I cast a spell and decided that for a fighter/thief the best kit was barbarian. (The mod that gives the choice of kits, only gave the fighter kits as options, not thief kits otherwise the kit chosen would probably have been assassin)
Dear WG Which mod is that? Otherwise. Great stuff. Please keep it coming
I think that the subtle docter is far too modest.
Here is the mod name plus a few details about it. Part of the read-me: NPCs Enhanced... um, for Everyone! (a.k.a. NPC_EE) Author: Duns Scotus, the SubtleDoctor Version 2.5 Languages: English Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X Overview This is intended to be a successor to the fantastic "Level 1 NPCs" mod. L1NPCs was never updated for the EE games, and its author is no longer active, and it is an incredible, complicated piece of work that is difficult for someone else to update. So I made this. It's not as complete as L1NPCs, and my techniques are not as sophisticated. But it aims to reach a similar result: add replayability by allowing players to easily change the class and kit of various NPCs, thus creating different parties with different tactics, for different playthroughs In application, this kind of pales in comparison to Level 1 NPCs, but it should at least let you spice things up a bit. And it has one real advantage: you can change the kits of every NPC in every playthrough *in-game,* without going back out to Weidu to uninstall/reinstall a mod. The way this works is, during installation you can change the *class* of various NPCs. Some only have one alternate class, some have more than one, and some don't have any option to change. This is based on the in-game lore; e.g. Xan is a spellcaster with a Moonblade; that could work as a mage, but also as a fighter/mage or a bard or a sorcerer. Conversely, Jaheira is a druid, she talks all the time about being a druid, and so there is no option to make her anything other than a druid. Once you have decided which class to give each NPC, you have the option to give all of them (even those you didn't change, and including mod NPCs) a special innate ability that you can use in-game to add or change their kit. This is a single-use ability, so choose wisely! This ability will trigger a dialogue that gives you the option to adopt any kit for that class... this includes any and all mod kits that you may have installed. Turn Mazzy into a Dwarven Defender! Make Keldorn a Blackguard! Make Minsc a fighter in the Weidu install, and then use this ability to make him a Barbarian! (Barbarian is actually, technically, a fighter kit.) The reason I split up the class changes and kit changes is simple: Weidu installation code is static, and there are only a certain number of class in the game; no mod can add new ones. On the other hand, you can install hundreds of kits into the game; this mod automatically detects all of them and makes all of them available. You can't do that in the Weidu installer, you have to do it in-game. Yes, it breaks the 4th wall very slightly, but it is the only way to achieve that kind of flexibility. It means that this mod can automatically adapt to and work with every other kit mod you can possibly install.
Perhaps Thalantyr can upgrade an item into a helmet of charm protection? I like the Thalantyr item upgrade mod, and think it would fit in nicely.
That souns great! I'll add it right away! Dunno if I'll drop it into the Thalamtyr Item Upgrade mod (I could but I think it's better as a standalone mod).
Perhaps Thalantyr can upgrade an item into a helmet of charm protection? I like the Thalantyr item upgrade mod, and think it would fit in nicely.
That souns great! I'll add it right away! Dunno if I'll drop it into the Thalamtyr Item Upgrade mod (I could but I think it's better as a standalone mod).
Even better would be an ioun stone of charm protection, then thieves could use it too. To make it, he needs a Lynx eye gem, a scoll of charm protection and 500 gold pieces or similar. A Lynx eye gem is found at Winthrop's and there are plenty around if you have item randomiser installed.
Alternatively he could add charm protection to one of the ioun stones that he sells.
Alia's journey continues! I managed to get Shar-Teel killed twice (she's an Assassin), and Garrick and Edwin once as well. We completed the Gnoll Stronghold, the Xvart Village and did numerous trips to the temple. Notable loot: a Wand of Lightning from the Xvart Caves in the Gnoll Stronghold, although it has only six charges, and an Excellent Shortbow for Garrick. Tarnesh/FAI quests/Belts Ogre are on our radar, dunno what will follow that (anyway, the party will have to buy some ammo first... All they have is 16 bolts I think).
Once I had enlisted Edwin and Viconia we headed west to perform a minor quest for a foreigner visiting th FAI. The quest was "T'was a Slow Boat from Kara-Tur." Maybe it was minor, but it was certainly dangerous. The first major problem was a golem who seriously weakened us. We had to use the majority of our extra healing potions to defeat it. We proceeded onwards and met a host of mages and sirenes. We had protection from charm which our employers had given to us. However it was a particularly virulent poison that brought our adventure to a premature end.
However, I have thought of tactics to use in my next incarnation that will not involve as much risk. Of course a shorty would have had more resistance to the poison, but I wanted to play a half-orc for a change.
I am considering a solo run where the only weapons used will be non-lethal weapons such as fists. The aim is to finish the game killing as few beings as possible. If others decide to kill, that is up to them. For fists, is it better to be single weapon or double weapon? That is, do you use both fists in-game?
EDIT
I have decided to use Sword and Shield style with a sap.
Journal of Patty the Pacifist Gnome.
The guards in Candlekeep were very helpful when Shank tried to kill me.
No pause + no-reload = no chance? Caesar, dwarf berserker (update 1)
Some time ago I misled @GreenWarlock into thinking I was playing without pausing and I thought perhaps it was time to see if I could manage that for real. One possibility to make that more realistic would be to reduce game speed from 60 fps, but initially I'll have a go with a berserker where game speed shouldn't be so much of an issue.
My rules on pausing (as far as I've thought them through so far) are: 1) Autopause of any sort not allowed. 2) Pausing using the space bar is not allowed at any time (game ending offence). 3) Pausing to look at inventory / record screen / options is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (including outside visual range). 4) Pausing for dialogue is allowed, but only for normal conversation. 5) Pausing for map screen is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (exception: travel can be initiated when running away from enemies, but once map screen is open then travel is required rather than going back to the same area).
Caesar has done a little bit of work and so far I've successfully amputated my left hand to prevent it from doing its normal tap dance on the space bar . - he was caught stealing in Candlekeep as a result of not being able to run outside quick enough. He probably won't be doing that again ... - I didn't fancy trying to shoot Shoal without pausing (particularly without a proficient weapon - Caesar has long sword and 2-weapon fighting skills), so went straight to Beregost to kill Algernon for his cloak. - heading north, the ogre was hacked down to get his belt. Then some fishermen were killed for Tenya - taking Caesar to level 3. - Dushai was charmed and moved away from other villagers for disposal to get his ring.
Next stop will be Nashkel to get some improved armor.
Best of luck @Grond0 - Are you allowing heal/antidote potions, or is that not allowed your character either? Could we get a screenie of your character sheet?
I'm not expecting to use those potions, no - though I did compromise my standard rules by allowing the recruitment of Imoen (I still killed her once she'd joined up though ).
I'm not expecting to use those potions, no - though I did compromise my standard rules by allowing the recruitment of Imoen (I still killed her once she'd joined up though ).<</p>
How on earth can a good character kill Imoen? Also I see the proficiencies are in long sword. That is a VERY long sword.
After picking up the ankheg armor, Caesar went to the basilisk area, where he rapidly acquired 3 more levels - with welcome additions of 15, 14 and 15 HPs. With rage and such high HPs Mutamin was no threat and failed to damage him at all. Kirian's party was a bit more risky - particularly after Korax died quickly from a lightning bolt. However, Caesar managed to hack them all down, gaining a couple of magical long swords in the process.
At the Lighthouse I wasn't totally confident of being able to finish off 3 sirines in 10 rounds, so used a potion of clarity for protection - though 10 rounds would actually have been comfortably enough for both groups. The golems were taken down just with rage - resting between each one (I had to run into the cave during one of those to avoid a dire charm from an ambushing sirine). The constitution tome there provides Caesar with regeneration to help keep HPs high.
After killing Silke back in Beregost, only a few thousand XP were needed to get to level 7, so Caesar hunted down the wolf pack in the temple area - picking up another 13 HPs there. At that level he felt confident of his ability to smack down Greywolf for his sword and Meilum for his bracers (and his confidence proved justified).
The main encounters in the Cloud Peaks yielded a bit more XP and some reputation - rounding that off by sorting out the Doomsayer.
In the same area Caesar was slow to make use of rage and had to save against a rigid thinking from Laryssa.
After playing a lot with arcane characters recently I decided the ankhegs were due for a good kicking - and Caesar duly obliged, taking just one minor hit while clearing the nest.
With reputation up to 19 Caesar ventured into the Nashkel Mine and rapidly worked down to Mulahey. Unsurprisingly, he was no match for a berserk attack.
Outside, the Amazons fared no better - also failing to do any damage.
Nimbul would have needed a lot more mirror images to stand up to the assault on him. Before going on to Tranzig Caesar did some shopping now that his reputation had hit its maximum.
Even though there have been a few little mistakes, progress so far has generally been pretty easy - I would expect that to continue next at the Bandit Camp .
Of all melee classes, I think the berserker is the strongest (for solo play). He is far less dependent on potion/scroll buffs than other melee classes, and has no heavy armor restrictions unlike the Kensai. So makes sense progress would be easy. Assuming you play carefully Grond0 (I know BIG assumption...), wouldn't expect you to have any significant issues until ToB.
At the Bandit Camp Caesar slaughtered his way to the main tent - picking up some better plate armour from Taurgosz on the way. After resting to heal up he raged and went inside - easily finishing off the opponents at the cost of suffering a couple of acid arrows.
His Ring of Free Action meant there were no risks while wandering through the Cloakwood to the Mine. There, he charmed Genthore and had him killed for attacking Kysus. A couple of fireballs from out of sight then killed the mages before Drasus tried (and failed) to get revenge.
Inside the mine Caesar got his final BG1 level while bypassing Hareishan - 13 more HPs taking him over his century. Downstairs, a single rage disposed of both battle horrors before a potion of magic blocking allowed him to hunt down Davaeorn for minimal damage.
Outside the Mine Caesar dodged Rill before returning to Beregost where a spot of murder and theft ensured he picked up Bhaal horror as an ability. Donations at the Temple and a quest or two were topped off by returning to Rill to put reputation back up to 20.
In the City Caesar picked up the tomes without any problems (convincing Larze to go on a wild goose chase during that). He found the Helm of Balduran before also seeking out the Cloak (I don't normally bother with that, but the extra AC is more important this time due to the lessened mobility resulting from no pausing) - running in and out of Degrodel's house in order to break the guards up into manageable chunks. With resources being plentiful Caesar decided to use a PfM scroll at the Iron Throne - he again broke up opponents by using the stairs.
At Candlekeep Caesar left the Iron Throne leaders alone on the way to loot the catacombs. Another PfM scroll was used there to deal with Prat's gang, topped up by a PfP scroll for the basilisks.
Back in Baldur's Gate Caesar used the tomes and realised he hadn't yet picked the one up from Durlag's Tower - so took a quick side trip there. That proved a mistake though when he couldn't resist using a couple of potions to kill the basilisks. He had raged before cutting down the final greater basilisk and should have had enough time to go and get the tome after that with rage active. However, his icon had hung up on the thief there after his dialogue and wasted a worrying amount of time and I was aware that his rage must be coming to an end, but took the risk of opening the trapped container anyway - and yes rage did end approx 0.00001 seconds before opening it and Caesar's dwarven saving throws proved inadequate to the challenge .
That's actually a fairly typical way of finishing a run for me, which I wasn't expecting - I did far better than I feared in keeping my hands off the pause key (though there was one mis-click with the mouse that paused the game with the clockwork button, which should really have been a game ender though I forgot to put that in my initial rules). I'll have another go at that in the not too distant future to see if Caesar can get into BG2.
Of all melee classes, I think the berserker is the strongest (for solo play). He is far less dependent on potion/scroll buffs than other melee classes, and has no heavy armor restrictions unlike the Kensai. So makes sense progress would be easy. Assuming you play carefully Grond0 (I know BIG assumption...), wouldn't expect you to have any significant issues until ToB.
I'd probably vote barbarian (considering by "melee classes" you don't include any kind of spellcasting ability). Simply because that Rage fatigue berserker suffers from can be a game-ending problem in longer battles. Then again, if one can solo a kensai, berserker should be fairly adequate as well....
Of all melee classes, I think the berserker is the strongest (for solo play). He is far less dependent on potion/scroll buffs than other melee classes, and has no heavy armor restrictions unlike the Kensai. So makes sense progress would be easy. Assuming you play carefully Grond0 (I know BIG assumption...), wouldn't expect you to have any significant issues until ToB.
I'd probably vote barbarian (considering by "melee classes" you don't include any kind of spellcasting ability). Simply because that Rage fatigue berserker suffers from can be a game-ending problem in longer battles. Then again, if one can solo a kensai, berserker should be fairly adequate as well....
Also, being able to get 23 STR (considering you're a Half-Orc) since level one helps a lot to open locks, besides once you get DUHM you can get 25 STR with two daily-use abilities.
I'd agree with the benefits of the barbarian for standard play. For no-pause though I thought the berserker was probably superior due to the difficulty of mitigating the poorer AC of the barbarian without the ability to control movement so well (and the need to remember to refresh rage after 5 rounds).
Of all melee classes, I think the berserker is the strongest (for solo play). He is far less dependent on potion/scroll buffs than other melee classes, and has no heavy armor restrictions unlike the Kensai. So makes sense progress would be easy. Assuming you play carefully Grond0 (I know BIG assumption...), wouldn't expect you to have any significant issues until ToB.
I'd probably vote barbarian (considering by "melee classes" you don't include any kind of spellcasting ability). Simply because that Rage fatigue berserker suffers from can be a game-ending problem in longer battles. Then again, if one can solo a kensai, berserker should be fairly adequate as well....
For longer battles you don't rely on enrage, you use these things called potions and scrolls...granted the barabarian speed can be useful in many situations, but sometimes you can't run, and in those cases, the berserker full plate is superior.
From a practical point of view, they might be equally strong.
However, if a player did 10 solo berserker runs, and then 10 solo barbarian runs, I think you would see the berserker runs did better. That's my estimate, anyways.
Of all melee classes, I think the berserker is the strongest (for solo play). He is far less dependent on potion/scroll buffs than other melee classes, and has no heavy armor restrictions unlike the Kensai. So makes sense progress would be easy. Assuming you play carefully Grond0 (I know BIG assumption...), wouldn't expect you to have any significant issues until ToB.
I'd probably vote barbarian (considering by "melee classes" you don't include any kind of spellcasting ability). Simply because that Rage fatigue berserker suffers from can be a game-ending problem in longer battles. Then again, if one can solo a kensai, berserker should be fairly adequate as well....
For longer battles you don't rely on enrage, you use these things called potions and scrolls...granted the barabarian speed can be useful in many situations, but sometimes you can't run, and in those cases, the berserker full plate is superior.
From a practical point of view, they might be equally strong.
However, if a player did 10 solo berserker runs, and then 10 solo barbarian runs, I think you would see the berserker runs did better. That's my estimate, anyways.
I agree. But I think that Aasims asumption was that potions was a no go - his post was a remark to Grond0's. If so you're both right as I see it.
No I dont want deaths galore. I want you all to succed and world peace. Until then reading about the exploits (and many many deaths of the no reloaders) is a good way to pass time.
Your wild mage runs are great. I hope that a cow surge will play a part... either game ending or game winning. Beating Mel with a cow in a no reload would be epic. Best of luck - I am afraid youre gonna need it
A crash at the end of the previous session meant we'd lost the work done to defeat sirines and golems at the Lighthouse area. However, as that was a week ago it didn't feel like a problem to redo that.
Gnoria took the tome in order to get her regeneration going.
A quick tour of some reputation quests included the mine-site, where the Doomsayer was badly wounded by Sodof's spells before Gnoria attacked to complete it's dismantling.
In the same area we accidentally attacked Brage (after he was annoyed by Laryssa's death) and missed out on a potential reputation gain there. However, rep was soon up to 20 anyway and a trip to Ulgoth's Beard was only briefly delayed by demonstrating to some ankhegs the dangers of not attacking in melee against someone wielding a big sword!
Moving on to the main quest, Mulahey was prompted to call for help by a bombardment of skull traps. It didn't take long to deal with his army though and a near-dead Mulahey was not in a good position to resist an enraged barbarian.
Outside the mine it was a similar story for the Amazons.
Nimbul was kind enough to offer Sodof a familiar before Tranzig pointed the way to the Bandit Camp. Melee and sleep made short work of the bandits there, though Taurgosz got to play with some acid arrows and magic missiles in addition. With no invisibility spell at this stage Sodof stayed outside initially while Gnoria attacked. He joined in the combat after Venkt had used his horror spell up and helped finish the opponents off, though in the meantime Gnoria had been badly injured.
In the Cloakwood Gnoria wanted to upgrade his 2-handed sword with Spider's Bane and nipping in and out of Centeol's lair split the spider-kin into manageable chunks - though he did need a slow poison at one point.
Arriving at the Mine 3 skull traps killed the mages and left Gnoria with an easy job to clean up the fighters.
Inside the mine Hareishan was bypassed - Sodof doing a good job with a sleep spell to make entry to the next level easy.
On the bottom level Sodof accidentally activated both battle horrors at once. Looking for a quick kill he tried a wand scorcher - that worked well on the horrors, although the targeting problems with that in MP resulted in Gnoria being badly wounded as well.
Undaunted though she used a potion of magic blocking to hunt down Davaeorn.
In the City the tomes were safely secured along with the Helm and Cloak of Balduran - Degrodel's guards being split up for the latter, but still hitting Gnoria quite hard. Sodof's only use of his breath attack in the session came when climbing the tower - surprisingly that was properly targeted this time.
Gnoria also inherited some new boots from Lothander, though she probably won't wear them much while wielding Spider's Bane.
After uncovering some dopplegangers the final bit of work for the session was investigating the Iron Throne. We tend not to use protections there, but this time Gnoria used both a scroll of PfM and a potion of invulnerability. That allowed her to resist her attackers for the relatively short time needed for Sodof's skull traps to help whittle them down.
I actually, I rarely do wild mage runs - Grond0 has done more than 100 of them himself. But I can't remember wild mage party before so thought I would give it a go (other than the duo of Grond0/Gate70 who were both wild mages). But thanks - and yes I will need luck - I am not expecting to succeed, since I cast spells just like I would if I were a normal mage, but will take the luck nevertheless.
That's gonna be the name of today's session of Alia's Journey™. I got Edwin killed twice, and Tiax and Garrick once each. Worth exactly 1800gp in Raise Dead, just in this session. I think everyone got at least one level up anyway.
The first target of our party's exploits was Bassilus. I had Edwin go ahead on a suicide mission and Blind him, which succeeded, but he casted Heal on himself and Edwin got killed by the Skeletons as planned. As fast as I could, I had Alia drink a potion of Invisibility and use Turn Undead against the Skeletons (which worked nicely). Tiax summoned his Ghast and threw zillions of Darts, Kagain went on to melee Bassilus while Garrick interrupted his spellcasting with the Wand of MMs and his bow. Have absolutely no clue how but with that strategy we managed to kill Bassilus (he saved against every single one of the Ghast's on-hit Hold). We also returned Melicamp to his Humanoid form, although I believe there must be a bug or something in my install, because on my last I think five runs it always worked. Or I might just be terribly lucky which I highly doubt. I used the money the Priest of Lathander rewarded us with to buy Kagain an Axe +1.
Our next target was Barge/the Doomsayer. The first time, everything went wrong. Terribly wrong. I had Kagain drink a Potion of Heroism and use his Rage to kill the Doomsayer, but it was nowhere to be found. We killed around 30 Tasloi looking for it, and by the time we found it we had no Blindness, Edwin had been killed by the Kobold Commandos and Kagain's Rage had run out, so we had to run away. But of course, I didn't, and I had Kagain engage, just to get him run away in fear, with 7hp and an Oil of Speed. At the same time, Garrick died to some War Dogs, and the Doomsayer killed Tiax and went after Alia. Kagain lured the Gnolls in the area and almost gets himself killed, so Alia run away to Barge with the Doomsayer chasing her. Alia talked to Barge, which means a free escape off to Nashkel. I am not sure what happened to Barge's cursed sword, but I didn't get it, no clue of what happened there. The Goon Squad's next target was obvious: the Doomsayer. They only stand for one wish—Revenge!
The second time, I was a bit more prepared. We finished off all the Gnolls, some more Tasloi and went out to look for the Doomsayer. As soon as we spotted it, Edwin used Blindness, and it was super effective! I had Alia go after it, while I buffed Kagain on the run. The Doomsayer stopped running on the place that was going to be it's tomb. By the time it stopped, Kagain had taken a Potion of Defense, another Potion of Heroism (although I drank the potion after using Rage which meant he lost the extra HP from Rage. Good ol' HP percent engine bug), another Oil of Speed, and had been buffed with Aid, Bless and Chant. The result was the meanest level 3 killing machine in the world. Because Level1NPCs lets you put all 4 proficiency points into one weapon, I did that with Kagain, which resulted in him having Grandmastery at level 3. And to this, add Garrick's Ballad of the Three Heroes (which gives +1 to combat stats, from the IWDification mod) Bard song, he had 7 THAC0 and -5 AC, plus the -6 vs. Slashing modifier from the Golden Griddle and his Plate armour. In short, the Doomsayer couldn't even hit Kagain with a 19, and Kagain could hit even on an 11. This gave Tiax his 3rd Priest level and Edwin his 3rd level as an Abjurer.
The party went to High Hedge for some Scroll shopping. This drained our gold to around 250gp, but we got Horror, Mirror Image and Resist Fear for Edwin (I always have him use at least one of his spellslots of each level for a spell of his main school. I know PfP and Resist Fear are practically useless but they're the best Abjuration spells of level 1-2 I've got) and Detect Invisible and Invisibility for Garrick. Here I fell to an old rule I used when I played BG2 for the first time. After I rest at an Inn, the party has 100% chance to learn spells. It's cheesy, but Garrick has only 55% (which means like 35% or so because of how flawed spell learning chance is) and I don't have more gold to spend on scrolls.
Edit: Notable loot: Adisheena+2, Algernon's Cloak (apparently I already had it but realised so just now, I had Tiax pickpocket it a long time ago), an Amulet of Shield and I forgot to mention this before, but at some point I got Tiax the Heart of the Golem+2 although he never used it except just once.
Comments
I think that the subtle docter is far too modest.
Here is the mod name plus a few details about it. Part of the read-me:NPCs Enhanced... um, for Everyone! (a.k.a. NPC_EE)
Author: Duns Scotus, the SubtleDoctor
Version 2.5
Languages: English
Platforms: Windows, Mac OS X
Overview
This is intended to be a successor to the fantastic "Level 1 NPCs" mod. L1NPCs was never updated for the EE games, and its author is no longer active, and it is an incredible, complicated piece of work that is difficult for someone else to update. So I made this. It's not as complete as L1NPCs, and my techniques are not as sophisticated. But it aims to reach a similar result: add replayability by allowing players to easily change the class and kit of various NPCs, thus creating different parties with different tactics, for different playthroughs
In application, this kind of pales in comparison to Level 1 NPCs, but it should at least let you spice things up a bit. And it has one real advantage: you can change the kits of every NPC in every playthrough *in-game,* without going back out to Weidu to uninstall/reinstall a mod.
The way this works is, during installation you can change the *class* of various NPCs. Some only have one alternate class, some have more than one, and some don't have any option to change. This is based on the in-game lore; e.g. Xan is a spellcaster with a Moonblade; that could work as a mage, but also as a fighter/mage or a bard or a sorcerer. Conversely, Jaheira is a druid, she talks all the time about being a druid, and so there is no option to make her anything other than a druid.
Once you have decided which class to give each NPC, you have the option to give all of them (even those you didn't change, and including mod NPCs) a special innate ability that you can use in-game to add or change their kit. This is a single-use ability, so choose wisely! This ability will trigger a dialogue that gives you the option to adopt any kit for that class... this includes any and all mod kits that you may have installed. Turn Mazzy into a Dwarven Defender! Make Keldorn a Blackguard! Make Minsc a fighter in the Weidu install, and then use this ability to make him a Barbarian! (Barbarian is actually, technically, a fighter kit.)
The reason I split up the class changes and kit changes is simple: Weidu installation code is static, and there are only a certain number of class in the game; no mod can add new ones. On the other hand, you can install hundreds of kits into the game; this mod automatically detects all of them and makes all of them available. You can't do that in the Weidu installer, you have to do it in-game. Yes, it breaks the 4th wall very slightly, but it is the only way to achieve that kind of flexibility. It means that this mod can automatically adapt to and work with every other kit mod you can possibly install.
To make it, he needs a Lynx eye gem, a scoll of charm protection and 500 gold pieces or similar. A Lynx eye gem is found at Winthrop's and there are plenty around if you have item randomiser installed.
Alternatively he could add charm protection to one of the ioun stones that he sells.
A possible solution is adding the effect to the cloak of Algernon
Alia's journey continues! I managed to get Shar-Teel killed twice (she's an Assassin), and Garrick and Edwin once as well. We completed the Gnoll Stronghold, the Xvart Village and did numerous trips to the temple. Notable loot: a Wand of Lightning from the Xvart Caves in the Gnoll Stronghold, although it has only six charges, and an Excellent Shortbow for Garrick. Tarnesh/FAI quests/Belts Ogre are on our radar, dunno what will follow that (anyway, the party will have to buy some ammo first... All they have is 16 bolts I think).
Final entry.
Once I had enlisted Edwin and Viconia we headed west to perform a minor quest for a foreigner visiting th FAI. The quest was "T'was a Slow Boat from Kara-Tur." Maybe it was minor, but it was certainly dangerous. The first major problem was a golem who seriously weakened us. We had to use the majority of our extra healing potions to defeat it.
We proceeded onwards and met a host of mages and sirenes. We had protection from charm which our employers had given to us. However it was a particularly virulent poison that brought our adventure to a premature end.
However, I have thought of tactics to use in my next incarnation that will not involve as much risk.
Of course a shorty would have had more resistance to the poison, but I wanted to play a half-orc for a change.
EDIT
I have decided to use Sword and Shield style with a sap.Journal of Patty the Pacifist Gnome.
The guards in Candlekeep were very helpful when Shank tried to kill me.Caesar, dwarf berserker (update 1)
Some time ago I misled @GreenWarlock into thinking I was playing without pausing and I thought perhaps it was time to see if I could manage that for real. One possibility to make that more realistic would be to reduce game speed from 60 fps, but initially I'll have a go with a berserker where game speed shouldn't be so much of an issue.
My rules on pausing (as far as I've thought them through so far) are:
1) Autopause of any sort not allowed.
2) Pausing using the space bar is not allowed at any time (game ending offence).
3) Pausing to look at inventory / record screen / options is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (including outside visual range).
4) Pausing for dialogue is allowed, but only for normal conversation.
5) Pausing for map screen is allowed outside combat, but not if any enemies are active (exception: travel can be initiated when running away from enemies, but once map screen is open then travel is required rather than going back to the same area).
Caesar has done a little bit of work and so far I've successfully amputated my left hand to prevent it from doing its normal tap dance on the space bar
- he was caught stealing in Candlekeep as a result of not being able to run outside quick enough. He probably won't be doing that again ...
- I didn't fancy trying to shoot Shoal without pausing (particularly without a proficient weapon - Caesar has long sword and 2-weapon fighting skills), so went straight to Beregost to kill Algernon for his cloak.
- heading north, the ogre was hacked down to get his belt. Then some fishermen were killed for Tenya - taking Caesar to level 3.
- Dushai was charmed and moved away from other villagers for disposal to get his ring.
Next stop will be Nashkel to get some improved armor.
Caesar, dwarf berserker (update 2)
Previous updates:
After picking up the ankheg armor, Caesar went to the basilisk area, where he rapidly acquired 3 more levels - with welcome additions of 15, 14 and 15 HPs. With rage and such high HPs Mutamin was no threat and failed to damage him at all. Kirian's party was a bit more risky - particularly after Korax died quickly from a lightning bolt. However, Caesar managed to hack them all down, gaining a couple of magical long swords in the process.
At the Lighthouse I wasn't totally confident of being able to finish off 3 sirines in 10 rounds, so used a potion of clarity for protection - though 10 rounds would actually have been comfortably enough for both groups. The golems were taken down just with rage - resting between each one (I had to run into the cave during one of those to avoid a dire charm from an ambushing sirine). The constitution tome there provides Caesar with regeneration to help keep HPs high.
After killing Silke back in Beregost, only a few thousand XP were needed to get to level 7, so Caesar hunted down the wolf pack in the temple area - picking up another 13 HPs there. At that level he felt confident of his ability to smack down Greywolf for his sword and Meilum for his bracers (and his confidence proved justified).
The main encounters in the Cloud Peaks yielded a bit more XP and some reputation - rounding that off by sorting out the Doomsayer.
After playing a lot with arcane characters recently I decided the ankhegs were due for a good kicking - and Caesar duly obliged, taking just one minor hit while clearing the nest.
With reputation up to 19 Caesar ventured into the Nashkel Mine and rapidly worked down to Mulahey. Unsurprisingly, he was no match for a berserk attack.
Nimbul would have needed a lot more mirror images to stand up to the assault on him. Before going on to Tranzig Caesar did some shopping now that his reputation had hit its maximum.
Even though there have been a few little mistakes, progress so far has generally been pretty easy - I would expect that to continue next at the Bandit Camp
Caesar, dwarf berserker (3rd and final update)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/853385/#Comment_853385
At the Bandit Camp Caesar slaughtered his way to the main tent - picking up some better plate armour from Taurgosz on the way. After resting to heal up he raged and went inside - easily finishing off the opponents at the cost of suffering a couple of acid arrows.
His Ring of Free Action meant there were no risks while wandering through the Cloakwood to the Mine. There, he charmed Genthore and had him killed for attacking Kysus. A couple of fireballs from out of sight then killed the mages before Drasus tried (and failed) to get revenge.
Inside the mine Caesar got his final BG1 level while bypassing Hareishan - 13 more HPs taking him over his century. Downstairs, a single rage disposed of both battle horrors before a potion of magic blocking allowed him to hunt down Davaeorn for minimal damage.
Outside the Mine Caesar dodged Rill before returning to Beregost where a spot of murder and theft ensured he picked up Bhaal horror as an ability. Donations at the Temple and a quest or two were topped off by returning to Rill to put reputation back up to 20.
In the City Caesar picked up the tomes without any problems (convincing Larze to go on a wild goose chase during that). He found the Helm of Balduran before also seeking out the Cloak (I don't normally bother with that, but the extra AC is more important this time due to the lessened mobility resulting from no pausing) - running in and out of Degrodel's house in order to break the guards up into manageable chunks. With resources being plentiful Caesar decided to use a PfM scroll at the Iron Throne - he again broke up opponents by using the stairs.
At Candlekeep Caesar left the Iron Throne leaders alone on the way to loot the catacombs. Another PfM scroll was used there to deal with Prat's gang, topped up by a PfP scroll for the basilisks.
Back in Baldur's Gate Caesar used the tomes and realised he hadn't yet picked the one up from Durlag's Tower - so took a quick side trip there. That proved a mistake though when he couldn't resist using a couple of potions to kill the basilisks. He had raged before cutting down the final greater basilisk and should have had enough time to go and get the tome after that with rage active. However, his icon had hung up on the thief there after his dialogue and wasted a worrying amount of time and I was aware that his rage must be coming to an end, but took the risk of opening the trapped container anyway - and yes rage did end approx 0.00001 seconds before opening it and Caesar's dwarven saving throws proved inadequate to the challenge
That's actually a fairly typical way of finishing a run for me, which I wasn't expecting - I did far better than I feared in keeping my hands off the pause key (though there was one mis-click with the mouse that paused the game with the clockwork button, which should really have been a game ender though I forgot to put that in my initial rules). I'll have another go at that in the not too distant future to see if Caesar can get into BG2.
Simply because that Rage fatigue berserker suffers from can be a game-ending problem in longer battles.
Then again, if one can solo a kensai, berserker should be fairly adequate as well....
Well, for BG1 and most of BG2 probably berserker is better; being able to equip a full plate in BG1 is a huge advantage he gets over the barbarian.
From a practical point of view, they might be equally strong.
However, if a player did 10 solo berserker runs, and then 10 solo barbarian runs, I think you would see the berserker runs did better. That's my estimate, anyways.
But enough splitting of hair. Gather your parties and venture forth.. I look forward to more tales of new beginnings and untimely deaths
Your wild mage runs are great. I hope that a cow surge will play a part... either game ending or game winning. Beating Mel with a cow in a no reload would be epic. Best of luck - I am afraid youre gonna need it
Sodof, elf dragon disciple (Grond0) & Gnoria, half-orc barbarian (Gate70)
Previous updates:
A crash at the end of the previous session meant we'd lost the work done to defeat sirines and golems at the Lighthouse area. However, as that was a week ago it didn't feel like a problem to redo that.
A quick tour of some reputation quests included the mine-site, where the Doomsayer was badly wounded by Sodof's spells before Gnoria attacked to complete it's dismantling.
Moving on to the main quest, Mulahey was prompted to call for help by a bombardment of skull traps. It didn't take long to deal with his army though and a near-dead Mulahey was not in a good position to resist an enraged barbarian.
Nimbul was kind enough to offer Sodof a familiar before Tranzig pointed the way to the Bandit Camp. Melee and sleep made short work of the bandits there, though Taurgosz got to play with some acid arrows and magic missiles in addition. With no invisibility spell at this stage Sodof stayed outside initially while Gnoria attacked. He joined in the combat after Venkt had used his horror spell up and helped finish the opponents off, though in the meantime Gnoria had been badly injured.
In the Cloakwood Gnoria wanted to upgrade his 2-handed sword with Spider's Bane and nipping in and out of Centeol's lair split the spider-kin into manageable chunks - though he did need a slow poison at one point.
Inside the mine Hareishan was bypassed - Sodof doing a good job with a sleep spell to make entry to the next level easy.
In the City the tomes were safely secured along with the Helm and Cloak of Balduran - Degrodel's guards being split up for the latter, but still hitting Gnoria quite hard. Sodof's only use of his breath attack in the session came when climbing the tower - surprisingly that was properly targeted this time.
After uncovering some dopplegangers the final bit of work for the session was investigating the Iron Throne. We tend not to use protections there, but this time Gnoria used both a scroll of PfM and a potion of invulnerability. That allowed her to resist her attackers for the relatively short time needed for Sodof's skull traps to help whittle them down.
Sodof, dragon disciple 8, 62 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar), 107 kills
Gnoria, barbarian 7, 89 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 223 kills, 0 deaths
The first target of our party's exploits was Bassilus. I had Edwin go ahead on a suicide mission and Blind him, which succeeded, but he casted Heal on himself and Edwin got killed by the Skeletons as planned. As fast as I could, I had Alia drink a potion of Invisibility and use Turn Undead against the Skeletons (which worked nicely). Tiax summoned his Ghast and threw zillions of Darts, Kagain went on to melee Bassilus while Garrick interrupted his spellcasting with the Wand of MMs and his bow. Have absolutely no clue how but with that strategy we managed to kill Bassilus (he saved against every single one of the Ghast's on-hit Hold). We also returned Melicamp to his Humanoid form, although I believe there must be a bug or something in my install, because on my last I think five runs it always worked. Or I might just be terribly lucky which I highly doubt. I used the money the Priest of Lathander rewarded us with to buy Kagain an Axe +1.
Our next target was Barge/the Doomsayer. The first time, everything went wrong. Terribly wrong. I had Kagain drink a Potion of Heroism and use his Rage to kill the Doomsayer, but it was nowhere to be found. We killed around 30 Tasloi looking for it, and by the time we found it we had no Blindness, Edwin had been killed by the Kobold Commandos and Kagain's Rage had run out, so we had to run away. But of course, I didn't, and I had Kagain engage, just to get him run away in fear, with 7hp and an Oil of Speed. At the same time, Garrick died to some War Dogs, and the Doomsayer killed Tiax and went after Alia. Kagain lured the Gnolls in the area and almost gets himself killed, so Alia run away to Barge with the Doomsayer chasing her. Alia talked to Barge, which means a free escape off to Nashkel. I am not sure what happened to Barge's cursed sword, but I didn't get it, no clue of what happened there. The Goon Squad's next target was obvious: the Doomsayer. They only stand for one wish—Revenge!
The second time, I was a bit more prepared. We finished off all the Gnolls, some more Tasloi and went out to look for the Doomsayer. As soon as we spotted it, Edwin used Blindness, and it was super effective! I had Alia go after it, while I buffed Kagain on the run. The Doomsayer stopped running on the place that was going to be it's tomb. By the time it stopped, Kagain had taken a Potion of Defense, another Potion of Heroism (although I drank the potion after using Rage which meant he lost the extra HP from Rage. Good ol' HP percent engine bug), another Oil of Speed, and had been buffed with Aid, Bless and Chant. The result was the meanest level 3 killing machine in the world. Because Level1NPCs lets you put all 4 proficiency points into one weapon, I did that with Kagain, which resulted in him having Grandmastery at level 3. And to this, add Garrick's Ballad of the Three Heroes (which gives +1 to combat stats, from the IWDification mod) Bard song, he had 7 THAC0 and -5 AC, plus the -6 vs. Slashing modifier from the Golden Griddle and his Plate armour. In short, the Doomsayer couldn't even hit Kagain with a 19, and Kagain could hit even on an 11. This gave Tiax his 3rd Priest level and Edwin his 3rd level as an Abjurer.
The party went to High Hedge for some Scroll shopping. This drained our gold to around 250gp, but we got Horror, Mirror Image and Resist Fear for Edwin (I always have him use at least one of his spellslots of each level for a spell of his main school. I know PfP and Resist Fear are practically useless but they're the best Abjuration spells of level 1-2 I've got) and Detect Invisible and Invisibility for Garrick. Here I fell to an old rule I used when I played BG2 for the first time. After I rest at an Inn, the party has 100% chance to learn spells. It's cheesy, but Garrick has only 55% (which means like 35% or so because of how flawed spell learning chance is) and I don't have more gold to spend on scrolls.
Edit: Notable loot: Adisheena+2, Algernon's Cloak (apparently I already had it but realised so just now, I had Tiax pickpocket it a long time ago), an Amulet of Shield and I forgot to mention this before, but at some point I got Tiax the Heart of the Golem+2 although he never used it except just once.