@osarsiph, wow man! you must have telepathic skills or something Thanks for pointing this out. Yesterday I left my Assassin in BG City, and rolled another Wizard Slayer, simply because I want to see more of them in SoA. It's such a rewarding experience to make progress with a WS, more so to me than with most other classes. (Maybe the unmodded Shapeshifter could be a candidate as well.)
I'm playing BGEE and BG2EE, so the shield should be available to my WS, who was drooling all over the item description haha. Like @bengoshi, I hadn't heard of the item and I've got no idea how to get it. I understand that it's related to Neera's quest. Do I have to recruit her?
Yes, you have to recruit Neera to get it, but only very briefly--something I personally would allow for a solo run. You have to:
-Have the first scripted encounter with Neera in the Bridge District, then talk to her in the cutscene when you leave the district. No need to recruit her then. She will put the Wild Forest on your map. -Go the the Wild Forest. Neera will be there and talk to you as soon as you arrive, about getting through the forest to the Hidden Refuge. There is a dialog option to say you don't want her to join you but you will meet her there. I think there is a bug relating to this option that I will describe below. -Once you make your way through the Wild Forest you can travel to the Hidden Refuge. Hayes is outside the door and will not let you in without Neera. This is where I think there is a bug, at least in my installation. Based on your conversation earlier, I would expect Neera to be outside the gate waiting for you, but in fact, she is inside the camp where you can't get to her. I solved this by Ctrl-J'ing inside the camp, Ctrl-Q'ing Neera into my party, and Ctrl-J'ing back outside the camp, at which point Neera starts dialog with Hayes to let you in. If you don't want to use the console (and you have the same bug), I think you would need to take Neera through the Wild Forest with you. -Once you are in the Hidden Refuge, talk to Amanis and Kirik Khal. I don't think it really matters what you say to them. -If you leave the Refuge and come back, Kirik will be gone. (I think you may have to go to the Wild Forest to trigger his disappearance.) Amanis will ask you to find him. -Go to the Wild Forest and find Kirik, then return to the Refuge and talk to Amanis again. -To get the Shield of Fyrus Khal, you need to choose the dialog option to advise Amanis not to let Kirik practice wild magic anymore--appropriate for a WS. She will give you the shield as a reward.
Thanks @osarsiph; I will definitely make use of it with my next Wizard Slayer that makes it into Amn. Unfortunately my two latest attempts stranded in the Nashkel Mines (held by Mulahey) and at the Ducal Palace (failed to keep the Dukes alive after the Doppelganger Mage succesfully confused the Fist Officers).
Both defeats had me continue my Assassin run, of which the following is an update.
Eydan received a number of lucrative propositions in the city of Baldur's Gate including a couple of jobs for the local Thieves' Guild, the theft of a telescope at the Hall of Wonders, the assassination of a Nymph and, for Duke Eltan, investigation of the Iron Throne. He decided to prioritize his business with the Iron Throne, that had been an annoying distraction from his work. Attempts to infiltrate the Throne proved fruitless, as two guards somehow recognized him immediately. Eydan discreetly cut their throats before any alarm bells would ring and continued toward the upper floor, where according to a Halfling employee of the Throne some important meeting was going on. The first creature he saw was a shapeshifting Doppelganger right in front of him. It told him those people, about 7 or 8, were up to no good. The Elf descended one of the two stairs, and placed two traps by the other stairway. Then he drank an oil of speed, and when he saw two Mages in the group, a potion of clarity, before he whirled through their ranks, leaving a trail of destruction with his poisoned backstabs and arrows of dispelling.
Interrogation of their sole survivor made it clear to him that the true Throne leaders were on business in Candlekeep. Eydan reported this back to Belt who promptly teleported him to Candlekeep with an expensive tome to provide him access to his former home. Four Ogre Mages awaited him, hoping to claim a 10,000 GP bounty on his head. Eydan drank one of his many potions that protect against (hostile) magic, dispelled the monsters' protections and slew them one after the other.
In the Candlekeep library he never got to speak with the Iron Throne leaders; they were killed and he was framed for the deed. Thankfully Tethtoril looked Eydan up in his cell. He agreed with the Elf that Sarevok was the probable culprit. The old priest helped Eydan escape judgment by setting him free in the catacombs below Candlekeep. Although urged against it by Tethtoril, the Assassin couldn't help but investigate the tombs and chests. It yielded him some extremely valuable loot, such as tomes that would make him stronger and wiser, an enchanted ring, potions, scrolls etc, but it also nearly cost him his life when he ran into a web trap and was severely injured and poisoned by Phase Spiders before he got free.
This was on the way back. I was playing for a moment with no volume, and didn't hear or see the web traps still active...
Back in Baldur's Gate he got a tip from a woman named Tamoko, who was apparently well-informed of Sarevok's dealings, to seek out two assassins in the Undercellars, Slythe and Kristin, that were going to kill some of the Dukes for Sarevok. Eydan cast a scroll of Protection from magic on himself. With the edge of his blade coated in poison, and with two potions of invisibility Eydan managed to kill Slythe. He found a letter in which Sarevok explicitly instructed Slythe to kill the Dukes of Baldur's Gate, and an invitation to a party at the Ducal Palace for the occasion of Sarevok's inauguration as the new Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate. Eydan didn't bother with Kristin but went straight to the Ducal Palace. Once it became clear that most of the noble guests were Doppelgangers, a fight broke out between the two Dukes present, a number of Flaming Fist officers, and Eydan on the one hand, and the Doppelgangers on the other. Sarevok chose to keep up appearances, so he could'nt fight alongside the Doppelgangers. With his arrows of dispelling Eydan dispelled the haste effect that all the Doppelgangers were under. After that he focused mostly on disabling a Doppelganger Shaman and a Doppelganger Mage, using his poison weapon ability and his Horror Bhaalpower. He was content to see Belt and the Fist make good progress and he conttributed his share as well, teaching a Doppelganger true assassination.
Both Duke Belt and Duchess Liia Jannath survived the fight, until Eydan presented the incriminating letter to Belt. An enraged Sarevok slew the Duchess and would have done the same with Duke Belt if it weren't for the intervention of one of Sarevok's henchmen, a wizard who teleported away with Sarevok. Divination taught Belt that Sarevok had escaped via the Thieves' Guild and teleported Eydan that way as well. The Elf followed suit through a heavily trapped maze until he reached the Undercity below Baldur's Gate and a temple that appeared to be Sarevok's hideout. Eydan rested near the entrance, cast Protection from Magic, Protection from Poison, Protection from Acid, and Protection from Undead on himself, and then he engaged Sarevok and his last followers. (Poison/Acid would protect him against Diarmid's arrows, and Undead against the Skeleton Warriors that would rise from his enemies' corpses.) Arrows of dispelling, oils of speed combined with his Boots of Speed (for superspeed), poisoned arrows of biting, potions of power, and backstabs made the final showdown a realatively easy fight even though the presence of the Skeleton Warriors made it impossible for Eydan to hide in shadows.
@DreadKhan, they're very f-ing badass At least for the time being, I have yet to see for myself how the Assassin fares in SoA and ToB.
My skillpoint distribution at level 10 (unenhanced by items) is: Open Locks: 30 Find Traps: 65 Pickpockets: 40 Move Silently: 68 Hide in Shadows: 68 Detect Illusions: 10 Set Traps: 65
I could have developed the stealth skills a bit less and the traps skills a bit more, but I knew I was going to use stealth a lot in chateau Irenicus. I think I will simply not invest in locks and pickpockets until all the other skills are well-developed, which will take me at least 12-13 levels.
Imho, any class rocking Spike Traps and UAI will do just fine.
A nice thing in SoA is that you can get some solid thief boosting gear, 3 handy rings especially. Potions should be able to cover lock picking, and I don't remember much superfantastic pickpocketables in SoA.
I foresee many Deurgar being bypassed... am a prescient?
@DreadKhan, bypassing Duergar was my original plan, until Eydan failed at HiS in front of a Duergar, ran off, hid again, and insta-killed the pursuing Duergar fighter with a backstab... @bengoshi, well I think my command of BG1varies per playthrough. Thief is the class I've played the most by far, so yes, I think that with any Thief type I'm fairly competent at beating BG1. But two more Wizard Slayers didn't survive BG1
Here's Eydan's record screen at the start of the game, level 10, with his thieving skillpoint distribution displayed (some prescience there on my part @DreadKhan).
Eydan was released by his childhood friend Imoen, who like him, had no idea where they were, so all he knew was that he was in some kind of prison, and that he'd been tortured. He told Imoen they would be best off trying to sneak their way out individually. He worked best alone, and he didn't want the girl to be a witness of what he was about to do. Understandably the Elf was vindictive, and he was going to make his captor pay, and those that served his captor as well. I think Eydan's strategy is best summarized in a few images:
Or in a few words: hide and stab Eydan even managed to kill the Cambion, who sees through invisibility, with a backstab.
With success comes overconfidence, so Eydan decided to check out a portal to the plane of air. Stealth helped him past several Mephits, before he spoke with a Genie who promised him an item that belonged to him in exchange for a flask that would secure his release. As he left to look for the flask, his stealth failed him. It prompted the critters to follow suit, and pester him with their special abilities. Eydan nevertheless succeeded in returning to the prison, and received the flask from a Dryad slave. In a way it was lucky that the Mephits had all followed him. It meant that he only needed to successfully hide in shadows at a single location: the entrance. He made the exchange with the Genie.
Eydan's meagre Open Locks skills (40) were often sufficient to open locked chests, and his exceptional strength (19) enabled him to force the more skillfully locked chests. He also proved to be of sufficient skill to disarm most traps, and where he wasn't his Bhaalpower to DUHM helped him out.
Eydan managed one level-up (11) in which he invested 5 skill points in Find Traps (70 now), Set Traps (70) and Detect Illusions (15).
On a second level of the prison Eydan faced a difficult challenge: a room with four Mephit portals that kept spawning different types of Mephits. Eydan was most wary of the Magma Mephits (third portal), that could knock one unconscious with their sprays. With an oil of speed and two potions of extra healing, he managed to destroy the different portals without having to fear for his life.
Eydan found a forge worked by Duergar, but decided not to bother with them. He saw a group of Shadow Thieves take down a Vampire, and had to battle a few of those Thieves himself before he could leave the prison. With the poisoning of his arrows and his blade (a Long Sword +1 he had picked up somewhere; there was no sign of his trusty Varscona), he managed to dispatch three of them that blocked his path to freedom.
I would pay attention to being injured - with 80 HPs it's better to travel and to start fights in full health. That picture of held Eydan from the Candlekeep catacombs is still in front of my eyes...
@bengoshi, true that! I hope to be able to get an ioun stone or cowl at the Thieves Guild via Rogue Rebalancing. I don't want Eydan to suffer any criticals...
A second Bhaalspawn arrived in Amn after my Elven Assassin, a Dwarven Fighter named Thani Magebane. As her last name suggests, I haven't overcome my Wizard Slayeritis yet...
Thani is LE (mostly for the Human Skin armor and because she'll end up evil in Hell anyway if she makes it there). She started out specialized in Maces and Short Bows. I edited the Claw and Horn of Kazgaroth in Near Infinity so that they can be used by Wizard Slayers, as in the original game. I did this first and foremost because previous experiences with my WSs showed me that there's at least one inevitable SCS encounter (possibly more if one is unlucky) where charname can only survive through good saves rolls. I wanted to reduce the role of that luck factor. Apart from that, I can see justifications in the game rules for granting the WS access to said items. The Claw is not a ring (even though it's equipped in a ring slot), and both the Claw and the Horn are parts of the beast Kazgaroth, which make them unique items whose inherent protective and harmful properties could be different from the magical enchantments that are intenionally placed on items such as rings, cloaks etc. that the WS cannot use. The whole issue of the WS being unable to use an enchanted ring but being free to use a weapon with the same enchantment is a bit artificial anyway imo. From an RP perspective I like the idea of the relentless WS resorting to items that hurt them: anything goes in their crusade against magic.
Here's a brief account of how Thani survived the Sword Coast. Upon leaving Candlekeep, she went straight for the most rewarding quests in terms of XP. This meant - Shoal, - Thalantyr, but he failed for the 4th playthrough in a row to save Melicamp, - Brage (quick route to Nashkel where Ankheg Armor was picked up, Large and PfPetrification was bought, - Basilisks and Mutamin, - Ankhegs, after a quick stop in Beregost to pick up the Stupefier +1 mace, - Brun, Fishermen/Tenya. These quests brought Thani close to 64k XP (level 7), partly thanks to an attempt to rest in the Ankheg Cave. Proficiency pips at levels 3 and 6 went to Flails (an investment for SoA). With her hunger for XP sated, Thani's next objective was to acquire sufficient gold/treasure to be able to get Taerom's full plate, the Claw & Horn of Kazgaroth, a number of relevant green scrolls, a good supply of health potions, plenty of arrows of biting for Mulahey and Venkt, and even the red ioun stone sold at Thalantyr's for the sole purpose of increasing AC by 1. To that end inter alia Greywolf (varscona and emeralds), the Western Cloudpeaks (two enchanted halberds), the Gnoll Stronghold (gauntlets of dex), FAI (ring of wizardry) were visited. Reputation was artificially raised at Keldath's. When she had everything she thought she'd need, she started pursuing the plot quests. In the Nashkel Mines the third level can be complicated because there are many tougher Kobolds and a Shaman that casts Horror. Thani lured most Kobolds to the opening with the Huge Spiders and slew them, before the Kobold Shaman horrored her indeed.
With most Kobolds already out of the way, too few remained to actually hurt her, so when the spell wore off Thani slew the remaining Kobolds and went down to seek out Mulahey. She hoped to poison him with her arrows of biting, but she didn't succeed. (As a priest, Mulahey must have fairly good saves vs death.) She ran outside as he started casting Hold Person, and when she came back she saw that he and his lackeys had followed her to the entrance. She pulled off one more peek-a-boo, buy when she appeared again she found herself surrounded by Mulahey, Kobolds and Skeletons, and no longer able to leave the premises. All she could do was fight Mulahey and hope to stun him with her Stupefier. (I didn't equip the Claw of Kazgaroth because I hadn't decided yet in what circumstances she would be allowed to use it.) She hit him various times, but the priest wouldn't be stunned. A crucial save vs spell kept her from being held, before she felled the Half-Orc.
I really missed my other WS' darts of stunning here. My decision to go for maces (rather than long swords or hammers for Varscona's/Ashideena's elemental damage) and shortbows (rather than darts with their high no. of APR and their stunning variant), and to invest two pips in flails, was a risky one for BG 1. However, in BG2 these proficiencies are about optimal. In Nashkel Nimbul was left to the Amnian guards with Thani staying out of the assassin's sight until he panicked, at which point she finished him off with her bow. (This has become a favorite tactic to deal with Nimbul with vulnerable characters such as my WS.)
Tranzig was easy as he often is. Arrows of biting did him in. Just like Mulahey, the Bandit Tent did not go completely as desired. Venkt survived Thani's initial onslaught with her arrows of biting, went invisible, healed himself and showed up later to start casting spells again. Thankfully he didn't survive a second ranged assault, so that Thani finish off the other bandits without much difficulty. After having dealt with the bandit camp, Bentan was killed for his green scroll of PfMagic and for reputation management, as it helped her get Horror as her third (and later fourth) Bhaalpower. (Needless to say I suppose, that Thalantyr's and Hafiz's scrolls of PfMagic were also acquired.)
Cloakwood was done in two instances. First Aldeth was slain, the Cloak of Non-Detection retrieved and the Spiders dealt with. I permitted Thani the use of the Claw of Kazgaroth here combined with a green scroll of PfPoison (important because the Claw imposes a penalty on saves vs death). When she failed to lure only the Sword Spiders out of Centeol's den but rather saw herself confronted with all monsters that inhabited the den, she even blew the Horn of Kazgaroth for a further improvement of her save vs spells score. It may have helped because she saved indeed at one point.
Thani returned Chelak's body to Tiber and traveled to Beregost to sell some loot (Kondar, Cloak of Non-Detection, gems etc). Her second visit to Cloakwood was much more straightforward. She had just reached the level cap and wasted no time dealing with Druids or Wyverns. Drasus was poisoned but as soon as he closed in on her, his Berserker rage and a potion of frost giant strength made him the superior fighter so she left the map and returned in the hopes of fighting him on equal terms. She still needed potions of healing but in the end she did prevail.
Genthore too was engaged. (I did this because keeping his Fallorain's Plate Mail would make Ilych drop that armor in BG2's opening dundeon, which is better than the random Mail of Dead.) A ranged fight with him was decided by her super marksmanship and her arrows of biting.
Dealing with Davaeorn lair wasn't as hard as it could have been. Thani spent her first PfMagic on the encounter, managed to poison the wizard various times until he fell, and she never got surrounded by a horde of guards blocking her path.
Before going to Baldur's Gate, Thani secured the WIS tome at Durlag's Tower, and the CON tome and other loot from the treasure cave in the Lighthouse area (for which purpose another scroll of PfMagic was used). In Baldur's Gate Thani upgraded her stats further (all tomes were acquired) as well as her attire, with the Helm of Baduran, Shield of the Falling Stars, Sparkburst (a Rogue Rebalncing shortbow for sale at the Thieves Guild, and lots of healing potions and enchanted arrows. The Iron Throne fight went very well, as Thani managed to somehow get rid of Naaman after she dispelled his protections. Naaman is by far the hardest enemy for my WSs because of his many Charm spells. The others were mostl dealt with using arrows of biting (the harder hitting foes Gardush and Zhalimar Cloudwulfe) or in melee.
At the gates of Candlekeep Thani deicded to cast PfMagic on herself in order to deal with the Ogre Magi. Intereestingly, various Charm Persons were cast at her before she completed reading her green scroll. (This encounter was reason I edited the Claw and Horn into WS-accessible items.) She saved against the spells cast at her, and proceeded to slay the monsters.
In the Candlekeep catacombs she secured another green scroll of PfMagic (bashing a lock with DUHM) and she discovered that she hadn't ID'd the scroll of PfPetrification she had found in the Iron Throne building. She had the Claw of Kazgaroth still equipped from the Ogre Magi fight, and she blew the Horn as well, reducing her saves vs spell to 2. However, her Boots of Speed carried her past the Basilisks before they could gaze-attack her, allowing her a safe escape.
Two Spiders followed her outside, and Thani, annoyed by especially the swift Sword Spider, decided to fight them. She reconsidered that decision however, when one of the Basilisks gave her good scare by simply appearing.
Back in Baldur's Gate Thani picked up a last scroll of PfMagic, in Ramazith's tower, forcing the lock on the drawer with DUHM. In the Undercellars she managed to stun Slythe with her mace, which gave her a good opportunity to seriously hurt the assassin without having to fear his backstabs. It prompted her to cast PfMagic on herselfm because Krystin was still around. Slythe then fell to her arrows of biting.
The Doppelganger fight was messy as usual. Thani limited herself to dispelling haste and other protections and trying to disrupt the Doppelganger casters. The Mage nevertheless pulled off a Confusion and a Sunfire, killing most of the Fist officers. Thankfully this happened when two of the Doppelgangers had just been slain by Belt and Thani. The latter two also managed to dispatch the Shaman and the Mage respectively, making it possible for the duo and one Flaming Fist Officer to slay the last Doppelgangers with relative ease.
Thani lured Belt, who was seeking conversation with her, to one of the antechambers, safe from Sarevok, where the two waited for Winski to intervene. In the Undercity it seems impossible for a non-invisible, low CHA charname to prevent hostile Tamoko and a number of Skeleton Warriors from entering Sarevok's sanctum, so there was a pre-finale battle to be fought first. Thani focused on Tamoko and, protected still from magic, had little difficulty with Sarevok's former lover. The Skelton Warrior archers were giving her a hard time though. Fortunately Thani had a PfUndead scroll stored in her pack. When she cast that protection on herself, the undead were easy pickings (even though they tended to walk off toward Sarevok & co, so Thani couldn't always follow them).
In the final battle Angelo was dispelled and poisoned until he fell.
Semaj showed up but disappeared after he too saw his protections dispelled by Thani's arrows. Thani, both impatient and confident that her arrows of dispelling would do their job, then proceeded forward in order to provoke all remaining foes to attack her. First she dispelled Sarevok's and Diarmid's haste.
Semaj too had no answer to Thani's arrows of dispelling and biting, and soon bit the dust.
The most dangerous foe that remained was Diarmid. Even though Thani had cast PfPoison and PfAcid on herself to counter the archer's enchanted arrows's effects, he just kept hitting her hard. She quaffed various healing potions before she realized she had to use the statues for cover.
You know, that you play too much Baldur's Gate, when you proceed with SCS no reload WS solo run without problem. Well done! Bonus points for the female dwarf charname!
@lolien, hahaha thanks! Yep it's deinitely been too much in the past week or two... Glad you like Thani
Thani is now in Amn. This is her character record at the start of SoA.
Interestingly the XP she had acquired beyond the BG1 level cap, which I never removed, was included in her starting XP. Here's a report of Thani's first feats in Amn. Thani got to fight a lot as soon as she began her attempt to escape. On the first level she took down most of the Duergar (mostly by trying to fighting them one or two at a time), the Flesh Golems, the Otyugh, and the inevitable Mephits. She didn't engage the Cambion. The Duergar Mage, one of Ilych's crew, horrored her when the other Duergar were all slain already, so no harm was done.
She acquired the Sword of Chaos from the Genie, in spite of being stunned once by a Salt Mephit (as with the Duergar Mage, after most other foes had already fallen). On the second level Thani had to suffer more nuisances from the Mephits. First of all she got cornered by three Mephits, making it impossible for her to reach the portals. And secondly, one of the critters repeatedly blinded her, so that she couldn't finish off the portals with Yoshimo's shortbow. Once she managed to release herself, she had little difficulty with the vermin.
Further on, she failed to kill Ulvaryl before the vampire was done with the Shadow Thieves, and hence fled that room. She kept away from the Duergar at the forge, and she released and killed Frennedan and the Shadow Thieves near the exit.
Thani leveled up once in Irencus dungeon, to level 9. She invested her first pip in TWF. At Waukeen's Promenade she completed the Circus quest and she dealt with Mencar Pebblecrusher and his gang, relying heavily on the Amnian soldiers. Sorecerous Amon was the first to follow her outside of the Den of the Seven Vales. He used mostly damaging magic, but no dangerous mind or movement affecting spells. Thani was doing a good job hurting him with her bow, but an Amnian soldier stole the kill. Brennan Risling fled after Thani injured him severely, and Mencar Pebblecrusher was eventually slain by one of the Amnian guards. Thani did finish off Smaeluv and Pooky herself.
From Ribald Barterman she bought the Reflection Shield. In the Copper Coronet Thani managed to slay the Lethinan's guards and Beastmaster and his companions. Careful manoeuvering and the use of a Bhaal horror allowed her to take on her foes one or two at a time.
The Dwarf then cleared the sewer area to secure Lilarcor for herself (indispensable before other areas can be visited I think), and she has dealt with Amalas in the fighting pit, and with Bregg and Cohrvale outside.
That's all for now. Am not sure how much time I'll have to make much progress in the next days, but I'll keep you posted
Interestingly the XP she had acquired beyond the BG1 level cap, which I never removed, was included in her starting XP.
The XP cap in BG:EE is a bit different… you have in one side, the XPCAP.2DA table which applies the cap for all the game (Black Pits, BG and the Tutorial), this cap can't be gone over, and since Black Pits is intended for higher levels than BG1, it goes up to level 11 for all classes (XP amount isn't relevant here), so the cap in XPCAP.2DA is higher than the cap in the BG:EE campaign, and, START###.2DA (where ### is the variable) tables for each campaign, which rules the maximum of XP allowed for that campaign (which IS given to your character (but you can't level up, and, you don't normally see it), unlike the XP cap, which is respected if the XP goes over it), besides the area you start in.
In short… you can get more XP than the old BG XP cap, but you can't still level up.
I'm glad the WS idea is deep into you. I hope you'll make it one day Let's hope Thani will be lucky!
It's interesting that with Thani you came to what I chose for my own WS, i.e. maces and short bows in BG1, instead of darts and longswords. The moment I stopped that run (although it wasn't a reason for a stop, my totemic druid's run was) I thought that my choice was wrong and wanted to try darts and longswords It seems, there's not much difference in what weapon to specialize in for a warrior, though. The main thing is to use the appropriate gear when it's needed.
Thank you @bengoshi I'm going to try to be more careful... and to not use the Vhailor's Helm trick :P I think the best way to go about it might be to start different quests and do them up to when they become really difficult. It would enable the WS to get as much XP as possible at minimal risk.
As to weapon picks, I've tried many combinations, and I think that ** in both darts and shortbows for ranged and in hammers or longswords for melee would be ideal for BG1. However, for BG2, longswords aren't that great except for special abilities (but you don't need proficiency for those) and the only outstanding hammer imo is Crom Fraeyr (which as an offhand weapon only requires one pip). Otoh maces (for the Mace of Disruption), and shortbows (for the Tuigan Bow) are really nice.
@Greenman019, the portraits I use are from different sources on the internet (often cut and resized by me and sometimes I change tone and saturation). Google Images and DeviantArt are great places to start. If there's a portrait I use that you find particularly interesting I could attach it to a post here so that you can use it.
With Lilarcor secured, Thani began traveling to other areas in Athkatla and even beyond the city borders. First, Neera was temporarily recruited, for the sole purpose of unlocking her specific areas, which would allow Thani to obtain the Shield of Fyrus Khal.
Importantly the Aura of Magical Protection isn't constant; it comes and goes. Reassured by her new shield she decided to take on the slaver compound. This went all very well, even though captain Haegan proved once more to be an exceptional fighter (vulnerable but oh so damaging both in melee and ranged with his axes).
However, when she activated her shield's Spell Turning ability to take on the Slaver Wizards, she had to save vs spell in order not to be blinded by the Gnome. I think the spell didn't reflect back to the Gnome. However I forgot to check when panic broke out as Thani failed a save vs spell against the Human wizard's Confusion spell cast at her (Spell Turning doesn't protect against AoE spells). She was lucky to keep on fighting and survive while confused, before she dispacthed her foes when she had regained control of herself.
Thani's exploits were amply rewarded by Hendak, bringing her fortune over 20k GP. Since she wanted to undertake all the easier quests in Athkatla that I'm aware of, including Wellyn, she bought two green scrolls of PfMagic leaving her with <15k GP,
so that she could enter the Graveyard District for Wellyn without having to decide on whether or not to work for Bodhi. Other quests successfully completed were: - Sarles, - Skinner Murders (without fighting the Rune Assassins downstairs), - Risa the orphan girl in the Graveyard district, - Tirdir (only Reti was slain, the Dwarf eluded Thani; Silver Pantaloons were acquirerd), - retrieving a holy ring for the Temple of Lathander; - stealing a necklace at the Talassan temple for Mae'Var.
Thani avoided fights with ambushing slavers and bandits, except for the confrontation with Renfeld's poisoners. There was no Cleric there to cast Hold Person, so she decided to rescue the man and bring him to his Harper friends. These quests helped Thani reach level 11 (don't remember exactly when), before she went to visit the Arnise Keep. This was an extremely frustrating adventure, up to the point of me considering to to simply abandon the run. I think it must be SCS-related, although the Keep wasn't nearly as annoying with my previous Wizard Slayer. First of all the Trolls, which are supposed to be extremely vulnerable to fire and acid, required on average 5-7 fire or acid arrow each before they would die. Their saves vs spells are apparently very good; note that the fire damage of fire arrows can be saved against. But even with acid arrows (that allow for no such save) Thani needed to waste 5-6 of them on a single Troll.
This meant that there simply didn't seem to be sufficient fire/acid arrows in the game to kill them all. Thani had tor return to Athkatla (and even went to Watcher's Keep) to buy said arrows. She found them (80 fire arrows) only at Maheer's. Upon returning, her new supply soon proved to be insufficient as well, as the Trolls seemed to have respawned. The following screenshot is from the hallway on the ground floor, which had even cleared completely.
I allowed myself a test save to enter a few rooms that Thani had already entered and cleared. (Knowing that the Trolls were respawning, Thani wouldn't enter those rooms, but I was curious as to what the game was doing here, hence the test save.) The result was something like this:
Honestly this really sucked the fun out of this challenge, and I came close to simply abandoning my playthough and go back to my Assassin. Anyway, bottlenecking the Trolls allowed Thani to clear most of the ground floor again (at least the hallway), and some of the Trolls of the second floor were lured downstairs to either give them the same treatment or to shake them off. Upstairs in the library she had little difficulty with the Yuan-Ti mage, initially the foe she feared the most, thanks to her Shield of Fyrus Khal. Interestingly there were no Trolls in the library; they had gone after Thani before.
Thankfully Thani was able to slay a few more Trolls and to make her way to the golem room with the fire head of the FoA, and to the cellars where she found more fire/acid ammo. She added the fire head to her flail, slew more trolls (using DUHM when dealing with Spirit Trolls), and bested Glaicus (who panicked after he got hit a couple of times). She then forged the FoA +3, as expected not without being bothered by more Trolls, but with the FoA +3 and a level up (12, with a second pip in Two Weapon Fighting), they became more manageable.
Thani has now, hopefully permanently cleared the first floor and the second. She'll wait with the Umber Hulks, TorGal and others in the cellars until later.
I've left behind my hesitations about my using a test save to see whether all Trolls had respawned. The reason for said save was never to cheat but rather to see whether I was dealing with some kind of bug, and to take a screenshot or two to show to you fellow forumites, and learn if the massive respawning of the Trolls is expected behavior. (I repeat that in the same setup my previous Wizard Slayer, who rested plenty of times outside the Keep, never had to deal with respawning Trolls, or at least not in those numbers.)
In a way the respawning of the Trolls was an advantage for Thani, because when she had the FoA +3, she could farm some ever welcome XP. She left for Athkatla to sell loot she had pillaged from the Keep, and returned for more. It allowed her to do a tremendous investment: 42k GP for the Defender of Easthaven, her off-hand weapon for when she doesn't use a shield. Both outside and inside the Keep, fresh Trolls awaited her, but as said before, the monsters weren't the threat to her that they had been. With difficulty and thanks to DUHM, she even slew the Umber Hulks in the cellars using Lilarcor (despite non-proficiency). TorGal and his friends were left alone. (TorGal has a special ability that causes enemies to panic, and Thani has no protection from Fear).
Back in Athkatla, she continued her quest for Renal Bloodscalp, starting with the liquidation of Rayic Gethras. The wizard's lackeys weren't much of a problem (even though they did hurt her), and Rayic himself was remarkably toothless when Thani confronted him whilst protected by Spell Turning. Her Tuigan Bow, possibly the best ranged weapon in the game for a Wizard Slayer, helped her neutralize his spellcasting and eventually dispatch him.
She reported her successful infiltration work for the Bloodscalp, but waited with taking on Mae'Var & Co. First she accepted to find (fake) Montaron for Xzar, killing the Spectral Harpists for XP, and she settled some unfinished business at the Tanner's (slaying Ghasts, a Bone Golem, and Rune Assassins).
Mae'Var was next. Thani dealt with his priest of Cyric first, nicely disrupting his attempta at casting with her FoA +3 (which is quickly becoming my favorite BG2 weapon, even though I've always been more of a swordsman). Mae'Var was next. He didn't hurt her, but his Stoneskins kept him going longer than desirable. His backstabbing assassins had Thani quaff many a potion of extra healing (at least six, as the images below demonstrate), until they ran out of invisibility potions and started attacking with their bows.
The Umar Hills were Thani's next destination. She did the sidequests in Imnesvale, and she cleared the Temple Ruins dungeon, leaving the Shadow Dragon and the Shade Lord for the time being.
In Athkatla Thani decided to investigate the disappearance of Haer'Dalis from the Sigil Troupe. She had to enter the Athkatla sewers for that. The Dwarf ran into an unfriendly group of adventurers. The first to come after her when she retreated were the fighters, her fellow dwarvenkin Draug Fea and Tarnor. The Prophet came to their aid, but it wouldn't help them (the prophet's Hold Person spells had no effect since Thani's Save vs Spells was already down to 1). Draug Fea fell first, followed by Tarnor and the Prophet. Thani must be pretty awe-inspiring because Tarnor wasn't the first to cower in fear after having been hit a few times. Zorl, Gallobchair and Rengaard were the next to fall, in that order. None of these men were much of a treat. The same could not be said of the last of the adventurers, Gaius the Mage, whose Secret Word dispelled her shield's Spell Turning. Thani responded with a fusillade of Ice Arrows that soon disabled, and killed the wizard.
Like Gaius the Rakshasa Mage was readily disabled with with ranged attacks, and slain in melee. The same goes for Mekrath's Yuan-Ti Mages. Since they were three, Thani made sure to separate them, so that she could fight them one at a time.
Thani fetched Mekrath's mirror for him and tried to kill him after that (more XP), but the wizard teleported away before she could finish him off. The Dwarf's latest feat is destroying the Fallen Paladins for Ryan Trawl. She's just made it to level 16, has Vhailor's Helm already in her possession as well as a Helmet of Charm Protection, and a bit more than 15k GP. She might go and pay the Shadow Thieves for their help, and for the Mace of Disruption. Her DUHM Strength of 23 should suffice to break the lock on Neb's door. So with the upgraded MoD and the Helm of Charm protection she could deal with the first part of the Windspear Hills, the Undead in the Unseeing Eye Quest, and perhaps the Shade Lord as well. The problem could be obtaining the Mace...
For a Wizard Slayer, DUHM is a really, really good power... might not be a bad call to clear up nearly everything before going to the Underdark, unless you think The Slayer will be useful. Then again, after the Underdark you could plausibly build Crom Faeyr, a very, very good weapon for you, and a handy lock pick. Is Slayer immune to Mind Flayer stuns? Clearing out The Hidden isn't fun without immunity to stun.
Killing SCS Torgal seems pointlessly difficult, but its your call obviously.
@DreadKhan, yes Thani uses DUHM a lot (for fighting tough foes, to reduce resting times, and to bash locks), and will continue to do so for as long as she can. I do intend to have her complete as many quests and gain as much XP as possible before leaving for Brynnlaw. I'm wary of the Astral Prison and the Planar Sphere though because on gets locked in. Stun is going to be a major issue if Slayer form doesn't grant immunity to it. I think the FoA +5, a TOB item, is the only other means of obtaining stun immunity.
Here a brief update:
Although she released Haer'Dalis and found the gemstone needed for interplanar travel, Thani didn't visit the Bard and his colleagues at the Five Flagons. The gemstone is safely tucked away under a pillow in of the beds of her new home, Rayic Gethras' former home, conveniently located next to her friends of the Shadow Thieves. Because friends they have become. After her profitable association with Renal Bloodscalp, the Dwarf decided to take up the Guild on their offer to help her in her hunt for Irenicus. Somewhat annoyed, after all she had just paid 15k GP, she performed a number of minor tasks for their guild leader, Aran Linvail, before he more or less instructed her to take out the competing guild in its entirety. Thani hasn't gone that far yet, but she did make some progress against what turned out to be vampires. Without negative plane protection, but protected against charm and shielded by Spell Turning, she entered their lair and killed two Vampires, Gellal and Durst, and two Fledgling Vampires, as well as a Golem, before she found a Mace hidden in a pool of blood. Permanently slaying Durst with a wooden stake, made her reach level 17.
Thani left with the mace and presented it to her neighbor Cromwell, a fellow Dwarf and a conoisseur of enchanted weapons. He told her that he could upgrade the weapon, a Mace of Disruption, to one that grantes negative plane protection and a chance of insta-killing undead. He needed Illithium for that though. Thani recalled her dealings with Hilldark the Duergar trader in the Copper Coronet, who had directed her to a derelict little house in the Bridge District. Thani managed to force the door with DUHM and kill the inhabitant, Neb the illithium thief and child murderer. Cromwell then forged the Mace of Disruption +2 for her. Armed with it, Thani returned to the vampires' lair where she slew another Fledging Vampire and a Vampire Wizard, Tanova, in spite of the latter having all kinds of magical protections (Stoneskin, PfMW, Minor Globe, Haste), her removing Thani's Spell Turning with a Spell Thrust, and her subjecting the Dwarf to a Chaos spell.
Contented with her warning blows struck at the Vampires, Thani decided to deal with other Undead with whom she still had a score to settle: the Shade Lord and his lackeys. She buffed with her shield's Spell Turning, Ilbratha's Mirror Image, and DUHM. After she spoke with the creature the Dwarf immediately pelted it with three acid arrows, and then switched to her Mace of Disruption in the main hand (to protect herself against the Shade Lord's level drains) and FoA in the off hand. With those two weapons she pounded the Shadow Altar that kept spawning shadows until she destroyed it. The Mace of Disruption worked wonders against the Shadows, including Shadow Patrick.
The Shade Lord had a Blade Barrier protecting him, and he cast PW Blind twice. It didn't stop Thani from slaying the Shadows, but she did make sure to keep her distance from the Shade Lord while blinded. Once the blindness had worn off, and the Shade Lord's Blade Barrier as well, she started hitting it in melee, disrupting its casting, and slowly injuring him, until it actually fell.
Areas that have now become more interesting for Thani are the Windspear Hills and the tunnels below Athkatla (Unseeing Eye). Trademeet may still be an issue due to the Shrooms with their Confusion attacks.
I like how Thani chooses which encounters she should enter and when. A true lawful evil behavior. And it's maybe the only option for a WS. Good progress
Every new post of yours I start to read, I'm a bit scared to find out something nasty. What a relief I've gotten everytime up until now. May that continue!
@bengoshi, thanks, it's becoming increasingly exciting for me as well On the one hand I see Thani gradually become more powerful, but on the other hand I'm aware that it can be over in a blink.
Thani did make some more progress though. Her first mission was to investigate the Unseeing Eye cult. She battled her way past Shadowy creatures and Ettercaps to get an assignment from Gaal to retrieve part of a control rod that the Unseeing Eye was after. She succeeded, though the road to the device was a difficukt one. After she solved some riddles to pass a bridge, which leveled her up to 18 with a 4th pip in Flails, she faced Gauths and Beholders. The creatures' spells didn't hurt her thanks to her excellent saving throws. Her save vs spells is 0 (with the Helm of Balduran), but the creatures' Cause Serious Wounds attacks did injure her severely even though she tried to take them on on at a time, using her trusty Tuigan Bow to attack with enchanted arrows.
She was proposed by the avatar of an almost obsolete deity and by former Unseeing Eye cultists to unite her part of the rod with a second part and kill the Unseeing Eye with it, but when she looked at the filthy pit that she would have to descend into and when she took into account the difficulty she had had with the Gauths and Beholders, she decided not to risk her neck down there. Ever eager to seek profit, Thani then decided to hand the her part of the rift device to Gaal. It netted her 75k XP but no gratitude from Gaal. He foolishly attacked her, and paid for it with his life.
When she was just on her way back to the surface, the Unseeing Eye appeared in front of her.
It stripped her surprisingly quickly of her Spell Turning, and it was immune to Thani's flail attacks, so the Dwarf left the premises as fast as she could, though not before being blinded by the Beholder. Does anyone if it's possible to kill the Unseeing Eye without the rift device?
More rewarding for Thani was her expedition to the Windspear Hills. Orc Archers, a Ruhk Transmuter, Stone Golems, and even an Adamantite Golem fell before her might.
What she enjoyed the most though, was her encounter with plenty of Vampires (aided by Mummies and Ghouls). Armed with her Helm of Charm Protection and the Mace of Disruption, she dispatched the Vampires with little difficulty.
It was only later that I realized that the Vampires didn't show their SCS behavior that I'm used to. In SCS v21 they summon dread wolves and clouds of bats among other things. I checked the SCS v28 readme, and after that my Weidu-log and it turns out that between the smarter Mind Flayers and the smarter Githyanki I somehow failed to install the Improved Vampires component, which would also explain my easy success in the Vampire lair in Athkatla. I'm not sure what to do now. I cannot go back because I have no earlier saves (after all no-reload = no-reload lol). I'm also reluctant to install the component with my current game going, because I have had bad experiences with that (game crashes). I think this is just going to be no-reload SCS playthrough but without the improved vampires.
For those interested, here's my BG2EE weidu-log:
// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods // The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod // ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version] ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1000 // Initialise mod (all other components require this): v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning): v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2030 // Iron Skins behaves like Stoneskin (can be brought down by Breach): v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2050 // Allow individual versions of Spell Immunity to be placed into Contingencies and Spell Triggers: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2070 // Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades only affect hostile creatures: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2160 // Add an extra copy of some hard-to-find spell scrolls: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // Faster Bears: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4010 // Grant large, flying, non-solid or similar creatures protection from Web and Entangle: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4030 // Improved shapeshifting: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4180 // Make Freedom scrolls available earlier: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5010 // Move Boo into Minsc's pack: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5020 // Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5030 // Remove animation from the Cloak of Mirroring (leave it for other spells and effects that use the same graphic): v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6021 // Add high-level abilities (HLAs) to spellcasters -> Only selected spellcasters in Throne of Bhaal and Shadows of Amn get HLAs: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6031 // Smarter Mages -> Mages only cast short-duration spells instantly at start of combat if they are created in sight of the PC: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests -> Priests cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs -> All of the potions dropped by slain enemies are recoverable: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6511 // Improved fiends -> Fiends have normal hit points: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6521 // Smarter genies -> Genies have normal hit points: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6531 // Smarter celestials -> Celestials have normal hit points: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6541 // Smarter dragons -> Dragons have normal hit points: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6550 // Smarter beholders -> Give beholder rays some chance to "burn through" spell protections; beholder antimagic blocks all spells, including harmful ones, for a round (simulates D&D rules): v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6563 // Smarter mind flayers -> Illithids have enhanced damage resistance; Illithids cannot see invisible enemies: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8000 // Make the starting dungeon slightly harder: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8010 // Improved Shade Lord: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8020 // Spellcasting Demiliches: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8030 // More resilient trolls: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8040 // Increase difficulty of level-dependent monster groupings -> Mildly increased difficulty: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8060 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix") -> Spirit trolls have the same powers as in the original game: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8070 // Improved Unseeing Eye: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8100 // Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8120 // Improved Beholder hive (adapted from Quest Pack): v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8130 // Prevent resting in the Illithid city: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8140 // Slightly Improved Drow -> Upgrade Ust Natha's defences: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Slightly Improved Watcher's Keep: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8160 // Improved Fire Giant temple: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8170 // Enhanced Sendai's Enclave: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8180 // Improved Abazigal's Lair: v28 ~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: v28 ~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #0 // Proper dual-wielding implementation for Thieves and Bards: v4.71 ~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #4 // Bard kit revisions: v4.71 ~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #5 // Bard High Level Ability revisions: v4.71 ~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #6 // Proper spell progression for Bards: v4.71 ~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #7 // Additional equipment for Thieves and Bards: v4.71 ~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #8 // Upgradeable Equipment: v4.71 ~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #11 // Chosen of Cyric encounter: v4.71 ~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #12 // Shadow Thief Improvements: v4.71 ~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #999 // BG2-style icons for RR content: v4.71
As you can see I didn't choose the absolute hardest game, because I didn't increase the hitpoints of Dragons, Genies etc.
Anyway, Thani was equally victorious in her confrontation with Greater Wolfweres, a Director Beholder, and six Guardian Genies.
Admittedly the Greater Wolfweres did make her quaff various potions of extra healing, and the fireshielded Genies injured her as well, so that she rested a few times before she finished them all off. This dungeon with its golems, vampires, greater wolfweres and genies offers a wealth of XP. Thani reached level 20 just before taking on Samia & co. In other words, she's reached the SoA level cap. I will nevertheless continue leveling her up, because I'm sure she'll need the HLAs and the now more rapidly increasing magic resistance (3/level on average). She picked Whirlwind as her first special ability. Thani buffed herself with Spell Turning (which gave her some time before the mages could hurt her), Mirror Image, DUHM and whirlwinded she dispatched the warrior types.
Tazok and his buddies were slain, as was Conster in order for Thani to obtain the key to release Windspear's son. Prior to the fight against Conster Thani used the same buffing routine as she had used for Samia, i.e. ST, MI, DUHM. She used her bow and later, when Conster cast PfMW, her unenchanted flail to liquidate her foe.
There are still a number of quests that Thani can do: Planar Sphere, Astral Prison, Trademeet (and maybe finish off the Unseeing Eye?). The problem with the former two is that she won't be able to leave the area should she want to. The problem with Trademeet are the Myconids who cast Confusion. A -2 Save penalty applies to that spell, so she would really need an item that gives her a save vs spell bonus.
Be very, very careful @Blackraven, I can assure you that you can always fail a save even at 0. Dodge these Beholders as much as possible, they ARE a major threat to a no-reload run. I already failed some saves at -15 to give you an idea. You made some amazing progress and I'm relieved that you survived the Unseeing Eye but still, be very careful when dealing with Beholders, these things are literally saves or die machines.
@DreadKhan, now that's a golden tip if ever there was one! Guess who's off to Trademeet? Many thanks.
@Gotural, you're right about the Beholders, there's really no need for Thani to take them on except maybe XP, of which she'll have more than enough anyway. I'm surprised that you managed to fail saves at -15(!). I know some spells impose save penalties, and that some foes cast Greater Malison, but still... I'm not sure how soon she'll reach the ToB XP cap, and 100% MR but I'll try to be careful. I guess I've been pretty lucky already with the few Gauths and Beholders Thani faced on the bridge to Amaunator's avatar.
I don't know if there is always a 1% chance of failure with Magic Resistance, but I know for sure there is always a 5% chance of failure with saves. I even took a screenshot of it. My F/M/T was casting Spirit Armor, which imposes a save vs spell at +0 to avoid suffering 2d4 damage at the end of the normal duration of the spell. And even with a save vs spells of -12 before casting, and -15 after casting, I managed to fail the save once.
Comments
Yesterday I left my Assassin in BG City, and rolled another Wizard Slayer, simply because I want to see more of them in SoA.
It's such a rewarding experience to make progress with a WS, more so to me than with most other classes. (Maybe the unmodded Shapeshifter could be a candidate as well.)
I'm playing BGEE and BG2EE, so the shield should be available to my WS, who was drooling all over the item description haha. Like @bengoshi, I hadn't heard of the item and I've got no idea how to get it. I understand that it's related to Neera's quest. Do I have to recruit her?
-Have the first scripted encounter with Neera in the Bridge District, then talk to her in the cutscene when you leave the district. No need to recruit her then. She will put the Wild Forest on your map.
-Go the the Wild Forest. Neera will be there and talk to you as soon as you arrive, about getting through the forest to the Hidden Refuge. There is a dialog option to say you don't want her to join you but you will meet her there. I think there is a bug relating to this option that I will describe below.
-Once you make your way through the Wild Forest you can travel to the Hidden Refuge. Hayes is outside the door and will not let you in without Neera. This is where I think there is a bug, at least in my installation. Based on your conversation earlier, I would expect Neera to be outside the gate waiting for you, but in fact, she is inside the camp where you can't get to her. I solved this by Ctrl-J'ing inside the camp, Ctrl-Q'ing Neera into my party, and Ctrl-J'ing back outside the camp, at which point Neera starts dialog with Hayes to let you in. If you don't want to use the console (and you have the same bug), I think you would need to take Neera through the Wild Forest with you.
-Once you are in the Hidden Refuge, talk to Amanis and Kirik Khal. I don't think it really matters what you say to them.
-If you leave the Refuge and come back, Kirik will be gone. (I think you may have to go to the Wild Forest to trigger his disappearance.) Amanis will ask you to find him.
-Go to the Wild Forest and find Kirik, then return to the Refuge and talk to Amanis again.
-To get the Shield of Fyrus Khal, you need to choose the dialog option to advise Amanis not to let Kirik practice wild magic anymore--appropriate for a WS. She will give you the shield as a reward.
Both defeats had me continue my Assassin run, of which the following is an update.
Eydan received a number of lucrative propositions in the city of Baldur's Gate including a couple of jobs for the local Thieves' Guild, the theft of a telescope at the Hall of Wonders, the assassination of a Nymph and, for Duke Eltan, investigation of the Iron Throne. He decided to prioritize his business with the Iron Throne, that had been an annoying distraction from his work. Attempts to infiltrate the Throne proved fruitless, as two guards somehow recognized him immediately. Eydan discreetly cut their throats before any alarm bells would ring and continued toward the upper floor, where according to a Halfling employee of the Throne some important meeting was going on. The first creature he saw was a shapeshifting Doppelganger right in front of him. It told him those people, about 7 or 8, were up to no good. The Elf descended one of the two stairs, and placed two traps by the other stairway. Then he drank an oil of speed, and when he saw two Mages in the group, a potion of clarity, before he whirled through their ranks, leaving a trail of destruction with his poisoned backstabs and arrows of dispelling.
Interrogation of their sole survivor made it clear to him that the true Throne leaders were on business in Candlekeep. Eydan reported this back to Belt who promptly teleported him to Candlekeep with an expensive tome to provide him access to his former home. Four Ogre Mages awaited him, hoping to claim a 10,000 GP bounty on his head. Eydan drank one of his many potions that protect against (hostile) magic, dispelled the monsters' protections and slew them one after the other.
In the Candlekeep library he never got to speak with the Iron Throne leaders; they were killed and he was framed for the deed. Thankfully Tethtoril looked Eydan up in his cell. He agreed with the Elf that Sarevok was the probable culprit. The old priest helped Eydan escape judgment by setting him free in the catacombs below Candlekeep. Although urged against it by Tethtoril, the Assassin couldn't help but investigate the tombs and chests. It yielded him some extremely valuable loot, such as tomes that would make him stronger and wiser, an enchanted ring, potions, scrolls etc, but it also nearly cost him his life when he ran into a web trap and was severely injured and poisoned by Phase Spiders before he got free.
This was on the way back. I was playing for a moment with no volume, and didn't hear or see the web traps still active...
Back in Baldur's Gate he got a tip from a woman named Tamoko, who was apparently well-informed of Sarevok's dealings, to seek out two assassins in the Undercellars, Slythe and Kristin, that were going to kill some of the Dukes for Sarevok. Eydan cast a scroll of Protection from magic on himself. With the edge of his blade coated in poison, and with two potions of invisibility Eydan managed to kill Slythe. He found a letter in which Sarevok explicitly instructed Slythe to kill the Dukes of Baldur's Gate, and an invitation to a party at the Ducal Palace for the occasion of Sarevok's inauguration as the new Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate. Eydan didn't bother with Kristin but went straight to the Ducal Palace. Once it became clear that most of the noble guests were Doppelgangers, a fight broke out between the two Dukes present, a number of Flaming Fist officers, and Eydan on the one hand, and the Doppelgangers on the other. Sarevok chose to keep up appearances, so he could'nt fight alongside the Doppelgangers. With his arrows of dispelling Eydan dispelled the haste effect that all the Doppelgangers were under. After that he focused mostly on disabling a Doppelganger Shaman and a Doppelganger Mage, using his poison weapon ability and his Horror Bhaalpower. He was content to see Belt and the Fist make good progress and he conttributed his share as well, teaching a Doppelganger true assassination.
Both Duke Belt and Duchess Liia Jannath survived the fight, until Eydan presented the incriminating letter to Belt. An enraged Sarevok slew the Duchess and would have done the same with Duke Belt if it weren't for the intervention of one of Sarevok's henchmen, a wizard who teleported away with Sarevok. Divination taught Belt that Sarevok had escaped via the Thieves' Guild and teleported Eydan that way as well. The Elf followed suit through a heavily trapped maze until he reached the Undercity below Baldur's Gate and a temple that appeared to be Sarevok's hideout. Eydan rested near the entrance, cast Protection from Magic, Protection from Poison, Protection from Acid, and Protection from Undead on himself, and then he engaged Sarevok and his last followers. (Poison/Acid would protect him against Diarmid's arrows, and Undead against the Skeleton Warriors that would rise from his enemies' corpses.) Arrows of dispelling, oils of speed combined with his Boots of Speed (for superspeed), poisoned arrows of biting, potions of power, and backstabs made the final showdown a realatively easy fight even though the presence of the Skeleton Warriors made it impossible for Eydan to hide in shadows.
At least for the time being, I have yet to see for myself how the Assassin fares in SoA and ToB.
My skillpoint distribution at level 10 (unenhanced by items) is:
Open Locks: 30
Find Traps: 65
Pickpockets: 40
Move Silently: 68
Hide in Shadows: 68
Detect Illusions: 10
Set Traps: 65
I could have developed the stealth skills a bit less and the traps skills a bit more, but I knew I was going to use stealth a lot in chateau Irenicus. I think I will simply not invest in locks and pickpockets until all the other skills are well-developed, which will take me at least 12-13 levels.
A nice thing in SoA is that you can get some solid thief boosting gear, 3 handy rings especially. Potions should be able to cover lock picking, and I don't remember much superfantastic pickpocketables in SoA.
I foresee many Deurgar being bypassed... am a prescient?
Those crazy backstabs... you'll see even more of them in BG2 with the x7 multiplier.
The skillpoint distribution looks very solid. In BG2 I would start improving Detect Illusions - mages will be the main threat here.
@bengoshi, well I think my command of BG1varies per playthrough. Thief is the class I've played the most by far, so yes, I think that with any Thief type I'm fairly competent at beating BG1. But two more Wizard Slayers didn't survive BG1
Here's Eydan's record screen at the start of the game, level 10, with his thieving skillpoint distribution displayed (some prescience there on my part
Eydan was released by his childhood friend Imoen, who like him, had no idea where they were, so all he knew was that he was in some kind of prison, and that he'd been tortured. He told Imoen they would be best off trying to sneak their way out individually. He worked best alone, and he didn't want the girl to be a witness of what he was about to do. Understandably the Elf was vindictive, and he was going to make his captor pay, and those that served his captor as well. I think Eydan's strategy is best summarized in a few images:
Or in a few words: hide and stab
Eydan even managed to kill the Cambion, who sees through invisibility, with a backstab.
With success comes overconfidence, so Eydan decided to check out a portal to the plane of air. Stealth helped him past several Mephits, before he spoke with a Genie who promised him an item that belonged to him in exchange for a flask that would secure his release. As he left to look for the flask, his stealth failed him. It prompted the critters to follow suit, and pester him with their special abilities. Eydan nevertheless succeeded in returning to the prison, and received the flask from a Dryad slave. In a way it was lucky that the Mephits had all followed him. It meant that he only needed to successfully hide in shadows at a single location: the entrance. He made the exchange with the Genie.
Eydan's meagre Open Locks skills (40) were often sufficient to open locked chests, and his exceptional strength (19) enabled him to force the more skillfully locked chests. He also proved to be of sufficient skill to disarm most traps, and where he wasn't his Bhaalpower to DUHM helped him out.
Eydan managed one level-up (11) in which he invested 5 skill points in Find Traps (70 now), Set Traps (70) and Detect Illusions (15).
On a second level of the prison Eydan faced a difficult challenge: a room with four Mephit portals that kept spawning different types of Mephits. Eydan was most wary of the Magma Mephits (third portal), that could knock one unconscious with their sprays. With an oil of speed and two potions of extra healing, he managed to destroy the different portals without having to fear for his life.
Eydan found a forge worked by Duergar, but decided not to bother with them. He saw a group of Shadow Thieves take down a Vampire, and had to battle a few of those Thieves himself before he could leave the prison. With the poisoning of his arrows and his blade (a Long Sword +1 he had picked up somewhere; there was no sign of his trusty Varscona), he managed to dispatch three of them that blocked his path to freedom.
I would pay attention to being injured - with 80 HPs it's better to travel and to start fights in full health. That picture of held Eydan from the Candlekeep catacombs is still in front of my eyes...
Good luck to Eydan!
Thani is LE (mostly for the Human Skin armor and because she'll end up evil in Hell anyway if she makes it there). She started out specialized in Maces and Short Bows.
I edited the Claw and Horn of Kazgaroth in Near Infinity so that they can be used by Wizard Slayers, as in the original game. I did this first and foremost because previous experiences with my WSs showed me that there's at least one inevitable SCS encounter (possibly more if one is unlucky) where charname can only survive through good saves rolls. I wanted to reduce the role of that luck factor. Apart from that, I can see justifications in the game rules for granting the WS access to said items. The Claw is not a ring (even though it's equipped in a ring slot), and both the Claw and the Horn are parts of the beast Kazgaroth, which make them unique items whose inherent protective and harmful properties could be different from the magical enchantments that are intenionally placed on items such as rings, cloaks etc. that the WS cannot use. The whole issue of the WS being unable to use an enchanted ring but being free to use a weapon with the same enchantment is a bit artificial anyway imo. From an RP perspective I like the idea of the relentless WS resorting to items that hurt them: anything goes in their crusade against magic.
Here's a brief account of how Thani survived the Sword Coast. Upon leaving Candlekeep, she went straight for the most rewarding quests in terms of XP. This meant
- Shoal,
- Thalantyr, but he failed for the 4th playthrough in a row to save Melicamp,
- Brage (quick route to Nashkel where Ankheg Armor was picked up, Large and PfPetrification was bought,
- Basilisks and Mutamin,
- Ankhegs, after a quick stop in Beregost to pick up the Stupefier +1 mace,
- Brun, Fishermen/Tenya.
These quests brought Thani close to 64k XP (level 7), partly thanks to an attempt to rest in the Ankheg Cave. Proficiency pips at levels 3 and 6 went to Flails (an investment for SoA).
With her hunger for XP sated, Thani's next objective was to acquire sufficient gold/treasure to be able to get Taerom's full plate, the Claw & Horn of Kazgaroth, a number of relevant green scrolls, a good supply of health potions, plenty of arrows of biting for Mulahey and Venkt, and even the red ioun stone sold at Thalantyr's for the sole purpose of increasing AC by 1. To that end inter alia Greywolf (varscona and emeralds), the Western Cloudpeaks (two enchanted halberds), the Gnoll Stronghold (gauntlets of dex), FAI (ring of wizardry) were visited. Reputation was artificially raised at Keldath's. When she had everything she thought she'd need, she started pursuing the plot quests.
In the Nashkel Mines the third level can be complicated because there are many tougher Kobolds and a Shaman that casts Horror. Thani lured most Kobolds to the opening with the Huge Spiders and slew them, before the Kobold Shaman horrored her indeed.
With most Kobolds already out of the way, too few remained to actually hurt her, so when the spell wore off Thani slew the remaining Kobolds and went down to seek out Mulahey. She hoped to poison him with her arrows of biting, but she didn't succeed. (As a priest, Mulahey must have fairly good saves vs death.) She ran outside as he started casting Hold Person, and when she came back she saw that he and his lackeys had followed her to the entrance. She pulled off one more peek-a-boo, buy when she appeared again she found herself surrounded by Mulahey, Kobolds and Skeletons, and no longer able to leave the premises. All she could do was fight Mulahey and hope to stun him with her Stupefier. (I didn't equip the Claw of Kazgaroth because I hadn't decided yet in what circumstances she would be allowed to use it.) She hit him various times, but the priest wouldn't be stunned. A crucial save vs spell kept her from being held, before she felled the Half-Orc.
I really missed my other WS' darts of stunning here. My decision to go for maces (rather than long swords or hammers for Varscona's/Ashideena's elemental damage) and shortbows (rather than darts with their high no. of APR and their stunning variant), and to invest two pips in flails, was a risky one for BG 1. However, in BG2 these proficiencies are about optimal.
In Nashkel Nimbul was left to the Amnian guards with Thani staying out of the assassin's sight until he panicked, at which point she finished him off with her bow. (This has become a favorite tactic to deal with Nimbul with vulnerable characters such as my WS.)
Tranzig was easy as he often is. Arrows of biting did him in. Just like Mulahey, the Bandit Tent did not go completely as desired. Venkt survived Thani's initial onslaught with her arrows of biting, went invisible, healed himself and showed up later to start casting spells again. Thankfully he didn't survive a second ranged assault, so that Thani finish off the other bandits without much difficulty.
After having dealt with the bandit camp, Bentan was killed for his green scroll of PfMagic and for reputation management, as it helped her get Horror as her third (and later fourth) Bhaalpower. (Needless to say I suppose, that Thalantyr's and Hafiz's scrolls of PfMagic were also acquired.)
Cloakwood was done in two instances. First Aldeth was slain, the Cloak of Non-Detection retrieved and the Spiders dealt with. I permitted Thani the use of the Claw of Kazgaroth here combined with a green scroll of PfPoison (important because the Claw imposes a penalty on saves vs death). When she failed to lure only the Sword Spiders out of Centeol's den but rather saw herself confronted with all monsters that inhabited the den, she even blew the Horn of Kazgaroth for a further improvement of her save vs spells score. It may have helped because she saved indeed at one point.
Thani returned Chelak's body to Tiber and traveled to Beregost to sell some loot (Kondar, Cloak of Non-Detection, gems etc). Her second visit to Cloakwood was much more straightforward. She had just reached the level cap and wasted no time dealing with Druids or Wyverns. Drasus was poisoned but as soon as he closed in on her, his Berserker rage and a potion of frost giant strength made him the superior fighter so she left the map and returned in the hopes of fighting him on equal terms. She still needed potions of healing but in the end she did prevail.
Genthore too was engaged. (I did this because keeping his Fallorain's Plate Mail would make Ilych drop that armor in BG2's opening dundeon, which is better than the random Mail of Dead.) A ranged fight with him was decided by her super marksmanship and her arrows of biting.
Dealing with Davaeorn lair wasn't as hard as it could have been. Thani spent her first PfMagic on the encounter, managed to poison the wizard various times until he fell, and she never got surrounded by a horde of guards blocking her path.
Before going to Baldur's Gate, Thani secured the WIS tome at Durlag's Tower, and the CON tome and other loot from the treasure cave in the Lighthouse area (for which purpose another scroll of PfMagic was used). In Baldur's Gate Thani upgraded her stats further (all tomes were acquired) as well as her attire, with the Helm of Baduran, Shield of the Falling Stars, Sparkburst (a Rogue Rebalncing shortbow for sale at the Thieves Guild, and lots of healing potions and enchanted arrows.
The Iron Throne fight went very well, as Thani managed to somehow get rid of Naaman after she dispelled his protections. Naaman is by far the hardest enemy for my WSs because of his many Charm spells. The others were mostl dealt with using arrows of biting (the harder hitting foes Gardush and Zhalimar Cloudwulfe) or in melee.
At the gates of Candlekeep Thani deicded to cast PfMagic on herself in order to deal with the Ogre Magi. Intereestingly, various Charm Persons were cast at her before she completed reading her green scroll. (This encounter was reason I edited the Claw and Horn into WS-accessible items.) She saved against the spells cast at her, and proceeded to slay the monsters.
In the Candlekeep catacombs she secured another green scroll of PfMagic (bashing a lock with DUHM) and she discovered that she hadn't ID'd the scroll of PfPetrification she had found in the Iron Throne building. She had the Claw of Kazgaroth still equipped from the Ogre Magi fight, and she blew the Horn as well, reducing her saves vs spell to 2. However, her Boots of Speed carried her past the Basilisks before they could gaze-attack her, allowing her a safe escape.
Two Spiders followed her outside, and Thani, annoyed by especially the swift Sword Spider, decided to fight them. She reconsidered that decision however, when one of the Basilisks gave her good scare by simply appearing.
Back in Baldur's Gate Thani picked up a last scroll of PfMagic, in Ramazith's tower, forcing the lock on the drawer with DUHM. In the Undercellars she managed to stun Slythe with her mace, which gave her a good opportunity to seriously hurt the assassin without having to fear his backstabs. It prompted her to cast PfMagic on herselfm because Krystin was still around. Slythe then fell to her arrows of biting.
The Doppelganger fight was messy as usual. Thani limited herself to dispelling haste and other protections and trying to disrupt the Doppelganger casters. The Mage nevertheless pulled off a Confusion and a Sunfire, killing most of the Fist officers. Thankfully this happened when two of the Doppelgangers had just been slain by Belt and Thani. The latter two also managed to dispatch the Shaman and the Mage respectively, making it possible for the duo and one Flaming Fist Officer to slay the last Doppelgangers with relative ease.
Thani lured Belt, who was seeking conversation with her, to one of the antechambers, safe from Sarevok, where the two waited for Winski to intervene.
In the Undercity it seems impossible for a non-invisible, low CHA charname to prevent hostile Tamoko and a number of Skeleton Warriors from entering Sarevok's sanctum, so there was a pre-finale battle to be fought first. Thani focused on Tamoko and, protected still from magic, had little difficulty with Sarevok's former lover. The Skelton Warrior archers were giving her a hard time though. Fortunately Thani had a PfUndead scroll stored in her pack. When she cast that protection on herself, the undead were easy pickings (even though they tended to walk off toward Sarevok & co, so Thani couldn't always follow them).
In the final battle Angelo was dispelled and poisoned until he fell.
Semaj showed up but disappeared after he too saw his protections dispelled by Thani's arrows. Thani, both impatient and confident that her arrows of dispelling would do their job, then proceeded forward in order to provoke all remaining foes to attack her. First she dispelled Sarevok's and Diarmid's haste.
Semaj too had no answer to Thani's arrows of dispelling and biting, and soon bit the dust.
The most dangerous foe that remained was Diarmid. Even though Thani had cast PfPoison and PfAcid on herself to counter the archer's enchanted arrows's effects, he just kept hitting her hard. She quaffed various healing potions before she realized she had to use the statues for cover.
Tazok and Sarevok fell to Thani's Arrows +2.
Well done! Bonus points for the female dwarf charname!
Thani is now in Amn. This is her character record at the start of SoA.
Interestingly the XP she had acquired beyond the BG1 level cap, which I never removed, was included in her starting XP. Here's a report of Thani's first feats in Amn. Thani got to fight a lot as soon as she began her attempt to escape. On the first level she took down most of the Duergar (mostly by trying to fighting them one or two at a time), the Flesh Golems, the Otyugh, and the inevitable Mephits. She didn't engage the Cambion. The Duergar Mage, one of Ilych's crew, horrored her when the other Duergar were all slain already, so no harm was done.
She acquired the Sword of Chaos from the Genie, in spite of being stunned once by a Salt Mephit (as with the Duergar Mage, after most other foes had already fallen).
On the second level Thani had to suffer more nuisances from the Mephits. First of all she got cornered by three Mephits, making it impossible for her to reach the portals. And secondly, one of the critters repeatedly blinded her, so that she couldn't finish off the portals with Yoshimo's shortbow. Once she managed to release herself, she had little difficulty with the vermin.
Further on, she failed to kill Ulvaryl before the vampire was done with the Shadow Thieves, and hence fled that room. She kept away from the Duergar at the forge, and she released and killed Frennedan and the Shadow Thieves near the exit.
Thani leveled up once in Irencus dungeon, to level 9. She invested her first pip in TWF. At Waukeen's Promenade she completed the Circus quest and she dealt with Mencar Pebblecrusher and his gang, relying heavily on the Amnian soldiers. Sorecerous Amon was the first to follow her outside of the Den of the Seven Vales. He used mostly damaging magic, but no dangerous mind or movement affecting spells. Thani was doing a good job hurting him with her bow, but an Amnian soldier stole the kill. Brennan Risling fled after Thani injured him severely, and Mencar Pebblecrusher was eventually slain by one of the Amnian guards. Thani did finish off Smaeluv and Pooky herself.
From Ribald Barterman she bought the Reflection Shield. In the Copper Coronet Thani managed to slay the Lethinan's guards and Beastmaster and his companions. Careful manoeuvering and the use of a Bhaal horror allowed her to take on her foes one or two at a time.
The Dwarf then cleared the sewer area to secure Lilarcor for herself (indispensable before other areas can be visited I think), and she has dealt with Amalas in the fighting pit, and with Bregg and Cohrvale outside.
That's all for now. Am not sure how much time I'll have to make much progress in the next days, but I'll keep you posted
In short… you can get more XP than the old BG XP cap, but you can't still level up.
It's interesting that with Thani you came to what I chose for my own WS, i.e. maces and short bows in BG1, instead of darts and longswords. The moment I stopped that run (although it wasn't a reason for a stop, my totemic druid's run was) I thought that my choice was wrong and wanted to try darts and longswords
I think the best way to go about it might be to start different quests and do them up to when they become really difficult. It would enable the WS to get as much XP as possible at minimal risk.
As to weapon picks, I've tried many combinations, and I think that ** in both darts and shortbows for ranged and in hammers or longswords for melee would be ideal for BG1. However, for BG2, longswords aren't that great except for special abilities (but you don't need proficiency for those) and the only outstanding hammer imo is Crom Fraeyr (which as an offhand weapon only requires one pip).
Otoh maces (for the Mace of Disruption), and shortbows (for the Tuigan Bow) are really nice.
With Lilarcor secured, Thani began traveling to other areas in Athkatla and even beyond the city borders. First, Neera was temporarily recruited, for the sole purpose of unlocking her specific areas, which would allow Thani to obtain the Shield of Fyrus Khal.
Importantly the Aura of Magical Protection isn't constant; it comes and goes. Reassured by her new shield she decided to take on the slaver compound. This went all very well, even though captain Haegan proved once more to be an exceptional fighter (vulnerable but oh so damaging both in melee and ranged with his axes).
However, when she activated her shield's Spell Turning ability to take on the Slaver Wizards, she had to save vs spell in order not to be blinded by the Gnome. I think the spell didn't reflect back to the Gnome. However I forgot to check when panic broke out as Thani failed a save vs spell against the Human wizard's Confusion spell cast at her (Spell Turning doesn't protect against AoE spells). She was lucky to keep on fighting and survive while confused, before she dispacthed her foes when she had regained control of herself.
Thani's exploits were amply rewarded by Hendak, bringing her fortune over 20k GP. Since she wanted to undertake all the easier quests in Athkatla that I'm aware of, including Wellyn, she bought two green scrolls of PfMagic leaving her with <15k GP,
- Sarles,
- Skinner Murders (without fighting the Rune Assassins downstairs),
- Risa the orphan girl in the Graveyard district,
- Tirdir (only Reti was slain, the Dwarf eluded Thani; Silver Pantaloons were acquirerd),
- retrieving a holy ring for the Temple of Lathander;
- stealing a necklace at the Talassan temple for Mae'Var.
Thani avoided fights with ambushing slavers and bandits, except for the confrontation with Renfeld's poisoners. There was no Cleric there to cast Hold Person, so she decided to rescue the man and bring him to his Harper friends.
These quests helped Thani reach level 11 (don't remember exactly when), before she went to visit the Arnise Keep. This was an extremely frustrating adventure, up to the point of me considering to to simply abandon the run. I think it must be SCS-related, although the Keep wasn't nearly as annoying with my previous Wizard Slayer. First of all the Trolls, which are supposed to be extremely vulnerable to fire and acid, required on average 5-7 fire or acid arrow each before they would die. Their saves vs spells are apparently very good; note that the fire damage of fire arrows can be saved against. But even with acid arrows (that allow for no such save) Thani needed to waste 5-6 of them on a single Troll.
This meant that there simply didn't seem to be sufficient fire/acid arrows in the game to kill them all. Thani had tor return to Athkatla (and even went to Watcher's Keep) to buy said arrows. She found them (80 fire arrows) only at Maheer's. Upon returning, her new supply soon proved to be insufficient as well, as the Trolls seemed to have respawned. The following screenshot is from the hallway on the ground floor, which had even cleared completely.
I allowed myself a test save to enter a few rooms that Thani had already entered and cleared. (Knowing that the Trolls were respawning, Thani wouldn't enter those rooms, but I was curious as to what the game was doing here, hence the test save.) The result was something like this:
Honestly this really sucked the fun out of this challenge, and I came close to simply abandoning my playthough and go back to my Assassin.
Anyway, bottlenecking the Trolls allowed Thani to clear most of the ground floor again (at least the hallway), and some of the Trolls of the second floor were lured downstairs to either give them the same treatment or to shake them off. Upstairs in the library she had little difficulty with the Yuan-Ti mage, initially the foe she feared the most, thanks to her Shield of Fyrus Khal. Interestingly there were no Trolls in the library; they had gone after Thani before.
Thankfully Thani was able to slay a few more Trolls and to make her way to the golem room with the fire head of the FoA, and to the cellars where she found more fire/acid ammo. She added the fire head to her flail, slew more trolls (using DUHM when dealing with Spirit Trolls), and bested Glaicus (who panicked after he got hit a couple of times). She then forged the FoA +3, as expected not without being bothered by more Trolls, but with the FoA +3 and a level up (12, with a second pip in Two Weapon Fighting), they became more manageable.
Thani has now, hopefully permanently cleared the first floor and the second. She'll wait with the Umber Hulks, TorGal and others in the cellars until later.
In a way the respawning of the Trolls was an advantage for Thani, because when she had the FoA +3, she could farm some ever welcome XP. She left for Athkatla to sell loot she had pillaged from the Keep, and returned for more. It allowed her to do a tremendous investment: 42k GP for the Defender of Easthaven, her off-hand weapon for when she doesn't use a shield.
Both outside and inside the Keep, fresh Trolls awaited her, but as said before, the monsters weren't the threat to her that they had been. With difficulty and thanks to DUHM, she even slew the Umber Hulks in the cellars using Lilarcor (despite non-proficiency). TorGal and his friends were left alone. (TorGal has a special ability that causes enemies to panic, and Thani has no protection from Fear).
Back in Athkatla, she continued her quest for Renal Bloodscalp, starting with the liquidation of Rayic Gethras. The wizard's lackeys weren't much of a problem (even though they did hurt her), and Rayic himself was remarkably toothless when Thani confronted him whilst protected by Spell Turning. Her Tuigan Bow, possibly the best ranged weapon in the game for a Wizard Slayer, helped her neutralize his spellcasting and eventually dispatch him.
She reported her successful infiltration work for the Bloodscalp, but waited with taking on Mae'Var & Co. First she accepted to find (fake) Montaron for Xzar, killing the Spectral Harpists for XP, and she settled some unfinished business at the Tanner's (slaying Ghasts, a Bone Golem, and Rune Assassins).
Mae'Var was next. Thani dealt with his priest of Cyric first, nicely disrupting his attempta at casting with her FoA +3 (which is quickly becoming my favorite BG2 weapon, even though I've always been more of a swordsman). Mae'Var was next. He didn't hurt her, but his Stoneskins kept him going longer than desirable. His backstabbing assassins had Thani quaff many a potion of extra healing (at least six, as the images below demonstrate), until they ran out of invisibility potions and started attacking with their bows.
The Umar Hills were Thani's next destination. She did the sidequests in Imnesvale, and she cleared the Temple Ruins dungeon, leaving the Shadow Dragon and the Shade Lord for the time being.
In Athkatla Thani decided to investigate the disappearance of Haer'Dalis from the Sigil Troupe. She had to enter the Athkatla sewers for that. The Dwarf ran into an unfriendly group of adventurers. The first to come after her when she retreated were the fighters, her fellow dwarvenkin Draug Fea and Tarnor. The Prophet came to their aid, but it wouldn't help them (the prophet's Hold Person spells had no effect since Thani's Save vs Spells was already down to 1). Draug Fea fell first, followed by Tarnor and the Prophet. Thani must be pretty awe-inspiring because Tarnor wasn't the first to cower in fear after having been hit a few times. Zorl, Gallobchair and Rengaard were the next to fall, in that order. None of these men were much of a treat. The same could not be said of the last of the adventurers, Gaius the Mage, whose Secret Word dispelled her shield's Spell Turning. Thani responded with a fusillade of Ice Arrows that soon disabled, and killed the wizard.
Like Gaius the Rakshasa Mage was readily disabled with with ranged attacks, and slain in melee. The same goes for Mekrath's Yuan-Ti Mages. Since they were three, Thani made sure to separate them, so that she could fight them one at a time.
Thani fetched Mekrath's mirror for him and tried to kill him after that (more XP), but the wizard teleported away before she could finish him off.
The Dwarf's latest feat is destroying the Fallen Paladins for Ryan Trawl. She's just made it to level 16, has Vhailor's Helm already in her possession as well as a Helmet of Charm Protection, and a bit more than 15k GP. She might go and pay the Shadow Thieves for their help, and for the Mace of Disruption. Her DUHM Strength of 23 should suffice to break the lock on Neb's door. So with the upgraded MoD and the Helm of Charm protection she could deal with the first part of the Windspear Hills, the Undead in the Unseeing Eye Quest, and perhaps the Shade Lord as well. The problem could be obtaining the Mace...
Killing SCS Torgal seems pointlessly difficult, but its your call obviously.
I do intend to have her complete as many quests and gain as much XP as possible before leaving for Brynnlaw. I'm wary of the Astral Prison and the Planar Sphere though because on gets locked in.
Stun is going to be a major issue if Slayer form doesn't grant immunity to it. I think the FoA +5, a TOB item, is the only other means of obtaining stun immunity.
Here a brief update:
Although she released Haer'Dalis and found the gemstone needed for interplanar travel, Thani didn't visit the Bard and his colleagues at the Five Flagons. The gemstone is safely tucked away under a pillow in of the beds of her new home, Rayic Gethras' former home, conveniently located next to her friends of the Shadow Thieves. Because friends they have become. After her profitable association with Renal Bloodscalp, the Dwarf decided to take up the Guild on their offer to help her in her hunt for Irenicus. Somewhat annoyed, after all she had just paid 15k GP, she performed a number of minor tasks for their guild leader, Aran Linvail, before he more or less instructed her to take out the competing guild in its entirety. Thani hasn't gone that far yet, but she did make some progress against what turned out to be vampires.
Without negative plane protection, but protected against charm and shielded by Spell Turning, she entered their lair and killed two Vampires, Gellal and Durst, and two Fledgling Vampires, as well as a Golem, before she found a Mace hidden in a pool of blood. Permanently slaying Durst with a wooden stake, made her reach level 17.
Thani left with the mace and presented it to her neighbor Cromwell, a fellow Dwarf and a conoisseur of enchanted weapons. He told her that he could upgrade the weapon, a Mace of Disruption, to one that grantes negative plane protection and a chance of insta-killing undead. He needed Illithium for that though. Thani recalled her dealings with Hilldark the Duergar trader in the Copper Coronet, who had directed her to a derelict little house in the Bridge District. Thani managed to force the door with DUHM and kill the inhabitant, Neb the illithium thief and child murderer. Cromwell then forged the Mace of Disruption +2 for her. Armed with it, Thani returned to the vampires' lair where she slew another Fledging Vampire and a Vampire Wizard, Tanova, in spite of the latter having all kinds of magical protections (Stoneskin, PfMW, Minor Globe, Haste), her removing Thani's Spell Turning with a Spell Thrust, and her subjecting the Dwarf to a Chaos spell.
Contented with her warning blows struck at the Vampires, Thani decided to deal with other Undead with whom she still had a score to settle: the Shade Lord and his lackeys. She buffed with her shield's Spell Turning, Ilbratha's Mirror Image, and DUHM. After she spoke with the creature the Dwarf immediately pelted it with three acid arrows, and then switched to her Mace of Disruption in the main hand (to protect herself against the Shade Lord's level drains) and FoA in the off hand. With those two weapons she pounded the Shadow Altar that kept spawning shadows until she destroyed it. The Mace of Disruption worked wonders against the Shadows, including Shadow Patrick.
The Shade Lord had a Blade Barrier protecting him, and he cast PW Blind twice. It didn't stop Thani from slaying the Shadows, but she did make sure to keep her distance from the Shade Lord while blinded. Once the blindness had worn off, and the Shade Lord's Blade Barrier as well, she started hitting it in melee, disrupting its casting, and slowly injuring him, until it actually fell.
Areas that have now become more interesting for Thani are the Windspear Hills and the tunnels below Athkatla (Unseeing Eye). Trademeet may still be an issue due to the Shrooms with their Confusion attacks.
Every new post of yours I start to read, I'm a bit scared to find out something nasty. What a relief I've gotten everytime up until now. May that continue!
Thani did make some more progress though. Her first mission was to investigate the Unseeing Eye cult. She battled her way past Shadowy creatures and Ettercaps to get an assignment from Gaal to retrieve part of a control rod that the Unseeing Eye was after. She succeeded, though the road to the device was a difficukt one. After she solved some riddles to pass a bridge, which leveled her up to 18 with a 4th pip in Flails, she faced Gauths and Beholders. The creatures' spells didn't hurt her thanks to her excellent saving throws. Her save vs spells is 0 (with the Helm of Balduran), but the creatures' Cause Serious Wounds attacks did injure her severely even though she tried to take them on on at a time, using her trusty Tuigan Bow to attack with enchanted arrows.
She was proposed by the avatar of an almost obsolete deity and by former Unseeing Eye cultists to unite her part of the rod with a second part and kill the Unseeing Eye with it, but when she looked at the filthy pit that she would have to descend into and when she took into account the difficulty she had had with the Gauths and Beholders, she decided not to risk her neck down there. Ever eager to seek profit, Thani then decided to hand the her part of the rift device to Gaal. It netted her 75k XP but no gratitude from Gaal. He foolishly attacked her, and paid for it with his life.
When she was just on her way back to the surface, the Unseeing Eye appeared in front of her.
It stripped her surprisingly quickly of her Spell Turning, and it was immune to Thani's flail attacks, so the Dwarf left the premises as fast as she could, though not before being blinded by the Beholder. Does anyone if it's possible to kill the Unseeing Eye without the rift device?
More rewarding for Thani was her expedition to the Windspear Hills. Orc Archers, a Ruhk Transmuter, Stone Golems, and even an Adamantite Golem fell before her might.
What she enjoyed the most though, was her encounter with plenty of Vampires (aided by Mummies and Ghouls). Armed with her Helm of Charm Protection and the Mace of Disruption, she dispatched the Vampires with little difficulty.
It was only later that I realized that the Vampires didn't show their SCS behavior that I'm used to. In SCS v21 they summon dread wolves and clouds of bats among other things. I checked the SCS v28 readme, and after that my Weidu-log and it turns out that between the smarter Mind Flayers and the smarter Githyanki I somehow failed to install the Improved Vampires component, which would also explain my easy success in the Vampire lair in Athkatla. I'm not sure what to do now. I cannot go back because I have no earlier saves (after all no-reload = no-reload lol). I'm also reluctant to install the component with my current game going, because I have had bad experiences with that (game crashes). I think this is just going to be no-reload SCS playthrough but without the improved vampires.
For those interested, here's my BG2EE weidu-log:
// Log of Currently Installed WeiDU Mods
// The top of the file is the 'oldest' mod
// ~TP2_File~ #language_number #component_number // [Subcomponent Name -> ] Component Name [ : Version]
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1000 // Initialise mod (all other components require this): v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2010 // More consistent Breach spell (always affects liches and rakshasas; doesn't penetrate Spell Turning): v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2030 // Iron Skins behaves like Stoneskin (can be brought down by Breach): v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2050 // Allow individual versions of Spell Immunity to be placed into Contingencies and Spell Triggers: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2070 // Blade Barrier and Globe of Blades only affect hostile creatures: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #2160 // Add an extra copy of some hard-to-find spell scrolls: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4000 // Faster Bears: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4010 // Grant large, flying, non-solid or similar creatures protection from Web and Entangle: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4030 // Improved shapeshifting: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4180 // Make Freedom scrolls available earlier: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5010 // Move Boo into Minsc's pack: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5020 // Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5030 // Remove animation from the Cloak of Mirroring (leave it for other spells and effects that use the same graphic): v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6021 // Add high-level abilities (HLAs) to spellcasters -> Only selected spellcasters in Throne of Bhaal and Shadows of Amn get HLAs: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6031 // Smarter Mages -> Mages only cast short-duration spells instantly at start of combat if they are created in sight of the PC: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests -> Priests cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6100 // Potions for NPCs -> All of the potions dropped by slain enemies are recoverable: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6511 // Improved fiends -> Fiends have normal hit points: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6521 // Smarter genies -> Genies have normal hit points: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6531 // Smarter celestials -> Celestials have normal hit points: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6541 // Smarter dragons -> Dragons have normal hit points: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6550 // Smarter beholders -> Give beholder rays some chance to "burn through" spell protections; beholder antimagic blocks all spells, including harmful ones, for a round (simulates D&D rules): v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6563 // Smarter mind flayers -> Illithids have enhanced damage resistance; Illithids cannot see invisible enemies: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8000 // Make the starting dungeon slightly harder: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8010 // Improved Shade Lord: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8020 // Spellcasting Demiliches: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8030 // More resilient trolls: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8040 // Increase difficulty of level-dependent monster groupings -> Mildly increased difficulty: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8060 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix") -> Spirit trolls have the same powers as in the original game: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8070 // Improved Unseeing Eye: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8100 // Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8120 // Improved Beholder hive (adapted from Quest Pack): v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8130 // Prevent resting in the Illithid city: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8140 // Slightly Improved Drow -> Upgrade Ust Natha's defences: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Slightly Improved Watcher's Keep: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8160 // Improved Fire Giant temple: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8170 // Enhanced Sendai's Enclave: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8180 // Improved Abazigal's Lair: v28
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: v28
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #0 // Proper dual-wielding implementation for Thieves and Bards: v4.71
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #4 // Bard kit revisions: v4.71
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #5 // Bard High Level Ability revisions: v4.71
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #6 // Proper spell progression for Bards: v4.71
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #7 // Additional equipment for Thieves and Bards: v4.71
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #8 // Upgradeable Equipment: v4.71
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #11 // Chosen of Cyric encounter: v4.71
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #12 // Shadow Thief Improvements: v4.71
~RR/SETUP-RR.TP2~ #0 #999 // BG2-style icons for RR content: v4.71
As you can see I didn't choose the absolute hardest game, because I didn't increase the hitpoints of Dragons, Genies etc.
Anyway, Thani was equally victorious in her confrontation with Greater Wolfweres, a Director Beholder, and six Guardian Genies.
Admittedly the Greater Wolfweres did make her quaff various potions of extra healing, and the fireshielded Genies injured her as well, so that she rested a few times before she finished them all off.
This dungeon with its golems, vampires, greater wolfweres and genies offers a wealth of XP. Thani reached level 20 just before taking on Samia & co. In other words, she's reached the SoA level cap. I will nevertheless continue leveling her up, because I'm sure she'll need the HLAs and the now more rapidly increasing magic resistance (3/level on average). She picked Whirlwind as her first special ability. Thani buffed herself with Spell Turning (which gave her some time before the mages could hurt her), Mirror Image, DUHM and whirlwinded she dispatched the warrior types.
Tazok and his buddies were slain, as was Conster in order for Thani to obtain the key to release Windspear's son. Prior to the fight against Conster Thani used the same buffing routine as she had used for Samia, i.e. ST, MI, DUHM. She used her bow and later, when Conster cast PfMW, her unenchanted flail to liquidate her foe.
There are still a number of quests that Thani can do: Planar Sphere, Astral Prison, Trademeet (and maybe finish off the Unseeing Eye?). The problem with the former two is that she won't be able to leave the area should she want to. The problem with Trademeet are the Myconids who cast Confusion. A -2 Save penalty applies to that spell, so she would really need an item that gives her a save vs spell bonus.
You made some amazing progress and I'm relieved that you survived the Unseeing Eye but still, be very careful when dealing with Beholders, these things are literally saves or die machines.
@Gotural, you're right about the Beholders, there's really no need for Thani to take them on except maybe XP, of which she'll have more than enough anyway. I'm surprised that you managed to fail saves at -15(!). I know some spells impose save penalties, and that some foes cast Greater Malison, but still... I'm not sure how soon she'll reach the ToB XP cap, and 100% MR but I'll try to be careful. I guess I've been pretty lucky already with the few Gauths and Beholders Thani faced on the bridge to Amaunator's avatar.
My F/M/T was casting Spirit Armor, which imposes a save vs spell at +0 to avoid suffering 2d4 damage at the end of the normal duration of the spell. And even with a save vs spells of -12 before casting, and -15 after casting, I managed to fail the save once.