Thank you, @bengoshi! Praise like yours makes it all worth it. Plus I'm having fun pitting different enemies against their own kind. I can only wonder how ToB is going to play out - enemies there suddenly turn into hardened badasses compared those at the end of SoA.
@demented I never said they weren't fun. This is just a different sort of fun as opposed to the fun of a challenge. I've done a no-reload, IRL-stats run before and roleplayed it by keeping journal entries, and it was one of the most fun runs I've ever had. Pic related:
I only died once but wanted to keep going because I liked the roleplaying aspect so much. It was a stupid death come to think of it (fire salamander form is hasted, and I was fighting wyverns...)
SCS is a different subject altogether. You'll have to excuse my obviously inferior OPINION when I say that I don't find fighting prebuffed mages protected by Spell Immunity: Divination and Abjuration plus Improved Invisibility or Mislead with six separate defensive contingencies and sequencers fun.
Yeah I just plugged NWN. I miss it and you know it. Anyway we're now in the Underdark. The gates to the elemental planes provided many tough minions for me to complete my quest though they wiped my previous party clean. They're also PnP accurate thanks to aTweaks, and I've got to say that Earthquake is an extremely powerful spell.
But as powerful as they are, they still don't compare to the power of Beholders.
I tried to recruit some drow to help me but they were so exceedingly average in their stats that they couldn't move in their full plate armor. 9's across the board and that's got to be embarassing. I killed them for it.
The Greater Earth Elemental fell to another pack of beholders and I was all alone. Beholders don't use their magic rays while in the party and illithids cause creatures to not give XP if they brain-drain them. So my only option was to resort to going Super Bhaalspawn Slayer. Improved Hasting myself with the Ring of Gaxx gave me a whopping 10 attacks per round! And I'd need them because the beholders could instantly dispel the haste, as well as my Slayer claws for some reason.
I barely made it out alive after that encounter so I rested, thankfully without being ambushed.
Somehow the Greater Elementals respawned in this beholder hive instead of outside at the gates to the elemental planes. So I recruited a new batch of greater elementals.
What awaited us next would see my rise to insane cheesiness...
Episode 16, Pt. II: Gaspar the Fighter/Mage/Cleric/Swashbuckler/Ninja/Pirate/Zombie/Robot
We were captured by Illithids and forced to fight for their amusement! The second Greater Earth Elemental (GEE MK. II) was already weakened from the last fight with beholders so he was killed by the Umber Hulks.
Just when all seemed lost, all the stuff I was hoarding in my Bag of Holding would see the light of day!
Suddenly I was coursing with magical power and could do many things that I couldn't before for some arbitrary reason. Scrolls! Helmets! Martial weapons! Mage staves! I could use all of these now and would turn into an unstoppable MacGuyver of a Bhaalspawn.
I celebrated by using the Staff of the Magi's Spell Trap and Improved Hasting myself from a scroll to beat down the insanely beefy ogre guard. Meanwhile more elementals respawned here instead of outside, so I welcomed GEE MK. III and Greater Fire Elemental (GFE) MK. III into the party after they crushed my party of prisoners. You can see them dead on the floor there.
Once I freed the slaves of the Mind Flayers, one of my mortal enemies blocked my path: a door. I can't tell you how much I hate doors. Playing a hill-giant sized Cyclops back in NWN fostered my hate for these blasted room separators. But instead of being too fat to fit, it was too tough to break even for GEE MK. III. My only option was to use my super form again to break it open.
Again, I survived only within an inch of my life after this transformation but GFE MK. III died protecting me from brain-drainage.
In the next room, illithids dominated GEE MK. III so I had a backup plan: use Mordy's Sword to distract him as I strike the illithids from out of their range with Water's Talon +4.
I also conjured an Earth Elemental. I was hoping to get another Greater one, but I just got a regular one. He would fall in battle as well.
GEE MK. III's domination would soon wear off and I recruited some more prisoners to aid us in escaping this place.
Every one of them died in the next battle with Illithids and Umber Hulks except for an insane dwarf warrior, who I will call Xzar Jr.
Next up on the chopping block was the Elder Brain itself. It summoned Brain Golems to defend it but I overpowered its psionic strength and took control of the golems for myself. The elder brain would succumb to a fatal case of cerebrospinal fluid poisoning and we were all free! Now I can unleash my multiclass mastery upon the Realms and there will be no one to challenge me!
Once the Elder Brain was dead, I checked to see if GFE and GEE had respawned in the same place as they had last time. Indeed they did, and GFE MK. IV and GEE MK. IV joined the party after we sacrificed Xzar Jr. to make room for them.
It was time to pay the traitorous Simyaz a visit. I don't know what made him think that he could stand against a group that just took down an entire Illithid city.
We found the cave that Goldander Blackenrock had spoken of and Adalon 'transformed" us into Drow so we could get into Ust Natha to retrieve her eggs.
Hooray for the BG2 Tweakpack!
Our first task was to rescue Phaere but we ran into some unexpected guests as we were making our way there.
Taking care of them and rescuing Phaere was easy enough. We got some time to relax but I wanted to try out my new flexibility on some more opponents when I discovered a new technique. I like to think of it as Keen Edge plus Ki Damage.
Trivia: that icon is a recolored version of NWN's feat "Improved Critical: Longsword".
Another of my favorite techniques is the "hiding behind a pole" trick, just like in the cartoons.
So the beholder fell and so would several others as we were tasked with various things around Ust Natha. I brainwashed part of a kuo-toa squad to help us as well.
We also met some cousins of an old nemesis who brought in reinforcements: Demon Knights!
The kuo-toa were dying left and right because they are vulnerable to fire damage and the demons were throwing fireballs like confetti. I went Super Bhaalspawn once again and tore them up.
An even bigger battle would soon take place between us and the kuo-toa again.
Episode 17, Pt. II: Jarlaxle sounds like a totally gnarly Norse king's title
After the demon knight encounter, we pushed through multiple waves of kuo-toa that were guarding their prince. We cared not and stormed their gates for their riches. I wanted to go Slayer again because there were so many of them and so few of us but I held back and summoned Improved Kitthix to help. He can web targets on hit if they fail to save and his poison is even more deadly than Water's Talon's at 5 damage/second.
Then the kuo-toan prince faced us himself. He out-regenerated my scimitar's poison at first, but his natural defenses could not keep up with it as it accumulated. He was killed at we took all 54 of his shandon gems, laughing all the way to the market.
We terminated a drow patrol near the gates to the surface and converted a priestess and her skeleton. But when we returned to Ust Natha, I was duped into buying a rope that would let me loot a lich's tower. Jarlaxle was the one behind it all but we made sure to backstab him in the end after we destroyed the lich. No one tricks me and get away with it.
He did, at least, make good on his promise to give us a wardstone that would also let us loot House Jae'llat. From the way he described it, it sounded like the House should've been empty. It was actually heavily guarded! I converted some of the guards to our side and GEE MK. IV grouped the drow together and slammed his mighty fists into the ground, causing a massive earthquake that knocked most of the drow unconscious. I'd be unconscious too if I were forced to save at a stiff +6 penalty.
Alas, the drows' enchanted weapons took their toll on the level-drained GEE MK. IV and he was killed. I'll miss that towering pile of rocks...
I learned from GEE MK. IV's experience and found a way to make myself almost untouchable.
Now, lets get this string of tasks over with so I can get back to the surface. Anyone got a good song that goes with forging cool weapons and armor?
Episode 18: Sometimes I like to imagine the city is exploding as we flee from it
Some random drow priestess commanded us to kill a bunch of Ghanadaur worshippers. As a lowly male worm, it is my job to cater to females' every whim. This battle was lengthy just because of the magic resistance of all the bad guys, and I've only got 2 attacks per round.
But it was finally time to steal the dragon eggs back and I controlled two of the guardian golems to help us.
Our drow fighter/mage gave us a Haste spell as his last blessing right before he was gibbed by a clay golem. That let us quickly run back to Phaere and get most of the way out of the city after we double-crossed her.
Once back on the surface, we encountered Drizzt and company. Initially I took control of him just to see what he was like. For starters, he had his scimitars equipped in his helmet and necklace slots! I quickloaded back and got him to help us. I'll see if I can't control him later...
We finally reached the docks district so I could attend to my guild and forge some brand-new weapons. We encountered Kruin, the githyanki wild mage who demanded to have the silver sword blade back. I refused and killed some of the band, but converted most of them.
Now to forge everything in my Bag of Hoarding even if I don't need it. Its a bad habit, I know.
So I've got a ton of gold and upgrade components in my inventory and Ribald's new shop selection doesn't have anything interesting besides a Time Stop scroll. Let's see what I've cooked up!
Improved Daystar +4
Staff of Elemental Mastery
Quietus +4
Skullcrusher +5
Lilarcor +5
Throwing Impaler +4
Amulet of Ilmater
Ring of Elemental Mastery
Not pictured: several of the forgeable items native to BG2. I managed to reign in my impulse to forge everything and only made stuff from Weimer's Item Upgrades and useful stuff from BG2.
So here's my inventory so far, which reminds me that I've never shown it yet. It's going to get really full soon.
With all sorts of gleaming magical items at the ready, it was time to assault Bodhi's lair once again. I recruited Drizzt, the Shadow Thieves, and Radiant Heart paladins to help. My minions were content to take level-draining blows for me even though I'm immune to that. I also tried to control Drizzt but I didn't get to keep him.
With Drizzt, Arkanis, and Eric Vanstraaten at my side, the battle was a breeze. Improved Daystar really shone in this battle. I'll also stop the puns now.
Remember when I said there would be no one to challenge me? After I got Use Any Item? Well...
These guys really kicked my ass up and down and all around. (Core difficulty, btw - the difficulty setting changes how aggressive their AI is.) It would've been so much easier if I had a normal party to face them with, challenging but not overpowering, but almost everyone left after the fight with Bodhi. I recruited some random grave robber just so he could be one more body between the Chosen and me. I think it took me two hours to finally beat these guys solo. I say solo because my Vampiric Mist and the grave robber would get killed within the first two or three rounds. I had help from summoned Greater Elementals but even they would be easily taken care of by these rogues.
You may ask why I didn't just take control of some of them. That's easy. Anywhere from 2 seconds to one round after you take control of them, they turn right back to hostile and are rather resistant to having orders given to them. I COULD have just unequipped them of all their stuff or make them unmemorize their spells, but that didn't seem fair.
The first thing I tried was to summon the Greater Elementals and hope that Earthquake would knock them out. No such luck.
Next I tried the Slayer. Its immunities would surely be helpful. Turns out its still vulnerable to x7 backstabs.
I probably died at least 20 times, with most deaths ending in exploding gibs thanks to Venduris or that Fighter/Mage whose name starts with a Z.
But then I had an idea. Something that could out-cheese these guys. They can't see through invisibility like dragons or kuo-toa, but they can detect illusions. So, all I had to do was thoroughly abuse the Staff of the Magi like no one else has done before to dispel their defenses. They'd have to run out sooner or later, and they did. Selina Shadowstorm stopped casting spells, even though I know she had higher-level ones available and so did Z-whatshisface. Their source of invisibility was finite and they ran out of potions. Then I used Water's Talon to slowly poison them to death.
After about 20 straight minutes of invisibility application, illusion detection, and sporadic combat, it was finally over.
Here are a couple of prize pieces of equipment from the fight.
After my many beatings at the hands of Cyric's Chosen, it would be welcome to return to regular BG2EE. Once I handed over the Lanthorn to Elhan, we arrived in Suldanessellar. I recruited Elhan and a bunch of Irenicus' golems. Elhan was dual-wielding two copies of the Shazzallim scimitar which instantly kills bards (-4 penalty vs. spells negates).
So we had to search the city for three artifacts to summon Rillifane Ralathil to save Queen Ellisime.
All the golems I recruited were destroyed but I managed to convert one of the two Adamantine golems running around the city. He was a marvelous tank, nearly impervious to every sort of harm. His might would be tested by a black dragon guarding the Goblet of Life. He withstood an impressive amount of punishment as he distracted it long enough for our converted drow mage to turn the dragon into a squirrel! I was positive that such a spell wouldn't work on a dragon, but lo, it was temporarily turned into a squirrel. The polymorphing magic of the spell fizzled once I struck the squirrel but it was enough to kill it.
Once we summoned Rillifane the Leaflord and killed the parasites leeching power from the Tree of Life, it was time to face Irenicus. While we were looking for the parasites, I set a trap near Irenicus since he was busy with some sort of magical ritual and didn't notice us. Heh heh.
Unfortunately it was not enough to kill him outright like I'd planned, and we lost Raamilat in our fight with Irenicus. But that wouldn't matter soon.
Once we had killed Irenicus, I thought it was for good until we were dragged into a fiendish abyss! Surely this was hell. Raamilat came back to us and was glad to be alive. Or were we?
Episode 23: Welcome to Hell - enjoy your stay, Irenicus!
Once we got our bearings, there was a massive, 5-eyed gate blocking our path that needed the Tears of Bhaal to open. To get these tears, I had to undergo certain trials.
Greed: I was offered a powerful longsword: Blackrazor. I had to either give it to the genie or kill him with it. I chose to give it to him because I was concerned about the comparatively low enchantment level. +3 is not good enough for me, despite all of its other powers.
Selfishness: Minions are easily replaceable. Somehow Elhan freed himself of the demon's entrapment and I walked through all the doors on the right. The result was supposed to have killed Elhan but I learned that he was immortal, so out of the party he went.
Fear: I didn't need something else clogging up my inventory so I declined the demon's Cloak of Bravery. Besides, Addy the Adamantium Golem would've been more than enough to take on the beholders I saw nearby.
That's when I remembered that Imprisonment bypasses magic resistance completely. Thus was Addy's fate, and Raamilat was instantly killed by a Power Word spell. It was all up to me now. Luckily I'd been hoarding Balduran's shield for just such an occasion.
Pride: I persuaded the demon that I didn't need to fight the creature for the tear of Bhaal. I wasn't about to face a dragon by myself anyway.
Wrath: Sarevok was back with a whopping 570 HP! The fight was terribly one-sided though, because I become immune to +1 weapons and less. Water's Talon had a feast that day, draining Sarevok of his health at up to 10 points/second.
Now it was time to face Irenicus again. I called on my swarm of Greater Elementals to distract the demons he had summoned. They did an excellent job and a double Earthquake ruined the mage's day.
The demons were easily dealt with and in typical fashion, Water's Talon slowly drained Irenicus away. Risking my health, I unleashed a Whirlwind Attack on him with Pitchwife and that ended the battle. I would've taken another screenshot of my victory but it seems the game won't let you screenshot cutscenes.
Episode 24: Back like an anime's second season (subtitle: Absurdly Spacious Sewers Pt. II)
With Irenicus gone for good and my soul returned to me, everything seemed right with the world. I got my Bhaal-powers back and got to keep the Slayer form. But the time of Alaundo's prophecy was drawing near and powerful Bhaalspawn have begun waging war on each other. I heeded the call to action once again and set out.
Illasera was pathetic and not even worth taking screenshots of. After reluctantly giving Sarevok part of my soul and returning his sword, I defeated the first challenge of the pocket plane and went to Saradush. To test the waters of Gromnir's army, I went to his soldiers' barracks and started a huge fight. Each and every one of them died except a few that I converted.
But then all but one got crushed by a flaming catapult rock. Bad luck strikes again...
There are always more bad guys to recruit though. There were plenty in the sewers. Fun fact: those dwarven sappers are launching the Big Metal Unit's Frag Grenades at you, and they give a -10 THAC0 bonus!
A horde of shadows overwhelmed us but Daystar cleaned up the group nicely. I also recruited a nearby mage that happened to know Time Stop! He would be very helpful in our assault on Gromnir.
Connected via the sewers was what looked like a jail. There was a coven of vampires there that I eagerly brainwashed.
So with that party, we fought our way into Gromnir's castle, but lost the younger vampires.
In the fight against Gromnir, we did a triple Time Stop volley! First the mage who cast Meteor Swarm and Horrid Wilting, then I used Whirlwind Attack to whittle down Gromnir, poison the mages, and summoned my faithful host of Greater Elementals, and then our mage again who casted disabling spells.
Unfortunately I forgot to take screenshots of this awesome fight. D'OH! Well, right now I'm in Watcher's Keep level 2 and @elminster's corrected Foebane +5 is my new offhand weapon. It's not replacing Pitchwife though. I might need it for trolls and enemies immune to Water's Talon's poison. But with these two weapons increasing my HP on every hit, I'll become a walking BEEFCAKE!
Episode 25: Watcher's Keep levels 2 and 3 (subtitle: I dont have an inventive name for this episode)
The Il-Khan soldiers I had at my disposal were decimated by the whirlwinds of the group of Air Elementals at the giant fan room. In the air lab, there was a group of kuo-toa. Why on Toril were they here of all places? Well it didn't matter I guess. We easily eliminated the guardians of the slime staff, but they stood no chance against the guardians of ice. One good Cone of Cold killed the whole group since they had been injured in a fight against mutant spiders. Damn you, Peter Parker!
The ice guardian is probably the hardest of the four mini-bosses to fight, in my opinion, so with the hard part out of the way, it was time to face the Chromatic Demon. I summoned Kitthix and my greater elementals. I should probably give them names since I use them so often, so how about...
Air = Aerie Aeolus Fire = Helios Earth = Ryu (he needs a Japanese name because every time he uses Earthquake, the way he slams his fists down reminds me of this sound effect:)
So anyway the Chromatic Demon was a piece of cake with a Whirlwind Attack from Pitchwife, though he killed Ryu in the fight.
In the next level was the maze of Watcher's Keep. I hate this level... The demons here are resistant to brainwashing thanks to aTweaks, so I had to do without some minions. But my group of elementals were more than enough to defeat the demons led by Tahazzar. Later I found a group of Alu-Fiends plus a succubus that were more easily manipulated. They just couldn't resist my charms - irony at its finest. Each one of the Alu-Fiends also dual-wields Kundane!
Our first major battle was against the devil Ka'rashur. This one was more difficult and resulted in the loss of the succubus and an alu-fiend.
Next I converted some tieflings to help and we fought a bunch of demon knights once again, but this time the odds were more in our favor.
But then they were killed by a demon wraith and its enslaved spirits. This enemy was surprisingly resistant to my attacks - about as much as an Adamantium Golem! Nothing a few Pitchwife Whirlwinds couldn't fix though.
Finally, I reach the end of the maze and converted most of Aesgareth's party to join my own.
I had his mage play the Deck of Hazards for me and drew Plague. Minions are expendable, after all. Aesgareth drew Construct and an Adamantium Golem was summoned. It seemed that he had the upper hand until the golem turned one of his Hellcats into chunky salsa. His true nature as a sore loser revealed, Aesgareth went berserk and murdered half of my party before dying. To replace them, the Adamantium Golem joined us, seemingly no worse for wear despite taking 6 or 7 attacks per round for about a minute.
Next time, my already godlike powers will increase even further!
And here begins the territory I have never been to myself. I have never been to the higher levels of Watcher's Keep as well as I've never finished ToB. Maybe your run will inspire me but in the same time I'm a little bit afraid of spoilers.
Nothing too terribly interesting about this level of the dungeon except the Machine of Lum the Mad. Anyway, to become even more grossly overpowered than I already was, I had to find a way to break the glass protecting Carston.
Killing dragons is so routine now. Good thing I've got Evasion, which works just like NWN's except avoiding the AoE damage is automatic with no saving throw required. Saladrex's dragon breath had no effect on me, though the same cannot be said of my minions. Still, Addy MK. II remained remarkably resilient.
But Addy is still weak to undead, especially undead illithid. They can stun her with psionics and now vampiric illithid can level drain her while she's stunned. Thus was her fate and she was smashed into a million pieces after the last of her levels were drained.
I recruited Rock and Garock to replace her. We smashed open Carston's little prison and I got +1 to all my stats and 100k XP.
Watcher's Keep level 5 is my favorite floor of the dungeon. Hordes of creatures waiting to be butchered in various - and oftentimes magical - ways. You'd think I'd like IWD because of that, but I merely think that its okay. Anyway our first test was against a swarm of orcs. I summoned my host of elementals once again to help.
The minotaur not wielding the Axe of the Unyielding died in that room by a death of a thousand cuts. I replaced our dwindling party with two huge iron golems. Up next is a special tweak I made myself for convenience.
Enter the Killsword! I hate how long the spirit warrior challenge takes so I equipped him with the special Killsword that counts as a +10 weapon, deals 1000-1500 damage, and gives many immunities.
So I blazed through there without even going in the rooms' proper order. For completing the "challenge," Azamantes and his flaming skulls were waiting for us. He was not particularly challenging, though with two magic-immune golems, anything becomes easy.
I recruited three elite beholders to replace my fallen minions in the fight with Azamantes and then took on the Rilmani group. Does anyone have any idea what those things are, exactly?
This battle was fairly easy since I had 3 mages on my side. The tried-and-true Greater Malison + Chaos still works wonders. Next was the hardest battle in the dungeon by far: the amazon brigade. I spared no expense for this battle - every mage had at least 2 summons each and several layers of protective spells.
Ryu's earthquake knocked out the Hive Mother for one round which let us concentrate on the others. I went for the marilith Y'tossi first because her many attacks would tear through the mages' stoneskins like tissue paper. A Whirlwind and a half later, she was dead which gave us all more breathing room.
But the hive mother was back up again and throwing beholder rays left and right. It was my next target as my mages kept The Huntress and the drow busy.
Once it fell, the other two were easy enough to kill. Nalmissra the succubus was a pain to kill. She did nothing the whole fight, which is good enough for me, but she just ran around and gated to the Ethereal Plane whenever someone got close. So I had to spend a few minutes chasing her as if I was back in first grade, chasing my crush around - only with more swords. Eventually she fell thanks to Water's Talon's extended strike range and it would be time to take on the multiverse's number one demon: Demogorgon!
Episode 28: AND THIS!...IS...TO GO...EVEN FURTHER BEYOND!
It was time to face the Imprisoned One. I wanted to try something that I hadn't done yet: defeat Demogorgon solo. After reaching epic levels, I've begun to level up incredibly fast and am learning techniques left and right. To do this next feat, I had some help from my father.
Enter the Ravager! The Ravager is murder incarnate, the perfect death machine capable of utterly eviscerating groups that even full and balanced parties would have trouble with. It has even more immunities and offensive power than the Slayer!
Immunities: -Charm -Confusion -Sleep -Level Drain -Disintegration -Domination -Petrification -Disease -Slow -Stun -Imprisonment -Psionics -Finger of Death -Entangle -Web -Grease -Knockback of any kind
Claws: -8 Cold damage -On hit: 10% chance to lower magic resistance by 5% for 30 seconds -On hit: 10% chance to dispel all effects; caster level = character level -25% chance to knock back target and knock them unconscious for 2 seconds -25% chance to deal +1d8 crushing damage on hit (save vs. breath at -4 negates) +50% elemental resistances +50% Magic Damage resistance +50% Poison resistance +50% Physical damage resistance +50% magic resistance -12 THAC0 bonus -300 HP -5 attacks -Claws count as +5
To augment its power even further, I improved hasted myself and used Insightful Strike to deal maximum damage!
Not counting Big D's Time Stop, he was destroyed within 3 rounds! The remaining demons were quickly dealt with - even when mariliths and balors team up, they're no match for the Ravager!
And thanks to this battle, I'm finally level 40. I have room to improve up to level 50 and at this rate it shouldn't be long before I get there.
But, what Demogorgon had to say before I executed him was interesting. The Vigil Knights were trying to imprison me along with him! Murderous fury still boiling in my heart, I climbed up the steps to the top of Watcher's Keep and began my single-handed destruction of the knights. What hope had they if the multiverse's number one demon could barely stand against me?
Episode 29: The bigger they are, the harder they fall
After my assault on Watcher's Keep was over with, it was time to see to the defense of Saradush. It probably already fell while I was away but Yaga-Shura would still be a problem. I encountered "Gorion" who turned out to be a Master Wraith. He didn't like having his own shades turned against him.
The priestess Nyalee knew how to weaken Yaga-Shura so I went to retrieve their hearts in the Marching Mountains. On my way to Yaga's lair I ambushed an unlikely group of Bhaalspawn that I recruited. A kobold, a xvart, a goblin, and their leader a chinchilla. Bhaal really did bang everything that moves.
Once we made it into his lair, our group was all but destroyed. Of course I made it out alive.
So I brainwashed a bunch of fire giants to help me and they ganged up on an adamantine golem who I would've converted if the party wasn't full already.
The hearts were being guarded upstairs by many fire giants. My own giants distracted them while I ran about their feet, poisoning them.
Once we had the hearts, we got out of there - but not before brainwashing the Elemental Prince of Fire, Imix! Then we returned to Nyalee to weaken Yaga.
Of course she betrayed us and we had to kill her. Typical. But the deed was done and it was time to end the first of the Five. Yaga's army poured toward us but we decimated them with Imix on our side. His fiery wrath scorched all of the human soldiers while my Greater Elementals and giants beat down Yaga's fire giants. It was a battle to behold.
With all of us surrounding Yaga-Shura, it was easy enough to kill him. Chalk up 1 2 for 5 for Gaspar. Illasera is just so forgettable.
The Five are composed by Illasera, Yaga-Shura, Abazigal, Sendai and Balthazar, so Yaga-Shura is the second ;P I am laughing this playtrough a lot, thanks man!
Our next stop on the railroad that is ToB's plot was Amkethran. We were stopped by the Tethyrian General who wanted me dead. I suppose he didn't know that I was the one that defeated Yaga-Shura's army. He suffered the same fate.
Once we got to Amkethran we did the quests there. But I forgot to create the Big Metal Unit once I finished this part of the playthrough... D'oh. I modified the armor itself to allow spellcasting and thievery and also made it immune to knockback. Oh well, I was already at the AC cap anyway. Anywhoo we fought Draconis and won, at the cost of our dear Imix. And just inside Abazigal's lair, the fire giants were all killed by water elementals.
The water elementals were exceedingly annoying, killing all of my party members whenever I converted them. They even killed a Nabassu that I gated in to help with this horde of kuo-toa.
But once I got the scroll of reversal from Bondari's party, i converted the dragon Fll'Yissetat to aid me. I think most of her draconic powers were off-limits to me since she only had a small selection of spells. But that didn't matter; I'd let her tank Abazigal instead.
The first time I tried to kill Abazigal I used my Super Bhaalspawn 2 Improved Slayer form but it wasn't strong enough. So I used Super Bhaalspawn 3 the Ravager once again. It was much easier to defeat Abazigal in this form, but it would've been easier still if he hadn't dispelled my Ravager claws.
After this victory, I assembled the Flail of Ages +5 (modified with Free Action Fixes) and destroyed my doubt.
Episode 31: Sendai has an awful voice actress (subtitle: Icewind Dale: Throne of Bhaal)
This is an objective fact. Also this is my least favorite area of ToB. Before entering Sendai's enclave I killed Fll'Yissetat because she was way too big to go anywhere. Once inside I recruited some spore colonies who spawned many myconids. This was fun and all until they did it a 3rd time, which significantly slowed down my frame rate.
The rest of the enclave was business as usual. I brainwashed the drow kensai but he was killed by the other drow because he wasn't wearing any armor.
I recruited Ogremoch, Prince of Earth to help me. He is extremely powerful, coming with the ability to teleport anywhere and summon Earth elementals; several Stoneskin spells, Remove magic, an Earthquake, and Suggestion. He would block the door in Sendai's sanctum as I fought her by myself. When Sendai used her Archer form, she teleported around the room faster than a Dragonball Z fighter! Even with double-strength haste from Boots of Speed + an Oil of Speed, I couldn't keep up with her! She slowed down for just the smallest second and I sliced her with Water's Talon, which took care of the rest. She easily fell afterward.
After I killed her, I took my next Pocket Plane test. Fortunately I got to skip it and get the benefits anyway. Cyric noticed that I already defeated his Chosen, and pitting me against more of his staunchest believers would tip the balance too far. Even the god of madness has to play by some of the rules.
After skipping that test, there was only one of the Five left: Balthazar. Through some careful negotiations, I managed to get Balthazar to kill himself instead of fighting me. My reputation and alignment weren't good enough for him to join me. The last test took a very long time, but I finally killed the Ravager. Ogremoch tanked the swords since he was immune to their enchantment level anyway. My host of elementals and Kitthix tried to help but they were eventually killed by the Ravager. My own attacks hardly did any damage at all because of the Ravager's massive damage reduction. I tried fighting him as a Ravager myself, but he dispelled my claws so I switched back to normal. I forgot to take pictures of this part.
Now the only thing left to do was to kill Mellisan. Ogremoch and I entered the Throne of Bhaal and were greeted by good old Irenicus and Bodhi. An antisolar was also on their side and Imoen was teleported there as well, and forced to turn into the Slayer. Ogremoch's elementals accidentally turned Imoen into extra chunky burrito meat. Ogremoch himself was killed by the antisolar's vorpal sword, so then it was just me against them.
Irenicus still had the same weakness as last time, just like all mages. I poisoned him and though he only took half damage from it, it was enough to keep him from being a problem. I gave the antisolar a Pitchwife Whirlwind it wouldn't soon forget. Bodhi was a different matter. Whenever I tried to give her the same treatment, she'd turn into a cloud of mist and regenerate back to full health. She was immune to all damage and took only half from fire, which I didn't have with me. Even Daystar didn't work on her. So I stopped time and gave her the Pitchwife Whirlwind, which killed her.
Next I tried to turn off the fonts of essence, but demons were gated in to stop me. I took control of some and killed the rest.
Rinse, lather, and repeat twice.
Before I drained the last font, I placed all of my traps in just the right places to save me some headaches. When I drained all the fonts of their Bhaal essence, Mellisan resurrected the Five to fight me, and brought back Sarevok who betrayed me. It was time to kill them all again, and Sarevok for a third time.
Two seconds later, Abazigal and Illasera were dead.
Thus began the massive fight amongst us! Sarevok fell first. I turned into the Ravager and made sure his treachery would have immediate consequences.
Then Balthazar. That idiot should've been fighting with me.
Then Yaga-Shura and Sendai thanks to Water's Talon. Mellisan was turned mortal because she expended too much of the essence to resurrect the Five and bring in Sarevok.
Once she was mortal, I regained the use of my slayer abilities and turned into the Ravager once more. The demons and I pounded away at her and we were successful!
Then, it was finally time to make my choice. Remain mortal, or ascend to become a power of the planes and force other powerful creatures to be my minions.
Gaspar became a god. He would eagerly seek out Valkur and try to steal his portfolios to become a god of piracy, plunder, and the patron of sea-faring rapscallions everywhere.
Comments
I never said they weren't fun. This is just a different sort of fun as opposed to the fun of a challenge. I've done a no-reload, IRL-stats run before and roleplayed it by keeping journal entries, and it was one of the most fun runs I've ever had. Pic related:
I only died once but wanted to keep going because I liked the roleplaying aspect so much. It was a stupid death come to think of it (fire salamander form is hasted, and I was fighting wyverns...)
SCS is a different subject altogether. You'll have to excuse my obviously inferior OPINION when I say that I don't find fighting prebuffed mages protected by Spell Immunity: Divination and Abjuration plus Improved Invisibility or Mislead with six separate defensive contingencies and sequencers fun.
Yeah I just plugged NWN. I miss it and you know it. Anyway we're now in the Underdark. The gates to the elemental planes provided many tough minions for me to complete my quest though they wiped my previous party clean. They're also PnP accurate thanks to aTweaks, and I've got to say that Earthquake is an extremely powerful spell.
But as powerful as they are, they still don't compare to the power of Beholders.
I tried to recruit some drow to help me but they were so exceedingly average in their stats that they couldn't move in their full plate armor. 9's across the board and that's got to be embarassing. I killed them for it.
The Greater Earth Elemental fell to another pack of beholders and I was all alone. Beholders don't use their magic rays while in the party and illithids cause creatures to not give XP if they brain-drain them. So my only option was to resort to going Super Bhaalspawn Slayer. Improved Hasting myself with the Ring of Gaxx gave me a whopping 10 attacks per round! And I'd need them because the beholders could instantly dispel the haste, as well as my Slayer claws for some reason.
I barely made it out alive after that encounter so I rested, thankfully without being ambushed.
Somehow the Greater Elementals respawned in this beholder hive instead of outside at the gates to the elemental planes. So I recruited a new batch of greater elementals.
What awaited us next would see my rise to insane cheesiness...
We were captured by Illithids and forced to fight for their amusement! The second Greater Earth Elemental (GEE MK. II) was already weakened from the last fight with beholders so he was killed by the Umber Hulks.
Just when all seemed lost, all the stuff I was hoarding in my Bag of Holding would see the light of day!
Suddenly I was coursing with magical power and could do many things that I couldn't before for some arbitrary reason. Scrolls! Helmets! Martial weapons! Mage staves! I could use all of these now and would turn into an unstoppable MacGuyver of a Bhaalspawn.
I celebrated by using the Staff of the Magi's Spell Trap and Improved Hasting myself from a scroll to beat down the insanely beefy ogre guard. Meanwhile more elementals respawned here instead of outside, so I welcomed GEE MK. III and Greater Fire Elemental (GFE) MK. III into the party after they crushed my party of prisoners. You can see them dead on the floor there.
Once I freed the slaves of the Mind Flayers, one of my mortal enemies blocked my path: a door. I can't tell you how much I hate doors. Playing a hill-giant sized Cyclops back in NWN fostered my hate for these blasted room separators. But instead of being too fat to fit, it was too tough to break even for GEE MK. III. My only option was to use my super form again to break it open.
Again, I survived only within an inch of my life after this transformation but GFE MK. III died protecting me from brain-drainage.
In the next room, illithids dominated GEE MK. III so I had a backup plan: use Mordy's Sword to distract him as I strike the illithids from out of their range with Water's Talon +4.
I also conjured an Earth Elemental. I was hoping to get another Greater one, but I just got a regular one. He would fall in battle as well.
GEE MK. III's domination would soon wear off and I recruited some more prisoners to aid us in escaping this place.
Every one of them died in the next battle with Illithids and Umber Hulks except for an insane dwarf warrior, who I will call Xzar Jr.
Next up on the chopping block was the Elder Brain itself. It summoned Brain Golems to defend it but I overpowered its psionic strength and took control of the golems for myself. The elder brain would succumb to a fatal case of cerebrospinal fluid poisoning and we were all free! Now I can unleash my multiclass mastery upon the Realms and there will be no one to challenge me!
Once the Elder Brain was dead, I checked to see if GFE and GEE had respawned in the same place as they had last time. Indeed they did, and GFE MK. IV and GEE MK. IV joined the party after we sacrificed Xzar Jr. to make room for them.
It was time to pay the traitorous Simyaz a visit. I don't know what made him think that he could stand against a group that just took down an entire Illithid city.
We found the cave that Goldander Blackenrock had spoken of and Adalon 'transformed" us into Drow so we could get into Ust Natha to retrieve her eggs.
Our first task was to rescue Phaere but we ran into some unexpected guests as we were making our way there.
Taking care of them and rescuing Phaere was easy enough. We got some time to relax but I wanted to try out my new flexibility on some more opponents when I discovered a new technique. I like to think of it as Keen Edge plus Ki Damage.
Another of my favorite techniques is the "hiding behind a pole" trick, just like in the cartoons.
So the beholder fell and so would several others as we were tasked with various things around Ust Natha. I brainwashed part of a kuo-toa squad to help us as well.
We also met some cousins of an old nemesis who brought in reinforcements: Demon Knights!
The kuo-toa were dying left and right because they are vulnerable to fire damage and the demons were throwing fireballs like confetti. I went Super Bhaalspawn once again and tore them up.
An even bigger battle would soon take place between us and the kuo-toa again.
After the demon knight encounter, we pushed through multiple waves of kuo-toa that were guarding their prince. We cared not and stormed their gates for their riches. I wanted to go Slayer again because there were so many of them and so few of us but I held back and summoned Improved Kitthix to help. He can web targets on hit if they fail to save and his poison is even more deadly than Water's Talon's at 5 damage/second.
Then the kuo-toan prince faced us himself. He out-regenerated my scimitar's poison at first, but his natural defenses could not keep up with it as it accumulated. He was killed at we took all 54 of his shandon gems, laughing all the way to the market.
We terminated a drow patrol near the gates to the surface and converted a priestess and her skeleton. But when we returned to Ust Natha, I was duped into buying a rope that would let me loot a lich's tower. Jarlaxle was the one behind it all but we made sure to backstab him in the end after we destroyed the lich. No one tricks me and get away with it.
He did, at least, make good on his promise to give us a wardstone that would also let us loot House Jae'llat. From the way he described it, it sounded like the House should've been empty. It was actually heavily guarded! I converted some of the guards to our side and GEE MK. IV grouped the drow together and slammed his mighty fists into the ground, causing a massive earthquake that knocked most of the drow unconscious. I'd be unconscious too if I were forced to save at a stiff +6 penalty.
Alas, the drows' enchanted weapons took their toll on the level-drained GEE MK. IV and he was killed. I'll miss that towering pile of rocks...
I learned from GEE MK. IV's experience and found a way to make myself almost untouchable.
Now, lets get this string of tasks over with so I can get back to the surface. Anyone got a good song that goes with forging cool weapons and armor?
Some random drow priestess commanded us to kill a bunch of Ghanadaur worshippers. As a lowly male worm, it is my job to cater to females' every whim. This battle was lengthy just because of the magic resistance of all the bad guys, and I've only got 2 attacks per round.
But it was finally time to steal the dragon eggs back and I controlled two of the guardian golems to help us.
Our drow fighter/mage gave us a Haste spell as his last blessing right before he was gibbed by a clay golem. That let us quickly run back to Phaere and get most of the way out of the city after we double-crossed her.
Once back on the surface, we encountered Drizzt and company. Initially I took control of him just to see what he was like. For starters, he had his scimitars equipped in his helmet and necklace slots! I quickloaded back and got him to help us. I'll see if I can't control him later...
We finally reached the docks district so I could attend to my guild and forge some brand-new weapons. We encountered Kruin, the githyanki wild mage who demanded to have the silver sword blade back. I refused and killed some of the band, but converted most of them.
Now to forge everything in my Bag of Hoarding even if I don't need it. Its a bad habit, I know.
(MegaMan reference)
So I've got a ton of gold and upgrade components in my inventory and Ribald's new shop selection doesn't have anything interesting besides a Time Stop scroll. Let's see what I've cooked up!
Improved Daystar +4
Staff of Elemental Mastery
Quietus +4
Skullcrusher +5
Lilarcor +5
Throwing Impaler +4
Amulet of Ilmater
Ring of Elemental Mastery
Not pictured: several of the forgeable items native to BG2. I managed to reign in my impulse to forge everything and only made stuff from Weimer's Item Upgrades and useful stuff from BG2.
So here's my inventory so far, which reminds me that I've never shown it yet. It's going to get really full soon.
With all sorts of gleaming magical items at the ready, it was time to assault Bodhi's lair once again. I recruited Drizzt, the Shadow Thieves, and Radiant Heart paladins to help. My minions were content to take level-draining blows for me even though I'm immune to that. I also tried to control Drizzt but I didn't get to keep him.
With Drizzt, Arkanis, and Eric Vanstraaten at my side, the battle was a breeze. Improved Daystar really shone in this battle. I'll also stop the puns now.
Remember when I said there would be no one to challenge me? After I got Use Any Item? Well...
Episode theme:
These guys really kicked my ass up and down and all around. (Core difficulty, btw - the difficulty setting changes how aggressive their AI is.) It would've been so much easier if I had a normal party to face them with, challenging but not overpowering, but almost everyone left after the fight with Bodhi. I recruited some random grave robber just so he could be one more body between the Chosen and me. I think it took me two hours to finally beat these guys solo. I say solo because my Vampiric Mist and the grave robber would get killed within the first two or three rounds. I had help from summoned Greater Elementals but even they would be easily taken care of by these rogues.
You may ask why I didn't just take control of some of them. That's easy. Anywhere from 2 seconds to one round after you take control of them, they turn right back to hostile and are rather resistant to having orders given to them. I COULD have just unequipped them of all their stuff or make them unmemorize their spells, but that didn't seem fair.
The first thing I tried was to summon the Greater Elementals and hope that Earthquake would knock them out. No such luck.
Next I tried the Slayer. Its immunities would surely be helpful. Turns out its still vulnerable to x7 backstabs.
I probably died at least 20 times, with most deaths ending in exploding gibs thanks to Venduris or that Fighter/Mage whose name starts with a Z.
But then I had an idea. Something that could out-cheese these guys. They can't see through invisibility like dragons or kuo-toa, but they can detect illusions. So, all I had to do was thoroughly abuse the Staff of the Magi like no one else has done before to dispel their defenses. They'd have to run out sooner or later, and they did. Selina Shadowstorm stopped casting spells, even though I know she had higher-level ones available and so did Z-whatshisface. Their source of invisibility was finite and they ran out of potions. Then I used Water's Talon to slowly poison them to death.
After about 20 straight minutes of invisibility application, illusion detection, and sporadic combat, it was finally over.
Here are a couple of prize pieces of equipment from the fight.
After my many beatings at the hands of Cyric's Chosen, it would be welcome to return to regular BG2EE. Once I handed over the Lanthorn to Elhan, we arrived in Suldanessellar. I recruited Elhan and a bunch of Irenicus' golems. Elhan was dual-wielding two copies of the Shazzallim scimitar which instantly kills bards (-4 penalty vs. spells negates).
So we had to search the city for three artifacts to summon Rillifane Ralathil to save Queen Ellisime.
All the golems I recruited were destroyed but I managed to convert one of the two Adamantine golems running around the city. He was a marvelous tank, nearly impervious to every sort of harm. His might would be tested by a black dragon guarding the Goblet of Life. He withstood an impressive amount of punishment as he distracted it long enough for our converted drow mage to turn the dragon into a squirrel! I was positive that such a spell wouldn't work on a dragon, but lo, it was temporarily turned into a squirrel. The polymorphing magic of the spell fizzled once I struck the squirrel but it was enough to kill it.
Once we summoned Rillifane the Leaflord and killed the parasites leeching power from the Tree of Life, it was time to face Irenicus. While we were looking for the parasites, I set a trap near Irenicus since he was busy with some sort of magical ritual and didn't notice us. Heh heh.
Unfortunately it was not enough to kill him outright like I'd planned, and we lost Raamilat in our fight with Irenicus. But that wouldn't matter soon.
Once we had killed Irenicus, I thought it was for good until we were dragged into a fiendish abyss! Surely this was hell. Raamilat came back to us and was glad to be alive. Or were we?
Once we got our bearings, there was a massive, 5-eyed gate blocking our path that needed the Tears of Bhaal to open. To get these tears, I had to undergo certain trials.
Greed: I was offered a powerful longsword: Blackrazor. I had to either give it to the genie or kill him with it. I chose to give it to him because I was concerned about the comparatively low enchantment level. +3 is not good enough for me, despite all of its other powers.
Selfishness: Minions are easily replaceable. Somehow Elhan freed himself of the demon's entrapment and I walked through all the doors on the right. The result was supposed to have killed Elhan but I learned that he was immortal, so out of the party he went.
Fear: I didn't need something else clogging up my inventory so I declined the demon's Cloak of Bravery. Besides, Addy the Adamantium Golem would've been more than enough to take on the beholders I saw nearby.
That's when I remembered that Imprisonment bypasses magic resistance completely. Thus was Addy's fate, and Raamilat was instantly killed by a Power Word spell. It was all up to me now. Luckily I'd been hoarding Balduran's shield for just such an occasion.
Pride: I persuaded the demon that I didn't need to fight the creature for the tear of Bhaal. I wasn't about to face a dragon by myself anyway.
Wrath: Sarevok was back with a whopping 570 HP! The fight was terribly one-sided though, because I become immune to +1 weapons and less. Water's Talon had a feast that day, draining Sarevok of his health at up to 10 points/second.
Now it was time to face Irenicus again. I called on my swarm of Greater Elementals to distract the demons he had summoned. They did an excellent job and a double Earthquake ruined the mage's day.
The demons were easily dealt with and in typical fashion, Water's Talon slowly drained Irenicus away. Risking my health, I unleashed a Whirlwind Attack on him with Pitchwife and that ended the battle. I would've taken another screenshot of my victory but it seems the game won't let you screenshot cutscenes.
Shadows of Amn Complete!
Well done!
(subtitle: Absurdly Spacious Sewers Pt. II)
With Irenicus gone for good and my soul returned to me, everything seemed right with the world. I got my Bhaal-powers back and got to keep the Slayer form. But the time of Alaundo's prophecy was drawing near and powerful Bhaalspawn have begun waging war on each other. I heeded the call to action once again and set out.
Illasera was pathetic and not even worth taking screenshots of. After reluctantly giving Sarevok part of my soul and returning his sword, I defeated the first challenge of the pocket plane and went to Saradush. To test the waters of Gromnir's army, I went to his soldiers' barracks and started a huge fight. Each and every one of them died except a few that I converted.
But then all but one got crushed by a flaming catapult rock. Bad luck strikes again...
There are always more bad guys to recruit though. There were plenty in the sewers. Fun fact: those dwarven sappers are launching the Big Metal Unit's Frag Grenades at you, and they give a -10 THAC0 bonus!
A horde of shadows overwhelmed us but Daystar cleaned up the group nicely. I also recruited a nearby mage that happened to know Time Stop! He would be very helpful in our assault on Gromnir.
Connected via the sewers was what looked like a jail. There was a coven of vampires there that I eagerly brainwashed.
So with that party, we fought our way into Gromnir's castle, but lost the younger vampires.
In the fight against Gromnir, we did a triple Time Stop volley! First the mage who cast Meteor Swarm and Horrid Wilting, then I used Whirlwind Attack to whittle down Gromnir, poison the mages, and summoned my faithful host of Greater Elementals, and then our mage again who casted disabling spells.
Unfortunately I forgot to take screenshots of this awesome fight. D'OH! Well, right now I'm in Watcher's Keep level 2 and @elminster's corrected Foebane +5 is my new offhand weapon. It's not replacing Pitchwife though. I might need it for trolls and enemies immune to Water's Talon's poison. But with these two weapons increasing my HP on every hit, I'll become a walking BEEFCAKE!
(subtitle: I dont have an inventive name for this episode)
The Il-Khan soldiers I had at my disposal were decimated by the whirlwinds of the group of Air Elementals at the giant fan room. In the air lab, there was a group of kuo-toa. Why on Toril were they here of all places? Well it didn't matter I guess. We easily eliminated the guardians of the slime staff, but they stood no chance against the guardians of ice. One good Cone of Cold killed the whole group since they had been injured in a fight against mutant spiders. Damn you, Peter Parker!
The ice guardian is probably the hardest of the four mini-bosses to fight, in my opinion, so with the hard part out of the way, it was time to face the Chromatic Demon. I summoned Kitthix and my greater elementals. I should probably give them names since I use them so often, so how about...
Air = Aerie Aeolus
Fire = Helios
Earth = Ryu (he needs a Japanese name because every time he uses Earthquake, the way he slams his fists down reminds me of this sound effect:)
So anyway the Chromatic Demon was a piece of cake with a Whirlwind Attack from Pitchwife, though he killed Ryu in the fight.
In the next level was the maze of Watcher's Keep. I hate this level... The demons here are resistant to brainwashing thanks to aTweaks, so I had to do without some minions. But my group of elementals were more than enough to defeat the demons led by Tahazzar. Later I found a group of Alu-Fiends plus a succubus that were more easily manipulated. They just couldn't resist my charms - irony at its finest. Each one of the Alu-Fiends also dual-wields Kundane!
Our first major battle was against the devil Ka'rashur. This one was more difficult and resulted in the loss of the succubus and an alu-fiend.
Next I converted some tieflings to help and we fought a bunch of demon knights once again, but this time the odds were more in our favor.
But then they were killed by a demon wraith and its enslaved spirits. This enemy was surprisingly resistant to my attacks - about as much as an Adamantium Golem! Nothing a few Pitchwife Whirlwinds couldn't fix though.
Finally, I reach the end of the maze and converted most of Aesgareth's party to join my own.
I had his mage play the Deck of Hazards for me and drew Plague. Minions are expendable, after all. Aesgareth drew Construct and an Adamantium Golem was summoned. It seemed that he had the upper hand until the golem turned one of his Hellcats into chunky salsa. His true nature as a sore loser revealed, Aesgareth went berserk and murdered half of my party before dying. To replace them, the Adamantium Golem joined us, seemingly no worse for wear despite taking 6 or 7 attacks per round for about a minute.
Next time, my already godlike powers will increase even further!
Nothing too terribly interesting about this level of the dungeon except the Machine of Lum the Mad. Anyway, to become even more grossly overpowered than I already was, I had to find a way to break the glass protecting Carston.
Killing dragons is so routine now. Good thing I've got Evasion, which works just like NWN's except avoiding the AoE damage is automatic with no saving throw required. Saladrex's dragon breath had no effect on me, though the same cannot be said of my minions. Still, Addy MK. II remained remarkably resilient.
But Addy is still weak to undead, especially undead illithid. They can stun her with psionics and now vampiric illithid can level drain her while she's stunned. Thus was her fate and she was smashed into a million pieces after the last of her levels were drained.
I recruited Rock and Garock to replace her. We smashed open Carston's little prison and I got +1 to all my stats and 100k XP.
Watcher's Keep level 5 is my favorite floor of the dungeon. Hordes of creatures waiting to be butchered in various - and oftentimes magical - ways. You'd think I'd like IWD because of that, but I merely think that its okay. Anyway our first test was against a swarm of orcs. I summoned my host of elementals once again to help.
The minotaur not wielding the Axe of the Unyielding died in that room by a death of a thousand cuts. I replaced our dwindling party with two huge iron golems. Up next is a special tweak I made myself for convenience.
Enter the Killsword! I hate how long the spirit warrior challenge takes so I equipped him with the special Killsword that counts as a +10 weapon, deals 1000-1500 damage, and gives many immunities.
So I blazed through there without even going in the rooms' proper order. For completing the "challenge," Azamantes and his flaming skulls were waiting for us. He was not particularly challenging, though with two magic-immune golems, anything becomes easy.
I recruited three elite beholders to replace my fallen minions in the fight with Azamantes and then took on the Rilmani group. Does anyone have any idea what those things are, exactly?
This battle was fairly easy since I had 3 mages on my side. The tried-and-true Greater Malison + Chaos still works wonders. Next was the hardest battle in the dungeon by far: the amazon brigade. I spared no expense for this battle - every mage had at least 2 summons each and several layers of protective spells.
Ryu's earthquake knocked out the Hive Mother for one round which let us concentrate on the others. I went for the marilith Y'tossi first because her many attacks would tear through the mages' stoneskins like tissue paper. A Whirlwind and a half later, she was dead which gave us all more breathing room.
But the hive mother was back up again and throwing beholder rays left and right. It was my next target as my mages kept The Huntress and the drow busy.
Once it fell, the other two were easy enough to kill. Nalmissra the succubus was a pain to kill. She did nothing the whole fight, which is good enough for me, but she just ran around and gated to the Ethereal Plane whenever someone got close. So I had to spend a few minutes chasing her as if I was back in first grade, chasing my crush around - only with more swords. Eventually she fell thanks to Water's Talon's extended strike range and it would be time to take on the multiverse's number one demon: Demogorgon!
It was time to face the Imprisoned One. I wanted to try something that I hadn't done yet: defeat Demogorgon solo. After reaching epic levels, I've begun to level up incredibly fast and am learning techniques left and right. To do this next feat, I had some help from my father.
Enter the Ravager! The Ravager is murder incarnate, the perfect death machine capable of utterly eviscerating groups that even full and balanced parties would have trouble with. It has even more immunities and offensive power than the Slayer!
-Charm
-Confusion
-Sleep
-Level Drain
-Disintegration
-Domination
-Petrification
-Disease
-Slow
-Stun
-Imprisonment
-Psionics
-Finger of Death
-Entangle
-Web
-Grease
-Knockback of any kind
Claws:
-8 Cold damage
-On hit: 10% chance to lower magic resistance by 5% for 30 seconds
-On hit: 10% chance to dispel all effects; caster level = character level
-25% chance to knock back target and knock them unconscious for 2 seconds
-25% chance to deal +1d8 crushing damage on hit (save vs. breath at -4 negates)
+50% elemental resistances
+50% Magic Damage resistance
+50% Poison resistance
+50% Physical damage resistance
+50% magic resistance
-12 THAC0 bonus
-300 HP
-5 attacks
-Claws count as +5
To augment its power even further, I improved hasted myself and used Insightful Strike to deal maximum damage!
Not counting Big D's Time Stop, he was destroyed within 3 rounds! The remaining demons were quickly dealt with - even when mariliths and balors team up, they're no match for the Ravager!
And thanks to this battle, I'm finally level 40. I have room to improve up to level 50 and at this rate it shouldn't be long before I get there.
But, what Demogorgon had to say before I executed him was interesting. The Vigil Knights were trying to imprison me along with him! Murderous fury still boiling in my heart, I climbed up the steps to the top of Watcher's Keep and began my single-handed destruction of the knights. What hope had they if the multiverse's number one demon could barely stand against me?
None, that's what.
Sounds like the most epic battle between Fiends (if we don't mention the Blood Wars...).
After my assault on Watcher's Keep was over with, it was time to see to the defense of Saradush. It probably already fell while I was away but Yaga-Shura would still be a problem. I encountered "Gorion" who turned out to be a Master Wraith. He didn't like having his own shades turned against him.
The priestess Nyalee knew how to weaken Yaga-Shura so I went to retrieve their hearts in the Marching Mountains. On my way to Yaga's lair I ambushed an unlikely group of Bhaalspawn that I recruited. A kobold, a xvart, a goblin, and their leader a chinchilla. Bhaal really did bang everything that moves.
Once we made it into his lair, our group was all but destroyed. Of course I made it out alive.
So I brainwashed a bunch of fire giants to help me and they ganged up on an adamantine golem who I would've converted if the party wasn't full already.
The hearts were being guarded upstairs by many fire giants. My own giants distracted them while I ran about their feet, poisoning them.
Once we had the hearts, we got out of there - but not before brainwashing the Elemental Prince of Fire, Imix! Then we returned to Nyalee to weaken Yaga.
Of course she betrayed us and we had to kill her. Typical. But the deed was done and it was time to end the first of the Five. Yaga's army poured toward us but we decimated them with Imix on our side. His fiery wrath scorched all of the human soldiers while my Greater Elementals and giants beat down Yaga's fire giants. It was a battle to behold.
With all of us surrounding Yaga-Shura, it was easy enough to kill him. Chalk up 1 2 for 5 for Gaspar. Illasera is just so forgettable.
I am laughing this playtrough a lot, thanks man!
Our next stop on the railroad that is ToB's plot was Amkethran. We were stopped by the Tethyrian General who wanted me dead. I suppose he didn't know that I was the one that defeated Yaga-Shura's army. He suffered the same fate.
Once we got to Amkethran we did the quests there. But I forgot to create the Big Metal Unit once I finished this part of the playthrough... D'oh. I modified the armor itself to allow spellcasting and thievery and also made it immune to knockback. Oh well, I was already at the AC cap anyway. Anywhoo we fought Draconis and won, at the cost of our dear Imix. And just inside Abazigal's lair, the fire giants were all killed by water elementals.
The water elementals were exceedingly annoying, killing all of my party members whenever I converted them. They even killed a Nabassu that I gated in to help with this horde of kuo-toa.
But once I got the scroll of reversal from Bondari's party, i converted the dragon Fll'Yissetat to aid me. I think most of her draconic powers were off-limits to me since she only had a small selection of spells. But that didn't matter; I'd let her tank Abazigal instead.
The first time I tried to kill Abazigal I used my Super Bhaalspawn 2 Improved Slayer form but it wasn't strong enough. So I used Super Bhaalspawn 3 the Ravager once again. It was much easier to defeat Abazigal in this form, but it would've been easier still if he hadn't dispelled my Ravager claws.
After this victory, I assembled the Flail of Ages +5 (modified with Free Action Fixes) and destroyed my doubt.
(subtitle: Icewind Dale: Throne of Bhaal)
This is an objective fact. Also this is my least favorite area of ToB. Before entering Sendai's enclave I killed Fll'Yissetat because she was way too big to go anywhere. Once inside I recruited some spore colonies who spawned many myconids. This was fun and all until they did it a 3rd time, which significantly slowed down my frame rate.
The rest of the enclave was business as usual. I brainwashed the drow kensai but he was killed by the other drow because he wasn't wearing any armor.
I recruited Ogremoch, Prince of Earth to help me. He is extremely powerful, coming with the ability to teleport anywhere and summon Earth elementals; several Stoneskin spells, Remove magic, an Earthquake, and Suggestion. He would block the door in Sendai's sanctum as I fought her by myself. When Sendai used her Archer form, she teleported around the room faster than a Dragonball Z fighter! Even with double-strength haste from Boots of Speed + an Oil of Speed, I couldn't keep up with her! She slowed down for just the smallest second and I sliced her with Water's Talon, which took care of the rest. She easily fell afterward.
After I killed her, I took my next Pocket Plane test. Fortunately I got to skip it and get the benefits anyway. Cyric noticed that I already defeated his Chosen, and pitting me against more of his staunchest believers would tip the balance too far. Even the god of madness has to play by some of the rules.
See you next episode for the finale: Ascension!
After skipping that test, there was only one of the Five left: Balthazar. Through some careful negotiations, I managed to get Balthazar to kill himself instead of fighting me. My reputation and alignment weren't good enough for him to join me. The last test took a very long time, but I finally killed the Ravager. Ogremoch tanked the swords since he was immune to their enchantment level anyway. My host of elementals and Kitthix tried to help but they were eventually killed by the Ravager. My own attacks hardly did any damage at all because of the Ravager's massive damage reduction. I tried fighting him as a Ravager myself, but he dispelled my claws so I switched back to normal. I forgot to take pictures of this part.
Now the only thing left to do was to kill Mellisan. Ogremoch and I entered the Throne of Bhaal and were greeted by good old Irenicus and Bodhi. An antisolar was also on their side and Imoen was teleported there as well, and forced to turn into the Slayer. Ogremoch's elementals accidentally turned Imoen into extra chunky burrito meat. Ogremoch himself was killed by the antisolar's vorpal sword, so then it was just me against them.
Irenicus still had the same weakness as last time, just like all mages. I poisoned him and though he only took half damage from it, it was enough to keep him from being a problem. I gave the antisolar a Pitchwife Whirlwind it wouldn't soon forget. Bodhi was a different matter. Whenever I tried to give her the same treatment, she'd turn into a cloud of mist and regenerate back to full health. She was immune to all damage and took only half from fire, which I didn't have with me. Even Daystar didn't work on her. So I stopped time and gave her the Pitchwife Whirlwind, which killed her.
Next I tried to turn off the fonts of essence, but demons were gated in to stop me. I took control of some and killed the rest.
Rinse, lather, and repeat twice.
Before I drained the last font, I placed all of my traps in just the right places to save me some headaches. When I drained all the fonts of their Bhaal essence, Mellisan resurrected the Five to fight me, and brought back Sarevok who betrayed me. It was time to kill them all again, and Sarevok for a third time.
Two seconds later, Abazigal and Illasera were dead.
Thus began the massive fight amongst us! Sarevok fell first. I turned into the Ravager and made sure his treachery would have immediate consequences.
Then Balthazar. That idiot should've been fighting with me.
Then Yaga-Shura and Sendai thanks to Water's Talon. Mellisan was turned mortal because she expended too much of the essence to resurrect the Five and bring in Sarevok.
Once she was mortal, I regained the use of my slayer abilities and turned into the Ravager once more. The demons and I pounded away at her and we were successful!
Then, it was finally time to make my choice. Remain mortal, or ascend to become a power of the planes and force other powerful creatures to be my minions.
Gaspar became a god. He would eagerly seek out Valkur and try to steal his portfolios to become a god of piracy, plunder, and the patron of sea-faring rapscallions everywhere.
Throne of Bhaal Complete!
Why do I suddenly want a burrito?