It is metagaming but can be roleplayed as a special power "Bhaal's foresight". You could even avoid metagaming when you lose your soul as the powers are gone
Excellent! I was finally able to get all caught up today, but now I feel like I do when a TV program leaves you hanging on a cliff hanger until the next season. I’m looking forward to Yahiko’s further adventures.
I also just have to say… You solo people are crazy! I could never do this, but I find it fascinating reading about how you all do it. Not only is it entertaining, but so much insight can be gained into how to effectively use the different classes.
Amazing! Now that I have a little time during a break between quarters at school I'm trying to look in on what others are doing. What a fascinating ride this was.
Ladies and gentlemen, Yahiko is returning soon. So this ride is not "was", it is for sure " will be". I think now I'm ready for Amn and SCS, having finally finished the game with a party just to test all dangers
Just wait for the new month and the adventure will continue. The bet to beat the game with a solo druid is still very much in place.
Yahiko has continued his adventure. In a strong need to get containers for potions, arrows, bolt and bullets Yahiko, being a 12th level druid, went straight to the Watcher's Keep.
In his bag, among other items, he had a girdle of 19 STR, several antidotes, lots of healing potions, several potions of free action, a ring of invisibility, a helmet of charm protection and 2 potions of invisibility. No bandits were met on the way to the Watcher's Keep. So after the conversation with the paladins of Helm, Yahiko went in.
With 3 summoned spirits and 2 fire elementals, buffed with Defensive harmony, Strength of One and Bless, the first level of the Watcher's Keep has been cleared:
Some of the containers have been locked so Yahiko had to use DUHM to get 23 STR and managed to open the most crucial of the locked containers:
Still, even 23 STR was not enough to open other locked containers there, so there will be no unlimited Dart+3 for Yahiko.
Still, Yahiko got the quest items and the first floor again became a warm place and the old lich got his favourite slippers. The guarding golems couldn't do anything against Yahiko's summoned army:
After that Yahiko went to the Bridge district to investigate the crimes there. Having identified a local tanner (a leather and berries were the clues) as a killer Yahiko visited his workshop. He's buffed Yahiko to survive all the traps in the tanner's basement:
Havind added the Improved Invisibility to himself, the druid came to the last floor and then went straight to the corner of that area. There Yahiko summoned his animals to clear the world from these ghosts and assassins:
After getting a reward for his investigation, Yahiko has nearly reached the 13th level:
Yeah! Yahiko is back! (Settles in with her bowl of popcorn.) It’s a shame he had to leave so much treasure behind. My OCD when it comes to locked treasure chests made me twitch for a while, but I’m over it now, almost...
Yahiko. The graveyard, the Slaver compound and reaching Trademeet
The precise planning is the the only thing for surviving in a no-reload run, especially for those characters who are not mage/thieves.
The main aim for Yahiko is to get an access to the 7th level spells as fast as possible. Nature's Beauty and Shield of Archons are the two spells that can save a druid's life in those SCS encounters that include spellcasters/powerful monsters.
The graveyard district with all the undead inhabitants seemed to be a good place for XP.
With the help of summoned elementals (immune to the skeletons) and spirit animals (immune to level-draining enemies) the graveyard was cleared.
The only vampire brought Yahiko the 13 level.
After that Yahiko decided to complete the quest from the Copper Coronet. He had already saved Hendak but there were still slavers in the city so an attack to the Slaver compound was in place.
A dangerous place for a no-reload run without a thief is the bridge to the right: it has a Petrification trap on it. In order to survive, Yahiko used the bridge to the left.
Yahiko entered the last area invisible (after using the Ring of Air Control), found the best place to start an attack and continued with summons and insects:
The same summons cleared the rest of the Compound:
After getting a huge amount of gold from Hendak Yahiko went to the Promenade to buy the Vhailor's Helm.
The main thing when trying a no-reload run is travelling only with all the spells/abilities available.
This rule was confirmed as soon as Yahiko reached the Promenade: with the help of the spirit animals 3 vampires were defeated. Yahiko didn't forget to put on the Helmet of Charm protection when he saw the vampires - another must-have on a no-reload run:
Nearly all money went on buying the Vhailor's Helm. It would help greatly agains troll fights near the Druid's Grove.
Another item Yahiko needs is the Shield of Harmony that can be acquired after the Trademeet town quest.
So, to Trademeet!
The "travelling only after resting" rule was confirmed once more - as soon as Yahiko left the Promenade, he was waylaid by enemies. The screen was still black but the Ring of Air Control was already used: it helped to walk away from the casters and then summon an elemental. A gulp of the Invisibility potion - and Yahiko stood at the safe distance watching his summons destroying bandits:
Exactly the same tactics was used to defeat another pack of bandits - this time on the way to Trademeet:
These bandits easily can end your run if you don't go invisible as soon as you meet them - I still remeber @Blackraven 's experience there.
Upon arriving to the town Yahiko faced several animals: the Simulacrum (woohoo, with the help of it there can be 2 Kittix spiders instead of one) helped here.
It just occurred to me that I should be taking notes here. So many wonderful tips for my planned Totemic Druid run. Alas, I will probably forget half of them before I get the time to play her. I also really enjoy all the screen shots you include.
@bengoshi, great progress so far, and I'm surprised to see your summons are doing so well. You make it seem like it's no so difficult, but that's probably due to your cautious approach. Your excellent run is making me want to do a no-reload challenge again as well Any suggestions for an interesting and challenging class/kit?
@Ravenslight I'm looking forward to reading about a lady druid and her adventures
@Blackraven I'm touched by the fact my suggestions can influence your possible future playthrough. I've given it a thought, really. There're plenty of ideas for a run:
- a solo Blackguard attempt - a solo Dark Moon Monk race (yeah, it seems evil playthroughs are not frequent here) - a solo Shadowdancer shadow step-by-step: the most interesting here would be to read about Shadowdancer's HLAs and their effectiveness in the game
These are 3 kits we don't read often about. Another ideas include the parties of 3 members, something like "The adventure of 3 gnomes: CHARNAME, Quayle and Tiax" or "The wizards tale: CHARNAME, Xan and Safana" (remember, you can dualclass her;)
Of course, there's always a wizard slayer solo run without mod changes to the kit (the thing some folks consider the most difficult of all) and an adventure of two wild mages, Neera included, available as well. These are the options I will maybe try myself but it's never a bad thing to taste the fellow forumite's tale.
Hey my friend, as you have seen in my "We're all doomed thread" your influence is even bigger than you thought I like all your suggestions, especially the Shadowdancer step-by-step and the Monk! I can see myself go for all your suggestions if/when my current run ends...
One more thing: you said you're going after the Shield of Harmony. Are you sure your Totemic Druid can use it? My Shapeshifter can only use Bucklers. And the description of Small Shields says they can't be used by Druids.
@Blackraven My bad. This is a little blow to the druids. It's a powerful item and not to be able to use it when you already don't have many spells against fear/hold/charm is a drawback. Well, the harder the better, I think. I would still get a good club I guess
@bengoshi said: @Ravenslight I'm looking forward to reading about a lady druid and her adventures
(chuckles) I will leave it to others to post their excellent playthroughs here. Working towards releasing our one mod into the wild is as much as I can handle.
When Yahiko came to the Druid Cave location, he faced trolls: ordinary and spirit ones. The most troublesome foe on this area is a spirit troll, taking into account how the SCS mod enhances it + plus the fact they come in packs. This enemy is always half-invisible, can go completely invisible, regenerate with you each hit, casts Flamestike and Greater command. So only a fully buffed group of 3 spirit lions, 2 fire elementals and a simulacrum could deal with them.
After dealing with each pack of enemies Yahiko had to rest in order to be able to repeat everything.
The simulacrum (granted by the helmet) is so powerful. It gives a possibility to constantly use the damage ring Yahiko bought at the Adventure's Mart, the wand of Heaven without losing any charge of these items. The usefulness of this helmet was a revelation to me, it gives endless possibilities: scrolls of protections (from petrification, from undead, from magic) can be used without any limit on the main char after each rest, 2 spiders can be summoned instead of one, recharging items can be omitted...
The most important of these uses is, of course, the chance to cast those protection spells. With the Simulacrum Yahiko can buff himself so that after each rest he's immune to any trap (including a petrification one), to any nasty effect he can face: Yahiko can now combine his own Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Fire, Protection from Electricity, Barkskin, Armor of Faith, Negative Plane Protection and Improved Invisibility (from the ring) with the Protection from Petrification.
Another good fact about the copy is that it doesn't count as a summon so iit isn't included into the limit of 5 summons
These are examples of the simulacrum usefullness:
Flamestike from the wand without losing charges:
Restoration without losing a scroll:
Protection from Petrification trap in action without losing a scroll:
Slowly but steadily Yahiko defeated one group of enemies after another. Strength of One works wonders on Fire Elementals, Bless and Defensive Harmony help as well. Basically, the summons were enough to defeat any enemy Yahiko has met so far.
Ihtafeer and her fellow cats weren't a problem as well. A potion of invisibility was needed to wait till all their spells wore off and till the summons finally beat through their protections.
Fully buffed, Yahiko challenged Faldorn. Summon Insects was followed by the Spirit Snake - the best anti-caster combination Yahiko can provide without items (they were taken away for this fight). That was enough to finish SCS Faldorn.
After returning to Trademeet, Yahiko completed other quests in the area (the noble families' feud and the tanner's ending), bought everything he needed from the local merchants (the inventory screenshot will follow) and found out he needed only 150 000 XP to reach the 14th level.
Maevar's guild seemed to be a good choice to get those points. Lot's of easy tasks that bring much XP.
These quests didn't pose much threat, the only difficult part with the Cowled Wizard was decided with the help of all summons Yahiko had, including nymphs and dare wolves.
Killing Maevar's bodyguard brought the much-desired 14th level and an access to the 7th level of spells.
Shield of Archons! It now can be added to the list of available buffs. It can stop even Imprisonment and other nasty spells casted by beholders in particular (it works as Spell Turning no matter what the description is: Under this spell, Yahiko, having the 14th level, can escape 3 fire arrows or one 7th level spell, or one 8th level spell, or one 9th level spell).
Because of reaching the 14th level Yahiko was summoned to the Druid Cave. Another challenge participant repeated Faldorn's fate.
Below are the screenshots of Yahiko's current XP progress, his buffs before the last fight and his inventory after getting a +2 ring as a reward for becoming the Great Druid :
Wonderful stuff there @bengoshi! Loving it. I hope the Great Druid will continue to prosper The summons are incredibly useful, I wonder how my lonely Wizard Slayer is going to deal with the obstacles you've already faced...
May I ask you why you're keeping the Cloak of Non-Detection? I believe it only offers non-detection to stealthed characters, not to invisible ones (through potions, items or spells). Perhaps I'm mistaken?
@Blackraven : While summons help a lot, Yahiko completely misses the attacking power. As a fighter, you'll have a wonderful THACO and will inflict serious damage. Add to that lots of APR... You'll kill them quickly. The main thing will be to get immune to nasty spells, though.
We'll see if on the later stages of the game (against mages, dragons and such) summons are useful or not - while on the later stages of the game, with HLAs available, a wizard slayer will annihilate anything in several rounds.
With the money the Thieves' Guild quests brought Yahiko acquired the Staff of Arundel. Additional Summon Insects and Summon Fire Elemental spells can help a lot.
The next destination was Umar Hills. The local enemies are, in general, quite useless against Druid's summons: the weapon of shadows, shadow fiends, shadow demons, mummies, greater mummies, shadow wolves and greater shadow wolves are not effective against Summoned Spirits while Fire Elementals are immune to skeleton warriors. Rangers didn't cause any problems either.
After talking with the major and other people in the region Yahiko helped to provide a truce between Imnesvale and the Ogres. Yahiko found the Mimic's Blood to help a wizard to finish a golem and then dealt with it. The Mimic and the golem couldn't trouble Yahiko's summons.
The Temple Ruins were ahead. The summons worked like a charm. The only dangerous enemy Yahiko met there was a bone golem. Yahiko had to rest several times and use all 5 fully buffed summons to defeat a group consisting of 2 bone golems.
The way to the Shade Lord was open. Yahiko decided it was better to leave the Black Dragon to the future and, being invisible, proceeded to the final area.
This battle with SCS is very difficult: the Shade Lord drains levels from anyone near him. New shadows are being created from the Altar every several seconds. Without a cleric, it's hard to beat all them in one moment.
But invisibility always helps. The Share Lord didn't see Yahiko and thus didn't start a dialogue after which he usually seriously buffs himself. Yahiko went to the corner of the area that can be seen on the screenshot: from there no enemy saw how Yahiko summoned his spirits and elementals, created a Simulacrum and casted Bless and Strength of One.
The summons were directed to attack the Altar and the Shade Lord while Yahiko and his copy dealt with the shadows that went out from the Altar. They also used the Sling +5 bought from the Copper Coronet with bullets +2: THACO of only 1 is very decent on this stage of the game. The Altar was destroyed and then the summons finished the Shade Lord. He didn't see Yahiko at all and was a lot less dangerous this way.
And this is how one of the most difficult battles in BG2 with the SCS mod was won.
@bengoshi, wow another installment! Thanks for the treat Love your elegant solution to one of the more challenging SCS fights. The only way I've succesfully dealt with the Shade Lord so far is by casting Insect Plague on him once or twice, which will have him cower in fear so that he stops draining you. Very nice to read your approach!
The main aim of any character in an SCS BG solo run is reaching HLAs in the shortest amount of time. Yahiko is not different here. After completing the Temple Ruins quest he needed about 1 mln XP to hit the 15 th level.
So every free or nearly free XP quests were at his service.
Shield of the Archons is the spell separating a druid from a dead druid. It's such a wonderful spell. It lasts for 3 rounds per level and in the shell prevents the druid from any save-or-die spells: no matter if somehow any protection is not casted (chaotic commands/death ward/protection from lighting), as long as the SoA is active, the character is alive. The danger can come from any AoE spells such as Skull Traps and ADHW. But to diminish the damage from these spells, there're Armour of Faith and the green girdle from Trademeet.
So, even without using the Simulacrum helmet a druid can be hugely protected against the main danger in the SCS run - the spellcasters. SoA works even against Dispel Magic. To survive, Yahiko needs to constantly adventure under the protection of this spell and rest when its effect is over.
This all chapter can illustrate the usefulness of Shield of Archons.
The container with the Horn of Valhalla is protected with a save-or-die spell: Maze. But being under the Shield effect, Yahiko didn't notice anything.
Seeing how Totemic Summons are effective against vampires, Yahiko decided to help Aran Linvail to destroy the new guild.
As expected, the spirit summons dealt with vampires quickly and effectively.
As a side-adventure, Yahiko completed his role in the Xzar's demise.
The ordinary vampires and ghosts couldn't do anything against the pack of summons:
The only difficulty came from Tanova: a mage, she was protected against summons' attacks but Yahiko's Dispel Magic from the first or the second try took those protections off:
Even Lassal couldn't do anything against 3 spirit lions (as a side not, spikes in that rooms don't work agains summons):
But the most amusing thing was that even the almighty Bodhi couldn't deal with them:
After that, several minor quests were completed, such as retrieving the bear and helping The Order of the Most Radiant Heart:
The main key to defeating dangerous enemies for Yahiko was lurking in invisibility granted by the ring so that his spirits could see an enemy and attack him. Being ready for a plan B, Yahiko always had Ironskins, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Fire, Protection from Electricity, Armour of Faith and Shield of Archons active.
Now, only 400 000 XP stand between Yahiko and his first HLA.
Your progress is impressive and so are those spirit animals. They seem to be so good that Yahiko can simply chill somewhere in the background, leaning against the wall and eat goodberries while watching the spectacle
Amazing ! I totally missed Yahiko's comeback until now. It's spectacular how much progress you made. Both you and @Blackraven are going really far into SoA and you probably passed the most difficult moment of the trilogy : the beginning of SoA, without any items or HLAs.
It's good to know the no-reload game is still on !
This update will be rather short - the details of Yahiko's further adventure will be revealed a little bit later. Instead, I would like to focus on the fact that for the first time since the very start at Candlekeep my druid has encountered big problems.
As it turns out, the SCS Beholders are one of the hardest to kill enemies for a druid. Yahiko met them during the Unseeing Eye quest on the road to the Temple of Forgotten God.
It took Yahiko about 7 rests to understand how to overcome these beholders.
Right after the riddle bridge there were 3 beholders and 2 gauths. This pack is immensely powerful. Yes, the spirit summons are immune to petrification. But there're 5 enemies constantly casting serious wounds. Death Ward and Chaotic Commands on Fire Elementals are dispelled in a moment by Beholder's rays.
All Yahiko's summons have been annihilated in 5-10 seconds!
They couldn't even reach the enemies.
It was a pitiful sight. And it was a very interesting situation. In fact, I like this run so much just because of that - Yahiko must create a new tactics when he encounters a new problem.
Then Yahiko decided to use the Invisibility ring and pass through beholders so that the summons could attack from the North passage.
The situation became better but not by a large margin. The summons still died after the mere seconds...
As a last trick, Yahiko tried (being under the Shield of Archons of course) to distract Beholder's rays on himself so that his 5 summons finally could at least reach the enemies...
It worked! The first rays by beholders were useless against the Shield of Archons and it was enough for Yahiko's summons to start damaging these creatures. Yahiko could safely retreat and enjoy the sight of falling beholders.
After another rest, the gauths were defeated:
The last beholder fell to the tactics Yahiko already had found successful:
Hey @bengoshi, I'm so glad Yahiko survived this tough challenge You had to be creative here... loved it! Looking forward to more. You mentioned Death Ward; I hope Yahiko also cast it on himself (not only on the summons).
In the pit Yahiko met the first lich. It was a bit unexpected but still not dangerous.
Yahiko had to retreat because the Death spell killed all the summons, rest, summon 2 elementals and 3 spirit lions again, cast 5 Death Wards on them and then wait for the outcome.
With all the buffs (of course, @Blackraven , both Death Ward and Chaotic Commands are always on Yahiko since the period of their action is so long) Yahiko's party was ready to deal with lonely gauths and beholders:
The blinded priests were not a problem as well:
The pack of 2 beholders and 3 gauths in the south of that area were a problem. They killed all the summons too fast:
It took several rests and thus several attempts to finally start decreasing the number of gauths:
Fortunately, during this fight Yahiko finally got 3 mln XP
Yahiko chose Deva as his HLA. It was a wonderful choice. Deva's magic resistance + Blade Barrier help greatly against beholders. It was a funny sight when in several seconds Deva finished the pack of enemies which all Yahiko's previous summons combined couldn't defeat in several attempts.
Deva, 3 spirit lions and one fire elemental waited for the Unseeing Eye and his minions to appear. Without activating the special device all their attacks were uneffective
But as soon as Yahiko used the special device, Deva quickly finished the Unseeing Eye. Death Tyrants followed the fate of their god.
It's such an unbelievable feeling of getting your first HLA and watching how effective it can be!
Congratulations with completing one of the hardest Chapter 2/3 quests, and with your first HLA!! Did you obligate yourself to do all the big quests? I'm asking because there wasn't that much to gain for Yahiko in the Unseeing Eye Quest I think (besides XP of course).
@Blackraven The most important reason is gaining the Girdle of Fortitude that would greatly increase Yahiko's HP (now with 9 CON he has a little bit more than 60 HP) - those HPs are greatly needed in further parts of the game, especially taking into account the Power Word spells of enemy mages.
As about big quests, I'm still undecided. I think now Yahiko has everything he needs to go to Brynnlaw (Planar Sphere, Astral Prison, De'Arnise Keep, Firkraag's area are still not visited by Yahiko).
@Blackraven The most important reason is gaining the Girdle of Fortitude that would greatly increase Yahiko's HP (now with 9 CON he has a little bit more than 60 HP) - those HPs are greatly needed in further parts of the game, especially taking into account the Power Word spells of enemy mages.
As about big quests, I'm still undecided. I think now Yahiko has everything he needs to go to Brynnlaw (Planar Sphere, Astral Prison, De'Arnise Keep, Firkraag's area are still not visited by Yahiko).
I think simply killing Gaal should have yielded you the Girdle of Fortitude, but maybe I'm mistaken. Not that it matters at this point, because Yahiko has a lot more XP and loot now.
As a Druid Yahiko's much less item dependent than for example my Wizard Slayer, so you might indeed consider traveling to Brynnlaw. Of the remaining quests you could consider Windspear Hills for more relatively easy XP and thus more spells/HLAs (with all your summons, Wolfweres and Vampires won't be much of a problem).
Comments
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/33353/advertise-your-written-play-through-s#latest
It will take me some time to read through it all, but I am really enjoying it!
I also just have to say… You solo people are crazy!
Just wait for the new month and the adventure will continue. The bet to beat the game with a solo druid is still very much in place.
Yahiko has continued his adventure. In a strong need to get containers for potions, arrows, bolt and bullets Yahiko, being a 12th level druid, went straight to the Watcher's Keep.
In his bag, among other items, he had a girdle of 19 STR, several antidotes, lots of healing potions, several potions of free action, a ring of invisibility, a helmet of charm protection and 2 potions of invisibility. No bandits were met on the way to the Watcher's Keep. So after the conversation with the paladins of Helm, Yahiko went in.
With 3 summoned spirits and 2 fire elementals, buffed with Defensive harmony, Strength of One and Bless, the first level of the Watcher's Keep has been cleared:
Some of the containers have been locked so Yahiko had to use DUHM to get 23 STR and managed to open the most crucial of the locked containers:
Still, even 23 STR was not enough to open other locked containers there, so there will be no unlimited Dart+3 for Yahiko.
Still, Yahiko got the quest items and the first floor again became a warm place and the old lich got his favourite slippers. The guarding golems couldn't do anything against Yahiko's summoned army:
After that Yahiko went to the Bridge district to investigate the crimes there. Having identified a local tanner (a leather and berries were the clues) as a killer Yahiko visited his workshop. He's buffed Yahiko to survive all the traps in the tanner's basement:
Havind added the Improved Invisibility to himself, the druid came to the last floor and then went straight to the corner of that area. There Yahiko summoned his animals to clear the world from these ghosts and assassins:
After getting a reward for his investigation, Yahiko has nearly reached the 13th level:
It’s a shame he had to leave so much treasure behind. My OCD when it comes to locked treasure chests made me twitch for a while, but I’m over it now, almost...
Yahiko. The graveyard, the Slaver compound and reaching Trademeet
The precise planning is the the only thing for surviving in a no-reload run, especially for those characters who are not mage/thieves.The main aim for Yahiko is to get an access to the 7th level spells as fast as possible. Nature's Beauty and Shield of Archons are the two spells that can save a druid's life in those SCS encounters that include spellcasters/powerful monsters.
The graveyard district with all the undead inhabitants seemed to be a good place for XP.
With the help of summoned elementals (immune to the skeletons) and spirit animals (immune to level-draining enemies) the graveyard was cleared.
The only vampire brought Yahiko the 13 level.
After that Yahiko decided to complete the quest from the Copper Coronet. He had already saved Hendak but there were still slavers in the city so an attack to the Slaver compound was in place.
A dangerous place for a no-reload run without a thief is the bridge to the right: it has a Petrification trap on it. In order to survive, Yahiko used the bridge to the left.
Yahiko entered the last area invisible (after using the Ring of Air Control), found the best place to start an attack and continued with summons and insects:
The same summons cleared the rest of the Compound:
After getting a huge amount of gold from Hendak Yahiko went to the Promenade to buy the Vhailor's Helm.
The main thing when trying a no-reload run is travelling only with all the spells/abilities available.
This rule was confirmed as soon as Yahiko reached the Promenade: with the help of the spirit animals 3 vampires were defeated. Yahiko didn't forget to put on the Helmet of Charm protection when he saw the vampires - another must-have on a no-reload run:
Nearly all money went on buying the Vhailor's Helm. It would help greatly agains troll fights near the Druid's Grove.
Another item Yahiko needs is the Shield of Harmony that can be acquired after the Trademeet town quest.
So, to Trademeet!
The "travelling only after resting" rule was confirmed once more - as soon as Yahiko left the Promenade, he was waylaid by enemies. The screen was still black but the Ring of Air Control was already used: it helped to walk away from the casters and then summon an elemental. A gulp of the Invisibility potion - and Yahiko stood at the safe distance watching his summons destroying bandits:
Exactly the same tactics was used to defeat another pack of bandits - this time on the way to Trademeet:
These bandits easily can end your run if you don't go invisible as soon as you meet them - I still remeber @Blackraven 's experience there.
Upon arriving to the town Yahiko faced several animals: the Simulacrum (woohoo, with the help of it there can be 2 Kittix spiders instead of one) helped here.
Your excellent run is making me want to do a no-reload challenge again as well
@Blackraven I'm touched by the fact my suggestions can influence your possible future playthrough. I've given it a thought, really. There're plenty of ideas for a run:
- a solo Blackguard attempt
- a solo Dark Moon Monk race (yeah, it seems evil playthroughs are not frequent here)
- a solo Shadowdancer shadow step-by-step: the most interesting here would be to read about Shadowdancer's HLAs and their effectiveness in the game
These are 3 kits we don't read often about. Another ideas include the parties of 3 members, something like "The adventure of 3 gnomes: CHARNAME, Quayle and Tiax" or "The wizards tale: CHARNAME, Xan and Safana" (remember, you can dualclass her;)
Of course, there's always a wizard slayer solo run without mod changes to the kit (the thing some folks consider the most difficult of all) and an adventure of two wild mages, Neera included, available as well. These are the options I will maybe try myself but it's never a bad thing to taste the fellow forumite's tale.
One more thing: you said you're going after the Shield of Harmony. Are you sure your Totemic Druid can use it? My Shapeshifter can only use Bucklers. And the description of Small Shields says they can't be used by Druids.
Glad you've liked the ideas.
@Ravenslight I'm looking forward to reading about a lady druid and her adventures
(chuckles) I will leave it to others to post their excellent playthroughs here. Working towards releasing our one mod into the wild is as much as I can handle.
Yahiko. Reaching the 14th level
When Yahiko came to the Druid Cave location, he faced trolls: ordinary and spirit ones. The most troublesome foe on this area is a spirit troll, taking into account how the SCS mod enhances it + plus the fact they come in packs. This enemy is always half-invisible, can go completely invisible, regenerate with you each hit, casts Flamestike and Greater command. So only a fully buffed group of 3 spirit lions, 2 fire elementals and a simulacrum could deal with them.After dealing with each pack of enemies Yahiko had to rest in order to be able to repeat everything.
The simulacrum (granted by the helmet) is so powerful. It gives a possibility to constantly use the damage ring Yahiko bought at the Adventure's Mart, the wand of Heaven without losing any charge of these items. The usefulness of this helmet was a revelation to me, it gives endless possibilities: scrolls of protections (from petrification, from undead, from magic) can be used without any limit on the main char after each rest, 2 spiders can be summoned instead of one, recharging items can be omitted...
The most important of these uses is, of course, the chance to cast those protection spells. With the Simulacrum Yahiko can buff himself so that after each rest he's immune to any trap (including a petrification one), to any nasty effect he can face: Yahiko can now combine his own Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Fire, Protection from Electricity, Barkskin, Armor of Faith, Negative Plane Protection and Improved Invisibility (from the ring) with the Protection from Petrification.
Another good fact about the copy is that it doesn't count as a summon so iit isn't included into the limit of 5 summons
These are examples of the simulacrum usefullness:
Flamestike from the wand without losing charges:
Restoration without losing a scroll:
Protection from Petrification trap in action without losing a scroll:
Slowly but steadily Yahiko defeated one group of enemies after another. Strength of One works wonders on Fire Elementals, Bless and Defensive Harmony help as well. Basically, the summons were enough to defeat any enemy Yahiko has met so far.
Ihtafeer and her fellow cats weren't a problem as well. A potion of invisibility was needed to wait till all their spells wore off and till the summons finally beat through their protections.
Fully buffed, Yahiko challenged Faldorn. Summon Insects was followed by the Spirit Snake - the best anti-caster combination Yahiko can provide without items (they were taken away for this fight). That was enough to finish SCS Faldorn.
After returning to Trademeet, Yahiko completed other quests in the area (the noble families' feud and the tanner's ending), bought everything he needed from the local merchants (the inventory screenshot will follow) and found out he needed only 150 000 XP to reach the 14th level.
Maevar's guild seemed to be a good choice to get those points. Lot's of easy tasks that bring much XP.
These quests didn't pose much threat, the only difficult part with the Cowled Wizard was decided with the help of all summons Yahiko had, including nymphs and dare wolves.
Killing Maevar's bodyguard brought the much-desired 14th level and an access to the 7th level of spells.
Shield of Archons! It now can be added to the list of available buffs. It can stop even Imprisonment and other nasty spells casted by beholders in particular (it works as Spell Turning no matter what the description is: Under this spell, Yahiko, having the 14th level, can escape 3 fire arrows or one 7th level spell, or one 8th level spell, or one 9th level spell).
Because of reaching the 14th level Yahiko was summoned to the Druid Cave. Another challenge participant repeated Faldorn's fate.
Below are the screenshots of Yahiko's current XP progress, his buffs before the last fight and his inventory after getting a +2 ring as a reward for becoming the Great Druid :
The summons are incredibly useful, I wonder how my lonely Wizard Slayer is going to deal with the obstacles you've already faced...
May I ask you why you're keeping the Cloak of Non-Detection? I believe it only offers non-detection to stealthed characters, not to invisible ones (through potions, items or spells). Perhaps I'm mistaken?
We'll see if on the later stages of the game (against mages, dragons and such) summons are useful or not - while on the later stages of the game, with HLAs available, a wizard slayer will annihilate anything in several rounds.
And the Cloak of Non-Detection -> I just didn't sell it (an oversight), you're right: as http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/332003/#Comment_332003 http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/106087/#Comment_106087 and even my own http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/491557/#Comment_491557
posts show, the Cloak of Non-Detection doesn't help non-stealthed characters and doesn't protect the Invisibility granted by items and spells.
Defeating the Shade Lord
With the money the Thieves' Guild quests brought Yahiko acquired the Staff of Arundel. Additional Summon Insects and Summon Fire Elemental spells can help a lot.The next destination was Umar Hills. The local enemies are, in general, quite useless against Druid's summons: the weapon of shadows, shadow fiends, shadow demons, mummies, greater mummies, shadow wolves and greater shadow wolves are not effective against Summoned Spirits while Fire Elementals are immune to skeleton warriors. Rangers didn't cause any problems either.
After talking with the major and other people in the region Yahiko helped to provide a truce between Imnesvale and the Ogres. Yahiko found the Mimic's Blood to help a wizard to finish a golem and then dealt with it. The Mimic and the golem couldn't trouble Yahiko's summons.
The Temple Ruins were ahead. The summons worked like a charm. The only dangerous enemy Yahiko met there was a bone golem. Yahiko had to rest several times and use all 5 fully buffed summons to defeat a group consisting of 2 bone golems.
The way to the Shade Lord was open. Yahiko decided it was better to leave the Black Dragon to the future and, being invisible, proceeded to the final area.
This battle with SCS is very difficult: the Shade Lord drains levels from anyone near him. New shadows are being created from the Altar every several seconds. Without a cleric, it's hard to beat all them in one moment.
But invisibility always helps. The Share Lord didn't see Yahiko and thus didn't start a dialogue after which he usually seriously buffs himself. Yahiko went to the corner of the area that can be seen on the screenshot: from there no enemy saw how Yahiko summoned his spirits and elementals, created a Simulacrum and casted Bless and Strength of One.
The summons were directed to attack the Altar and the Shade Lord while Yahiko and his copy dealt with the shadows that went out from the Altar. They also used the Sling +5 bought from the Copper Coronet with bullets +2: THACO of only 1 is very decent on this stage of the game. The Altar was destroyed and then the summons finished the Shade Lord. He didn't see Yahiko at all and was a lot less dangerous this way.
And this is how one of the most difficult battles in BG2 with the SCS mod was won.
Love your elegant solution to one of the more challenging SCS fights. The only way I've succesfully dealt with the Shade Lord so far is by casting Insect Plague on him once or twice, which will have him cower in fear so that he stops draining you. Very nice to read your approach!
edit: typos
Clearing Bodhi's Lair. SoA in SoA
The main aim of any character in an SCS BG solo run is reaching HLAs in the shortest amount of time. Yahiko is not different here. After completing the Temple Ruins quest he needed about 1 mln XP to hit the 15 th level.So every free or nearly free XP quests were at his service.
Shield of the Archons is the spell separating a druid from a dead druid. It's such a wonderful spell. It lasts for 3 rounds per level and in the shell prevents the druid from any save-or-die spells: no matter if somehow any protection is not casted (chaotic commands/death ward/protection from lighting), as long as the SoA is active, the character is alive. The danger can come from any AoE spells such as Skull Traps and ADHW. But to diminish the damage from these spells, there're Armour of Faith and the green girdle from Trademeet.
So, even without using the Simulacrum helmet a druid can be hugely protected against the main danger in the SCS run - the spellcasters. SoA works even against Dispel Magic. To survive, Yahiko needs to constantly adventure under the protection of this spell and rest when its effect is over.
This all chapter can illustrate the usefulness of Shield of Archons.
The container with the Horn of Valhalla is protected with a save-or-die spell: Maze. But being under the Shield effect, Yahiko didn't notice anything.
Seeing how Totemic Summons are effective against vampires, Yahiko decided to help Aran Linvail to destroy the new guild.
As expected, the spirit summons dealt with vampires quickly and effectively.
As a side-adventure, Yahiko completed his role in the Xzar's demise.
The ordinary vampires and ghosts couldn't do anything against the pack of summons:
The only difficulty came from Tanova: a mage, she was protected against summons' attacks but Yahiko's Dispel Magic from the first or the second try took those protections off:
Even Lassal couldn't do anything against 3 spirit lions (as a side not, spikes in that rooms don't work agains summons):
But the most amusing thing was that even the almighty Bodhi couldn't deal with them:
After that, several minor quests were completed, such as retrieving the bear and helping The Order of the Most Radiant Heart:
The main key to defeating dangerous enemies for Yahiko was lurking in invisibility granted by the ring so that his spirits could see an enemy and attack him. Being ready for a plan B, Yahiko always had Ironskins, Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, Protection from Fire, Protection from Electricity, Armour of Faith and Shield of Archons active.
Now, only 400 000 XP stand between Yahiko and his first HLA.
Both you and @Blackraven are going really far into SoA and you probably passed the most difficult moment of the trilogy : the beginning of SoA, without any items or HLAs.
It's good to know the no-reload game is still on !
Druid's class enemy - the SCS Beholders.
This update will be rather short - the details of Yahiko's further adventure will be revealed a little bit later. Instead, I would like to focus on the fact that for the first time since the very start at Candlekeep my druid has encountered big problems.As it turns out, the SCS Beholders are one of the hardest to kill enemies for a druid. Yahiko met them during the Unseeing Eye quest on the road to the Temple of Forgotten God.
It took Yahiko about 7 rests to understand how to overcome these beholders.
Right after the riddle bridge there were 3 beholders and 2 gauths. This pack is immensely powerful. Yes, the spirit summons are immune to petrification. But there're 5 enemies constantly casting serious wounds. Death Ward and Chaotic Commands on Fire Elementals are dispelled in a moment by Beholder's rays.
All Yahiko's summons have been annihilated in 5-10 seconds!
They couldn't even reach the enemies.
It was a pitiful sight. And it was a very interesting situation. In fact, I like this run so much just because of that - Yahiko must create a new tactics when he encounters a new problem.
Then Yahiko decided to use the Invisibility ring and pass through beholders so that the summons could attack from the North passage.
The situation became better but not by a large margin. The summons still died after the mere seconds...
As a last trick, Yahiko tried (being under the Shield of Archons of course) to distract Beholder's rays on himself so that his 5 summons finally could at least reach the enemies...
It worked! The first rays by beholders were useless against the Shield of Archons and it was enough for Yahiko's summons to start damaging these creatures. Yahiko could safely retreat and enjoy the sight of falling beholders.
After another rest, the gauths were defeated:
The last beholder fell to the tactics Yahiko already had found successful:
Defeating the Unseeing Eye & the first HLA
In the pit Yahiko met the first lich. It was a bit unexpected but still not dangerous.Yahiko had to retreat because the Death spell killed all the summons, rest, summon 2 elementals and 3 spirit lions again, cast 5 Death Wards on them and then wait for the outcome.
With all the buffs (of course, @Blackraven , both Death Ward and Chaotic Commands are always on Yahiko since the period of their action is so long) Yahiko's party was ready to deal with lonely gauths and beholders:
The blinded priests were not a problem as well:
The pack of 2 beholders and 3 gauths in the south of that area were a problem. They killed all the summons too fast:
It took several rests and thus several attempts to finally start decreasing the number of gauths:
Fortunately, during this fight Yahiko finally got 3 mln XP
Yahiko chose Deva as his HLA. It was a wonderful choice. Deva's magic resistance + Blade Barrier help greatly against beholders. It was a funny sight when in several seconds Deva finished the pack of enemies which all Yahiko's previous summons combined couldn't defeat in several attempts.
Deva, 3 spirit lions and one fire elemental waited for the Unseeing Eye and his minions to appear. Without activating the special device all their attacks were uneffective
But as soon as Yahiko used the special device, Deva quickly finished the Unseeing Eye. Death Tyrants followed the fate of their god.
It's such an unbelievable feeling of getting your first HLA and watching how effective it can be!
Did you obligate yourself to do all the big quests? I'm asking because there wasn't that much to gain for Yahiko in the Unseeing Eye Quest I think (besides XP of course).
As about big quests, I'm still undecided. I think now Yahiko has everything he needs to go to Brynnlaw (Planar Sphere, Astral Prison, De'Arnise Keep, Firkraag's area are still not visited by Yahiko).
As a Druid Yahiko's much less item dependent than for example my Wizard Slayer, so you might indeed consider traveling to Brynnlaw. Of the remaining quests you could consider Windspear Hills for more relatively easy XP and thus more spells/HLAs (with all your summons, Wolfweres and Vampires won't be much of a problem).