Urval's saves were amazing thanks to being a 20 CON Dwarven Cleric with the Claw of Kazgaroth equipped, Ramaiths Ring of Protection +2, and the Helm and Cloak of Balduran. I even allowed him to equip the Amulet of Protection +1 (allowed in my setup by one of my mods) because other nice amulets such as that of missiles, or the greenstone one, are extremely expensive and they have hardly any charges. The Greenstone Amulet costs about 27k GP and comes with three charges I believe. It meant that only spells with save penalties (such as Confusion) could affect him. Together with his excellent AC and his combat buffs he became very hard to kill. The Hard Times mod and later reputation issues meant he was always a bit short on gold. Therefore he did a few more quests than strictly necessary, so that he'd be able to expand his (potion) supplies. He fought Sunin in the faint hope of acquiring the Ring of Wizardry that he knew would sell well, but the wizard predictably didn't drop it after Urval and his Skellies felled him. The fight was uneventful, and although Sunin Spooked Urval, the Dwarf was never in danger.
Another mage he dispatched was Ragefast who used to drop a few good items in previous installs (but not this time). One of Urval's Woodland Beings charmed the wizard, allowing the Dwarf to order Ragefast to waste most of his spells before he was slain.
He also dealt with the Ogre Mage and its Carrion Crawler army in the sewers. He scouted the place while Sanctuaried before he summoned Skeletons and Woodland Beings. Urval (with a potion of free action to protect himself) and the skellies had dealt with most of the crawlers when one of the Woodland Beings managed to charm the Ogre Mage. It was led toward one of the last living Carrion Crawlers, held by the giant centipede, and slain by the Dwarf.
The Iron Throne fight was slow but relatively straightforward, with minimal precautions needed thanks to Urval's good saves and AC. Aasim cast Mental Domination, reminding him to equip the Helm of Charm Protection, and later a Hold Person which prompted Urval to quaff a potion of freedom after he was Doomed.
Naaman's initial spells were avoided by changing between floors. And the other characters were dealt with using buffs (PfE, Holy Power, DUHM, in that order) and a few healing potions. Urval sold the Ring of Holiness and the Cloak of Displacement and invested most of the proceeds in potions (healing, speed, invisibility, explosions, fiery burning) and in enchanted bullets. Before he returned to Candlekeep Urval got instruction from his deity to pay Hurgan Stoneblade a visit in Ulgoth's Beard. He ended up killing his fellow Dwarf and took from him the Knee Capper; his offhand weapon for the remainder of the game (in my setup characters can specialize in weapon styles - but not weapons - regardless of class). I also did this for reputation management purposes, as his sub 10 reputation would grant him the Divine Wrath ability, one of few AoE damage dealing options for Urval.
Through this ability, the Bhaalspawn can tap into the divine spark buried deep within his soul and release a portion of the raw power in a single, concentrated burst. The unleashed energy damages all enemies in the immediate vicinity of the Bhaalspawn and has a chance to push them away, knock them prone and make them flee in panic. The potency of this ability increases as the Bhaalspawn becomes more experienced:
Level 1: deals 2d8 damage to all nearby enemies Level 6: deals 4d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn Level 12: deals 6d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn and knocking them prone for 1 round Level 18: deals 8d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn, knocking them prone for 1 round and making them flee in panic for the following 3 rounds
A successful saving throw vs. breath halves the damage and negates all secondary effects. Exceptionally large creatures (Giants, Dragons, Iron Golems...etc.) are immune to all secondary effects.
In Candlekeep Urval was framed by Koveras for the murder of the Iron Throne leaders. In the catacombs below the citadel where he was teleported by Tethtoril he used his Stormshield to protect himself against some of the nastier traps (fire, electricity), and the violet potion to boost his STR to 25 so that he could open the locked chests with the STR tome, the WIS tome, and the Cloak of Protection +2 among other things. Sanctuary helped him safely reach the surface.
Feeling Talos' fury inside him he decided to cast PfMagic on himself and kill the Ogre Mages that were awaiting him. He fled however, in the nick of time, when one of the Greater Basilisks wanted to join the fray.
Thalantyr improved the Cloak of Balduran by merging it with the Cloak of Protection +2. In Baldur's Gate, Slythe and Krystin awaited Urval in the Undercellars. As has become his custom (or rather my rule for this playthrough: no pre-buffing until foes have been detected), Urval explored the Undercellars while under the protection Sanctuary, spotted a menacing-looking rogue and preventively summoned his army of (three) Woodland Beings and (two) Skeletons. One of the Woodland Being charmed Slythe but unfortunately he managed to swig a potion of invisibility, making it impossible to use him. Still, it meant one less enemy to worry about, at least for a while. Krystin was mainly provoked into wasting some of her spells on Skeletons (and courtesans).
As Slythe regained his compsure he struck hard against Urval, but was again charmed, this time while visible, and instructed to attack his lover.
The two depleted most of each others' potion/spell reserves before the charm on Slythe wore off.
He injured Urval again, with a last potion of invisibility, but after that he had difficulty hitting the Dwarf, allowing the latter to wear his foe down.
Krystin was out of Stoneskins etc when Urval faced her, easy pickings for the Dwarf.
At the Ducal Palace, Urval summoned two Skellies and three Woodland Beings (hoping they would charm their foes) before battle broke out. He also Protected them as well as himself from Evil, and he buffed himself further with Holy Power, DUHM and an Oil of Speed. The Woodland Beings were soon rendered useless, Horrored by one of the Doppelgangers, but not before one of the summons had cast Plant Growth, a party-friendly Entangle-style spell that would keep some of the Doppelgangers in place at times. Both Belt and Liia Jannath got Confused soon after, so it was up to Urval, the two Skellies and the Fist to keep the Grand Dukes safe.
Buffed up, dualwielding Urval did a good job at Doppelganger-killing but he could not prevent the monsters from killing Belt.
This was pretty alarming because Belt is the more stalwart of the two Grand Dukes, by far. Yet somehow Urval, his trusty skellies and the Fist officers succeeded in keeping confused Liia safe. (Urval healed her twice.)
I think this is the first time for me that Belt didn't survive the fight and Liia Jannath did. She teleported Urval to the Thieves Guild from where he rushed through the maze protected by his Storm Shield and by Sanctuary. He reached the entrance to Sarevok's sanctum, rested near the door and hoped to avoid Tamoko when he got up. However, dialogue triggered ans she followed Urval inside. She cast Physical Mirrors and at one point a Harm, but failed to actually harm Urval with it. Other spells she repeatedly tried to cast were Hold Person and Mental Domination, and I think she also attempted to summon Skeleton Warriors, but Urval disrupted her spellcasting various times. All in all he had less difficulty with her as I feared, and it was fortunate that hardly any resources were wasted except a few healing potions (of which he had less than desired).
In the fight against Sarevok's acolytes, Tazok was the first to show up. He gave Urval a good beating, causing the Dwarf to retreat (after which Tazok disappeared).
Protected from Magic, he had better luck meleeing Angelo, who only managed to hurt him on critical hits. Diarmid too, seemed to either miss or land critical hits (in melee as well as ranged), before he fell.
Urval's second try against Tazok went better. The Half-Ogre seemed particular vulnerable to the Dwarf's potions of Firebreath. When his foe was severely injured, Urval buffed himself and slew him in melee combat.
Invisible Semaj only showed up after Urval kited Sarevok for a while. (Sarevok was then left standing in a corner after Urval quaffed an invisibility potion). I was surprised to see Semaj cast mainly elemental damage spells (Lightning Bolt, Fireball) rather than spells that control the mind, against which Urval would have protected himself with potions.
When he ran out of MMMs, the wizard engaged Urval in melee combat, which was a hopeless course of action.
Fully buffed (even potions of power were used), Urval was capable of hurting Sarevok in melee combat, but the latter hit a lot harder (and had more hitpoints) than Urval did. So other tactics had to be employed. First Sarevok was softened up with 'sneak attacks', using circa 10 invisibility potions to hit and fade. When the invisibility potions were gone, Sanctuaries were used for the same purpose (though this was trickier because of the spell's casting time).
Then Flamestrikes from the Wand of the Heavens and various potions of explosions/fiery burning were used. Individually they didn't a lot of damage but the bits did add up, because when Urval had run out of those potions it only took a few well-aimed sling bullets to fell his enemy.
This was not an easy run, and I can only see things become more difficult in BG2. Maybe I'm not playing the solo Cleric right (it's not a class I've played much), but I really haven't found any solutions to the long casting time issue or to the problem that buffs are so easily dispelled. Does you have any tips perhaps?
Before I move on I have two questions: 1) Do you recommend me drop the Helm of Balduran so that the Claw of Kazgaroth will import into BG2? Getting negative saves asap could be a huge boon for Urval against casters. 2) There is a suit of armor, added by the Sorcerer's Place Collection mod, called Geirthan's Plate, which is extremely expensive, the most expensive object in SoA, but very attractive not because it gives immunity to Death Magic (which isn't that big a deal for a high CON dwarfen Cleric) but it grants immunity to Spell School Abjuration. The thought of being able to buff in the knowledge that one's buffs won't be immediately dispelled is an appealing one, but would using that armor take away too much of the challenge do you reckon? It doesn't seem more powerful than the Robe of Vecna and the Staff of the Magi for Mages, UAI for Rogues or Carsomyr for Paladins, but I haven't enough SoA experience with (solo) Clerics to form an opinion on this matter. All I know is that I wouldn't want to save a lot of gold to buy the armor, only to find it game-breaking and to sell it again.
1) I recommend the helm of Balduran, sincerely. Especially if you are going to use item revision in bg2:ee
Gaax ring and the ring of protection +3 beat everything
if you are evil you won't use the ring of course, because you would be using the skin armor. So your take if you still wish the helm of balduran or not, really.
Thanks @EA1 and @Scourge, unfortunate events have made my previous questions irrelevant: after playing for some time with a moderately modded EE install, I had forgotten how hard my BGT install is. In the Mephit Room Urval got overwhelmed by Mephits that gated in more Mephits (courtesy of aTweaks' fiendish gating component), so it wasn't only the portals he had to deal with. He initially had Sanctuary up but the Mephits ignored that and still hurt him. He also had four Skeletons to help him, and he was buffed to deal more damage, but he simply wasn't deadly enough. I made a huge mistake in not casting Stormshield before entering the Mephit room, probably because the ability is too situationally useful for me to consider it before each battle. (I would have if my Stormlord had had Lightning Bolt as a special ability, but the Divine Remix version hasn't, so I haven't had much use for Stormshield.) When I tried to cast it after all, Urval got interrupted. Pity because I was finally becoming enthusiastic...
I will definitely continue Victor's more roleplayed party playthrough, get Thani as far through ToB as I can, and give Stormlord Urval a second chance. I was going to go with Urval first but need to sort out a few issues / possible bugs with the kit in my install, with @CrevsDaaks's much appreciated help. So here's a completely new character: LN Dwarf Bounty Hunter Elaim.
I aimed (as usual for an 88+ roll), and was rewarded handsomely for my patience. Starting proficiencies were clubs and shortbows. First 40 skill points went to Move Silently, a skill that would be further developed up to 120 (at which point Elaim would start investing in his trap setting and detection skills).
Elaim carefully adventured his way to level 5 by undertaking low risk missions such as: - the Candlekeep and Beregost quests (including Mini Quest & Encounters mod quests, but excluding killing Karlat and Silke), - dealing with the Hobgoblins south of Candlekeep for the Boots of Stealth, - the FAI quests (though she kept the Girdle of Piercing), - saving Melicamp (as per custom Thalantyr failed to retransform Melicamp), - babysitting and even chatting with Noober in Nashkel, - killing Half-Ogres for Bjornin, - rescuing Samuel the Deserter, - helping Charleston Nib and saving Captain Brage on the South Coast. There was one slightly precarious moment for Elaim in the carrying out of these quests: at level 3-4 he forgot to HiS in order to sneak past Tarnesh when leaving the FAI (as he had done upon arrival). Tarnesh could have cast Sleep on Elaim, but deft footwork allowed Elaim to timely step back into the inn, HiS, and leave unmolested. (He'd slay the Mage later.)
I think that for Thieves there are more interesting items to buy than for most other classes, except perhaps Mages, but Hard Times shop prices are awfully high. This is why Elaim made sure that both his Reputation and his Charisma scores reached 20 before he started to spend gold on nifty items. For the 20 Charisma score Lord Foreshadow’s Ring of Human Influence and Algernon’s Cloak were welcomed. As to the latter item, Elaim had only one potion of master thievery to bring his Pickpockets score up to 60. Needing three attempts, he barely managed to snatch Algernon’s cloak before its owner went hostile.
Having been exceedingly parsimonious until shop prices would be at their lowest, Elaim could afford to buy the Shadow Armor (17.8k GP, at Feldepost’s), the Deep Red Ioun Stone that grants +1 Dex (6.6k GP, at the High Hedge), and – after killing Aldeth Sashenstar and selling his diamond and bastard sword – a green scroll of Protection from Petrification at the Nashkel Carnival and a Composite Short Bow +2 (5.1k GP) in Ulgoth’s Beard. The ioun stone and the bow are Rogue Rebalancing items. Most of the Dwarf’s gold proceeded from selling Imoen’s Wand of Magic Missiles and the Travenhursts’ Wand of Lightning (which for some reason, and thank the Gods for it, sold for 10k and 12k GP respectively). Elaim then felt ready for a potentially rougher encounter: Mutamin and his pets. After he had slain the majority of the Basilisks (all but one Lesser and one Greater in Mutamin’s direct vicinity), he recruited Korax to see if the Ghoul could hold the Gnome. Korax failed, causing Mutamin to go hostile. There was no risk for Elaim because he was HiS. He had Korax bait the Lesser Basilisk away, so that he and the Ghoul could kill it.
Korax then held the Greater Basilisk, but got Magic Missiled to death by Mutamin who then ran off as he couldn’t see stealthy Elaim. The Dwarf proceeded to pelt the Greater Basilisk with arrows. He kept a potion of invisibility at hand should Mutamin decide to return and remove Elaim’s PfPetrification before the Greater Basilisk was dead, but the Gnome didn’t show up. Thus Elaim could kill the last of the Basilisks in relative peace. It helped him reach level 7 and raise his set traps skill to 65.
Hidden in shadows, Elaim searched for Mutamin, and when he found his foe, placed three out of a possible four traps just out of the wizard’s sight (only one set trap attempt failed). He then appeared behind his foe and softened him up with a backstab for 20 dmg. Elaim drank a potion of invisibility just before Mutamin Horrored him, perhaps this wasn’t necessary, but at least it kept him safe.
When the panic effect had worn off, Elaim lured Mutamin toward the traps; they killed the Gnome.
Down south, he dispatched rivaling Bounty Hunter Greywolf, a much more ruthless practicioner of the bounty hunting profession than Elaim, with traps and arrows. Her intervention yielded him Greywolf’s Halberd +1 and Prism’s emeralds.
A similar approach didn’t exactly work as planned against Zal (eastern Cloudpeaks). First, Vax was lured away – he wasn’t very interesting for Elaim – so that three traps could finish off Zal. Not all the traps triggered however, and even a backstab didn't finish him off, so Elaim was lucky that his opponent missed with his first dart of stunning before the Dwarf slew him with an arrow. He picked up the Bracers of Archery that, together with the +1 DEX ioun stone and his enchanted short bow, gave him a respectable ranged Thac0 of 11.
In the same area Elaim shunned Sendai but he did fetch Rufie for Albert. All western Cloudpeaks encounters were done, and even further west, near the Gnoll Stronghold, the Dwarf slew Hairtooth and Gnarl with traps and arrows to pick up the CHA tome (completely unnecessary but I’m still too much of a sucker for stat increasing tomes to forgo it). Elaim traveled back to Beregost to slay Karlat, to sell loot and to purchase the Weary Cudgel club (+1 Club with 25% chance upon hit that target must save vs death or become fatigued, another RR item). With that club he thought he’d dispatch a couple of Flesh Golems in a cave on the coast, but three Sirines thought otherwise. On his way to the cave Elaim had barely hidden in shadows and was expecting to easily bypass the first trio of Sirines, when an abrupt fail at HiS made him visible.
He immediately quaffed a potion of invisibility (his last), and decided to enter the cave anyway. Inside, invisible still, and checking for traps, he saw a Sirine show up behind him, as unexpected as it was undesired.
Elaim stoically disarmed the first trap but inadvertently triggered the second. He managed to empty the treasure stash, gulped down a potion of clarity, got blinded by (at this point) two Sirines with clouds of fog, and had to grope his way out. Immediate HiS allowed him to leave the area untroubled.
The loss of valuable XP and potions was of course partially offset by the good loot. But Elaim is not comfortable traveling without potions of invisibility, and reaching level 8 before entering the Nashkel Mines now becomes less probable. He still needs about 20k XP for that. Ankhegs could provide that XP, but I’m not sure whether I like fighting them with a Thief without Boots of Avoidance / Claw of Kazgaroth.
And so the adventure begins! I'm all ears to hear about dealing with enemies relying on bounty hunter's special traps! It should be an interesting tale. It's not something that is constantly talked about on the forums:)
@bengoshi, and @Gotural: thanks guys! It's a lot of fun so far. Elaim is by no means overpowered but at the same time he has his perks. It's a nice change in gameplay from Thani and Victor who are both badass warriors, and from Urval with all his spells. The special traps btw can be thrown, because I'm playing this in BGT. I like the thrown traps better to be honest. I know that in BGEE they can't be thrown, but what about BG2EE?
*** At nearly 20k XP from lvl 8, Elaim traveled up north to the Ankheg-infested area, and with a scroll of PfAcid (bought at the High Hedge), an oil of speed and a couple of healing potions, he slew most of the bugs in their nest, meleeing both those that attacked in ranged mode and the melee attacking Ankhegs (with charge and retreat tactics). Traps helped as well. He must have killed about ten of them in the nest and above ground.
Elaim brought Brun’s son's body to the heartbroken farmer, and he accepted to kill allegedly wicked Tenya for the vindictive fishermen but changed his mind when he heard Tenya’s side of the story. Tenya's bowl was retrieved and Sonner was slain for his crimes (and for the Flail +1) after he had gone hostile. Elaim tracked Bassilus down, carefully scouted the area, observed the priest and placed seven traps just outside his stone circle. He preventively quaffed a potion of freedom, which must have inspired the priest to not start with a Hold Person but with a Flamestrike. It fried Elaim almost completely, leaving him with 2 puny HP.
The Dwarf retreated, hid in shadows, and brought his health back to a reasonable level with a few potions and with his innate Bhaal-heal. Bassilus followed only for a bit, triggered some but not all of Elaim's traps, and healed himself. His health status remained at 'Injured' though. Elaim showed himself again and backstabbed for a lousy 11 damage. It caused the priest to follow him further, trigger the Dwarf's traps and die.
Zargal and Malkax were also dealt with before Elaim traveled to Beregost to claim the 5k GP bounty. The reward and the sale of loot allowed him to purchase the Claw of Kazgaroth. This isn’t a great item for a Thief, even a 20 CON Dwarf, but the AC bonus, especially that against missiles, was more than welcome what with the Kobolds and the Bandits that awaited Elaim. His XP had increased to almost 70k, and killing a Baby Wyvern in Nashkel and Zordral, using traps at different spots, at the Nashkel Carnival made the Dwarf reach the much desired level 8. With the +1 DEX from his ioun stone, Elaim's Find Traps skill was now at 50, his Set Traps at 80, his Move Silently at 125 (145 with Boots of Stealth). He hasn't invested in other skills yet, though his 15 HiS is improved by 30 thanks to Boots of Stealth and Shadow Armor. Elaim then went to the Nashkel Mines. The number of Kobolds there dazzled him. He snuck past them when possible; but had to dispatch one group with a well placed special trap.
When he entered Mulahey's lair, he decided to proactively place a few traps, but he had barely set his second successful trap (one attempt had failed) when Mulahey appeared out of nowhere. Immediate stealth before the dialogue triggered allowed him to place one more trap.
When the traps went off they killed a number of Kobolds, and injured Mulahey up to the point where his morale failed him. He fled outside. Elaim followed him, and found him no longer panicked. He quaffed a potion of freedom to make sure he wouldn't get held (and Mulahey did indeed cast Hold Person twice). With his bow and arrows he felled the Half-Orc.
Back in Nashkel Elaim relied on the guards to kill Nimbul, and he killed Neira himself. He received Berrun Ghastkill's reward and sold most of the spoils of his latest adventures. In Beregost, he bought the Amulet of Protection +1. (It stacks with his Shadow Armor in my setup. In my last playthrough, with Urval, I allowed myself this stacking because the other, charged amulets such as the Greenstone Amulet and the Necklace of Missiles are all superexpensive and come with almost no charges, so they aren't really worth spending the gold on).
Elaim is now going to have a word with Tranzig.
EDIT: added screenshots I thought I didn't have...
You can throw traps in BG2EE no problem, as long as you dont change that by RR. TBH I dont think a bounty hunter would be able to make it solo to Melissan.. ever.. Their traps become absolete in TOB. At least the assassin would be able to abuse time traps + poison, but a bounty hunter becomes a vanilla thief. Of course its still fun to play. Gr E
You can throw traps in BG2EE no problem, as long as you dont change that by RR. TBH I dont think a bounty hunter would be able to make it solo to Melissan.. ever.. Their traps become absolete in TOB. At least the assassin would be able to abuse time traps + poison, but a bounty hunter becomes a vanilla thief. Of course its still fun to play. Gr E
Well the Bounty Hunter has those Maze traps no? They should be pretty amazing (hence the name I believe ). I already envisioned Elaim becoming this end boss who gets to maze everyone, allowing himself to place traps at strategic spots, until bang!! -> dead enemies But... Elaim isn't going to find out, as his run ended as yet another one in a recent series of lacklustre perfomances: Elaim dealt with the bandits and made it into Cloakwood, where he had pretty much cleared the Spiders area. He was protected by Free Action and PfPoison. Hidden in shadows, he had just entered Centeol's den, but after emptying the stash with Chelak's body and Spiders' Bane, a RL distraction interfered with my gameplay. Amongst the many messages in the action window notifying me of attacking foes, I missed the message that Elaim was encumbered (which I could have known, as Chelak's body is heavy). Thus it happened that I was too busy wondering about possible pathfinding issues or even bugs to have Elaim quaff a potion of invisibility or something, and before I knew it, he was dead.
**** So, back to the Priest of Talos. I still have a possible future issue: at epic levels one of the HLAs is blanked out and not selectable at leveling up. I don't know what HLA that's supposed to be (pursuant to Divine Remix). Anyway let's first see if my new Stormlord is able to even make it into HLA territory...
Here's Valar:
I'm even going to roleplay him a bit, thanks in large part to Vhailor's soundset (from PS:T) that I've recently downloaded. I assigned it to Valar so that he has a number of amazing lines in a badass voice, like: "Mercy is a shield used by the weak," and "Justice is the blade by which the planes shall be cleansed." In order to align Valar's Chaotic Evilness with Vhailor's more Lawful Neutral comments and with the latter's references to his axe, I'll roleplay my Cleric as a highly aggressive crusader type who considers himself the righteous enforcer of the realms' one true God's will, and I'll allow him to use axes. I don't think I'll be very extensive in my journaling (it's still a no-reload run), but I'll try to include nice RP aspects every once in a while. Will hopefully post about some nice progress soon.
- Blackraven, how do you recharge items? You can sell them only once, then if you steal them, you are doomed to not recharge them.
- also, how do you take all the stuff you need with yourself? I mean, I'm finding my inventory quite limited for what I need to take with me (from belts, to different weapons, etc)
Hey @Scourge, how are things? I see you've updated on Bane, will read in a minute.
As to your questions: - I don't generally recharge items, though with my WS I sold a RoR and bought it back with 10 charges. I didn't know you could only sell them once. - In my BGT install Thalantyr sells a Bag of Holding and Mulahey drops one when killed, so inventory management doesn't trouble me (in BGEE it's a different story of course). I think that in BGEE Thalantyr sells a potion bag, Firebead gives a scroll case for fetching his book in Beregost, and Neera can be killed or recruited and dismissed for her gem bag. If you haven0t already acquired those items, I'd recommend you to do so.
Was hoping to give a concise report of my second successful attempt at completing BG1 with a Cleric of Talos. Had a steady run without any serious setbacks, but I got a bit lethargic at a bad moment: while Valar was battling Slythe and Krystin. And Baldur's Gate wouldn't be Baldur's Gate if it didn't punish me for it.
I usually separate those two so that I can take them on individually; this time I didn't. My priest was almost through with Slythe, but when Krystin arrived he ought to have retreated. It was Krystin who felled Valar: a Skull Trap immediately followed by a sequenced Magic Missile was too much to handle for even my Dwarf. In the second pic, you can see from the glowing body that that he did manage to swig a potion of extra healing but apparently it was not in time.
Question: can all Mages cast a normal spell and activate a spell trigger in one and the same round, or is Krystin a cheat? As is more or less visible in the first image, her Skull Trap and triggered Magic Missiles followed each other as if she was casting under the effect of improved alacrity.
I would think Krystin is probably cheating but maybe it is the way SCS handles prebuffing and allows Mages to instacast Skull Trap to "simulate" prebuffing.
An uninspired session ended Thani's run. Sorry for those who were hoping to see her ascend. Personally I don't really care, much to my own surprise. I'm sure SCS no-reload can be done with a Wizard Slayer, but I made the decision of playing at the wrong time. Beating everything down with Hardiness and GWWs was getting stale for me, and maybe the fact that I hadn't played with her in quite a while made me lose some of my affinity with the kit and the character. Anyway, after having successfully covered Watcher's Keep's elemental level and completed all sidequests in Saradush, she decided to seek out Gromnir. She battled her way into his palace where she had to face a number of the Half-Orc's soldiers, inlcuding a mage. With her MR over 100 and her below zero saves, Thani had made it a habit of dealing with warriors first and wizards last. She did not depart from that habit, even though the mage called forth an annoying number of summons: a Fallen Planetar, a Glabrezu, a Mordy's Sword, an Efreeti and Misleads/Simulacra of himself. At one point the wizard lowered her magic resistance and raised her saves, and soon after he cast Chaos at her without me noticing it (which isn't that strange with so many actions by so many different actors taking place that I missed the announcement of a Chaos coming my way in the action screen). The spell took effect, and Thani killed herself attacking the fireshielded Efreeti.
I think the game starts to become stale, especially if you got no banters, and you are a plain fighter. And ToB is mostly grinding. It's not that 'awesome', so I can understand why you felt that way.
Hey @Scourge Glad to see you're still interested in these runs! A couple of months back I kind of promised @CharlestonianTemplar to roll a Mythical/Historical hero so that his Gawain wouldn't be all alone in that thread. You can read about William Tell the crossbow from here onward. Strictly speaking it's a minimal reload thread, but I'm playing it as no-reload. Otherwise I'm following CT's rules (including the rule that the character has to be roleplayed and the rule that all quests including TotSC quests have to be done).
I also have an axe-wielding dwarven Fighter/Thief who butchered his way into Amn without reloading, but I haven't posted about him yet. I've somehow enjoyed that playthrough less than my Priest of Talos (which was a lot of fun with Divine Remix giving the kit a selection of Cleric spells and Druid spells).
Too lazy/impatient for group play with and for journaling about William Tell, my legendary marksman, I decided to to try something new (for me): to solo a Bard. I know that Blades are actually quite popular solo characters, and I know that a successful no-reload trilogy run has been achieved with a Blade (Saros Shadow Follower at the Bioware forums, not sure whether solo or in a party). And Alesia_BH completed (also recorded at the Bioware forums) succeeded with a Jester. I'm going to see how I'll fare with a Skald, my prefered Bard kit. I'm doing this in BGT with the Rogue Rebelancing mod with all the components affecting Bards installed: pnp dualwielding, Bard kit revisions, Bard HLA revisions, proper spell progression for Bards, and additional equipment for Thieves and Bards. (Besides RR I've got my usual difficulty improving mods installed such as Hard Times, aTweaks, SCS I/II v21, Ascension, but also a couple of tweaks that should make things slightly easier, such as multiple protection items, bigger item stacks, containers for sale, full hitpoints for all creatures including charname, importation into SoA of a number of items including Cloak of Balduran.) Like most people I probably, I always like to use a character's class/kit-specific abilities as much as possible to create more or less unique playing experiences. In the case of the Skald, the special feature is of course the battlesong. In order to make something out if that song, my character will try to work with summons a lot. Unfortunately most of BG1 offers little in terms of summons, so the first part of the game doesn't really contain much action with song-buffing, though there is some.
Meet Nereniel, a TN Half-Elf:
I'm roleplaying his alignment in that he won't commit any overtly evil acts (his alignment inclines more toward good than evil). A very nice 96 roll allowed for pretty much optimal stats although I might have put more points into CON for experimentation with Familiars. Nereniel started out proficient in what I perceive as nordic weapons: Hammers (for Ashideena) and Axes (for their throwing variant). However, relying almost solely on ranged attacking, his Throwing Axes soon proved too slow (1 APR) and expensive for Nereniel. Their nice STR bonus didn't weigh up against those disadvantages. The problem was remedied by investing the level 4 pip in Darts.
His first quests were the relatively safe quests between the FAI and Nashkel. On his first visit of the FAI area Nereniel didn't approach Tarnesh at the entrance (he wouldn't deal with that one before reaching lvl 6), but he did bring Samuel to Gellana and he brought Joia her ring. In Beregost Silke and Karlat were shunned but all other quests - including those added by the Mini-Quests and Encounters mod - were done. The same goes for Nashkel. Thalantyr failed with Melicamp, but nevertheless 10k XP and thus level 5 were relatively easy attained. Amongst the 'safe' early-game quests I tend to consider Charleston Nib / Brage on the south coast, accessible via the High Hedge and Lighhouse areas. But Nereniel traveled from the north, I think the FAI, to the (previously unlocked) Lighthouse area and was uncomfortably placed in the northern part of the map, not even close to an area exit. He had to flee from two groups of Hobgoblins, including arrows of biting pelting Elite archers.
He failed his save at least twice and so saw his health decline at an alarming rate, with no antidotes at hand to stop the poison. He had to use up most of his stock of healing potions to keep himself alive. There were various confrontations that Nereniel solved by playing his battlesong while the rabbit familiar would do the killing. It led to a number of bizarre scenes, such as these:
Thus the Rabbit familiar with its outstanding AC turned out to be a good pick for a familiar, though I realize the Pseudo-Dragon would have been even more effective (which is another reason why I kind of regret having gone TN rather than NG, besides having no access in SoA to the in my install upgradeable Azuredge until UAI). At 20 rep and 20 CHA thanks to Lord Forshadow's Ring and Algrnon's Cloak, Nereniel bought the Deep Red Ioun Stone for +1 DEX at teh High Hedge as well as the Robe of the Neutral Archmagi he was surprised to able to use. (No idea which mod makes those robes available to Bards.) A critical hit by a Gnoll Slasher that badly injured Nereniel's bunny taught the Bard to be more careful with his familiar, but that didn't mean the rabbit was going to stay in Nereniel's pack for the remainder of the game. One of the animal's roles was to serve as bait for non-ranged enemies like Greywolf and for the Basilisks (thanks to its petrification immunity). Speaking of those monsters, Nereniel had some difficulty there with Mutamin, as seems to happen to me all too often. Korax failed to hold the Gnome and was subsequently killed off. It left Nereniel with three options: - leaving the area without killing Mutamin, one Lesser and one 7k XP yielding Greater Basilisk; - trying to stun the wizard with darts he had picked up in the Ankheg cave using Invisibility (a spell learnt from a scroll bought at Thalantyr's); - trying to charm Mutamin using Lord Foreshadow's Ring of Human Influence. I believe the charm ability of the ring isn't as powerful as that of Algernon's Cloak, but it hit the Gnome anyway. (Had the attempt failed, then Nereniel would have immediately tried to get away and go invisible.) Mutamin was petrified and subsequently shattered by the Basilisks (all loot except some gold destroyed).
With Mutamin out of the way, the two Basilisks were easy pickings. Nereniel left the area as a lvl 7 Skald. At the Ulgoth's Beard inn he bought the Returning Frost Dart +1 (which, not surprisingly, deals +1 frost damage in addition to giving a 5% chance of slowing the target.) His second visit to the Lighthouse area was much more pleasant than his first. Invisibility and successful trap detection/removal by the rabbit (the familiar's second role) allowed Nereniel to plunder the pirate cave. In the Cloudpeaks Nereniel had no dealings with Sendai & Co, but he did do all other quests. His confrontation with Vax and Zal resulted in a near death experience when Nereniel managed to kill Zal just before the bandit's dart would stun him.
Fortunately, Nereniel had killed Vax first, and there were no other enemies in sight. In the Nashkel Mines the number of Kobolds on the 3rd level was problematic. First of all they blocked the path toward the level exit. This problem was solved by Skulltrapping the blocked pathway.
But that caused a second problem: after Nereniel became visible and went invisible again, the Kobolds kept following him and trying to surround him.
Nevertheless a quiet spot was found where Nereniel and his familiar could rest (this was useful especially for spell memorization purposes). Mulahey was stunned, and most of his lackeys Skulltrapped. The Skellies/Kobolds that survived the explosion were dealt with in melee combat, with difficulty.
Outside the Mines Narcillicus was force-attacked and slain after he had summoned his Green Slimes, and the Dagger +2 was received from Hentold. Back in Nashkel the guards killed Nimbul for Nereniel, but he dealt with Neira himself. He survived another close call there when he barely maaged to go invsible before her Hold Person would freeze him.
When the hold effect wore off, he looked around, saw no one nearby, and killed off Neira with a Skull Trap. In Beregost Tranzig wasted most of his spells on Nereniel as the Skald fled between floors, but he did Blind him. The battlesong was then sung, and Rabbit released to finish off the mage.
Both Lamalha and Molkar and their respective gangs attacked Nereniel in Beregost (at different moments). Like the Kobolds they would follow invisible Nereniel even inside and outside buildings. Nereniel lured most of his foes one by one into the Jovial Juggler where Officer Vai and her Flaming Fist colleagues would help him out.
Halacan was unwilling to cooperate however; he slew Officer Vai and her colleague, leaving it up to Nereniel to finish the Gnome himself.
An Algernon's Cloak charm (one of only three) worked on Molkar. He was set on Morvin, and encouraged by Nereniel's song, managed to kill the Dwarf.
Molkar was then ordered to stand in a quiet corner of the inn, where he would receive a Skull Trap from Nereniel. He fell not much later to the Skald's darts. Two darts of stunning helped Nereniel deal with Bassilus and obtain the Ashideena.
The bounty was mostly spent on potions and a few scrolls, with which Nereniel traveled to the Bandit Camp he infiltrated via Raiken. He didn't fight Tazok (because of an insta-kill risk), and went the bandit leader's tent invisible and buffed with Shield and a potion of Absorption. He released Ender Sai and emptied the chest, and could have simply gone invisible again and leave, which would have been sufficient to continue the plot. Instead, he cast Web from one of his two scrolls, threw a potion of explosions on the held group, and cast a Skull Trap to kill most of his enemies.
The survivors were dispatched with ranged attacks.
Nereniel is now getting ready to explore the Cloakwood forest in search of a hidden Iron Throne base, the organization behind the bandits according to Ender Sai.
@Wowo, thanks Yes it's lots of funm while it lasts (which in my case isn't usually very long lol). Some of these mods are definitely worth it imo, especially for an experienced player such as yourself. Maybe you could consider installing only a few basic mods?
2nd and final update: Nereniel had little difficulty reaching the Cloakwood Mines. In the Spider Area he found Chelak and Spiders' Bane, and he killed Centeol but not her spiders.
So he was up against Drasus and his gang. One of the Guards on the bridge was charmed in order to kill the other guard and to soak up Kysus' and Rezdan's most dangerous spells. Nereniel himself quaffed a potion of magic blocking when it became clear to him that he was in Kysus' Confusion range.
He then retreated in hopes of not having to deal with all his foes at the same time. Drasus with his Boots of Speed was of course the first to follow. Nereniel managed to cast invisibility on himself and proceeded to buff with potions of Defense, Speed, Power and (2x) Magic Protection. He found Drasus and Kysus paired in the NW of the map, and Rezdan and Genthore a bit further to the south. A Skull Trap and two Potions of Explosions sufficed to kill Kysus, albeit not before the mage removed Nereniel's buffs.
Another potion of defense helped Nereniel defeat Drasus in melee combat.
At that point only two potions of Magic Blocking remained to protect Nereniel against Rezdan. He quaffed one and brought the mage's health status down to badly injured, but the wizard then went invisible. Nereniel could have cast Detect Invisibility (he had 3 scrolls), but it's my experience that invisible wizards tend to walk around, limiting the chance of successful detection in such an open space. He therefore concentrated on Genthore whom he badly injured as well before Rezdan showed up again, buffed with MI and Stoneskins, just when Nereniel's magic blocking had worn off. Nereniel drank his last potion of Magic Blocking and tried to kill Rezdan as quickly as possible with his dart. However, the mage outlasted Nereniel's potion's of Magic Blocking's effect, and promptly recruited the Skald into the Iron Throne.
@Blackraven I tried and failed repeatedly to get scs working in bg2ee after having so much fun with in bg1ee. No idea what I did wrong but it just refused to work for me despite multiple attempts and reinstalls.
Maybe you could zip up your overdrive folder and post it somewhere?
@Wowo, atm I don't have a BG2EE install with SCS or any other mods because I still need to switch to the new patch and then decide on mods. Will do so probably one of these days, and will then let you know.
@Wowo, atm I don't have a BG2EE install with SCS or any other mods because I still need to switch to the new patch and then decide on mods. Will do so probably one of these days, and will then let you know.
I was only semi serious but that would be really cool.
@Wowo, atm I don't have a BG2EE install with SCS or any other mods because I still need to switch to the new patch and then decide on mods. Will do so probably one of these days, and will then let you know.
I was only semi serious but that would be really cool.
I've had a lot of trouble with my BGT install recently, or to be more precise: with my installs (have had to reinstall numerous times up to the point that I considered to just stick to the EEs, in spite of that meaning that I'd have to miss out on a number of really good mods). My latest install seems relatively stable. Have had two crashes to desktop in my current game, but when I reloaded everything worked ok.
The new face is Nymand, LN Male Elven Bounty Hunter:
This is Nymand at level 4, as you can see with all skill points spent toward MS. (MS and HiS look higher than they were due to Boots of Stealth. MS was 110 , HiS 30; later skillpoints went toward Trap Setting and Detection, the last 30 points are reserved for DI). I had a level 1 screenshot as well but had to restart Nymand twice due to aforementioned issues with the game, and in the process I deleted the level 1 screenshot. So the run that I'm about to report is actually Nyamand's 3rd run. For the trouble of having to go through the early game again and again I allowed him this time to keep a second Potion of Clarity from one of the rooms upstairs in Winthrop's Inn and I rewarded him with a Ninja-To +1 at the start of the game. Starting profs were short bows and short swords, but I installed the BG2 Tweaks component "Alter Weapon Proficiency System", according to which Short Swords and Ninja-To are one weapon category (just as Wakizashis/Katanas and Maces/Morningstars), hence Nymand's Ninja-To +1.
Nymand is a relatively cautious adventurer (I have a Rogue Rebalancing Thief script running that has him try to HiS all the time), and in accordance with that he carefully adventured his way toward level 5 doing the usual quests in the areas on and directly surrounding the Coast Way, plus the South Coast (Nib and Brage). A combination of slackness and overconfidence got him into trouble near Alaric's Cave in the Lighthouse Area. It was the early afternoon, not a good moment for trying to sneak past three Sirines, and yet that was exactly what the thief did. He actually thought he had succeeded but then saw one of the Sirines behind him cast a fog cloud toward him. Wary once more, Nymand responded by quaffing an invisibility potion.
The Sirine must have sensed the rogue entering the cave, because she followed him inside. By that time Nymand had already drunk a potion of clarity but that would prove unnecssary, she would never know what hit her:
Stealth allowed him to take down the three Golems as well, good for reaching level 6. Another level was gained in Mutamin's Garden, where Korax and Arrows of Biting bought at the Thunderhammer Smithy made Mutamin an easy kill for a change.
Kirian was, somewhat cheesily I admit, slain with traps and subsequently relieved of the Golden Girdle; her companions were left alone.
More quests included lucrative targets (in terms of both XP and material rewards) like Meilum and Greywolf. Important items by then included Girdle of Piercing, Master Belt, Greenstone Amulet, Shadow Armor, Deep Red Ioun Stone, Cloak of Displacement, Composite Short Bow +2, Algernon's Cloak and Ring of Free Action (which was acquired from Dushai in a single careless pickpocket attempt, with only 40 skillpoints in PP and no potion boost). In the Nashkel Mines Nymand managed to slip past all the Kobolds unnoticed (which was surprising because they tend to block the path toward the final level, but this time they moved). In Mulahey's lair, things didn't go as planned, as Mulahey found Nymand just when the latter was trying to place his third trap. The priest immediately summoned his pets. Some of the summons died right away thanks to Nymand's traps, but many didn't. Nymand went invisible and drank potions of defense and magic shielding, and then became visible once again by throwing an oil of fiery burning at the summons, followed by another one.
Mulahey then fell in melee while fruitlessly attempting to Hold the thief. The three remaiming summons were no threat.
In the Valley of the Tombs, Nymand succesfully dispatched the undead guarding the tombs, but Narcillicus eluded him after I clicked a wrong answer option. Nimbul was left in the care of the Amnish guards until his morale failed, at which point Nymand did him in with a backstab.
Nymand did some more adventuring: Brun, Ankhegs (after he found they could only hit him on criticals with their ranged attacks), Tenya, Cloudpeaks, Gnoll Stronghold for CHA tome, Shoal and Ogres on the North Coast, Bassiulus with traps and a backstab. He had Thalantyr merge the Girdles of Bluntness/Piercing/Slashing (+3 AC, +1 STR, and 1 regen per 6 seconds), and then sought out the bandits. Nymand carfeully trapped the entrance to Tazok's tent, just to secure his escape route, and then entered the tent hidden in shadows, with potions of defense, fire resistance (2x), and explosives at the ready. Fire, in the form of two potions of explosions, proved to be an excellent remedy against the bandit plague.
The survivors of the explosions were finished off with arrows of biting. When he stepped outside, Nymand saw a Taugosz fall to his traps.
The rogue took the warrior's armor and other possessions, and left the camp unscathed. In Cloakwood 1 he poisoned Aldeth Sashenstar with arrows of biting and he found a Cloak of Non-Detection on one of various Tasloi he killed. That cloak, together with a Cloak of Protection +1 and two scrolls of Invisibility was made into the Cloak of Non-Detection +1 (Non-Detection, +1 AC/Saves, 2x/day Invisibility), an item I think is so beautiful that I'll allow Nymand to "find" it in Irenicus' dungeon should he make it there. He's currently preparing for his second trip to the Cloakwood.
Nymand reached level 10 by thoroughly cleansing the second Cloakwood area, protected by Dushai's ring of free action, and using stealth/backstabs and arrows of biting to take care of the spiders.
The same methods, complemented with traps, were succesful against Drasus and co.
Inside the Cloakwood Mine Nymand only left stealth mode to orchestrate the rescue of the miners, and of course to deal with Davaeorn. For that encounter a green scroll of Protection from Magic was relied on as usual, as well as a potion of defense (to be better protected against the Battle Horrors) before the wizard was brought down with acid arrows.
Nymand then traveled to Baldur's Gate where he gathered the stat increasing tomes, and did some shopping (potions, arrows, green scrolls, and a new composite shortbow +2 that gives a 10% chance of inflicting some electricty damage, RR item). For Scar he dealt with the Doppelgangers at the Seven Suns, the Ogre Mage in the sewers and the Iron Throne. The ring of free action and two potions that offered protection against his enemies' spells kept him safe, while an oil of speed combined with the boots of speed made backstabbing and archery (at 3 apr) effective means to deal with the Throne cronies, as the following screenshots illustrate.
Nymand then returned to Candlekeep where fights with both Rieltar & Co and Prat and his gang were avoided. (Two Greater Basilisks were the only creatures killed there.) A potion of Master Thievery was used to obtain the tomes and other treasure. At Durlag's Tower a final tome was acquired using a charge from the Greenstone Amulet to protect against the undisarmable charm trap. Back in the city Nymand used one of four green scrolls of Protection from Magic to neutralize Krystin's magics in the Undercellars. As it was she who first showed herself at the entrance, after an opening backstab by Nymand in the center, the bounty hunter decided to engage - and eventually kill - the woman in ranged combat.
With Krystin out of the way, Nymand set three traps near the entrance, showed himself to Slythe, lured him toward the entrance, where Nymand's traps did their job.
Next stop was the Ducal Palace. I was quite apprehensive this was also going to be Nymand's last stop, but the encounter with the Greater Doppelgangers went swell. Nymand placed a few traps before the ceremony began, and in preparation for what was to come he buffed with another green scroll of Protection from Magic, an oil of speed, and a potion of power. To deal with his foes he then used arrows of dispelling (some of which poisoned with one of four vials of poison he had bought from Lily at the Thieves Guild) and backstabs using Slythe's Short Sword of Backstabbing and the ring of invisibility. Both Liia and Belt survived the battle.
This triumph made Nymand feel quite confident about the final showdown. So unlike some of my other charnames who would retreat immediately and take on Sarevok's lackeys one by one, Nymand, still buffed from the Ducal Palace, showed himself and invited Sarevok and his adherents to attack him.
Arrows of dispelling were used on Sarevok, Diarmid, and Angelo, the latter being the first to fall (thanks to Nymand's acid arrows, again poisoned with one his vials of poison).
Diarmid, a very good archer, was finished off with backstabs.
Then a slightly annyoing time followed: Semaj was not going to show himself until Nymand's PfMagic would expire, and Nymand's 30% Detect Illusions score failed to make Tazok, who had been following Nymand, become visible. So he deliberately allowed Tazok to hit him. Tazok thanked him for his kindness with a (low damage) critical, and Sarevok too took up the invitation.
Nymand then proceeded to slay the Half-Ogre with ranged attacks, and also around that time quaffed two potions of protection from magic for 100% MR. This was done because Nymand foresaw the expiration of his green scroll's protection against magic. Semaj's first move would now have to be to dispel Nymand's protections (rather than possibly surprising him with a Chaos cast from close range). Indeed Semaj cast Remove Magic on Nymand as soon as the protective globe expired, and Nymand responded in kind with an arrow of dispelling. He then retreated to go invisible and quaffed a potion of magic shielding. Numerous arrows of dispelling eventually rendered Semaj defenseless before acid arrows would do him in.
That left only Sarevok but Nymand's backstabs made him too, bite the dust.
Nymand reported his success to Belt and Liia and was then sent on a mission to Amn. He awoke however in Irencius' Dungeon... Nymand's character record at the start of SoA.
He immediately leveled up to 11, as he had quite some surplus XP from BG1. But in Irenicus' dungeon Nymand forwent a lot of possible XP, for little was left of the bravado with which he had dealt with Sarevok and the Iron Throne. I have a knack for getting charnames killed at the hands of Mephits in Chateau Irenicus, so I tried to have Nymand sneak his way out of the dungeon. But even in all his cautiousness, Nymand got himself into some serious trouble. First of all he failed to HiS after emptying a table in Ilych's room, and was lucky to save vs a Horror spell the Duergar mage cast at him.
I could have skipped that table but I wanted some of the loot that BGT Tweaks imports into SoA. In fact there were quite a lot of BG1 items that Nymand found on the table: Greenstone Amulet, Cloak of Protection +2, Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, Shadow Armor, Boots of Stealth, Cloak of Balduran, Ring of Fire Resistance, and Ring of Freedom. I'm afraid that keeping all that gear (especially the Greenstone Amulet and the Ring of Free Action) might make the early game a bit too easy. I allowed Nymand to pick up all of it, and to keep the Boots of Stealth and the Shadow Armor as well as an Improved Cloak of Non-Detection I Shadowkeepered into his inventory because it had become his personal item. The rest of the gear would be sold at the Adventurer Mart (for possible later repurchase), and the proceeds of that sale donated at a temple. Nymand had a huge scare when he discovered that the door past the Mephit Portal room was magically warded. (I didn't know the portals had to be destroyed before the doors would open.) Doomed and blinded he searched his way back to the level portal in order to return whence he had come.
On the other side, numerous Duergar and two angry Golems awaited him, but he found a place to HiS in one of the corridors and allowed himself a rest and some time to think.
I recall shorties being unable to reach the Mephit Portals with daggers/clubs. So I was close to accepting another death in Irenicus' dungeon if Nymand wouldn't be able to hurt the Portals with his short sword (he had only 8 arrows after all, and was surely going to be blinded a couple of times). He buffed with an oil of speed he had found somewhere and with a Bhaal-DUHM, and discovered much to his relief that he was able to destroy the portals with his short sword.
Nymand didn't bother to try and take the Dryads' acorns from Ilych, or to release the Djinni, or to explore the different rooms adjacent to the wand room; he simply left the hellish dungeon as soon as he could.
I'm quite content to have a Thief in Amn. Thieves are still my favorite D&D class, and I have a couple of mods installed (besides Rogue Rebalancing and Song & Silence, which are staples for me) that should make this playthrough extra interesting for a Thief, i.e. Expanded Thief Stronghold, Assassinations, Sellswords.
Not a lot of progress to report, but a careful start in Athkatla. has been made. Nymand solved the troubles at the Circus without difficulty (not letting the Shadows distract him, focusing instead directly on Kalah). Stealth helped him through the first ambush. He would have liked to acquire Arbane's Sword there, but felt himself insufficiently prepared to deal with a cleric and a mage, and so he walked off. A second ambush soon followed: poisoned Renfeld. Again, no blood was spilt. Nymand approached the ambushers hidden in shadows, picked up Renfeld, and brought the man to Rylock. At the Copper Coronet he discovered that its owner, Lethinan, was keeping slaves to perform for his public. He battled the Beastmaster for the prison keys. This battle was complicated when Nymand inadvertently entered one of the fighting rings (locking himself in), rather than walking around it. Invisibility + oil of speed + duhm gave him the edge however against the Beastmaster. As soon as he found a way, he left the pit and used his increased speed to hide and backstab the pets.
The slaves were released, Lethinan was slain with a backstab, and Hendak took control of the Copper Coronet. Nymand promised Hendak to deal with the rampant slavery in the city in a more permanent way, but he postponed that job. Before he left, he slew a Dwarven child killer for a stuffed bear that the spirit of the murdered chuld had asked him for at the Graveyard District. In the Bridge District he investigated the Skinner Murders, but the culprit, Reijek, eluded him. He was nevertheless rewarded for his efforts by Lieutenant Aegisfield. A lone wolf, Nymand isn't one to associate himself with a Thieves Guild, but eager for gold he went to offer his services to the local Shadow Thieves nonetheless. He accepted to infiltrate a guildhouse for Renal Bloodscalp and look for proof of treachery by the manager of the guildhouse, Mae'Var. He did a simple job for Mae'Var and was then sent to work for Edwin, the Wizard of Thay. The first job for Edwin was to dispatch a mage called Rayic Gethras, but when Nymand sought the latter out, he had a change of heart. The fact that Rayic Gethras had more than a handful of pet Mephits and two huge Stone Golems suggested that the mage was probably too powerful for him to take on without better equipment.
Difficulty again with the Mephits:
Nymand, not at all amused by Edwin's idea to set him up against the powerful mage, struck a deal with Rayic Gethras: Nymand would leave a 1500 GP bail and return with Edwin when convenient, at which moment Gethras would deal with Edwin, and Nymand would get his gold back plus a reward for his work. Thus, Nymand continued to work with/for Edwin and Mae'Var until written evidence of Mae'Var's betrayal of the Shadow Thieves was secured. (Nymand could have doublecrossed Renal Bloodscalp and inform Mae'Var of what was going on, but he decided he liked Renal better, so he didn't.) Edwin was brought before Rayic Gethras, and slain by Gethras right in front of Nymand. For one moment Nymand felt a pang of guilt, but he realized that he had only exposed Edwin to the exact same danger that the Red Wizard had exposed him to.
(I had never used this option before, and so I didn't know what was going to happen exactly. Edwin - no longer in the party - tried to fight Rayic: he cast a spell but was interrupted. He was already slowed and injured by one of the Stone Golems. I wonder how a well-buffed Edwin at full health and with good spells memorized, would have fared, but that'll have to be something for another playthrough.) Before he would no longer be welcome at Mae'Var's guildhouse he quaffed five potions of master thievery (for 240 or 250 pickpockets) to rob Gorch. This was done initially for the potions such as those of invisibility and speed, but Nymand ended up appropriating weapons and other items as well. This was all so thrilling, not in the least because of the slight chance he'd get busted, that he went shopping for free at other stores as well in the Docks, Bridge, Promenade and Slums districts, including Bernard at the CC, and even in the sewers (Roger the Fence). Nymand never got busted and he now keeps more than a thousand enchanted arrows in an ammo belt, and he owns dozens of useful potions, and plenty of spells that might become useful at some point. Also, the fencing of stolen goods netted him more gold than he had ever had (>50k GP), which allowed him the purchase of items that could not be stolen, such as Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise and Mercykiller Ring at the Adventurer Mart, and a Deep Red Ioun Stone identical to the one he had bought once at the High Hedge, as well as the Black Cat's Claw (Ninja-To +2, +1 Dex, +1 Luck), an enchanted buckler useful mainly for its daily Improved Invisibility ability, and a cowl that gives immunity to backstab and poison, all from his friend Marina at the Thieves Guild. At the Graveyard district Nymand entered one the tombs where he met Pai'Na, a Hive Mistress, and agreed to retrieve Spiders's Bane for her from its wielders in the Sewers. Hidden in shadows he snuck past Spiders and Beholders to complete this quest.
(Near the spiders' den Nymand triggered an Enfeeblement trap I had forgotten about. I was afraid it was a Charm, so I had Nymand quaff a potion of Clarity; when he got enfeebled, invisbility kept him safe from the spiders.) He was rewarded with Kitthix, the Black Spider Figurine, and had Cromwell upgrade it to make it a bit hardier in battle. In the Bridge District, Improved Kitthix immediately proved her worth against Tirdir's buriers.
Nymand has just met Lynn, and he has agreed to work for her. (Assassinations mod)
He also still has the Slaver Compound, and the dismantling of Mae'Var high on his to do list. Nymand is currently level 14, with Find and Set Traps around 100 (thanks in part to items), with his average stealth around 120 (thanks again to items), and with 100 Detect Illusions. He was already proficient in Short Swords/Ninja-To and Shortbows, and has achieved *** in Two Weapon Fighting. If he reaches level 16, his next proficiency will probably be Clubs so that he can work with blunt weapons as well.
Comments
The Hard Times mod and later reputation issues meant he was always a bit short on gold. Therefore he did a few more quests than strictly necessary, so that he'd be able to expand his (potion) supplies. He fought Sunin in the faint hope of acquiring the Ring of Wizardry that he knew would sell well, but the wizard predictably didn't drop it after Urval and his Skellies felled him. The fight was uneventful, and although Sunin Spooked Urval, the Dwarf was never in danger.
Another mage he dispatched was Ragefast who used to drop a few good items in previous installs (but not this time). One of Urval's Woodland Beings charmed the wizard, allowing the Dwarf to order Ragefast to waste most of his spells before he was slain.
He also dealt with the Ogre Mage and its Carrion Crawler army in the sewers. He scouted the place while Sanctuaried before he summoned Skeletons and Woodland Beings. Urval (with a potion of free action to protect himself) and the skellies had dealt with most of the crawlers when one of the Woodland Beings managed to charm the Ogre Mage. It was led toward one of the last living Carrion Crawlers, held by the giant centipede, and slain by the Dwarf.
The Iron Throne fight was slow but relatively straightforward, with minimal precautions needed thanks to Urval's good saves and AC. Aasim cast Mental Domination, reminding him to equip the Helm of Charm Protection, and later a Hold Person which prompted Urval to quaff a potion of freedom after he was Doomed.
Naaman's initial spells were avoided by changing between floors. And the other characters were dealt with using buffs (PfE, Holy Power, DUHM, in that order) and a few healing potions. Urval sold the Ring of Holiness and the Cloak of Displacement and invested most of the proceeds in potions (healing, speed, invisibility, explosions, fiery burning) and in enchanted bullets.
Before he returned to Candlekeep Urval got instruction from his deity to pay Hurgan Stoneblade a visit in Ulgoth's Beard. He ended up killing his fellow Dwarf and took from him the Knee Capper; his offhand weapon for the remainder of the game (in my setup characters can specialize in weapon styles - but not weapons - regardless of class). I also did this for reputation management purposes, as his sub 10 reputation would grant him the Divine Wrath ability, one of few AoE damage dealing options for Urval.
Through this ability, the Bhaalspawn can tap into the divine spark buried deep within his soul and release a portion of the raw power in a single, concentrated burst. The unleashed energy damages all enemies in the immediate vicinity of the Bhaalspawn and has a chance to push them away, knock them prone and make them flee in panic. The potency of this ability increases as the Bhaalspawn becomes more experienced:
Level 1: deals 2d8 damage to all nearby enemies
Level 6: deals 4d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn
Level 12: deals 6d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn and knocking them prone for 1 round
Level 18: deals 8d8 damage to all nearby enemies pushing them away from the Bhaalspawn, knocking them prone for 1 round and making them flee in panic for the following 3 rounds
A successful saving throw vs. breath halves the damage and negates all secondary effects. Exceptionally large creatures (Giants, Dragons, Iron Golems...etc.) are immune to all secondary effects.
In Candlekeep Urval was framed by Koveras for the murder of the Iron Throne leaders. In the catacombs below the citadel where he was teleported by Tethtoril he used his Stormshield to protect himself against some of the nastier traps (fire, electricity), and the violet potion to boost his STR to 25 so that he could open the locked chests with the STR tome, the WIS tome, and the Cloak of Protection +2 among other things. Sanctuary helped him safely reach the surface.
Feeling Talos' fury inside him he decided to cast PfMagic on himself and kill the Ogre Mages that were awaiting him. He fled however, in the nick of time, when one of the Greater Basilisks wanted to join the fray.
Thalantyr improved the Cloak of Balduran by merging it with the Cloak of Protection +2. In Baldur's Gate, Slythe and Krystin awaited Urval in the Undercellars. As has become his custom (or rather my rule for this playthrough: no pre-buffing until foes have been detected), Urval explored the Undercellars while under the protection Sanctuary, spotted a menacing-looking rogue and preventively summoned his army of (three) Woodland Beings and (two) Skeletons.
One of the Woodland Being charmed Slythe but unfortunately he managed to swig a potion of invisibility, making it impossible to use him. Still, it meant one less enemy to worry about, at least for a while. Krystin was mainly provoked into wasting some of her spells on Skeletons (and courtesans).
As Slythe regained his compsure he struck hard against Urval, but was again charmed, this time while visible, and instructed to attack his lover.
The two depleted most of each others' potion/spell reserves before the charm on Slythe wore off.
He injured Urval again, with a last potion of invisibility, but after that he had difficulty hitting the Dwarf, allowing the latter to wear his foe down.
Krystin was out of Stoneskins etc when Urval faced her, easy pickings for the Dwarf.
At the Ducal Palace, Urval summoned two Skellies and three Woodland Beings (hoping they would charm their foes) before battle broke out. He also Protected them as well as himself from Evil, and he buffed himself further with Holy Power, DUHM and an Oil of Speed. The Woodland Beings were soon rendered useless, Horrored by one of the Doppelgangers, but not before one of the summons had cast Plant Growth, a party-friendly Entangle-style spell that would keep some of the Doppelgangers in place at times. Both Belt and Liia Jannath got Confused soon after, so it was up to Urval, the two Skellies and the Fist to keep the Grand Dukes safe.
Buffed up, dualwielding Urval did a good job at Doppelganger-killing but he could not prevent the monsters from killing Belt.
This was pretty alarming because Belt is the more stalwart of the two Grand Dukes, by far. Yet somehow Urval, his trusty skellies and the Fist officers succeeded in keeping confused Liia safe. (Urval healed her twice.)
I think this is the first time for me that Belt didn't survive the fight and Liia Jannath did. She teleported Urval to the Thieves Guild from where he rushed through the maze protected by his Storm Shield and by Sanctuary. He reached the entrance to Sarevok's sanctum, rested near the door and hoped to avoid Tamoko when he got up. However, dialogue triggered ans she followed Urval inside. She cast Physical Mirrors and at one point a Harm, but failed to actually harm Urval with it. Other spells she repeatedly tried to cast were Hold Person and Mental Domination, and I think she also attempted to summon Skeleton Warriors, but Urval disrupted her spellcasting various times. All in all he had less difficulty with her as I feared, and it was fortunate that hardly any resources were wasted except a few healing potions (of which he had less than desired).
In the fight against Sarevok's acolytes, Tazok was the first to show up. He gave Urval a good beating, causing the Dwarf to retreat (after which Tazok disappeared).
Protected from Magic, he had better luck meleeing Angelo, who only managed to hurt him on critical hits. Diarmid too, seemed to either miss or land critical hits (in melee as well as ranged), before he fell.
Urval's second try against Tazok went better. The Half-Ogre seemed particular vulnerable to the Dwarf's potions of Firebreath. When his foe was severely injured, Urval buffed himself and slew him in melee combat.
Invisible Semaj only showed up after Urval kited Sarevok for a while. (Sarevok was then left standing in a corner after Urval quaffed an invisibility potion). I was surprised to see Semaj cast mainly elemental damage spells (Lightning Bolt, Fireball) rather than spells that control the mind, against which Urval would have protected himself with potions.
When he ran out of MMMs, the wizard engaged Urval in melee combat, which was a hopeless course of action.
Fully buffed (even potions of power were used), Urval was capable of hurting Sarevok in melee combat, but the latter hit a lot harder (and had more hitpoints) than Urval did. So other tactics had to be employed. First Sarevok was softened up with 'sneak attacks', using circa 10 invisibility potions to hit and fade. When the invisibility potions were gone, Sanctuaries were used for the same purpose (though this was trickier because of the spell's casting time).
Then Flamestrikes from the Wand of the Heavens and various potions of explosions/fiery burning were used. Individually they didn't a lot of damage but the bits did add up, because when Urval had run out of those potions it only took a few well-aimed sling bullets to fell his enemy.
This was not an easy run, and I can only see things become more difficult in BG2. Maybe I'm not playing the solo Cleric right (it's not a class I've played much), but I really haven't found any solutions to the long casting time issue or to the problem that buffs are so easily dispelled. Does you have any tips perhaps?
Before I move on I have two questions:
1) Do you recommend me drop the Helm of Balduran so that the Claw of Kazgaroth will import into BG2? Getting negative saves asap could be a huge boon for Urval against casters.
2) There is a suit of armor, added by the Sorcerer's Place Collection mod, called Geirthan's Plate, which is extremely expensive, the most expensive object in SoA, but very attractive not because it gives immunity to Death Magic (which isn't that big a deal for a high CON dwarfen Cleric) but it grants immunity to Spell School Abjuration. The thought of being able to buff in the knowledge that one's buffs won't be immediately dispelled is an appealing one, but would using that armor take away too much of the challenge do you reckon? It doesn't seem more powerful than the Robe of Vecna and the Staff of the Magi for Mages, UAI for Rogues or Carsomyr for Paladins, but I haven't enough SoA experience with (solo) Clerics to form an opinion on this matter. All I know is that I wouldn't want to save a lot of gold to buy the armor, only to find it game-breaking and to sell it again.
Great run!
Take the armor!
E
Gaax ring and the ring of protection +3 beat everything
if you are evil you won't use the ring of course, because you would be using the skin armor. So your take if you still wish the helm of balduran or not, really.
2) yes, take the armor.
He initially had Sanctuary up but the Mephits ignored that and still hurt him. He also had four Skeletons to help him, and he was buffed to deal more damage, but he simply wasn't deadly enough.
I made a huge mistake in not casting Stormshield before entering the Mephit room, probably because the ability is too situationally useful for me to consider it before each battle. (I would have if my Stormlord had had Lightning Bolt as a special ability, but the Divine Remix version hasn't, so I haven't had much use for Stormshield.) When I tried to cast it after all, Urval got interrupted. Pity because I was finally becoming enthusiastic...
I aimed (as usual for an 88+ roll), and was rewarded handsomely for my patience. Starting proficiencies were clubs and shortbows. First 40 skill points went to Move Silently, a skill that would be further developed up to 120 (at which point Elaim would start investing in his trap setting and detection skills).
Elaim carefully adventured his way to level 5 by undertaking low risk missions such as:
- the Candlekeep and Beregost quests (including Mini Quest & Encounters mod quests, but excluding killing Karlat and Silke),
- dealing with the Hobgoblins south of Candlekeep for the Boots of Stealth,
- the FAI quests (though she kept the Girdle of Piercing),
- saving Melicamp (as per custom Thalantyr failed to retransform Melicamp),
- babysitting and even chatting with Noober in Nashkel,
- killing Half-Ogres for Bjornin,
- rescuing Samuel the Deserter,
- helping Charleston Nib and saving Captain Brage on the South Coast.
There was one slightly precarious moment for Elaim in the carrying out of these quests: at level 3-4 he forgot to HiS in order to sneak past Tarnesh when leaving the FAI (as he had done upon arrival). Tarnesh could have cast Sleep on Elaim, but deft footwork allowed Elaim to timely step back into the inn, HiS, and leave unmolested. (He'd slay the Mage later.)
I think that for Thieves there are more interesting items to buy than for most other classes, except perhaps Mages, but Hard Times shop prices are awfully high. This is why Elaim made sure that both his Reputation and his Charisma scores reached 20 before he started to spend gold on nifty items. For the 20 Charisma score Lord Foreshadow’s Ring of Human Influence and Algernon’s Cloak were welcomed. As to the latter item, Elaim had only one potion of master thievery to bring his Pickpockets score up to 60. Needing three attempts, he barely managed to snatch Algernon’s cloak before its owner went hostile.
Having been exceedingly parsimonious until shop prices would be at their lowest, Elaim could afford to buy the Shadow Armor (17.8k GP, at Feldepost’s), the Deep Red Ioun Stone that grants +1 Dex (6.6k GP, at the High Hedge), and – after killing Aldeth Sashenstar and selling his diamond and bastard sword – a green scroll of Protection from Petrification at the Nashkel Carnival and a Composite Short Bow +2 (5.1k GP) in Ulgoth’s Beard. The ioun stone and the bow are Rogue Rebalancing items. Most of the Dwarf’s gold proceeded from selling Imoen’s Wand of Magic Missiles and the Travenhursts’ Wand of Lightning (which for some reason, and thank the Gods for it, sold for 10k and 12k GP respectively).
Elaim then felt ready for a potentially rougher encounter: Mutamin and his pets. After he had slain the majority of the Basilisks (all but one Lesser and one Greater in Mutamin’s direct vicinity), he recruited Korax to see if the Ghoul could hold the Gnome. Korax failed, causing Mutamin to go hostile. There was no risk for Elaim because he was HiS. He had Korax bait the Lesser Basilisk away, so that he and the Ghoul could kill it.
Korax then held the Greater Basilisk, but got Magic Missiled to death by Mutamin who then ran off as he couldn’t see stealthy Elaim. The Dwarf proceeded to pelt the Greater Basilisk with arrows. He kept a potion of invisibility at hand should Mutamin decide to return and remove Elaim’s PfPetrification before the Greater Basilisk was dead, but the Gnome didn’t show up. Thus Elaim could kill the last of the Basilisks in relative peace. It helped him reach level 7 and raise his set traps skill to 65.
Hidden in shadows, Elaim searched for Mutamin, and when he found his foe, placed three out of a possible four traps just out of the wizard’s sight (only one set trap attempt failed). He then appeared behind his foe and softened him up with a backstab for 20 dmg. Elaim drank a potion of invisibility just before Mutamin Horrored him, perhaps this wasn’t necessary, but at least it kept him safe.
When the panic effect had worn off, Elaim lured Mutamin toward the traps; they killed the Gnome.
Down south, he dispatched rivaling Bounty Hunter Greywolf, a much more ruthless practicioner of the bounty hunting profession than Elaim, with traps and arrows. Her intervention yielded him Greywolf’s Halberd +1 and Prism’s emeralds.
A similar approach didn’t exactly work as planned against Zal (eastern Cloudpeaks). First, Vax was lured away – he wasn’t very interesting for Elaim – so that three traps could finish off Zal. Not all the traps triggered however, and even a backstab didn't finish him off, so Elaim was lucky that his opponent missed with his first dart of stunning before the Dwarf slew him with an arrow. He picked up the Bracers of Archery that, together with the +1 DEX ioun stone and his enchanted short bow, gave him a respectable ranged Thac0 of 11.
In the same area Elaim shunned Sendai but he did fetch Rufie for Albert. All western Cloudpeaks encounters were done, and even further west, near the Gnoll Stronghold, the Dwarf slew Hairtooth and Gnarl with traps and arrows to pick up the CHA tome (completely unnecessary but I’m still too much of a sucker for stat increasing tomes to forgo it).
Elaim traveled back to Beregost to slay Karlat, to sell loot and to purchase the Weary Cudgel club (+1 Club with 25% chance upon hit that target must save vs death or become fatigued, another RR item). With that club he thought he’d dispatch a couple of Flesh Golems in a cave on the coast, but three Sirines thought otherwise. On his way to the cave Elaim had barely hidden in shadows and was expecting to easily bypass the first trio of Sirines, when an abrupt fail at HiS made him visible.
He immediately quaffed a potion of invisibility (his last), and decided to enter the cave anyway. Inside, invisible still, and checking for traps, he saw a Sirine show up behind him, as unexpected as it was undesired.
Elaim stoically disarmed the first trap but inadvertently triggered the second. He managed to empty the treasure stash, gulped down a potion of clarity, got blinded by (at this point) two Sirines with clouds of fog, and had to grope his way out. Immediate HiS allowed him to leave the area untroubled.
The loss of valuable XP and potions was of course partially offset by the good loot. But Elaim is not comfortable traveling without potions of invisibility, and reaching level 8 before entering the Nashkel Mines now becomes less probable. He still needs about 20k XP for that. Ankhegs could provide that XP, but I’m not sure whether I like fighting them with a Thief without Boots of Avoidance / Claw of Kazgaroth.
Good luck to Elaim!
Can you throw your special traps in your setup ?
The special traps btw can be thrown, because I'm playing this in BGT. I like the thrown traps better to be honest. I know that in BGEE they can't be thrown, but what about BG2EE?
***
At nearly 20k XP from lvl 8, Elaim traveled up north to the Ankheg-infested area, and with a scroll of PfAcid (bought at the High Hedge), an oil of speed and a couple of healing potions, he slew most of the bugs in their nest, meleeing both those that attacked in ranged mode and the melee attacking Ankhegs (with charge and retreat tactics). Traps helped as well. He must have killed about ten of them in the nest and above ground.
Elaim brought Brun’s son's body to the heartbroken farmer, and he accepted to kill allegedly wicked Tenya for the vindictive fishermen but changed his mind when he heard Tenya’s side of the story. Tenya's bowl was retrieved and Sonner was slain for his crimes (and for the Flail +1) after he had gone hostile.
Elaim tracked Bassilus down, carefully scouted the area, observed the priest and placed seven traps just outside his stone circle. He preventively quaffed a potion of freedom, which must have inspired the priest to not start with a Hold Person but with a Flamestrike. It fried Elaim almost completely, leaving him with 2 puny HP.
Zargal and Malkax were also dealt with before Elaim traveled to Beregost to claim the 5k GP bounty. The reward and the sale of loot allowed him to purchase the Claw of Kazgaroth. This isn’t a great item for a Thief, even a 20 CON Dwarf, but the AC bonus, especially that against missiles, was more than welcome what with the Kobolds and the Bandits that awaited Elaim. His XP had increased to almost 70k, and killing a Baby Wyvern in Nashkel and Zordral, using traps at different spots, at the Nashkel Carnival made the Dwarf reach the much desired level 8. With the +1 DEX from his ioun stone, Elaim's Find Traps skill was now at 50, his Set Traps at 80, his Move Silently at 125 (145 with Boots of Stealth). He hasn't invested in other skills yet, though his 15 HiS is improved by 30 thanks to Boots of Stealth and Shadow Armor.
Elaim then went to the Nashkel Mines. The number of Kobolds there dazzled him. He snuck past them when possible; but had to dispatch one group with a well placed special trap.
When he entered Mulahey's lair, he decided to proactively place a few traps, but he had barely set his second successful trap (one attempt had failed) when Mulahey appeared out of nowhere. Immediate stealth before the dialogue triggered allowed him to place one more trap.
When the traps went off they killed a number of Kobolds, and injured Mulahey up to the point where his morale failed him. He fled outside. Elaim followed him, and found him no longer panicked. He quaffed a potion of freedom to make sure he wouldn't get held (and Mulahey did indeed cast Hold Person twice). With his bow and arrows he felled the Half-Orc.
Back in Nashkel Elaim relied on the guards to kill Nimbul, and he killed Neira himself. He received Berrun Ghastkill's reward and sold most of the spoils of his latest adventures. In Beregost, he bought the Amulet of Protection +1. (It stacks with his Shadow Armor in my setup. In my last playthrough, with Urval, I allowed myself this stacking because the other, charged amulets such as the Greenstone Amulet and the Necklace of Missiles are all superexpensive and come with almost no charges, so they aren't really worth spending the gold on).
Elaim is now going to have a word with Tranzig.
EDIT: added screenshots I thought I didn't have...
Gr E
Elaim dealt with the bandits and made it into Cloakwood, where he had pretty much cleared the Spiders area. He was protected by Free Action and PfPoison. Hidden in shadows, he had just entered Centeol's den, but after emptying the stash with Chelak's body and Spiders' Bane, a RL distraction interfered with my gameplay. Amongst the many messages in the action window notifying me of attacking foes, I missed the message that Elaim was encumbered (which I could have known, as Chelak's body is heavy). Thus it happened that I was too busy wondering about possible pathfinding issues or even bugs to have Elaim quaff a potion of invisibility or something, and before I knew it, he was dead.
****
So, back to the Priest of Talos. I still have a possible future issue: at epic levels one of the HLAs is blanked out and not selectable at leveling up. I don't know what HLA that's supposed to be (pursuant to Divine Remix). Anyway let's first see if my new Stormlord is able to even make it into HLA territory...
Here's Valar:
I'm even going to roleplay him a bit, thanks in large part to Vhailor's soundset (from PS:T) that I've recently downloaded. I assigned it to Valar so that he has a number of amazing lines in a badass voice, like: "Mercy is a shield used by the weak," and "Justice is the blade by which the planes shall be cleansed."
In order to align Valar's Chaotic Evilness with Vhailor's more Lawful Neutral comments and with the latter's references to his axe, I'll roleplay my Cleric as a highly aggressive crusader type who considers himself the righteous enforcer of the realms' one true God's will, and I'll allow him to use axes. I don't think I'll be very extensive in my journaling (it's still a no-reload run), but I'll try to include nice RP aspects every once in a while. Will hopefully post about some nice progress soon.
- also, how do you take all the stuff you need with yourself? I mean, I'm finding my inventory quite limited for what I need to take with me (from belts, to different weapons, etc)
As to your questions:
- I don't generally recharge items, though with my WS I sold a RoR and bought it back with 10 charges. I didn't know you could only sell them once.
- In my BGT install Thalantyr sells a Bag of Holding and Mulahey drops one when killed, so inventory management doesn't trouble me (in BGEE it's a different story of course). I think that in BGEE Thalantyr sells a potion bag, Firebead gives a scroll case for fetching his book in Beregost, and Neera can be killed or recruited and dismissed for her gem bag. If you haven0t already acquired those items, I'd recommend you to do so.
Thanks for telling. I didn't save Neera yet.
I usually separate those two so that I can take them on individually; this time I didn't. My priest was almost through with Slythe, but when Krystin arrived he ought to have retreated. It was Krystin who felled Valar: a Skull Trap immediately followed by a sequenced Magic Missile was too much to handle for even my Dwarf.
In the second pic, you can see from the glowing body that that he did manage to swig a potion of extra healing but apparently it was not in time.
Question: can all Mages cast a normal spell and activate a spell trigger in one and the same round, or is Krystin a cheat? As is more or less visible in the first image, her Skull Trap and triggered Magic Missiles followed each other as if she was casting under the effect of improved alacrity.
Anyway, after having successfully covered Watcher's Keep's elemental level and completed all sidequests in Saradush, she decided to seek out Gromnir. She battled her way into his palace where she had to face a number of the Half-Orc's soldiers, inlcuding a mage. With her MR over 100 and her below zero saves, Thani had made it a habit of dealing with warriors first and wizards last. She did not depart from that habit, even though the mage called forth an annoying number of summons: a Fallen Planetar, a Glabrezu, a Mordy's Sword, an Efreeti and Misleads/Simulacra of himself. At one point the wizard lowered her magic resistance and raised her saves, and soon after he cast Chaos at her without me noticing it (which isn't that strange with so many actions by so many different actors taking place that I missed the announcement of a Chaos coming my way in the action screen). The spell took effect, and Thani killed herself attacking the fireshielded Efreeti.
I give you condolences! It was a unique experience and I hope one day you'll still beat ToB with the character you feel most attached to.
Now, let us all give Thani a moment of silence!
I also have an axe-wielding dwarven Fighter/Thief who butchered his way into Amn without reloading, but I haven't posted about him yet. I've somehow enjoyed that playthrough less than my Priest of Talos (which was a lot of fun with Divine Remix giving the kit a selection of Cleric spells and Druid spells).
I'm doing this in BGT with the Rogue Rebelancing mod with all the components affecting Bards installed: pnp dualwielding, Bard kit revisions, Bard HLA revisions, proper spell progression for Bards, and additional equipment for Thieves and Bards. (Besides RR I've got my usual difficulty improving mods installed such as Hard Times, aTweaks, SCS I/II v21, Ascension, but also a couple of tweaks that should make things slightly easier, such as multiple protection items, bigger item stacks, containers for sale, full hitpoints for all creatures including charname, importation into SoA of a number of items including Cloak of Balduran.)
Like most people I probably, I always like to use a character's class/kit-specific abilities as much as possible to create more or less unique playing experiences. In the case of the Skald, the special feature is of course the battlesong. In order to make something out if that song, my character will try to work with summons a lot. Unfortunately most of BG1 offers little in terms of summons, so the first part of the game doesn't really contain much action with song-buffing, though there is some.
Meet Nereniel, a TN Half-Elf:
Nereniel started out proficient in what I perceive as nordic weapons: Hammers (for Ashideena) and Axes (for their throwing variant). However, relying almost solely on ranged attacking, his Throwing Axes soon proved too slow (1 APR) and expensive for Nereniel. Their nice STR bonus didn't weigh up against those disadvantages. The problem was remedied by investing the level 4 pip in Darts.
His first quests were the relatively safe quests between the FAI and Nashkel. On his first visit of the FAI area Nereniel didn't approach Tarnesh at the entrance (he wouldn't deal with that one before reaching lvl 6), but he did bring Samuel to Gellana and he brought Joia her ring. In Beregost Silke and Karlat were shunned but all other quests - including those added by the Mini-Quests and Encounters mod - were done. The same goes for Nashkel. Thalantyr failed with Melicamp, but nevertheless 10k XP and thus level 5 were relatively easy attained.
Amongst the 'safe' early-game quests I tend to consider Charleston Nib / Brage on the south coast, accessible via the High Hedge and Lighhouse areas. But Nereniel traveled from the north, I think the FAI, to the (previously unlocked) Lighthouse area and was uncomfortably placed in the northern part of the map, not even close to an area exit. He had to flee from two groups of Hobgoblins, including arrows of biting pelting Elite archers.
There were various confrontations that Nereniel solved by playing his battlesong while the rabbit familiar would do the killing. It led to a number of bizarre scenes, such as these:
At 20 rep and 20 CHA thanks to Lord Forshadow's Ring and Algrnon's Cloak, Nereniel bought the Deep Red Ioun Stone for +1 DEX at teh High Hedge as well as the Robe of the Neutral Archmagi he was surprised to able to use. (No idea which mod makes those robes available to Bards.)
A critical hit by a Gnoll Slasher that badly injured Nereniel's bunny taught the Bard to be more careful with his familiar, but that didn't mean the rabbit was going to stay in Nereniel's pack for the remainder of the game. One of the animal's roles was to serve as bait for non-ranged enemies like Greywolf and for the Basilisks (thanks to its petrification immunity). Speaking of those monsters, Nereniel had some difficulty there with Mutamin, as seems to happen to me all too often. Korax failed to hold the Gnome and was subsequently killed off. It left Nereniel with three options:
- leaving the area without killing Mutamin, one Lesser and one 7k XP yielding Greater Basilisk;
- trying to stun the wizard with darts he had picked up in the Ankheg cave using Invisibility (a spell learnt from a scroll bought at Thalantyr's);
- trying to charm Mutamin using Lord Foreshadow's Ring of Human Influence.
I believe the charm ability of the ring isn't as powerful as that of Algernon's Cloak, but it hit the Gnome anyway. (Had the attempt failed, then Nereniel would have immediately tried to get away and go invisible.) Mutamin was petrified and subsequently shattered by the Basilisks (all loot except some gold destroyed).
His second visit to the Lighthouse area was much more pleasant than his first. Invisibility and successful trap detection/removal by the rabbit (the familiar's second role) allowed Nereniel to plunder the pirate cave.
In the Cloudpeaks Nereniel had no dealings with Sendai & Co, but he did do all other quests. His confrontation with Vax and Zal resulted in a near death experience when Nereniel managed to kill Zal just before the bandit's dart would stun him.
In the Nashkel Mines the number of Kobolds on the 3rd level was problematic. First of all they blocked the path toward the level exit. This problem was solved by Skulltrapping the blocked pathway.
Mulahey was stunned, and most of his lackeys Skulltrapped. The Skellies/Kobolds that survived the explosion were dealt with in melee combat, with difficulty.
In Beregost Tranzig wasted most of his spells on Nereniel as the Skald fled between floors, but he did Blind him. The battlesong was then sung, and Rabbit released to finish off the mage.
Two darts of stunning helped Nereniel deal with Bassilus and obtain the Ashideena.
Nereniel is now getting ready to explore the Cloakwood forest in search of a hidden Iron Throne base, the organization behind the bandits according to Ender Sai.
Some of these mods are definitely worth it imo, especially for an experienced player such as yourself. Maybe you could consider installing only a few basic mods?
2nd and final update:
Nereniel had little difficulty reaching the Cloakwood Mines. In the Spider Area he found Chelak and Spiders' Bane, and he killed Centeol but not her spiders.
Maybe you could zip up your overdrive folder and post it somewhere?
The new face is Nymand, LN Male Elven Bounty Hunter:
Nymand is a relatively cautious adventurer (I have a Rogue Rebalancing Thief script running that has him try to HiS all the time), and in accordance with that he carefully adventured his way toward level 5 doing the usual quests in the areas on and directly surrounding the Coast Way, plus the South Coast (Nib and Brage). A combination of slackness and overconfidence got him into trouble near Alaric's Cave in the Lighthouse Area. It was the early afternoon, not a good moment for trying to sneak past three Sirines, and yet that was exactly what the thief did. He actually thought he had succeeded but then saw one of the Sirines behind him cast a fog cloud toward him. Wary once more, Nymand responded by quaffing an invisibility potion.
In the Nashkel Mines Nymand managed to slip past all the Kobolds unnoticed (which was surprising because they tend to block the path toward the final level, but this time they moved). In Mulahey's lair, things didn't go as planned, as Mulahey found Nymand just when the latter was trying to place his third trap. The priest immediately summoned his pets. Some of the summons died right away thanks to Nymand's traps, but many didn't. Nymand went invisible and drank potions of defense and magic shielding, and then became visible once again by throwing an oil of fiery burning at the summons, followed by another one.
Nimbul was left in the care of the Amnish guards until his morale failed, at which point Nymand did him in with a backstab.
In Cloakwood 1 he poisoned Aldeth Sashenstar with arrows of biting and he found a Cloak of Non-Detection on one of various Tasloi he killed. That cloak, together with a Cloak of Protection +1 and two scrolls of Invisibility was made into the Cloak of Non-Detection +1 (Non-Detection, +1 AC/Saves, 2x/day Invisibility), an item I think is so beautiful that I'll allow Nymand to "find" it in Irenicus' dungeon should he make it there. He's currently preparing for his second trip to the Cloakwood.
At Durlag's Tower a final tome was acquired using a charge from the Greenstone Amulet to protect against the undisarmable charm trap. Back in the city Nymand used one of four green scrolls of Protection from Magic to neutralize Krystin's magics in the Undercellars. As it was she who first showed herself at the entrance, after an opening backstab by Nymand in the center, the bounty hunter decided to engage - and eventually kill - the woman in ranged combat.
Nymand's character record at the start of SoA.
Nymand had a huge scare when he discovered that the door past the Mephit Portal room was magically warded. (I didn't know the portals had to be destroyed before the doors would open.) Doomed and blinded he searched his way back to the level portal in order to return whence he had come.
I'm quite content to have a Thief in Amn. Thieves are still my favorite D&D class, and I have a couple of mods installed (besides Rogue Rebalancing and Song & Silence, which are staples for me) that should make this playthrough extra interesting for a Thief, i.e. Expanded Thief Stronghold, Assassinations, Sellswords.
At the Copper Coronet he discovered that its owner, Lethinan, was keeping slaves to perform for his public. He battled the Beastmaster for the prison keys. This battle was complicated when Nymand inadvertently entered one of the fighting rings (locking himself in), rather than walking around it. Invisibility + oil of speed + duhm gave him the edge however against the Beastmaster. As soon as he found a way, he left the pit and used his increased speed to hide and backstab the pets.
A lone wolf, Nymand isn't one to associate himself with a Thieves Guild, but eager for gold he went to offer his services to the local Shadow Thieves nonetheless. He accepted to infiltrate a guildhouse for Renal Bloodscalp and look for proof of treachery by the manager of the guildhouse, Mae'Var. He did a simple job for Mae'Var and was then sent to work for Edwin, the Wizard of Thay. The first job for Edwin was to dispatch a mage called Rayic Gethras, but when Nymand sought the latter out, he had a change of heart. The fact that Rayic Gethras had more than a handful of pet Mephits and two huge Stone Golems suggested that the mage was probably too powerful for him to take on without better equipment.
Before he would no longer be welcome at Mae'Var's guildhouse he quaffed five potions of master thievery (for 240 or 250 pickpockets) to rob Gorch. This was done initially for the potions such as those of invisibility and speed, but Nymand ended up appropriating weapons and other items as well. This was all so thrilling, not in the least because of the slight chance he'd get busted, that he went shopping for free at other stores as well in the Docks, Bridge, Promenade and Slums districts, including Bernard at the CC, and even in the sewers (Roger the Fence). Nymand never got busted and he now keeps more than a thousand enchanted arrows in an ammo belt, and he owns dozens of useful potions, and plenty of spells that might become useful at some point. Also, the fencing of stolen goods netted him more gold than he had ever had (>50k GP), which allowed him the purchase of items that could not be stolen, such as Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise and Mercykiller Ring at the Adventurer Mart, and a Deep Red Ioun Stone identical to the one he had bought once at the High Hedge, as well as the Black Cat's Claw (Ninja-To +2, +1 Dex, +1 Luck), an enchanted buckler useful mainly for its daily Improved Invisibility ability, and a cowl that gives immunity to backstab and poison, all from his friend Marina at the Thieves Guild.
At the Graveyard district Nymand entered one the tombs where he met Pai'Na, a Hive Mistress, and agreed to retrieve Spiders's Bane for her from its wielders in the Sewers. Hidden in shadows he snuck past Spiders and Beholders to complete this quest.
He was rewarded with Kitthix, the Black Spider Figurine, and had Cromwell upgrade it to make it a bit hardier in battle. In the Bridge District, Improved Kitthix immediately proved her worth against Tirdir's buriers.
Nymand is currently level 14, with Find and Set Traps around 100 (thanks in part to items), with his average stealth around 120 (thanks again to items), and with 100 Detect Illusions. He was already proficient in Short Swords/Ninja-To and Shortbows, and has achieved *** in Two Weapon Fighting. If he reaches level 16, his next proficiency will probably be Clubs so that he can work with blunt weapons as well.