Disc corruption meant a new installation. Game unmodded apart from ability to give a kit to multiclassed PCs. Played at hard. Maybe play insane later just to discover how insane it is. Up until now I have usually played Core.
Starting with a couple of humans who are clearly brothers. One has particularly high strength and charisma and is an Inquisitor called Grimbold the Strong. The other has particularly high wisdom and intelligence and is a lawful good Priest of Helm called Grimwald the Red. (The inquisitor was rolled one or two months ago and is the strongest paladin that I have ever rolled, whilst Grimwald the Red was rolled this week.)
EDIT
Forgot to mention that I added some containers for convenience.
So far I only faced one near death situation against Tarnesh, but even after two magic missiles, sleep, horror, a hit from his staff and an acid arrow I survived against all odds (I thought I had died the most meme-death considering what I said in the OP of the poll I did). I also got the killing blow on Tarnesh, the poor guy. I got level 3 from killing Neira/doing all the quests in Beregost and FAI and killing a couple of random spawns. From selling all the loot I've been finding I have around 7.2k after buying level 2 spells (Mirror Image and Strength). I got 12 extra hp from the Ferret familiar, and it's currently carrying around some of my stuff as well I think. Her proficiencies are Darts+++, Long Sword+ and Sword and Shield Style+. I think using shields is a good idea just because this character is horrible when it comes to defence.
The superb six descended to the depths of the Dragon's Eye and reclaimed the Hearthstone Gem. Quite an interesting adversary, with the final levels posing a fair challenge. Looking forward to the incorporation of some of these areas into EET. Kulyok's NPCs are alright but they have an interesting tendency to banter mid-combat!
@ussnorway , Nobody appreciates a good viola joke more than a violist.
-How are a violist's fingers like lightning? They both never strike the same place twice. -How do you get two viola players to play in tune? Shoot one.
I could make the list longer, but I don't want to get the thread off-topic.
Nice to meet a fellow violist who also likes Baldur's Gate. In all the years I've read your no-reload posts, starting back at Bioware, I never knew we had the viola in common.
I haven't been following the no-reloads since November, but the new thread title drew my attention. Is there a fellow viola player in here nowadays?
I assume you have a joke to tell at my expense so go ahead and get it over with... welcome back btw
He is clearly refering to the reference at the top of this page. "Alto Clef, the .... err... alto Bard (+2 against tenor NPCs)" The alto clef is sometimes used for the instrument that my wife plays too, (Played would be more accurate) the bassoon.
The Journal of Grimwald and Grimbold, adherants of Helm.
After leaving Candlekeep, we killed a bear near the site of the ambush. We headed east where we picked up a ring before killing a wolf. It hurt us far more than the bear!
To the north, we cleared the area of hobgoblins and killed Tarnesh. (True sight and command proved invaluable.)
Heading north we agreed to help Sonner, but upon learning that they served talos, we changed our alliegance.
(We also changed the game setting to insane since the Hard setting seemed the same as Core. Even insane doesn't appear to be much harder. Of course this is vanilla. The mods that were installed probably made my previous set-up harder.)
After helping Tenya, we killed an ankheg before returning to the FAI.
We killed those who stole Perdue's sword, and tried to help Mellicamp. Sadly however he died.
We then rested at Beregost before heading south. We killed some ogrillon and three rather officious Flaming Fist. We were hurt, but now that we have their armour, we are much safer. We returned to Beregost for R & R and delivered a letter for which we were well rewarded.
We then travelled to Nashkel picking up the Colquetle Amulet on the way. At Nashkel I gained the ability to heal and we had a prolonged chat with Noober before heading south where we killed Greywolf. Sadly Prism died and we took his emeralds to Oublek.
Upon returning to Beregost, we killed an ogre and gained a couple of belts.
@ussnorway , Nobody appreciates a good viola joke more than a violist.
-How are a violist's fingers like lightning? They both never strike the same place twice. -How do you get two viola players to play in tune? Shoot one.
I could make the list longer, but I don't want to get the thread off-topic.
Nice to meet a fellow violist who also likes Baldur's Gate. In all the years I've read your no-reload posts, starting back at Bioware, I never knew we had the viola in common.
I want to see character build discussions on which *INSTRUMENT* a bard should specialize on for a no-reload run.
The Jester should clearly do the Tuba. And, based on the latest Mad Max, we need a bard kit resembling a Dragon Disciple that wields a flaming guitar:
Legacy of Bhaal Genocide Run: Carl the Llama in BG2 (first post here)
SIEGE OF UST NATHA: PART 9
I can't believe how long it's taken to get this fight posted. The first post on the Siege of Ust Natha was in January, and I am just now getting to the final 3-6 posts.
All the bugs that plagued me before have now been fixed or evaded. The real fight is now.
A brief overview of our tactics for those who have forgotten, with a brief explanation of how to replicate most of them without using exploits:
- Carl, our sorcerer (level 33-34), summons Planetars, which erroneously ignore the summoning cap. Project Image or the right mod can replicate this bug. - Edwin summons Fallen Planetars, which do not have the healing powers of a normal Planetar. - Carl casts Wish constantly, which erroneously cannot be cast during Time Stop lest the djinn talk-block each other. Carl uses the Wand of Lightning to increase the chance of Wish-rests. Bringing an extra sorcerer into the party would have replicated the effect of the Wand of Lightning trick. - Edwin uses the Bigby's Crushing Hand trick (and sometimes Comet) to give Carl extra level 9 spell slots via Spell Trap. This is very strong but takes many rounds and leaves both Carl and Edwin vulnerable. The most recent version of Spell Revisions closed this exploit by making Spell Trap deflect 99 spells instead of absorbing 30, and Comet isn't supposed to be party-unfriendly. Without Spell Revisions, a level 35 sorcerer could still get infinite spells using a Simulacrum clone. - Our Simulacrum clones can use HLAs like Dragon's Breath, which are once-per-day innates in my install. A different install would allow multiple castings as level 9 spells. - Flowey, our Seducer (level 50), tanks the enemy using Item Revisions' drow full plate (30% damage resistance), a borrowed Earth Elemental Token (50% damage resistance), IR's Fortress Shield (10% damage resistance), and 10% more from some other item, adding up to 100% damage resistance. The current version of the Seducer kit can no longer do this due to not getting Use Any Item, but a Fighter/Druid can still stack Hardiness and Armor of Faith with Earth Elemental form to achieve 100% damage resistance for 10 rounds at a time. Barbarians and Dwarven Defenders can do the same. - Flowey can disable multiple drow, bypassing their magic resistance, using Domination, an area-effect charm spell. The current version of the Seducer kit can't do this exactly; it now uses an area-effect Feeblemind spell. - Stan, our Totemic Druid (level 30-something), and Viconia (level 30-something), spam Storm of Vengeance to get past the drow's MR and also summon Fallen Devas constantly. Unfortunately, Fallen Devas lack the healing spells that normal Devas get in SR. - We use a room to the northwest as a sanctuary room, with the nearby stairs serving as a checkpoint. Most enemies spawn outside that room, which reduces enemy pressure somewhat and keeps Carl away from the fray. - Carl can attack with Dragon's Breath, Comet, and Energy Blades during Wish Time Stops, using SR's Dimension Jump to teleport around the map during Time Stop and return to his sanctuary before time returns to normal. -
We begin with our standard plan: Carl stays in our sanctuary room casting Wish and other defensive and summoning spells while the rest of the party moves around the area as needed to engage the enemy.
Carl has huge offensive power thanks to Dragon's Breath, but since this is a no-reload run, we can't have our sorcerer too close to the fray.
The party has massive damage resistances, but it is no guarantee of successful spellcasting. Only Carl and Edwin can avoid spell disruption, and over the course of the Siege of Ust Natha, there are lots of well-buffed mages who can debuff Carl and Edwin. This means our spell power is always in danger.
With stronger preparation than normal, and plenty of celestials to grind down the enemy, we clear the map early. With no drow around, we can take a moment to fortify our position.
With this many celestials on hand, the drow are much easier to handle for our party, which only has 5 members and no fighter levels. But those celestials won't last forever. They will vanish after about 20 rounds, long before the battle is over, and if I don't keep replacing them, they could vanish at the moment we most need them.
The celestials will survive for a while, since we're still early in the fight, so Flowey is not needed on the front lines. He heads back to the sanctuary room to set up Spike Traps to protect Carl.
Each deals 70 damage on average, which isn't much in Legacy of Bhaal mode, but the Siege of Ust Natha is very much a contest of numbers, and we need to squeeze every last resource we have from our party.
Finally, more drow spawn. But we have lots of traps to weaken them. Our army of celestials will not be taxed too much.
Most of our party and most of our summons march out to engage the enemy. Meanwhile, Carl and Edwin stay in the sanctuary room, with Edwin feeding Bigby's Crushing Hand spells into Carl's Spell Trap to fuel Carl's Wish-resting. Wish-resting allows us to summon more celestials and cast more offensive HLAs.
Drow mages spawn in and approach the sanctuary. These mages are really hard to handle, because Edwin and Carl are so busy and dedicating a round to casting Pierce Shield on a mage is an expensive trade, especially since it would put them within range of the enemy's debuffers. To keep Edwin and Carl focused on long-term priorities like Wish, I have our celestials engage the drow, forming a wall in front of our sanctuary room.
Things are very low-pressure right now, giving us time to re-cast some of our buffs.
Every little bit counts in a long fight like this.
More mages appear. Flowey is highly vulnerable to spell damage, so he pulls out some potions, which cannot be dispelled in Item Revisions.
Flowey's other defenses are still quite vulnerable, however, and while we have multiple Potions of Magic Shielding, they only last 10 rounds in IR. Flowey's not completely safe.
More drow move in. Our position is in danger; we need to bring out more celestials, and since celestial summoning spells are innate spells in my install, we need a Wish-rest after every single one. Otherwise I can't summon any more.
Our wall is breaking apart, but it seems that Edwin's and Carl's Simulacrum spells have finally run out, allowing us to bring back our clones. This means one more Planetar and Fallen Planetar.
Celestials are tough, but they don't get nearly as many bonuses from LoB mode as the drow do, and IR makes drow equipment far stronger. The drow have over 300 HP apiece, plus up to 30% damage resistance, magic resistance over 70% or even 80% for some of them, and weapons that get +5 to hit and damage with an extra 1 APR, dealing double damage to the party.
And there are many more waves of drow to come. Plus some demons that cast Remove Magic, which will take down everyone's Dispelling Screen with one casting. And if Carl and Edwin don't move fast enough to restore our Dispelling Screen, Carl has a 50% chance of losing all of his buffs.
Without those buffs, Carl will certainly die. We can't let those demons come anywhere near him. And everything we do in these first few rounds will determine whether it's possible to keep Carl out of harm's way when the final wave of enemies moves in for the kill.
The Journal of Grimwald and Grimbold, adherants of Helm.
We decided to visit the lighthouse area and since Grimbold was immune to charm, he was chosen as the tank whilst I cast spells and used my sling. We quickly slew two of the attacking sirines, but Grimwald was killed before he could heal himself.
I quickly attacked whereupon the sirine became invisible. I cast true sight, but the sirine was nowhere to be seen. However a hobgoblin was, and I quickly moved in for the kill. I then came across a sirine, whether or not it was the same one, I do not know. What I do know is that I managed to kill it. After resting and healing I headed south where I came across Brage. I took him to my Temple in Nashkel and was well rewarded. It cost 600gp to raise Grimwald. We went to the carnival where I rested and healed him. Upon returning I met Laryssa and slew her before helping an archaeologist.
We then killed Gallor,
After that, our reputation was 18. We returned to the Lighthouse area and killed the remaining sirines.
We killed two flesh golems inside a cave. We should have quit while we were ahead, but upon fighting the third golem, they simultaneously killed each other.
This cost another 600 gp. That is disastrous as I had been saving up gold to buy much needed better equipment.
I am quite enjoying playing insane. Doing that makes the game a challenge without having to install mods. However the mods do make the game more interesting and varied.
We have just killed a few ankheg and returned to the FAI to recuperate. We killed four and will return after some shut-eye for Grimwald, Grimbold and myself.
After killing three more ankheg, we headed south and helped Rufie, Drienne's cat and a dryad. Reputation now up to 20. Soon time to go shopping.
@Wise_Grimwald , the bassoon uses tenor clef, not alto clef. Tenor clef puts middle C on the fourth line of the staff. Alto clef puts middle C on the third line of the staff. They're both "C clefs", though, so I guess that's what you meant.
@Wise_Grimwald , the bassoon uses tenor clef, not alto clef. Tenor clef puts middle C on the fourth line of the staff. Alto clef puts middle C on the third line of the staff. They're both "C clefs", though, so I guess that's what you meant.
You are mainly correct, but the Alto clef is also sometimes used when the top of the instrument's range is used, as this extract says:
"The bassoon has a wide range, most of which falls into the bass and tenor clefs. Bassoons are used mostly for the rich, dark tones at the bottom of their range, so bassoon players spend most of their time reading bass clef. The instrument's middle range, written in tenor clef, is powerful but somewhat pinched in tone. Bassoonists only need to read alto clef when the piece they play primarily uses the top of the instrument's range, which produces the bassoon's weakest and thinnest tone."
The Journal of Grimwald and Grimbold, adherants of Helm.
We bought some useful equipment such as the necklace of missiles, and scroll of protection from petrification. We then went to the gnoll fortifications where we found another tome which was later identified and given to Grimbold to increase his charisma to 18. We headed north where we defeated a polar bear before meeting Neville. This supplied Grimbold with a second unbreakable sword. (Sword +1)
We returned to Nashkel where Niera was killed, command being most important. We then went to the temple area and killed a lot of canines of various types before going to the basilisk area. We killed Kirian et al and a lot of gnolls and flinds. We were badly hurt and resting was found to be impossible, so we returned to the temple area where we slept well enough to be able to heal ourselves.
Images later. Now time to go and see Leeds United try and beat Brighton. (Not too optimistic)
Trio No Reload Our multiplayer session started with Grond0 forgetting the fiery fate of his last protagonist until he was reminded by Corey_Russell and myself of the inferno two weeks earlier. A brief discussion about whether to discuss characters or turn up with randoms saw the latter choice made.
Gate70: Nugget, TN human male Totemic Druid. Grond0: Nerd, TN half-elf Fighter / Druid. Corey_Russell: Dreen, LG human male Inquisitor. p.s.
We all knew Corey_Russell would turn up with a tank. We didn't expect a pair of Cernd-alikes to be present one of which almost anagram'd his name too Our sub-game this time around is to see how long the Inquisitor lasts before becoming a Fallen Paladin
Nugget rapidly lived up to his name by attacking the nearest enemy with a sling, receiving a +4 hit and damage before realising his mistake.
Once out of Candlekeep, a familiar path led south and then west. Here's a tangly moment.
Nugget tried to remember some of the named kills. * Shoal the Nereid. Eaten by a Spirit bear. * Zhurlong's boots. All that was left from a Spirit lion snack. * Caldo and Krumm. Eaten by another Spirit bear. * Bassilus. 'Family' torn apart by a Spirit bear.
At one stage Dreen was heard to mutter about how many attacks a Spirit wolf had, as a group of hobgoblins near Beregost temple were ripped to shreds.
Dreen has made good use of True Sight already, helping against the Mirror Images of Tarnesh + Zordral and the improved invisibility of sirines near the lighthouse. Inside the cave of Black Alaric, arrows were used to shoot down three flesh golems which all failed to finish off a wounded Spirit lion.
As the two hour session drew to a close the trio returned Samuel to a temple and made their way to the rock gnome garden ready for a basilisk hunt next time.
Another update on Shyffunee the Wizard Slayer/Transmuter. Mutamin (and all of his reptilian cohorts), Zordal and Silke's names were crossed out of our Arcane Assassination Masterlist™ giving me level 5. Didn't get to buy any level 3 spells yet, but we did find some nice loot (Full Plate Mail from Mutamin and the Bracelets of DEX that I ID'd and sold) and got Invisibility from Thalantyr (and Horror as well, but that one I got it from one of the two wizards).
And, I started another run, in a new install (WeiDU.log, basically the same install but instead of HardTimes I have SR and IR, also I went with some less hardcore options because I have no clue of what SR/IR do). I rolled for about a minute and got this goddess: Circe is proficient with Daggers, and has Magic Missile and Shield as her level one spells (I couldn't think of any other spells that scaled better). I'll put this one on hold until I read a bit about SR tho (also, the other run is far more interesting), the only thing I've done was get out of Candlekeep alive.
Ahead of the Trio session Gate70 and I managed a decent session for this pair - though time was just too short to complete the whole of ToB.
As usual Illasera posed no threat to adventurers able to escape from hell.
The first challenge was no harder - Sodof finally bringing a wilting into play when the named opposition joined in at the end, only to find both of them were dead before his cast completed.
In Saradush a flirtation with some vampires provided a route into prison and that soon proved bad news for Gromnir.
Skull trap sequencers and triggers got a bit of practice in the Fire Temple before going on to find Yaga-Shura. He survived a sequencer, but Gnoria's GWW saved him from a follow-up trigger.
The Answerer was grabbed on the way to Amkethran where the only shopping done was to provide Gnoria with the Gargoyle Boots (and even those are not that helpful for a barbarian).
The second pocket plane challenge can be more difficult if the opposition are given time to prepare. In this case though they weren't thanks to a chain contingency wilting followed up by the standard skull trap trigger.
Sendai's Enclave was also pretty straightforward. The continual presence of a planetar helped keep the statues and their drow support under pressure and was just too much for the real Sendai as well.
Challenge 3 was no real challenge and the duo moved on quickly to face some dragons. Things started well against Draconis - a chain contingency of triple pierce shield left him vulnerable and he was quickly blinded before being blown apart by skull traps.
However, the ease of that victory allowed a bit of complacency to set in and Gnoria didn't use up GWWs when attacking the werewyvern. That allowed its rapid regeneration to keep it alive long enough to get telling blows in itself - resulting in Gnoria and the wyvern simultaneously killing each other.
We've had trouble on a number of occasions with Abazigal, but this time things worked well enough: a chain contingency of pierce shields allowed 2 helpings of skull traps while Gnoria worked on GWWs to finish him off just before the area was wilted.
Unsurprisingly, the backstabbers in Challenge 4 failed to make an impact before the duo returned to Amkethran. After obtaining the Big Metal Unit Gnoria dressed up to face Balthazar, but didn't have to do too much - a trigger lower resistance being followed by a first use of improved alacrity to dump skull traps on the monk's head.
The Ravager's bone blades were largely occupied by Mordy swords, while Gnoria equipped the Reflection Shield to turn the Ravager's attacks back on itself.
That just leaves Melissan to do - though that's where our last pairing of a wild mage and a (fallen) stalker came a cropper, so there's still plenty of work to do.
Sodof, dragon disciple 29, 103 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar; 9 from ioun stone), 689 kills (+124 in BG1) Gnoria, barbarian 36, 202 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 750 kills (+255 in BG1), 3 deaths
We have finished the Severed Hand and moved on to Dorn's Deep. The Severed Hand was quite eerie. For one thing I had seen the maps before in the old Check the Bodies megamod, quite interesting to see them in their original form. The lack of a boss fight was also quite refreshing, and felt semi-appropriate to the setting. Kulyok's NPCs also seemed well integrated here. Quite enjoying things for now.
Well, they say that all good things come to an end - and, fortunately, so do all bad ones . It was our 8th run when we had our first success and I think this was the 137th (the 120 above refers to the different characters used, but there were multiple attempts with the same characters on a few occasions in the early days), so we can certainly claim credit for years of failure .
After a bit of preparation in the Pocket Plane, that was left for the last time and Mel's first incarnation was confronted. In our last run (that failed at this point) a bug had denied us the Big Metal Unit / Gun, but this time those were available. The BMU allowed Gnoria to tank some summons, while Sodof concentrated mainly on firing the Pulse ammunition with the BMG at Mel - that does minor damage even through stoneskins and was sufficient to ensure that Mel failed to get any spells away.
Mel's second incarnation was slightly more troublesome as the shock of her appearance stunned Sodof, allowing Mel to complete an immediate timestop. She didn't do anything too vicious during that though and soon came under pressure again - this time Gnoria used some GWWs to help a planetar keep her on the defensive. An attempted heal was interrupted and Mel was soon low enough on HPs to make a run for it - though as often happens attacks on her had to be ended to allow her to make her exit speech.
After that Sodof successfully generated a wish rest - though it took something like 11 attempts at that through the use of project images to get the chance, which was starting to get a bit worrying.
Mel #3 caused the most concern. Her move to the top of the area resulted in a slayer shadow persistently attaching itself to Sodof and allowed Mel the chance to once more complete a timestop - which nearly proved fatal for Gnoria.
A first use in the run of the healing power of the rod of resurrection brought him back from the brink though. Breach doesn't dispel Mel's stoneskins (pierce shield was also tried out for that, but had no effect), but was used several times to get rid of her blade barrier briefly and that allowed Gnoria to stick with her long enough to send her on her way once more.
The Fallen Solar in the pool challenge was a potential problem due to its vorpal ability, but Gnoria countered that by using the reflection shield - and sternly told Sodof to act like his name when he came into visual range and the solar immediately tried to switch targets ...
Mel's last attempt was defeated straight-forwardly. With no need to conserve resources Gnoria poured in the GWWs and Mel again failed to get any spells away. Grateful for his companion's efforts Sodof chose to remain mortal and stay with her .
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer trilogy attempt 121 - (1st update) Having finally bagged a second multiplayer no reload success, Grond0 and I were at a loose end so we rolled up another pair of randoms with the intention of trying our luck through BGEE+SoD+BGIIEE+ToB. Grond0 has only played the early stages of SoD so it'll be my fault when we come a cropper.
Gate70: Hayel, LG human male Undead Hunter. ** Longsword, ** crossbow (** axe). Protagonist. Grond0: Iam, LG human male Inquisitor. ** 2HS, *(*) longbow *(*) 2 handed style.
Some of these events may not be in actual order as I'm going from memory.
After a lap of Candlekeep and leaving it behind, Shoal the Nereid was shot down from range. Perdue's sword was picked up on the way to Beregost. Marl and Firebead were next then the duo headed south to Nashkel for Iam to pick up some discarded ankheg plate mail armour. Then north and east to relieve Arghain of a magical two handed sword and back south to the carnival. By this time Iam had also meted out some paladin inquisition on Neera and Vitiare.
With a magical sword at their disposal, it was clearly time to go pick on some basilisks. All went well, Mutamin failing to cast anything other than mirror image. The same could not be said when dealing with Kirian and her gang. Korax the ghoul had been summoned to help but was quickly killed off by the enemies. The two paladins were far enough apart from each other to not be too concerned by spells until Iam was struck by Horror. Hayel did what he could to deal with two summons and Lindin but Iam fell to the sword of Lindin. Hayel returned the favour and headed to a temple with 600gp.
Once Iam was breathing and re-equipped, the duo decided to do something less stressful. Off to the lighthouse, where True Sight made an appearance against two groups of sirines. The cave nearby contained three flesh golems, Iam using a potion of absorbtion to deal with them and gaining a tome of constitution in return.
Samuel has been returned to safety, Drienne re-united with her drowned cat, Caldo and Krumm cut out of the lumber business, a tome of leadership read, Joia's ring returned and Tarnesh the assassin thrown down some steps. Jared has been rescued from a bear, mail delivered to Mirianne, a not-seen child rescued from the lighthouse, some fetching golden pantaloons lovingly placed into our backpack, Prism protected from Greywolf the bounty hunter, Tamah de-petrified, a bowl returned to a child priestess, farmer Brun's son retrieved from an ankheg nest and Zhurlong's boots returned. Meilum put up a reasonable fight but two paladins was just too much for him, and Iam now has some bracers to wear. Hayel forked out for the Army Scythe +1, otherwise known as a crossbow of speed.
Rasaad was briefly recruited to move him, but when booted he returned to goal-hang where Nimbul will appear. He's keen, that monk. With the session drawing to a close, there was just time to grab another tome from Durlags Tower and return to the rock garden, meaning Kirian Peter and Baerin are in for the fight of their lives next time.
Hayel has 58 kills so far, Iam taking an early lead with 72. Current equipment:
@Ygramul I think that point was brought before, but why isn't there a Hall of Heroes for this thread ? We just had an awesome successful run with @Grond0 and @Gate70. That would be nice if they would be kept with a link to the first post. That would be useful for people who want informations on classes they're playing. It was that way on the old Bioware forum and it was really nice.
@Arctodus there is a hall of heroes post somewhere in this thread, but I don't know where. I agree that it would be nice to have the hall in the first post
Another update on Shyffunee, I finally got to buy level 3 spells (Skull Trap and Hold Person, although I only memorized Skull Trap since I restrict myself to at least one Alteration spell per level, also, I spent around 2k on just those two spells because I failed to write them like 4 times), and most importantly, discovered that RR makes changes to Pickpocketing, so that when you fail to pick somebody's pockets, you have an option to say you're sorry. Same goes for your familiar, they just scare it away, which means you can try to pick pocket everyone infinitely (given enough time and patience), which means we're robbing the whole Sword Coast now! I got the returning dart from RR as well, courtesy of Dushai's Ring and the dwarf in the inn's hammer.
I got around 7 Extra healing potions from pickpocketing NPCs around, besides like 4k gold and a bunch of normal healing potions (and antidotes from Landarin). Cleared some of the Cloudpeaks (I found a scroll of Greater Malisson there. Nice treat, especially since we didn't fail to learn it!), since I already had my pack full to carry loot, got a Potion of Magic Protection (one of the few I can use) and level 6 on her Fighter class. I cleared the Mines, no inconveniences except Kobolds being as annoying as ever, and I took some good damage from being armour-less around when I pelted Mulahey with darts and one of my own Skull Traps I set off by accident since it was too close.
I killed Nimbul without much trouble, it took ages, but we got the XP and everything, then the game decides to do this: Oh well. This time I cast Hold Person on him as he turns hostile, he fails his save and an Amnish Soldier takes away the XP. Oh well. With Nimbul's boots, I have -15 AC vs. Missiles, which means it's time to kill Ankhegs. After slaughtering the poor bugs, I did Tenya's quest, and I just discovered you can kill the Fishermen afterwards, and that they hide in their houses instead of leaving the area o.0 which means around 400 more gold for us!
@Ygramul I think that point was brought before, but why isn't there a Hall of Heroes for this thread ? We just had an awesome successful run with @Grond0 and @Gate70. That would be nice if they would be kept with a link to the first post. That would be useful for people who want informations on classes they're playing. It was that way on the old Bioware forum and it was really nice.
This is an excellent idea.
Is there a volunteer willing to delve into these 149 pages and compile a list (with pasteable links) of the Ascenders? (Or, perhaps, some of the posters will volunteer self-organizing their own past success stories into succinct links.)
I'd be happy to post a Hall of Fame to the front page if such a list is assembled.
Congratulations Grond0 and Gate70 on your Trilogy success! And I agree a post on the 1st page with the Ascenders (BioWare Forum thread only included Trilogy successes, as there were a ton of BG 2 only successes) would be nice, and an easy reference so people can try different classes next time if they get a success.
@CrevsDaak Sorry to hear of your program crash. I don't know about Wine and BG, hopefully you can get help from Google or someone else who also uses Wine and BG together.
@Corey_Russell it's ok, it crashes randomly but it usually doesn't. Yesterday/today it was particularly crashy, but that's the only time it actually mattered (the other time I had just arrived from another area and opened the record screen, but wine itself actually crashed there). It doesn't bother me tbh, but I usually post them because they sometimes feel like reloading (take a look at http://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/854864/#Comment_854864), in this case it was the same practically.
There's also a short ongoing discussion after the post, adding potentially another candidate. Also, you can find the old bioware board hall of heroes by looking at the first post of the old BG2 thread via the starting post of this thread.
Now, one would "only" have to look for further successes starting from page 116, not the entire thread - we used to only count full triology runs for the hall in the bioware forums, and I don't think there are a lot more of those (maybe 2, maybe 1). Don't know about BG1 only or BG2 only, but that would make the hall incredibly big (especially BG1 only, as some people only need a day to beat it and do it on a regular basis).
I don't generally look at separate threads in these forums, though - and I understand some people doing no reload challenges here don't neccessarily post in this one?
Well, I brought it up, so I'm willing to gather the info. Give me a few days, and it will be done @Ygramul.
I agree that we should only keep the Trilogy/Tetralogy successful runs for the sake of clarity. As @Enuhal said, a BG1 success Hall would be particularly bloated...
Well, I brought it up, so I'm willing to gather the info. Give me a few days, and it will be done @Ygramul.
I agree that we should only keep the Trilogy/Tetralogy successful runs for the sake of clarity. As @Enuhal said, a BG1 success Hall would be particularly bloated...
Also, if someone gathers a separate BG1 (or BG2) Success Hall in a specific post in the thread, I can link directly to it from the original post. This way it won't all need to be crowded on p. 1 and can be separately edited.
Furthermore, as a further acknowledgment of the recent 'Ascension', I want to mention here again humbly that I have yet to no-reload a single Ascension victory myself.
Comments
Starting with a couple of humans who are clearly brothers. One has particularly high strength and charisma and is an Inquisitor called Grimbold the Strong. The other has particularly high wisdom and intelligence and is a lawful good Priest of Helm called Grimwald the Red. (The inquisitor was rolled one or two months ago and is the strongest paladin that I have ever rolled, whilst Grimwald the Red was rolled this week.)
Forgot to mention that I added some containers for convenience.EDIT
Meet Shyffunee!
Now on to the Severed Hand...
-How are a violist's fingers like lightning? They both never strike the same place twice.
-How do you get two viola players to play in tune? Shoot one.
I could make the list longer, but I don't want to get the thread off-topic.
Nice to meet a fellow violist who also likes Baldur's Gate. In all the years I've read your no-reload posts, starting back at Bioware, I never knew we had the viola in common.
"Alto Clef, the .... err... alto Bard (+2 against tenor NPCs)"
The alto clef is sometimes used for the instrument that my wife plays too, (Played would be more accurate) the bassoon.
The Journal of Grimwald and Grimbold, adherants of Helm.
After leaving Candlekeep, we killed a bear near the site of the ambush.We headed east where we picked up a ring before killing a wolf. It hurt us far more than the bear!
To the north, we cleared the area of hobgoblins and killed Tarnesh. (True sight and command proved invaluable.)
Heading north we agreed to help Sonner, but upon learning that they served talos, we changed our alliegance.
(We also changed the game setting to insane since the Hard setting seemed the same as Core. Even insane doesn't appear to be much harder. Of course this is vanilla. The mods that were installed probably made my previous set-up harder.)
After helping Tenya, we killed an ankheg before returning to the FAI.
We killed those who stole Perdue's sword, and tried to help Mellicamp. Sadly however he died.
We then rested at Beregost before heading south. We killed some ogrillon and three rather officious Flaming Fist. We were hurt, but now that we have their armour, we are much safer. We returned to Beregost for R & R and delivered a letter for which we were well rewarded.
We then travelled to Nashkel picking up the Colquetle Amulet on the way. At Nashkel I gained the ability to heal and we had a prolonged chat with Noober before heading south where we killed Greywolf. Sadly Prism died and we took his emeralds to Oublek.
Upon returning to Beregost, we killed an ogre and gained a couple of belts.
The Jester should clearly do the Tuba.
And, based on the latest Mad Max, we need a bard kit resembling a Dragon Disciple that wields a flaming guitar:
http://i.imgur.com/CXwRd1J.png
(first post here)
SIEGE OF UST NATHA: PART 9
I can't believe how long it's taken to get this fight posted. The first post on the Siege of Ust Natha was in January, and I am just now getting to the final 3-6 posts.
All the bugs that plagued me before have now been fixed or evaded. The real fight is now.
A brief overview of our tactics for those who have forgotten, with a brief explanation of how to replicate most of them without using exploits:
- Carl, our sorcerer (level 33-34), summons Planetars, which erroneously ignore the summoning cap. Project Image or the right mod can replicate this bug.
- Edwin summons Fallen Planetars, which do not have the healing powers of a normal Planetar.
- Carl casts Wish constantly, which erroneously cannot be cast during Time Stop lest the djinn talk-block each other. Carl uses the Wand of Lightning to increase the chance of Wish-rests. Bringing an extra sorcerer into the party would have replicated the effect of the Wand of Lightning trick.
- Edwin uses the Bigby's Crushing Hand trick (and sometimes Comet) to give Carl extra level 9 spell slots via Spell Trap. This is very strong but takes many rounds and leaves both Carl and Edwin vulnerable. The most recent version of Spell Revisions closed this exploit by making Spell Trap deflect 99 spells instead of absorbing 30, and Comet isn't supposed to be party-unfriendly. Without Spell Revisions, a level 35 sorcerer could still get infinite spells using a Simulacrum clone.
- Our Simulacrum clones can use HLAs like Dragon's Breath, which are once-per-day innates in my install. A different install would allow multiple castings as level 9 spells.
- Flowey, our Seducer (level 50), tanks the enemy using Item Revisions' drow full plate (30% damage resistance), a borrowed Earth Elemental Token (50% damage resistance), IR's Fortress Shield (10% damage resistance), and 10% more from some other item, adding up to 100% damage resistance. The current version of the Seducer kit can no longer do this due to not getting Use Any Item, but a Fighter/Druid can still stack Hardiness and Armor of Faith with Earth Elemental form to achieve 100% damage resistance for 10 rounds at a time. Barbarians and Dwarven Defenders can do the same.
- Flowey can disable multiple drow, bypassing their magic resistance, using Domination, an area-effect charm spell. The current version of the Seducer kit can't do this exactly; it now uses an area-effect Feeblemind spell.
- Stan, our Totemic Druid (level 30-something), and Viconia (level 30-something), spam Storm of Vengeance to get past the drow's MR and also summon Fallen Devas constantly. Unfortunately, Fallen Devas lack the healing spells that normal Devas get in SR.
- We use a room to the northwest as a sanctuary room, with the nearby stairs serving as a checkpoint. Most enemies spawn outside that room, which reduces enemy pressure somewhat and keeps Carl away from the fray.
- Carl can attack with Dragon's Breath, Comet, and Energy Blades during Wish Time Stops, using SR's Dimension Jump to teleport around the map during Time Stop and return to his sanctuary before time returns to normal.
-
We begin with our standard plan: Carl stays in our sanctuary room casting Wish and other defensive and summoning spells while the rest of the party moves around the area as needed to engage the enemy.
Carl has huge offensive power thanks to Dragon's Breath, but since this is a no-reload run, we can't have our sorcerer too close to the fray.
The party has massive damage resistances, but it is no guarantee of successful spellcasting. Only Carl and Edwin can avoid spell disruption, and over the course of the Siege of Ust Natha, there are lots of well-buffed mages who can debuff Carl and Edwin. This means our spell power is always in danger.
With stronger preparation than normal, and plenty of celestials to grind down the enemy, we clear the map early. With no drow around, we can take a moment to fortify our position.
With this many celestials on hand, the drow are much easier to handle for our party, which only has 5 members and no fighter levels. But those celestials won't last forever. They will vanish after about 20 rounds, long before the battle is over, and if I don't keep replacing them, they could vanish at the moment we most need them.
The celestials will survive for a while, since we're still early in the fight, so Flowey is not needed on the front lines. He heads back to the sanctuary room to set up Spike Traps to protect Carl.
Each deals 70 damage on average, which isn't much in Legacy of Bhaal mode, but the Siege of Ust Natha is very much a contest of numbers, and we need to squeeze every last resource we have from our party.
Finally, more drow spawn. But we have lots of traps to weaken them. Our army of celestials will not be taxed too much.
Most of our party and most of our summons march out to engage the enemy. Meanwhile, Carl and Edwin stay in the sanctuary room, with Edwin feeding Bigby's Crushing Hand spells into Carl's Spell Trap to fuel Carl's Wish-resting. Wish-resting allows us to summon more celestials and cast more offensive HLAs.
Drow mages spawn in and approach the sanctuary. These mages are really hard to handle, because Edwin and Carl are so busy and dedicating a round to casting Pierce Shield on a mage is an expensive trade, especially since it would put them within range of the enemy's debuffers. To keep Edwin and Carl focused on long-term priorities like Wish, I have our celestials engage the drow, forming a wall in front of our sanctuary room.
Things are very low-pressure right now, giving us time to re-cast some of our buffs.
Every little bit counts in a long fight like this.
More mages appear. Flowey is highly vulnerable to spell damage, so he pulls out some potions, which cannot be dispelled in Item Revisions.
Flowey's other defenses are still quite vulnerable, however, and while we have multiple Potions of Magic Shielding, they only last 10 rounds in IR. Flowey's not completely safe.
More drow move in. Our position is in danger; we need to bring out more celestials, and since celestial summoning spells are innate spells in my install, we need a Wish-rest after every single one. Otherwise I can't summon any more.
Our wall is breaking apart, but it seems that Edwin's and Carl's Simulacrum spells have finally run out, allowing us to bring back our clones. This means one more Planetar and Fallen Planetar.
Celestials are tough, but they don't get nearly as many bonuses from LoB mode as the drow do, and IR makes drow equipment far stronger. The drow have over 300 HP apiece, plus up to 30% damage resistance, magic resistance over 70% or even 80% for some of them, and weapons that get +5 to hit and damage with an extra 1 APR, dealing double damage to the party.
And there are many more waves of drow to come. Plus some demons that cast Remove Magic, which will take down everyone's Dispelling Screen with one casting. And if Carl and Edwin don't move fast enough to restore our Dispelling Screen, Carl has a 50% chance of losing all of his buffs.
Without those buffs, Carl will certainly die. We can't let those demons come anywhere near him. And everything we do in these first few rounds will determine whether it's possible to keep Carl out of harm's way when the final wave of enemies moves in for the kill.
The Journal of Grimwald and Grimbold, adherants of Helm.
We decided to visit the lighthouse area and since Grimbold was immune to charm, he was chosen as the tank whilst I cast spells and used my sling. We quickly slew two of the attacking sirines, but Grimwald was killed before he could heal himself.I quickly attacked whereupon the sirine became invisible. I cast true sight, but the sirine was nowhere to be seen. However a hobgoblin was, and I quickly moved in for the kill. I then came across a sirine, whether or not it was the same one, I do not know. What I do know is that I managed to kill it.
After resting and healing I headed south where I came across Brage. I took him to my Temple in Nashkel and was well rewarded. It cost 600gp to raise Grimwald. We went to the carnival where I rested and healed him.
Upon returning I met Laryssa and slew her before helping an archaeologist.
We then killed Gallor,
We returned to the Lighthouse area and killed the remaining sirines.
We killed two flesh golems inside a cave. We should have quit while we were ahead, but upon fighting the third golem, they simultaneously killed each other.
This cost another 600 gp. That is disastrous as I had been saving up gold to buy much needed better equipment.
I am quite enjoying playing insane. Doing that makes the game a challenge without having to install mods. However the mods do make the game more interesting and varied.
We have just killed a few ankheg and returned to the FAI to recuperate. We killed four and will return after some shut-eye for Grimwald, Grimbold and myself.
After killing three more ankheg, we headed south and helped Rufie, Drienne's cat and a dryad. Reputation now up to 20. Soon time to go shopping.
"The bassoon has a wide range, most of which falls into the bass and tenor clefs. Bassoons are used mostly for the rich, dark tones at the bottom of their range, so bassoon players spend most of their time reading bass clef. The instrument's middle range, written in tenor clef, is powerful but somewhat pinched in tone. Bassoonists only need to read alto clef when the piece they play primarily uses the top of the instrument's range, which produces the bassoon's weakest and thinnest tone."
The Journal of Grimwald and Grimbold, adherants of Helm.
We bought some useful equipment such as the necklace of missiles, and scroll of protection from petrification. We then went to the gnoll fortifications where we found another tome which was later identified and given to Grimbold to increase his charisma to 18. We headed north where we defeated a polar bear before meeting Neville. This supplied Grimbold with a second unbreakable sword. (Sword +1)We returned to Nashkel where Niera was killed, command being most important.
We then went to the temple area and killed a lot of canines of various types before going to the basilisk area. We killed Kirian et al and a lot of gnolls and flinds. We were badly hurt and resting was found to be impossible, so we returned to the temple area where we slept well enough to be able to heal ourselves.
Images later. Now time to go and see Leeds United try and beat Brighton. (Not too optimistic)
Our multiplayer session started with Grond0 forgetting the fiery fate of his last protagonist until he was reminded by Corey_Russell and myself of the inferno two weeks earlier. A brief discussion about whether to discuss characters or turn up with randoms saw the latter choice made.
Gate70: Nugget, TN human male Totemic Druid.
Grond0: Nerd, TN half-elf Fighter / Druid.
Corey_Russell: Dreen, LG human male Inquisitor.
p.s.
We didn't expect a pair of Cernd-alikes to be present one of which almost anagram'd his name too
Our sub-game this time around is to see how long the Inquisitor lasts before becoming a Fallen Paladin
Nugget tried to remember some of the named kills.
* Shoal the Nereid. Eaten by a Spirit bear.
* Zhurlong's boots. All that was left from a Spirit lion snack.
* Caldo and Krumm. Eaten by another Spirit bear.
* Bassilus. 'Family' torn apart by a Spirit bear.
At one stage Dreen was heard to mutter about how many attacks a Spirit wolf had, as a group of hobgoblins near Beregost temple were ripped to shreds.
Dreen has made good use of True Sight already, helping against the Mirror Images of Tarnesh + Zordral and the improved invisibility of sirines near the lighthouse. Inside the cave of Black Alaric, arrows were used to shoot down three flesh golems which all failed to finish off a wounded Spirit lion.
As the two hour session drew to a close the trio returned Samuel to a temple and made their way to the rock gnome garden ready for a basilisk hunt next time.
Equipment roster at end of session.
And, I started another run, in a new install (WeiDU.log, basically the same install but instead of HardTimes I have SR and IR, also I went with some less hardcore options because I have no clue of what SR/IR do). I rolled for about a minute and got this goddess:
Circe is proficient with Daggers, and has Magic Missile and Shield as her level one spells (I couldn't think of any other spells that scaled better). I'll put this one on hold until I read a bit about SR tho (also, the other run is far more interesting), the only thing I've done was get out of Candlekeep alive.
Sodof, elf dragon disciple (Grond0) & Gnoria, half-orc barbarian (Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/853571/#Comment_853571
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/854501/#Comment_854501
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/854997/#Comment_854997
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/855756/#Comment_855756
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/856424/#Comment_856424
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/857010/#Comment_857010
Ahead of the Trio session Gate70 and I managed a decent session for this pair - though time was just too short to complete the whole of ToB.
As usual Illasera posed no threat to adventurers able to escape from hell.
In Saradush a flirtation with some vampires provided a route into prison and that soon proved bad news for Gromnir.
Skull trap sequencers and triggers got a bit of practice in the Fire Temple before going on to find Yaga-Shura. He survived a sequencer, but Gnoria's GWW saved him from a follow-up trigger.
The Answerer was grabbed on the way to Amkethran where the only shopping done was to provide Gnoria with the Gargoyle Boots (and even those are not that helpful for a barbarian).
The second pocket plane challenge can be more difficult if the opposition are given time to prepare. In this case though they weren't
Sendai's Enclave was also pretty straightforward. The continual presence of a planetar helped keep the statues and their drow support under pressure and was just too much for the real Sendai as well.
Challenge 3 was no real challenge and the duo moved on quickly to face some dragons. Things started well against Draconis - a chain contingency of triple pierce shield left him vulnerable and he was quickly blinded before being blown apart by skull traps.
Unsurprisingly, the backstabbers in Challenge 4 failed to make an impact before the duo returned to Amkethran. After obtaining the Big Metal Unit Gnoria dressed up to face Balthazar, but didn't have to do too much - a trigger lower resistance being followed by a first use of improved alacrity to dump skull traps on the monk's head.
The Ravager's bone blades were largely occupied by Mordy swords, while Gnoria equipped the Reflection Shield to turn the Ravager's attacks back on itself.
That just leaves Melissan to do - though that's where our last pairing of a wild mage and a (fallen) stalker came a cropper, so there's still plenty of work to do.
Sodof, dragon disciple 29, 103 HPs (incl. 6 from familiar; 9 from ioun stone), 689 kills (+124 in BG1)
Gnoria, barbarian 36, 202 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 750 kills (+255 in BG1), 3 deaths
Sodof, elf dragon disciple (Grond0) & Gnoria, half-orc barbarian (Gate70)
Previous updates:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/853571/#Comment_853571
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/854501/#Comment_854501
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/854997/#Comment_854997
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/855756/#Comment_855756
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/856424/#Comment_856424
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/857010/#Comment_857010
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/857740/#Comment_857740
Well, they say that all good things come to an end - and, fortunately, so do all bad ones
After a bit of preparation in the Pocket Plane, that was left for the last time and Mel's first incarnation was confronted. In our last run (that failed at this point) a bug had denied us the Big Metal Unit / Gun, but this time those were available. The BMU allowed Gnoria to tank some summons, while Sodof concentrated mainly on firing the Pulse ammunition with the BMG at Mel - that does minor damage even through stoneskins and was sufficient to ensure that Mel failed to get any spells away.
Mel's second incarnation was slightly more troublesome as the shock of her appearance stunned Sodof, allowing Mel to complete an immediate timestop. She didn't do anything too vicious during that though and soon came under pressure again - this time Gnoria used some GWWs to help a planetar keep her on the defensive. An attempted heal was interrupted and Mel was soon low enough on HPs to make a run for it - though as often happens attacks on her had to be ended to allow her to make her exit speech.
Mel #3 caused the most concern. Her move to the top of the area resulted in a slayer shadow persistently attaching itself to Sodof and allowed Mel the chance to once more complete a timestop - which nearly proved fatal for Gnoria.
The Fallen Solar in the pool challenge was a potential problem due to its vorpal ability, but Gnoria countered that by using the reflection shield - and sternly told Sodof to act like his name when he came into visual range and the solar immediately tried to switch targets ...
Mel's last attempt was defeated straight-forwardly. With no need to conserve resources Gnoria poured in the GWWs and Mel again failed to get any spells away. Grateful for his companion's efforts Sodof chose to remain mortal and stay with her
Having finally bagged a second multiplayer no reload success, Grond0 and I were at a loose end so we rolled up another pair of randoms with the intention of trying our luck through BGEE+SoD+BGIIEE+ToB. Grond0 has only played the early stages of SoD so it'll be my fault when we come a cropper.
Gate70: Hayel, LG human male Undead Hunter. ** Longsword, ** crossbow (** axe). Protagonist.
Grond0: Iam, LG human male Inquisitor. ** 2HS, *(*) longbow *(*) 2 handed style.
Some of these events may not be in actual order as I'm going from memory.
After a lap of Candlekeep and leaving it behind, Shoal the Nereid was shot down from range. Perdue's sword was picked up on the way to Beregost. Marl and Firebead were next then the duo headed south to Nashkel for Iam to pick up some discarded ankheg plate mail armour. Then north and east to relieve Arghain of a magical two handed sword and back south to the carnival. By this time Iam had also meted out some paladin inquisition on Neera and Vitiare.
With a magical sword at their disposal, it was clearly time to go pick on some basilisks. All went well, Mutamin failing to cast anything other than mirror image. The same could not be said when dealing with Kirian and her gang. Korax the ghoul had been summoned to help but was quickly killed off by the enemies. The two paladins were far enough apart from each other to not be too concerned by spells until Iam was struck by Horror. Hayel did what he could to deal with two summons and Lindin but Iam fell to the sword of Lindin. Hayel returned the favour and headed to a temple with 600gp.
Once Iam was breathing and re-equipped, the duo decided to do something less stressful. Off to the lighthouse, where True Sight made an appearance against two groups of sirines. The cave nearby contained three flesh golems, Iam using a potion of absorbtion to deal with them and gaining a tome of constitution in return.
Samuel has been returned to safety, Drienne re-united with her drowned cat, Caldo and Krumm cut out of the lumber business, a tome of leadership read, Joia's ring returned and Tarnesh the assassin thrown down some steps. Jared has been rescued from a bear, mail delivered to Mirianne, a not-seen child rescued from the lighthouse, some fetching golden pantaloons lovingly placed into our backpack, Prism protected from Greywolf the bounty hunter, Tamah de-petrified, a bowl returned to a child priestess, farmer Brun's son retrieved from an ankheg nest and Zhurlong's boots returned. Meilum put up a reasonable fight but two paladins was just too much for him, and Iam now has some bracers to wear. Hayel forked out for the Army Scythe +1, otherwise known as a crossbow of speed.
Rasaad was briefly recruited to move him, but when booted he returned to goal-hang where Nimbul will appear. He's keen, that monk. With the session drawing to a close, there was just time to grab another tome from Durlags Tower and return to the rock garden, meaning Kirian Peter and Baerin are in for the fight of their lives next time.
Hayel has 58 kills so far, Iam taking an early lead with 72. Current equipment:
@Arctodus there is a hall of heroes post somewhere in this thread, but I don't know where. I agree that it would be nice to have the hall in the first post
I got around 7 Extra healing potions from pickpocketing NPCs around, besides like 4k gold and a bunch of normal healing potions (and antidotes from Landarin). Cleared some of the Cloudpeaks (I found a scroll of Greater Malisson there. Nice treat, especially since we didn't fail to learn it!), since I already had my pack full to carry loot, got a Potion of Magic Protection (one of the few I can use) and level 6 on her Fighter class. I cleared the Mines, no inconveniences except Kobolds being as annoying as ever, and I took some good damage from being armour-less around when I pelted Mulahey with darts and one of my own Skull Traps I set off by accident since it was too close.
I killed Nimbul without much trouble, it took ages, but we got the XP and everything, then the game decides to do this:
Oh well. This time I cast Hold Person on him as he turns hostile, he fails his save and an Amnish Soldier takes away the XP. Oh well. With Nimbul's boots, I have -15 AC vs. Missiles, which means it's time to kill Ankhegs. After slaughtering the poor bugs, I did Tenya's quest, and I just discovered you can kill the Fishermen afterwards, and that they hide in their houses instead of leaving the area o.0 which means around 400 more gold for us!
Is there a volunteer willing to delve into these 149 pages and compile a list (with pasteable links) of the Ascenders? (Or, perhaps, some of the posters will volunteer self-organizing their own past success stories into succinct links.)
I'd be happy to post a Hall of Fame to the front page if such a list is assembled.
As I said, there is a similiar post in this thread, and now I managed to find it:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/823016/#Comment_823016
There's also a short ongoing discussion after the post, adding potentially another candidate. Also, you can find the old bioware board hall of heroes by looking at the first post of the old BG2 thread via the starting post of this thread.
Now, one would "only" have to look for further successes starting from page 116, not the entire thread - we used to only count full triology runs for the hall in the bioware forums, and I don't think there are a lot more of those (maybe 2, maybe 1). Don't know about BG1 only or BG2 only, but that would make the hall incredibly big (especially BG1 only, as some people only need a day to beat it and do it on a regular basis).
I don't generally look at separate threads in these forums, though - and I understand some people doing no reload challenges here don't neccessarily post in this one?
Enuhal
I agree that we should only keep the Trilogy/Tetralogy successful runs for the sake of clarity. As @Enuhal said, a BG1 success Hall would be particularly bloated...
Also, if someone gathers a separate BG1 (or BG2) Success Hall in a specific post in the thread, I can link directly to it from the original post. This way it won't all need to be crowded on p. 1 and can be separately edited.
Furthermore, as a further acknowledgment of the recent 'Ascension', I want to mention here again humbly that I have yet to no-reload a single Ascension victory myself.
Salutations!