The Party of Spiders: No-reload SCS2 run
semiticgoddess
Member Posts: 14,903
I have started a new no-reload run of BG2 with SCS2 installed. I want to see if it's possible to play a melee-oriented party that does not have any fighters in it. So, I will be playing with only spellcasting characters, but I will be trying to use as few spells as possible, and focus instead on melee and ranged combat.
So, no Keldorn, Mazzy, Valygar, Minsc, Jaheira, or Korgan. No Sarevok, either, if I make it to TOB.
The Bhaalspawn in question is Sil, a Human Cleric of Lathander:
17 STR
8 DEX
16 CON
18 INT
18 WIS
10 CHA
She duals at level 11 for the extra casting of Boon of Lathander, which grants +1 to APR, THAC0, damage, and saving throws, stackable (I'll have two castings in total, for 3 base APR). She'll need about 1.5 million XP to get her levels back. That's 3 times as much XP as a Kensai(9)/Mage, so she'll be in pretty bad shape after she hits level 11.
I completed a handful of quests so far. I delayed posting this for fear that I would get killed in Chateau Irenicus.
I have tried a no-reload run of SCS2 once before. Lavok killed me with a Fallen Planetar and Dragon's Breath. Let's hope things go better this time.
So, no Keldorn, Mazzy, Valygar, Minsc, Jaheira, or Korgan. No Sarevok, either, if I make it to TOB.
The Bhaalspawn in question is Sil, a Human Cleric of Lathander:
17 STR
8 DEX
16 CON
18 INT
18 WIS
10 CHA
She duals at level 11 for the extra casting of Boon of Lathander, which grants +1 to APR, THAC0, damage, and saving throws, stackable (I'll have two castings in total, for 3 base APR). She'll need about 1.5 million XP to get her levels back. That's 3 times as much XP as a Kensai(9)/Mage, so she'll be in pretty bad shape after she hits level 11.
I completed a handful of quests so far. I delayed posting this for fear that I would get killed in Chateau Irenicus.
I have tried a no-reload run of SCS2 once before. Lavok killed me with a Fallen Planetar and Dragon's Breath. Let's hope things go better this time.
6
Comments
Edit: oh, 1,5M to level 12, then you're dual-classing to Mage, my bad I had missed that, lol.
Still, I doubt this will be a cakewalk. I'm not soloing the game, I can't reload, and SCS2 enemies can be pretty vicious.
The game begins!
I have basically everything installed in SCS2, though the options aren't all maximum difficulty. I won't be facing liches everywhere, for one thing, but otherwise, everything in the game is buffed up and will be using better AI. I'll also be avoiding exploits, just because. However, I do have one other mod installed: I have removed the summoning cap, and Animate Dead is rigged to add a single Skeleton per level. These guys slow down the computer, though, so I won't be using them very often.
The Coward's Way Out:
In SCS2, you can only rest once in the starting dungeon before parties of Duergar interrupt every rest period. This means you only get one full spellbook to last you the whole dungeon. And since I'm not using fighters in my party, the only people in the group are Imoen and Sil.
I doubted I could fight everything in the dungeon, so I filled my cleric spellbook with Sanctuary and Animate Dead, to let myself sneak around the dungeon and avoid fights. But since Imoen has some spells already memorized, I don't rest yet. I have a stealth-based plan for getting out of the first dungeon.
Starting Over, Already:
The first time I started this run, I accidentally let Jaheira and Minsc into the party, and didn't realize I broke my own rules until I was midway through the dungeon. I had to start over.
On the plus side, my utter failure to kill the Ogre Mage that Aataqah summons with Jaheira and Minsc let me know that I couldn't take him down with Imoen and Sil alone. I told Aataqah to buzz off, something I rarely do.
It doesn't help that Sil has 4 AC due to her lousy Dexterity. Enemies will have little trouble attacking her. The Ogre Mage would cut her to ribbons.
Dumb Luck:
Imoen has some pretty awesome spells already memorized. To deal with the first group of Duergar just west of Aataqah, she pre-casts Minor Globe of Invulnerability and throws out a Stinking Cloud spell. Since Sil is a cleric, she has a great save vs. death, and so she can safely wade into the Stinking Cloud along with Imoen and chop up the Duergar while they were unconscious. We only have 1 base APR apiece, but we hit the Duergar automatically, since they're unconscious.
By great luck, I also made my save against the Color Spray from the Radiant Mephit near the Sewage Golem. That thing has killed me before.
If I was thinking ahead, though, I would have sent out Imoen first, since her belt is supposed to make her immune to the unconsciousness effect, which the Radiant Mephit's Color Spray uses. In fact, that belt should also protect her from Stinking Cloud, making MGOI completely unnecessary.
Managing the Risks:
I decided to let the Lesser Clay Golems alone. I wasn't of a mind to take them down. Better they chase me later, when I have time to run to the portal and grab Yoshimo. I also snuck past the Duergar near Rielev's room.
To my dismay, the Otyugh was immune to missile damage (I should have known by now). I had to wade in and whomp on it to get by. Pelting it with rocks from the doorway would not have sufficed.
But to my delight, Animate Dead and Animal Summoning I did a lot to even out the battles, to the extent that I could actually enter the northwest end of the dungeon without getting killed. I planned on just nabbing the Oil of Speed from the southwest of the library, but later on, I found that the Skeletons were tough enough to take on the Duergar loitering just a few steps away.
Note that Imoen has Armor active from the day before. It's not very strong, but it lasts 9 hours, just enough to make her a teensy bit sturdier later on. Every little advantage counts. Also note she's using a staff: there aren't a whole lot of arrows for her short bow now that the Goblins using composite longbows have all been replaced with Duergar using crossbows.
Still Better Not to Fight:
I didn't think I could take down Ilyich, but I could. Irenicus' dryads will get to go free. But the Cambion and the Mephits in the Air Elemental Plane right next to Ilyich were too much. The Cambion has really low THAC0 and great damage potential, and the Mephits can stun me instantly. I decided to have Imoen sneak past the Mephits to get the Sword of Chaos, and I ignored the Cambion entirely.
Yoshi Joins the Team:
I got through the portal with a lot more loot than I expected. I sent out some more summoned undead to absorb fire from the Mephits in the Mephit Portal room, though they were too disobedient to attack the Mephit Portals. Yoshi and Imoen plucked away at their shortbows with limited ammunition; Sil waded through the battle to fight with a morningstar (base damage 5, to a flail's 4.5). I avoided fighting the Escaped Clone. I knew she had nasty spells, and I wasn't confident I could break through her Mirror Image before she started to break down the party.
Weary and Drained:
I took down Frennedan for the extra treasure in his room, but didn't bother with Hareishan (I always loved that name) or the Duergar in the far northern rooms. The last battle, with the three Assassins, two hidden backstabbers and one visible mage, was very trying. I had to take Imoen out of battle before she got backstabbed to death. SCS2 thieves are really mean backstabbers, always targeting the most vulnerable party members, and downing Potions of Invisibility as soon as they hit. I spent the last of my spells on those guys.
Kalah the Great and Powerful:
I had to make multiple trips to and from the rubble to sell off the party loot, since we had a whole inventory's worth of excess treasure from Imoen's departure. I don't think CHA improves the selling prices of items (only the buying prices), but I decided to go into the circus tent before selling the most expensive items, anyway. The circus tent comes with a scroll of Friends as well as the Ring of Human Influence, so Aerie can reach 24 CHA by the start of the game. That can save thousands of gold if you remember to cast it before big purchases.
Now that I was free to rest as much as I pleased, I crushed the two Orc Peasants with Skeletons and animals. Strength of One is very satisfying to use on a party of over 20.
Kalah failed his save on a Command spell, giving us automatic hits on his bulky form. He died on his back within the round.
Next stop: Jan Jansen!
Once I got past Gaelan Bayle (he's a talker, that one), I ran off to the Government District to pick up everybody's favorite gnome. I explained in an earlier thread (http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/38135/killing-kangaxx-with-flasher-master-bruiser-mates#latest) why Jan is useful: his flashers' stun effect can bypass weapon immunities and spell protections.
But to really make the Flasher Master Bruiser Mates useful, Jan needs high APR and low THAC0. To address the first, we can turn him into a spider via Polymorph Self and cast Shocking Grasp via a sequencer while polymorphed, dispelling the spider weapon. You can buy a Minor Sequencer from the Cutpurse in the west end of the Bridge District at night.
To improve his THAC0, we need to go a bit farther. Once we've gathered enough gold, we journeyed to Watcher's Keep. Odren normally doesn't let you start the Watcher's Keep quest until you're higher level, but you can pressure him into changing his mind.
Garlena sells the Firetooth +4, which grants a ridiculous +6 bonus to THAC0. But it comes at an awful price, and the party bankrupts itself to get this weapon.
With it, Jan can attack 4 times per round, unhasted, at about 11 THAC0, not much higher than a fighter of the same level. Jan in spider form will be the crux of our party strategy: a spider gnome using a crossbow to fire tiny skulls.
We poked around the first level of Watcher's Keep and grabbed a few goodies in the second room. We even took down a Stone Golem with Firetooth, only to get mobbed by some trolls in the next room. We couldn't stun them or deal damage fast enough, so we fled the area.
Arguably, the spider crossbow thing is an exploit. But if Jan can create a pair of illusion-detecting goggles that can only be used by Chaotic Neutral gnomish Illusionist/Thieves with 17 Dexterity, I think he can rig a crossbow to fit a spider. He does the same service for the rest of the party, so all of us can turn into weapon-wielding spiders. He won't teach us how to use the flashers, though.
Note that Nalia has joined the team. I intend to take on the De'arnise Hold quest. I really want that Flail of Ages for our cleric. We also need the gold.
Unfortunately, Jan has business to take care of. He leaves the party to deal with his kooky family, and we get sent on a mindless quest from a turnip-scented hovel in the Slums to a fancy house in the Government District to a mind flayer disguised as a monk in the sewers to a salty tavern by the Docks to a private room on the top floor of an inn/interplanar outlaw tiefling theater.
And in that private room--why, it's our good friends the Githyanki! Two midlevel fighter/mages pre-buffed with spell protections and wielding comically large swords. They absolutely wreck the party.
We've only got four party members, few spells, no fighters, and our best weapon is in the slums, being used by tiny gnomish children to fire turnips at their siblings. They trap Yoshimo in a corner, cut him to pieces, and then hit him with a Chromatic Orb, when he's already dead.
I took down one Githyanki, but that wasn't enough. He silenced both Aerie and Sil, so the only spellcaster in our party left is stuck with single-target spells. But the Githyanki gentlemen who murdered Yoshi has spell protections active, so we can't hit him with single-target spells.
The Githyanki expends his offensive spells, leaving him with nothing but a sword. He chases around Nalia while Aerie and Sil throw rocks at him, only for him to bring up a Stoneskin spell, prolonging the battle.
Finally, the Githyanki's spell protections run out, and Aerie and Sil are no longer silenced. Aerie casts Hold Person.
He fails! We beat him to death and bring back Yoshi with a Raise Dead spell.
Anyway, we tell the mind flayer we killed its enemies and Jan rejoins the party. With the family drama partly resolved, Jan is back to his normal self, unserious and eight-legged.
We tore up the slaver compound with his flashers. Great fun.
Next up is Nalia's quest! We're heading out to the De'arnise Hold to save her family jewels or something.
With scs Nalia's keep is a formidable challenge. Keep cloudkill spells ready for the final boss, throw 2 at least from a safe distance to slay trolls and disrupt those deceivingly powerful yuanti magi. And against Torgal, well...none in your party can stand toe to toe with him so, good luck!
Beshaba Smiles Not Upon Us:
Plus, I installed the Improved De'arnise Keep component of SCS2 with the higher difficulty option, in which the Spirit Trolls and/or Spectral Trolls get abilities as in the Tactics mod. This means they cast Greater Command, and they get automatic hits on disabled party members, just like I did with those Duergar in the Stinking Cloud, in the first fight of the game. My install of SCS2 also increases the difficulty of level-dependent encounters, which means the first group of trolls in the keep has Spectral Trolls in it, despite my low level.
Nalia and Sil both get knocked out. Nalia I can lose, but Sil I cannot. If Sil dies, the run is over, and she is defenseless when she's knocked out.
Necromancers Can't Defense:
Thankfully, we have Jan! He shapeshifts back to normal form and casts Invisibility: 10' Radius. The trolls look around, their prey suddenly gone. We wait for Sil and Nalia to wake up, and then flee the area to regroup. Invisibility is great!
Except When the Enemies Use It:
The next time around, we buff with Chaotic Commands. Jan and Nalia already have marvelous saves, but that wasn't enough to keep Nalia awake before, and you can't rely on luck in a no-reload run. I also make sure Aerie and Sil have extra castings of Holy Smite, since the Spirit/Spectral Trolls turn invisible at will, and Jan can't dispel that invisibility without interrupting the volley of crossbow bolts that we so desperately need. This time, we throw out Holy Smite, and this time, we win.
Jan Saves the Day, Again:
I was worried about the Yuan-ti Mage, which has often given me grief in the past, but he failed a save vs. spell, and Jan stunned him with a flasher.
We likely would have died without Jan. Note the Web spell keeping the trolls in place. I thought they were immune to all disablers, but apparently not Web. That's the Yuan-ti's Web spell, though, not mine.
Take That, Turnip Hatin' Scum!
By the way, the Firetooth's enchantment can be tweaked. If I equip flashers, it strikes as a +1 weapon. If I equip normal bolts, Bolts of Lightning, or Bolts of Biting, it strikes as a nonmagical weapon, so you can deal fire damage, plus electrical damage and even poison, right through PFMW. And if I equip no ammo at all, then Firetooth strikes as a +4 weapon. Firetooth is quite versatile, and it's excellent against golems.
Choke points aren't bad, either.
We go back to Athkatla, for reasons I've forgotten, and get ambushed by random goons somewhere along the way.
Notice how these ambushes always put your spellcasters at the back. If I would actually reorder the party before traveling, maybe I could face them with my casters away from the fray. I ran from this battle.
Fireball is Underrated:
We ditched Yoshimo and headed to Trademeet to pick up Cernd. Cernd has the extra APR that I need for a run like this, and SCS2 comes with a modification to shapeshifting in which you simply equip an item to shapeshift, rather than spending a round to shapeshift. Plus, the Shapeshifter's forms get buffed.
Using Holy Smite worked wonders against the Trolls in the Druid Grove. But the Troll Mound itself was a whole other challenge, with multiple Giant Trolls and Spectral Trolls alongside the normal ones. Plus, with SCS2' improved calls for help, they easily swarm the party, so taking them on one group at a time will not work.
Instead, I buffed the whole party with Protection from Fire with Cernd, and Protection from Fire/Cold with Cern, Aerie, and Sil, giving us party-wide immunity to fire. I ran out into the middle of the Troll Mound with Haste, waited until the trolls gathered around us, and then started hurling out Holy Smite, Fireball, and Sunfire spells. They fell in short order.
It's so much easier to become immune to fire than magic damage. Fireball can be a much safer option than Skull Trap. I've heard so much talk about Skull Trap's max 20d6 damage, but that's over 2 million XP for bards, and over 3 million XP for mages. The early game lasts just as long as the late game, and is often just as difficult.
So the Troll Mound went up in flames, and Jan came out with the Bracers of Archery, for another +2 to THAC0. We used the same bombing tactic against the next group of trolls, the group of fighters and the mage who were fighting the trolls, and Kyland Lind, although for the last two Jan used his flashers instead of Sunfire.
Then we fought the Myconids on the bridge.
The Myconids were an absolute nightmare.
Here's the problem: I only had enough Chaotic Commands spells for four characters: Cernd, Jan, Sil, and Aerie. Nalia, our most effective bomber with her high-level Sunfire spell, had to rely on her saving throws.
So we ran out to the Myconids to kill the Spore Colonies. We threw out area-effect spells, including a Stinking Cloud, to disable and destroy the Spore Colonies before they summoned too many Myconids. But to deal as much damage as possible, we needed Nalia out there casting Sunfire.
Nalia took a slew of Myconid confusion spells, and failed her save. Nalia was out of commission and in the middle of the rapidly increasing horde.
Then she lost consciousness. Automatic hits.
Nalia nearly died, but Jan switched to spider form and started hurling out flashers, desperately trying to paralyze the horde, while the rest of the party hurried in to chip through the enemy and free Nalia. Thankfully, Jan's flashers were enough to immobilize basically every enemy that was not disabled by the Stinking Cloud. Only the trolls from the tower with Belm remained awake and alert, but they were stuck behind the Myconids or busy attacking other party members. Eventually, we killed off the Myconids, then the trolls, and Nalia awoke from her slumber to find the battle almost won. Again, Jan saved the day.
Faldorn was another story.
Cernd cast his shapeshift spell to get a new Werewolf Token to fight with, while Faldorn cast Improved Invisibility, then Ironskins while still invisible. Cernd cast Iron Skins as well, and tried to summon a Fire Elemental, but Faldorn hit him with Insect Plague, against which Cernd had no defense (in SCS2, Fire Shields can block it, but druids get no such spell). He lost his chance to summon a monster. Meanwhile, Faldorn summoned her own allies and rushed in to attack Cernd as a spider--another SCS2 improvement--and though Cernd saved against the poison, he did not save against the Insect Plague. He panicked, ran around the room, and was quickly chewed up by the insects, Faldorn, and her summons.
Thankfully, I have Raise Dead. I brought Cernd back, tried again, and this time he got poisoned. I had prepared many castings of Neutralize Poison, but Cernd got interrupted by the poison damage, and died again.
So I had him memorize Dolorous Decay and cast it in the first round. Faldorn failed her save, losing her Improved Invisibility spell and all others. She did get an Ironskins spell off the ground, though, and poisoned Cernd, killing him again.
I cast Raise Dead again, and then tried Dolorous Decay. Faldorn made her save and killed Cernd.
I brought Cernd back once more and tried Dolorous Decay. Faldorn made her save. Cernd died.
Finally Faldorn failed her save, the damage interrupted her Ironskins spell, and Cernd chunked her. Here we have the critical weakness of druids: they can't raise their allies. Cernd kept getting back up, but Faldorn was gone for good.
Once the balance was restored, we ran off to Adratha's home and stunned her with a flasher by firing it at Cernd.
Not even Rakshasas are immune. She died before Jalaal and Saadat could even turn hostile.
Sil hit level 11 and dual-classed immediately. She gained three levels from scribing scrolls, but is still a long way away from recovering her cleric levels. Now we need to get some experience in her, and work her way back up to an effective party member.
I did use Cloudkill on the Umber Hulks. I never liked fighting them.
Unfortunately for my plans, Nalia and Cernd both got messengers for their respective quests when I got back to Waukeen's Promenade. This meant I had a finite amount of time before both of them would start to complain, and I knew that I would temporarily lose both of them during the course of their two quests. Worse yet, I knew Cernd's quest had a very wicked battle in it, for which I would need Nalia. I decided to deal with Cernd's first, so Nalia would be there to help.
The battle was with Deril, in his home in the government district. A lich for some reason is sitting right next to him when the battle begins, but does not go hostile unless you use an area-effect spell, which means that we can't fight Deril with Sunfire or Cloudkill without inviting the lich to join in. I know the lich should be immune to Sunfire and Cloudkill, but I know I've turned him hostile before without using level 6 or higher spells.
Deril himself is a high-level mage, and due to my installation he will come pre-buffed with all manner of crazy protections. I knew he would be a nightmare, and I was right.
Mostly it was a long slog, trying to penetrate his spell protections and weapon immunities with Jan's flashers. Our Secret Word and Spell Thrust spells failed to bring down Deril's spell protections, and in SCS2, spell protections like Spell Turning can block Breach. SCS2 also buffs Mantle, Improved Mantle, and Absolute Immunity, and turns Minute Meteors into +2 weapons, so I can only hit Deril if he casts Mantle (for which I have Firetooth) or PFMW. I targeted Cernd with flashers, but repeatedly failed to stun Deril, even though his save vs. spell is 4. The flashers should have had a 25% chance of stunning him per hit, but Deril just wouldn't get stunned. He got a lot of spells off the ground, including Horrid Wilting, but I had Death Ward and Chaotic Commands active party-wide, plus Remove Fear, Blur, Shield, Spell Immunity: Abjuration, and of course Polymorph Self. I lost a Potion of Magic Shielding trying to protect Cernd, plus a lot of potions to recover from Deril's spells. I had to send Sil to another room to get her away from Deril's spells.
At some point I managed to hit him with a flasher, but still no stun.
Finally, his protections wore off, he followed Sil into the eastern room, and I could start to hit him with Holy Smite and other spells. Much like the fight with the Githyanki, I couldn't even touch him until his protections wore off. It was a long, arduous battle of attrition.
Nalia's quest was easy. I only had to fight one guy, Officer Dirth, and the best he could do was take a swing at Cernd.
I still had some minor quests to deal with, including the Harper Hold. When I returned to the Harper Hold to open a couple chests after finishing the quest and drinking a Potion of Master Thievery, I found this.
Apparently that's in the locked chest that I never open. Poor sod, taking the dirt nap so soon.
A trip to the graveyard was quite fruitful. I didn't go deep into the lower tombs, because of the level-draining enemies there, but I did kill Pai'Na and get a scroll of Spell Immunity for Jan. I finished up the Wellyn quest, plus the Tirdir one, and finally turned to the skinner quest.
Even in werewolf form, Cernd is hot enough for Rose Bouquet.
By now Nalia was near 12th level, inches away from Improved Haste. I needed Improved Haste to deal with Draug Fea et al, and I wasn't sure I could reach Mekrath's lair, and the Rod of Resurrection and Wand of Cloudkill inside, without Draug Fea noticing me. I got just far enough through the Unseeing Eye quest to reach 12th level for Nalia, and prepared for the fight with Draug Fea and his gang.
Gaius proved immensely difficult to harm. His friends got stunned repeatedly by Jan's flashers, but Gaius escaped the stunning effect. Maybe Mirror Image blocks it; I haven't always used Detect Illusions before using the flashers. Gaius was more or less free to cast his spells while the rest of the gang struggled to move.
Eventually I got desperate, and started resorting to wands to interrupt Gaius' spells. A Wand of Frost, unfortunately, ice-chunked Rengaard, costing me a fair amount of loot.
Finally, we broke through the last of Gaius' Stoneskin spells. Cernd took one last swipe at the poor mage, and he popped like a water balloon.
Apparently Gaius is worth just as much XP as two Shadow Fiends. Pitiful.
Next, I went after Mencar Pebblecrusher and his gang. They tore up Cernd pretty quick, and both Mencar and Smelly Porkslicer seemed immune to the flashers' stun effect, but Pooky and Sorcerous Amon died in Nalia's Cloudkill spell. Thankfully, Brennan Risling died before he could flee the battle and take away his treasure.
Magic Missile is quite a marvelous spell.
Next up: Mekrath, and after that, the worst battle of this entire run.
It will not be his last.
Fighting Mekrath was an absolute delight.
Pow! The instant he brings up his pre-buffed spell protections, he gets stunned by a flasher. We got all of the XP and treasure with none of the fuss.
And lookie! Yuan-ti are here, too!
I love Jan. His stories, his flashers, his sexy spider eyes...
And then on the Skin Dancer quest in Trademeet, he confessed to Nalia how he really felt about her.
Aww. So sweet.
With nothing else to do, I headed to the Windspear Hills to grab some easy XP. Everything was going fine, until the second level of Firkraag's dungeon. Despite my party's low level, the undead room was filled with vampires.
Elder Vampires. Ancient Vampires. The toughest ones in SCS2, and SCS2 gives them lots of extra abilities, including CON drain, an Insect Plague-like Cloud of Bats ability, Giant Rat summons who cause disease on hit, shapeshifting, invisibility and invulnerability at will, and regeneration.
Oh, and they're immune to +2 weapons and less. But I didn't know that yet. I never faced them this early. I never faced them without the Amulet of Power, either.
Anyway, I used a Protection from Undead scroll on Cernd and sent him in to check on the area. They could not see him, so I brought him back to close the door leading to the rest of party. Hopefully, he could attack the vampires without them running around and spotting the rest of the party.
When he got back, the vampires were gone. Only when he opened the door and returned did they reappear.
So I had the option of turning back and fighting them later, at a higher level, with the Amulet of Power, or fighting them with the resources I had.
I chose to fight them. I figured Jan's flashers would be enough to disable the group.
The reality was more complicated.
Jan did manage to stun some of them, but to do so, he had to target Cernd, Kitthix, or the Flesh Golem from the Golem Manual I had nabbed earlier from Watcher's Keep (to prepare for Lavok, actually). As +1 weapons, the flashers could not hurt these vampires. In fact, the only weapons that could hurt the vampires were (1) the Flail of Ages, which Sil couldn't wield because of dual-classing, and Aerie couldn't wield due to her low STR (2) the Flesh Golem's attack (3) the Firetooth, with no ammunition or with the single stack of +3 bolts I had gotten from Watcher's Keep, and (4) the Crimson Dart. Only the Flesh Golem and Jan could realistically harm these vampires, and Jan needed to use the flashers if we wanted to avoid being level drained.
I ended up using two extra scrolls of Protection from Undead to keep Sil and Jan alive, but Aerie and Nalia were defenseless. Aerie was drained by about 4 levels. Nalia was drained down to LEVEL TWO. And Cernd, despite his invisibility to all undead, died outright. I don't know how. Thankfully, I managed to take down all but two of the vampires.
The problem with these vampires is they can retreat and regenerate, while our party remains weak and our buffs start to run out. I realized the party couldn't finish the battle alive, so I picked up most of Cernd's belongings (I couldn't carry all of them) and ran outside. It was dark out, so after memorizing Raise Dead and Restoration, I rested until it was day, in case the vampires tried to follow me out.
Once Cernd was raised and Aerie restored, Cernd used Wondrous Recall to memorize a couple of Cure Critical Wounds spells and heal himself, and Aerie memorized some extra Restoration spells to her spell book to restore Nalia and Aerie. Cernd also memorized some Negative Plane Protection spells, and Aerie memorized Holy Power so she could more effectively use the Flail of Ages in spider form. She had a Shocking Grasp+DUHM Minor Sequencer already prepared. I forgot to add in Nalia's missing spells, and rested one last time to get ready to fight the last two vampires.
I returned to the dungeon fully prepared, and cast Negative Plane Protection when the first vampire appeared. Aerie was level drained before she could cast Holy Power, and lost that spell as a result. We managed to kill one of the vampires, and nearly killed the other, but it turned to mist and fled. I rested outside once more, returned, and went looking for the last vampire.
It was gone. All that was left were a group of mummies and ghasts in the undead room, as if they had taken its place.
A single Fireball and Holy Smite, and they were down. The vampire had fled for good.
Since I had left a few of Cernd's items on the ground before, I went to pick them up.
All I found was the bell from the first level of Watcher's Keep.
Belm was gone.
And so we have lost one of the most valuable items in the game forever.
Why did the Belm dissappear, I don't understand.
After losing Belm, I moved on to the Greater Wraith room to the southeast, and then to Samia and her group. Since I hate getting ambushed, I called her out on her plan. I didn't actually know this was possible for a long time.
She went down fast. Jan disabled the whole enemy party with his flashers, and a couple Sunfire spells from Nalia, plus Cernd's new Greater Werewolf Tokens, killed off everybody but Kaol, their mage. He survived long enough to cast Shadow Door, only to have Jan dispel his illusions. With Kaol now visible, Sil and Aerie could take down his spell protections with two Spell Thrust spells, leaving him vulnerable to spell damage. But Jan killed him before Nalia could hit him with Magic Missile.
Anyway, I've noticed before that sometimes after battles, Jan's flashers leave a skull or several just floating around, making eerie noises. I thought this might be slowing down the computer, so I rested to see if they went away. When that didn't work, I rested again until a bunch of Shadow Fiends ambushed me, but they did not trigger the leftover skulls.
I decided to leave the area, rest, and come back to see if the skulls were still there. Maybe leaving the area could remove them. So I used CTRL-J to get back to the entrance, and went through the door to the first level of Firkraag's dungeon.
Then I heard a noise. An odd, familiar noise. The noise you hear when somebody is turned to stone.
Or when a vampire is appearing.
That last vampire did not leave for good. It was still around, lurking and waiting for me. I immediately rushed the party south in hopes of escaping. I thought I'd be able to get out, since the vampire was repeatedly fading in and out of the mist. When SCS2 vampires vanish, they make the message "Fades into the mist," a clue that they didn't just vanish due to a bug, and that they are still around. That message appeared several times, as the vampire followed us along on the way out.
Finally, it appeared, as did a gang of Hobgoblins, the same respawning Hobgoblins you always see southeast of the Ruhk Transmuter and his Kamikaze Kobolds. I kept running for the door, knowing that vampires will disappear in the daylight. If I could make it outside (and maybe rest if it was night out, to make it day again), then I would be safe from the vampire.
Then, right before I escaped, it threw out a Domination spell, and hit the worst possible target.
Sil, the main character, and the one member of the group who had scrolls of Protection from Undead and the Rod of Resurrection in her inventory, was under enemy control. I didn't have Dispel Magic memorized; only Remove Magic, because I had been traveling with Chaotic Commands and Remove Fear constantly, and assumed I'd only ever need to dispel magic on the enemy. So dispelling the Domination was not an option. Nor did I have Restoration scrolls, as I had gotten accustomed to going without them during my restless run mentioned in another thread (http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/37785/restless-run-of-baldurs-gate-2#latest).
I paused the game for a very, very long time, trying to figure out how to handle the situation. I didn't know if the vampire would attack Sil while she was disabled. If the vampire did, Sil would be dead in 10 seconds, quite literally, as Ancient Vampires have amazing THAC0 and Sil has no defense against level drain. I prayed that the computer would crash, to give me an excuse to reload.
I took the liberty of looking up the vampire's stats and the duration of the Domination spell she used. Apparently that spell lasts 32 seconds, so I needed to keep Sil alive for 5 rounds more if I was to escape. I can't leave the area without Sil under my control. As for the vampire herself... I had no way of killing her in time. She had 120 HP, and if I didn't stun her, she would easily land hits on us and level drain us to death long before we could bring her down.
I weighed my options. I could try stunning the vampire, but since Sil was dominated, the flasher might stun her, too, and even if the vampire ignored Sil, preferring to target the party members still hostile to her, the Hobgoblins would not, as Sil was the closest target for them. Sil's Stoneskin would not protect her against a full gang of Hobgoblins with automatic hits for the flashers' two round stun duration. I could use the Wand of Cloudkill to clear up the Hobgoblins, but that's not a guaranteed kill--the Hobgoblins could still make a saving throw and keep fighting for a bit longer--and Sil could easily get caught in the crossfire.
Alternatively, I could try having Jan cast Invisibility: 10' Radius, and the vampire likely would not interrupt him. But that spell has a long casting time, and Sil was a decent ways away from the rest of the party. Plus, she was attacking with Minute Meteors, meaning she would stay at that distance until she ran out. So, to help Sil dispense with her Minute Meteors as fast as possible and hurry back to the party, where we could turn her and everyone else invisible, I had Nalia cast Improved Haste on her, with a casting time of zero thanks to the Robe of Vecna. Sil would run out of Minute Meteors within the round, she would dash toward us with her Staff Spear, and Jan could turn the whole party invisible, safe from the vampire.
After I had cast Improved Haste, I realized the plan was fatally flawed. Jan's spell wouldn't affect Sil--it only affects friendly characters, and Sil was hostile. The best it would do would be to hide the other party members from the vampire, and then the vampire would just attack Sil. I had Aerie summon some animals and Cernd summon Kitthix, hoping to distract the vampire for a precious few seconds.
The vampire rushed forward, thankfully ignoring Sil, and took a swipe at Nalia. Three levels drained. Nalia is at level 9 now. Kitthix and the animals Aerie summoned were no help at all. The vampire had no interest in them. Nalia had no buffs and despite Cernd's persistent attacking, the vampire had no interest in him, either. She was out for Nalia's blood, and Nalia didn't have the AC to survive long.
Thankfully, I had a solution. As soon as she was able to, Nalia cast Teleport Field, with a casting time of zero, again, thanks to the Robe of Vecna. The vampire reappeared a short distance away, and the extra distance helped Nalia get out of the way. She tacked on a Haste spell as well, since vampires have high movement rates that make it easy for them to chase down their prey.
Unfortunately, Sil was still dominated, and now Jan was, too, besides being level drained. We had lost control of the two most important members of the party. Jan had already singlehandedly saved us multiple times in the past, and now he was gone.
Then, something absolutely beautiful happened.
I ordered Kitthix to fire a Web Tangle at the vampire, and the vampire failed its save. I checked the spell file. That Web Tangle spell has a -2 save penalty, meaning the vampire had a 50% chance of getting webbed. If the vampire made its save, I could still have cast Web Tangle again, but if I couldn't disable it, I may well have died.
Web Tangle holds the target for 21 seconds. I had 3 rounds to deal 120 damage. Otherwise the vampire would live, and she'd have at least one more chance to use Domination. Thankfully, we were hasted and adequately equipped. Since Cernd had recently hit 13th level, he had Greater Werewolf Tokens, which strike as +3 weapons, just enough to break through an Ancient Vampire's immunities. Nalia also had the Crimson Dart +3, and though Aerie didn't have the STR to wield the Flail of Ages, we did have the War Hammer +1, +4 vs. Giants, a +4 weapon. Plus, since the vampire was held, we could hit her automatically. I struggled to get Aerie and Nalia to fire a Magic Missile, without costing them an attack. I needed all the extra damage I could get it.
Disaster struck again. Just as the Teleport Field kept the vampire's claws away from Nalia, it kept Cernd's claws away from the vampire. The vampire teleported away, and there were multiple animal summons blocking the path to the vampire. If we didn't reach the vampire in time, it would break out the Web Tangle and attack once more. Worse, due to some bungling on my part, Nalia lost a Magic Missile spell.
I got the animals out of the way so Cernd could reach the vampire. Aerie found a way in, too.
The Web Tangle was rapidly running out, but the vampire was at Near Death.
Cernd got the final blow! The vampire finally died, after days of waiting in the shadows. Sil shortly returned to normal, and the only threat left was the small horde of Hobgoblins still struggling to finish us off.
Cernd gets the killing blow again. He is a bloodthirsty monster when he wants to be.
Jan has carried the party several times before. And now Kitthix just saved us from another grisly fate. Is there anything spiders can't do?
The Mask of King Strohm quest was easy enough. The thing about shapeshifting in the SCS2 mod is that, unlike normal shapeshifting, the token you use to shapeshift adds to your resistances, rather than setting them to a specific value. The Greater Werewolf Token that Cernd gets as a 13th-level Shapeshifter adds 40 to his MR and 50 to his elemental resistances. Plus, it sets his base APR to 2, his STR to 21, DEX to 20, and lets him regenerate 6 HP per round. He's quite a marvelous tank.
The really marvelous part is that this Greater Werewolf Token counts as a single-handed item, which means you can equip two weapons at once.
Or, two tokens at once.
I originally planned on having Cernd equip only one token at a time, but now that Belm is gone, giving him a Buckler +1 just seems kind of lame. I have decided to have him dual-wield the tokens, which makes him immune to the elements and gives him 80% magic resistance. Plus, he regenerates 12 HP per round now, and due to the constant effect haste, he can run away whenever he needs extra HP, and regenerate while the enemy chases him. He's not invincible, but he's much, much tougher than before.
The Guardians of the Mask of King Strohm all fight with fire damage, so Cernd can take them on single-handedly.
He can even take down the final Guardian, the Fire Elemental thingy, plus the Director, since the Director uses low-level mage spells instead of normal Beholder rays.
Unfortunately, as durable as Cernd is, not every encounter can be resolved with wars of attrition.
Three seconds later, that Greater Wolfwere was Uninjured. They regenerate 48 HP per round to Cernd's 12, and our party does not excel at dealing out quick damage. It took time before the party could kill these enemies, and no small number of critical hits.
The rest of Firkraag's lair was uneventful. Cernd tanked against everything up until Conster. Conster nearly died against Jan's traps, and failed an early save against Jan's flashers. He died just after we dispelled his spell protections.
After the Windspear Hills, I decided to pick up some easy experience in the Unseeing Eye quest. But I have problems with the Beholders.
If Cernd had 100% magic resistance, he could take down SCS2 Beholders without a problem, since SCS2 tweaks Death Ray so that it can be blocked by MR, as well as Death Ward (the killing opcode is changed from 13 to 55, and Death Ward only protects against the latter). But Cernd only has 80%, and that's not good enough to guarantee his survival. If Cernd gets hit by a Flesh to Stone ray, then the party is going to have to rescue him, and they're just not equipped to do that safely. Worse, if Cernd gets turned to stone and then shattered, then we have permanently lost the best tank we could ever have, and if we lose Cernd, we may as well start over. I'm not going to be able to beat the game without Cernd. Nalia I can probably do without, and maybe Aerie as well, but not Jan or Cernd.
Cernd can achieve 100% MR only with the Ring of Gaxx, which is far too risky to obtain. With the items at our disposal, he cannot push his saving throws low enough to block all threats, either. We can make him immune to Flesh to Stone if he wears the Necklace of Form Stability, but he's still vulnerable to Death Ray, and if he gets killed, whatever items he was wearing will get dropped right next to the Beholders he was fighting. Even with 80% MR and all the items we can give him, we cannot count on Cernd to take down a gang of Beholders.
Instead, I snuck past the first group of Beholders in the quest, just by the riddle bridge.
I used Invisibility 10' Radius. Again, Jan carries the group.
I allowed my Charname to have 8 DEX on the grounds that I would later be able to give her the Gauntlets of Dexterity. Unfortunately, those gauntlets are in the lower reaches, near the Pit of the Faithless, and that's problematic for two reasons.
First, we have a high-level undead spawning group right in front of those gauntlets. Second, once we enter that area, we can't go back the way we came. We have to run through the Beholder hive first.
That spawning group can be a lich at the right level. And since I had just came across a group of Ancient Vampires when I was expecting ghouls and mummies, I was terrified that I'd find a Lich guarding the Gauntlets of Dexterity. I was not equipped to deal with a Lich, and Sil's lousy Dexterity makes her much more vulnerable than the rest of the party.
Thankfully, I found this.
Some Greater Mummies, Skeleton Warriors, and a Bone Golem. Nothing this party can't handle.
Leaving the area was still scary, though.
Even when invisible, those guys make me uneasy. I was afraid they could see through invisibility, so the whole party is fully buffed. Thankfully, we passed unnoticed.
I fled the area and sold off the loot. I am not ready to face the Unseeing Eye itself.
The party is at 80,000 gold and already has the Robe of Vecna and Firetooth. Otherwise I've made no major purchases. I'm really only concerned with XP at the moment.
So I have to figure out what challenges are safe to do to get her closer to the 750,000 XP mark. We have the following challenges left (I don't know how much XP each one gives):
-The main questline, choosing whether to side with the Shadow Thieves or Bodhi
-The Planar Sphere
-The Shadow Dragon and Shade Lord
-The Unseeing Eye
-The Shade and Elemental Liches
-The Guarded Compound
-The Twisted Rune
-Firkraag
-Watcher's Keep
First, the obvious ones:
-The two dragons are an unacceptable risk at this point. They are simply too strong, and although I could try throwing out Feeblemind on the off chance it will work, it would make more sense for me to fight them later in the game, when I have a backup plan. Thax in particular is a bad idea, considering his breath weapon drains levels and the fact that I need to get past him to fight the Shade Lord.
-The liches aren't much better. They will be throwing out epic level spells, including Fallen Planetars, and even Cernd isn't immune to vorpal strikes.
-The Twisted Rune has the same problem. Way too much power, this early in the game.
The others are harder to tell.
-The Unseeing Eye comes with a Death Tyrant in SCS2, I believe, and I don't know what kind of spells the two of them are going to throw out. Cernd has no defense against Imprisonment or Maze, and I have no reason to believe that traps alone will kill the Unseeing Eye. Even with the Rift Device, it will not go down quickly. Plus, if Cernd dies, the Unseeing Eye will likely come after the rest of us pretty quick.
-The Guarded Compound has a lot of variables to deal with. Koshi's stunning effect could spell death if our Chaotic Commands get dispelled. Ketta has monstrous backstabs--maybe enough to kill Cernd--and Sion will be throwing out lots of high-level spells, which I have yet to face in this run. None of the enemies should be immune to stun, but I'm not sure if I can rely on the flashers, given the distance between the enemies. Sion and Stalman stay well away from the other fighters.
-The Shade Lord has a Darkling Aura effect that drains one level every round. Without the Amulet of Power and/or Improved Mace of Disruption, we are very vulnerable to the Shade Lord. And both of those items only come after we've chosen sides in the main quest.
-The Planar Sphere has several issues. Togan and his fellow halfling warriors could cause lots of trouble. Same goes with the Tanar'ri. But most importantly, I have to fight Lavok, who is immune to stun and virtually all disablers by virtue of wearing a copy of Imoen's Belt. Plus, the last time I fought Lavok in SCS2, he used Fallen Planetar, the same reason I'm avoiding the liches. But I've checked the game files and he doesn't have epic level spells in his spellbook, possibly because my SCS2 install only gives 10th-level spells to "selected" SoA enemies.
-The main quest is a difficult choice. First of all, for the past several games, Valen has never appeared, so I've only been able to side with the Shadow Thieves. But after my miserable experience with the Ancient Vampires in Firkraag's lair, I am extremely hesitant to try and fight Bodhi. I'm not keen on running into nighttime vampire ambushes, either, if I accidentally travel at night. But I will get the Amulet of Power earlier, and unlike the Improved Mace of Disruption, Aerie is not the only one who can use it.
-I have already done most of the first level of Watcher's Keep. I just haven't started the ritual yet, which means all the Statues are still standing. I can't check the Statues' files, so I don't know in advance if they're immune to stun. If I can get through the Statues, then I should be able to grab the Wand of Spell Striking, which will be extremely useful against enemy spellcasters, as its Breach effect bypasses spell protections and invisibility.
I have one idea for Lavok, but I'm not sure it will work:
Aerie shapeshifts into a Mustard Jelly for the 100% MR, then casts Tenser's Transformation via a scroll for the extra HP. I summon the Flesh Golem and Aerie and the golem block in Lavok so he can't escape. Nalia casts Cloudkill, via spell or the wand, to break through Lavok's spell protections and damage immunities. Aerie is immune to magic and therefore the Cloudkill spell, and the Flesh Golem is immune to poison, and therefore both the Cloudkill spell and wand. Jan targets the Flesh Golem, which is magic-immune but has terrible AC, with his flashers. They won't stun Lavok, but they will deal fire damage, and that might disrupt his spellcasting, like the Cloudkills. But Lavok should have Protection from Fire up, and dealing damage is no guarantee of spell disruption. Plus, Spell Triggers, contingencies, and sequencers are unaffected by disruption. And if that doesn't work, I don't have a backup plan, unless I get the Wand of Spell Striking. Hopefully, Aerie will survive with potions, Lavok will slowly wither away under the pressure of Cloudkills, and he will be unable to get any dangerous spells off the ground.
Otherwise, it seems like my best bet is with the Guarded Compound. At least with them, I've only got one high-level mage. But they won't net nearly as much XP as the other options, as they are only one battle, while the others are entire quests.
Any ideas?
Jan proved instrumental, once again.
The first round of combat, the Shade Lord is stunned. Jan rolled an 18, a lucky hit. By targeting the Flesh Golem with his flashers, Jan could keep the Shade Lord paralyzed despite PFMW. Although I used Secret Word and Breach to take down the Shade Lord's defenses, anyway.
Another stun. The Shade Lord has 50% MR and a save vs. spell of about 8, so the flashers only have about a 25% chance of stunning him. But Jan forces enough saves that enemies usually can't escape. Meanwhile, Cernd dealt with Shadow Patrick.
Aerie landed the killing blow, actually, with a Blade Barrier.
If you have auto-pause on spell cast, you can actually make Blade Barrier hit many times on its first casting. The game will pause as soon as the barrier comes up, and it will fire many times until you unpause the game. Theoretically, it could be an instant kill on everyone not immune to it, but I haven't really tested it much. It's a peculiar glitch.
So the Shade Lord went unusually well. Unfortunately, Sil was still at mage level 11, so she still didn't have her cleric levels back. I would need to keep searching for XP.
I remembered that I had never finished the Mae'var quest for fear of being killed by Rayic Gethras. Aside from the mage himself, there were some other rewards down the questline, so I decided to take him on.
The main problem with Rayic Gethras is his stupendous save vs. spells, at 1. He's nearly immune to the flashers, simply by virtue of that save. But I figured out a workaround right before the fight began.
Rayic Gethras doesn't have his spell protections up automatically, so he's perfectly vulnerable to a Doom spell. More importantly, he's also perfectly vulnerable to a Spook spell.
Success! Rayic Gethras fails the save and is panicked for 3 whole rounds. His spell protections didn't even get to come out; he was helpless.
That Flesh Golem is invaluable. Putting aside its high AC, which gives Jan a perfect target for his flashers, it's pretty good at offense on its own.
Mae'var himself wasn't too much trouble. He's a relatively low-level spellcaster in SCS2, and with my party's defenses--Cernd has incredible regeneration, and everyone else has Stoneskin--the backstabbers elsewhere in the guild could do little to harm us. I gathered a lot of potions from Mae'var and his goons.
Unfortunately, Sil was well short of 750,000 XP. If I wanted to reach level 12, I needed to start the main quest. But Valen had still not spawned, and I had no interest in fighting any more vampires. I decided to use CLUAConsole to summon Valen, and sided with Bodhi right afterwards.
The first quest, to grab the Shadow Thieves' shipment of stakes and holy water, went smoothly. But the attack on the Docks compound to rescue their hostage was more difficult. The Shadow Thief mages used Remove Magic to great effect. I had neglected to bring up SI: Abjuration, and had to flee the area before they could hit me with a disabler. I came back with SI: Abjuration active, and though the mages still dispelled some of my buffs once Spell Immunity's duration ran, the fight was not so dangerous.
When I returned to Bodhi, Sil finally reached 750,000 XP, gaining a 6th level mage spell slot, two castings of Boon of Lathander, the ability to use the Flail of Ages and medium shields, and a slew of cleric spells. Those cleric spells aren't for party-wide buffs, however; Aerie and Cernd already have that covered. With Wondrous Recall, Cernd has 5 castings of Death Ward and 4 castings of Chaotic Commands, and Aerie can fill in the fifth Chaotic Commands spell, plus Remove Fear. Sil's newfound priest spells meant we could also tack on Free Action, but that would interfere with the Improved Haste I so desperately need on Jan. More importantly, those cleric spells would make Sil our second frontliner.
With Polymorph Self, a Shocking Grasp+DUHM Minor Sequencer, Holy Power, Boon of Lathander, and an Improved Haste spell from Aerie, Sil can reach 10 APR at 3 THAC0 for 1d6+3+3+7+1 damage per hit, or 175 damage per round on average, with a 98% chance of slowing the target for 20 seconds. Even if we miss half the time, that's still over an 80% chance of slowing the target.
SCS2 spellcasters, however, have many ways of avoiding our attacks. Even a Cleric of Lathander with the Flail of Ages in spider form is not a trump card in SCS2.
The summoning trap on the first floor had a surprise for us. The altered summoning spells meant that we got a lot more low-level enemies to deal with. The higher-end critters were no different, however.
This wasn't a big deal. Low-level monsters are easy to disable with Jan's flashers.
The demon took a bit to come out. We got at least one extra round to fight the other enemies, but either way, it made little difference. Cernd and Sil were far stronger than the demon, and it died in maybe two or three rounds.
Sion and his cronies, however, were a different story.
The enemies in general are much tougher, but Sion in particular is quite nasty. Check out his Chain Contingency:
A lot of people put three Horrid Wilting spells in their Chain Contingencies, but with SCS2 scripting, Sion knows that his enemies are liable to use Protection from Magic Energy, so this Chain Contingency was a better choice. With Improved Mantle, Sion was immune to all the weapons in my arsenal. The Wand of Cloudkill, however, goes right through Sion's defenses, and interrupted both Sion's and Stalman's first spells.
But Sion isn't stupid enough to linger in the cloud. He moves to the south to find a safe spot, and though I could throw out another to try and interrupt his next spell, I can only risk throwing out so many before my spellcaster-heavy party gets caught in the cloud, and starts to die.
Meanwhile, Jan busies himself with disabling Maferan, Olaf Rassmusen, and, most importantly, Koshi, who has +5 to hit and damage by virtue of being a high-level Kensai. Even though my whole party has Chaotic Commands active and is therefore immune to stun, the Celestial Fury will still do a tremendous amount of damage if it hits, and Koshi will cut through our defenses very quickly. Jan, Aerie, Nalia, and Sil linger at the edge of the cloud, while Cernd rushes into the fray to attack Koshi. We spend the first several seconds of battle using our most important spells and items: a second Cloudkill from the wand, the Flesh Golem from the manual, Greater Malison, Slow, and Teleport Field.
Then I hear Sion casting a Transmutation spell, which surely is Time Stop. I consider my options, but I have no means of interrupting that spell. So, even though Sion is immune to our weapons, I send Cernd to attack him, in the hopes that Sion concentrates his magic on Cernd, who will resist basically all of Sion's spells.
The gambit works. Unfortunately, Sion casts ANOTHER Time Stop, and this time makes it count. He gates in a Pit Fiend, which will last for 200 seconds, or until it is killed.
We manage to stun him shortly thereafter by having the Flesh Golem follow Sion around while Jan shoots his flashers at the golem, but Sion is far from dead, and he is still invisible. Jan can dispel Sion's illusions, but that will take a round or so to do, a round during which I could be stunning him instead. I unwisely decided to keep stunning him, even though what I really needed was to kill him. Meanwhile, everyone has moved out of the Teleport Field as well as the cloud, and Sion has dispelled much of our protections with Remove Magic. Our SI: Abjuration spells ran out, and Sion knew it.
Now, Jan and Sil are both completely without Stoneskin, and Jan cannot cast the spell without returning to natural form. And if he does, it would take two whole rounds for him to get back in spider form with the Firetooth.
And Ketta is lurking around, searching for an opportunity to backstab.
Ketta hit Nalia's Mislead spell with a 70 damage backstab just a few seconds before, so I know she can easily take down Jan, who has less than 50 HP. If I had thought a little more, I would have realized I had an extra scroll of Stoneskin on Nalia's person, and could have had Jan use it to keep Ketta and her backstabs at bay. But I did not remember this, and so I kept Jan focused on stunning Sion and dealing his 2 points of fire damage every hit.
Then Ketta came, as I had expected.
Thankfully, she only did 37 damage, enough to kill him, but not enough to chunk him (the Jansen Adventurewear gives him 25% physical damage resistance, which no doubt helped). I did not even consider the possibility he might get chunked. SCS2 has a component that makes it harder for enemies to permanently kill party members, but the possibility should still be there. It was foolish to leave him vulnerable.
Notice that Koshi is blinded. The little spells might not be very tough, but if you find the opportunities to use them, they can be a game changer. Too often, clerics and mages waste a round by using a sling at 1 APR, just because they don't see an opportunity to use one of their bigger spells.
Thankfully, we had a Rod of Resurrection, so we were perfectly poised to bring back Jan, even if he lost his 4 APR and could not put his armor back on. And once Jan was raised, he could cast Stoneskin immediately, as Sil had done a few seconds before. The party was again immune to Ketta's backstabs. Aerie got an Animal Summoning I spell off the ground, and by the time Jan had dispelled Sion's Shadow Door (Sion had escaped the stun), Sion's other defenses were down.
Notice that the group is back in a Teleport Field. I recast the spell to keep Koshi from stunning the party--his blindness did not stop him from attacking us--since our Chaotic Commands spells were all gone, and a single failed save would have doomed anyone besides Cernd. If he swings at us, he'll probably hit, even while blind, and if we fail the save, he has a full round of automatic hits, each of which will force another saving throw. Teleport Field, however, almost completely shuts down Koshi's attacking. He can't hit us if he keeps getting teleported out of range, and all we have to do to avoid him is take a few steps away, and wait for him to teleport away again.
Thanks to Nalia's Wand of Cloudkill, Cernd's excellent MR, and Jan's Detect Illusions ability and flashers, the greatest threat was neutralized. Sion was dead. All that was left was to gang up on Ketta and the other enemies. Sil had activated her second Boon of Lathander, and had used an Oil of Speed along with Aerie and Jan (though Aerie's was mostly to get her away from Koshi), so we were prepared to engage in melee combat already.
After gathering the equipment, I noticed we had only one set of armor besides Ketta's. When I checked the bodies, I could find Maferan, but not Olaf Rassmusen. After some investigation, I tracked him down.
Either he fled at some point during the battle, or somehow got teleported far out of the way. I tried disabling him, not realizing his rage ability gave him immunity to disablers.
On the way out, I found Stalman, apparently still under the effects of Shield of the Archons, hiding by the stairs. He must have panicked and fled the area, but now he was hostile once more.
He wouldn't get stunned, though the dialogue box said he did, but we hit him with a Slow spell to drag out his casting time, and he died shortly afterwards. The last of the group had fallen.
We got Celestial Fury, and finally gathered over 100,000 gold. But we spent half of the fortune on the Sling of Everard and the Defender of Easthaven. The Sling of Everard is the only +5 weapon we have, and our only means of breaking through the SCS2 version of Improved Mantle. The Defender of Easthaven will make Sil a better tank if we need her to be, but mostly, we just don't have anything else to spend our money on.
From here, I will probably return to Watcher's Keep to get the Wand of Spell Striking, which I'm sure I will need against Irenicus in Spellhold. Otherwise, it's probably best if I move on to the main quest, and return to the other major challenges later on.
I am worrying about how to deal with the Improved Irenicus component of SCS2. I have on one occasion managed to beat the SCS2 or Tactics version after only one reload, but I used Project Image to lay extra traps and get extra uses of Protection from Magic scrolls, and I want to refrain from using those tricks in this run. What I want to do is reach Irenicus at epic levels, when Sil can use Shapechange to turn into an Iron Golem. But I'm not sure how many risks I'll have to take to get 3 million XP before the final battle.
With most of the first level of Watcher's Keep cleared, only the Statues remained. There are 12 in all, including a pair of clerics, a pair of mages, a thief, and various fighters, one of which is an archer. The first four, including both clerics, attack when you pick up the book from the altar. The others remain dormant until you complete the ritual and open the portal to the next level.
First, the clerics.
The enemies all came prebuffed with Chaotic Commands, which meant that Jan's flashers could not disable anybody. Thankfully, he could still interrupt spells with the Firetooth's normal bolts, but this did not solve everything.
The two enemy fighters could both use Greater Whirlwind attack, meaning they could tear through Stoneskin in one round. At first, I just ran away from them, and Nalia used Mislead when one of the fighters went after her. Even Cernd had to run away and drink a couple potions; his regeneration was not enough to protect him. The fact that the fighters could take him down set off alarm bells. Few enemies in the game should be able to take down Cernd with brute melee force.
Out of fear for what the Statues could do to the party, I moved Aerie up to one of the fighters and cast Blade Barrier. Once it auto-paused after she cast the spell, I waited a few seconds before unpausing, to see how the Blade Barrier trick would fare against the Statue.
Instant death for the fighter, but the cleric nearby was apparently unscathed. The Blade Barrier trick is overkill, even with these enemies.
Since we still had one fighter left, I cast Teleport Field and concentrated on the remaining cleric. I was very cautious with auto-pauses, for fear that I'd trigger the Statue's Blade Barrier and make him perform the trick. Only Jan had the saves to avoid a Blade Barrier entirely, but since he worked better with the Firetooth than Celestial Fury, he too had to be kept a safe distance from the cleric.
For some reason, I was unable to find Sil's Minor Sequencer. I thought I had accidentally interrupted it by pulling her away from the cleric Statue just as she was casting it, but after the battle, I found that she still had it. Luckily, she could still reach a rather nice 4 APR with Improved Haste and Boon of Lathander.
The Teleport Field kept the fighter Statue well at bay, but the cleric Statue accidentally took advantage of the situation. Midway through a Flame Strike spell against Jan, he teleported into the golem room to the north, and hit Jan with a Flame Strike spell in the middle of the fight. Normally Flame Strike would have too long a casting time for that to work. Jan also faced melee pressure from the fighter Statue, although this time I was smart enough to move him out of the way.
By the time the Teleport Field wore off, only one fighter was left, plus a couple of Aerial Servants.
Notice that the Statue managed to break through both Aerie's and Sil's Stoneskin spells. This was not a good sign for the next battle.
The male mage is immune to stun. The female mage has Imprisonment. Both have Time Stop and a lot of other nasty spells. Plus, I wasn't sure if all the statues turned hostile at the same time. I needed an escape option in case things went south.
The escape option was fairly simple.
I mentioned earlier that I had disabled the summoning limit, so I can create as many summons as I want. Because this is a no-reload run, and SCS2 mages are terrifying, I decided to go all out. Notice that only Cernd is on screen. The other party members are hiding in a separate room, where they have a clear route to the exit in case we need to escape. Cernd, as the sturdiest member of the group who also has a constant effect haste, is our best choice for performing the ritual and turning the Statues hostile.
I laid 7 traps around the two mages in the hopes that we could take them down before the fight began, but it did not work. One of them, the male mage, did not seem to get hurt at all, and even then, the female one survived a few rounds.
The male mage behaved as I had expected. Faced with a swarm of summons, he used Death Spell, and later Fireball and Horrid Wilting, to clear the area.
The mage has his defenses up and Cernd cannot harm him. I waited at a safe distance instead of attacking. My buffs were running out every second, but if I didn't wait for the mage to use up some of his tougher spells, he'd be using his best spells on me, instead of my summons.
Right after the male mage cast Time Stop, the female mage died off screen from the lingering poison damage from Jan's traps. Many of my summons are now dead, but there are still enough left to keep the mage occupied a bit longer.
I made a point of spreading them out far enough that they wouldn't all be wiped out by a Death Spell.
Also, they are forming an impressive bulwark against the enemy fighters, taking down one of the Statues without my help.
When my summons cleared, there were still four fighters left: an archer, an Iron Golem, a Gnoll, and an Ogre. The thief also remained, as did the mage. I needed new defenses now that my summons were gone, so I had Nalia cast Teleport Field to mess with the enemy fighters, while Aerie used Nalia's Wand of Cloudkill to interrupt the mage Statue's spells. She used a second charge of the wand, and then a third, to bring down the mage.
Looking back, I thought this mage was immune to poison damage, as I saw a message to that effect after Jan's traps went off. But Cloudkill uses poison damage as well, so the mage must not have been immune. Perhaps the female mage simply absorbed all or most of the traps, hence the male mage's longer survival.
Now only the enemy fighters were left. I activated Boon of Lathander and mobbed the remaining enemies.
I'm not all that satisfied by how the fight played out. The sheer number of summons wasn't really fair, much like in the first dungeon. The mage handled the matter fairly well, however, switching to Fireball after Death spell was gone. Still, with all of the circles getting in the way, the enemy couldn't really threaten the party until after it had waded through our summons, a rather time-consuming process that robbed them of several spells and a few rounds' worth of spell buff duration. It wasn't as satisfying to rely so heavily on petty summons.
Still better than getting hit by Imprisonment, though.
It started out marvelously, though. Cernd is unharmed by elemental damage and can take quite a beating when he has to. The electrical section of the level was quite straightforward.
In the scheme of things, this is an awfully tiny area for four separate wizards to be working in. You'd think they'd need more room to do all their wizardy experiments and such.
Then we got in trouble.
Cernd got poisoned by a snake--his excellent save vs. death, at 3, did not help him--and combined with the snake's and slimes' attacks, the poison damage exceeded his own regeneration, which is pretty hard to do. Plus, these golem suddenly spawned just as he was trying to make his getaway. I had entered all four libraries already, but these golems only spawned when Cernd was alone and in danger.
Luckily, I had planned for this. Cernd downed a Potion of Invisibility and hurried back to the party. The golems followed after due to an AI quirk, but did not attack him. I left him in the hallway to regenerate his lost health while the rest of the party prepared for a fight with the golems. Those little escape options are quite nice.
We got surprised again by a group of Mutated Spiders, but Jan got us out of danger with Invisibility: 10' Radius, and we returned fully buffed. After the spiders fell, we headed to the ice room.
Pre-buffing is unfair when you're dealing with enemies who don't cast spells. SCS2 spellcasters in my install will pre-buff, so it's an even playing field with my party, but enemy grunts have no buffs to start out with. These fights are pretty unbalanced.
No problems with the fire enemies, either. It's odd that the Greater Fire Elementals don't know better than to rush into the ice room.
The Chromatic Demon was a hard choice. He's immune to physical damage and his elemental resistances are in constant flux. Plus, I didn't really remember which form was vulnerable to what. Eventually, I decided to go after him. Cernd would keep the demon occupied, while the other characters would use their spells from afar.
Turns out the Chromatic Demon is not immune to Feeblemind.
That's just sad.
Conveniently enough, he got stuck in his ice form, and we had memorized a lot more fire spells than ice or acid or electricity. Jan got the final blow.
I cast Heal on Yakman in the next level, but left before going any further. The demons of Watcher's Keep are all kinds of nasty. I failed a solo no-reload run once because of those Erinyes: they dispelled my Cleric/Mage's Chaotic Commands spell and then charmed her. What was especially disappointing was that I had taken that character all the way through Shadows of Amn without reloading. I just wasn't familiar enough with ToB challenges. I've only played Watcher's Keep and the rest of ToB's content so many times.
Anyway, I came back to Athkatla and bought a trio of scrolls that I somehow neglected to buy: Spell Sequencer, Simulacrum, and Ruby Ray of Reversal. Since my install prevents simulacra from using magic items, the Simulacrum spell is considerably nerfed, but I will need the spell eventually. One of the nice things about Shapechange is that your simulacrum also gets the shapeshifts, if you cast Shapechange before Simulacrum. At some point I'll use Limited Wish to cast Shapechange, and casting Simulacrum will enhance the effect.
As for Ruby Ray of Reversal, I'm concerned about running into a spellcaster with Spell Trap. Secret Word only reaches up to level 8, so Spell Trap is just out of reach with my current set of spells.
Spell Sequencer has a lot of uses, but right now, I'm using it as an escape option: Nalia's Sequencer has Teleport Field, Invisibility 10' Radius, and Haste. This will compensate for the agonizingly slow casting time of Invisibility: 10' Radius, but the range is still very limited. I've heard much talk about the triple Skull Trap Spell Sequencer, but in a no reload run, safety is a lot more important than raw power.
What's especially problematic about using Skull Traps in a spell sequencer is that you can target any point on the map with a Spell Sequencer, but the spell will fail entirely if you cast it just an inch further than the range of a Skull Trap. If I aim too far, the sequencer fails. But if I am too near, then I risk shredding a party member.
I have found that Vampiric Touch is an excellent buffing spell for mages. The extra HP lasts for 5 turns, and adds 30 HP on average. Due to a peculiar bug, however, I've actually seen it add more than 60 HP at times, putting Aerie at over 100 maximum HP, and Nalia at more than 120. If we target, say, a Skeleton from Animate Dead, we can get the extra HP without needing to spend a round in-combat casting it (I've actually been using Cernd as the target instead, since he can regenerate any HP the spell takes from him). Unfortunately, Jan cannot cast it due to his Illusionist kit, so he is sitting on about 50 HP at all times, and he loses some resistances when in spider form, so he's really quite vulnerable.
And i leave a mark for @bengoshi, to make him easy to find this, when he come back from hiatus. I think, that he will enjoy this too.
Anyway, now that the party had the Wand of Spell Striking and had already taken down that pair of mages on the first level of Watcher's Keep, I decided the Planar Sphere was doable. But Lavok did not go quite like I planned.
I headed to the Umar Hills to go get Valygar, but got sidetracked when Mairyn told me about the first of the ranger stronghold quests. Normally, you have to have a ranger Charname to get that stronghold, but an error in my SCS2 install automatically gave me the ranger stronghold at the end of the Shade Lord quest, despite Sil being a Cleric/Mage. I noticed the error earlier, but never felt it necessary to try and correct it.
So, I was off to the Temple Ruins.
I hate running around this area. There are so many places you can't click on. Navigating around these trees is time-consuming.
Turns out I just had to grab a necklace and give it to some guy named Lord Igen Tombelthen. I always wondered what that Mithril Medallion and Lord Tombelthen's Journal pieces were about. This is the first time I've ever done the ranger stronghold.
After that was all done with, I returned to Merella's cabin to get an XP reward and entered Valygar's home. I wanted to talk-block him to avoid the dialogue, but he talked to me anyway. I had to choose the option to kill him, since the rules of my run forbid fighters from joining my party. I picked up his body and took it to the Planar Sphere, where it dissolved for some reason. Before entering the sphere, I made sure to buy back the Wand of Cloudkill from Chateau Irenicus. My current Wand of Cloudkill, from Mekrath, only had 2 charges left, I think.
I was worried about the fight with the cannibal halflings, so I cast Vampiric Touch until I got the double extra HP for Aerie, Sil, and Nalia. Normally you only get about 30, but sometimes you get about 60 instead.
Mogadish proved very intimidating. The second round after he (pre)cast Blade Barrier, I paused at just the right time, triggering the Blade Barrier glitch.
This was very alarming. Just one round later, I paused at the wrong time again, Mogadish triggered a bunch of Blade Barrier spells at once, and my Flesh Golem died, depriving me of an easy target for Jan's flashers.
Togan was easily stunned, but Entu was not. Entu has some nasty psionic abilities, and though Cernd has regeneration, his base HP is rather low, in the 70s.
Notice that everyone in my party besides Cernd has Spell Immunity: Abjuration up. This is the only way to keep Remove Magic from dispelling the Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, and Remove Fear protections that I need so much.
Kayardi had several illusion spells, forcing Jan to spend his time using Detect Traps instead of firing flashers or bolts. While Jan was busy harassing Kayardi, the rest of the party focused on taking out Mogadish.
With Secret Word, Spell Thrust, and Breach, Mogadish's Blade Barrier went down, allowing us to safely pause when we were next to him. I don't know if Spell Thrust was necessary, but I used it anyway. Mogadish fell shortly thereafter.
With Mogadish down, our next target was Kayardi, who unfortunately managed to get a Horrid Wilting spell off the ground.
Jan has excellent saves, but his base HP is quite low, so Horrid Wilting nearly killed him. Notice that Jan has Protection from Magical Energy still active. Horrid Wilting normally couldn't hurt him, but shapeshifting into the spider resets his resistances, so he had no such immunity to magic damage when that Horrid Wilting hit. A single Potion of Extra Healing, however, gets him back up to near-maximum health.
Kayardi started casting an Abjuration spell, which set off alarm bells. I knew I couldn't do anything if it was Imprisonment--it's a touch range spell, only Cernd was close enough to Kayardi to be vulnerable, and Cernd had no means of avoiding it anyhow--but I had Aerie and Sil both cast SI: Abjuration (Nalia's pre-cast SI: Abjuration was still active). The gamble worked: it was a Breach spell, and Aerie managed to block it in time.
Breach takes down Death Ward, Chaotic Commands, Remove Fear, and Stoneskin, among other things, and Aerie can't renew those defenses mid-combat. If she got Breached, she would have to flee the area and stay out of range, greatly limiting her options.
Kayardi's defenses eventually wore off, and we attacked her directly. The battle wasn't as deadly as I had expected.
Necre and Taibela were a similar story. Taibela prebuffed with Mantle, allowing Jan to break through her defenses and kill her early. With Taibela gone, Aerie, Nalia, and Sil could direct all of their attention on breaking through Necre's spell protections. The best mage-killers are often mages.
Then came Lavok.
Lavok has some awful big spells at his disposal, including Imprisonment and Time Stop. If I wanted to take Lavok down, I needed to interrupt his spells, and I only had so many options. He started out with a Chain Contingency containing Horrid Wilting and Improved Mantle, which meant only Sil, with the Sling of Everard, and Nalia, with the +5 Darts from the Cloak of Stars, could break through Lavok's weapon immunities. Cernd kept attacking anyway, though he could deal no damage, since he might distract Lavok and Lavok's Fire Shield spells did no damage to Cernd.
Aerie used a charge from our new Wand of Cloudkill. This would help disrupt Lavok's spells, but it wasn't a guarantee of our safety. To ensure I could take him down early, I had Sil use the Wand of Spell Striking's Breach effect on Lavok.
It didn't work as I expected.
It turns out that the wand's Breach effect has a spell level of 9, not 0, which means that, although it can break through liches' and rakshasas' spell level immunities, it still gets blocked by spell protections. Lavok had Spell Turning active, which meant that Sil's Breach got bounced back onto her, disabling all her defenses save Spell Immunity. She was not safe in this condition, so I drew her back and passed the wand to another character.
I used the Pierce Magic effect of the wand instead, but Lavok's defenses took time to break down. In the meantime, to cope with the Cloudkill, Lavok resorted to a rather ingenious Spell Trigger, Breaching Aerie's defenses and silencing her.
Luckily for me, I didn't need Aerie's spells. Her time was better spent using the Wand of Cloudkill. It did mean that Aerie was vulnerable, however, so I had to draw her away for a time.
I eventually managed to get through Lavok's defenses, but most of the damage was done by Cloudkill. I switched around weapons depending on his protections. When he cast Improved Mantle, I gave the Sling of Everard to Aerie and had her attack alone (Nalia had run out of her +5 darts). When he cast PFMW via a Contingency, Nalia switched to the Tuigan Bow and normal arrows, while Aerie and Sil used normal bullets, and Jan equipped normal bolts (the Firetooth still deals fire damage, notably, even if you're using other forms of ammunition). Cernd stuck with dual-wielding Greater Werewolf Tokens, however, as I wanted him to stay safe.
Finally, Lavok fell, and Cernd cast Zone of Sweet Air to get rid of the cloud.
Two Magic Missiles later, Lavok's Mordenkainen's Sword was gone, and the battle was won.
It seems that the Wand of Spell Striking will not bypass spell protections, as I thought it would. It will, however, let us break through spell level immunities, as well as Spell Immunity: Abjuration. We can also hit invisible targets, but in SCS2, spells that take down spell defenses (Warding Whip, Secret Word, Spell Thrust, etc.) also break through invisibility, so that aspect of the wand is not unique, at least with SCS2 installed.
I still have to deal with Tolgerias and the Tanar'ri. I don't remember what SCS2 does to buff demons besides increase their HP, so the Tanar'ri might be difficult.
I was worried about the Tanar'ri. I wanted to make sure I didn't fight it at the same time as the surrounding mephits (though his opening dialogue spawns a few of his own), so I had to clear out the mephits nearby. This ran the risk of accidentally putting myself in his view, which would trigger the fight. I assumed he saw through invisibility, so instead of trying to sneak past him, I just used Farsight to make sure I knew where he was.
He's got some pretty spooky coloration on him.
I'm a big fan of Farsight, though its uses are a tad situational. For some reason, though, I've never liked Wizard Eye, which has much the same purpose.
Since Jan has Mislead and I had never had him backstab anything, I decided to try it out on the demon. Jan could do a lot of damage that way in spider form. With 4 APR and Celestial Fury, he would do 200 damage per round at 7 THAC0 (being invisible grants a THAC0 bonus). He didn't have Improved Haste, though, hence the 4 base APR instead of 8: the demon's Death Gaze paralyzes on a failed save vs. death, and since Jan has no cleric levels, his save vs. death is worse than Aerie's, Sil's, or Cernd's. So, I used Free Action only on Jan and Nalia, so the others could be hasted.
However, Jan's poor movement meant he took his time getting behind the demon. Plus, the demon saw through Jan's invisibility and turned around whenever Jan tried to attack, preventing him from backstabbing.
Apparently the demon knew Jan was trying to backstab him, so he turned around to prevent the backstab. By the time the demon was looking away and Jan was in position to backstab, the demon was already nearly dead. Jan didn't get a chance to backstab the Tanar'ri.
So, I had Jan backstab a Quasit on the way out.
Casters have really excellent physical damage potential.
Tolgerias was a nice, light battle, with no crazy antics or big risks. Sil broke through Tolgerias' Improved Mantle with the Sling of Everard, Jan dispelled Tolgerias' illusion magic, and Cernd chased Tolgerias' friend over to the east. As with the male mage in Watcher's Keep and Lavok, Tolgerias had a Chain Contingency with Horrid Wilting that fired on the first round, but Cernd resisted it. A Mordenkainen's Sword managed to kill my Flesh Golem in two hits, so I lost my best flasher target, but Jan was still able to stun Tolgerias by targeting the Mordenkainen's Sword, and Sil finished Tolgerias off with the Sling of Everard.
I broke through some of Tolgerias' spell protections, as well as those of his friend, but it didn't really matter. By stunning him, the battle lasted long enough for his weapon immunities to run out, so his spell protections, or the lack thereof, were irrelevant.
I had to deal with an Efreeti in the fire room and was not happy. The Efreeti turned to mist form three times and healed himself while invincible, dragging out the battle and forcing me to wait. It was a relief when he finally went down. I'm not sure what you have to do to keep him from turning to mist and regenerating, other than just dealing lots of damage very quickly.
On the plus side, the Efreeti gave us enough XP to bump up Cernd to level 14, giving us an extra 4th, 5th, and 7th level druid spell. I memorized Call Woodland Beings, Mass Cure, and Earthquake. The Earthquake, I feel, is a better choice over Nature's Beauty due to its wide area effect. Both can be resisted, but Earthquake cannot be escaped just by walking away from the caster. It would work especially well against casters, since it can bypass normal SCS2 spell protections and has a spell level of 7, enough to bypass lich spell level immunities as well as SCS2's ubiquitous (Minor) Globes of Invulnerability. And if Jan dispels enemy casters' Mirror Image spells, it should do a fair amount of damage as well, since the damage bypasses magic resistance (though the unconsciousness effect does not). Plus, Earthquake is party safe.
Finally I went to Gaelan Bayle to grab the key to Aran's Lair.
For all his indignation, he's not that big of a threat. But then, his job is a talker rather than a brawler.
And even if she has worse APR in human form, her options overall are much greater.
First, if we dual-wield the Flail of Ages and Defender of Easthaven (instead of using the Shield of the Lost all the time), she can be an excellent melee tank due to her physical damage resistances.
Second, she can push her STR considerably higher in human form. In spider form, DUHM gives her 19 STR for +7 to damage. In human form, DUHM gives her 20 STR for +8, and if she uses Holy Power as well, DUHM gives her 21 STR for +9. Also, Aid can tack on another +1 to damage. More importantly, she can renew her buffs. Her overall damage is higher a spider but that advantage only lasts as long as the DUHM from our Minor Sequencer does.
Third, she can cast Mirror Image, Stoneskin, and PFMW when in human form. If she's in spider form and runs out of Stoneskins, then she has to flee, return to normal form, and then cast Stoneskin before she is safe. And she won't be able to return to spider form, and get back that superior damage, without sacrificing either the ability to use the Flail of Ages or sacrificing two rounds to preparing and casting Minor Sequencer.
Fourth, the human form can retain its resistances better. Spiders have no base resistances.
Finally, she has a lot of debuffers and other nice spells that would allow Aerie and Nalia to focus on other things. Cleric/Mages in general can do a lot of things, and that versatility means the party overall is safer, as we are more capable of dealing with bad situations.
It's entirely possible to just go into spider form and then switch out when we need to cast a spell, but this costs us a round. And it's possible to stay in human form, and just switch to spider form when we need extra damage, but this also costs us time, and Polymorph Self only lasts so long.
I think I will restructure the party plan to make it more flexible. Escape options are nice, but there are some battles we won't be able to run away from, so the party has to be able to adapt. I think I will memorize extra copies of Death Ward and Chaotic Commands, among other things, in case one of my party members gets hit by Breach or Remove Magic (SI: Abjuration doesn't last forever).
Jan will likely remain in spider form unless I know the enemy is immune to stun, and even then it might still be more practical to stay in spider form, considering Jan's ability to backstab. But there is a problem with using Mislead to backstab: shapeshifting to spider form dispels Improved Haste, I believe, because the spider weapon grants normal haste. This means we can't use Improved Haste on Jan before he turns into a spider. And since Mislead prevents us from casting any spells on Jan at all, this means we can't cast Improved Haste after he goes invisible. And since he can't cast Mislead while in spider form, we can have spider Jan under the effects of Mislead or Improved Haste, but never both, unless we use a scroll.
Aerie might start using spider form more often. So far, Sil has spent much more time in spider form than Aerie, because Sil has Boon of Lathander and therefore has better melee potential, which means losing access to her spells is a smaller relative loss. But Aerie actually benefits more from spider form than Sil. Sil can be an excellent fighter whether shapeshifted or not, but Aerie can only achieve high APR in spider form.
Basically, if Sil shapeshifts, we have one fighter and one cleric/mage. If Aerie shapeshifts, we have one fighter and one fighter/mage/cleric.
Sil will probably stick to human form most of the time, reverting to spider form only when we need high APR and she's out of Boon of Lathander spells. Aerie will use spider form instead, and the spellcasting that Aerie has been doing will now be Sil's responsibility.
Before the Unseeing Eye, I took on the Shadow Thief lair, now that basically all of the pre-Spellhold side quests were over.
After a minor skirmish, I got to fight Booter. I love this guy's voice.
AAARGH! AAARGH! AAARGH!
The Shadow Thief mage took some time. She came out with some pretty low-level buffs, then surprised me with a PFMW+Spell Deflection Spell Trigger. She never used any other 8th-level spells, though, besides Spell Trigger. Jan can break through PFMW, however, by equipping normal bolts, or Bolts of Lightning or Bolts of Biting. Still, the mage survived quite some time, long enough to bring up Mantle.
I had Jan switch to normal Firetooth ammunition to get through Mantle. SCS2 mages can be very resilient, but thankfully, this party can put enough pressure on them that they can't use their biggest, nastiest spells on us. Lavok didn't even get to use Time Stop.
My party uses a lot of short-duration buffs, so I had to rest frequently and return to the area, just in case we got caught off guard.
The Amnish soldiers are pretty strict about vagrancy laws. Does anybody sleep at inns? I've always just rested outside, and kept pressing Z until I got past the guards.
Aran Linvail was tough, but not as brutal as I had expected. Normally Jan dispels enemy illusions, but this time I had Aerie cast True Sight, which removed the Shadowmaster's Mirror Image and Shadow Door, and left him quite vulnerable to Jan's flashers.
Even mages fail their saves against the flashers quite regularly, considering how many Jan can throw. I used Cernd to occupy the Cleric of Mask, and the rest of party focused on breaking through the defenses of Aran's elven mage friend. This is one of the few fights I've seen in SCS2 where the mages didn't all have Fireshields active. Insect Plague is horribly nerfed in SCS2, since Fireshields, which are ubiquitous in the mod, block the spell entirely.
Jan failed to stun the second mage, but Aerie, Nalia, and Sil broke down her spell protections pretty quick. One of the advantages of having multiple mages is that you can have any one of them attack enemy spell protections, without losing the ability to do other mage-y stuff. I don't have to decide whether to cast Secret Word on the enemy mage or Holy Smite on the enemy fighters. Another advantage is being able to break through several spell protections in one round, but there's an opportunity cost to that, still.
The fight ended fairly quickly. Aran was stunned early on, the other mage was under very strong magic attack pressure, the Cleric of Mask didn't have the AC to stand up to Cernd, and the other enemies couldn't do much besides pluck away at their bows and wait for Cernd to maul them.
Finally, finally we got the Amulet of Power.
Not that it will keep us safe from vampires. SCS2 vampires won't target characters with Negative Plan Protection for very long. I still don't know exactly how we're going to deal with Bodhi.
With Aran gone, there was only one thing left to do. I could fight dragons and liches and the Twisted Rune, but those are well beyond my party at the moment. The only enemy I could take down, I thought, was the Unseeing Eye.