@CrevsDaak It could be a problem playing a paladin. In my games I just never talk to him. I refuse to talk to such riff raff.
Yeah, that's why I wanted to change it, but apparently it's intended. His dialogue file runs this:
ChangeClass(Myself,INNOCENT)
Not sure why, but I'm going to leave that there, anyway, if I played a Paladin I wouldn't kill him in the first place. And the next time I'll kill him before giving him the Boots back, unless I am in dire need of XP.
I have a problem with my set-up. As mentioned earlier, I uninstalled the Drizzt saga and reinstalled it in order to regain the level cap. It hasn't worked. I can still get experience over 161,000. Does anyone know how to put it back using Shadowkeeper perhaps? If you know, please inform me.
I have even started a new game and the cap isn't in that either.
0) The Bastard of Candlekeep (H-Orc Zerk, CN) - died to Nimbul's magic missiles (didn't recharge my zerks before leaving the mines map) 1) The Wild Dancer (Human Shaman, NG) - died to Carbos (stupid -4 AC penalty for ranged-in-melee) 2) The Fury Brand (Human Zerk, TN) - not dead yet
I have a problem with my set-up. As mentioned earlier, I uninstalled the Drizzt saga and reinstalled it in order to regain the level cap. It hasn't worked. I can still get experience over 161,000. Does anyone know how to put it back using Shadowkeeper perhaps? If you know, please inform me.
I have even started a new game and the cap isn't in that either.
If you're playing EE, check the override folder for a file name startare.2da and edit it with notepad or something that won't destroy the file. Change the 161000 in the line that says START_XP_CAP to the desired XP cap. You'll also have to edit the file xpcap.2da. This one's per class. Just drop a bunch of zeros for each one and you should be good. If you're not on EE, I think it's just the xpcap.2da file. If you can't find them there, use NearInfinity to edit them or install the BG2Tweaks component to remove the XP cap (might be the easiest one, link: http://gibberlings3.net/forums/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=973).
@CrevsDaak I think that you have misunderstood what I am trying to do. I am wanting the level cap back again as I am finding my characters to be over-powered. Nevertheless, your advice is appreciated as the information that you gave just needs to be applied slightly differently.
Very short update. I've cleared the Xvart village, Ogre area and killing the Half-Ogres in Drizzt's area besides a bunch more of creatures here and there.
Got a level from that, and loads of random creatures that didn't let me sleep. Almost got killed by the Hobgoblin elites in that area, I could only kill one of them and wasted around 7 potions of healing/*healing*/antidote which was pretty bad on my side.
Thanks to the hotfix supplied by @subtledoctor and assistance from Demivrgvs, I've finally managed to install both SCS and Spell Revisions and Item Revisions. Thank you both--I've been really wanting to do this for a very long time, and I would never have gotten it working without you two. Thank you.
This next run is on Legacy of Bhaal mode. It is a genocide run, meaning I have to kill as many people as humanly possible. Not just enemies, but everybody. I can only let somebody live if they're impossible to kill or if their death would create a game-breaking bug.
Appropriately enough, my Charname for this run is Carl, the charming mass murderer from Llamas with Hats.
Why is he at level 14 at the beginning of the game? Well, I died in a previous attempt--I don't even remember how, but I think it was actually an ambiguous case--and I was not willing to redo all the little quests I had done to build up the character. It's only an extra 1.5 million XP, which isn't that much in LoB mode. It'll only make a difference in the early game.
My second character is a Totemic Druid--partly because SR makes druid spells much, much more interesting, but mostly because, when I was first playing the game, I really needed a way to plow through Chateau Irenicus. Level 10 Spirit Animals are immune to nonmagical weapons, which means a Totemic Druid can get practically any party through Chateau Irenicus in LoB mode.
Our druid is Stan, short for Evil King Stanley Hihat Trinidad the 14th, the megalomaniacal pancake shadow from Okage.
Okage is actually rather well-written for its time, with a lot of quirky humor and meta commentary on games, and has gorgeous music, to boot. Not unlike Undertale.
Our thief is a Seducer, a kit I have finally revamped and properly balanced:
A Seducer is a thief who acts through persuasion rather than sleight of hand. Socially cunning and politically astute, they develop an ability to forge close relationships with the wealthy, powerful, or merely useful, and navigate complex social orders with speed and grace. Some may use their talents to influence people for the better, propping up and guiding the wise and honest, or exposing and ostracizing the corrupt and the selfish--others use their talents for personal gain, exploiting their allies' weaknesses, and destroying their opponents with whatever means they can.
Despite the name, a Seducer's abilities are more complex than attractiveness or charm. A Seducer uses psionic abilities and arcane magic as well as physical appeal to influence others, and can gain control over potentially any creature with a semi-conscious mind--even those of a different orientation, species, or plane of existence, as well as sexless creatures, constructs, and the undead. No mind is truly safe from a Seducer's grasp--only sheer will and mental fortitude can block the Seducer's influence.
Advantages: May cast Charm at will May cast Domination at will +1 Charisma Immune to charm and domination +2 to save vs. spell +2 to saves vs. enchantment spells 25% chance of shrugging off the effects of any psionic mental attack
Charm: Charms a humanoid target for 3 rounds on a failed save vs. spell at +5. The charm takes a full round to take effect. Every 2 levels after level 1, and every 3 levels after level 11, Charm's save bonus decreases by 1 and its range increases by 5, up to a maximum of a -13 penalty at level 50 and a range of 100 feet. Charm bypasses magic resistance, spell protections, and invisibility, and can target enemies outside of the Seducer's visual range. Charm has a 5% chance of affecting a non-humanoid target, and an extra 5% chance at level 4 and every 2 levels afterward, up to a maximum of 100% at level 40. Charmed opponents suffer a -1 penalty to save vs. spell for the duration of the effect.
Domination: Charms a group of humanoid enemies, as the Charm spell. Unlike Charm, the save bonus and the chance of affecting non-humanoid targets improve at half the rate of Charm, and Domination has a 75% chance of outright failure until level 9. The charm also only lasts for 2 rounds, and takes a full 2 rounds to take effect.
Disadvantages: Only receives 10 skill points per level (all skills are set to 40% normal value) Backstab only reaches x2 Using Charm prevents the Seducer from attacking, imposes a -2 AC penalty, and slows movement rate by half for 6 seconds. Domination imposes twice the penalties for twice the duration. Multi- and dual-classed Seducers suffer twice the penalties from using Charm and Domination, and cannot cast spells after using either spell.
This version of the Seducer finally scales with level. It gets really powerful at high levels, but even then it's completely helpless and vulnerable while using its charm abilities, which means it needs party support to survive. It used to be much stronger, but I nerfed it severely, slowing down its save penalty growth after level 11.
Our Seducer is Flowey, the sociopathic flower from Undertale.
It really wouldn't be a genocide run without Flowey.
I was also considering adding Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Mao Zedong to the team, but I decided against it.
I had three other characters in my previous LoB run (a non-genocide run), but I didn't think they were as interesting, so I ditched them. That decision cost us 4.5 million XP, but whatever.
Against @Lord_Tansheron's sage advice, I am going through LoB mode without basically no fighter levels. I'm going to try and scrape by with the resources I have. The Seducer kit will help, as will my starting XP boost (honestly, you should start LoB mode with 500,000 or 1 million XP each, just to make the early game less frustrating), and probably some exploits when necessary.
Legacy of Bhaal Genocide Run: Carl the Llama in BG2 (first post here) Totemic Druids trivialize a lot of early SoA in LoB mode. You can summon multiple Spirit Animals in a single round, they last 60 rounds, their attacks strike as +6 weapons, and they're immune to nonmagical weapons. @Lord_Tansheron usually eschews summons for this reason: even after the nerfs to their LoB HP, they're still quite overpowered.
Normally Spirit Wolves and Spirit Snakes are the most deadly critters thanks to their paralyze and poison attacks, but LoB enemies get +5 bonus to all saves, severely weakening save-based effects. Spirit Lions have the best damage output overall.
One of SR's changes (I'll be talking about a lot of them) is to shorten the casting time for Invisibility 10' Radius (now Invisibility Sphere) from 10 to 1. Carl, our sorcerer, turns the party invisible before the fight with the Ogre Mage and we let Stan's (our druid) summons tackle the Ogre Mage. The dryads aren't too sturdy, even with LoB HP bonuses--double HP plus 20 on top.
Normally I wouldn't bother fighting the Ogre Mage, but the terms of this run require me to kill everything, and I won't get another chance.
Flowey's Seducer kit cripples his thieving skills, but we get lucky with Detect Illusions.
The Fire Elemental and Spirit Lions tear down the mage. The Duergar are next. They stand no chance.
We bring Yoshi into the party just for a little extra power. Turns out Bounty Hunter traps can hold Mephits for some reason.
I thought it only worked on humans.
Spirit Animals wipe out much of the dungeon, including the Mephit Portals. Apparently I got a bug somewhere along the way and had to reload, because I took a screenshot to remind myself I cheated my way back through that fight.
Or maybe there was some other reason. This was a long time ago; my memory is patchy.
There's no other story here. Spirit Animals and Fire Elementals killed everything.
Stan's summons will be a staple of our strategy for a little while. He'll also be a fabulous defensive asset, as SR Pixie Dust grants Improved Invisibility. Flowey, as a halfling and a Seducer, doesn't need the save bonuses from II, but Stan and Carl certainly do. It helps us stay out of trouble while our summons take the heat.
I bring Viconia into the party because I really want to try out SR's cleric spells. Since our party is already high-level, she begins at level 13.
We head out to Imnesville in search of easy XP. Eager to spread destruction, we give swords and liquor to impressionable youth.
We won't be killing innocent people directly until later on, because I did not realize at the time that IR removes reputation's effect on store prices. Mass murder won't cost you a penny with Item Revisions installed.
The Killer Mimic is extremely dangerous in LoB mode, as its acid damage gets doubled and its superior HP lets it use its acid more often.
The solution? SR's Protection from Elemental Energy, a level 4 mage spell from Carl that lets him grant long-term immunity to any elemental damage type (acid, cold, fire, or electricity).
We don't get far in the Temple Ruins. At our levels, we'd see two liches in that dungeon, and we aren't remotely equipped to handle that kind of a fight. Trademeet, as always, is next.
Legacy of Bhaal Genocide Run: Carl the Llama in BG2 (first post here)
I usually pick Trademeet as an early quest option because the fights are fairly mild and the reward is quite high. Plus, the Efreeti Bottle is quite a nice prize, especially since SCS makes genies' spells uninterruptable.
Problem is, in Spell Revisions, Protection from Petrification is changed to the Expeditious Retreat spell from IWD:EE, tripling movement rate but disabling attacking and spellcasting. The only way to get immunity to petrification is to use an IR amulet or buy a pricy scroll. This means we have no immunity to Flesh to Stone spells, and though SR petrification doesn't cause death (it's a permanent hold effect that bypasses Free Action), we don't have Stone to Flesh.
The solution? Pixie Dust, which grants us save bonuses and also makes us untargetable. Oddly enough, Viconia's spectacular AC and improved invisibility still don't keep her safe from the djinn.
Djinn have always done crushing damage despite using sabers. Khan Zahraa and Faafirah are quite sturdy, especially with their multiple Stoneskin spells, but Carl has Breach to remove them.
The trolls are trickier. Normally I run past them, but this is a genocide run, and I know at least one group of enemies vanish after Faldorn dies. We have to fight the trolls. Since our party has no fighter levels, we use elementals, Spirit Animals, and a Shambling Mound to tackle the trolls. Pixie Dust makes our allies a tad sturdier.
We use Carl's Minute Meteors and Stan's Fire Elemental to finish off the trolls. The XP reward from a Spirit Troll is just absurd.
It takes time, like all LoB battles, but the trolls go down. We charm the first druid, in the fight before Kyland Lind, and get him to spawn some shapeshifting tokens so we can loot them from his body.
This will allow Stan to shapeshift despite being a Totemic Druid. I'll probably never use the tokens, but I like to have them anyway.
Next we have Kyland Lind, a very sturdy and well-buffed druid bolstered by shapeshifting spellcasters. We're going to have to deal with werewolves, bears, Call Lightning, and Insect Plague all at the same time. I buff Carl with Protection from Elemental Energy to grant immunity to Call Lightning, which could kill him in two hits. Viconia breaks out Unholy Word, inflicting 50% spell failure on all enemies.
Holy Word and Unholy Word are identical in SR. They only affect enemies, regardless of alignment, but otherwise work just like the original spells. Since LoB enemies get +12 to all of their levels, it inflicts deafness on everyone.
Carl Breaches an enemy druid, removing their troublesome Stoneskins, while Stan buffs with Storm Shield, a new SR spell that blocks nonmagical missiles as well as insect spells and clouds.
Carl manages to Feeblemind Kyland Lind, and the battle is over.
Feeblemind gets a -4 penalty in SR instead of -2. Saving throws are much more meaningful with SR installed; it's not so easy to get guaranteed saving throws.
The Spore Colony bridge will be tough, but I didn't know that at the time. I have a nearly perfect trump card in the form of a Shambling Mound. Although it doesn't have a weapon equipped for some reason (I've already reported this to @Demivrgvs, and it sounds like the problem is on my end, not SR) and therefore deals nonlethal damge, the Shambling Mound is immune to crushing damage like in Icewind Dale. The Myconids can't touch it.
Unfortunately, the Shambling Mound just doesn't have the power to make a dent in the enemy. The Spore Colonies conjure Myconids faster than the Shambling Mound can defeat them, so we have to rest and return with Fire Elementals for support.
There are so many Myconids on screen that it produces severe lag. I spend a lot of time looking elsewhere on the map, monitoring the fight via the dialogue box.
Stan and Viconia follow up with extra-laggy Fire Storm spells. It's not enough to kill the Myconids, but it deals a lot of damage scattered across so many targets.
It isn't enough. The Myconids break down our front line and advance on the party. Carl activates our primary escape option, and we are gone.
We rest and return and keep grinding down the enemy. Finally, we cross the bridge and corner the last of the enemies.
Dalok gives us little trouble. We Breach his numerous defenses (including a pesky Physical Mirror spell) and crush the enemy with summons. Only Faldorn remains.
Thing is, I can't legitimately claim the Staff of Thunder and Lightning unless I kill Faldorn myself. I don't get the druid stronghold if Cernd kills Faldorn. So I'm going to have Stan give it a shot.
Stan opens with Pixie Dust to buy himself time to activate his defenses. Turns out Faldorn has a perfect response.
SR Invisibility Purge strikes multiple times over several rounds, like True Seeing. Without invisibility, Stan lacks the pre-buffs that Faldorn has (that always struck me as incredibly unfair) and Faldorn crushes Stan with her Fire Elemental and a Flame Strike spell.
Stan got chunked. I decided in advance to treat chunking as a normal death, so I just reload. There's no limit to the number of times you can challenge Faldorn with a non-druid Charname, so one death is not a setback.
The next time around, Stan summons multiple Spirit Lions on the first round to form a shield. But Faldorn walks right around them and punches Stan in the face, and her dryad summons follow up with Summon Insects.
Then I realize Stan can break the encounter with a single spell, as long as he's willing to try it enough time. He opens up with Nature's Beauty, which in SR charms humanoid enemies for 10 rounds on a failed save vs. spell at -4. Faldorn makes her save multiple times and destroys Stan over and over, but eventually Stan charms her.
Enemies have no summoning cap even when they're charmed, which means we can use all of Faldorn's summoning spells against her. Summoned critters retain their allegiance even if the summoner is charmed or slain, which means her summons will stay under our control even when she turns hostile again. And since SR Nymphs can summon leopards, we can marshal an entire army before Nature's Beauty wears off.
It took many tries, but Faldorn's defeat is absolute.
We return to Trademeet to seize our reward. Big money and the Shield of Harmony.
Next up is the Mantle of Waukeen quest. I decide to ignore Lord Logan Coinpurse's plea, and hand the mantle over to Lady Lilith Lurraxol. I've never done this before, so it's a complete surprise when Skarmane Alibikkar barges into the room and turns hostile.
It's an even bigger surprise when Lurraxol turns hostile. She doesn't even give us a chance to hand over the mantle.
Lucky for us, there's been some confusion among her guards. When we escape the area to buff the party, the guards at the front see that Lurraxol is hostile, and turn against her. She doesn't know enough to fight back properly, so they just grind her down while our party hides.
Eventually Lurraxol targets us and Breaches Flowey, to no effect. Now that her aura is clouded, Carl rushes in to Breach her, knowing that she can't respond if he moves quickly.
All that's left are her guards. We retreat and buy time to haul out our summons. The guards have no chance.
We head into Lurraxol's house and tackle Skarmaen, who fails to defend himself. I thought from his sprite that he was a mage, but he doesn't use any spells (possibly because Viconia opened the fight with Unholy Word). A pity to spill so much blood over a simple piece of jewelry.
Lord Logan Coinpurse laments the loss, but we still have the hearts and minds of the people.
We'll kill them all later on, but right now there's no need--I still have stuff to buy at Trademeet once I have enough money. We settle for brutalizing Neeber.
Lord Coinpurse never asked for the Mantle of Waukeen, so it's ours. We stop by a local merchant to pawn it off, only to find that the thing is literally worthless.
Houston, we have a problem! Simon the Montfort and party went to the bandit camp and defeated Tazok who then left the area. All the bandits outside Tazok's tent were then killed. Web was then used against those in Tazok's Tent and everyone except Ender Sai were killed. We picked up the papers from Tazok's chest but the next chapter did not start. We have killed the wyverns but are unable to reach the Nashkekl Mines. They aren't even greyed out but the icon is totally missing. Suggestions?
Problem solved. The party returned to Tazok's tent and upon entering it, the chapter finished and the mines appeared on the map. I don't understand it, but everything is now A OK.
Still full of the holiday spirit we felt in the mood to provide everyone with a Happy New Year - so if you're in the mood for a giggle read on ...
In Saradush Juto wielded the iMoD to breeze through a vampire infested prison on the way to Gromnir's palace. Entering that invisibly allowed one of the mages to be struck down before he could buff and the others were picked off in a running fight with the odd GWW thrown in.
Looking to tackle Yaga-Shura the duo made a first stop at an undead-infested temple. After agreeing to fight fair there Juto initially attempted to stand and fight before finally running when he got down to single figure HPs! Calis was more cautious and just tackled things one at a time until only the Master Wraith was left.
Next on the agenda was the Fire Giant Temple. Calis initially hoped that rat form from the sewer cloak added to hardiness would push physical resistances past 100% - thus allowing blows to heal him from fire damage. However, 100% proved to be the limit and HPs got very low before the last of the greeting party of fire giants fell and he swapped to troll form to regenerate.
Juto had his ring of regeneration to heal himself, but rather more slowly - and he got jealous looking at how quickly Calis was piling on the HPs in troll form. As a result he decided to take advantage of that himself by getting some free healing from Foebane's LMD ability. He put in 3 quick strikes before withdrawing, but hadn't reckoned with multi-player lag. That meant that attacks continued after he withdrew and a 4th hit put Calis into danger, before a 5th struck as well ...
Completed Trollford from the DDz, but it had many bugs and undroppable items so I have given the party some extra xp and switched out bugged items for vanilla equivalents. The poor ai made me a little lazy but apart from enemies getting some spells off no extreme dangers were met with. Unfortunately I missed a nifty death magic immunity item at the end due to Whitworth getting impatient with the reward, and since DDz is in imperfect state I shall probably leave most of its quests alone from here. From here we will probably skin the Shadow Dragon and give Kivan a chance to catch up with Tazok (the vampires are a good testing ground for fighting Bodhi...) before heading off to Spellhold.
Legacy of Bhaal Genocide Run: Carl the Llama in BG2 (first post here)
Stoneskin only lasts 8 hours in SR, so even shorter trips can remove all of Carl's defenses. But with the Metaspell Influence Amulet, Invisibility Sphere casts instantly.
Spirit Animals slay the paladins. Plath Rededge is up next, and I worry about her--I've seen her casting Symbol of Death in the past, and as an enemy cleric, I'm sure she has Slay Living as well. Both could kill Carl if we're not lucky. Viconia inflicts 50% spell failure with Unholy Word to improve our odds.
Plath has always been a glass cannon, as she has neither armor nor Stoneskin to protect her.
I don't go much further, as I'm wary of Firkraag's dungeon. Instead, we head back to Athkatla and trigger the Suna Seni ambush. Invisibility Sphere buys us time to fortify our defenses.
Carl has recently gained a level, and can now cast a new SR spell.
Moment of Prescience replaces Improved Mantle and is a lot more interesting. It grants +20 to AC and saving throws and cannot be dispelled, so it effectively grants immunity to disablers as well as near-immunity to weapons. It can be Breached, but it's still a marvelous defensive spell.
We crush the enemy with summons; I don't even have screenshots. Same goes for the Renfeld ambush.
Moving on to the Docks, we take up Renal Bloodscalp's offer and spy on Mae'Var--mostly because I've decided to add Edwin to the party. Normally I just like him for his spell slots and hilarious voice, but he's one of the few characters would will stick with us when we start slaughtering the innocent folks of Athkatla. He'll fit right in with this party.
The term of the run require killing everything that can possibly be killed. Sometimes this means just picking optional fights...
...but other times, we just have to snipe at neutral folks before they disappear. We don't always land the final blow.
Rayic Gethras isn't so bad in LoB mode, when his moderate levels no longer grant the advantage they normally do. Viconia opens with Unholy Word, but it fails to stop Stan from getting Breached.
Then he fires off a Spell Sequencer that fills me with fear.
Carl has no resistance to electrical damage; if that bolt had hit him, he could have died. We really need to make sure Carl is fully buffed at all times. Party members suffer double damage in LoB mode; death can come very quickly.
Flowey has removed Ray-Ray's invincibility, paving the way for a Breach from Carl. Ray-Ray is hopeless.
The next couple of missions in the Mae'Var questline require no bloodshed. Not that we mind it.
Mae'Var is next.
One of the most distinctive things about SR is Dispelling Screen, which replaces Spell Immunity: Abjuration (Spell Immunity is no longer in the game in SR). Dispelling Screen covers the whole party, but only blocks a single Dispel Magic or Remove Magic. It also lasts 5 turns (a lot of SR buffs last that long) instead of one round per level.
Carl knows Dispelling Screen and Edwin has two or three slots dedicated to it, which means we can maintain constant immunity to Remove Magic--but only if the enemy uses a single Remove Magic spell at a time, and only if we move fast enough to restore our Dispelling Screen. It's a great spell, but it's costly, as it takes one level 5 spell slot to cast Dispelling Screen, and one level 3 spell slot to remove it. Finally, wizards aren't the only ones who can block Remove Magic.
With two high-level mages in the form of Carl, our sorcerer, and Edwin, and with Flowey's 100 Detect Illusions skill, we have great anti-mage options. Flowey removes Mae'Var's invisibility with Detect Illusions and we follow up with Breach, destroying Mae'Var's defenses in a single round.
Mavis doesn't last much longer after that.
This is roughly the time when I realized that Item Revisions removes all reputation bonuses and penalties for store prices. Evil parties don't have to worry about their death count at all. This means we don't have to wait as long to kill everybody in the game.
With the Mae'Var questline complete, we can now side with Bodhi without losing any opportunities. One of the important parts of this run is making sure we kill anyone who vanishes in the middle of a quest, lest we lose our chance later on.
Our trip to the graveyard triggers the Nether scroll quest, and since I think Edwin leaves the party if you don't pursue the scroll, we have to fight a lich.
Viconia is another stellar anti-mage tool. In SR, Magic Resistance adds to the target's MR rather than setting it. The net result? Near-total immunity to magic.
Of course, Magic Resistance can still be dispelled, and LoB enemies get +12 to caster level. Nevaziah probably casts over level 30. But thanks to SR, single-classed clerics like Viconia have some limited defense against Remove Magic.
Unfortunately, Viconia did not cast Shield of the Archons, which absorbs all spells for 10 rounds, with no limit. And that can do some things that 100% MR can't do. Viconia loses her MR the next round.
Nevaziah tries to escape with Shadow Door, but Carl manages to land a hit with Pierce Shield before the lich goes invisible. In SR, Pierce Shield removes 1 spell protection of any level, like in vanilla. But rather than decreasing the target's MR, Pierce Shield removes all of their combat and specific protections. That means Pierce Shield is effectively an unblockable Breach spell.
Nevaziah's vulnerability does not last. SCS mages usually play fair, but there are a few rules they can bend. For one thing, they can set contingencies to trigger when their previous weapon immunity spells vanish, which the player can never do.
Nevaziah wastes his few seconds of safety by Breaching Stan, our Totemic Druid who is the last valuable party member in this fight.
Carl Breaches Nevaziah and throws Minute Meteors, staying away from the Web and Stinking Cloud spells that keep disabling Stan and Viconia.
Nevaziah foolishly tries to debuff Flowey, with a valuable spell that has no use against a single-classed thief.
The lich loses his last chance to make an impact on the party. We put him down.
Time to tackle the Shadow Thieves. They're much easier to handle than vampires, but classes without Stoneskin suffer horribly from their backstabs.
I stop by Watcher's Keep to grab some treasure. Turns out the Paladin's Bracers give better bonuses, and can now be worn by a single-classed thief (even without Use Any Item!) or anyone with cleric levels.
Item Revisions even grants bonuses to some quest items.
For a moment, I regret that I have to give away the slippers. Then I remember that I have to kill the lich to satisfy the terms of the genocide run. I get to keep the comfy slippers!
Back to the main questline. Midway through the first mage-heavy Shadow Thief fight, I realize that Viconia never equipped her armor after Arkanis Gath killed her in one shot.
Worse yet, the enemy mages have Banishment spells (the SR version of the Death Spell) that can destroy all of our summons in a single round.
The enemy applies intense pressure. Carl gets boxed in, and though his defenses are strong, I'm not sure they'll last. Teleport Field in SR offers a save and is therefore no longer a reliable way to get out of a corner, but SR also introduces Dimension Jump, a level 1 version of Dimension Door.
It's a very situational spell, but it's quite nice. You can even use it to jump over triggers and traps, and maybe even do some sequence breaking if you know where to cast it.
The enemy keeps up the pressure. Carl restores his defenses.
Sorcerers are generally supposed to be offensive bombers, but all of my mage Charnames are designed for survival more than anything else. Carl has terrible offensive power in almost all circumstances; most of his spell picks are chosen just to keep him alive. Minute Meteors are his most powerful weapon.
Carl can't really do anything about the crowd of melee thieves around him, so he grants himself another 4 rounds of near-invincibility and keeps chipping away at the other mage.
Carl further bolsters his defenses with Greater Spell Deflection, while Edwin pins down the enemy mage with PW: Stun.
PW: Stun is usually pointless in LoB mode when even the weakest enemies have 90+ HP at full health, but in SR, PW: Stun always stuns the target for at least 1 round.
Carl finally hits level 18 and picks Wish. Item Revisions severely nerfs the Wand of Lightning trick, but we can still use it to cast 3 Wish spells with one casting. It's not really necessary, but it's more reliable and it's faster for collecting wands. Unfortunately, wands now have Intelligence requirements, and Carl doesn't have the stats to use many of them.
I would later discover that Wish can circumvent that requirement, as it can set all of your stats to 25.
Stan also hits 3 million XP, and chooses Earth Elemental form as his first HLA. It sets his APR to 2, his THAC0 to -5 counting STR bonuses, and grants 50% physical damage resistance, which stacks with other sources, like the 20% resistance from IR's Orc Leather and 10% resistance from Armor of Faith. If I picked a Fighter/Druid instead of a Totemic Druid, it would also stack with Hardiness and the Fortress Shield, which grants 10% resistance in IR.
Edwin discovers the truth of the Nether scroll. It turns out to be a blessing and a curse.
I don't like Edwina's voice, so I jump ahead in time to expedite his transformation back. Degardan teleports in to fix him back up, but a fight breaks out nonetheless.
Degardan is a strong mage, but we wipe him out with two Pierce Shield spells to take down his defenses and a Planetar to finish him off.
I think it's time we dealt with the trolls at the De'Arnise Hold, and snatched the Orc Leather from the basement. But the people we save turn out to be insufficiently grateful.
Stan gains another level and picks Fire Elemental form as his next pick. It grants 25 DEX and some strong offensive power, but not the resistances that make the Earth Elemental form so special. I haven't quite gotten tired of the exploit, so I hand the Fire Elemental Token over to Flowey, who can use it thanks to Use Any Item. Oddly enough, it deals extra crushing damage instead of extra fire damage, and therefore cannot kill trolls.
I don't see any screenshots for the fight with TorGal, so I assume I fought that battle later on (it's been a while since I took these screenshots).
I cast Wish a few more times to see what happens and find something quite special: it can create the ever-rare Wands of Paralyzation I've always found fascinating but have so seldom been able to use.
Too bad enemies in LoB mode get +5 to their saving throws, and SR's Malison spell only penalizes saving throws by 2.
Simon de Montfort, Imoen, Minsc, Dynaheir and Thorin have reached Baldur's Gate. All but Minsc and Dynaheir have reached the point where they could not level up again before the level cap. Then a bug occurred. I will try to solve it, but otherwise the game is at an end. EDIT Reinstallation appears to have fixed the bug. I have no idea what happened to cause the next levelling point to be ridiculosly high. I suspect a Gog update, but don't really know. The party will soon be returning to Candlekeep, but may visit the Section base in Bereost first. Now that the cap is 161,000, they certainly will not be visiting either the section base in the Gate, or The Drizzt Saga.
I've recently started a LoB no-reload run, but after discovering that LoB makes playing the game quite tedious, progress is very, very slow. If I get to a certain point, I might start posting about my LoB party. For now, I've decide to go with a solo run instead.
My solo experience is very limited, especially in BG1 (only ever started two runs, stopped both at level 5 because they started to become boring). I did complete one solo run in BG2, though (and started two others). Still, I'm not nearly as capable and experienced as most of the other players here when it comes to soloing the game. I chose a cleric/ranger as my character, only to discover that this multiclass has been fixed/nerfed in the enhanced edition and doesn't get druid spells anymore - but since my very first stat roll was a 95, as far as I can remember my best roll ever, I happily kept on playing.
The character's name is Andur, he is obviously a half-elf, his stats are 18/75, 18, 18, 18, 18, 5. He starts with **Flails, **Slings and, since he's a ranger, **Two Weapon Style.
I didn't go for any of the fast leveling strategies like killing Shoal, the basilisks or ankhegs, because I don't have any experience with them. Instead, I just played relatively normal early on, doing the easiest quests around Beregost, getting gold by selling items my class can't use and completing various noncombat fetchquests. I quickly reached 20 reputation and gained a couple of levels - with level 2 cleric spells at my disposal, I started to use hold person to win some early duels with the likes of Greywolf or Meilum:
Early combat strategy usually involved kiting with a sling or melee attacks with the help of command spells. I obtained my first couple of magical flails from the xvart village cave and Sonner, the fisherman. My first proficiency point went into Two Weapon Style, and I invested gold in items like the wand of sleeping, the wand of the heavens, some potions and scrolls, the full plate and most of the trinkets from Ulgoth's Beard and the Carnival merchant.
With cleric level 5, I was ready to go for the Nashkel mines. I had to rest one time due to trap damage, but soon Mulahey's lair was reached. After summoning skeletons and using a greenstone amulet charge to blank the cleric's first spell, I decided to just use wand of the heavens charges until victory was mine:
With Mulahey's ring, I was now able to summon enough skeletons to get some more experience by fighting sirens and flesh golems (which would also allow me to obtain the constitution tome):
Finally, I decided to kill Molkar's party to get my first morning star +1, which is a slight upgrade compared to a flail. I used skeletons as tanks while casting various hold person spells, with great success:
My second profiency point went to War Hammers. Here are Andur's stats at this point:
Nice to see you giving solo a bit of love @Enuhal. The cleric ranger does still get druid spells by default, but only up to level 3 (like a solo ranger). If you miss the old options though there's a line in the LUA file for Cleric Ranger Spells - set that to 0 and you'll get your ironskins back .
The solution? Pixie Dust, which grants us save bonuses and also makes us untargetable.
With Spell Revisions Pixie Dust and Improved Invisibility do not provide save bonuses anymore. They only grant +4 AC bonus vs attacks with conventional weapons and make invisible character untargetable with direct spells. Just be aware of that.
Stan opens with Pixie Dust to buy himself time to activate his defenses. Turns out Faldorn has a perfect response (Invisibility Purge). SR Invisibility Purge strikes multiple times over several rounds, like True Seeing. Without invisibility, Stan lacks the pre-buffs that Faldorn has (that always struck me as incredibly unfair) and Faldorn crushes Stan with her Fire Elemental and a Flame Strike spell.
SR Non-Dectection is an 8 hours SI:Divination which protects an invisible character from Detect Invisibility, Oracle, True Seeing (both wizard's and priest's), Invisibility Purge and a thief's Detect Illusion ability. Great spell to keep your invisible character safe.
The solution? Pixie Dust, which grants us save bonuses and also makes us untargetable.
With Spell Revisions Pixie Dust and Improved Invisibility do not provide save bonuses anymore. They only grant +4 AC bonus vs attacks with conventional weapons and make invisible character untargetable with direct spells. Just be aware of that.
Unfortunately, on EEs being Imp.Invisible grants you +4 to saves, regardless of SR's intentions. Beamdog hardcoded those bonuses into it to avoid stacking issues vanilla game had and that required wonky workarounds to get around. Now SR will require yet more wonky workarounds to remove the +4 bonus to saves.
The solution? Pixie Dust, which grants us save bonuses and also makes us untargetable.
With Spell Revisions Pixie Dust and Improved Invisibility do not provide save bonuses anymore. They only grant +4 AC bonus vs attacks with conventional weapons and make invisible character untargetable with direct spells. Just be aware of that.
Unfortunately, on EEs being Imp.Invisible grants you +4 to saves, regardless of SR's intentions. Beamdog hardcoded those bonuses into it to avoid stacking issues vanilla game had and that required wonky workarounds to get around. Now SR will require yet more wonky workarounds to remove the +4 bonus to saves.
I see, thanks for the input! Yet another reason for me to keep using vanilla game... (I do not take advantage of stacking exploits intentionally anyway).
Briefly... did Watchers Keep level 1 (not statues), North Forest, some grave robbing and the Shadow Dragon. Nalia has been kidnapped so have picked up Valygar (Wizard Slayer) and am toying with the idea of doing the Sphere.
Thanks @Grond0 - I'll stick with the fixed multiclass for now, though I do like my ironskins, insect plagues and fire elementals
Andur, lawful good half-elven cleric/ranger (solo), update 1
With four animate dead spells at my disposal, I decided to go basilisk hunting (since skeletons are immune to flesh to stone, I don't need a green scroll):
Visiting this area also gave Andur his final ac improving belt - I'm switching them around a lot, as I do value a good ac score, especially in BG1.
Because I wanted to reach cleric level 7 quickly, I searched for some more high experience targets, like the doomsayer:
With fourth level cleric spells available, free action provides additional protection against various disables.
I reached the experience cap while clearing the bandit camp, where I simply selfbuffed with protection from evil, aid, duhm, remove fear and free action before entering the tent and just attacking one enemy after the other:
I skipped any encounters in cloakwood (with stealth and sanctuary available, that's usually no problem) until meeting Drasus and his party - the fight was surprisingly easy, all I had to do was summons skeletons and provide ranged assistance with my sling (which deals a surprisingly high amount of damage):
While I planned to just stealth through the iron mines until reaching Davaeorn, I couldn't skip the Hareishan battle because she appeared right in front of me after I talked to Rill. I was prepared for this fight - after running out of her LoS, I buffed with protection from lightning and from fire, which resulted in her killing herself with her own lightning bolt spell:
After a short rest back at the first level (as I needed those two spells against Davaeorn as well) I finally reached the master of the mines, killed his guard via hold person, summoned skeletons and killed two battle horrors with some attacks and a wand of the heavens charge. Predictably, Davaeorn used fireball (shortly before my protection spell wore off, luckily) and lightning bolt as his only dangerous offensive spells, allowing me to kill him in melee combat:
I didn't bother with most quests in Baldur's Gate, though I did buy the new flail +2 and the sling with +2 thac0 added by EE. I obtained both tomes (and the wisdom tome in Durlag's tower using a potion of clarity), Balduran's helmet and the ring of protection +2. I also wanted to obtain Balduran's cloak, but I think I messed up the quest to get it via legal means, and killing innocents would strip me of my ranger status. Anyway, getting the tome of wisdom involved me doing the Marek & Lothander questline, but a single skeleton interrupted Marek's confusion spell, saving me a potion of clarity or greenstone amulet charge:
As for the iron throne HQ battle, I protected Andur from various dangers (most importantly fire), used two necklace of missles charges and lured the remaining enemies downstairs:
I skipped all battles at Candlekeep via sanctuary except for the phase spiders guarding one of the tombs. A potion of cloud giant strength + duhm helped me to obtain the last two tomes. Andur's final unbuffed stats look pretty nice:
Time for the endgame. Soloing is SO much faster than playing with a party, its kind of incredible.
Legacy of Bhaal Genocide Run: Carl the Llama in BG2 (first post here)
On to the Planar Prison! I want Haer'Dalis to fill out our party, as his Improved Bard Song HLA will do a lot to improve out damage output. Just as important, the Chaos Blade in Item Revisions imposes a -1 save vs. spell penalty per hit for 4 rounds, and can therefore grant automatic failed saves on any enemy... provided they're not immune to +2 weapons.
First, I need to tackle Mekrath's lair. The Yuan-ti Mages are always trouble, and this run is no different. Our summons have worked marvelously for much of the game, but it only takes a single spell to wipe them out.
Viconia runs in to shout out an Unholy Word, only for a hostile mage to shut her mouth and a hostile fighter to cut her down.
Edwin calls in some wyverns while Stan marches into the fray. Stan has massive damage resistances thanks to Earth Elemental form, but unfortunately, we forgot to buff him with Protection from Fire.
Carl's Planetar and our new summons slice through the enemies after a few rounds. Mekrath crumples under mild pressure, as usual, and we find yet another cool new item courtesy of IR. Item Revisions streamlines and simplifies a lot of things, and the Amulet of Form Stability is a great example.
We grab the Portal Gem whatever and CTRL-J all the way to Raelis Shai, the awesomely-named tiefling wizard lady who accidentally gates in some interplanar bounty hunters from an astral prison. We hop through the portal and crush the Bounty Hunters. With Carl using Wish to instantly heal the entire party at once...
...there's simply nothing they can do.
Carl has recently gained access to Shapechange and can now use Mind Flayer form. It wrecks his AC by dropping his DEX from 21 (the Gauntlets of Dexterity grant +2 DEX in IR) to about 12, but it does boost his magic resistance to 90%. Spell Revisions weakens the Mind Flayer attack by letting it drain only 4 INT per hit, but it substantially strengthens the form overall by allowing the caster to cast spells while shapeshifted.
The Mind Flayer trick, in which you use Improved Alacrity to repeatedly change into Mind Flayer form and spam Psionic Blast every 2 frames or so, still works in Spell Revisions. And even in LoB mode, few enemies can make 50 saving throws in a row.
I normally don't bother those Githyanki, but this is a genocide run, and none can be spared. Plus, there's something quite appropriate about attacking the Githyanki in the form of their mortal enemies. But the Mind Flayer trick is very time-consuming, and isn't well-suited to frequent use.
The screenshots for the fight against the eastern Coiled Cabal--always a nasty fight--are actually kind of boring. The Yuan-ti Mages debuffed us repeatedly, but I kept Carl out of harm's way and restored our buffs whenever possible, using Carl's Planetar to heal the party. In LoB mode's long fights, enemy mages don't have the same advantages as they used to, mostly because their weapon immunity spells only last for a fraction of the total fight. This means Stoneskin is their primary defense, and though they always get 10 skins (since even a level 8 enemy mage casts at level 20), those don't last forever.
The Master of Thralls gives us a brief scare when he chomps through half of Flowey's HP in a single spell...
...but otherwise he doesn't have the defenses to stand up for long. When the demon and the elementals are gone, all that's left is the non-hostile dwarven thrall.
A lot of neutral enemies run away before you can get them, and in LoB mode, they get lots of HP, which means it's awfully hard to kill them before they escape in a genocide run. But Edwin deploys his old PW: Stun spell, which always lasts at least 6 seconds in SR.
The Warden is next. A high-level Fighter/Mage with both fighter and mage HLAs, the Warden is always a nightmare to fight, especially considering he comes with his own Coiled Cabal. Edwin sends out some ogres, only to see them banished in the second round.
Yuan-ti Mages are pretty deadly, but the fighters have an important weakness: they use nonmagical weapons. Edwin conjures a Skeleton Warrior, Carl turns the party invisible, and we back away while the enemy struggles to harm our skeleton and Shambling Mound.
One of the most irritating aspects of Yuan-ti Mages in SCS is their ability to summon Efreet, who constantly go invisible, spam instant-casting fire spells, and turn to mist whenever they come close to dying. Stan and Edwin are both vulnerable.
Edwin casts Banishment, but for some reason, the spell utterly fails to remove the genies. Viconia has to rush to Edwin's defense, lest he get torched in the coming rounds. Edwin throws out PW: Blind, disabling one of the genies for the next 10 rounds.
The Coiled Cabal slithers over to pester us, but their Prismatic Mantles have worn off, and they have no Protection from Fire to keep away Flowey's burning touch.
Edwin pins down one of the Efreet with a PW: Stun spell and we chip away at the Yuan-ti Mages' Stoneskins. It's a long process.
Carl prepares for the fight with the Warden, who, unlike his allies, is always loathe to leave his throne room until you engage him. We try out the Wish intoxication option, which should apply a crippling -12 luck penalty to everyone on the map, for 10 turns.
In SR, intoxication can only be cured by a single spell. But Wish gets us extra castings if we're lucky.
We charge at the Warden. Viconia's Unholy Word fails to affect him--SR spell protections can block area-effect spells--but we can remove his defenses in short order with Edwin and Carl. Edwin casts Spell Thrust and Carl follows up with Breach. A chilling message reminds us that the Warden is still very dangerous at close range.
The Warden can use Black Blade of Disaster, which has a 15% chance of casting Disintegrate in SR. And SR's disintegrate works by dealing 2d6 magic damage per level, or 40d6 in the case of BBoD.
The luck penalty from intoxication affects spell damage rolls. Which means anyone with -12 luck from the Wish intoxication option will suffer maximum damage from spells like Disintegrate. If I hadn't cured intoxication on most of the party with Heal, that Disintegrate effect could deal 480 damage to a party member.
We Breach the Warden. He renews his defenses with Moment of Prescience, gaining an undispellable +20 to AC and saves. But another Breach solves that problem, and Carl summons an ally that can't be removed with Banishment.
Breach won't remove that Black Blade of Disaster, but Flowey manages to resist the full impact of the weapon. Not that a successful save neuters the effect.
The Warden puts up a Prismatic Mantle, which Flowey can break through, but those mantles can be fatal if touched. Flowey hangs back until Carl's Planetar can fix him up.
Unfortunately, Stan didn't react in time to the Prismatic Mantle, and kept attacking after it stopped being safe. He gets Mazed.
The Warden activates a Spell Trigger. Oddly enough, he uses the vanilla Chaos spell instead of its SR replacement, Waves of Fatigue. Waves of Fatigue doesn't stack and offers no save, so a triple Chaos Spell Trigger makes more sense, but it's not great news for us. But that's why Carl is always slathered with protective magicks. Failing a save is basically impossible for Carl unless he gets debuffed.
The Warden has used his best options. Carl seals his fate with Pierce Shield, removing the last of the Warden's defenses. Viconia brains him with the Flail of Ages.
Victory! Tagget, the little slave guy, comes to thank us for freeing him. We respond in the only appropriate way.
With Tagget dead, we make a quick save for safety's sake and proceed to Haer'Dalis' cell in the northwest. Turns out we made a mistake somewhere along the way.
It's not just Gnomeface, either. All of the tieflings are hostile--including Raelis Shai. We can't escape the area until we speak with Raelis Shai.
Flowey makes use of his Seducer levels and charms her. It works! She talks to us as if nothing is wrong. She even offers us a job.
We escape the Planar Prison and return to the Five Flagons... but Haer'Dalis is not here.
I wanted him to join the party. He's one of the few people who could tolerate our murderous rampages. More importantly, we needed to do something with all this XP we're gathering, and most of our party has already hit peak strength. But the bard is simply not here. This is very disappointing.
It seems that turning the group hostile made him vanish. Perhaps he walked out of his cell and got petrified by a trap at some point; I don't know.
This really shouldn't be possible. I never attacked Raelis Shai or her group; she should have stayed friendly. If I hadn't been able to charm her, the game would have been broken. But we managed to avoid getting trapped, and my general policy is to accept bugs that don't break the game. Hopefully we'll be able to summon him in Throne of Bhaal.
@RelSundan: I am playing LoB mode. Also, I imported some of my characters from a previous LoB run that got cut short. And I'm running a smaller party. In LoB mode, you can get HLAs with a full party before Spellhold.
Comments
I have even started a new game and the cap isn't in that either.
0) The Bastard of Candlekeep (H-Orc Zerk, CN) - died to Nimbul's magic missiles (didn't recharge my zerks before leaving the mines map)
1) The Wild Dancer (Human Shaman, NG) - died to Carbos (stupid -4 AC penalty for ranged-in-melee)
2) The Fury Brand (Human Zerk, TN) - not dead yet
prev: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/837463/#Comment_837463
Very short update. I've cleared the Xvart village, Ogre area and killing the Half-Ogres in Drizzt's area besides a bunch more of creatures here and there.
This next run is on Legacy of Bhaal mode. It is a genocide run, meaning I have to kill as many people as humanly possible. Not just enemies, but everybody. I can only let somebody live if they're impossible to kill or if their death would create a game-breaking bug.
Appropriately enough, my Charname for this run is Carl, the charming mass murderer from Llamas with Hats.
Why is he at level 14 at the beginning of the game? Well, I died in a previous attempt--I don't even remember how, but I think it was actually an ambiguous case--and I was not willing to redo all the little quests I had done to build up the character. It's only an extra 1.5 million XP, which isn't that much in LoB mode. It'll only make a difference in the early game.
My second character is a Totemic Druid--partly because SR makes druid spells much, much more interesting, but mostly because, when I was first playing the game, I really needed a way to plow through Chateau Irenicus. Level 10 Spirit Animals are immune to nonmagical weapons, which means a Totemic Druid can get practically any party through Chateau Irenicus in LoB mode.
Our druid is Stan, short for Evil King Stanley Hihat Trinidad the 14th, the megalomaniacal pancake shadow from Okage.
Okage is actually rather well-written for its time, with a lot of quirky humor and meta commentary on games, and has gorgeous music, to boot. Not unlike Undertale.
Our thief is a Seducer, a kit I have finally revamped and properly balanced:
A Seducer is a thief who acts through persuasion rather than sleight of hand. Socially cunning and politically astute, they develop an ability to forge close relationships with the wealthy, powerful, or merely useful, and navigate complex social orders with speed and grace. Some may use their talents to influence people for the better, propping up and guiding the wise and honest, or exposing and ostracizing the corrupt and the selfish--others use their talents for personal gain, exploiting their allies' weaknesses, and destroying their opponents with whatever means they can.
Despite the name, a Seducer's abilities are more complex than attractiveness or charm. A Seducer uses psionic abilities and arcane magic as well as physical appeal to influence others, and can gain control over potentially any creature with a semi-conscious mind--even those of a different orientation, species, or plane of existence, as well as sexless creatures, constructs, and the undead. No mind is truly safe from a Seducer's grasp--only sheer will and mental fortitude can block the Seducer's influence.
Advantages:
May cast Charm at will
May cast Domination at will
+1 Charisma
Immune to charm and domination
+2 to save vs. spell
+2 to saves vs. enchantment spells
25% chance of shrugging off the effects of any psionic mental attack
Charm:
Charms a humanoid target for 3 rounds on a failed save vs. spell at +5. The charm takes a full round to take effect. Every 2 levels after level 1, and every 3 levels after level 11, Charm's save bonus decreases by 1 and its range increases by 5, up to a maximum of a -13 penalty at level 50 and a range of 100 feet. Charm bypasses magic resistance, spell protections, and invisibility, and can target enemies outside of the Seducer's visual range. Charm has a 5% chance of affecting a non-humanoid target, and an extra 5% chance at level 4 and every 2 levels afterward, up to a maximum of 100% at level 40. Charmed opponents suffer a -1 penalty to save vs. spell for the duration of the effect.
Domination:
Charms a group of humanoid enemies, as the Charm spell. Unlike Charm, the save bonus and the chance of affecting non-humanoid targets improve at half the rate of Charm, and Domination has a 75% chance of outright failure until level 9. The charm also only lasts for 2 rounds, and takes a full 2 rounds to take effect.
Disadvantages:
Only receives 10 skill points per level (all skills are set to 40% normal value)
Backstab only reaches x2
Using Charm prevents the Seducer from attacking, imposes a -2 AC penalty, and slows movement rate by half for 6 seconds. Domination imposes twice the penalties for twice the duration.
Multi- and dual-classed Seducers suffer twice the penalties from using Charm and Domination, and cannot cast spells after using either spell.
This version of the Seducer finally scales with level. It gets really powerful at high levels, but even then it's completely helpless and vulnerable while using its charm abilities, which means it needs party support to survive. It used to be much stronger, but I nerfed it severely, slowing down its save penalty growth after level 11.
Our Seducer is Flowey, the sociopathic flower from Undertale.
It really wouldn't be a genocide run without Flowey.
I was also considering adding Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Mao Zedong to the team, but I decided against it.
I had three other characters in my previous LoB run (a non-genocide run), but I didn't think they were as interesting, so I ditched them. That decision cost us 4.5 million XP, but whatever.
Against @Lord_Tansheron's sage advice, I am going through LoB mode without basically no fighter levels. I'm going to try and scrape by with the resources I have. The Seducer kit will help, as will my starting XP boost (honestly, you should start LoB mode with 500,000 or 1 million XP each, just to make the early game less frustrating), and probably some exploits when necessary.
(first post here)
Totemic Druids trivialize a lot of early SoA in LoB mode. You can summon multiple Spirit Animals in a single round, they last 60 rounds, their attacks strike as +6 weapons, and they're immune to nonmagical weapons. @Lord_Tansheron usually eschews summons for this reason: even after the nerfs to their LoB HP, they're still quite overpowered.
Normally Spirit Wolves and Spirit Snakes are the most deadly critters thanks to their paralyze and poison attacks, but LoB enemies get +5 bonus to all saves, severely weakening save-based effects. Spirit Lions have the best damage output overall.
One of SR's changes (I'll be talking about a lot of them) is to shorten the casting time for Invisibility 10' Radius (now Invisibility Sphere) from 10 to 1. Carl, our sorcerer, turns the party invisible before the fight with the Ogre Mage and we let Stan's (our druid) summons tackle the Ogre Mage. The dryads aren't too sturdy, even with LoB HP bonuses--double HP plus 20 on top.
Normally I wouldn't bother fighting the Ogre Mage, but the terms of this run require me to kill everything, and I won't get another chance.
Flowey's Seducer kit cripples his thieving skills, but we get lucky with Detect Illusions.
The Fire Elemental and Spirit Lions tear down the mage. The Duergar are next. They stand no chance.
We bring Yoshi into the party just for a little extra power. Turns out Bounty Hunter traps can hold Mephits for some reason.
I thought it only worked on humans.
Spirit Animals wipe out much of the dungeon, including the Mephit Portals. Apparently I got a bug somewhere along the way and had to reload, because I took a screenshot to remind myself I cheated my way back through that fight.
Or maybe there was some other reason. This was a long time ago; my memory is patchy.
There's no other story here. Spirit Animals and Fire Elementals killed everything.
Stan's summons will be a staple of our strategy for a little while. He'll also be a fabulous defensive asset, as SR Pixie Dust grants Improved Invisibility. Flowey, as a halfling and a Seducer, doesn't need the save bonuses from II, but Stan and Carl certainly do. It helps us stay out of trouble while our summons take the heat.
I bring Viconia into the party because I really want to try out SR's cleric spells. Since our party is already high-level, she begins at level 13.
We head out to Imnesville in search of easy XP. Eager to spread destruction, we give swords and liquor to impressionable youth.
We won't be killing innocent people directly until later on, because I did not realize at the time that IR removes reputation's effect on store prices. Mass murder won't cost you a penny with Item Revisions installed.
The Killer Mimic is extremely dangerous in LoB mode, as its acid damage gets doubled and its superior HP lets it use its acid more often.
The solution? SR's Protection from Elemental Energy, a level 4 mage spell from Carl that lets him grant long-term immunity to any elemental damage type (acid, cold, fire, or electricity).
We don't get far in the Temple Ruins. At our levels, we'd see two liches in that dungeon, and we aren't remotely equipped to handle that kind of a fight. Trademeet, as always, is next.
(first post here)
I usually pick Trademeet as an early quest option because the fights are fairly mild and the reward is quite high. Plus, the Efreeti Bottle is quite a nice prize, especially since SCS makes genies' spells uninterruptable.
Problem is, in Spell Revisions, Protection from Petrification is changed to the Expeditious Retreat spell from IWD:EE, tripling movement rate but disabling attacking and spellcasting. The only way to get immunity to petrification is to use an IR amulet or buy a pricy scroll. This means we have no immunity to Flesh to Stone spells, and though SR petrification doesn't cause death (it's a permanent hold effect that bypasses Free Action), we don't have Stone to Flesh.
The solution? Pixie Dust, which grants us save bonuses and also makes us untargetable. Oddly enough, Viconia's spectacular AC and improved invisibility still don't keep her safe from the djinn.
Djinn have always done crushing damage despite using sabers. Khan Zahraa and Faafirah are quite sturdy, especially with their multiple Stoneskin spells, but Carl has Breach to remove them.
The trolls are trickier. Normally I run past them, but this is a genocide run, and I know at least one group of enemies vanish after Faldorn dies. We have to fight the trolls. Since our party has no fighter levels, we use elementals, Spirit Animals, and a Shambling Mound to tackle the trolls. Pixie Dust makes our allies a tad sturdier.
We use Carl's Minute Meteors and Stan's Fire Elemental to finish off the trolls. The XP reward from a Spirit Troll is just absurd.
It takes time, like all LoB battles, but the trolls go down. We charm the first druid, in the fight before Kyland Lind, and get him to spawn some shapeshifting tokens so we can loot them from his body.
This will allow Stan to shapeshift despite being a Totemic Druid. I'll probably never use the tokens, but I like to have them anyway.
Next we have Kyland Lind, a very sturdy and well-buffed druid bolstered by shapeshifting spellcasters. We're going to have to deal with werewolves, bears, Call Lightning, and Insect Plague all at the same time. I buff Carl with Protection from Elemental Energy to grant immunity to Call Lightning, which could kill him in two hits. Viconia breaks out Unholy Word, inflicting 50% spell failure on all enemies.
Holy Word and Unholy Word are identical in SR. They only affect enemies, regardless of alignment, but otherwise work just like the original spells. Since LoB enemies get +12 to all of their levels, it inflicts deafness on everyone.
Carl Breaches an enemy druid, removing their troublesome Stoneskins, while Stan buffs with Storm Shield, a new SR spell that blocks nonmagical missiles as well as insect spells and clouds.
Carl manages to Feeblemind Kyland Lind, and the battle is over.
Feeblemind gets a -4 penalty in SR instead of -2. Saving throws are much more meaningful with SR installed; it's not so easy to get guaranteed saving throws.
The Spore Colony bridge will be tough, but I didn't know that at the time. I have a nearly perfect trump card in the form of a Shambling Mound. Although it doesn't have a weapon equipped for some reason (I've already reported this to @Demivrgvs, and it sounds like the problem is on my end, not SR) and therefore deals nonlethal damge, the Shambling Mound is immune to crushing damage like in Icewind Dale. The Myconids can't touch it.
Unfortunately, the Shambling Mound just doesn't have the power to make a dent in the enemy. The Spore Colonies conjure Myconids faster than the Shambling Mound can defeat them, so we have to rest and return with Fire Elementals for support.
There are so many Myconids on screen that it produces severe lag. I spend a lot of time looking elsewhere on the map, monitoring the fight via the dialogue box.
Stan and Viconia follow up with extra-laggy Fire Storm spells. It's not enough to kill the Myconids, but it deals a lot of damage scattered across so many targets.
It isn't enough. The Myconids break down our front line and advance on the party. Carl activates our primary escape option, and we are gone.
We rest and return and keep grinding down the enemy. Finally, we cross the bridge and corner the last of the enemies.
Dalok gives us little trouble. We Breach his numerous defenses (including a pesky Physical Mirror spell) and crush the enemy with summons. Only Faldorn remains.
Thing is, I can't legitimately claim the Staff of Thunder and Lightning unless I kill Faldorn myself. I don't get the druid stronghold if Cernd kills Faldorn. So I'm going to have Stan give it a shot.
Stan opens with Pixie Dust to buy himself time to activate his defenses. Turns out Faldorn has a perfect response.
SR Invisibility Purge strikes multiple times over several rounds, like True Seeing. Without invisibility, Stan lacks the pre-buffs that Faldorn has (that always struck me as incredibly unfair) and Faldorn crushes Stan with her Fire Elemental and a Flame Strike spell.
Stan got chunked. I decided in advance to treat chunking as a normal death, so I just reload. There's no limit to the number of times you can challenge Faldorn with a non-druid Charname, so one death is not a setback.
The next time around, Stan summons multiple Spirit Lions on the first round to form a shield. But Faldorn walks right around them and punches Stan in the face, and her dryad summons follow up with Summon Insects.
Then I realize Stan can break the encounter with a single spell, as long as he's willing to try it enough time. He opens up with Nature's Beauty, which in SR charms humanoid enemies for 10 rounds on a failed save vs. spell at -4. Faldorn makes her save multiple times and destroys Stan over and over, but eventually Stan charms her.
Enemies have no summoning cap even when they're charmed, which means we can use all of Faldorn's summoning spells against her. Summoned critters retain their allegiance even if the summoner is charmed or slain, which means her summons will stay under our control even when she turns hostile again. And since SR Nymphs can summon leopards, we can marshal an entire army before Nature's Beauty wears off.
It took many tries, but Faldorn's defeat is absolute.
We return to Trademeet to seize our reward. Big money and the Shield of Harmony.
Next up is the Mantle of Waukeen quest. I decide to ignore Lord Logan Coinpurse's plea, and hand the mantle over to Lady Lilith Lurraxol. I've never done this before, so it's a complete surprise when Skarmane Alibikkar barges into the room and turns hostile.
It's an even bigger surprise when Lurraxol turns hostile. She doesn't even give us a chance to hand over the mantle.
Lucky for us, there's been some confusion among her guards. When we escape the area to buff the party, the guards at the front see that Lurraxol is hostile, and turn against her. She doesn't know enough to fight back properly, so they just grind her down while our party hides.
Eventually Lurraxol targets us and Breaches Flowey, to no effect. Now that her aura is clouded, Carl rushes in to Breach her, knowing that she can't respond if he moves quickly.
All that's left are her guards. We retreat and buy time to haul out our summons. The guards have no chance.
We head into Lurraxol's house and tackle Skarmaen, who fails to defend himself. I thought from his sprite that he was a mage, but he doesn't use any spells (possibly because Viconia opened the fight with Unholy Word). A pity to spill so much blood over a simple piece of jewelry.
Lord Logan Coinpurse laments the loss, but we still have the hearts and minds of the people.
We'll kill them all later on, but right now there's no need--I still have stuff to buy at Trademeet once I have enough money. We settle for brutalizing Neeber.
Lord Coinpurse never asked for the Mantle of Waukeen, so it's ours. We stop by a local merchant to pawn it off, only to find that the thing is literally worthless.
So we dump it on the street on the way out.
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
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/835452/#Comment_835452
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/836762/#Comment_836762
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/837428/#Comment_837428
Still full of the holiday spirit we felt in the mood to provide everyone with a Happy New Year - so if you're in the mood for a giggle read on ...
In Saradush Juto wielded the iMoD to breeze through a vampire infested prison on the way to Gromnir's palace. Entering that invisibly allowed one of the mages to be struck down before he could buff and the others were picked off in a running fight with the odd GWW thrown in.
Looking to tackle Yaga-Shura the duo made a first stop at an undead-infested temple. After agreeing to fight fair there Juto initially attempted to stand and fight before finally running when he got down to single figure HPs! Calis was more cautious and just tackled things one at a time until only the Master Wraith was left.
Next on the agenda was the Fire Giant Temple. Calis initially hoped that rat form from the sewer cloak added to hardiness would push physical resistances past 100% - thus allowing blows to heal him from fire damage. However, 100% proved to be the limit and HPs got very low before the last of the greeting party of fire giants fell and he swapped to troll form to regenerate.
Juto had his ring of regeneration to heal himself, but rather more slowly - and he got jealous looking at how quickly Calis was piling on the HPs in troll form. As a result he decided to take advantage of that himself by getting some free healing from Foebane's LMD ability. He put in 3 quick strikes before withdrawing, but hadn't reckoned with multi-player lag. That meant that attacks continued after he withdrew and a 4th hit put Calis into danger, before a 5th struck as well ...
(first post here)
Stoneskin only lasts 8 hours in SR, so even shorter trips can remove all of Carl's defenses. But with the Metaspell Influence Amulet, Invisibility Sphere casts instantly.
Spirit Animals slay the paladins. Plath Rededge is up next, and I worry about her--I've seen her casting Symbol of Death in the past, and as an enemy cleric, I'm sure she has Slay Living as well. Both could kill Carl if we're not lucky. Viconia inflicts 50% spell failure with Unholy Word to improve our odds.
Plath has always been a glass cannon, as she has neither armor nor Stoneskin to protect her.
I don't go much further, as I'm wary of Firkraag's dungeon. Instead, we head back to Athkatla and trigger the Suna Seni ambush. Invisibility Sphere buys us time to fortify our defenses.
Carl has recently gained a level, and can now cast a new SR spell.
Moment of Prescience replaces Improved Mantle and is a lot more interesting. It grants +20 to AC and saving throws and cannot be dispelled, so it effectively grants immunity to disablers as well as near-immunity to weapons. It can be Breached, but it's still a marvelous defensive spell.
We crush the enemy with summons; I don't even have screenshots. Same goes for the Renfeld ambush.
Moving on to the Docks, we take up Renal Bloodscalp's offer and spy on Mae'Var--mostly because I've decided to add Edwin to the party. Normally I just like him for his spell slots and hilarious voice, but he's one of the few characters would will stick with us when we start slaughtering the innocent folks of Athkatla. He'll fit right in with this party.
The term of the run require killing everything that can possibly be killed. Sometimes this means just picking optional fights...
...but other times, we just have to snipe at neutral folks before they disappear. We don't always land the final blow.
Rayic Gethras isn't so bad in LoB mode, when his moderate levels no longer grant the advantage they normally do. Viconia opens with Unholy Word, but it fails to stop Stan from getting Breached.
Then he fires off a Spell Sequencer that fills me with fear.
Carl has no resistance to electrical damage; if that bolt had hit him, he could have died. We really need to make sure Carl is fully buffed at all times. Party members suffer double damage in LoB mode; death can come very quickly.
Flowey has removed Ray-Ray's invincibility, paving the way for a Breach from Carl. Ray-Ray is hopeless.
The next couple of missions in the Mae'Var questline require no bloodshed. Not that we mind it.
Mae'Var is next.
One of the most distinctive things about SR is Dispelling Screen, which replaces Spell Immunity: Abjuration (Spell Immunity is no longer in the game in SR). Dispelling Screen covers the whole party, but only blocks a single Dispel Magic or Remove Magic. It also lasts 5 turns (a lot of SR buffs last that long) instead of one round per level.
Carl knows Dispelling Screen and Edwin has two or three slots dedicated to it, which means we can maintain constant immunity to Remove Magic--but only if the enemy uses a single Remove Magic spell at a time, and only if we move fast enough to restore our Dispelling Screen. It's a great spell, but it's costly, as it takes one level 5 spell slot to cast Dispelling Screen, and one level 3 spell slot to remove it. Finally, wizards aren't the only ones who can block Remove Magic.
With two high-level mages in the form of Carl, our sorcerer, and Edwin, and with Flowey's 100 Detect Illusions skill, we have great anti-mage options. Flowey removes Mae'Var's invisibility with Detect Illusions and we follow up with Breach, destroying Mae'Var's defenses in a single round.
Mavis doesn't last much longer after that.
This is roughly the time when I realized that Item Revisions removes all reputation bonuses and penalties for store prices. Evil parties don't have to worry about their death count at all. This means we don't have to wait as long to kill everybody in the game.
With the Mae'Var questline complete, we can now side with Bodhi without losing any opportunities. One of the important parts of this run is making sure we kill anyone who vanishes in the middle of a quest, lest we lose our chance later on.
Our trip to the graveyard triggers the Nether scroll quest, and since I think Edwin leaves the party if you don't pursue the scroll, we have to fight a lich.
Viconia is another stellar anti-mage tool. In SR, Magic Resistance adds to the target's MR rather than setting it. The net result? Near-total immunity to magic.
Of course, Magic Resistance can still be dispelled, and LoB enemies get +12 to caster level. Nevaziah probably casts over level 30. But thanks to SR, single-classed clerics like Viconia have some limited defense against Remove Magic.
Unfortunately, Viconia did not cast Shield of the Archons, which absorbs all spells for 10 rounds, with no limit. And that can do some things that 100% MR can't do. Viconia loses her MR the next round.
Nevaziah tries to escape with Shadow Door, but Carl manages to land a hit with Pierce Shield before the lich goes invisible. In SR, Pierce Shield removes 1 spell protection of any level, like in vanilla. But rather than decreasing the target's MR, Pierce Shield removes all of their combat and specific protections. That means Pierce Shield is effectively an unblockable Breach spell.
Nevaziah's vulnerability does not last. SCS mages usually play fair, but there are a few rules they can bend. For one thing, they can set contingencies to trigger when their previous weapon immunity spells vanish, which the player can never do.
Nevaziah wastes his few seconds of safety by Breaching Stan, our Totemic Druid who is the last valuable party member in this fight.
Carl Breaches Nevaziah and throws Minute Meteors, staying away from the Web and Stinking Cloud spells that keep disabling Stan and Viconia.
Nevaziah foolishly tries to debuff Flowey, with a valuable spell that has no use against a single-classed thief.
The lich loses his last chance to make an impact on the party. We put him down.
Time to tackle the Shadow Thieves. They're much easier to handle than vampires, but classes without Stoneskin suffer horribly from their backstabs.
I stop by Watcher's Keep to grab some treasure. Turns out the Paladin's Bracers give better bonuses, and can now be worn by a single-classed thief (even without Use Any Item!) or anyone with cleric levels.
Item Revisions even grants bonuses to some quest items.
For a moment, I regret that I have to give away the slippers. Then I remember that I have to kill the lich to satisfy the terms of the genocide run. I get to keep the comfy slippers!
Back to the main questline. Midway through the first mage-heavy Shadow Thief fight, I realize that Viconia never equipped her armor after Arkanis Gath killed her in one shot.
Worse yet, the enemy mages have Banishment spells (the SR version of the Death Spell) that can destroy all of our summons in a single round.
The enemy applies intense pressure. Carl gets boxed in, and though his defenses are strong, I'm not sure they'll last. Teleport Field in SR offers a save and is therefore no longer a reliable way to get out of a corner, but SR also introduces Dimension Jump, a level 1 version of Dimension Door.
It's a very situational spell, but it's quite nice. You can even use it to jump over triggers and traps, and maybe even do some sequence breaking if you know where to cast it.
The enemy keeps up the pressure. Carl restores his defenses.
Sorcerers are generally supposed to be offensive bombers, but all of my mage Charnames are designed for survival more than anything else. Carl has terrible offensive power in almost all circumstances; most of his spell picks are chosen just to keep him alive. Minute Meteors are his most powerful weapon.
Carl can't really do anything about the crowd of melee thieves around him, so he grants himself another 4 rounds of near-invincibility and keeps chipping away at the other mage.
Carl further bolsters his defenses with Greater Spell Deflection, while Edwin pins down the enemy mage with PW: Stun.
PW: Stun is usually pointless in LoB mode when even the weakest enemies have 90+ HP at full health, but in SR, PW: Stun always stuns the target for at least 1 round.
Carl finally hits level 18 and picks Wish. Item Revisions severely nerfs the Wand of Lightning trick, but we can still use it to cast 3 Wish spells with one casting. It's not really necessary, but it's more reliable and it's faster for collecting wands. Unfortunately, wands now have Intelligence requirements, and Carl doesn't have the stats to use many of them.
I would later discover that Wish can circumvent that requirement, as it can set all of your stats to 25.
Stan also hits 3 million XP, and chooses Earth Elemental form as his first HLA. It sets his APR to 2, his THAC0 to -5 counting STR bonuses, and grants 50% physical damage resistance, which stacks with other sources, like the 20% resistance from IR's Orc Leather and 10% resistance from Armor of Faith. If I picked a Fighter/Druid instead of a Totemic Druid, it would also stack with Hardiness and the Fortress Shield, which grants 10% resistance in IR.
Edwin discovers the truth of the Nether scroll. It turns out to be a blessing and a curse.
I don't like Edwina's voice, so I jump ahead in time to expedite his transformation back. Degardan teleports in to fix him back up, but a fight breaks out nonetheless.
Degardan is a strong mage, but we wipe him out with two Pierce Shield spells to take down his defenses and a Planetar to finish him off.
I think it's time we dealt with the trolls at the De'Arnise Hold, and snatched the Orc Leather from the basement. But the people we save turn out to be insufficiently grateful.
Stan gains another level and picks Fire Elemental form as his next pick. It grants 25 DEX and some strong offensive power, but not the resistances that make the Earth Elemental form so special. I haven't quite gotten tired of the exploit, so I hand the Fire Elemental Token over to Flowey, who can use it thanks to Use Any Item. Oddly enough, it deals extra crushing damage instead of extra fire damage, and therefore cannot kill trolls.
I don't see any screenshots for the fight with TorGal, so I assume I fought that battle later on (it's been a while since I took these screenshots).
I cast Wish a few more times to see what happens and find something quite special: it can create the ever-rare Wands of Paralyzation I've always found fascinating but have so seldom been able to use.
Too bad enemies in LoB mode get +5 to their saving throws, and SR's Malison spell only penalizes saving throws by 2.
EDIT
Reinstallation appears to have fixed the bug.
I've recently started a LoB no-reload run, but after discovering that LoB makes playing the game quite tedious, progress is very, very slow. If I get to a certain point, I might start posting about my LoB party. For now, I've decide to go with a solo run instead.
My solo experience is very limited, especially in BG1 (only ever started two runs, stopped both at level 5 because they started to become boring). I did complete one solo run in BG2, though (and started two others). Still, I'm not nearly as capable and experienced as most of the other players here when it comes to soloing the game. I chose a cleric/ranger as my character, only to discover that this multiclass has been fixed/nerfed in the enhanced edition and doesn't get druid spells anymore - but since my very first stat roll was a 95, as far as I can remember my best roll ever, I happily kept on playing.
The character's name is Andur, he is obviously a half-elf, his stats are 18/75, 18, 18, 18, 18, 5. He starts with **Flails, **Slings and, since he's a ranger, **Two Weapon Style.
I didn't go for any of the fast leveling strategies like killing Shoal, the basilisks or ankhegs, because I don't have any experience with them. Instead, I just played relatively normal early on, doing the easiest quests around Beregost, getting gold by selling items my class can't use and completing various noncombat fetchquests. I quickly reached 20 reputation and gained a couple of levels - with level 2 cleric spells at my disposal, I started to use hold person to win some early duels with the likes of Greywolf or Meilum:
Early combat strategy usually involved kiting with a sling or melee attacks with the help of command spells. I obtained my first couple of magical flails from the xvart village cave and Sonner, the fisherman. My first proficiency point went into Two Weapon Style, and I invested gold in items like the wand of sleeping, the wand of the heavens, some potions and scrolls, the full plate and most of the trinkets from Ulgoth's Beard and the Carnival merchant.
With cleric level 5, I was ready to go for the Nashkel mines. I had to rest one time due to trap damage, but soon Mulahey's lair was reached. After summoning skeletons and using a greenstone amulet charge to blank the cleric's first spell, I decided to just use wand of the heavens charges until victory was mine:
With Mulahey's ring, I was now able to summon enough skeletons to get some more experience by fighting sirens and flesh golems (which would also allow me to obtain the constitution tome):
Finally, I decided to kill Molkar's party to get my first morning star +1, which is a slight upgrade compared to a flail. I used skeletons as tanks while casting various hold person spells, with great success:
My second profiency point went to War Hammers. Here are Andur's stats at this point:
That's it for now - Good luck to everyone else!
Enuhal
Andur, lawful good half-elven cleric/ranger (solo), update 1
With four animate dead spells at my disposal, I decided to go basilisk hunting (since skeletons are immune to flesh to stone, I don't need a green scroll):
Visiting this area also gave Andur his final ac improving belt - I'm switching them around a lot, as I do value a good ac score, especially in BG1.
Because I wanted to reach cleric level 7 quickly, I searched for some more high experience targets, like the doomsayer:
With fourth level cleric spells available, free action provides additional protection against various disables.
I reached the experience cap while clearing the bandit camp, where I simply selfbuffed with protection from evil, aid, duhm, remove fear and free action before entering the tent and just attacking one enemy after the other:
I skipped any encounters in cloakwood (with stealth and sanctuary available, that's usually no problem) until meeting Drasus and his party - the fight was surprisingly easy, all I had to do was summons skeletons and provide ranged assistance with my sling (which deals a surprisingly high amount of damage):
While I planned to just stealth through the iron mines until reaching Davaeorn, I couldn't skip the Hareishan battle because she appeared right in front of me after I talked to Rill. I was prepared for this fight - after running out of her LoS, I buffed with protection from lightning and from fire, which resulted in her killing herself with her own lightning bolt spell:
After a short rest back at the first level (as I needed those two spells against Davaeorn as well) I finally reached the master of the mines, killed his guard via hold person, summoned skeletons and killed two battle horrors with some attacks and a wand of the heavens charge. Predictably, Davaeorn used fireball (shortly before my protection spell wore off, luckily) and lightning bolt as his only dangerous offensive spells, allowing me to kill him in melee combat:
I didn't bother with most quests in Baldur's Gate, though I did buy the new flail +2 and the sling with +2 thac0 added by EE. I obtained both tomes (and the wisdom tome in Durlag's tower using a potion of clarity), Balduran's helmet and the ring of protection +2. I also wanted to obtain Balduran's cloak, but I think I messed up the quest to get it via legal means, and killing innocents would strip me of my ranger status. Anyway, getting the tome of wisdom involved me doing the Marek & Lothander questline, but a single skeleton interrupted Marek's confusion spell, saving me a potion of clarity or greenstone amulet charge:
As for the iron throne HQ battle, I protected Andur from various dangers (most importantly fire), used two necklace of missles charges and lured the remaining enemies downstairs:
I skipped all battles at Candlekeep via sanctuary except for the phase spiders guarding one of the tombs. A potion of cloud giant strength + duhm helped me to obtain the last two tomes. Andur's final unbuffed stats look pretty nice:
Time for the endgame. Soloing is SO much faster than playing with a party, its kind of incredible.
Enuhal
(first post here)
On to the Planar Prison! I want Haer'Dalis to fill out our party, as his Improved Bard Song HLA will do a lot to improve out damage output. Just as important, the Chaos Blade in Item Revisions imposes a -1 save vs. spell penalty per hit for 4 rounds, and can therefore grant automatic failed saves on any enemy... provided they're not immune to +2 weapons.
First, I need to tackle Mekrath's lair. The Yuan-ti Mages are always trouble, and this run is no different. Our summons have worked marvelously for much of the game, but it only takes a single spell to wipe them out.
Viconia runs in to shout out an Unholy Word, only for a hostile mage to shut her mouth and a hostile fighter to cut her down.
Edwin calls in some wyverns while Stan marches into the fray. Stan has massive damage resistances thanks to Earth Elemental form, but unfortunately, we forgot to buff him with Protection from Fire.
Carl's Planetar and our new summons slice through the enemies after a few rounds. Mekrath crumples under mild pressure, as usual, and we find yet another cool new item courtesy of IR. Item Revisions streamlines and simplifies a lot of things, and the Amulet of Form Stability is a great example.
We grab the Portal Gem whatever and CTRL-J all the way to Raelis Shai, the awesomely-named tiefling wizard lady who accidentally gates in some interplanar bounty hunters from an astral prison. We hop through the portal and crush the Bounty Hunters. With Carl using Wish to instantly heal the entire party at once...
...there's simply nothing they can do.
Carl has recently gained access to Shapechange and can now use Mind Flayer form. It wrecks his AC by dropping his DEX from 21 (the Gauntlets of Dexterity grant +2 DEX in IR) to about 12, but it does boost his magic resistance to 90%. Spell Revisions weakens the Mind Flayer attack by letting it drain only 4 INT per hit, but it substantially strengthens the form overall by allowing the caster to cast spells while shapeshifted.
The Mind Flayer trick, in which you use Improved Alacrity to repeatedly change into Mind Flayer form and spam Psionic Blast every 2 frames or so, still works in Spell Revisions. And even in LoB mode, few enemies can make 50 saving throws in a row.
I normally don't bother those Githyanki, but this is a genocide run, and none can be spared. Plus, there's something quite appropriate about attacking the Githyanki in the form of their mortal enemies. But the Mind Flayer trick is very time-consuming, and isn't well-suited to frequent use.
The screenshots for the fight against the eastern Coiled Cabal--always a nasty fight--are actually kind of boring. The Yuan-ti Mages debuffed us repeatedly, but I kept Carl out of harm's way and restored our buffs whenever possible, using Carl's Planetar to heal the party. In LoB mode's long fights, enemy mages don't have the same advantages as they used to, mostly because their weapon immunity spells only last for a fraction of the total fight. This means Stoneskin is their primary defense, and though they always get 10 skins (since even a level 8 enemy mage casts at level 20), those don't last forever.
The Master of Thralls gives us a brief scare when he chomps through half of Flowey's HP in a single spell...
...but otherwise he doesn't have the defenses to stand up for long. When the demon and the elementals are gone, all that's left is the non-hostile dwarven thrall.
A lot of neutral enemies run away before you can get them, and in LoB mode, they get lots of HP, which means it's awfully hard to kill them before they escape in a genocide run. But Edwin deploys his old PW: Stun spell, which always lasts at least 6 seconds in SR.
The Warden is next. A high-level Fighter/Mage with both fighter and mage HLAs, the Warden is always a nightmare to fight, especially considering he comes with his own Coiled Cabal. Edwin sends out some ogres, only to see them banished in the second round.
Yuan-ti Mages are pretty deadly, but the fighters have an important weakness: they use nonmagical weapons. Edwin conjures a Skeleton Warrior, Carl turns the party invisible, and we back away while the enemy struggles to harm our skeleton and Shambling Mound.
One of the most irritating aspects of Yuan-ti Mages in SCS is their ability to summon Efreet, who constantly go invisible, spam instant-casting fire spells, and turn to mist whenever they come close to dying. Stan and Edwin are both vulnerable.
Edwin casts Banishment, but for some reason, the spell utterly fails to remove the genies. Viconia has to rush to Edwin's defense, lest he get torched in the coming rounds. Edwin throws out PW: Blind, disabling one of the genies for the next 10 rounds.
The Coiled Cabal slithers over to pester us, but their Prismatic Mantles have worn off, and they have no Protection from Fire to keep away Flowey's burning touch.
Edwin pins down one of the Efreet with a PW: Stun spell and we chip away at the Yuan-ti Mages' Stoneskins. It's a long process.
Carl prepares for the fight with the Warden, who, unlike his allies, is always loathe to leave his throne room until you engage him. We try out the Wish intoxication option, which should apply a crippling -12 luck penalty to everyone on the map, for 10 turns.
In SR, intoxication can only be cured by a single spell. But Wish gets us extra castings if we're lucky.
We charge at the Warden. Viconia's Unholy Word fails to affect him--SR spell protections can block area-effect spells--but we can remove his defenses in short order with Edwin and Carl. Edwin casts Spell Thrust and Carl follows up with Breach. A chilling message reminds us that the Warden is still very dangerous at close range.
The Warden can use Black Blade of Disaster, which has a 15% chance of casting Disintegrate in SR. And SR's disintegrate works by dealing 2d6 magic damage per level, or 40d6 in the case of BBoD.
The luck penalty from intoxication affects spell damage rolls. Which means anyone with -12 luck from the Wish intoxication option will suffer maximum damage from spells like Disintegrate. If I hadn't cured intoxication on most of the party with Heal, that Disintegrate effect could deal 480 damage to a party member.
We Breach the Warden. He renews his defenses with Moment of Prescience, gaining an undispellable +20 to AC and saves. But another Breach solves that problem, and Carl summons an ally that can't be removed with Banishment.
Breach won't remove that Black Blade of Disaster, but Flowey manages to resist the full impact of the weapon. Not that a successful save neuters the effect.
The Warden puts up a Prismatic Mantle, which Flowey can break through, but those mantles can be fatal if touched. Flowey hangs back until Carl's Planetar can fix him up.
Unfortunately, Stan didn't react in time to the Prismatic Mantle, and kept attacking after it stopped being safe. He gets Mazed.
The Warden activates a Spell Trigger. Oddly enough, he uses the vanilla Chaos spell instead of its SR replacement, Waves of Fatigue. Waves of Fatigue doesn't stack and offers no save, so a triple Chaos Spell Trigger makes more sense, but it's not great news for us. But that's why Carl is always slathered with protective magicks. Failing a save is basically impossible for Carl unless he gets debuffed.
The Warden has used his best options. Carl seals his fate with Pierce Shield, removing the last of the Warden's defenses. Viconia brains him with the Flail of Ages.
Victory! Tagget, the little slave guy, comes to thank us for freeing him. We respond in the only appropriate way.
With Tagget dead, we make a quick save for safety's sake and proceed to Haer'Dalis' cell in the northwest. Turns out we made a mistake somewhere along the way.
It's not just Gnomeface, either. All of the tieflings are hostile--including Raelis Shai. We can't escape the area until we speak with Raelis Shai.
Flowey makes use of his Seducer levels and charms her. It works! She talks to us as if nothing is wrong. She even offers us a job.
We escape the Planar Prison and return to the Five Flagons... but Haer'Dalis is not here.
I wanted him to join the party. He's one of the few people who could tolerate our murderous rampages. More importantly, we needed to do something with all this XP we're gathering, and most of our party has already hit peak strength. But the bard is simply not here. This is very disappointing.
It seems that turning the group hostile made him vanish. Perhaps he walked out of his cell and got petrified by a trap at some point; I don't know.
This really shouldn't be possible. I never attacked Raelis Shai or her group; she should have stayed friendly. If I hadn't been able to charm her, the game would have been broken. But we managed to avoid getting trapped, and my general policy is to accept bugs that don't break the game. Hopefully we'll be able to summon him in Throne of Bhaal.