There is no "wizard chess" with Pierce Shield. I've suggested @Demivrgvs nerf it, but he's pointed out that it's a level 8 spell with a very long casting time, and deserves to be rather powerful.
Your run is so informative about SR. I'm using it, but I'm not where I have access to 8th level spells yet.
What are your thoughts on SR's Pierce Shield ? Is it too strong or is it a good nerf to arcane defenses ? From what I can gather from your run, it does seems to be a "trump card" that allow to take down mages fast, moreso when you take into account that enemies never use it, like you said earlier.
@Arctodus: @Demivrgvs pointed out that if Pierce Shield's Breach effect could be blocked by Spell Shield, this 8th-level spell would be nothing more than a Ruby Ray of Reversal+Breach spell with a casting time of 8. It just wouldn't be that strong.
I don't know if he's going to tweak the spell or not. For what it's worth, I did still need a follow-up option in the form of Edwin casting Breach to remove the enemy's PFMW Contingency after Pierce Shield struck, and having two mages gang up on one mage is already a great way to break down an enemy's defenses, even without SR.
But Pierce Shield really does trivialize these encounters in a way that other options do not. Pierce Shield+Breach is a guaranteed kill on virtually any mage, and with normal SR buffs and True Seeing, it can't be stopped or avoided in any way. Once you have a level 16 mage or sorcerer in SR, that's it--all wizard battles are suddenly broken.
If an enemy mage used it against Carl the way I've been using it, and followed up the way I've been doing it, Carl would be dead. The only way to stay alive would be for Carl to run away.
@semiticgod I'll talk with @Aasim and discuss a bit more about Pierce Shield. I may have underestimated its effectiveness when combined with SR's PnP-like True Seeing.
Without the "piercing through" effect it would indeed perform just as a rugular RRoR + Breach, but at least for those who do not install the convenient SCS tweak it's also the only Breach spell you may use against liches and rakshasas.
The thing is, would you still memorize it if nerfed? Especially now with all the new cool stuff there such as Moment of Prescience and Mind Blank that spell slot isn't just a place to stack up Horrid Wiltings imo...
P.S Comet should not affect party members (even if it would make sense) very strange it does on your install because the projectile on my install is fine. I'll look into it.
At the Troll Claw Woods we were given a task to get some ale for the irregulars. We already had some from Baldur's Gate but though it has the right name, it doesn't work for the quest. You have to steal some from Caelar's camp. Obviously a coding issue. There was some for sale elsewhere in SoD but I didn't buy any more as I already had some. I don't know if that ale will work for the quest though. The game should really make it clear that the ale from Baldur's Gate doesn't work.
On the way to get the ale we helped a green dragon and were suitably rewarded. In the camp we also "Aquired" some other goods, but nothing of significance. (It might have been if we hadn't already completed BG1) Spoiler regarding Dorn's equipment below.
There was a sword for Dorn, but he isn't part of our party.
Obviously, given the name of the woods, we killed a lot of trolls. Dynaheirs minute meteors were very useful for finishing the trolls off.
@Demivrgvs: I'd still use Pierce Shield if it was nerfed a little. I can think of a few possibilities that would make Pierce Shield more balanced:
1. If more SCS spellcasters could block it (say, block the Breach effect with Spell Shield or Dispelling Screen) 2. If more SCS spellcasters used it against the party 3. If it used a Dispel Magic opcode, possibly with a caster level bonus and/or a saving throw, rather than a Breach-style effect (and therefore had a chance of failure, or at least the ability to be blocked with Dispelling Screen) 4. If the Breach effect only removed defenses up to level 4 or 5, whether by tweaking a parameter or replacing the Breach effect with Remove Effects by Resource (getting rid of Stoneskin and basic elemental damage resistances, but not PFMW, Prismatic Mantle, Moment of Prescience, Absolute Immunity, Protection from the Elements, or Protection from Energy)
Failing that, you could always just grant Pierce Shield a different use, much as you did with Pierce Magic and its ability to set MR to 0. If Pierce Shield reduced enemy AC, damage resistances, or saving throws, that would all fit in with the name. An upgraded form of Know Opponent that would get past spell protections (Know Opponent still strikes as a level 2 spell and is mostly useless against mages) would be both novel and balanced.
I haven't come across this creature before. It clearly needs buffed opponents or perhaps summoned montsters. The end
EDIT
I took those monsters on again and was able to trash the entire dungeon, though Dynaheir got chunked. However it is no reload so that is the end of the run.
Update on Keen the FMT, now at 750k exp and with items at 100 in locks/traps/detect illusion:
The fight vs Captain Dennis and his crew could have gone better, Minsc was killed since apparantly fighters with full plate, strength potions and free movement are quite good at killing stuff, especially when you want to spend your actions to take down the casters. But down they went and that got us a full plate for Minsc (Jaheira already had the +2 from limited wish) and a brilliant Boomerang dagger for Keen, the +1 APR on throwing daggers (even in melee) coupled with strength bonus is really a tad OP, doesn't hurt that the base damage on it is 2d4 (+2 for enchantment).
Next fight was also messy where we got ambushed in the sewers by a band of outlaws, dual web, greater malison and chaos helped out a lot but their mage made his saves and managed to get of a sphere of chaos that stunned Jaheira (through potion of free movement) so the axe throwing dwarf could kill her. Killing Jaheira wasn't enough to save them though. The rakshasa died easily and the slaying of the sea troll was easy since we baited it so the beholders wouldn't spawn.
Went to fight Mekrath but realized we had no really good way to kill the 3 yuanti mages guarding the portal stone and the rest of the treasure. So we killed Mekrath himself first, scouted the mages with Keen sneaking around and then caught them with dual web following up with the wand of cloudkill we looted from the very same dungeon.
After this we finished up the thief quest with Keen tanking (normally hate mage tanking since AI is so poor versus it) with wraithform, that a slow spell and a holy smite was pretty much enough. Never understood why Mae'var had to be so weak.
This pushed us over 30k gold which in my SCS version means we can open up act 3. Did so to get to the ring of lock picking and a way to get immunity to level drain. Of course a +2 ring is also pretty stellar. Did all the quests up to killing two named vampires and staking them in their lair, grabbing mace of disruption and then running away since I didn't feel ready to fight a high level mage/vampire. Did the killing with Keen leading the way with AoP equipped and a pretty crappy AC at around -9 (with potions not full plate since I don't like too much equipment swapping) since everyone seemed to target him anyway, Minsc and Jaheira were using twohanders and a fire elemental helped out a lot until a vampire finally figured out that it wasn't protected against level drain. Funny thing is Minsc died again but this time due to the spiders before the lair, a wraith spider webbed him and the poison (5 damage per tick!) from another spider took him down before I remembered I had a wand of restoration with 5 heal charges...
Now we were finally heading to Trademeet when Keen remembered he had promised a pretty lady to go save her castle from intruders, so he went to buy another wand of cloudkill to kill spirit trolls with and went on his merry way.
While heading there we were ambushed by about 100 orogs and a few slavers but they all died to cloudkill and a few missile attacks.
When we met up with Nalia she dinged level 12 at 750 k exp (gained from walking from Athkatla to De'Arnise Keep, soloing is OP..) but her level 6 spells are disintegrate and stone to flesh.. She has chaos at level 5, slow at level 3 and web at level 2 though, so it's not all crap. Kind of regret not buying a few scrolls for her but I didn't remember her spellbook being so lacklustre. Guess she wouldn't like us running around for a day or two to stock up on scrolls for her so into the castle we go!
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer trilogy attempt 117 - (update 1) Scorch, human sun soul monk (Grond0) & Lorga, elven sorcerer (Gate70)
I think this run actually started a couple of weeks ago immediately after the previous one finished, but I've been very poor at writing it up. From the sketchy notes I take here's how the new pairing's progressed in BG1.
Lorga took blind as one of her starting spells. In basic EE being blinded is pretty much a death sentence and that was the case with Shoal to give the duo the normal free level to get going. However, immediately after that Lorga took a bit of a liberty with some ambushing dire wolves and was eaten for breakfast.
In Beregost Scorch intended to just kill Neera, but got too close and activated the Thayans. Lorga did very well there to both blind the wizard and survive the acid arrow she got in return.
Meilum was blinded at the 5th attempt to give Scorch's fists a bit more punch.
That was put to good use against the basilisks, using green scroll protection, before Mutamin was taken down in a concerted attack.
A MP glitch (screens showing different information) allowed Kirian to see Lindin being blinded, but even without help from Korax Lorga's spells were too much for them.
After cruising through the Nashkel Mine a series of stinking clouds kept Mulahey quiet.
Outside the mine the amazons became more sightless victims. Nimbul was also blinded, but as often happens Rasaad quickly nipped in to claim the kill and steal our XP.
There was a potential problem when picking up Brage. Scorch had annoyed the cleric and picked up some rigid thinking as a result. That meant Lorga putting herself in harm's way as the duo arrived at the temple to avoid an attack on Brage or the priest - fortunately this time a successful blind was not followed up by death.
Before going to the Bandit Camp there was a visit to the ankheg nest on the way to Ulgoth's Beard. Nearly all of them were killed pretty easily with the help of sleep, but there was trouble at the end when confusion over which route we were taking meant the last 2 ankhegs being activated at once. Things looked bad when an ankheg rolled a successful hit against Scorch, who was down to 14 HPs at the time - but he survived and Lorga was able to sleep the opponents before any more harm could be done.
Needing a bit more XP for another level Lorga looked for some easy XP - and found that with battle horrors at Durlag's Tower (using magic missiles while Scorch ran them round). Also picked up the tome while there before moving on the bandits where an epidemic of sleeping sickness hit the camp. Inside the main tent Lorga was able to blind the opponents - making the follow-up with stinking clouds a bit of overkill.
A quick trip through the Cloakwood ended with Drasus' companions being blinded. Scorch resorted to wand of heavens use to help make sure Drasus himself wouldn't last long.
After going invisibly down to Davaeorn Scorch using a magic blocking potion while hunting him down.
Lorga celebrated with a level up to learn knock and plunder the area.
Lorga had also learnt protection from fire and fireball at that point and those were combined for an assault to make short work of the sirines.
While thinking of tomes the one in the Gnoll Stronghold was picked up before heading to the City.
In addition to the tomes in Baldurs Gate Lorga showed off his new summoning skill to trap Lothander and get his boots of speed.
More skeletons made short work of Marek before it was back to blind at the Iron Throne to prevent the opponents from reacting to follow up fireballs.
In Candlekeep rests were used to cure trap damage while collecting the tomes. Prat's gang then went the same way as so many parties previously.
At the palace Liia died quickly, but only one doppleganger attacked Belt and a chaos thrown in by Lorga pretty much ended the battle.
After making short work of the maze and the Undercity party it was time for the final action. The intention was to deal with only Sarevok and Semaj, but the latter clung on at near death long enough to dimension door away back near the dais - bringing Angelo and Tazok into the fight. Angelo's exploding arrows could have been a potential concern, but one of those hurt Tazok and the big man wasn't standing for that!
Summons and magic missiles then sorted the rest out without problems.
Scorch, sun soul monk 8, 74 HPs, 210 kills Lorga, sorcerer 9, 51 HPs, 85 kills, 1 death
Legacy of Bhaal Genocide Run: Carl the Llama in BG2 (first post here)
While prowling around the Temple sewers, I decide to stop by the Alhoon hideout. I discover that Break Enchantment does not fix Psionic Blast. Remove Paralysis, however, does. It's our only way to get our celestials working again.
Notice the Planetar hurting the Deva. That's because celestials are apparently vulnerable to psionic charm spells--a celestial's massive MR doesn't work against psionics.
Most of the enemies are easy to trample. But when we enter the Alhoon's lair, we get blasted by two Remove Magic spells in succession, and Carl isn't fast enough to restore our Dispelling Screen. We lose basically all of our defenses, including Carl's. Without his strong AC, Carl suffers INT drain very fast.
Stan's AC is also quite poor. The enemies have a disturbingly high chance of hitting him.
Carl's aura finally clears. Knowing that some psionic spells deal magic damage in SCS, Carl uses a Spell Trigger rather than a straight PFMW spell on its own. Carl needs to do as much as possible in the few short rounds he has.
Stan has no so such options. He perishes quickly.
Edwin's saving throws are pretty lousy, so PFMW won't be good enough for our Conjurer. He opts for Moment of Prescience to boost his saves by 20. Carl does the same, to make absolute sure that he makes any save he needs to.
Unfortunately for us, SR Devas are apparently not immune to +2 weapons. I thought all celestials needed +3 weapons to hit, but apaprently Mind Flayers can chomp them if they get the right attack rolls.
Flowey is going to die soon, and Viconia will probably perish not long after. We're losing our only reliable sources of melee damage. Edwin casts Tenser's Transformation to cover the gap.
In SR, Tenser's Transformation doesn't disable spells. Instead, it imposes a -2 penalty to your save vs. spell and casting speed, making Stoneskin and PFMW much harder to get off the ground. It also grants an extra 0.5 APR at level 7 and 13, just like a normal fighter. With IR's Staff of the Air granting an extra full APR (IR has awesome staffs), Edwin has 3 base APR without haste at subzero THAC0.
Unfortunately, Edwin neglected to re-cast Stoneskin. And since he's not wearing the Adventurer's Robe, he's perfectly vulnerable to critical hits. Only the HP boost from Tenser's Transformation keeps him alive.
Viconia has been trying to summon some elementals for us, but her efforts are in vain. Meanwhile, Edwin hurries to the south to cast Stoneskin.
Notice the triple WoL Wish from Carl. We really need a Wish to bail us out unless we're willing to flee the area and return after resting and resurrecting everybody.
Also notice the yellow aura around Edwin. That's SR's Prismatic Mantle, which blocks +3 weapons and under (+2 in the next update, still enough to ward off Mind Flayers) and also inflicts nonmagical Prismatic Spray backlashes against every attack. On top of that, it lasts for 6 rounds (and I think it can be stacked with PFMW), which means it's better than PFMW against many enemies.
Viconia loses more of her defenses to Breach, but Carl gets Wish off the ground.
We still don't have all the buffs we want, but at least we get our HLAs and spell slots back.
Carl restores our Dispelling Screen. The Alhoon's Cornugon strikes Edwin with Lightning Bolt (there are all kinds of dangers in this fight), but the Cornugon dies a moment after--I think because of a backlash from Edwin's Prismatic Mantle.
Carl is immune to magic damage thanks to his Spell Trigger, but Flowey has no such defenses. The Alhoon destroys him with a Horrid Wilting followed by Magic Missiles.
We're still in a very high-pressure position. We spend a round restoring our defenses.
But a new threat raises its ugly head. The Alhoon has a way of compensating for its poor THAC0.
That means it gets near-guaranteed hits at high APR against all of us, if we don't keep our PFMW or Prismatic Mantles active.
Viconia has no such defenses, and sure enough, the Alhoon attacks her. Meanwhile, Carl casts Improved Alacrity so he can use his newly-recovered HLAs.
Dragon's Breath, Energy Blades, and Summon Planetar will finally give us some badly-needed damage output against the illithids. Unfortunately, Edwin has gotten charmed, and Viconia succumbs to INT drain.
Carl gets Summon Planetar off the ground, and uses a Wish Time Stop to re-cast Wish and get some automatic hits with Energy Blades. The whole process changes the tide of the battle.
Stan, Viconia, and Flowey are back! Of course, without armor or their old buffs, their AC is terrible.
Carl remains in good shape. He re-casts Improved Alacrity, courtesy of our Wish-rest, so we can hurl out another Dragon's Breath.
Flowey dispels the Alhoon's illusions so we can nail him with Pierce Shield. Unfortunately, the Alhoon has managed to cast Improved Alacrity, and he devours Viconia in seconds.
Knowing that time is short, I decide to use a Wand of Spell Striking (we have many copies of the wand thanks to Wish, though they only have Breach charges) rather than Pierce Shield. Strangely enough, Flowey still can't touch the mind flayer lich.
Flowey's a round away from an INT drain death anyway, so I pull him aside. Edwin summons a Fallen Planetar while Carl frustrates the Alhoon's spellcasting with Minute Meteors.
That Tenser's Transformation casting speed bonus is a major disadvantage here; it makes it much harder to get spells off the ground, and it severely weakens the Alhoon's Improved Alacrity buff.
Flowey's escape is short-lived. He engages with another Mind Flayer, who chomps him in short order. But the backlash effect from the Fire Elemental Token is enough to finish off his attacker in his final act.
The Alhoon takes down Carl's Spell Trap. Now Carl is vulnerable to Breach, which would remove both PFMW and Moment of Prescience. None of his defenses would remain.
Carl begins re-casting Spell Trap. Meanwhile, Edwin's Moment of Prescience apparently wears off, and he fails a save against Psionic Blast. Mercifully, his Prismatic Mantle remains intact, shielding him from INT drain and punishing the Alhoon.
Prismatic Mantle hits really hard. It's far deadlier than the double Fire Shield you see in SCS Yuan-ti Mages and the like; it's almost never worth attacking a Prismatic Mantle in melee combat. It's just too dangerous.
Our Planetar manages to free Edwin using Break Enchantment--even though I could have sworn it failed to cure Psionic Blast on my celestials in previous battles.
Carl restores his Moment of Prescience and keeps up the assault on the Alhoon. With its defenses Breached and its spellcasting hobbled by Tenser's Transformation, it just can't block Carl's attacks.
Only a single Ulitharid remains. Just for fun, Carl switches to Iron Golem form and smashes it.
Iron Golem form is a spectacular weapon to use against Mind Flayers. It grants immunity to +2 weapons and below, on top of immunity to poison and backstab. You still get 100% resistance to magic and all elements, and your physical damage resistances get boosted from 20% to 50%, except for crushing damage, which is only 25%. It also sets your THAC0 to -4, your APR to 2, and you deal 2d10+18 damage instead of 4d10+14 (29 instead of 36 on average). Only Psionic Blast, Psionic Maze, and Psionic Domination can pose a threat (and IR items can block all three by the time you reach the Underdark). I only avoided using it because it still lasts 50 rounds--not enough to last a long battle in LoB mode--and Carl would be utterly defenseless once it ran out.
The Alhoon was a nightmarish experience, but we managed to scrape by thanks to Wish-resting. Most of the danger could have been avoided if we had simply split up our party rather than bunching it up together. That way, the Alhoon's Remove Magic spells could only have dispelled one or two party members, rather than everyone.
Slow progress in the Underdark, with party members in a little more danger than before. I didn't prepare properly for the Balor and so several party members were paralysed. Afaaq the genie was chunked and has not yet recovered to emerge from his lamp...if he ever does. Bad timing too as he may have a quest in this area.... The gnome leader was however most displeased to discover his light gem already in our pockets...get paid in advance is what I say. We released all of the prisoners from their imprisonment but the lich caused some serious damage, have been avoiding them thus far. The mage also managed to cast imprisonment on Anomen just as he was being healed, dashed poor manners to just walk off without freeing him... which led in turn to us dealing with Vithal after freeing Anomen. Getting IR's Skull of Death means that Whitworth is now immune to most of the dangerous spells. We also wiped out the Kuo-Toa & Death Knights, and did the ambushes while meeting Adalon... and I made the decision to accept Xulaye into the party while booting Haldamir. This weakens us tactically for now while upping the intrigue factor. On the roleplaying side it seemed like the right decision as Ust Natha should always feel dangerous, and I had realised that Haldamir lacked a ToB component anyway. It should go OK as Whitworth is now level 19 and the party hasn't been in difficulty for awhile...but the option always exists to pay the gate fee and exit early if I feel like the plot is too complicated. Then again playing unknown content is never a good idea....and I shall have to stay on my toes. Phaere has been rescued for now.
I have also realised that Kivan is doomed as I never spoke to Aphril in Spellhold, but I don't think that Whitworth is sensitive enough to save him in any case. His habit of decimating enemies will be sadly missed if we go as far as ToB.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer trilogy attempt 117 - (2nd and final update) Scorch, human sun soul monk (Grond0) & Lorga, elven sorcerer (Gate70)
Another death to add to the ever-lengthening list. We had been making good progress in BG2 clearing out some difficult areas, such as the Planar Prison, at fairly low levels. In Umar Hills there were only skeleton warriors and shadow fiends guarding the temple, which made it pretty easy to get through to Thaxy and we decided to test things out a bit against him.
Lorga's skeleton warriors didn't last too long, but even without lower resistance Lorga was doing some damage to the dragon with magic missiles and her spells looked like the best chance for success. Scorch therefore played target for a bit until he was breathed on - taking him from 90 HPs down to 74. At that point he ran into the corridor exit (where Thaxy can't follow). Lorga was lurking under the canopy out of Thaxy's reach and was able to successfully do some damage with a skull trap. More of those would have been possible as Thaxy didn't appear to react by moving, but Scorch foolishly decided to poke his head out of the corridor to check on the dragon's HPs and, as he moved back down again, the game over screen appeared.
I hadn't been checking the text closely enough during the encounter, but the initial breath attack from Thaxy had done not just the default 4 levels, but another 2 as well (I had assumed that with 74 HPs Scorch couldn't have been drained to level 6). That meant that failing his save on the second breath as well he could be drained to level 0. On loading the autosave and running the combat again the mechanic for losing HPs for level drain appears to be broken. Here he is at level 2 with 35 HPs
- that type of result is conceivable if level drain worked by reducing HPs from your actual total based on the levels lost (as opposed to leaving you with HPs based on your new level) as Scorch had very high basic HPs to start with. However, when he was drained from level 12 to level 8 he only lost 5 HPs and I can't think of a logical mechanic that would explain both of those results.
Sad news as Whitworth bites it at the gates of Ust Natha. I was so busy playing around (and almost dying to) mod content like Xulaye and Afaaq, and being confused by suddenly receiving some unexpected and unsolicited declarations of love from Kivan and Angelo (what must Nalia have thought???) that I commited some heinous errors. I messed up on the dragon's eggs and put Soulafein's in rather than Phaere's... and was then rather surprised to realise during the conversation with Phaere that I would have to do some slaughtering! Phaere and the Matron Mother fell after a hard battle and then poor pathing meant that the party were a bit slow to get out under invisibility.... and then we got cornered at the gates of Ust Natha and I realised too late that under IR the Arbane's doesn't give immunity to hold. An arrow of dispelling didn't release the hold, we couldn't heal or invis Whitworth and the area transition also seemed slightly bugged (Afaaq had just died in the previous area but was hanging around)... leading to the ignominous death of my first no reload through BG1
.
I am tempted to give him another chance (I have BG2 installation with Kagain & Shar-Teel available as I originally conceived of things) but suppose I shall mourn for a little for now. Loss of concentration on the silliest of points cost me dearly... and that's what no-reloads are all about I suppose... especially if one plays after coming in out of the snow a bit tired and sleepy as I was.... Still it was a good run!
The party made great progress this session - and even managed it without any deaths.
Now that we have troll killing weapons, Corsen suggested heading to Trademeet.
The first step was dealing with the genies to get a shield for Vorgan. (AC helps a lot when dealing with trolls). Gremlin laid a bunch of traps inside and Corsen laid some outside. Corsen had prepared for this and used a protection from petrification scroll. The outside genie fell almost immediately. Corsen then goes inside alone to draw out their petrification spells - then the party assists and it's a clean mop up. We get the shield and now Vorgan is a very tough tank indeed.
So we head to the druid grove. When applicable, Gremlin uses his thrown traps (very helpful against the spider group). We also tried to use it on druids when we could. The 1st group of druids managed to fear Corsen, but he was never in danger, as Gremlin and Vorgan did a good job of finishing off the enemies. For the next group of druids, Vorgan decided to use the genie's (from the lamp) stinking cloud - this worked well. Corsen wisely stayed out of the cloud and used his Gesen short bow. This worked.
We found some mushrooms - Corsen enraged to draw out the confusions - was pretty simple for the party. We were hurt a little, so rested and used more traps on the final group of druids guarding the entrance to Faldhorn. Another victory for the party, though Vorgan had eat a few call lightning shots - luckily he has a ton of HP, so he kept together. Gremlin tried to report to Cernd, but his game couldn't see him, nor could Vorgan. Corsen saw Cernd just fine - he had Cernd wipe out Faldhorn - the quest is complete.
Once we reported to the mayor of Trademeet, still a little bit to do. Saving Raissa was child's play for this team. Gremlin had a restoration scroll handy for her. We also cleared out a tomb of undead - pretty easy for the party. Corsen, now that he has the martial staff, ***** in quarterstaff and also ** in two-hand weapon skill, it getting huge hits with his staff.
We had some business to attend to in Athkatla. Vorgan mentioned he would like the Azuredge so the party got that for him. This is serving him well. We also obtained the Daystar, using a protection from undead scroll on Vorgan - who one-shotted the poor lich with Azuredge.
We we are good to go for our next quest, Umar Hills. So Corsen tries to get there, but doesn't see it on the map, and instead gets to Windspear hills - now we have to kill a few paladin friends of Vorgan. So we make sure we aren't being pursued by the Radiant Heart (by letting G. Windspear talk to the Radiant Heart for us before we leave the area).
We got back to Athkatla to talk to the boy so we can see Umar Hills on the map. Grond0 mentioned don't we need to get the Planar Sphere quest - Corey_Russell said you just need the body of Valygar, you don't need the quest at all. At least you don't if you enter the Planar Sphere, which I assume we will at some point.
We finally get to Umar Hills. The town quests went mostly without incident. Since we arrived at night, Vorgan spawned a bunch of shadows - but with his good AC, Azuredge and also SoH, he handled the mass of the undead just fine. We made sure to do the steps needed to get the Shield of the Lost - at the old Amaunator Temple, Corsen intends to tank the undead with the Arbane - the shield would help quite a bit with that.
We are all set to go, we head to the abandoned Amaunator's temple. We intentionally spawn all the undead by the mirror - but the party handled it well, since only Gremlin was vulnerable, but Gremlin wisely helped with ranged attacks/thrown traps only during this part.
The interior went pretty well, with the thieves using traps whenever practical. We briefly recruited Mazzy to relieve her of her sword - since Corsen has short sword skill, and intends to put another pip in it when he has another pip to use, this sword could help a ton when dealing with Illithid. One scary fight was 2 skeleton warriors, shadow fiends and the bone golem - but the party managed to prevail, though not without a good amount of potion gulping.
With the massive number of the traps available to the party, we weren't going to back down from a shadow dragon. The thieves did their thing, then we started the fight. Vorgan and Gremlin got buffeted, and Corsen was taking huge damage from dragon (and no haste potion to run away). Corsen goes away, with the shadow dragon in pursuit. RoR could have been handy, but right then the dragon finally admits death thanks probably due to the trap damage. We rest. To be safe, Corsen used a protection from undead scroll before encountering the Shade Lord (to prevent FoD on him) - as it was the Shade Lord and his minions were defeated super fast.
On our return trip to Immesvale, we picked up Valygar's corpse (you know, after killing him). We killed his buddies too, Gremlin's thrown traps once again being OP. We report to the mayor our success, sell, but we still had a little time left.
Grond0 mentioned we should get the Ring of Gaxx. But to do that on one undead scroll each, we need to deal with Tarnor's gang. Corsen usually uses full plate, but this time decided to don leather - thinking thief skills would be the safest way to approach this. A party member gave Corsen a haste potion, and the thieves used their traps once again (though I don't think the traps killed anyone). The key of course was neutralizing Gaius. First Gremlin drew out the true sights of Gauis. But wasn't strictly necessary, as Corsen had the cloak of non-detection. Corsen actually got seen when he should have been in the shadows - Gaius however did not see him and so did not fire his buffs! Corsen hides and goes for a backstab on Gaius - success! The mage is one-shotted. The party now engages, with Corsen, running, hiding in the shadows, backstabbing, and repeat. Corsen gets the kill shot on most of them, as all backstabs were one-shots!!
We loot, clear the Temple Sewers of remaining enemies, and will venture in Mekrath's lair next session. This was a very good session.
Corsen (protagonist, controlled by Corey_Russell) - human level 9 berserker dualed to thief Gremlin (controlled by Grond0) - halfling bounty hunter Vorgan (controlled by Gate70) - human inquisitor
Not going to bother with kill counts, as Vorgan, who already had a huge lead before this session, got a huge boost in kill counts with Azuredge in the Umar Hills area.
I put my game Grimwald the Strong on hold for a while as it was turning out to be far too similar to my previous game. I therefore decided to run a pair of characters, who instead of being good are chaotic evil gnomish followers of Cyric. One is Cyresia, a fighter/illusionist. That makes sense as Cyric is the god of illusion. The other is a cleric/thief called Tiax. I have given him the script of Tiax using Shadowkeeper to make the dialogue more interesting. I rolled him up and has better stats, but didn't give him the summon ghast ability as I felt that would be overpowered. I did however give him the kit Strifeleader of Cyric, as I thought that was apt. The relationship between the two is strained somewhat, based as it is on deception. Cyresia is pretending to be aiding Tiax in his attempt to become a god, though she is only seeking the same end for herself. This could end in tears. Naturally they will lie to other NPCs too.
Journal of Cyresia and Tiax
In Candlekeep Tiax stole as much equipment as he could, though I got to some treasure upstairs in some chests. Not being a very good thief I was caught on two occasions. On the first occasion I was stripped of all my gold which amounted to one gold piece. On the second occasion however the guard insisted on punishing me with a whipping, after which he took advantage of his position, proving that his morals were no better than mine. He did however awaken some hidden desires in me with the result that we both ended up content. (Romatic encounters mod)
The only fight of note was that with Mendas. As always he was a difficult character to beat as he is somewhat resistant to spells and has good equipment. (Added by Shadowkeeper) Being surrounded by rats, they stopped him landing blows on me with the result that he fell to ranged weapons.
We have agreed to deliver a letter for Sister Sapientia and are now back at the site where Gorion was murdered.
EDIT
We headed northwards picking up a couple of rings on the way. We then killed hobgoblins and near Sonner's dwelling killed a zombie that was bothering a widow. We afterwards agreed to help Sonner only to change our minds after meeting Tenya. We got the bowl from Sonner, but than decided to kill Sonner for his flail. I am sure that Cyric will be pleased with us doing that. Tenya was certainly pleased. Nearby we killed an ankheg before heading for High Hedge and Beregost. There we calmed Marl down and took a book to Firebead.
We returned to High Hedge killing a ghast whilst in transit, killed some gnolls, and helped get Mellicamp restored to being human. As a reward he showed me just how human he was by having a delightful picnic with me. He certainly knew how to kiss and the rest. We have bought a better sling for Tiax. At 150gp it had better be a good one!
Took 8 hours of rest outside De'Arnise where we found Nalia, her spell selection was really quite hilarious..
Crept slowly through the keep with no issues at all. Keen decided to throw everything at Tor'gal to avoid a drawn out fight that would end in tears, this is a no-reload after all. Took the hint from every other fighter in SCS and buffed up Jaheira, Minsc and Keen with potions of speed, for Minsc and Keen a 20 str potion, for Jaheira and Keen a potion of invulnerability. After that resist fear, chant, bless, impr invis on Jaheira, summon a fire elemental and buff up with DuHM with Keen. The second our sneaking Keen and invis Jaheira get within line of sight of Tor'gal his speech starts and the yuanti mages start casting. We ansver with triple web first round, second round triple cloudkill from wands, lots and lots of ranged damage from Keen who does about 100 dmg per round buffed with no crits. The exp starts pouring in and I don't really know how many helpers the big bad troll had..
That done we went to Trademeet where we were asked to go to a nearby forest, did so and with the help of a fire elemental and a few charges of the wand of cloudkill we had little trouble. The +2 THAC0 bracers took Keens ranged unbuffed THAC0 to 4 (Minsc has the helm of balduran). The last druids before the boss are quite sturdy but we pulled no punches and took them out with ease. For the boss fight we first tried asking Cernd to do it for us since Jaheira were out of insect swarms but Faldorn annihilated him... Buffed Jaheira with potion of speed, remove fear, chant and bless and had her try instead. Worked out just fine in bear form but Jaheira needed a few potions thrown to her, but since Faldorn also used healing potions we figured it wasn't against the rules..
The evil blue man group in Trademeet were killed with no trouble, also finally caught up with the deranged skinner and his partner plus gave the mantle of waukeen to the polite high merchant with the big sword.
All this took us to about 50k gold but we spent 40 of it on a robe of the good archmage for Keen, Blackblood +3 for Jaheira, belt of inertial barrier for Aerie and a metric ton of scrolls for Nalia mostly.
When trying to leave town we triggered a scene with Rashaad and Keen felt compelled to help him (in spite of the simply atrocious writing for all things Rashaad related). Ran to Athkatla to trigger the next part of his quest, ran to the amphitheater, managed to answer correctly so the deceived monks didnt attack me. Went south to tell the vagrant blades that Hojar obviously deserved the belt which caused the archer with a ring of mirror image to go insane and attack us. Jaheira actually gained a level in that fight which awarded us 2k exp, she gained fighter level 10 which gave her exactly 1 THAC0 and 1 hp..
Ran to the meeting place and in the ambush on the world map managed to not kill the monks of Selune in spite of them trying really hard to get killed by us, yay Keen the smooth talker!
@Arctodus: @Demivrgvs pointed out that if Pierce Shield's Breach effect could be blocked by Spell Shield, this 8th-level spell would be nothing more than a Ruby Ray of Reversal+Breach spell with a casting time of 8. It just wouldn't be that strong.
This is exactly how it works. Spell Shield stops it, all of it's effects. If it doesn't, it's a bug. If Spell Shield stops level 9 Spellstrike, it really should stop level 8 Pierce Shield. Unlike Breach however, Pierce Shield is not stopped by Dispelling Screen - but it has the ability to remove it. Spellstrike also gets rid of it w/o being stopped by it.
Things were going very well until we ran into Silke. Silke first attacked those that she wanted me to kill. In the process she was badly injured. She then attacked me and killed the two of us.
@Wise_Grimwald Sorry to hear that. If I am a small party (or solo), I like to wait until I get the boots of grounding from Mulahey plus Shield Amulet to stop magic missiles - she's much safer to take on that way. She's a high level bard - not much HP, but as a high level bard spells can be dangerous.
@Wise_Grimwald Sorry to hear that. If I am a small party (or solo), I like to wait until I get the boots of grounding from Mulahey plus Shield Amulet to stop magic missiles - she's much safer to take on that way. She's a high level bard - not much HP, but as a high level bard spells can be dangerous.
I agree. I usually get away with it, as I charm the people that she wants me to kill and her lightning strike kills both them and herself. I thus get their potions. However this time she killed both of the charmed characters with one blast (she usually only kills one and if she is still alive kills the second one with the second blast) and on this occasion she survived.
@semiticgod quoting myself from our private messages "Pierce Shield sheer power is intended because it's an 8th lvl spell. I guess I could find a workaround to make its breach part not byapss spell protections (casting a sub-spell after the main one) but then this spell would be a very expensive Secret Word + Breach with an extremely long casting time".
When you said it bypassed spell protections I assumed you were talking about standard ones, not Spell Shield. As @Aasim says, SS is supposed to block Pierce Shield just like any other spell removal and if it doesn't than I need to fix it.
@Demivrgvs: I just tested it using a sorcerer and a simulacrum. I think re-installing the mod fixed something, but I'm not sure the behavior is fully intended.
Dispelling Screen blocks an infinite number of Breach spells, but only one Dispel Magic, and Pierce Shield ignores it.
Spell Shield blocks an infinite number of Breach spells and Pierce Shield spells.
@Demivrgvs: I just tested it using a sorcerer and a simulacrum. I think re-installing the mod fixed something, but I'm not sure the behavior is fully intended.
Dispelling Screen blocks an infinite number of Breach spells, but only one Dispel Magic, and Pierce Shield ignores it.
Spell Shield blocks an infinite number of Breach spells and Pierce Shield spells.
Ok, Demi inforemed me of this and I checked it out. My findings: Indeed; Spell Shield stops Breach. This is an oversight on my account, will fix it (quickfix - open spwi519, delete 206 against spwi513b). However, Breach removes Dispel Screen 100% of time. Pierce Shield indeed ignores Dispel Screen (will fix, but this is a very minor bug - max level for removal needs to be set to 9, right now it's 0...). Spell Shield blocks 1 single Pierce Shield and is removed by it however, as intended.
I should join with a run here.....hopefully today...
@semiticgod I've read quite a few of your runs here and you end up with the most fascinating combinations. Reading this thread honestly makes me feel like I don't understand Baldur's Gate at all (or at least am a rank amateur in terms of spell-casting).
Case in point, the one question that has been bugging me for a while is: How do you know when your aura is clear?
@semiticgod I've read quite a few of your runs here and you end up with the most fascinating combinations. Reading this thread honestly makes me feel like I don't understand Baldur's Gate at all (or at least am a rank amateur in terms of spell-casting).
Case in point, the one question that has been bugging me for a while is: How do you know when your aura is clear?
A round is every six seconds. Once you do an action (use a potion, spell, item, etc.) you'll have to wait 6 seconds to do another action. Which is why for soloers, you might see them gulp a heal potion, run around for 6 seconds then try to gulp another one. If they try to do it earlier, they will just stand there and get hit. And of course, the reverse is true - if you haven't done any actions for more than 6 seconds, then your aura should be clear.
@semiticgod I've read quite a few of your runs here and you end up with the most fascinating combinations. Reading this thread honestly makes me feel like I don't understand Baldur's Gate at all (or at least am a rank amateur in terms of spell-casting).
Case in point, the one question that has been bugging me for a while is: How do you know when your aura is clear?
Thank you. That's really sweet of you; I do try to keep things weird and interesting.
Knowing when your aura is clear really does just require timing; there are no hard and fast clues (even Auto-Pause is unreliable). Usually, you can only know the aura timing for one or two party members, and for the rest, you just have a vague guess. Usually, when no-reload players say their aura wasn't clear at a critical moment, it means they were trying to use a potion or cast a spell, but couldn't.
One of the simplest ways to get a feel for it is just to count attacks or time it based on spell casting times. If I have a fighter with 3 APR who need to drink two potions in succession, I just wait for him to complete three attack rolls, and that's how I know when he can drink his next potion. Or, if a mage is casting Breach, I know there'll be 3 seconds after he finishes casting it (I have auto-pause on spell cast) before his aura is clear, because Breach has a casting time of 5.
I've found that it's often best for your mages to begin casting spells all at the same time, and stick that way for as long as possible. That way you know when each one's aura is clear, because they're acting in sync.
Comments
@Enuhal Congratulations
What are your thoughts on SR's Pierce Shield ? Is it too strong or is it a good nerf to arcane defenses ? From what I can gather from your run, it does seems to be a "trump card" that allow to take down mages fast, moreso when you take into account that enemies never use it, like you said earlier.
I don't know if he's going to tweak the spell or not. For what it's worth, I did still need a follow-up option in the form of Edwin casting Breach to remove the enemy's PFMW Contingency after Pierce Shield struck, and having two mages gang up on one mage is already a great way to break down an enemy's defenses, even without SR.
But Pierce Shield really does trivialize these encounters in a way that other options do not. Pierce Shield+Breach is a guaranteed kill on virtually any mage, and with normal SR buffs and True Seeing, it can't be stopped or avoided in any way. Once you have a level 16 mage or sorcerer in SR, that's it--all wizard battles are suddenly broken.
If an enemy mage used it against Carl the way I've been using it, and followed up the way I've been doing it, Carl would be dead. The only way to stay alive would be for Carl to run away.
Without the "piercing through" effect it would indeed perform just as a rugular RRoR + Breach, but at least for those who do not install the convenient SCS tweak it's also the only Breach spell you may use against liches and rakshasas.
The thing is, would you still memorize it if nerfed? Especially now with all the new cool stuff there such as Moment of Prescience and Mind Blank that spell slot isn't just a place to stack up Horrid Wiltings imo...
P.S Comet should not affect party members (even if it would make sense) very strange it does on your install because the projectile on my install is fine. I'll look into it.
Journal of Simon de Montfort
At the Troll Claw Woods we were given a task to get some ale for the irregulars.We already had some from Baldur's Gate but though it has the right name, it doesn't work for the quest. You have to steal some from Caelar's camp. Obviously a coding issue. There was some for sale elsewhere in SoD but I didn't buy any more as I already had some. I don't know if that ale will work for the quest though. The game should really make it clear that the ale from Baldur's Gate doesn't work.
On the way to get the ale we helped a green dragon and were suitably rewarded. In the camp we also "Aquired" some other goods, but nothing of significance. (It might have been if we hadn't already completed BG1) Spoiler regarding Dorn's equipment below.
Obviously, given the name of the woods, we killed a lot of trolls. Dynaheirs minute meteors were very useful for finishing the trolls off.
1. If more SCS spellcasters could block it (say, block the Breach effect with Spell Shield or Dispelling Screen)
2. If more SCS spellcasters used it against the party
3. If it used a Dispel Magic opcode, possibly with a caster level bonus and/or a saving throw, rather than a Breach-style effect (and therefore had a chance of failure, or at least the ability to be blocked with Dispelling Screen)
4. If the Breach effect only removed defenses up to level 4 or 5, whether by tweaking a parameter or replacing the Breach effect with Remove Effects by Resource (getting rid of Stoneskin and basic elemental damage resistances, but not PFMW, Prismatic Mantle, Moment of Prescience, Absolute Immunity, Protection from the Elements, or Protection from Energy)
Failing that, you could always just grant Pierce Shield a different use, much as you did with Pierce Magic and its ability to set MR to 0. If Pierce Shield reduced enemy AC, damage resistances, or saving throws, that would all fit in with the name. An upgraded form of Know Opponent that would get past spell protections (Know Opponent still strikes as a level 2 spell and is mostly useless against mages) would be both novel and balanced.
Journal of Simon de Montfort
Siege of DragonspearI haven't come across this creature before. It clearly needs buffed opponents or perhaps summoned montsters.
The end
EDIT
I took those monsters on again and was able to trash the entire dungeon, though Dynaheir got chunked.A new run. This time an inquisitor With a portrait of myself done by @lolien it is in the Hall of Heroes with a lot of other good portraits.
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/840809#Comment_840809
The fight vs Captain Dennis and his crew could have gone better, Minsc was killed since apparantly fighters with full plate, strength potions and free movement are quite good at killing stuff, especially when you want to spend your actions to take down the casters. But down they went and that got us a full plate for Minsc (Jaheira already had the +2 from limited wish) and a brilliant Boomerang dagger for Keen, the +1 APR on throwing daggers (even in melee) coupled with strength bonus is really a tad OP, doesn't hurt that the base damage on it is 2d4 (+2 for enchantment).
Next fight was also messy where we got ambushed in the sewers by a band of outlaws, dual web, greater malison and chaos helped out a lot but their mage made his saves and managed to get of a sphere of chaos that stunned Jaheira (through potion of free movement) so the axe throwing dwarf could kill her. Killing Jaheira wasn't enough to save them though. The rakshasa died easily and the slaying of the sea troll was easy since we baited it so the beholders wouldn't spawn.
Went to fight Mekrath but realized we had no really good way to kill the 3 yuanti mages guarding the portal stone and the rest of the treasure. So we killed Mekrath himself first, scouted the mages with Keen sneaking around and then caught them with dual web following up with the wand of cloudkill we looted from the very same dungeon.
After this we finished up the thief quest with Keen tanking (normally hate mage tanking since AI is so poor versus it) with wraithform, that a slow spell and a holy smite was pretty much enough. Never understood why Mae'var had to be so weak.
This pushed us over 30k gold which in my SCS version means we can open up act 3. Did so to get to the ring of lock picking and a way to get immunity to level drain. Of course a +2 ring is also pretty stellar. Did all the quests up to killing two named vampires and staking them in their lair, grabbing mace of disruption and then running away since I didn't feel ready to fight a high level mage/vampire. Did the killing with Keen leading the way with AoP equipped and a pretty crappy AC at around -9 (with potions not full plate since I don't like too much equipment swapping) since everyone seemed to target him anyway, Minsc and Jaheira were using twohanders and a fire elemental helped out a lot until a vampire finally figured out that it wasn't protected against level drain. Funny thing is Minsc died again but this time due to the spiders before the lair, a wraith spider webbed him and the poison (5 damage per tick!) from another spider took him down before I remembered I had a wand of restoration with 5 heal charges...
Now we were finally heading to Trademeet when Keen remembered he had promised a pretty lady to go save her castle from intruders, so he went to buy another wand of cloudkill to kill spirit trolls with and went on his merry way.
While heading there we were ambushed by about 100 orogs and a few slavers but they all died to cloudkill and a few missile attacks.
When we met up with Nalia she dinged level 12 at 750 k exp (gained from walking from Athkatla to De'Arnise Keep, soloing is OP..) but her level 6 spells are disintegrate and stone to flesh.. She has chaos at level 5, slow at level 3 and web at level 2 though, so it's not all crap. Kind of regret not buying a few scrolls for her but I didn't remember her spellbook being so lacklustre. Guess she wouldn't like us running around for a day or two to stock up on scrolls for her so into the castle we go!
Scorch, human sun soul monk (Grond0) & Lorga, elven sorcerer (Gate70)
I think this run actually started a couple of weeks ago immediately after the previous one finished, but I've been very poor at writing it up. From the sketchy notes I take here's how the new pairing's progressed in BG1.
Lorga took blind as one of her starting spells. In basic EE being blinded is pretty much a death sentence and that was the case with Shoal to give the duo the normal free level to get going. However, immediately after that Lorga took a bit of a liberty with some ambushing dire wolves and was eaten for breakfast.
In Beregost Scorch intended to just kill Neera, but got too close and activated the Thayans. Lorga did very well there to both blind the wizard and survive the acid arrow she got in return.
After cruising through the Nashkel Mine a series of stinking clouds kept Mulahey quiet.
There was a potential problem when picking up Brage. Scorch had annoyed the cleric and picked up some rigid thinking as a result. That meant Lorga putting herself in harm's way as the duo arrived at the temple to avoid an attack on Brage or the priest - fortunately this time a successful blind was not followed up by death.
Before going to the Bandit Camp there was a visit to the ankheg nest on the way to Ulgoth's Beard. Nearly all of them were killed pretty easily with the help of sleep, but there was trouble at the end when confusion over which route we were taking meant the last 2 ankhegs being activated at once. Things looked bad when an ankheg rolled a successful hit against Scorch, who was down to 14 HPs at the time - but he survived and Lorga was able to sleep the opponents before any more harm could be done.
Needing a bit more XP for another level Lorga looked for some easy XP - and found that with battle horrors at Durlag's Tower (using magic missiles while Scorch ran them round). Also picked up the tome while there before moving on the bandits where an epidemic of sleeping sickness hit the camp. Inside the main tent Lorga was able to blind the opponents - making the follow-up with stinking clouds a bit of overkill.
A quick trip through the Cloakwood ended with Drasus' companions being blinded. Scorch resorted to wand of heavens use to help make sure Drasus himself wouldn't last long.
Lorga had also learnt protection from fire and fireball at that point and those were combined for an assault to make short work of the sirines.
In addition to the tomes in Baldurs Gate Lorga showed off his new summoning skill to trap Lothander and get his boots of speed.
In Candlekeep rests were used to cure trap damage while collecting the tomes. Prat's gang then went the same way as so many parties previously.
At the palace Liia died quickly, but only one doppleganger attacked Belt and a chaos thrown in by Lorga pretty much ended the battle.
After making short work of the maze and the Undercity party it was time for the final action. The intention was to deal with only Sarevok and Semaj, but the latter clung on at near death long enough to dimension door away back near the dais - bringing Angelo and Tazok into the fight. Angelo's exploding arrows could have been a potential concern, but one of those hurt Tazok and the big man wasn't standing for that!
Scorch, sun soul monk 8, 74 HPs, 210 kills
Lorga, sorcerer 9, 51 HPs, 85 kills, 1 death
(first post here)
While prowling around the Temple sewers, I decide to stop by the Alhoon hideout. I discover that Break Enchantment does not fix Psionic Blast. Remove Paralysis, however, does. It's our only way to get our celestials working again.
Notice the Planetar hurting the Deva. That's because celestials are apparently vulnerable to psionic charm spells--a celestial's massive MR doesn't work against psionics.
Most of the enemies are easy to trample. But when we enter the Alhoon's lair, we get blasted by two Remove Magic spells in succession, and Carl isn't fast enough to restore our Dispelling Screen. We lose basically all of our defenses, including Carl's. Without his strong AC, Carl suffers INT drain very fast.
Stan's AC is also quite poor. The enemies have a disturbingly high chance of hitting him.
Carl's aura finally clears. Knowing that some psionic spells deal magic damage in SCS, Carl uses a Spell Trigger rather than a straight PFMW spell on its own. Carl needs to do as much as possible in the few short rounds he has.
Stan has no so such options. He perishes quickly.
Edwin's saving throws are pretty lousy, so PFMW won't be good enough for our Conjurer. He opts for Moment of Prescience to boost his saves by 20. Carl does the same, to make absolute sure that he makes any save he needs to.
Unfortunately for us, SR Devas are apparently not immune to +2 weapons. I thought all celestials needed +3 weapons to hit, but apaprently Mind Flayers can chomp them if they get the right attack rolls.
Flowey is going to die soon, and Viconia will probably perish not long after. We're losing our only reliable sources of melee damage. Edwin casts Tenser's Transformation to cover the gap.
In SR, Tenser's Transformation doesn't disable spells. Instead, it imposes a -2 penalty to your save vs. spell and casting speed, making Stoneskin and PFMW much harder to get off the ground. It also grants an extra 0.5 APR at level 7 and 13, just like a normal fighter. With IR's Staff of the Air granting an extra full APR (IR has awesome staffs), Edwin has 3 base APR without haste at subzero THAC0.
Unfortunately, Edwin neglected to re-cast Stoneskin. And since he's not wearing the Adventurer's Robe, he's perfectly vulnerable to critical hits. Only the HP boost from Tenser's Transformation keeps him alive.
Viconia has been trying to summon some elementals for us, but her efforts are in vain. Meanwhile, Edwin hurries to the south to cast Stoneskin.
Notice the triple WoL Wish from Carl. We really need a Wish to bail us out unless we're willing to flee the area and return after resting and resurrecting everybody.
Also notice the yellow aura around Edwin. That's SR's Prismatic Mantle, which blocks +3 weapons and under (+2 in the next update, still enough to ward off Mind Flayers) and also inflicts nonmagical Prismatic Spray backlashes against every attack. On top of that, it lasts for 6 rounds (and I think it can be stacked with PFMW), which means it's better than PFMW against many enemies.
Viconia loses more of her defenses to Breach, but Carl gets Wish off the ground.
We still don't have all the buffs we want, but at least we get our HLAs and spell slots back.
Carl restores our Dispelling Screen. The Alhoon's Cornugon strikes Edwin with Lightning Bolt (there are all kinds of dangers in this fight), but the Cornugon dies a moment after--I think because of a backlash from Edwin's Prismatic Mantle.
Carl is immune to magic damage thanks to his Spell Trigger, but Flowey has no such defenses. The Alhoon destroys him with a Horrid Wilting followed by Magic Missiles.
We're still in a very high-pressure position. We spend a round restoring our defenses.
But a new threat raises its ugly head. The Alhoon has a way of compensating for its poor THAC0.
That means it gets near-guaranteed hits at high APR against all of us, if we don't keep our PFMW or Prismatic Mantles active.
Viconia has no such defenses, and sure enough, the Alhoon attacks her. Meanwhile, Carl casts Improved Alacrity so he can use his newly-recovered HLAs.
Dragon's Breath, Energy Blades, and Summon Planetar will finally give us some badly-needed damage output against the illithids. Unfortunately, Edwin has gotten charmed, and Viconia succumbs to INT drain.
Carl gets Summon Planetar off the ground, and uses a Wish Time Stop to re-cast Wish and get some automatic hits with Energy Blades. The whole process changes the tide of the battle.
Stan, Viconia, and Flowey are back! Of course, without armor or their old buffs, their AC is terrible.
Carl remains in good shape. He re-casts Improved Alacrity, courtesy of our Wish-rest, so we can hurl out another Dragon's Breath.
Flowey dispels the Alhoon's illusions so we can nail him with Pierce Shield. Unfortunately, the Alhoon has managed to cast Improved Alacrity, and he devours Viconia in seconds.
Knowing that time is short, I decide to use a Wand of Spell Striking (we have many copies of the wand thanks to Wish, though they only have Breach charges) rather than Pierce Shield. Strangely enough, Flowey still can't touch the mind flayer lich.
Flowey's a round away from an INT drain death anyway, so I pull him aside. Edwin summons a Fallen Planetar while Carl frustrates the Alhoon's spellcasting with Minute Meteors.
That Tenser's Transformation casting speed bonus is a major disadvantage here; it makes it much harder to get spells off the ground, and it severely weakens the Alhoon's Improved Alacrity buff.
Flowey's escape is short-lived. He engages with another Mind Flayer, who chomps him in short order. But the backlash effect from the Fire Elemental Token is enough to finish off his attacker in his final act.
The Alhoon takes down Carl's Spell Trap. Now Carl is vulnerable to Breach, which would remove both PFMW and Moment of Prescience. None of his defenses would remain.
Carl begins re-casting Spell Trap. Meanwhile, Edwin's Moment of Prescience apparently wears off, and he fails a save against Psionic Blast. Mercifully, his Prismatic Mantle remains intact, shielding him from INT drain and punishing the Alhoon.
Prismatic Mantle hits really hard. It's far deadlier than the double Fire Shield you see in SCS Yuan-ti Mages and the like; it's almost never worth attacking a Prismatic Mantle in melee combat. It's just too dangerous.
Our Planetar manages to free Edwin using Break Enchantment--even though I could have sworn it failed to cure Psionic Blast on my celestials in previous battles.
Carl restores his Moment of Prescience and keeps up the assault on the Alhoon. With its defenses Breached and its spellcasting hobbled by Tenser's Transformation, it just can't block Carl's attacks.
Only a single Ulitharid remains. Just for fun, Carl switches to Iron Golem form and smashes it.
Iron Golem form is a spectacular weapon to use against Mind Flayers. It grants immunity to +2 weapons and below, on top of immunity to poison and backstab. You still get 100% resistance to magic and all elements, and your physical damage resistances get boosted from 20% to 50%, except for crushing damage, which is only 25%. It also sets your THAC0 to -4, your APR to 2, and you deal 2d10+18 damage instead of 4d10+14 (29 instead of 36 on average). Only Psionic Blast, Psionic Maze, and Psionic Domination can pose a threat (and IR items can block all three by the time you reach the Underdark). I only avoided using it because it still lasts 50 rounds--not enough to last a long battle in LoB mode--and Carl would be utterly defenseless once it ran out.
The Alhoon was a nightmarish experience, but we managed to scrape by thanks to Wish-resting. Most of the danger could have been avoided if we had simply split up our party rather than bunching it up together. That way, the Alhoon's Remove Magic spells could only have dispelled one or two party members, rather than everyone.
I have also realised that Kivan is doomed as I never spoke to Aphril in Spellhold, but I don't think that Whitworth is sensitive enough to save him in any case. His habit of decimating enemies will be sadly missed if we go as far as ToB.
Scorch, human sun soul monk (Grond0) & Lorga, elven sorcerer (Gate70)
Another death to add to the ever-lengthening list. We had been making good progress in BG2 clearing out some difficult areas, such as the Planar Prison, at fairly low levels. In Umar Hills there were only skeleton warriors and shadow fiends guarding the temple, which made it pretty easy to get through to Thaxy and we decided to test things out a bit against him.
Lorga's skeleton warriors didn't last too long, but even without lower resistance Lorga was doing some damage to the dragon with magic missiles and her spells looked like the best chance for success. Scorch therefore played target for a bit until he was breathed on - taking him from 90 HPs down to 74. At that point he ran into the corridor exit (where Thaxy can't follow). Lorga was lurking under the canopy out of Thaxy's reach and was able to successfully do some damage with a skull trap. More of those would have been possible as Thaxy didn't appear to react by moving, but Scorch foolishly decided to poke his head out of the corridor to check on the dragon's HPs and, as he moved back down again, the game over screen appeared.
I hadn't been checking the text closely enough during the encounter, but the initial breath attack from Thaxy had done not just the default 4 levels, but another 2 as well (I had assumed that with 74 HPs Scorch couldn't have been drained to level 6). That meant that failing his save on the second breath as well he could be drained to level 0. On loading the autosave and running the combat again the mechanic for losing HPs for level drain appears to be broken. Here he is at level 2 with 35 HPs
I am tempted to give him another chance (I have BG2 installation with Kagain & Shar-Teel available as I originally conceived of things) but suppose I shall mourn for a little for now. Loss of concentration on the silliest of points cost me dearly... and that's what no-reloads are all about I suppose... especially if one plays after coming in out of the snow a bit tired and sleepy as I was.... Still it was a good run!
SETUP:
BGT
Fixpack
ToBeX
The party made great progress this session - and even managed it without any deaths.
Now that we have troll killing weapons, Corsen suggested heading to Trademeet.
The first step was dealing with the genies to get a shield for Vorgan. (AC helps a lot when dealing with trolls). Gremlin laid a bunch of traps inside and Corsen laid some outside. Corsen had prepared for this and used a protection from petrification scroll. The outside genie fell almost immediately. Corsen then goes inside alone to draw out their petrification spells - then the party assists and it's a clean mop up. We get the shield and now Vorgan is a very tough tank indeed.
So we head to the druid grove. When applicable, Gremlin uses his thrown traps (very helpful against the spider group). We also tried to use it on druids when we could. The 1st group of druids managed to fear Corsen, but he was never in danger, as Gremlin and Vorgan did a good job of finishing off the enemies. For the next group of druids, Vorgan decided to use the genie's (from the lamp) stinking cloud - this worked well. Corsen wisely stayed out of the cloud and used his Gesen short bow. This worked.
We found some mushrooms - Corsen enraged to draw out the confusions - was pretty simple for the party. We were hurt a little, so rested and used more traps on the final group of druids guarding the entrance to Faldhorn. Another victory for the party, though Vorgan had eat a few call lightning shots - luckily he has a ton of HP, so he kept together. Gremlin tried to report to Cernd, but his game couldn't see him, nor could Vorgan. Corsen saw Cernd just fine - he had Cernd wipe out Faldhorn - the quest is complete.
Once we reported to the mayor of Trademeet, still a little bit to do. Saving Raissa was child's play for this team. Gremlin had a restoration scroll handy for her. We also cleared out a tomb of undead - pretty easy for the party. Corsen, now that he has the martial staff, ***** in quarterstaff and also ** in two-hand weapon skill, it getting huge hits with his staff.
We had some business to attend to in Athkatla. Vorgan mentioned he would like the Azuredge so the party got that for him. This is serving him well. We also obtained the Daystar, using a protection from undead scroll on Vorgan - who one-shotted the poor lich with Azuredge.
We we are good to go for our next quest, Umar Hills. So Corsen tries to get there, but doesn't see it on the map, and instead gets to Windspear hills - now we have to kill a few paladin friends of Vorgan. So we make sure we aren't being pursued by the Radiant Heart (by letting G. Windspear talk to the Radiant Heart for us before we leave the area).
We got back to Athkatla to talk to the boy so we can see Umar Hills on the map. Grond0 mentioned don't we need to get the Planar Sphere quest - Corey_Russell said you just need the body of Valygar, you don't need the quest at all. At least you don't if you enter the Planar Sphere, which I assume we will at some point.
We finally get to Umar Hills. The town quests went mostly without incident. Since we arrived at night, Vorgan spawned a bunch of shadows - but with his good AC, Azuredge and also SoH, he handled the mass of the undead just fine. We made sure to do the steps needed to get the Shield of the Lost - at the old Amaunator Temple, Corsen intends to tank the undead with the Arbane - the shield would help quite a bit with that.
We are all set to go, we head to the abandoned Amaunator's temple. We intentionally spawn all the undead by the mirror - but the party handled it well, since only Gremlin was vulnerable, but Gremlin wisely helped with ranged attacks/thrown traps only during this part.
The interior went pretty well, with the thieves using traps whenever practical. We briefly recruited Mazzy to relieve her of her sword - since Corsen has short sword skill, and intends to put another pip in it when he has another pip to use, this sword could help a ton when dealing with Illithid. One scary fight was 2 skeleton warriors, shadow fiends and the bone golem - but the party managed to prevail, though not without a good amount of potion gulping.
With the massive number of the traps available to the party, we weren't going to back down from a shadow dragon. The thieves did their thing, then we started the fight. Vorgan and Gremlin got buffeted, and Corsen was taking huge damage from dragon (and no haste potion to run away). Corsen goes away, with the shadow dragon in pursuit. RoR could have been handy, but right then the dragon finally admits death thanks probably due to the trap damage. We rest. To be safe, Corsen used a protection from undead scroll before encountering the Shade Lord (to prevent FoD on him) - as it was the Shade Lord and his minions were defeated super fast.
On our return trip to Immesvale, we picked up Valygar's corpse (you know, after killing him). We killed his buddies too, Gremlin's thrown traps once again being OP. We report to the mayor our success, sell, but we still had a little time left.
Grond0 mentioned we should get the Ring of Gaxx. But to do that on one undead scroll each, we need to deal with Tarnor's gang. Corsen usually uses full plate, but this time decided to don leather - thinking thief skills would be the safest way to approach this. A party member gave Corsen a haste potion, and the thieves used their traps once again (though I don't think the traps killed anyone). The key of course was neutralizing Gaius. First Gremlin drew out the true sights of Gauis. But wasn't strictly necessary, as Corsen had the cloak of non-detection. Corsen actually got seen when he should have been in the shadows - Gaius however did not see him and so did not fire his buffs! Corsen hides and goes for a backstab on Gaius - success! The mage is one-shotted. The party now engages, with Corsen, running, hiding in the shadows, backstabbing, and repeat. Corsen gets the kill shot on most of them, as all backstabs were one-shots!!
We loot, clear the Temple Sewers of remaining enemies, and will venture in Mekrath's lair next session. This was a very good session.
Corsen (protagonist, controlled by Corey_Russell) - human level 9 berserker dualed to thief
Gremlin (controlled by Grond0) - halfling bounty hunter
Vorgan (controlled by Gate70) - human inquisitor
Not going to bother with kill counts, as Vorgan, who already had a huge lead before this session, got a huge boost in kill counts with Azuredge in the Umar Hills area.
I did however give him the kit Strifeleader of Cyric, as I thought that was apt. The relationship between the two is strained somewhat, based as it is on deception. Cyresia is pretending to be aiding Tiax in his attempt to become a god, though she is only seeking the same end for herself. This could end in tears.
Naturally they will lie to other NPCs too.
Journal of Cyresia and Tiax
In Candlekeep Tiax stole as much equipment as he could, though I got to some treasure upstairs in some chests. Not being a very good thief I was caught on two occasions. On the first occasion I was stripped of all my gold which amounted to one gold piece. On the second occasion however the guard insisted on punishing me with a whipping, after which he took advantage of his position, proving that his morals were no better than mine. He did however awaken some hidden desires in me with the result that we both ended up content. (Romatic encounters mod)The only fight of note was that with Mendas. As always he was a difficult character to beat as he is somewhat resistant to spells and has good equipment. (Added by Shadowkeeper) Being surrounded by rats, they stopped him landing blows on me with the result that he fell to ranged weapons.
We have agreed to deliver a letter for Sister Sapientia and are now back at the site where Gorion was murdered.
EDIT
We headed northwards picking up a couple of rings on the way. We then killed hobgoblins and near Sonner's dwelling killed a zombie that was bothering a widow. We afterwards agreed to help Sonner only to change our minds after meeting Tenya. We got the bowl from Sonner, but than decided to kill Sonner for his flail. I am sure that Cyric will be pleased with us doing that. Tenya was certainly pleased. Nearby we killed an ankheg before heading for High Hedge and Beregost. There we calmed Marl down and took a book to Firebead.We returned to High Hedge killing a ghast whilst in transit, killed some gnolls, and helped get Mellicamp restored to being human. As a reward he showed me just how human he was by having a delightful picnic with me. He certainly knew how to kiss and the rest. We have bought a better sling for Tiax. At 150gp it had better be a good one!
Took 8 hours of rest outside De'Arnise where we found Nalia, her spell selection was really quite hilarious..
Crept slowly through the keep with no issues at all. Keen decided to throw everything at Tor'gal to avoid a drawn out fight that would end in tears, this is a no-reload after all. Took the hint from every other fighter in SCS and buffed up Jaheira, Minsc and Keen with potions of speed, for Minsc and Keen a 20 str potion, for Jaheira and Keen a potion of invulnerability. After that resist fear, chant, bless, impr invis on Jaheira, summon a fire elemental and buff up with DuHM with Keen. The second our sneaking Keen and invis Jaheira get within line of sight of Tor'gal his speech starts and the yuanti mages start casting. We ansver with triple web first round, second round triple cloudkill from wands, lots and lots of ranged damage from Keen who does about 100 dmg per round buffed with no crits. The exp starts pouring in and I don't really know how many helpers the big bad troll had..
That done we went to Trademeet where we were asked to go to a nearby forest, did so and with the help of a fire elemental and a few charges of the wand of cloudkill we had little trouble. The +2 THAC0 bracers took Keens ranged unbuffed THAC0 to 4 (Minsc has the helm of balduran). The last druids before the boss are quite sturdy but we pulled no punches and took them out with ease. For the boss fight we first tried asking Cernd to do it for us since Jaheira were out of insect swarms but Faldorn annihilated him... Buffed Jaheira with potion of speed, remove fear, chant and bless and had her try instead. Worked out just fine in bear form but Jaheira needed a few potions thrown to her, but since Faldorn also used healing potions we figured it wasn't against the rules..
The evil blue man group in Trademeet were killed with no trouble, also finally caught up with the deranged skinner and his partner plus gave the mantle of waukeen to the polite high merchant with the big sword.
All this took us to about 50k gold but we spent 40 of it on a robe of the good archmage for Keen, Blackblood +3 for Jaheira, belt of inertial barrier for Aerie and a metric ton of scrolls for Nalia mostly.
When trying to leave town we triggered a scene with Rashaad and Keen felt compelled to help him (in spite of the simply atrocious writing for all things Rashaad related). Ran to Athkatla to trigger the next part of his quest, ran to the amphitheater, managed to answer correctly so the deceived monks didnt attack me. Went south to tell the vagrant blades that Hojar obviously deserved the belt which caused the archer with a ring of mirror image to go insane and attack us. Jaheira actually gained a level in that fight which awarded us 2k exp, she gained fighter level 10 which gave her exactly 1 THAC0 and 1 hp..
Ran to the meeting place and in the ambush on the world map managed to not kill the monks of Selune in spite of them trying really hard to get killed by us, yay Keen the smooth talker!
Unlike Breach however, Pierce Shield is not stopped by Dispelling Screen - but it has the ability to remove it. Spellstrike also gets rid of it w/o being stopped by it.
Journal of Cyresia and Tiax
Things were going very well until we ran into Silke.Silke first attacked those that she wanted me to kill. In the process she was badly injured.
She then attacked me and killed the two of us.
When you said it bypassed spell protections I assumed you were talking about standard ones, not Spell Shield. As @Aasim says, SS is supposed to block Pierce Shield just like any other spell removal and if it doesn't than I need to fix it.
Dispelling Screen blocks an infinite number of Breach spells, but only one Dispel Magic, and Pierce Shield ignores it.
Spell Shield blocks an infinite number of Breach spells and Pierce Shield spells.
Indeed; Spell Shield stops Breach. This is an oversight on my account, will fix it (quickfix - open spwi519, delete 206 against spwi513b). However, Breach removes Dispel Screen 100% of time.
Pierce Shield indeed ignores Dispel Screen (will fix, but this is a very minor bug - max level for removal needs to be set to 9, right now it's 0...).
Spell Shield blocks 1 single Pierce Shield and is removed by it however, as intended.
I should join with a run here.....hopefully today...
Case in point, the one question that has been bugging me for a while is: How do you know when your aura is clear?
Although, hey, I get to be the title of this thread for a while. I'll take that happily.
Knowing when your aura is clear really does just require timing; there are no hard and fast clues (even Auto-Pause is unreliable). Usually, you can only know the aura timing for one or two party members, and for the rest, you just have a vague guess. Usually, when no-reload players say their aura wasn't clear at a critical moment, it means they were trying to use a potion or cast a spell, but couldn't.
One of the simplest ways to get a feel for it is just to count attacks or time it based on spell casting times. If I have a fighter with 3 APR who need to drink two potions in succession, I just wait for him to complete three attack rolls, and that's how I know when he can drink his next potion. Or, if a mage is casting Breach, I know there'll be 3 seconds after he finishes casting it (I have auto-pause on spell cast) before his aura is clear, because Breach has a casting time of 5.
I've found that it's often best for your mages to begin casting spells all at the same time, and stick that way for as long as possible. That way you know when each one's aura is clear, because they're acting in sync.