Sorry when I said resistances I was meaning more spell/element resistances (since I was talking about using a wand). They have 100 percent missile resistance and a slew of status immunities but thats it.
Freaking awesome! nihongo no hanasu nakama wa yokatta desu
You are doing a fantastic job of demonstrating the power of the totemic druid. I am looking forward to a report on your battle with Daveorn. That'll be a tricky one with all the traps and his constant dimension doors.
I can actually now update what I wrote earlier. I'm 12,000 xp away from being level 10 and I've not even entered peldvale, larswood, the bandit camp, firewine bridge/ruins, gullykin, durlag's tower (interior and exterior), and basically 3-4 other areas in the south-east. So you could have as many as two level 5 spells (level 10) before doing it.
Today is the last day of the month and I’ve got quite a lot of job to do in order to finish the working month successfully so the progress today was not so impressive but still…
With 9 000 gp from Thalantyr for the ring of Evermemory Yoru bought the wands of sleep and fear, potions of fire, cold and electricity resistances, potions of freedom and explosions – all the stuff needed to overcome a sudden ambush by a group of bounty-hunters that due to the SCS component can suddenly appear when travelling from one area to another.
With these wands the ordinary enemies (hobgoblins, gnolls, gibberlings and so on) don’t pose any threat anymore because they tend to fail their saving throws more often than not.
Karasu no Yoru accomplished quests for Zhurlong and Perdue, found two (yes, there’re two of them, not one) bloodstone amulets of Colquetle on the road to Nashkel and then successfully reached this town.
For a fight against Neira I chose the Snake because of its poison. Quite deadly against spell casters, really.
In Nashkel I found a pleasant surprise in the form of an Ankheg armor. The totemic druid can put it on, so that it makes his AC low if compared even with the good studded leather armor.
In Nashel Carnival Yoru bought the Shield Amulet which will protect him against Magical Missiles when it will be needed.
So, before coming to the Nashel Mines area the druid collected a good arsenal of items to make him a tough both in melee and in ranged fights.
The famous Greywolf couldn’t resist the wand of fear so Yoru had enough time to summon a Nymph. Her hold person spell was the key. The lightning effect just made the look of this fight appealing.
Here’s the inventory before entering the Mines.
I like the green look of an armor on the druid, it suits this class. And this armor is so good in terms of not being hit by an odd sword or an arrow. The screenshot below shows this armor gives -4 to attack rolls of a kobold, so Yoru now can be hit only with a critical roll by this kind of enemies. If you combine it with the wand of sleep you get a rather easy way through the Mines.
But the time has come for me to work a little bit;) The tale of the Totemic Druid will be continued on Monday.
I'm really glad you find this tale interesting. It's exciting for me as well.
One enemy that I just came across that druids will have difficulty killing is the mustard jelly. All of your normal druid summons (Animal summoning 1, Animal Summoning 2) apparently use piercing attacks (not true and apparently irrelevant), which the jellies are immune to. The exception being the nymph (who has no chance at surviving). Their high magic resistance makes your spells (Call lightning) worthless against them. In my case since I have no sling proficiency and low strength (outside of my shapeshifter form) that just added to the difficulty (which to be honest wasn't all the difficult it was more of a surprise than anything). Personally I ended up beating them thanks to a few castings of Strength of One and a club+1 that I had. Its certainly a case where the Totemic Druid summons would come in handy. Just kind of interesting to come across a creature where none of my spells could help lol.
Edit: Nevermind about the whole piercing damage thing. The issue was that even the Animal Summon II creatures hit as though they have normal weapons (which considering its a level 5 spell is kind of stupid).
Yea, I was inspired to do my own solo totemic druid run (spent the last 3 days pretty much doing nothing else), and I feared the mustard jelly so I just exited the nashkel mines the way I came in and avoided them.
btw I'm rocking icingdeath and buckleys buckler along with ankheg plate, gauntlets of dexterity, mulahay's ring, and boots of speed. So far I'm breezing through. I'm excited to see how I stand up in SoA
Yea, I was inspired to do my own solo totemic druid run (spent the last 3 days pretty much doing nothing else), and I feared the mustard jelly so I just exited the nashkel mines the way I came in and avoided them.
Those from the Nashkel Mines are Grey Ooze, I guess that you can take them. And you can exit the other area towards the West to avoid all the fights in it, if Narcilius was another trouble.
Yea, I was inspired to do my own solo totemic druid run (spent the last 3 days pretty much doing nothing else), and I feared the mustard jelly so I just exited the nashkel mines the way I came in and avoided them.
Yea I'm trying to do all the encounters in the game. At least the non-random encounters. So I did it.
Ah, so you are a completionist. I'm not so much. My mission is to beat the game and get to SoA. Also, I don't have any mods on my game, so I have a hard xp cap to contend with, which makes spending more time in BG1 than necessary kind've a waste.
so if my xp caps out at 157k or whatever it is, but I earn in reality, say 350k, when I import him over, he'll be 350k?!? Is this automatic or do I need to do something for it to happen? Man I tell ya, learn something new every day
It'll be 350,000 when you import him. You can't check your total XP amount in BGEE (because it will just say 161,000) but if you use EEKeeper it will work (for instance mine right now is 170355). So its still being counted behind the scenes.
Edit: Hmm...I'm using 1.2 and its giving me some issues. I've actually lost experience since I wrote that 170,000 figure. I'll check the latest (beta) version to see how its working when I get the chance.
I’m so glad for all your attempts, guys, and wish everyone success!
So far I’m enjoying the totemic druid run, I can’t even describe enough how much he kicks ass now. Mulahey and Tranzig were not able to resist the power of 2 animal spirits and 2 nymphs. A potion of explosion destroyed all the kobold army summoned by Mulahey in one second. The part of the run I want to share is how I defeated the improved SCS Bandit camp. It was something like BANG! BANG! BANG!
Here’s how it went. The screenshots show the battle step-by-step so that you can track it.
The fight against an enemy party consisting of a mage needs the free action and shield prebuffing. Then 2 animals were summoned. Their task was to eliminate every melee opponent who would reach Karasu no Yoru. The druid himself constantly used the One Gift Lost (the Necklace of Missiles bought at the Nashkel Carnival) centered at the bandit archers that came and came and came...
In the end it took 9 uses of this Necklace (!) and two potions of explosion (!) to end the lifes of all the bandits in the camp. As soon as the summoned animals were defeated by the enemy powers Yoru retreated only to fireball the group after him from time to time.
After this battle finished Karasu no Yoru reached 60 000 xp granting him the 8th level.
P.S. My main aim is to survive so I skip difficult moments till I have enough recourses to overcome them. For e.i., Mustard Jellies are immune to the attacks of the 7th level spirit animals, they’re immune to the druidic magic, Karasu doesn’t have enough gear to face them in melee yet so no fighting with Narcillius and his jellies yet.
It's interesting to hear it's not working now so I'll gladly wait for an update for this. It would be somewhat dissappointing to find out the XP is not transferred.
Congratulations Karasu no Yoru, it's a dangerous path you're on but you're doing well for yourself, yes?
As for the mustard jellies, blunt weapons and elemental damage would be your best bet to beat them I think. Neera's staff (which you probably don't have) comes to mind. I wonder if there are any ways to protect yourself against the jellies' spit? If not I wouldn't bother yet...
Mustard jellies shouldn't be a problem for you because your summons are pretty resilient. You can just use a blunt weapon and have the summons distract the jelly and kill them yourself.
Wow, I'm not used to seeing the bandit camp leaders outdoors. I always kill em in their tent. I will say this: my totemic druid got a little evil and killed Algernon for his cloak, so the first thing I did when I entered was charm the mage with the cloak, who horrored the enemy. After that it was spirit bear dinner time.
I've been a little bit busy recently. And now I have a chance to bring you an update. Well, what can I say?
In the first place, @bbear was right saying playing as a druid is not simple. Yes, a journey through the Cloakwood and the Mines was like a vacation, really. No single enemy could oppose the power of two summoned animals so Karasu quickly gained the 9th and the 10th levels. And all that BEFORE reaching the final level of the Cloakwood Mines.
But then he faced Davaeorn. And this is where the words of our @bbear came true. A druid lacks the fire-power, simply said. Although summoned animals couldn't be hit by Battle Horrors, were immune to Davaeorn's Web and Stinking Cloud spells, they were not immune to 2 fire-balls and cones-of-cold. That was the reason Davaeorn went forward and saw the druid. A group of blacktalon elites that suddenly came from the entrance didn't help either. An Insect Plague spell was spent on this group. Being forced to the wall, the druid didn't find a solution to survive. A blue potion of Magical Immunity could help him as it helped against the powerful (SCS) wizard from the Drasus party. But it was too late for poor Karasu no Yoru to realize that. BANG! Gameover....
I need some time to analyze this. The very first thoughts are that the totemic druid relies heavily on his spirit animals. These animals drive him through the game, dealing with all the enemies he faces. His magic is used only as an addition. He doesn't have a lot of damaging or crowd-control spells. A summoned Nymph can cast a Hold Person spell, the druid has a lightning spell but basically that's it. Later he has Insects. As any other character, he has to rely on potions, wands and amulets. It's a fun class to play but of course in a party he would be much, much more reliable.
I haven't decided yet what to do next. It was a pleasure to try a druid and while I've found his magical arsenal rather hard to use I like the difficulty it brings. Summoned animals made 99% of fights in BG1 easier so probably in order to test the real nature of a druid I have to try a vanilla class.
An insightful tale. I'm also sorry he died. Your druid survived many difficult encounters, well done. Given your reliance on the spirit animals, I reckon that trueclass druid could even be more difficult to play, unless his shapeshifts are in anyway useful.
@elminster what are the latest news? Are XP over the cap being transferred to BG2?
Not sure it still seems like its not always correctly working.
I didn't play SCS so I'm not sure how different the encounter with Davaeorn goes but I basically just had a bunch of summons (two Animal Summoning II and the rest Animal Summoning I) prepared in advance along with casting Bless, Strength of One and Defensive Harmony. I then triggered the traps and kept using the Wand of the Heavens against the battle horrors (and the summons were attacking them). I did have to retreat after I killed the first one but that was mostly needed as well to memorize Insect Plague prior to me having to fight Davaeorn.
@bengoshi your tale came to a premature and unfortunate end I hit him with insect plague and my spirit snake poisoned Daveorn and he never had a chance. I think you approached the battle overconfident and left your spirit animals to do the work. Did you not yet have insect plague and iron skins?
SCS can be definitly challenging. Davaeron is done very well. In my current RP run, I've struggled as well and were forced to reload multiple times.
He had more protections than my arcane caster could wear down and squads of Black Talon Elites kept spamming every couple rounds. Very tactical heavy battle!
Comments
(I'd like to see something similar done for Wizard Slayer!)
With 9 000 gp from Thalantyr for the ring of Evermemory Yoru bought the wands of sleep and fear, potions of fire, cold and electricity resistances, potions of freedom and explosions – all the stuff needed to overcome a sudden ambush by a group of bounty-hunters that due to the SCS component can suddenly appear when travelling from one area to another.
With these wands the ordinary enemies (hobgoblins, gnolls, gibberlings and so on) don’t pose any threat anymore because they tend to fail their saving throws more often than not.
Karasu no Yoru accomplished quests for Zhurlong and Perdue, found two (yes, there’re two of them, not one) bloodstone amulets of Colquetle on the road to Nashkel and then successfully reached this town.
For a fight against Neira I chose the Snake because of its poison. Quite deadly against spell casters, really.
In Nashkel I found a pleasant surprise in the form of an Ankheg armor. The totemic druid can put it on, so that it makes his AC low if compared even with the good studded leather armor.
In Nashel Carnival Yoru bought the Shield Amulet which will protect him against Magical Missiles when it will be needed.
So, before coming to the Nashel Mines area the druid collected a good arsenal of items to make him a tough both in melee and in ranged fights.
The famous Greywolf couldn’t resist the wand of fear so Yoru had enough time to summon a Nymph. Her hold person spell was the key. The lightning effect just made the look of this fight appealing.
Here’s the inventory before entering the Mines.
I like the green look of an armor on the druid, it suits this class. And this armor is so good in terms of not being hit by an odd sword or an arrow. The screenshot below shows this armor gives -4 to attack rolls of a kobold, so Yoru now can be hit only with a critical roll by this kind of enemies. If you combine it with the wand of sleep you get a rather easy way through the Mines.
But the time has come for me to work a little bit;) The tale of the Totemic Druid will be continued on Monday.
I'm really glad you find this tale interesting. It's exciting for me as well.
Edit: Nevermind about the whole piercing damage thing. The issue was that even the Animal Summon II creatures hit as though they have normal weapons (which considering its a level 5 spell is kind of stupid).
And you can exit the other area towards the West to avoid all the fights in it, if Narcilius was another trouble.
also with all these people playing totemic druid Id just like to let people know I played them before it was cool
Edit: Hmm...I'm using 1.2 and its giving me some issues. I've actually lost experience since I wrote that 170,000 figure. I'll check the latest (beta) version to see how its working when I get the chance.
So far I’m enjoying the totemic druid run, I can’t even describe enough how much he kicks ass now.
Mulahey and Tranzig were not able to resist the power of 2 animal spirits and 2 nymphs. A potion of explosion destroyed all the kobold army summoned by Mulahey in one second. The part of the run I want to share is how I defeated the improved SCS Bandit camp. It was something like BANG! BANG! BANG!
Here’s how it went. The screenshots show the battle step-by-step so that you can track it.
The fight against an enemy party consisting of a mage needs the free action and shield prebuffing. Then 2 animals were summoned. Their task was to eliminate every melee opponent who would reach Karasu no Yoru. The druid himself constantly used the One Gift Lost (the Necklace of Missiles bought at the Nashkel Carnival) centered at the bandit archers that came and came and came...
In the end it took 9 uses of this Necklace (!) and two potions of explosion (!) to end the lifes of all the bandits in the camp. As soon as the summoned animals were defeated by the enemy powers Yoru retreated only to fireball the group after him from time to time.
After this battle finished Karasu no Yoru reached 60 000 xp granting him the 8th level.
P.S. My main aim is to survive so I skip difficult moments till I have enough recourses to overcome them. For e.i., Mustard Jellies are immune to the attacks of the 7th level spirit animals, they’re immune to the druidic magic, Karasu doesn’t have enough gear to face them in melee yet so no fighting with Narcillius and his jellies yet.
@elminster
It's interesting to hear it's not working now so I'll gladly wait for an update for this. It would be somewhat dissappointing to find out the XP is not transferred.
As for the mustard jellies, blunt weapons and elemental damage would be your best bet to beat them I think. Neera's staff (which you probably don't have) comes to mind. I wonder if there are any ways to protect yourself against the jellies' spit? If not I wouldn't bother yet...
Rock on!
In the first place, @bbear was right saying playing as a druid is not simple. Yes, a journey through the Cloakwood and the Mines was like a vacation, really. No single enemy could oppose the power of two summoned animals so Karasu quickly gained the 9th and the 10th levels. And all that BEFORE reaching the final level of the Cloakwood Mines.
But then he faced Davaeorn. And this is where the words of our @bbear came true. A druid lacks the fire-power, simply said. Although summoned animals couldn't be hit by Battle Horrors, were immune to Davaeorn's Web and Stinking Cloud spells, they were not immune to 2 fire-balls and cones-of-cold. That was the reason Davaeorn went forward and saw the druid. A group of blacktalon elites that suddenly came from the entrance didn't help either. An Insect Plague spell was spent on this group. Being forced to the wall, the druid didn't find a solution to survive. A blue potion of Magical Immunity could help him as it helped against the powerful (SCS) wizard from the Drasus party. But it was too late for poor Karasu no Yoru to realize that. BANG! Gameover....
I need some time to analyze this. The very first thoughts are that the totemic druid relies heavily on his spirit animals. These animals drive him through the game, dealing with all the enemies he faces. His magic is used only as an addition. He doesn't have a lot of damaging or crowd-control spells. A summoned Nymph can cast a Hold Person spell, the druid has a lightning spell but basically that's it. Later he has Insects. As any other character, he has to rely on potions, wands and amulets. It's a fun class to play but of course in a party he would be much, much more reliable.
I haven't decided yet what to do next. It was a pleasure to try a druid and while I've found his magical arsenal rather hard to use I like the difficulty it brings. Summoned animals made 99% of fights in BG1 easier so probably in order to test the real nature of a druid I have to try a vanilla class.
Given your reliance on the spirit animals, I reckon that trueclass druid could even be more difficult to play, unless his shapeshifts are in anyway useful.
I didn't play SCS so I'm not sure how different the encounter with Davaeorn goes but I basically just had a bunch of summons (two Animal Summoning II and the rest Animal Summoning I) prepared in advance along with casting Bless, Strength of One and Defensive Harmony. I then triggered the traps and kept using the Wand of the Heavens against the battle horrors (and the summons were attacking them). I did have to retreat after I killed the first one but that was mostly needed as well to memorize Insect Plague prior to me having to fight Davaeorn.
He had more protections than my arcane caster could wear down and squads of Black Talon Elites kept spamming every couple rounds. Very tactical heavy battle!