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No reload BG2EE SCS2 minimal npc's REQUEST challenge

EA1EA1 Member Posts: 31
in Challenges and Playthroughs
Hi,

Im super hyped, I hope you guys too ;). My char is a Mage2/Cleric7 dual:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nqlsiwj9tw1tfyg/Schermafdruk 2014-11-03 13.09.23.png?dl=0

Rules:

-NO RELOAD. This is a one time thing. Dead = dead in all cases except bugs or crashes.
-I want to make this a REQUEST challenge. That means Ill do the quest YOU want to see and even take suggestions on how to do them. Please leave your request in this thread. The one with the most votes Ill take on.
-I'll stay as realistic as possible. Metagaming only if it fits the story, no other unrealistic things, like the usual: trapping in front of enemies, resting a billion times, preparing fights I wouldnt see coming, etc.
-Its SCS2 max installment + Tweaks. Core difficulty. No other mods except RR, RE and Flirtpack.
-I'll play 1 hour a day, max.
-I'll do 1 npc companion, trying solo as much as possible:

>Korgan for his quest and any evil quests
>Yoshimo for any thief related quests
>Keldorn/Anomen for Unseeing Eye/ Windspear hills
>Nalia for her quest
>Aerie for Haer Dalis quest
>Valygar for his quest
>Mazzy for shade lord quest
>Edwin for any mage-related quest
>Viconia for the underdark
>Cernd for the druid quest
>Jaheira for the harper quests and as a romance starting from Suhaigin City
>Imoen for the maze and Bodhi quest
>Minsc for any fight against vampires for his preferred enemy: vampires and specialization in the disruptor mace
>BGEE new npc's for their quests

I will take a (max 3 npc's) party to the underdark and beyond though. Ill try to romance Jaheira but wont recruit her untill I plan to take sail.

Ill add a part I call: 'interesting happenings' where I tell you in detail about the interesting thing(s) that happened during my sessions.

Ill start in the next day or so.

Wish me luck!

Comments

  • EA1EA1 Member Posts: 31
    Post1: Getting started


    Raven is a grim man. A strong, devoted cleric to both good and evil gods. After crushing his powerful Bhaalspawn brother he didn't expect to get captured so easily. But this man.. this Irenicus.. is something else..

    Having to coop up the hate until after he got out of this dungeon of torture, Raven got out with Imoen, Jaheira, Yoshimo and Minsc with not much trouble. He did have to slay three dryads who thought they could charm his old friend Minsc without consequence. Their request, having to fight more duergar, especially one as reputedly nasty as their leader, was not something he wanted to do.

    Having looted the dungeon and escaped backstabbing thieves and leftover duergar, Raven was happy to see daylight once more.. Only to see his best friend wisked away. Both Imoen and Irenicus would hold his attention for a while to come, so he dicided to ask around.

    Jaheira stated that "she would take revenge on those responsible, with our without me. If I were to help, fine. If not, I was to stand aside!" I told her now was not the time, and she briskly left for the harper hold. Sad to see such a strong woman go.

    Minsc was raging wild, wanting to take on the mage as soon as possible. He almost hurled himself at him while he was blasting all those thieves like they were just chaff in the wind.. Minsc is useful, but also quite insane. I told him to look for clues in nearby taverns and ask for aid, more to cool his nerves than to get rid of him. He did just that and left.

    Feeling quite deserted, Raven sat down and rested his weary body. Yoshimo, his new thief comrade, mentioned that the Shadow Thieves might be willing to help (also for his sake as he seemed to be in debt with them). Having no where else to go, Raven decided to take him up on his offer. Unto the slums and the docks then.. Twould be good to rest and drink get his hands on some gold and loot, Raven thought..

    ----------------
    Interesting happenings
    ----------------
    Slaying the three dryads was not something I had thought about before this run, but Raven seemed like a char who would do so. They went down easy and it was satisfying to kill them and end their pain.

    More later! :)

    REQUEST// You may lay down any requests you have about places to go or tactics/items to use, etc. I will do the thieves guild quests next but after that all is free. As the run will go on I expect it to yield more varied places to go, interesting happenings and near death experiences.
  • EA1EA1 Member Posts: 31
    edited November 2014
    Update2: Death already...

    Everything was going wel for the mage/cleric until he decided to get the bag of holding from hexxat. He had done the thieves quest and narrowly escaped a horror by gulping an invisibility potion which kept him from dying while running around panicked and invisible. Entering hexxats tomb and killing dragomir should be fun and easy (I have never done her quests after that so could be fun). Last time he fell surprisingly easy and Raven can summon skeletons and buff.

    Dragomir charged into 3 of hexxatts traps and got stabbed and hit for 18 and 12 damage. A few more hits got him to near death. All was good until he dominated Raven. This was bad so Hexxat ran and the skeletons got crushed cause dragomir hits like a truck (he is a cambion warrior after all). Dragomir followed Hexxat and a cat and mouse game began. Eventually she got found out and got dominated but Raven was himself again and hit Dragomir for about 30 damage. To my surprise he was only badly injured after that.

    Who knew that Dragomir regenerates about 10 hp per round... I didnt... Before Raven could get over his surprise the undead dominated him a second time and ordered both him and hexxat to slith their own throats... A horrible, lonely and pointless death in the end...
    --------------



    Luckely I wasnt to attached to this char (not enough time), so I made a new char:


    Raven2
    Kensai9/ DruidX
    with only 15 strength and 9 dexterity, making this a huge challenge. I want to make optimal use of shapechange Bear and Elemental if I get that far and specialize in daggers and use darts of stunning and wounding as well.

    --------------

    Raven2 got out of Irenicus dungeon just fine and both Minsc and Jaheira left him, leaving him stuck with Yoshimo. Yoshimo got chunked by one of the Gaethras golems so Raven had to tank the wizard himself, using the stairs to dodge several deadly spells. After freeing Hendak, getting a statue for helm, bringing back a stuffed bear, helping out a mourning paladin, preventing a lady from getting buried alive, and finishing the Thieves guild quests Raven got his Kensai levels again. He got the bag of holding, and several other containers and is headed for Trademeet now, to save it and help out a fellow druid...



    --------------

    Interesting happenings:
    -Raven2 had to abandon the dying harper and therefore all the harper quests, rather then getting hit by charm which he could only outrun as a wolf.
    -Raven is in wolfshape a lot because it is permahasted, which makes soloing a lot less tedious.
    -Rogues Rebalancing sells a bunch of awesome new daggers, which makes using daggers and darts fresh and fun.
    -I had to gimp both strength and dex for this build, because a fighter druid dual seemingly needs charisma and wisdom to be high (?). I also needed all the hp I could get (random rolls - core) so con had to be 18. Anyway, it does make things a lot more interesting. Bearform actually makes my 9 dex higher to 12, and rases strength to 18/00. Combine that with DUHM and KAI and Raven becomes a deadly grissly monster. If I'm not wrecking face I throw darts of stunning or cast call lightning, which does an average of 40 damage per hit.


    ---------------

    On another note, I have only had 15 views or so and no replies, so I wonder how 'alive' this forum is, or how interesting my challenge is for you guys. I hope to hear more feedback or else I might consider switching forums or stop writing up.
    Cheer, E


  • lolienlolien Member, Moderator, Translator (NDA) Posts: 3,108
    Keep up the good work @EA1‌!

    It's always interesing to read a no reload run, and i like your name selection too ;)

    Challenge and playthroughs is a slower area on the forum, i used to be impatient waiting for feedbacks also, but they will come with time, trust me :)

    And i recommend you to advertise your playthrough here:
    http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/33353/advertise-your-written-play-through-s#latest

    (you can find there some good playthroughs too)
  • BlackravenBlackraven Member Posts: 3,486
    @EA1, hey friend! I just saw this thanks to your advertising your playthrough :)
    Kensai Druid seems awesome to me! Have you got the Amulet of Power yet? If not, I think the Shade Lord might be very risky... Should Raven insist, here's @bengoshi's excellent way of tackling the Shade Lord with a Totemic Druid: http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/565673/#Comment_565673
    Best of luck! Will bookmark this to receive notice of your updates.
  • EA1EA1 Member Posts: 31
    Hey BR! Thanks a bunch (and for your recent uploads as well). Well see how I do, Im going for it because Hexxat and Dorn are both immune to level drain!! :O
  • ElrandirElrandir Member Posts: 1,664
    I can't wait to see how a Kensai>Druid works. It's something I've never thought of before! Hope you do well!
  • EA1EA1 Member Posts: 31
    Episode 3: Mighty foes

    So how dit Raven do against the ThaxxlSyllia and improved shade lord? Read on..

    Facing of with the shadowdragon even made Dorn gulp. Such might! So how are we doing:

    Raven: Kensai9/Druid11
    Dorn Il Khan: Level 10 Blackguard
    Korgan: Level 9 Berserker
    Hexxat: Level 10 Thief
    Mazzy: Level 9 fighter

    We freed Mazzy the halfling paladin, only to find she had 5 pips in shortbows and 1 pip in shord swords... lame?

    I added two pics of Raven and his equipment, check them out.

    Since I dont like cheese I like to keep these fights as 'realistic' as possible. So Raven took a long good look at his surroundings, while the shadow stone kept him and his allies completely hidden. He noticed a beautiful(ly drawn) hidden alcove and decided to try to build a danger zone there, meaning he would keep some summons there and retreat there when things went south hill. Hexxat also tried to lay here 3 traps somewhere in the alcove (roleplaying it like making it collapse on the dragons head) and succeeded twice with 55 in traps. Resting now to be able to lay more traps made no freaking sense so it had to be just the 2 traps in the alcove.

    He then buffed completely, casting DUHM, bless, barkskin etc. Raven then walked up to the Shadow dragon casting negative plane protection on Korgan and himzelf (not knowing it doesnt protect against shadow dragon breath...). Strangely enough the dragon noticed it.... CRAP! -There goes my planning!

    Now read carefully because I forgot to take pics because of the nerves (it was a nervewrecking battle):

    Thaxxlsylia the mighty laughed at our stupidity and vowed to eat us alive. Before Dorn with poisoned blade or Korgan could even hit him his protections got up causing both Mazzy and Korgan to shout in frustration: no bloody effect!

    He knocked Korgan back in two succesive hits dealing a sum of about 80 damage and then wing buffeted him away. While Korgan was gulping grater healing potions like it was ale Dorn and Raven, together with a fire elemental tried to distract the dragon. I had to pause and think a while: what to do while the PFMW would run out? (btw I didnt have any normal weapons with me, stupidly enough...). I tried Dorns drain health which actually hurt the dragon for about 20 damage (nice) and Raven tried to cast an insect plague. It got through his protections causing him to actually be panicked for like 5 seconds. I still couldnt hurt him though...

    After a while Mazzys first arrow hit for about 12 damage I believe (grandmastery in bows good after all?) and Raven cast a genie form a bottle. The genie got to hit off two freshly made stoneskins before it was deathspelled. Our foe then decided to try his breath on the two nearest, Dorn hacking away at him (but missing all the time) and Hexxat throwing darts of wounding. The two had the following thoughts:

    Dorn Il Khan:
    "What is this dark breath?! It tugs at my armor and makes my heart pound... But I am unhurt... Ur Ghatoz protects me!... Waurgh!!!"
    He then got a nice backhand in the face for 32 damage......

    Hexxat:
    "What is this mist?... Level drain... Ha, dont level drain a vampire, foolish lizard!"

    Long story short the breath did absolutely nothing against a blackguard and a vampire! Mazzy got in another arrow for 10 and Thaxxlsyllia decided to start his invisibility spamming after wing buffeting the whole party left and right.

    It did give the wounded party a breather and strange illusion of safety. They all drank a potion (which were almost gone) except Raven who cast detect invisibility. When the spell resolved Thaxxlsyllia was actually standing right behind him on the complete other side of where he was standing. Such amazing AI! I wonder what his script becomes after he turns invisible.. The ability is actually called 'call shadows' and quite OP if you ask me.

    Anyway Raven and party charged again and just couldnt get any succesful hits in. I guess they were just too low a level. My cursor above its head revealed a still 'barely injured' while Ravens resources were running out. He summoned a berserker and drew in the other fire elemental who both promptly got dispelled by death spell. The dragon smacked Hexxat for 25 or so who had to retreat and Dorn who had to gulp his last potion. After which he buffeted all but Mazzy and Hexatt into the alcove. On top of that he breathed another dragon breath which, again, bounced of of Hexxat but got Mazzy to level 5. Cowering and shrinking, Mazzy crawled in a corner...

    Raven was panicking and found it was time to draw the dragon into the alcove, where he couldnt reach the party as easily and perhaps would set of some traps that could actually damage his barely injured foe. Korgan hit its tail for 15 damage.

    Having reached the alcove the two traps went of hitting Thaxxlsylia for about 10 damage each. A round later another 10+ damage twice by the poisonous traps, although Thaxxl resisted 3 damage every time.
    The lizard started fading in and out again so Raven cast his last detect invisibility. Mazzy hit a 20 roll and actually hurt it for another 10 damage albei being level 5... Poor Dorn got backhanded in the alcove. And all partymembers retreated into it, cowering for the inevitable breath.

    Raven was about to call the retreat and flee the temple when Thaxxl got hit with another 15 and 10 poison damage from the traps, immidiately causing him to turn invisible.

    A few seconds later it ended. Thaxxlsyllia appeared again and immidiately fell death when the last poison trigger hit him for 3 and 7 damage, killing him while he was moving away from the party, invisible..

    I literally was stunned for about 10 seconds and saved immidiately, realising I hadnt taken a single screenshot (sorry guys).

    Raven had 1 healing potion left and all where wounded heavily except for Raven himself who only got wing buffeted twice for about 25 damage. Mazzy got her levels back shortly after and after looting the dragon, the party rested for the Shade Lord.

    How did Raven fare against the improved Shade Lord? Find out next time...

    ----------------------

    Interesting happenings:
    -Taking on Thaxxlsylia on SCS2 with a paltry 5 man party, non hasted, without any mage, seems to be possible. In the end, the 2 OP traps did do him in, however, as the summed up damage from non traps was only about 50 the whole battle.
    -2 npcs who are immune to level drain is awesome against undead. Only undead hunters wouldve been able to do before.
    -Ill buy normal weapons for the next foe that casts PFMW its just lame to have to wait it out but it also makes you think of creative strategies like casting Dorns health drain (which overcomes all resistances it seemes) and trying to overcome their spellresistance with magic
    -The insect swarm that got him at the beginning did prevent any spells to go of, at least I think. But there was no insect damage (damage resistance I think) or further panicking because of the dragons high moral I think.

  • EA1EA1 Member Posts: 31
    Episode 4: Mighty foes 2

    Disaster struck! read on:

    Next up was Thaxxlsyllia's 'master' the shade lord, improved version.

    My strategy was to let level drain- immune Dorn and Hexxat keep him busy while the other three destroyed the shade altar and the shadows, because I know the SL's aura drains all nearby foes a level every 3 rounds or so...

    Everything was going great: a few +1 darts by Hexxat drew first blood on the SL and all other foes were destroyed, when he casts a wall of blades that chunked a fire elemental and tried a few fingers of death. One bounced of Korgan because he gulped a magic immunity potion right before the spell hit him. The other went for Dorn and killed him... He also blinded Korgan and Mazzy who then couldnt use their ranged weapons any more...

    In the mean time PFMW protected the SL so a few frustrating moments nothing could be done, but luckely the SL was distracted by Hexxat who just couldnt seem to get level drained.. Raven tried a call lightning which actually did devastating damage to the SL for 2 times 30 damage or so. The second call lighting did another 60 getting him to badly wounded. Unfortunately Raven was out of CL (if only he had the staff of thunder and lightning...) so he was effectively out of battle until the PFMW wore out.

    What then happened is still raising major eyebrows whenever I think about it. The SL proceeded to:

    SPAM A ONE HIT CHUNK ABILITY... not only instantly chunking my fellows, but also turning them into shadows. EVERY... FREAKING... 3... ROUNDS...

    WUUUT???

    I guess I forgot about that one...? The first that got chunked was Hexxat, a freaking VAMPIRE... she screamed: Quickly, get me to Dragomirs respite"... but it was too late. From her 'body' rose a shade and she was gone permanently. Remember, Dorn was dead already. Meanwhile I was still waiting for PFMW to wear out. But my moral as a player actually failed when our foe 3 rounds after chunking Hexxat also chunked and turned Mazzy (and without any save)...

    Raven and Korgan grabbed all gear they could and got the hell out of there...

    Dead so far: Yoshimo, Edwin, Hexxat, Mazzy... RIP...

    Raven picked up Valygar and, being level 9/11 now, should have no problem taking on improved Faldorn. Read about that next time...

    ----------------------------------

    Interesting happenings:

    -Call lightning would've slain the lord easily... good to know for any players who control a druid in their runs.
    -The SL's ability of instakill only seemed to happen after a turn or so, at which time I guess he gets fed up and just starts spamming it. Good to know for next time.
    -Having said that, I'm in doubt about returning and spamming call lightning because he might immidiately continue his one hit ko spamming on Raven, ending the run...
    At least Raven weakened him by slaying his pet Shadow Dragon
    -I have to say the SL has great voice acting

    Until next time!
  • EA1EA1 Member Posts: 31
    Episode 5: Faldorn, questing and pondering

    After the Shadelord fail, Raven, Korgan and Valygar fought their way to Faldorn. They did have to skip about 12 trolls and the shadowdruids waiting for them, instead relying on stealth, invisibility and sanctuary.

    Raven challenged Faldorn and fully buffed, cast an insect swarm. Faldorn couldnt compete... Even without the insect swarm and even when hit with a swarm himself Raven would just have activated Kai a couple of times and with 22 strength and kensai thaco in bear form would've probably ripped faldorn apart...

    For easy experience, Raven decided to slay the remaining critters in the druid grove, but both Valygar and Korgan got killed while trying... Raven packed their stuff in Hexxats bag and went to Trademeet alone.

    Here he raised Dorn, got the reward from the High merchant, gave him the circlet from the noble families, recruited Rashad, and went back to the slums. He paid Gaelan Bale and went to get Anomen.

    Anomen is one of my favorite npc's. He's very powerful, with excellent thaco, strength and hp, and gets to cast powerful cleric spells early in the game if you recruit him at level 11. He was already able to cast 2 raise dead and 2 heals when I recruited him! So I let him raise and heal Korgan and Valygar.

    What I didnt think about, however, was Dorn...

    I like Enhanced Edition, but some things lack the finesse of the original.. As soon as Anomen saw Dorn, the dialogue that followed ment either killing (effectively chunking) Dorn or Anomen.
    Anomen is more powerful but only slightly so, while Dorn is just an interesting character who I havent played before, so I let them duke it out 1 on 1, Dorn eventually got Anomen with poison weapon.

    Dead so far: Yoshimo, Edwin, Hexxat, Mazzie, Anomen.

    I wanted to try out the Planar Sphere wih Korgan and Valygar but after thinking for a second I realised that would be almost too challenging having both NO thief and NO arcane caster... Raven therefore left both men at the entrance of the sphere and went of to do Rashaads quests.

    I have alreadyw done his quests before so I might skip them, instead doing the thieves guild quests for Aran Linveail. I have also yet to slay any big partys nor have I recruited the mighty Keldorn or saved Hear Dalis... I'll see about that next time..
    ----------------------------------

    Interesting happenings:

    -5 npcs dead already isnt unrealistic, seeing as Raven is the son of the god of murder after all..
    -I want to level up dorn to 12 because only then will his main quest continue, I've read. He's 11 now. When I've done his quests I will probably kick him out, as this is still a minimal npc run.
    -For your information, I never use the new spell 'summon werebears', included in the tweakpack. Weimer really made a mistake creating this spell, it is completely bonkers, creating 2 near indestructible level 20 fighter-bears.
    -I am constantly playing with the portraits and the ultimate portrait pack. Finding and using new ones for Dorn, Hexxat and Aerie, as well as Raven, so far, is fun. The art is great!
    -I think I am going to recruit Keldorn against the vampire lair, because I heard Tanova is a level 20 vampire mage.. I need his dispell
  • DavidWDavidW Member Posts: 823
    EA1 said:

    Episode 4: Mighty foes 2
    What then happened is still raising major eyebrows whenever I think about it. The SL proceeded to:

    SPAM A ONE HIT CHUNK ABILITY... not only instantly chunking my fellows, but also turning them into shadows. EVERY... FREAKING... 3... ROUNDS...

    Until next time!

    It's Black Blade of Disaster, I think, standard 9th level spell (which SL can cast 1/10 rds). Save vs death or be disintegrated. Death Ward or similar will protect you.
  • EA1EA1 Member Posts: 31
    Thanks for the comment, but its not BB, actually. I checked around other websites and its a unique ability of the SL. He can just chunk without any attack or save, but only does it after a turn or so...
  • DavidWDavidW Member Posts: 823
    Irrespective of what you find on other websites, I *wrote* the SCS shade lord's script and it doesn't use any such unique power. Look in stratagems/tactical_bg2/ssl/shadel.ssl for his combat script; in summary, he uses:

    //"Darkling aura" (everyone loses 1 level) once per round irrespective of other activity
    //"Shadow mantle" (Protection from Magic Weapons, Spell Turning) once per 10 rounds
    //Blade barrier once/5 rds
    //Mirror Image at will
    //Finger of Death once/3 rds
    //Chromatic Orb at will
    //Power Word Blind once/5 rds
    //Black Blade of Disaster once/10 rds
    //Death Spell once/3 rds
    //170 hp
    //50% resistance to physical damage
    //Immunity to scrolls of Protection from Undead

    It's always possible that there is some bug here but it's pretty difficult to see what kind of a bug would cause anything like this.
  • EA1EA1 Member Posts: 31
    Its a ranged attack though... and my men turned into shades?
  • Jaheiras_WitnessJaheiras_Witness Member Posts: 614
    While we're on the topic, why does the Darkling aura cause all saving throws to fail? Unless you have Death Ward, even his Chromatic Orbs autokill.
  • DavidWDavidW Member Posts: 823
    Turning into shades is separate: it happens automatically. Darkling aura doesn't affect saves.
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