I am wondering if halflings in EE are the better slingers that they are supposed to be. Does anyone know?
I don't know off-hand Wise, but would be pretty easy to test:
1) make a brand new elf with 19 DEX - equip sling and look at Thac0 - note it 2) make a brand new halfling with 19 DEX - equip sling and look at Thac0 - if the halfling has better Thac0 than the elf, then your answer is yes - if not then no.
I'm at work so can't do the test myself, but maybe someone with a lot more time than me (RE: Grond0) could do it.
@Wise_Grimwald, @Corey_Russell: Halflings get a +1 racial Thac0 bonus for slings in BGEE, so ceteris paribus, they should have better sling Thac0 than Elves. They used to get that bonus for darts as well but I believe that has been changed in one of the latest patches. Also, BGEE applies a strength bonus to sling attacks (like vanilla BG does for attacks with throwing axes).
Question I am wondering if halflings in EE are the better slingers that they are supposed to be. Does anyone know?
I don't know off-hand Wise, but would be pretty easy to test: 1) make a brand new elf with 19 DEX - equip sling and look at Thac0 - note it 2) make a brand new halfling with 19 DEX - equip sling and look at Thac0 - if the halfling has better Thac0 than the elf, then your answer is yes - if not then no.
I'm at work so can't do the test myself, but maybe someone with a lot more time than me (RE: Grond0) could do it.
Thanks for the idea. I have just tested it and yes the halfling has a better Thac0 by 1, but because elf can have a better strength, that is somewhat offset by the lower damage. I made a multi character party so that it was easy to flick backwards and forwards betweenn them. Then of course there are other racial charactaristics to take into consideration.
Personally, I prefer Thac0 to the strength bonus, especially at the lower levels. Being able to hit a target harder not much help if you don't actually hit the target. Also, in important fights there could be various ways to get around that (e.g., if halfling is a cleric can do DUHM, if halfling is a fighter a strength potion, etc.).
EDIT: There's also the arcane strength spell that can be used. Granted the reverse is true (elf could use potions of mind focusing), but those are only few in number in BG 1.
With Aasim's admonitions still ringing in my ears I tried (with some success) to be more cautious this session. The first main target was the de'Arnise Hold where a roomful of golems managed to hit me exactly nil times (Ras helped against the iron golem).
I didn't have absolute protection against confusion from the umber hulks, but used a potion of defense while dragging them back individually in the expectation I would win the fights even if confused - but I never was anyway. I got to level 17 when the last umber hulk died of over-feeding and shortly afterwards Tor'Gal lost his kingdom.
I agreed to help Nalia run the place, but immediately skipped out the back door, never to return.
Back in Athkatla I went to call on Mencar. As usual Brennan was immobilised by Kitthix to ensure he couldn't run away and stealth and magical attacks finished the rest off pretty quickly without the need to use the stairs at all.
Trying the same with Tarnor though no one was disabled by the genie or Kitthix initially and I failed to kill Gaius before his buffs fired. Rather than take a risk I therefore ran away and just picked them off one by one from the shadows with slingshots - though Gaius got a couple of Soulrays rather than plough through stoneskins.
With the proceeds from those encounters I bought the good stuff from Roger and Mrs Cragmoon before looking for a bit more treasure from Captain Dennis. The initial attack there was again pretty effective - leaving only a couple of enemies to be sorted out at the end with the help of a Soulbeam.
The extra cash from that was plenty to buy potions at the Druid Grove before letting Ihtafeer get a taste of Flaming Fists.
Once more in Athkatla the last of the vampire ambushes triggered. I tend to avoid those ambushes as they can be deadly for some characters, though this one is actually very well equipped to deal with them (due to immunity to charm, movement speed and stealth). As I still had just enough funds to pay Gaelan Bayle I went to do that (getting to level 18 as a result). Aran's items unfortunately are not much use to me (the ring being crowded out by Gaxx and Claw, while the AoP is unusable by monks in the EE). However, Mook and the Guild Contact offered some quick and easy XP. While in the Bridge District I also topped up my natural MR with a potion of magic protection in order to get the berserker horn.
While that potion was active I went to smack down Mekrath and his pet yuan-ti (at that point I also stopped picking up most treasure as there's not much need for money any more).
The potion had run out by the time I was ready to enter the Planar Prison though, so I rested before going in there. Immediately on entry I moved out of range of the Bounty Hunter mage's true sight and waited for that to finish. Summons were then produced to help out after the mage was one-shotted.
Moving anti-clockwise round the area, horror and stealth shots allowed more enemies to be picked off one by one. When yuan-ti were worn down appropriately they could be finished off in melee - though with this sort of critical a yuan-ti mage wouldn't actually need wearing down! Summons provided a distraction while I (buffed with a stone form potion) took down the Master of Thralls (level 19).
For the Warden I used an invulnerability potion for defense, but that wasn't really needed after he was confused by a thrall and died seconds later.
Next up was a trip to Umar. Some tasks around the village got me to level 20 before a quick trip through the Temple. Both liches there were beaten down using Daystar dual-wielded with the Scarlet Ninja-to (after first killing all their companions).
The plentiful XP from the undead meant that putting the symbol back together was enough for level 21. I celebrated by taking on Thaxy - after an initial attack there I waited for PfMW to expire and then successfully got the dragon to concentrate on Ras while I clubbed him down from behind.
The Shade Lord then managed to survive both a sun ray and a whack with Daystar, but was apparently blinded by a Soulbeam
and I retreated to finish him off by sling
- although it looked like he wasn't really blinded before that anyway.
The final objective for this time was the Planar Sphere. I quickly got to level 22 there fighting the halflings - Kayardi's spells are potentially dangerous so I did most of the fighting there from range.
I took WW as my first HLA and will be concentrating almost entirely on GWWs for future ones. That's because prior experience suggests Mel will be a major challenge for this character and lots of GWWs will be needed - hence I won't take any of the 'nice to have, but not essential' alternatives. Picking up a heart was straightforward
before I got to level 23 at some point in the battle with Tolgerias.
Killing the golems in the engine room (using Sling of Everard on the adamantite ones as I couldn't be bothered to change to the slightly more effective Crimson Dart)
allowed me to get back to the Prime Material Plane - where Lavok gifted me yet another level.
Sun soul monk L24, 117 HPs (incl. 10 from ioun stone), 720 kills (+189 in BG1)
We finally enter Cloakwood, where Sigrid refuses to slaughter Aldeth in cold blood. Seniyad is placated however when he recognizes Jaheira (nice BG1 NPC Project content) and we agree to help him with some more urgent business: his beef with the Shadow Druids. We kill all Spiders in the second area to see Minsc upgrade to Spider's Bane, and the Shadow Druids in the third Cloakwood area because they all recognize Jaheira and go hostile. We save a druid named Beador in the fourth area and then trek back to the third to deal with a dangerous fellow named Andarthe. He has a second Druid casting spells and five or six animal summons. We focus on interrupting druidic casting and do quite well thanks to Dynaheir's magic missiles, Imoen's elemental arrows, and Khalid's Varscona. After suffering a few blows, Andarthe begs for mercy, and we grant it. We then slay the other druid and the summons, rest, and enter the tree house. We defeat Amarande thanks first and foremost to Jaheira's Summon Insects. Interestingly, his Fire Salamander shape's fireshield does not neutralize the insects as I expected with SCS. Amarande's aides fall to physical force and a wand scorcher by Dynaheir. Jaheira receives a nice +2 club from Seniyad for her work.
Ranged attacks finish some Wyverns before we meet Drasus and co, we actually we first meet Drasus alone. Sigrid tanks him, and suffers several blows, but backed by her companions she prevails.
Genthore falls in much the same way. A Holy Smite by Sigrid and fireballs by Dynaheir (wand) and Jaheira (necklace) kill Kysus. Rezdan however survives. He Removes our minimal buffs, receives a Spell Thrust from Dynaheir in return, gets poisoned by one of Minsc's arrows of biting, and briefly Mentally Dominated by Jaheira's Nymph before Minsc's poison does him in.
In the mines the narrow corridors and many corners allow us to take on the guards in limited numbers. More dangerous, in theory, are the mages. Hareishan gets poisoned by our hidden archers as she's casting a detection spell. She won't recover from that.
Natasha and the Ogre Mage also fall to several poisoned arrows. I'm using Khalid (Dead Shot), Minsc (Composite +1) and Imoen (shortbow to be replaced by Eagle Bow) as archers in pretty much every battle. We have a serious amount of enchanted arrows and a particular fondness of arrows of biting, as the attentive reader may have noticed by now. With up to 8 poisoned arrow attacks per round, enemy casters are very likely to be neutralized by our archery. When facing melee attackers, we let Jaheira and Sigrid do the tanking as they have the best AC in the party and Sigrid has the best saves. When not, they're more likely to be casting spells (Doom, Summon Insects, Command, Silence, Hold Person, Holy Smite are favorites though the priestesses also keep several curative spells memorized). Imoen operates as a pure archer. Khalid and Minsc switch to melee only when the situation calls for it: they get engaged by melee characters, close quarters prevent them from using their ranged weapons effectively, or Jaheira and Sigrid are taking too much damage and we need some off-tanking. These combat tactics have been working very well so far.
Even the mighty Davaeorn has no answer to them. We are invisible, thanks once more to Kahrk's Invisibility 10' Radius scroll, but unbuffed as we enter his lair (no prebuffing on either side is my adage). Imoen disarms traps and we approach the wizard. He knows we're there because despite our invisibility, he addresses us. Our movement toward Davaeorn puts us beyond the reach of his Web / Stinking Cloud's AoE. We proceed into the corridor that leads to three treasure chests. Jaheira is the first to reveal herself, throwing a necklace fireball at Davaeorn and one the Battle Horrors. To my surprise the Battle Horror suffers fire damage while I was sure that Davaeorn's BHs were immune to fire.
Minsc and not much later Imoen (with a critical) manage to poison Davaeorn. We concentrate fire on him, ignoring the few guards and Black Talons that manage to get past the Web / Stinking Cloud trap. Khalid finishes the wizard.
We reach Baldur's Gate without incident and we take some time to do the majority of the quests available there. I'll limit myself to mentioning noteworthy events only. - Ragefast could not be convinced to release Abela. I think this is due to low CHA Minsc being closest to Ragefast, and thus being the one to do the talking. We defeat the wizard with arrows, and then set Abela free ourselves. - Sunin makes two victims: Khalid (after suffering major fire damage from the wizard's sequencered Flame Arrows, as he was still wearing Gorion's belt, an item the use of which I should have phased out long ago), and Dynaheir (who tried to save Khalid by making him invisible, only to see him die and herself suffer from a Skull Trap; she flees outside but is felled by one of Sunin's aides who follows her there). - In small groups, Degrodel's minions are too strong for us. We rely heavily on Dynaheir's wand scorchers and Sigrid's wand flamestrikes. (Luckily there are no innocents about). After meeting Degrodel and accepting his quest, Sigrid uses Detect Evil to discover that Degrodel is evil. We decide not to help him. Via Vail and Quenash we acquire the Cloak of Balduran. The Helm we find a few weeks later. Apparently Vail had decided not to take it back. - The battle at the Iron Throne is bloody and chaotic. Sigrid, Imoen, and Dynaheir have near death experiences due to Aasim's repeated use of his Wand of the Heavens. Opening fire kills Alai. We swiftly descend the stair. Jaheira and Imoen get hit by Naaman's Chaos. Dynaheir dispels it on Imoen but not on Jaheira, casting Dispel Magic from scroll. Luckily Jaheira stays quiet. But Imoen then gets Confused, Dominated, and Emotioned. She survives with 5 HPs as Minsc and Khalid fell Aasim and Naaman. Jaheira returns to her senses, we heal and we go back upstairs. Zhalimar gets fireballed and flees to the roof for some reason. Two Shennaras choose Sigrid as their target. She suffers one backstab, manages to Hold her assailant, but has to call Jaheira for aid when the second Shennara strikes twice to give her a second near death experience.
Khalid and Minsc slay Diyab and then focus on Gardush, but they lack the tankiness to stand their ground. They too flirt with death.
When his berserk state ends, Gardush falls down the stairs. Minsc heals and finishes him off. The last Shennara falls as well, and Minsc also finishes Zhalimar, who refuses to switch from bow to halberd, on the roof.
Candlekeep is our next destination. We do not fight Rieltar and his companions but get arrested for killing them anyway. We loot the tombs. Sigrid's STR increase finally allows her to upgrade to full plate. In the caves she Silences Prat and Sakul while Imoen and Minsc poison them with their arrows. In return, Sigrid and Minsc suffer Minor Sequencered magic missile damage. Sakul is easy pickings but Prat is dangerous even without spells. He hits hard. When he's close to defeating Minsc, Jaheira Dooms him and Sigrid Holds him.
Khalid and Sigrid finish him and nearby Tam, and Imoen and Jaheira deal with Bor. Dynaheir casts PfPetrification on Sigrid, and she uses HP + DUHM + Boon of Lathander to see how capable she is at dealing with Greater Basilisks. (She turns out capable enough with 2 APR and a Thac0 of 7. Still, Minsc would have done the job just as well I guess.) Slaying the Basilisks, Sigrid reaches 110k XP, and her final BG1 level, level 8. She picks War Hammers as her fourth weapon proficiency, next to Maces, Slings, and Flails.
We escape from Candlekeep, killing some Ogre Mages on the way out. Being wanted in Baldur's Gate, we decide to lay low for a while. We leave for a small village north of Baldur's Gate that we hadn't visited yet, Ulgoth's Beard.
@Wise_Grimwald, @Corey_Russell: Halflings get a +1 racial Thac0 bonus for slings in BGEE, so ceteris paribus, they should have better sling Thac0 than Elves. They used to get that bonus for darts as well but I believe that has been changed in one of the latest patches. Also, BGEE applies a strength bonus to sling attacks (like vanilla BG does for attacks with throwing axes).
The thing is that other things are not equal, particularly the strength as halflings have a maximum strength of 17 whereas other races have 18 (Half-orcs 19). This is all the more important with EE, for, as you have already mentioned, slings get a strength bonus in EE. However I have taken on board what Corey has said about hitting the target being of prime importance as in my current game with a gnomish slinger the number of misses is considerable. I am considering a halfling barbarian as my next game as his rage will increase the damage considerably.
Journal of Spugnor
I decided to take on Bassilus, but when I saw a rigid thinking spell coming I forgot about bravery and ran for the sake of self-preservation. I was still affected by it, but Bassilus had no idea where I was. When I again approached, Bassilus cast hold person. Again I fled, only this time followed by a zombie and a wolf. This time the spell had no effect so I continued to run until only the wolf was following. Now that we were on a more even playing field I killed the wolf before going in search of the zombie. It was then time for Bassilus. Now it was my turn to cast spells as he apparently had none left. A blindness spell left him helpless with the result that I didn't even have to put expensive bullets in my sling.
I went to the temple for my reward and rested in Beregost. It was then time to deal with Zargal. I charmed Geltik who was killed by Zargal. I was badly hurt and also poisoned with the result that I had to flee leaving Geltik's belongings behind. I decided to leave Zargal for another day and headed northwards instead.
There I killed an ogre with a belt fetish and after identifying it, donned one that protects from piercing weapons. How I wish that I had been wearing it when fighting Zargal's party! I then returned to find Zargal who I charmed and he killed Malkax, a hobgoblin, and a ghoul before turning hostile. I had hoped that he would have at least been injured by the ghoul, but that was not the case.
I therefore ran away, but only to cast a blindness spell on him. It was successful and my sling did the rest.
Afterwards in transit, I was attacked by a winter wolf. I quickly changed belts before attacking it with my sling. The belt that I had found at the site of Gorion's death proved invaluable. I thought that I had picked up the pelt as I had tried to do, but had not realised that there was no room for it and only noticed it lying on the ground when I was already on the way to Nashkel. That was costly!
The party runs into Edwin, a mage who asks the party to aid in his raid (That rhymed, nice Rel) on the gnoll Stronghold. The party agrees to help him, but Rel got more pressing matters to attend to, so he Edwin's task has to wait. Edwin doesn't really have any choice so he tags along.
The Coast
Rel Sundan has been very excited to visit the coast, as there have been rumours about Sirens and other dangerous creatures that he could test his mettle against. He traveled their and met the Nymph Shoal, who was interested in "the mage." Edwin spoke to her, and she asked him to kiss her, he could not refuse. The party looking away, to make sure they don't have any monsters sneaking up on them, suddenly returns and sees Edwin dead on the ground, it took them a brief moment to realize what happened. Rel rushed the girl and hit her with the hammer several times, Imoen took a shot at her. She yeilded, asked for mercy. The party lowered their weapons as the Shoal revived Edwin and explained her situation. But as she was talking a big ogre mage approached them. He tried to kill the party but fell pretty quickly. Shoal thanked us for her freedom and took off.
The party proceeded down along the coast and got ambushed by a massive army of giants, ogre and other disgusting monsters. The party thought them off pretty well until Rel took a blow, causing him damage. The weather turned bad quickly. It was a storm along the coast. Tiax was hit by a lightning from above but survived. The party fled and several lightning strikes hit the ogres, causing them to drop dead. Apparently the party received the XP for the kills.
Was this a blessing from a god? Who favored us? With the backup from nature, we took our stand and killed the last monsters. We also ran into this mage, who we killed.
We discovered a crazy gnome, who asked us to find a ring in the stranded pirate ship. That was an easy task, we did as he asked and he gave us a potion of... lava? He told us to throw it at our toughest enemies. We left the coast, and now we headed towards our next destination, the desert.
The Desert
Rel and his party have heard about a wizard with a army of basilisks who roams the eastern desert, close to the temple of Lathander. They are a threat to the town, and the evil wizard has been petrifying adventurer who has traveled the region.
When they arrive, they plan their approach. Viconia goes invisible and scouts the area, once she found the Basilisks she returned to the party to inform them. Edwin then cast spells that will grant immunity from their gaze on Rel, who hunts them down and kills them with little effort. VIconia keeps going invisible and scouts the area. She spots the wizard and call to the others.
They sneaked up on him and killed the wizard quickly with help from Tiax's ghast who disabled him in the first blow. Rel and the Ghast killed the surrounding Basilisks. Viconia also spotted another group of people armored to the teeth, and she called out.
They found another Ghast on the way, a friendly one, who aided in Rel's mission. Rel talked to the party, at first he thought they were friendly people with the same intentions as him, but he was mistaken. They instantly insulted the party, without saying anything else before that. Rel didn't accept that from them, so he charged at them. Edwin took a shot and fell back, later he returned and cast horror at the party. The ghasts quickly killed the leader and one of the archer, Rel killed the rest with help from Tiax and Viconia who held the archer and the priest. We killed them with little effort, took their stuff and left.
The Gnoll Stronghold
The is now ready to leave for the stronghold Edwin was talking about. We went through the forest without encountering many enemies, and the few ones were not lethal against the party. Arriving at the stronghold we just took the classic approach "full force forward." The party drove over the bouncers, and then gnolls. They were many, but they couldn't hurt the party one bit.
We executed the witch as Edwin asked and we left the stronghold, picking up a mysterious tomb on the way in one of the caves.
The Forest
On our way back we went for some more ogre hunting, so we tracked some down. It was easy since the grass was wet and muddy from the storm. We were closing in on them when a bunch of Half-ogres asked us for some iron. We rejected them and they attacked us, but we killed them easily
Viconia spotted a group of bandits while she was scouting for the ogres.
Here I can also confirm that the Ioin Gallchobhair IS a human, and IS NOT the same Gallchobhair in the sewers of the Baldur's Gate 2, as I believe @Jaheiras_Witness mistakenly understood.
She had a talk with them and they tried to kill us. Sending the ghast in with Rel as a tank, the party cast disabling spells on them and they were held and killed in a matter of seconds.
We finally discovered the ogres we've been hunting and we killed them.
The final bit of work I was planning prior to pursuing Imoen was at Windspear Hills (who can resist the charms of a few dryads). The first challenge there was the vampires and I was level drained by one of those while trying to release a sunray. Without any restoration scrolls to hand I had to make the long trip back to town (where I found I'd got up to level 25) before returning to breeze through some genies and sort Samia out.
Various werewolves and golems failed to put up much of a fight and Tazok found he should have stayed in BG1.
Kitthix webbed Conster (the web is a natural attack, so ignored his spell turning),
before I decided that Firkraag couldn't be left to cause more trouble for his neighbours. An initial GWW assault was disappointing - 2 out of the 3 attacks made before Firkraag's stoneskin triggered were critical misses. Fortunately though his wing buffet was targeted at Kitthix and the efreeti and I was able to continue the attack with a further GWW - getting a killing blow in just as that expired.
Intending to go to the Graveyard next I realised I was short of stakes and went to get some from Aran Linvail - who also got me up to level 27. I saw those appear in my inventory, but rather oddly when I tried to use one on a vampire's bed they had all disappeared again. I don't think I had been given anything else en route, so I think that must be the inventory bug I've seen from time to time. However, a trip to the Lathander temple got some new supplies and Bodhi was soon pleading for a sling GWW to stop (I used my sling quite a bit on the vampires there to avoid the possibility of being drained).
Seeing I still had Tazok's key in inventory I decided to take another trip to the Temple Sewers before reporting back to Aran Linvail. As I could only handle a single suck from the illithid most of the work was done there at range,
with only the final illithid being provided with a last meal for the condemned monster
- I got up to level 28 somewhere in that lot.
At Brynnlaw a sunray chased away the greeting party of vampires. A GWW then disposed of Perth before he could buff,
allowing me to move straight on to Spellhold (up to level 29 and clutching an infinite book of spell turning). Inside there I didn't bother with all the encounters, but just moved through as swiftly as possible. A group of yuan-ti blocking the way to the 2nd level got me to level 30 and the judgement for exiting that to level 31.
As usual, Jon was slow to realise he had been mortally wounded and I was out of the room and on my way to the exit when he gave his closing speech.
I took ship with Saemon and, for once, aided the King (no prizes for guessing why).
Entering the Underdark got me to level 32. I bypassed the initial group of drow and helped the deep gnomes with a Balor problem
before clearing a route to the exit.
I checked in with Adalon and bought Firetooth and a few more potions from the drow before returning to launch an unprovoked attack on the dragon. That initial assault didn't make much impact though and I hadn't rested recently, so was low on GWWs. As a result I retreated to regenerate to full health rather than press the attack and risk something nasty happening. Returning again after resting, Ras lasted long enough for me to knock down stoneskins from range. The efreeti then created a distraction while I came in to give Adalon a GWW kicking.
Note that one reason why I didn't do too well in the initial assault was that I was dual-wielding then. I've been doing that quite a bit recently and have still been able to hit most things fairly easily despite the significant penalty - for Adalon though it was definitely worthwhile switching gear around (including replacing Gauntlets of Crushing with Bracers of Archery while throwing Firetooth) as well as using a rare potion of power. That encounter also got me to level 33 and I celebrated by sneaking out of the Underdark.
Sun soul monk L33, 137 HPs (incl. 12 from ioun stone), 1,074 kills (+189 in BG1)
The thing is that other things are not equal, particularly the strength as halflings have a maximum strength of 17 whereas other races have 18 (Half-orcs 19). This is all the more important with EE, for, as you have already mentioned, slings get a strength bonus in EE. However I have taken on board what Corey has said about hitting the target being of prime importance as in my current game with a gnomish slinger the number of misses is considerable. I am considering a halfling barbarian as my next game as his rage will increase the damage considerably.
Note that I was discussing Thac0 alone, to expound on Corey's post. I agree that early on a Thac0 bonus is a boon. Later, warrior Thac0 progression becomes so good that strength-based damage bonuses start making more of a difference than a +1 Thac0 bonus.
@Blackraven Very interesting run indeed, I hope you make it to ToB, if you plan on going all the way.
Thanks @RelSundan I find it difficult to play a single-class Cleric and a very goody two shoes one at that. Mechanically Clerics are fun and fairly powerful, but I like my Charnames to really shine in the party and for that Sigrid would probably have to be a Fighter/Cleric multi. As it is she's very much a support character, which is just not that sexy. And as for the roleplaying, I either lament missing out on battles and stuff (when adhering to alignment), or end up feeling I'm not doing it right (when metagaming, often against alignment, my way to valuable items).
I guess I just prefer spending my limited time adventuring in Faerun as a neutralish rogue. Evil is hard for me too. I actually have an active playthrough with a female NE Blade. She killed Minsc in self-defense when her desire to discuss compensation for freeing Dynaheir caused him to go all berzerk, and I could live with that. But later, she killed Dynaheir for Edwin, and I just felt bad about it. She has a cool party, with Eldoth being her closest ally, but I don't know if I can keep the evil up. Finally, I also created Blackraven, a CN Half-Elven Swashbuckler with my own portrait. I would role-play him the way I would be in my imagination, were I a Bhaalspawn. A lovable scoundrel.
@Blackraven Very interesting run indeed, I hope you make it to ToB, if you plan on going all the way.
Thanks @RelSundan I find it difficult to play a single-class Cleric and a very goody two shoes one at that. Mechanically Clerics are fun and fairly powerful, but I like my Charnames to really shine in the party and for that Sigrid would probably have to be a Fighter/Cleric multi. As it is she's very much a support character, which is just not that sexy. And as for the roleplaying, I either lament missing out on battles and stuff (when adhering to alignment), or end up feeling I'm not doing it right (when metagaming, often against alignment, my way to valuable items).
I kind of get that sort of feeling as well, that is why I've been playing Fighter/Cleric and Berserker, because I feel like, as the leader, I need to be the toughest one, or the one that is the face forward, sort of. Hard to explain. I always liked playing some sort of Fighter, alternatively a multi-class fighter. I do like the sorcerer as well. I am pretty excited to try out a pure kensai when Rel finally dies. (I doubt he will make it through the whole saga)
Icewind Gate 2: Frisk, Asriel, and Chara in BG2 (first post here)
Trademeet! I haven't fully committed to the three-person party yet, so I bring Mazzy along for a little while.
IWD2's Spell Focus feats give -4 save penalties to our best spells. Chromatic Orb can paralyze for 13 rounds, and Static Charge can deal 1d8 damage per level (plus 20% extra from the Scion of Storms feat) and bypass magic resistance.
Chara has some deadly shapeshifts, but until we get half-dragon forms, only the Fomorian Giant form can hurt enemies who are immune to nonmagical weapons. Chara can do nonmagical fire damage in Remorhaz form, but since the weapon has no enchantment, they can't kill Spirit Trolls with it.
I spend a few Arrows of Fire before remembering the Efreeti Bottle is a bountiful source of fire damage spells.
I test out Frisk's Ball Lightning--which I've finally tweaked to be area-effect weapons--against some enemy spiders, but it's not very impressive considering we only get to throw less than 10 balls before we run out, and Frisk's THAC0 isn't as reliable as I'd like.
As amazing as Chara's AC is in Will o' Wisp form, a lucky critical hit is all it takes to put them in danger.
On, in this case, three critical hits in a row. I still haven't given Chara and Asriel their full 1d8 HP per level yet.
Our advantage lies mostly in a strong offense, and the Efreeti adds to it. Instant-cast Fireballs are pretty special.
Most of the benefit is not that they cast quickly, but that they are easier to time as a result. You don't have to predict when the damage needs to strike in order to disrupt an enemy spell; there's no time gap to worry about.
Since Asriel, Chara, and Frisk all are coded as mages, they level up pretty slowly, which means we only have enough spell slots to protect one character (Frisk, of course) with Chaotic Commands. Mazzy fails a save despite having a 95% success chance--you can never rely on luck in a no-reload run--and gets charmed.
Asriel barely survives a hostile Call Lightning spell. That low HP is really dangerous.
Chara switches to Will o' Wisp form so they can serve as a decoy while our Efreeti launches a second Fireball.
Kyle&Linda clings to life. Asriel survives another lightning strike from a Shadow Druid, while Mazzy suffers a far deadlier strike from a stray Static Charge from Chara.
Call Lightning is tough, but Static Charge is lethal. It only strikes once per turn, but it lasts a long time and can strike indoors. I always loved that spell--it's very gratifying to see the carnage it can cause, even if the targeting is random and unreliable.
Asriel tries to fix Mazzy, but the IWD2-style Exaltation spell I created isn't working properly.
It can't cure charm effects! I'll need to go back and tweak it further.
We use the same strategy against Dalok, using the Efreeti to bomb them and establish an early lead. Dalok has Free Action or Chaotic Commands and is immune to Frisk's Chromatic Orb paralysis, but the magic damage goes right through Dalok's defenses.
As long as the enemy doesn't dispel our defenses, our offensive output should be enough to carry the day. With IWD2's high APR values and Mauler's Arm to help boost Asriel's STR above 18, Asriel deals Kensai-grade damage.
All it takes, though, is a single Remove Magic spell to take that power away. And with BG2-exclusive spells and effects banned, our only defense against it is going to be Aegis--a level 9 spell that only Frisk will ever be able to cast. It's going to be a long time before we're safe from enemy mages.
My mods erroneously prevent me from having Cernd kill Faldorn on my behalf. Rather than try to fight her myself (which might actually be doable considering Frisk's options), I use CTRL-Y on Faldorf to emulate Wolfboy's victory, and toss the magical staff I wasn't supposed to receive.
Before returning to Athkatla, we report to Lord Logan Coinpurse for bigass profit and fame.
Back in Athkatla I bought yet more potions before sneaking through the Graveyard to find the vampires social club. The top floor there was cleared mainly using GWWs with Firetooth (with a rest to recharge those). I got up to level 34 there before venturing downstairs. The vampires blood collection was tainted by holy water before I sneaked round depriving Bodhi of any support - she then became the last in the line of vampires to fail to reach me through a Firetooth barrage.
Back at the Underdark Exit Elhan was waiting to take me to Suldanesselar (and get me up to level 35). I avoided most of the potential conflicts there using stealth, but did get the chance to practice dragon killing tactics a bit more - Ras once again coming up trumps to occupy Nizi's attention.
Summoning the Avatar of Rillifane to help out at the Temple got me to level 36. I didn't take any risks on the Tree - leaving Kitthix to absorb Jon's opening barrage of spells before retreating from him and throwing Firetooth.
A quick tour of hell saw me become immune to weapons below +2, gain 10% MR (which will put standard MR above 100% in ToB), gain 15 HPs (and Blackrazor), gain 20% elemental resistance and gain +2 strength. After shooting down the Balors the other demons were pummelled before I sought out the Slayer. Once his misleads were cleared away it only took 3 GWWs to send him for a fiery bath (the cutscene starting prevented me taking a screenshot there).
Moving straight on to ToB Illasera failed to survive a single GWW. Most of the 1st challenge was simple as they struggled to get through my -14 AC. Duke Eltan did hit regularly at the end, but he still didn't quite make me resort to run and shoot tactics. I also got to level 37 somewhere in that lot.
In Saradush I opened up access to the spell shop (just to be able to buy the scrolls needed to upgrade the shower curtain +2 cloak) before persuading the vampires to show me some hidden delights in the prison. Leaving those hidden (after attacking a couple of vampires and realising that moving to ToB had switched my script on again - Grrr) I sneaked straight through to find Gromnir. I didn't quite move far enough away in time to avoid being seen by the mages after they used true sight, so went back downstairs and slaughtered the guards there before doing a couple of expeditions up and down to finish off Gromnir - gaining level 38 as a result.
At the Forest of Mir I would normally have fought fair, but couldn't be bothered this time and used a PfU scroll . In a similar vein, at the Fire Giant Temple I just used stealth and speed (without killing anything) to get the wardstones and then the hearts. Back at the Temple in the Forest of Mir a couple of vampiric wraiths that had gone invisible before appeared and attacked - but as they don't have a magical weapon they were no threat any more and the XP from those got me to level 39. Nyalee paid for her change of mind heart
before I demonstrated pretty convincingly to Yaga-Shura that he was no longer invincible.
For the second challenge I used potions of storm giant strength and power, along with Flaming Fists, in order to finish off my clone before it could buff.
The others quickly went the same way, though Tamoko did a lot of damage and actually prompted a rare use of my lay on hands ability.
At the Oasis I stopped off just long enough to pick up the Answerer
before moving on to Amkethran. There was a glitch there in the fight with the monks hassling Carras when, after I had killed them,
Carras attacked me (though still showing as neutral) - I guess all monks look the same to him . I tried leaving the cave and re-entering, but he had gone. That's annoying as I had wanted the boots protecting against backstabs, but c'est la vie (at least I hope it's that rather than c'est la mort).
At Sendai's enclave I struck down the disguised drow captain,
but didn't bother with the others (quickly popping into the hut to hide). I did only the fighting necessary to move through the enclave, with the only notable fight being against Ogremoch. His multiple stoneskins enabled him to survive a Ras-aided assault and his fast movement and the restricted area made it hard to kite him round. Instead I switched to using rat form (I think for the first time) along with hardiness to regenerate gently while I nibbled through his stoneskins. After resuming human form I then tried to straight out-damage him, but was only holding my own in that contest and was about to make a run for it when he finally keeled over.
With magic being little threat (it was nice not to have to be quite so careful about movement to prevent this happening)
the fight with the statues was relatively easy - the only ability or resource used was Kitthix tempting the assassin out of invisibility and any damage was healed by stealthing to regenerate between battles. I was wary though of getting close to the real Sendai, so as soon as she appeared targeted her with a stream of Firetooth GWWs. That caused quite a few spells to fail, but she still managed to heal herself once and I think I was on the 6th GWW when she admitted defeat.
Up to that point that felt like a very good battle - and then the game crashed. I find playing through an area again tends to be much more dangerous as a result of impatience, so left redoing the battle for the next morning. The statues were again not too much of a problem, but the real Sendai gave much more of a fight. She managed to hold me briefly with an implosion, used various protection spells & healed herself twice and also used a couple of pierce magics (countered with a potion of magic protection). I finally beat her down on my 12th GWW.
Sun soul monk L39, 159 HPs (incl. 14 from ioun stone), 1,236 kills (+189 in BG1)
I started getting cocky and nearly had my ass kicked by the doorman... good thing a Fighter Druid can use 'Raise Dead' scrolls or I was buggered.
I decided to try an alpha strike against the mage which killed him outright!... then the buggy Beamdog scripts kicked in and put him back in play. The second times a charm so my frost wand did the trick.
the boss | angel girl part of the fight went to plan
Bugs:
The sequencer bug is STILL an issue at the end game because of the scripted dreams... its best to clear it with ShadowKeeper and not a game breaker.
The 3rd Pocket Plane Challenge was no problem - I just stayed at range and used Firetooth GWWs to wear the Slayer down.
For Draconis I just meleed his human form (which doesn't use a magical weapon), though that proved costly when the dragon appeared and hit me with a breath before I got quite far enough away. I went to find somewhere to hide
and regenerate before emerging again (this time with a bit of acid protection from a green scroll. Draconis chased, only to run into the useful Ras. The sword's 4 round duration was enough to get through 2 lots of stoneskins, meaning that by the time Draconis attacked me he was taking damage - and unlike Ogremoch that wasn't a contest he was in any danger of winning.
The tunnels were no obstacle and helping Iycanth got me to the XP cap.
I rested before going into Abazigal's cave, where the salamanders were picked off one by one. Potions of mind focusing and power then let me hit Abazigal a bit more easily while running round wearing down his human form. For the dragon I stayed out of his melee reach while throwing GWWs at him. His ranged maze attack would normally be a concern using that tactic, but was no problem for me. His stoneskins and the relatively low damage from Firetooth meant it took 7 GWWs to take him down, but eventually he fell.
I decided to go and trade in some pantaloons for the BMU, though doing that overloaded my inventory and a couple of things evaporated into thin air (the Book of Infinite Spells disappearing having never been used anyway).
With vulnerability to both backstabs and criticals I was a bit wary of the 4th Pocket Plane Challenge, but putting on the BMU and switching other equipment gave me an AC of -21, with a further -6 against piercing weapons. That was enough that the Favoureds only managed to hit me once (for minimal damage) while they were being beaten down using Flaming Fist GWWs.
Back in Amkethran Saemon got me into the courtyard and I ran past the ambushers before they could attack. This character has died in an earlier run after being held by Balthazar, so this time I equipped the Ring of Free Action. He still managed to briefly knock me unconscious with a Shadowless Kick, but that also pushed me away to avoid follow-up attacks while disabled. I thought I had him when his Bigby's was foiled by free action,
but he got a Second Wind just in time. However, I'd used a potion of absorption and was wearing the Girdle of Crushing - giving an effective AC of -34. Meanwhile my THAC0 was -13, with 10 APR using GWWs. That combination was not good news for Balthazar and his attempt to run away scared soon after that proved unavailing.
For the 5th PP Challenge I didn't want to wear the BMU as the extra size of that means evading attacks from the Bone Blades by running round is made much harder. Without the BMU I still had -18 AC, with a further -20 to missiles and decided that should suffice - and indeed the Ravager needed a critical to hit. With regeneration shrugging off those occasional hits it was just a matter of time before the Sling of Everard wore down the Ravager. It survived all my GWWs, but finally keeled over not long after that.
That just leaves the Throne to go. Another of the earlier attempts with this character did make it that far, but failed against her 3rd incarnation due to the huge number of summons produced and continual magic damage. I concluded that to be successful I need to take a more aggressive line with her - hence the concentration on GWWs this run. Another issue is that I was thinking earlier in the run that perhaps I should be venturing deeper into Watcher's Keep in search of some level drain protection. However, I've never cleared below the 2nd level of that in single player and don't feel inclined to take the time to start now, so will just push on to confront Mel. Let's see if that works out ...
Sun soul monk L40, 167 HPs (incl. 15 from ioun stone; 5 from amulet), 1,279 kills (+189 in BG1)
I am starting a new BGEE2 run for Puk and Sarah to continue the challenge I play at Lob level with extra damage turned off... no mods!
The way I import a multi-party into a single game;
Open final (sod) save and remove items from the other characters so their inventory is clear for importing | only the items with the main character counts!
start BGee2 single player and load (sod) final save... pick main
save as multitest then close game and copy | paste multitest save into the multiplay save folder
open multitest in multi player and add Sarah in from the (sod) final save... thats why I removed her items
save as transfer then copy | paste that save into the single player folder and play my game
Issues: The lob difficulty breaks 'turn' because it makes all summons 10 levels bigger... I know of no good work around for this issue..
We fought some Sirens and upon resting we were attacked by a lone one. Rel Sundan didn't have any berserker ability left and was put under the effect of feeblemind, having no means to dispel since we can't rest to regain a dispel effect spell. Game over, I assume. I believe feeblemind is permanent.
EDIT: Just kidding, it is not permanent??
We picked up Dorn and cleared the mine, on our way out we met up with that wizard guarded by slimes who killed us. I underestimated him and died. The slimes got us and when we fell back some ogrillons attack us. All of us were slowed. Rel was under the sleep effect while dorn almost died several times. Thinking we had got cleared of the slimes, they caught up with Rel and we couldn't do anything. He died.
@RelSundan Feeblemind from the sirens is not permanent. Just wait (if you have a party and your game is not over).
Yeah I realized that, I always thought it was permanent. I am dead anyway now, this was harder than I'd imagine.
In my last game where this happened it most certainly was permanent. As they just chipped away at my health one point at a time until I was dead. However, I understand what is being said. If other party members can rescue you, a good night's sleep can work wonders.
@Grond0 - Almost there! Good luck! And take your time! After all, there's no more important fight for you to do. And use your expendables! Not like you need to save them for later.
In transit once more I killed a winter wolf. Needless to say this time I picked up the pelt! I joined up with Imoen, Xzar and Montaron. Montaron picked up a cloak from Algernon and Xzar kept Algernon company whilst the rest of us visited Ulgoth's Beard. Once more Montaron picked up a number of useful things for the party: scrolls; a ring of freedom of action; and a hammer. I left him there whilst I went to the Friendly Arms Inn with Imoen. There I killed tarnesh before entering. Imoen had Algernon's cloak and did the talking. We were given 6 slow poison potions to enable us to take on some spiders in Beregost. Khalid and Jahiera joined us and we went together to Nashkel. We took on an assassin who cast rigid thinking on me. Imoen killed her. Unfortunately the customers there became hostile but we managed to leave without killing anyone. We then agreed to help in the mines and I sold the wolf pelt. After that we helped Drienne and her cat fully recovered. In transit we met yet another winter wolf who met the same fate as the other two. A couple of ogres were next to die at the gnoll stronghold. We visited the caves and emptied a chest there before heading north where we killed another ogre and a polar bear. We were given some boots as a reward for that. We then headed north and helped Brage after which we headed north of the Friendly Arms Inn to do some hunting. Ajantis joined with us and we entered the ankheg nest, Imoen keeping well back due to her poor armour. Unfortunately an ankheg targetted her and killed her. Needless to say, we headed south to the inn where we raised her. We returned and ensured that this time Imoen was outside the nest as we hunted inside. We killed two more but Ajantis was so badly injured that I was unable to fully heal him. We therefore joined Imoen and rested only to be attacked by an ankheg. Imoen quickly dashed inside the nest for safety whilst we fought and killed it. This raised Imoen's level to 4.
What I cannot understand is why when Imoen joined the party she was only level 2. All the other party members went up several levels upon joining. ??? She is only in the party for role playing reasons, Montaron being a far stronger thief.
Before heading off to see Mel I made use of a scroll of PfM as well as various potions. On arrival I concentrated on killing the slayer shadows as they appeared and then using the Big Metal Rod to wear down her stoneskins. She got quite a few missile hits in during a time stop, but otherwise needed criticals to hit (even without me using the Big Metal Unit, which would have made movement around the area more difficult) - allowing regeneration to keep my HPs up. Once my own missiles had gone through stoneskins I immediately attacked in melee. She was doing a lot of damage back to me, but I kept punching away and was rewarded just before I would have had to retreat myself with her withdrawal.
That was an excellent result as I only used up one GWW on that incarnation.
After finishing off the fodder (getting a bit of quick healing by using Blackrazor) I sorted out Yan-C-Bin (staying at range with him) and summoned Mel's next contender. Once again an early time stop allowed Mel to do a lot of damage before I picked off a slayer shadow and a couple of death tyrants. Without much damage incoming I then switched to missiles, with a bit of Blackrazor to replenish HPs. Mel's constant dispels, malisons and earthquakes were no real problem and I stuck to missile use this time - countering a couple of attempts to heal herself by switching to GWWs with the BMR. That meant I now had 13 GWWs left at this stage.
Cryonax was no problem - the trolls being beaten up in melee and the other enemies using Firetooth. For Mel's 3rd incarnation I decided to stay away at the start of the battle on the assumption she would go straight into a timestop again. She put up lots of slayer shadows first, but I was about as far away as possible when she used a timestop - but she immediately homed in on me anyway and from near maximum HPs missile damage almost killed me outright - good job she needed a critical in a follow-up shot as I tried to get away.
I used a GWW with Blackrazor on the chasing slayer shadows to try and get some healing, but got none - and then Mel used another timestop ...
I went to the Throne this time thinking I needed to be more aggressive and I was - but still not enough so I think. Last time I faced that 3rd incarnation she also killed me with a timestop, but that was on at least the 5th one of those - she generally had prioritised casting spells before that. That was before the last patch though and it seems to me that all Mel's incarnations have been given generally more aggressive AI. I think next time I meet her I will need to improve AC as much as possible and essentially ignore everything else and just target her continuously with the BMR. Her spells are not disrupted easily, but timestop takes a long time to cast so hitting her a number of times during the cast gives you a decent chance of stopping it. Even if I had been using hardiness those 2 timestops would probably have killed me and if she went into melee any timestop would certainly be fatal, so I suspect the best defence will be a good offense.
@Grond0 It is always my policy (regardless of how big my party is - whether 6 party members or 1 like you) to always ignore her minions and go straight for her. This is in part due to her big heal she can do as well as she can replenish her minions ad infinitum I think. I suppose a possible exception might be vanilla Balors, as those Balors have 15% chance of a vorpal kill with no save offered - best they are dead before going for Mel. Maximum defense (high AC, with potions of mind focusing for example) is definitely desirable. Minion distractions can help too, if you can summon some.
All the same, you had a great run. I think your focus on GWW was good, as she is much harder to kill without it (because she will attempt to heal herself).
I never get to ToB much anymore so I remember it sparsely, but is there the option to increase the distance between you and melissan when she casts the time stop... Like more than one screen. Then it takes some time to get to you thus less hits...?
Comments
I am wondering if halflings in EE are the better slingers that they are supposed to be. Does anyone know?
I don't know off-hand Wise, but would be pretty easy to test:
1) make a brand new elf with 19 DEX - equip sling and look at Thac0 - note it
2) make a brand new halfling with 19 DEX - equip sling and look at Thac0 - if the halfling has better Thac0 than the elf, then your answer is yes - if not then no.
I'm at work so can't do the test myself, but maybe someone with a lot more time than me (RE: Grond0) could do it.
Also, BGEE applies a strength bonus to sling attacks (like vanilla BG does for attacks with throwing axes).
EDIT: There's also the arcane strength spell that can be used. Granted the reverse is true (elf could use potions of mind focusing), but those are only few in number in BG 1.
Previous updates at:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/823161/#Comment_823161
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/823258/#Comment_823258
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/823312/#Comment_823312
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/823373/#Comment_823373
With Aasim's admonitions still ringing in my ears I tried (with some success) to be more cautious this session. The first main target was the de'Arnise Hold where a roomful of golems managed to hit me exactly nil times (Ras helped against the iron golem).
Back in Athkatla I went to call on Mencar. As usual Brennan was immobilised by Kitthix to ensure he couldn't run away and stealth and magical attacks finished the rest off pretty quickly without the need to use the stairs at all.
With the proceeds from those encounters I bought the good stuff from Roger and Mrs Cragmoon before looking for a bit more treasure from Captain Dennis. The initial attack there was again pretty effective - leaving only a couple of enemies to be sorted out at the end with the help of a Soulbeam.
Once more in Athkatla the last of the vampire ambushes triggered. I tend to avoid those ambushes as they can be deadly for some characters, though this one is actually very well equipped to deal with them (due to immunity to charm, movement speed and stealth). As I still had just enough funds to pay Gaelan Bayle I went to do that (getting to level 18 as a result). Aran's items unfortunately are not much use to me (the ring being crowded out by Gaxx and Claw, while the AoP is unusable by monks in the EE). However, Mook and the Guild Contact offered some quick and easy XP. While in the Bridge District I also topped up my natural MR with a potion of magic protection in order to get the berserker horn.
While that potion was active I went to smack down Mekrath and his pet yuan-ti (at that point I also stopped picking up most treasure as there's not much need for money any more).
Next up was a trip to Umar. Some tasks around the village got me to level 20 before a quick trip through the Temple. Both liches there were beaten down using Daystar dual-wielded with the Scarlet Ninja-to (after first killing all their companions).
The final objective for this time was the Planar Sphere. I quickly got to level 22 there fighting the halflings - Kayardi's spells are potentially dangerous so I did most of the fighting there from range.
Sun soul monk L24, 117 HPs (incl. 10 from ioun stone), 720 kills (+189 in BG1)
Sigrid, Priestess of Lathander, 5th BG1 update
- 1st update
- 2nd update
- 3rd update
- 4th update
We finally enter Cloakwood, where Sigrid refuses to slaughter Aldeth in cold blood. Seniyad is placated however when he recognizes Jaheira (nice BG1 NPC Project content) and we agree to help him with some more urgent business: his beef with the Shadow Druids. We kill all Spiders in the second area to see Minsc upgrade to Spider's Bane, and the Shadow Druids in the third Cloakwood area because they all recognize Jaheira and go hostile. We save a druid named Beador in the fourth area and then trek back to the third to deal with a dangerous fellow named Andarthe. He has a second Druid casting spells and five or six animal summons. We focus on interrupting druidic casting and do quite well thanks to Dynaheir's magic missiles, Imoen's elemental arrows, and Khalid's Varscona. After suffering a few blows, Andarthe begs for mercy, and we grant it. We then slay the other druid and the summons, rest, and enter the tree house.
We defeat Amarande thanks first and foremost to Jaheira's Summon Insects. Interestingly, his Fire Salamander shape's fireshield does not neutralize the insects as I expected with SCS. Amarande's aides fall to physical force and a wand scorcher by Dynaheir. Jaheira receives a nice +2 club from Seniyad for her work.
I'm using Khalid (Dead Shot), Minsc (Composite +1) and Imoen (shortbow to be replaced by Eagle Bow) as archers in pretty much every battle. We have a serious amount of enchanted arrows and a particular fondness of arrows of biting, as the attentive reader may have noticed by now. With up to 8 poisoned arrow attacks per round, enemy casters are very likely to be neutralized by our archery. When facing melee attackers, we let Jaheira and Sigrid do the tanking as they have the best AC in the party and Sigrid has the best saves. When not, they're more likely to be casting spells (Doom, Summon Insects, Command, Silence, Hold Person, Holy Smite are favorites though the priestesses also keep several curative spells memorized). Imoen operates as a pure archer. Khalid and Minsc switch to melee only when the situation calls for it: they get engaged by melee characters, close quarters prevent them from using their ranged weapons effectively, or Jaheira and Sigrid are taking too much damage and we need some off-tanking. These combat tactics have been working very well so far.
Even the mighty Davaeorn has no answer to them. We are invisible, thanks once more to Kahrk's Invisibility 10' Radius scroll, but unbuffed as we enter his lair (no prebuffing on either side is my adage). Imoen disarms traps and we approach the wizard. He knows we're there because despite our invisibility, he addresses us. Our movement toward Davaeorn puts us beyond the reach of his Web / Stinking Cloud's AoE. We proceed into the corridor that leads to three treasure chests. Jaheira is the first to reveal herself, throwing a necklace fireball at Davaeorn and one the Battle Horrors. To my surprise the Battle Horror suffers fire damage while I was sure that Davaeorn's BHs were immune to fire.
- Ragefast could not be convinced to release Abela. I think this is due to low CHA Minsc being closest to Ragefast, and thus being the one to do the talking. We defeat the wizard with arrows, and then set Abela free ourselves.
- Sunin makes two victims: Khalid (after suffering major fire damage from the wizard's sequencered Flame Arrows, as he was still wearing Gorion's belt, an item the use of which I should have phased out long ago), and Dynaheir (who tried to save Khalid by making him invisible, only to see him die and herself suffer from a Skull Trap; she flees outside but is felled by one of Sunin's aides who follows her there).
- In small groups, Degrodel's minions are too strong for us. We rely heavily on Dynaheir's wand scorchers and Sigrid's wand flamestrikes. (Luckily there are no innocents about). After meeting Degrodel and accepting his quest, Sigrid uses Detect Evil to discover that Degrodel is evil. We decide not to help him. Via Vail and Quenash we acquire the Cloak of Balduran. The Helm we find a few weeks later. Apparently Vail had decided not to take it back.
- The battle at the Iron Throne is bloody and chaotic. Sigrid, Imoen, and Dynaheir have near death experiences due to Aasim's repeated use of his Wand of the Heavens. Opening fire kills Alai. We swiftly descend the stair. Jaheira and Imoen get hit by Naaman's Chaos. Dynaheir dispels it on Imoen but not on Jaheira, casting Dispel Magic from scroll. Luckily Jaheira stays quiet. But Imoen then gets Confused, Dominated, and Emotioned. She survives with 5 HPs as Minsc and Khalid fell Aasim and Naaman. Jaheira returns to her senses, we heal and we go back upstairs. Zhalimar gets fireballed and flees to the roof for some reason. Two Shennaras choose Sigrid as their target. She suffers one backstab, manages to Hold her assailant, but has to call Jaheira for aid when the second Shennara strikes twice to give her a second near death experience.
Candlekeep is our next destination. We do not fight Rieltar and his companions but get arrested for killing them anyway. We loot the tombs. Sigrid's STR increase finally allows her to upgrade to full plate. In the caves she Silences Prat and Sakul while Imoen and Minsc poison them with their arrows. In return, Sigrid and Minsc suffer Minor Sequencered magic missile damage. Sakul is easy pickings but Prat is dangerous even without spells. He hits hard. When he's close to defeating Minsc, Jaheira Dooms him and Sigrid Holds him.
Dynaheir casts PfPetrification on Sigrid, and she uses HP + DUHM + Boon of Lathander to see how capable she is at dealing with Greater Basilisks. (She turns out capable enough with 2 APR and a Thac0 of 7. Still, Minsc would have done the job just as well I guess.) Slaying the Basilisks, Sigrid reaches 110k XP, and her final BG1 level, level 8. She picks War Hammers as her fourth weapon proficiency, next to Maces, Slings, and Flails.
We escape from Candlekeep, killing some Ogre Mages on the way out. Being wanted in Baldur's Gate, we decide to lay low for a while. We leave for a small village north of Baldur's Gate that we hadn't visited yet, Ulgoth's Beard.
Journal of Spugnor
I decided to take on Bassilus, but when I saw a rigid thinking spell coming I forgot about bravery and ran for the sake of self-preservation. I was still affected by it, but Bassilus had no idea where I was. When I again approached, Bassilus cast hold person. Again I fled, only this time followed by a zombie and a wolf. This time the spell had no effect so I continued to run until only the wolf was following. Now that we were on a more even playing field I killed the wolf before going in search of the zombie. It was then time for Bassilus. Now it was my turn to cast spells as he apparently had none left. A blindness spell left him helpless with the result that I didn't even have to put expensive bullets in my sling.I went to the temple for my reward and rested in Beregost. It was then time to deal with Zargal. I charmed Geltik who was killed by Zargal. I was badly hurt and also poisoned with the result that I had to flee leaving Geltik's belongings behind. I decided to leave Zargal for another day and headed northwards instead.
There I killed an ogre with a belt fetish and after identifying it, donned one that protects from piercing weapons. How I wish that I had been wearing it when fighting Zargal's party! I then returned to find Zargal who I charmed and he killed Malkax, a hobgoblin, and a ghoul before turning hostile. I had hoped that he would have at least been injured by the ghoul, but that was not the case.
I therefore ran away, but only to cast a blindness spell on him. It was successful and my sling did the rest.
Afterwards in transit, I was attacked by a winter wolf. I quickly changed belts before attacking it with my sling. The belt that I had found at the site of Gorion's death proved invaluable.
Rel Sundan, the berserker
Previous episodesFirst update
The party runs into Edwin, a mage who asks the party to aid in his raid (That rhymed, nice Rel) on the gnoll Stronghold. The party agrees to help him, but Rel got more pressing matters to attend to, so he Edwin's task has to wait. Edwin doesn't really have any choice so he tags along.
The Coast
Rel Sundan has been very excited to visit the coast, as there have been rumours about Sirens and other dangerous creatures that he could test his mettle against. He traveled their and met the Nymph Shoal, who was interested in "the mage." Edwin spoke to her, and she asked him to kiss her, he could not refuse. The party looking away, to make sure they don't have any monsters sneaking up on them, suddenly returns and sees Edwin dead on the ground, it took them a brief moment to realize what happened. Rel rushed the girl and hit her with the hammer several times, Imoen took a shot at her. She yeilded, asked for mercy. The party lowered their weapons as the Shoal revived Edwin and explained her situation. But as she was talking a big ogre mage approached them. He tried to kill the party but fell pretty quickly. Shoal thanked us for her freedom and took off.The party proceeded down along the coast and got ambushed by a massive army of giants, ogre and other disgusting monsters. The party thought them off pretty well until Rel took a blow, causing him damage. The weather turned bad quickly. It was a storm along the coast. Tiax was hit by a lightning from above but survived. The party fled and several lightning strikes hit the ogres, causing them to drop dead. Apparently the party received the XP for the kills.
Was this a blessing from a god? Who favored us? With the backup from nature, we took our stand and killed the last monsters. We also ran into this mage, who we killed.
We discovered a crazy gnome, who asked us to find a ring in the stranded pirate ship. That was an easy task, we did as he asked and he gave us a potion of... lava? He told us to throw it at our toughest enemies. We left the coast, and now we headed towards our next destination, the desert.
The Desert
Rel and his party have heard about a wizard with a army of basilisks who roams the eastern desert, close to the temple of Lathander. They are a threat to the town, and the evil wizard has been petrifying adventurer who has traveled the region.When they arrive, they plan their approach. Viconia goes invisible and scouts the area, once she found the Basilisks she returned to the party to inform them. Edwin then cast spells that will grant immunity from their gaze on Rel, who hunts them down and kills them with little effort. VIconia keeps going invisible and scouts the area. She spots the wizard and call to the others.
They sneaked up on him and killed the wizard quickly with help from Tiax's ghast who disabled him in the first blow. Rel and the Ghast killed the surrounding Basilisks. Viconia also spotted another group of people armored to the teeth, and she called out.
They found another Ghast on the way, a friendly one, who aided in Rel's mission. Rel talked to the party, at first he thought they were friendly people with the same intentions as him, but he was mistaken. They instantly insulted the party, without saying anything else before that. Rel didn't accept that from them, so he charged at them. Edwin took a shot and fell back, later he returned and cast horror at the party. The ghasts quickly killed the leader and one of the archer, Rel killed the rest with help from Tiax and Viconia who held the archer and the priest. We killed them with little effort, took their stuff and left.
The Gnoll Stronghold
The is now ready to leave for the stronghold Edwin was talking about. We went through the forest without encountering many enemies, and the few ones were not lethal against the party. Arriving at the stronghold we just took the classic approach "full force forward." The party drove over the bouncers, and then gnolls. They were many, but they couldn't hurt the party one bit.We executed the witch as Edwin asked and we left the stronghold, picking up a mysterious tomb on the way in one of the caves.
The Forest
On our way back we went for some more ogre hunting, so we tracked some down. It was easy since the grass was wet and muddy from the storm. We were closing in on them when a bunch of Half-ogres asked us for some iron. We rejected them and they attacked us, but we killed them easilyViconia spotted a group of bandits while she was scouting for the ogres.
Here I can also confirm that the Ioin Gallchobhair IS a human, and IS NOT the same Gallchobhair in the sewers of the Baldur's Gate 2, as I believe @Jaheiras_Witness mistakenly understood.
Reference 1 and reference 2
She had a talk with them and they tried to kill us. Sending the ghast in with Rel as a tank, the party cast disabling spells on them and they were held and killed in a matter of seconds.
We finally discovered the ogres we've been hunting and we killed them.
End of update 2
Video
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The final bit of work I was planning prior to pursuing Imoen was at Windspear Hills (who can resist the charms of a few dryads). The first challenge there was the vampires and I was level drained by one of those while trying to release a sunray. Without any restoration scrolls to hand I had to make the long trip back to town (where I found I'd got up to level 25) before returning to breeze through some genies and sort Samia out.
Various werewolves and golems failed to put up much of a fight and Tazok found he should have stayed in BG1.
Intending to go to the Graveyard next I realised I was short of stakes and went to get some from Aran Linvail - who also got me up to level 27. I saw those appear in my inventory, but rather oddly when I tried to use one on a vampire's bed they had all disappeared again. I don't think I had been given anything else en route, so I think that must be the inventory bug I've seen from time to time. However, a trip to the Lathander temple got some new supplies and Bodhi was soon pleading for a sling GWW to stop (I used my sling quite a bit on the vampires there to avoid the possibility of being drained).
Seeing I still had Tazok's key in inventory I decided to take another trip to the Temple Sewers before reporting back to Aran Linvail. As I could only handle a single suck from the illithid most of the work was done there at range,
At Brynnlaw a sunray chased away the greeting party of vampires. A GWW then disposed of Perth before he could buff,
I took ship with Saemon and, for once, aided the King (no prizes for guessing why).
Sun soul monk L33, 137 HPs (incl. 12 from ioun stone), 1,074 kills (+189 in BG1)
I guess I just prefer spending my limited time adventuring in Faerun as a neutralish rogue. Evil is hard for me too. I actually have an active playthrough with a female NE Blade. She killed Minsc in self-defense when her desire to discuss compensation for freeing Dynaheir caused him to go all berzerk, and I could live with that. But later, she killed Dynaheir for Edwin, and I just felt bad about it. She has a cool party, with Eldoth being her closest ally, but I don't know if I can keep the evil up.
Finally, I also created Blackraven, a CN Half-Elven Swashbuckler with my own portrait. I would role-play him the way I would be in my imagination, were I a Bhaalspawn. A lovable scoundrel.
Anyway, will see if I can fend off restartitis
Your story just gets more amazing with each post.
(first post here)
Trademeet! I haven't fully committed to the three-person party yet, so I bring Mazzy along for a little while.
IWD2's Spell Focus feats give -4 save penalties to our best spells. Chromatic Orb can paralyze for 13 rounds, and Static Charge can deal 1d8 damage per level (plus 20% extra from the Scion of Storms feat) and bypass magic resistance.
Chara has some deadly shapeshifts, but until we get half-dragon forms, only the Fomorian Giant form can hurt enemies who are immune to nonmagical weapons. Chara can do nonmagical fire damage in Remorhaz form, but since the weapon has no enchantment, they can't kill Spirit Trolls with it.
I spend a few Arrows of Fire before remembering the Efreeti Bottle is a bountiful source of fire damage spells.
I test out Frisk's Ball Lightning--which I've finally tweaked to be area-effect weapons--against some enemy spiders, but it's not very impressive considering we only get to throw less than 10 balls before we run out, and Frisk's THAC0 isn't as reliable as I'd like.
As amazing as Chara's AC is in Will o' Wisp form, a lucky critical hit is all it takes to put them in danger.
On, in this case, three critical hits in a row. I still haven't given Chara and Asriel their full 1d8 HP per level yet.
Our advantage lies mostly in a strong offense, and the Efreeti adds to it. Instant-cast Fireballs are pretty special.
Most of the benefit is not that they cast quickly, but that they are easier to time as a result. You don't have to predict when the damage needs to strike in order to disrupt an enemy spell; there's no time gap to worry about.
Since Asriel, Chara, and Frisk all are coded as mages, they level up pretty slowly, which means we only have enough spell slots to protect one character (Frisk, of course) with Chaotic Commands. Mazzy fails a save despite having a 95% success chance--you can never rely on luck in a no-reload run--and gets charmed.
Asriel barely survives a hostile Call Lightning spell. That low HP is really dangerous.
Chara switches to Will o' Wisp form so they can serve as a decoy while our Efreeti launches a second Fireball.
Kyle&Linda clings to life. Asriel survives another lightning strike from a Shadow Druid, while Mazzy suffers a far deadlier strike from a stray Static Charge from Chara.
Call Lightning is tough, but Static Charge is lethal. It only strikes once per turn, but it lasts a long time and can strike indoors. I always loved that spell--it's very gratifying to see the carnage it can cause, even if the targeting is random and unreliable.
Asriel tries to fix Mazzy, but the IWD2-style Exaltation spell I created isn't working properly.
It can't cure charm effects! I'll need to go back and tweak it further.
We use the same strategy against Dalok, using the Efreeti to bomb them and establish an early lead. Dalok has Free Action or Chaotic Commands and is immune to Frisk's Chromatic Orb paralysis, but the magic damage goes right through Dalok's defenses.
As long as the enemy doesn't dispel our defenses, our offensive output should be enough to carry the day. With IWD2's high APR values and Mauler's Arm to help boost Asriel's STR above 18, Asriel deals Kensai-grade damage.
All it takes, though, is a single Remove Magic spell to take that power away. And with BG2-exclusive spells and effects banned, our only defense against it is going to be Aegis--a level 9 spell that only Frisk will ever be able to cast. It's going to be a long time before we're safe from enemy mages.
My mods erroneously prevent me from having Cernd kill Faldorn on my behalf. Rather than try to fight her myself (which might actually be doable considering Frisk's options), I use CTRL-Y on Faldorf to emulate Wolfboy's victory, and toss the magical staff I wasn't supposed to receive.
Before returning to Athkatla, we report to Lord Logan Coinpurse for bigass profit and fame.
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Back in Athkatla I bought yet more potions before sneaking through the Graveyard to find the vampires social club. The top floor there was cleared mainly using GWWs with Firetooth (with a rest to recharge those). I got up to level 34 there before venturing downstairs. The vampires blood collection was tainted by holy water before I sneaked round depriving Bodhi of any support - she then became the last in the line of vampires to fail to reach me through a Firetooth barrage.
Back at the Underdark Exit Elhan was waiting to take me to Suldanesselar (and get me up to level 35). I avoided most of the potential conflicts there using stealth, but did get the chance to practice dragon killing tactics a bit more - Ras once again coming up trumps to occupy Nizi's attention.
A quick tour of hell saw me become immune to weapons below +2, gain 10% MR (which will put standard MR above 100% in ToB), gain 15 HPs (and Blackrazor), gain 20% elemental resistance and gain +2 strength. After shooting down the Balors the other demons were pummelled before I sought out the Slayer. Once his misleads were cleared away it only took 3 GWWs to send him for a fiery bath (the cutscene starting prevented me taking a screenshot there).
Moving straight on to ToB Illasera failed to survive a single GWW. Most of the 1st challenge was simple as they struggled to get through my -14 AC. Duke Eltan did hit regularly at the end, but he still didn't quite make me resort to run and shoot tactics. I also got to level 37 somewhere in that lot.
In Saradush I opened up access to the spell shop (just to be able to buy the scrolls needed to upgrade the
shower curtain+2 cloak) before persuading the vampires to show me some hidden delights in the prison. Leaving those hidden (after attacking a couple of vampires and realising that moving to ToB had switched my script on again - Grrr) I sneaked straight through to find Gromnir. I didn't quite move far enough away in time to avoid being seen by the mages after they used true sight, so went back downstairs and slaughtered the guards there before doing a couple of expeditions up and down to finish off Gromnir - gaining level 38 as a result.At the Forest of Mir I would normally have fought fair, but couldn't be bothered this time and used a PfU scroll
mindheartFor the second challenge I used potions of storm giant strength and power, along with Flaming Fists, in order to finish off my clone before it could buff.
At the Oasis I stopped off just long enough to pick up the Answerer
At Sendai's enclave I struck down the disguised drow captain,
Up to that point that felt like a very good battle - and then the game crashed. I find playing through an area again tends to be much more dangerous as a result of impatience, so left redoing the battle for the next morning. The statues were again not too much of a problem, but the real Sendai gave much more of a fight. She managed to hold me briefly with an implosion, used various protection spells & healed herself twice and also used a couple of pierce magics (countered with a potion of magic protection). I finally beat her down on my 12th GWW.
Sun soul monk L39, 159 HPs (incl. 14 from ioun stone), 1,236 kills (+189 in BG1)
Btw am glad with the way you handled that game crash.
Hear text as mp3,
To hell and back,
I started getting cocky and nearly had my ass kicked by the doorman... good thing a Fighter Druid can use 'Raise Dead' scrolls or I was buggered.
I decided to try an alpha strike against the mage which killed him outright!... then the buggy Beamdog scripts kicked in and put him back in play. The second times a charm so my frost wand did the trick.
the boss | angel girl part of the fight went to plan
Bugs:
The sequencer bug is STILL an issue at the end game because of the scripted dreams... its best to clear it with ShadowKeeper and not a game breaker.
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The 3rd Pocket Plane Challenge was no problem - I just stayed at range and used Firetooth GWWs to wear the Slayer down.
For Draconis I just meleed his human form (which doesn't use a magical weapon), though that proved costly when the dragon appeared and hit me with a breath before I got quite far enough away. I went to find somewhere to hide
The tunnels were no obstacle and helping Iycanth got me to the XP cap.
I decided to go and trade in some pantaloons for the BMU, though doing that overloaded my inventory and a couple of things evaporated into thin air (the Book of Infinite Spells disappearing having never been used anyway).
With vulnerability to both backstabs and criticals I was a bit wary of the 4th Pocket Plane Challenge, but putting on the BMU and switching other equipment gave me an AC of -21, with a further -6 against piercing weapons. That was enough that the Favoureds only managed to hit me once (for minimal damage) while they were being beaten down using Flaming Fist GWWs.
Back in Amkethran Saemon got me into the courtyard and I ran past the ambushers before they could attack. This character has died in an earlier run after being held by Balthazar, so this time I equipped the Ring of Free Action. He still managed to briefly knock me unconscious with a Shadowless Kick, but that also pushed me away to avoid follow-up attacks while disabled. I thought I had him when his Bigby's was foiled by free action,
For the 5th PP Challenge I didn't want to wear the BMU as the extra size of that means evading attacks from the Bone Blades by running round is made much harder. Without the BMU I still had -18 AC, with a further -20 to missiles and decided that should suffice - and indeed the Ravager needed a critical to hit. With regeneration shrugging off those occasional hits it was just a matter of time before the Sling of Everard wore down the Ravager. It survived all my GWWs, but finally keeled over not long after that.
That just leaves the Throne to go. Another of the earlier attempts with this character did make it that far, but failed against her 3rd incarnation due to the huge number of summons produced and continual magic damage. I concluded that to be successful I need to take a more aggressive line with her - hence the concentration on GWWs this run. Another issue is that I was thinking earlier in the run that perhaps I should be venturing deeper into Watcher's Keep in search of some level drain protection. However, I've never cleared below the 2nd level of that in single player and don't feel inclined to take the time to start now, so will just push on to confront Mel. Let's see if that works out ...
Sun soul monk L40, 167 HPs (incl. 15 from ioun stone; 5 from amulet), 1,279 kills (+189 in BG1)
Hear text as mp3,
Transfer,
I am starting a new BGEE2 run for Puk and Sarah to continue the challenge
I play at Lob level with extra damage turned off... no mods!
The way I import a multi-party into a single game;
Issues:
The lob difficulty breaks 'turn' because it makes all summons 10 levels bigger... I know of no good work around for this issue..
Rel Sundan, the berserker
We fought some Sirens and upon resting we were attacked by a lone one. Rel Sundan didn't have any berserker ability left and was put under the effect of feeblemind, having no means to dispel since we can't rest to regain a dispel effect spell. Game over, I assume. I believe feeblemind is permanent.EDIT: Just kidding, it is not permanent??
We picked up Dorn and cleared the mine, on our way out we met up with that wizard guarded by slimes who killed us. I underestimated him and died. The slimes got us and when we fell back some ogrillons attack us. All of us were slowed. Rel was under the sleep effect while dorn almost died several times. Thinking we had got cleared of the slimes, they caught up with Rel and we couldn't do anything. He died.
End of run
Video 1Video 2
Journal of Spugnor
In transit once more I killed a winter wolf. Needless to say this time I picked up the pelt! I joined up with Imoen, Xzar and Montaron. Montaron picked up a cloak from Algernon and Xzar kept Algernon company whilst the rest of us visited Ulgoth's Beard. Once more Montaron picked up a number of useful things for the party: scrolls; a ring of freedom of action; and a hammer. I left him there whilst I went to the Friendly Arms Inn with Imoen. There I killed tarnesh before entering. Imoen had Algernon's cloak and did the talking. We were given 6 slow poison potions to enable us to take on some spiders in Beregost. Khalid and Jahiera joined us and we went together to Nashkel. We took on an assassin who cast rigid thinking on me. Imoen killed her. Unfortunately the customers there became hostile but we managed to leave without killing anyone. We then agreed to help in the mines and I sold the wolf pelt.After that we helped Drienne and her cat fully recovered. In transit we met yet another winter wolf who met the same fate as the other two.
A couple of ogres were next to die at the gnoll stronghold. We visited the caves and emptied a chest there before heading north where we killed another ogre and a polar bear. We were given some boots as a reward for that.
We then headed north and helped Brage after which we headed north of the Friendly Arms Inn to do some hunting. Ajantis joined with us and we entered the ankheg nest, Imoen keeping well back due to her poor armour. Unfortunately an ankheg targetted her and killed her. Needless to say, we headed south to the inn where we raised her.
We returned and ensured that this time Imoen was outside the nest as we hunted inside. We killed two more but Ajantis was so badly injured that I was unable to fully heal him. We therefore joined Imoen and rested only to be attacked by an ankheg. Imoen quickly dashed inside the nest for safety whilst we fought and killed it. This raised Imoen's level to 4.
What I cannot understand is why when Imoen joined the party she was only level 2. All the other party members went up several levels upon joining. ??? She is only in the party for role playing reasons, Montaron being a far stronger thief.
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Before heading off to see Mel I made use of a scroll of PfM as well as various potions. On arrival I concentrated on killing the slayer shadows as they appeared and then using the Big Metal Rod to wear down her stoneskins. She got quite a few missile hits in during a time stop, but otherwise needed criticals to hit (even without me using the Big Metal Unit, which would have made movement around the area more difficult) - allowing regeneration to keep my HPs up. Once my own missiles had gone through stoneskins I immediately attacked in melee. She was doing a lot of damage back to me, but I kept punching away and was rewarded just before I would have had to retreat myself with her withdrawal.
After finishing off the fodder (getting a bit of quick healing by using Blackrazor) I sorted out Yan-C-Bin (staying at range with him) and summoned Mel's next contender. Once again an early time stop allowed Mel to do a lot of damage before I picked off a slayer shadow and a couple of death tyrants. Without much damage incoming I then switched to missiles, with a bit of Blackrazor to replenish HPs. Mel's constant dispels, malisons and earthquakes were no real problem and I stuck to missile use this time - countering a couple of attempts to heal herself by switching to GWWs with the BMR. That meant I now had 13 GWWs left at this stage.
Cryonax was no problem - the trolls being beaten up in melee and the other enemies using Firetooth. For Mel's 3rd incarnation I decided to stay away at the start of the battle on the assumption she would go straight into a timestop again. She put up lots of slayer shadows first, but I was about as far away as possible when she used a timestop - but she immediately homed in on me anyway and from near maximum HPs missile damage almost killed me outright - good job she needed a critical in a follow-up shot as I tried to get away.
I went to the Throne this time thinking I needed to be more aggressive and I was - but still not enough so I think. Last time I faced that 3rd incarnation she also killed me with a timestop, but that was on at least the 5th one of those - she generally had prioritised casting spells before that. That was before the last patch though and it seems to me that all Mel's incarnations have been given generally more aggressive AI. I think next time I meet her I will need to improve AC as much as possible and essentially ignore everything else and just target her continuously with the BMR. Her spells are not disrupted easily, but timestop takes a long time to cast so hitting her a number of times during the cast gives you a decent chance of stopping it. Even if I had been using hardiness those 2 timestops would probably have killed me and if she went into melee any timestop would certainly be fatal, so I suspect the best defence will be a good offense.
All the same, you had a great run. I think your focus on GWW was good, as she is much harder to kill without it (because she will attempt to heal herself).
I must say that is an incredible run!