So I was going to say that shouldn't matter, but it would appear to do so. Will investigate now. Thanks
Edit: Palin has a race script of wrchange.bcs which is not present in BGEE but is present in SoD. Creatures referencing it are Karoug, Kryla, Meym and Palin. Removing the script content sees Palin remain in human form while Karoug still transforms. Meym and Kryla both transform through dialogue too.
So, it payed off in the end. I wanted to say that basically what you wrote in your post, @BelgarathMTH , in terms of description and attaching a save, is actually what the Redmine system is about, i.e. reports there don't differ much from it. You provided a good description and in several subsequent comments you managed to find a source of the problem.
And it's great! After all, a bug stopping a no-reload run is one of the worst things ever. So I encourage everyone to report bugs they find. It may be especially effective for seasoned no-reload players as they know all ins and outs of the game.
@Gate70 , I just noticed in your video that you stopped it the moment Palin chunked - that animation is also used during a transformation to werewolf form. So, after you kill Palin's human form, make sure you wait a second to be sure you're not seeing the beginning of a transformation as opposed to a final chunking.
@Gate70, please disregard that last post. I wrote it while you were posting your results, and I just now saw your answer. Thank you so much for your time.
Good grief! That means that on Core Rules with SoD, if you do Werewolf Island, you are going to have to beat FOUR greater wolfweres instead of one to get off the island. Yikes.
I definitely don't think I'll be trying it again, but now all the people who love really hard challenges know about it, so that's good.
The fight with Lavok begins. I start out with a gang of Efreet and hope to approach him while invisible, but Lavok dispels it--thankfully, when we're still out of his field of vision.
The reason I wanted all the Efreet out on round one was because they are very good at taking down spell protections. If all six of them fire off a Flame Strike spell (instant-casting due to SCS genies!), they can drain 30 levels of spell protections, equal to a Spell Trap. We don't have Ruby Ray of Reversal yet, but our Efreet can take down a Spell Trap even if we can't.
Unfortunately, the Efreet are difficult to control. Several of them cast Invisibility on themselves instead, and because the strings in my install are messed up, I don't actually know if Lavok has a Spell Trap spell active. In fact, I don't know what any of his pre-buffs are. To stop his first spell, I have Espellier launch a WoL Sunfire spell, only to get crushed by Lavok's Fire Shield: Blue.
She's in bad shape, but the rest of the party is on task applying pressure to Lavok. Espellier re-positions herself and disrupts another spell with Sunfire when she's too far to trigger a Fire Shield backlash.
Espellier and Lavok trade debuffers while Espellier's SI: Abjuration expires...
...and both mages end up terribly vulnerable. Shorn of his GOI spell, Lavok is vulnerable to direct attacks from our Efreet's single-target spells.
Lavok survives the attacks due to his high HP and the Efreet gang's lack of discipline (it's really hard to make them coordinate spells with their scripts sending them conflicting signals that cancel out your orders). Lavok gets a free PFMW spell via a contingency, but he has no spell protections to back it up.
With neither spell protections nor specific protections, Lavok is helpless. He falls shortly.
Next is Tolgerias. This guy is a monster, and I've had more trouble with him than Lavok because I keep focusing on taking down his fellow mage instead of applying pressure to Tolgerias himself. This time, I go nuclear, with a Skeleton Warrior to absorb the enemy's first spells and a WoL Cloudkill centered on the skeleton.
Tolgerias and the mage take a lot of damage very quick, but it's not fast enough. I add another six Cloudkill spells to the mix.
It doesn't stop Tolgerias from launching an HLA, but we're well-defended against it. Well, most of us, anyway.
I thought Comet in SCS did crushing damage as well as fire damage, but that might only be true when your install makes them into once-per-day innate abilities rather than level 9 spells (which would be an oversight). Or I might just be remembering Spell Revisions. I also notice Comet doesn't bypass MR in my install. Anyway, with the whole party protected by Stoneskin, and everyone but Fobie protected by Protection from Fire, we escape the Comet unharmed. Tolgerias lingers in the cloud, costing him another spell.
Notice just how close we are to that cloud, which deals 12d10 damage per round. If we moved just a few steps northeast, any one of us could die in seconds. Poppy was protected by Chaotic Commands, but anyone who failed a save against Chaos would have been doomed.
Tolgerias collapses shortly and we clear up the room with Zone of Sweet Air before I can accidentally order someone into the cloud. I notice that Tolgerias didn't run out of the cloud, which SCS enemies normally do. Maybe it was because the only places the cloud didn't reach were those in which he couldn't see us. Escaping the cloud would mean Tolgerias' spells wouldn't be able to reach us. But I'm not sure if that's the reason he stayed.
I clean up a few minor encounters with our custom instant kill sword (I have no patience for minor skirmishes like Stone Golems and mephits) and leave the sphere to collect a demon heart. I only ever bother with the easier fight to the west; I don't remember the last time I fought the bigger, nastier demon in the center of the map. We use WoL Divine Favor and Boon of Lathander buffs to slay the demon.
We escape the sphere and gain the mage stronghold, but I forget to go back inside to actually start the new questline.
Turns out EE has a bug in the dual-classing menu. Once you enter it, it's impossible to leave. When I try to level up Valos and accidentally click dual-class instead, I get stuck.
I have to quit the game and reload just to avoid dual-classing. I don't count it due to this being a bug (ruining an entire character build should take more than one mis-click). Our reload count remains at 1, thanks to me trying to kill the Crooked Crane lich with a WoL Daystar Sunray (SCS liches apparently have Protection from Magical Energy to block the damage, and their base save vs. spell of 1 blocks the instant death effect).
But why the Unseeing Eye, which I've almost always delayed until Chapter 6, when LoB mode makes blitzkrieg tactics against Beholders no longer effective? Well, the Efreeti Bottle doesn't break invisibility if you activate it using the WoL trick on yourself. We can bring out our summons without breaking invisibility!
Notice the quick save. This is a minimal reload run, but even in no-reload runs, I quick save. Partly it's because of habit, partly it's fear, and partly it's because of bugs.
The Efreet brigade takes down the Gauth just fine, but a bunch of Fireballs just won't cut it against LoB Beholders.
So how do we deal with these guys?
Well, @sluckers pointed out that the WoL can target things that are out of the user's field of vision, so long as at least one target (I believe it has to be the last one) is within sight. And that target doesn't have to be a critter. It can also be a container.
Or even a bolt you drop onto the ground.
This means we can attack the Beholders from all the way across the map. Espellier spies on the Beholders while invisible so I can click on them, Laosha drops a single Excellent Bolt (the nonmagical SCS version of a Bolt +1) onto the ground just north of the party, and then Sil targets five Beholders with the Wand of Lightning before choosing the bolt as her sixth and final target. Of course, since I forget to switch the Wand of Cloudkill for the Wand of Lightning, Sil just zaps herself.
Luckily, that wasn't the Wand of Lightning with only one charge on it, so we get to keep using it (otherwise we'd have lost the wand). I try again. This time, Sil fires off one Cloudkill onto the nearby bolt, and five Cloudkills to the east.
This does waste one of the clouds, but it dramatically improves the party's reach. We engulf the Beholders in a toxic cloud.
The Beholders haven't seen a single party member. They don't know where to go. They mill around, but don't stay out of the cloud completely. After expending another charge of the Wand of Cloudkill, we bring down the last of the Beholders.
But you don't even need invisibility to do this. You can just use Farsight instead.
First, we bring out some skeletons to absorb spells and set a bolt down on the Unseeing Eye's spawn point. We also use Limited Wish to restore our spell slots, mostly because I don't have anything better to do with my level 7 spell slots.
The WoL duplicates Limited Wish, so we can refresh all of our level 1-4 cleric and mage spells in one casting. I might want to make better use of that sometime; some extra skeletons and Death Ward spells would be nice.
We forge the device and hand it to Laosha, who uses it on the Unseeing Eye while the skeletons absorb any spells that might disable him. Meanwhile, Sil prepares to destroy the Unseeing Eye with her sling.
The Rift Device hits, conveniently disrupting a spell.
The Unseeing Eye's custom Chain Contingency spells brings out a couple of Death Tyrants. I thought the Rift Device would bring the Unseeing Eye down to 40 HP, but apparently it actually brings it down to 40% HP, so we need more than a single round to kill it with bullets. We throw some Cloudkill charges its way, and find that the Death Tyrants are immune. We can't slay them with Cloudkill.
The Death Tyrants, however, cannot see through invisibility. Once the Unseeing Eye dies to poison damage, we just turn invisible and hurry away.
But I want the XP from those Death Tyrants, so I haul out the Efreet brigade.
Notice Sil has been debuffed. In my SCS install, Anti-Magic Rays protect the target from all spells, including unfriendly ones like Beholders rays, which means she has two rounds of safety after she loses her defenses.
Chapter 2 is just about done. And Fobie is almost at mage level 10. When that happens, we can use WoL Called Shot with Minute Meteors and Darts +5. That will be lots of fun.
Gotta say @semiticgod that your play-by-play commentaries are becoming a veritable strategy repository on how to survive no-reload runs in dire difficulties. Much appreciated.
Only a few stops left before Spellhold. I like to leave Athkatla with as many resources as possible, since there are some really awful fights in the Underdark. First, I clear out most of the first level of Watcher's Keep, mostly just to get the Crimson Dart for our Archer/Mage, Fobie. Protection from Magical Energy and a full suite of buffs are necessary for Sil to take down the Vampiric Wraiths.
I hate these guys. They have the same irritating invisibility as Spirit Trolls, the same regeneration, and the same self-healing effect when they land an attack. Plus, they can see through invisibility, have fast movement rates, can deal magic damage, and instead of draining STR, they drain levels. I'm just glad there are barely any Vampiric Wraiths in the game.
Time to go slay some dragons. First off is Thaxll'ssillyia. I prepare a bunch of buffs in case we need to fight it out (including Chaotic Commands on Poppy so she doesn't get knocked out by Wing Buffet), but I want to Feeblemind him before he has a chance to launch his breath weapon, as he will a few seconds after turning hostile.
Espellier, Valos, and Fobie cast Lower Resistance on Thaxll'sillyia at the same time, bringing his MR down to zero. The moment Thaxll'sillyia turns hostile, Laosha and Sil activate their Minor Sequencers, which I used to speed up the casting of Doom and Chant.
I needed to wait until Thaxll'sillyia was hostile before activating Chant, as it would not otherwise lower his saving throws. I then have Poppy fire a WoL Feeblemind scroll at the dragon. He turns yellow!
Now he is helpless. The party competes to see who lands the final blow.
Next is Firkraag. On the way, I discover that SI: Abjuration will block Limited Wish's mini-rest option.
We proceed with the standard plan. But then I notice a problem.
That Spell Deflection will block half of Poppy's WoL Feeblemind scrolls. And we don't have any Pierce Magic spells memorized; we saved those spell slots for PFMW. And our multiple Spell Thrusts can't take down 6th level spell protection. Luckily, Espellier has a spare magic attack in store.
We compete again to see who gets the final blow on Firkraag. Once again, Laosha wins by virtue of his superior THAC0 under Divine Favor.
Fobie has finally recovered his Archer levels and can therefore use WoL Called Shot twice per day. It's unfortunate his THAC0 is at -1--that could make landing hits difficult, which is especially important given Called Shot's short duration (12 seconds, like Divine Favor). It's strong for normal circumstances, but if we get in trouble, that STR drain kill could be undone by a few unlucky rolls.
I suppose it's moot for the time being. Fobie won't be able to cast Called Shot at level 12 and get the STR drain effect until he's level 15, since innate abilities for dual-classes are cast at the average of the caster's two class levels ((9+15)/2=12).
Poots The Zauberer, gnome Cleric/Illusionist learned of the death of his cousin Poots the Mendicant at the hands of some snake oil salesman named Borda and set off in a quest for vengeance. He died in exactly the same way, but not before many of the people he recruited for help fell, including Khalid, Jaheira, Xzar, Montaron and Kagain. A disastrous run all around. Im not good at this. If I ever try again Im lowering the difficulty from hard to core.
@toolarg: You might consider trying a minimal reload run instead. You try to minimize your reload count but don't end the run if you die. My current run is minimal reload rather than no reload.
Well, it's mainly because of the classes Im using, Im not really used to them. I have a Dwarven Defender char that is in a no-reload run even tho I didn't even try it, he just wont die to anything. Already cleared all the wilderness and the mines, he was never even close to death. But I really feel like playing a caster type and they have it way harder than fighters at the start.
The dreaded Cloakwood forest was no match for Alano's party. I am finding myself not being so reliant on traps (I admit, at least in BG1 traps are very cheesy) because the group is getting stronger and the traps can take the fun out of some of the challenging fights. Even so, I am playing it safe. I really want to make it this time.
With potions of freedom, invisibility, and antidotes galore, Alano took the lead in the forest. He natural talent with traps meant that he took the lead and secured the way. A dangerous position, but every now and then he would substitute the carefully hidden webs with traps of his own, so if things looked bad he could always lure the monsters to a trap before fighting back with the help of the group.
The tactic proved quite helpful for the toughest vermin (sword spiders)
The trip in the forest went without incident, really, except when that dryad charm-held half my party. It wasn't funny seeing Branwen trying to kill Alano. Good thing Imoen had enough magic missiles, because Khalid was having trouble trying to hit her with arrows and she kept teleporting, so melee was impossible.
After scouting the area, the party prepared an ambush for the wyverns. Imoen is loving her fireball spell.
Once inside the mines, Yeslick joined the party. Equipped with loot from guards, he quickly proved a capable warrior. The dwarf even killed a witch that threw a lightning bolt at Alano and Khalid. Yeslick was too tired to use spells and the group was not going to sleep in the mines, so he didn't do much when the moment of fighting Daveorn arrived. Branwen again saved the day dispelling some of the guy's defenses and even managing to silence him after Jaheira Doomed him. Of course, one of Alano's traps helped, and with his staff he made the killing blow.
It would have been very dissapointing to get eaten by an ooze after defeating the archimage mastermind, but Alano can be stupidly overconfident sometimes and that is exactly what almost happened.
The mines flooded, the slaves freed, now Alano and friends have to go to Baldur's Gate. Tymora has been with them so far. Let's see what lies ahead.
Saoni fell on the battlefield to a combination of my misclicking and insane difficulty, briefly after the events related in my last post. The party had reached the spider-infested part Cloakwood. All were invisible but Saoni, who took it upon herself to deal with a couple of Phase Spiders. With four down and one to go, everything looked fine. Number five wasn't really a threat either, but after a breath attack I must have clicked on a part where she couldn't walk, causing a delay in her retreat here
and creating an opportunity for the Spider here.
With 10 damage a tick and an unclear aura, there was nothing she could do. I later realized I could have had one of the companions cast PfPoison at her from the green scroll, not sure if that cancels active poison though.
It's funny that this should happen. Saoni felt powerful. I really envisioned her in SoD. That will have to wait now though. Since I want my first playthrough of SoD to be with NPCs rather than a custom party, Saoni's death means I'll have to start a new run. Not sure yet whether that will be run in v1.3 or v2.1 and what settings to apply. I'm inclined to go with v2.1 with Legacy of Bhaal but without damage bonuses for enemies and withour XP bonuses for the party. If I do so, I'll miss the banter of the BG1 NPC Project mod, so I might yet change my mind.
Shade, CG Human Archer, 2nd BG1 report
On a more positive note, Shade and her band have been fending well for themselves. In my previous account, I finished by saying I had no idea what to do, where to go next. They went for the South Coast for Charleston Nib and Brage, but didn't even make it to the Nib, due to Dire Wolves cutting them off. Gizi separated herself from the group and hitched a ride for the party with Brage, back to Nahskel.
With XP bonuses activated, the solution was visiting areas with normally weak melee critters like Gibberlings, Xvarts, or Tasloi. They can be kited as long as they don't come in very large packs, and they yield over 1k XP per kill. The southernmost area, with Hafiz and Samuel, provided lots of Gibberlings (and a funny response from Hafiz).
The Xvart Village had, you guessed it, plenty of Xvarts to kill. I even found that a high Dex character with Ankheg plate, a ring of protection, and girdle of piercing could fairly reliable tank the Xvarts. You'll always get hit though, if only by criticals (not sure if it were only criticals or also rolls in the 18-19 range). This meant that several lesser healing potion were expended. Bear River was anothe good source of XP. The Mountain Bear was webbed and slain with ranged fire. Gibberlings were fought one to three at a time. The party repeatedly traveled to other areas, to get away from larger groups. This would sometimes get them in other types of trouble. The scariest moment occurred when they got waylaid by an Ogre Mage. It managed to cast a Charm Person at Alaam, but the Wizard Slayer's tad of Magic Resistance saved him.
When Guennean got her first level 3 priest spells, Animate Dead helped the party against tought foes (like Ogres). As some of you will already know, summoned creatures get the same boost (or a similar one) as enemies, so the Skeletons were quite hardy. I don't think I'll be casting summoning spells all the time and let the summons do all the work, but I also do not rule out using summons when convenient.
I have screenshots, but they don't look very interesting. Skeletons (with Ogres or Hobgoblin archers) and/or Guennean would tank and kite, the others attack with ranged weapons.
After dozens of Gibberlings at Bear River, came the Gnoll Fortress. Importantly everyone passed the 40k XP benchmark here, meaning Sorcerer Aine reached level 5. His first level 3 spell was Invisibility 15' Radius. Invisible wall cheese was used to speed up the XP farming process. As with the summons, I do not intend to use Invisibility cheese for the remainder of BG1, but I am not against doing so time and again, to keep some pace in this playthrough.
In the Cloudpeaks Kirian was slain, but Delgod and Alexander were shunned. Vax and Zal were defeated with Skeletal help, Caldo and Krumm with kiting tactics. A grand total of eleven Winter Wolves were done in by Shade (who was wearing Gorion's belt), all in and around the two Cloudpeaks areas. Before I knew it Alaam reached level 7, and dual-classed to Thief.
Melicamp was restored by Thalanthyr after Guennean's Skeleton Warriors managed to kill (at least) one of the High Hedge's Skeletons. Skeleton Warriors also meleed Neira, as the others attacked with their range weapons. It yielded Shade a nice unbreakable helmet. (Previously a non-magical helmet of hers had broken. I always kept spare helmets in my inventory though.)
To help Alaam get his Wizard Slayer levels reactivated sooner rather than later (there's no reason not to help him, as his Wizard Slayer restrictions remain active even while being a Thief now), the party returned to Mutamin's garden with Aine casting PfPetrification on Shade and Gizi, and the two Archers killing remaining Basilisks. Mutamin fell to three Skeleton Warriors. Kirian and friends got stuck in a barrage of Webs, easy picking for the very much range-oriented party.
The companions all have more than 80k XP each. They still don't feel very powerful, and they could really do with better gear, but they're definitely in much better shape than last time I wrote about them. I'm considering respecting the XP cap (even though I removed it) and leveling up only in SoD (provided we make it there). As a consequence dual-classing Shade at level 8 would be very disadvantageous. I may go for the long haul of dualing her at level 13 for a 3rd Called Shot ability and an extra 0.5 APR.
One last major quest before Spellhold: the Planar Prison.
I normally save this one for last because it takes place in a very small area, because it's impossible to escape the place before killing the boss, and because it involves a fight with multiple Yuan-ti Mages. Raelis Shai opens up the conduit.
All minor skirmishes go like this. If it's not a challenging fight, Espellier draws our instant kill sword and saves us the trouble of fighting it. I have no patience for wading through 200 HP trash monsters.
One of the nice things about having access to both Protection from Fire and Protection from Cold is that it allows Laosha to poison enemy mages without killing himself on the enemy's Fire Shield spells.
Poppy continues to be a star player with her enchantment specialization save penalties.
She's never had the flashy game-breaking powers of Sil or Espellier, but her disablers have been a big part of our success at every stage in the game.
One of the other nice things about Protection from Fire is that it lets you throw out Sunfire spells without worrying about killing your entire party.
It's a great way to disrupt enemy spells, particularly since Espellier wears the Robe of Vecna, as Sunfire bypasses those awful Globes of Invulnerability and doesn't need a visible target to land a hit.
What about those Yuan-ti Mages to the east? Well, now that I'm using the Wand of Lightning to its maximum potential, I am free to bombard them with Wand of Cloudkill charges from across the map.
That about sums up that battle. The Master of Thralls isn't complicated. SI: Abjuration blocks his introductory Remove Magic spell, and Chaotic Commands keeps Death Gaze from disabling any important party members, so we're quite safe. We crush him with the Efreeti brigade and Sil's WoL BoL Sling of Everard.
All that's left is the Warden.
But that fight doesn't go quite how I thought it would.
We buff the hell out of the party and approach the Warden. Sil triggers his introductory speech while the rest of the party is lagging behind.
I hurry to buff Sil before the Warden can dispel her defenses--I forgot to do so before.
Then the Warden begins casting a necromancy spell. When I see how bad Sil's save vs. spell is, I realize that she might not survive a Finger of Death. I cast MSD, only to find that I was expecting the wrong spell.
Sil runs away from the Horrid Wilting projectile until her aura is clear, then drinks a WoL Potion of Magic Protection, boosting her MR to 127. The Horrid Wilting spell has no effect.
Sil runs back to pelt the Warden with the Sling of Everard, which can bypass his Improved Mantle. The Warden stops time, but our skeletons absorb his wrath.
When time returns to normal, he turns his attention to Sil and launches a nasty Spell Trigger.
Somehow, those Lower Resistance spells completely bypass Sil's MSD, even though MSD is supposed to be block level 7 spells and lower. MSD should have blocked at least one of those, but it did not. Sil loses the full 90 MR, dropping down to 37.
When the skeletons fall, Sil struggles to kite the Warden, who has a surprisingly fast movement rate. She can barely outpace him... though she has no trouble dodging his spells.
Sil holds together thanks to her MR, specific protections, and \saves.
We refresh Sil's Improved Haste and the rest of the party moves in for the kill, breaking down the Warden's defenses.
We get surprised by a disabler, but good luck bails us out. We keep up the pressure until the Warden falls.
Then, when I'm sure we're in the clear, I see something I thought I had escaped.
The Warden normally comes bolstered by a Coiled Cabal, but because Sil was moving so fast with Improved Haste and the Boots of Speed, she never stepped on the trigger to spawn them. Until now.
We still have a few more enemies to deal with.
And I foolishly decide to fight them without resting.
@Blackraven does the BG1 NPC project not work with SOD? Because it most definitely works on my 2.1 version without SOD.
No, I get a lot of weird dialogues and items desription, especially SoD banter (I think) where I shouldn't. Even with just SCS this happens. (See for example the second screenshot in my update on Shade). I didn't BG1 NPC Project worked in your SoD-less version 2.1. This is something I'll have to try as well
A brief update of Alano the thief. He is surviving Baldurs Gate so far.
Alano the Hunter
After doing a few sneaky quests (high reward, low risk) for the guild and others, Alano and party decided to prove his worth to Scar by solving the mystery of the deaths in the city. The monster behind them was not too hard to find: an ogre mage with an evil plan that sounded quite absurd. A swift blow to the head with a 5-feet stick, and Imoen only had to finish him off with a single arrow.
The party proceeded to clean the sewers of the vermin that were helping the ogre, but that proved more problematic.
Alano, Khalid and Yeslick, and immediately after, Jaheira, were paralized by the carrion crawlers. Obviously I had underestimated them. Only Branwen and Imoen against 8 crawlers! While Alano and friends were being eaten alive, Imoen had to think fast and decided to do something crazy.
A fireball from the wand in the middle of the group was very painful for everyone, but finished off the crawlers. Hurray! Also, ouch.
Perfect timing, because one moment after fireball Imoen was held too. Nothing that Branwen couldn't handle. The group left the sewers whole, although with some serious burns.
Another exciting encounter was the bunch of ogre mages (man, this city is full of them) that wanted to kill me because the "son of murder" had ordered it. Alano will have to make a note of that, but not before tasting a lightening bolt, making the ogres run for their lives in exchange, and reviving Imoen.
Another mage called Degrodel and his convocations almost killed Alano before and after finding a helmet for him, so the bounty hunter gave him a beating with the staff and the group walked away with helmet and a cloak to match. That will teach him!
Nice updates everyone! My minimal reload with my transmuter through bg1ee is almost done. I wanted to noreload but died in a 6 bandit ambush on my first play day. Rather than restarting I pressed on. Actually only three reloads due to traps I keep forgetting about. Now i only have the maze left and the end. Then I will attempt to noreload through sod. I cannot wait, it will be a complete blind run.
Escaping prison is very routine by now, no surprises this time, FMT is a solid tank with 18 dex. SCS and duergars doesn't really put up much of a fight unless a mage manages to cast... well anything really.
Yoshi and Minsc get told to wait in the Copper Coronet, Minsc might be crazy, but everyone deserves a chance to relax and grab a few beers.
Happy to be free of prison and torture I happily donate 700, 900 and 1200 gold to Ilmater.
Circus is also very easy, using Jaheira as a bear to loot containers and run us up to the third floor.
Doing both parts of the slaver quest and getting Lilarcor from the sewers was also alright. Mages failed saves vs stinking cloud but still manages to drink potions, a bit weird, but throwing daggers with haste potion takes my APR to 4 and the daggers do 8-11 damage per hit and sometimes Aerie or Jaheira chimes in with a hit for a few points of damage.
Now I have no spells left and Ethos gets a well deserved first rest, after a lot of inventory management, a few scrolls bought and a lot of scrolls learnt. I also manage to earn quite a lot of cash, enough to buy both the license from the cowled wizards and either a strength belt for Jaheira and thus making her useful, a few great spells, or a wand of cloudkill. I usually don't want to use wand of cloudkill and web combo due to how it destroys so many encounters, but I do lack damage output...
Wise from a previous game ender I now always cast invis 10' radius before area transitions.
Throwing daggers really are quite something, have never used them before.
Somewhere else in the city captain Dennis starts having nightmares...
Question, @Ygramul , and @everybody . Are we going to post both no-reloads and minimal reloads in this thread now? Because if so, there's not really a point in my posting into a second thread after I lose my no-reload status.
Comments
Thanks
Edit:
Palin has a race script of wrchange.bcs which is not present in BGEE but is present in SoD.
Creatures referencing it are Karoug, Kryla, Meym and Palin.
Removing the script content sees Palin remain in human form while Karoug still transforms.
Meym and Kryla both transform through dialogue too.
And it's great! After all, a bug stopping a no-reload run is one of the worst things ever. So I encourage everyone to report bugs they find. It may be especially effective for seasoned no-reload players as they know all ins and outs of the game.
Good grief! That means that on Core Rules with SoD, if you do Werewolf Island, you are going to have to beat FOUR greater wolfweres instead of one to get off the island. Yikes.
I definitely don't think I'll be trying it again, but now all the people who love really hard challenges know about it, so that's good.
And never start fights against magic users in BG1 without Shield (available either from the spell or from the necklace sold at Nashkel Carnival).
The reason I wanted all the Efreet out on round one was because they are very good at taking down spell protections. If all six of them fire off a Flame Strike spell (instant-casting due to SCS genies!), they can drain 30 levels of spell protections, equal to a Spell Trap. We don't have Ruby Ray of Reversal yet, but our Efreet can take down a Spell Trap even if we can't.
Unfortunately, the Efreet are difficult to control. Several of them cast Invisibility on themselves instead, and because the strings in my install are messed up, I don't actually know if Lavok has a Spell Trap spell active. In fact, I don't know what any of his pre-buffs are. To stop his first spell, I have Espellier launch a WoL Sunfire spell, only to get crushed by Lavok's Fire Shield: Blue.
She's in bad shape, but the rest of the party is on task applying pressure to Lavok. Espellier re-positions herself and disrupts another spell with Sunfire when she's too far to trigger a Fire Shield backlash.
Espellier and Lavok trade debuffers while Espellier's SI: Abjuration expires...
...and both mages end up terribly vulnerable. Shorn of his GOI spell, Lavok is vulnerable to direct attacks from our Efreet's single-target spells.
Lavok survives the attacks due to his high HP and the Efreet gang's lack of discipline (it's really hard to make them coordinate spells with their scripts sending them conflicting signals that cancel out your orders). Lavok gets a free PFMW spell via a contingency, but he has no spell protections to back it up.
With neither spell protections nor specific protections, Lavok is helpless. He falls shortly.
Tolgerias and the mage take a lot of damage very quick, but it's not fast enough. I add another six Cloudkill spells to the mix.
It doesn't stop Tolgerias from launching an HLA, but we're well-defended against it. Well, most of us, anyway.
I thought Comet in SCS did crushing damage as well as fire damage, but that might only be true when your install makes them into once-per-day innate abilities rather than level 9 spells (which would be an oversight). Or I might just be remembering Spell Revisions. I also notice Comet doesn't bypass MR in my install. Anyway, with the whole party protected by Stoneskin, and everyone but Fobie protected by Protection from Fire, we escape the Comet unharmed. Tolgerias lingers in the cloud, costing him another spell.
Notice just how close we are to that cloud, which deals 12d10 damage per round. If we moved just a few steps northeast, any one of us could die in seconds. Poppy was protected by Chaotic Commands, but anyone who failed a save against Chaos would have been doomed.
Tolgerias collapses shortly and we clear up the room with Zone of Sweet Air before I can accidentally order someone into the cloud. I notice that Tolgerias didn't run out of the cloud, which SCS enemies normally do. Maybe it was because the only places the cloud didn't reach were those in which he couldn't see us. Escaping the cloud would mean Tolgerias' spells wouldn't be able to reach us. But I'm not sure if that's the reason he stayed.
I clean up a few minor encounters with our custom instant kill sword (I have no patience for minor skirmishes like Stone Golems and mephits) and leave the sphere to collect a demon heart. I only ever bother with the easier fight to the west; I don't remember the last time I fought the bigger, nastier demon in the center of the map. We use WoL Divine Favor and Boon of Lathander buffs to slay the demon.
We escape the sphere and gain the mage stronghold, but I forget to go back inside to actually start the new questline.
Turns out EE has a bug in the dual-classing menu. Once you enter it, it's impossible to leave. When I try to level up Valos and accidentally click dual-class instead, I get stuck.
I have to quit the game and reload just to avoid dual-classing. I don't count it due to this being a bug (ruining an entire character build should take more than one mis-click). Our reload count remains at 1, thanks to me trying to kill the Crooked Crane lich with a WoL Daystar Sunray (SCS liches apparently have Protection from Magical Energy to block the damage, and their base save vs. spell of 1 blocks the instant death effect).
But why the Unseeing Eye, which I've almost always delayed until Chapter 6, when LoB mode makes blitzkrieg tactics against Beholders no longer effective? Well, the Efreeti Bottle doesn't break invisibility if you activate it using the WoL trick on yourself. We can bring out our summons without breaking invisibility!
Notice the quick save. This is a minimal reload run, but even in no-reload runs, I quick save. Partly it's because of habit, partly it's fear, and partly it's because of bugs.
The Efreet brigade takes down the Gauth just fine, but a bunch of Fireballs just won't cut it against LoB Beholders.
So how do we deal with these guys?
Well, @sluckers pointed out that the WoL can target things that are out of the user's field of vision, so long as at least one target (I believe it has to be the last one) is within sight. And that target doesn't have to be a critter. It can also be a container.
Or even a bolt you drop onto the ground.
This means we can attack the Beholders from all the way across the map. Espellier spies on the Beholders while invisible so I can click on them, Laosha drops a single Excellent Bolt (the nonmagical SCS version of a Bolt +1) onto the ground just north of the party, and then Sil targets five Beholders with the Wand of Lightning before choosing the bolt as her sixth and final target. Of course, since I forget to switch the Wand of Cloudkill for the Wand of Lightning, Sil just zaps herself.
Luckily, that wasn't the Wand of Lightning with only one charge on it, so we get to keep using it (otherwise we'd have lost the wand). I try again. This time, Sil fires off one Cloudkill onto the nearby bolt, and five Cloudkills to the east.
This does waste one of the clouds, but it dramatically improves the party's reach. We engulf the Beholders in a toxic cloud.
The Beholders haven't seen a single party member. They don't know where to go. They mill around, but don't stay out of the cloud completely. After expending another charge of the Wand of Cloudkill, we bring down the last of the Beholders.
But you don't even need invisibility to do this. You can just use Farsight instead.
All that remains is the Unseeing Eye itself.
The WoL duplicates Limited Wish, so we can refresh all of our level 1-4 cleric and mage spells in one casting. I might want to make better use of that sometime; some extra skeletons and Death Ward spells would be nice.
We forge the device and hand it to Laosha, who uses it on the Unseeing Eye while the skeletons absorb any spells that might disable him. Meanwhile, Sil prepares to destroy the Unseeing Eye with her sling.
The Rift Device hits, conveniently disrupting a spell.
The Unseeing Eye's custom Chain Contingency spells brings out a couple of Death Tyrants. I thought the Rift Device would bring the Unseeing Eye down to 40 HP, but apparently it actually brings it down to 40% HP, so we need more than a single round to kill it with bullets. We throw some Cloudkill charges its way, and find that the Death Tyrants are immune. We can't slay them with Cloudkill.
The Death Tyrants, however, cannot see through invisibility. Once the Unseeing Eye dies to poison damage, we just turn invisible and hurry away.
But I want the XP from those Death Tyrants, so I haul out the Efreet brigade.
Notice Sil has been debuffed. In my SCS install, Anti-Magic Rays protect the target from all spells, including unfriendly ones like Beholders rays, which means she has two rounds of safety after she loses her defenses.
Chapter 2 is just about done. And Fobie is almost at mage level 10. When that happens, we can use WoL Called Shot with Minute Meteors and Darts +5. That will be lots of fun.
Gotta say @semiticgod that your play-by-play commentaries are becoming a veritable strategy repository on how to survive no-reload runs in dire difficulties. Much appreciated.
Still half-orc, half-minotaur. Cleric/thief, insane difficulty, no mods, no items, no worry.
Now with journal entries.
I hate these guys. They have the same irritating invisibility as Spirit Trolls, the same regeneration, and the same self-healing effect when they land an attack. Plus, they can see through invisibility, have fast movement rates, can deal magic damage, and instead of draining STR, they drain levels. I'm just glad there are barely any Vampiric Wraiths in the game.
Time to go slay some dragons. First off is Thaxll'ssillyia. I prepare a bunch of buffs in case we need to fight it out (including Chaotic Commands on Poppy so she doesn't get knocked out by Wing Buffet), but I want to Feeblemind him before he has a chance to launch his breath weapon, as he will a few seconds after turning hostile.
Espellier, Valos, and Fobie cast Lower Resistance on Thaxll'sillyia at the same time, bringing his MR down to zero. The moment Thaxll'sillyia turns hostile, Laosha and Sil activate their Minor Sequencers, which I used to speed up the casting of Doom and Chant.
I needed to wait until Thaxll'sillyia was hostile before activating Chant, as it would not otherwise lower his saving throws. I then have Poppy fire a WoL Feeblemind scroll at the dragon. He turns yellow!
Now he is helpless. The party competes to see who lands the final blow.
Next is Firkraag. On the way, I discover that SI: Abjuration will block Limited Wish's mini-rest option.
We proceed with the standard plan. But then I notice a problem.
That Spell Deflection will block half of Poppy's WoL Feeblemind scrolls. And we don't have any Pierce Magic spells memorized; we saved those spell slots for PFMW. And our multiple Spell Thrusts can't take down 6th level spell protection. Luckily, Espellier has a spare magic attack in store.
Firkraag's Spell Deflection goes down. Poppy disables him.
We compete again to see who gets the final blow on Firkraag. Once again, Laosha wins by virtue of his superior THAC0 under Divine Favor.
Fobie has finally recovered his Archer levels and can therefore use WoL Called Shot twice per day. It's unfortunate his THAC0 is at -1--that could make landing hits difficult, which is especially important given Called Shot's short duration (12 seconds, like Divine Favor). It's strong for normal circumstances, but if we get in trouble, that STR drain kill could be undone by a few unlucky rolls.
I suppose it's moot for the time being. Fobie won't be able to cast Called Shot at level 12 and get the STR drain effect until he's level 15, since innate abilities for dual-classes are cast at the average of the caster's two class levels ((9+15)/2=12).
He died in exactly the same way, but not before many of the people he recruited for help fell, including Khalid, Jaheira, Xzar, Montaron and Kagain. A disastrous run all around. Im not good at this. If I ever try again Im lowering the difficulty from hard to core.
Alano, the hunter
The dreaded Cloakwood forest was no match for Alano's party. I am finding myself not being so reliant on traps (I admit, at least in BG1 traps are very cheesy) because the group is getting stronger and the traps can take the fun out of some of the challenging fights. Even so, I am playing it safe. I really want to make it this time.With potions of freedom, invisibility, and antidotes galore, Alano took the lead in the forest. He natural talent with traps meant that he took the lead and secured the way. A dangerous position, but every now and then he would substitute the carefully hidden webs with traps of his own, so if things looked bad he could always lure the monsters to a trap before fighting back with the help of the group.
The tactic proved quite helpful for the toughest vermin (sword spiders)
The trip in the forest went without incident, really, except when that dryad charm-held half my party. It wasn't funny seeing Branwen trying to kill Alano. Good thing Imoen had enough magic missiles, because Khalid was having trouble trying to hit her with arrows and she kept teleporting, so melee was impossible.
After scouting the area, the party prepared an ambush for the wyverns. Imoen is loving her fireball spell.
Once inside the mines, Yeslick joined the party. Equipped with loot from guards, he quickly proved a capable warrior. The dwarf even killed a witch that threw a lightning bolt at Alano and Khalid. Yeslick was too tired to use spells and the group was not going to sleep in the mines, so he didn't do much when the moment of fighting Daveorn arrived. Branwen again saved the day dispelling some of the guy's defenses and even managing to silence him after Jaheira Doomed him. Of course, one of Alano's traps helped, and with his staff he made the killing blow.
It would have been very dissapointing to get eaten by an ooze after defeating the archimage mastermind, but Alano can be stupidly overconfident sometimes and that is exactly what almost happened.
The mines flooded, the slaves freed, now Alano and friends have to go to Baldur's Gate. Tymora has been with them so far. Let's see what lies ahead.
Saoni fell on the battlefield to a combination of my misclicking and insane difficulty, briefly after the events related in my last post.
The party had reached the spider-infested part Cloakwood. All were invisible but Saoni, who took it upon herself to deal with a couple of Phase Spiders. With four down and one to go, everything looked fine. Number five wasn't really a threat either, but after a breath attack I must have clicked on a part where she couldn't walk, causing a delay in her retreat here
It's funny that this should happen. Saoni felt powerful. I really envisioned her in SoD. That will have to wait now though. Since I want my first playthrough of SoD to be with NPCs rather than a custom party, Saoni's death means I'll have to start a new run. Not sure yet whether that will be run in v1.3 or v2.1 and what settings to apply. I'm inclined to go with v2.1 with Legacy of Bhaal but without damage bonuses for enemies and withour XP bonuses for the party. If I do so, I'll miss the banter of the BG1 NPC Project mod, so I might yet change my mind.
Shade, CG Human Archer, 2nd BG1 report
On a more positive note, Shade and her band have been fending well for themselves. In my previous account, I finished by saying I had no idea what to do, where to go next. They went for the South Coast for Charleston Nib and Brage, but didn't even make it to the Nib, due to Dire Wolves cutting them off. Gizi separated herself from the group and hitched a ride for the party with Brage, back to Nahskel.
With XP bonuses activated, the solution was visiting areas with normally weak melee critters like Gibberlings, Xvarts, or Tasloi. They can be kited as long as they don't come in very large packs, and they yield over 1k XP per kill. The southernmost area, with Hafiz and Samuel, provided lots of Gibberlings (and a funny response from Hafiz).
Bear River was anothe good source of XP. The Mountain Bear was webbed and slain with ranged fire. Gibberlings were fought one to three at a time. The party repeatedly traveled to other areas, to get away from larger groups. This would sometimes get them in other types of trouble. The scariest moment occurred when they got waylaid by an Ogre Mage. It managed to cast a Charm Person at Alaam, but the Wizard Slayer's tad of Magic Resistance saved him.
I have screenshots, but they don't look very interesting. Skeletons (with Ogres or Hobgoblin archers) and/or Guennean would tank and kite, the others attack with ranged weapons.
After dozens of Gibberlings at Bear River, came the Gnoll Fortress. Importantly everyone passed the 40k XP benchmark here, meaning Sorcerer Aine reached level 5. His first level 3 spell was Invisibility 15' Radius. Invisible wall cheese was used to speed up the XP farming process. As with the summons, I do not intend to use Invisibility cheese for the remainder of BG1, but I am not against doing so time and again, to keep some pace in this playthrough.
In the Cloudpeaks Kirian was slain, but Delgod and Alexander were shunned. Vax and Zal were defeated with Skeletal help, Caldo and Krumm with kiting tactics. A grand total of eleven Winter Wolves were done in by Shade (who was wearing Gorion's belt), all in and around the two Cloudpeaks areas. Before I knew it Alaam reached level 7, and dual-classed to Thief.
Melicamp was restored by Thalanthyr after Guennean's Skeleton Warriors managed to kill (at least) one of the High Hedge's Skeletons. Skeleton Warriors also meleed Neira, as the others attacked with their range weapons. It yielded Shade a nice unbreakable helmet. (Previously a non-magical helmet of hers had broken. I always kept spare helmets in my inventory though.)
To help Alaam get his Wizard Slayer levels reactivated sooner rather than later (there's no reason not to help him, as his Wizard Slayer restrictions remain active even while being a Thief now), the party returned to Mutamin's garden with Aine casting PfPetrification on Shade and Gizi, and the two Archers killing remaining Basilisks. Mutamin fell to three Skeleton Warriors. Kirian and friends got stuck in a barrage of Webs, easy picking for the very much range-oriented party.
I normally save this one for last because it takes place in a very small area, because it's impossible to escape the place before killing the boss, and because it involves a fight with multiple Yuan-ti Mages. Raelis Shai opens up the conduit.
All minor skirmishes go like this. If it's not a challenging fight, Espellier draws our instant kill sword and saves us the trouble of fighting it. I have no patience for wading through 200 HP trash monsters.
One of the nice things about having access to both Protection from Fire and Protection from Cold is that it allows Laosha to poison enemy mages without killing himself on the enemy's Fire Shield spells.
Poppy continues to be a star player with her enchantment specialization save penalties.
She's never had the flashy game-breaking powers of Sil or Espellier, but her disablers have been a big part of our success at every stage in the game.
One of the other nice things about Protection from Fire is that it lets you throw out Sunfire spells without worrying about killing your entire party.
It's a great way to disrupt enemy spells, particularly since Espellier wears the Robe of Vecna, as Sunfire bypasses those awful Globes of Invulnerability and doesn't need a visible target to land a hit.
What about those Yuan-ti Mages to the east? Well, now that I'm using the Wand of Lightning to its maximum potential, I am free to bombard them with Wand of Cloudkill charges from across the map.
That about sums up that battle. The Master of Thralls isn't complicated. SI: Abjuration blocks his introductory Remove Magic spell, and Chaotic Commands keeps Death Gaze from disabling any important party members, so we're quite safe. We crush him with the Efreeti brigade and Sil's WoL BoL Sling of Everard.
All that's left is the Warden.
But that fight doesn't go quite how I thought it would.
I hurry to buff Sil before the Warden can dispel her defenses--I forgot to do so before.
Then the Warden begins casting a necromancy spell. When I see how bad Sil's save vs. spell is, I realize that she might not survive a Finger of Death. I cast MSD, only to find that I was expecting the wrong spell.
Sil runs away from the Horrid Wilting projectile until her aura is clear, then drinks a WoL Potion of Magic Protection, boosting her MR to 127. The Horrid Wilting spell has no effect.
Sil runs back to pelt the Warden with the Sling of Everard, which can bypass his Improved Mantle. The Warden stops time, but our skeletons absorb his wrath.
When time returns to normal, he turns his attention to Sil and launches a nasty Spell Trigger.
Somehow, those Lower Resistance spells completely bypass Sil's MSD, even though MSD is supposed to be block level 7 spells and lower. MSD should have blocked at least one of those, but it did not. Sil loses the full 90 MR, dropping down to 37.
When the skeletons fall, Sil struggles to kite the Warden, who has a surprisingly fast movement rate. She can barely outpace him... though she has no trouble dodging his spells.
Sil holds together thanks to her MR, specific protections, and \saves.
We refresh Sil's Improved Haste and the rest of the party moves in for the kill, breaking down the Warden's defenses.
We get surprised by a disabler, but good luck bails us out. We keep up the pressure until the Warden falls.
Then, when I'm sure we're in the clear, I see something I thought I had escaped.
The Warden normally comes bolstered by a Coiled Cabal, but because Sil was moving so fast with Improved Haste and the Boots of Speed, she never stepped on the trigger to spawn them. Until now.
We still have a few more enemies to deal with.
And I foolishly decide to fight them without resting.
I didn't BG1 NPC Project worked in your SoD-less version 2.1. This is something I'll have to try as well
Alano the Hunter
After doing a few sneaky quests (high reward, low risk) for the guild and others, Alano and party decided to prove his worth to Scar by solving the mystery of the deaths in the city. The monster behind them was not too hard to find: an ogre mage with an evil plan that sounded quite absurd. A swift blow to the head with a 5-feet stick, and Imoen only had to finish him off with a single arrow.The party proceeded to clean the sewers of the vermin that were helping the ogre, but that proved more problematic.
Alano, Khalid and Yeslick, and immediately after, Jaheira, were paralized by the carrion crawlers. Obviously I had underestimated them. Only Branwen and Imoen against 8 crawlers! While Alano and friends were being eaten alive, Imoen had to think fast and decided to do something crazy.
A fireball from the wand in the middle of the group was very painful for everyone, but finished off the crawlers. Hurray! Also, ouch.
Perfect timing, because one moment after fireball Imoen was held too. Nothing that Branwen couldn't handle. The group left the sewers whole, although with some serious burns.
Another exciting encounter was the bunch of ogre mages (man, this city is full of them) that wanted to kill me because the "son of murder" had ordered it. Alano will have to make a note of that, but not before tasting a lightening bolt, making the ogres run for their lives in exchange, and reviving Imoen.
Another mage called Degrodel and his convocations almost killed Alano before and after finding a helmet for him, so the bounty hunter gave him a beating with the staff and the group walked away with helmet and a cloak to match. That will teach him!
Glad the party pulled through in the sewers. Hold icons on five out of six character portraits usually means bad news.
My minimal reload with my transmuter through bg1ee is almost done. I wanted to noreload but died in a 6 bandit ambush on my first play day. Rather than restarting I pressed on. Actually only three reloads due to traps I keep forgetting about. Now i only have the maze left and the end. Then I will attempt to noreload through sod. I cannot wait, it will be a complete blind run.
Escaping prison is very routine by now, no surprises this time, FMT is a solid tank with 18 dex. SCS and duergars doesn't really put up much of a fight unless a mage manages to cast... well anything really.
Yoshi and Minsc get told to wait in the Copper Coronet, Minsc might be crazy, but everyone deserves a chance to relax and grab a few beers.
Happy to be free of prison and torture I happily donate 700, 900 and 1200 gold to Ilmater.
Circus is also very easy, using Jaheira as a bear to loot containers and run us up to the third floor.
Doing both parts of the slaver quest and getting Lilarcor from the sewers was also alright. Mages failed saves vs stinking cloud but still manages to drink potions, a bit weird, but throwing daggers with haste potion takes my APR to 4 and the daggers do 8-11 damage per hit and sometimes Aerie or Jaheira chimes in with a hit for a few points of damage.
Now I have no spells left and Ethos gets a well deserved first rest, after a lot of inventory management, a few scrolls bought and a lot of scrolls learnt. I also manage to earn quite a lot of cash, enough to buy both the license from the cowled wizards and either a strength belt for Jaheira and thus making her useful, a few great spells, or a wand of cloudkill. I usually don't want to use wand of cloudkill and web combo due to how it destroys so many encounters, but I do lack damage output...
Wise from a previous game ender I now always cast invis 10' radius before area transitions.
Throwing daggers really are quite something, have never used them before.
Somewhere else in the city captain Dennis starts having nightmares...