I can't believe no one understands my point. Oh well. @DreadKhan Take a chill pill, it's not personal. Jeez.
I do but I don't think it really matters. In fact when I fail I rarely replay the same PC. This feels like a punitive reload. I prefer moving on to something else to replaying the same build. Or I reload the 5 minute old savegame. However I am glad to see gamers playing as if they were writing an academic analysis of a particular build. To clearly describe the experience they need to (re)start from scratch, that makes sense.
Let's not gang up on @FinneousPJ. I think s/he simply meant that I wasn't fully succeeding with this build as a no-reload run, if I had to restart multiple times. If I HAVE to restart constantly, then it means I'm still relying on luck. If you restart a game ten times until a given fight goes your way, then you're still banking on the luck factor, which is precisely what I want to avoid. Restarting a lot isn't a good sign.
Either way, the ideal would be for me to complete the run by finding and using a safe formula, one in which success or failure does not depend on a single die.
I can't believe no one understands my point. Oh well.
@DreadKhan Take a chill pill, it's not personal. Jeez.
If I were any more chill, I'd be named Elsa. Everyone understands your point perfectly, it just so happens to be a bad one, purely from a logical perspective. The OP has requested that this discussion not carry on though, so I will respect that now, and have nothing further to say regarding reload not being the same as restarting.
Solo non-multiclass ranged specialists tend to have a very, very hard time, so finding a reliable forumla may need to wait until you dual. That is when you can start using strategy more creatively. There is just so little a pure Fighter can do in the game, and not having a Necklace of Missiles really makes life harder. Well, that does give a bit of a kernel to try and work with; what nifty effects can you create out of items either charged or not, and which can you get to early? Gunning for an early Simulacrum might not be a terrible idea, but Kithix is a better solution. Ras is expensive early, and you can't buy that right away, and you might want to pickpocket the genies, meaning that whole quest may come later. Buying the Army Scythe early might be worth considering, for the faster shooting, then try to rely more on kiting? Which sounds awful.
All right, I figured out how to get enough money to buy Firetooth, again, without risk-taking. There are several sources of easy gold here, not all of which are necessary to buy the Firetooth (12,300 gold at 18 CHA and 12 Reputation).
With the questing Rovala has done, she has 5,000 gold. We need 7,300 more.
First, we can get 1800 gold by killing Officer Dirth, Isaea Roenall's slaver contact. He drops a set of Full Plate Mail, which sells for 1800 gold. Note that merchant prices vary somewhat; some merchants might offer less.
Second, we can drink a Potion of Insight (already owned; I believe you can also buy them from Mrs. Cragmoon) and talk to Wilfred the Red in the blue tent in southwest Trademeet. He gives you 1,000 gold if you call him out on his story.
Third, we can loot two rooms of Watcher's Keep. The room to the southwest, and the next room to the southwest, are safe to loot. Rovala cannot open one container, even with DUHM. One container is trapped, but only fires off a Chain Lightning spell, which Rovala can easily survive. A Stone Golem is in the second room, but Kitty can dispatch it singlehandedly. We cannot go anywhere else in Watcher's Keep safely. The main area of the top level is infested with Vampiric Wraiths, whom we cannot escape with invisibility alone. The next room over from the Stone Golem room is iffy. The monsters in that room are random. If they are Trolls, we have to bring a source of fire damage with us. If they are some other critter (I've also seen spiders), we should be able to clear out that room, but it has no meaningful loot anyway. It contains the Golem Manual, but we cannot use it without UAI. It also contains the Case of Plenty +1, which sells for 600 gold, but it has a level drain trap that will take 500 gold to recover from (Garlena cures level drain relatively cheaply).
The loot in these few rooms is worth several thousand gold altogether, which should be enough to buy Firetooth (I had 500 left over). If we did not collect enough loot over the course of the run so far, or if we have spent it on extra potions and so forth, we may need to go someplace else.
If so, Kitty can take on the slaver compound singlehandedly, as mentioned before. She can also kill the paladin ambush in the Windspear Hills, as well as Plath Rededge and her fellow bandits. Finally, she should be able to deal with some enemies in the Temple Ruins dungeon, as her attack strikes as a +3 weapon.
So, we now have a safe route from character creation to (1) full immunity to disablers (2) a durable summons, and (3) Firetooth. We are still largely helpless against tough enemies, but we have a handle on normal encounters.
Now, we have to reach fighter level 13 while using as few minor quests as possible. We will save the easier quests for when we dual-class to thief and need easy XP. I believe the de'Arnise Hold is next, as a single-classed thief would have much difficulty completing it, unlike a fighter. We need 600,000 XP to hit level 13, and then another 880,000 XP to recover our fighter levels. Finally, to reach UAI, we need another 2.12 million XP, for a total of roughly 4.32 million XP over the course of the game.
The first few levels will be tough, but if you know some easy to disarm traps/easy locks, you don't need too many to get enough levels to be useful, right? Or did they nerf that XP? If not, its tons at low levels, and a few levels means options.
Very good point @DreadKhan, definitely something to try. In my setup, which is similar to @semiticgod's I think, the XP for locks and traps is pitiable (my lvl 22 BH just disarmed a trap for 64 XP), due to some unintentionally installed mod component. I hope it's not the case for your Thief semiticgod. Picking a few locks and disarming some snares at Mae'Var's guildhouse to go from lvl 1 to 5 would be very helpful.
Riddles are also great: the bridge riddle in the Unseeing Eye tunnel toward the Amanautor shrine is worth 42250 XP (just stay away from the Beholders), and the rituals riddle in the Temple Ruins should grant a similar amount of XP. You could have your Archer clear the areas leading to those areas (although stealth should also enable your Thief to make it there without fighting).
I've looked at my characters' statistics in multiple runs at the end of the game and their total XP is twice the XP they've won from kills. Apparently half of your levels come from quests, not from monsters. But I usually think of monsters when it comes to hunting for XP.
Having 'mostly done' quests to turn in was pretty important for the sillier high level duals. Fighters require this in BG2 dual to, but Mages and Rogues have decent sources of non-combat XP, and they both become useable sooner too. 10th lvl thief or mage have tools, a Fighter can still only hit stuff. Dualing to fighter in SoA is akin to soloing a monk in BG1, only it lasts even longer.
I played a monk in Tutu once, and found it rather unrewarding. Monks really need high levels to function adequately, and BG1 just doesn't have that.
I've actually created mage Charnames intending to dual-class them to fighters on two separate occasions, but in both cases it was for unusual playthroughs. The first one was an insane solo poverty challenge, with the mage levels providing Spirit Armor and +3 maces with Enchanted Weapon, but the build proved too squishy. The other was the Charname I used in the restless run.
All right! We have an addition to the formula, but the remaining challenges are becoming very tricky.
We go after de'Arnise Hold in the hopes of gathering enough XP to hit Archer level 13. The Spirit Trolls here are very irritating due to their invisibility and their ability to see through invisibility. The RoAC is an insufficient escape option for Rovala. Still, Kitty can take on most of the trolls, and as long as Rovala stays at the back, we can get by, although the fights will progress very slowly.
Oddly enough, Rovala cannot escape the way she came in. When she fills her inventory with loot and tries to leave via the secret entrance she came through, she cannot detect the secret door and therefore cannot leave. We can only escape the place by opening the front gate, which I usually neglect to do.
We sneak past the pack of trolls in the main room of the first level. They can see through invisibility, but they can't spot us if we take the southern hallway. We open the gate and leave the area to sell off some stuff to Garlena.
The Yuan-ti mage has nothing that can affect us. We are immune to its disablers, provided Rovala stands back and switches items before the mage's spells hit. In this case, I got lucky, hitting the mage with Firetooth before his buffs came up, but otherwise, we would need to wait out its defenses.
The Iron Golem goes down with Firetooth, using the doorway as a choke point. Whenever it starts casting its poison cloud, we move to a corner, let the cloud hit, and then move to the other corner of the small chamber next to the golem room, which gives us just enough distance to avoid getting hit by the poison cloud more than once. I got lucky with my saving throws again, only getting poisoned once, but if we got overwhelmed by poison damage, we could flee, rest, and return later to keep wearing it down.
TorGal is an odd story. We get mobbed by Spirit Trolls early on, who make a point of draining Rovala's STR.
She drinks an Oil of Speed to stay out of reach, but she can't kite effectively against regenerating enemies. Kitty has to do most of the work, but she excels at this. She is actually able to web the Trolls, giving her free hits that leave the Troll at Near Death when the web wears off.
I notice there's something wrong with Torgal.
He's not attacking us, either Kitty or Rovala. Even when I whack him with Lilarcor, he does not attack.
If TorGal responded correctly, we might have needed to retreat late in the battle to rest outside. Kitty has regeneration, too, but bad luck could theoretically have gotten her killed. If Kitty fell, we would have to use the movement boost from the Oil of Speed to escape the area and return later.
After TorGal falls, we leave the de'Arnise Hold, without contacting Nalia. We need that XP reward when we dual-class, and we're not quite there yet.
We head to the Druid Grove and use the same tactics against the enemies there. We stop short of fighting Kyland Lind, however, as he is probably too strong for us right now.
We do, however, enter the Troll Mound, and midway through, we hit level 13. Rovala leaves the Druid Grove, goes to the de'Arnise Hold, and dual-classes to thief. We now need 880,000 XP before we recover our fighter levels.
We talk to Nalia, which bumps us up to level 6 or 7, and put all of our skill points into Find Traps and Lockpicking. We have lost a lot of THAC0, APR, damage bonuses, and also our immunities to charm and confusion.
We enter the Temple Ruins. Kitty can handle most of the enemies here, but she needs a little help and direction to take down the bigger ones.
Only 4 damage. The Shadows and Shade Wolves are one thing, but Skeleton Warriors, Bone Golems, and Mummies all have resistances to piercing damage, on top of their immunities to Kitty's poison. There is one encounter where all of these enemies come together, and Kitty can't face them all at once, so we draw them out gradually.
Our notable advantage Kitty has over the enemies is that she regenerates. She can do the kiting while Rovala attacks with Firetooth, and in the process Kitty will regain her lost health.
I didn't actually intend to go farther than Amuana, but since I wanted to get rid of the other quest items I had gathered (inventory space is very limited for solo characters), I proceeded all the way up to the Shadow Dragon. Thaxll'ssillyia and the Shade Lord will have to wait. I cannot handle them now.
On returning to Athkatla, I completed some of the low-risk sources of XP that I had been saving. The Graveyard offered XP from Wellyn, Kamir the Paladin, the Crypt King, a couple of trapped or locked chests on the way to Pai'na, and the handful of undead-infested tombs littered around the place.
Other places were more challenging. The Harper Hold required a fight with two mages at once, and even Prebek and Sanasha can be pretty dangerous in SCS. I used Hide in Shadows to enter the place and talk-blocked Prebek Sanasha. This gave me enough time to summon Kitty and have her attack Prebek, killing him early on. I was very reckless with this battle, though.
I forgot to watch out for enemy spells. If that had been a Chaos or Confusion spell, it could have confused both Kitty and Rovala, and Rovala might have ended up getting targeted by her own summons. I should have watched out for Sanasha's spells, and kept a Potion of Clarity ready in case she used Chaos or Confusion. Hold Monster could have also killed Rovala, since she did not have Arbane's Sword equipped.
After that, we did Mae'var's first quest, to get the amulet from the Temple of Talos. A simple quest with no fighting.
The skinner quest also has a difficult encounter for a low-level thief. With one Bone Golem, two Ghasts, and two Rune Assassins with Potions of Invisibility, this battle could have gone very badly. I prepared several traps in the room above the fighter, in case I needed to retreat, but otherwise I mostly just toughed out the battle. Ilbratha's Mirror Image effect blocked a backstab or two, but Rovala wasn't really at risk of dying. At 150 base HP, she could take several backstabs in succession and still crawl back up the stairs to safety. The bigger problem was bringing down the enemies, since Kitty can only deal so much damage in the time she had. Kitty webbed everything but the Bone Golem at least once. If she had failed, then Rovala probably would have had to retreat.
After completing the Tirdir quest, we were almost at thief level 14. Our next best source of XP lay in the Unseeing Eye quest, which has some easier enemies before the Beholders show up.
Or so I thought.
On the way to killing the Sea Troll for Roger, we got ambushed.
I have never seen that happen before. I drank a Potion of Invisibility and fled. I hoped Kitty could kill at least one enemy before I left the sewers, but she didn't last a single round.
I have no idea why that happened. My closest guess is that I entered this area before speaking to High Watcher Oisig, which I have never done before. The Beholders were still there when I came back, but thankfully, none of those eyes let them see through invisibility. The Ring of Air Control lets me slip by.
Kitty slays basically everything in the next area save the cultists. Once we finish off the group of Shadows, Shadow Fiends, and Wraiths on the way to the first piece of the Rift Device, Rovala hits 880,000 XP. We level up and she regains her fighter levels.
We've gathered 65,000 gold over the last several quests. We spend most of it on Vhailor's Helm, the Bracers of Defense AC 3, and scrolls of Protection from Magic and Protection from Undead, which will let our simulacrum deal with Beholders, at least for a few rounds. But that might not be enough--nearly enough--to deal with a pack of Beholders, particularly since Rovala's invisibility will only last 10 rounds. After that, we'll have to flee.
Well, we got a little lucky in a couple places, but nothing really extraordinary. The formula should still hold up. And our formula now extends all the way to recovering our Archer levels. Rovala is now an Archer/Thief. But we've got a long way to go before hitting UAI, and we won't have a lot of new breakthroughs on the way.
If it wasn't such a brutal quest, the boots of speed from the Planar Prison would be totally awesome. Still, you've gotten to the point where you can use some thief tricks, so you should be okay on many quests, by trapping for fun and profit. Not having immunity to level drain yet really limits some quest options, doesn't it? though you can always bypass troublesome fights, if they aren't mandatory. But mostly traps at this point are going to be your friend I am thinking. Does your simulacrum have traps?
I really would love the Boots of Speed. But I'm not sure how I would handle that battle. There is no room for me to hide in that place.
The lack of immunity to level drain is very problematic. But I believe there are about 9 scrolls of Protection from Undead spread across multiple stores and temples, so at least I'll have that.
The simulacrum does indeed have traps. But, unfortunately, it has no Archer levels, and therefore has only 1 attack per round with poor THAC0 and damage bonuses. It still has Called Shot, but it's cast at a lower level. I think the simulacrum will only get Archer levels at level 24 (same time it gets UAI), and Called Shot won't do any STR drain until level 20. So, still no breakthroughs before epic levels.
I decided to try to take on those Beholders in the sewers.
I didn't really expect Rovala's simulacrum to take down the Beholders, but I sent it out anyway under the effects of Protection from Magic and Oil of Speed. The results were quite surprising.
It seems that, in SCS2, Beholder rays can take down Protection from Magic scrolls. This changes things.
Despite our inability to tank the Beholders, Kitty is able to survive long enough to poison one of the Gauths, which perished after the battle was over. I did the same for the second Gauth, leaving only one Beholder left.
Kitty manages to tough it out! Notice Rovala (I keep wanting to type Sil) has Bolts of Lightning equipped. It's not for her own use; it's just so that her simulacrum uses them instead of Firetooth's normal bolts. Unfortunately, simulacra can't switch ammunition, at least with Firetooth, so our options are a tad limited.
Nevertheless, we bring down the Beholders through attrition. We also slay the Rakshasa (pretty uninteresting battle; we just shot bolts at it until it died) before picking up where we left off in the Unseeing Eye quest. We need to pick up the first piece of the Rift Device.
Bear in mind that I'm not running the actual game at the moment--these are all test runs to develop a formula for the tenuous early game. I think only two of the tests have failed so far, so I think things are going well. Later, I'll pick up at the beginning of the game and play through it as normal, following the formula, and resume the actual no-reload run, to make sure the late game is still suspenseful.
Anyway, I hit a dead end at the bridge. There are five Beholders in total, two or three of which are Gauths. I try to lure them into some traps, but they refuse to float onto the platform, and instead stick to their formation. It's a good move on their part. They're almost unassailable when bunched up together.
Picking them off one at a time is also impractical. With five Beholders bearing down on Kitty and Rovala's simulacrum, we can't realistically hope to bring any of them down, even if we rest and return to the fight if we fail a save vs. a Death Ray. Protection from Magic is simply useless against Beholders in SCS2. Finally, I come up with a solution.
Instead of using Protection from Magic, our simulacrum will use a Potion of Magic Shielding, guaranteeing successful saves. Rovala stands by, invisible, while her simulacrum whittles down one of the Beholders.
Bolts of Lightning add another 5 damage on average on a successful save, or 10 on a failed save. Despite the simulacrum's poor APR, it still does rather nice damage per hit. Also notice that Rovala's name is actually Rolava here. Somehow I failed to correct the mistake. I'll fix it later.
With the Potion of Magic Shielding and healing potions on the side, our simulacrum can bring down the enemy Beholders, though I only take down 2 before retreating, for fear that Rovala's invisibility will break if we linger much longer.
We then get mobbed by Shadows, as always happens when the Beholders fall. Luckily for us, Shadow Fiends take more than double damage from electricity.
Elsewhere, we weren't so fortunate. Theshal's lair has bigger monsters than we're used to.
I consider having our simulacrum tank out the Lich, but the small horde of undead melee attackers overwhelm it. As if that wasn't enough encouragement to leave, the Lich's demon summons hurries over to shoo me out the door.
We anticipated having to leave, though, and already filched a fair amount of treasure from the area. We're still missing the Skin of the Ghoul and Gauntlets of Dexterity, but those are just merchant fodder for Rovala anyway.
It seems that the Beholder population is just as dense as it was in Sil's run.
I could try using the simulacrum on these guys, but with many Beholders scattered throughout the map, and SCS2' scripts that could bring them all together, that might just gather the whole hive into an invincible cluster, or worse, get in the way of the only exit. We decide to leave and come back when we're ready to deal with the enemy.
We decide to take on the Shade Lord instead, one of the most notoriously nasty villains of SCS2. We get ambushed for the first time in ages. The bandits have gotten a major upgrade since we first fought Suna Seni and her friends.
Aside from the two thieves backstabbing me, I also get hit by some Magic Missiles... while that mage seen above was casting Greater Malison. It seems there are two mages in this battle. But even with only one, I don't trust Rovala to survive another pair of backstabs. She's still got plenty of HP left, but the thieves might get better damage rolls the next time around. I flee the area.
I pick up the Shadow Dragon Wardstone I left on a statue, but cannot find the Symbol of Amaunator, which I need to open the door to the dragon's lair. I search all over for it, even in the Umar Hills, but it seems that the Symbol of Amaunator--unlike the Shadow Dragon Wardstone--can vanish, despite it being a quest item. I add it in with CLUAConsole and open the door. Next time, I'll have to open the door before I let it go.
Rovala is completely vulnerable to level drain and the Shade Lord has lots of high-level spell protections to keep its Darkling Aura active. It doesn't help that he comes with lots of friends. So how do we deal with this guy?
Protection from Undead. We lose a finite resource in the process, but there's not a single living thing in this battle, so we can deal with this encounter without risk.
We notice something peculiar as the Shade Lord falls: our bolts from Firetooth get reflected back at us. I've seen this before, on mages without Physical Mirror, and have long wondered what it was.
It's a spell level thing. The fire damage of Firetooth has a spell level of 6 instead of zero. It means the damage will get reflected back at us, but it will also break down the enemy's spell protections. And since every shot from Firetooth is the equivalent of a sixth-level spell, and Rovala gets 4.5 base APR, we can tear down most spell protections in a single round. And even if the enemy has Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, AND Spell Trap active at the same time, we should be able to bring down the whole wall within two rounds. We still need a Wand of Spell Striking to cast Breach, but now we don't have to worry about it getting reflected back onto us, nor do we need to use Pierce Magic to break through our spell protections. Though Spell Shield will still block the first Breach, and we definitely can't bring down Spell Shield with Firetooth.
Liches are still a major risk at the moment. Maybe at level 16, when our traps get a boost, we could take on some liches, but with SCS2's scripts, even Protection from Undead isn't a guarantee of safety, since they will still cast summons and use their summons as a target for area effect spells, which lets them hit us with their magic even when we're invisible to them.
Interesting. One differs this thread from other "no-reload documenting" threads people make. While such a tale usually illustrates the actual no-reload run as it is, this thread is more about exploring tactics, finding ways, searching for the best possible solutions so that, in @semiticgod 's words, it would be possible to comlete the archer/thief run without reloads.
And these searchings are of great interest. Not only we have a list of deadly traps in this thread, we have a confirmation that SCS beholders take off the Protection from Magic. I like this thread for these kind of things.
Thank you @semiticgod for sharing your insights. A couple of days ago we spoke, and you told me you had absolutely no plan for chapters 2 and 3. And look now, you already know how to complete the dual-classing process.
I think the Sewer Beholder and Gauths that teleported in are an SCS thing. Happened in my install as well when I went looking for the Spiders' Bane sword as part of the (Unfinished Business) Pai'Na quest..
Time to finish the Trademeet quests. We are sufficiently equipped to deal with Kyland Lind and Adratha now.
For Kyland Lind, we bring up a simulacrum and have it drink a Potion of Magic Shielding to protect it from Insect Plague. We also have a Potion of Clarity on hand in case Rovala gets targeted. But with our high APR and Firetooth, we can break through the druids' Ironskins and disrupt their many conjuration spells.
Kitty fails to disrupt one of them, however.
We lose a Potion of Clarity in the process, but we still take some damage. But we're able to overcome Kyland Lind and his gang of green-haired militant tree huggers through sheer damage. Divine spellcasters have always been pretty easy to interrupt, and the nastiest druid spells in the game tend to have long casting times.
The Myconids are still a problem. Rovala and her simulacrum can equip Lilarcor and achieve immunity to confusion, but Kitty cannot.
Kitty is a very dangerous opponent, and it would devastating if she attacked Rovala or her clone. We'd have to turn invisible and flee if this happened.
We also have trouble with the Spore Colonies. We can't hit them without using Firetooth unless we want to spend extra rounds fighting through Myconids. But if we switch to Firetooth, it's easy to get caught off guard by a confusion spell.
We also have no insurance that Kitty will not attack Rovala while both of them are confused, which would basically mean death. We got lucky this time, but we would have to rely entirely on Lilarcor to ensure success in this fight.
We handled Dalok the same way we did with Kyland Lind, and let Cernd take down Faldorn. I think in SCS2, it's possible for Cernd to lose against Faldorn in her improved form, but I uninstalled that component, ensuring Cernd's success. It would not do for Rovala's quest to depend on a battle we can't control.
We bought three Potions of Stone Form from Adratha, and maybe also a couple Potions of Invisibility, before killing her. We set a bunch of traps, used the Ring of Air Control, and stabbed her with a scimitar. We then talk-blocked her to get in a couple more hits.
The traps would have been sufficient on their own, actually. We also slew her Rakshasa buddies. We laid more traps before they turned hostile, which took down Saadat, and Kitty managed to web Jalaal. An extra 6000 XP from the two optional Rakshasas.
I decided to test out a trick with the Cloak of Stars. Normally, you can only create six +5 darts per rest period with the cloak, and they only last 24 hours, so at most, you can get 12 in a given day. But a simulacrum can use the Cloak of Stars, too. So, I activated Vhailor's Helm while wearing the cloak, had both Rovala and the clone create a half dozen stars, and then killed the clone to loot the stars from its body. I repeated the process and got 24 darts.
These darts will give us high APR with weapons that can bypass Improved Mantle. We now have a check on high-level mages, though it'll still take a couple rounds to break through Stoneskin. It's a pity the darts have a maximum stack of 20.
We also used the Simulacrum to steal the Efreeti Bottle from Taquee. I was concerned about our limited supply of thieving potions, so I just had the clone drink all of them instead and then cast DUHM for a little bonus to Dexterity. With three Potions of Master Thievery, two Potions of Perception, and one Potion of Power, the clone had over 200 in pickpocket. I'm not sure if that's sufficient to guarantee success, but another Potion of Master Thievery should have. All I had to do after that was kill the clone and loot its body for the Efreeti Bottle.
Since Protection from Undead had worked so well against the Shade Lord, I decide to try it against the Elemental and Shade Liches. But I delayed this until I was level 16, which meant my traps would do a little extra damage, and the damage would be fire instead of poison, the latter of which a lich would be immune to.
Even if the traps hadn't worked, I still had multiple scrolls of Protection from Undead. With only one character to protect, I could actually take down both liches within the duration of a single scroll. But that was not necessary.
In the Elemental Lich's lair, I got surprised by a Cowled Wizard.
In SCS2, the Cowled Wizards can detect magic in more places, which, surprisingly enough, includes the lair of a sleeping lich. You'd think the Cowled Wizards would leave that place well alone.
To me a no-reload is playing a character until s/he dies and then shelf it, not start the same character over. But then again it's probably because when i play my no-reload the character grows on me, it's a person and when s/he dies i'll remember that character and where s/he ended up failing the run. If i want to play the same type of character i'll make a new one but with a different name, personality and stats.
I would get really confused if i kept restarting the same character, are we on Sion the Priest of Helm #2 that died in cooper coronet, or #4 that died to firkraag or #8 that died in watcher's keep?
When i no-reload i play a character, when that character dies s/he is dead and i move on.
But we're all different here, no one is more right than the other, we just have different opinions.
Nice work with the Druids. For future reference you might consinder Aeger's Hide, for sale at Ribald's. It protects against Confusion, and is upgradeable with the Item Upgrade mod, making the investment more worthwhile perhaps (although gold shouldn't be an issue anymore now that Rolava's part Thief ).
I was surprised with the PfUndead scroll being so effective against Liches. In my install they still activate their spell protections and their opening ADHW (all part of SCS pre-casting), and they also still summon Fiends. So be careful my friend.
Finally you could consider keepering a Bag of Holding into your inventory unless you actually enjoy inventory management. I mean if you don't, you'll probably end up storing items in a chest somewhere (your stronghold for example). The only difference that makes is more traveling to and from your chest in preparation of upcoming missions.
Edit: @SionIV, that's a good point. I even have difficulty recycling portraits. The only characters I might re-use are those that never died (but failed to save the Dukes in BG1, or get charmed or mazed). Still I wouldn't consider equate restarting with reloading, but I don't want to reopen this discussion, which isn't really relevant for the current thread, so I'll leave it at that.
@SionIV: Thank you. I'm not much of a roleplayer in BG2, hence my willingness to restart. I'm more interested in the mechanics of the game, and letting go of Rovala would keep me from doing the research I wanted to do. But I think most people, like you and @FinneousPJ, are more interested in the character than the class, and reloading/restarting would seem besides the point.
@Blackraven: SCS2 liches do indeed have ways of getting around Protection from Undead. But it does protect us from the one thing that Rovala has no defense against: single-target instant death spells. With her immunities and high HP, area-effect spells won't cause us any trouble (unless it's Emotion or a Horror/Symbol Fear, for which we have potions), and summoned demons can be quickly slain or simply outrun.
Also @Blackraven: I've decided not to add in a Bag of Holding before Spellhold, since I consider inventory space to be a power-gamey concern. If I don't give myself a Bag of Holding, it means I need to prioritize my equipment, and make sacrifices about what to bring where. That said, where exactly can I store items safely? I have the fighter stronghold; can I store my things in any container there?
@Blackraven@DreadKhan: An Archer can indeed wear Aeger's Hide. But it's a big purchase for this one use. Confusion can also be blocked with a Potion of Clarity for this one encounter, and after the Trademeet quest is over, we have Shield of Harmony to block confusion instead, and we can use the Crimson Dart or +5 darts from the Cloak of Stars to deal ranged damage while maintaining our immunity to confusion.
Anyway, we bring down Kangaxx's lich form with traps alone. No problems there. His demi-lich form is our main problem.
At the start of battle, he casts Time Stop three separate times, concentrating on killing Rovala's clone and Kitthix.
Kangaxx is unable to kill Kitty with Death Spell. Apparently she is immune! What's less reassuring is that Kangaxx can target Rovala's clone with single-target spells, despite the fact that she has Protection from Undead active.
I was hoping this behavior was unique to the clone. Turns out Rovala herself is also completely visible to Kangaxx.
To my surprise, Kangaxx does not attempt to Imprison me. I knew SCS2 prevented having enemy spellcasters from using Imprisonment on the main character, but I did not know this extended to demiliches as well. But Kangaxx still has lots of damage dealing spells, and I am hesitant to drink my only Potion of Magic Shielding.
Eventually I do, since Potions of Extra Healing aren't enough to let us survive the Horrid Wilting spells, and there are a lot of them. Kangaxx tries in vain to dispel its effects with Breach.
He does this more than once, wasting rounds and letting me slowly break down his Stoneskins. But eventually he tries Remove Magic, and I am vulnerable once more.
But finally I break through his Stoneskins, and can interrupt his Horrid Wilting spells.
He loses two rounds this way. But he has other tricks up his sleeve.
With Kangaxx's innate 4 bonus to casting time, Emotion comes out instantly. Rovala fails her save.
Kangaxx has two castings of Remove Magic and two castings of Emotion. This means that I need at least two Potions of Magic Shielding to guarantee survival. But that alone will not be sufficient, as I was only able to survive the Horrid Wilting spells by virtue of the Potion of Magic Shielding I drank. This means I would need three, but I don't want to drink three Potions of Magic Shielding just for a ring with incomplete defenses. The Ring of Gaxx is nice, but it won't guarantee a successful saving throw. Potions of Magic Shielding are worth more than the Ring of Gaxx.
But I still want to take him on. I do some calculations and find that the Rod of Resurrection will let me heal myself enough to survive Kangaxx' Horrid Wilting spells. But since I don't want to buy one, I will instead take it from Mekrath's lair. And to get to Mekrath, we first need to fight Draug Fea and his friends in the sewers.
I set up a line of seven traps along the path leading up to the group, then sneak up to them with Rovala's clone, who backstabs Gaius. I try to break through Gaius' Stoneskins with +5 darts, but I can't do it quick enough.
I leave Kitty and the clone to deal with Gaius, and lure Tarnor the Hatchetman and Draug Fea into my string of traps.
They're tough enough to survive the traps, but they're still weakened enough for Rovala to cut them down with Belm.
When I get back, Gaius has fallen to Kitty's poison and web effects. The others are in good shape, but right after Gaius falls, Rovala's clone gets teleported behind a secret door.
I can't open that door without the Sewer Key from Firkraag's lair, so the clone is out of the battle.
But the battle is already mostly won. Just because I can, I run off and lay more traps so I can lure Gallchobhair into them.
Disappointing that I couldn't backstab him. I've only just recently started getting good at stealth.
Mekrath's lair was more problematic than I anticipated. The Yuan-ti mages have a brilliant counter to my immunities.
Luckily I made my saves, but in the future, I would have to prepare differently. Specifically, I'd need to use the Skin of the Ghoul (which I have yet to get from Theshal) and/or the Spear of the Unicorn to guarantee a successful save vs. death. Nor can I rely on a Potion of Invisibility to keep Rovala safe, since the Yuan-ti mages use True Sight. Otherwise, this encounter wasn't too dangerous. It took ages, though, since there are multiple mages with lots of buffs.
Mekrath was short and sweet. I'm particularly pleased with how the battle began.
I escaped a Divination spell without Spell Immunity! I didn't get to backstab him, since he had Stoneskin active, but it was still nice to escape his notice.
Mekrath didn't pull many tricks after that. He had PFMW, so I equipped normal bolts and hit him with Firetooth, disrupting his spells through Stoneskin. Soon, his defenses were gone.
We have the Rod of Resurrection! A full 10 charges, too.
I go back to Kangaxx and accidentally set him free before setting my traps. I thought I had already gotten the area all set up for his arrival, but I was remembering my preparations for the Shade and Elemental Liches, in which I trapped both areas before fighting either lich. I used CTRL-Y to bring out Kangaxx's demi-lich form, since the lich form shouldn't an issue when I do the real run.
If I do forget to trap the area, though, then I'll probably just flee. Kangaxx offers a bunch of XP, but his lich form would drain too many resources and pose too many risks.
In demi-lich form, Kangaxx wastes his time slaughtering my Efreeti while Rovala sets new traps in the corner.
That saves us a fair amount of HP.
Here's the beautiful part. At the time, I thought Kangaxx had three castings of Remove Magic, so I drank an Oil of Speed and a Potion of Stone Form in an attempt to get him to waste one of his Remove Magic spells. The real reason he used Remove Magic might have been Rovala's clone's Potion of Magic Shielding, but either way, he just used up a scarce and valuable resource.
Kangaxx and I trade blows with Firetooth and Minute Meteors for a long time. He alternates between casting Horrid Wilting and Stoneskin (his SCS2-introduced MR blocks Firetooth's fire damage). I time my uses of the Rod of Resurrection so I get healed right after Horrid Wilting hits, maximizing the HP I recover while keeping my aura clean. I can only use one item a round, and I need to be able to drink a Potion of Magic Shielding the moment I see Kangaxx casting Emotion.
Finally, Kangaxx throws out Emotion. Our timing is perfect.
After many rounds of plucking away with Firetooth, we finally wear down Kangaxx.
We only had to spend one Potion of Magic Shielding to defeat him, but also five charges from the Rod of Resurrection. Maybe not worth it, but if we ever do need the Ring of Gaxx, we'll have it.
Also @Blackraven: I've decided not to add in a Bag of Holding before Spellhold, since I consider inventory space to be a power-gamey concern. If I don't give myself a Bag of Holding, it means I need to prioritize my equipment, and make sacrifices about what to bring where. That said, where exactly can I store items safely? I have the fighter stronghold; can I store my things in any container there?
Fair enough. I've had FIghter Charnames use the library upstairs in Nalia's Keep to store items. My Wizard Slayer took Rayic Gethras' home as hers, and hid all her goodies in one of the beds. This could be a nicer solution (less traveling).
The ring still has it's spells too, right? Improved Haste with a short duration is still a very strong option, seeing as you can't cast Imp Haste, thats a mini Greater Whirlwind. Great for cracking Stoneskin I think!
@DreadKhan: The Improved Haste is certainly nice, but it only lasts 10 seconds, though you can activate it thrice per day. I'll still be able to cast Improved Haste via scrolls, which will likely be the main source of STR drain. More importantly, Kangaxx costs at least one Potion of Magic Shielding, and unlike charges from the Rod of Resurrection, you only get so many per game.
I think I have some items to store. Normally I just sell them to merchants and buy them back when I need to. But the de'Arnise Hold sounds less expensive.
3x per day though makes it a solid tactical item, and until you get thr Bracers, it'll be b3tter than it sounds at first glance. 10s is almost 2 rounds, right? that can mean 6 or 7 extra attacks, 3x per day. That can end a caster fight potentially.
Testing found that the Improved Haste feature of the Ring of Gaxx is indeed quite useful. We also reached something of a limited breakthrough in Rovala's power.
Rovala did a few errands to scrape together a little more XP, but one of them proved more dangerous than we expected.
First, since we had some anti-mage options that actually went mostly unused (all those liches went down with traps), we decided to go get Rayic Gethras. The first two levels were a breeze. Rovala by now can engage normal enemies in melee combat with a crossbow and still come out on top. But Ray-Ray is another monster entirely. I decided to enter his room invisible and activate Vhailor's Helm, but since I didn't know if Vhailor's Helm broke invisibility, I tested it outside first.
Apparently Vhailor's Helm actually casts the spell itself; it doesn't just mimic the effects. This means it triggers the Cowled Wizards' attention, and since I already did the same thing before, this time they're hostile.
I send Rovala away and let her clone and Kitty distract the wizards. The wizards follow after Rovala anyway, but cannot target her with spells while she's hidden.
Rovala fails a Hide in Shadows check, so she hurries to a dark corner to hide again, before the wizards can catch up to her. But one of them boxes her in and casts Maze when she turns visible.
So, we probably shouldn't break the laws against magic. Unless we've laid a bunch of traps beforehand.
Rayic Gethras is quite simple. He uses PFMW, which we can bypass with Firetooth and normal bolts. He doesn't last long, so we can move forward in the Mae'var quest.
Finally, we uncover Mae'var's treachery and Renal asks us to pretty please go murder everyone in Mae-Mae's guildhall. We oblige. I actually have Kitty do all the work on the first floor, and Rovala just goes invisible with the Ring of Gaxx. But she has to take on the second floor herself.
Our first critical hit on a backstab. Very nice.
Mae'var is a fairly low-level mage and poses no threat. I don't know if his cleric is dangerous; I backstabbed him to death before the fight began. On to Firkraag's lair!
Against the first batch of golems on the second level, I realize I can make Rovala's clone into a spectacular tank with the Cloak of the Sewers. I have the clone switch to rat form. Even without Defender of Easthaven for complete immunity to physical damage, that 90% resistance is enough to keep the golems occupied, particularly since the clone is also regenerating and, as always, has plenty of potions. And if we have the clone drink a couple Potions of Magic Shielding, it'll be virtually immune to everything. Unfortunately, the clone only lasts 16 rounds, but that's enough for most situations.
Anyway, we come across the undead section of Firkraag's lair, and like my last no-reload run, it's filled with high-level vampires. Rovala uses a scroll of Protection from Undead and picks them off one by one.
They run and hide a lot, but with Detect Illusions, Rovala can root them out. All the vampires go down eventually, and there's enough duration left in the scroll for Rovala to also take care of the Greater Wraith and its bedfellows nearby.
I have too many items, so I go back to store them in the de'Arnise Hold, like I did with some potions and other items not long ago.
The stuff I left there before is gone, pilfered by Rovala's own employees. @Blackraven, apparently the de'Arnise Hold isn't a safe place for Rovala's things, at least with my install. She also involuntarily got the ranger stronghold, which might interfere with it somehow, but otherwise I'm not sure what went wrong.
Anyway, back to Firkraag's lair. Samia and her friends proved underwhelming.
Traps again. But why not abuse them in a no-reload run?
More thief work brought down the Guardians. Rovala is quite the backstabber, even without the Staff of Striking or Staff of the Ram.
The Director went down with traps. Same goes for some Greater Wolfweres.
We cleared out the rest of the dungeon simply by relying on Firetooth. Conster died to traps, and Firkraag we left alone.
Since the main quest offers lots of easy XP, I used CLUAConsole to spawn in Valen, who has not contacted us even after we collected over 100,000 gold.
The first quest, fighting Mook and Arkanis Gath at the Docks, went fairly well. I had lain a bunch of traps outside Kangaxx's door, which I led some of the enemies right into. Mook and Arkanis Gath both fell to backstabs.
The second quest, rescuing Palern Flynne, was harder. Somehow the little mages in the Shadow Thief hideout managed to kill Kitty, which was particularly problematic because I had fled to the northeast chamber to escape notice, which allowed the enemies to block the way to the exit. I also got caught by a surprise Sphere of Chaos, and had to drink a Potion of Magic Shielding just in case we got hit by the Disintegrate effect of the spell. An enemy Remove Magic spell failed to dispel my save bonuses, allowing me to use Firetooth on the mages. But because of their many Stoneskin spells, it took time to clear out the area. By the time I had, the Potion of Magic Shielding had run out. Quite a long battle indeed.
I looked over my equipment and found a way to protect Rovala from Sphere of Chaos. With the Ring of Gaxx, Amulet of Protection +1, Ring of Earth Control, and a Potion of Stone Form, I should be able to resist the Disintegrate effect of Sphere of Chaos without fail. I did not need it in the second floor, however, as I found a safe place to summon the Efreeti and Kitty, who cleared out the area mostly without my help.
I am at level 21, which means Rovala's clone can drain STR with Called Shot. But the clone has slightly worse APR unless I have it use a Restoration scroll on itself, and I still need to make direct hits for STR drain to take effect. After some very tedious tests, I found that Rovala and her clone can drain 20 STR with one casting of Improved Haste from the Ring of Gaxx and one casting of Called Shot, assuming they make every single hit. That's with Firetooth, so it should be a little higher with the Light Crossbow of Speed, but our Improved Haste effect still doesn't last very long, not long enough to cover the full duration of Called Shot. And until we get UAI and gain access to flashers, our STR drain can be blocked by weapon immunities.
But we have ways to work around weapon immunities. We can break through PFMW by equipping normal bolts, Mantle by using Firetooth's standard ammunition, and Improved Mantle by using the darts from the Cloak of Stars. Only Absolute Immunity, or PFMW cast by critters immune to normal weapons, can keep our attacks off.
Just 400,000 more XP before we get Use Any Item. We might need to go through the Planar Sphere to get there before Spellhold.
I am going to have difficulty in Spellhold. No items mean no immunities. We'll have to abuse traps the whole way through.
I'm both sorry and surprised about your missing gear in Nalia's Keep. Perhaps Rayic's place is safer then...
Great progress by the way, You've almost caught up with Norgath Your STR drain already being that powerful makes it look very promising. Good luck in the Planar Sphere!
Comments
@DreadKhan Take a chill pill, it's not personal. Jeez.
In fact when I fail I rarely replay the same PC. This feels like a punitive reload.
I prefer moving on to something else to replaying the same build. Or I reload the 5 minute old savegame.
However I am glad to see gamers playing as if they were writing an academic analysis of a particular build. To clearly describe the experience they need to (re)start from scratch, that makes sense.
Either way, the ideal would be for me to complete the run by finding and using a safe formula, one in which success or failure does not depend on a single die.
Solo non-multiclass ranged specialists tend to have a very, very hard time, so finding a reliable forumla may need to wait until you dual. That is when you can start using strategy more creatively. There is just so little a pure Fighter can do in the game, and not having a Necklace of Missiles really makes life harder. Well, that does give a bit of a kernel to try and work with; what nifty effects can you create out of items either charged or not, and which can you get to early? Gunning for an early Simulacrum might not be a terrible idea, but Kithix is a better solution. Ras is expensive early, and you can't buy that right away, and you might want to pickpocket the genies, meaning that whole quest may come later. Buying the Army Scythe early might be worth considering, for the faster shooting, then try to rely more on kiting? Which sounds awful.
With the questing Rovala has done, she has 5,000 gold. We need 7,300 more.
First, we can get 1800 gold by killing Officer Dirth, Isaea Roenall's slaver contact. He drops a set of Full Plate Mail, which sells for 1800 gold. Note that merchant prices vary somewhat; some merchants might offer less.
Second, we can drink a Potion of Insight (already owned; I believe you can also buy them from Mrs. Cragmoon) and talk to Wilfred the Red in the blue tent in southwest Trademeet. He gives you 1,000 gold if you call him out on his story.
Third, we can loot two rooms of Watcher's Keep. The room to the southwest, and the next room to the southwest, are safe to loot. Rovala cannot open one container, even with DUHM. One container is trapped, but only fires off a Chain Lightning spell, which Rovala can easily survive. A Stone Golem is in the second room, but Kitty can dispatch it singlehandedly.
We cannot go anywhere else in Watcher's Keep safely. The main area of the top level is infested with Vampiric Wraiths, whom we cannot escape with invisibility alone. The next room over from the Stone Golem room is iffy. The monsters in that room are random. If they are Trolls, we have to bring a source of fire damage with us. If they are some other critter (I've also seen spiders), we should be able to clear out that room, but it has no meaningful loot anyway. It contains the Golem Manual, but we cannot use it without UAI. It also contains the Case of Plenty +1, which sells for 600 gold, but it has a level drain trap that will take 500 gold to recover from (Garlena cures level drain relatively cheaply).
The loot in these few rooms is worth several thousand gold altogether, which should be enough to buy Firetooth (I had 500 left over). If we did not collect enough loot over the course of the run so far, or if we have spent it on extra potions and so forth, we may need to go someplace else.
If so, Kitty can take on the slaver compound singlehandedly, as mentioned before. She can also kill the paladin ambush in the Windspear Hills, as well as Plath Rededge and her fellow bandits. Finally, she should be able to deal with some enemies in the Temple Ruins dungeon, as her attack strikes as a +3 weapon.
So, we now have a safe route from character creation to (1) full immunity to disablers (2) a durable summons, and (3) Firetooth. We are still largely helpless against tough enemies, but we have a handle on normal encounters.
Now, we have to reach fighter level 13 while using as few minor quests as possible. We will save the easier quests for when we dual-class to thief and need easy XP. I believe the de'Arnise Hold is next, as a single-classed thief would have much difficulty completing it, unlike a fighter. We need 600,000 XP to hit level 13, and then another 880,000 XP to recover our fighter levels. Finally, to reach UAI, we need another 2.12 million XP, for a total of roughly 4.32 million XP over the course of the game.
In my setup, which is similar to @semiticgod's I think, the XP for locks and traps is pitiable (my lvl 22 BH just disarmed a trap for 64 XP), due to some unintentionally installed mod component. I hope it's not the case for your Thief semiticgod. Picking a few locks and disarming some snares at Mae'Var's guildhouse to go from lvl 1 to 5 would be very helpful.
Riddles are also great: the bridge riddle in the Unseeing Eye tunnel toward the Amanautor shrine is worth 42250 XP (just stay away from the Beholders), and the rituals riddle in the Temple Ruins should grant a similar amount of XP. You could have your Archer clear the areas leading to those areas (although stealth should also enable your Thief to make it there without fighting).
I've actually created mage Charnames intending to dual-class them to fighters on two separate occasions, but in both cases it was for unusual playthroughs. The first one was an insane solo poverty challenge, with the mage levels providing Spirit Armor and +3 maces with Enchanted Weapon, but the build proved too squishy. The other was the Charname I used in the restless run.
We go after de'Arnise Hold in the hopes of gathering enough XP to hit Archer level 13. The Spirit Trolls here are very irritating due to their invisibility and their ability to see through invisibility. The RoAC is an insufficient escape option for Rovala. Still, Kitty can take on most of the trolls, and as long as Rovala stays at the back, we can get by, although the fights will progress very slowly.
Oddly enough, Rovala cannot escape the way she came in. When she fills her inventory with loot and tries to leave via the secret entrance she came through, she cannot detect the secret door and therefore cannot leave. We can only escape the place by opening the front gate, which I usually neglect to do.
We sneak past the pack of trolls in the main room of the first level. They can see through invisibility, but they can't spot us if we take the southern hallway. We open the gate and leave the area to sell off some stuff to Garlena.
The Yuan-ti mage has nothing that can affect us. We are immune to its disablers, provided Rovala stands back and switches items before the mage's spells hit. In this case, I got lucky, hitting the mage with Firetooth before his buffs came up, but otherwise, we would need to wait out its defenses.
The Iron Golem goes down with Firetooth, using the doorway as a choke point. Whenever it starts casting its poison cloud, we move to a corner, let the cloud hit, and then move to the other corner of the small chamber next to the golem room, which gives us just enough distance to avoid getting hit by the poison cloud more than once. I got lucky with my saving throws again, only getting poisoned once, but if we got overwhelmed by poison damage, we could flee, rest, and return later to keep wearing it down.
TorGal is an odd story. We get mobbed by Spirit Trolls early on, who make a point of draining Rovala's STR.
She drinks an Oil of Speed to stay out of reach, but she can't kite effectively against regenerating enemies. Kitty has to do most of the work, but she excels at this. She is actually able to web the Trolls, giving her free hits that leave the Troll at Near Death when the web wears off.
I notice there's something wrong with Torgal.
He's not attacking us, either Kitty or Rovala. Even when I whack him with Lilarcor, he does not attack.
If TorGal responded correctly, we might have needed to retreat late in the battle to rest outside. Kitty has regeneration, too, but bad luck could theoretically have gotten her killed. If Kitty fell, we would have to use the movement boost from the Oil of Speed to escape the area and return later.
After TorGal falls, we leave the de'Arnise Hold, without contacting Nalia. We need that XP reward when we dual-class, and we're not quite there yet.
We head to the Druid Grove and use the same tactics against the enemies there. We stop short of fighting Kyland Lind, however, as he is probably too strong for us right now.
We do, however, enter the Troll Mound, and midway through, we hit level 13. Rovala leaves the Druid Grove, goes to the de'Arnise Hold, and dual-classes to thief. We now need 880,000 XP before we recover our fighter levels.
We talk to Nalia, which bumps us up to level 6 or 7, and put all of our skill points into Find Traps and Lockpicking. We have lost a lot of THAC0, APR, damage bonuses, and also our immunities to charm and confusion.
We enter the Temple Ruins. Kitty can handle most of the enemies here, but she needs a little help and direction to take down the bigger ones.
Only 4 damage. The Shadows and Shade Wolves are one thing, but Skeleton Warriors, Bone Golems, and Mummies all have resistances to piercing damage, on top of their immunities to Kitty's poison. There is one encounter where all of these enemies come together, and Kitty can't face them all at once, so we draw them out gradually.
Our notable advantage Kitty has over the enemies is that she regenerates. She can do the kiting while Rovala attacks with Firetooth, and in the process Kitty will regain her lost health.
I didn't actually intend to go farther than Amuana, but since I wanted to get rid of the other quest items I had gathered (inventory space is very limited for solo characters), I proceeded all the way up to the Shadow Dragon. Thaxll'ssillyia and the Shade Lord will have to wait. I cannot handle them now.
On returning to Athkatla, I completed some of the low-risk sources of XP that I had been saving. The Graveyard offered XP from Wellyn, Kamir the Paladin, the Crypt King, a couple of trapped or locked chests on the way to Pai'na, and the handful of undead-infested tombs littered around the place.
Other places were more challenging. The Harper Hold required a fight with two mages at once, and even Prebek and Sanasha can be pretty dangerous in SCS. I used Hide in Shadows to enter the place and talk-blocked Prebek Sanasha. This gave me enough time to summon Kitty and have her attack Prebek, killing him early on. I was very reckless with this battle, though.
I forgot to watch out for enemy spells. If that had been a Chaos or Confusion spell, it could have confused both Kitty and Rovala, and Rovala might have ended up getting targeted by her own summons. I should have watched out for Sanasha's spells, and kept a Potion of Clarity ready in case she used Chaos or Confusion. Hold Monster could have also killed Rovala, since she did not have Arbane's Sword equipped.
After that, we did Mae'var's first quest, to get the amulet from the Temple of Talos. A simple quest with no fighting.
The skinner quest also has a difficult encounter for a low-level thief. With one Bone Golem, two Ghasts, and two Rune Assassins with Potions of Invisibility, this battle could have gone very badly. I prepared several traps in the room above the fighter, in case I needed to retreat, but otherwise I mostly just toughed out the battle. Ilbratha's Mirror Image effect blocked a backstab or two, but Rovala wasn't really at risk of dying. At 150 base HP, she could take several backstabs in succession and still crawl back up the stairs to safety. The bigger problem was bringing down the enemies, since Kitty can only deal so much damage in the time she had. Kitty webbed everything but the Bone Golem at least once. If she had failed, then Rovala probably would have had to retreat.
After completing the Tirdir quest, we were almost at thief level 14. Our next best source of XP lay in the Unseeing Eye quest, which has some easier enemies before the Beholders show up.
Or so I thought.
On the way to killing the Sea Troll for Roger, we got ambushed.
I have never seen that happen before. I drank a Potion of Invisibility and fled. I hoped Kitty could kill at least one enemy before I left the sewers, but she didn't last a single round.
I have no idea why that happened. My closest guess is that I entered this area before speaking to High Watcher Oisig, which I have never done before. The Beholders were still there when I came back, but thankfully, none of those eyes let them see through invisibility. The Ring of Air Control lets me slip by.
Kitty slays basically everything in the next area save the cultists. Once we finish off the group of Shadows, Shadow Fiends, and Wraiths on the way to the first piece of the Rift Device, Rovala hits 880,000 XP. We level up and she regains her fighter levels.
We've gathered 65,000 gold over the last several quests. We spend most of it on Vhailor's Helm, the Bracers of Defense AC 3, and scrolls of Protection from Magic and Protection from Undead, which will let our simulacrum deal with Beholders, at least for a few rounds. But that might not be enough--nearly enough--to deal with a pack of Beholders, particularly since Rovala's invisibility will only last 10 rounds. After that, we'll have to flee.
Well, we got a little lucky in a couple places, but nothing really extraordinary. The formula should still hold up. And our formula now extends all the way to recovering our Archer levels. Rovala is now an Archer/Thief. But we've got a long way to go before hitting UAI, and we won't have a lot of new breakthroughs on the way.
The lack of immunity to level drain is very problematic. But I believe there are about 9 scrolls of Protection from Undead spread across multiple stores and temples, so at least I'll have that.
The simulacrum does indeed have traps. But, unfortunately, it has no Archer levels, and therefore has only 1 attack per round with poor THAC0 and damage bonuses. It still has Called Shot, but it's cast at a lower level. I think the simulacrum will only get Archer levels at level 24 (same time it gets UAI), and Called Shot won't do any STR drain until level 20. So, still no breakthroughs before epic levels.
I didn't really expect Rovala's simulacrum to take down the Beholders, but I sent it out anyway under the effects of Protection from Magic and Oil of Speed. The results were quite surprising.
It seems that, in SCS2, Beholder rays can take down Protection from Magic scrolls. This changes things.
Despite our inability to tank the Beholders, Kitty is able to survive long enough to poison one of the Gauths, which perished after the battle was over. I did the same for the second Gauth, leaving only one Beholder left.
Kitty manages to tough it out! Notice Rovala (I keep wanting to type Sil) has Bolts of Lightning equipped. It's not for her own use; it's just so that her simulacrum uses them instead of Firetooth's normal bolts. Unfortunately, simulacra can't switch ammunition, at least with Firetooth, so our options are a tad limited.
Nevertheless, we bring down the Beholders through attrition. We also slay the Rakshasa (pretty uninteresting battle; we just shot bolts at it until it died) before picking up where we left off in the Unseeing Eye quest. We need to pick up the first piece of the Rift Device.
Bear in mind that I'm not running the actual game at the moment--these are all test runs to develop a formula for the tenuous early game. I think only two of the tests have failed so far, so I think things are going well. Later, I'll pick up at the beginning of the game and play through it as normal, following the formula, and resume the actual no-reload run, to make sure the late game is still suspenseful.
Anyway, I hit a dead end at the bridge. There are five Beholders in total, two or three of which are Gauths. I try to lure them into some traps, but they refuse to float onto the platform, and instead stick to their formation. It's a good move on their part. They're almost unassailable when bunched up together.
Picking them off one at a time is also impractical. With five Beholders bearing down on Kitty and Rovala's simulacrum, we can't realistically hope to bring any of them down, even if we rest and return to the fight if we fail a save vs. a Death Ray. Protection from Magic is simply useless against Beholders in SCS2. Finally, I come up with a solution.
Instead of using Protection from Magic, our simulacrum will use a Potion of Magic Shielding, guaranteeing successful saves. Rovala stands by, invisible, while her simulacrum whittles down one of the Beholders.
Bolts of Lightning add another 5 damage on average on a successful save, or 10 on a failed save. Despite the simulacrum's poor APR, it still does rather nice damage per hit. Also notice that Rovala's name is actually Rolava here. Somehow I failed to correct the mistake. I'll fix it later.
With the Potion of Magic Shielding and healing potions on the side, our simulacrum can bring down the enemy Beholders, though I only take down 2 before retreating, for fear that Rovala's invisibility will break if we linger much longer.
We then get mobbed by Shadows, as always happens when the Beholders fall. Luckily for us, Shadow Fiends take more than double damage from electricity.
Elsewhere, we weren't so fortunate. Theshal's lair has bigger monsters than we're used to.
I consider having our simulacrum tank out the Lich, but the small horde of undead melee attackers overwhelm it. As if that wasn't enough encouragement to leave, the Lich's demon summons hurries over to shoo me out the door.
We anticipated having to leave, though, and already filched a fair amount of treasure from the area. We're still missing the Skin of the Ghoul and Gauntlets of Dexterity, but those are just merchant fodder for Rovala anyway.
It seems that the Beholder population is just as dense as it was in Sil's run.
I could try using the simulacrum on these guys, but with many Beholders scattered throughout the map, and SCS2' scripts that could bring them all together, that might just gather the whole hive into an invincible cluster, or worse, get in the way of the only exit. We decide to leave and come back when we're ready to deal with the enemy.
We decide to take on the Shade Lord instead, one of the most notoriously nasty villains of SCS2. We get ambushed for the first time in ages. The bandits have gotten a major upgrade since we first fought Suna Seni and her friends.
Aside from the two thieves backstabbing me, I also get hit by some Magic Missiles... while that mage seen above was casting Greater Malison. It seems there are two mages in this battle. But even with only one, I don't trust Rovala to survive another pair of backstabs. She's still got plenty of HP left, but the thieves might get better damage rolls the next time around. I flee the area.
I pick up the Shadow Dragon Wardstone I left on a statue, but cannot find the Symbol of Amaunator, which I need to open the door to the dragon's lair. I search all over for it, even in the Umar Hills, but it seems that the Symbol of Amaunator--unlike the Shadow Dragon Wardstone--can vanish, despite it being a quest item. I add it in with CLUAConsole and open the door. Next time, I'll have to open the door before I let it go.
Rovala is completely vulnerable to level drain and the Shade Lord has lots of high-level spell protections to keep its Darkling Aura active. It doesn't help that he comes with lots of friends. So how do we deal with this guy?
Protection from Undead. We lose a finite resource in the process, but there's not a single living thing in this battle, so we can deal with this encounter without risk.
We notice something peculiar as the Shade Lord falls: our bolts from Firetooth get reflected back at us. I've seen this before, on mages without Physical Mirror, and have long wondered what it was.
It's a spell level thing. The fire damage of Firetooth has a spell level of 6 instead of zero. It means the damage will get reflected back at us, but it will also break down the enemy's spell protections. And since every shot from Firetooth is the equivalent of a sixth-level spell, and Rovala gets 4.5 base APR, we can tear down most spell protections in a single round. And even if the enemy has Spell Deflection, Spell Turning, AND Spell Trap active at the same time, we should be able to bring down the whole wall within two rounds. We still need a Wand of Spell Striking to cast Breach, but now we don't have to worry about it getting reflected back onto us, nor do we need to use Pierce Magic to break through our spell protections. Though Spell Shield will still block the first Breach, and we definitely can't bring down Spell Shield with Firetooth.
Liches are still a major risk at the moment. Maybe at level 16, when our traps get a boost, we could take on some liches, but with SCS2's scripts, even Protection from Undead isn't a guarantee of safety, since they will still cast summons and use their summons as a target for area effect spells, which lets them hit us with their magic even when we're invisible to them.
And these searchings are of great interest. Not only we have a list of deadly traps in this thread, we have a confirmation that SCS beholders take off the Protection from Magic. I like this thread for these kind of things.
I think the Sewer Beholder and Gauths that teleported in are an SCS thing. Happened in my install as well when I went looking for the Spiders' Bane sword as part of the (Unfinished Business) Pai'Na quest..
For Kyland Lind, we bring up a simulacrum and have it drink a Potion of Magic Shielding to protect it from Insect Plague. We also have a Potion of Clarity on hand in case Rovala gets targeted. But with our high APR and Firetooth, we can break through the druids' Ironskins and disrupt their many conjuration spells.
Kitty fails to disrupt one of them, however.
We lose a Potion of Clarity in the process, but we still take some damage. But we're able to overcome Kyland Lind and his gang of green-haired militant tree huggers through sheer damage. Divine spellcasters have always been pretty easy to interrupt, and the nastiest druid spells in the game tend to have long casting times.
The Myconids are still a problem. Rovala and her simulacrum can equip Lilarcor and achieve immunity to confusion, but Kitty cannot.
Kitty is a very dangerous opponent, and it would devastating if she attacked Rovala or her clone. We'd have to turn invisible and flee if this happened.
We also have trouble with the Spore Colonies. We can't hit them without using Firetooth unless we want to spend extra rounds fighting through Myconids. But if we switch to Firetooth, it's easy to get caught off guard by a confusion spell.
We also have no insurance that Kitty will not attack Rovala while both of them are confused, which would basically mean death. We got lucky this time, but we would have to rely entirely on Lilarcor to ensure success in this fight.
We handled Dalok the same way we did with Kyland Lind, and let Cernd take down Faldorn. I think in SCS2, it's possible for Cernd to lose against Faldorn in her improved form, but I uninstalled that component, ensuring Cernd's success. It would not do for Rovala's quest to depend on a battle we can't control.
We bought three Potions of Stone Form from Adratha, and maybe also a couple Potions of Invisibility, before killing her. We set a bunch of traps, used the Ring of Air Control, and stabbed her with a scimitar. We then talk-blocked her to get in a couple more hits.
The traps would have been sufficient on their own, actually. We also slew her Rakshasa buddies. We laid more traps before they turned hostile, which took down Saadat, and Kitty managed to web Jalaal. An extra 6000 XP from the two optional Rakshasas.
I decided to test out a trick with the Cloak of Stars. Normally, you can only create six +5 darts per rest period with the cloak, and they only last 24 hours, so at most, you can get 12 in a given day. But a simulacrum can use the Cloak of Stars, too. So, I activated Vhailor's Helm while wearing the cloak, had both Rovala and the clone create a half dozen stars, and then killed the clone to loot the stars from its body. I repeated the process and got 24 darts.
These darts will give us high APR with weapons that can bypass Improved Mantle. We now have a check on high-level mages, though it'll still take a couple rounds to break through Stoneskin. It's a pity the darts have a maximum stack of 20.
We also used the Simulacrum to steal the Efreeti Bottle from Taquee. I was concerned about our limited supply of thieving potions, so I just had the clone drink all of them instead and then cast DUHM for a little bonus to Dexterity. With three Potions of Master Thievery, two Potions of Perception, and one Potion of Power, the clone had over 200 in pickpocket. I'm not sure if that's sufficient to guarantee success, but another Potion of Master Thievery should have. All I had to do after that was kill the clone and loot its body for the Efreeti Bottle.
Since Protection from Undead had worked so well against the Shade Lord, I decide to try it against the Elemental and Shade Liches. But I delayed this until I was level 16, which meant my traps would do a little extra damage, and the damage would be fire instead of poison, the latter of which a lich would be immune to.
Even if the traps hadn't worked, I still had multiple scrolls of Protection from Undead. With only one character to protect, I could actually take down both liches within the duration of a single scroll. But that was not necessary.
In the Elemental Lich's lair, I got surprised by a Cowled Wizard.
In SCS2, the Cowled Wizards can detect magic in more places, which, surprisingly enough, includes the lair of a sleeping lich. You'd think the Cowled Wizards would leave that place well alone.
Next up, Kangaxx.
Yes, I'm fighting him this time.
And i have to say that i agree with @FinneousPJ .
To me a no-reload is playing a character until s/he dies and then shelf it, not start the same character over. But then again it's probably because when i play my no-reload the character grows on me, it's a person and when s/he dies i'll remember that character and where s/he ended up failing the run. If i want to play the same type of character i'll make a new one but with a different name, personality and stats.
I would get really confused if i kept restarting the same character, are we on Sion the Priest of Helm #2 that died in cooper coronet, or #4 that died to firkraag or #8 that died in watcher's keep?
When i no-reload i play a character, when that character dies s/he is dead and i move on.
But we're all different here, no one is more right than the other, we just have different opinions.
I was surprised with the PfUndead scroll being so effective against Liches. In my install they still activate their spell protections and their opening ADHW (all part of SCS pre-casting), and they also still summon Fiends. So be careful my friend.
Finally you could consider keepering a Bag of Holding into your inventory unless you actually enjoy inventory management. I mean if you don't, you'll probably end up storing items in a chest somewhere (your stronghold for example). The only difference that makes is more traveling to and from your chest in preparation of upcoming missions.
Edit:
@SionIV, that's a good point. I even have difficulty recycling portraits. The only characters I might re-use are those that never died (but failed to save the Dukes in BG1, or get charmed or mazed).
Still I wouldn't consider equate restarting with reloading, but I don't want to reopen this discussion, which isn't really relevant for the current thread, so I'll leave it at that.
@Blackraven: SCS2 liches do indeed have ways of getting around Protection from Undead. But it does protect us from the one thing that Rovala has no defense against: single-target instant death spells. With her immunities and high HP, area-effect spells won't cause us any trouble (unless it's Emotion or a Horror/Symbol Fear, for which we have potions), and summoned demons can be quickly slain or simply outrun.
Also @Blackraven: I've decided not to add in a Bag of Holding before Spellhold, since I consider inventory space to be a power-gamey concern. If I don't give myself a Bag of Holding, it means I need to prioritize my equipment, and make sacrifices about what to bring where.
That said, where exactly can I store items safely? I have the fighter stronghold; can I store my things in any container there?
@Blackraven @DreadKhan: An Archer can indeed wear Aeger's Hide. But it's a big purchase for this one use. Confusion can also be blocked with a Potion of Clarity for this one encounter, and after the Trademeet quest is over, we have Shield of Harmony to block confusion instead, and we can use the Crimson Dart or +5 darts from the Cloak of Stars to deal ranged damage while maintaining our immunity to confusion.
Anyway, we bring down Kangaxx's lich form with traps alone. No problems there. His demi-lich form is our main problem.
At the start of battle, he casts Time Stop three separate times, concentrating on killing Rovala's clone and Kitthix.
Kangaxx is unable to kill Kitty with Death Spell. Apparently she is immune! What's less reassuring is that Kangaxx can target Rovala's clone with single-target spells, despite the fact that she has Protection from Undead active.
I was hoping this behavior was unique to the clone. Turns out Rovala herself is also completely visible to Kangaxx.
To my surprise, Kangaxx does not attempt to Imprison me. I knew SCS2 prevented having enemy spellcasters from using Imprisonment on the main character, but I did not know this extended to demiliches as well. But Kangaxx still has lots of damage dealing spells, and I am hesitant to drink my only Potion of Magic Shielding.
Eventually I do, since Potions of Extra Healing aren't enough to let us survive the Horrid Wilting spells, and there are a lot of them. Kangaxx tries in vain to dispel its effects with Breach.
He does this more than once, wasting rounds and letting me slowly break down his Stoneskins. But eventually he tries Remove Magic, and I am vulnerable once more.
But finally I break through his Stoneskins, and can interrupt his Horrid Wilting spells.
He loses two rounds this way. But he has other tricks up his sleeve.
With Kangaxx's innate 4 bonus to casting time, Emotion comes out instantly. Rovala fails her save.
Kangaxx has two castings of Remove Magic and two castings of Emotion. This means that I need at least two Potions of Magic Shielding to guarantee survival. But that alone will not be sufficient, as I was only able to survive the Horrid Wilting spells by virtue of the Potion of Magic Shielding I drank. This means I would need three, but I don't want to drink three Potions of Magic Shielding just for a ring with incomplete defenses. The Ring of Gaxx is nice, but it won't guarantee a successful saving throw. Potions of Magic Shielding are worth more than the Ring of Gaxx.
But I still want to take him on. I do some calculations and find that the Rod of Resurrection will let me heal myself enough to survive Kangaxx' Horrid Wilting spells. But since I don't want to buy one, I will instead take it from Mekrath's lair. And to get to Mekrath, we first need to fight Draug Fea and his friends in the sewers.
I set up a line of seven traps along the path leading up to the group, then sneak up to them with Rovala's clone, who backstabs Gaius. I try to break through Gaius' Stoneskins with +5 darts, but I can't do it quick enough.
I leave Kitty and the clone to deal with Gaius, and lure Tarnor the Hatchetman and Draug Fea into my string of traps.
They're tough enough to survive the traps, but they're still weakened enough for Rovala to cut them down with Belm.
When I get back, Gaius has fallen to Kitty's poison and web effects. The others are in good shape, but right after Gaius falls, Rovala's clone gets teleported behind a secret door.
I can't open that door without the Sewer Key from Firkraag's lair, so the clone is out of the battle.
But the battle is already mostly won. Just because I can, I run off and lay more traps so I can lure Gallchobhair into them.
Disappointing that I couldn't backstab him. I've only just recently started getting good at stealth.
Mekrath's lair was more problematic than I anticipated. The Yuan-ti mages have a brilliant counter to my immunities.
Luckily I made my saves, but in the future, I would have to prepare differently. Specifically, I'd need to use the Skin of the Ghoul (which I have yet to get from Theshal) and/or the Spear of the Unicorn to guarantee a successful save vs. death. Nor can I rely on a Potion of Invisibility to keep Rovala safe, since the Yuan-ti mages use True Sight. Otherwise, this encounter wasn't too dangerous. It took ages, though, since there are multiple mages with lots of buffs.
Mekrath was short and sweet. I'm particularly pleased with how the battle began.
I escaped a Divination spell without Spell Immunity! I didn't get to backstab him, since he had Stoneskin active, but it was still nice to escape his notice.
Mekrath didn't pull many tricks after that. He had PFMW, so I equipped normal bolts and hit him with Firetooth, disrupting his spells through Stoneskin. Soon, his defenses were gone.
We have the Rod of Resurrection! A full 10 charges, too.
I go back to Kangaxx and accidentally set him free before setting my traps. I thought I had already gotten the area all set up for his arrival, but I was remembering my preparations for the Shade and Elemental Liches, in which I trapped both areas before fighting either lich. I used CTRL-Y to bring out Kangaxx's demi-lich form, since the lich form shouldn't an issue when I do the real run.
If I do forget to trap the area, though, then I'll probably just flee. Kangaxx offers a bunch of XP, but his lich form would drain too many resources and pose too many risks.
In demi-lich form, Kangaxx wastes his time slaughtering my Efreeti while Rovala sets new traps in the corner.
That saves us a fair amount of HP.
Here's the beautiful part. At the time, I thought Kangaxx had three castings of Remove Magic, so I drank an Oil of Speed and a Potion of Stone Form in an attempt to get him to waste one of his Remove Magic spells. The real reason he used Remove Magic might have been Rovala's clone's Potion of Magic Shielding, but either way, he just used up a scarce and valuable resource.
Kangaxx and I trade blows with Firetooth and Minute Meteors for a long time. He alternates between casting Horrid Wilting and Stoneskin (his SCS2-introduced MR blocks Firetooth's fire damage). I time my uses of the Rod of Resurrection so I get healed right after Horrid Wilting hits, maximizing the HP I recover while keeping my aura clean. I can only use one item a round, and I need to be able to drink a Potion of Magic Shielding the moment I see Kangaxx casting Emotion.
Finally, Kangaxx throws out Emotion. Our timing is perfect.
After many rounds of plucking away with Firetooth, we finally wear down Kangaxx.
We only had to spend one Potion of Magic Shielding to defeat him, but also five charges from the Rod of Resurrection. Maybe not worth it, but if we ever do need the Ring of Gaxx, we'll have it.
Edit: Congrats on defeating Kangaxx of course
I think I have some items to store. Normally I just sell them to merchants and buy them back when I need to. But the de'Arnise Hold sounds less expensive.
Rovala did a few errands to scrape together a little more XP, but one of them proved more dangerous than we expected.
First, since we had some anti-mage options that actually went mostly unused (all those liches went down with traps), we decided to go get Rayic Gethras. The first two levels were a breeze. Rovala by now can engage normal enemies in melee combat with a crossbow and still come out on top. But Ray-Ray is another monster entirely. I decided to enter his room invisible and activate Vhailor's Helm, but since I didn't know if Vhailor's Helm broke invisibility, I tested it outside first.
Apparently Vhailor's Helm actually casts the spell itself; it doesn't just mimic the effects. This means it triggers the Cowled Wizards' attention, and since I already did the same thing before, this time they're hostile.
I send Rovala away and let her clone and Kitty distract the wizards. The wizards follow after Rovala anyway, but cannot target her with spells while she's hidden.
Rovala fails a Hide in Shadows check, so she hurries to a dark corner to hide again, before the wizards can catch up to her. But one of them boxes her in and casts Maze when she turns visible.
So, we probably shouldn't break the laws against magic. Unless we've laid a bunch of traps beforehand.
Rayic Gethras is quite simple. He uses PFMW, which we can bypass with Firetooth and normal bolts. He doesn't last long, so we can move forward in the Mae'var quest.
Finally, we uncover Mae'var's treachery and Renal asks us to pretty please go murder everyone in Mae-Mae's guildhall. We oblige. I actually have Kitty do all the work on the first floor, and Rovala just goes invisible with the Ring of Gaxx. But she has to take on the second floor herself.
Our first critical hit on a backstab. Very nice.
Mae'var is a fairly low-level mage and poses no threat. I don't know if his cleric is dangerous; I backstabbed him to death before the fight began. On to Firkraag's lair!
Against the first batch of golems on the second level, I realize I can make Rovala's clone into a spectacular tank with the Cloak of the Sewers. I have the clone switch to rat form. Even without Defender of Easthaven for complete immunity to physical damage, that 90% resistance is enough to keep the golems occupied, particularly since the clone is also regenerating and, as always, has plenty of potions. And if we have the clone drink a couple Potions of Magic Shielding, it'll be virtually immune to everything. Unfortunately, the clone only lasts 16 rounds, but that's enough for most situations.
Anyway, we come across the undead section of Firkraag's lair, and like my last no-reload run, it's filled with high-level vampires. Rovala uses a scroll of Protection from Undead and picks them off one by one.
They run and hide a lot, but with Detect Illusions, Rovala can root them out. All the vampires go down eventually, and there's enough duration left in the scroll for Rovala to also take care of the Greater Wraith and its bedfellows nearby.
I have too many items, so I go back to store them in the de'Arnise Hold, like I did with some potions and other items not long ago.
The stuff I left there before is gone, pilfered by Rovala's own employees. @Blackraven, apparently the de'Arnise Hold isn't a safe place for Rovala's things, at least with my install. She also involuntarily got the ranger stronghold, which might interfere with it somehow, but otherwise I'm not sure what went wrong.
Anyway, back to Firkraag's lair. Samia and her friends proved underwhelming.
Traps again. But why not abuse them in a no-reload run?
More thief work brought down the Guardians. Rovala is quite the backstabber, even without the Staff of Striking or Staff of the Ram.
The Director went down with traps. Same goes for some Greater Wolfweres.
We cleared out the rest of the dungeon simply by relying on Firetooth. Conster died to traps, and Firkraag we left alone.
Since the main quest offers lots of easy XP, I used CLUAConsole to spawn in Valen, who has not contacted us even after we collected over 100,000 gold.
The first quest, fighting Mook and Arkanis Gath at the Docks, went fairly well. I had lain a bunch of traps outside Kangaxx's door, which I led some of the enemies right into. Mook and Arkanis Gath both fell to backstabs.
The second quest, rescuing Palern Flynne, was harder. Somehow the little mages in the Shadow Thief hideout managed to kill Kitty, which was particularly problematic because I had fled to the northeast chamber to escape notice, which allowed the enemies to block the way to the exit. I also got caught by a surprise Sphere of Chaos, and had to drink a Potion of Magic Shielding just in case we got hit by the Disintegrate effect of the spell. An enemy Remove Magic spell failed to dispel my save bonuses, allowing me to use Firetooth on the mages. But because of their many Stoneskin spells, it took time to clear out the area. By the time I had, the Potion of Magic Shielding had run out. Quite a long battle indeed.
I looked over my equipment and found a way to protect Rovala from Sphere of Chaos. With the Ring of Gaxx, Amulet of Protection +1, Ring of Earth Control, and a Potion of Stone Form, I should be able to resist the Disintegrate effect of Sphere of Chaos without fail. I did not need it in the second floor, however, as I found a safe place to summon the Efreeti and Kitty, who cleared out the area mostly without my help.
I am at level 21, which means Rovala's clone can drain STR with Called Shot. But the clone has slightly worse APR unless I have it use a Restoration scroll on itself, and I still need to make direct hits for STR drain to take effect. After some very tedious tests, I found that Rovala and her clone can drain 20 STR with one casting of Improved Haste from the Ring of Gaxx and one casting of Called Shot, assuming they make every single hit. That's with Firetooth, so it should be a little higher with the Light Crossbow of Speed, but our Improved Haste effect still doesn't last very long, not long enough to cover the full duration of Called Shot. And until we get UAI and gain access to flashers, our STR drain can be blocked by weapon immunities.
But we have ways to work around weapon immunities. We can break through PFMW by equipping normal bolts, Mantle by using Firetooth's standard ammunition, and Improved Mantle by using the darts from the Cloak of Stars. Only Absolute Immunity, or PFMW cast by critters immune to normal weapons, can keep our attacks off.
Just 400,000 more XP before we get Use Any Item. We might need to go through the Planar Sphere to get there before Spellhold.
I am going to have difficulty in Spellhold. No items mean no immunities. We'll have to abuse traps the whole way through.
Great progress by the way, You've almost caught up with Norgath