Snowy Tae: A Cleric/Mage/Thief in SCS2
semiticgoddess
Member Posts: 14,903
I have long wanted to play as a Cleric/Mage/Thief in BG2, and was always disappointed that the engine does not permit it. But after a bit of thought, I have realized that it is entirely possible to create such a character by fiddling around in Near Infinity.
The game still doesn't support a triple-class besides a FMT or FMC. But I can approximate the class by doing several things.
I create a gnomish Illusionist/Thief and apply a custom SPCL ability (kit-based passive effect) which penalizes her XP by 33%. This gives her the same mage and thief level progression as a triple class, and will prevent her from reaching mage level 18, meaning no 9th-level spells, just like a triple class.
I duplicate various cleric spells and tweak them so that they are classified as mage spells. This means they are detected by the Cowled Wizards and are blocked by wearing armor, but I can assign them to my gnome with Shadowkeeper and she can cast them just like any cleric could. I create a ring that permanently doubles level 1 to 7 mage spell slots, and my gnome will dedicate half of those slots to cleric spells. She won't have exactly as many spells of each kind as a normal CMT, but it will be close.
Finally, I tweak a .2da table to let her add proficiencies in cleric weapons, and give her UAI so she can use helmets and such. She will still pick UAI as her first HLA, and until then, she won't be using items that a cleric/mage or cleric/thief could not use.
This gives me a character that has thieving abilities, cleric spells, mage spells, and a cleric's item restrictions, at least until we get UAI legally. She still can't Turn Undead, or cast cleric spells while wearing armor, and her HP, saving throws, and THAC0 will be slightly off, as well as her spell slots to some extent, but otherwise she will function just like a real Cleric/Mage/Thief.
I also have worked out how to create a Monk with some Stalker bonuses, an Avenger/Bounty Hunter, a Monk/Sorceror with a Barbarian kit on top, an Archer/Skald, and an Enchanter/Paladin. Normally these aren't possible, since dual- and multi-classing options are hardcoded, but you can get around this by using a similar character as a base and editing a CLAB file to ensure they get the right bonuses. For instance, to get an Archer/Skald, you add an Archer's THAC0, damage, and APR bonuses to the Skald kit's .2da file, give bards some extra proficiency points and the ability to attain grandmastery in missile weapons, and then create a Skald and apply an XP penalty to slow its growth. You have to have the right base, though: no character besides a bard is ever going to get a bard song, so any bard multiclass has to be based on a normal bard. Same goes for Turn Undead, restricted to clerics and paladins, and thieving skills, restricted to thieves.
Thus, we have Snowy Tae, a gnomish Cleric/Illusionist/Thief! I will be taking her through SCS2 solo, but this is not a no-reload run, as the character is new and unfamiliar to me. Later tonight I will post on her initial progress.
The game still doesn't support a triple-class besides a FMT or FMC. But I can approximate the class by doing several things.
I create a gnomish Illusionist/Thief and apply a custom SPCL ability (kit-based passive effect) which penalizes her XP by 33%. This gives her the same mage and thief level progression as a triple class, and will prevent her from reaching mage level 18, meaning no 9th-level spells, just like a triple class.
I duplicate various cleric spells and tweak them so that they are classified as mage spells. This means they are detected by the Cowled Wizards and are blocked by wearing armor, but I can assign them to my gnome with Shadowkeeper and she can cast them just like any cleric could. I create a ring that permanently doubles level 1 to 7 mage spell slots, and my gnome will dedicate half of those slots to cleric spells. She won't have exactly as many spells of each kind as a normal CMT, but it will be close.
Finally, I tweak a .2da table to let her add proficiencies in cleric weapons, and give her UAI so she can use helmets and such. She will still pick UAI as her first HLA, and until then, she won't be using items that a cleric/mage or cleric/thief could not use.
This gives me a character that has thieving abilities, cleric spells, mage spells, and a cleric's item restrictions, at least until we get UAI legally. She still can't Turn Undead, or cast cleric spells while wearing armor, and her HP, saving throws, and THAC0 will be slightly off, as well as her spell slots to some extent, but otherwise she will function just like a real Cleric/Mage/Thief.
I also have worked out how to create a Monk with some Stalker bonuses, an Avenger/Bounty Hunter, a Monk/Sorceror with a Barbarian kit on top, an Archer/Skald, and an Enchanter/Paladin. Normally these aren't possible, since dual- and multi-classing options are hardcoded, but you can get around this by using a similar character as a base and editing a CLAB file to ensure they get the right bonuses. For instance, to get an Archer/Skald, you add an Archer's THAC0, damage, and APR bonuses to the Skald kit's .2da file, give bards some extra proficiency points and the ability to attain grandmastery in missile weapons, and then create a Skald and apply an XP penalty to slow its growth. You have to have the right base, though: no character besides a bard is ever going to get a bard song, so any bard multiclass has to be based on a normal bard. Same goes for Turn Undead, restricted to clerics and paladins, and thieving skills, restricted to thieves.
Thus, we have Snowy Tae, a gnomish Cleric/Illusionist/Thief! I will be taking her through SCS2 solo, but this is not a no-reload run, as the character is new and unfamiliar to me. Later tonight I will post on her initial progress.
7
Comments
Also great idea on a new fun character.
What's the cleric spell table?
I'm trying to avoid reloads, so Snowy Tae has to try and conserve her spells for Chateau Irenicus. This means making the most out of my Animate Dead summons and Haste spells, which are easily my best means of avoiding damage. As a triple-class, Snowy Tae isn't quite to Stoneskin yet.
I originally plan on taking down as many enemies as I can before having to rest, so I sneak past the first gang of Duergar to go poke a Mephit in the back of the head.
After spending many rounds struggling to hit the Mephit after the backstab, I realize that Snowy Tae just isn't cut out for unbuffed melee fighting, so I have her rest and stock up on spells. We are only going to fight the required battles: the Otyugh and the Mephit Portals. Everything else, I will sneak past.
Unfortunately, I find that the Duergar in the hall before the Otyugh are blocking my way, so I have to fight them to get past. And when I do, the other Duergar I previously avoided decide to come at me, apparently hearing the sounds of battle. I try to fend them off with Animate Dead, but they cut through the Skeletons like wheat. I run away, to the Otyugh's chamber, and shut the door behind me.
The Otyugh hits me. Snowy Tae is now slowed and diseased. She runs away, but the Otyugh's speed factor is good enough to keep hitting her. Finally, I manage to get behind a lump of refuse, and whenever the Otyugh tries to walk around it, I sidestep the other direction. When the slow wears off, I run away and cast Invisibility.
It was a complete waste of a spell. I can't walk through the next group of Duergar, either. I have to fight them, too, using my second-to-last Animate Dead spell and a Flame Blade to clear up the place.
The dryads will have to figure their own way out. I can't hope to beat Ilyich as I am now. After getting the Portal Key, I run past the last group of Duergar before the portal and let Yoshimo into the party just long enough to kick him out, since it gives us 45 gold.
My Skeletons are insufficient to handle the next room, even while hasted, particularly since they stubbornly refuse to actually target the portals, and fight the Mephits instead. But I expend a scroll of Monster Summoning I and manage to get the monsters at least partly coordinated.
I gather all the loot I can find without fighting and then sneak out. Snowy Tae is now free to rest all she likes, and the circus is a breeze.
Next up is the Slums. Just for fun, I take a leaf out of Poppy's book and solicit the aid of the locals against Bregg and Cohrvale, though the two of them are easily the strongest guys in the area.
With Free Action, Snowy Tae is immune to Hold Person, and can therefore tackle the Hobgoblins without worry.
The jellies are still a big hassle, as one of them is immune to normal weapons and magic. As with Poppy, I avoid taking on the slaver compound. We're not quite ready for that yet. Instead, I just do the Lilarcor quest, then talk to Delon and Flydian before making our way to the Umar Hills.
I trigger all of the pre-Spellhold dreams due to my incessant resting. Does anybody see the moaning face on the floor here?
The chin is two or three character lengths behind Snowy Tae.
Snowy Tae manages to obtain a scroll of Protection from Normal Weapons on the way, which means we don't have to worry about most of the Umar Hills. We shield ourselves from the Mimic's glue attack using Free Action, slay the Stone Golem with Flame Blade, and avoid Valygar's henchmen. As for the Temple Ruins, nothing in that area can harm Snowy Tae. Shadows use normal weapons to attack, as do Shade Wolves, so Snowy Tae can buff herself up and spend a few rounds whomping on them in complete safety, with 2 APR, 24 STR with Righteous Magic, and fighter-quality THAC0.
And because of my SCS install options, +1 weapons are converted to nonmagical types, which means even Skeleton Warriors can't break through my weapon immunities.
The only thing that can begin to hurt me in the temple is a Bone Golem, and I can face that thing alone.
I stop short of fighting the dragon or Shade Lord, as I am much too weak to fight the former and don't have a decent weapon to use against the latter, even if I attacked under the effects of a Protection from Undead scroll. Instead, I head to Trademeet.
By now, Snowy Tae has also acquired 5th level spells, and therefore Cloudkill. I don't often use Greater Malison, to be honest, but it seems far more effective than I'd expected. Kyland Lind and all his hippie friends croak in a toxic fog while Snowy Tae looks on.
It also works marvelously on Dalok. It's quite excessive.
A fighter escapes the Web spells and walks around from the north to take a swipe at Snowy Tae, but this is easily handled. I just run right through the Web and the cloud and let the fighter follow me through.
Cernd mauls Faldorn. Yay!
Now all that's left is to kill some djinn. Snowy Tae's saves are strong enough to resist Flesh to Stone, and her summons have enough damage power to carry the battle.
The djinn try to boost themselves with Stoneskin and Improved Haste, but Snowy Tae can dispel both with Remove Magic. The djinn don't stand a chance.
I still encounter the same bug, in which the merchants won't sell to you even after the djinn are dead and Guildmistress Busya acknowledges it, so I cheat in Ihtafeer's furry noggin and give it to Khan Zahraa. But not before slaying Taquee with CTRL-Y. I still want that bottle.
We return to Athkatla triumphant. Since Snowy Tae's save vs. spell is now at -1 when buffed, and since we have an extra source of area effect damage in the form of our new Efreeti's Fireball spells, I decide to go fight Pai'Na.
Oh wow. This went so, so badly.
You know those peasants in Pai'Na's lair that she turns into spiders the moment the battle starts?
Well, despite being the mere vessels of Pai'Na's spiderlings, those people apparently count as innocent bystanders. Which means that entering the area while hidden, and then trying to wipe out the incoming spiders with Cloudkill, is a very, very bad idea.
Snowy Tae's reputation is now at 4. The first gnomish Cleric/Illusionist/Thief in BG2 history has the dubious honor of being Despised less than halfway through Chapter 2.
If my memory is correct, this means Snowy Tae might get ambushed by the Amnish Legion the next time she shows her face in public.
Snowy Tae massacres Pai'Na with summons and a Flame Blade, then heads out into a potentially hostile new world.
We do get ambushed on the way to the Promenade, but not by the authorities. Suna Seni has finally decided to make her move. Snowy Tae and the gang of slavers trade disabling spells, but Snowy Tae is the only one with guaranteed saves.
I almost never memorize Greater Command, but since we only need one casting of Chaotic Commands, and so many mages are immune to 3rd- or 4th-level spells and below, Greater Command offers us a fast albeit unreliable means of bringing down many of BG2's early game threats. And though Snowy Tae has abysmal APR and THAC0, her Skeletons are great at pouncing on prone targets, as their collective APR adds up quickly.
Snowy Tae has invested very, very heavily in disablers, which are a particularly big deal in SCS2. The problem with damaging spells is that so many SCS2 enemies, even Trolls, carry potions, and though some of those potions grant immunities to some or all disablers, all potion-carrying enemies carry healing potions, and will use them at a moment's notice. A lone Fireball spell can toast vanilla enemies, but in SCS2, it's more likely to just force a potion drained, which means we get less loot. And with multiple disabling spells, Snowy Tae can let her summons forge their way across the battlefield.
We need to build reputation to save money on future purchases, so Snowy Tae brings back the Web spells and Protection from Normal Weapons to deal with the slavers in the Slums.
I accidentally trigger the Prismatic Spray trap before disabling it, but Snowy Tae is unaffected. All it does is petrify some random goon.
After using Web again on the Beastmaster, I decide Web spells are getting old.
I decide to lay off the webs for a while.
EDIT: I forgot when exactly I bought the Robe of Vecna and donated money to the Temple of Ilmater at Waukeen's Promenade, but I believe I got the Robe of Vecna right before Firkraag's lair, mentioned below. I don't know when I donated to the temple, but I spent 6000 gold in six increments to boost my reputation by 5 points (the last 1000 gold had no effect).
I deliver Renfeld to safety, only to get distracted by a quest from Renal Bloodscalp. Mae'Var sends me off to steal a bauble from a church, but since my reputation is poor, I actually get assigned to steal from the churcn of Lathander, not the church of Talos, and so I am briefly puzzle when he doesn't acknowledge the amulet I've pilfered from Ada at the church of Talos.
I believe I know where to find the statuette Mae'Var wants from the temple of Lathander. I consider charming the head priest and moving him to a distant location, but when I see him moving on his own, I decide to just wait until he's out of sight. Once he's gone, I grab the statuette.
Evidently he was not gone far enough. The whole church turns hostile. To avoid having to fight anybody, and potentially losing more reputation if people should die, I have Snowy Tae drink a Potion of Invisibility, since it's faster than casting Invisibility, and run back to Mae'Var.
I can't progress in that questline without fighting Rayic Gethras, so I resume the Harper quest instead. Turns out Prebek and Sanash don't have Ray-Ray's awesome save vs. spell.
In search of further loot and XP, I head to the de'Arnise Hold. With Protection from Fire (whether the cleric spell or mage spell), I can target myself with Fireball spells, or just use Sunfire, and easily clear up groups of Trolls. The Yuan-ti Mage always brings up a (Minor) Globe of Invulnerability, so Fireballs won't be enough, but we do get in a lucky backstab with Gnasher.
It's all fun and games until somebody gets a splinter.
Another favorite from my old solo Avenger run: nailing Glaicas four times with one Lightning Bolt.
And standard fare for Sil's run: spider form with the Flail of Ages to deal with an enemy that won't succumb to my summons or my spells.
TorGal again failed to attack my player. I'm not sure what's been distracting him all this time. This is the third time I've fought him, I think, when he didn't do anything for the whole battle. The other Trolls still gave me grief, but they too fell to Fireballs, Sunfire, and Holy Smite.
Now I feel confident I can take on Firkraag's lair. With the Robe of Vecna in hand and some more spells to lean on, we can survive the encounter with Plath Rededge, who I recall using Slay Living, which forces a save vs. death, and Snowy Tae's save vs. death is a pitiful base 10 or 11. When the time comes, Snowy Tae brings out an instantaneous Sanctuary spell.
This lets her begin the battle with some buffs. But it proves unnecessary, as the two most important enemies both fail a save early on.
Also, Garren's boy got kidnapped. What a doofus. Snowy Tae agrees to rescue him.
The Ruhk Transmuter puts up a valiant fight before blasting himself to pieces.
I keep seeing Rakshasas getting affected by their own spells, even when they should be immune to spells below level 8. But I'm too lazy to try to fix the problem, as I don't like fighting Rakshasas anyway. Their spell level immunities always made the fights terribly reductive. Either you waste them with high-level mage spells, or you just hit them with swords until they die. That's as complicated as Rakshasas get in BG2, and it's very annoying to have to fight the same boring battle more than once.
Eventually I get tired of casting my buffs over and over, so I copy the buffing spell I made for Sil to back it up and alter the file to suit Snowy Tae's buffs. The new buffing spells casts everything at level 12 instead of 20, only has one casting of Blur, has no Spell Shield component (as Snowy Tae has yet to find a Spell Shield scroll), and grants no max HP bonus to mimic the casting of Vampiric Touch. I also tweaked some spells to have a casting time of 1.
Now Snowy Tae can activate all of her buffs in less than 10 seconds, with the press of a single button.
I also recently gained access to level 6 spells, so Protection from Magical Energy didn't have to get removed from the buffing spell. This also means I can summon two Aerial Servants per day. I've heard good things about them, but usually never used them, figuring a summons with 1 base APR was nothing special. But their damage per hit is spectacular.
Mysteriously enough, the vampires I so despise do not appear in the normal room, maybe because I avoided stepping over a certain trigger in the nearby hall (you need CTRL-4 to see it). This saves me a Protection from Undead scroll.
As usual, I provoke Samia into a fight in order to avoid getting ambushed. It doesn't go quite like I hoped. In the first round, all of my Skeletons get killed at once.
Luckily for my Aerial Servants, they are immune to normal weapons, which means Ferric Ironblade (rather redundant name, actually) can't hurt them. Snowy Tae's Greater Command only knocks out Akae, but the rest of the group still got confused by Chaos.
Snowy Tae brings in some animal summons to clear the room. Soon, only Kaol and Akae are left, and Kaol loses his Mirror Image to Snowy Tae's Detect Illusions ability.
Snowy Tae finishes off Akae. Her summons break down Kaol's defenses, and the battle is won.
You know that one Guardian djinn in the Mask of King Strohm maze, in a far eastern room, that you can't backstab because he's got a thing behind his back?
Well, you can use the talk-block trick to make him change direction.
Any character susceptible to the talk-block trick can be rotated for several seconds, enabling a more advantageous backstab.
The Greater Wolfweres were awfully hard to kill until I stopped using Skeletons. They were crowding up the room and splitting up my Aerial Servants. Without the Skeletons, my Aerial Servants, under the effects of Haste, were capable of bashing in the Greater Wolfweres' heads within a round or two, despite their godlike regeneration.
Finally, I had to fight Conster. I neglected to lay any traps, so I had to fight him normally.
Conster dispelled my buffs. All of them. The first round. Only Polymorph Self was left. And to stop me from trying to flee the area, he moved into the hallway leading outside, crowding up my only escape route.
Taking advantage of his position, I decided to wear out some of his spells with Animate Dead, who quickly flooded the area. I also tried some disablers from afar, switching to lower-level spells once his GOI had worn off.
Then Conster summoned a Cornugon, who had little interest in playing with the Skeletons. The demon had bigger fish to fry.
Cornugons have a fear aura, which I thankfully can save automatically against, as well as the ability to cast Lightning Bolt at will. I equipped the Dragonscale Shield to help protect me from the electricity damage, and summoned some new Skeletons to hopefully keep the Cornugon occupied.
It worked! The Cornugon focused on the new skeletons, and when the old ones fell apart, I hurried into the hall, away from the demon, and focused on Conster, who got netted by our Web spell.
An Aerial Servant, with its THAC0 of zero and ridiculously high base damage per hit, landed the final blow.
Right before Conster could finish casting his last spell.
To my relief, Garren's child had not been slain by the Cornugon's Lightning Bolts. I set him free and left Firkraag to stew.
@kcwise: The original name was Snowbin, a halfling cleric in an Icewind Dale run. I played the character multiple times, and her voice, portrait, and name gradually changed. The original portrait was a vanilla IWD portrait, with the dusky-skinned gnomish mage with the tiny tiny staff. This briefly changed to the nearby portrait of the halfling cleric with a warhammer. Then I came across her current portrait, I don't know from where (it apparently originates at http://www.bluecrabillustrations.com/falana.html), and switched her voice set to the third or fourth female fighter option in the IWD and IWD2 list. The other voice set, third or fourth, belongs to Poppy. This also roughly corresponded to the change of name.
Over time, I've come to think of Snowy Tae as a very down-to-earth, calm, and motherly gnomish woman, a contrast to Poppy's spontaneity and perpetual enthusiasm. They are a nice couple.
@FinneousPJ: Don't worry. I should be fine. I've been playing BG2 for over half my life, and despite thinking multiple times that I had seen all there was to see, I have yet to discover everything in the game. And it is the discovery that I most treasure.
Ray-Ray in SCS2 has quite the defensive cocktail at the beginning of battle, featuring immunities to basically everything I've got. Even if I try to break through his GOI with a high-level disabler, he is extremely unlikely to fall for it, as his save vs. spell is 1.
But I have a trump card, in the form of one of my least favorite and most boring spells: Melf's Acid Arrow. I hit him with an Acid Arrow and turn him hostile. My summons, a mass of Skeletons, are immune to cold, and therefore can attack Ray-Ray without fearing his Fire Shield.
The Acid Arrow disrupts his first spell! I have Snowy Tae use her Detect Illusions ability, which is resting at around 80%. It takes time to dispel his illusions, due to bad luck, but Ray-Ray cannot capitalize on the situation, as he is struggling with the acid damage.
Better yet, Ray-Ray chose to protect himself with PFMW. And my Skeletons only use normal weapons. They quickly break through his Stoneskins.
In retrospect, it was a perfect setup. The Acid Arrow threatened to ruin any slow-casting spell from Ray-Ray, which means no Death Spell on my summons. On top of that, both his PFMW and Fire Shield spell were meaningless to my summons. The battle might have dragged on much longer if he had used, say, Mantle, or Fire Shield: Red.
I report back to Edwin, then to Mae'Var, spare Embarl's life, report to Mae'Var, and finally come back to Edwin. The Mae'Var questline is coming to an end.
Edwin says he knows about my ties to Renal Bloodscalp and offers a suggestion on how to ruin Mae'Var. There is a line of dialogue here that I have always found profoundly ridiculous, as it makes no sense in the context of your quest.
Edwin brushes it off, but there's a second dialogue option affirming your support for Mae'Var. I choose to pick it, since I've never tried it before.
Edwin doesn't take it too well.
I turn invisible before the guards spawn in and attack. Curiously, I find that when I enter later, Gorch and the other guild members in Mae'Var's employ are not hostile. Apparently Edwin's order does not turn the whole guild hostile.
This means I can go get those documents Renal wanted!
Except they're in a locked container. That can't be picked. You need Edwin's key to get the documents, and Edwin is gone. I can't give Renal any documentary proof of Mae'Var's wrongdoings. I report to Renal, who simply reiterates that he needs those documents, which I cannot receive.
The quest appears to be broken. But maybe there's another option. I go talk to Mae'Var to see if there's a possibility of betraying Renal, and finishing the quest on Mae'Var's side. But Mae'Var isn't feeling very chatty.
The questline is broken. I cannot expose Mae'Var without the documents, and I can't get the documents without Edwin's key.
But there's still one thing I can do. I've heard that Renal Bloodscalp carries a pair of Boots of Speed, which DLTCEP says cannot be pickpocketed. But the boots are still droppable, which means I can get an early pair of Boots of Speed by attacking Renal!
I return to Renal's place, bring out some summons, and attack. Kitty webs him.
Renal dies quickly, and drops the boots I wanted. I decide to linger around to finish off the other thieves for some bonus XP, but then I notice one of the enemies is simply not going down.
It's Arkanis Gath. He must be unkillable because he appears with Mook on Bodhi's first task. I decide to flee the area.
For the sake of thoroughness, I deem it wise to go ahead and slay Mae'Var. The guild is now finally hostile. I expect another easy fight, but it turns out the thieves are more numerous than I remembered.
It's a hopeless situation. Even when prebuffed with Stoneskin, Snowy Tae didn't last a single round. She couldn't even bring up a Sanctuary. This marks Snowy Tae's first death.
I am weary of the Shadow Thieves' petty squabbles and backstabbing shenanigans, so I join Bodhi with particular gusto.
I take on Bodhi's first task and return to the Docks to kill Mook and get the shipment Bodhi wanted. But right after I finish casting my buffs, I see a familiar face.
He's still around! I check his files. He is indeed immune to death magic, disablers, and his HP cannot drop below 1. Unkillable and unstoppable. On top of that, he's always hasted, invisible, AND he can see through my invisibility.
And he has excellent THAC0, to boot. Thankfully, we have Stoneskin to protect us from his nonsense.
No worries, really. All I need to do is kill Mook and grab the package. Arkanis Gath does not need to die anyway.
When we get to Mook, we find a surprise.
Arkanis Gath has a clone! But this one isn't as vicious or invincible. He also has a different sprite, appearing as an unarmored fighter instead of a hooded thief.
We can kill the newer Arkanis Gath, but all we really need is Mook. I knock her out with a Greater Command spell.
She's still invisible, but I can reveal her with Detect Illusions. She doesn't last long after that.
To my confusion, Bodhi is not impressed with my work.
Turns out I forgot about the package entirely. Thankfully, it's still there.
On the way out, Arkanis Gath reappears to hassle me. I use a special trick to keep him at bay: just outside the Sea's Bounty Tavern, I summon a group of Skeletons right on top of me, forming a wall against Arkanis Gath. Once the Skeletons appear, I can run out of the group and leave little Miss Arkansas to fuss with my summons.
I return to Bodhi triumphant. But the battle I started is not yet over.
Btw your progress is impressive! Really shows you know quite well what you're doing. Keep it up!
The wizard follows me outside, and the local guards join the fight.
Notice the sequence of spells here. With the Robe of Vecna, Snowy Tae can cast SI: Abjuration right before Remove Magic hits, and therefore hold onto her buffs.
Unfortunately, the guards aren't equipped to handle this fight. The wizard doesn't mind the guards, but it does mind my Skeletons, and when the wizard takes down my summons, one of the guards goes down with them.
I no longer feel bad about fighting Vulova's goons. These guys are jerks. But I fail to protect the second guard. He dies trying to break through the wizard's Fire Shield.
I forget how I slew the wizard. It was a hollow victory either way.
Anyway, now Bodhi wants me to go kill the Shadowmaster, Aran Linvail, in his own sanctum. After prying an important key from Gaelan Bayle's fingers, I sneak past the first batch of thieves at the Shadow Thief headquarters and enter the lower level of Aran's complex.
Guess who I found there?
This guy just won't give up. He's going to be a royal pain the whole way through, if I don't keep him away. I run outside and try to get him stuck behind another group of Skeletons. This time, I cast the spell just behind me, instead of right on top of me, which allows me to run away a little sooner.
I return to the Shadow Thief lair and clear up some of the residents. But when I come out to rest and recover, I find my trials are not over.
I run away, again, and try to find some space. Outside, I come across even more enemies, who promptly decide to join in on the chase.
Arkanis Gath goes away for a while, giving me time to start fighting the Shadow Thieves outside the headquarters. But the respite doesn't last long.
He just won't give up. I run away again to rest, only to find even MORE people out for my blood.
Is there no one in this place that isn't trying to kill me?
I duck into Mae'Var's guild hall, but Arkanis Gath follows me inside. I hurry out, and he appears right behind me.
Suddenly, the interface goes dark.
Snowy Tae had Stoneskin active. Arkanis Gath must have some instant death effect on his that somehow failed to trigger before. I hope it's a fluke, but it happens again at the Shadow Thief headquarters.
Arkanis Gath followed me out of the building here, too, and I had no time to escape.
I check Arkanis Gath's .cre file again. Turns out he has a script called "KILLPC." That's not a reassuring sign. I read the script but can't tell how exactly he kills you. It just happens.
I restart and run away from Arkanis. There are still more people interested in the hunt. I dissuade them with some furballs.
Since Arkanis Gath was camping out in the first level of the Shadow Thief headquarters last I saw him, I consider entering that area through Renal's room instead of entering from the front. Arkanis isn't so easily avoided.
I have finally come up with a plan. Instead of holding Arkanis Gath in place with some summons, who will not last forever, I will lock him in a room instead. And Mae'Var's guild hall has just the place I need on the second floor. If I lead him through the room and lock the door behind me, then I can keep him there indefinitely.
Things get a little more complicated when I try out the plan.
I consider trying it again, but then I realize the plan is doomed for a completely different reason.
It wasn't a few minutes earlier that I had Arkanis Gath follow me out of the first level of the Shadow Thief headquarters, despite being stuck behind a door. Arkanis can follow you through entrances without having to actually reach the entrance you did. He can't teleport through walls, but he CAN follow you to any area in the Docks District. This means that even if I locked him in that room in Mae'Var's guild hall, he'd just reappear outside as soon as I did.
So, I come up with a different plan. An extremely costly plan that is virtually the only way to deal with Arkanis Gath at this stage in the game.
I need Limited Wish. Specifically, I need the options for Time Stop and Shapechange, and I need both. This means I need to reach level 14.
But that would take a lot of time, so I just use Nahal's Reckless Dweomer via a hotkey as a shortcut. The spell fails repeatedly, and twice I accidentally choose the Shapechange option while Polymorph Self is active, which is a complete waste, as Polymorph Self renders you immune to Shapechange, and vice versa.
Eventually I get tired of waiting and just cheat in a custom item that adds 100 to your wild magic rolls, guaranteeing successful NRD castings. It was easier than relying on the base 10% chance of success that Snowy Tae gets when she usually casts the spell.
I fail the first attempt, due to not knowing where Arkanis Gath exactly was, but the second time was successful. This is what I did.
First, I cast Limited Wish outside the compound for access to Shapechange. I enter the compound and follow a Shadow Thief down the stairs. To keep him from interfering with my work, I knock him out before casting Nahal's Reckless Dweomer a second time.
Arkanis Gath, as I learned from a previous failed attempt, is directly behind the door to the southeast, but he is invisible. I need to reveal him.
I cast Limited Wish again, choose Time Stop, and hurry over to the door. I dispel his invisibility with Detect Illusions, though True Seeing is also active, just in case Detect Illusions fails.
I switch to Mind Flayer form and attack him.
Very nice.
This was probably the longest fight I've ever engaged in, at least in terms of in-game time. It lasted many days before I finally developed a means of killing him. Even then, I'm not happy with the result. I really, really like Shapechange, and I absolutely hate having to spend the spell on Arkanis Gath of all people. As a triple-class, Snowy Tae can't memorize Shapechange or any other 9th-level spell, so her castings of the spell are limited to scrolls, of which there are very, very few.
But the alternative would be worse. I'm sure it would be possible to gradually clear out Aran Linvail's lair while evading Arkanis Gath, but it would be a logistical nightmare, requiring constant use of Animate Dead to keep him at bay, plus Teleport Field to let me switch places with him in the many tight hallways of Aran Linvail's lair.
Later I will post on the fight with the rest of the Shadow Thieves, followed by a truly crazy encounter with Tolgerias.
EDIT: And in another thread, @Gallowglass pointed out that Arkanis Gath is there specifically to prevent the plot from being broken, not just to screw you over. Now, I had spawned in Valen shortly before attacking Renal Bloodscalp, to make sure I could ally myself with Bodhi after the Shadow Thieves went hostile, but if you plan on siding with the Shadow Thieves, then it WILL probably break the game to attack Renal Bloodscalp. So if you've paid Gaelan Bayle, don't attack Renal Bloodscalp. It could break the plot.
Three good reasons to side with Bodhi, then: you get to fight thieves instead of vampires, you get a nonmagical speed weapon, and you can get an extra pair of Boots of Speed, if you're willing to brave Arkanis Gath.
I struggled to make it through the dungeon quickly. My THAC0 was too poor to rely on Mind Flayer form, and the Iron Golem form was too big for anything, so I stuck with the Greater Wolfwere form, which effectively made me immune to damage. Thanks to the high APR and STR bonus, it also let me do reasonably well in melee.
Unfortunately, there's a lot of running around to do in Aran Linvail's lair, and to actually open Aran's door, I need a key from Haz. Haz is not very dangerous, but he turned out to have an irritatingly high number of Stoneskin spells, and Shapechange wore off right after Haz's defenses began to wane.
I had to go outside to rest and return. Since I was no longer in a hurry, I decided to fight the Shadow Thieves I had earlier ignored.
The mages here were a big problem for Poppy, but they're harmless for Snowy Tae. And with Greater Command, I barely even have to fight them at all.
I also take the time to filch a nice new suit of armor off of Arkanis Gath.
Turns out there are two copies of this armor. One from Minister Lloyd, and another from Arkanis Gath. The evil bad nasty Arkanis Gath, anyway. The one you normally fight comes unarmored.
There's one mage inside, however, who is not a pushover, and I'm not referring to Aran Linvail or his lady friend. It's the other elven mage (so many female elven mages in the Shadow Thieves' employ... what's that all about?), who has much nastier spells than just Sphere of Chaos.
Cornugons are very dangerous in SCS2. They have a poison effect on hit, for which I have no immunity, and like to teleport around. I got lucky with a save against the mage's Symbol spell, which otherwise could have easily spelled my doom.
The mage isn't pleased to see me survive, and she gets a teensy bit too overzealous in trying to bring me down.
A Potion of Magic Protection did a lot to keep me safe. But the Cornugon remains. Rather than simply run outside and rest, I decide to fight it out a bit, just for fun, and to see if it gives me any XP. Greater Command again proves ridiculously unbalancing, when it works.
Unfortunately, my summons are dying or dead, and I can't deal enough damage to kill the Cornugon before it vanishes. Same goes for an Efreeti summoned by the same mage.
Time to meet with the Shadowmaster. I send in some Skeleton summons to soak up the enemy's first spells, while keeping my Aerial Servants out of the fray. This allows me to start flinging disabling spells from a safe place. Kitty also makes an important contribution to the battle, though she doesn't stick around for long.
I scrolled up in the dialog box to show that line about the Priest of Mask getting poisoned, hence Kitty's body ending up so far away from him.
My first disabler is taken straight from the playbook of enemy spellcasters. I forget whether it was in SCS2 or vanilla BG2, but I noticed in the Planar Sphere that an enemy mage cast Chaos, followed by Confusion. It was a clever move, first using the spell that had the worse duration, but better chance of success, before using the weaker, longer-lasting spell. Since it's more important for me to disable early than to disable for a long duration, my first spell out is Chaos. It works marvelously.
Greater Command comes right afterwards, but doesn't help much. It matters little: the only functioning enemy is Aran's mage friend. My Aerial Servants start breaking down her and Aran's defenses.
The elven mage reaches Near Death, then casts Stoneskin or an invisibility spell and searches for a safe spot in the room. It would take time to break through her defenses, and I really want to focus on Aran Linvail, so I hit her with a Cloudkill instead of trying to deal with her invisibility or Stoneskins.
SCS2 enemies know enough to escape Cloudkill and other lingering area effect spells, but they can't dodge the first hit. Notice that Aran Linvail has recovered from his confusion. Now we have to deal with a fully functional enemy mage. On top of that, Aran has some impressive thief skills.
But he is nearly gone. My summons are almost dead, and so are Aran and his cronies, so instead of trying to break through his defenses, I again seek a shortcut. Sunfire is liable to take down my injured summons, but it should also take down Aran Linvail and company.
On many occasions, I have noticed that the best spellbook contains a diverse mix of spells, so the caster has a variety of options at any given time. This battle is an excellent example of the utility of a diverse spellbook. Whether you say Chaos or Cloudkill or Sunfire is the best 5th-level spell, they each had a major impact on the battle, and I would have done worse in this battle had I tried to use the same spell twice.
I am often skeptical of the power of sorcerers for precisely this reason. At any given level, they will have a very limited range of spells compared to the mage, and though they have lots of castings of, say, Skull Trap, the classic 3rd level super spell, that's not going to do much good when you need a party-friendly spell. People say each spell level only has 5 or so useful spells, and that sorcerers get to learn 5 spells, but sorcerers don't actually GET all 5 of those spells until later in the game. And testing has found that they don't even get those 5. For levels 3 to 5, they only get 4 different spells to choose from. And for levels 6 to 9, they only get three spells, plus the HLAs. Sorcerors really do have much more limited spellbooks than normal wizards, and I don't think that fact is much appreciated.
Anyway, I thought it would be nice to try and get an extra copy of the Ring of the Ram. But I'm not quite sure I trust Snowy Tae to steal it successfully, even with potions. So I decide to try and kill Tolgerias instead, but I don't want to turn the whole room hostile in the process. So I hit him with Mental Domination.
He has some pretty wicked spells on hand. But I've only got control of him for 8 rounds, so I'll only be able to pull 8 spells out of him. To avoid antagonizing the other people in the room, I need to take Tolgerias outside. I order him to attack Snowy Tae and then head outside, causing him to follow me.
I intended on bringing him to the Vulova estate and then having him kill himself with a properly bounced Lightning Bolt in a corner--which ostensibly would slay Tolgerias without harming my reputation or turning anybody hostile--but he won't follow me inside, so the point is moot. Instead, I just have him hit himself with the biggest damage spell he's got: Flame Arrow.
Like it or not, Tolgerias is hostile. But not all is lost. I still have an opportunity to kill him without incurring any reputation loss. But it will take a LOT of maneuvering to make that happen.
First, I need to draw out Tolgerias' spells. And he has some pretty tough summons on his side.
The demons ignore the local guards completely, focusing instead on me. I run all over the map trying to escape their grasp, visiting some places I've never been before.
Once the demons despawn, I track down Tolgerias and start working on removing his Stoneskins.
The idea is that I will wear down Tolgerias until he has no Stoneskins and no spells left, and then make use of one of the local guards to finish him off. This will net me the Ring of the Ram without gaining XP or losing reputation. But this only works if the guard finishes off Tolgerias, so I can't let me summons deal the final blow. After they break through his Stoneskins, I pull my summons away.
Unfortunately, in the process, I antagonize some of the local guards.
I have to get isolate Tolgerias, and to do that, I have to corral all of the hostile guards and draw them aside. Otherwise they will interfere with Tolgerias' demise. Tolgerias is southwest of the guards, so I spawn in the Flesh Golem, hide, and run the golem along the north end of the map, bringing the guards into a tight cluster.
To make sure they don't cause trouble later on, I tuck them into a corner and wait for the Flesh Golem to despawn.
With their target gone, they will stay in that corner indefinitely. Killing them would risk lowering my reputation, so this was the only way to handle them.
I return to Tolgerias and draw out some more of his spells. A stray Lightning Bolt slays a guard offscreen, but there are more where that came from.
Notice the transition to night. This process took a very long time.
There are several guards spaced out across the southern edge of the map, who will eventually slay Tolgerias on my behalf. But first, I need to wear down Tolgerias a little more. To do that, I summon some undead, but I only allow a fraction of them to attack Tolgerias at once, to reduce the risk of killing him by accident.
I actually had to cast Haste on them to draw them away; they were at risk for overwhelming Tolgerias, and would not stop targeting him. Tolgerias resorts to melee combat, knocking the Skeletons unconscious via fist damage.
When it becomes clear Tolgerias truly is out of spells, I send the Skeletons away and get Tolgerias to target Snowy Tae. I lead him down to the south end of the map.
Non-hostile guards will attack hostile critters, which means Tolgerias is a valid target for them. Here, I outran Tolgerias, used Hide in Shadows right in front of the guard, and waited for Tolgerias, aided by SCS2 AI, to keep walking after me, into the sight of the guard.
Since the guard isn't actually my ally, Tolgerias doesn't even register his existence. The guard can attack him in complete safety.
Finally, Tolgerias collapses, broken down by an hours-long battle across the Government District.
Snowy Tae gets a shiny new Ring of the Ram. But there are still hostile people on the map, and I will need to clear them out if I am to travel in the Government District safely.
Btw how does one casting of Animate Dead produce eleven Skeletons for you?
Same way I got rid of Tolgerias. Get a non-allied critter to fight them instead.
I start with the cluster of guards in a corner. I charm one of them and have him fight the other guards. As long as my ally doesn't kill anybody, I'm sure not to lose reputation. He's pretty much doomed, anyway, though.
I plan on repeating the process with the remaining guys, until only one is left, but in the process, somehow I turn even MORE guards hostile.
I think what's happening is that, if a good character, such as a guard, turns hostile towards you, then he or she will turn other good characters against you as well, if the non-hostile characters see you and the hostile person together. Hostility spreads through sight.
I turn invisible and come back to charm the remaining hostiles one by one. I stay invisible to make sure their attention is on the right target.
When only one is left, I am left with a problem. I don't have anybody left to kill him with. And if I charm a bystander to get them to attack, I might lose reputation if the hostile person dies while the other person is under my control. The only way for me to avoid reputation loss is to cause a neutral character to kill a hostile character.
I think I know how to do that. First, I charm a neutral guard and have him get the attention of the remaining hostile guard.
My ally takes a few swings at him, but then runs away until the charm wears off. When my ally turns neutral, the hostile guard should keep attacking him, prompting the neutral guard to attack the hostile guard, slaying the hostile guard and leaving me with one neutral guard on the map.
My logic doesn't pan out. Both guards end up hostile.
I charm one of them and get him killed. Back to square one.
So, I decide to grab a new ally: one of the guards who appears to give a short dialogue in the Government District at night. I talk-block him and his buddies to make sure they don't start the dialog after I cast Mental Domination and become visible, since they despawn after the dialog. Unfortunately, the guard I charm ends up hostile anyway.
I have him kill the other hostile guard, followed by the Prison Guard who turned hostile earlier, trying to keep the number of enemies down.
My attempts to get rid of the hostile characters have failed. The guards I charm turn hostile after the charm wears off. It could be that Mental Domination has that effect, where the Ring of Human Influence does not, but neither effect is classified as a hostile spell, and Mental Domination didn't turn anyone hostile when the target made their save, so I'm not sure where the problem lies.
Finally, I devise a solution. I might not be able to kill off all of the hostile people on the map, but I can certainly move them around. I go around the map, track down hostile people, and charm them. Once they're under my control, I herd them to the far south end of the map and leave them there until the charm wears off.
Hostile good characters aren't easy to deal with. But a charm spell can move them to a safe place, and prevent other critters from turning hostile in the process.
This was when I gave up the prospect of slaying all of the hostile people. I don't want the poor girl to get hurt just because Tolgerias was upset I tried to make him commit suicide through mind control to get his ring. That would totally disproportionate.
Instead, I decide to adopt her with CTRL-Q. But I can't take her along with me--she's got 3 HP and the game crashes when she tries to level up. I need to give her a safe new home. I decide to drop her off at the Firecam residence, but it turns out they're not very welcoming to strangers.
I consider turning her to stone to resolve the problem, but this counts as a death and her soul would move on to the afterlife anyway. Instead, I decide to take the girl to the Umar Hills, only to realize that neither Valygar's home nor Merella's cabin are suitable homes for the girl, as they have permanent corpses right on top of or next to the bed.
Instead, I decide to set her up for a permanent room at the local inn. I even give her some friends: a bear, a wolf, an Efreeti, and an Aerial Servant, which I make permanent using CTRL-R and add to the party with CTRL-Q. I put them in a nice place around the room and start to remove them from the party, only to find that they don't stick around after they leave.
Whatever I do, they're not going to stay in one place. The girl will be a wanderer when she leaves the party. But she needs to be properly equipped before she starts on her first adventure. A Ring of Invisibility would be very useful to her, but the only place I know to get one is on Brennan Risling.
So I go and kill Brennan Risling and the rest of his gang, flooding the area with disablers.
I give the girl all the equipment she might need: the Staff of Curing to heal herself, the Ring of Invisibility for emergencies, some potions to supplement those options, the Ring of the Ram for offensive damage, some bracers for her safety, a bunch of jewelry for her to sell as she likes and purchase whatever she needs, and finally, the Black Spider Figurine, if she should ever need an ally. She adopts Snowy Tae's color scheme, too.
It is a bittersweet farewell.
Finally, we're back on track. And a visit to the government building reveals that slaying Tolgerias with the local authorities has turned nobody in the building hostile. This means I can turn in Neb's head without worrying about people attacking me.