The Adventures of Gaspar: The Suavest Swashbuckler to Sail the Seven Seas! (ctrl+q playthrough)
Flashburn
Member Posts: 1,847
In which we shall see how many scripts we can ruin by brainwashing friends and foes alike.
Inspired by the ctrl+q thread, and something I had been meaning to do for a long time, this is a playthrough of BG2EE where you force your enemies to fight alongside you! This isn't a hardcore, no-reload, SCS-whatever - it's pure and simple FUN!
The rules are simple. Ctrl+Q forces a creature to join your party. In this playthrough, there will be 5 creatures plus CHARNAME in a party. If one dies in combat, they will not be raised and instead will be replaced with more random creatures. I'll try not to force bosses into the party, as tempting as that may be, for the sake of what little balance there will probably be in this playthrough. And to increase the diversity of party members, and to save myself equipment headaches, brainwashed allies will stick with only what they have.
There are other mods in use besides these, but these are the most relevant:
So I present to you, the irresistable, handsome, charming Gaspar!
So, I've just been released from my cage by Imoen, who I promptly told to get lost. Our first victims volunteers are Irenicus' Jailkeep Golem and a Smoke Mephit. Let's name them...uhhh, Derick and Jim.
And now we let out Jaheira and Minsc, because I would feel bad if I didn't.
And now we're going to get out of here.
Hey, look! Jim leveled up!
Let's see what we can-
Oh. I don't know what I expected. This is probably going to happen a lot, come to think of it.
Tune in next post for some actual fighting hopefully!
Inspired by the ctrl+q thread, and something I had been meaning to do for a long time, this is a playthrough of BG2EE where you force your enemies to fight alongside you! This isn't a hardcore, no-reload, SCS-whatever - it's pure and simple FUN!
The rules are simple. Ctrl+Q forces a creature to join your party. In this playthrough, there will be 5 creatures plus CHARNAME in a party. If one dies in combat, they will not be raised and instead will be replaced with more random creatures. I'll try not to force bosses into the party, as tempting as that may be, for the sake of what little balance there will probably be in this playthrough. And to increase the diversity of party members, and to save myself equipment headaches, brainwashed allies will stick with only what they have.
There are other mods in use besides these, but these are the most relevant:
Dungeon-Be-Gone
BG2 Tweakpack
Weimer's Item Upgrades
aTweaks
Rogue Rebalancing
More Style For Mages
BP Ascension
And a few custom tweaks that I made myself for convenience and balance reasons
BG2 Tweakpack
Weimer's Item Upgrades
aTweaks
Rogue Rebalancing
More Style For Mages
BP Ascension
And a few custom tweaks that I made myself for convenience and balance reasons
So I present to you, the irresistable, handsome, charming Gaspar!
Just pretend he's a human, I'm not dual-classing so there's literally no reason to be one.
So, I've just been released from my cage by Imoen, who I promptly told to get lost. Our first victims volunteers are Irenicus' Jailkeep Golem and a Smoke Mephit. Let's name them...uhhh, Derick and Jim.
And now we let out Jaheira and Minsc, because I would feel bad if I didn't.
And now we're going to get out of here.
Hey, look! Jim leveled up!
Let's see what we can-
Oh. I don't know what I expected. This is probably going to happen a lot, come to think of it.
Tune in next post for some actual fighting hopefully!
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Now that we are out of that miserable dungeon, we can do some fightin'.
First thing: the circus is in town and I thought I'd upstage the freakshow act.
The circus was totally different from Derick's expectations. He took out his frustration on these shape-changing orcs.
Upstairs we met some fine fellows that we converted to our cause: two shadows and a werewolf named George, Lenny, and Rose of Sharon. Jim thought Rose of Sharon was a funny name.
Joke was on him though. Rose of Sharon let Jim get killed by Kalah. The first victim in our pointless crusade.
After escaping the circus with our lives, we recruited an Amnish Guard named Darius to join us to replace Jim. We haven't rested since getting out of Irenicus' dungeon, so we headed to the Den of the Seven Vales.
Upstairs was a group of adventurers that called George and Lenny puny. Little did they know that the shadow brothers had lots of tricks up their sleeves. Just look at this spell list!
Sadly, our first attempt was a full-party wipe except for Lenny. Even the mighty Derick was cut down before the Pebblecrusher Party. Lenny managed to turn Smelly Orcslicer into a squirrel, but just a second too late before I was cleft in twain.
The second attempt went much better with George and Lenny slinging spells around, though at the cost of Derick and Rose of Sharon. Poor Darius was backstabbed so hard, he exploded like a blood sausage.
That's George's Invisible Stalker, btw
Now to rest and brainwash some replacements...
We stocked up on supplies after our fight with the Pebblecrusher Party. This time we've got a regular soldier of Amn in our party instead of a guard. I got a shiny new short sword and nicked a Ring of Regeneration from Ribald. What a sap!
Time to move into the Slums. I feel like I've known this guy before, like we've met many, many times... So I went to his home and told him I'd be back with his money. Hmm, deja vu...
So we started off working with the dregs of society. We went into the Copper Coronet to do some gambling when we discovered a slavery ring. I converted a fighter and a fighter/mage guard to our side to help us stop this menace!
The beastmaster was in charge and he and his pets killed everyone except me and good old George. He's really torn up about losing Lenny...
Once again it seems we've got some brains to wash.
The slavers of this city needed to be eliminated, and a rag-tag group of misfits is just the kind of people to do it. I managed to convince Corhvale and Breg to help us instead of kill us, too!
Once inside, all hell broke loose. Once again, it was a full-party wipe except for me and Peter, the door guard of the slaver compound. Even George bit the dust. Carry on, my wayward shadow...
Further in, I converted a group of slavers to repent for their wicked ways, and they turned on their masters.
The slaver captain, Haegan, was furious and cut down two of his men, including Peter.
But in the end, we prevailed and I got Haegan's spiffy new Studded Leather +2. What awaits us further in? Find out next time!
Further into the compound was an entrance to the slums' sewers. I wondered what kind of creatures I'd be taming here. First came a kobold, then some hobgoblins.
A massive, disgusting Otyugh was waiting for us along with some assorted jellies. The otyugh fell easily, but our struggle against the jellies was all in vain. My weapons did no damage, and theirs couldn't even touch it. So, in my own best interests I let my minions to die.
Amusingly, they heard me fighting some kobolds in another area and came to help me! That's the kind of help that you just don't get anymore nowadays. Sadly they were all killed my myconids and another mustard jelly while I ran and hid. Said creatures are now my minions, and we've been getting lots of strange looks from the commoners.
We've started working for Maevar at this point and found David, a Morning Knight willing to help us.
The questline had gone without incident until we got to Rayic Gethras' home. His pet mephits had killed the myconid king and things were only going to get worse.
He was quickly replaced by Rocky the Stone Golem but the other mushroom man was incinerated by the wizard. Have I mentioned how much I hate the smell of fried mushrooms?
The titanic might of Rocky would soon meet his match to a vampire. Sometimes I think AD&D is ridiculous in some aspects since in 3e/3.5e constructs are immune to level drain! Thus was Rocky's fate, as well as David's.
Maevar's treachery was soon made plain and Renal Bloodscalp sent me a contingent of Shadow Thieves to "take care of" the problem.
His den of thieves were easily eliminated but at the cost of one of our own. His Shadow Armor is mine!
I'M SORRY BUT ITS A LOT OF WORK RECORDING ALL THIS AND I WAS CONSIDERING STOPPING DUE TO LACK OF INTEREST
Really its not that far ahead. The Unseeing Eye quest is done and Watcher's Keep level 1 is cleared but there were crazy shenanigans that I should've captured. Like how the City Gates Lich has no magic resistance at all but rather immunity to spell levels 1-5 and elemental immunities. Or how easily Sion, Ketta, Koshi, et al. fell to two Vampiric Wraiths in Watcher's Keep level 1 (the hasted purple kind, not the slow white ones).
Anyway I found some friendly neighborhood incorporeal mists to help me fight the trolls in Nalia's keep.
Their extensive spell list is very helpful for fighting trolls, and I've found a new appreciation for Lightning Bolt's effectiveness.
These mists all got killed by trolls because they ran out of Fireballs. Fortunately they were replaced by brainwashed golems that I persuaded to gang up on the big one. Not so tough now, are ya?
And THEY all got killed by Umber Hulks. What a shame.
And then when I recruited the Umber Hulks, THEY all got killed by Tor'Gal and his giant trolls. I wish I brought a shortbow. I didn't have any source of fire or acid to deal with the trolls now! But wait! The Flail of Ages! I could brainwash Glaicus to help me!
Back downstairs, we reforged the Flail and I gave it to Glaicus to use. I know that's against the rules, but my lack of foresight was a curse enough. We cleared the keep of trolls then.
Also, what happened to Derick? How did he got killed?
He got owned by Mencar Pebblecrusher himself. He might've been immune to the elements and magic, but not a good hammer in the golem equivalent of the solar plexus.
I forgot to get screenshots of what happened next. I went and killed an elemental lich and Shangalar. I converted Shyressa the vampire to my side and we managed to win the fight without brainwashing anyone else. It really helps that she also drains 4 levels on every hit. She has a bad habit of petrifying things and breaking their loot if she drains them by too many levels.
I went through the the Planar Prison quest but forgot to take screenshots again. Here's what was left of it.
After the planar prison, we went to see if Aegisfield booked the skinner murderer of the Bridge District. Looks like he was skinned as well, and the whole party except myself and Shyressa was killed. Obviously because we're the only ones that have any amount of power.
Next I went to upgrade some stuff, courtesy of Wiemer's Item Upgrade mod. Kitthix will become a badass and I'll combine the helms of Charm Protection and Defense.
With another party wiped clean like Lysol on a countertop, we went to the harper hold to get some special guests. They have their own personal version of a Horror spell called Deathsong.
With my meager army assembled, I thought it was time to take on Big K himself...
I try not to use cheesy tactics against enemies, but some are so cheesy themselves that its the only way to fight back. I didn't use much this fight, though. Let's see what happened.
Here's the initial Time Stop-Spell Sequencer volley. That didn't do much to the magic resistant harper specters.
The harper ghosts are pretty good at dealing damage and interrupting spells, so the worst of Kangaxx's wrath was negated. Enter Kangaxx the Demilich! I used Sunray but I remembered that he's immune to ALL magic. Oh jeez. Thankfully Shyressa level drained him a bit, but the Imprisonment spam would soon begin. Now what?
A Protection from Undead scroll of course! I've been saving these for just such an occasion. Kangaxx imprisoned everyone including my beloved Shyressa and his Efreeti was about to kill me. But I gave old K another smack with Daystar and he fell. Then I remembered that his ring has an Improved Haste property on it. I used it to speed up my attacks to 6/round and regenerate twice as fast.
In the end, I prevailed. Now its time to face my first dragon... Or make it join me.
So I decided not to see Thaxxl'ssilyya or however you spell it. Instead, I wanted to go to the planar sphere. I got the famous Habib Khalid Achmed Alafif to throw his mighty scimitar at my enemies. A band of ruffians got in on the action too. Habib was sadly killed in an encounter with another band of bandits. Just look at all his scimitars! Where does he keep them all???
Once we got to the Umar Hills, my treasure senses started tingling. One of these farmers was trying to hide a super-valuable Beljuril gem inside one of his chickens!
I casually stabbed one of the low-health ruffians in the back to trade him in for Valygar so he could open the sphere in the next part.
So now that we were inside the planar sphere, Valygar could leave but I accidentally told him to stay in the sphere. Ah well, he'll learn to like it eventually.
I converted a Clay Golem to our cause. I thought he was going to last forever because I always have such trouble fighting them normally. Sometimes there just isn't a hammer around when you need it. But boy was he useful. I also learned that Clay Golems can be stunned, despite their alleged immortality.
A mighty Iron Golem killed all of my minions. Its their fault, really. I didn't even tell them to run straight towards it. Despite that, I converted the Guardian Golem that I created to my cause. At first I thought he was a one-hit-point wonder because he was fighting enemies and was immune to their damage. I thought it was suspicious and it turns out he was immortal. Sorry but I want some degree of fairness here!
After that came more automated violence. I was beginning to get bored of golems.
Luckily, just outside the sphere was probably one of the layers of the Abyss and then things got interesting. We were set upon by a Nabassu and a Marilith which proceeded to slaughter the whole party, except for me, natch. I took control of their minds and they effortlessly butchered the lesser demons.
Now we're on our way to really fight the shadow dragon this time.
On the way to the Temple Ruins, three vampires accosted us and I persuaded them to join us rather than kill us like they were going to a few seconds before.
Unlike Hexxat, they turn into bats when exposed to sunlight.
As a side note, I LOVE Daystar.
Lea'liyl the Marilith carved up everything in her way thanks to having 7 attacks/round. I think this is the fastest that I've ever cleared out the shadow temple.
Thaxll'ssillya went down easily, but he was the one that finally laid Lea'liyl low, not to mention the Greater Mummy.
Then it was the Shade Lord's turn. Mr. Spooky the Bone Golem ignored his fell magicks and shredded him. Now I think its time to rescue Imoen.
Instead of rescuing Imoen like I said I would, I forgot to visit Trademeet. I went to go solve their druid problem and recruited a bunch of trolls to help. But little did I know that they breed like rabbits. Watch us go from this...
To this!
Apparently if you've got a troll in the party and it falls down, dying, it creates clones of itself. These clones can be killed for XP, as I had my skeleton warrior use a Wand of Fire on them and we all got 1400 XP for each clone.
Somehow there was this little persistent ice troll that wouldn't die under any circumstances, surviving the mighty ctrl+y AND the Killsword. So... I ran away and disowned all the trolls in my party, leaving Mr. Spooky and Mr. Spoopy to die. Meanwhile there were some druids in the area and I converted them. But the next fight against another band of druids was intense and I ran away from that one also to snag Belm and evade an insect swarm. Better part of valor and all that.
The immortal ice troll followed me into Adratha's cottage but it finally DIED, fortuitously, from a Cloudkill cast by one of Adratha's allies.
Outside there were some Spore Colonies and I wondered if they'd be any good in combat. It turns out that, left on their own in combat, they summon Myconids even though there's no spell or special ability on their quickbars. Just look at this!
So after all that fuss, we were made the Heroes of Trademeet!
(subtitle: WTF FLASHBURN I THOUGHT YOU SAID NO MORE TIME SKIPS)
Long story short, I went through Firkraag's dungeon and recruited Dorn for Azothet's Water's Edge +3. Also I'm just outside of Spellhold. Here were the fruits of my labors. Not included is the Shadow Dragon Armor and Celestial Fury +5 (same as CF +3, only with +5 enchantment). Also I'm switching to .png instead of .jpg because it looks better even if the file size is bigger.
~SETUP-ITEMUPGRADE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Shadows Of Amn Item Upgrades -> Original list version: v40
~SETUP-ITEMUPGRADE.TP2~ #0 #1 // Throne Of Bhaal Item Upgrades -> Original list version: v40
Now we begin our rescue of Imoen. Outside the asylum itself there were a group of sirines. I attempted to control two of them but their AI is resistant to brainwashing! They will interrupt orders given to them so they just stand there doing nothing, so I disowned them.
So to replace them, I found a host of incorporeal undead that were more tractable. And as an aside, I love their Dimension Door spell. It's like a faster version of ctrl+j and its good for getting out of sticky situations.
Once inside Bodhi's labyrinth, my host of shadows were destroyed by a rakshasa and its mephit minions. But variety is the spice of life and I found other participants to suit my needs: Clay the Clay Golem, Misty the Vampiric Mist, Jake the Greater Wolfwere, Serpent the Yuan-ti mage, and Slither the Yuan-ti fighter.
Further in, we were set upon by a group of powerful undead. Clay and Jake went in first to distract the lich with their high magic resistance. The rest of us followed after the lich had stopped time. They were no match for us though.
Unfortunately, Clay, Misty, and Slither were all killed by Dace Sontan, the vampire. Jake called upon some of his wolfwere brothers to assist us and we converted a djinni to help us.
The battle for Gesen's bowstring saw the end of the three creatures we just recruited, though things were about to get much worse.
I became the Slayer and killed our entire party except Jake and a skeleton that Serpent summoned!
After that, we solved the riddles of the asylum's coordinator. Now Jake and I are about to take on Irenicus...
After we gained our freedom, we took the inmates of Spellhold into Irenicus' sanctum and defeated him, temporarily. Saemon Havarian offered us passage off Brynnlaw, but I had a plan to double-cross him as he would no doubt do to us, again. Irenicus had a stone golem guardian his room and we recruited some pirate outlaws to help us.
Once we set sail, we were boarded by Githyanki and Sahuagin at the same time! The gith wanted the silver sword blade and the sahuagin just wanted to eat us, no doubt. In the chaos, we backstabbed Saemon Havarian so he will not be causing us trouble anymore.
We were captured and woke up in the so-called City of Caverns. There was nothing particularly noteworthy in our adventures of this place. The encounter to obtain the Cloak of Mirroring has been modified by aTweaks to include a group of Nereids. One of the pirates died to a Water Weirds' drown attack, but there was not much else to comment on.
Though, our pirate mage REALLY didn't want to die and kept trying to teleport out of the area. I guess she didn't have the ovarian fortitude to help us conquer what awaits us...
Made the Slayer and Ravager forms unlimited duration, but their offensive and defensive benefits will only last 60 seconds (the original duration for both), so there's really no reason to stay in the forms once the minute is up.
Instead of killing you for staying in the forms too long, magic energy damage will be dealt over 4 rounds when the minute is almost over.
-Slayer costs a net of 90 HP to use (5, 10, 25, 50)
-ToB Slayer costs a net of 75 HP to use (5, 10, 25, 35)
-Ravager costs 95 HP to use (10, 10, 25, 50)
The chance to go berserk has been removed because it interrupts your current actions to cast a spell on yourself that you'll always save vs. spells against anyway.
The reason I'm doing this is because the Slayer form is currently broken and because I've also wanted a Slayer mastery mod for a long time, but haven't the intelligence to create such a thing.
Wonderful! No, I should say: WONDERFUL idea!