Upgraded the Mace of Disruption and headed over to the Graveyard.
Talk about bad timing!
Aargh!!! Of all the times, NOW my character gets fatigued?! Just as I'm about to face off against a bunch of vampires with a weapon I am not even proficient in against opponents who can cast all sorts of nasty things? I mean we've been going strong for 9.5 days without a single rest and we've been fine, but we couldn't wait another 2 hours?
The Mace of Disruption soon proved its worth.
Tanova was an utter nightmare, casting all sorts of stuff and immune even to +2 weapons. After trying all sorts against her, I finally gave up and dug out one of my 2 Mislead scrolls.
Headed downstairs.
I finally have a +2 katana!!
Don't think I've ever had to wait that long before acquiring a +2 main hand weapon .
Faceoff against Lassal.
And kill him just as Nadeem gets a vision that gold has been placed in his keep .
Buff heavily and use a Time Trap to get some hits in on Bodhi.
Uh-oh. Time to run!
Bodhi did that literally within 1 round. It was just "Drinks Blood", "Drinks Blood", "Drinks Blood" etc. Holy cow, how on earth am I going to defend against that in Chapter 6?
I ran and Bodhi did not follow. After a short while she decided to leave without any further action.
With all quests complete for now and no more concerns over fatigue, I headed over to my keep to collect aforementioned gold and then returned to Athkatla. Revisited Cromwell finally to forge a bunch of items, including dragonscale armour (shadow + red), Girdle of Glory and Stormlord's Heels. After 4 solid days in the stuffed confines of Cromwell's forge Nadeem was glad to get some fresh docklands air.
Uh-oh.
Whoops. Perhaps we should have been concerned about fatigue after all! I dread to think what the luck penalty is now, with over 14 days on the clock without a rest!
I needn't have worried. Nadeem still dispatched the vampires without breaking sweat (did use a Potion of Clarity though to avoid domination; relying on Invulnerability / saving throws may not have been wise with such a steep luck penalty).
And we're ready to leave for Spellhold.
Updated character sheet.
So chapters 1-3 have all been completed without resting, which I'm quite pleased with. Already level 38(!) with 6.3m XP.
People seem to be enjoying their restless runs a lot more than I did with mine. I actually hated my old restless run, with a Mage/Thief using scrolls and wands, relying on NPCs to do the big damage stuff.
Fatigue is very finicky. I've found it extremely hard to get fatigued in Chapter 2 without casting Restoration or Haste (I remember going at least one month before getting fatigued). The reason you haven't seen fatigue until now might be because Chapter 2 seems to mess around with fatigue, preventing it from popping up. Chapter transitions might also reset it (the trip to Spellhold contains an automatic rest, like at Garren's house in the Firkraag questline), hence why you spent so much time without ever getting fatigued.
Finally Viora heads to the Graveyard and ventures beneath the crypts. She's immune to the spiders' web effects, but not their poison, and has to down an Elixir of Health when dealing with a Huge Spider. She uses traps liberally for fear that she might get overwhelmed; death by poison is still a realistic possibility.
Vivian stumbles into a nice lady's home on the way.
Vivan stays a while to rest with the other spiders and gets lots of attention for her pretty blue eyes. Yaaaay! But after a long night of cuddling, she eventually has to leave. Imoen is still waiting for rescue, and there's a rather dangerous mage getting in the way. Pai'Na gives Vivian a black spider figurine to summon a friend whenever she gets lonely or needs a hug or has to assassinate some bipeds.
On the way to the Slums to fetch Wellyn's teddy bear, we get ambushed by Suna Seni and a gang of slavers. I fail to backstab the mage, who already has Stoneskin active and is therefore immune to both the backstab and the poison effect (poison is blocked by Stoneskin in my install). I have to flee and rely on Kitty to hold the fort, though Suna Seni keeps making her saves against the poison damage.
I buffed up Kitty via Near Infinity, but she's still not nearly as powerful as the Item Upgrade version.
I get targeted by a Mental Domination spell, a game-ending disabler that affects spiders as well as humans. To my great relief, Viora makes her save.
She only had a 60% chance of making that save.
Once we slay Suna Seni, I decide to make a run for it, but one of the slavers gets in the way of her body--I only fought this battle to get a hold of Suna Seni's sword. Arbane's Sword protects against hold II and stun, as well as the web and hold I effects we're already immune to (I hear some people's Arbane's Sword doesn't give immunity to stun, but mine is a clean install). Kitty ends up defeating a couple more enemies, but she can't win the battle. She dies shortly after I nab Arbane's Sword.
On the way out, Viora gets hit by a double Ray of Enfeeblement Minor Sequencer, pinning her to the ground just a few feet short of the exit. But she's able to teleport to the edge of the map and escape the encounter before the enemy has a chance to do her in.
I still need to seek out some easy quest XP, so I trigger the Renfeld ambush, which goes more thoroughly in my favor. The only sticking point in this questline is the fight with Prebek and Sanasha, both of whom have Confusion spells--very, very dangerous at this stage in the game. I go after Sanasha first, as she also has an Emotion spell. Unlike Suna Seni's mage, Sanasha has no Stoneskin.
Prebek still lives long enough to cast Confusion, but not before Viora could drink a Potion of Clarity she got from the Renfeld encounter. She made her save anyway, but I had to be safe.
I also do the first Mae'Var quest, since it involves little risk and lets me collect a bunch of loot from Mae'Var's guild hall. But it entails going to the Temple District at night, which spawns some Tactics bandits. I set up a bunch of traps, slaying more than half of the bandits when they appear, and activate the Ring of Air Control to gain immunity to single-target spells (I bought it to prevent another Mental Domination spell from coming up). From there, I just melee the remaining enemies with help from Kitty.
Next, I want to do the Druid Grove quests. But the Druid Grove has multiple Spirit Trolls, all of which can cast Greater Command in my install. Without SR, the spell has no save penalty, but my save vs. spell is still too high, at 5. I need an immunity to unconsciousness, but there's only one way I can think of for Viora to gain such an immunity: the Cloak of the Sewers.
The Troll form of the cloak grants the wielder immunity to hold I and II, plus stun and unconsciousness. It lasts 2 turns, more than long enough for me to run or teleport past the Spirit Trolls of the Druid Grove. But first I have to kill a Rakshasa.
I send in Kitty and the Berserk Warrior from the Silver Horn of Valhalla to kill off the kobolds guarding the Rakshasa. They also do a number on the Rakshasa, who ends up pursuing me to the northeastern exist.
I fail to lay enough traps for the Rakshasa, forgetting to buff with DUHM, and by the time I rest again and get my traps back, the Rakshasa has returned to the center of the map.
After successfully luring the Rakshasa over several of my traps, I realize that its Stoneskin is blocking the poison damage from the traps. I'd need another two levels to get the traps with fire damage.
Instead, I have to beat the Rakshasa in melee. Since the Rakshasa has nothing but Evocation spells, I just bait him into casting them on me. Then I teleport away to regenerate back the lost HP with the Pearly White Ioun Stone.
I use CTRL-R, though, since it's faster than waiting for the regeneration. I'd drink potions to speed things up instead, but I lost five potions already in the Bridge District: one to a Rune Assassin before I escaped Rejiek's home, and another four to the dwarven warrior in Tirdir's quest.
The Rakshasa disrupts two of my Dimension Door spells, so I have to use CTRL-J instead. I accidentally overshoot it and teleport outside of the Rakshasa's visual range, allowing me to hide instantly.
Normally the spell only extends as long as your own field of vision, unlike CTRL-J, which means you need to either move a little along or teleport again if you want to hide. One casting of the spell won't put you out of the enemy's sight if you're already in the enemy's melee range, which I need to backstab.
Most of my backstabs, however, are wasted. I only use them for the 4 THAC0 boost (Rakshasas have amazing AC), and to escape the Rakshasa's sword. But finally I break through the last Stoneskin, and can actually deal damage to the thing.
It isn't long before I deal the final blow.
It was a long and irritating process of missing the Rakshasa and teleporting away, but finally I have the cloak. I go to the Druid Grove and transform into a Troll. I can't cast the Dimension Door spell while shapeshifted, but I can still use CTRL-J instead (Phase Spiders cast Dimension Door via script, so nothing should block the spell). Combined with the Troll form's constant effect haste, I can run pretty darn fast. But just in case things get too hectic, I drink a Potion of Invisibility before going to the first Spirit Troll spawning point.
But there are no Spirit Trolls there; only normal Trolls and Ice Trolls. The Druid Grove is utterly free of Spirit Trolls, probably because I'm still at such a low level. The Cloak of the Sewers was completely unnecessary. In fact, for some reason, the Greater Earth Elemental and Shambling Mounds don't spawn at all--perhaps because I was moving too fast. I've skipped over triggers due to high movement rates before.
I still have to kill Dalok before talking to Cernd, because Dalok and his precious club, Gnasher, vanish after Faldorn dies. I send Kitty in, fairly certain she will fail to harm him. To my surprise, she does quite well, even breaking through his Ironskins and poisoning him.
This despite Kitty being confused and under pressure from a Nymph and a Fire Elemental at Dalok's right and left. It helped that the other Shadow Druids didn't interfere--like with Kyland Lind, Dalok's entourage won't attack you if you don't trigger his dialogue. I also whittle down Dalok's friends the next day, but it's an unsatisfying chore to gather the XP, since they don't all fight back. It makes for a boring and unfulfilling fight when the enemy isn't functioning properly.
I let Cernd handle Faldorn, but 10 Potions of Stone Form from Adratha for later use, and kill the djinn with traps. We also trigger the second skinner quest, which also ends with traps. Viora is now at level 15, and has all of the standard recharging summoning items: Kitty, the Silver Horn of Valhalla, the Efreeti Bottle, and Ras. I think I will take on the Unseeing Eye quest next, before I reach a higher level and start encountering bigger herds of Beholders.
Phase Spiders are quite excellent. The item restriction is unfortunate, and will get more severe later on, which I start finding better items I can't use, but the teleportation does a lot to screw with melee enemies, especially since Viora can hide. The power of the ability increases with the size of the map, which means tight spaces like the Planar Prison will still be very dangerous.
I just can't wait until I get UAI and the Robe of Vecna. Instantaneous teleportation will speed things up a lot. But I've never done a no-reload run with a solo thief. @Blackraven, how do you normally hit 3 million XP in BG2 with your thieves?
Okay, thanks for the clarification. I'll be glad to post my links in here as they come.
...also, I will confess that I've actually completed that challenge three times now, with three different characters. But I want to do a properly documented run, with a character exactly as I want it to be. I feel that it will warrant its own thread, especially since I have allowed myself a little leeway on certain things. Thanks for the heads up, though! I'll be sure to begin in an hour or two, once dinner has been thoroughly consumed.
People seem to be enjoying their restless runs a lot more than I did with mine. I actually hated my old restless run, with a Mage/Thief using scrolls and wands, relying on NPCs to do the big damage stuff.
Fatigue is very finicky. I've found it extremely hard to get fatigued in Chapter 2 without casting Restoration or Haste (I remember going at least one month before getting fatigued). The reason you haven't seen fatigue until now might be because Chapter 2 seems to mess around with fatigue, preventing it from popping up. Chapter transitions might also reset it (the trip to Spellhold contains an automatic rest, like at Garren's house in the Firkraag questline), hence why you spent so much time without ever getting fatigued.
Restless runs are great and something I've done before. And they're great fun when you're not doing silly stuff like abusing the game engine with a wand of lightning . They really require you to ration your resources and make best use of potions and scrolls.
Resting is so badly implemented and so silly; I do not enjoy seeing runs where people are always fully rested and have all their spells available at all times. How pointless would it be if Nadeem rested before every major encounter? He could lay down 5 traps and use poison + assassination in every battle. And every battle would be over instantly. And playing mages is even worse, you can just make yourself invincible before every battle with the right combination of spells and just rest straight after to be able to do it all again for the next battle.
Without time pressue or any consequence, resting does not work for me. I wish there was more stuff in the game like the SCS component that prevents you from resting in the illithid city. Or maybe opponents get stronger the longer you take to get there? So Irenicus might be level 25 if you get there within 15 days but level 30 (with appropriate additional strength, spells and powers) if it takes you 25 days, and so on? I don;t know what the answer is here.
Regarding Chapter 2 fatigue, you may be correct; however it's also at least partially related to CON. I remember from my party days that Viconia would always be fatigued first (normally after 24 hours), then Nalia, while my PC and Korgan could go for days.
I don't consider frequent rests to be silly. I normally go in fully buffed because I always have the enemies fully buffed (the one time I tried a no-prebuffing rule for enemies and myself, mages felt way too easy to beat). I like to have everyone involved at full strength. I recognize that it wouldn't work well in your playthrough, @Jaheiras_Witness, now that you're well past epic levels and have instant kill options on virtually everything at this stage of the game, but it's very different for my parties, which are dominated by casters. An epic-level Assassin/Fighter might not need to rest in order to succeed in SCS2 SoA, but for a party of 10th-level clerics and mages trying to fight a pack of magic-immune golems... well, they can rest once to buff, or drink thousands of gold in potions over the course of the fight. It might be silly for a fighter/thief to rest after every battle. But wouldn't it be equally silly for a mage to refrain from resting?
If a Lich has Spell Shield, Spell Turning, SI: Divination, Improved Invisibility, PFMW, Protection from Magical Energy, Protection from Acid, Protection from Fire, Protection from Electricity, Stoneskin, Fire Shield: Blue, Fire Shield: Red, and chain-casts Time Stop without fail at the beginning of the first round, throwing out a Planetar, Comet, Dragon's Breath, a triple Remove Magic Spell Sequencer, Breach, and Horrid Wilting while time is still stopped, and emerges from Time Stop with a renewed PFMW spell, then my level 15 party (if we're even that far) of mages and clerics is really going to need to come in fully buffed in order to survive. The enemy is always fully rested. Why wouldn't I be?
--"Restless runs are great and something I've done before. And they're great fun when you're not doing silly stuff like abusing the game engine with a wand of lightning . They really require you to ration your resources and make best use of potions and scrolls."--
I know you're just teasing, but seriously, I only used the Wand of Lightning trick three times in my entire SoA run. For the vast majority of the game, I played without any exploits, and I still didn't like it. I rationed the hell out of my resources, and it was a time-sucking chore.
My Sorcerer succesfully completed every quests and encounters of BG:EE (+ the mods content) on my setup solo no-reload and on Insane difficulty ! Now that I have 3 characters ready, I'll start playing some BG2:EE.
We had some difficulties at the De'Arnise Hold. But first, a few small things.
I visited the Windspear Hills to gather some minor XP. Funny thing about the Werewolves: since the fighters explode and get replaced with the Werewolves, the potions that SCS2 gives them are automatically dropped.
This means the Werewolves in the Windspear Hills are an excellent way to get some easy potions in SCS2, unless they fix it later.
As a Phase Spider, Viora can teleport over certain triggers. This allows her to prevent enemy spawns.
I didn't feel like fighting any golems, or vampires, so I skipped over the triggers for both. You can also wiggle around the undead spawning point without triggering any vampires or anything; you don't need Dimension Door to escape it.
I stopped short of going after Samia, however. I was about to go and get her, but then I realized I was too low a level to take on the whole group. Instead, I went the Temple sewers and began the Unseeing Eye quest. SCS2 adds a spawning point for Beholders in the sewers, but you can avoid the Beholders by taking the diagonal hallway northwest from the Rakshasa's pit.
Just for fun, I also teleported past the riddle bridge. To my dismay, we got the full load of Beholder spawns at the other end.
I can't take those guys down with my summons as they are. After grabbing the Rift Device piece and speaking to Sassar, I headed for the exit, making sure to drop the Rift Device piece before I left (otherwise you die instantly). I don't know how I'll deal with the Beholders if they come in groups that large. I don't have the resources to take them down.
I consider returning to the De'Arnise Hold. I have 10 Potions of Stone Form, and with my current saves, I can guarantee success against the Spirit Trolls' Greater Command spells with only one potion. But since I want to conserve those potions, I run past all of the Trolls I can, rather than fighting them. I also avoid fighting the golems, to make sure I'm prepared for an unavoidable fight on the bottom level.
To kill TorGal, I have to lay traps in the Umber Hulk room. I didn't get the dog stew, so I have to kill the Umber Hulks, but there are also multiple Spirit Trolls (I believe two, plus a Spectral Troll) in the previous room, and those Trolls will see through my invisibility, so I will have to fight them. I lay three traps (I can't lay any more) before bringing out my summons and luring the Trolls into the traps.
One Spirit Troll evades all damage from the traps, and I spend a while trying to poison it. The Troll makes its save 8 times in a row. Given a Spirit Troll's save vs. death of 10, the odds of that happening are about 1 in 256. Very bad luck, and for a while I thought there was an error, since Trolls aren't immune to poison (all previous Trolls I killed with poison damage). But eventually I poison it, and it starts to go down.
It's a long war of attrition. The Spirit Trolls, like any other Troll, can't hit me unless they roll a 20. If I equip the Girdle of Bluntness instead, then the Umber Hulks in the next room have to do the same, and with the Shield of Harmony, their confusion attacks warrant no Potion of Clarity or Stone Form.
Then there is TorGal. If you approach Tactics TorGal while invisible, he will follow you to the Umber Hulk room, even as his friends stay behind. I need to do this in order to take on TorGal at this level.
Reviewing my resources, and TorGal's stats, I find that Vivian is just barely capable of slaying him, if she drinks a Potion of Defense, a Potion of Power, a Potion of Fire Resistance, an Oil of Speed, casts DUHM, lays seven traps in the Umber Hulk room, and attacks him with Gnasher and the Efreeti and Kitty, and uses the Necklace of Missiles (which won't bypass TorGal's 30 MR) repeatedly. The traps deal about 177 damage put together, and though they will be reduced by TorGal's 30% resistance to physical damage, much of that damage is actually nonmagical fire damage, to which TorGal has no resistance. He has 180 maximum HP and regenerates 12 HP per round, and I will be able to deal roughly 12 damage with Gnasher on average, assuming the lingering damage rounds down. The rest of the damage can be filled in by my summons or the Necklace of Missiles.
I lay the traps, summon Kitty, drink all the necessary potions, hide, and run out to lure TorGal into the traps. The result is deeply disheartening.
That's a lot of damage. But it's simply not enough. Not even close. TorGal had amazing, amazing luck on those damage rolls. He should have been at Near Death, or at least Badly Injured, but it seems he still has a substantial chunk of health left. I'm shocked it went so poorly--there were 35 separate dice right there, and when you roll that many dice, the rolls should balance out, as in a bell curve. Such a dramatic deviation from the average rolls is not something you would expect.
I linger just long enough for TorGal to hit me a second time.
TorGal, as a level 15 Kensai, should have +5 to his damage rolls. In reality, he has +10, because SCS2's Tactics adaptation uses two separate opcodes (73 and 285) with the same value of 5, both of which boost his melee damage. He already gets proficiency bonuses, so this is extraneous, but then, this is Tactics we're talking about.
He could kill me in one more hit, but I know my aura isn't clear, so I don't try to drink a potion. Instead I start running for the exit, drinking a potion on the way. The outcome of that battle was more or less dictated by the damage rolls on those traps, and I know that the odds of us overcoming TorGal's unexpected advantage are extremely slim--and really, you don't play no-reload boss fights unless you're looking at a 95% chance of success at least. Even a 90% chance of victory would be insufficient. So, we have to flee.
TorGal pursues me on the way out, even as I slip past the other Trolls unnoticed. I've seen this all before.
He even follows me out of the keep itself. I start to lure him towards the edge of the map, hoping to put him in a bad position when I return at a higher level, but he decides to stop following me--for the worst possible reason.
TorGal is now attacking Nalia's guards. If he goes on much longer, the whole quest will be broken. I hurry back to catch his attention, though I don't save the first guard. Thankfully, he gives up on the guards and starts chasing after me.
I want to put him at the edge of the map, away from the place where I normally enter the area, so that I don't get immediately tackled when I return. On the way, the game crashes.
I consider reloading and not doing the TorGal fight, which would save me several important potions, but I decide against it. Instead, I reload the auto-save, on the way out of the keep, and this time I keep the De'Arnise guard alive.
Before I escape the area, I notice that the Trolls who ambushed me earlier are still around.
This will be a very bad fight when I come back.
I think the next mission might be to the Planar Sphere. I will need a Potion of Fire Resistance and a Potion of Freedom for the Tanar'ri, but the halflings I can sneak past. Lavok might fall with traps, since the fire damage should bypass Stoneskin, but he could be very dangerous if he survives it. Acid Arrows might help, but I'd have to wait out a PFMW spell. Tolgerias is a whole other monster, but maybe I could just slip past him. I don't need the Ring of the Ram.
I continued the main quest in search of easy XP. Since my character is supposed to be a thief (she only has a couple mage levels so she can do the teleport thing via hotkey), she can't side with Bodhi, and therefore must work for the Shadow Thieves. This means I have to fight the vampires.
I fail to kill Lassal in the quest with Mook. When my traps and summons and backstabs fail to kill him, I use a Protection from Undead scroll to protect myself, only to have him run away... and run away, and run away, preventing me from actually hitting him more than a couple times in many, many rounds. He is virtually invincible when fleeing, so I had to rest for the night and let Lassal vanish in the daytime, an extremely unsatisfying way to end a fight. On top of that, Mook failed to drop the crate, prompting some anxiety that I had broken the quest. I used CLUAConsole to get the crate instead. Do you even need it if you're working with Aran Linvail? I don't remember.
Against my better judgment, I decide to complete the Mae'Var questline. This costs me a Potion of Magic Shielding when I fight with Rayic Gethras, as it was the only way to make sure I survived when he targeted me with Finger of Death. I managed to interrupt several of his spells with Acid Arrows, taking a leaf out of @Blackraven's book, but he had PFMW and several Stoneskins when he began casting Finger of Death, so I had no such option. I did manage to interrupt several of his spells, however, including his initial PFMW.
But I lost 30 Acid Arrows in the process. I only have 10 left.
Mae'Var was worse. Although I seeded his entire guild with traps on every level, he and most of his cronies on the bottom level survived, probably because some of them turned hostile and triggered the traps while the others were still neutral. And my summons did precious little to help the situation. And I couldn't use the Necklace of Missiles while Mae'Var captives was still alive, or I risked losing reputation. And if I broke invisibility to take action, my aura might not be clear enough to drink a potion when I need it.
Seeing few viable options, I decide to sit tight and wait out some of Mae'Var's buffs.
I can't leave and try again, partly because I couldn't replace those traps, but mostly because you can't actually leave the room until Mae'Var is dead, thanks to Tactics, which doesn't want you to flee the battle.
I think over the matter while Mae'Var and his buddies are standing around. I actually have an excellent option at my disposal: I can teleport inside the cage with Mae'Var's prisoner.
Enemies can't open doors, and on an RP level, it's not hard to imagine Viora teleporting out of the cell to snatch the key from the enemy's hands when they try to unlock the cage, which means the enemy can't engage me in melee. They're stuck to ranged attacks and spells, both of which I have excellent defenses against--unlike backstab, which very well stands to destroy me. As a Phase Spider, Viora gets +2 to her AC vs. missiles, the Claw of Kazgaroth gives another 4, the Cloak of Displacement gives 2, and she already has low AC thanks to her base 5 AC as a spider. Enemies need to roll a 20 to hit her with missile weapons, meaning she can equip the Belt of Inertial Barrier instead of a Girdle of Piercing.
Plus, she's immune to the enemy's disablers: some of them don't affect spiders (Hold Person), while the rest (Mental Domination) are blocked by the Shield of Harmony. Mae'Var resorts to damage spells, but I can recover the damage with potions in relative safety. Unfortunately, Mae'Var's Lightning Bolt slays the prisoner sharing my cell.
While Mae'Var and his cronies struggle to hurt me with arrows and damage spells, I whittle away at Mae'Var's defenses with darts. Eventually, he runs out of spells, as well as his Stoneskins.
Once he's dead, I teleport outside, turn invisible, loot his corpse, and return to Renal to become the head of Mae'Var's guild.
From there, I continue the main questline up until the assault on Bodhi's lair. I use a scroll of Protection from Undead before taking on Gellal, only to find that he turns into a rat, hides, or runs when he can't see me, and in all three cases, I cannot deal enough damage to overcome his regeneration: his rat form is too resistant to physical damage (and my poison attack doesn't work, as it's only a +1 weapon), hiding forces me to spend time searching for him, and running forces me to spend time chasing him. I spent several thousand gold purchasing Tansheron's Bow specifically to address the running away problem I had experienced with Lassal, but it doesn't help me track down Gellal when he's hidden or shapeshifted. Plus Tanova is erroneously tagged as not undead, and therefore can see me, and also has Stoneskin, which adds another complicating factor into the fight.
I wrack my brain for other options. I could kill all of the vampires with backstabs if I just used the Staff of Striking, which would do 57 to 82 damage on a backstab... but as a Phase Spider, Viora can't really use a backstab, and she doesn't have any proficiencies in them anyway, nor is her THAC0 strong enough to hit the vampires reliably, even with the +4 to hit bonus you get when invisible or hidden. And as a single-classed thief, I can't get immunity to level drain until I get another 1 million XP so I can equip the Amulet of Power. And as a thief and a spider, I can't use the Mace of Disruption, either.
I could also use Daystar, which I can activate without breaking invisibility, and therefore take on the whole vampire guild without using a Protection from Undead scroll. But in my install, you can't just sneak into the Gate District Lich's room and run out with the sword; you have to kill it first. And after several test runs, I find that it is simply not possible for me to kill the Lich at this level.
If I use a Protection from Undead scroll, the Lich will dispel it, and even if he didn't, his Pit Fiend would destroy me. If I hit the Lich with a Protection from Magic scroll, an even more precious resource, it still won't work--he summons a clone via a contingency, and the clone can also dispel my invisibility to undead. Nor can I kill the clone before that happens, as the clone, like the Lich himself, uses PFMW at the start of battle. And all Liches have a save vs. spell of 1, so I can't rely on Daystar itself to kill them, either.
Protection from Undead works in SCS2, but you still need high damage capabilities to overcome a vampire's regeneration. Daystar works fine, too, but spiders can't use it. The Mace of Disruption works, but spiders can't use it. The Staff of Striking works, but spiders can't use it. The Amulet of Power works, but thieves can't use it before UAI. What then is left?
I have no idea. My only remaining option is to lay some traps just outside the vampire guilds door and lure them over, one by one, with one of my summons. But I don't want to do that. It would take days, and from an RP perspective it makes no sense, as vampires reform after they are slain, and there are only three stakeable coffins that would justify having a vampire permanently removed. Plus, it seems silly to expect the vampires to fall for the same trick day after day.
I am considering starting over with a new character, but I'll have much the same problems anyway, since the new character will also be a Phase Spider; she'll just have a different class. And honestly I really don't want to go back to using a full caster class, or even a multi-class, because the teleportation requires Improved Alacrity to work properly, and giving that ability to a caster would require me to pay attention to time to make sure I'm not casting more spells per round than I should be. It's a level of micromanagement I don't want to do. @Blackraven, you do lots of thief runs. Any ideas how to kill the vampires without the Staff of Striking or Daystar?
I decided to take on Bodhi's hideout. Testing found that backstabbing was not safe; the vampires could level drain me if I failed to kill them. I was hoping I could retry backstabs until I got a critical hit, which would be enough to kill a vampire in one shot, but I can't do that safely, so it's not practical.
Instead, I decided to try a trap-based approach. But before I could begin, I got ambushed by a young vampire, who immediately tries to charm me. I don't have the Shield of Harmony equipped.
That's the second time I've made a lucky save.
I do some scouting, some during test runs and some during real runs, around the vampire hideout, and find that the Clay Golem in the coffin room is alone. This makes it a solid base of operations for my plan. Since I can't take down the Clay Golem on my own, I bring out the Efreeti, whose scimitar does crushing damage.
I have a safe strategy for luring enemies, the same I used for Mae'Var's guild hall. First, I turn invisible with the Ring of Air Control, then summon Ras, which won't break invisibility (though it will make you leave the shadows, by clicking on the item slot). I retreat from the target enemy, while Ras hurries forward. While Ras is engaging the enemy, I summon Kitty and then the Efreeti, losing my invisibility in the process (though I'm still not targetable by single-target spells; this is improved invisibility). I hide in shadows, Ras retreats, and the enemy follows into the traps, with Kitty and the Efreeti guarding me in case they survive and give chase. Two random spawns die this way.
Kitty and the Efreeti, if working in tandem, can also take down a vampire. The Efreeti begins with a Flame Arrow, while Kitty tries Web Tangle. If the vampire fails their save against Web Tangle, it will die to their attacks before it breaks free. Durst dies this way.
Meanwhile, Renal Bloodscalp decides I'm not fit to run the guild.
He didn't even give me a chance. Blatant arachnophobia.
Gellal, the second of the three named vampires, is still missing. I have to go hunting. I summon the Efreeti, have him cast Invisibility on me, and then we go tromping around the dungeon, with Viora detecting traps. We slay him with Web Tangle and Flame Arrows.
Tanova remains, and her Stoneskins will block my traps. I therefore need to wear down her Stoneskin before leading her into my traps. Tanova, due to some earlier mucking around on my part, has moved out of the vampire lair and is hiding in the spider area. When I hear her cast Remove Magic, trying to remove the Protection from Undead scroll she thinks I have, I run away to maintain my invisibility. I then use quick saves to pinpoint her location.
Roughly in the middle of the screen. This is the only way to find out where she is without using up a valuable Potion of Invisibility, breaking invisibility, or resting.
First, I bait her initial PFMW spell with a worthless summons. This also triggers a Sphere of Chaos spell.
That warrior couldn't hit her anyway. He uses a nonmagical axe.
I bait the second PFMW spell with Ras.
Unfortunately, Tanova wastes no spells on Ras.
Tanova proceeds to slay both Kitty and the Efreeti, resisting the Web Tangle and regenerating from the Efreeti's Magic Missiles (its Flame Arrow spell was interrupted). I am now completely without summons. But now, Tanova has no PFMW spell, nor her Sphere of Chaos spell. The only way she can harm me is with her melee attacks or some ranged spell damage. So what now?
This is the longest and most important part of the battle. I must break down her Stoneskins without getting attacked, and I must do so without any summons to distract Tanova. How do I do this?
I approach her while hidden, from behind, take one shot with Tansheron's Bow, as far away as I can, and then immediately retreat. I use Hide in Shadows two steps after firing the bow. Since Tanova must turn around in order to target me, I have just enough time to hide before she punishes my attack.
I break down her Stoneskins. But it's not over yet.
I have to continue this process. I have a decent hit change with the bow, but nothing I can rely upon. I also have a strong chance to successfully hide when I'm out of her visual range, but that's not guaranteed, either. Sometimes, I don't get away unscathed.
Tanova hits me with Power Word: Blind. I drink a Potion of Invisibility to escape.
I snuggle up next to her after I go invisible, just because. But I have to wait until the blindness wears off before I attack again.
This is all a very intensive and time-consuming process. Tanova starts running around every time I go invisible, and I have to wait for her to settle down.
There's also frequent pausing, as I have to start running as soon as I make the attack roll, and I have to hide in shadows as soon as I'm far enough away. There is little room for error on my part. I count down the Stoneskins she has left.
Another PW: Blind spell comes my way, draining another Potion of Invisibility. This is becoming a very costly fight.
When that doesn't work, she tries Flame Arrow. Viora fails her save and suffers for it, but she manages to hide after she teleports away.
You see the Free Action icon on Viora's portrait? I have to have her equip the Shield of Harmony whenever I fail to hide or I see a Domination spell coming, as a failed save could end the run. And as long as I can't hold Tansheron's Bow anymore, I may as well equip Arbane's Sword, just in case Tanova somehow throws out a hold spell I can't resist.
Viora breaks through Tanova's second Stoneskin spell.
I just need to make 8 more attacks, and then I can lure Tanova right into my traps. With only 120 HP and no resistances, her chance of survival are virtually zero.
I consider using CTRL-R to save time, and dropping a few potions to reflect the resources I might have lost had I continued as I was. But I decide against it. It won't take too much longer.
I keep whittling away at Tanova's Stoneskins. But then she pulls something I didn't expect.
I curse myself for not equipping Arbane's Sword, but it looks like Arbane's Sword only blocks normal stun. Power Word: Stun uses a separate opcode. I'm not sure Arbane's Sword would have helped.
Those of you who have done solo runs will know this is a game-ending spell. But Viora is at full health, meaning she will not be stunned long, and she has enough HP to survive Tanova's attacks.
Barely.
We have broken free, but now we have a problem. Tanova's Acid Arrow spell is going to deal at minimum 2 more damage within the next 6 seconds, meaning we will die if we drink a Potion of Invisibility. Instead, we must drink a healing potion, and then run.
But Tanova's aura is clear.
I prayed for an AI failure. It did not come.
Viora is dead, and the run has come to a very unspectacular end, particularly as we were about to beat Tanova. But a Ring of Air Control could not have kept us safe from PW: Stun long enough, I don't think, to get rid of those last Stoneskins. That Improved Invisibility effect, though Tanova no longer had the spells to dispel it, only lasts 10 rounds, and we might have needed one or even two more rings (you can buy an infinite number from Ribald if you have the gold) to maintain untargetability until we hit her with our traps.
Incidentally, I could have guaranteed success if I used Arrows of Dispelling instead. That would have removed Tanova's Stoneskins fast enough to get her into the traps long before she would use PW: Stun.
Now I am not sure what to do. I am not willing to give up on playing a Phase Spider, not when this one had so much potential. But if I use a different class, there are problems with each:
-Fighter: No backstab. Phasing would only let a fighter kite, and there are boots for that already. Rangers and Paladins and Barbarians have the same problem. Also, no Robe of Vecna. -Mage: The Phase Spider's drawbacks barely matter for this class, and having Improved Alacrity for free teleportation would speed up our normal spells as well. -Cleric: Little synergy with teleportation. Ranged weapons are limited, and they have no backstab. Plus, the item restrictions would reduce the cleric's weapon options to a Beastmaster's, but without any staffs. And no Robe of Vecna. -Druid: Also little synergy, but more importantly, I'd end up playing as a druid more than as a Phase Spider. Again, no Robe of Vecna. -Monk: No synergy at all. Monks already have fantastic speed, and they'd be using melee attacks anyway, rendering phasing mostly meaningless. Still no Robe of Vecna. -Thief kits: the Swashbuckler's lack of a backstab will work poorly with phasing, the Assassin is a little too powerful for my tastes, and the Bounty Hunter's abilities would outshine the phasing for much of the game.
The basic problem is the item restrictions I've imposed on myself. Thieves really need items to work effectively, and Viora couldn't use the best backstabbing weapon in SoA. She can't use Belm, either, so she lacks strong APR before the Planar Prison. There's a very high cost to phasing.
I think there are two options from here.
First, I can play a Mage/Thief, and maybe add on some new restrictions so the mage levels won't be too unbalancing. I could use Nahal's Reckless Dweomer to get phasing at will without giving my character Improved Alacrity, but that would require clicking at the bottom of the screen every time I wanted to teleport, and I really want the teleportation to feel automatic and seamless.
Second, I could just make up a new class, befitting a spider. I just need to figure out what that should be.
I've written up a list of things that could comprise a Phase Spider-oriented class. Basically, you'd have a normal class (Fighter/Mage, Avenger, Swashbuckler, etc.) plus some racial abilities and disabilities. Some could be implemented as a kit; others would necessitate Shadowkeeper or voluntary restraints on the player. Since I like really dramatic and crazy changes, I have made the changes really dramatic and really crazy.
The base abilities:
Alien Form: Cannot wear a shield and armor at the same time (does not apply to robes) Cannot wear chain mail, splint mail, or plate mail Cannot wear boots or helmets (including circlets or masks) -1 penalty to backstab multiplier, if any -2 to hit and damage with weapons besides its natural attack -1 to hit with ranged weapons Thieves cannot set normal thief traps -10% penalty to Intelligence Immune to poison, web, and entangle Immune to humanoid-specific spells (Hold Person, Charm Person, etc.) +3 to save vs. death
Alien Affinity: Can cast Dimension Door (casting speed 0) at will Can cast Web Tangle once per day per four levels Infravision +25% to hide in shadows and move silently Can specialize in daggers and short swords Can use Poison Weapon once per day per six levels, starting at level 1 with one use per day Can set special traps once per day per five levels Cannot cast Evocation or Conjuration spells Natural weapon (dagger proficiency): 1d6 piercing damage, poison on hit, save vs. death negates Monk fists use original damage and to hit values, alongside poison and web effects, but use piercing rather than crushing damage
Thumbless: Spells have half duration -50% penalty to open locks and pickpocket Cannot use weapons other than darts, daggers, short swords, slings, and short bows Cannot cast Melf's Minute Meteors or Energy Blades -1 to casting speed Cannot wear rings
Crazy Legs: Free Action Improved movement rate Base 5 AC, -1 AC vs. missile and piercing Can wear 4 pairs of bracers, but no gauntlets or gloves +1 APR Gains +1 to hit at level 10 and 15 Starts with 3 stars in Two-Weapon Fighting +15% bonus to Dexterity Improved Alacrity
Culture Shock: -15% to XP -25% to Charisma -10% to Wisdom
Special: Use Any Item grants access to rings, boots, gauntlets, and all weapons a thief can normally use
The natural attack:
Level 1: 1d6 piercing damage, save vs. death or deal 3 damage per round for 3 rounds Strikes as a +1 weapon Level 13: 1d6+1 piercing damage, +1 to hit, save vs. death or deal 3 damage per round for 3 rounds Strikes as a +2 weapon Level 17: 1d6+2 piercing damage, +2 to hit, save vs. death or deal 3 damage per round for 3 rounds Strikes as a +3 weapon
The unique traps:
Level 1: 4 poison damage per round for two rounds, save vs. death for 1 damage per round Web for one round, save vs. breath negates Target immune to web effect for three rounds if it fails its save vs. breath Level 10: 5 poison damage per round for three rounds, save vs. death for 1 damage per round Web for 1.5 rounds, save vs. breath negates Target immune to web effect for three rounds if it fails its save vs. breath Level 17: 1 damage per second for two rounds, save vs. death at -1 negates 6 damage per round for three rounds, no save Web for 2 rounds, save vs. breath negates Target immune to web effect for three rounds if it fails its save vs. breath Level 21: 2 damage per second for two rounds, save vs. death at -2 negates 8 damage per round for three rounds, no save Web for 3 rounds, save vs. breath negates Target immune to web effect for three rounds if it fails its save vs. breath
Together, these things should make the character excel at a fairly specific style. The thieves will make excellent assassins, but very poor burglars. The fighters will be quick melee attackers, but are much less versatile than their humanoid counterparts. The clerics will be more mobile and can deal more damage, but their weapon options are constrained and their slow spells benefit little from Improved Alacrity. The mages make excellent disablers and debuffers, but cannot deal much damage or maintain strong defenses of their own.
Most importantly, it will be a proper jumping spider.
@bengoshi: I've never released a mod before. I'm not sure where to post it or how. I also might need help with editing the dialog files and adding a new kit. All I know how to do is replace the Assassin kit, but that means other classes can't get the kit without Shadowkeeper.
Otherwise I already have all the relevant item and spell files, and the Assassin .2da table is set up correctly, though I don't know how to tweak a kit's proficiency limits. I can't implement the caster level penalty, unfortunately. I wanted to borrow the effect from one of the robes from @Demivrgvs' Item Revisions, which gives a bonus to caster level, but I don't know how to make it into a penalty to caster level. And there are some things, like the ability to wear multiple sets of bracers, that can't be implemented without using Shadowkeeper, due to engine limitations. And the lack of Conjuration and Evocation spells could only be implemented by the player choosing not to learn any; I can't actually remove them from a Phase Spider mage.
@semiticgod Caster Level bonus is opcode 191. I think you can turn it into a penalty changing the 'amount' value from '2' to '-2'. Copy paste from IR's Robe of Arcane might if you are not familiar with coding stuff.
@Demivrgvs: Changed 2 to -2. It displays in Shadowkeeper as 254, but appears to have the intended effect, as a level 6 wizard with the effects active only fires two Magic Missiles at a time.
Viora is no more, but in her place I have created Vivian, a much more timid and shy critter who will hopefully live longer than her predecessor.
Vivian is also a Phase Spider, and shares the same darling blue eyes, because I have not yet tired of the portrait. Unlike Viora, she now has the same abilities I mentioned in the above post. And unlike Viora, she is no longer an unkitted thief--she is a Druid/Thief, based on a Cleric/Thief model. I don't feel like dealing with a multi-class druid's level progression, since I'd spend the entire game thinking about level 15, so she will use the cleric XP and spell slots tables, but only use druid spells, plus the Avenger's Web spell, which is less useful than you might think.
To my dismay, I find that Vivian is not cut out for melee combat. She struggles mightily to kill a single Mineral Mephit in the Sewage Golem room, so I'm not confident she can take on the Otyugh or too many of the Duergar. More irritating is the Smoke Mephit crowding up the hall where I wanted to hide from the Otyugh, which apparently blinds you for 10 seconds, without the option of a save.
I thought she'd be able to compete in melee because of her poison, but Vivian's poison does less than half as much damage as a normal Phase Spider's.
I manage to teleport around and lure the Otyugh into the western corner of the room, allowing me to gather some of the loot from its lair. To clear out the Duergar blocking the next hallway, I throw them a trap and hide while they come after me. Vivian can throw traps, just like a Bounty Hunter, but she can't throw them quite as far. The range is limited to that of a dart.
When the Duergar come through the door, Vivian slips past them and seals the door with silk.
Another important trick is luring the Mephits from the Mephit portal room into the adjacent room, and locking them inside. This is especially easy for a Phase Spider, assuming you get the timing of the teleport right, but for Vivian, it's even easier still, as she was able to frighten one of the Radiant Mephits (I don't really care about the others) with Horror, and the other failed a save against Web Tangle. With one Radiant Mephit flying around screaming its head off, and the other tied up in the next room, Vivian was free to deal with the Mephit Portals unmolested.
Poison Weapon stacks with itself as well as Vivian's natural weapon, but her version only lasts two rounds. An Assassin's lasts 5 rounds.
She moves on to backstab Ellesime's clone, but the damage is disappointing--ten damage on a backstab, because Vivian only does double damage. As a Phase Spider, she gets a -1 penalty to backstab, and since she can never use any of the highest-damaging weapons, her backstabs will always be relatively weak, even late in the game. This compensates for her greater mobility, which aids in hit-and-fade tactics.
Since Vivian has Web spells and can now summon a couple of Nymphs, she decides to go fetch the acorns from Ilyich. She changes her mind as soon as she opens the door to the Otyugh's lair.
But one of the Lesser Clay Golems pins her before she can escape.
She teleports to safety, only to get pummeled when she lands. She barely makes it out of the place alive. The nymphs are on their own--Vivian is no good to them dead.
The rest of the dungeon offers more risks than it offers rewards. Vivian sneaks her way out without causing much trouble to the Shadow Thieves or Irenicus' goons.
At the circus, Vivian hurls out a string of Web spells, and hits Kalah with a series of poison attacks.
To make sure her Web spells didn't get disrupted, she teleported to the other side of the room at the beginning of the fight.
Vivian can't wear the Ring of Human Influence, or the Ring of Protection +1 she got from Irenicus' dungeon, so she has to pawn off both. This version of the Phase Spider build is not a natural charmer.
Web spells also prove very effective against the Hobgoblins. A small harem of nymphs pitches in with other disablers.
But Vivian can't deal much damage very quickly, and some of the Hobgoblins start breaking out of the Web spells. There are three Web spells active on the map, but Vivian's spells suffer a crippling weakness: the duration of all her spells, whether they are buffs on herself or disablers on the enemy, are cut in half. This means the Hobgoblins only get webbed for 3 seconds on a failed save. Web is still excellent, but it's not the game-breaking spell it used to be.
Vivian ends up with a Hobgoblin Archer and a Hobgoblin Shaman on either side of her. The latter starts casting an Enchantment spell, and for a moment, I deem it not a problem. But when I pause before the spell hits, I find that it is not Charm Person or Hold Person--it's Rigid Thinking.
Vivian has no defense against Rigid Thinking besides some very bad saves. To minimize the damage, she drinks a Potion of Invisibility right before the spell hits.
She fails the save. But that's not the worst part: a new enemy has joined the fray.
Vivian breaks her invisibility, attacking the archer, while the Otyugh kills the shaman. Soon, both hobgoblins are dead, and Vivian is confused and alone with a massive Otyugh.
She gets diseased. And slowed. And the Otyugh keeps hitting her, and the damage builds up. But finally, Vivian recovers her senses, and drinks a potion to stay alive. She staggers toward the exit, with the Otyugh lumbering after.
The Otyugh follows her into the Copper Coronet, but it gets stuck behind a couple of black lotus addicts. Vivian calls in the harem to paralyze it, making it safe for Vivian to attack.
Later on, when checking Vivian's THAC0 with a shortbow, I notice something odd.
Apparently the opcode that modifies missile weapon THAC0 cannot be used to give penalties. Negative values apparently round up to sky-high bonuses. I remove the penalty from the kit.
The kit is playing as it should be: the Phase Spider has a few nasty tricks up its sleeve, but its penalties are having a strong and visible impact on its functioning. You can tell it's not the same character--the benefits and the penalties both have real consequences that can't just be circumvented.
Next up: the Umar Hills. The path to Imnesvale lets us avoid the ambushes we're not yet ready for. Plus, there are some easy quests out there for a Phase Spider, since Vivian is immune to the Killer Mimic's glue. Jermien nearly dies at the hands of his own golem, however, because Vivian's Strength of One spell only lasts 5 rounds, which means her DUHM (operating at full duration, since it's an innate spell) only gives her 15 STR, and therefore no bonuses. Jermien got hit twice by the golem before Vivian brought it down.
Vivian tried to get through the Temple Ruins, but gave up after the first room. We only have two scrolls of Protection from Undead, and I'd really like to have both of them for the Shade Lord, in case things take too long. But Vivian can't get through the dungeon without using one of the scrolls: the enemies are too numerous, and everything in the dungeon is immune to her poison.
Which is a big deal, because her traps only deal poison damage. Any enemy immune to poison is immune to her trap damage. And the Skeleton Warriors are also effectively immune to her Web spells--it's not realistic to beat that dungeon right now.
Instead, we go to Trademeet. As I suspected, Vivian encounters no Spirit Trolls here, as she is still at a very low level. This means she can sneak past everything on the map.
Because I don't want to lose access to Gnasher, and I'm not willing to face Dalok head-on, we call in the harem to nail him with Call Lightning. Since Vivian stays invisible, Dalok never speaks to us, and his buddies remain non-hostile, sparing us the need to use Web. Dalok spends his first round drinking a healing potion, which gives the nymphs enough time to paralyze him with Hold Monster.
They all cast Cause Serious Wounds. Dalok is doomed.
I don't like doing this. But there are precisely two weapons in SoA that Vivian could use to harm Clay Golems, and unlike Blackblood, Gnasher does not cost me hundreds or thousands of gold.
Cernd fights Faldorn. I speed things up with CTRL-Y. Yeah, I'm impatient.
We still have to deal with the djinn. The harem proves instrumental. Khan Zahraa is quite pliable if he's treated right, and perfectly willing to turn on his friend Faafirah to please the nymphs.
Hoes before bros.
Unfortunately for Khan Zahraa, we're not quite satisfied just yet. First we need him to expend his Stoneskin spells, then cast Improved Haste on Vivian, and then use up all of his Invisibility spells on the nymphs.
Eventually he realizes what's going on and turns hostile. Seconds later, he is paralyzed.
Traps kill Taquee outside.
Vivian returns to Athkatla to buy another Protection from Undead scroll. She gets a visit from a silky-voiced lady named Valen, and then a horde of ten-year-old boys descends upon her.
We've all been there before.
Although I normally side with Bodhi to avoid fighting vampires, this time I decide to pick the Shadow Thieves. I want to get back at Tanova for what happened to Viora. Vivian pays Gaelan Bayle 15,000 clams, he sends her to Aran Linvail, and we get a couple of nice items: the Ring of Protection +2, which Vivian still can't use, and the Amulet of Power, which she can.
Now her Dimension Door has a casting time of zero. Her Improved Alacrity won't synergize with her slow-casting druid spells, but it will let her hop around freely and frustrate enemy attempts to mess with her.
More importantly, we now have Chaotic Commands. It can still get dispelled, but now we have immunity to all disablers. Even Slow isn't a total shutdown: our casting time for Dimension Door is still instantaneous, giving us rapid movement even when slowed.
Now, finally, we have a jumping spider. This is going to be great.
I got Kitty from Pai'Na and moved on to the Mae'Var questline. Since Viora did so well against Mae'Var, I figure Vivian is equipped to take on this test. But we hit a snag when making our way to Rayic Gethras.
One more hit and Vivian is dead. And she's slowed. But thanks to the Amulet of Power, her teleport still has a casting time of zero. She phases to the exit and slips outside.
She fails to hide (it's daytime) when she leaves Ray-Ray's house, and the golem follows after. She has to flee. I end up here-
-and wait another couple seconds before she can try to hide again. This means she teleported across the Docks District--taking the long route, along the winding stairs around Mae'Var's guild hall--in less than one round. She is just that fast.
But that speed comes at a very high cost, which is making me reconsider this Phase Spider kit. You know that whole "hit the enemy until it dies" thing? Well, Vivian can't really do that. Not against stuff like golems, which are immune to her Web Tangle spells, her traps, and her poison attack. She is entirely reliant on the Efreeti and Kitty for making these kills.
Ray-Ray, on the other hand, dies easily, webbed on the first round and then repeatedly poisoned by Vivian and Kitty.
The quest is doomed to end in violence, though I find out that you don't actually have to kill Mae'Var to end the quest--if you refuse Renal's request to kill him, Renal will say he'll do it himself if you don't change your mind soon enough. But Vivian, already paranoid about Mae'Var and his habit of torturing loyal goons, has seeded his guild hall with traps. Anishai is the first to perish.
A Shadow Thief hides and won't come out, since he wants to target Vivian, not her summons, so we just bomb the room he's in with the Efreeti's Fireball a couple times. The room below plays out much the same.
We use the same strategy we did with Mae'Var before, though I play it a little more conservatively this time. I watch Arrested Development for a while and eventually find out Mae'Var's Spirit Armor, along with his other buffs, has run out. He still has his Stoneskin, though, of course.
Vivian has no reason to fight fair.
But to my dismay, the trick doesn't play out quite like I had expected.
Without the Boots of Missiles, without the Cloak of Displacement, without the Belt of Inertial Barrier, and without the full -2 bonus to missiles that Viora all had, Vivian is quite vulnerable to missile weapons. She has to drink a Potion of Invisibility to make sure she can heal herself before the next volley comes.
She very, very gradually manages to kill Mae'Var with darts. This is probably because she still has a -2 penalty to hit and damage, and unlike Viora, she only has 12 STR. So her 1d3 darts don't do much damage per hit, nor do her arrows when the darts run out.
I have just as much trouble killing the Vampiric Wraiths in the first level of Watcher's Keep. They're immune to poison and all of my disablers, and regenerate 1 HP per second. Plus, they deal magic damage and level drain, which isn't good for our Efreeti, who is absolutely necessary for our success. It takes two tries to kill the first one, and the second one I just hit with CTRL-Y, forfeiting the XP just to avoid the headache.
Vivian is not as powerful as I had hoped. She is certainly very mobile, but that's not really enough. Her defenses against spells are lousy, and won't get much better: her Chaotic Commands, Death Ward, and Remove Fear won't necessarily last a full battle, not when she's so bad at dealing damage. Most of her offensive power is concentrated in her webs and poison, with a little bit extra from her backstabs. So what happens when we encounter an enemy who is immune to webs and poison and backstabs?
The Efreeti wins the battle. Vivian just teleports around and watches. And if the Efreeti can't do it, we run or die.
I believe I will restart with a new spider and a new class. A Druid/Thief is an excellent utility class, but the nerfs I added to the class render Vivian almost incapable of fighting for herself--a Phase Spider needs fighter levels to fight, even more so than a human. Nor do I see any upcoming milestones: the next big jump in her power is going to come when she gets Conjure Fire Elemental, and then she'll be using Fire Elementals instead of the Efreeti. After that, the next big jump is Summon Deva.
At which point Vivian will be watching the Deva fight her battles. It's the same old thing. A thief who can't backstab to save her life, dancing around enemies and watching her summons do all the work. Where's the fun in that?
I knew a Druid/Thief would have limited synergy with a Phase Spider's powers, but I went ahead with it anyway, afraid I'd end up creating an overpowered class if I did something like a Mage/Thief. The opposite has happened: I've cut off my best options, reducing the diversity of gameplay where I had intended to expand it.
I have one suggestion, regarding siding with the thieves or vamps. As far as I know a multiclass thief can side with the vamps, even in vanilla. I ran a F/T from Candlekeep to the throne without doing a single sidequest, and that kinda hinged on being able to side with Bodhi. Because I was missing loads of XP, I ran a duo with Imoen through BG1 and the start of BG2, then soloed until I got Imoen back in Spellhold, and the two of us beat Irenecus, then added Sarevok to finish ToB. That's the only time I've ever played the non-Ascension ending. Of course it's possible I had the rogue rebalancing mod installed, which allows thieves to side with Bhodi.
How about adding an innate summon once per day, of a 1d3 'spider' with a single 1d2 poison attack, that you can't control directly. However, what I'm thinking of is something similar to the 'Wish for a horde' bunnies, so at player level 40, you summon 20 spiders. This would mainly prevent your enemies from moving freely, and distract them from attacking you. Hey, you could make it a contingency on stun etc, so if stuff is going south, your brood scatters as a survival strategy.
EDIT Perhaps you should be viewing this as more of a F/T anyway, yes weaker backstabs, but lots of APR, so perhaps that +1 APR isn't enough. Also a boost to THACO, because you've gotta have some benefit when an attack can come from 8 different limbs. Perhaps start from a FMT, but only use the Mage class as a way to enable web casting and allow contingencies. Eh, what do I know about modding
EDITIDE Actually, you should get an attack from each of the two longer front limbs with improved THACO but no poison, and a third bite attack with poison effect if one of the leg attacks managed to hit?
We have a new spider! And despite not having pretty blue eyes, she is still adorable. Her name is Blueberry, because a cute spider should have a cute name.
Oh, and here's the base image, a little bigger. I edited it to give her bigger eyes, and give her shiny golden fuzz. And some tiny horns so it'd still look cute if she got flipped rightside-up.
Tell me you don't wanna give her a little Eskimo kiss.
To make sure her options aren't so constrained as Vivian's and Viora's were, I have made her a Fighter/Mage/Thief, using the Swashbuckler kit as a base instead of the Assassin kit so she doesn't lose 10 skill points a level. I haven't removed her restrictions or the drawbacks of the kit, though I might let her use some bigger weapons (a longsword or scimitar, say) later on, but probably not with a full two proficiencies.
As usual, I sneak around the first pack of Duergar and fight the Mephit in the Sewage Golem room. I've built up a common strategy to deal with Chateau Irenicus in solo SCS2 no-reload runs, and it involves avoiding packs of Duergar. We run into a Radiant Mephit, but Blueberry has enough HP to tough it out.
She's a tough cookie, she is.
Blueberry makes heavy use of teleportation to enable backstabs. It doesn't work with groups of enemies, nor does it work well in tight areas, but the Otyugh is the perfect target.
I tweaked the Swashbuckler kit to include a backstab multiplier, but Blueberry still has her -1 backstab penalty.
Her Dimension Door, as I mentioned earlier, can be used to skip over triggers. This allows her to avoid alerting the Lesser Clay Golems to her trespass in the Ellesime clone's chamber.
She also stole the key from the Sewage Golem instead of using the Activation Stone. This gave her exclusive access to the doors around the Otyugh room--I've seen enemies open them in the past, but that might have just been the Lesser Clay Golems.
Inspired by the example of other no-reload runners, I bring Minor Spell Deflection into the fight with Ilyich, to block the Mage's damage spells. Blueberry also uses Resist Fear to block a Horror spell. But a backstab renders this unnecessary.
Her buffs and her Slow spell don't last very long, so she actually ends up getting overwhelmed by the Duergar, despite having Protection from Normal Missiles active. Ilyich just hits really hard. She has to flee and return while hidden, regaining the advantage in the battle using backstabs.
The Mephit Portal room played out a bit differently than normal. Blueberry failed to hide when the Mephits came for her, so she leapt through the portal to prevent a potentially fatal Color Spray. She went back through the portal once she had successfully hidden, and shut the Mephits out of the Mephit Portal room--my standard formula for avoiding a Color Spray-based death. I've also found a use for the Monster Summoning scroll, but Blueberry can't use it. Phase Spiders can't use Evocation or Conjuration spells, which prevents them from using their Improved Alacrity to hurl out a stream of damage spells, which would wreck the difficulty of many encounters, and make little conceptual sense for the sneaky sort of spider I imagined.
I followed another standard formula for early Chapter 2: kill Kalah, buy Protection from Undead scrolls, meet with Gaelan, get Lilarcor, talk to Lord Jierdan and Nalia, talk to Jan and Delon in the Government District, talk to Flydian in the Gate District, and head to the Umar Hills to avoid any chance of triggering an ambush. Then we slay the Killer Mimic and Jermien's "Juggernaut" Golem, talk to the mayor and Madulf, and move on to the Temple Ruins.
With great difficulty and all her buffs, Blueberry manages to beat the petty undead infesting the former temple of Amaunator. The Skeleton Warriors are very tough, since her primary weapon uses piercing damage, her poison won't affect them, and they have 90% resistance to her Web Tangle spells. We lure several Shadows into the Sun Gem before taking it, netting a bunch of potions in the process (the Sun Gem instantly kills them, preventing them from drinking most of their potions), and then use a Protection from Undead scroll for the Shade Lord, who, as I've mentioned before, is quite vulnerable to poison despite ostensibly being undead--perhaps because it is inhabiting the body of a women (Merella) who is not yet dead.
I think I will establish a new save game, in the Umar Hills, since the current formula, from Chateau Irenicus to the Shade Lord, appears virtually infallible for almost any character. Any character can get past the first few Duergar, outrun the Otyugh, slip past the Radiant Mephits with an Oil of Speed and some portal-diving, talk-block the Assassin, kill Kalah, buy up a Protection from Undead scroll or several (and a Ring of Air Control depending on the class), get Lilarcor, head all the way to the Umar Hills, and kill the Shade Lord as long as you have a magical weapon and maybe an Oil of Speed or two if your base damage output is poor. Because having done this several times before, it seems like SCS2 no-reload BG2 has been broken up to the Shade Lord.
Hey everyone, I'm back with a new playthrough. I've had some problems with my 'BG laptop', Windows 8 explorer to be precise. It made me decide to return to my old laptop (which after having absorbed quite a lot of water last year, seems to be working well). I have a very ambitious setup, with a lot of extra content: stuff like mod NPCs and banter as well as all manner of quest mods and difficulty enhancements that should ensure plenty of future no-reload failures (DSotC, NTotSC, DH, a number of BG2 quest mods I'm unfamiliar with such as Sellswords and Colors of Inifinity, and SCS v21 components I'm not very used to such as equipment gone in the Asylum, and Irenicus Tactics/SCS hybrid in hell). Attached you can find my WEIDU log.
Charname is Butch Baylen, LN human Bounty Hunter with very nice, even if not fully optimzed stats (16 STR isn't great for a backstabbing straight thief):
Dualclassing options are kept open this way (Fighter or Mage), but only if it makes sense at some point. The baldurized Blackraven portrait should help me be careful I'm taking a role-played approach, but will use meta-knowledge where convenient to advance the story. (An example: backstabbing still neutral Tarnesh to get access to the FAI.) Butch is lawful in that he is a man of his word, but he's no blind follower of authorities. He doesn't go out of his way to help others, especially where high risk is involved. He'll require compensation for risking his neck for others, which I think fits a Neutral alignment. I've decided not to plan everything ahead in terms of companions, and Butch's eventual personality so that events and companions can shape him. I have a vague idea of him becoming a ruthless but honest mercenary/vigilante type (my favorite archetypes to roleplay). One who, after a few scary or painful experiences (such as NPC deaths) ends up with a committed crew of competent killers. However he might as well fall for 'weaker' companions' charms and end up sticking with them. NPCs will be roleplayed as well, although the happy patch should allow evil NPCs to stay on board even at high reputations (possible companions like Kagain or Viconia, understand well enough that a good rep serves them). I kitted most of the NPCs with the Level 1 NPCs mod, using some of the nice kits that @CharlestonianTemplar pointed out to me.
I'm also mixing first person and third person narrative styles, just for fun and because it will allow me to use the third person for dialogues or detailed battle descriptions, and the first person for personal musings. The distinction won't be very clear in the first installment below, but later on, I hope it will.
Finally I'm thinking of giving Butch a unique item or ability. In this case it would be something to do with crossbows. My idea is to allow specialization in Crossbows and to change the Army Scythe, once purchased, into "Butch's Army Scythe" with an upgrade in SoA (e.g. becoming a +2 weapon, with a +2 Thac0/Dmg bonus, 2.5 APR), and one in ToB (+3 enchantment, +3 Thac0/Dmg bonus, 3 APR). Does anyone know how I make a copy of the Army Scythe in NearInfinity for editing, and where I would find the edited version?
Butch Baylen, 1st BG1 installment
My name is Butch Baylen, until recently of Candlekeep. I’ve been a resident of that bastion of learning for pretty much all my life, receiving education from the monks, and combat training from Fuller, one of the Watchers who taught me the use of the quarterstaff and the crossbow in combat.
A good tenday ago I set out with my foster father Gorion after I shot two hitmen that had been sent by someone - I’ve no idea who - to kill me. At nighttime a party of bounty hunters waylaid us, mere hours after our departure. They too, were after me. Battle ensued and I soon found that my crossbow did little if anything against their heavily armored commander, a brute of a man. My foster father, a wizard of some renown, was more successful with his spells. I saw him dispatch various members of the party. He must have thought himself in control of the situation, and ordered me to run off. I hesitated but I complied. From a distance I observed Gorion casting spell after spell at the armored figure, until he had none more to cast. The man, severely injured, but still standing, then struck Gorion down with a single blow. I take no pride in my flight, even though I know very well that I acted in conformity with Gorion’s instruction and that I wouldn’t have been able to do much against the brute.
In the morning I ran into my friend Imoen on the Lion’s Way.
Imoen is a Charming Rogue in my setup.
She had slipped out of the Keep shortly after she had seen Gorion and me depart. I told her about what had happened, and we went back to the battlefield, a scorched clearing in the otherwise verdant land. On Gorion’s marred corpse we found a letter from one ‘E’ for Gorion, telling him that friends would be awaiting him and me at the Friendly Arm Inn. First however, Imoen and I returned to Candlekeep where we organized Gorion’s interment with the Keeper of the Portal. We also asked for Finch, a gnomish visiting scholar that had been preparing her departure on the same day that Gorion and I left. But according to the Keeper, she had already left Candlekeep.
Back on the Lion’s Way Butch and Imoen met an eccentric human wizard, Xzar, and a halfling rogue, Montaron (Fighter/Thief with Assassin kit). They were in a bit of a rush to journey south to Nashkel and proposed to travel there together. Imoen didn’t really seem to like them, but after he convinced the two to first accompany Imoen and him to the Friendly Arm Inn, Butch agreed to travel with them. On their way to the Friendly Arm they didn’t take long in seeing the party expand with a fifth member in Eldoth Kron, a Dirgesinger Bard. The party of five took down a few Xvarts and Gibberlings, as well as an Ogre (with Xzar’s loony antics drawing the monster’s aggression and the rest of the crew attacking with ranged weapons).
They made it to the Friendly Arm Inn, a fortified former temple of Bhaal. Outside the party dealt with seven Hobgoblins and found a Flamedance ring on one of them, which they returned to its owner Joia, and Montaron personally took care of a wizard that proved to be another bounty hunter, before the others had even seen him.
Inside the inn a gnome named Unshey claimed to be the owner of a leather belt that Imoen had found on the Ogre and kept for herself. They gave it to Unshey in return for 95 Guilders. They met another gnome, Landrin, who asked them to clear her Spider-infested home in Beregost for her, and Khalid and Jaheira (Gorion's friends), who joined the party. Eldoth, not at all at ease at the Friendly Arm Inn due to some rather unfriendly dealings he had had with its owner Bentley Mirrorshade, left the party.
Khalid is a nervous Fighter/Mage, whose connection with the weave appears to be somehow distorted: he’s a Wild Mage. It might explain his nervousness and his choice to focus more on his martial prowess than on his spell casting. Where Khalid seems to lack some confidence, Jaheira, a very good-looking warrior priestess of Sylvanus
Fighter/Druid with Priest of Sylvanus kit:
, has it in abundance. Complaining about our 'delay' and that we ought to be in Nashkel, she was a bit domineering for my taste, but then no so much that I outright refused to travel with her. Thus, the six of us headed south to Beregost. The trip itself was uneventful, and the same could be said of the town. There were no bounty hunters, and there was little for us to do in terms of (lucrative) quests. We dealt with Landrin’s Spiders (and reported back to the Gnome), fetched a book for old Firebead Elvenhair, a wizard and frequent visitor of Candlekeep, and we pacified a drunk (with words, rather than arms as Montaron proposed until I told him to shut up). Imoen stole some potions and a Ring of Energy from the Travenhurst family mansion, the most prominent family in Beregost. There was a very interesting piece of information we gathered from one of the townspeople: a recently issued bounty on the head of a murderer named Bassilus.
We enquired about the details at the Temple of Lathander, the residence of the town’s chief magistrate Keldath Ormlyr. He told us that Bassilus was an evil priest of Cyric who murdered people to animate their corpses. The bounty was no less than 5,000 Guilders… However, there had been no reports of the cleric’s whereabouts in over a tenday.
In the wilds south of Beregost we slew two Ogrillons and took a letter we found on one of them to its addressee, Mirianne. She rewarded me with a Ring of the Princes. In the same area we dispatched a band of Hobgoblins, good for a pair of Boots of Stealth, with our ranged weapons (Xzar was the only one without a ranged weapon). We also had a violent encounter with three Flaming Fist mercenaries who mistook us for bandits and preferred to execute us on the spot rather than take us in for a fair trial as I proposed. They paid for their bloodlust with their lives,
and we took their suits of plate mail armor off them. Khalid and Jaheira took one suit each; the third suit we guarded. It might come in handy for a future warrior companion, or in case Khalid’s or Jaheira’s armor were to shatter. (I’m playing with the Hard Times component that makes armor and shields shatter as well as metal weapons.)
“Hey Isolde. Look who we have here, strolling up the path, it looks like Butch.”
Imoen and Butch looked at each other. They knew immediately what time it was: more bounty hunters. The two rogues signaled their companions to retreat, to the north-west, while they ran off to the southwest. The party managed to shake off Isolde, but not her partner Tristan, a warrior. He went straight after Xzar. (Wizards tended to draw more aggression than others, Butch realized, probably because they were feared more.) Thankfully his companion Monty knew how to take care of the warrior. With his posion-tipped darts he finished off Tristan pretty much all by himself.
Jaheira, offended by the bounty hunters in a way that told Butch she did indeed care about him, then went looking on her own for Isolde. Butch, wary of the latter, just finished placing two snares near the party when he saw Jaheira rushing toward him. “She’s here,” she shouted, “but she’s invisible. Run!” The party retreated and saw Isolde succumb to Butch’s traps.
The effectivenessof his traps surprised and pleased Butch. He had taught himself to construct snares back in Candlekeep, but had never thought they would save his life or the lives of his friends. He decided to further specialize in trap setting.
The six continued through the Nashkel Pass, where bands of Hobgoblins and packs of Gibberlings were no real threat anymore with mail-clad Jaheira and Khalid tanking those creatures easily.
At the Nashkel Inn, a woman named Neira was a threat. She was a priestess, who like others had been enticed by the prize on Butch’s head. With her instant protections she became hard to hit for most of the party (not in the least Butch himself after Neira doomed her). The woman held Monty and, intelligently, went after her other foes (Butch, Jaheira, and Imoen; Xzar and ammo-less Khalid weren’t there).
She cast Rigid Thinking at Butch, who after having left the inn, still had to save vs spell to escape the effect.
(Note: a failed save wouldn’t have mattered that much from a no-reload perspective, since Butch was already outside.) Eventually the priestess ran out of spells, and a well-placed dart by rehabilitated Montaron did her in.
After resting for a bit at the inn, they explored the town and, at both Xzar's and Jaheira's behest they met with Berrun Ghastkill, Nashkel's mayor, who wanted the party to investigate the disappearances of people and the corruption of iron ore in the Nashkel Mines. Butch negotiated a reward, and the party accepted the assignment.
@Blackraven: Welcome back! I was wondering what happened to you. Good luck with your Bounty Hunter. I'm pretty sure you could dual-class Butch early on and still have his Special Snares apply the Maze effect, since innates, even kit innates, use the character's higher level for determining the effects. A Bounty Hunter(11)->Mage(21) should Maze enemies with the Special Snare.
As for creating an upgraded Army Scythe, find the file in Near Infinity (XBOW06), go to File->Add Copy of, and enter a new file name (XBOW06B would work). The new file will be selected once it's created, but if you need to come back to it later, you can double-click on "Override" in the left column, and you'll see all files in your override folder, in alphabetical order. Your copy of the Army Scythe will be at the bottom. Like in any folder in Windows, you can skip ahead to it by typing "x," then "b," then "o," then "w," etc. (you won't need to perform a search function).
If you're looking for the original Army Scythe, however, you won't find it in Near Infinity's "Override" drop-down menu. It'll be in "Items," since the original Army Scythe's file name (XBOW06) is already a part of vanilla BG2. So your XBOW06 and XBOW06B will be found in different places in NI.
If you forget the name of the file, you can search for its in-game name (Light Crossbow of Speed) with CTRL-F, though searching in DLTCEP is much faster.
Hey @semiticgod, thank you for the warm welcome and for the instruction on how to upgrade the Army Scythe. Very handy!
I stll have to catch up with your Spider(s), so no comments on them yet other than that Blueberry is a beauty. (I love macro photography. She's one of many good reasons why.)
On to the Druid Grove! Which at this level is also completely broken: as long as you're at a low level and don't get any Spirit Troll spawns, you can sneak past every enemy with a Potion of Invisibility and have Cernd kill Faldorn. Plus, the first group of Trolls can apparently be avoided by taking a narrow path just north of the Troll's spawn location.
This leads you directly to the spiders. Unfortunately, the next group of Trolls is not avoidable, and you still have to walk past Kyland Lind.
I make a bad move and attack some Spore Colonies south of Cernd. I forgot I had no defense against confusion, and the Myconid disabled Blueberry right before I turned invisible.
Luckily, Blueberry just wandered off a bit before attacking a Myconid, minimizing the Myconid's potential whomping time and ensuring that her Stoneskin endured. She drank a Potion of Clarity right after she recovered, and killed off the remaining mushroom men with poison.
Blueberry charmed Dalok with Dire Charm and got him to summon a Fire Elemental, but he turned hostile as he was casting Call Woodland Beings, so the first Nymph also came out hostile. Blueberry's charm spell didn't get us much; her disablers, too, have half duration. We lingered a bit, hoping Blueberry could turn the situation around, but Dalok still had multiple Ironskins active, rendering our backstabs and poison both ineffectual. When a Nymph finally targeted Blueberry with an Enchantment spell, and her Minor Spell Deflection had run out, I decided it would be best simply to flee the area.
When we returned, Blueberry spoke to Cernd, ignoring Dalok. I lost the opportunity to get Gnasher, but Blackblood is about as good, and will make for more damaging backstabs in the long run.
Protection from Petrification blocks the djinn's Flesh to Stone spells, and poison prevents some of their others. They drag out the battle by turning invisible, but with Blindness, Horror, and Slow, on top of all of Blueberry's buffs, we bring the quest to an end. With our newfound fortune, we can finally afford both Blackblood, for Clay Golems and interrupting spells through Stoneskin, and the Robe of Vecna, for much faster spells. I haven't decided if I will reduce the casting speed bonus. I know a 4 bonus to casting time is really powerful, but I haven't gotten to use it in many runs, and it's not like it'll be totally game-breaking, since we still don't have damage spells, and what few spell slots Blueberry has are crowded up by her buffs.
Maybe I'll decrease the casting bonus later in the game, when the effect starts to have a bigger impact.
After visiting Pai'Na and getting Kitty and a scroll of Spell Immunity, we trigger the Renfeld ambush, and end up in the Docks. After dealing with the Harper hold quest, we do Mae'Var's quest.
When I go down to fight Mae'Var, and the entrance is blocked behind me, I realize I brought neither a shortbow nor any darts, ruining my plan to kill Mae'Var from within the cage using ranged weapons. Plus, I forgot to pre-cast Stoneskin, and nearly died to Mae'Var's Minute Meteors.
Blueberry might have died had it not been for her Protection from Normal Missiles spell, which blocked the Assassins' arrows. Notice I used an Invisibility spell rather than a potion: since I have Improved Alacrity, I can turn invisible faster using the spell. Other no-reload runners will know that having one's aura clear is critical for solo runs, where being able to drink a potion at the right time may make the difference between life and death.
Through sheer luck, Blueberry manages to dominate Mae'Var. It goes swimmingly for a moment.
But before Mae'Var can cast a single spell, he turns hostile again--we are not going to have Mae'Var take down his cleric with a Cone of Cold spell, as I had hoped. Short-duration disablers are especially hurt by Blueberry's 50% spell duration penalty. We had the same problem with Dalok, who could only cast one spell before turning hostile.
Blueberry weathers the enemy's spells for a time, then goes on the offensive. Mae'Var fails a save against Web Tangle, allowing Kitty and Blueberry to teleport over and change the course of the battle.
Mae'Var falls shortly before the web effect wears off. Blueberry finishes off the remaining enemies with the Efreeti and her remaining disablers.
As usual, I end up with some low-level encounters that no longer pose a challenge. Blueberry uses a backstab and Vampiric Touch to great effect in the fight in the slaver compound.
Next up: the Unseeing Eye. Having seen the Vampiric Touch spell work so well on the cleric, I believe I can do the same thing to the Unseeing Eye. Now that my install is fixed, the Unseeing Eye will no longer have demi-lich-style resistances and immunities once Blueberry uses the Rift Device on it.
The Rift Device will set the Unseeing Eye's HP to 40. Once Blueberry removes its Spell Deflection spell with a Secret Word, she can finish it off with two Vampiric Touch spells and a Flame Arrow from the Efreeti. I've tested this pattern multiple times, summoning the Unseeing Eye and creating the Rift Device with CLUAConsole to make sure I know how it works. Every time, it is successful.
We sneak my way through the Unseeing Eye quest, fighting few battles, and hurry to the Unseeing Eye itself, as we are not strong enough to take on the Beholders themselves. Blueberry activates the Rift Device, fires off a Secret Word, and the Efreeti begins casting Flame Arrow. Once Secret Word is off the ground, Blueberry teleports over, waits a second to make sure the Rift Device and Secret Word make contact, and then uses Vampiric Touch twice.
It does not deal any damage. None at all. Then I realize my timing was off: Secret Word hit before the Rift Device did, because its projectile moves faster, and was blocked by the Unseeing Eye's spell level immunities, which the Rift Device would have removed. But Blueberry has some extra Vampiric Touch spells (the mage spells, not just the Bhaalspawn innates), and can burn through the Spell Deflection within the round.
She hits the Unseeing Eye with all the spells she can before finally settling on Vampiric Touch. It makes contact! And the Efreeti lands the finishing blow, with Flame Arrow.
But now Blueberry is under the effects of an Anti-Magic Ray, fired just as the Unseeing Eye fell, and there are two Death Tyrants looming over her. She needs to go invisible to escape the area, but Anti-Magic Ray in SCS2 prevents you from using potions or spells (and I forgot that our Dimension Door is unaffected by spell failure). Now, Anti-Magic Rays in my install also block all spells, hostile and beneficial, like in PnP, so I'm safe from Beholder rays for another 6 seconds. But what if a Death Tyrant targets me with Death Ray just as the Anti-Magic effect wears off? Invisibility won't stop any Beholder rays already in motion.
To circumvent this, I drink a Potion of Invisibility from the inventory. I unpause and get ready to make my escape.
This is as confusing as it is distressing. Blueberry's buffs were gone at the time, but she was at full HP and should have had at least 3 seconds left before the Anti-Magic Ray wore off and she was vulnerable to Beholder rays again. She should have been immune to their rays for several more seconds, and it's not like the Death Tyrants could have killed her in one shot with their melee attack; they only do 2d4+8 damage, or a maximum of 32 damage on a critical hit, or 64 if both Death Tyrants landed criticals with maximum damage rolls, and Blueberry has over 90 HP even without Vampiric Touch active.
So what on earth happened? I check the files and find the answer.
SCS2 uses some duplicate spells. For example, there is an Anti-Magic Ray, DW#BHAN, which disables potion slots--that's the ray Blueberry got hit with, as evidenced by her inability to use potions. The vanilla Anti-Magic Ray, however, is SPIN992, and does not disable potion slots. Likewise, there is an SCS2-only Death Ray, DW#BFOD, which is just like Finger of Death, but with an instant casting time. The vanilla Death Ray, however, SPIN991 uses the vorpal strike effect, is nonmagical, and hits as a level 0 spell.
So what happened? Blueberry got hit with the SCS2 Anti-Magic Ray (DW#BHAN), which blocks level 1 to 9 spells and gives 100 MR. She then was hit by the vanilla Death Ray (SPIN991), which bypasses both the Anti-Magic Ray's MR bonus and its spell level immunities. The vanilla Death Ray is also edited by SCS2, but only such that it has a chance of breaking down spell protections; it's other effects are identical.
One Beholder uses one of the DW#BXXX rays, while another Beholder uses one of the SPINXXX rays. This may or may not be what is supposed to happen, but it still means Anti-Magic Ray isn't working properly, in this one narrow case: SCS2 Anti-Magic Ray is supposed to block all spells from affecting the target, but it does not defend the target against Death Ray, because Death Ray, SPIN991, is a level 0 nonmagical spell. Funny thing is, SCS2 is a huge, huge mod that I've been playing for quite some time now, and this is the first error I've ever seen in it.
Since Anti-Magic Ray should have kept Blueberry alive for another few seconds, I decide to reload. This time, just because, I time the Rift Device and Secret Word correctly, to get rid of the Unseeing Eye's Spell Deflection earlier.
Blueberry finishes off the monster with a third Vampiric Touch spell.
She then turns invisible, picks up the Unseeing Eye's necklace, and runs outside.
Now, if Anti-Magic Ray blocked Death Ray, and if I had played by the rules and not drunk a potion until after Anti-Magic Ray wore off, then it would have played it slightly differently: I would have started running after the Unseeing Eye was dead, pausing incessantly until I could drink potions again, and then drunk a Potion of Magic Shielding as soon as I could to ensure she would be safe from any potential Death Rays still in the air, at which point I would escape the area. So I will drop one Potion of Magic Shielding and continue with the run, to reflect a "by the rules" playout of the Unseeing Eye battle as I first fought it.
I still can't quite tell if the Phase Spider kit is too powerful or not powerful enough.
Ok Butch's story continues. As a correction to my previous post, which contained the wrong WEIDU-log (of an install I deleted after most SCS v30 AI components failed to install), I attach my actual WEIDU-log. As you can see it contains a number of Tactics components, something I hadn't mentioned before.
Butch Baylen, 2nd BG1 installment
We traveled to the Nashkel Mines, but I aborted our expedition when we ran into another bounty hunter, a fearsome Dwarf.
I’m not so foolish as to undertake an undoubtedly dangerous mission like investigating the troubled Nashkel Mines while at the same time having to deal with one or several bounty hunters that are waiting for the opportunity to take my scalp. Besides, to be honest I’m still more interested in Bassilus and the 5,000 Guilder prize on his head than in those mines, but that’s something only Imoen knows. The others are more interested in the mines, for reasons they refuse to clarify. I wish they were more forthcoming with information.
Either way, we decided to return to Beregost. We rested at the Nashkel inn, but I had this very strange dream. I only remember flashes of it. I had decided to go back to Candlekeep, but when I arrived, at nighttime, Gorion’s spirit told me at the gates that I couldn’t enter, and that I had to go on. He gestured toward the dark woods, where a smooth path suddenly revealed itself. I soon found myself walking it, and from somewhere unseen a sinister voice spoke: “You will learn!” When I awoke, I somehow knew I had the ability to heal people. I assume it to be a divine gift, as commonly received by priests and paladins. But no deity revealed himself or herself in my dream, except maybe for the voice I mentioned. At any rate the timing of the dream and the gift couldn’t have been better. Just south of Beregost we were attacked by Hobgoblins, some of them archers with poisoned arrows, and they hit Xzar twice. The first poisoning he stopped with an antidote, but the second time it was Jaheira’s healing and mine that kept him alive while we made our way to the nearest inn, the Jovial Juggler.
We rested, and Xzar recovered fully.
The next morning we met a wounded Paladin, Bjornin, who had a commission for us. There were four bloodthirsty Half-Ogres terrorizing the lands south, southeast of Beregost. The creatures had injured him, and he wanted us to deal with them. For a change I didn’t negotiate a reward, trusting that his honor as a Paladin would tell him to pay us for our work. We asked around for news about Bassilus, but all we learnt was that the bounty was still unclaimed.
The Half-Ogres we found and slew without difficulty although Montaron suffered a rather heavy blow at some point. Traps and ranged attacks did the job.
The companions then traveled northward, to return to Beregost via the Red Canyons.
“No stay back, lest this madness be catching,” a stranger warned.
“Calm down. What is this madness of which you speak?” Imoen replied.
“There be a fiendish hen to the east that, when I picked her up, she spoke to me in a most human voice!”
All of the companions were intrigued by the man’s words, and they decided to look for the hen. They found it under attack from a hungry wolf. With ranged artillery they slew the wolf, and when they approached the hen it spoke indeed. Apparently the hen was an unintended polymorph form of a human mage apprentice, Melicamp. Melicamp begged the party to take him to his master, the archmage Thalantyr. They agreed, partly out of curiosity of what Thalantyr would do, and partly because they hoped Thalantyr would reward them for their effort with a magical trinket or two.
On their way, a young boy, Footy, told the party he had been observing Bassilus and his ‘funny spooks’. The kid led them toward a ritual site, a large stone circle. From a distance they heard Bassilus speak to his ‘family’, a couple of Skeletons and Zombies. The party retreated, wary not to divulge their presence, in order to discuss a strategy to deal with Bassilus. But they were noticed and attacked by a remarkable alliance of four bandits, five Skeletons and a Ghoul. Some of the companions took a few hits, but with their superior marksmanship there was never any doubt they were going to prevail.
After that battle, Butch carried out a quick search of the corpses for possible treasure but had to stop when a new enemy presented itself: a trio of Hobgoblin bandits. One of them was a hasted, sword-wielding brawler. The others were archers that, as other Hobgoblin archers, liked to coat their arrows in poison, both Xzar and Imoen discovered.
The hasted swordsman hit hard, hard enough to strike down Khalid and Montaron before any of the Hobgoblins had fallen.
By then Jaheira had closed in on one of the archers, and finished the creature off with her club. Butch shot the other archer down.
Jaheira’s attempt to fight the swordsman in close combat nearly cost her her life (1 HP).
She retreated, and on her last legs, had to run for her life with the Hobgoblin pursuing her. Thankfully Imoen and Butch didn’t take long in taking their foe down with bolts and arrows.
This was the bloodiest battle the party had been in, and it gave Butch a lot to think about.
I’m no healer, but both Khalid and Montaron looked pretty dead to me. They were certainly beyond Jaheira’s healing skills, let alone my own. Much to my chagrin we had to call off our confrontation with Bassilus, and visit the Temple of Lathander, not to receive 5,000 Guilders but to beg Keldath Ormlyr to help us with Khalid and Montaron. Fortunately the priest was able to get both the Half-Elf and the Halfling back on their feet, and he didn’t charge much for it. Still, the experience with the Hobgoblin fighter worries me. Surely there are deadlier warriors out there, and yet this one squashed my warriors like mere bugs. Even Jaheira, arguably my strongest frontliner had to flee and barely escaped. Our party needs either a more resilient frontliner or better equipment. Both seem hard to come by though.
Khalid and Montaron required several days rest to fully recover, but I didn’t have time for that. I had to take that bounty on Bassilus’ head. Xzar stayed with Khalid and Montaron; Jaheira, Imoen and I continued. We reported our success against the Half-Ogres to Bjornin. He did not disappoint in expressing his gratitude, rewarding us with an enchanted shield. We also returned Melicamp to Thalantyr and were impressed with the latter’s successful restoration of his apprentice (much less so with his non-existent appreciativeness for our help). Near the High Hedge Kivan, an Elven Feralan Ranger and hunter of bandits, offered to join us. We accepted the offer. Armorless, he didn’t look like the frontliner I was hoping to recruit into the party, but he did show us his skill with his longbow when we had to fight three Gnolls.
In Beregost while shopping for ammo, we met a Dwarven warrior by the name of Kagain, a Wizard Slayer, in one of the stores. He ran a mercenary business that provided protection for trade caravans along the Coast Way. One of the caravans he was supposed to protect had gone missing however, and he needed to find it. We agreed on a temporary alliance. We would help him track down the caravan and in return he would join us on our quest in the Red Canyons. We didn’t take long in locating the caravan, but still too long. The carts had been seized by bandits, the travelers killed.
Four of the bandits were still lingering at the crime scene. The party confronted them, but they learnt that these were no ordinary bandits. At least their leader wasn’t. She was a feisty blonde who seriously injured Jaheira with a well-placed arrow or two. Jaheira disengaged and called upon Kagain to fight the woman. Curiously the bandit kept launching arrows at Jaheira, ignoring Kagain and the others. The woman’s poor tactics allowed the company to finish her off in a collective effort.
The other bandits weren’t as big a threat; they fell fast without doing much harm if any.
Kagain found a fibula of Eddard Silvershield, the only son of the wealthiest and most influential family in Baldur’s Gate, and realized that with the death of the boy the fate of his enterprise had been sealed. He offered to stay on for an indefinite time. Butch, not sure yet what to think of the Dwarf, was in no rush to accept the offer but he didn’t want to dismiss it either. He thanked Kagain for it, and bade him to accompany him to the Red Canyons to fulfill his side of the bargain. The rogue knew that Kagain might be the tough frontliner he had been hoping to meet, but he didn’t want to make the Dwarf feel too important (that might only lead to quarrels about the prize on Bassilus).
The party of five traveled to the Red Canyons. It was dark when they arrived, which allowed Butch to approach Bassilus’ circle unseen. He was pleased to find the priest but less so about the fact that the undead family had grown a lot bigger. The rogue placed his traps outside the stone circle, hoping to lure the priest into them later, should a friendly settlement prove unfeasible. They then confronted the Cleric and tried to convince him to come to Beregost with them. Bassilus didn’t like that idea at all. He started an incantation. But Kivan’s and Imoen’s arrows, Kagain’s throwing axes, Butch’s bolts and traps and Jaheira’s bullets thwarted all his attempts at spell casting (except for a single Sanctuary). He did dish out some damage in close combat, with Kivan and Jaheira being the dupes, but he fell soon enough. It was Kagain who struck the priest down.
The companions presented Bassilus’ Holy Symbol to Keldath Ormlyr and received the 5,000 Guilder prize in return. It prompted Kagain to repeat his offer to stay with the band. Their wealth now surpassed 15,000 Guilders but (thanks to the Hard Times mod) that didn’t mean they were actually able to afford the finest goods they had found for sale at Beregost’s Smithy and at Thalantyr’s.
I still can't quite tell if the Phase Spider kit is too powerful or not powerful enough.
Looks balanced to me. Some advantages (improved alacrity!), but also disadvantages (50% spell duration penalty is a big deal for a triple class caster). Personally I find your current Spider more interesting and more fun than the completely randomized multi-kit mixes you played a coupleof weeks back.
Being somewhat ADD, I'm not really suited to no-reloading either BG1 or BG2. What I might be up for however, is a no-reload Black pits challenge. So I've started one:
Comments
Upgraded the Mace of Disruption and headed over to the Graveyard.
Talk about bad timing!
Aargh!!! Of all the times, NOW my character gets fatigued?! Just as I'm about to face off against a bunch of vampires with a weapon I am not even proficient in against opponents who can cast all sorts of nasty things? I mean we've been going strong for 9.5 days without a single rest and we've been fine, but we couldn't wait another 2 hours?
The Mace of Disruption soon proved its worth.
Tanova was an utter nightmare, casting all sorts of stuff and immune even to +2 weapons. After trying all sorts against her, I finally gave up and dug out one of my 2 Mislead scrolls.
Headed downstairs.
I finally have a +2 katana!!
Don't think I've ever had to wait that long before acquiring a +2 main hand weapon
Faceoff against Lassal.
And kill him just as Nadeem gets a vision that gold has been placed in his keep
Buff heavily and use a Time Trap to get some hits in on Bodhi.
Uh-oh. Time to run!
Bodhi did that literally within 1 round. It was just "Drinks Blood", "Drinks Blood", "Drinks Blood" etc. Holy cow, how on earth am I going to defend against that in Chapter 6?
I ran and Bodhi did not follow. After a short while she decided to leave without any further action.
With all quests complete for now and no more concerns over fatigue, I headed over to my keep to collect aforementioned gold and then returned to Athkatla. Revisited Cromwell finally to forge a bunch of items, including dragonscale armour (shadow + red), Girdle of Glory and Stormlord's Heels. After 4 solid days in the stuffed confines of Cromwell's forge Nadeem was glad to get some fresh docklands air.
Uh-oh.
Whoops. Perhaps we should have been concerned about fatigue after all! I dread to think what the luck penalty is now, with over 14 days on the clock without a rest!
I needn't have worried. Nadeem still dispatched the vampires without breaking sweat (did use a Potion of Clarity though to avoid domination; relying on Invulnerability / saving throws may not have been wise with such a steep luck penalty).
And we're ready to leave for Spellhold.
Updated character sheet.
So chapters 1-3 have all been completed without resting, which I'm quite pleased with. Already level 38(!) with 6.3m XP.
Fun times.
Fatigue is very finicky. I've found it extremely hard to get fatigued in Chapter 2 without casting Restoration or Haste (I remember going at least one month before getting fatigued). The reason you haven't seen fatigue until now might be because Chapter 2 seems to mess around with fatigue, preventing it from popping up. Chapter transitions might also reset it (the trip to Spellhold contains an automatic rest, like at Garren's house in the Firkraag questline), hence why you spent so much time without ever getting fatigued.
Vivian stumbles into a nice lady's home on the way.
Vivan stays a while to rest with the other spiders and gets lots of attention for her pretty blue eyes. Yaaaay! But after a long night of cuddling, she eventually has to leave. Imoen is still waiting for rescue, and there's a rather dangerous mage getting in the way. Pai'Na gives Vivian a black spider figurine to summon a friend whenever she gets lonely or needs a hug or has to assassinate some bipeds.
On the way to the Slums to fetch Wellyn's teddy bear, we get ambushed by Suna Seni and a gang of slavers. I fail to backstab the mage, who already has Stoneskin active and is therefore immune to both the backstab and the poison effect (poison is blocked by Stoneskin in my install). I have to flee and rely on Kitty to hold the fort, though Suna Seni keeps making her saves against the poison damage.
I buffed up Kitty via Near Infinity, but she's still not nearly as powerful as the Item Upgrade version.
I get targeted by a Mental Domination spell, a game-ending disabler that affects spiders as well as humans. To my great relief, Viora makes her save.
She only had a 60% chance of making that save.
Once we slay Suna Seni, I decide to make a run for it, but one of the slavers gets in the way of her body--I only fought this battle to get a hold of Suna Seni's sword. Arbane's Sword protects against hold II and stun, as well as the web and hold I effects we're already immune to (I hear some people's Arbane's Sword doesn't give immunity to stun, but mine is a clean install). Kitty ends up defeating a couple more enemies, but she can't win the battle. She dies shortly after I nab Arbane's Sword.
On the way out, Viora gets hit by a double Ray of Enfeeblement Minor Sequencer, pinning her to the ground just a few feet short of the exit. But she's able to teleport to the edge of the map and escape the encounter before the enemy has a chance to do her in.
I still need to seek out some easy quest XP, so I trigger the Renfeld ambush, which goes more thoroughly in my favor. The only sticking point in this questline is the fight with Prebek and Sanasha, both of whom have Confusion spells--very, very dangerous at this stage in the game. I go after Sanasha first, as she also has an Emotion spell. Unlike Suna Seni's mage, Sanasha has no Stoneskin.
Prebek still lives long enough to cast Confusion, but not before Viora could drink a Potion of Clarity she got from the Renfeld encounter. She made her save anyway, but I had to be safe.
I also do the first Mae'Var quest, since it involves little risk and lets me collect a bunch of loot from Mae'Var's guild hall. But it entails going to the Temple District at night, which spawns some Tactics bandits. I set up a bunch of traps, slaying more than half of the bandits when they appear, and activate the Ring of Air Control to gain immunity to single-target spells (I bought it to prevent another Mental Domination spell from coming up). From there, I just melee the remaining enemies with help from Kitty.
Next, I want to do the Druid Grove quests. But the Druid Grove has multiple Spirit Trolls, all of which can cast Greater Command in my install. Without SR, the spell has no save penalty, but my save vs. spell is still too high, at 5. I need an immunity to unconsciousness, but there's only one way I can think of for Viora to gain such an immunity: the Cloak of the Sewers.
The Troll form of the cloak grants the wielder immunity to hold I and II, plus stun and unconsciousness. It lasts 2 turns, more than long enough for me to run or teleport past the Spirit Trolls of the Druid Grove. But first I have to kill a Rakshasa.
I send in Kitty and the Berserk Warrior from the Silver Horn of Valhalla to kill off the kobolds guarding the Rakshasa. They also do a number on the Rakshasa, who ends up pursuing me to the northeastern exist.
I fail to lay enough traps for the Rakshasa, forgetting to buff with DUHM, and by the time I rest again and get my traps back, the Rakshasa has returned to the center of the map.
After successfully luring the Rakshasa over several of my traps, I realize that its Stoneskin is blocking the poison damage from the traps. I'd need another two levels to get the traps with fire damage.
Instead, I have to beat the Rakshasa in melee. Since the Rakshasa has nothing but Evocation spells, I just bait him into casting them on me. Then I teleport away to regenerate back the lost HP with the Pearly White Ioun Stone.
I use CTRL-R, though, since it's faster than waiting for the regeneration. I'd drink potions to speed things up instead, but I lost five potions already in the Bridge District: one to a Rune Assassin before I escaped Rejiek's home, and another four to the dwarven warrior in Tirdir's quest.
The Rakshasa disrupts two of my Dimension Door spells, so I have to use CTRL-J instead. I accidentally overshoot it and teleport outside of the Rakshasa's visual range, allowing me to hide instantly.
Normally the spell only extends as long as your own field of vision, unlike CTRL-J, which means you need to either move a little along or teleport again if you want to hide. One casting of the spell won't put you out of the enemy's sight if you're already in the enemy's melee range, which I need to backstab.
Most of my backstabs, however, are wasted. I only use them for the 4 THAC0 boost (Rakshasas have amazing AC), and to escape the Rakshasa's sword. But finally I break through the last Stoneskin, and can actually deal damage to the thing.
It isn't long before I deal the final blow.
It was a long and irritating process of missing the Rakshasa and teleporting away, but finally I have the cloak. I go to the Druid Grove and transform into a Troll. I can't cast the Dimension Door spell while shapeshifted, but I can still use CTRL-J instead (Phase Spiders cast Dimension Door via script, so nothing should block the spell). Combined with the Troll form's constant effect haste, I can run pretty darn fast. But just in case things get too hectic, I drink a Potion of Invisibility before going to the first Spirit Troll spawning point.
But there are no Spirit Trolls there; only normal Trolls and Ice Trolls. The Druid Grove is utterly free of Spirit Trolls, probably because I'm still at such a low level. The Cloak of the Sewers was completely unnecessary. In fact, for some reason, the Greater Earth Elemental and Shambling Mounds don't spawn at all--perhaps because I was moving too fast. I've skipped over triggers due to high movement rates before.
I still have to kill Dalok before talking to Cernd, because Dalok and his precious club, Gnasher, vanish after Faldorn dies. I send Kitty in, fairly certain she will fail to harm him. To my surprise, she does quite well, even breaking through his Ironskins and poisoning him.
This despite Kitty being confused and under pressure from a Nymph and a Fire Elemental at Dalok's right and left. It helped that the other Shadow Druids didn't interfere--like with Kyland Lind, Dalok's entourage won't attack you if you don't trigger his dialogue. I also whittle down Dalok's friends the next day, but it's an unsatisfying chore to gather the XP, since they don't all fight back. It makes for a boring and unfulfilling fight when the enemy isn't functioning properly.
I let Cernd handle Faldorn, but 10 Potions of Stone Form from Adratha for later use, and kill the djinn with traps. We also trigger the second skinner quest, which also ends with traps. Viora is now at level 15, and has all of the standard recharging summoning items: Kitty, the Silver Horn of Valhalla, the Efreeti Bottle, and Ras. I think I will take on the Unseeing Eye quest next, before I reach a higher level and start encountering bigger herds of Beholders.
Phase Spiders are quite excellent. The item restriction is unfortunate, and will get more severe later on, which I start finding better items I can't use, but the teleportation does a lot to screw with melee enemies, especially since Viora can hide. The power of the ability increases with the size of the map, which means tight spaces like the Planar Prison will still be very dangerous.
I just can't wait until I get UAI and the Robe of Vecna. Instantaneous teleportation will speed things up a lot. But I've never done a no-reload run with a solo thief. @Blackraven, how do you normally hit 3 million XP in BG2 with your thieves?
Resting is so badly implemented and so silly; I do not enjoy seeing runs where people are always fully rested and have all their spells available at all times. How pointless would it be if Nadeem rested before every major encounter? He could lay down 5 traps and use poison + assassination in every battle. And every battle would be over instantly. And playing mages is even worse, you can just make yourself invincible before every battle with the right combination of spells and just rest straight after to be able to do it all again for the next battle.
Without time pressue or any consequence, resting does not work for me. I wish there was more stuff in the game like the SCS component that prevents you from resting in the illithid city. Or maybe opponents get stronger the longer you take to get there? So Irenicus might be level 25 if you get there within 15 days but level 30 (with appropriate additional strength, spells and powers) if it takes you 25 days, and so on? I don;t know what the answer is here.
Regarding Chapter 2 fatigue, you may be correct; however it's also at least partially related to CON. I remember from my party days that Viconia would always be fatigued first (normally after 24 hours), then Nalia, while my PC and Korgan could go for days.
If a Lich has Spell Shield, Spell Turning, SI: Divination, Improved Invisibility, PFMW, Protection from Magical Energy, Protection from Acid, Protection from Fire, Protection from Electricity, Stoneskin, Fire Shield: Blue, Fire Shield: Red, and chain-casts Time Stop without fail at the beginning of the first round, throwing out a Planetar, Comet, Dragon's Breath, a triple Remove Magic Spell Sequencer, Breach, and Horrid Wilting while time is still stopped, and emerges from Time Stop with a renewed PFMW spell, then my level 15 party (if we're even that far) of mages and clerics is really going to need to come in fully buffed in order to survive. The enemy is always fully rested. Why wouldn't I be?
--"Restless runs are great and something I've done before. And they're great fun when you're not doing silly stuff like abusing the game engine with a wand of lightning
I know you're just teasing, but seriously, I only used the Wand of Lightning trick three times in my entire SoA run. For the vast majority of the game, I played without any exploits, and I still didn't like it. I rationed the hell out of my resources, and it was a time-sucking chore.
I visited the Windspear Hills to gather some minor XP. Funny thing about the Werewolves: since the fighters explode and get replaced with the Werewolves, the potions that SCS2 gives them are automatically dropped.
This means the Werewolves in the Windspear Hills are an excellent way to get some easy potions in SCS2, unless they fix it later.
As a Phase Spider, Viora can teleport over certain triggers. This allows her to prevent enemy spawns.
I didn't feel like fighting any golems, or vampires, so I skipped over the triggers for both. You can also wiggle around the undead spawning point without triggering any vampires or anything; you don't need Dimension Door to escape it.
I stopped short of going after Samia, however. I was about to go and get her, but then I realized I was too low a level to take on the whole group. Instead, I went the Temple sewers and began the Unseeing Eye quest. SCS2 adds a spawning point for Beholders in the sewers, but you can avoid the Beholders by taking the diagonal hallway northwest from the Rakshasa's pit.
Just for fun, I also teleported past the riddle bridge. To my dismay, we got the full load of Beholder spawns at the other end.
I can't take those guys down with my summons as they are. After grabbing the Rift Device piece and speaking to Sassar, I headed for the exit, making sure to drop the Rift Device piece before I left (otherwise you die instantly). I don't know how I'll deal with the Beholders if they come in groups that large. I don't have the resources to take them down.
I consider returning to the De'Arnise Hold. I have 10 Potions of Stone Form, and with my current saves, I can guarantee success against the Spirit Trolls' Greater Command spells with only one potion. But since I want to conserve those potions, I run past all of the Trolls I can, rather than fighting them. I also avoid fighting the golems, to make sure I'm prepared for an unavoidable fight on the bottom level.
To kill TorGal, I have to lay traps in the Umber Hulk room. I didn't get the dog stew, so I have to kill the Umber Hulks, but there are also multiple Spirit Trolls (I believe two, plus a Spectral Troll) in the previous room, and those Trolls will see through my invisibility, so I will have to fight them. I lay three traps (I can't lay any more) before bringing out my summons and luring the Trolls into the traps.
One Spirit Troll evades all damage from the traps, and I spend a while trying to poison it. The Troll makes its save 8 times in a row. Given a Spirit Troll's save vs. death of 10, the odds of that happening are about 1 in 256. Very bad luck, and for a while I thought there was an error, since Trolls aren't immune to poison (all previous Trolls I killed with poison damage). But eventually I poison it, and it starts to go down.
It's a long war of attrition. The Spirit Trolls, like any other Troll, can't hit me unless they roll a 20. If I equip the Girdle of Bluntness instead, then the Umber Hulks in the next room have to do the same, and with the Shield of Harmony, their confusion attacks warrant no Potion of Clarity or Stone Form.
Then there is TorGal. If you approach Tactics TorGal while invisible, he will follow you to the Umber Hulk room, even as his friends stay behind. I need to do this in order to take on TorGal at this level.
Reviewing my resources, and TorGal's stats, I find that Vivian is just barely capable of slaying him, if she drinks a Potion of Defense, a Potion of Power, a Potion of Fire Resistance, an Oil of Speed, casts DUHM, lays seven traps in the Umber Hulk room, and attacks him with Gnasher and the Efreeti and Kitty, and uses the Necklace of Missiles (which won't bypass TorGal's 30 MR) repeatedly. The traps deal about 177 damage put together, and though they will be reduced by TorGal's 30% resistance to physical damage, much of that damage is actually nonmagical fire damage, to which TorGal has no resistance. He has 180 maximum HP and regenerates 12 HP per round, and I will be able to deal roughly 12 damage with Gnasher on average, assuming the lingering damage rounds down. The rest of the damage can be filled in by my summons or the Necklace of Missiles.
I lay the traps, summon Kitty, drink all the necessary potions, hide, and run out to lure TorGal into the traps. The result is deeply disheartening.
That's a lot of damage. But it's simply not enough. Not even close. TorGal had amazing, amazing luck on those damage rolls. He should have been at Near Death, or at least Badly Injured, but it seems he still has a substantial chunk of health left. I'm shocked it went so poorly--there were 35 separate dice right there, and when you roll that many dice, the rolls should balance out, as in a bell curve. Such a dramatic deviation from the average rolls is not something you would expect.
I linger just long enough for TorGal to hit me a second time.
TorGal, as a level 15 Kensai, should have +5 to his damage rolls. In reality, he has +10, because SCS2's Tactics adaptation uses two separate opcodes (73 and 285) with the same value of 5, both of which boost his melee damage. He already gets proficiency bonuses, so this is extraneous, but then, this is Tactics we're talking about.
He could kill me in one more hit, but I know my aura isn't clear, so I don't try to drink a potion. Instead I start running for the exit, drinking a potion on the way. The outcome of that battle was more or less dictated by the damage rolls on those traps, and I know that the odds of us overcoming TorGal's unexpected advantage are extremely slim--and really, you don't play no-reload boss fights unless you're looking at a 95% chance of success at least. Even a 90% chance of victory would be insufficient. So, we have to flee.
TorGal pursues me on the way out, even as I slip past the other Trolls unnoticed. I've seen this all before.
He even follows me out of the keep itself. I start to lure him towards the edge of the map, hoping to put him in a bad position when I return at a higher level, but he decides to stop following me--for the worst possible reason.
TorGal is now attacking Nalia's guards. If he goes on much longer, the whole quest will be broken. I hurry back to catch his attention, though I don't save the first guard. Thankfully, he gives up on the guards and starts chasing after me.
I want to put him at the edge of the map, away from the place where I normally enter the area, so that I don't get immediately tackled when I return. On the way, the game crashes.
I consider reloading and not doing the TorGal fight, which would save me several important potions, but I decide against it. Instead, I reload the auto-save, on the way out of the keep, and this time I keep the De'Arnise guard alive.
Before I escape the area, I notice that the Trolls who ambushed me earlier are still around.
This will be a very bad fight when I come back.
I think the next mission might be to the Planar Sphere. I will need a Potion of Fire Resistance and a Potion of Freedom for the Tanar'ri, but the halflings I can sneak past. Lavok might fall with traps, since the fire damage should bypass Stoneskin, but he could be very dangerous if he survives it. Acid Arrows might help, but I'd have to wait out a PFMW spell. Tolgerias is a whole other monster, but maybe I could just slip past him. I don't need the Ring of the Ram.
I fail to kill Lassal in the quest with Mook. When my traps and summons and backstabs fail to kill him, I use a Protection from Undead scroll to protect myself, only to have him run away... and run away, and run away, preventing me from actually hitting him more than a couple times in many, many rounds. He is virtually invincible when fleeing, so I had to rest for the night and let Lassal vanish in the daytime, an extremely unsatisfying way to end a fight. On top of that, Mook failed to drop the crate, prompting some anxiety that I had broken the quest. I used CLUAConsole to get the crate instead. Do you even need it if you're working with Aran Linvail? I don't remember.
Against my better judgment, I decide to complete the Mae'Var questline. This costs me a Potion of Magic Shielding when I fight with Rayic Gethras, as it was the only way to make sure I survived when he targeted me with Finger of Death. I managed to interrupt several of his spells with Acid Arrows, taking a leaf out of @Blackraven's book, but he had PFMW and several Stoneskins when he began casting Finger of Death, so I had no such option. I did manage to interrupt several of his spells, however, including his initial PFMW.
But I lost 30 Acid Arrows in the process. I only have 10 left.
Mae'Var was worse. Although I seeded his entire guild with traps on every level, he and most of his cronies on the bottom level survived, probably because some of them turned hostile and triggered the traps while the others were still neutral. And my summons did precious little to help the situation. And I couldn't use the Necklace of Missiles while Mae'Var captives was still alive, or I risked losing reputation. And if I broke invisibility to take action, my aura might not be clear enough to drink a potion when I need it.
Seeing few viable options, I decide to sit tight and wait out some of Mae'Var's buffs.
I can't leave and try again, partly because I couldn't replace those traps, but mostly because you can't actually leave the room until Mae'Var is dead, thanks to Tactics, which doesn't want you to flee the battle.
I think over the matter while Mae'Var and his buddies are standing around. I actually have an excellent option at my disposal: I can teleport inside the cage with Mae'Var's prisoner.
Enemies can't open doors, and on an RP level, it's not hard to imagine Viora teleporting out of the cell to snatch the key from the enemy's hands when they try to unlock the cage, which means the enemy can't engage me in melee. They're stuck to ranged attacks and spells, both of which I have excellent defenses against--unlike backstab, which very well stands to destroy me. As a Phase Spider, Viora gets +2 to her AC vs. missiles, the Claw of Kazgaroth gives another 4, the Cloak of Displacement gives 2, and she already has low AC thanks to her base 5 AC as a spider. Enemies need to roll a 20 to hit her with missile weapons, meaning she can equip the Belt of Inertial Barrier instead of a Girdle of Piercing.
Plus, she's immune to the enemy's disablers: some of them don't affect spiders (Hold Person), while the rest (Mental Domination) are blocked by the Shield of Harmony. Mae'Var resorts to damage spells, but I can recover the damage with potions in relative safety. Unfortunately, Mae'Var's Lightning Bolt slays the prisoner sharing my cell.
While Mae'Var and his cronies struggle to hurt me with arrows and damage spells, I whittle away at Mae'Var's defenses with darts. Eventually, he runs out of spells, as well as his Stoneskins.
Once he's dead, I teleport outside, turn invisible, loot his corpse, and return to Renal to become the head of Mae'Var's guild.
From there, I continue the main questline up until the assault on Bodhi's lair. I use a scroll of Protection from Undead before taking on Gellal, only to find that he turns into a rat, hides, or runs when he can't see me, and in all three cases, I cannot deal enough damage to overcome his regeneration: his rat form is too resistant to physical damage (and my poison attack doesn't work, as it's only a +1 weapon), hiding forces me to spend time searching for him, and running forces me to spend time chasing him. I spent several thousand gold purchasing Tansheron's Bow specifically to address the running away problem I had experienced with Lassal, but it doesn't help me track down Gellal when he's hidden or shapeshifted. Plus Tanova is erroneously tagged as not undead, and therefore can see me, and also has Stoneskin, which adds another complicating factor into the fight.
I wrack my brain for other options. I could kill all of the vampires with backstabs if I just used the Staff of Striking, which would do 57 to 82 damage on a backstab... but as a Phase Spider, Viora can't really use a backstab, and she doesn't have any proficiencies in them anyway, nor is her THAC0 strong enough to hit the vampires reliably, even with the +4 to hit bonus you get when invisible or hidden. And as a single-classed thief, I can't get immunity to level drain until I get another 1 million XP so I can equip the Amulet of Power. And as a thief and a spider, I can't use the Mace of Disruption, either.
I could also use Daystar, which I can activate without breaking invisibility, and therefore take on the whole vampire guild without using a Protection from Undead scroll. But in my install, you can't just sneak into the Gate District Lich's room and run out with the sword; you have to kill it first. And after several test runs, I find that it is simply not possible for me to kill the Lich at this level.
If I use a Protection from Undead scroll, the Lich will dispel it, and even if he didn't, his Pit Fiend would destroy me. If I hit the Lich with a Protection from Magic scroll, an even more precious resource, it still won't work--he summons a clone via a contingency, and the clone can also dispel my invisibility to undead. Nor can I kill the clone before that happens, as the clone, like the Lich himself, uses PFMW at the start of battle. And all Liches have a save vs. spell of 1, so I can't rely on Daystar itself to kill them, either.
Protection from Undead works in SCS2, but you still need high damage capabilities to overcome a vampire's regeneration. Daystar works fine, too, but spiders can't use it. The Mace of Disruption works, but spiders can't use it. The Staff of Striking works, but spiders can't use it. The Amulet of Power works, but thieves can't use it before UAI. What then is left?
I have no idea. My only remaining option is to lay some traps just outside the vampire guilds door and lure them over, one by one, with one of my summons. But I don't want to do that. It would take days, and from an RP perspective it makes no sense, as vampires reform after they are slain, and there are only three stakeable coffins that would justify having a vampire permanently removed. Plus, it seems silly to expect the vampires to fall for the same trick day after day.
I am considering starting over with a new character, but I'll have much the same problems anyway, since the new character will also be a Phase Spider; she'll just have a different class. And honestly I really don't want to go back to using a full caster class, or even a multi-class, because the teleportation requires Improved Alacrity to work properly, and giving that ability to a caster would require me to pay attention to time to make sure I'm not casting more spells per round than I should be. It's a level of micromanagement I don't want to do. @Blackraven, you do lots of thief runs. Any ideas how to kill the vampires without the Staff of Striking or Daystar?
Instead, I decided to try a trap-based approach. But before I could begin, I got ambushed by a young vampire, who immediately tries to charm me. I don't have the Shield of Harmony equipped.
That's the second time I've made a lucky save.
I do some scouting, some during test runs and some during real runs, around the vampire hideout, and find that the Clay Golem in the coffin room is alone. This makes it a solid base of operations for my plan. Since I can't take down the Clay Golem on my own, I bring out the Efreeti, whose scimitar does crushing damage.
I have a safe strategy for luring enemies, the same I used for Mae'Var's guild hall. First, I turn invisible with the Ring of Air Control, then summon Ras, which won't break invisibility (though it will make you leave the shadows, by clicking on the item slot). I retreat from the target enemy, while Ras hurries forward. While Ras is engaging the enemy, I summon Kitty and then the Efreeti, losing my invisibility in the process (though I'm still not targetable by single-target spells; this is improved invisibility). I hide in shadows, Ras retreats, and the enemy follows into the traps, with Kitty and the Efreeti guarding me in case they survive and give chase. Two random spawns die this way.
Kitty and the Efreeti, if working in tandem, can also take down a vampire. The Efreeti begins with a Flame Arrow, while Kitty tries Web Tangle. If the vampire fails their save against Web Tangle, it will die to their attacks before it breaks free. Durst dies this way.
Meanwhile, Renal Bloodscalp decides I'm not fit to run the guild.
He didn't even give me a chance. Blatant arachnophobia.
Gellal, the second of the three named vampires, is still missing. I have to go hunting. I summon the Efreeti, have him cast Invisibility on me, and then we go tromping around the dungeon, with Viora detecting traps. We slay him with Web Tangle and Flame Arrows.
Tanova remains, and her Stoneskins will block my traps. I therefore need to wear down her Stoneskin before leading her into my traps. Tanova, due to some earlier mucking around on my part, has moved out of the vampire lair and is hiding in the spider area. When I hear her cast Remove Magic, trying to remove the Protection from Undead scroll she thinks I have, I run away to maintain my invisibility. I then use quick saves to pinpoint her location.
Roughly in the middle of the screen. This is the only way to find out where she is without using up a valuable Potion of Invisibility, breaking invisibility, or resting.
First, I bait her initial PFMW spell with a worthless summons. This also triggers a Sphere of Chaos spell.
That warrior couldn't hit her anyway. He uses a nonmagical axe.
I bait the second PFMW spell with Ras.
Unfortunately, Tanova wastes no spells on Ras.
Tanova proceeds to slay both Kitty and the Efreeti, resisting the Web Tangle and regenerating from the Efreeti's Magic Missiles (its Flame Arrow spell was interrupted). I am now completely without summons. But now, Tanova has no PFMW spell, nor her Sphere of Chaos spell. The only way she can harm me is with her melee attacks or some ranged spell damage. So what now?
This is the longest and most important part of the battle. I must break down her Stoneskins without getting attacked, and I must do so without any summons to distract Tanova. How do I do this?
I approach her while hidden, from behind, take one shot with Tansheron's Bow, as far away as I can, and then immediately retreat. I use Hide in Shadows two steps after firing the bow. Since Tanova must turn around in order to target me, I have just enough time to hide before she punishes my attack.
I break down her Stoneskins. But it's not over yet.
I have to continue this process. I have a decent hit change with the bow, but nothing I can rely upon. I also have a strong chance to successfully hide when I'm out of her visual range, but that's not guaranteed, either. Sometimes, I don't get away unscathed.
Tanova hits me with Power Word: Blind. I drink a Potion of Invisibility to escape.
I snuggle up next to her after I go invisible, just because. But I have to wait until the blindness wears off before I attack again.
This is all a very intensive and time-consuming process. Tanova starts running around every time I go invisible, and I have to wait for her to settle down.
There's also frequent pausing, as I have to start running as soon as I make the attack roll, and I have to hide in shadows as soon as I'm far enough away. There is little room for error on my part. I count down the Stoneskins she has left.
Another PW: Blind spell comes my way, draining another Potion of Invisibility. This is becoming a very costly fight.
When that doesn't work, she tries Flame Arrow. Viora fails her save and suffers for it, but she manages to hide after she teleports away.
You see the Free Action icon on Viora's portrait? I have to have her equip the Shield of Harmony whenever I fail to hide or I see a Domination spell coming, as a failed save could end the run. And as long as I can't hold Tansheron's Bow anymore, I may as well equip Arbane's Sword, just in case Tanova somehow throws out a hold spell I can't resist.
Viora breaks through Tanova's second Stoneskin spell.
I just need to make 8 more attacks, and then I can lure Tanova right into my traps. With only 120 HP and no resistances, her chance of survival are virtually zero.
I consider using CTRL-R to save time, and dropping a few potions to reflect the resources I might have lost had I continued as I was. But I decide against it. It won't take too much longer.
I keep whittling away at Tanova's Stoneskins. But then she pulls something I didn't expect.
I curse myself for not equipping Arbane's Sword, but it looks like Arbane's Sword only blocks normal stun. Power Word: Stun uses a separate opcode. I'm not sure Arbane's Sword would have helped.
Those of you who have done solo runs will know this is a game-ending spell. But Viora is at full health, meaning she will not be stunned long, and she has enough HP to survive Tanova's attacks.
Barely.
We have broken free, but now we have a problem. Tanova's Acid Arrow spell is going to deal at minimum 2 more damage within the next 6 seconds, meaning we will die if we drink a Potion of Invisibility. Instead, we must drink a healing potion, and then run.
But Tanova's aura is clear.
I prayed for an AI failure. It did not come.
Viora is dead, and the run has come to a very unspectacular end, particularly as we were about to beat Tanova. But a Ring of Air Control could not have kept us safe from PW: Stun long enough, I don't think, to get rid of those last Stoneskins. That Improved Invisibility effect, though Tanova no longer had the spells to dispel it, only lasts 10 rounds, and we might have needed one or even two more rings (you can buy an infinite number from Ribald if you have the gold) to maintain untargetability until we hit her with our traps.
Incidentally, I could have guaranteed success if I used Arrows of Dispelling instead. That would have removed Tanova's Stoneskins fast enough to get her into the traps long before she would use PW: Stun.
Now I am not sure what to do. I am not willing to give up on playing a Phase Spider, not when this one had so much potential. But if I use a different class, there are problems with each:
-Fighter: No backstab. Phasing would only let a fighter kite, and there are boots for that already. Rangers and Paladins and Barbarians have the same problem. Also, no Robe of Vecna.
-Mage: The Phase Spider's drawbacks barely matter for this class, and having Improved Alacrity for free teleportation would speed up our normal spells as well.
-Cleric: Little synergy with teleportation. Ranged weapons are limited, and they have no backstab. Plus, the item restrictions would reduce the cleric's weapon options to a Beastmaster's, but without any staffs. And no Robe of Vecna.
-Druid: Also little synergy, but more importantly, I'd end up playing as a druid more than as a Phase Spider. Again, no Robe of Vecna.
-Monk: No synergy at all. Monks already have fantastic speed, and they'd be using melee attacks anyway, rendering phasing mostly meaningless. Still no Robe of Vecna.
-Thief kits: the Swashbuckler's lack of a backstab will work poorly with phasing, the Assassin is a little too powerful for my tastes, and the Bounty Hunter's abilities would outshine the phasing for much of the game.
The basic problem is the item restrictions I've imposed on myself. Thieves really need items to work effectively, and Viora couldn't use the best backstabbing weapon in SoA. She can't use Belm, either, so she lacks strong APR before the Planar Prison. There's a very high cost to phasing.
I think there are two options from here.
First, I can play a Mage/Thief, and maybe add on some new restrictions so the mage levels won't be too unbalancing. I could use Nahal's Reckless Dweomer to get phasing at will without giving my character Improved Alacrity, but that would require clicking at the bottom of the screen every time I wanted to teleport, and I really want the teleportation to feel automatic and seamless.
Second, I could just make up a new class, befitting a spider. I just need to figure out what that should be.
The base abilities:
Alien Form:
Cannot wear a shield and armor at the same time (does not apply to robes)
Cannot wear chain mail, splint mail, or plate mail
Cannot wear boots or helmets (including circlets or masks)
-1 penalty to backstab multiplier, if any
-2 to hit and damage with weapons besides its natural attack
-1 to hit with ranged weapons
Thieves cannot set normal thief traps
-10% penalty to Intelligence
Immune to poison, web, and entangle
Immune to humanoid-specific spells (Hold Person, Charm Person, etc.)
+3 to save vs. death
Alien Affinity:
Can cast Dimension Door (casting speed 0) at will
Can cast Web Tangle once per day per four levels
Infravision
+25% to hide in shadows and move silently
Can specialize in daggers and short swords
Can use Poison Weapon once per day per six levels, starting at level 1 with one use per day
Can set special traps once per day per five levels
Cannot cast Evocation or Conjuration spells
Natural weapon (dagger proficiency): 1d6 piercing damage, poison on hit, save vs. death negates
Monk fists use original damage and to hit values, alongside poison and web effects, but use piercing rather than crushing damage
Thumbless:
Spells have half duration
-50% penalty to open locks and pickpocket
Cannot use weapons other than darts, daggers, short swords, slings, and short bows
Cannot cast Melf's Minute Meteors or Energy Blades
-1 to casting speed
Cannot wear rings
Crazy Legs:
Free Action
Improved movement rate
Base 5 AC, -1 AC vs. missile and piercing
Can wear 4 pairs of bracers, but no gauntlets or gloves
+1 APR
Gains +1 to hit at level 10 and 15
Starts with 3 stars in Two-Weapon Fighting
+15% bonus to Dexterity
Improved Alacrity
Culture Shock:
-15% to XP
-25% to Charisma
-10% to Wisdom
Special: Use Any Item grants access to rings, boots, gauntlets, and all weapons a thief can normally use
The natural attack:
Level 1:
1d6 piercing damage, save vs. death or deal 3 damage per round for 3 rounds
Strikes as a +1 weapon
Level 13:
1d6+1 piercing damage, +1 to hit, save vs. death or deal 3 damage per round for 3 rounds
Strikes as a +2 weapon
Level 17:
1d6+2 piercing damage, +2 to hit, save vs. death or deal 3 damage per round for 3 rounds
Strikes as a +3 weapon
The unique traps:
Level 1:
4 poison damage per round for two rounds, save vs. death for 1 damage per round
Web for one round, save vs. breath negates
Target immune to web effect for three rounds if it fails its save vs. breath
Level 10:
5 poison damage per round for three rounds, save vs. death for 1 damage per round
Web for 1.5 rounds, save vs. breath negates
Target immune to web effect for three rounds if it fails its save vs. breath
Level 17:
1 damage per second for two rounds, save vs. death at -1 negates
6 damage per round for three rounds, no save
Web for 2 rounds, save vs. breath negates
Target immune to web effect for three rounds if it fails its save vs. breath
Level 21:
2 damage per second for two rounds, save vs. death at -2 negates
8 damage per round for three rounds, no save
Web for 3 rounds, save vs. breath negates
Target immune to web effect for three rounds if it fails its save vs. breath
Together, these things should make the character excel at a fairly specific style. The thieves will make excellent assassins, but very poor burglars. The fighters will be quick melee attackers, but are much less versatile than their humanoid counterparts. The clerics will be more mobile and can deal more damage, but their weapon options are constrained and their slow spells benefit little from Improved Alacrity. The mages make excellent disablers and debuffers, but cannot deal much damage or maintain strong defenses of their own.
Most importantly, it will be a proper jumping spider.
Otherwise I already have all the relevant item and spell files, and the Assassin .2da table is set up correctly, though I don't know how to tweak a kit's proficiency limits. I can't implement the caster level penalty, unfortunately. I wanted to borrow the effect from one of the robes from @Demivrgvs' Item Revisions, which gives a bonus to caster level, but I don't know how to make it into a penalty to caster level. And there are some things, like the ability to wear multiple sets of bracers, that can't be implemented without using Shadowkeeper, due to engine limitations. And the lack of Conjuration and Evocation spells could only be implemented by the player choosing not to learn any; I can't actually remove them from a Phase Spider mage.
Vivian is also a Phase Spider, and shares the same darling blue eyes, because I have not yet tired of the portrait. Unlike Viora, she now has the same abilities I mentioned in the above post. And unlike Viora, she is no longer an unkitted thief--she is a Druid/Thief, based on a Cleric/Thief model. I don't feel like dealing with a multi-class druid's level progression, since I'd spend the entire game thinking about level 15, so she will use the cleric XP and spell slots tables, but only use druid spells, plus the Avenger's Web spell, which is less useful than you might think.
To my dismay, I find that Vivian is not cut out for melee combat. She struggles mightily to kill a single Mineral Mephit in the Sewage Golem room, so I'm not confident she can take on the Otyugh or too many of the Duergar. More irritating is the Smoke Mephit crowding up the hall where I wanted to hide from the Otyugh, which apparently blinds you for 10 seconds, without the option of a save.
I thought she'd be able to compete in melee because of her poison, but Vivian's poison does less than half as much damage as a normal Phase Spider's.
I manage to teleport around and lure the Otyugh into the western corner of the room, allowing me to gather some of the loot from its lair. To clear out the Duergar blocking the next hallway, I throw them a trap and hide while they come after me. Vivian can throw traps, just like a Bounty Hunter, but she can't throw them quite as far. The range is limited to that of a dart.
When the Duergar come through the door, Vivian slips past them and seals the door with silk.
Another important trick is luring the Mephits from the Mephit portal room into the adjacent room, and locking them inside. This is especially easy for a Phase Spider, assuming you get the timing of the teleport right, but for Vivian, it's even easier still, as she was able to frighten one of the Radiant Mephits (I don't really care about the others) with Horror, and the other failed a save against Web Tangle. With one Radiant Mephit flying around screaming its head off, and the other tied up in the next room, Vivian was free to deal with the Mephit Portals unmolested.
Poison Weapon stacks with itself as well as Vivian's natural weapon, but her version only lasts two rounds. An Assassin's lasts 5 rounds.
She moves on to backstab Ellesime's clone, but the damage is disappointing--ten damage on a backstab, because Vivian only does double damage. As a Phase Spider, she gets a -1 penalty to backstab, and since she can never use any of the highest-damaging weapons, her backstabs will always be relatively weak, even late in the game. This compensates for her greater mobility, which aids in hit-and-fade tactics.
Since Vivian has Web spells and can now summon a couple of Nymphs, she decides to go fetch the acorns from Ilyich. She changes her mind as soon as she opens the door to the Otyugh's lair.
But one of the Lesser Clay Golems pins her before she can escape.
She teleports to safety, only to get pummeled when she lands. She barely makes it out of the place alive. The nymphs are on their own--Vivian is no good to them dead.
The rest of the dungeon offers more risks than it offers rewards. Vivian sneaks her way out without causing much trouble to the Shadow Thieves or Irenicus' goons.
At the circus, Vivian hurls out a string of Web spells, and hits Kalah with a series of poison attacks.
To make sure her Web spells didn't get disrupted, she teleported to the other side of the room at the beginning of the fight.
Vivian can't wear the Ring of Human Influence, or the Ring of Protection +1 she got from Irenicus' dungeon, so she has to pawn off both. This version of the Phase Spider build is not a natural charmer.
Web spells also prove very effective against the Hobgoblins. A small harem of nymphs pitches in with other disablers.
But Vivian can't deal much damage very quickly, and some of the Hobgoblins start breaking out of the Web spells. There are three Web spells active on the map, but Vivian's spells suffer a crippling weakness: the duration of all her spells, whether they are buffs on herself or disablers on the enemy, are cut in half. This means the Hobgoblins only get webbed for 3 seconds on a failed save. Web is still excellent, but it's not the game-breaking spell it used to be.
Vivian ends up with a Hobgoblin Archer and a Hobgoblin Shaman on either side of her. The latter starts casting an Enchantment spell, and for a moment, I deem it not a problem. But when I pause before the spell hits, I find that it is not Charm Person or Hold Person--it's Rigid Thinking.
Vivian has no defense against Rigid Thinking besides some very bad saves. To minimize the damage, she drinks a Potion of Invisibility right before the spell hits.
She fails the save. But that's not the worst part: a new enemy has joined the fray.
Vivian breaks her invisibility, attacking the archer, while the Otyugh kills the shaman. Soon, both hobgoblins are dead, and Vivian is confused and alone with a massive Otyugh.
She gets diseased. And slowed. And the Otyugh keeps hitting her, and the damage builds up. But finally, Vivian recovers her senses, and drinks a potion to stay alive. She staggers toward the exit, with the Otyugh lumbering after.
The Otyugh follows her into the Copper Coronet, but it gets stuck behind a couple of black lotus addicts. Vivian calls in the harem to paralyze it, making it safe for Vivian to attack.
Later on, when checking Vivian's THAC0 with a shortbow, I notice something odd.
Apparently the opcode that modifies missile weapon THAC0 cannot be used to give penalties. Negative values apparently round up to sky-high bonuses. I remove the penalty from the kit.
The kit is playing as it should be: the Phase Spider has a few nasty tricks up its sleeve, but its penalties are having a strong and visible impact on its functioning. You can tell it's not the same character--the benefits and the penalties both have real consequences that can't just be circumvented.
Vivian tried to get through the Temple Ruins, but gave up after the first room. We only have two scrolls of Protection from Undead, and I'd really like to have both of them for the Shade Lord, in case things take too long. But Vivian can't get through the dungeon without using one of the scrolls: the enemies are too numerous, and everything in the dungeon is immune to her poison.
Which is a big deal, because her traps only deal poison damage. Any enemy immune to poison is immune to her trap damage. And the Skeleton Warriors are also effectively immune to her Web spells--it's not realistic to beat that dungeon right now.
Instead, we go to Trademeet. As I suspected, Vivian encounters no Spirit Trolls here, as she is still at a very low level. This means she can sneak past everything on the map.
Because I don't want to lose access to Gnasher, and I'm not willing to face Dalok head-on, we call in the harem to nail him with Call Lightning. Since Vivian stays invisible, Dalok never speaks to us, and his buddies remain non-hostile, sparing us the need to use Web. Dalok spends his first round drinking a healing potion, which gives the nymphs enough time to paralyze him with Hold Monster.
They all cast Cause Serious Wounds. Dalok is doomed.
I don't like doing this. But there are precisely two weapons in SoA that Vivian could use to harm Clay Golems, and unlike Blackblood, Gnasher does not cost me hundreds or thousands of gold.
Cernd fights Faldorn. I speed things up with CTRL-Y. Yeah, I'm impatient.
We still have to deal with the djinn. The harem proves instrumental. Khan Zahraa is quite pliable if he's treated right, and perfectly willing to turn on his friend Faafirah to please the nymphs.
Hoes before bros.
Unfortunately for Khan Zahraa, we're not quite satisfied just yet. First we need him to expend his Stoneskin spells, then cast Improved Haste on Vivian, and then use up all of his Invisibility spells on the nymphs.
Eventually he realizes what's going on and turns hostile. Seconds later, he is paralyzed.
Traps kill Taquee outside.
Vivian returns to Athkatla to buy another Protection from Undead scroll. She gets a visit from a silky-voiced lady named Valen, and then a horde of ten-year-old boys descends upon her.
We've all been there before.
Although I normally side with Bodhi to avoid fighting vampires, this time I decide to pick the Shadow Thieves. I want to get back at Tanova for what happened to Viora. Vivian pays Gaelan Bayle 15,000 clams, he sends her to Aran Linvail, and we get a couple of nice items: the Ring of Protection +2, which Vivian still can't use, and the Amulet of Power, which she can.
Now her Dimension Door has a casting time of zero. Her Improved Alacrity won't synergize with her slow-casting druid spells, but it will let her hop around freely and frustrate enemy attempts to mess with her.
More importantly, we now have Chaotic Commands. It can still get dispelled, but now we have immunity to all disablers. Even Slow isn't a total shutdown: our casting time for Dimension Door is still instantaneous, giving us rapid movement even when slowed.
Now, finally, we have a jumping spider. This is going to be great.
One more hit and Vivian is dead. And she's slowed. But thanks to the Amulet of Power, her teleport still has a casting time of zero. She phases to the exit and slips outside.
She fails to hide (it's daytime) when she leaves Ray-Ray's house, and the golem follows after. She has to flee. I end up here-
-and wait another couple seconds before she can try to hide again. This means she teleported across the Docks District--taking the long route, along the winding stairs around Mae'Var's guild hall--in less than one round. She is just that fast.
But that speed comes at a very high cost, which is making me reconsider this Phase Spider kit. You know that whole "hit the enemy until it dies" thing? Well, Vivian can't really do that. Not against stuff like golems, which are immune to her Web Tangle spells, her traps, and her poison attack. She is entirely reliant on the Efreeti and Kitty for making these kills.
Ray-Ray, on the other hand, dies easily, webbed on the first round and then repeatedly poisoned by Vivian and Kitty.
The quest is doomed to end in violence, though I find out that you don't actually have to kill Mae'Var to end the quest--if you refuse Renal's request to kill him, Renal will say he'll do it himself if you don't change your mind soon enough. But Vivian, already paranoid about Mae'Var and his habit of torturing loyal goons, has seeded his guild hall with traps. Anishai is the first to perish.
A Shadow Thief hides and won't come out, since he wants to target Vivian, not her summons, so we just bomb the room he's in with the Efreeti's Fireball a couple times. The room below plays out much the same.
We use the same strategy we did with Mae'Var before, though I play it a little more conservatively this time. I watch Arrested Development for a while and eventually find out Mae'Var's Spirit Armor, along with his other buffs, has run out. He still has his Stoneskin, though, of course.
Vivian has no reason to fight fair.
But to my dismay, the trick doesn't play out quite like I had expected.
Without the Boots of Missiles, without the Cloak of Displacement, without the Belt of Inertial Barrier, and without the full -2 bonus to missiles that Viora all had, Vivian is quite vulnerable to missile weapons. She has to drink a Potion of Invisibility to make sure she can heal herself before the next volley comes.
She very, very gradually manages to kill Mae'Var with darts. This is probably because she still has a -2 penalty to hit and damage, and unlike Viora, she only has 12 STR. So her 1d3 darts don't do much damage per hit, nor do her arrows when the darts run out.
I have just as much trouble killing the Vampiric Wraiths in the first level of Watcher's Keep. They're immune to poison and all of my disablers, and regenerate 1 HP per second. Plus, they deal magic damage and level drain, which isn't good for our Efreeti, who is absolutely necessary for our success. It takes two tries to kill the first one, and the second one I just hit with CTRL-Y, forfeiting the XP just to avoid the headache.
The Efreeti wins the battle. Vivian just teleports around and watches. And if the Efreeti can't do it, we run or die.
I believe I will restart with a new spider and a new class. A Druid/Thief is an excellent utility class, but the nerfs I added to the class render Vivian almost incapable of fighting for herself--a Phase Spider needs fighter levels to fight, even more so than a human. Nor do I see any upcoming milestones: the next big jump in her power is going to come when she gets Conjure Fire Elemental, and then she'll be using Fire Elementals instead of the Efreeti. After that, the next big jump is Summon Deva.
At which point Vivian will be watching the Deva fight her battles. It's the same old thing. A thief who can't backstab to save her life, dancing around enemies and watching her summons do all the work. Where's the fun in that?
I knew a Druid/Thief would have limited synergy with a Phase Spider's powers, but I went ahead with it anyway, afraid I'd end up creating an overpowered class if I did something like a Mage/Thief. The opposite has happened: I've cut off my best options, reducing the diversity of gameplay where I had intended to expand it.
I have one suggestion, regarding siding with the thieves or vamps. As far as I know a multiclass thief can side with the vamps, even in vanilla. I ran a F/T from Candlekeep to the throne without doing a single sidequest, and that kinda hinged on being able to side with Bodhi. Because I was missing loads of XP, I ran a duo with Imoen through BG1 and the start of BG2, then soloed until I got Imoen back in Spellhold, and the two of us beat Irenecus, then added Sarevok to finish ToB. That's the only time I've ever played the non-Ascension ending. Of course it's possible I had the rogue rebalancing mod installed, which allows thieves to side with Bhodi.
How about adding an innate summon once per day, of a 1d3 'spider' with a single 1d2 poison attack, that you can't control directly. However, what I'm thinking of is something similar to the 'Wish for a horde' bunnies, so at player level 40, you summon 20 spiders. This would mainly prevent your enemies from moving freely, and distract them from attacking you. Hey, you could make it a contingency on stun etc, so if stuff is going south, your brood scatters as a survival strategy.
EDIT Perhaps you should be viewing this as more of a F/T anyway, yes weaker backstabs, but lots of APR, so perhaps that +1 APR isn't enough. Also a boost to THACO, because you've gotta have some benefit when an attack can come from 8 different limbs. Perhaps start from a FMT, but only use the Mage class as a way to enable web casting and allow contingencies. Eh, what do I know about modding
EDITIDE Actually, you should get an attack from each of the two longer front limbs with improved THACO but no poison, and a third bite attack with poison effect if one of the leg attacks managed to hit?
Oh, and here's the base image, a little bigger. I edited it to give her bigger eyes, and give her shiny golden fuzz. And some tiny horns so it'd still look cute if she got flipped rightside-up.
Tell me you don't wanna give her a little Eskimo kiss.
To make sure her options aren't so constrained as Vivian's and Viora's were, I have made her a Fighter/Mage/Thief, using the Swashbuckler kit as a base instead of the Assassin kit so she doesn't lose 10 skill points a level. I haven't removed her restrictions or the drawbacks of the kit, though I might let her use some bigger weapons (a longsword or scimitar, say) later on, but probably not with a full two proficiencies.
As usual, I sneak around the first pack of Duergar and fight the Mephit in the Sewage Golem room. I've built up a common strategy to deal with Chateau Irenicus in solo SCS2 no-reload runs, and it involves avoiding packs of Duergar. We run into a Radiant Mephit, but Blueberry has enough HP to tough it out.
She's a tough cookie, she is.
Blueberry makes heavy use of teleportation to enable backstabs. It doesn't work with groups of enemies, nor does it work well in tight areas, but the Otyugh is the perfect target.
I tweaked the Swashbuckler kit to include a backstab multiplier, but Blueberry still has her -1 backstab penalty.
Her Dimension Door, as I mentioned earlier, can be used to skip over triggers. This allows her to avoid alerting the Lesser Clay Golems to her trespass in the Ellesime clone's chamber.
She also stole the key from the Sewage Golem instead of using the Activation Stone. This gave her exclusive access to the doors around the Otyugh room--I've seen enemies open them in the past, but that might have just been the Lesser Clay Golems.
Inspired by the example of other no-reload runners, I bring Minor Spell Deflection into the fight with Ilyich, to block the Mage's damage spells. Blueberry also uses Resist Fear to block a Horror spell. But a backstab renders this unnecessary.
Her buffs and her Slow spell don't last very long, so she actually ends up getting overwhelmed by the Duergar, despite having Protection from Normal Missiles active. Ilyich just hits really hard. She has to flee and return while hidden, regaining the advantage in the battle using backstabs.
The Mephit Portal room played out a bit differently than normal. Blueberry failed to hide when the Mephits came for her, so she leapt through the portal to prevent a potentially fatal Color Spray. She went back through the portal once she had successfully hidden, and shut the Mephits out of the Mephit Portal room--my standard formula for avoiding a Color Spray-based death. I've also found a use for the Monster Summoning scroll, but Blueberry can't use it. Phase Spiders can't use Evocation or Conjuration spells, which prevents them from using their Improved Alacrity to hurl out a stream of damage spells, which would wreck the difficulty of many encounters, and make little conceptual sense for the sneaky sort of spider I imagined.
I followed another standard formula for early Chapter 2: kill Kalah, buy Protection from Undead scrolls, meet with Gaelan, get Lilarcor, talk to Lord Jierdan and Nalia, talk to Jan and Delon in the Government District, talk to Flydian in the Gate District, and head to the Umar Hills to avoid any chance of triggering an ambush. Then we slay the Killer Mimic and Jermien's "Juggernaut" Golem, talk to the mayor and Madulf, and move on to the Temple Ruins.
With great difficulty and all her buffs, Blueberry manages to beat the petty undead infesting the former temple of Amaunator. The Skeleton Warriors are very tough, since her primary weapon uses piercing damage, her poison won't affect them, and they have 90% resistance to her Web Tangle spells. We lure several Shadows into the Sun Gem before taking it, netting a bunch of potions in the process (the Sun Gem instantly kills them, preventing them from drinking most of their potions), and then use a Protection from Undead scroll for the Shade Lord, who, as I've mentioned before, is quite vulnerable to poison despite ostensibly being undead--perhaps because it is inhabiting the body of a women (Merella) who is not yet dead.
I think I will establish a new save game, in the Umar Hills, since the current formula, from Chateau Irenicus to the Shade Lord, appears virtually infallible for almost any character. Any character can get past the first few Duergar, outrun the Otyugh, slip past the Radiant Mephits with an Oil of Speed and some portal-diving, talk-block the Assassin, kill Kalah, buy up a Protection from Undead scroll or several (and a Ring of Air Control depending on the class), get Lilarcor, head all the way to the Umar Hills, and kill the Shade Lord as long as you have a magical weapon and maybe an Oil of Speed or two if your base damage output is poor. Because having done this several times before, it seems like SCS2 no-reload BG2 has been broken up to the Shade Lord.
I've had some problems with my 'BG laptop', Windows 8 explorer to be precise. It made me decide to return to my old laptop (which after having absorbed quite a lot of water last year, seems to be working well). I have a very ambitious setup, with a lot of extra content: stuff like mod NPCs and banter as well as all manner of quest mods and difficulty enhancements that should ensure plenty of future no-reload failures (DSotC, NTotSC, DH, a number of BG2 quest mods I'm unfamiliar with such as Sellswords and Colors of Inifinity, and SCS v21 components I'm not very used to such as equipment gone in the Asylum, and Irenicus Tactics/SCS hybrid in hell). Attached you can find my WEIDU log.
Charname is Butch Baylen, LN human Bounty Hunter with very nice, even if not fully optimzed stats (16 STR isn't great for a backstabbing straight thief):
NPCs will be roleplayed as well, although the happy patch should allow evil NPCs to stay on board even at high reputations (possible companions like Kagain or Viconia, understand well enough that a good rep serves them). I kitted most of the NPCs with the Level 1 NPCs mod, using some of the nice kits that @CharlestonianTemplar pointed out to me.
I'm also mixing first person and third person narrative styles, just for fun and because it will allow me to use the third person for dialogues or detailed battle descriptions, and the first person for personal musings. The distinction won't be very clear in the first installment below, but later on, I hope it will.
Finally I'm thinking of giving Butch a unique item or ability. In this case it would be something to do with crossbows. My idea is to allow specialization in Crossbows and to change the Army Scythe, once purchased, into "Butch's Army Scythe" with an upgrade in SoA (e.g. becoming a +2 weapon, with a +2 Thac0/Dmg bonus, 2.5 APR), and one in ToB (+3 enchantment, +3 Thac0/Dmg bonus, 3 APR). Does anyone know how I make a copy of the Army Scythe in NearInfinity for editing, and where I would find the edited version?
Butch Baylen, 1st BG1 installment
My name is Butch Baylen, until recently of Candlekeep. I’ve been a resident of that bastion of learning for pretty much all my life, receiving education from the monks, and combat training from Fuller, one of the Watchers who taught me the use of the quarterstaff and the crossbow in combat.
A good tenday ago I set out with my foster father Gorion after I shot two hitmen that had been sent by someone - I’ve no idea who - to kill me. At nighttime a party of bounty hunters waylaid us, mere hours after our departure. They too, were after me. Battle ensued and I soon found that my crossbow did little if anything against their heavily armored commander, a brute of a man. My foster father, a wizard of some renown, was more successful with his spells. I saw him dispatch various members of the party. He must have thought himself in control of the situation, and ordered me to run off. I hesitated but I complied. From a distance I observed Gorion casting spell after spell at the armored figure, until he had none more to cast. The man, severely injured, but still standing, then struck Gorion down with a single blow.
I take no pride in my flight, even though I know very well that I acted in conformity with Gorion’s instruction and that I wouldn’t have been able to do much against the brute.
In the morning I ran into my friend Imoen on the Lion’s Way.
Back on the Lion’s Way Butch and Imoen met an eccentric human wizard, Xzar, and a halfling rogue, Montaron (Fighter/Thief with Assassin kit). They were in a bit of a rush to journey south to Nashkel and proposed to travel there together. Imoen didn’t really seem to like them, but after he convinced the two to first accompany Imoen and him to the Friendly Arm Inn, Butch agreed to travel with them. On their way to the Friendly Arm they didn’t take long in seeing the party expand with a fifth member in Eldoth Kron, a Dirgesinger Bard. The party of five took down a few Xvarts and Gibberlings, as well as an Ogre (with Xzar’s loony antics drawing the monster’s aggression and the rest of the crew attacking with ranged weapons).
Khalid is a nervous Fighter/Mage, whose connection with the weave appears to be somehow distorted: he’s a Wild Mage. It might explain his nervousness and his choice to focus more on his martial prowess than on his spell casting. Where Khalid seems to lack some confidence, Jaheira, a very good-looking warrior priestess of Sylvanus
There was a very interesting piece of information we gathered from one of the townspeople: a recently issued bounty on the head of a murderer named Bassilus.
In the wilds south of Beregost we slew two Ogrillons and took a letter we found on one of them to its addressee, Mirianne. She rewarded me with a Ring of the Princes. In the same area we dispatched a band of Hobgoblins, good for a pair of Boots of Stealth, with our ranged weapons (Xzar was the only one without a ranged weapon). We also had a violent encounter with three Flaming Fist mercenaries who mistook us for bandits and preferred to execute us on the spot rather than take us in for a fair trial as I proposed. They paid for their bloodlust with their lives,
(I’m playing with the Hard Times component that makes armor and shields shatter as well as metal weapons.)
“Hey Isolde. Look who we have here, strolling up the path, it looks like Butch.”
The six continued through the Nashkel Pass, where bands of Hobgoblins and packs of Gibberlings were no real threat anymore with mail-clad Jaheira and Khalid tanking those creatures easily.
At the Nashkel Inn, a woman named Neira was a threat. She was a priestess, who like others had been enticed by the prize on Butch’s head. With her instant protections she became hard to hit for most of the party (not in the least Butch himself after Neira doomed her). The woman held Monty and, intelligently, went after her other foes (Butch, Jaheira, and Imoen; Xzar and ammo-less Khalid weren’t there).
As for creating an upgraded Army Scythe, find the file in Near Infinity (XBOW06), go to File->Add Copy of, and enter a new file name (XBOW06B would work). The new file will be selected once it's created, but if you need to come back to it later, you can double-click on "Override" in the left column, and you'll see all files in your override folder, in alphabetical order. Your copy of the Army Scythe will be at the bottom. Like in any folder in Windows, you can skip ahead to it by typing "x," then "b," then "o," then "w," etc. (you won't need to perform a search function).
If you're looking for the original Army Scythe, however, you won't find it in Near Infinity's "Override" drop-down menu. It'll be in "Items," since the original Army Scythe's file name (XBOW06) is already a part of vanilla BG2. So your XBOW06 and XBOW06B will be found in different places in NI.
If you forget the name of the file, you can search for its in-game name (Light Crossbow of Speed) with CTRL-F, though searching in DLTCEP is much faster.
I stll have to catch up with your Spider(s), so no comments on them yet other than that Blueberry is a beauty. (I love macro photography. She's one of many good reasons why.)
This leads you directly to the spiders. Unfortunately, the next group of Trolls is not avoidable, and you still have to walk past Kyland Lind.
I make a bad move and attack some Spore Colonies south of Cernd. I forgot I had no defense against confusion, and the Myconid disabled Blueberry right before I turned invisible.
Luckily, Blueberry just wandered off a bit before attacking a Myconid, minimizing the Myconid's potential whomping time and ensuring that her Stoneskin endured. She drank a Potion of Clarity right after she recovered, and killed off the remaining mushroom men with poison.
Blueberry charmed Dalok with Dire Charm and got him to summon a Fire Elemental, but he turned hostile as he was casting Call Woodland Beings, so the first Nymph also came out hostile. Blueberry's charm spell didn't get us much; her disablers, too, have half duration. We lingered a bit, hoping Blueberry could turn the situation around, but Dalok still had multiple Ironskins active, rendering our backstabs and poison both ineffectual. When a Nymph finally targeted Blueberry with an Enchantment spell, and her Minor Spell Deflection had run out, I decided it would be best simply to flee the area.
When we returned, Blueberry spoke to Cernd, ignoring Dalok. I lost the opportunity to get Gnasher, but Blackblood is about as good, and will make for more damaging backstabs in the long run.
Protection from Petrification blocks the djinn's Flesh to Stone spells, and poison prevents some of their others. They drag out the battle by turning invisible, but with Blindness, Horror, and Slow, on top of all of Blueberry's buffs, we bring the quest to an end. With our newfound fortune, we can finally afford both Blackblood, for Clay Golems and interrupting spells through Stoneskin, and the Robe of Vecna, for much faster spells. I haven't decided if I will reduce the casting speed bonus. I know a 4 bonus to casting time is really powerful, but I haven't gotten to use it in many runs, and it's not like it'll be totally game-breaking, since we still don't have damage spells, and what few spell slots Blueberry has are crowded up by her buffs.
Maybe I'll decrease the casting bonus later in the game, when the effect starts to have a bigger impact.
When I go down to fight Mae'Var, and the entrance is blocked behind me, I realize I brought neither a shortbow nor any darts, ruining my plan to kill Mae'Var from within the cage using ranged weapons. Plus, I forgot to pre-cast Stoneskin, and nearly died to Mae'Var's Minute Meteors.
Blueberry might have died had it not been for her Protection from Normal Missiles spell, which blocked the Assassins' arrows. Notice I used an Invisibility spell rather than a potion: since I have Improved Alacrity, I can turn invisible faster using the spell. Other no-reload runners will know that having one's aura clear is critical for solo runs, where being able to drink a potion at the right time may make the difference between life and death.
Through sheer luck, Blueberry manages to dominate Mae'Var. It goes swimmingly for a moment.
But before Mae'Var can cast a single spell, he turns hostile again--we are not going to have Mae'Var take down his cleric with a Cone of Cold spell, as I had hoped. Short-duration disablers are especially hurt by Blueberry's 50% spell duration penalty. We had the same problem with Dalok, who could only cast one spell before turning hostile.
Blueberry weathers the enemy's spells for a time, then goes on the offensive. Mae'Var fails a save against Web Tangle, allowing Kitty and Blueberry to teleport over and change the course of the battle.
Mae'Var falls shortly before the web effect wears off. Blueberry finishes off the remaining enemies with the Efreeti and her remaining disablers.
As usual, I end up with some low-level encounters that no longer pose a challenge. Blueberry uses a backstab and Vampiric Touch to great effect in the fight in the slaver compound.
Next up: the Unseeing Eye. Having seen the Vampiric Touch spell work so well on the cleric, I believe I can do the same thing to the Unseeing Eye. Now that my install is fixed, the Unseeing Eye will no longer have demi-lich-style resistances and immunities once Blueberry uses the Rift Device on it.
The Rift Device will set the Unseeing Eye's HP to 40. Once Blueberry removes its Spell Deflection spell with a Secret Word, she can finish it off with two Vampiric Touch spells and a Flame Arrow from the Efreeti. I've tested this pattern multiple times, summoning the Unseeing Eye and creating the Rift Device with CLUAConsole to make sure I know how it works. Every time, it is successful.
We sneak my way through the Unseeing Eye quest, fighting few battles, and hurry to the Unseeing Eye itself, as we are not strong enough to take on the Beholders themselves. Blueberry activates the Rift Device, fires off a Secret Word, and the Efreeti begins casting Flame Arrow. Once Secret Word is off the ground, Blueberry teleports over, waits a second to make sure the Rift Device and Secret Word make contact, and then uses Vampiric Touch twice.
It does not deal any damage. None at all. Then I realize my timing was off: Secret Word hit before the Rift Device did, because its projectile moves faster, and was blocked by the Unseeing Eye's spell level immunities, which the Rift Device would have removed. But Blueberry has some extra Vampiric Touch spells (the mage spells, not just the Bhaalspawn innates), and can burn through the Spell Deflection within the round.
She hits the Unseeing Eye with all the spells she can before finally settling on Vampiric Touch. It makes contact! And the Efreeti lands the finishing blow, with Flame Arrow.
But now Blueberry is under the effects of an Anti-Magic Ray, fired just as the Unseeing Eye fell, and there are two Death Tyrants looming over her. She needs to go invisible to escape the area, but Anti-Magic Ray in SCS2 prevents you from using potions or spells (and I forgot that our Dimension Door is unaffected by spell failure). Now, Anti-Magic Rays in my install also block all spells, hostile and beneficial, like in PnP, so I'm safe from Beholder rays for another 6 seconds. But what if a Death Tyrant targets me with Death Ray just as the Anti-Magic effect wears off? Invisibility won't stop any Beholder rays already in motion.
To circumvent this, I drink a Potion of Invisibility from the inventory. I unpause and get ready to make my escape.
This is as confusing as it is distressing. Blueberry's buffs were gone at the time, but she was at full HP and should have had at least 3 seconds left before the Anti-Magic Ray wore off and she was vulnerable to Beholder rays again. She should have been immune to their rays for several more seconds, and it's not like the Death Tyrants could have killed her in one shot with their melee attack; they only do 2d4+8 damage, or a maximum of 32 damage on a critical hit, or 64 if both Death Tyrants landed criticals with maximum damage rolls, and Blueberry has over 90 HP even without Vampiric Touch active.
So what on earth happened? I check the files and find the answer.
SCS2 uses some duplicate spells. For example, there is an Anti-Magic Ray, DW#BHAN, which disables potion slots--that's the ray Blueberry got hit with, as evidenced by her inability to use potions. The vanilla Anti-Magic Ray, however, is SPIN992, and does not disable potion slots. Likewise, there is an SCS2-only Death Ray, DW#BFOD, which is just like Finger of Death, but with an instant casting time. The vanilla Death Ray, however, SPIN991 uses the vorpal strike effect, is nonmagical, and hits as a level 0 spell.
So what happened? Blueberry got hit with the SCS2 Anti-Magic Ray (DW#BHAN), which blocks level 1 to 9 spells and gives 100 MR. She then was hit by the vanilla Death Ray (SPIN991), which bypasses both the Anti-Magic Ray's MR bonus and its spell level immunities. The vanilla Death Ray is also edited by SCS2, but only such that it has a chance of breaking down spell protections; it's other effects are identical.
One Beholder uses one of the DW#BXXX rays, while another Beholder uses one of the SPINXXX rays. This may or may not be what is supposed to happen, but it still means Anti-Magic Ray isn't working properly, in this one narrow case: SCS2 Anti-Magic Ray is supposed to block all spells from affecting the target, but it does not defend the target against Death Ray, because Death Ray, SPIN991, is a level 0 nonmagical spell. Funny thing is, SCS2 is a huge, huge mod that I've been playing for quite some time now, and this is the first error I've ever seen in it.
Since Anti-Magic Ray should have kept Blueberry alive for another few seconds, I decide to reload. This time, just because, I time the Rift Device and Secret Word correctly, to get rid of the Unseeing Eye's Spell Deflection earlier.
Blueberry finishes off the monster with a third Vampiric Touch spell.
She then turns invisible, picks up the Unseeing Eye's necklace, and runs outside.
Now, if Anti-Magic Ray blocked Death Ray, and if I had played by the rules and not drunk a potion until after Anti-Magic Ray wore off, then it would have played it slightly differently: I would have started running after the Unseeing Eye was dead, pausing incessantly until I could drink potions again, and then drunk a Potion of Magic Shielding as soon as I could to ensure she would be safe from any potential Death Rays still in the air, at which point I would escape the area. So I will drop one Potion of Magic Shielding and continue with the run, to reflect a "by the rules" playout of the Unseeing Eye battle as I first fought it.
I still can't quite tell if the Phase Spider kit is too powerful or not powerful enough.
Butch Baylen, 2nd BG1 installment
We traveled to the Nashkel Mines, but I aborted our expedition when we ran into another bounty hunter, a fearsome Dwarf.
Either way, we decided to return to Beregost. We rested at the Nashkel inn, but I had this very strange dream. I only remember flashes of it. I had decided to go back to Candlekeep, but when I arrived, at nighttime, Gorion’s spirit told me at the gates that I couldn’t enter, and that I had to go on. He gestured toward the dark woods, where a smooth path suddenly revealed itself. I soon found myself walking it, and from somewhere unseen a sinister voice spoke: “You will learn!” When I awoke, I somehow knew I had the ability to heal people. I assume it to be a divine gift, as commonly received by priests and paladins. But no deity revealed himself or herself in my dream, except maybe for the voice I mentioned. At any rate the timing of the dream and the gift couldn’t have been better. Just south of Beregost we were attacked by Hobgoblins, some of them archers with poisoned arrows, and they hit Xzar twice. The first poisoning he stopped with an antidote, but the second time it was Jaheira’s healing and mine that kept him alive while we made our way to the nearest inn, the Jovial Juggler.
The next morning we met a wounded Paladin, Bjornin, who had a commission for us. There were four bloodthirsty Half-Ogres terrorizing the lands south, southeast of Beregost. The creatures had injured him, and he wanted us to deal with them. For a change I didn’t negotiate a reward, trusting that his honor as a Paladin would tell him to pay us for our work. We asked around for news about Bassilus, but all we learnt was that the bounty was still unclaimed.
The Half-Ogres we found and slew without difficulty although Montaron suffered a rather heavy blow at some point. Traps and ranged attacks did the job.
The companions then traveled northward, to return to Beregost via the Red Canyons.
“No stay back, lest this madness be catching,” a stranger warned.
“Calm down. What is this madness of which you speak?” Imoen replied.
“There be a fiendish hen to the east that, when I picked her up, she spoke to me in a most human voice!”
All of the companions were intrigued by the man’s words, and they decided to look for the hen. They found it under attack from a hungry wolf. With ranged artillery they slew the wolf, and when they approached the hen it spoke indeed. Apparently the hen was an unintended polymorph form of a human mage apprentice, Melicamp. Melicamp begged the party to take him to his master, the archmage Thalantyr. They agreed, partly out of curiosity of what Thalantyr would do, and partly because they hoped Thalantyr would reward them for their effort with a magical trinket or two.
On their way, a young boy, Footy, told the party he had been observing Bassilus and his ‘funny spooks’. The kid led them toward a ritual site, a large stone circle. From a distance they heard Bassilus speak to his ‘family’, a couple of Skeletons and Zombies. The party retreated, wary not to divulge their presence, in order to discuss a strategy to deal with Bassilus. But they were noticed and attacked by a remarkable alliance of four bandits, five Skeletons and a Ghoul. Some of the companions took a few hits, but with their superior marksmanship there was never any doubt they were going to prevail.
I’m no healer, but both Khalid and Montaron looked pretty dead to me. They were certainly beyond Jaheira’s healing skills, let alone my own. Much to my chagrin we had to call off our confrontation with Bassilus, and visit the Temple of Lathander, not to receive 5,000 Guilders but to beg Keldath Ormlyr to help us with Khalid and Montaron. Fortunately the priest was able to get both the Half-Elf and the Halfling back on their feet, and he didn’t charge much for it.
Still, the experience with the Hobgoblin fighter worries me. Surely there are deadlier warriors out there, and yet this one squashed my warriors like mere bugs. Even Jaheira, arguably my strongest frontliner had to flee and barely escaped. Our party needs either a more resilient frontliner or better equipment. Both seem hard to come by though.
Khalid and Montaron required several days rest to fully recover, but I didn’t have time for that. I had to take that bounty on Bassilus’ head. Xzar stayed with Khalid and Montaron; Jaheira, Imoen and I continued. We reported our success against the Half-Ogres to Bjornin. He did not disappoint in expressing his gratitude, rewarding us with an enchanted shield. We also returned Melicamp to Thalantyr and were impressed with the latter’s successful restoration of his apprentice (much less so with his non-existent appreciativeness for our help).
Near the High Hedge Kivan, an Elven Feralan Ranger and hunter of bandits, offered to join us. We accepted the offer. Armorless, he didn’t look like the frontliner I was hoping to recruit into the party, but he did show us his skill with his longbow when we had to fight three Gnolls.
In Beregost while shopping for ammo, we met a Dwarven warrior by the name of Kagain, a Wizard Slayer, in one of the stores. He ran a mercenary business that provided protection for trade caravans along the Coast Way. One of the caravans he was supposed to protect had gone missing however, and he needed to find it. We agreed on a temporary alliance. We would help him track down the caravan and in return he would join us on our quest in the Red Canyons.
We didn’t take long in locating the caravan, but still too long. The carts had been seized by bandits, the travelers killed.
Four of the bandits were still lingering at the crime scene. The party confronted them, but they learnt that these were no ordinary bandits. At least their leader wasn’t. She was a feisty blonde who seriously injured Jaheira with a well-placed arrow or two. Jaheira disengaged and called upon Kagain to fight the woman. Curiously the bandit kept launching arrows at Jaheira, ignoring Kagain and the others. The woman’s poor tactics allowed the company to finish her off in a collective effort.
Kagain found a fibula of Eddard Silvershield, the only son of the wealthiest and most influential family in Baldur’s Gate, and realized that with the death of the boy the fate of his enterprise had been sealed. He offered to stay on for an indefinite time. Butch, not sure yet what to think of the Dwarf, was in no rush to accept the offer but he didn’t want to dismiss it either. He thanked Kagain for it, and bade him to accompany him to the Red Canyons to fulfill his side of the bargain. The rogue knew that Kagain might be the tough frontliner he had been hoping to meet, but he didn’t want to make the Dwarf feel too important (that might only lead to quarrels about the prize on Bassilus).
The party of five traveled to the Red Canyons. It was dark when they arrived, which allowed Butch to approach Bassilus’ circle unseen. He was pleased to find the priest but less so about the fact that the undead family had grown a lot bigger. The rogue placed his traps outside the stone circle, hoping to lure the priest into them later, should a friendly settlement prove unfeasible. They then confronted the Cleric and tried to convince him to come to Beregost with them. Bassilus didn’t like that idea at all. He started an incantation. But Kivan’s and Imoen’s arrows, Kagain’s throwing axes, Butch’s bolts and traps and Jaheira’s bullets thwarted all his attempts at spell casting (except for a single Sanctuary). He did dish out some damage in close combat, with Kivan and Jaheira being the dupes, but he fell soon enough. It was Kagain who struck the priest down.
The companions presented Bassilus’ Holy Symbol to Keldath Ormlyr and received the 5,000 Guilder prize in return. It prompted Kagain to repeat his offer to stay with the band. Their wealth now surpassed 15,000 Guilders but (thanks to the Hard Times mod) that didn’t mean they were actually able to afford the finest goods they had found for sale at Beregost’s Smithy and at Thalantyr’s.
http://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/41539/no-reload-black-pits-challenge