I'm beginning to grow cautiously optimistic that I might be able to get BG city for once in a strict no-reload game. The party just arrived at the bandit camp and they're fairly capable. Hull is at -8 AC with Bendalis' Bard Song; and Thorla at -6. I'm getting an annoying bug with Carbos special snare which should Slow but instead often encloses the target with an Otiluke's sphere (that shouldn't happen until level 16). But the BH traps really help a lot with a party like this. Hopefully I can get to Davaeorn and survive that fight.
Addedum to the above: I haven't used a Bounty Hunter in a long while (I think I tried it once maybe a decade ago, but didn't care for it so I quickly abandoned the playthrough). The Otiluke's bug is a technical glitch which gives me the option to reload, I suppose... But assuming that it's going to happen regularly, if I am to work with the bug I guess I can use it to my advantage by having the party retreat, have Carbos start withholding his regular snare and set it then, plus have Imoen place some Skull traps. Then when the Otiluke's spell ends, wham.
Alright then, success in completion of chapter 3. I was pretty well set up for the boss tent bandit camp fight to begin with due to Imoen preemptively casting Resist Fear. But the bosses all succumbed to Horror, so they were fish in a barrel. (With SCS installed this battle is much more challenging, I realize.)
Some minor inconvenience of, prior to the fight, having neglected to buy potions of perception and master thievery for Carbos. (All of his skill points have gone into traps and stealth. And Imoen doesn't have her Thief skills back yet). So after taking out the bosses I had to travel to Durlag's Tower to buy them from Erdaine.
And then I looted the camp first for once. And this taught me something: Lesson: loot the camp first; defeat the Chill; then kill all the Black Talon, in that order. Usually I just kill all the bandits first right out of the boss tent, then loot the camp. And it's toughest when walking out of the boss tent and turning the enemies hostile, dealing with all those Black Talon archers. I typically cast Sleep and Horror but the party usually takes significant damage from all those arrows.
However, this time I looted first, finishing with the interior of the tent that's next to Arundor Crush last of all. And then the Chill become hostile when you exit that tent. But the Chill are a heckuva lot easier to defeat first. After killing them you can sneak up on the Black Talons and use Sleep and/or Horror from outside their perception range; which I did to render them all incapable of defending themselves. It's a bit of a pain to chase down the panicked ones, but I had three characters hurling darts so it worked out. Taugosz was the only one left standing when Horror wore off, but he was badly injured from the darts and Imoen Blinded him. So he fell in a couple of hits from Hull and Thorla. And that was all she wrote.
Now back in Beregost the party is well equipped and has about 20,500 gp to spend. Reputation is Heroic at 20, and Imoen with Algernon's cloak and Friends has 25 Cha. I'm going to buy the the Dagger of Venom for Imoen at 6700 gp which is rock bottom; before too long she'll get her Thief skills back and can use it. But I'm mulling over whether to buy the Shadow Armor for Carbos. I'll still have nearly 7000 gp after both purchases... Plus just around the corner the party is about to cash out a lot of loot from Cloakwood... I guess I might as well buy both. Once Carbos gets his hands on the katana +1 at Davaeorn's lair he'll be able to backstab as well. (He's lacked a weapon with which to do it!) So he'll need lower AC.
I'm also deliberating over whether to just head into Cloakwood now or finish up the biggest scores on the countryside maps. There isn't a great deal left... At least one will have to wait: the sirines along the coastline maps I have avoided until I can get my hands on a potion of clarity at Sorcerous Sundries. There's one more potion of perception for sale by Erdaine that I could use to have Carbos detect traps (then putting him only at 25 Detect Traps, though!) in the Firewine dungeon; but for that I think I'd prefer to wait until Imoen gets her Thief skills back. Sendai's party I inadvertently dismissed by trying a dialogue option that I normally don't select... But anyway, some of what's left is relatively easy: the gnolls at the stronghold, Val and Zax, Corsone and Osmodi, the four Red Wizards, and Ioin's party on the Lonely Peaks map... Quite a bit tougher are the four amazons assassins, Molkar's band of assassins at Gullykin, and Kirian's rival adventuring party on the basilisk map... But I'm wondering: why tempt fate?
I always spend money on wands. When you buy a wand of paralyzation or a wand of monster summoning back, they cost a fortune - but hey, they have 50 charges:)
Doh, wait, what am I thinking... I have an Inquisitor! Mind Shield plus True Seeing = vanquished sirines. (I've barely played Inquisitors over the years.)
Edit: Just tested and Mind Shield does not provide complete immunity to Dire Charm, though. So especially given that it is the PC who would be at risk (in a strict no-reload game) I definitely do want the Greenstone Amulet.
I had also overlooked Gregan's Harp for Bendalis (he's a Skald). I had some gems yet, and a few other items to sell (e.g., Imoen with DoV will not need the Whistler, etc.) which gives me a bit more buying power. But anyway, the purchases are:
Dagger of Venom Shadow Armor Greenstone Amulet Gregan's Harp
and I still have about 4500 gp left.
I bought wands of Sleep and Fear already from Thalantyr, but there's no wands of paralyzation for sale at High Hedge or Ulgoth's Beard.
Having both Algernon's Cloak and Gregan's Harp is almost game-breaking, honestly. It's possible for enemies to save against both, but at least in my experience it seems they almost never do. Anyway, with those items to take control of enemies, the enemy parties of four (i.e., Lamalha's, Ioion's, Molkar's, Kirian's) can be dispatched pretty handily just by charming two of their number to attack the other two.
Oh well, this game ended in Cloakwood when Seniyad apparently Called Lightning which killed Thorla! It's usually a pretty easy fight. Two of the enemy were charmed to fight the other two and it seemed to be well under control. But then the lightning strike. At least I'm assuming that it was the spell versus a random lightning strike.
It's okay, actually, since I need to return to my "Fates" game anyway, and at this point this game was kind of distracting from that.
I'll move this thread now to Challenges and Playthroughs. It's been a lot of fun working with this collection of characters, I look forward to firing up another one of these games one day.
Personally, I'm sad to see your run has ended. I've hoped to see Thorla beat Sarevok.
I have never looked at the Seniyad's encounter as at an easy fight. Several times in the past I had the same ending - so now I always try not only to hit Seniyad in order to stop his casting but also make a charname invisible or make him immune to lighting as soon as the dialog ends.
The "Fates" Journal is legendary, of course, so I'm looking forward to reading the continuation of it.
Comments
highest of 7 re-rolls was 86
Two-handed Sword ++
Two-weapon Style ++
with the party before leaving Candlekeep:
Some minor inconvenience of, prior to the fight, having neglected to buy potions of perception and master thievery for Carbos. (All of his skill points have gone into traps and stealth. And Imoen doesn't have her Thief skills back yet). So after taking out the bosses I had to travel to Durlag's Tower to buy them from Erdaine.
And then I looted the camp first for once. And this taught me something: Lesson: loot the camp first; defeat the Chill; then kill all the Black Talon, in that order. Usually I just kill all the bandits first right out of the boss tent, then loot the camp. And it's toughest when walking out of the boss tent and turning the enemies hostile, dealing with all those Black Talon archers. I typically cast Sleep and Horror but the party usually takes significant damage from all those arrows.
However, this time I looted first, finishing with the interior of the tent that's next to Arundor Crush last of all. And then the Chill become hostile when you exit that tent. But the Chill are a heckuva lot easier to defeat first. After killing them you can sneak up on the Black Talons and use Sleep and/or Horror from outside their perception range; which I did to render them all incapable of defending themselves. It's a bit of a pain to chase down the panicked ones, but I had three characters hurling darts so it worked out. Taugosz was the only one left standing when Horror wore off, but he was badly injured from the darts and Imoen Blinded him. So he fell in a couple of hits from Hull and Thorla. And that was all she wrote.
Now back in Beregost the party is well equipped and has about 20,500 gp to spend. Reputation is Heroic at 20, and Imoen with Algernon's cloak and Friends has 25 Cha. I'm going to buy the the Dagger of Venom for Imoen at 6700 gp which is rock bottom; before too long she'll get her Thief skills back and can use it. But I'm mulling over whether to buy the Shadow Armor for Carbos. I'll still have nearly 7000 gp after both purchases... Plus just around the corner the party is about to cash out a lot of loot from Cloakwood... I guess I might as well buy both. Once Carbos gets his hands on the katana +1 at Davaeorn's lair he'll be able to backstab as well. (He's lacked a weapon with which to do it!) So he'll need lower AC.
I'm also deliberating over whether to just head into Cloakwood now or finish up the biggest scores on the countryside maps. There isn't a great deal left... At least one will have to wait: the sirines along the coastline maps I have avoided until I can get my hands on a potion of clarity at Sorcerous Sundries. There's one more potion of perception for sale by Erdaine that I could use to have Carbos detect traps (then putting him only at 25 Detect Traps, though!) in the Firewine dungeon; but for that I think I'd prefer to wait until Imoen gets her Thief skills back. Sendai's party I inadvertently dismissed by trying a dialogue option that I normally don't select... But anyway, some of what's left is relatively easy: the gnolls at the stronghold, Val and Zax, Corsone and Osmodi, the four Red Wizards, and Ioin's party on the Lonely Peaks map... Quite a bit tougher are the four amazons assassins, Molkar's band of assassins at Gullykin, and Kirian's rival adventuring party on the basilisk map... But I'm wondering: why tempt fate?
The ring of invisibility is also a good buy.
Edit: Just tested and Mind Shield does not provide complete immunity to Dire Charm, though. So especially given that it is the PC who would be at risk (in a strict no-reload game) I definitely do want the Greenstone Amulet.
Dagger of Venom
Shadow Armor
Greenstone Amulet
Gregan's Harp
and I still have about 4500 gp left.
I bought wands of Sleep and Fear already from Thalantyr, but there's no wands of paralyzation for sale at High Hedge or Ulgoth's Beard.
Having both Algernon's Cloak and Gregan's Harp is almost game-breaking, honestly. It's possible for enemies to save against both, but at least in my experience it seems they almost never do. Anyway, with those items to take control of enemies, the enemy parties of four (i.e., Lamalha's, Ioion's, Molkar's, Kirian's) can be dispatched pretty handily just by charming two of their number to attack the other two.
It's okay, actually, since I need to return to my "Fates" game anyway, and at this point this game was kind of distracting from that.
I'll move this thread now to Challenges and Playthroughs. It's been a lot of fun working with this collection of characters, I look forward to firing up another one of these games one day.
I have never looked at the Seniyad's encounter as at an easy fight. Several times in the past I had the same ending - so now I always try not only to hit Seniyad in order to stop his casting but also make a charname invisible or make him immune to lighting as soon as the dialog ends.
The "Fates" Journal is legendary, of course, so I'm looking forward to reading the continuation of it.