The tale of a Drow (no-reload complete)
Gotural
Member Posts: 1,229
It is a dark time for the forum, the recent inactivity has caused fear and lack of no-reload playthroughs to read. In a world where @bengoshi 's hero, Yahiko, is still nowhere to be found and @Blackraven hasn't been illuminating us with one of his run for weeks ...
Some forumites started to lose hope, the prophecy of the return of summer and the World Cup at the same time is fulfilled once again.
But someone will try to stand up once again against this monster of a challenge that is SCS no-reload, he already failed in the past, but he is still going to give everything he has.
It will be hard, many rough fights await, but he is going to play his favorite game with passion and in difficulty lies joy and fun.
Rules and mods:
-Solo
-No-Reload
-Insane difficulty at all times
-Completionist
-Start with 1 reputation and can't earn reputation through donating
-SCS (full prebuff for casters)
-Item Randomiser
-BG2 Tweaks
-aTweaks
-Rogue Rebalancing
-IWDification
-BG1 casting sounds
-Dark Horizons (Blind)
-T'was a slow boat from Kara Tur (Blind)
To face this difficult challenge, I present you Yami, a 108 roll Neutral-Good Drow Berserker/Wild Mage/Shadowdancer because why not ! Let's see if a character this powerful can be enough to overcome the challenge.
Living as a Drow in the realms is far from easy. Even when you are raised by a powerful and respected Mage in a small closed library. The folks here started to trust Yami and to consider him as a good fellow. He was truely kind-hearted, something that wasn't common with the others members of his race. He learned the art of magic with his foster father, Gorion had a lot of hopes for him even if sometimes his innate power was bursting, he practiced his swordmanship with the watchers and played a lot with Imoen during his youth. He was kind of a jack-of-all-trades and had a strong inner will.
He is specialized (** pips) in Dagger and Scimitar. Being a Berserker, he can't assign more than 1 pip in a ranged weapon, so he is actually throwing daggers. He started his mage career with Sleep and Find Familiar memorized and his Thief career with 30 points in Open Lock.
In Candlekeep, Yami did all his chores and picked some chests, most notably those in the Inn. He looted a very beautiful sapphire which was worth 1.000 gold. He also encountered some bounty hunters, Shank and Carbos weren't threats. After speaking with them, Yami simply threw a dagger, which was fatal. However, he also met another guy in the basement ...
After a Sleep spell.
Maybe he was the source of the rat infiltration in the fortress. Anyway, Gorion was right, this place was becoming too dangerous and Yami decided to join his foster father and to flee Candlekeep. He spoke with Imoen before, she wanted to travel with him but knew Gorion wouldn't permit it.
Gorion told him that they were going to travel this night if they could. The shadows would help them to escape, unobserved.
This was but a terrible mistake.
After 4 hours of walking, they were ambushed by a group of bandits. They wanted Yami at all cost, but Gorion refused. After he yelled to flee, Gorion started to cast some powerful spells and dispatched most of them. But in the end, the armored figure slayed him. Hidden in a tree, Yami saw all the scene and he was destroyed. The man who raised him, gave him education and a chance to live in this ruthless world was taken away from him. A part of him died at the same time Gorion felled to the ground. He didn't even know why they were after him and why Gorion had to pay the cost of his ignorance ...
Some forumites started to lose hope, the prophecy of the return of summer and the World Cup at the same time is fulfilled once again.
But someone will try to stand up once again against this monster of a challenge that is SCS no-reload, he already failed in the past, but he is still going to give everything he has.
It will be hard, many rough fights await, but he is going to play his favorite game with passion and in difficulty lies joy and fun.
Rules and mods:
-Solo
-No-Reload
-Insane difficulty at all times
-Completionist
-Start with 1 reputation and can't earn reputation through donating
-SCS (full prebuff for casters)
-Item Randomiser
-BG2 Tweaks
-aTweaks
-Rogue Rebalancing
-IWDification
-BG1 casting sounds
-Dark Horizons (Blind)
-T'was a slow boat from Kara Tur (Blind)
To face this difficult challenge, I present you Yami, a 108 roll Neutral-Good Drow Berserker/Wild Mage/Shadowdancer because why not ! Let's see if a character this powerful can be enough to overcome the challenge.
Living as a Drow in the realms is far from easy. Even when you are raised by a powerful and respected Mage in a small closed library. The folks here started to trust Yami and to consider him as a good fellow. He was truely kind-hearted, something that wasn't common with the others members of his race. He learned the art of magic with his foster father, Gorion had a lot of hopes for him even if sometimes his innate power was bursting, he practiced his swordmanship with the watchers and played a lot with Imoen during his youth. He was kind of a jack-of-all-trades and had a strong inner will.
He is specialized (** pips) in Dagger and Scimitar. Being a Berserker, he can't assign more than 1 pip in a ranged weapon, so he is actually throwing daggers. He started his mage career with Sleep and Find Familiar memorized and his Thief career with 30 points in Open Lock.
In Candlekeep, Yami did all his chores and picked some chests, most notably those in the Inn. He looted a very beautiful sapphire which was worth 1.000 gold. He also encountered some bounty hunters, Shank and Carbos weren't threats. After speaking with them, Yami simply threw a dagger, which was fatal. However, he also met another guy in the basement ...
After a Sleep spell.
Maybe he was the source of the rat infiltration in the fortress. Anyway, Gorion was right, this place was becoming too dangerous and Yami decided to join his foster father and to flee Candlekeep. He spoke with Imoen before, she wanted to travel with him but knew Gorion wouldn't permit it.
Gorion told him that they were going to travel this night if they could. The shadows would help them to escape, unobserved.
This was but a terrible mistake.
After 4 hours of walking, they were ambushed by a group of bandits. They wanted Yami at all cost, but Gorion refused. After he yelled to flee, Gorion started to cast some powerful spells and dispatched most of them. But in the end, the armored figure slayed him. Hidden in a tree, Yami saw all the scene and he was destroyed. The man who raised him, gave him education and a chance to live in this ruthless world was taken away from him. A part of him died at the same time Gorion felled to the ground. He didn't even know why they were after him and why Gorion had to pay the cost of his ignorance ...
Post edited by Gotural on
11
Comments
C:CreateItem("mdk2summ")Then cast the mdk2 spell on your character. This should lower your multiplier by one point permanently. Note that this may create a minor issue in which the increase in backstab multiplier reports incorrectly when you level up. It should not have any effect on your actual backstab value so you will just have to ignore it.Make sure you let me know if you encounter any issues with doing this so I can try to fix them.
Yami was now alone, south of the ambush point. When he awoke, he was greeted by Imoen who understood what was going on. She offered to travel with him, but he declined, he didn't want Imoen to get injured. Instead, they buried Gorion then they travelled back to Candlekeep, where Imoen stayed.
After that, he started to roam the Sword Coast while. He hunted some bears and wolves on his way.
He was afraid of going in a city, he was sure people wouldn't be as kind as those in Candlekeep. Maybe this Friendly Arm Inn could be a good place to go first. He encountered an Ogre on the road to the Inn which fell to a Sleep spell. He looted a magical piece of studded leather (I'm already loving Item Randomiser) and two girdles.
When he arrived at the Friendly Arm Inn, Yami definitely didn't want to attract attention from guards. He hid in the shadows and managed to enter the tavern. There, he spoke with a few persons, notably Unshey who wanted his girdle back. Luckily enough, it was one of the two girdles he found earlier on the road and was happy to give it back to its owner. Landrin told him her house in Beregost was infested by spiders, giant spiders. Joia asked him to retrieve his ring, stolen by some Hobgoblins out of the Inn.
After doing this last quest, he decided it was time for him to leave the place, lurking in the shadows.
He didn't know where to go then, Beregost seemed like a good idea, but he wouldn't be able to hide at all time. Yami decided to wander in the forest a little bit.
After slaying some skeletons and wolves, he met a strange chicken, able to speak in common.
The chicken told him he was called Melicamp, and that he was victim of a spell. The only way to save him would be to accompany him to his master Thalantyr north of here. Yami accepted, and he made his way to a little castle. The residence of a powerful mage according to the little chicken.
Inside the building, they had no troubles to find master Thalantyr, who was furious against Melicamp, who seemed to be his apprentice. The only way to save the poor Melicamp would be to cast a powerful spell on him which requires a skull ... Fortunately, Yami knew where to find some. He hunted another skeleton, the area was infested by them and gave the skull to Thalantyr who used his powerful magic to transform Melicamp back to his original form, it worked ! The master was convinced of the good intentions of the Drow and allowed him to buy what he wanted in his collection of magic items. Yami decided to bought a Potion Case before heading to the south east, getting around Beregost.
On the road, he saw two Ogrillons feasting on the corpse of a little person. Yami decided to avenge him.
He found a letter on the corpse. The halfling was a messenger ! The letter must be delivered in Beregost.
This time, Yami decided he had to travel to the city of Beregost, no matter the risks.
Beregost was far smaller than what he thought, it wasn't a big city like Baldur's Gate itself. Still, it was better for him to hide himself as much as possible with a cloak and a hood.
He gave the letter to Mirianne who thanked him with a small ring, infused with magical properties. Then he talked to one of his few friends from Candlekeep : Firebead. He asked him to buy him a book in the nearest inn. In the inn, Yami was accosted by Marl who didn't like his face. He knew beforehand this kind of conflicts would come one day or another, but he managed to calm Marl and no blood was shed.
Happy with how events turned out, Yami went to Landrin's house. The spiders were a lot bigger than what he thought and he escaped the house, with the giant spiders following him.
But a Sleep spell later, the battle was won.
He looted the biggest corpse, and everything Landrin wanted him to retrieve, then headed back to the Friendly Arm Inn. The gnome was very pleased with the results and gave Yami a fair amount of gold.
Now he must decide where to go next ...
dark - olath
gods - phraktos
help - xxizz
in - wun
may - xal
quest - juss'a
your - dosst
What a wonderful idea. I've always thought about you, @Gotural , as a draw. So, it's a match made in heaven.
A wild mage in a no-reload? Burn Mother F, BURN!
@Sergio Indeed, I used EE:Keeper to change everything about my character, except the backstab progression.
@Metalloman Thank you, I truely appreciate it.
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Update :
Yami still didn't know where to go. When he left the Inn, a Human interrupted him.
"Would you come from Candlekeep by any chance ? Yes ? Don't move, I've got something for you ..."
It was Tarnesh, a mage, throwing Magic Missiles at him. Yami managed to avoid his projectiles using the door and the stairs of the Inn, and finished him with some daggers.
After this was done, he decided to explore the road south of Beregost once again. Here he met a young woman with dark skin ...
Yami felt something inside him, it was the first time he encountered someone of his own race. And this person was attacked by some guard of the Flaming Fist. As soon as the guard understood he was also a drow, he decided to draw steel. The fight wasn't really hard, but Yami asked himself a lot of questions about good and evil. In the end, Viconia, surprised by his true nature, fled the scene.
Later on, on the same area, he hunted a few Hobgoblins, one of them had a special pair of boots which allows their wearer to be more silent.
On the road, he met some others Flaming Fists he avoided, then he met what looked like a couple.
Both were assassins charge to eliminate him. While Tristan wasn't a threat because he fell to a Sleep spell, Isolde was far deadlier and threw a returning dagger with supernatural speed. But his training in hiding started to show some progress and he managed to kill her without being seen.
He looted some very powerful weapons on the corpses, and headed south soon after.
After slaying some hobgoblins, he retrieved 2 necklaces with the name "Colquette" written on them. Yami decided it would be best to go back to Beregost to see if anyone would be interested.
Back in town, Firebead told him he knew the owner of these, it was the house next to his own. The owner was extremely sad yet thankful towards Yami.
He then decided it was a good time to break a break in a inn. But he was attacked by Karlat, another dward bounty hunter. This one was tough albeit stupid, and Yami had no trouble playing hide and seek for 5 minutes before he dealt the killing blow.
He also met Perdue in this inn, a Halfling who was seeking his short sword. Luckily, Yami found it earlier near Thalantyr's house and he was happy to give it back to the little man.
Afterward, he headed to the south west. He was hunting a group of Half-Ogres he heard about in another inn of the city.
He initiated a fight, but something didn't turn out well ...
Ambushed by another group of bandits, Yami had no choice but to escape the area as fast as possible.
After he escaped them, he decided to come back later in the night and to dispatch the bandits first.
And he finally took care of the Half-Ogres.
He continued to travel south west for a long time, he killed a lot of wolves and bears, hostiles to him.
At some point, he fought an entire village of Xvarts and their bear god. He also entered the cave of the village and found some meager loots.
Soon after, he crossed the road of someone who looked like a bounty hunter, Borda was his name.
Yami tried to ambush him first, but this man was very resilient, especially to magic, and he went invisible a few times with potions.
Yami thought maybe this one was too tough for him, he was taking risks for no reason so he simply left the fight, hidden in the shadows and continued his walk.
Soon after, he got ambushed once again. Everybody wanted him dead, it was incredible !
This time it was a small group of bandits, mainly composed of Hobgoblins.
He incapacitated the majority of them with a Sleep spell and killed them one after another.
After the fight, Yami observed his environnement and saw a big fortress south west of here, he thought it would be a good place to seek adventures and the next place he would go. He made his way between the trees and reached a bridge, this one was carefully defended by a bunch of Ogres and Hobgoblins.
During the travel, he encountered some more Ogres, but also some bears, a polar bear, and Laurel, a knight who thought Drows were malefics by nature and who tried to kill Yami who had no choice but to eliminate her.
A few hours later, he managed to reach the fortress. Apparently, it wasn't a friendly place. The bridge was guarded by two Ogrillons who wanted him to pay a tax of 200 gold pieces. Of course, Yami thought otherwise, and a battle occured.
But after he killed the first one, someone hostile showed up.
Yami decided to backstab this one first before finishing the last Ogrillon.
After looting them, he discovered the man was only a scoot. A larger group of assassins was next to the entrance of the fortress. Some powerful foes, able to cast some level 5 spells like Shadow Door.
Fortunately, they had no way to detect invisibility and thus, the Hide In Plain Sight ability of Yami proved to be much for them to handle.
He found a lot of magical equipments on them, but nothing worthy for the moment apart from a few number of mage scrolls. He decided he would sell the rest later, and he put everything in his Bag of Holding he bought earlier at the Friendly Arm Inn.
He cleaned the Gnoll Fortress and the caves beneath but found nothing interesting.
He is now heading back to Beregost to identify and sell his treasure !
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Character Sheet
Now that Yami is a level 5 Shadowdancer, he can truely backstab (x2) which is really cool. He already has nearly 100 in Move Silently and Hide in Shadow thanks to Zhurlong's boots which is pretty amazing.
Also, these fights gave another evidence that HiPs is very handy in a solo run.
And I like your HPs. Respect for random rolls xD
The run itself is very impressive, too.
@Sergio It seems the foes from Dark Horizons are very very well equipped, after seeing some items sold by the merchants, I'm actually very afraid of going into melee and being instantly decapited/petrified or something else with no save.
@abazigal5 The roll isn't legit, 108 is the highest you can possibly get (all 18) and I don't think anyone ever got it without cheating. I could have went with a legit roll, dumping my Wisdom, it wouldn't have changed anything honestly so I went with an epic Bhaalspawn instead. Thanks !
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Update :
After clearing the Gnoll Fortress, Yami made his way out of the area. In the wilderness, he was ambushed by a heavy group of two Ogres Berzerker, an Ogre Mage and one Ogrillon.
He tried to hide in the shadows, but the sun was bright which limited his abilities.
The enemy Ogre Mage was casting something, Yami had no choice but to use his newly obtained Shadow Step spell.
Frozen in time, they couldn't follow Yami who managed to escape swiftly. But it wasn't over. He taunted the fighters to isolate the Ogre Mage and reached him, invisible.
Soon after, a Winter Wolf joined the fight.
But nothing HiPs + the Belt of Antipode couldn't solve.
Afterward, Yami found the cat of Drienne, a little girl, and helped a Dryad to defend her trees against mindless brutes. He also explored a few more caves and slew a few more Gnolls and Dire Wolves.
In the end, he reached the Friendly Arm Inn without being hurt.
There, he sold a lot of items and earned quite a fortune.
Then, he went to the Temple east of Beregost. He fought a huge pack of Worgs, Dire Wolves and Vampiric Wolves.
Afterward, he continued to travel to the east. He reached an area filled with human-looking statues made of stone. After he saw some Basilisks a bit farther, he casted some spells to protect himself from their gazes.
But he also encountered another group of arrogants adventurers.
Nothing interesting on them, once again.
Finally, he met who was responsible of all this madness, the Gnome Mutamin. Because the later resisted his Web spell and because Yami's protections were about to fall off, he needed to flee a few moments to buff himself once again with Protection from Petrification and Shield. He also eliminated a Greater Basilisk at this point. Then he came back and finished the spellcaster.
And at last, he saved a young woman who was petrified, before leaving himself the area.
Do you have any way of getting elven chainmail? I'm just curious since the only way to get it normally is via Dorn's quest. Even if it weakens your thief skills, it would probably be a very handy thing to have. Although now that I think about it, an archmage's robe would probably be a better choice overall. Same AC and no thief skill reduction...
I won't spoil the items for those who want to try the mod, it's pretty cool but a bit over the top.
On his way back, Yami crossed the road of a horde of hobgoblins leaded by Cattack and ended their lives prematurely. He entered the temple and learned about Bassilus, so he decided to pay him a little visit.
After a short fight, Bassilus tried to escape with a Sanctuary spell and started to heal himself, but Yami disrupted him twice with his Fireball spells.
In the same area, he fought another bunch of Hobgoblins leaded this time by Zargal, though the result was the same.
Afterward, he continued to walk to the west and reached the coast.
He slew some Worgs which were threatening a little boy in a phare and scooted some Sirines, he dealt with the firsts of them one at a time then he met their mistress, Sil.
Still hidden, Yami started this fight by casting two Web spells, followed quickly by two Fireball spells, then he finished his prey at range with his throwing daggers while she was still stuck by the magic.
It seems they were guarding some sort of a cave, Yami entered and eliminated the Flesh Golems in it. After disarming some traps, he found a big treasure including the Tome of Constitution.
Outdoors, he fought some more hobgoblins and Arkushule, a mage who went insane when Yami asked her to tell him what she saw for his future.
After collecting he bounty for Bassilus, he went to Nashkel. In the inn, he was attacked by Neira who went down pretty fast. He visited the local carnival and prevented Zordral from executing Bentha and also killed the Amazing Oopah.
After he had a good time, it was time for Yami to go the mines.
During his travel, he was ambushed by a group of bandits, ready to kill him for his money. But a dark knight, Dorn was his name, came here to settle an old conflict. Combining their efforts, the Half-Orc and the Drow annihilated their opponents in a gory bloodshed. The first heard about the latter, and proposed to join him to destroy the whole Sword Coast.
Of course Yami refused and thought he would probably hear about the dark knight again, later.
When he finally arrived near the mines, Yami was once again attacked by another bounty hunter, but he had become so elusive, that simple fighters like this one couldn't hurt him anymore.
After this quick fight, he found Prism a bit south of the mines and defended him against Greywolf.
After this was done, he could enter the mines ...
Yami quickly evolved in the mines, hidden in the shadows, he didn't want to waste his time on mere Kobolds. He reached the bottom of the place as fast as possible, but not without doing the Kylee's dagger quest and retrieving Joseph's ring.
But just before crossing the trapped bridge above lava, he scooted a group of Duergars who were waiting for him. After he prepared himself for the fight, he fought them using a combination of magic and martial skills.
Afterward, he slew some Giant Spiders and a group of elites Kobolds, leaded by a shaman and a chieftain, before entering Mulahey's lair.
He started the fight by backstabing Mulahey to death before blasting his allies with two Fireball spells, the later triggered a cosmetic Wild Surge.
After he looted the place, he escaped and arrived in a desertic looking area south east of Nashkel. He cleared this map and rescued Samuel on the other area.
When he came back to Nashkel, he was attacked by Nimbul the Thief/Mage who died by the hand of an Amnian soldier.
Yami continued to explore the areas around Nashkel and dealt with Sendai and his party, Vax and Zal, Albert and his "dog" Rufie, Lamalha and her amazons, Brage, the Doomsayer at the end of the excavation, Ba'ruk and his Commando Kobolds, Daer'Ragh (in case you didn't know this easter egg, here are two screenshots )
but also with Shoal the Nereid, Arcand the Mad and finally Tranzig.
Before he died, Tranzig gave Yami some informations concerning the Bandit Camp east of the Friendly Arm Inn, so this is where he headed.
In the woods, Yami encountered Raiken and Teven, both times they asked him to give them all his money but in both cases he replied with some Fireballs. He also met and killed Osmadi and his companion the shadow druid Corsone.
Later in the forest, he disturbed some kind of ritual done by Red Mages.
A Wild Surge occured in this fight, polymorphing Denak in a wolf, unable to cast spells. After he was done with this one, he killed two of them with more Fireballs before finishing Diana in melee range.
After this big fight, Yami is now heading to the Bandit Camp, where a beautiful fireworks will take place !
Concerning this mysterious encounter, I think that as long they can't see invisibility passively (like Liches for example), they can't really harm me.
I hope I won't reach Mage level 12, because that would means level 6 spells which would really unbalance the game. As long as I don't reach this, it's simply a few more HP and THAC0 each time I level up which I'm fine with.
Yami finally reached the Bandit Camp, he waited for the night to attack.
During this time he prepared the spells he would need for this battle, when the sun has set, he looked around the area, hidden in the shadows and made a plan.
When everything was ready, he casted Spirit Armor and Shield upon himself and entered the encampment.
He killed a guard and alarmed everyone, dragging them to his location.
When they were all together, he held most of them with a Web spell and started to blast them away with his Wand of Fire / Fireball spells ... It took no less than 10 Fireball to clean the camp.
When the fight was over, it took Yami half an hour to loot everything in this place, he ended up discovering some interesting letters about the Cloakwood mines. He knew where to look next.
On his way back to the Friendly Arm Inn, a group of mercenaries attacked him. They were 4 men leaded by Molkar. Yami rapidly dispatched Halacan, before he failed to hide in the shadows. As his enemies were closing in, he casted a Dimension Door to buy himself some time. Once he managed to cast some buffs, he killed them in melee using some backstabs.
Once he arrived to the FAI, he heard some spellcasting not too far away, another ambush ? (the combat log was filled with prebuffing)
It seems he was right, he scooted a group of 4 persons waiting for someone. When he approached, their leader, Najara, was persuaded that Yami was a killer of innocents and despite all his attempts to convince her that this was not the case, a battle occured ...
While Vallius and the 2 guards weren't threats, Najara was a fierce and dangerous fighter. One that Yami prefered to avoid as much as possible, hiding in the shadows. In the end, he finished her off with a Magic Missile.
On their bodies, some superb items were to be found. Especially a nice blazing scimitar Yami decided to use with his left hand.
In the Friendly Arm Inn, he was asked by a group of monks from Kara Tur to retrieve a special bag for them. Seini gave him an ice crystal he assured the need to retrieve the illustrious "Bag of Red". He also gave him some Potion of Clarity to protect him against the powers of a Sirine.
Yami decided to do this task first before heading for Cloakwood, so he travelled south west in direction of the boat he discovered a few days earlier.
When he arrived, he met Alura, a powerful Sirine who wanted the same thing. She even brought a enormous Golem to try to carry the Bag of Red, but the monk was right. No such strenght could carry it, only the wielder of the Ice Crystal could do so. Frustrated, Alura wanted to kill Yami to steal the crystal.
Afterward, Yami made his way back to the Friendly Arm Inn and gave back the bag and the crystal to Seini who was really pleased. He allowed him to buy what he wanted from his possessions and also gave him a present, a very interesting and powerful artifact which make his wearer blind, but the legends say it can be upgraded.
After all these adventures, Yami is now travelling to Cloakwood ...