Wren the Fighter/Cleric entering no-reload challenge (Trilogy)
Setup: EasyTutu, no mods Difficulty: Core Rules all times, gore on Theme: The intent of this run is to be a trio - specifically, Jaheira, Wren and Imoen for the entire trilogy. Since Imoen isn't available for all of Chapter Two, we might let a thief join, but not sure about that, we may just stay duo (Jaheira, Wren) - we'll cross that road when we get there.
Decided Imoen and Wren wouldn't recruit Xzar and Montaron - was a scary escape from Lion's Way (one screenshot)
Since we are a small party, the leveling curve has been really nice. Imoen dualed to mage at level 4, meant to do her at level 5, but forgot to click level up before dualing - oops.
Mulahey was defeated. He saved vs. hold person, but he didn't save vs. Command thus he was finished.
Nimbul piece of cake if you use the shield amulet and have resist fear (which we did).
We accidentally went into Nashkel Inn and triggered Neira - Wren saved vs. her hold person - she didn't save vs. his, so that was that.
We've been in a number of ambushes - if too risky we run but we think we have good odds, we'll stick around. Party is around level 4.
We've dealt with the undead in the valley of the tombs (undead scroll) - we had to use weapons from spells to deal with the jellies for Narcillicus, since at that moment we didn't have any (well we have magical daggers but is no help vs. mustard jellies).
Bassilus was absolutely dominated - entangled, silenced and webbed - Jaheira had free action too (potion), though she got confused but she didn't get into any trouble, though she took a few potshots at her leader...this did result in a good magical weapon for Wren, so that was good.
@Wise_Grimwald Good luck with your barbarian. You probably know this already but Barbarians can only dual if you have a mod that enables that. I was investigating when to dual mine to mage and discovered that was illegal.... so its looking like its going to be all rage, all the time
@Wise_Grimwald Good luck with your barbarian. You probably know this already but Barbarians can only dual if you have a mod that enables that. I was investigating when to dual mine to mage and discovered that was illegal.... so its looking like its going to be all rage, all the time
I didn't know that. The points would probably have been re-arranged if I had. I thought that by arranging them as I have, I could do a number of totally different runs dualling to cleric, mage or thief. I don't know if that will work or not. If she has to stay as a barbarian throughout, that will not be a hardship, but will limit the different ways that I can develop the character.
The reason why I chose the staff proficiencies was that thay fitted all those options. (Also a +3 staff is available early on.
I agreed to clear out the last dungeon of my half brothers lackies and talked the female boss into surrendering but she then walked into the hall and my traps finished it... o well, she wouldn't have liked prison anyway.
I collected a staff head from a chest with the bottom bit from a bug to get some gems.
Coran, Yeslick & Quayle wanted to leave the party so I had to rearrange the important loot before heading back to the palace... The Bad news we came under attack so I had to collect some of the gear that Imoen had stored before I stepped down stairs to defend the dukes.
Note: my Sod game is on insane level so I'm finding it easy to make progress.
In the City I obtained the tomes without trouble - getting my final BG1 level on the way up Ramazith's Tower.
The Iron Throne mob were mainly dealt with using exploding arrows.
The only other item picked up was the Helm of Balduran.
Before checking in with Duke Eltan I went to get the final tomes. The one at Durlag's required a trip to Hafiz first to get another PfM scroll, but there was now no need for protection against the sirines.
I hit the XP cap there, but shot down the golems anyway before taking the last tome (with nothing else to buy I didn't bother with other treasure).
In Candlekeep I couldn't get either tome, but DUHM did allow one tomb to be broken open to get another scroll of PFM. Rather than bothering to fight I just used a scroll of PfP and ran past everything to get out (leaving Prat's magic throwing axe).
Back in the City Slythe was pulled away from Krystin and hit with a dispelling arrow before being meleed. Then it was time for the moment of truth at the palace. Things didn't look good when all the dopplegangers saved against a first horror, but fortunately 3 of them attacked me to reduce the pressure on the dukes. Two of the dukes' attackers were hit by arrows of dispelling before a second horror proved far more successful and Belt still had about half his HPs when the last of the dopplegangers were finished off.
Without the ability to go invisible I fought through the maze (though avoiding the traps) before skirting the Undercity party. In the Temple Sarevok was pulled out, but it took multiple arrows before his haste was eventually dispelled.
In the meantime Semaj's teleporting around had alerted the others, so once Angelo had used a remove magic I used a couple of resistance to fire scrolls while running round trying to keep out of his line of sight. That helped me retain a few HPs in reserve against his exploding arrows before chopping him down
and reverting to running round shooting my own arrows of explosion. I was down to my final one of those when Sarevok eventually decided he had had enough.
Trusty died from a single blow from an ogre. Clearly the EE devs haven't attempted to implement the rule that says: "No deaths from a single blow whilst at level 1) My thinking is still back in Tutu where it was implemented.
I have now installed the part of tweaks that enables the dual-classing of barbarians. Trusty has started again at Candlekeep. She had a rougher time against Mendas (Improved by me) and had to use two healing potions to survive. As a reward she found a staff +1 on a corpse. She has got safely to Beregost and has a composite long bow so will not be taking on any ogres head-to-head this time. Now realising that for a barbarian, due to better walking speeds, hit and run is a good tactic, so a * in a ranged weapon would probably have been a good idea.
PS Quite a large number of people, probably those who don't have english as a first language, don't understand the difference between dual and duel, and so post "duel-wielding" and "duel-classing" when it should be "dual-wielding" and "dual-classing". The following explains it both briefly and very well.
Trusty died from a single blow from an ogre. Clearly the EE devs haven't attempted to implement the rule that says: "No deaths from a single blow whilst at level 1) My thinking is still back in Tutu where it was implemented.
As I have stated already, it IS implemented (just like in vanilla), but your character should have 13 or less HPs. If your character has 14 or more HPs, he can be one-shotted.
Trusty died from a single blow from an ogre. Clearly the EE devs haven't attempted to implement the rule that says: "No deaths from a single blow whilst at level 1) My thinking is still back in Tutu where it was implemented.
As I have stated already, it IS implemented (just like in vanilla), but your character should have 13 or less HPs. If your character has 14 or more HPs, he can be one-shotted.
Hadn't realised that Trusty had more than 14 HPs. Will have to be more careful with Trusty Mark 2. She has already beaten the ogrillons near Beregost using the "He who fights and runs away..." maxim and therefore has gained a ring of protection +1. As a result she is level 2. I then realised that it was a mistake to take the easy experience in Beregost as she will need that when she dual-classes.
@Wise_Grimwald 7 charisma for Trusty Truestaff with that picture? You have really high standards mate.
I am still not cured from my restartitis. Will post a run once I get past a few chapter 2 quests without rerolling.
I have realized I need to have berserker rage or SI: abjuration since I am not experienced nor skilled enough to survive against high level casters without it. At least not with my house rules of limited resting, no exploits, limited meta, no cheese, no use of OP gear etc etc.
Berserker9/mage is the only character I've had that completed all quests up til Imoen but he lost to restartitis since he felt too cheesy..
@Wise_Grimwald 7 charisma for Trusty Truestaff with that picture? You have really high standards mate. Charisma does not just depend on looks. What comes out of the mouth is even more important. My wife being 68 may not equal Trusty in the visual department, however how she behaves has kept us together for 36 years. It says a lot that Hull wasn't interested in her. :
The background of my large portrait is where I was raised. I thought that the scenery had always been like that, but due to an archaeological dig that I took part in, we discovered that it was covered in birch trees, admittedly small ones due to the climate, but trees nontheless. Perhaps those druids are right about the environment. Those illegal immigrants from Europe, the romans, the anglo-saxons, the jutes, the vikings and suchlike have a lot to answer for, but it was those Normans from Normandy who have the most to answer for as they introduced sheep farming. Sheep and trees don't mix well. P.S. My ancestors were Normans.
Cool story and awesome pic. I'm trying to figure out how someone who looks like THAT can have a charisma of seven, though. Since BG doesn't use 'comeliness', you've got some 'splaining to do . Of course, I haven't heard her talk so that could be part of it. Hehehe.
Edit - NM, sorry, didn't see the follow-ups regarding the 7 charisma.
@Wise_Grimwald didn't want to start an argument of what charisma is (pretty paladins, stunning 3ed sorcererors/bards etc etc), just found it funny since she had 18 in everything else, she would have to be REALLY unpleasant. Tongue in cheek and all that.
So the team continues to make great progress. Enemy parties have a tough time against our group. With things like entangle, call lightning, web, silences and hold persons, the enemies just can't get anything going before they are shot up by the team. Thus victories over Amazons, Kirian's party and Molkar's group this session.
In order to get the CON tome, Wren used a clarity potion - however, killing these sirines allowed Imoen to unlock her thief abilities, in particular being able to use a short bow. We were going to pass on the golems (e.g., sanctuary), but now that Imoen can fire off arrows of biting, we decided to risk it after all (though Wren had effective -18 to blunt attacks to be safe). This worked out well in fact. Wren can now regenerate.
We were able to get the robe of the good arch magi for Imoen, she appreciated that.
We still had some funds left over, so headed to Ulgoth's Beard to get a Wand of Heavens. This, plus Imoen's direct damage via spells should allow us to get past the battle horrors guarding Durlag's Tower (they did). We did this to kill the basilisks as well as get the Wisdom Tome for Wren.
We had previously destroyed Kirian's party. This made is pretty safe to clear the rest of the map.
We visited Melium - he did well, saving vs. both hold persons even after being doomed. However, Imoen's direct damage, plus Jaheira hard to hit (she was -8 to slashing weapons AC) was just too much for him. We also took on Khark, after protecting wren with a few important buffs, plus some skeleton helpers - the party carried the day. Taking out a few nearby undead gave Wren level 6 fighter, which gave him ** in Flails - he switched from the Ashideena to the +1 Morning Star, which is slower, but does more damage.
Now that we have skeleton helpers (as well as the Greenstone Amulet) we cleared out what remaining Sirines we hadn't previously cleared. We also now got the cloak of displacement, now allowing Wren to automatically save vs. undead holds. We realized we still hadn't got the Charisma tome, so we headed to Gnoll fortress to take care of that - we ended the session here.
Charisma does not just depend on looks. What comes out of the mouth is even more important. My wife being 68 may not equal Trusty in the visual department, however how she behaves has kept us together for 36 years. It says a lot that Hull wasn't interested in her. :
Also, being a barbarian, maybe she just has social/higiene standards that are inadequate for everyone else. And if she hasnt had a shower (for example) in months, being pretty is not gonna be enough (you might not even realise she is under all that dirt).
Of course, I haven't heard her talk so that could be part of it. Hehehe.
I was once walking into town when some schoolgirls were walking in front of me. The only adjective they seemed to know began with an f. How a road and a house performed the act they were talking about I have no idea. Though their outward appearance was attractive, their speech put me right off. As a Street Angel I also hear some nasty abusive language from girls dressed up to pull. (Fortunately not addressed to me) I wouldn't date one of those girls if I was paid £100 to do so even though they have got it all physically. Similarly, I once kissed a girl when I was a student, (a long time ago) What I didn't realise was that she was a heavy smoker. Similarly, I was put right off. As has been said by @MacHurto , lack of personal hygene can also be off-putting to say the least. You don't have to look dirty to smell. having said all that, If I have another character with a low charisma, perhaps I will choose a different portrait. EDIT I tried looking for an image of a barbarian woman with plain features and simply could not find one. That says something about our society.
I arrived in Jon's dungeon with just enough XP to get an instant promotion to level 9 (I don't know why sometimes excess XP earned in BGEE will be carried forward and sometimes not). I avoided the ogre mage, but everything else was cleared, with horror being used to disable potentially dangerous enemies from out of sight, while frequent resting kept HPs high to deal with traps. As usual I took it as a good omen that Ulvaryl was chopped in half before she could run away.
After investing in some donations at the temple a couple of quick chops with the Sword of Chaos restored the Circus to normal operations. Helping out Hendak at the Copper Coronet was then enough for level 10.
With Azuredge stuffed in my backpack I deliberately triggered the Suna Seni ambush - horror again showing its value there by disabling the mage and all but one of the other opponents.
Arriving at the Docks I was tempted to let Hareishan taste Azuredge, but wasn't confident that she wouldn't use domination so played it safe. At the local inn Officer Dirth offered some nice armour, while some pirates were persuaded to come out of their hideout into the main inn to be chopped up.
While going to get Mae'Var a necklace I rescued Renfeld - the mage saved against horror this time and managed to get a lightning bolt off, but that was no threat. At the Temple area I bought a Helm of Charm Protection, just in case the fancy to attack vampires strikes again, before hunting for a second hand cloak.
Back at the Docks both Prebek and Sanasha proved to be scaredy-cats. I didn't immediately go to loot the harpers though - keeping that for after dualling to make use of the potential XP gains for use of thieving skills. Instead I went to Rayic's house where Arbane haste was used for the first time to split up the golems for safe disposal. That was used again in an unprovoked attack on the mage where Bala's Axe inflicted miscast magic on him before PfMW went up.
Looking at his icon, Rayic didn't appear to have protection from missiles up and there was no text message saying that had been cast - so I shot some normal arrows from the stairs with the intention of shutting down spell casting completely using the wizard slayer ability. I thought that had worked as Rayic's next 3 spells fizzled. However, my memory had been that Rayic did use protection from missiles and although my arrows were showing as hitting they were doing no damage past the point where stoneskins should have been beaten down. I had therefore concluded that the game was being sneaky and had just decided I needed to change tactics. Regrettably, while I was thinking about that I wasn't concentrating closely enough on the action when Rayic suddenly managed to complete a spell. Although the disintegrate projectile moves quite fast I would have been able to run downstairs to avoid it if I had been concentrating properly - but I wasn't ...
Ah yes, Rayic claims yet another victim - he sure has quite a few no-reloader scalps over the years (including mine lol). Sorry Grond0. The good news, since you got disintegrated, you won't have to worry about your remains being a sanitation hazard...
Ah yes, Rayic claims yet another victim - he sure has quite a few no-reloader scalps over the years (including mine lol). Sorry Grond0. The good news, since you got disintegrated, you won't have to worry about your remains being a sanitation hazard...
There were no further encounters on the solemn trip back to Beregost. Mr. Colquetle was mortified at the news of his son's death but thankful for the retrieval of his son's amulet. With the sad business behind her. Magastar and troupe finally make their way to Nashkel! Upon entering Nashkel, Magastar gets accosted by a local militia. She holds her tongue when she sees the dark circles under his eyes and, although somewhat terse at first, he eventually opens up to the group and reveals much of what's been ailing the town. In ADDITION to the mysterious problems with the mines, it seems a former commander has gone berserk and murdered a dozen people! Another few paces into town and the mayor of Nashkel himself approaches. He recognizes Jaheira and, after introductions and some small talk, tasks Magastar’s party with investigating the Nashkel mines. As the group heads toward the end of town, Magastar (her attention solely on trading stories with Imoen about their first real adventure) nearly bowls over a portly man in the middle of the path, knocking his spectacles to the ground in the process. He immediately (BEFORE picking up his spectacles) makes a proclamation about someone named 'Greywolf' returning and shoves a bag of coin in Magastar's hands! Although the insult appeared to be an honest mistake, Magastar thought about keeping the gold just to teach him a lesson. After a second's pause she tosses bag at the man's feet and, in the most feminine ½-Orc voice she could manage, tells him that he has made a mistake and that the money wasn't hers. The look on the man's face was priceless! He went white as a sheet and started blubbering apologies. Magastar merely ignored him and continued on. Near the end of town Magastar notices a man talking to something, himself…maybe? Intrigued, she introduces herself.
She jumps back a step when she sees the recipient of the man's attention! "Ewww, a rat!" she squeaks loudly. "What’s this…? You already speak the language of Boo!" the man replies. "I am Minsc. And this, as you have guessed, is Boo! Although, I am sure Boo speaks both rat and mouse (being the miniature giant space rodent that he is) he is in fact a hamster AND my faithful animal companion." Magastar barely hears a word after the first 'Boo' as she and Khalid take turns trying to put the other in between this rodent, and themselves. Jaheira's initial guarded reaction melts away almost instantly, replaced by a stifled smile. Imoen seemed to be the least phased by the bizarre encounter. She walks right up to the huge man and, with a confirming nod from Minsc, pets the rodent carefully. "Fate has delivered you to Boo!" Minsc intones. "My charge, was kidnapped by Gnolls only days ago and, thanks to Boo’s eaves-droppings, we have just discovered the location of the den of stinking evil where she is being held. We had given up on finding more adventurers to come to the aid of my witch when you walked right up, and started talking. TO BOO!” As if on cue, all eyes went to Magastar. When she looked up, four sets of eyes, no, FIVE (ewww!) were staring directly at her. She took a quick glance at Jaheira who, thankfully, summed up the missed conversation with a nod in Minsc’s direction and a small smirk. It was plain to see that, like Magastar, this man could overturn a loaded wagon with little effort and, regardless of his choice of animal ‘companions,’ Magastar couldn’t help but sense a connection with nature in him, a GOOD connection. “What say you, fair lady?” Minsc asks, attempting a regal tone. “Will you help myself and Boo rescue the fair Dynaheir from the paws of evil? (no offense Boo),” It was then that the silliness of the whole situation got the better of Magastar. She started laughing! Imoen, Khalid, and even Jaheira joined in. Minsc, on the other hand, wasn’t sure what to make of the sudden levity. But before any thought of insult could be hatched, Magastar walks over to him (well, in the vicinity) and tells him, with the most straight face she could muster, that the party would be ‘honored’ to accompany him on his rescue mission. “Maybe,” Magastar adds, “after your friend is rescued, you both will join us in our investigation of the mines nearby?” ”You mean, you three,” Minsc corrects, quickly.
Immediately after leaving town the group are set upon by a Gnoll scouting party.
Within moments Minsc proves his worth, and then some, cleaving a Gnoll in twain before the dog has his day. Two of the other Gnolls had their hearts set on 'pink' as they set off after Imoen before being felled by the very source of their ire.
Sadly, with much progress inevitably comes setbacks. As the party nears the Gnoll's stronghold, Khalid takes a bow shot at a bear getting too close. Even with the whole party sending missiles at the beast they were unable to stop it from critically mauling him. Screaming at the top of her lungs Jaheira charges the wounded bear only to gain the attention of some grass monkeys nearby. Coming to her senses, Jaheira starts working a tactical retreat. The bear gets finished off by the rest of the party's ranged weapons and the grass monkeys fall shortly thereafter.
"No Jaheira, Khalid is only 'mostly' dead." Magastar whispers, respectfully. "Once we get him back to Nalin at the temple in Nashkel he'll be right as rain." Jaheira takes comfort in Magastar's words, smiling as she wipes away the tears. There we go, all better!
Let me present you the newest participant of this challenge—Eilwa! I've planned this run like an year ago, and my plan is to dual-class to Cleric when I get to Chapter 3 or 4 in BG2. For BG1 I'll be going with a good party but in BG2 I'll go full evil.
It's not going to be a solo run because lately most of my solo runs are either too fast and I win the game without any problem (this portion represents a rough 5% of the total amount) or I choke and die to an encounter my class cannot do anything against (two weeks ago I played a BG:EE run with a Swashie and it was as easy as if I was playing a Fighter, but then I died to the 4th enemy I met in SoD, which I haven't played yet other than that), besides it's funnier (sometimes) and more practical past the point you hit the XP cap on a solo character.
I'm playing with a lot of mods, so here's my WeiDU.log in case anyone wants to take a look at it (things worth mentioning here; SCS, Ascension, BGT, aTweaks, every race can dual-class and Clerics can use any weapon they like).
I'll start playing as soon as I get a couple of batteries for my mouse (probably Friday since I have to study as well zzzzz), since that's what I take screenshots with (at least in fullscreen, I switched the game to windowed to take those).
That looks exciting, @CrevsDaak... PnP fiends with gating! I'd crash and burn in that rig.... good luck!
In Steinarr news... the barbarian succeeded in holding onto most of his inventory after his fight with Sarevok (unlike last time I tried this). Now he's marching toward Dragonspear Castle. He's armed to the teeth with weapons, spells and potions -- including ample dispelling arrows, exploding arrows, 4 protection from undead scrolls, and 3 protection from magic scrolls. (Almost certainly unbalancing. And I'm not going blind this time, which will be a huge advantage. I don't particularly care though, the goal is to charge through here and get to BG2 ASAP).
So far, Steinarr has recruited Safana, Minsc, Dynaheir and Corwin. He's heard that Jaheira might be around somewhere, so he's going to look for her now.
A Gnoll by any other name…would be called Gertrude.
Magastar, ½-Orc Shaman, update 3
“Jaheira, I’m f-f-fine!” For the third time in as many minutes Khalid had to stop Jaheira from casting MORE healing spells on him. Magastar couldn’t help but smile. She also couldn’t help but notice how tired she was. Imoen and Minsc also stifled yawns. “I think it’s time we turn in for the night,” Magastar said with a stretch. She knew something was wrong the instant she stepped inside. A warrior in full battle armor with weapon drawn approached the party. “Oh no you don’t! No one stops Boo from getting a good sleep! Stand back Magastar! Minsc and Boo will deal with this!” It was then that Minsc started breathing forcefully, shaking his head, and making strange, throaty, chanting sounds. For some reason it reminded Magastar of her Shamanic dance, right up to the point where he screamed at the top of his lungs, sending half the patrons of the inn scrambling under their tables. The armed figure was indeed another assassin sent to kill Magastar. Springing into action, the party began rapidly began emptying bows and slings, including…Minsc!? “No, no, Minsc! Use your sword!” Magastar shouted. She knew that it was no use, though. White-knuckled and with craze in his eyes, Minsc listened to nothing but the beast inside. Unfortunately, he couldn’t have picked a worse weapon for close combat. Arrows flew in every direction EXCEPT into our assailant. The patrons that Minsc didn’t scare under their tables with his shout were now running for their lives!
Whether it was luck or that fact that the enemy didn’t know how to deal with a mad man, the party successfully interrupted one, then two, then THREE of the enemy’s spells. She finally fell after a few good shots from everyone BUT Minsc. Once Minsc calmed down the party helped right the tables and chairs and clean up. Magastar could tell Minsc felt ashamed for not contributing more to their victory but she wasn't angry. This was an opportunity for her. An opportunity to create comradery with some positive feedback. She told Minsc that when he starts to chant and enrage he needs to focus on *these* words. "Oh! You're a very smart lady!" Minsc said, in appreciation. "I see why Boo thinks so highly of you." A small chuckle left Magastar's lips. Once the place was back in order, the party had a nice meal and settled in for a good night's rest. After checking on the rest of the group Magastar catches sight of Minsc tucking in Boo. Jumping through the half open door Magastar speaks quickly, "What do you say!?" Without hesitation Minsc swings around with a big smile on his face, "Sword First!!"
Again the party is accosted by Gnolls just outside of town. This time Magastar shows Minsc her own chant and it's deadly effects.
Another day's travel and a pack of wild hounds also feel the power of Magastar's abilities.
Next, Magastar and crew meet a noble name Jared, running scared out of his wits. He slows down long enough to ask Magastar to protect him from a huge bear on the other side of a nearby bridge. The party bravely marches into battle against the one of the largest bears they'd ever seen. The battle commences and Minsc immediately takes a huge swipe from it's powerful claws. Then, in the very next instant, another swipe sends Minsc down for the count. Luckily, the beast also took damage in those first few seconds and goes down after a couple more volley's including brilliant shots from Magastar and Imoen. *sigh* "There's no way we can continue at anything but full strength." Magastar says. They built a makeshift litter for the 'mostly' dead Minsc and slowly trek back to Nashkel.
Whether due to guilt for the fallen comrade, or the sweet talk of Imoen, Jared gifts the party with a warm pair of boots for taking on the white bear. Even before Minsc's revival, Magastar decides that, for his valiant effort, Minsc will be the first to wear them.
Once Minsc is restored and ready to travel, the group strikes out again for the stronghold, and AGAIN gets ambushed just outside of town. [Magastar really needs to get her 'frequent Gnoll flyer card' redeemed! Someone owes her an upgrade!] The encounter proved to be much more serious than previous dog walks. Both Khalid and Minsc take serious damage. Jaheira barely got to Minsc in time.
FINALLY, the stronghold is spotted just over the next ridge.
All we need to do is round the bend, and...OH, COME ON!!!
The half-ogre was dispatched posthaste and without further incursions, Magastar's party successfully reached the Gnoll stronghold!
I noticed JuliusBorisov's totemic druid run yesterday (https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/30553/the-tale-of-the-totemic-druid) and had a quick read through that (cursing him meanwhile for distracting me when I should have been working ). After suffering yet another death earlier in the day I thought I might see how far I could get in a similar run. I have toyed with the idea of a totemic druid a couple of times before and concluded that BG1 and SoA should be pretty straight-forward. I have no experience of Ascension though and I couldn't think of a good strategy for Mel even in vanilla. The run is therefore even more certain than usual to end badly - but let's see what happens anyway ...
I didn't want to put SCS onto my EE installation, but have an existing SCS + ascension installation for BGT and decided to run the druid in that - there might be the odd point of interest in comparing with behaviour in EE (I'm also running an EE totemic druid in the current MP run with Gate70).
I'll only cover the odd high point of the run, but a few things to note for now are: - you can't select which spirit appears in vanilla / BGT. - the spirit wolf does cold damage and will chunk enemies every now and then, so is not a good choice for those carrying useful items (Perdue's sword was lost like that). - druids can't wear the ankheg armour and are thus rather less good at tanking than in EE (but with the summons available they don't need to anyway). - there are no containers in BG1 by default and I don't add them in, which makes carrying loot harder. However, there's not much need to buy things so that's not a big issue.
So far I'm up to level 7 having just cleared the basilisk area. For fun I did that without any protection from petrification for Alba. I wouldn't recommend that using SCS given the tendency for the basilisks to move around and their propensity for targeting unprotected individuals, but I got away with it (at one point a basilisk did see Alba, but didn't have time to focus on her). The levels gained there meant that Kirian and co were faced with nymphs as well as 2 spirit summons - and they were never likely to survive that.
@alceryes I love your write-ups. I have found that whilst I can do that for one or two posts, it isn't sustainable for me. I'll obviously never be a writer. @Blind_Visionary and @ussnorway All the best in SoD
A run with the totemic druid!!! @Enuhal , I think it will bring you memories And @CrevsDaak is here. The thread is getting better and better. Good luck!
Summons pushed Alba quickly through the Nashkel Mine
and cleared the way to the Bandit Camp. Before going there, however, a diversion to end the ankheg menace got her to level 8 and clearing the lighthouse area to level 9.
At the Camp Alba used the shield amulet and then conducted a running fight with a few summons and half a dozen Necklace fireballs. That proved effective and with Venkt's death the main opposition was defeated.
Summons cleared the way through the Cloakwood web traps - there is still a potential danger there that an SCS phase spider will decide to teleport in while you're stuck in a trap, but I didn't protect against that (beyond having lots of summons) and got away with it. At the mine, confusion from 3 nymphs disabled Rezdan, Kysus and Genthore and Drasus couldn't handle the spirits on his own.
In the mine Alba picked up her 10th (and last BG1) level ploughing through some guards. In vanilla I would leave Hareishan alone, but with SCS there's too much chance of being mobbed by her and her guards when trying to retreat back through the mine to rest (that's not so much of an issue for most people, but as I don't use healing potions I tend to need to rest more). Summons and a first use of insect plague were used to deal with her.
Having cleared the way to Davaeorn I had second thoughts about taking that challenge on immediately, due to the possibility of being pinned down by multiple guards. To avoid that I decided to play safe and went to recharge the Necklace of Missiles and pick up a couple of invisibility potions. Back again and a spirit bear killed the battle horrors without alerting Davaeorn. An initial attack on Davaeorn then saw him confused (and with an insect plague en route as well), so I decided to go for a quick finish before too many guards arrived. A potion of freedom let Alba get to Davaeorn and, though some darts of stunning failed to take effect, a spirit lion escaped the web to come and help finish things off.
After resting to add a second Bhaal horror to her options, Alba flooded the mine and left. A quick tour of wilderness areas then boosted her reputation up to 20 and got the remaining tomes before she did a bit of shopping. With no plans to return to Ulgoth's Beard she also relieved Dushai of a ring of free action there (none of the villagers noticed that anyway).
Comments
Setup: EasyTutu, no mods
Difficulty: Core Rules all times, gore on
Theme: The intent of this run is to be a trio - specifically, Jaheira, Wren and Imoen for the entire trilogy. Since Imoen isn't available for all of Chapter Two, we might let a thief join, but not sure about that, we may just stay duo (Jaheira, Wren) - we'll cross that road when we get there.
Decided Imoen and Wren wouldn't recruit Xzar and Montaron - was a scary escape from Lion's Way (one screenshot)
Since we are a small party, the leveling curve has been really nice. Imoen dualed to mage at level 4, meant to do her at level 5, but forgot to click level up before dualing - oops.
Mulahey was defeated. He saved vs. hold person, but he didn't save vs. Command thus he was finished.
Nimbul piece of cake if you use the shield amulet and have resist fear (which we did).
We accidentally went into Nashkel Inn and triggered Neira - Wren saved vs. her hold person - she didn't save vs. his, so that was that.
We've been in a number of ambushes - if too risky we run but we think we have good odds, we'll stick around. Party is around level 4.
We've dealt with the undead in the valley of the tombs (undead scroll) - we had to use weapons from spells to deal with the jellies for Narcillicus, since at that moment we didn't have any (well we have magical daggers but is no help vs. mustard jellies).
Bassilus was absolutely dominated - entangled, silenced and webbed - Jaheira had free action too (potion), though she got confused but she didn't get into any trouble, though she took a few potshots at her leader...this did result in a good magical weapon for Wren, so that was good.
I am enjoying the small party, will keep at it.
Screenshots from the adventure:
The reason why I chose the staff proficiencies was that thay fitted all those options. (Also a +3 staff is available early on.
one for the road,
Hear text as mp3,
I agreed to clear out the last dungeon of my half brothers lackies and talked the female boss into surrendering but she then walked into the hall and my traps finished it... o well, she wouldn't have liked prison anyway.
I collected a staff head from a chest with the bottom bit from a bug to get some gems.
Coran, Yeslick & Quayle wanted to leave the party so I had to rearrange the important loot before heading back to the palace... The Bad news we came under attack so I had to collect some of the gear that Imoen had stored before I stepped down stairs to defend the dukes.
Note: my Sod game is on insane level so I'm finding it easy to make progress.
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/819529/#Comment_819529
In the City I obtained the tomes without trouble - getting my final BG1 level on the way up Ramazith's Tower.
Before checking in with Duke Eltan I went to get the final tomes. The one at Durlag's required a trip to Hafiz first to get another PfM scroll, but there was now no need for protection against the sirines.
In Candlekeep I couldn't get either tome, but DUHM did allow one tomb to be broken open to get another scroll of PFM. Rather than bothering to fight I just used a scroll of PfP and ran past everything to get out (leaving Prat's magic throwing axe).
Back in the City Slythe was pulled away from Krystin and hit with a dispelling arrow before being meleed. Then it was time for the moment of truth at the palace. Things didn't look good when all the dopplegangers saved against a first horror, but fortunately 3 of them attacked me to reduce the pressure on the dukes. Two of the dukes' attackers were hit by arrows of dispelling before a second horror proved far more successful and Belt still had about half his HPs when the last of the dopplegangers were finished off.
Without the ability to go invisible I fought through the maze (though avoiding the traps) before skirting the Undercity party. In the Temple Sarevok was pulled out, but it took multiple arrows before his haste was eventually dispelled.
Wizard slayer L8, 104 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 262 kills
How is it that you are finding it easy?
I have now installed the part of tweaks that enables the dual-classing of barbarians. Trusty has started again at Candlekeep. She had a rougher time against Mendas (Improved by me) and had to use two healing potions to survive. As a reward she found a staff +1 on a corpse. She has got safely to Beregost and has a composite long bow so will not be taking on any ogres head-to-head this time. Now realising that for a barbarian, due to better walking speeds, hit and run is a good tactic, so a * in a ranged weapon would probably have been a good idea.
PS Quite a large number of people, probably those who don't have english as a first language, don't understand the difference between dual and duel, and so post "duel-wielding" and "duel-classing" when it should be "dual-wielding" and "dual-classing". The following explains it both briefly and very well.
See: http://www.gingersoftware.com/english-online/spelling-book/confusing-words/dual-duel
She has already beaten the ogrillons near Beregost using the "He who fights and runs away..." maxim and therefore has gained a ring of protection +1.
I am still not cured from my restartitis. Will post a run once I get past a few chapter 2 quests without rerolling.
I have realized I need to have berserker rage or SI: abjuration since I am not experienced nor skilled enough to survive against high level casters without it. At least not with my house rules of limited resting, no exploits, limited meta, no cheese, no use of OP gear etc etc.
Berserker9/mage is the only character I've had that completed all quests up til Imoen but he lost to restartitis since he felt too cheesy..
Any ideas for a charname that fits the above?
Of course, I haven't heard her talk so that could be part of it. Hehehe.
Edit - NM, sorry, didn't see the follow-ups regarding the 7 charisma.
Traveling with: Jaheira, Imoen (dualed to mage at 4)
Last post
So the team continues to make great progress. Enemy parties have a tough time against our group. With things like entangle, call lightning, web, silences and hold persons, the enemies just can't get anything going before they are shot up by the team. Thus victories over Amazons, Kirian's party and Molkar's group this session.
In order to get the CON tome, Wren used a clarity potion - however, killing these sirines allowed Imoen to unlock her thief abilities, in particular being able to use a short bow. We were going to pass on the golems (e.g., sanctuary), but now that Imoen can fire off arrows of biting, we decided to risk it after all (though Wren had effective -18 to blunt attacks to be safe). This worked out well in fact. Wren can now regenerate.
We were able to get the robe of the good arch magi for Imoen, she appreciated that.
We still had some funds left over, so headed to Ulgoth's Beard to get a Wand of Heavens. This, plus Imoen's direct damage via spells should allow us to get past the battle horrors guarding Durlag's Tower (they did). We did this to kill the basilisks as well as get the Wisdom Tome for Wren.
We had previously destroyed Kirian's party. This made is pretty safe to clear the rest of the map.
We visited Melium - he did well, saving vs. both hold persons even after being doomed. However, Imoen's direct damage, plus Jaheira hard to hit (she was -8 to slashing weapons AC) was just too much for him. We also took on Khark, after protecting wren with a few important buffs, plus some skeleton helpers - the party carried the day. Taking out a few nearby undead gave Wren level 6 fighter, which gave him ** in Flails - he switched from the Ashideena to the +1 Morning Star, which is slower, but does more damage.
Now that we have skeleton helpers (as well as the Greenstone Amulet) we cleared out what remaining Sirines we hadn't previously cleared. We also now got the cloak of displacement, now allowing Wren to automatically save vs. undead holds. We realized we still hadn't got the Charisma tome, so we headed to Gnoll fortress to take care of that - we ended the session here.
Screenshots from the session:
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/819529/#Comment_819529
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/819633/#Comment_819633
I arrived in Jon's dungeon with just enough XP to get an instant promotion to level 9 (I don't know why sometimes excess XP earned in BGEE will be carried forward and sometimes not). I avoided the ogre mage, but everything else was cleared, with horror being used to disable potentially dangerous enemies from out of sight, while frequent resting kept HPs high to deal with traps. As usual I took it as a good omen that Ulvaryl was chopped in half before she could run away.
After investing in some donations at the temple a couple of quick chops with the Sword of Chaos restored the Circus to normal operations. Helping out Hendak at the Copper Coronet was then enough for level 10.
With Azuredge stuffed in my backpack I deliberately triggered the Suna Seni ambush - horror again showing its value there by disabling the mage and all but one of the other opponents.
Arriving at the Docks I was tempted to let Hareishan taste Azuredge, but wasn't confident that she wouldn't use domination so played it safe. At the local inn Officer Dirth offered some nice armour, while some pirates were persuaded to come out of their hideout into the main inn to be chopped up.
While going to get Mae'Var a necklace I rescued Renfeld - the mage saved against horror this time and managed to get a lightning bolt off, but that was no threat. At the Temple area I bought a Helm of Charm Protection, just in case the fancy to attack vampires strikes again, before hunting for a second hand cloak.
Back at the Docks both Prebek and Sanasha proved to be scaredy-cats. I didn't immediately go to loot the harpers though - keeping that for after dualling to make use of the potential XP gains for use of thieving skills. Instead I went to Rayic's house where Arbane haste was used for the first time to split up the golems for safe disposal. That was used again in an unprovoked attack on the mage where Bala's Axe inflicted miscast magic on him before PfMW went up.
Trusty's portrait came from this: https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=female+barbarian+warrior&fr=yhs-adk-adk_sbnt&hspart=adk&hsimp=yhs-adk_sbnt&imgurl=http://worldofwallpapers.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/barbarian-667761.jpg#id=12&iurl=http://worldofwallpapers.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/barbarian-667761.jpg&action=click
Plus one of my own photographs.
Trusty fought Tarnesh but didn't kill him.
Took on some sirene thinking that rage would protect her. First she was feebleminded, then confused, then Aaagh!
A hamster and his companion!
Magastar, ½-Orc Shaman, update 2
There were no further encounters on the solemn trip back to Beregost. Mr. Colquetle was mortified at the news of his son's death but thankful for the retrieval of his son's amulet. With the sad business behind her. Magastar and troupe finally make their way to Nashkel!
Upon entering Nashkel, Magastar gets accosted by a local militia. She holds her tongue when she sees the dark circles under his eyes and, although somewhat terse at first, he eventually opens up to the group and reveals much of what's been ailing the town. In ADDITION to the mysterious problems with the mines, it seems a former commander has gone berserk and murdered a dozen people!
Another few paces into town and the mayor of Nashkel himself approaches. He recognizes Jaheira and, after introductions and some small talk, tasks Magastar’s party with investigating the Nashkel mines.
As the group heads toward the end of town, Magastar (her attention solely on trading stories with Imoen about their first real adventure) nearly bowls over a portly man in the middle of the path, knocking his spectacles to the ground in the process. He immediately (BEFORE picking up his spectacles) makes a proclamation about someone named 'Greywolf' returning and shoves a bag of coin in Magastar's hands! Although the insult appeared to be an honest mistake, Magastar thought about keeping the gold just to teach him a lesson. After a second's pause she tosses bag at the man's feet and, in the most feminine ½-Orc voice she could manage, tells him that he has made a mistake and that the money wasn't hers. The look on the man's face was priceless! He went white as a sheet and started blubbering apologies. Magastar merely ignored him and continued on. Near the end of town Magastar notices a man talking to something, himself…maybe? Intrigued, she introduces herself.
She jumps back a step when she sees the recipient of the man's attention! "Ewww, a rat!" she squeaks loudly. "What’s this…? You already speak the language of Boo!" the man replies. "I am Minsc. And this, as you have guessed, is Boo! Although, I am sure Boo speaks both rat and mouse (being the miniature giant space rodent that he is) he is in fact a hamster AND my faithful animal companion."
Magastar barely hears a word after the first 'Boo' as she and Khalid take turns trying to put the other in between this rodent, and themselves. Jaheira's initial guarded reaction melts away almost instantly, replaced by a stifled smile. Imoen seemed to be the least phased by the bizarre encounter. She walks right up to the huge man and, with a confirming nod from Minsc, pets the rodent carefully.
"Fate has delivered you to Boo!" Minsc intones. "My charge, was kidnapped by Gnolls only days ago and, thanks to Boo’s eaves-droppings, we have just discovered the location of the den of stinking evil where she is being held. We had given up on finding more adventurers to come to the aid of my witch when you walked right up, and started talking. TO BOO!” As if on cue, all eyes went to Magastar. When she looked up, four sets of eyes, no, FIVE (ewww!) were staring directly at her. She took a quick glance at Jaheira who, thankfully, summed up the missed conversation with a nod in Minsc’s direction and a small smirk. It was plain to see that, like Magastar, this man could overturn a loaded wagon with little effort and, regardless of his choice of animal ‘companions,’ Magastar couldn’t help but sense a connection with nature in him, a GOOD connection.
“What say you, fair lady?” Minsc asks, attempting a regal tone. “Will you help myself and Boo rescue the fair Dynaheir from the paws of evil? (no offense Boo),” It was then that the silliness of the whole situation got the better of Magastar. She started laughing! Imoen, Khalid, and even Jaheira joined in. Minsc, on the other hand, wasn’t sure what to make of the sudden levity. But before any thought of insult could be hatched, Magastar walks over to him (well, in the vicinity) and tells him, with the most straight face she could muster, that the party would be ‘honored’ to accompany him on his rescue mission. “Maybe,” Magastar adds, “after your friend is rescued, you both will join us in our investigation of the mines nearby?” ”You mean, you three,” Minsc corrects, quickly.
Immediately after leaving town the group are set upon by a Gnoll scouting party.
Within moments Minsc proves his worth, and then some, cleaving a Gnoll in twain before the dog has his day. Two of the other Gnolls had their hearts set on 'pink' as they set off after Imoen before being felled by the very source of their ire.
Sadly, with much progress inevitably comes setbacks. As the party nears the Gnoll's stronghold, Khalid takes a bow shot at a bear getting too close. Even with the whole party sending missiles at the beast they were unable to stop it from critically mauling him. Screaming at the top of her lungs Jaheira charges the wounded bear only to gain the attention of some grass monkeys nearby. Coming to her senses, Jaheira starts working a tactical retreat. The bear gets finished off by the rest of the party's ranged weapons and the grass monkeys fall shortly thereafter.
"No Jaheira, Khalid is only 'mostly' dead." Magastar whispers, respectfully. "Once we get him back to Nalin at the temple in Nashkel he'll be right as rain." Jaheira takes comfort in Magastar's words, smiling as she wipes away the tears.
There we go, all better!
I've planned this run like an year ago, and my plan is to dual-class to Cleric when I get to Chapter 3 or 4 in BG2. For BG1 I'll be going with a good party but in BG2 I'll go full evil.
It's not going to be a solo run because lately most of my solo runs are either too fast and I win the game without any problem (this portion represents a rough 5% of the total amount) or I choke and die to an encounter my class cannot do anything against (two weeks ago I played a BG:EE run with a Swashie and it was as easy as if I was playing a Fighter, but then I died to the 4th enemy I met in SoD, which I haven't played yet other than that), besides it's funnier (sometimes) and more practical past the point you hit the XP cap on a solo character.
I'm playing with a lot of mods, so here's my WeiDU.log in case anyone wants to take a look at it (things worth mentioning here; SCS, Ascension, BGT, aTweaks, every race can dual-class and Clerics can use any weapon they like).
I'll start playing as soon as I get a couple of batteries for my mouse (probably Friday since I have to study as well zzzzz), since that's what I take screenshots with (at least in fullscreen, I switched the game to windowed to take those).
In Steinarr news... the barbarian succeeded in holding onto most of his inventory after his fight with Sarevok (unlike last time I tried this). Now he's marching toward Dragonspear Castle. He's armed to the teeth with weapons, spells and potions -- including ample dispelling arrows, exploding arrows, 4 protection from undead scrolls, and 3 protection from magic scrolls. (Almost certainly unbalancing. And I'm not going blind this time, which will be a huge advantage. I don't particularly care though, the goal is to charge through here and get to BG2 ASAP).
So far, Steinarr has recruited Safana, Minsc, Dynaheir and Corwin. He's heard that Jaheira might be around somewhere, so he's going to look for her now.
A Gnoll by any other name…would be called Gertrude.
Magastar, ½-Orc Shaman, update 3
“Jaheira, I’m f-f-fine!” For the third time in as many minutes Khalid had to stop Jaheira from casting MORE healing spells on him. Magastar couldn’t help but smile. She also couldn’t help but notice how tired she was. Imoen and Minsc also stifled yawns. “I think it’s time we turn in for the night,” Magastar said with a stretch.
She knew something was wrong the instant she stepped inside. A warrior in full battle armor with weapon drawn approached the party. “Oh no you don’t! No one stops Boo from getting a good sleep! Stand back Magastar! Minsc and Boo will deal with this!” It was then that Minsc started breathing forcefully, shaking his head, and making strange, throaty, chanting sounds. For some reason it reminded Magastar of her Shamanic dance, right up to the point where he screamed at the top of his lungs, sending half the patrons of the inn scrambling under their tables. The armed figure was indeed another assassin sent to kill Magastar. Springing into action, the party began rapidly began emptying bows and slings, including…Minsc!? “No, no, Minsc! Use your sword!” Magastar shouted. She knew that it was no use, though. White-knuckled and with craze in his eyes, Minsc listened to nothing but the beast inside. Unfortunately, he couldn’t have picked a worse weapon for close combat. Arrows flew in every direction EXCEPT into our assailant. The patrons that Minsc didn’t scare under their tables with his shout were now running for their lives!
Whether it was luck or that fact that the enemy didn’t know how to deal with a mad man, the party successfully interrupted one, then two, then THREE of the enemy’s spells. She finally fell after a few good shots from everyone BUT Minsc. Once Minsc calmed down the party helped right the tables and chairs and clean up. Magastar could tell Minsc felt ashamed for not contributing more to their victory but she wasn't angry. This was an opportunity for her. An opportunity to create comradery with some positive feedback. She told Minsc that when he starts to chant and enrage he needs to focus on *these* words. "Oh! You're a very smart lady!" Minsc said, in appreciation. "I see why Boo thinks so highly of you." A small chuckle left Magastar's lips.
Once the place was back in order, the party had a nice meal and settled in for a good night's rest. After checking on the rest of the group Magastar catches sight of Minsc tucking in Boo. Jumping through the half open door Magastar speaks quickly, "What do you say!?" Without hesitation Minsc swings around with a big smile on his face, "Sword First!!"
Again the party is accosted by Gnolls just outside of town. This time Magastar shows Minsc her own chant and it's deadly effects.
Another day's travel and a pack of wild hounds also feel the power of Magastar's abilities.
Next, Magastar and crew meet a noble name Jared, running scared out of his wits. He slows down long enough to ask Magastar to protect him from a huge bear on the other side of a nearby bridge. The party bravely marches into battle against the one of the largest bears they'd ever seen. The battle commences and Minsc immediately takes a huge swipe from it's powerful claws. Then, in the very next instant, another swipe sends Minsc down for the count. Luckily, the beast also took damage in those first few seconds and goes down after a couple more volley's including brilliant shots from Magastar and Imoen. *sigh* "There's no way we can continue at anything but full strength." Magastar says. They built a makeshift litter for the 'mostly' dead Minsc and slowly trek back to Nashkel.
Whether due to guilt for the fallen comrade, or the sweet talk of Imoen, Jared gifts the party with a warm pair of boots for taking on the white bear. Even before Minsc's revival, Magastar decides that, for his valiant effort, Minsc will be the first to wear them.
Once Minsc is restored and ready to travel, the group strikes out again for the stronghold, and AGAIN gets ambushed just outside of town. [Magastar really needs to get her 'frequent Gnoll flyer card' redeemed! Someone owes her an upgrade!] The encounter proved to be much more serious than previous dog walks. Both Khalid and Minsc take serious damage. Jaheira barely got to Minsc in time.
FINALLY, the stronghold is spotted just over the next ridge.
All we need to do is round the bend, and...OH, COME ON!!!
The half-ogre was dispatched posthaste and without further incursions, Magastar's party successfully reached the Gnoll stronghold!
sorting the gear,
Hear text as mp3,
I agreed to find some of my ex-party (mostly to carry gear) then purchased a new flute + various bags of holding before leaving the city for good.
Note: my Sod game is on insane level so my recalculated hit points (smaller familiar) results in a loss of 24 ... o well, easy come easy go.
I noticed JuliusBorisov's totemic druid run yesterday (https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/30553/the-tale-of-the-totemic-druid) and had a quick read through that (cursing him meanwhile for distracting me when I should have been working
I didn't want to put SCS onto my EE installation, but have an existing SCS + ascension installation for BGT and decided to run the druid in that - there might be the odd point of interest in comparing with behaviour in EE (I'm also running an EE totemic druid in the current MP run with Gate70).
I'll only cover the odd high point of the run, but a few things to note for now are:
- you can't select which spirit appears in vanilla / BGT.
- the spirit wolf does cold damage and will chunk enemies every now and then, so is not a good choice for those carrying useful items (Perdue's sword was lost like that).
- druids can't wear the ankheg armour and are thus rather less good at tanking than in EE (but with the summons available they don't need to anyway).
- there are no containers in BG1 by default and I don't add them in, which makes carrying loot harder. However, there's not much need to buy things so that's not a big issue.
So far I'm up to level 7 having just cleared the basilisk area. For fun I did that without any protection from petrification for Alba. I wouldn't recommend that using SCS given the tendency for the basilisks to move around and their propensity for targeting unprotected individuals, but I got away with it (at one point a basilisk did see Alba, but didn't have time to focus on her). The levels gained there meant that Kirian and co were faced with nymphs as well as 2 spirit summons - and they were never likely to survive that.
Totemic druid L7, 49 HPs, 6 kills
@Blind_Visionary and @ussnorway All the best in SoD
Previous update at:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/819906/#Comment_819906
Summons pushed Alba quickly through the Nashkel Mine
At the Camp Alba used the shield amulet and then conducted a running fight with a few summons and half a dozen Necklace fireballs. That proved effective and with Venkt's death the main opposition was defeated.
Summons cleared the way through the Cloakwood web traps - there is still a potential danger there that an SCS phase spider will decide to teleport in while you're stuck in a trap, but I didn't protect against that (beyond having lots of summons) and got away with it. At the mine, confusion from 3 nymphs disabled Rezdan, Kysus and Genthore and Drasus couldn't handle the spirits on his own.
In the mine Alba picked up her 10th (and last BG1) level ploughing through some guards. In vanilla I would leave Hareishan alone, but with SCS there's too much chance of being mobbed by her and her guards when trying to retreat back through the mine to rest (that's not so much of an issue for most people, but as I don't use healing potions I tend to need to rest more). Summons and a first use of insect plague were used to deal with her.
Having cleared the way to Davaeorn I had second thoughts about taking that challenge on immediately, due to the possibility of being pinned down by multiple guards. To avoid that I decided to play safe and went to recharge the Necklace of Missiles and pick up a couple of invisibility potions. Back again and a spirit bear killed the battle horrors without alerting Davaeorn. An initial attack on Davaeorn then saw him confused (and with an insect plague en route as well), so I decided to go for a quick finish before too many guards arrived. A potion of freedom let Alba get to Davaeorn and, though some darts of stunning failed to take effect, a spirit lion escaped the web to come and help finish things off.
After resting to add a second Bhaal horror to her options, Alba flooded the mine and left. A quick tour of wilderness areas then boosted her reputation up to 20 and got the remaining tomes before she did a bit of shopping. With no plans to return to Ulgoth's Beard she also relieved Dushai of a ring of free action there (none of the villagers noticed that anyway).
Totemic druid L10, 69 HPs, 61 kills