushes your characters to the edge of the screen). One of them knocked Yoshimo out entirely. Thankfully, the breath weapon was only used like twice (once it only hit meat shields, not party members). After the first breath attack, that's when I had to switch my party members from ranged weapons to melee, since ranged weapons like arrows don't seem to hit after it uses its breath attack. Please, also remember that I'm playing on "normal" difficulty, which makes the game a lot easier. Final credit for the kill went to Hexxat. Fun times.
- After that, I rested again in preparation of the final battle for this quest. In comparison, it was all too easy. Forgot to put the cloak back on Hexxat after the battle, so when the area turned to daylight, Hexxat took some damage.
- Made it back to the Umar Hills area, booted Mazzy, and decided to end here for today. It was a good day's adventuring, if I do say so myself. :-)
Update time! I've done most of the quests in Chapter 2 now. Cleared Umar Hills and Windspear Hills (though I didn't kill any dragons yet). Kicked Lavok outta the Planar Sphere. Rescued Haer'Dalis and troupe from the Planar Prison. Saved Trademeet and did Rasaad's quest. "Rescued" Montaron and killed Galvarey. Now the only major things that remain are various bonus bosses (which I'm not going to tackle just yet... or possibly ever), stronghold quests (which are going to take a while probably), and handing over the money to Gaelan Bayle. Oh, and just one other thing... gods lend me strength
@Erinne I've been purposefully walking around the Neera trigger point because a wild mage does not go well with a no reloads run, lol. Good luck!
@CrevsDaak If you're willing to fill in the form...but the form isn't really set up well for a created party is it? Hmm...*creates a new form for created teams* If you're willing to fill in the NEW form, I can post you in the challengers list on the 2nd post of this forum.
(Here's an example for a team of 3 *wonder where I got the character bios from* haha): -- @Lace C1: Loren (F) Half-Elf (NG) Priest of Lathander, 12 / 18 / 12 / 9 / 18 / 9 C2: Lia Nialo (F) Elven (NG) Ranger (Archer), 18/34, 19, 17, 9, 14, 18 C3: Marel (F) Human (TN) Thief, STR 19, DEX 19, CON 18, INT 12, WIS 11, CHA 14 Game(s) + Expansion(s): BG:EE Difficulty Setting: Core Clause(s): Poverty Run --
Journey Log! Wanted to do the planar sphere this evening, but ah well; didn't get to it. Tomorrow, then.
- Went to Umar Cave (forgot to finish Jermien's quest earlier). Fought the umber hulks first, then challenged the mimic. I pushed Hexxat in against the Umber Hulks a bit too fast, and she was confused (and I didn't rest after the final battle last journey log, so I was fresh out of chaotic commands), so I almost lost her. Thankfully, Jaheira still had a full heal waiting, which saved Hexxat from the brink of death.
- The mimic was easy. It hit Haer'Dalis for a mimic glue (affected him like hold person would), but he was pretty far back from the fight (I usually use him for his bard song and magic slinging at this point), so no worries about him.
- Continued on to Jermien to give him the mimic's blood. Delivered it as promised, and (of course) the golem went berserk. I was able to defeat it without it killing Jermien (better than the last time I did this quest), so that was nice. Both the two kids and the mage left, so I was able to pilfer all the good magic scrolls from his house.
- Checked with the mayor to finish the Umar Hills quest (and Madulf quest), and (of course) I picked up another rep point. -.- 17. Went up the hill to pick up Valygar. His prof points are all over the place (-.-) but I guess that's my fault for picking him up so late. Based on his stats, It looks like he'll be able to operate in much the same capacity as Yoshimo currently is, so I think Valygar'll be a good fit, especially once I begin progressing through the main quest again.
- Headed to the slums, rested, and then, since it was night, I decided to finish my cleric quest for the ring of Lathander before heading into the planar sphere. Threatened Tavin, wouldn't swear fealty to Talos (since my cleric is a priest of LATHANDER), so I fought him and his buddies. Not too difficult. Not too difficult at all. Went back to the temple, and had another stronghold quest waiting for me. This time it was Rania, who lost her faith. Told her to take her time, think things through. Not too many of these stronghold quests should be left.
- Took a minute to check my journal, and apparently I missed a quest I must've picked up some time earlier: the quest where Tirdir has been buried alive. Since it's night (so I can use Hexxat outside without Dragomir's cloak), I decided to work on this one next (still putting off the planar sphere).
- Went to the graveyard district and interrogated the gravekeeper, Stehle. He told me the man in red frequents the bridge district. Reluctantly, I went back to the bridge district (I dislike going to the bridge district because I have to avoid Neera's trigger every single stinkin' time) in search of the man in red. I found him, followed him inside the house, the 2 thugs inside killed the man in red, then one booked out the door. I followed and disposed of him before going back inside and taking care of the second thug. Then I went upstairs and freed the hostage. That's another quest down. At this point, the only quests left in my journal are Valygar's, Hexxat's, my cleric stronghold, and the main quest (collect gold for Gaelan Bayle).
- Met Sansuki on my way out. As Loren is a Priest of Lathander, there's no way she'd let a troupe of vampires kill a man, even if he is dressed as a thief, so the party fought them. A bit more challenging than expected, but not too challenging. Haer'Dalis and Valygar picked up some level drain, but we were literally right outside the Bridge District's Temple of Helm, so I popped in and purchased some greater restoration for them. Loren's turn undead ability was enough to send 2 vamps running, but not enough to make them explode. Well, we've still got a major quest to finish before I want to continue the main quest, and I'm still holding out hope that Hexxat's mysterious employer will (finally) step out of the shadows and give us the next part of her quest.
Casting Chaotic Commands on self is highly recommended before reading this! @Lace what for, didn't knew there was nor either two, but I got a way some a day, and, you know how ways, THEY CHANGE!! Anyway, sorry but I am plying in the (next thing I am going to burn) ipad, and I didn't checked right then.
Herez: Crev'Sindir Daak'Huinar, Lord of Chaos playing Baldurs's Gate with a self-made party for the third time, 31th in all his runs.
-Feran, Female Kensai (fighter kit), half-elf TN, STAFF+++ THWS++ STR 18/99 (so near )DEX 18 CON 18 INT 10 WIS 3 CHA 10, she is the Bhaalspawn, level 3, all HP rolls max. -Rok-a, male, Barbarian (it seems like another class, but it is coded as a fighter kit), half-orc, STAFF++ THWS++ LONG SWORD++ STR 19 DEX 18 CON 19 INT 11 WIS 7 CHA 7, max HP rolls too, level 3, he is CG. -Zane, male Monk (no kit nor kite), human, lawful neutral, level 3, 18/18/18(forgot he don't gets more HP after 16 :P)/9/14/9, dagger+ single weapon style+ (he won't get to use daggers anyway) he also got max HP rolls cuz' I am freaking Power gamer. -Jannie, Priest of Helm (cleric neutral kit), CN, staff+ THWS+ 18/16/16/11/18/3 (I could have dumped more INT to get more DEX), lvl3, spells are Cure Light Woundsx2, Doom, Remove Fear and Holdx3, max HP rolls. -Goron, Swashbuckler (thief kit), LE, male, elf, Staff+ THWS+, all the points in Find/Remove Traps and Set Traps, 18/19/16/10/4/10, lvl3 max HP rolls. -Tad, sorcerer (no kit no Kai no Jay no nothing nor Entropy), CE, male, half elf, spells: Magic Missile, Spook and Sleep. 18/18/16/12/9/9, lvl3, max HP rolls.
Difficultiesy: writing with sense, making things in order Cores Rules, but I always go down to Normal before leveling up, yeah, I do so ;(
I really don't know what "Clause(s)" is, and it looks like something I should care about. Type of playthrough: powergamerish Poverty Run.
Mods installed: no XP cap (revolution! Holy Baator?), some little things done by me that won't affect the game for sure, recolored UI (won't affect gameplay but it looks awesome), HLAs and that nasty stuff from ToB (I won't level up so much so this won't affect the game neither), more thingies done by me, won't affect gameplay unless all the enemies start using ELRIC01.ITM to ELRIC04.ITM from entropy (aka nothing), and also I've overriden the portrait because the iPad's screen is to little to show the "Custom" button, and I was lazy to try much more, so I changed all those that I didn't liked so much from all the NPCs I won't use because solo runs are my thing. So the mods affecting this gameplay are: -No XP cap. -No smugging monkeys. -No tying me to a chair so I can't drunk-fly. -No mummified gnomeliches in bathrobe. -Custom Portraits and re-colored UI.
NOTE: I am going to pick up all the Tomes, since I think I will import this party to BG2:EE, well, if I ever get it :P EDIT: Lia is Dragonspear's PC, Loren is yours and Marel is Erinne's.
Comments
Quests: Finished Sir Sarles, Half of the Bridge Skinner Murders, and the 1st part of Haer'Dalis's Quest
- After some careful consideration, I chose to dismiss Anomen from my party so that I could continue to use Hexxat on my team. Anomen might align with my team better, but Hexxat has skills the team needs (already have melee-ers and divine casters). Guess I'll have to find another compatible NPC for my team. I'm thinking Haer'Dalis, since I'm hoping with his darker outlook he'll have some fun banter with her.
- Yoshimo had some banter with Hexxat. Interesting.
- On my way out of the graveyard district, I encountered Wellyn. Quickly completed that quest. Had to fight Llynis; guess my cha wasn't up to snuff to talk my way out of it.
- Got the encounter for Renfeld, but after defeating the bad guys, the quest wouldn't trigger. He just lay there like a lump.
- Went to Bridge District to continue my completion of the Sarles quest and to start Haer'Dalis quest; unfortunately there was no way for me to avoid the trigger for the skinner quest, so I'll have to do that one now too. Ah well, that's the fun of the partial quest completion clause. Stopped by the play house quickly to get the beginning of the Haer'Dalis quest from Raelis Shai.
- Took out Neb et al. Easy peasy: I really should have started the difficulty at "core" instead of "normal", but I really wanted to be sure I could finish my first challenge attempt…
- Talked to the courtesan and the beggar for clues to the murderer, and took it to the tanner (good-aligned meta-gamer: I knew if I took it to the captain first, he'd end up dead, and at the time, Loren didn't know if the tanner was guilty. She was just going to the tanner to see if he could identify the piece of elephant leather and tannin.
- The ghasts were no contest since I got them with a hold undead early on, but the potion-drinking thief in the corner almost got Yoshimo (he went down to like 4 HP). Pulled him back, put a potion of extra healing in him + some healing thanks to Loren, and let the others take the thief down. The mage (forget his name) didn't last long either; not sure if it was a silence spell or some wounding darts that got him this time, but his spell casting was disabled by the 2nd or 3rd round.
- Finished the first part of the skinner quest by talking to the captain (now, after fighting the tanner, so that he could live), being careful to avoid triggering Neera's cut-scene. Sorry, Neera, but I'm going to use Haer'Dalis in this run.
- Went to Government district: delivered ore to Sir Sarles, and Neb's head for some extra coin, then continued to Temple District to pick up Haer'Dalis.
- I guess all the other times I've been in the temple sewers, I've gone to the middle first, and not up along the top, because Tanor the Hatchetman was still there. Ah well. I have plenty of money (and don't really want to get the trigger to continue the main quest yet), so I just paid him to leave me alone.
- A group of goblins spawned shortly thereafter. I guess that's what I get for taking the coward's way out.
- Went into Mekrath's lair. I followed the lines of dialogue that ended up with me challenging Mekrath (Me: "Oh, you think he's a thief? I thought you kidnapped the poor tiefling for his stone, my bad." Him: "Grr…I see how it is. Attack!") I tried to disable him with a silence, but Loren was a little too close. He saved vs. spell, I ended up silenced. -.- Either way, he cast protection from normal weapons and protection from missile weapons as his primary defense, so team melee took him down quick, and the skeleton he summoned too. Loren didn't need to talk to turn undead).
- A regular and ice salamander spawned in the room on the way to the altar with Haer'Dalis's stone, so I had to fight them too. Went too quickly into the room with the altar, and Hexxat took massive damage from one of the traps. Disabled the one on the alter itself, though.
- Continued to my temple, Lathander, to finish the Sir Sarles quest, to rest, and to check if I had another stronghold quest trigger waiting for me (nope). Because I'm a cleric, I got a choice between the ring of holiness, the armor of faith, and the staff-spear. Obviously I'm not going to choose the staff-spear, since my girl doesn't have any pips in staves. Finally chose the ring of holiness, because having more spells isn't likely to become obsolete, and the armor probably will before the end of the game.
- Accepted the follow-up mission from Dawnbringer Sain: get the ring of Lathander back from the Talassans. Rested at the temple. Got a rep complaint from Haer'Dalis: I might need to do rep management if I keep taking these good-aligned quests. No complaints from Hexxat yet, oddly enough.
Reputation: Popular (15)
Gold: 13,443
Loren: Level 9 Priest of Lathander
Notable Equipment includes Sling of Seeking +1, Mauler +2 (backup), Mail of the Dead +2, Saving Grace +3, Helm of Balduran, Amulet of 5% Magic Resistance, Girdle of Fortitude, Ring of Holiness
Minsc: Level 9 Ranger
Notable Equipment includes Lilarcor, Dragon's Bane +3 (backup), Composite Long Bow +1 (backup), Full Plate Mail, Helm of Infravision, Ring of the Princes, Sewer Cloak, Girdle of Bluntness, and dex gauntlets
Jaheira: Level 8/11 Druid/Fighter
Notable Equipment includes Quarterstaff +1, Sling +2, Plate Mail + 1, Cloak of Protection +1
Hexxat: Level 12 Thief
Notable Equipment includes Arbane's Sword +2, Neb's Nasty Cutter (off-hand), Dart of Wounding (backup anti-mage weapon), Short Bow + 1 (backup), Skin of the Ghoul +4, Cloak of Dragomir (as needed)
Yoshimo: Level 9 Fighter / Level 10 Bounty Hunter (inactive)
Notable Equipment includes Yoshimo's Katana +1, Katana (off-hand), Long Sword +1 (backup for off-hand), Heavy Crossbow of Accuracy (backup), Plate Mail +1
Haer'Dalis: Level 10 Blade
Notable Equipment includes Entropy +2, Chaos Blade (off-hand), Metaspell Influence Amulet
Next up: Finishing Haer'Dalis's quest!
PC Name (optional): Marel
PC Gender (optional): Female
Alignment: True Neutral
Race: Human
Class(es): Thief
Starting Stats: STR 19, DEX 19, CON 18, INT 12, WIS 11, CHA 14
Starting Proficiencies: + Long Sword, + Quarterstaff, + Crossbow, + Single Weapon Style
Game(s) + Expansion(s): BG2:EE + ToB (if I ever get that far)
Difficulty Setting: Insane
Clause(s): Limited Reloads, Limited Mods, Partial Quest Completion
First time playing on any difficulty above Normal so this is going to be fun. So far I'm out of Chateau Irenicus, only having had to reload three times... using the main character to scout ahead with only 75 points in move silently is a risky habit :P. But this is nothing compared to my usual abuse of the Q and L buttons whenever something doesn't go exactly to plan.
@Eck4343 I've been thinking about adding this to the list of clauses. So...added.
Done quests:
Investigate and destroy the cult of the eyeless
The de'Arnise keep has been cleared
Find the kidnappers who buried Tirdir
Bring the poisoned man to his friends
Find the Nether Scroll for Edwin
Locate a caretaker for the orphan Risa
Save Jaheira from Baron Ployer's curse
Find proof of Mae'var's treachery
Solve the "skinner" murders in the Bridge District
Free Hendak and the slaves
Open quests:
Gain the services of Sir Sarles for the temple
Thieves' guild stronghold
Animal trouble in Trademeet
Find out what happened to Montaron
The hunt for Valygar Corthala
Meeting with Valen's mistress
Neera's hidden refuge
Journey to the Windspear Hills
Collect the fee for Gaelan Bayle
Current party:
Marel (Thief 12)
Anomen (Fighter 7/Cleric 12)
Keldorn (Inquisitor 10)
Jaheira (Fighter 9/Druid 10)
Edwin (Conjurer 11)
Nalia (Thief 4/Mage 10)
Been switching around NPCs more than I usually do, which might bite me in the ass later if I end up with an under-leveled party - but I want to do more of the NPC-dependent sidequests this time around. Think I might do Keldorn's quest and drop him, then go to Trademeet to pick up Rasaad.
(For the record, my WS BG2EE party will be Keldorn, Valygar, Rasaad, Anomen (considered aerie but decided to pass) and then Yoshimo -> Imoen.
Also, a question of my avid readers: In this latest installment, Minsc has bitten the dust.
- Decided to spend a little money at my temple for the boots of electrical resistance, the anti-charm helmet, some healing potions, and a few protection scrolls (protection from the undead, which'll be useful later on). I'll be doing a few more side-quests, so the money shouldn't be an issue, and I kinda want to wait to trigger the next step of the main quest at this point.
- Went back to the Bridge district to do Haer-Dalis's quest. Will really need to do some rep management, since all of my neutral characters are complaining. Surprisingly, still no rep complaints from Hexxat (the 1 evil character I'm traveling with).
- Went to the playhouse, and had Haer'Dalis cast haste before he was dragged off the team through the portal. The bounty hunter party waiting on the other side was no match. For a change of pace, I had Hexxat use arrows of biting (I was able to assign her a prof point in bows, but still no pips in darts yet) and Yoshimo use bolts of biting (forgot I had some of those) against 1 yuan-ti mage, and Loren got the other one with a silence spell. After that, it was simply a cleaning up operation. Also, if you have artificially enhanced strength and add "draw upon holy might" on top of that, the strength bonuses stack (sweet!). Need to see if get to keep the properly stacked bonuses if I switch mauler in on top of an already-case holy might spell. My pure cleric ended up with a THACO of 9 and an AC of -7. By Lathander, she can buff up to the front-lines! She was a juggernaut of pure destruction. I was also able to take out the 1st group of thralls on the same set of buff spells.
- Rested before going onto the next group of baddies (the one with the wyvern). A bit of fore-planning made this section easy: glyph of warding (the salamander saved, but I got the yuan-ti mage and the ice salamander but good, followed by silence (cast sufficiently far away from my party, so none of mine were caught by accident), which got the mage (the point of that spell), and they were pretty easy for team melee to wipe up.
- I used my chaotic commands to protect my two casters (Jaheira and Loren), tried my last silence spell on the warden. The warden saved, but the yuan-ti mage behind him was disabled. I tried to disable the warden again, this time with Jaheira casting insect plague while Loren summoned a skeleton in the hopes of protecting Minsc, who was stunned. In the end, the plague was unneeded, since Hexxat got him with an arrow of biting. This didn't stop the contingency he had from really hurting my team, though. I'm pretty lucky Hexxat didn't die. In the end, it was Minsc that bit the dust, sadly. Stun is a deadly move when you've got opponents wailing on you.
My party:
Reputation: Popular (16)
Gold: 11,047
Loren: Level 10 Priest of Lathander
Jaheira: Level 8/11 Fighter/Druid
Yoshimo: Level 9 Fighter / Level 10 Thief (inactive)
Hexxat: Level 12 Thief
Haer'Dalis: Level 10 Blade
--
RIP Minsc: Level 9 Ranger, Total Experience: 478,747
Fell to the Planar Prison's Warden
Disclaimer: Part of me wishes I was doing a full no rez run at this point.
[Spoiler]It was the west side of beregost, born and raised, at high hedge, where Dynaheir spends most of her days. Buying up, scribin, memorizing all cool, castin some magic missile outside of the school...
Alright I actually think I started in the Beregost blacksmith, but that doesn't allow for a fresh prince parody off the top of my head.
2 Big things stand out today:
1. I started earlier fully intending on trying to not go in quest order, but after also realizing that I had literally quick-loaded 3 times in a row I quit without saving and went back to my fighter/cleric intending on continuing later.
2. I did end up quick loading on the main quest I did earlier today just out of sheer frustration..........but NOWW ON WITH THE SHOW!
Lia: {So we're going to go to Cloakwood right? Progress on with the main quest.}
ME: No, I think I'm going to send you to the Firewine Ruins. It's mostly filled with kobolds and there are some nice gloves you can get there.
Lia: (But we literally JUST destroyed the bandit camp, shouldn't we quickly catch them unawares?)
Me: Yes you did, but you won't. First of all you've already gone to Beregost, Nashkel, done the stupid stuff for Neera AND we went to the gnoll fortress. We don't know what kinda opposition they're going to have in Cloakwood, and the camp wasn't exactly a walk in the park remember.
Lia: (I LIVED!, just because anytime we do a story quest and get to the end boss a buncha people think its time for a dirt nap isn't MY fault.)
Me: Well good thing I have this thing called a mouse to influence you, to FIREWINE RUINS NAO!
Lia: (Mutters and grumbles swearing revenge)
(Hey if the Bridge is ALL the way over there, why do they dump us as far away as possible, this stinks. And Skeletons really? I HATE SKELETONS. Do you know how many arrows I waste on these guys. Can't we find some nice juicy CLOAKWOOD spiders or something. You know my HATED enemy).
Me: Look there's the guy for your gloves kill him. Ez pz, ok.......Now their should be an ogre mage down around here somewhere..............(death screen).
Lia: (Way to go genius, you know you COULD listen to the ranger about where to go.)
Me: shut up shut up shut up, I swear I kept Xzar around you too long. Anyway rest up, that place is filled with traps. Ask Dynaheir, NICELY this time, if she'll memorize a invisibility spell for us.
Lia: (Look at my kill count, now look back to me, now look at my kill count, now back to me. We don't need an invis, we have ME!. I have a high enough hide in shadows for anything indoors. Don't worry about it of Heir to Minsc, Imoen and I will get th....................(death screen)).
Me: Where's my I told you so button
Lia: (Something, something cloakwood......Fine)
Cue today's major cheese, casting invis on Imoen and having her de-trap the entire ruins before walking through with my party. I did quickload once here cause I accidently popped a trap with like 70% of the map explored. That said I popped 2 others and didn't reload them...........of course they didn't kill her either (Imoen: YA AND IT STILL HURTS. IT HURTS I TELL YOU. I'M A THIEF NOT A MAGE, I CAN'T JUST THROW PROTECTIONS UP TO DEFEND MYSELF.)
Lia: (Ya you be nice to her, she's my sister.)
Anyway, traps are done, both quests done (the wizard and the ogre mage both went down super easy. Quickdraw McLia (Lia: the quickdraw part is fine, but what's up with the McLia.......you need some better lines), managed early spell interrupts on both that nullified every spell they tried to cast.
I Turn in the quest in Gullykin, and stumble upon ANOTHER band of assassins. I focused Lia on the mage (Lia: I think they get the idea that you like me turning mages into target practice) and had Dynaheir cast a deafness on the cleric, effectively removing both casters from the fight. The rest as they say is cleanup. This ends today's tal................(Lia: Oh no it doesn't. Don't even try. I think I'll finish this part up since you want to forget it and don't wanna embarass yourself.)
Lia: (So the entire time we were on the Gullykin map, I had this nagging thought in my head that there was something on this map towards the southeast we had to worry about. We mopped up the assassins alright, but something was still bothering me. Still the "Mouseclicker" as they'll hereby be referred to, decided to explore some more........
Right into an Ankheg pit........poor Minsc and Khalid were dead before they even knew what hit them. No no wait it gets better. Rather than "Mouseclicker" sending us back to Gullykin, he insists we go to the Beregost temple to rez these 2.
No sooner do we, "gather our party to adventure forth" *coughcoughrezdetail*, we end up getting ambushed by a buncha bandits. Ya those bandits, you know the one who's camp we just wiped out. Well apparently things at the mine are secure enough because they sent about 10 after my hide. *Sniffs* poor Imoen took a dirty nap. I hastely grabbed HER belongings too, and ran towards beregost temple (now the fastest place for lifesavers Raise dead spells. AFTER dropping 1200g on Khalid and Minsc combined, Mouseclicker realized they couldn't afford Imoen. We had to run all the way over to beregost, rest cause it was the middle of the night. Then sell all that precious loot, then run back and rez Imoen. I swear that Mousecli----.)
That's enough Lia. Anyway, that's the story, still up on gold and experience, still no one turned into chunky soup. If my blade playthrough is any indicator, the chunking prolly won't happen until Durlag's or Werewolf Isle, which has me INCREDIBLY worried.[/Spoiler]
And with that, I'll try to keep Lia going, she's a devastatingly powerful character, and when I use her stealth as well actually quite fun. That said I tend to enjoy the write ups even more than playing her. My fighter/cleric is flying through the content right now, cleaning up some areas before she goes to the Bandit camp herself, and I still have the Wizard Slayer to get started. I had considered posting the WS log here, but A. I don't know if I'm going to do one and B. anything other than a no arcane party is asking for trouble with a WS, and I still plan on Dual-Classing Imoen so that's ruled out too =/
Late Edit: Due to the high probability of forgetting, I'm making a note that I dropped the rules down on my game back to Core, simply due to other characters I'm playing. Chances are I won't remember to bump it back up for my archer, but maybe I'll also get less irritated at most of my party imploding at times.
Challenged the Umar Hills quest. Lots of fun!
- Haer'Dalis had a level-up that I missed waiting for him from the last session, so now he's level 11.
- Went to my temple to check for another temple quest. This time, one was there waiting for me.
- Got a bit of dialogue from Hexxat. Apparently her employer is going to give her an assignment soon. I'm interested to see what the rest of her quest will look like.
- I've decided to replace Minsc, the NPC that died in my last journey log, with Valygar, so I've gotten his quest listing in my journal by talking to Tolgerias of the Cowled Wizards.
- All the quests I've done up until this point have been in the city, so imagine my surprise when the Umar Hills were still grayed out! Went to the city gates so I could leave Athkatla.
- Got to Umar Hills with no encounters. Got quest from Jermien to go get Mimic's blood. Selected the wrong option with Jeb, so I lost out on the gem in the chicken "quest".
- Continued out into the woods of Umar Hills in search of Merella's cabin and Valygar. Found Merella's cabin first. Contemplating using Mazzy for Mazzy's quest, then dumping her (or living through her conflict with Hexxat), then getting Valygar, since I prefer to use the NPC that owns their quest. Hmm…yes, I think I'll do that.
- Found the orgre north of town, and promised to talk to the villagers on their behalf (I hope I don't get another +1 rep, or I'll really need to do some rep management).
- Found a random scroll lying on the ground just north of the monster group. (???) Don't remember that from before…
- Continued to the Umar Hills Temple. Forgot how spooky the ambiance was here. Good bit of world-building here. Spoke to Anath to enlist her to help me defeat the shade lord in Amaunator's temple. (Considering I did the Unseeing Eye quest first, where we witness the end of Amaunator, one could imagine Loren to be the cause of this unrest. From an RP perspective, I imagine that's exactly what my character is thinking).
- Got a test of Loren's "turn undead" ability: she's able to explode shadows now.
- I was doing okay until Loren took a hit from a shadow (too close to the melee, I guess) and got affected by hold. Luckily, the fighting moved away from her pretty quickly, though, so she didn't take any further damage.
- I sent Hexxat to turn the stained glass (poor werewolf Anath, giving her life to the cause), but was surrounded by shadows and shade wolves for her troubles. Something hit her for an ability drain to her strength, but she still had 18 str, so she's still the strongest character I've got right now. She…held up incredibly well, all things considered. I was able to break the line of shadows and make it to the entrance, where the light took out the shadows.
- Entered the temple, and cleared my way to Mazzy. As I've said before, I like complete quests with their associated NPC, so I took her on (dangerous, since I know that if I'm not careful, she'll have a conflict with Hexxat). Loren also took an ability drain from one of the shadows down there, but by the time the undead were all cleared out, both her and Hexxat's drain cleared up on their own, which was good.
- I think this is going so easily for me because my characters have enough levels at this point that they're able to better brute force their way through. That, and I'm still playing at a pretty low difficulty setting.
- Had some trouble locating the 3rd piece of the sun symbol. -.- Had to resort to the internet to figure out that I had to go back to the talking head and answer some questions in order to get the last part.
- Next, I did something risky that really paid off. I rested (after picking proper spells, of course) and then I CHALLENGED THE SHADOW DRAGON. I set up a wall of summoned meat shields, sacrificing the first skeleton to the shadow dragon's death spell. 2 more nymphs, a fire elemental, some wolves thanks to Hexxat, the summon horn warrior, and a bunch of random monsters thanks to Haer'Dalis. I buffed with protection from evil 10' radius, armor of faith (me and Jaheira), and draw upon holy might (my character only), plus bless, chant, chaotic commands, resist fear, and haste (and others I probably forgot). Then, the team started wailing on it. It took the shadow dragon a really long time to start attacking back, and when it did, I would check to see who it was targeting, pull them out of range, and make them zig-zag behind my attackers to keep the dragon walking and not attacking as long as possible. If it started to cast a spell, I'd pull my characters back, since almost all of its spells were area effect spells like horror (though, I think I lost the fire elemental and the monsters that way). And it worked! OMG, did it work! I didn't even lose a single party member! w00t!!! If a party member did take a hit, I had A LOT of healing potions waiting so that while they were zig-zagging, they could drink to their health. I also noticed that Hexxat had a lot of good luck (might've had something to do with the luck spell Haer'Dalis cast on her): she scored quite a few crits, which definitely helped. The hardest part was the breath weapon (or whatever it is that pushes your characters to the edge of the screen). One of them knocked Yoshimo out entirely. Thankfully, the breath weapon was only used like twice (once it only hit meat shields, not party members). After the first breath attack, that's when I had to switch my party members from ranged weapons to melee, since ranged weapons like arrows don't seem to hit after it uses its breath attack. Please, also remember that I'm playing on "normal" difficulty, which makes the game a lot easier. Final credit for the kill went to Hexxat. Fun times.
- After that, I rested again in preparation of the final battle for this quest. In comparison, it was all too easy. Forgot to put the cloak back on Hexxat after the battle, so when the area turned to daylight, Hexxat took some damage.
- Made it back to the Umar Hills area, booted Mazzy, and decided to end here for today. It was a good day's adventuring, if I do say so myself. :-)
I've done most of the quests in Chapter 2 now. Cleared Umar Hills and Windspear Hills (though I didn't kill any dragons yet). Kicked Lavok outta the Planar Sphere. Rescued Haer'Dalis and troupe from the Planar Prison. Saved Trademeet and did Rasaad's quest. "Rescued" Montaron and killed Galvarey. Now the only major things that remain are various bonus bosses (which I'm not going to tackle just yet... or possibly ever), stronghold quests (which are going to take a while probably), and handing over the money to Gaelan Bayle. Oh, and just one other thing...
gods lend me strength
Current party:
Marel (Thief 15)
Anomen (Fighter 7/Cleric 15)
Jaheira (Fighter 10/Druid 12)
Rasaad (Sun Soul Monk 12)
Valygar (Stalker 10)
Edwin (Conjurer 12)
@CrevsDaak If you're willing to fill in the form...but the form isn't really set up well for a created party is it? Hmm...*creates a new form for created teams* If you're willing to fill in the NEW form, I can post you in the challengers list on the 2nd post of this forum.
--
@Lace
Created Party
C1: Name, (F/M), Race, (Alignment), Class(es), Stats
C2: Name, (F/M), Race, (Alignment), Class(es), Stats
C3: Name, (F/M), Race, (Alignment), Class(es), Stats
C4: Name, (F/M), Race, (Alignment), Class(es), Stats
C5: Name, (F/M), Race, (Alignment), Class(es), Stats
C6: Name, (F/M), Race, (Alignment), Class(es), Stats
Game(s) + Expansion(s):
Difficulty Setting:
Clause(s):
--
(Here's an example for a team of 3 *wonder where I got the character bios from* haha):
--
@Lace
C1: Loren (F) Half-Elf (NG) Priest of Lathander, 12 / 18 / 12 / 9 / 18 / 9
C2: Lia Nialo (F) Elven (NG) Ranger (Archer), 18/34, 19, 17, 9, 14, 18
C3: Marel (F) Human (TN) Thief, STR 19, DEX 19, CON 18, INT 12, WIS 11, CHA 14
Game(s) + Expansion(s): BG:EE
Difficulty Setting: Core
Clause(s): Poverty Run
--
Journey Log! Wanted to do the planar sphere this evening, but ah well; didn't get to it. Tomorrow, then.
- Went to Umar Cave (forgot to finish Jermien's quest earlier). Fought the umber hulks first, then challenged the mimic. I pushed Hexxat in against the Umber Hulks a bit too fast, and she was confused (and I didn't rest after the final battle last journey log, so I was fresh out of chaotic commands), so I almost lost her. Thankfully, Jaheira still had a full heal waiting, which saved Hexxat from the brink of death.
- The mimic was easy. It hit Haer'Dalis for a mimic glue (affected him like hold person would), but he was pretty far back from the fight (I usually use him for his bard song and magic slinging at this point), so no worries about him.
- Continued on to Jermien to give him the mimic's blood. Delivered it as promised, and (of course) the golem went berserk. I was able to defeat it without it killing Jermien (better than the last time I did this quest), so that was nice. Both the two kids and the mage left, so I was able to pilfer all the good magic scrolls from his house.
- Checked with the mayor to finish the Umar Hills quest (and Madulf quest), and (of course) I picked up another rep point. -.- 17. Went up the hill to pick up Valygar. His prof points are all over the place (-.-) but I guess that's my fault for picking him up so late. Based on his stats, It looks like he'll be able to operate in much the same capacity as Yoshimo currently is, so I think Valygar'll be a good fit, especially once I begin progressing through the main quest again.
- Headed to the slums, rested, and then, since it was night, I decided to finish my cleric quest for the ring of Lathander before heading into the planar sphere. Threatened Tavin, wouldn't swear fealty to Talos (since my cleric is a priest of LATHANDER), so I fought him and his buddies. Not too difficult. Not too difficult at all. Went back to the temple, and had another stronghold quest waiting for me. This time it was Rania, who lost her faith. Told her to take her time, think things through. Not too many of these stronghold quests should be left.
- Took a minute to check my journal, and apparently I missed a quest I must've picked up some time earlier: the quest where Tirdir has been buried alive. Since it's night (so I can use Hexxat outside without Dragomir's cloak), I decided to work on this one next (still putting off the planar sphere).
- Went to the graveyard district and interrogated the gravekeeper, Stehle. He told me the man in red frequents the bridge district. Reluctantly, I went back to the bridge district (I dislike going to the bridge district because I have to avoid Neera's trigger every single stinkin' time) in search of the man in red. I found him, followed him inside the house, the 2 thugs inside killed the man in red, then one booked out the door. I followed and disposed of him before going back inside and taking care of the second thug. Then I went upstairs and freed the hostage. That's another quest down. At this point, the only quests left in my journal are Valygar's, Hexxat's, my cleric stronghold, and the main quest (collect gold for Gaelan Bayle).
- Met Sansuki on my way out. As Loren is a Priest of Lathander, there's no way she'd let a troupe of vampires kill a man, even if he is dressed as a thief, so the party fought them. A bit more challenging than expected, but not too challenging. Haer'Dalis and Valygar picked up some level drain, but we were literally right outside the Bridge District's Temple of Helm, so I popped in and purchased some greater restoration for them. Loren's turn undead ability was enough to send 2 vamps running, but not enough to make them explode.
@Lace what for, didn't knew there was nor either two, but I got a way some a day, and, you know how ways, THEY CHANGE!!
Anyway, sorry but I am plying in the (next thing I am going to burn) ipad, and I didn't checked right then.
Herez: Crev'Sindir Daak'Huinar, Lord of Chaos playing Baldurs's Gate with a self-made party for the third time, 31th in all his runs.
-Feran, Female Kensai (fighter kit), half-elf TN, STAFF+++ THWS++ STR 18/99 (so near )DEX 18 CON 18 INT 10 WIS 3 CHA 10, she is the Bhaalspawn, level 3, all HP rolls max.
-Rok-a, male, Barbarian (it seems like another class, but it is coded as a fighter kit), half-orc, STAFF++ THWS++ LONG SWORD++ STR 19 DEX 18 CON 19 INT 11 WIS 7 CHA 7, max HP rolls too, level 3, he is CG.
-Zane, male Monk (no kit nor kite), human, lawful neutral, level 3, 18/18/18(forgot he don't gets more HP after 16 :P)/9/14/9, dagger+ single weapon style+ (he won't get to use daggers anyway) he also got max HP rolls cuz' I am freaking Power gamer.
-Jannie, Priest of Helm (cleric neutral kit), CN, staff+ THWS+ 18/16/16/11/18/3 (I could have dumped more INT to get more DEX), lvl3, spells are Cure Light Woundsx2, Doom, Remove Fear and Holdx3, max HP rolls.
-Goron, Swashbuckler (thief kit), LE, male, elf, Staff+ THWS+, all the points in Find/Remove Traps and Set Traps, 18/19/16/10/4/10, lvl3 max HP rolls.
-Tad, sorcerer (no kit no Kai no Jay no nothing nor Entropy), CE, male, half elf, spells: Magic Missile, Spook and Sleep. 18/18/16/12/9/9, lvl3, max HP rolls.
Difficultiesy: writing with sense, making things in order Cores Rules, but I always go down to Normal before leveling up, yeah, I do so ;(
I really don't know what "Clause(s)" is, and it looks like something I should care about.
Type of playthrough: powergamerish Poverty Run.
Mods installed: no XP cap (revolution! Holy Baator?), some little things done by me that won't affect the game for sure, recolored UI (won't affect gameplay but it looks awesome), HLAs and that nasty stuff from ToB (I won't level up so much so this won't affect the game neither), more thingies done by me, won't affect gameplay unless all the enemies start using ELRIC01.ITM to ELRIC04.ITM from entropy (aka nothing), and also I've overriden the portrait because the iPad's screen is to little to show the "Custom" button, and I was lazy to try much more, so I changed all those that I didn't liked so much from all the NPCs I won't use because solo runs are my thing.
So the mods affecting this gameplay are:
-No XP cap.
-No smugging monkeys.
-No tying me to a chair so I can't drunk-fly.
-No mummified gnomeliches in bathrobe.
-Custom Portraits and re-colored UI.
NOTE: I am going to pick up all the Tomes, since I think I will import this party to BG2:EE, well, if I ever get it :P
EDIT: Lia is Dragonspear's PC, Loren is yours and Marel is Erinne's.