I haven't had unmodded saves for over 10 years now, sorry
But it's a fairly rare bug these days, nothing like it was before the official LoB implementation. If it helps, I mostly found it to happen (if at all) during times where NPCs leave and then rejoin the party for story reasons.
I haven't had unmodded saves for over 10 years now, sorry
But it's a fairly rare bug these days, nothing like it was before the official LoB implementation. If it helps, I mostly found it to happen (if at all) during times where NPCs leave and then rejoin the party for story reasons.
Rare? i feel like very single time I leave party member out to do side quests I get this. I do 6man so i need 5 to do all NPC chain quests.
Last time I got this was yesterday what I did
Move my FMT into house
Kick her from party while she is alone in builidng so she doesn't trigger dialog (custom NPCs dont go to inns without mod, and I dont have that mod
go do side quests
come back to bricked FMT levels
feels like it happens every time but I play with tweaks and SCS primarly so I can't offer unmodded save.
Finished again BGEE with FMT FMC Skald Sorcerer Archer Totemic Druid -> Fighter (planned to dual at 11 in SOD)
But I might abandon this.. totemic druid is crazy crazy OP in BGEE and SOD, spirit animals destroy everything and if combined wither greater malison and doom pretty much any stunnable enemy is dead in seconds...
Immunity to normal weapons is gained at lvl 10 which is 125k xp so still in bgee which takes a piss in most encounters, 2 wolfs at 3 APR save vs death is at 1, with GM and doom it's -5. Pretty crazy.
Probably going back to very similar squad FMT FMC Skald Sorcerer Archer Kensai 13 -> Mage
I somehow like micromanaging kensai and even when she needs to run sometimes she still has 35-40% of kills in BG2EE ch2, spirit armor and imrpvoed invis from skald helps. Kensai 13 will take me most of ch2 to get as I save all scrolls and bank final XP quest but once I finish ch2 major quest chains I should get Kensai 13 at which point I will drop party momentarily and learn and scrolls and get XP from non shareable quests. Get my party back and finish shareable quests. By my calculations this will put me between 500k-750k XP depending on how lucky I get finding random scrolls and pickpocketing guards/shop keepers. From there 750k XP should be done by spell hold I think by doing all minor NPC quests.
Kinda scared of endgame as I spend so much time powergaming early game I might have issues at end game. Still think DD with 93% dmg res could be useful there but time will tell.
As always tactic for torgal is, either you take down yuan ti mages or you are dead. I sprinted in and soaked remove magic on SI FMC.
First order of business is greater malison by Sorc with silence from FMT so party and summons don't get taken down by AOE from spirit trolls.
Next FMC had precasted true sight so as soon as Yuan Ti mages were in sight FMC cast secret word on one and FMT on second followed by breach from sorc and skald. At this point archer with simulacra started destroying them where melee started taking down trolls.
I was actually surprised to be able to manage that straight out of ch2 city of Amn. I'm at 900k XP mark so sorc has access to improved haste making pure lvl 10 kensai a killing machine with 9APR same with archer.
This time my installation is different (harder) than before since I have option for spirit trolls (not sure if this was tactics or original) but they like to cast flame strike and holy smite a lot making them extremely dangerous at this level.
Happily party consists of 4 mages now so it's decently easy to avoid getting one shot by these spells. Additionally to my surprise Namarra +2 is **the best** weapon for de'arnise. Not for wielding it but for its 3x silence 15y. It's instant cast at OP -5 save. With this save you don't need to even greater malison on anything but when you do it's pretty much guaranteed silence on everyone rendering dangerous spirit trolls child play.
I assume this setting also makes ridiculously big packs of trolls. There is room at lvl 1 where there is sometimes literally pack of 15+ trolls, 3-5 spirit trolls, 5+ ice trolls, 5-10+ giant trolls. Even worse because there are two more spawn points nearby and sometimes you pull one more for 30+ trolls on your face. Dangerous stuff, without choke point or heavy summoning/prebuffing that amount is just death sentence.
Party is really strong at this moment. I assume this all would be superb easy with Totemic Druid but I guess I like challenge.
ps. Does anyone know why in BGEE when you summon elder elemental his name actually has 'elder fire elemental' but in bg2ee it's always 'fire elemental' ? Was testing with druid summons and unless in 100+ casts I didn't get single one or they have always that name
I would strongly recommend trying out the SR/IR mods, then.
Things are very different when you can't just go "10 APR Archer with Vhailor clone gg" on everything from Chapter 2 (and all the other neat combos, naturally).
Rare? i feel like very single time I leave party member out to do side quests I get this. I do 6man so i need 5 to do all NPC chain quests.
Only a few companions are immune to the bug, Rasaad in BG1EE & SoD (not sure in BG2EE) and others I can't recall at the moment. The bug also seem to kick in after some time or plot.
God dammit... my installation is bugged it think. All my scrolls which I was hoarding for Kensai dual are gone from the scroll case. I also put few more scrolls and moments later they were gone too.
I have few saves in ch2 so I will simply EEkeeper them after I dual.
The only bug I've noticed (and this is probably mod-related though I cba to find out which exactly) is that containers will not update their quantities properly if you remove items and then leave the container screen by any means other than clicking "done" (or the equivalent) - i.e. if you exit by going to the map or another menu, you'll have taken items out but they'll still be in the container, effectively duplicating anything at will.
This affects shops, too, as the game just treats them like a type of container.
The only bug I've noticed (and this is probably mod-related though I cba to find out which exactly) is that containers will not update their quantities properly if you remove items and then leave the container screen by any means other than clicking "done" (or the equivalent) - i.e. if you exit by going to the map or another menu, you'll have taken items out but they'll still be in the container, effectively duplicating anything at will.
This affects shops, too, as the game just treats them like a type of container.
Darn, thanks @Lord_Tansheron. Might reinstall the game then with no container expanding options for future.
As to my ch2 progress, I rarely have time to play this days but I have 5 main chain quests still left. Planar sphere, planar prison, cult of eyeless, shade lord and firkragg.
I will go for shade lord and cult of eyeless chains next as they seem to be the easiest with SCS/LOB. Planar prison is probably the hardest of them as there are lots of mage battles (yuan ti+mages), warden with timestop and other strong spells, incredibly annoying trap on the walkways. But that bard hat is the most OP item in the game for bard classes... must... have it!
I'm at 1,050,000 XP so after cult and shade lord I will have enough to dual the kensai. From my calculations I have around 500k xp from scrolls, 100-150k from non shareable quests to hand in and 150k of shareable quests which should quickly put him back at 800k so rest of ch2 as mage it seems. I should regain the levels back in spellhold. Meh why does the kensai have to get +7 damage per swing and 10apr and multi doesn't ;( too op!
Planning on using Wild Mage in next playthrough. Any way to confirm lvl 2 chaos shield doesn't stack with lvl 7 improved chaos shield? Sadly even with both you still would have 86% success chance so can't test by simply recasting. I know icons don't stack but on BG wiki it says those two stack in all versions of EE.
I know Wild Mage might backfire since LOB/SCS with ascension is so difficult already that adding additional random factor to the run might just push it from difficult to no fun. I already feel SCS/LOB is pushing at some times. This is mainly due to fact that your party is simply not equipped to deal with liches at stage of the game you encounter them. Lich at the gate? Sure before... but no longer, he casts wish time stop+IA and summons 5 demons on your face and dozen of spells. Is protected by multiple spell deflections and sometimes casts spell trap. I recently got ruby ray but it's still not enough often... rant over, back on topic.
With this in mind Wild Mage has much longer scaling curve that sorcerer. A sorc obtains his/her full casting potential around 3-4mil XP mark where Wild Mage scales up until the very end. 71% surge success (+ effects that are positive from remaining 29%).
When comparing Wild Mage to Sorcerer then it's very close and been an argument for ages now on all forums. I simply choose to believe that Sorcerer is better between 1mil and 5mil XP mark but WIld Mage has higher 'potential'.
I choose to use Wild Mage mostly for few reasons
Currently most difficulty I encounter is due to fact that I find myself put against enemies that I don't yet have tools to deal with, i.e. wait & hide or cheese
With power word reload I can access higher level spells earlier
And most importantly for me, I want to abuse unparalleled strength of Wild Mage simulacra since they get a lot lvl1 NRDs even for low level Wild Mage so a lot of lvl 9 casts very early on
Will I end up dying a lot because of this. Yes. Am I bothered by a lot of reloads. No, not yet at least
Speaking of which current plan is to form part consisting of
FMT
FMC
Skald
Wild Mage
With open vacant for two more, I'm currently considering
F/Illusionist - very strong all the way
Kensai 13->Mage (if I wanted to dual earlier I would simply choose F/Illusionist instead) - critically OP late game whenin tenser you easily get -25/-20thac0 and hits for 40+ dmg each hit non crit
Archer - strong all the way
Inqusitor (haven't used one in long time), I'm worried that it will underperform due to fact that on LOB/SCS enemies will just crush her without spell protections, maybe I should make slinger instead. Only thinking of getting Inq for the dispel, not really interested in Carsomyr wielding really since you need to hit anyway for it to work and FMT can do that just fine as swap weapon
Totemic Druid 16-> Warrior (very late dual at 3,15m xp) or lvl 11 dual; idea is that he/she carries BGEE/SOD and most of ch2 and gets carries through 17lvl warr (2,5mil xp) dual. XP speeds up drastically after underdark where you get few million XP easily, even so if you go to WK
Dwarven Defender, 93% damage reduction is very tempting. For enemies which ignore NPCs with over 75% DR it I was thinking of swapping to CF in offhand and AotU in main.
Not sure which of those are better endgame. I'm completly not worried about early game.
My only concern is that late game enemies/bossies will tear through my frontline magic protections leaving them defensless. Not sure if with SCS I can even protect against 3x triggers removing protections. Maybe with spelltrap?
Anyone here has experience late game SCS/LOB? I feel like I spend so much time perfecting early game I will have troubles at the end.
Also don't get me wrong I know I will beat the game, that's no doubt; especially since people do it on solo runs in the other threads (massive cheese but still). I'm just trying to create versitile party for entire trilogy which is strong all the way. Hence totemic druid which is very strong if not most OP class in BGEE. Now I start to wodner what happens at the very end when every enemy and every summon has access to dispels (planetars dispel, demons dispel, mages dispel.... dispel dispel dispel).
Also I got a wild mage which can potentially solo everything with 15+ castings of dragons breath late game (1500 average damage). FMC even boosts DB damage by 10% using chant with no drawback.
I'm at the point in the game where BGEE, SOD and BG2EE are so easy I just go restartities now trying different parties checking which one will be easier. I can't imagine going back to no LOB, mobs die so fast in LOB now anyway when party is dealing few hundred DPR in early BGEE. I love that beamdog added LOB.
Holy cow - that party should crush late game SoA and ToB into the ground @Myrag. As you are stating about the game getting "so easy": Why not start a solo char with SCS/LoB? If its still too easy you can put no-reload on top of this. You are always welcome!
Holy cow - that party should crush late game SoA and ToB into the ground @Myrag. As you are stating about the game getting "so easy": Why not start a solo char with SCS/LoB? If its still too easy you can put no-reload on top of this. You are always welcome!
You know @Harpagornis, this is the question I ask myself every day. The answer to this question is that I love to plan characters, see them grow into overpowered monsters, I want to see the party synergy and I want to test everything! Sadly solo only allows me to test 1 character at the time when I can see 6 of them at once! While solo offers different depth of challenge I do have a feeling that it is not what I'm looking for.
But be sure that I read your thread every day and I admire your dedication guys.
Being elf means minimum of 8 charisma so to roll 18/18/18/18/18/8 you need total rolls of 98... this might take a while. Of'course so I want max wis for wish and limited obviously.
That aside, from the mentioned members I think I will grab Archer. That leaves me with one spot. I take archers primarily because of called shot. -Thac0 goes a long way in BGEE and SOD, -Spell goes all the way to the tob and stacks nicely with celestial fury and other items, +dmg is useless but -strength can drop some strong enemies with stat drain (not that I use it but it's nice).
Now question is who takes the last spot. I'm leaning towards Inqusitor but I have concerns. I feel like I would grab Inqusitor only for the ride for endgame dispels and nothing else. Without magic buffs not sure if he/she will be able to fight in melee at all, although I saw that @histamiini managed cavalier run recently in solo so maybe. Inqusitor is still weaker in melee without stuff like armor of fight but with other members beeing able to tank it might be enough. My second concern would be completly making some fights tideous.
Also don't get me wrong Inqusitors True Sight is amazing too but in BGEE and SOD you don't need it that often and in BG2EE you either have true sight on FMC/Mage or detect illusion on FMT. It frees up the round but in my party its not critical choice factor.
I guess that I the same trade off for Totemic Druid -> Warrior dual which is super strong early game and then weakens near end of game compared to other choices. DD is strong all the way though...
God dammit... I thought I made my choice... this game!
@Myrag Take a cavalier and behold its power. I pretty much meleed everything in the game including Belhifet and Ascension dragons, only cheese needed for Sendai and Melissan. Well Cavalier isn't really needed if you have cleric to Turn Undead and FMT for Carsomyr, but its bonuses against Dragons and Demons make it good damage dealer against bosses, AoF gives extra DR (second to only DD) and it has the best immunities in the game to poison, charm and fear which means less to worry. Carsomyr is the best weapon in the game, PfMW last only 24 seconds and mages in SoA usually have just one, so that's the waiting period, 3 or 4 in boss cases. And in end game it can slice through Melissans neverending Absolute Immunity.
@Myrag Take a cavalier and behold its power. I pretty much meleed everything in the game including Belhifet and Ascension dragons, only cheese needed for Sendai and Melissan. Well Cavalier isn't really needed if you have cleric to Turn Undead and FMT for Carsomyr, but its bonuses against Dragons and Demons make it good damage dealer against bosses and it has the best immunities in the game to poison, charm and fear. Carsomyr is the best weapon in the game, PfMW last only 24 seconds and mages in SoA usually have just one, so that's the waiting period, 3 or 4 in boss cases. And in end game it can slice through Melissans neverending Absolute Immunity.
@histamiini thanks, I was just rereading your post from Amelyssan fight. Seems like Inqusitor will be just as good there, while doing a bit less damage I will offset it by having Skald but getting incredible dispel for enemies like sendai etc. I won't have charm nor fear immunity which could be troublesome but I might be able to offset this since i have party as well.
I like idea of big metal unit with carsomyr though
I might be using Carsomyr on FMT which leaves few options for Inqusitor like Ravager GWW and few others. I like your posts @histamiini they were informative enough for me to plan Inqusitor without even stepping into end game. Note that in party environment Inqusitor might perform better as extending fights will be deadly for other members so I can't wait for protections to run out. Also regarding single PFMW this isn't true with cranked up mages in SCS, maybe it's installation based? In my installation even Kahrk in BGEE has like 3 of them, few enemies in ch2 also has few PFMW banked up. I'm almost sold out on Inqusitor at this point, feeling confident that while melee might be issue it will pull its weight.
While I love your solo runs guys, although few tactics won't work in party setup. Like for instance PfU in party means other members will simply die
By the way if I'm calculating correctly if I get two cleric rings +1 str I can get FMT to permanent 25 strength if I make her protagonist. It's an interesting concept.
My main powerhouse plan is still planned to be a wild mage. Intoxication wish for few 200 dmg dragon breaths might be decent sight to see there and there.
On the side note wild mage just reminded me old days where I fought dozen of enemies in barracks in Saradush and I NRD'd dragons breath with 'area effect' surge. It was a sight to see, believe me.
btw @histamiini what weapon profficiencies did you end up with? What did work for you better?
@Myrag Yeah Inquisitor should be fine. And although Cavalier is much better in solo I think with more abilities, damage, immunities and better damage reduction, the Inquisitors innate True Sight and Dispels are probably more helpful for a party playthroughs.
I had Two Weapon Style, Scimitars and Axes (ranged) for BG1 and SoD. Two Handed Weapons, Two Handed Swords, Flails, Bastards Swords and one more which I don't remember anymore for rest of the game.
@Myrag Yeah Inquisitor should be fine. And although Cavalier is much better in solo I think with more abilities, damage, immunities and better damage reduction, the Inquisitors innate True Sight and Dispels are probably more helpful for a party playthroughs.
I had Two Weapon Style, Scimitars and Axes (ranged) for BG1 and SoD. Two Handed Weapons, Two Handed Swords, Flails, Bastards Swords and one more which I don't remember anymore for rest of the game.
Thanks. Yea, that's what I thought about cavalier when comparing it to inqusitor. I noticed you mentioned +25 DR from Ascension but not sure which change does that to be honest. I have only 'tougher X' in BWS options.
Your weapon selection seems to be same/very close to what I planned.
I'm still considering last option. In case I want strong melee bruiser I will probably go for DD rather than cavalier since I have FMT for carsomyr. WIll see, currently I'm pretty much sold on Inqusitor as my sixth. Got some time until 98 roll for wild mage to think about it.
Got some time until 98 roll for wild mage to think about it.
If you have a total in mind, why would you ever roll manually instead of just setting the total via SK or Ctrl+8? My time is worth more than that.
I thought its clear that we all are masochists here . In case you don't believe me I always kill candlekeep rats for that sweet 5XP
Also I usually every now and then try to legitimately roll high as I save and export all highly rolled chars and reuse them over the years of playing. I have several saved with 90+ stats with 18/100 str bruisers like FMT/FM/Inqusitor/DD etc.
#1 From Candlekeep to carnival So order of business as usual
Get ring of protection +1
Get ring of wizardry
Go to carnival
Steal some potions
Kill thief for potion of master thievery
Avoid other stuff
#2 True sight claimed its first mage victim, usually mage in the tent is troublesome even for level 3-4 party as he casts instant Sleep and Mirror Images, he follows it by slow and summon monster which on LOB and in such crowded space is deadly. TS dispelled his mirrors which allowed for party to start damaging immediately but his sleep spell is instant so it hit anyway. Happily before next round his HP was already at 70% and his next spell mirror images got instantly dispelled by second round of TS. Without mirrors his third spell got interrupted from damage and that was his end.
#3 To I went to nashkel mines zone. I grabbed wand of frost although I couldn't use it because I was unlucky and didn't get identify scroll and I gave one to damn Firebead.
Decided to see if by having fun with NRD wild mage I can potentially roll something nice to deal with Graywolf. This guy is extremely dangerous at this level. He almost always lands a hit, one hit at level one is usually death sentence.
So few random deaths and NRD reloads later I landed 'strengthened' for 24 STR on wild mage and polymorph. Now I was 4APR wolf with 13 thac0, 14-21 damage per hit. Pretty rad if you ask me!
I buffed myself with bless and engaged. On second try I was able to cast command on him for free round of damage. With current party and wild mage powerful wolf I took graywolf to near death during that round. I ran away and potion of defense Inqusitor faced him alone while others switched to sling. Hit and run wolf ran between Graywolf swings and finished him off with crit for 32 damage.
#4 Area west of nashkel is always welcome zone. Ruffie quest, archer bracers but this time my destionaton was scroll of cloudkill
I couldn't wait to test NRD level 5 spell immediately and laughed my ass off when on first try it landed 'spell cast twice' on sendai in the fog.
Lots of damage per round! Op level 1 mage I say!
After duration expired sendai and the folk was low on HP so command on the of the archers and blindness on second worked fine and Sendai with very low health managed to miss one swing before she went down. Followers and same suggest followed very soon the same faith.
#5 Next area is nearby for of course Drizzt equipment. I know it should be my first choice so that previous 1-4 challenge should be easier but I had so much fun until now! Party makes me happy so far
#2 Cleared Ankhegs in farm area and delivered bowl
#3 Beregost Sold all shells for 10k gold... profit! Bought short bow +1, saved 14k+ as I plan to do all rep quests next.
Killed silke
Killed spiders
Interesting things
It is not that hard to NRD 4/5 level spells. within 10 reloads I was able to put 2 ghost armors on FMC and FMT. I'm scared to use it but it seems they easily made save.
Having access to level 5 spells is just game breaking at this point
Up next
Neera attackers for Gem Bag
Firebead book for Scroll Case
Hand in small quests
Rep quests
High Hedge flesh golems, Thalantyr doesn't mind if you don't speak to him before
Inqusitor is kinda boring throughout BG1 and SOD outside of True Sight
F/Illusionist can spec into multiple weapons so I can spec into halberds in BG2EE for Ravager GWW's, something I can't do with Kensai, even if Kensai has superior damage output I don't think it can compare to instakills of ravager. I just wonder if it won't simplify the game too much.
FMT will do long swords, axes, two handed swords
I will have two users with +6 melee weapons for absolute immunity on Amelyssan
Wild mage tactics
Once you have access to level two spells cast Chaos Shield and NRD Greater Chaos Shield as it lasts much longer
With greater chaos shield NRD success chance is around 30-35% counting in the rolls that have positive outcome
Rush for potion of master thievery and steal scrolls from Shandalar, especially useful are Spirit Armor and Feeblemind
Feeblemind has quite quite decent success chance even on level one with Greater Chaos Shield; below list of enemies that i've tried this on
As soon as FMT/FMC/FM got mirrors it's a valid tactic to unequip armors and NRD spirit armor on them. Although not very effective yet as mirrors last so short that enemies don't usually even hit them.
Feeblemind victims
Enemy
NRD Tries
NRD deaths
Feeblemind failed save on try
Meilum
2
0
1
Graywolf
1
0
1
Shoal Ogre Mage
3
0
1
Vel
1
0
1
Silke
2
1
1
Some screens
Graywolf NRD Feeblemind & death
Meilum NRD Feeblemind for 'No save' on second try heh (pretty sparkle effects on NRD!). This is very fearsome combo, even dragons or big B would tremble!
Wild Mage NRD for Greater Malison and Emotion Hopelessness on first try. Also all enemies failed their save which made it pretty
Things done this run
Got ring of protection and ring of wizardry
Rushed for ulgoth bread steals
Got cloud kill scroll
Snuck past dyards and golems for Manual of constituon (+1 HP for F/Illusionist) and got it still at level one
Got drizzt loot
Feebleminded few enemies and got their loot
Killed dyards, shoal and ankhegs for XP
Did bowl quest
Marianne husband quest too
Snuck past zombies for cloak of protection
Snuck to durlag tower for another cloak of protection
Killed Thalantyr golems
Did all rep quests for 20 rep
Got ankheg armor from fields in Nashkel
After reaching lvl 4/5 on most characters I moved to durlag tower to clean basilisks and ghasts/doomsayers
Lvl 1 of durlag snuck on FMT for scrolls, potions and Practical Defense +3. Happily few very good scrolls for wild mage here 1x Chaos, 1x hold Monster, 1x Monster Summoning III. Sadly no level 3 spells which is what I was looking for since I can cast them now without NRD
Probably will invis everyone and sprint through Nashkel mines as I hate this place. I might visit Denak before this though as those four mages might hold valuable scrolls for Wild Mage. But not sure yet, this is very hard fight in SCS, maybe NRD greater malison into dire charm and chaos? Will see.
So far this is VERY fun run. Much more reloads than usual but I'm enjoying myself.
Done with the Mines. I invis on all 6 members and basically sprint through it.
#1 Mulahey didn't stand a chance as I overlevel this part of the game. Skeletons are annoying at this stage.
#2 While having invisibility memorized on FM/Skald and Wild Mage I went ahead and snuck up to Narcillicus. He failed save against command just before he managed to summon jellys. Before round ended his life also did.
#3 Went for bandid camp, I tried to find good angle for web and mass fireball spam
On first try I thought I had it good
Sadly they found way around. I almost handled this anyway but one unlucky hit and FMT fell. As I don't like deaths in the party I reloaded quickly.
Second time my angle was much better. This works 90% of times on bandit camp.
Get 2x wands of fire
Get 3x Web, I had 6 (2x wild mage, 2x skald, 2x cleric), can use scrolls if less mages in the party
Get wand of monster summoning or other summons (I had skeletons from cleric)
Get The One Gift Lost necklace (fireballs)
Then
Send in summons first out of line of sight so all enemies round up around them
Send in two webs into where skeletons went
Go in and web once more
Wild mage NRD greater malison on second cast (first was random charm effect on enemy)
@Lord_Tansheron@Myrag I don't mind either way. On the one hand I'm glad you're keeping this thread alive, but on the other hand it's true this thread is not really meant for narrated playthroughs. If you want to continue here, go ahead.
@Lord_Tansheron@FinneousPJ Alright, I will switch. Originally I started in theory but I see now that I went too much into details and gravitated in different direction . I must have been reading solo SCS/LOB thread too much .
Comments
But it's a fairly rare bug these days, nothing like it was before the official LoB implementation. If it helps, I mostly found it to happen (if at all) during times where NPCs leave and then rejoin the party for story reasons.
Last time I got this was yesterday what I did
- Move my FMT into house
- Kick her from party while she is alone in builidng so she doesn't trigger dialog (custom NPCs dont go to inns without mod, and I dont have that mod
- go do side quests
- come back to bricked FMT levels
feels like it happens every time but I play with tweaks and SCS primarly so I can't offer unmodded save.Finished again BGEE with
FMT
FMC
Skald
Sorcerer
Archer
Totemic Druid -> Fighter (planned to dual at 11 in SOD)
But I might abandon this.. totemic druid is crazy crazy OP in BGEE and SOD, spirit animals destroy everything and if combined wither greater malison and doom pretty much any stunnable enemy is dead in seconds...
Immunity to normal weapons is gained at lvl 10 which is 125k xp so still in bgee which takes a piss in most encounters, 2 wolfs at 3 APR save vs death is at 1, with GM and doom it's -5. Pretty crazy.
Probably going back to very similar squad
FMT
FMC
Skald
Sorcerer
Archer
Kensai 13 -> Mage
I somehow like micromanaging kensai and even when she needs to run sometimes she still has 35-40% of kills in BG2EE ch2, spirit armor and imrpvoed invis from skald helps. Kensai 13 will take me most of ch2 to get as I save all scrolls and bank final XP quest but once I finish ch2 major quest chains I should get Kensai 13 at which point I will drop party momentarily and learn and scrolls and get XP from non shareable quests. Get my party back and finish shareable quests. By my calculations this will put me between 500k-750k XP depending on how lucky I get finding random scrolls and pickpocketing guards/shop keepers. From there 750k XP should be done by spell hold I think by doing all minor NPC quests.
Kinda scared of endgame as I spend so much time powergaming early game I might have issues at end game. Still think DD with 93% dmg res could be useful there but time will tell.
As always tactic for torgal is, either you take down yuan ti mages or you are dead. I sprinted in and soaked remove magic on SI FMC.
First order of business is greater malison by Sorc with silence from FMT so party and summons don't get taken down by AOE from spirit trolls.
Next FMC had precasted true sight so as soon as Yuan Ti mages were in sight FMC cast secret word on one and FMT on second followed by breach from sorc and skald. At this point archer with simulacra started destroying them where melee started taking down trolls.
I was actually surprised to be able to manage that straight out of ch2 city of Amn. I'm at 900k XP mark so sorc has access to improved haste making pure lvl 10 kensai a killing machine with 9APR same with archer.
This time my installation is different (harder) than before since I have option for spirit trolls (not sure if this was tactics or original) but they like to cast flame strike and holy smite a lot making them extremely dangerous at this level.
Happily party consists of 4 mages now so it's decently easy to avoid getting one shot by these spells. Additionally to my surprise Namarra +2 is **the best** weapon for de'arnise. Not for wielding it but for its 3x silence 15y. It's instant cast at OP -5 save. With this save you don't need to even greater malison on anything but when you do it's pretty much guaranteed silence on everyone rendering dangerous spirit trolls child play.
I assume this setting also makes ridiculously big packs of trolls. There is room at lvl 1 where there is sometimes literally pack of 15+ trolls, 3-5 spirit trolls, 5+ ice trolls, 5-10+ giant trolls. Even worse because there are two more spawn points nearby and sometimes you pull one more for 30+ trolls on your face. Dangerous stuff, without choke point or heavy summoning/prebuffing that amount is just death sentence.
Party is really strong at this moment. I assume this all would be superb easy with Totemic Druid but I guess I like challenge.
ps. Does anyone know why in BGEE when you summon elder elemental his name actually has 'elder fire elemental' but in bg2ee it's always 'fire elemental' ? Was testing with druid summons and unless in 100+ casts I didn't get single one or they have always that name
Things are very different when you can't just go "10 APR Archer with Vhailor clone gg" on everything from Chapter 2 (and all the other neat combos, naturally).
I have few saves in ch2 so I will simply EEkeeper them after I dual.
Is this common bug with expanded containers?
This affects shops, too, as the game just treats them like a type of container.
As to my ch2 progress, I rarely have time to play this days but I have 5 main chain quests still left. Planar sphere, planar prison, cult of eyeless, shade lord and firkragg.
I will go for shade lord and cult of eyeless chains next as they seem to be the easiest with SCS/LOB. Planar prison is probably the hardest of them as there are lots of mage battles (yuan ti+mages), warden with timestop and other strong spells, incredibly annoying trap on the walkways. But that bard hat is the most OP item in the game for bard classes... must... have it!
I'm at 1,050,000 XP so after cult and shade lord I will have enough to dual the kensai. From my calculations I have around 500k xp from scrolls, 100-150k from non shareable quests to hand in and 150k of shareable quests which should quickly put him back at 800k so rest of ch2 as mage it seems. I should regain the levels back in spellhold. Meh why does the kensai have to get +7 damage per swing and 10apr and multi doesn't ;( too op!
I know Wild Mage might backfire since LOB/SCS with ascension is so difficult already that adding additional random factor to the run might just push it from difficult to no fun. I already feel SCS/LOB is pushing at some times. This is mainly due to fact that your party is simply not equipped to deal with liches at stage of the game you encounter them. Lich at the gate? Sure before... but no longer, he casts wish time stop+IA and summons 5 demons on your face and dozen of spells. Is protected by multiple spell deflections and sometimes casts spell trap. I recently got ruby ray but it's still not enough often... rant over, back on topic.
With this in mind Wild Mage has much longer scaling curve that sorcerer. A sorc obtains his/her full casting potential around 3-4mil XP mark where Wild Mage scales up until the very end. 71% surge success (+ effects that are positive from remaining 29%).
When comparing Wild Mage to Sorcerer then it's very close and been an argument for ages now on all forums. I simply choose to believe that Sorcerer is better between 1mil and 5mil XP mark but WIld Mage has higher 'potential'.
I choose to use Wild Mage mostly for few reasons
- Currently most difficulty I encounter is due to fact that I find myself put against enemies that I don't yet have tools to deal with, i.e. wait & hide or cheese
- With power word reload I can access higher level spells earlier
- And most importantly for me, I want to abuse unparalleled strength of Wild Mage simulacra since they get a lot lvl1 NRDs even for low level Wild Mage so a lot of lvl 9 casts very early on
Will I end up dying a lot because of this. Yes.Am I bothered by a lot of reloads. No, not yet at least
- FMT
- FMC
- Skald
- Wild Mage
With open vacant for two more, I'm currently considering- F/Illusionist - very strong all the way
- Kensai 13->Mage (if I wanted to dual earlier I would simply choose F/Illusionist instead) - critically OP late game whenin tenser you easily get -25/-20thac0 and hits for 40+ dmg each hit non crit
- Archer - strong all the way
- Inqusitor (haven't used one in long time), I'm worried that it will underperform due to fact that on LOB/SCS enemies will just crush her without spell protections, maybe I should make slinger instead. Only thinking of getting Inq for the dispel, not really interested in Carsomyr wielding really since you need to hit anyway for it to work and FMT can do that just fine as swap weapon
- Totemic Druid 16-> Warrior (very late dual at 3,15m xp) or lvl 11 dual; idea is that he/she carries BGEE/SOD and most of ch2 and gets carries through 17lvl warr (2,5mil xp) dual. XP speeds up drastically after underdark where you get few million XP easily, even so if you go to WK
- Dwarven Defender, 93% damage reduction is very tempting. For enemies which ignore NPCs with over 75% DR it I was thinking of swapping to CF in offhand and AotU in main.
Not sure which of those are better endgame. I'm completly not worried about early game.My only concern is that late game enemies/bossies will tear through my frontline magic protections leaving them defensless. Not sure if with SCS I can even protect against 3x triggers removing protections. Maybe with spelltrap?
Anyone here has experience late game SCS/LOB? I feel like I spend so much time perfecting early game I will have troubles at the end.
Also don't get me wrong I know I will beat the game, that's no doubt; especially since people do it on solo runs in the other threads (massive cheese but still). I'm just trying to create versitile party for entire trilogy which is strong all the way. Hence totemic druid which is very strong if not most OP class in BGEE. Now I start to wodner what happens at the very end when every enemy and every summon has access to dispels (planetars dispel, demons dispel, mages dispel.... dispel dispel dispel).
Also I got a wild mage which can potentially solo everything with 15+ castings of dragons breath late game (1500 average damage). FMC even boosts DB damage by 10% using chant with no drawback.
I'm at the point in the game where BGEE, SOD and BG2EE are so easy I just go restartities now trying different parties checking which one will be easier. I can't imagine going back to no LOB, mobs die so fast in LOB now anyway when party is dealing few hundred DPR in early BGEE. I love that beamdog added LOB.
But be sure that I read your thread every day and I admire your dedication guys.
Being elf means minimum of 8 charisma so to roll 18/18/18/18/18/8 you need total rolls of 98... this might take a while. Of'course so I want max wis for wish and limited obviously.
That aside, from the mentioned members I think I will grab Archer. That leaves me with one spot. I take archers primarily because of called shot. -Thac0 goes a long way in BGEE and SOD, -Spell goes all the way to the tob and stacks nicely with celestial fury and other items, +dmg is useless but -strength can drop some strong enemies with stat drain (not that I use it but it's nice).
Now question is who takes the last spot. I'm leaning towards Inqusitor but I have concerns. I feel like I would grab Inqusitor only for the ride for endgame dispels and nothing else. Without magic buffs not sure if he/she will be able to fight in melee at all, although I saw that @histamiini managed cavalier run recently in solo so maybe. Inqusitor is still weaker in melee without stuff like armor of fight but with other members beeing able to tank it might be enough. My second concern would be completly making some fights tideous.
Also don't get me wrong Inqusitors True Sight is amazing too but in BGEE and SOD you don't need it that often and in BG2EE you either have true sight on FMC/Mage or detect illusion on FMT. It frees up the round but in my party its not critical choice factor.
I guess that I the same trade off for Totemic Druid -> Warrior dual which is super strong early game and then weakens near end of game compared to other choices. DD is strong all the way though...
God dammit... I thought I made my choice... this game!
I like idea of big metal unit with carsomyr though
I might be using Carsomyr on FMT which leaves few options for Inqusitor like Ravager GWW and few others. I like your posts @histamiini they were informative enough for me to plan Inqusitor without even stepping into end game. Note that in party environment Inqusitor might perform better as extending fights will be deadly for other members so I can't wait for protections to run out. Also regarding single PFMW this isn't true with cranked up mages in SCS, maybe it's installation based? In my installation even Kahrk in BGEE has like 3 of them, few enemies in ch2 also has few PFMW banked up. I'm almost sold out on Inqusitor at this point, feeling confident that while melee might be issue it will pull its weight.
While I love your solo runs guys, although few tactics won't work in party setup. Like for instance PfU in party means other members will simply die
By the way if I'm calculating correctly if I get two cleric rings +1 str I can get FMT to permanent 25 strength if I make her protagonist. It's an interesting concept.
My main powerhouse plan is still planned to be a wild mage. Intoxication wish for few 200 dmg dragon breaths might be decent sight to see there and there.
On the side note wild mage just reminded me old days where I fought dozen of enemies in barracks in Saradush and I NRD'd dragons breath with 'area effect' surge. It was a sight to see, believe me.
btw @histamiini what weapon profficiencies did you end up with? What did work for you better?
I had Two Weapon Style, Scimitars and Axes (ranged) for BG1 and SoD. Two Handed Weapons, Two Handed Swords, Flails, Bastards Swords and one more which I don't remember anymore for rest of the game.
Your weapon selection seems to be same/very close to what I planned.
I'm still considering last option. In case I want strong melee bruiser I will probably go for DD rather than cavalier since I have FMT for carsomyr. WIll see, currently I'm pretty much sold on Inqusitor as my sixth. Got some time until 98 roll for wild mage to think about it.
Also I usually every now and then try to legitimately roll high as I save and export all highly rolled chars and reuse them over the years of playing. I have several saved with 90+ stats with 18/100 str bruisers like FMT/FM/Inqusitor/DD etc.
#1 From Candlekeep to carnival
So order of business as usual
- Get ring of protection +1
- Get ring of wizardry
- Go to carnival
- Steal some potions
- Kill thief for potion of master thievery
- Avoid other stuff
#2 True sight claimed its first mage victim, usually mage in the tent is troublesome even for level 3-4 party as he casts instant Sleep and Mirror Images, he follows it by slow and summon monster which on LOB and in such crowded space is deadly. TS dispelled his mirrors which allowed for party to start damaging immediately but his sleep spell is instant so it hit anyway. Happily before next round his HP was already at 70% and his next spell mirror images got instantly dispelled by second round of TS. Without mirrors his third spell got interrupted from damage and that was his end.#3 To I went to nashkel mines zone. I grabbed wand of frost although I couldn't use it because I was unlucky and didn't get identify scroll and I gave one to damn Firebead.
Decided to see if by having fun with NRD wild mage I can potentially roll something nice to deal with Graywolf. This guy is extremely dangerous at this level. He almost always lands a hit, one hit at level one is usually death sentence.
So few random deaths and NRD reloads later I landed 'strengthened' for 24 STR on wild mage and polymorph. Now I was 4APR wolf with 13 thac0, 14-21 damage per hit. Pretty rad if you ask me!
I buffed myself with bless and engaged. On second try I was able to cast command on him for free round of damage. With current party and wild mage powerful wolf I took graywolf to near death during that round. I ran away and potion of defense Inqusitor faced him alone while others switched to sling. Hit and run wolf ran between Graywolf swings and finished him off with crit for 32 damage.
#4 Area west of nashkel is always welcome zone. Ruffie quest, archer bracers but this time my destionaton was scroll of cloudkill
I couldn't wait to test NRD level 5 spell immediately and laughed my ass off when on first try it landed 'spell cast twice' on sendai in the fog.
Lots of damage per round! Op level 1 mage I say!
After duration expired sendai and the folk was low on HP so command on the of the archers and blindness on second worked fine and Sendai with very low health managed to miss one swing before she went down. Followers and same suggest followed very soon the same faith.
#5 Next area is nearby for of course Drizzt equipment. I know it should be my first choice so that previous 1-4 challenge should be easier but I had so much fun until now! Party makes me happy so far
Got a lot of useful stuff like
- Kneecapper +1 and War Hammer +1
- Ring of free action (dushai)
- Web Scroll (dushai)
- Greater malison scroll (shandalar)
- Ghost armor scroll (shandalar)
- Qtiluke sphere scroll (shandalar)
- Emotion Hopelessness (shandalar)
- Remove Curse (shandalar)
- Feeblemind (shandalar)
#2 Cleared Ankhegs in farm area and delivered bowl#3 Beregost
Sold all shells for 10k gold... profit! Bought short bow +1, saved 14k+ as I plan to do all rep quests next.
Killed silke
Killed spiders
Interesting things
- It is not that hard to NRD 4/5 level spells. within 10 reloads I was able to put 2 ghost armors on FMC and FMT. I'm scared to use it but it seems they easily made save.
- Having access to level 5 spells is just game breaking at this point
Up next- Neera attackers for Gem Bag
- Firebead book for Scroll Case
- Hand in small quests
- Rep quests
- High Hedge flesh golems, Thalantyr doesn't mind if you don't speak to him before
- Shoal
- Sirens
- Archer bracers
- Meilum Gauntleds
This should spike up party power significantlyThis time
- F/Illusionist as Protagonist
- FMT
- FMC
- Skald
- Archer
- Wild Mage
Lessons learned- Inqusitor is kinda boring throughout BG1 and SOD outside of True Sight
- F/Illusionist can spec into multiple weapons so I can spec into halberds in BG2EE for Ravager GWW's, something I can't do with Kensai, even if Kensai has superior damage output I don't think it can compare to instakills of ravager. I just wonder if it won't simplify the game too much.
- FMT will do long swords, axes, two handed swords
- I will have two users with +6 melee weapons for absolute immunity on Amelyssan
Wild mage tactics- Once you have access to level two spells cast Chaos Shield and NRD Greater Chaos Shield as it lasts much longer
- With greater chaos shield NRD success chance is around 30-35% counting in the rolls that have positive outcome
- Rush for potion of master thievery and steal scrolls from Shandalar, especially useful are Spirit Armor and Feeblemind
- Feeblemind has quite quite decent success chance even on level one with Greater Chaos Shield; below list of enemies that i've tried this on
- As soon as FMT/FMC/FM got mirrors it's a valid tactic to unequip armors and NRD spirit armor on them. Although not very effective yet as mirrors last so short that enemies don't usually even hit them.
Feeblemind victimsGraywolf NRD Feeblemind & death
Meilum NRD Feeblemind for 'No save' on second try heh (pretty sparkle effects on NRD!). This is very fearsome combo, even dragons or big B would tremble!
Wild Mage NRD for Greater Malison and Emotion Hopelessness on first try. Also all enemies failed their save which made it pretty
Things done this run
- Got ring of protection and ring of wizardry
- Rushed for ulgoth bread steals
- Got cloud kill scroll
- Snuck past dyards and golems for Manual of constituon (+1 HP for F/Illusionist) and got it still at level one
- Got drizzt loot
- Feebleminded few enemies and got their loot
- Killed dyards, shoal and ankhegs for XP
- Did bowl quest
- Marianne husband quest too
- Snuck past zombies for cloak of protection
- Snuck to durlag tower for another cloak of protection
- Killed Thalantyr golems
- Did all rep quests for 20 rep
- Got ankheg armor from fields in Nashkel
- After reaching lvl 4/5 on most characters I moved to durlag tower to clean basilisks and ghasts/doomsayers
- Lvl 1 of durlag snuck on FMT for scrolls, potions and Practical Defense +3. Happily few very good scrolls for wild mage here 1x Chaos, 1x hold Monster, 1x Monster Summoning III. Sadly no level 3 spells which is what I was looking for since I can cast them now without NRD
Probably will invis everyone and sprint through Nashkel mines as I hate this place. I might visit Denak before this though as those four mages might hold valuable scrolls for Wild Mage. But not sure yet, this is very hard fight in SCS, maybe NRD greater malison into dire charm and chaos? Will see.So far this is VERY fun run. Much more reloads than usual but I'm enjoying myself.
#1 Mulahey didn't stand a chance as I overlevel this part of the game. Skeletons are annoying at this stage.
#2 While having invisibility memorized on FM/Skald and Wild Mage I went ahead and snuck up to Narcillicus. He failed save against command just before he managed to summon jellys. Before round ended his life also did.
#3 Went for bandid camp, I tried to find good angle for web and mass fireball spam
On first try I thought I had it good
Sadly they found way around. I almost handled this anyway but one unlucky hit and FMT fell. As I don't like deaths in the party I reloaded quickly.
Second time my angle was much better. This works 90% of times on bandit camp.
- Get 2x wands of fire
- Get 3x Web, I had 6 (2x wild mage, 2x skald, 2x cleric), can use scrolls if less mages in the party
- Get wand of monster summoning or other summons (I had skeletons from cleric)
- Get The One Gift Lost necklace (fireballs)
ThenP.S. I need someone joining the solo SCS/LoB poverty challenge!