Some people may remember from the Bioware Forums that I've been trying to make progress with a party of monks in a BGT + SCS installation for a number of years. I think this is the 63rd attempt, though I may well be wrong there! Most of those runs have used rules requiring all external maps to be fully explored and all content except Durlag's Tower to be fully completed in BG1 as well as prohibiting any deaths. The vulnerability of low-level monks added to the frequency, quantity & quality of random encounters and the small ammo stack sizes in this installation (and the fact they're not allowed healing potions) make that a pretty stiff challenge and I've never completed BG1 to my satisfaction. However, hope springs eternal and the monks have been working hard to try and make this run the successful one. Clearing Shoal's area of everything except the sirines got them all to level 3 and further work in Beregost and Nashkel was just enough to move to level 4.
After vacuuming a number of areas to the south I was hopeful that Melicamp would get everyone to level 5, but they had to settle for a chicken dinner. However, it wasn't long before they got that level - that means they're no longer vulnerable to a devastating sleep from invisible ogre magi, opening up a number of further map areas for (relatively) safe exploration.
Chimera - L5, 31 HPs, 75 kills Spectre - L5, 30 HPs, 71 kills, 0 deaths Phantom - L5, 30 HPs, 47 kills, 0 deaths Wraith - L5, 32 HPs, 76 kills, 0 deaths Spook - L5, 34 HPs, 53 kills, 0 deaths Spirit - L5, 37 HPs, 53 kills, 0 deaths HPs are pretty poor - only Spirit clawing marginally above the average of 36 at this stage. That feels particularly hard as I've played mainly EE recently - where you're almost guaranteed to get above 'average' HPs.
Björn and party were wiped out trying to break the seige of Bridgeport. Bad tactics on my part. Björn should have had the potion carrier in his possession. He couldn't get to it when required.
At least I have a powerful character waiting in the wings, Spike the Righteous, Inquisitor, with a great roll. The second best roll for me ever. Str 18/00, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 17. 102 in all, my highest roll was 103, but strength was 18/50 or something like that, so perhaps this is better.
Spike helped the widow in the ankheg area, then Tenya becoming level 2 in the process. He then killed the thieving gnolls that had stolen perdue's sword and a wolf that was bothering Mellicamp. He tried to help Mellicamp but failed, but succeeded in helping Firebead after calming down Marl. This took him to level 3. His initial proficiencies were: ** spiked weapons and ** double wielding. Now * in longbows as well.
Phantasmic 6 {63} - monks party (2nd and final update)
The remainder of the Cloud Peak Mountains were cleared, including the Gnoll Stronghold. The large number of random encounter spots there and the continual respawning on those makes that both difficult and tedious (particularly as I haven't bought the wand of sleep and the monks' total healing ability was limited to a single Bhaal CLW). However, the job was eventually done.
Starting to clear some of the northerly areas one of the monks nearly died for the first time when a kobold was able to reach over the parapet at Firewine Bridge from the ground below and hit with a critical. Kahrk and the Ruins were left there for now, but the remainder of the area was cleared - including getting Meilum's bracers.
The huge amount of micro-management involved in recent work took its toll when I took a risk near the minesite that didn't pay off. I deliberately allowed Baruk to spot one of the monks while the other 5 were in stealth at the point they expected the kobold commandos to appear. However, their placement was slightly off (not sure if I mis-remembered or if the location is marginally different in the EE) and, crucially, Spirit dropped out of stealth immediately after the kobold commandos teleported in. The kobolds attempted to target Spook, who had activated Baruk, but as intended he was successfully moving out of range before they could fire. The loss of stealth and slight mis-positioning though allowed the kobolds to immediately retarget Spirit. She was hit twice, once with a critical, before any of the other monks could attack and though one kobold was punched out a 3rd successful attack is about to be launched here before she could get out of range.
I've been a bit under the weather so Whitworth has been shopping and kicking his heels a little, tackling the Guarded Conpound and other minor quests whilst ignoring any of the more dangerous mod content. I'm a little indecisive as to whether we'll dare on to ToB in the near future if we dispose of Irenicus so the risk vs reward factor is becoming a little hard to calculate as well (I've never liked ToB anyway...and I'll be happy enough getting a BG2 run under my belt!)
A request for advice though, I'm just installing IWD EE, never having played the game and knowing little about it, with the intention of doing a no-reload run with some of the IWD NPC guys & gals switched to powerful classes like the Skald & Archer (and incorporating it into EET for my next BG run!) Anyone care to give some low spoiler advice of points which might trip up a no-reload game in an 'unfair' fashion? An example from BG might be the Spellhold trap that kills you if you try to disarm it, or trying to confront Irenicus without the crazies.
Spike the Righteous killed Karlat, helped Eltoth get back into shape, and headed southwards killing ogrillons and ending up in Nashkel where he: turned down a reward that was owed to Greywolf; and talked to Noober. He then reunited Rufie with his owner, and helped a dryad. He is now a fully fledged hero. Now time for RL.
Are you going to be running solo, or as part of a team?
Solo - at least all the way to SoD. Since it will my first encounter with the expansion, I'm considering to pick someone up along the road after (and if) Sarevok's defeated.
What will also overwhelm Faerun (if not the opposition - might be discouraging to other adveturers perhaps) are the statues made by Grond0's characters - it's one of his "favorite" methods of death. One of my favorite incidents of this was when Grond0 was talking with his son, warning him you gotta be careful when engaging basilisks - only for Grond0's character to be petrified the next moment...
Even my OCD for restarts have been known to have limits...
Really - surely at more than a meagre 63 restarts . I've got a game of King's Bounty I've been playing for a number of years under really severe restrictions. With BG I have actually completed the game on a number of occasions, so at least I know pretty much what's possible. With KB I've never got even halfway through and I think there's a good chance completing it is actually impossible with my restrictions, but I suspect I may never be able to confirm that - my counter of failed attempts is currently at 234 there ...
What will also overwhelm Faerun (if not the opposition - might be discouraging to other adveturers perhaps) are the statues made by Grond0's characters - it's one of his "favorite" methods of death. One of my favorite incidents of this was when Grond0 was talking with his son, warning him you gotta be careful when engaging basilisks - only for Grond0's character to be petrified the next moment...
Laughed out loud.
We should come up with a way, like in NETHACK, of running into one another's corpses during playthroughs -- including sculpture galleries of the petrified.
Of course, all recovered loot will need to be terribly cursed.
Even my OCD for restarts have been known to have limits...
Really - surely at more than a meagre 63 restarts . I've got a game of King's Bounty I've been playing for a number of years under really severe restrictions. With BG I have actually completed the game on a number of occasions, so at least I know pretty much what's possible. With KB I've never got even halfway through and I think there's a good chance completing it is actually impossible with my restrictions, but I suspect I may never be able to confirm that - my counter of failed attempts is currently at 234 there ...
Oh, god. The King's Bounty. I have not yet finished for even a single time the Armored Princes since its release for exactly this very same reason.
A few times, however, I abandoned the game without finishing because it got too easy mid-game (not highest difficulty; or employing exploits I felt bad about).
Same thing with just about anything. Maintaining a good balance of challenge vs fairness is like surgery.
I owned Skyrim since release. Haven't finished any of the main quests yet. (Playing only no-reload of course: Most characters died; and I abandoned those that made to demigodhood, e.g., with smithing and enchanting, arguing that it was an exploit.)
Now I am running a mod mix where I freeze to death if I keep my nose outside for a peek or I starve if I don't maintain a healthy diet; the combat AI is really mean; and I insist on un-pumped up magic as my only ranged offense and absolutely no-crafting.
I may just make it by the time Elder Scrolls VI comes out...
When you think of all Grond0's hundreds of runs (thouands?), plus the Grond0/Gate70 duos deaths by basilisks/petrifcation, that would be quite a few statues - imagine the pathing issues. Maybe a screenshot depicting the image would be better.
When you think of all Grond0's hundreds of runs (thouands?), plus the Grond0/Gate70 duos deaths by basilisks/petrifcation, that would be quite a few statues - imagine the pathing issues. Maybe a screenshot depicting the image would be better.
Pathing issues won't be a problem when you don't have a path anymore.
I remember that on the old game Majesty as heroes died they tended to automatically generate graveyards... though perhaps in this case a thriving business selling on statues might be more appropriate: "Startled monk is all the rage this season in Calimshan!".
*shudders* imagine having to play against a mage or bard owned by semeticgod or Alesia_BH... And add standard undead immunities to them... Like Khark, except 100x worse. Death by teleportation fields and bunny hordes and mustard jelly or Iron Golem mages.
Anyways, Allegro the Pacifist Bard, update 1: Got a pretty fair distance, I think. Allegro picks up a couple of quests from Beregost before heading to Nashkel: Mirianne's note, the necklace left by the hobgoblins, Bjornin's half-ogres. On the last trip to Beregost, I decided that we could probably handle Silke with Frob's spell failure. A couple arrows later:
We made it to Nashkel safely, turning Neira into a pinata inside the inn. A few minutes of kiting dealt with Greywolf, and Allegro and co head west for the bracers of archery and the DEX gauntlets at the Gnoll fortress. We fight everything we come across for experience, barring Albert and his dog. I accidentally chose the wrong dialogue choice for the Dryad, and didn't end up fighting the dimwitted duo as they ran from an angry dryad.
The next death is embarrassingly enough Thandor, at the hands of a lowly Xvart. The swarms were simply too much, and my lack of concentration gets him killed by a critical hit. We hightailed it back to Nashkel before finishing off the Polar Bear, fight the Doomsayer, and bring Brage home.
Oh, does anyone have any idea why certain spell effects absolutely murder my computer? The framerate drops super low whenever Grease is in the field, or just the Doomsayer animation period. I suspect the same thing'll happen with Web and any of the Cloud spells, but I dunno what to do about it. A mod, maybe, or some graphics option I need to reset?
Anyhow, somewhere around here I decided that I wanted Imoen to dual to Mage fairly soon, just so I could use the Wands of Fire since Allegro can't use them lest he get a kill. So first we go through the mines to disarm the traps and finish off Mulahey. The battle takes forever, mostly because I used Grease slowing my framerate to a crawl. But no casualties.
We take a short break from the main questline to go graverobbing: with an Undead Hunter there's no real threat from the Ghasts. And with a Wizard Slayer boosted by a Skald, Narcillus isn't long for the world either. He managed to cast once before the storm of missiles slew him, and it was a defensive spell at that.
Nimbul is hit by a Command and then executed:
And though Tranzig gets a sleep spell off and irritatingly blocks the doorway, Thandor and Imoen and the occasional potshot from outside is enough to get him to panic and we chase him down soon after.
After loading up on scrolls and other trinkets like the Amulet of Health for Miz, we finally approach the Basilisks. Three level 1 slots from Allegro all go to Pro. Protection, and his second level spell was an invisibility for himself. Taking all the Warriors with him, it wasn't much of a fair fight for the basilisks. With a bit of time to spare with Korax, we take out Peter and co. as well. Frob kept the mage down, Imoen blinded their archer, and the rest was a slugfest which we predictably came out ahead on. Korax even survived the fight, which is a relatively rare thing for me.
On the way back, we get ambushed by the Amazons. We're low on spells, but fortunately we aren't overly reliant on them right now. Three people get Held over the course of the fight, but by the time the second set of Hold Person's land, two of them are dead, their last priest is on the edge of death, and Thandor's in melee with their rogue.
The Ankhegs never manage to land a critical before being pelted to death by the newly acquired Crossbow of Speed in Quill's hands, and Tenya's bowl is returned to her. From Ulgoth's Beard, we acquire the Greenstone amulet and... I think that's it this time? Might've been another item, but I can't remember if there was.
Heading to Firewine Bridge, Molkar and company have their ambush. Imoen hits another Blind, more spells are interrupted by arrows and bolts, and another force by arms is achieved. No Hold Persons on me this time.
Allegro's also cleared the Lighthouse area, and is going to approach the Bandit camp next. And Imoen just so happens to have that one Cloudkill spell in Albert's area...
Pathing issues won't be a problem when you don't have a path anymore.
I don't think that would be an issue. Remember I've played quite a bit with wild mages and statues don't last long when the next fireball surge is just around the corner ...
I remember that on the old game Majesty as heroes died they tended to automatically generate graveyards... though perhaps in this case a thriving business selling on statues might be more appropriate: "Startled monk is all the rage this season in Calimshan!".
They left Gravestones, and if a certain amount of them died, and you had a certain amount of population you would get a Graveyard (which spawns Skeletons, like the Sewers spawn Rats and other related creatures).
I need to get Majesty to run on my computer and play this game again. I love it *so* much.
I think NETHACK gives you *some* of the dead as encounters, not all.
I'm not sure but I think it's all of them, although which one or when/where is randomly chosen, and they only appear once, but the chances of finding one of them is very low, specially because only characters that got past X level or X-thingie get selected for this, besides, it's in the level that character died (I'm 90% sure about the level in which they die is the same they'll spawn).
*shudders* imagine having to play against a mage or bard owned by semeticgod or Alesia_BH... And add standard undead immunities to them... Like Khark, except 100x worse. Death by teleportation fields and bunny hordes and mustard jelly or Iron Golem mages.
Okay, folks, new thread rule:
Anyone who dies as a no-reload CHARNAME gets re-incarnated once as an AI opponent, but only *once* as that dead charname and at that same spot when a new CHARNAME walks in.
(P.S. Err... for game balance concerns, I'll be issuing a service ticketing system to manage the pile up in the Daveorn Chamber.)
(P.P.S. Anyone who defeats an undead @semiticgod gets to wield his Aganazzar's Scorcher Loop against Sarevok.)
Honestly, considering where semiticgod's runs usually end, and where my Trilogy runs normally do, I wouldn't worry about him, at least not for a long time.
I tend not to post on my runs until I've gotten some momentum going. If I die early, I just put down something like
"i acidentaly used wand of ligtning trick with poiton of stone form and drained my dex to zero lol"
Mostly this is because I prefer to make my posts round-by-round accounts of everything that goes on in every major battle, and it's less interesting if half of them are about Chateau Irenicus.
Plus, my early game plans are very standardized, and my protagonists are nearly always defensive builds. Charname is never on the front line, seldom in the line of fire, and I always make sure that he or she (well, she, almost always) is ready to flee at a moment's notice.
I never design my characters based on what they can do. I design my characters based on what they can survive. Most of my planning process involves asking myself how the enemy could kill me, and covering the holes in the party's defenses.
Legacy of Bhaal Genocide Run: Carl the Llama in BG2 (first post here)
SIEGE OF UST NATHA: PART 7
Edwin is completely vulnerable. His defenses are completely gone, and he had to resort to a Potion of Invisibility to survive. Stan, our Totemic Druid, Flowey, our Seducer, and Viconia are missing resistances to spell damage, and enemy mages are on the march. Carl is in good position and we have more Wishes to back us up, but the rest of the party is a little shaky, and the strongest enemies have yet to arrive.
Carl bolsters Edwin's defenses with Wish Hardiness. He gets it multiple times, allowing Edwin to stack the effects (a bug I haven't fixed).
It won't prevent spell disruption, however, and spell damage can still fry him.
We've got a bunch of drow mages waiting behind a choke point leading to our sanctuary room in the northwest. Flowey's trying to assert control with Domination, but it's just too unreliable with LoB saving throws.
Carl uses a Wish Time Stop to get more Wishes, restore our Dispelling Screen, and throw Dragon's Breath and Comet at the enemies. Unfortunately Dispelling Screen won't protect Flowey from Breach (another bug I haven't fixed).
Another Wish Time Stop comes up. Carl uses Comet and Energy Blades to grind away at the thousands of HP among the enemy horde. Tiny bits of damage that build up over time.
Carl gets yet another Wish Time Stop, and yet more Wish rests. He uses Improved Alacrity to jump around the map with Dimension Jump (level 1 spell from Spell Revisions) to pelt Matron Mother Ellaviir with Energy Blades.
These Time Stops don't come cost-free, however. Spell durations run low during Time Stop, and our party is more reliant on buffs than the enemy. But Comet and Dragon's Breath manage to finish off Ellaviir.
Another Wish-rest and Time Stop. But we've got a problem.
A Nabassu and a Glabrezu have joined the fight, along with a drow archmage (who is at epic levels and therefore must have HLAs). That makes 3 separate sources of Remove Magic, enough to destroy the entire party. I need to take them down fast--especially because that Balor can't be far behind.
It didn't occur to me at the time, but perhaps the timers for the drow waves also keep running during Time Stop. Which means that all those rounds Carl spent during Time Stop were just holding us back while more drow poured in.
Worse yet, those Time Stops also affected our celestials. We lose a Planetar--our most important ally by far--during Time Stop.
The fact that the hostile Efreet are also vanishing is little consolation. We need those Planetars for healing spells.
I have Viconia, Stan, and Edwin work on bringing out more celestials to fill the void, while Carl uses yet another Wish Time Stop to hurl Energy Blades at the Nabassu. Comet and Dragon's Breath hit soon after, but it's not enough to kill the Nabassu.
I could use Shapechange to deal with the enemies during Time Stop. SR nerfs the Mind Flayer form so it only drains 4 INT and has only 1 APR, but I could still take down the Nabassu quickly. But I'm not willing to use Shapechange, because 50 rounds after I cast it, it's going to force Carl to cast a spell ending Shapechange, which could interrupt a spell I may desperately need in the future.
In retrospect, this was a foolish choice. Those Remove Magic spells were already a lethal threat; I should have done almost anything to prevent them.
Carl stops time and rests the party once more. Time has been frozen for so long that the enemy's shorter buffs are running out.
Realizing that our own defenses are running low, I use the WoL trick with SR's Protection from Elemental Energy, allowing Carl to refresh his immunity to spell damage.
It means nothing, however, if Carl gets caught by Remove Magic. And those demons are still very much alive.
More Time Stops cost us another valuable Planetar...
...but it lets Carl slay the drow archmage and do awful things to his friends with HLAs and Minute Meteors.
That Nabassu is still just barely clinging to life. Carl gets another Wish Time Stop, which should let us finish it off, but we have so much more to do.
Another Matron Mother has arrived. And I'm sure the Balor is just now coming out.
If we can't take it down during another Time Stop, it could spell our doom. I calculate a 50% chance that the Balor's Remove Magic would take down all of Carl's defenses at once. If it does, Carl will probably die in seconds.
There's been some recent discussion about the best way to approach the fight at the palace - including a suggestion of using Otiluke's on Liia. Last time I tested the behaviour of that it had the major problem of requiring a save when cast at anything - including party members. That made its use as a defensive tool, e.g. in a contingency-helpless, virtually useless. Thinking it would still work the same way I took a stack of 20 scrolls to the palace in an attempt with a mage in my 'long-life' challenge. However, it must have been in a previous installation that I last tried putting Liia into a Sphere as attempting that now in BGEE turns neutral stacks hostile - not a good idea at the palace.
A bit of testing on the autosave though did confirm that there is no longer a save required on party members, which will reinstate the possibility of defensive uses in future runs.
I remember that on the old game Majesty as heroes died they tended to automatically generate graveyards... though perhaps in this case a thriving business selling on statues might be more appropriate: "Startled monk is all the rage this season in Calimshan!".
They left Gravestones, and if a certain amount of them died, and you had a certain amount of population you would get a Graveyard (which spawns Skeletons, like the Sewers spawn Rats and other related creatures).
I need to get Majesty to run on my computer and play this game again. I love it *so* much.
I just introduced it to my daughter actually. She was amazed as a Solaris outran a Black Phantom to deliver the magic ring. Always enjoyable to just watch the heroes go about their daily lives.... the iphone versions was poorly designed though...unless the aim was to leech customers for money...
I like the idea of facing those who went before but it would be nice to have some crazy ai scripts into the bargain!
When I played a pacific fighter/thief through to the final battle, my solo characters didn't kill anyone. However he did kill Sarevok with his fists in one run, and in another Sarevok was killed by his allies. I beat him up with my fists and then let him towards his allies. I'm not sure if it was the lightning trap or the arrows of explosion fired by one his allies that killed him.
They weren't no-reload runs as I hadn't started playing no-reload way back then.
I( used various tricks to avoid killing. The hobgoblins at the FAI were led towards the guards. Greywolf was led to the mines where the guards killed him. I charmed Bassilus and led him towards Zargal. Mulahey was charmed with the result that the kobolds etc. killed him. Davaeorn was charmed and the battle horrors? Doom guards? killed him.
At the ducal palace wand of sleep was key. I beat the doppelgangers up with my fists until they were unconscious and moved on to others leaving the dukes et al to kill them. I think that I healed a duke as well just to be safe.
Obviously pick-pocketting the Cloak of Algernon was the key to a lot of incidents. I had a VERY low level at the end.
I must try that run in EE no-reload. It was fun. I played the above in vanilla no mods a LONG time ago.
Spike the Righteous was attacked by Tenya who cast command:
However, once he had recovered, he prevailed and changed his mind, offering to help her. He did so and as a result went up a level. Upon heading to the Gnoll Stronghold he first defeated a lot of thugs including these:
He found a tome, some scrolls etc that looked interesting, but he didn't know what they were at the time, so they went in his bag. He then went to the temple at Beregost to get it identified. With it he raised his charisma to 18. He was asked to take on Bassilus, which he did. When he saw the spell on the way, he fled, but still got affected by it. It was rigid thinking, and could have been dangerous, particularly if he had wandered into sight of Bassilus. He didn't. Knowing where Bassilus was, he used his necklace of missiles to kill Bassilus without further risk.
He then headed to the lighthouse area where he defeated some sirene and befriended others.
Sil befriended him and gave him a cloak. He then entered the cave and trounced three flesh golem.
He went outside for healing between battles and upon two occasions a sirine ambushed him. Being an Inquisitor, these attacks were harmless and merely raised his experience. To the south he helped both an archaeologist and Brage after which he was in Nashkel. He went to the Carnival whereupon he was able to buy scrolls of protection from both acid and petrification. He used the former one help to wipe all the ankheg from the field of Farmer Brun, including all those underground. It cost him four healing potions to do so.
He then headed south where Tarnesh assaulted him. True sight made it easy to kill him.
Inside he met Lina who accompanied to a bedroom where she did a Meg Ryan impersonation.
By pacific, I mean the large pond to my west between the US and Asia Err. I mean that Allegro himself is forbidden to take any kills, else the run is considered a failure. His party members are very much allowed though; the reasoning for this was to test the strengths of the Rogue Rebalancing Skald. I still have to do the math at some point, but I think having a Skald and a party of 5 does slightly more damage and has more utility than adding another Archer or something would.
Comments
Some people may remember from the Bioware Forums that I've been trying to make progress with a party of monks in a BGT + SCS installation for a number of years. I think this is the 63rd attempt, though I may well be wrong there! Most of those runs have used rules requiring all external maps to be fully explored and all content except Durlag's Tower to be fully completed in BG1 as well as prohibiting any deaths. The vulnerability of low-level monks added to the frequency, quantity & quality of random encounters and the small ammo stack sizes in this installation (and the fact they're not allowed healing potions) make that a pretty stiff challenge and I've never completed BG1 to my satisfaction. However, hope springs eternal and the monks have been working hard to try and make this run the successful one. Clearing Shoal's area of everything except the sirines got them all to level 3 and further work in Beregost and Nashkel was just enough to move to level 4.
After vacuuming a number of areas to the south I was hopeful that Melicamp would get everyone to level 5, but they had to settle for a chicken dinner. However, it wasn't long before they got that level - that means they're no longer vulnerable to a devastating sleep from invisible ogre magi, opening up a number of further map areas for (relatively) safe exploration.
Chimera - L5, 31 HPs, 75 kills
Spectre - L5, 30 HPs, 71 kills, 0 deaths
Phantom - L5, 30 HPs, 47 kills, 0 deaths
Wraith - L5, 32 HPs, 76 kills, 0 deaths
Spook - L5, 34 HPs, 53 kills, 0 deaths
Spirit - L5, 37 HPs, 53 kills, 0 deaths
HPs are pretty poor - only Spirit clawing marginally above the average of 36 at this stage. That feels particularly hard as I've played mainly EE recently - where you're almost guaranteed to get above 'average' HPs.
At least I have a powerful character waiting in the wings, Spike the Righteous, Inquisitor, with a great roll. The second best roll for me ever. Str 18/00, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 16, Wis 15, Cha 17. 102 in all, my highest roll was 103, but strength was 18/50 or something like that, so perhaps this is better.
The remainder of the Cloud Peak Mountains were cleared, including the Gnoll Stronghold. The large number of random encounter spots there and the continual respawning on those makes that both difficult and tedious (particularly as I haven't bought the wand of sleep and the monks' total healing ability was limited to a single Bhaal CLW). However, the job was eventually done.
Starting to clear some of the northerly areas one of the monks nearly died for the first time when a kobold was able to reach over the parapet at Firewine Bridge from the ground below and hit with a critical. Kahrk and the Ruins were left there for now, but the remainder of the area was cleared - including getting Meilum's bracers.
The huge amount of micro-management involved in recent work took its toll when I took a risk near the minesite that didn't pay off. I deliberately allowed Baruk to spot one of the monks while the other 5 were in stealth at the point they expected the kobold commandos to appear. However, their placement was slightly off (not sure if I mis-remembered or if the location is marginally different in the EE) and, crucially, Spirit dropped out of stealth immediately after the kobold commandos teleported in. The kobolds attempted to target Spook, who had activated Baruk, but as intended he was successfully moving out of range before they could fire. The loss of stealth and slight mis-positioning though allowed the kobolds to immediately retarget Spirit. She was hit twice, once with a critical, before any of the other monks could attack and though one kobold was punched out a 3rd successful attack is about to be launched here before she could get out of range.
A request for advice though, I'm just installing IWD EE, never having played the game and knowing little about it, with the intention of doing a no-reload run with some of the IWD NPC guys & gals switched to powerful classes like the Skald & Archer (and incorporating it into EET for my next BG run!) Anyone care to give some low spoiler advice of points which might trip up a no-reload game in an 'unfair' fashion? An example from BG might be the Spellhold trap that kills you if you try to disarm it, or trying to confront Irenicus without the crazies.
Now time for RL.
B.
(Seriously, though, hat tip to the resilience there. Even my OCD for restarts have been known to have limits...)
We should come up with a way, like in NETHACK, of running into one another's corpses during playthroughs -- including sculpture galleries of the petrified.
Of course, all recovered loot will need to be terribly cursed.
Oh, god. The King's Bounty.
I have not yet finished for even a single time the Armored Princes since its release for exactly this very same reason.
A few times, however, I abandoned the game without finishing because it got too easy mid-game (not highest difficulty; or employing exploits I felt bad about).
Same thing with just about anything. Maintaining a good balance of challenge vs fairness is like surgery.
I owned Skyrim since release. Haven't finished any of the main quests yet. (Playing only no-reload of course: Most characters died; and I abandoned those that made to demigodhood, e.g., with smithing and enchanting, arguing that it was an exploit.)
Now I am running a mod mix where I freeze to death if I keep my nose outside for a peek or I starve if I don't maintain a healthy diet; the combat AI is really mean; and I insist on un-pumped up magic as my only ranged offense and absolutely no-crafting.
I may just make it by the time Elder Scrolls VI comes out...
(I think Nethack calls them "bones files".)
So, you may find a coveted Wish wand (probably horribly cursed) from one far away forgotten monk and get chased by the cursed spirit of said monk.
But likely not *all* 63 of them at the same time....
Anyways, Allegro the Pacifist Bard, update 1:
Got a pretty fair distance, I think. Allegro picks up a couple of quests from Beregost before heading to Nashkel: Mirianne's note, the necklace left by the hobgoblins, Bjornin's half-ogres. On the last trip to Beregost, I decided that we could probably handle Silke with Frob's spell failure. A couple arrows later:
We made it to Nashkel safely, turning Neira into a pinata inside the inn. A few minutes of kiting dealt with Greywolf, and Allegro and co head west for the bracers of archery and the DEX gauntlets at the Gnoll fortress. We fight everything we come across for experience, barring Albert and his dog. I accidentally chose the wrong dialogue choice for the Dryad, and didn't end up fighting the dimwitted duo as they ran from an angry dryad.
The next death is embarrassingly enough Thandor, at the hands of a lowly Xvart. The swarms were simply too much, and my lack of concentration gets him killed by a critical hit. We hightailed it back to Nashkel before finishing off the Polar Bear, fight the Doomsayer, and bring Brage home.
Oh, does anyone have any idea why certain spell effects absolutely murder my computer? The framerate drops super low whenever Grease is in the field, or just the Doomsayer animation period. I suspect the same thing'll happen with Web and any of the Cloud spells, but I dunno what to do about it. A mod, maybe, or some graphics option I need to reset?
Anyhow, somewhere around here I decided that I wanted Imoen to dual to Mage fairly soon, just so I could use the Wands of Fire since Allegro can't use them lest he get a kill. So first we go through the mines to disarm the traps and finish off Mulahey. The battle takes forever, mostly because I used Grease slowing my framerate to a crawl. But no casualties.
We take a short break from the main questline to go graverobbing: with an Undead Hunter there's no real threat from the Ghasts. And with a Wizard Slayer boosted by a Skald, Narcillus isn't long for the world either. He managed to cast once before the storm of missiles slew him, and it was a defensive spell at that.
Nimbul is hit by a Command and then executed:
And though Tranzig gets a sleep spell off and irritatingly blocks the doorway, Thandor and Imoen and the occasional potshot from outside is enough to get him to panic and we chase him down soon after.
After loading up on scrolls and other trinkets like the Amulet of Health for Miz, we finally approach the Basilisks. Three level 1 slots from Allegro all go to Pro. Protection, and his second level spell was an invisibility for himself. Taking all the Warriors with him, it wasn't much of a fair fight for the basilisks. With a bit of time to spare with Korax, we take out Peter and co. as well. Frob kept the mage down, Imoen blinded their archer, and the rest was a slugfest which we predictably came out ahead on. Korax even survived the fight, which is a relatively rare thing for me.
On the way back, we get ambushed by the Amazons. We're low on spells, but fortunately we aren't overly reliant on them right now. Three people get Held over the course of the fight, but by the time the second set of Hold Person's land, two of them are dead, their last priest is on the edge of death, and Thandor's in melee with their rogue.
The Ankhegs never manage to land a critical before being pelted to death by the newly acquired Crossbow of Speed in Quill's hands, and Tenya's bowl is returned to her. From Ulgoth's Beard, we acquire the Greenstone amulet and... I think that's it this time? Might've been another item, but I can't remember if there was.
Heading to Firewine Bridge, Molkar and company have their ambush. Imoen hits another Blind, more spells are interrupted by arrows and bolts, and another force by arms is achieved. No Hold Persons on me this time.
Allegro's also cleared the Lighthouse area, and is going to approach the Bandit camp next. And Imoen just so happens to have that one Cloudkill spell in Albert's area...
I need to get Majesty to run on my computer and play this game again. I love it *so* much. I'm not sure but I think it's all of them, although which one or when/where is randomly chosen, and they only appear once, but the chances of finding one of them is very low, specially because only characters that got past X level or X-thingie get selected for this, besides, it's in the level that character died (I'm 90% sure about the level in which they die is the same they'll spawn).
Anyone who dies as a no-reload CHARNAME gets re-incarnated once as an AI opponent, but only *once* as that dead charname and at that same spot when a new CHARNAME walks in.
(P.S. Err... for game balance concerns, I'll be issuing a service ticketing system to manage the pile up in the Daveorn Chamber.)
(P.P.S. Anyone who defeats an undead @semiticgod gets to wield his Aganazzar's Scorcher Loop against Sarevok.)
"i acidentaly used wand of ligtning trick with poiton of stone form and drained my dex to zero lol"
Mostly this is because I prefer to make my posts round-by-round accounts of everything that goes on in every major battle, and it's less interesting if half of them are about Chateau Irenicus.
Plus, my early game plans are very standardized, and my protagonists are nearly always defensive builds. Charname is never on the front line, seldom in the line of fire, and I always make sure that he or she (well, she, almost always) is ready to flee at a moment's notice.
I never design my characters based on what they can do. I design my characters based on what they can survive. Most of my planning process involves asking myself how the enemy could kill me, and covering the holes in the party's defenses.
(first post here)
SIEGE OF UST NATHA: PART 7
Edwin is completely vulnerable. His defenses are completely gone, and he had to resort to a Potion of Invisibility to survive. Stan, our Totemic Druid, Flowey, our Seducer, and Viconia are missing resistances to spell damage, and enemy mages are on the march. Carl is in good position and we have more Wishes to back us up, but the rest of the party is a little shaky, and the strongest enemies have yet to arrive.
Carl bolsters Edwin's defenses with Wish Hardiness. He gets it multiple times, allowing Edwin to stack the effects (a bug I haven't fixed).
It won't prevent spell disruption, however, and spell damage can still fry him.
We've got a bunch of drow mages waiting behind a choke point leading to our sanctuary room in the northwest. Flowey's trying to assert control with Domination, but it's just too unreliable with LoB saving throws.
Carl uses a Wish Time Stop to get more Wishes, restore our Dispelling Screen, and throw Dragon's Breath and Comet at the enemies. Unfortunately Dispelling Screen won't protect Flowey from Breach (another bug I haven't fixed).
Another Wish Time Stop comes up. Carl uses Comet and Energy Blades to grind away at the thousands of HP among the enemy horde. Tiny bits of damage that build up over time.
Carl gets yet another Wish Time Stop, and yet more Wish rests. He uses Improved Alacrity to jump around the map with Dimension Jump (level 1 spell from Spell Revisions) to pelt Matron Mother Ellaviir with Energy Blades.
These Time Stops don't come cost-free, however. Spell durations run low during Time Stop, and our party is more reliant on buffs than the enemy. But Comet and Dragon's Breath manage to finish off Ellaviir.
Another Wish-rest and Time Stop. But we've got a problem.
A Nabassu and a Glabrezu have joined the fight, along with a drow archmage (who is at epic levels and therefore must have HLAs). That makes 3 separate sources of Remove Magic, enough to destroy the entire party. I need to take them down fast--especially because that Balor can't be far behind.
It didn't occur to me at the time, but perhaps the timers for the drow waves also keep running during Time Stop. Which means that all those rounds Carl spent during Time Stop were just holding us back while more drow poured in.
Worse yet, those Time Stops also affected our celestials. We lose a Planetar--our most important ally by far--during Time Stop.
The fact that the hostile Efreet are also vanishing is little consolation. We need those Planetars for healing spells.
I have Viconia, Stan, and Edwin work on bringing out more celestials to fill the void, while Carl uses yet another Wish Time Stop to hurl Energy Blades at the Nabassu. Comet and Dragon's Breath hit soon after, but it's not enough to kill the Nabassu.
I could use Shapechange to deal with the enemies during Time Stop. SR nerfs the Mind Flayer form so it only drains 4 INT and has only 1 APR, but I could still take down the Nabassu quickly. But I'm not willing to use Shapechange, because 50 rounds after I cast it, it's going to force Carl to cast a spell ending Shapechange, which could interrupt a spell I may desperately need in the future.
In retrospect, this was a foolish choice. Those Remove Magic spells were already a lethal threat; I should have done almost anything to prevent them.
Carl stops time and rests the party once more. Time has been frozen for so long that the enemy's shorter buffs are running out.
Realizing that our own defenses are running low, I use the WoL trick with SR's Protection from Elemental Energy, allowing Carl to refresh his immunity to spell damage.
It means nothing, however, if Carl gets caught by Remove Magic. And those demons are still very much alive.
More Time Stops cost us another valuable Planetar...
...but it lets Carl slay the drow archmage and do awful things to his friends with HLAs and Minute Meteors.
That Nabassu is still just barely clinging to life. Carl gets another Wish Time Stop, which should let us finish it off, but we have so much more to do.
Another Matron Mother has arrived. And I'm sure the Balor is just now coming out.
If we can't take it down during another Time Stop, it could spell our doom. I calculate a 50% chance that the Balor's Remove Magic would take down all of Carl's defenses at once. If it does, Carl will probably die in seconds.
A bit of testing on the autosave though did confirm that there is no longer a save required on party members, which will reinstate the possibility of defensive uses in future runs.
I like the idea of facing those who went before but it would be nice to have some crazy ai scripts into the bargain!
What is pacific about your run?
When I played a pacific fighter/thief through to the final battle, my solo characters didn't kill anyone.However he did kill Sarevok with his fists in one run, and in another Sarevok was killed by his allies. I beat him up with my fists and then let him towards his allies. I'm not sure if it was the lightning trap or the arrows of explosion fired by one his allies that killed him.
They weren't no-reload runs as I hadn't started playing no-reload way back then.
I( used various tricks to avoid killing. The hobgoblins at the FAI were led towards the guards.
Greywolf was led to the mines where the guards killed him.
I charmed Bassilus and led him towards Zargal.
Mulahey was charmed with the result that the kobolds etc. killed him.
Davaeorn was charmed and the battle horrors? Doom guards? killed him.
At the ducal palace wand of sleep was key. I beat the doppelgangers up with my fists until they were unconscious and moved on to others leaving the dukes et al to kill them. I think that I healed a duke as well just to be safe.
Obviously pick-pocketting the Cloak of Algernon was the key to a lot of incidents. I had a VERY low level at the end.
I must try that run in EE no-reload. It was fun. I played the above in vanilla no mods a LONG time ago.
Upon heading to the Gnoll Stronghold he first defeated a lot of thugs including these:
He went outside for healing between battles and upon two occasions a sirine ambushed him. Being an Inquisitor, these attacks were harmless and merely raised his experience.
I mean the large pond to my west between the US and AsiaErr. I mean that Allegro himself is forbidden to take any kills, else the run is considered a failure. His party members are very much allowed though; the reasoning for this was to test the strengths of the Rogue Rebalancing Skald. I still have to do the math at some point, but I think having a Skald and a party of 5 does slightly more damage and has more utility than adding another Archer or something would.