Our group, consisting of @Gotural, me and @CrevsDaak, reached Nashkel, on the way there dealing with hobgoblins.
We were ambushed by Senjak and Dorotea, but Dorn helped us.
me: We've sold Perdue's short sword Crevs: lmao me: I've bought it back Gotural: lol
Karlat was a dangerous melee opponent, but Zareen, our F/M, was still of the 1st level, so she couldn't be one-shot.
During one of the area transitions we were ambushed by bandit archers. MP lagged, so we managed to pause only after the death of Zareen. Our Bhaalspawn, Proesis, gulped an Invis potion and we fled. After this event we decided to activate an auto-pause on Enemy sighted.
And just after raising Zareen we again were ambushed. This time, by hobgoblins. We decided to fight.
Zal and Vax were dealt with without deaths from the Monty Python crew.
Crevs: won in the gnoll duel me: attack the gnoll afterwards Crevs: don't be racict to gnolls Crevs (a minute later, to the gnoll holding a magical halberd): Dieeee! Crevs: lmao
At the end of the session, we cleared the xvart village.
Overall, that was a fun session, with our characters leaving an extra low-level zone and getting HPs. Our dragon disciple and wizard slayer reached the 3rd level. Zareen is 2/2 as a F/M, while Glod is 2/3 as a C/T.
Just thinking that if lightning is a problem, then switching off the weather would seem to be the obvious answer. Am I wrong?
I've just realised there is a Weather option. I love this game. (I'm not gonna turn it off btw, I'd like to change how lightning works (electricity damage, maybe a bonus to Talos' followers... IDK) but nothing else).
Did the Slavers and dropped Aerie for F/T Yoshimo for now, just for banter variety. Wanted to use Aran but he stutter bugged.
Whitworth stepped on a slime trap while I was bantering with my daughter, truly a loving family is the no-reloader's bane. Thankfully it only knocked 50hp off...
I just re-tried my LoB SR+IR SCS Improved Ust Natha fight. I avoided the Wish bug using some custom items and spells to replicate the effects where needed. But then, around the same time as the first one, when demons had just started to enter the fight, I experienced a completely different bug, also relating to Wish.
I picked the Breach option, which had worked fine before (not in the sense that it Breached anybody, but in the sense that it didn't hurt), and then I got this.
I don't know what causes this bug, but I've seen it before. The bug basically erases all your party members, blacking out their portraits, killing them, and bringing the game to an end. Very thorough, and quite unstoppable despite any Death Wards you might cast.
Things weren't looking great either way, since my sorcerer had run out of places to hide from enemy spellcasters and their Remove Magic spells. At level 34, I still couldn't reliably survive two castings of Remove Magic, even though I could negate critical hits using the IR Adventurer's Robe, negate normal spells with Spell Trap and Greater Spell Deflection, and hit undispellable -24 AC and guaranteed saving throws with Moment of Prescience.
I still probably would have survived, since Improved Alacrity could bring it all back and the enemies would need multiple critical hits to kill my sorcerer, but the odds would not have been great.
The really weird thing is that Wishes during Time Stop actually caused temporary blocks on Improved Alacrity. I'd be unable to cast a spell, as if my aura was clouded, even with IA active. I had to resort to a custom spell to get my spellcasting working again, and CTRL-J to imitate teleporting across the map with SR's Dimension Jump.
It seems the genies from Wish can talk-block your characters!
I'm going to have another go at it, but this time, I think I'm going to avoid using Wish entirely. Instead, I'm just going to re-create the Wish spell entirely using custom spells and a random number generator, bypassing all the dialogues.
Positioning is going to be a nightmare, since there are multiple teleporting demons with Remove Magic spells. I think I'm going to end up backed into a corner, having my Seducer tank melee attacks while my sorcerer hides behind him, relying on (erroneously stacking) Wish Hardiness spells, Moment of Prescience, and Spell Trap to survive when Remove Magic dispels his normal buffs. From there, Improved Alacrity will bring back his normal buffs and Wish will keep producing a stream of Dragon's Breath and Summon Planetar spells while my Seducer spams Domination.
Funny thing is, a Fighter/Druid could easily solo the entire encounter by stacking resistances and slowly grinding away at the enemy. But my Charname is a sorcerer, which can't stand up to this encounter even at 8 million XP.
Unless I tweak my install so mage HLAs are level 9 spells instead of innate spells. Then I could just get infinite spells using Spell Trap and Comet, since SR's Comet is not party-friendly and strikes as a level 9 spell, and keep Improved Alacrity active indefinitely.
Unless I tweak my install so mage HLAs are level 9 spells instead of innate spells. Then I could just get infinite spells using Spell Trap and Comet, since SR's Comet is not party-friendly and strikes as a level 9 spell, and keep Improved Alacrity active indefinitely.
Does Spell Trap absorb area effect spells in SR then?
Trio made some good progress. For one, we made it out of Irenicus' dungeon without any problems - we were even able to kill the vampire while doing so.
The circus problem was also solved without incident. Vorgan's true seeing made this quite easy.
Freeing Hendak also went pretty well, mainly because the party as much as possible took out the Beastmaster's beasts before the beastmaster could activate them.
Lilacor was a good quest, as Corsen dualed to thief down here. Vorgan got hit hard by the kobolds guarding the staff, so Corsen and Gremlin had to use his bows. Gremlin was thankful for his belt of piercing after all (which he said he hardly expected to use).
The slavers in the moored ship were another story altogether. Corsen was getting hit hard (being thief and all) and nearly died. Some snares and backstabs by Gremlin helped solve the initial slaver group with Captain Haegan. For the next group, Cosen suggested using thrown traps but Gremlin said he would have to rest first. Vorgan said that is hardly necessary. So we give it a go.
Problem? Vorgan gets stunned (chromatic orb maybe). The thieves beat a hasty retreat as Vorgan falls shortly thereafter. The enemies pursue. Gremlin lures them, while then Corsen hides in the shadows, backstabs the most rear enemy, hides again, backstabs, etc. Gremlin runs and shoots and also backstabs and the thieves win the fight despite being heavily outnumbered.
But now we need to resurrect Vorgan. Vorgan gets his stuff, we loot anything of notes, and report our success to Hendak. Corsen is doing lots of leveling through all of this. We had just enough time to give Galen Bayle his money. This got Corsen level 9 - one more level and he'll have unlocked his fighter abilities.
We saved our session here.
Party Status: Corsen (Protagonist, controlled by Corey_Russell) Level 9 thief/Level 9 berserker (inactive), 91 HP, 211 kills, Ulvaryl Gremlin (controlled by Grond0), level 11 bounty hunter, 61 HP, 166 kills, Jalantha Mystmyr Vorgan (controlled by Gate70), level 9 inquisitor, 94 HP, 244 kills, Great Basilisk
The same bug as before, but this time, no Wish spell. The game suddenly ended with the whole party's portraits blacked out--but this time, we were all but guaranteed to win. Judging by the game files, there were only two major enemies left to go, and we were poised to take them down easily. The party was in a solid position: our corner of the map was crawling with friendly celestials, my sorcerer was fully buffed, everyone was rested, we were about to cast more Wish spells with Improved Alacrity, and the stronger enemies (the only ones with Remove Magic) were several rounds away, stuck behind a chokepoint and several rows of weaker enemies.
I don't understand what's going on. Is there an instant kill script somewhere in the Ust Natha fight?
For roleplaying purposes, I can't just walk away from this fight or try to escape; I have to kill every last drow in the city.
The same bug as before, but this time, no Wish spell. The game suddenly ended with the whole party's portraits blacked out
Unfortunately, it doesn't have anything to do with Wish. Just try to put your party in a non-hostile area (i.e. Temple District); take a long walk, go to school/work/sleep, when you come back, your party will be dead. Ugly, ugly, EE bug.
A little more progress. Completed Harpers, made progress on various minor quests like Lilarcor, and then did the DeArnise keep. Along the way Yoshimo was switched out for Anomen (who's not such an ass with Angelo around but I have a bad feeling that a LE character will push him to revenge...), and Nalia (M/C) for Arath (who was being a little buggy). The DeArnise romance gave us the stronghold to play around with for the future, and Whitworth made level 12. Latest close call was everyone bar Whitworth failing a save vs. Prebek's confusion. Silliness as Whitworth had potions of clarity & magic protection on hand at the time but I was a bit distracted and didn't notice the spell going off in time.... The party has rather a ranged bent- especially with the purchase of Item Revisions' Strong Arm (+10 damage!) for Kivan- generally not much gets through alive through a screen of skeletons.
It happened again. I managed to save in the middle of the fight, so it won't be as bad when I try again, but the bug seems to always happen at the same time: just a few rounds after the Nabassu and Glabrezu appear. It might be the Balor causing the problem, as it arrives just after the other demons.
A typical session of ups and downs yesterday saw the dwarves move further through the Chapter 2/3 quests. They started on the up with a very smooth progression through the de'Arnise Hold with their first rest only taken just prior to sorting out Tor'Gal.
Calis turned down the offer of a stronghold though.
Moving on to Windspear Hills there was a typical early hiatus when Calis had to turn round to go and fetch the acorns from storage. The first lot of golems in the dungeon hit hard,
but all but one of the vampires died in a sunray.
Moving on through Samia died quickly
and there were no more problems prior to Firkraag other than Juto saving against a FoD from Conster. The dragon though caused an immediate problem when Calis was scared right at the start of the fight. On his own Juto had no chance in a contest and opted for the self-sacrificing approach of leading Firkraag away to the entrance - that successfully prevented him from targeting Calis after gulping down the barbarian.
After a use of the RoR the duo tried again. Calis made a rare use of one of the icedust potions from the slaver ship to survive a breath attack as he led Firkraag away from Juto's equipment, before the duo attacked in melee. Calis was forced to retreat slightly when almost dead, but Firkraag made the mistake of turning to Juto - running out of HPs before the sturdy dwarf.
Back in Athkatla Cromwell forged the red dragon armour - but Juto couldn't use that so it was just sold again immediately.
The final action was in the Planar Sphere, where there was another death early on. The more dangerous first lot of halflings were dealt with without trouble, but Juto took heavy damage from melee attacks by hasted halfling warriors against the second lot and died before he could retreat.
After another use of the RoR Lavok was beaten down and the duo are currently sitting at the Sphere entrance ready to go in search of a heart.
Calis, fighter 16, 134 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 478 kills (+177 in BG1) Juto, barbarian 16, 152 HPs, 355 kills (+196 in BG1), 6 deaths
Okay. I'm going to post on my LoB run, but it will take a while. The game's not over yet, and I already have 1,500 screenshots.
800 of them came from the Ust Natha fight. There's going to be lots of stuff about that one.
But since I never finished posting on my Icewind Gate 2 run... I should mention that I did in fact complete it. Frisk, Asriel, and Chara made it through Shadows of Amn without reloading. It was actually surprisingly easy. We had some extremely dangerous gaps in our defenses--namely, almost no defense against stun or magic attacks--but IWD2's buffing spells gave us tremendous offensive output, plus incredibly low AC and near-immunity to normal magic. Static Charge didn't hurt either; it bypassed both MR and spell protections and had a -4 save penalty thanks to Spell Focus: Transmutation. Remove Magic could have been devastating, but careful positioning kept Frisk's buffs intact, and having only three party members meant that we were fairly resistant to Remove Magic, since our levels were rather high.
In lieu of a lengthy series of posts explaining each fight, I'm dumping all of my screenshots in some .zip files in case anybody wants to look at some of them. I wouldn't look through the whole bunch; there are too many and they wouldn't be as interesting without commentary.
Unfortunately, it doesn't have anything to do with Wish. Just try to put your party in a non-hostile area (i.e. Temple District); take a long walk, go to school/work/sleep, when you come back, your party will be dead. Ugly, ugly, EE bug.
Do I understand this correctly, the PC dies in the EE's everywhere automatically on a timer?
Unfortunately, it doesn't have anything to do with Wish. Just try to put your party in a non-hostile area (i.e. Temple District); take a long walk, go to school/work/sleep, when you come back, your party will be dead. Ugly, ugly, EE bug.
Do I understand this correctly, the PC dies in the EE's everywhere automatically on a timer?
Unfortunately, it doesn't have anything to do with Wish. Just try to put your party in a non-hostile area (i.e. Temple District); take a long walk, go to school/work/sleep, when you come back, your party will be dead. Ugly, ugly, EE bug.
Do I understand this correctly, the PC dies in the EE's everywhere automatically on a timer?
This makes me think that if this is so, we need to know how to re-set the timer otherwise we won't be able to role-play as we want. This has happened to me, but I haven't known why.
My first incarnation ended in Candlekeep at the hands of Mendas. an assassin from a mod that had foolishly been made even more powerful by the all-powerful god Shadowkeeper. However during that incarnation something was discovered. He seemed invincible to swords, but not to knives. My second incarnation therefore prevailed.
Due to the deadliness of these attacks Gorion and I fled Candlekeep, sadly not soon enough as we were attacked by yet more assassins and he was killed. Heding southward I was able to help the transmuted Mellicamp.
I made a short visit to Beregost before heading north where I killed an ogre.
I then decided that southwards might be safer but after being attacked by two ogrillon and three over-zealous flaming fist mercenaries, began to wonder if I was right.
I therefore switched back to my original plan and headed northwards again where I was attacked by yet another assassin.
This time I was aided by some guards which made things somewhat easier.
This makes me think that if this is so, we need to know how to re-set the timer otherwise we won't be able to role-play as we want. This has happened to me, but I haven't known why.
@Aasim will probably respond himself, but I really don't think he intended to suggest there was any timer operating - simply that this is a relatively common bug and therefore just leaving the game running for a long period will result in it triggering.
This makes me think that if this is so, we need to know how to re-set the timer otherwise we won't be able to role-play as we want. This has happened to me, but I haven't known why.
@Aasim will probably respond himself, but I really don't think he intended to suggest there was any timer operating - simply that this is a relatively common bug and therefore just leaving the game running for a long period will result in it triggering.
Your answer causes me to wonder how that could happen. perhaps a time-out like our college computer had back in the 60s. Then it was in case there was a loop in your programming. Of course I had one in mine. In those days, a single badly punched card could cause chaos.
This is the continuation of the run started at the start of 2016. In other words, our Bhaalspawn, Shari the Inquisitor ( @Tresset), is back! Meshanis the Wild Mage ( @Gotural) and Uzume the Barbarian (me) are back as well. As for Ajshenrtvarden ( @CrevsDaak), the destiny will be clear from the following report.
Many month ago, we stopped just at the end of the Durlag's Tower. So we proceeded to the final fight there. "Ready", we thought.
In the first round, a bad fireball from the Demon Knight finished Ajshenrtvarden (I swear, I've checked her name 4 times) without any way to raise her.
After some doubt about the amount of damage (we even reloaded just in case) we all agreed that the damage and the death were legitimate. We killed the Demon Knight, though, with Tresset using the Durlag's Goblet every 1-2 rounds, in the most reckless manner. After that, we dismissed Ajshenrtvarden.
Tresset felt nervous before facing the cultists after I told him that would be one of the most dangerous fights in the game. But we did alright. True Sight from our Inquisitor did the trick against crazy assassins and protected mages, Chaos from our Wild mage fihished the fight. And Uzume, well, she just used potions she had.
Now, Aec'Letec.
Son of Mr Locks&Traps went setting traps to the basement, only to be revealed by the cultists. Shari and Uzume quickly entered the room.
That was a tense fight, with Tresset ripping the cultists into pieces with his enhanced combat abilities thanks to potions and me spamming fireballs from the Necklace of missiles. Gotural entered the room a little bit later and helped with Greater Malison and wands.
We finished the session with the Palace fight. Lannath was one-shotted by Sarevok, and Belt survived with Near Death status, but we prevailed.
As you can see, Monty Python, vol. 2, plays a lot faster than the 3rd volume, with actually big fights finishing quickly. Now only the Undercity and Sarevok are left in BG1 for this forum's Multiplayer group.
This makes me think that if this is so, we need to know how to re-set the timer otherwise we won't be able to role-play as we want. This has happened to me, but I haven't known why.
@Aasim will probably respond himself, but I really don't think he intended to suggest there was any timer operating - simply that this is a relatively common bug and therefore just leaving the game running for a long period will result in it triggering.
Your answer causes me to wonder how that could happen. perhaps a time-out like our college computer had back in the 60s. Then it was in case there was a loop in your programming. Of course I had one in mine. In those days, a single badly punched card could cause chaos.
@Wise_Grimwald Progammatically, all that needs to happen is one of the status effect flags that cause instant death needs to trigger. For example, there could be a routine that saves something to memory, but it overwrites the wrong portion of memory. And if it ever writes say 1 for a death effect (petrification, death, etc.) then the game detects the "death" and ends the game.
Unfortunately, it doesn't have anything to do with Wish. Just try to put your party in a non-hostile area (i.e. Temple District); take a long walk, go to school/work/sleep, when you come back, your party will be dead. Ugly, ugly, EE bug.
Do I understand this correctly, the PC dies in the EE's everywhere automatically on a timer?
No, no. It's just a bug; but afaik there isn't any connection to a specific creature animation, combat script or anything else. I remember few people from old Bioware thread having this issue (sorcerous Amon & Pooky battle), and when I started playing EEs it happened to me as well - one time I did exactly what I described above (just entered Temple District for the first time in the game, nothing can kill you there); went out, when I came back I had game over screen, with all party members' portraits gone.
Unfortunately, this bug does make playing no-reload on EE problematic - because if you die suddenly, you MIGHT think it's the bug, but really you stepped on trap, FoD, arrow, etc. but if you missed the combat window before the death happens...
For example, you may have had the game paused in BG 1 EE (so you thought), but accidentally double-tapped the space bar (meaning not really paused). You go to the bathroom, and come back dead, you could think it's the EE bug but was a wandering kobold arrow actually.
This is clearly a bug. If you die normally without being chunked your portrait doesn't disappear. When that happens without even any attacks occurring it's a bug. As Aasim notes there were instances of the same or similar behaviour happening in the original game, but it was rare. I've seen it on quite a few occasions just in my own games in the EE ...
By the way, I figured out what was causing the erratic behavior from Wish.
1. After you pick a Wish option, the dialogue uses a script to makeyou, not the djinni, cast one of several different Wish spells. This overrides any other actions you were taking at the moment, including casting a different spell. However, if another djinni speaks to you quickly enough, he can get in before you cast the right spell, preventing it from happening entirely. The last Wish you make will always take effect (unless, of course, a completely different dialogue interrupts it), but the others can be talk-blocked.
2. The Wish spell that casts Breach on all enemies is erroneously rigged NOT to cast instantly. This means that if you select it, your character will attempt to cast Breach against everyone enemy in range, one after another, rather than casting 10 Breach spells simultaneously. That's why I saw my sorcerer using slow-casting abjuration spells at the end of a string of Wish dialogues.
Still no idea what causes the phantom death syndrome, though.
In vanilla or mod i have had animation problems with baalors before. The one in the svirfneblin village comes to mind where the game would crash due to a spell it would cast or something.
By the way, I figured out what was causing the erratic behavior from Wish.
1. After you pick a Wish option, the dialogue uses a script to makeyou, not the djinni, cast one of several different Wish spells. This overrides any other actions you were taking at the moment, including casting a different spell. However, if another djinni speaks to you quickly enough, he can get in before you cast the right spell, preventing it from happening entirely. The last Wish you make will always take effect (unless, of course, a completely different dialogue interrupts it), but the others can be talk-blocked.
2. The Wish spell that casts Breach on all enemies is erroneously rigged NOT to cast instantly. This means that if you select it, your character will attempt to cast Breach against everyone enemy in range, one after another, rather than casting 10 Breach spells simultaneously. That's why I saw my sorcerer using slow-casting abjuration spells at the end of a string of Wish dialogues.
Still no idea what causes the phantom death syndrome, though.
Report it on support.baldursgate.com. If you can provide as much evidence as possible, this bug will be detected and fixed. After all these years.
Upon leaving the Friendly Arms Inn, I continued northwards where I disposed of a widow's undead husband before agreeing to help Sonner. Though upon talking to Tenya, I changed my mind about helping him. I killed a nearby ankheg before dealing with Sonner and telling Tenya about it.
Upon discovering that my plan to go to Baldur's gate was a non-starter, I went to Beregost for supplies. There I was attacked by Karlat, who did not survive.
I continued south to the carnival where I reted before continuing to the Nashkel mines. There I was attacked by another assassin called Zargos Flintblade. I killed him without too much trouble and then Greywolf.
Heading west, I killed Vax and Zal.
Needing more supplies, I returned to the Carnival where I bought supplies and killed Zordral.
I then returned to the Gnoll Stronghold. There I killed Gnarl and Hairtooth.
I then killed some more assassins and some powerful gnolls.
Once I had plundeed the chest there, I returned to Beregost where I took on Silke who killed one of those together with herself using a lightning bolt.
I then helped the Dudley family before returning to the area north of the gnoll stronghold where I killed a polar bear as well as helping Laurel.
.
Upon returning to Nashkel, I killed Neira.
I then went to the Lighthouse area where I was able to defeat some Sirene despite a rigid thinking spell.
I was able to make peace with some other sirene and then raided a cave where I killed three flesh golems.
Comments
Monty Python, vol. 3, report 2
Start of the run
Our group, consisting of @Gotural, me and @CrevsDaak, reached Nashkel, on the way there dealing with hobgoblins.
We were ambushed by Senjak and Dorotea, but Dorn helped us.
me: We've sold Perdue's short sword
Crevs: lmao
me: I've bought it back
Gotural: lol
Karlat was a dangerous melee opponent, but Zareen, our F/M, was still of the 1st level, so she couldn't be one-shot.
During one of the area transitions we were ambushed by bandit archers. MP lagged, so we managed to pause only after the death of Zareen. Our Bhaalspawn, Proesis, gulped an Invis potion and we fled. After this event we decided to activate an auto-pause on Enemy sighted.
And just after raising Zareen we again were ambushed. This time, by hobgoblins. We decided to fight.
Zal and Vax were dealt with without deaths from the Monty Python crew.
Crevs: won in the gnoll duel
me: attack the gnoll afterwards
Crevs: don't be racict to gnolls
Crevs (a minute later, to the gnoll holding a magical halberd): Dieeee!
Crevs: lmao
At the end of the session, we cleared the xvart village.
Overall, that was a fun session, with our characters leaving an extra low-level zone and getting HPs. Our dragon disciple and wizard slayer reached the 3rd level. Zareen is 2/2 as a F/M, while Glod is 2/3 as a C/T.
Did the Slavers and dropped Aerie for F/T Yoshimo for now, just for banter variety. Wanted to use Aran but he stutter bugged.
Whitworth stepped on a slime trap while I was bantering with my daughter, truly a loving family is the no-reloader's bane. Thankfully it only knocked 50hp off...
I picked the Breach option, which had worked fine before (not in the sense that it Breached anybody, but in the sense that it didn't hurt), and then I got this.
I don't know what causes this bug, but I've seen it before. The bug basically erases all your party members, blacking out their portraits, killing them, and bringing the game to an end. Very thorough, and quite unstoppable despite any Death Wards you might cast.
Things weren't looking great either way, since my sorcerer had run out of places to hide from enemy spellcasters and their Remove Magic spells. At level 34, I still couldn't reliably survive two castings of Remove Magic, even though I could negate critical hits using the IR Adventurer's Robe, negate normal spells with Spell Trap and Greater Spell Deflection, and hit undispellable -24 AC and guaranteed saving throws with Moment of Prescience.
I still probably would have survived, since Improved Alacrity could bring it all back and the enemies would need multiple critical hits to kill my sorcerer, but the odds would not have been great.
The really weird thing is that Wishes during Time Stop actually caused temporary blocks on Improved Alacrity. I'd be unable to cast a spell, as if my aura was clouded, even with IA active. I had to resort to a custom spell to get my spellcasting working again, and CTRL-J to imitate teleporting across the map with SR's Dimension Jump.
It seems the genies from Wish can talk-block your characters!
I'm going to have another go at it, but this time, I think I'm going to avoid using Wish entirely. Instead, I'm just going to re-create the Wish spell entirely using custom spells and a random number generator, bypassing all the dialogues.
Positioning is going to be a nightmare, since there are multiple teleporting demons with Remove Magic spells. I think I'm going to end up backed into a corner, having my Seducer tank melee attacks while my sorcerer hides behind him, relying on (erroneously stacking) Wish Hardiness spells, Moment of Prescience, and Spell Trap to survive when Remove Magic dispels his normal buffs. From there, Improved Alacrity will bring back his normal buffs and Wish will keep producing a stream of Dragon's Breath and Summon Planetar spells while my Seducer spams Domination.
Funny thing is, a Fighter/Druid could easily solo the entire encounter by stacking resistances and slowly grinding away at the enemy. But my Charname is a sorcerer, which can't stand up to this encounter even at 8 million XP.
Unless I tweak my install so mage HLAs are level 9 spells instead of innate spells. Then I could just get infinite spells using Spell Trap and Comet, since SR's Comet is not party-friendly and strikes as a level 9 spell, and keep Improved Alacrity active indefinitely.
Last Update
Trio made some good progress. For one, we made it out of Irenicus' dungeon without any problems - we were even able to kill the vampire while doing so.
The circus problem was also solved without incident. Vorgan's true seeing made this quite easy.
Freeing Hendak also went pretty well, mainly because the party as much as possible took out the Beastmaster's beasts before the beastmaster could activate them.
Lilacor was a good quest, as Corsen dualed to thief down here. Vorgan got hit hard by the kobolds guarding the staff, so Corsen and Gremlin had to use his bows. Gremlin was thankful for his belt of piercing after all (which he said he hardly expected to use).
The slavers in the moored ship were another story altogether. Corsen was getting hit hard (being thief and all) and nearly died. Some snares and backstabs by Gremlin helped solve the initial slaver group with Captain Haegan. For the next group, Cosen suggested using thrown traps but Gremlin said he would have to rest first. Vorgan said that is hardly necessary. So we give it a go.
Problem? Vorgan gets stunned (chromatic orb maybe). The thieves beat a hasty retreat as Vorgan falls shortly thereafter. The enemies pursue. Gremlin lures them, while then Corsen hides in the shadows, backstabs the most rear enemy, hides again, backstabs, etc. Gremlin runs and shoots and also backstabs and the thieves win the fight despite being heavily outnumbered.
But now we need to resurrect Vorgan. Vorgan gets his stuff, we loot anything of notes, and report our success to Hendak. Corsen is doing lots of leveling through all of this. We had just enough time to give Galen Bayle his money. This got Corsen level 9 - one more level and he'll have unlocked his fighter abilities.
We saved our session here.
Party Status:
Corsen (Protagonist, controlled by Corey_Russell) Level 9 thief/Level 9 berserker (inactive), 91 HP, 211 kills, Ulvaryl
Gremlin (controlled by Grond0), level 11 bounty hunter, 61 HP, 166 kills, Jalantha Mystmyr
Vorgan (controlled by Gate70), level 9 inquisitor, 94 HP, 244 kills, Great Basilisk
The same bug as before, but this time, no Wish spell. The game suddenly ended with the whole party's portraits blacked out--but this time, we were all but guaranteed to win. Judging by the game files, there were only two major enemies left to go, and we were poised to take them down easily. The party was in a solid position: our corner of the map was crawling with friendly celestials, my sorcerer was fully buffed, everyone was rested, we were about to cast more Wish spells with Improved Alacrity, and the stronger enemies (the only ones with Remove Magic) were several rounds away, stuck behind a chokepoint and several rows of weaker enemies.
I don't understand what's going on. Is there an instant kill script somewhere in the Ust Natha fight?
For roleplaying purposes, I can't just walk away from this fight or try to escape; I have to kill every last drow in the city.
Ugly, ugly, EE bug.
Calis, dwarf fighter (Grond0) & Juto, dwarf barbarian (Gate70)
Previous updates at:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/832940/#Comment_832940
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/833419/#Comment_833419
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/834754/#Comment_834754
A typical session of ups and downs yesterday saw the dwarves move further through the Chapter 2/3 quests. They started on the up with a very smooth progression through the de'Arnise Hold with their first rest only taken just prior to sorting out Tor'Gal.
Moving on to Windspear Hills there was a typical early hiatus when Calis had to turn round to go and fetch the acorns from storage. The first lot of golems in the dungeon hit hard,
Back in Athkatla Cromwell forged the red dragon armour - but Juto couldn't use that so it was just sold again immediately.
The final action was in the Planar Sphere, where there was another death early on. The more dangerous first lot of halflings were dealt with without trouble, but Juto took heavy damage from melee attacks by hasted halfling warriors against the second lot and died before he could retreat.
Calis, fighter 16, 134 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 478 kills (+177 in BG1)
Juto, barbarian 16, 152 HPs, 355 kills (+196 in BG1), 6 deaths
800 of them came from the Ust Natha fight. There's going to be lots of stuff about that one.
But since I never finished posting on my Icewind Gate 2 run... I should mention that I did in fact complete it. Frisk, Asriel, and Chara made it through Shadows of Amn without reloading. It was actually surprisingly easy. We had some extremely dangerous gaps in our defenses--namely, almost no defense against stun or magic attacks--but IWD2's buffing spells gave us tremendous offensive output, plus incredibly low AC and near-immunity to normal magic. Static Charge didn't hurt either; it bypassed both MR and spell protections and had a -4 save penalty thanks to Spell Focus: Transmutation. Remove Magic could have been devastating, but careful positioning kept Frisk's buffs intact, and having only three party members meant that we were fairly resistant to Remove Magic, since our levels were rather high.
In lieu of a lengthy series of posts explaining each fight, I'm dumping all of my screenshots in some .zip files in case anybody wants to look at some of them. I wouldn't look through the whole bunch; there are too many and they wouldn't be as interesting without commentary.
Journal of Æthelberht, Inquisitor.
Heding southward I was able to help the transmuted Mellicamp.
Previous report
This is the continuation of the run started at the start of 2016. In other words, our Bhaalspawn, Shari the Inquisitor ( @Tresset), is back! Meshanis the Wild Mage ( @Gotural) and Uzume the Barbarian (me) are back as well. As for Ajshenrtvarden ( @CrevsDaak), the destiny will be clear from the following report.
Many month ago, we stopped just at the end of the Durlag's Tower. So we proceeded to the final fight there. "Ready", we thought.
In the first round, a bad fireball from the Demon Knight finished Ajshenrtvarden (I swear, I've checked her name 4 times) without any way to raise her.
After some doubt about the amount of damage (we even reloaded just in case) we all agreed that the damage and the death were legitimate. We killed the Demon Knight, though, with Tresset using the Durlag's Goblet every 1-2 rounds, in the most reckless manner. After that, we dismissed Ajshenrtvarden.
Tresset felt nervous before facing the cultists after I told him that would be one of the most dangerous fights in the game. But we did alright. True Sight from our Inquisitor did the trick against crazy assassins and protected mages, Chaos from our Wild mage fihished the fight. And Uzume, well, she just used potions she had.
Now, Aec'Letec.
Son of Mr Locks&Traps went setting traps to the basement, only to be revealed by the cultists. Shari and Uzume quickly entered the room.
That was a tense fight, with Tresset ripping the cultists into pieces with his enhanced combat abilities thanks to potions and me spamming fireballs from the Necklace of missiles. Gotural entered the room a little bit later and helped with Greater Malison and wands.
We finished the session with the Palace fight. Lannath was one-shotted by Sarevok, and Belt survived with Near Death status, but we prevailed.
As you can see, Monty Python, vol. 2, plays a lot faster than the 3rd volume, with actually big fights finishing quickly. Now only the Undercity and Sarevok are left in BG1 for this forum's Multiplayer group.
For example, you may have had the game paused in BG 1 EE (so you thought), but accidentally double-tapped the space bar (meaning not really paused). You go to the bathroom, and come back dead, you could think it's the EE bug but was a wandering kobold arrow actually.
1. After you pick a Wish option, the dialogue uses a script to makeyou, not the djinni, cast one of several different Wish spells. This overrides any other actions you were taking at the moment, including casting a different spell. However, if another djinni speaks to you quickly enough, he can get in before you cast the right spell, preventing it from happening entirely. The last Wish you make will always take effect (unless, of course, a completely different dialogue interrupts it), but the others can be talk-blocked.
2. The Wish spell that casts Breach on all enemies is erroneously rigged NOT to cast instantly. This means that if you select it, your character will attempt to cast Breach against everyone enemy in range, one after another, rather than casting 10 Breach spells simultaneously. That's why I saw my sorcerer using slow-casting abjuration spells at the end of a string of Wish dialogues.
Still no idea what causes the phantom death syndrome, though.
Journal of Æthelberht, Inquisitor.
Upon leaving the Friendly Arms Inn, I continued northwards where I disposed of a widow's undead husband before agreeing to help Sonner. Though upon talking to Tenya, I changed my mind about helping him. I killed a nearby ankheg before dealing with Sonner and telling Tenya about it.Upon discovering that my plan to go to Baldur's gate was a non-starter, I went to Beregost for supplies. There I was attacked by Karlat, who did not survive.
Once I had plundeed the chest there, I returned to Beregost where I took on Silke who killed one of those together with herself using a lightning bolt.
I was able to make peace with some other sirene and then raided a cave where I killed three flesh golems.
Journal of Æthelberht, Inquisitor.
I fought some pirates at the lighthouse. A spell called me to panic, but once that had worn off, I was able to deal with them.