Before we went after the purportedly dangerous Bassilus, I convinced Gavin that we'd do well in finding one or two more competent companions. Gavin agreed, so we travelled to the Friendly Arm Inn where two friends of Gorion were supposed to be found. (I'd read this in a letter I'd found on Gorion's corpse.) Given my history of being awaited by assassins and bounty hunters at inns, I asked Gavin to enter the Inn alone and take a look first. At the entrance he got into a fight with a mage who was after me but somehow knew that Gavin was with me. I was relieved to see that my companion has his own, pretty effective ways of dealing with magic users.
Gorion's friends proved to be well-disposed, but for some reason insisted on heading to Nashkel right away, while Gavin and I had committed ourselves to seeking out Bassilus. Perhaps we'll meet up later, though I'm not sure. The woman seemed competent enough, though somewhat haughty (which I think is as dangerous as it is unpleasant). Her husband on the other hand seemed to have an unstable and insecure personality, which, combined with his profession of fighter/mage, would make him an unreliable companion in my opinion. Around the Friendly Arm Inn we found no trace of Bassilus. What we did find was a great amount of ankhegs. We slew many of them, and took a few scales with us. Maybe the blacksmith in Beregost would be able to forge a nice suit of armor from them. So we returned to Beregost, and spoke with the blacksmith. Having a piece of ankheg armour made is quite expensive though.
We entered a shop to sell some of the loot we'd found on the ankhegs, and on the mage at the Friendly Arm Inn. However we were received by a dwarf who instead of buying up our loot, proposed that we aid him in tracing a caravan just north of Beregost. I said to Gavin that it might be wise to accompany the dwarf now, so that he might come with us to take on Bassilus. This dwarf was unmistakeably a robust fighter. And if he had some honour in him, he would aid us after having received our help. [Kagain joined, I made him a Fighter (Battlerager)/Thief, who dual wields short swords. I swapped his STR & DEX stats, which fits him better as a F/T. He's level 4/5 at the moment of joining.] ... It didnt take us long to find the bandits Kagain was after. Their achers managed to do Kagain some serious damage, before we dispatched the lot. I told Kagain to don his splint mail armour when he engages in battle. Kagain was thankful for my advice and for our help, and as I'd hoped, he offered to continue working with us. I accepted his offer. We rested at Feldepost's and then set out to hunt for Bassilus. On our way we helped a drow woman, who was being pursued by a Flaming Fist mercenary. Without any criminal evidence against the woman, and knowing what it's like to be discriminated against because of one's race, I came to her aid. This Flaming Fist was not to be trifled with however. He was a cleric of some sort, and successfully cast a Hold Spell on both Kagain and Gavin, despite having been hit twice by me (32% spell failure) and once by Gavin while in the process of casting. In the end the drow and I took him down.
She was grateful to us. I told her it was nothing, and that maybe our paths will cross again sometime. Hopefully in more pleasant circumstances. Gavin, Kagain and I headed southwest, still not really sure where to look for the mad cleric. It would have been nice if Keldath Ormlyr had been able to give us some specific directions. Nevertheless, at long last we found Bassilus in the area where I'd picked up Melicamp the chicken about a fortnight before. I remember the area because of it's red coloured rock masses. There were many undead and hobgoblins we dispatched first, so that we'd have different escape routes just in case things would get messy. Gavin stepped up to Bassilus, partly because he's our group's spokesperson but also becase it was "his" quest... As it turned out the mad cleric had killed lots of people and raised them as undead "family members". A clever attempt by Gavin to play along with Bassilus, possibly allowing us to give the cleric over to the authorities in Beregost, did not succeed. Gavin then tried to silence the priest before he could do us any harm, but the spell didn't affect Bassilus in the slightest. In return, Bassilus did manage to hold poor Gavin. At that moment, Kagain, enraged in a way I hadn't seen him before, charged almost blindly forward to attack the priest. As I didn't see any other option, I followed suit. Some of the undead fell when we approached, others attacked us, but we had only target: Bassilus. Kagain's rage and my fast swinging axes prevented the priest from casting any more nasty spells, and eventually a critical hit with my axe did him in.
As we waited for the hold spell on Gavin to expire, I gathered what loot we could find, including Bassilus's holy symbol. While I was at it, Kagain started acting funny:
What would he expect me to be? A Hillgnasher giant? Maybe his battlerage tends to strain the dwarf's otherwise keen intellect? Anyhow we packed and left for Beregost. Keldath was most thankful, and rewarded us with a generous sum of 5000 gold. Time to rest, and to decide what will be our next step. I am not sure yet. We've got some money to spend, but there's also the job in Nashkel with the mines, plus a bounty on commander Brage's head, as I had been told in Nashkel.
I consulted Kagain and Gavin for their opinions about our options: invest in better gear (I remember having seen a ring of free action for sale at Thalantyr's), investigate the mines or try to get the bounty on Brage's head. Kagain, ever more of a hoarder than a spender, suggested we seek out murderous Brage, wherever he were to be found, and take the bounty. As neither Gavin nor I had anything against the plan, we agreed and set out to Nashkel, where he was last seen. We scouted the coastal area to the west of Nashkel, Kagain going before the rest of us, using the cover of the night to go unnoticed. He told us that he'd spotted a number of sirines, dangerous foes for those who come ill-prepared. A gypsy we met, Safana, told us however that if we'd make it past the sirines we'd find a cave with a hidden treasure. Kagain's eyes doubled in size, and he proposed we try and take on the sirines. His battlerage would protect him from their lures, he asserted. I was less certain. We all have our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities. While Kagain's a reliable companion, honest, and disciplined even in his battlerage, his weakness is clearly gold. Gold seems to blind him. He wasn't easily convinced, but Gavin came up with a solution: he would take my bag of holding, cast a sanctuary on himself, walk past the sirines unharmed and unmolested, get inside the cave, take the treasure and walk out, again under the protection of sanctuary. Since we were unsure of who or what was to be found inside the cave, I gave Gavin a potion of invisibility in case he'd need a quick and safe way out. I was quite restless while he was gone, but he made it back relatively unscathed. He told me the cave harboured three strong flesh golems. He'd tried to take one on, but it had been hitting him too hard. The loot wasn't all that impressive, though it included a number of potions, two cloaks and what appears to be a magical tome. We gave Safana some gold for tipping us off and parted. We then travelled southward, along the coast until we came upon a carnage scene (three dead bodies on the ground). A cleric and an apparent madman who turned out to be Brage approached us. The cleric told us that Brage seemed to be possessed by some grave evil, and begged us to keep a distance and prevent any further bloodshed. It was difficult to keep a distance though. Brage had already spotted us and came toward us, speaking in riddles about death and darkness. Kagain looked at me with both his swords already in the air, ready to attack, but I begged him to stay his hand. This Brage was no culprit. He was a victim. A victim of some form of dark, foul magic. I tried to reason with him, and played along with his riddles (which wasn't so hard because all he had on his corrupted mind was death and decay). He came willingly with us to Nashkel, to Nalin in the Temple of Helm. Nalin, like me, saw in Brage a victim, and not the grave sinner Brage considered himself to be. As it turned out, the cause of Brage's frenzy lay in the sword he'd been wielding. It had a curse placed on it. Nalin rewarded us with 1000 gold anyway, so even Kagain didn't have anything to complain in the end. We all agreed that we deserved some time to relax, so I proposed that we visit the Carnival. There wasn't that much going on in terms of diversion, so we mainly looked at the wares of the many merchants. In one of the tents we witnessed a dramatic scene. One mage slew another before I had the time to blink my eyes, and then turned against us. Although he did manage to briefly blind Gavin and me with a Glitterdust spell, a typical treacherous mage trick, my axes, Kagain's blades and Gavin's flails were too much to handle for the fiendish wizard.
When we left the scene, we were approached by another messenger telling us that Keldath bade us once again to the Temple of Lathander. We went there right away. Keldath told us about yet another depraved wizard, one named Mutamin who'd been taming basilisks and having them petrify everything that would come near. Our reward would be a handsome one, Keldath promised. We bought three scrolls of Stone to Flesh, and we received three potions of Mirrored Eyes for free. I recalled one of the merchants at the Nashkel Carnival selling scrolls of Protection from Petrification. So we decided to first buy the scroll (which has a much longer duration than the potions), and then confront Mutamin. At the Carnival we used one of the Stone to Flesh scrolls on a petrified woman (much to the dismay of a dwarven vendor who had tried to sell us such a scroll at an exorbitant price). The woman, a battlepriestess of Tempus, was very relieved. She told us that it had been an evil mage named Tranzig, who'd turned her into stone. I replied that we were on an important and dangerous mission, but that in the future I'd gladly help her find the perpetrator and put him to justice. We found the scroll of Protection from Petrification, and headed out east, to where according to Keldath Mutamin was to be found. The area was indeed replete with basilisks. I counted ten. After using the protection scroll on myself, I took on 8 of them, one or two at a time. Without their petrifying gaze, they aren't really much of a threat. Kagain spied the remaining two standing next to a gnomish wizard, Mutamin without a doubt. He scouted the area for more beasts, and to my surprise returned with a tame ghoul that was apparently willing to help us. Maybe the ghoul, with his paralyzing touch and his immunity to petrification could be of use to us. Kagain, hidden in the shadows led the ghoul toward Mutamin. Unfortunately Mutamin spotted not only the ghoul but Kagain as well as he failed to hide himself well. However the ghoul was closing in on Mutamin, and after suffering a few hits of the mage's Melf's Minute Meteors, it engaged the mage in melee, and held him. I ran toward the mage and finished him off.
On Mutamin's body I found yet another magical tome, a mage robe, and some magic bracers. The remaining two basilisks presented no challenge, as I was still protected against petrification.
...
Keldath has rewarded us with 2000 GP for our efforts. He also identified the magical tomes and some other goods. Study of the tomes increased my bodily health and my wisdom and judgement, which will help me in my work. I think it may be time for us to do some smart purchases and then see what is going on in those Nashkel mines.
NOTE:
So far I don't think I've used Grynne's 'disrupt magic' passive ability much. Am not sure though, I don't think it's possible to see on screen whether a casting failure is the result of a normal hit or because of the spellcasting failure penalty of previous hits. Anyway, the stronger mages have yet to show up. Meanwhile Grynne can gain a few more levels and get better at disrupting I hope
You'll be able to tell if a mage is failing the spell due to casting failure if he completes the spell animation but just randomly doesn't get the spell off. If you disrupt a spell through damage, it should be immediate and obvious.
Causing miscasts likely won't happen very often in BG1 except against really powerful/cheating wizards like Davaeorn, Semaj, or some of the guys on the frozen maze island. It's mostly for mages that have enough HP to survive your attacks or who have enough spells ready to re-energize their defenses.
True, so far I've only dealt with Zordal, Mutamin, and Tarnesh I think, all of whom have lacklustre protections (if any), and few hitpoints. Besides the wizards you mentioned I can only think of ogre mages as possible victims of the miscast penalty, and maybe (SCS) Silke. Since the effect only works on arcane casters in the mod I'm using (nt sure about vanilla), clerics are unaffected.
*** I bought Gavin a ring of free action from Thalantyr, and a Greenstone Amulet in his hometown Ulgoth's Beard, where we went for a short visit. These two items should help him keep control of both his body and mind, so that he can support the party at all times with his divine magic. From Ulgoth's Beard we travelled all the way south, to the Nashkel Mines area. There we met Prism, a famous sculptor, working on a rock carving. He told me there was a bounty on his head, for having stolen two emeralds he allegedly "needed" for his work. A paladin named Isra stood guard, protecting the thief... this wasn't your average paladin, so much is certain. Prism was almost done with his work and begged me to let him finish. I conceded, but we agreed that afterward I'd surrender him to the authorities in Nashkel so that justice would be served. However a bounty hunter named Greywolf came to claim the bounty on Prism. I tried to explain that Prism was coming with us as soon as he was done with his work. Greywolf wasn't too pleased with this arrangement. He attacked. I must admit that he was a formidable fighter, who managed to hurt his primary target Kagain more than once. But he stood no chance against the overwhelming power of the three of us plus Isra. Prism barely finished his work and then died, exhausted yet content. Isra inquired into our business in the area, so I explained that we had come to investigate the mines. She was pleased to hear someone was willing to do so, and even offered to join us. Not knowing exactly what to expect in the mines, I thought it wise to have her along. I may not share most paladins' holy crusader mentality, which in my view seems to be coloured all too often by prejudice and self-righteousness, at least they are trustworthy, honourable people. We entered the mines, and though the first level was quiet without any signs of trouble except for the fear in the hearts of the miners, Kagain discerned the smell of kobolds. He was right. The lower levels were infested with kobolds. Their numbers were so overwhelming that we weren't able to avoid all damage. The archers in particular, who were difficult to reach, proved to be dangerous. Fortunately we had a good amount of healing potions with us, to restore our health. At several locations we found contaminated iron ore and poisonous liquids, whhich may or may not have something to do with the recent iron crisis I hadn't given much attention till now. At the bottom level we came upon a rounded, cave-like structure. Inside we found the chief of the operation, an orcish priest of Cyric, surrounded by kobolds and undead minions. He fell soon enough; we had again most difficulty with the kobold archers, especially Gavin.
We released an elven sorcerer, who'd been held captive by the priest. He wanted to join our party, but I politely refused. I reluctantly gave him a blade from the priest's chest he said belonged to him, and bade him farewell. We rested in a tunnel that sloped upwards. I had a dream about the priest we had just killed, Mulahey was his name (according to some letters we found among his belongings). I woke up with a healing power not unlike a paladin's ability to lay his hands on a wounded person and heal them. This is the second time I've experienced this, and I have no idea where these abilities come from. Some deity that has yet reveal himself or herself? When we reached the surface we were ambushed by two assassins, with bows. They were no match for our well-rested party. We also dealth with a mage who had discovered how to create jellies and slimes, through some form of wicked sorcery. He became hostile when I asked him for the source of this discovery. We battled and he fell, taking his discovery with him to whatever after-world. I'm confident it's for the best.
We also cleansed the area of its undead presence, of which a revenant gave us, or at least Isra, the most difficulty.
Our trip to Nashkel was uneventful, and in Nashkel everyone seemed glad to see us, not in the least mayor Ghastkill, who rewarded us for our efforts with 900 GP. The only one who wasn't happy with us, was a skilled assassin named Nimbul. He was initially protected by a previously cast Stoneskin, so none of us were hitting him [although the spellcasting falilure penalty must have applied]. He also cast a Chromatic Orb at Kagain as well as stabbing him in the back, all of it inflicting only minor damage. Once his Stoneskin wore off our melee power proved devastating.
On the assassin's body we found a letter mentioning Tranzig, the same name the battlepriestess at the Carnival mentioned as the cause of her petrification. He is to be found in Beregost. However it is now time to identify and sell some loot, and to speak with Taerom the blacksmith about the contaminated iron we found in the mines and maybe with Thalantyr about the poisonous liquids.
Isra told me that she approved of the course my party had taken, and proposed to stay on after having received instructions from her Order to do so. I accepted, as I have nothing against her. She's actually pretty modest for a paladin, which I kind of like in her. I am aware though, that unlike Gavin with his clerical skills and Kagain who's a great scout, Isra doesn't add anything special to this group beyond het fighting skills. She's also a bit vain to my taste, but many attractive women are.
[Nice crossmod banter! Unfortunately I find it more difficult to ditch NPCs after I've had nice banters with them or see them getting along with my party mmbers.]
We got a lot of loot identified by Thalantyr and sold most of it. I went over to Feldepost's to buy the dagger of venom, and returned to Thalantyr to get it fused with a +2 dagger that was sought by the revenant we put to rest at the mine exit. Thalantyr upgraded the dagger of venom to a +3 dagger which grants an extra attack, and poisons my enemies, making it a perfect weapon for interrupting spellcasters I hope. [NOTE: Grynne has only one pip in daggers, so she isn't going to do much damage with it, but the extra APR is of course most welcome, and besides, from a roleplaying perspective the effect poison has on spellcasters, makes the dagger an appealing weapon of choice for Grynne.] On the road we were ambushed by four hired killers, all ladies. We slew them one by one, first the spellcasters (there were two of them), and then two rogues. It all went extremely fast. The only spells they managed to cast were a DUHM (instantly triggered) and a slow on Kagain, who also suffered a few hits but nothing to worry over.
[NOTE: At this point the game is becoming almost too easy due to my party's impressive physical might. This makes me long for a replay of Teyl the Strifeleader/Thief, with whom I had to be much more strategical with the use of cleric spells, hiding and sneaking, deciding when to poison my weapon or spend money on traps. My current party is just hacking and slashing their way forward. Resisting a sudden restartitis infection I tell myself that I want to see how they deal with spellcasters, against whom my non-arcane party may struggle, and I that I really like Grynne as a character, which is actually true. I might reduce the size of my party though.]
On one of our opponents' corpses we found a suit of full plate mail, which I happily donned. I gave my ankheg armour to Gavin, as he has been suffering the severest beatings of us all in battle. In Beregost we embarked on another quest for Keldath. Apparently people have been disappearing, and according to a source in the Burining Wizard, the disappearances all took place just in front of Lady Valeria's house around the corner from the Burning Wizard, on the road that leads to the Friendly Arm Inn. None of us managed to open the door, not even Kagain who is a competent lockpicker. However when he took two keys I had in my pack to see if he could manipulate the lock, one of those keys fitted perfectly. Upon entering we encountered a heavily guarded ground floor, but no sign of the Lady herself. A short chat with the guards taught me that these people were up to no good, and when I confronted them, they turned hostile.
The four of us first attacked their spokesman, a heavily armoured warrior priest. He stood no chance to defend himself against the severe beating we gave him, although he did somehow manage to summon a skeleton. The other guards and the summoned skeleton were much easier to dispatch. On the priest we found another piece of full plate, a welcome upgrade for Isra (who had been wearing regular plate mail up till then).
We healed Isra, and proceeded our way upstairs. That's where we found Lady Valeria, who turned out to be yet another testament of the corrupting influence that sorcery exerts on people. Once an innocent young girl, scarred by loneliness and abuse by men who only lusted after her curves she'd turned into a sorceress of the wickedest category. She'd been working on a 'happiness elixir', and testing it on various townspeople who wouldn't survive her experiments. Her misery made me feel somewhat sorry for her, or for the innocent young girl she'd once been, but I saw no other option than to stop her there and then, and rid the world of the vile sorceress she had become. She had a string of magical protections trigger as we engaged in battle: Ghost Armour, PfNM, PfE, Mirror Image, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Improved Invisibility, Armour. These would have protected her pretty well against other practitioners of sorcery but not against the brutal physical force of my party. Besides I had already activated my Shatter Magic ability, which may have stripped some of her protections. Two hits from Isra's sword, and one from my axe, sufficed to take her down.
We stripped Valeria of her belongings, amongst which a Robe of the Evil Archmagi we burned so that it wouldn't ever fall into the wrong hands. After that we went to Feldepost's, rested and went upstairs where we faced Tranzig the wizard we found mentioned in Nimbul's correspondence. He threatened us, and when we showed no sign of admiration or fear, he attacked. We soon had him on his knees begging for his life. Isra said she'd have no problem with sparing the wizard's life, but the flicker of recognition we saw in his eyes when I mentioned Branwen, the Battlepriest of Tempus we'd encountered petrified at the Carnival, made Isra take his life with one final blow of her greatsword. I could be mistaken, but we seem to understand each other better than I would have expected. I also had a talk with Gavin, who spoke about his "child" (a girl his former woman had with another man, while she was in a relationship with Gavin). He told me that the girl has certain magical talents, which explain his earlier reservations when it comes to rejecting magic, and that he hopes to give his girl the proper education to help her contain the taint. Well, he didn't use the word 'taint', but I've noticed though that Gavin himself is no lover of magic. Thus his confession has no implications for our working relationship. This morning Keldath released Gavin of his duties for the temple, and I'm glad to have him in my party. [NOTE: the party's reputation has gone all the way up to 18. As such this isn't a problem to Grynne, who has merely brought justice upon the land (I think I've roleplayed her pretty true to her alignment). The problem is that this high reputation is bringing Kagain dangerously close to leaving the party.]
In Beregost we were tricked into an agreement with an evil bard, who said she needed protection against a number of thugs, hired by Feldepost. I readily agreed, but it turned out that these thugs were honest people with no intentions of doing the thespian any harm. I was very displeased with the woman, and told her that I was obviously not going to attack these innocent men. The bard had a number of nasty tricks up her sleeve, such as dire charming me and have me attack my comrades who quickly fled inside the Red Sheaf Inn. This left me defenseless again her magic missiles until the charm wore off. Luckily my health was sufficient to take the damage. When I had control of my senses again, I activated my Shatter Magic ability to get through her defenses (stoneskin, mirror image, and a spell triggered ghost armor), and tore her down. We decided to get back in, and rest up, after this exhausting fight.
[NOTE: This was actually a close call! I could have wrecked my companions, amongst whom Gavin, whose casting of a Dispel Magic I interrupted. And besides a more potent mage could have done me more damage. I know that hitting a charmed enemy makes them go hostile again; what I didn't know is that it doesn't work the other way around... Too much solo'ing, I suppose.]
@Elrandir: thanks! Am still enjoying the storytelling, I'm glad you do too... @MacHurto: yes with the enormous amount of mods available, one game can be set up in a completely different way than another game, keeps it all the more entertaining. It's good to say that coders and fans are doing the same for BG:EE now...
One quick update, before I'm going to take some time off. I just discovered a new game I just have to try out, it's called RL...
***
It occurred to us that after the events with the bounty hunters and assassins coming after us at the mine exit and later in Nashkel, and after the incidents in Beregost with Tranzig and with that wicked bard, that it would be a good idea to keep a low profile and distance ourselves somewhat from civilization. We headed for the coast again. We arrived at the area with the treasure cave, and the sirines, who were very hostile when they saw us again. This time we were somewhat better prepared to deal with them, if such a thing was going to be necessary. Unfortunately for them it was... Their claimed entitlement to the area and their outright hostility toward us gave me little reason to doubt as to how to deal with the creatures. Besides they're spellcasters who charm and lure innocents just for fun or for their pleasure. When we had vanquished all six of them, we entered the cave, where as Gavin had told us before, a number of Flesh Golems, unnatural creatures, products of sorcery, roamed about. To make the world a better place we annihilated the hard-hitting creatures. As Isra was quite seriously injured from the golems' hits, we decided to rest inside the now safe cave, before leaving. When we had fully recovered our strengths, and left the cave, we were confronted once again by a group of hired assssins, a man by the name of Molkar, and his band. There was no bargaining with this lot. They had come for one reason, and one reason only: to kill me, and probably my party as well.
I was most wary of their spellcaster, a gnomish fighter/mage. So I rushed toward him and eliminaed him quite quickly.
Then something incovenient happened. Another spellcaster, this one a cleric, managed to dominate me. My party members, who up till then had been busy with Molkar, fled inside the cave. Unlike Silke, these men didn't fight me while I was under the domination spell. Maybe they were frightened t break the spell. Instead they waited, hoping that my companions would come out of the cave. At one point they would have to anyway. I understood that my companions used the shelter of the cave to heal and buff themselves.
Alas for the assassins, the spell wore off, and I immediately went for the cleric who had charmed me. He was difficult to hit though, so I directed my attention to Molkar, who had the severest injuries of the three. One less foe slashing his swords at me, would surely make things easier I thought. My companions must have heard my battle cry, because they came outside just when I finished off Molkar.
So now it was three of us against their remaining two. Our joint effort to bring the cleric down paid off well. He wasn't able to cast anymore spells, and fell to our incessant beating.
Kagain, while fighting the cleric, got quite severly injured by their dwarven fighter. But as all we focused on their last man standing, we quickly managed to turn the tide. The dwarf fell before he could kill "my" dwarf.
Exhausted but content we made our way back to Thalantyr to get their loot identified, as much of it appeared to be enchanted. Much to my satisfaction I now own a helm that protects against charm as well as an nice suit of armour that protects against certain elemental damage and a helm that offers elemental protection as well. From Faerom we bought another Helm of Charm Protection, so that three of us (Isra as a cavalier, Gavin, and I) are now protected against charm spells, one of the most annoying and potentially devastating manifestations of magic I ave been confronted with on my travels so far...
Nice! Lucky break with them not attacking you while dominated. I assume these assassins attack randomly? Didn't you deal with the same group while in Beregost when you were playing with Teyl?
Yep in SCS they attack randomly once you've completed Nashkel mines. In vanilla BG I think they're in southern portion of the Ulcaster School area. I was indeed lucky with the domination spell. In fact I'm quite puzzled. I've been told that hitting a charmed or dire charmed character breaks the (dire) charm; whereas hitting a dominated character doesn't end the domination. But in my game Silke dire charmed me, and hit me with various Magic Missiles, without the spell losing its effect. And when I got dominated, my enemies stopped attacking me. It should be the other way around no? Unless my understanding of these spells is incorrect. The spell descriptions do little to clarify things.
Great storystelling (i wish i could do the same...) The mods also make for a nicely refreshing experience.
However, i sometime have the feeling the balancing is not great which may explain why you find the game a little bit to easy. I mean : "Thalantyr upgraded the dagger of venom to a +3 dagger which grants an extra attack, and poisons my enemies, making it a perfect weapon for interrupting spellcasters I hope."
The vanilla dagger of venom is already OP in BGEE. That one would probably be the best weapon in SOA.
@mumumomo You can! Even if you're not the greatest writer, you can only improve with practice. If you've got an idea then try it! As I'm sure you're aware, the people on this forum are very kind and will gladly offer advice.
Anyway, that aside, I actually see what you're saying. That said, however, I still think that with the mods he has installed, it will become much more challenging. I think he's just in the relatively easy early-mid game. Not to mention he's a melee heavy party. When it comes to sheer damage, melee is a beast, and definitely the strongest. (at least in my personal opinion.)
@mumumomo, I agree with @Elrandir: it takes patience and practice for all of us, but surely you can spin a good story. In my experience it really helps if you have nice backstory in mind for your charname, with their personality and wordviews more or less fleshed out. Makes it so much easier to imagine what they will think and how they will act in different situations. I only recently started writing backstories, and my experience is that it makes each gaming experience, each charname much more unique. What I like in your wrting btw is that you indicate very precisely how you deal with avery combat situation (spells cast, potions needed etc).
As to Grynne's possible overpoweredness, I agree that the upgraded dagger of venom is OP for mid BG1; it's more of a SOA weapon (not the best though, compared to e.g. Carsomyr, Staff of the Magi, FoA). However I'm wielding it in my offhand, and I have only one proficiency point in daggers. So it's basically the extra APR that's going to help me inflict the miscast magic penalty on the tougher mages (that don't fall too easily). I haven't even poisoned a single enemy so far. Besides, if you look at the modded enemies' firepower, as Elrandir says, then I think I'm not that OP. Look at Morvin the dwarf for example. He's a level 9 Fighter, with 126 HP, 19 CON (great shorty saves), 19 DEX through items (gauntlets of DEX +2, and his weapon grants another +1 DEX), an AC of -5, an oil of speed, and he wields the following weapon:
If you don't come prepared against the likes of Morvin, you'll get chunked (especially if you've got no magic at your disposal such as mu current party, so no web, no dire charm to have your opponents fight each other etc).
When I said before that I felt OP, what I should have said is that unlike what I'm used to in other playthroughs, enemies fall simply by clicking on them. Other charnames, for example the cleric/thief I played until recently requiered much more micromanaging, which I actually prefer: I love hiding, backstabbing, using spells...
Having our loot identified by Thalantur, we kept the best and sold the rest, and then we returned to the coast because there were still various unexplored areas. In the south we protected historian Charleston Nib against possible bandits while he was investigating an archaelogical site. The site turned out to be cursed somehow, because his entire staff went hostile, and when we left with a small statutette we had found, a Doomsayer attacked us. We put the creature to rest with little effort.
Farther north we encountered a Nereid who slew Kagain with her kiss of death. (See, I wasn't wrong about Kagain not necessarily being able to resist these water creatures' lures and charms when we spoke about this in the area with the treasure cave.)
We soon had the Nereid on her knees. She begged for her life, and we said we'd spare her if she restored our fallen comrade to life. So she did. After that an ogre mage named Droth came teleporting in, and he attacked us. The wicked creature came heavily protected with precast Stoneskin, Shield, Mirror Image, Fireshield: Blue, Improved Invisibility and improved Haste. I activated my Shatter Magic ability but [mostly due to unlucky rolls / misses] I didn't manage to strip him of any of his protections it seems, Maybe one [because I also had one hit]. The mage cast a Sunfire which killed the Nereid, did some severe damage to my party and blinded both Isra and me.
Hitting him wasn't the best of ideas, due to his Fireshield. So there wasn't much we could do, especially when Gavin's Dispel Magic didn't affect Droth. He then went after Isra, which prompted Gavin to cast another spell: Call Lightning. This did some damage to the ogre and caused a spell failure, though not before he managed to send a Confusion Gavin's way.
With a confused Gavin, we had no spellcasting options, no way to dispel Droths protections, and no way of hitting him without being hit by his Fireshield. This had the remaining three of us running around, trying to confuse and distract Droth. I took some minor damage from a Chromatic Orb, and Kagain actually fell after being hit hit by various magic missiles. When the Confusion spell on Gavin had worn off, he fruitlessly tried to silence the Ogre (twice), and then he started casing a Flamstrike from a scroll he had with him.
This turned out to be unnecessary, probably at least, since at the moment of casting, Droth's spell protections wore off, so that our physical damage would have normally sufficed. The good thing about Gavin's Flamestrike is that it disrupted another of Droth's spells. When I hit him with an arrow, he triggered a Minor Sequencer which made him Invisible and Mirror Imaged. But that wasn't sufficient protection against Isra's greatsword, my axe, and Gavin's flails. We had him at the point of dying, when he pulled his last trick: a stoneskin he had stored in a Contigency. This only postponed his execution by a small margin though.
[This was quite a tough fight. I had hoped and even expected that Grynne's Shatter Magic ability would debuff Droth and facilitate a quick kill. Maybe it was just the unlucky rolls, that had me fail to shatter the mage's protection. At level 9 she'll have a second daily Shatter Magic ability, but that's still a long way from now.]
With Kagain dead, we returned to Beregost to have him raised again.
Geez! Tough fight. SCS really kicked up the difficulty for Droth. I'm used to bludgeoning him to death in seconds, so good job with this much upgraded version.
Hey @Elrandir, thanks, it was a close one indeed. I think I wouldn't have died, but I was already thinking that maybe it'd for the best if we just fled the scene... I'm not sure whether I want to continue this playthrough though. I really miss the micromagaging, spellcasting etc. Anyway, I'm going to force me through the bandit camp and Cloakwood I guess. See how think by then..
I'm actually in ToB atm with my dwarven wizard slayer. I'd meant to go back and give it another try with the WSRB mod but haven't had a chance yet. Between work, League of Legends with friends and diablo, BG is just waiting for me to boot up a game again.
Also I used a similar party makeup as well. The difference is that I made an exception for the following arcane casters:
Xan Imoen
Anyway I look forward to keeping up with this thread. I meant to have one for my WS but its way too late for that now. I can tell you that certain fights in BG2 are going to be a complete nightmare, and that is even if you take keldorn.
Hey @Dragonspear, thanks for your appreciation! I'v been on the brink of abandoning the game (too hack&slashy so far), but the prospect of big challenges in BG2 may keep me interested Atm I have quite a lot of time on my hands, but that may change in a two or three months. I'm playing a no-reload run, so I might get back to you at one point for advice...
A Flaming Fist Officer in the Jovial Juggler Inn in Beregost promised us 50GP for every bandit scalp we would bring her. With little else on our hands we decided to check out the Larswood, since the correspondence on Tranzig suggested a bandit presence in those parts. We saved a gnome from his goblin captors [but didn't speak to him afterward in order to prevent Kagain from leaving if our rep. increased].
We also got unwillingly involved in a conflict between two druids. The first attacked us on sight accusing us of having murdered one of his friends, and forcing us to defend ourselves. The other druid helped us and apologized for the incident when the attacker had fallen, but when we pressed on for information about what was going on, he admitted that he was the one behind the murder of the former druid's friend. And then he stupidly attacked us; he didn't manage to cast a single spell.
The area was indeed replete with bandits until we cleansed the forest of their presence. Kagain has now 25 scalps in his pack. To their credit I must say that the Black Talons proved to be great archers. We'll continue our exploration of the forest, but first it is time to rest.
I've started out with three pips in dualwielding and one in axes. Currently I'm level 7 and I've placed another pip in axes and one in daggers. (The one pip in dagger is because I'm using a mod which allows for an upgrade of the dagger of venom by Thalantyr, making it grant an extra APR).
I opted for dualwielding because of the cumulative spellcasting penalty and I took axes because I never use them, and they fit the character I had in mind, even though longswords are probably the better choice given their diversity. The STR bonus to throwing axes is a perk for the axe-wielder though (as you might know WS Rebalancing makes the spell failure penalty apply to ranged attacks as well).
With WS Rebalancing, dualwielding eventually becomes superfluous, as it gives the WS 1% on top of the base 10% failure penalty every level-up. So at level 10, the penalty is 20%, and at level 20 it becomes 30%. Thus by then, three hits (e.g. with a 2h sword) should suffice to pretty much neutralize any spellcaster...
Ah, since I hadn't used the mod I couldn't say. I do know if I was to go back again I'd have started with 2/2 in axes and twf, especially since that extra pip in twf really ain't worth it.
I'm debating making an elven WS doing it with longswords or a 2h WS with 2h weapons and an orc.
A -4 thac0 penalty in the offhand has always occurred to me as rather steep. But come to think of it, it's only -2 compared to a "twin character" with 3 pips in twf, like lagging two levels behind for off-hand thac0 purposes. And I suppose its even less of a problem if the off-hand weapon is mainly used for its protective purposes or to enhance effectiveness with the mainhand weapon, like Crom Faeyr, Belm, DoE etc. On the other hand as a fighter you get quite a lot of proficiency points to spend, so in the long run it doesn't really matter that much.
Roleplay-wise the elf dualwielding longswords sounds nice, even if slightly less damaging in melee. I consider having my h-orc master a 2h weapon (2h sword or halberd) as well, as the game progresses.
Late game I'd put the 3rd pip in there, but prolly not until grand mastery is achieved. The reason that many consider that point lackluster, is that going from Specialized to Master also grants a +2 to Thac0.
Take for example your character (assuming you not getting the dagger):
TWF: +++ Axes: +
At level 3, you gain +1 to hit and +2 to damage
If you start TWF ++ and Axes ++, at level 3 you're up to +3 to hit and +3 to damage, and if its the same weapon, then you've effectively made up that 1 pip.
That's the nice thing about D&D and single player games though. You CAN have your own style to fit how you want to play, and in the end that's all that matters.
Comments
I think I'll move it (or ask someone to move it), once the run has ended... which hopefully isn't going to happen anytime soon
You should be able to move it by yourself, by editing the OP and browsing the cascade menu you'll see.
Gorion's friends proved to be well-disposed, but for some reason insisted on heading to Nashkel right away, while Gavin and I had committed ourselves to seeking out Bassilus.
Perhaps we'll meet up later, though I'm not sure. The woman seemed competent enough, though somewhat haughty (which I think is as dangerous as it is unpleasant). Her husband on the other hand seemed to have an unstable and insecure personality, which, combined with his profession of fighter/mage, would make him an unreliable companion in my opinion.
Around the Friendly Arm Inn we found no trace of Bassilus. What we did find was a great amount of ankhegs. We slew many of them, and took a few scales with us. Maybe the blacksmith in Beregost would be able to forge a nice suit of armor from them. So we returned to Beregost, and spoke with the blacksmith. Having a piece of ankheg armour made is quite expensive though.
We entered a shop to sell some of the loot we'd found on the ankhegs, and on the mage at the Friendly Arm Inn. However we were received by a dwarf who instead of buying up our loot, proposed that we aid him in tracing a caravan just north of Beregost. I said to Gavin that it might be wise to accompany the dwarf now, so that he might come with us to take on Bassilus. This dwarf was unmistakeably a robust fighter. And if he had some honour in him, he would aid us after having received our help.
[Kagain joined, I made him a Fighter (Battlerager)/Thief, who dual wields short swords. I swapped his STR & DEX stats, which fits him better as a F/T. He's level 4/5 at the moment of joining.]
...
It didnt take us long to find the bandits Kagain was after. Their achers managed to do Kagain some serious damage, before we dispatched the lot. I told Kagain to don his splint mail armour when he engages in battle. Kagain was thankful for my advice and for our help, and as I'd hoped, he offered to continue working with us. I accepted his offer.
We rested at Feldepost's and then set out to hunt for Bassilus. On our way we helped a drow woman, who was being pursued by a Flaming Fist mercenary. Without any criminal evidence against the woman, and knowing what it's like to be discriminated against because of one's race, I came to her aid. This Flaming Fist was not to be trifled with however. He was a cleric of some sort, and successfully cast a Hold Spell on both Kagain and Gavin, despite having been hit twice by me (32% spell failure) and once by Gavin while in the process of casting. In the end the drow and I took him down.
She was grateful to us. I told her it was nothing, and that maybe our paths will cross again sometime. Hopefully in more pleasant circumstances.
Gavin, Kagain and I headed southwest, still not really sure where to look for the mad cleric. It would have been nice if Keldath Ormlyr had been able to give us some specific directions. Nevertheless, at long last we found Bassilus in the area where I'd picked up Melicamp the chicken about a fortnight before. I remember the area because of it's red coloured rock masses. There were many undead and hobgoblins we dispatched first, so that we'd have different escape routes just in case things would get messy.
Gavin stepped up to Bassilus, partly because he's our group's spokesperson but also becase it was "his" quest... As it turned out the mad cleric had killed lots of people and raised them as undead "family members". A clever attempt by Gavin to play along with Bassilus, possibly allowing us to give the cleric over to the authorities in Beregost, did not succeed. Gavin then tried to silence the priest before he could do us any harm, but the spell didn't affect Bassilus in the slightest. In return, Bassilus did manage to hold poor Gavin. At that moment, Kagain, enraged in a way I hadn't seen him before, charged almost blindly forward to attack the priest. As I didn't see any other option, I followed suit. Some of the undead fell when we approached, others attacked us, but we had only target: Bassilus. Kagain's rage and my fast swinging axes prevented the priest from casting any more nasty spells, and eventually a critical hit with my axe did him in.
As we waited for the hold spell on Gavin to expire, I gathered what loot we could find, including Bassilus's holy symbol. While I was at it, Kagain started acting funny:
What would he expect me to be? A Hillgnasher giant? Maybe his battlerage tends to strain the dwarf's otherwise keen intellect? Anyhow we packed and left for Beregost. Keldath was most thankful, and rewarded us with a generous sum of 5000 gold.
Time to rest, and to decide what will be our next step. I am not sure yet. We've got some money to spend, but there's also the job in Nashkel with the mines, plus a bounty on commander Brage's head, as I had been told in Nashkel.
We scouted the coastal area to the west of Nashkel, Kagain going before the rest of us, using the cover of the night to go unnoticed. He told us that he'd spotted a number of sirines, dangerous foes for those who come ill-prepared. A gypsy we met, Safana, told us however that if we'd make it past the sirines we'd find a cave with a hidden treasure. Kagain's eyes doubled in size, and he proposed we try and take on the sirines. His battlerage would protect him from their lures, he asserted. I was less certain. We all have our weaknesses, our vulnerabilities. While Kagain's a reliable companion, honest, and disciplined even in his battlerage, his weakness is clearly gold. Gold seems to blind him. He wasn't easily convinced, but Gavin came up with a solution: he would take my bag of holding, cast a sanctuary on himself, walk past the sirines unharmed and unmolested, get inside the cave, take the treasure and walk out, again under the protection of sanctuary. Since we were unsure of who or what was to be found inside the cave, I gave Gavin a potion of invisibility in case he'd need a quick and safe way out. I was quite restless while he was gone, but he made it back relatively unscathed. He told me the cave harboured three strong flesh golems. He'd tried to take one on, but it had been hitting him too hard. The loot wasn't all that impressive, though it included a number of potions, two cloaks and what appears to be a magical tome.
We gave Safana some gold for tipping us off and parted.
We then travelled southward, along the coast until we came upon a carnage scene (three dead bodies on the ground). A cleric and an apparent madman who turned out to be Brage approached us. The cleric told us that Brage seemed to be possessed by some grave evil, and begged us to keep a distance and prevent any further bloodshed. It was difficult to keep a distance though. Brage had already spotted us and came toward us, speaking in riddles about death and darkness. Kagain looked at me with both his swords already in the air, ready to attack, but I begged him to stay his hand. This Brage was no culprit. He was a victim. A victim of some form of dark, foul magic. I tried to reason with him, and played along with his riddles (which wasn't so hard because all he had on his corrupted mind was death and decay). He came willingly with us to Nashkel, to Nalin in the Temple of Helm. Nalin, like me, saw in Brage a victim, and not the grave sinner Brage considered himself to be. As it turned out, the cause of Brage's frenzy lay in the sword he'd been wielding. It had a curse placed on it. Nalin rewarded us with 1000 gold anyway, so even Kagain didn't have anything to complain in the end.
We all agreed that we deserved some time to relax, so I proposed that we visit the Carnival. There wasn't that much going on in terms of diversion, so we mainly looked at the wares of the many merchants. In one of the tents we witnessed a dramatic scene. One mage slew another before I had the time to blink my eyes, and then turned against us. Although he did manage to briefly blind Gavin and me with a Glitterdust spell, a typical treacherous mage trick, my axes, Kagain's blades and Gavin's flails were too much to handle for the fiendish wizard.
When we left the scene, we were approached by another messenger telling us that Keldath bade us once again to the Temple of Lathander. We went there right away. Keldath told us about yet another depraved wizard, one named Mutamin who'd been taming basilisks and having them petrify everything that would come near. Our reward would be a handsome one, Keldath promised. We bought three scrolls of Stone to Flesh, and we received three potions of Mirrored Eyes for free. I recalled one of the merchants at the Nashkel Carnival selling scrolls of Protection from Petrification. So we decided to first buy the scroll (which has a much longer duration than the potions), and then confront Mutamin.
At the Carnival we used one of the Stone to Flesh scrolls on a petrified woman (much to the dismay of a dwarven vendor who had tried to sell us such a scroll at an exorbitant price). The woman, a battlepriestess of Tempus, was very relieved. She told us that it had been an evil mage named Tranzig, who'd turned her into stone. I replied that we were on an important and dangerous mission, but that in the future I'd gladly help her find the perpetrator and put him to justice. We found the scroll of Protection from Petrification, and headed out east, to where according to Keldath Mutamin was to be found.
The area was indeed replete with basilisks. I counted ten. After using the protection scroll on myself, I took on 8 of them, one or two at a time. Without their petrifying gaze, they aren't really much of a threat. Kagain spied the remaining two standing next to a gnomish wizard, Mutamin without a doubt. He scouted the area for more beasts, and to my surprise returned with a tame ghoul that was apparently willing to help us. Maybe the ghoul, with his paralyzing touch and his immunity to petrification could be of use to us. Kagain, hidden in the shadows led the ghoul toward Mutamin. Unfortunately Mutamin spotted not only the ghoul but Kagain as well as he failed to hide himself well. However the ghoul was closing in on Mutamin, and after suffering a few hits of the mage's Melf's Minute Meteors, it engaged the mage in melee, and held him. I ran toward the mage and finished him off.
On Mutamin's body I found yet another magical tome, a mage robe, and some magic bracers. The remaining two basilisks presented no challenge, as I was still protected against petrification.
...
Keldath has rewarded us with 2000 GP for our efforts. He also identified the magical tomes and some other goods. Study of the tomes increased my bodily health and my wisdom and judgement, which will help me in my work. I think it may be time for us to do some smart purchases and then see what is going on in those Nashkel mines.
NOTE:
So far I don't think I've used Grynne's 'disrupt magic' passive ability much. Am not sure though, I don't think it's possible to see on screen whether a casting failure is the result of a normal hit or because of the spellcasting failure penalty of previous hits. Anyway, the stronger mages have yet to show up. Meanwhile Grynne can gain a few more levels and get better at disrupting I hope
Besides the wizards you mentioned I can only think of ogre mages as possible victims of the miscast penalty, and maybe (SCS) Silke. Since the effect only works on arcane casters in the mod I'm using (nt sure about vanilla), clerics are unaffected.
I bought Gavin a ring of free action from Thalantyr, and a Greenstone Amulet in his hometown Ulgoth's Beard, where we went for a short visit. These two items should help him keep control of both his body and mind, so that he can support the party at all times with his divine magic.
From Ulgoth's Beard we travelled all the way south, to the Nashkel Mines area. There we met Prism, a famous sculptor, working on a rock carving. He told me there was a bounty on his head, for having stolen two emeralds he allegedly "needed" for his work. A paladin named Isra stood guard, protecting the thief... this wasn't your average paladin, so much is certain. Prism was almost done with his work and begged me to let him finish. I conceded, but we agreed that afterward I'd surrender him to the authorities in Nashkel so that justice would be served. However a bounty hunter named Greywolf came to claim the bounty on Prism. I tried to explain that Prism was coming with us as soon as he was done with his work. Greywolf wasn't too pleased with this arrangement. He attacked. I must admit that he was a formidable fighter, who managed to hurt his primary target Kagain more than once. But he stood no chance against the overwhelming power of the three of us plus Isra. Prism barely finished his work and then died, exhausted yet content. Isra inquired into our business in the area, so I explained that we had come to investigate the mines. She was pleased to hear someone was willing to do so, and even offered to join us. Not knowing exactly what to expect in the mines, I thought it wise to have her along. I may not share most paladins' holy crusader mentality, which in my view seems to be coloured all too often by prejudice and self-righteousness, at least they are trustworthy, honourable people.
We entered the mines, and though the first level was quiet without any signs of trouble except for the fear in the hearts of the miners, Kagain discerned the smell of kobolds. He was right. The lower levels were infested with kobolds. Their numbers were so overwhelming that we weren't able to avoid all damage. The archers in particular, who were difficult to reach, proved to be dangerous. Fortunately we had a good amount of healing potions with us, to restore our health. At several locations we found contaminated iron ore and poisonous liquids, whhich may or may not have something to do with the recent iron crisis I hadn't given much attention till now. At the bottom level we came upon a rounded, cave-like structure. Inside we found the chief of the operation, an orcish priest of Cyric, surrounded by kobolds and undead minions. He fell soon enough; we had again most difficulty with the kobold archers, especially Gavin.
We released an elven sorcerer, who'd been held captive by the priest. He wanted to join our party, but I politely refused. I reluctantly gave him a blade from the priest's chest he said belonged to him, and bade him farewell. We rested in a tunnel that sloped upwards. I had a dream about the priest we had just killed, Mulahey was his name (according to some letters we found among his belongings). I woke up with a healing power not unlike a paladin's ability to lay his hands on a wounded person and heal them. This is the second time I've experienced this, and I have no idea where these abilities come from. Some deity that has yet reveal himself or herself?
When we reached the surface we were ambushed by two assassins, with bows. They were no match for our well-rested party. We also dealth with a mage who had discovered how to create jellies and slimes, through some form of wicked sorcery. He became hostile when I asked him for the source of this discovery. We battled and he fell, taking his discovery with him to whatever after-world. I'm confident it's for the best.
We also cleansed the area of its undead presence, of which a revenant gave us, or at least Isra, the most difficulty.
Our trip to Nashkel was uneventful, and in Nashkel everyone seemed glad to see us, not in the least mayor Ghastkill, who rewarded us for our efforts with 900 GP. The only one who wasn't happy with us, was a skilled assassin named Nimbul. He was initially protected by a previously cast Stoneskin, so none of us were hitting him [although the spellcasting falilure penalty must have applied]. He also cast a Chromatic Orb at Kagain as well as stabbing him in the back, all of it inflicting only minor damage. Once his Stoneskin wore off our melee power proved devastating.
On the assassin's body we found a letter mentioning Tranzig, the same name the battlepriestess at the Carnival mentioned as the cause of her petrification. He is to be found in Beregost. However it is now time to identify and sell some loot, and to speak with Taerom the blacksmith about the contaminated iron we found in the mines and maybe with Thalantyr about the poisonous liquids.
[Nice crossmod banter! Unfortunately I find it more difficult to ditch NPCs after I've had nice banters with them or see them getting along with my party mmbers.]
We got a lot of loot identified by Thalantyr and sold most of it. I went over to Feldepost's to buy the dagger of venom, and returned to Thalantyr to get it fused with a +2 dagger that was sought by the revenant we put to rest at the mine exit. Thalantyr upgraded the dagger of venom to a +3 dagger which grants an extra attack, and poisons my enemies, making it a perfect weapon for interrupting spellcasters I hope.
[NOTE: Grynne has only one pip in daggers, so she isn't going to do much damage with it, but the extra APR is of course most welcome, and besides, from a roleplaying perspective the effect poison has on spellcasters, makes the dagger an appealing weapon of choice for Grynne.]
On the road we were ambushed by four hired killers, all ladies. We slew them one by one, first the spellcasters (there were two of them), and then two rogues. It all went extremely fast. The only spells they managed to cast were a DUHM (instantly triggered) and a slow on Kagain, who also suffered a few hits but nothing to worry over.
[NOTE: At this point the game is becoming almost too easy due to my party's impressive physical might. This makes me long for a replay of Teyl the Strifeleader/Thief, with whom I had to be much more strategical with the use of cleric spells, hiding and sneaking, deciding when to poison my weapon or spend money on traps. My current party is just hacking and slashing their way forward. Resisting a sudden restartitis infection I tell myself that I want to see how they deal with spellcasters, against whom my non-arcane party may struggle, and I that I really like Grynne as a character, which is actually true. I might reduce the size of my party though.]
On one of our opponents' corpses we found a suit of full plate mail, which I happily donned. I gave my ankheg armour to Gavin, as he has been suffering the severest beatings of us all in battle. In Beregost we embarked on another quest for Keldath. Apparently people have been disappearing, and according to a source in the Burining Wizard, the disappearances all took place just in front of Lady Valeria's house around the corner from the Burning Wizard, on the road that leads to the Friendly Arm Inn. None of us managed to open the door, not even Kagain who is a competent lockpicker. However when he took two keys I had in my pack to see if he could manipulate the lock, one of those keys fitted perfectly. Upon entering we encountered a heavily guarded ground floor, but no sign of the Lady herself. A short chat with the guards taught me that these people were up to no good, and when I confronted them, they turned hostile.
The four of us first attacked their spokesman, a heavily armoured warrior priest. He stood no chance to defend himself against the severe beating we gave him, although he did somehow manage to summon a skeleton. The other guards and the summoned skeleton were much easier to dispatch. On the priest we found another piece of full plate, a welcome upgrade for Isra (who had been wearing regular plate mail up till then).
We healed Isra, and proceeded our way upstairs. That's where we found Lady Valeria, who turned out to be yet another testament of the corrupting influence that sorcery exerts on people. Once an innocent young girl, scarred by loneliness and abuse by men who only lusted after her curves she'd turned into a sorceress of the wickedest category. She'd been working on a 'happiness elixir', and testing it on various townspeople who wouldn't survive her experiments. Her misery made me feel somewhat sorry for her, or for the innocent young girl she'd once been, but I saw no other option than to stop her there and then, and rid the world of the vile sorceress she had become.
She had a string of magical protections trigger as we engaged in battle: Ghost Armour, PfNM, PfE, Mirror Image, Minor Globe of Invulnerability, Improved Invisibility, Armour. These would have protected her pretty well against other practitioners of sorcery but not against the brutal physical force of my party. Besides I had already activated my Shatter Magic ability, which may have stripped some of her protections. Two hits from Isra's sword, and one from my axe, sufficed to take her down.
We stripped Valeria of her belongings, amongst which a Robe of the Evil Archmagi we burned so that it wouldn't ever fall into the wrong hands. After that we went to Feldepost's, rested and went upstairs where we faced Tranzig the wizard we found mentioned in Nimbul's correspondence. He threatened us, and when we showed no sign of admiration or fear, he attacked. We soon had him on his knees begging for his life. Isra said she'd have no problem with sparing the wizard's life, but the flicker of recognition we saw in his eyes when I mentioned Branwen, the Battlepriest of Tempus we'd encountered petrified at the Carnival, made Isra take his life with one final blow of her greatsword. I could be mistaken, but we seem to understand each other better than I would have expected.
I also had a talk with Gavin, who spoke about his "child" (a girl his former woman had with another man, while she was in a relationship with Gavin). He told me that the girl has certain magical talents, which explain his earlier reservations when it comes to rejecting magic, and that he hopes to give his girl the proper education to help her contain the taint. Well, he didn't use the word 'taint', but I've noticed though that Gavin himself is no lover of magic. Thus his confession has no implications for our working relationship. This morning Keldath released Gavin of his duties for the temple, and I'm glad to have him in my party.
[NOTE: the party's reputation has gone all the way up to 18. As such this isn't a problem to Grynne, who has merely brought justice upon the land (I think I've roleplayed her pretty true to her alignment). The problem is that this high reputation is bringing Kagain dangerously close to leaving the party.]
In Beregost we were tricked into an agreement with an evil bard, who said she needed protection against a number of thugs, hired by Feldepost. I readily agreed, but it turned out that these thugs were honest people with no intentions of doing the thespian any harm. I was very displeased with the woman, and told her that I was obviously not going to attack these innocent men. The bard had a number of nasty tricks up her sleeve, such as dire charming me and have me attack my comrades who quickly fled inside the Red Sheaf Inn. This left me defenseless again her magic missiles until the charm wore off. Luckily my health was sufficient to take the damage. When I had control of my senses again, I activated my Shatter Magic ability to get through her defenses (stoneskin, mirror image, and a spell triggered ghost armor), and tore her down. We decided to get back in, and rest up, after this exhausting fight.
[NOTE: This was actually a close call! I could have wrecked my companions, amongst whom Gavin, whose casting of a Dispel Magic I interrupted. And besides a more potent mage could have done me more damage. I know that hitting a charmed enemy makes them go hostile again; what I didn't know is that it doesn't work the other way around... Too much solo'ing, I suppose.]
@MacHurto: yes with the enormous amount of mods available, one game can be set up in a completely different way than another game, keeps it all the more entertaining. It's good to say that coders and fans are doing the same for BG:EE now...
***
It occurred to us that after the events with the bounty hunters and assassins coming after us at the mine exit and later in Nashkel, and after the incidents in Beregost with Tranzig and with that wicked bard, that it would be a good idea to keep a low profile and distance ourselves somewhat from civilization. We headed for the coast again. We arrived at the area with the treasure cave, and the sirines, who were very hostile when they saw us again. This time we were somewhat better prepared to deal with them, if such a thing was going to be necessary. Unfortunately for them it was... Their claimed entitlement to the area and their outright hostility toward us gave me little reason to doubt as to how to deal with the creatures. Besides they're spellcasters who charm and lure innocents just for fun or for their pleasure.
When we had vanquished all six of them, we entered the cave, where as Gavin had told us before, a number of Flesh Golems, unnatural creatures, products of sorcery, roamed about. To make the world a better place we annihilated the hard-hitting creatures. As Isra was quite seriously injured from the golems' hits, we decided to rest inside the now safe cave, before leaving.
When we had fully recovered our strengths, and left the cave, we were confronted once again by a group of hired assssins, a man by the name of Molkar, and his band. There was no bargaining with this lot. They had come for one reason, and one reason only: to kill me, and probably my party as well.
I was most wary of their spellcaster, a gnomish fighter/mage. So I rushed toward him and eliminaed him quite quickly.
Then something incovenient happened. Another spellcaster, this one a cleric, managed to dominate me. My party members, who up till then had been busy with Molkar, fled inside the cave. Unlike Silke, these men didn't fight me while I was under the domination spell. Maybe they were frightened t break the spell. Instead they waited, hoping that my companions would come out of the cave. At one point they would have to anyway. I understood that my companions used the shelter of the cave to heal and buff themselves.
Alas for the assassins, the spell wore off, and I immediately went for the cleric who had charmed me. He was difficult to hit though, so I directed my attention to Molkar, who had the severest injuries of the three. One less foe slashing his swords at me, would surely make things easier I thought. My companions must have heard my battle cry, because they came outside just when I finished off Molkar.
So now it was three of us against their remaining two. Our joint effort to bring the cleric down paid off well. He wasn't able to cast anymore spells, and fell to our incessant beating.
Kagain, while fighting the cleric, got quite severly injured by their dwarven fighter. But as all we focused on their last man standing, we quickly managed to turn the tide. The dwarf fell before he could kill "my" dwarf.
Exhausted but content we made our way back to Thalantyr to get their loot identified, as much of it appeared to be enchanted. Much to my satisfaction I now own a helm that protects against charm as well as an nice suit of armour that protects against certain elemental damage and a helm that offers elemental protection as well. From Faerom we bought another Helm of Charm Protection, so that three of us (Isra as a cavalier, Gavin, and I) are now protected against charm spells, one of the most annoying and potentially devastating manifestations of magic I ave been confronted with on my travels so far...
I was indeed lucky with the domination spell. In fact I'm quite puzzled. I've been told that hitting a charmed or dire charmed character breaks the (dire) charm; whereas hitting a dominated character doesn't end the domination. But in my game Silke dire charmed me, and hit me with various Magic Missiles, without the spell losing its effect. And when I got dominated, my enemies stopped attacking me. It should be the other way around no? Unless my understanding of these spells is incorrect. The spell descriptions do little to clarify things.
The mods also make for a nicely refreshing experience.
However, i sometime have the feeling the balancing is not great which may explain why you find the game a little bit to easy.
I mean : "Thalantyr upgraded the dagger of venom to a +3 dagger which grants an extra attack, and poisons my enemies, making it a perfect weapon for interrupting spellcasters I hope."
The vanilla dagger of venom is already OP in BGEE. That one would probably be the best weapon in SOA.
Anyway, that aside, I actually see what you're saying. That said, however, I still think that with the mods he has installed, it will become much more challenging. I think he's just in the relatively easy early-mid game. Not to mention he's a melee heavy party. When it comes to sheer damage, melee is a beast, and definitely the strongest. (at least in my personal opinion.)
What I like in your wrting btw is that you indicate very precisely how you deal with avery combat situation (spells cast, potions needed etc).
As to Grynne's possible overpoweredness, I agree that the upgraded dagger of venom is OP for mid BG1; it's more of a SOA weapon (not the best though, compared to e.g. Carsomyr, Staff of the Magi, FoA). However I'm wielding it in my offhand, and I have only one proficiency point in daggers. So it's basically the extra APR that's going to help me inflict the miscast magic penalty on the tougher mages (that don't fall too easily). I haven't even poisoned a single enemy so far.
Besides, if you look at the modded enemies' firepower, as Elrandir says, then I think I'm not that OP. Look at Morvin the dwarf for example. He's a level 9 Fighter, with 126 HP, 19 CON (great shorty saves), 19 DEX through items (gauntlets of DEX +2, and his weapon grants another +1 DEX), an AC of -5, an oil of speed, and he wields the following weapon:
If you don't come prepared against the likes of Morvin, you'll get chunked (especially if you've got no magic at your disposal such as mu current party, so no web, no dire charm to have your opponents fight each other etc).
When I said before that I felt OP, what I should have said is that unlike what I'm used to in other playthroughs, enemies fall simply by clicking on them. Other charnames, for example the cleric/thief I played until recently requiered much more micromanaging, which I actually prefer: I love hiding, backstabbing, using spells...
Farther north we encountered a Nereid who slew Kagain with her kiss of death. (See, I wasn't wrong about Kagain not necessarily being able to resist these water creatures' lures and charms when we spoke about this in the area with the treasure cave.)
We soon had the Nereid on her knees. She begged for her life, and we said we'd spare her if she restored our fallen comrade to life. So she did. After that an ogre mage named Droth came teleporting in, and he attacked us. The wicked creature came heavily protected with precast Stoneskin, Shield, Mirror Image, Fireshield: Blue, Improved Invisibility and improved Haste. I activated my Shatter Magic ability but [mostly due to unlucky rolls / misses] I didn't manage to strip him of any of his protections it seems, Maybe one [because I also had one hit]. The mage cast a Sunfire which killed the Nereid, did some severe damage to my party and blinded both Isra and me.
Hitting him wasn't the best of ideas, due to his Fireshield. So there wasn't much we could do, especially when Gavin's Dispel Magic didn't affect Droth. He then went after Isra, which prompted Gavin to cast another spell: Call Lightning. This did some damage to the ogre and caused a spell failure, though not before he managed to send a Confusion Gavin's way.
With a confused Gavin, we had no spellcasting options, no way to dispel Droths protections, and no way of hitting him without being hit by his Fireshield. This had the remaining three of us running around, trying to confuse and distract Droth. I took some minor damage from a Chromatic Orb, and Kagain actually fell after being hit hit by various magic missiles. When the Confusion spell on Gavin had worn off, he fruitlessly tried to silence the Ogre (twice), and then he started casing a Flamstrike from a scroll he had with him.
This turned out to be unnecessary, probably at least, since at the moment of casting, Droth's spell protections wore off, so that our physical damage would have normally sufficed. The good thing about Gavin's Flamestrike is that it disrupted another of Droth's spells. When I hit him with an arrow, he triggered a Minor Sequencer which made him Invisible and Mirror Imaged. But that wasn't sufficient protection against Isra's greatsword, my axe, and Gavin's flails. We had him at the point of dying, when he pulled his last trick: a stoneskin he had stored in a Contigency. This only postponed his execution by a small margin though.
[This was quite a tough fight. I had hoped and even expected that Grynne's Shatter Magic ability would debuff Droth and facilitate a quick kill. Maybe it was just the unlucky rolls, that had me fail to shatter the mage's protection. At level 9 she'll have a second daily Shatter Magic ability, but that's still a long way from now.]
With Kagain dead, we returned to Beregost to have him raised again.
I'm not sure whether I want to continue this playthrough though. I really miss the micromagaging, spellcasting etc. Anyway, I'm going to force me through the bandit camp and Cloakwood I guess. See how think by then..
Also I used a similar party makeup as well. The difference is that I made an exception for the following arcane casters:
Xan
Imoen
Anyway I look forward to keeping up with this thread. I meant to have one for my WS but its way too late for that now. I can tell you that certain fights in BG2 are going to be a complete nightmare, and that is even if you take keldorn.
Atm I have quite a lot of time on my hands, but that may change in a two or three months. I'm playing a no-reload run, so I might get back to you at one point for advice...
We saved a gnome from his goblin captors [but didn't speak to him afterward in order to prevent Kagain from leaving if our rep. increased].
We also got unwillingly involved in a conflict between two druids. The first attacked us on sight accusing us of having murdered one of his friends, and forcing us to defend ourselves. The other druid helped us and apologized for the incident when the attacker had fallen, but when we pressed on for information about what was going on, he admitted that he was the one behind the murder of the former druid's friend. And then he stupidly attacked us; he didn't manage to cast a single spell.
The area was indeed replete with bandits until we cleansed the forest of their presence. Kagain has now 25 scalps in his pack. To their credit I must say that the Black Talons proved to be great archers.
We'll continue our exploration of the forest, but first it is time to rest.
I've started out with three pips in dualwielding and one in axes. Currently I'm level 7 and I've placed another pip in axes and one in daggers. (The one pip in dagger is because I'm using a mod which allows for an upgrade of the dagger of venom by Thalantyr, making it grant an extra APR).
I opted for dualwielding because of the cumulative spellcasting penalty and I took axes because I never use them, and they fit the character I had in mind, even though longswords are probably the better choice given their diversity. The STR bonus to throwing axes is a perk for the axe-wielder though (as you might know WS Rebalancing makes the spell failure penalty apply to ranged attacks as well).
With WS Rebalancing, dualwielding eventually becomes superfluous, as it gives the WS 1% on top of the base 10% failure penalty every level-up. So at level 10, the penalty is 20%, and at level 20 it becomes 30%. Thus by then, three hits (e.g. with a 2h sword) should suffice to pretty much neutralize any spellcaster...
I'm debating making an elven WS doing it with longswords or a 2h WS with 2h weapons and an orc.
On the other hand as a fighter you get quite a lot of proficiency points to spend, so in the long run it doesn't really matter that much.
Roleplay-wise the elf dualwielding longswords sounds nice, even if slightly less damaging in melee. I consider having my h-orc master a 2h weapon (2h sword or halberd) as well, as the game progresses.
Take for example your character (assuming you not getting the dagger):
TWF: +++
Axes: +
At level 3, you gain +1 to hit and +2 to damage
If you start TWF ++ and Axes ++, at level 3 you're up to +3 to hit and +3 to damage, and if its the same weapon, then you've effectively made up that 1 pip.
That's the nice thing about D&D and single player games though. You CAN have your own style to fit how you want to play, and in the end that's all that matters.