@Wise_Grimwald: That's the truly confusing part. BASILG1.itm, the Greater Basilisk gaze attack, BASILL1.itm, the Lesser Basilisk gaze attack, and F_MEDGAZE.itm, the Medusa gaze attack, ALL use projectile 65, the GAZE projectile. But the Potion of Mirrored Eyes (POTN38.spl, the IR spell) gives immunity to 64, which is also "GAZE" in Near Infinity.
If 65 and 64 were different, the potion would grant immunity to neither. If they were the same, the potion would grant immunity to both. But the inconsistency, 64 and 65, is between the attacks and the potion, not between the two attacks.
In PROJECTL.ids, GAZE is only 64, not 65. Yet the potion (64) was clearly granting Morwen immunity to the basilisk attack (65), as she suffered a lot of hits from the basilisks without ever needing to make a save. But otherwise the basilisk attacks were working just fine, as Ajantis, Tiax's Ghoul, and Kivan all got hit.
Theoretically, it's possible the potion grants immunity to both attacks, and the potion ran out at just the right time. But that's only a gap of a few seconds in a 300-second spell, and Morwen had drunk the potion very, very recently before she died.
But yes, since the Medusa's gaze only has a range of 6, you can stay out of harm's way by kiting them.
Some mod items don't have the proper immunities even when the install order is correct. I've seen at least one mod item in Near Infinity that flat-out gave immunity to the wrong opcode, making the item do absolutely nothing! A lot of mod items don't work properly because the creator didn't know enough about the engine to make them work.
@Aasim: Normally, I'd have SR installed late, but BWS has a particular order for installing mods, and I can't tweak it. To fix this bug, I'd have to install everything manually, which is likely to cause more bugs instead of less. Because whoever set up BWS will know more about mod order than I do.
Any idea why the Medusa was able to get past IR's Potion of Mirrored Eyes? The Medusa's attack and the basilisk's attack both used the GAZE projectile.
Well, old mods are always a risk - in the early days of modding (think The Darkest Day) nobody even had reasons to care about compatibility since everything was incompatible with everything else. About BWS - hmm... @ALIEN ? The install order from semiticgod is very wrong from the start. Spell Rev before Item Rev is wrong. Base Item Rev can go whenever you want, but SR must go after - it needs to go after all item-adding mods. And most spell adding mods, at least those that add new spells to the game. The way it's handled now completely busts SR - it will mess up a lot of stuff concerning Dispelling Screen, Petrification, Haste/Slow etc. Just put it after Refinements in BWS; it has an added compatibility block.
About medusa - I don't have the medusa-adding mod, but I remember when playtesting a megamod compilation it worked fine vs them....then again, I did the install manually, and installed SR after medusas adding mod. What you could do is the following (it will/should fix your petrification protection issues at least) Download this template Open up components/items.tpa Delete everything from there Copy paste this code into items.tpa file
We head up north and tackle Osmadi multiple times. But after he causes 5 or 6 inexplicable crashes in a row, without fail, I decide that he does not deserve to be beaten fairly. I kill him in a way that makes sure he can't crash the game.
We wander into a random map somewhere and discover that the area is loaded with spiders. As usual, Phase Spiders teleport from all the way across the map and flank us. They deal 5 poison damage per second on a failed save, but the XP reward is just fantastic.
It's worth almost as much as an Ankheg! We go on the prowl for more spiders. Kagain's strong saving throws don't guarantee he'll avoid getting poisoned, but Chara's Sweet Elixirs can cure poison for only 11 gold a pop. Frisk minimizes the pressure on Kagain using Hypnosis, but the high save bonus means it's a very unreliable disabler.
We scour the map, searching for every bloody chunk of XP we can carve from our enemies. Finally, finally we hit a milestone.
As a level 4 Alchemist, Chara gets some very important new items.
Bitter Tonic will give us a slight HP boost for big encounters, Brine Solution will protect us from disablers (and also increase the chances of scribing scrolls), Sour Draught will be a powerful healing option, and Pressurized Gas will let us bomb living targets with poison damage. We also get Musk Wine (not pictured), which grants +3 to STR and movement rate for 8 hours, or +5 for Alchemists. Musk Wine can boost Kagain's unremarkable 16 STR up to an astounding 19.
Chara can also finally cast Mirror Image. They couldn't do it at level 3 because the Alchemist kit gets one fewer spell slot per spell level. Plus, we get an upgrade to our grenades. They now have only a +2 bonus to the save vs. breath to avoid stun and deafness, and deal 2d6 damage instead of 1d6.
And then I feel sad.
Because we still need to hit level 7 if we're going to have any chance against Sarevok. The level 7 potions are just too important.
And we need 5 times as much XP before we can get there.
I don't know if we can get that much by the end of the game. With all sources of XP cut down to 25%, a normal character hitting the original XP cap of 161,000 will only get Chara 40,000 XP, leaving a 20,000 XP gap before they can reach level 7.
Do all the quests in the original game and you get to the XP cap. And we'd still be less than two-thirds of the way there.
Regardless, we're finally ready for the bandit camp, which means we can resume the main quest and head to the Nashkel mine. The Tab key reveals a special treasure, but apparently we're not supposed to take it.
And now I feel bad.
We run into a gang of Duergar in the mine. Unfortunately, they bring a lot more to the table than the Duergar grunts in Chateau Irenicus.
Chara's potions, however, are an excellent solution.
As long as we don't fail any saves against the enemy cleric's Hold Person. The Greenstone Amulet can block it...
...but whenever I take the amulet off of Chara, I expose our main character to a game-ending disabler.
Taking down the Duergar proves difficult. Our THAC0 is terrible; Kagain is our only fighter and the Duergar all have armor and plenty of HP. Plus, some kobolds are rushing in to flank us.
Another Hold Person comes our way, and this time I keep the Greenstone Amulet safe on Chara. Frisk fails a save, but Finch has a level 2 version of Remove Paralysis!
All the enemies have gathered in a cluster, allowing Frisk to hypnotize them so Chara can blow them up.
Kagain is buffed with Musk Wine and now has 19 STR, dealing +7 damage when using his +3 axe. The boost is enough to chop up one of the Duergar before he can heal himself.
With the cleric gone and no more Hold Person spells to worry about, the rest of the fight is a slow grind. And thanks to a healthy gold supply from our early, vulnerable days, we have far more healing potions than the enemy. They run out of resources. We do not.
An Alchemist's power is limited by the party's gold supply; other classes are limited by rest periods. This means Alchemists aren't weakened so much by long, protracted battles.
Our fight with the Duergar yields a very special set of armor.
Too bad nobody in the party can wear it for some reason.
I stumble upon Mur'Neth, a name I've only heard on the G3 website. I know he's an NPC, but I've never tried him before.
I decide to boot Indira from the party. She could have been strong later in the game, but she entered the party at level 1, and we've been struggling to find good sources of XP. We can't afford to keep her.
Mur'Neth is not, as I thought, an Oozemaster druid. He's a thief who has some strange innate abilities, including the ability to change into a magic-immune jelly.
I use the spell to choose a kit for him, and I discover something very special.
One of my mods creates an "Alchemist" kit for thieves. It's not much like my Alchemist mage kit, but it does have something very special going for it.
It can create normal potions every day, at no cost in gold. Elixirs of Health, Flaming Oils (like the IWD item), and Potions of Fire Resistance, Cold Resistance, Perception, Rage, Clarity (!), Invisibility (!), Regeneration, and Speed. Chara can get lots of money by selling them, but more importantly, this means we finally have a reliable escape option. Smoke Bombs are cheap, but they don't always cover you for a full round; now Chara will always have a Potion of Invisibility on hand in case things go wrong. Plus, Oils of Speed will compensate for our poor attack power, and Potions of Clarity will finally give us a defense against fear, since my mods took Remove Fear away from Tiax and Finch.
The last major fight is Mulahey. I got lucky last time I fought him with an Alchemist, but grenades don't always stun their target.
Of course, sometimes you do get lucky.
The stun only lasts a single round, but Mulahey will also suffer 50% spell failure in the next round due to deafness. And when Tiax gets Mulahey to fail a save against Doufas' Saber as well, he is doomed.
Notice Frisk in werewolf form. That's because the Cloak of the Wolf in Item Revisions can turn the wearer into a werewolf. It's quite nice, though none of our party members is well suited for using it. All it really does is give Frisk better AC at the cost of an HP drop.
I decide to finally remove Tiax from the party. He was really useful with Doufas' Saber and its absurd 3 APR and paralyze effect on hit, but I really only brought him into the party because he could summon Ghasts, and with the basilisks and Ankhegs gone, the Ghast is no longer that important. Especially now that we have Kagain, a far superior tank.
We bring Xan into the party, who is a Fighter/Mage in my install with the Bladesinger kit like Indira. Unlike Indira, he starts at a higher level. He'll be a strong character with a little more investment, though he might not get along with everyone in the group.
While we're here, I decide to tackle Narcillus. I had trouble with him in my minimal reload run, so I use a lot of expensive potions from Chara to buff the party.
But it turns out there's a nonviolent way to resolve this encounter.
Now that we're out of the mine, Officer Vai should be willing to purchase our Bandit Scalps. And we've got plenty.
Funny thing is... Offices Vai also apparently will buy other items. And she pays full price for all of them, unlike normal merchants. We can't buy back anything we sell to her--once she has it, it's gone forever--but it's a real gold mine.
We go from 30,000 gold to 50,000 gold in a single day. Not that I have many uses for all that money, with level 7 potions still far out of reach.
We turn to philanthropy instead. Paying for a young student to pursue higher education fills us with detemmienation.
I think possibly the first party I played of all my one character types was a bunch of dwarf fighters. They've been in BG2 a few times, but never done as well as they might have done, so I thought it was time to give them another shot.
Like the recent archers, the characters in the Crew have been imported from their original BGT installation into BGEE and are playing with an SCS/Ascension modded version. Unlike the archers, however, they're not required to avoid deaths in BG1, so went straight to find Shoal. The only character with decent charisma (other than Al) is Vito, so he picked up a fatal kiss - and then died again almost straight away when I forgot that SCS would cause Droth to pick out the weakest link as a target. The others eventually shot down Ogre Droth though before making Shoal pay in full for her crimes.
South of Beregost an encounter with the Flaming Fist allowed the Crew to pick up 3 sets of plate mail to improve their defense. Back in Beregost they murdered Algernon before heading north to find Dushai and get all their killing of innocents done in one go.
Some quests on the way to Nashkel restored their reputation sufficiently for Al to get CLW. A mis-click that sent Joia away empty-handed didn't help with that and neither did attacking some diggers in the instant before they turned hostile (annoying Charleston Nib - even charmed he then gave no reward). However, successfully restoring Melicamp finally gave Vito enough XP for level 2 and everyone levelled up.
I'm not requiring the Crew to do all possible encounters, unlike monks or archers, so they've been moving on quite swiftly. Vito got the XP for level 3 at some point while clearing out an ogre clan
and everyone levelled up. Continuing on to Firewine they ploughed through plenty of kobolds in order to relieve Meilum of his bracers.
A swift trip through the southern areas pushed reputation up to 19 and the Crew decided it was time for some basilisks. Al took the responsibility for soloing those and soon got everyone up to level 4 despite a sneak attack from some gnolls.
Al then did well to save against Mutamin's spells to allow him to continue to act as a protective shield while the others came up to help against the mage.
Korax then requested help from the Crew to get a free lunch - but found to his dismay that free gifts on the internet often come with strings attached .
After spending all their funds on the good stuff at High Hedge the Crew returned to the coast to sort out some sirines.
Sil's group caused no trouble and there was plenty of magical ammunition available to make short work of the golems - allowing everyone to achieve level 5.
Al took the tome (and also the party lead now that he has regeneration).
With the extra level and the generally high HPs from playing in EE I decided the Crew could now go back and challenge the Doomsayer. Although most of them had non-proficient magic weapons they still managed that easily enough.
The Revenant at the Valley of the Tombs also fell without trouble and the remainder of the area was soon cleared - Narcillicus turning green under attack from several varieties of poisonous ammunition.
Their good AC allowed the Crew to pass through the Nashkel Mine without resting
- until doing so safely as soon as they entered Mulahey's cave. Mulahey then managed a successful domination, but that was his lot.
Nimbul's charming Vito with a melee weapon equipped was slightly more problematical, but the Crew still managed easily enough.
Tranzig was poisoned before he could manage any offensive spells.
Rather than go straight on to the Bandit Camp the Crew took a diversion to Durlag's Tower to pick up some more quick XP. Al once more soloed some basilisks (this time using potion protection) before everyone joined in to kill the ghost (using the stairs), Kirinhale (magic ammunition)
and Riggilo (who rather stupidly picked Carlo, who was wearing the girdle of piercing, to attack and missed twice with attempted backstabs).
Vito still needed a few more XP for another level, so everyone returned to the ankheg area and cleaned that out.
Then it was time to go to the Bandit Camp - via an invitation picked up from Raiken. Taurgosz was charmed there and pulled away to the other end of the map for disposal - but still managed to shout loudly enough to raise the alarm . Venkt was the first to arrive on the scene - unhappily for him
- and a few area transitions between different parts of the map later all the other attackers with follow-me scripts were dead.
They cashed in the loot from the Camp and bought all the rest of the items they wanted, including another set of plate armor and the crossbow of speed. While thinking about armor I decided to find another ankheg and convert that to a nice handbag suit of plate. On the way though Molkar tried an ambush. That's dangerous for a solo character, but no problem for the Crew - Halacan immediately found his save wasn't good enough against poison and the others were cut down very quickly.
A very quick note to say I finished my runthrough of Icewind Dale (and most of Heart of Winter) without too much difficulty. On about 3 occasions- an early brush with Yetis, on Burial Isle, and around the Fallen Temple- there was real danger of a TPK, but things turned out OK. A few other mix-ups aside things were fairly plain sailing. I look forward to seeing if SCS does anything to it in EET for the future. At first I didn't like the hack and slash so much but the story and beautiful locations gradually grew on me, here the party are dealing with the final adversary:
A little break for awhile, and then I'll see if I'm feeling an attempt at a Trilogy run after the real fun of reinstalling. Happy no-reloading!
I defeated the guards and took a risk to get a ring, then gave Minsc the boot and went to the bridge district to collect my warrior summon. Neera countered a ambush then disappeared and I agreed to look for a murderer as I payed for my license... Viconia gave me the full sad-eyes treatment and bless me if I didn't almost keep walking but I remembered my own mob trial after dragonspear and that convinced me.
so far; ·Neera was happy to see me again... I just joined her in the woods. ·Imoen got arrested. ·Jaheira is fertilizing the wild woods with her corpse... it is what she would have wanted I'm sure of it.
Starting a new Battleguard of Tempus run using a character that I rolled some time ago called Terror of Tempus. Str 18, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 9. In Candlekeep, the only enemy that caused me problems was Mendas. However, like the others, he too was killed.
I returned to the Gate of Candlekeep after being ambushed by assassins in a battle during which Gorion was killed. Upon returning to the site of the ambush, I was ambushed by undead whilst in transit. I fled!
Near Beregost, I met Sirene, a Paladin of Ilmater and an Inquisitor. We gelled together so she accompanied me to The Friendly Arms where we were attacked by a mage called Tarnesh. Sirene’s true sight caused the battle to be a short one which we won.
We proceeded northwards and after killing half a dozen hobgoblins, we ended up helping a priestess called Tenya. It came as quite a relief to discover that Sirene favoured my actions.
After taking the bowl to Tenya we took on and defeated an ankheg.
Upon returning to Beregost we headed southwards with the intention of going to Nashkel. However, on the way we were assaulted by no fewer than three Flaming Fist Mercenaries. Despite being outnumbered we prevailed and as a result we now have plate armour.
We returned to Beregost to rest and decided on a more circuitous route to Nashkel going via High Hedge. There we killed some gnolls before heading south where we killed a wolf.
In doing so we were able to rescue Mellicamp and have him returned to his proper shape at High Hedge.
Heading south once more we met up with Bassilus who we triumphed over .
At the temple we were generously rewarded for this.
Nugget, Nerd and Dreen could see Tiber and agreed to help him find a new owner for a two handed sword. A short while later Nugget and Nerd shook their heads, moving away from Dreen who had mistakenly equipped the cursed berserking sword retrieved from Captain Brage last time. A brief temple visit saw the swords swapped.
Further into Cloakwood Dreen was spotted by the Hamadryad, who teleported away several times before finally being killed off. Drasus, Genthore, Kysus and Rezdan found themselves out-summoned and by the time their bodies had been looted by Dreen and Nerd, a guard at the mine entrance had been mauled to death by a spirit summon.
Nashkel Cloakwood Mine held little of concern to the trio, a spirit snake gorging itself on Hareishan and her archers. Their fate remains unknown as Nerd chose to run downstairs while the snake occupied everyone. Two Battle Horrors delayed events for a minute or two then Davaeorn breathed his last.
Baldur's Gate was once again open for business, so after getting poisoned the trio picked up some bracers from Desreta and Vay-ya, nymph hair from the luckless Ragefast, Lothander made good his escape thanks to a dose of multiplayer bumping but Marek was not so fortunate.
Ramazith wisely stayed away as his tower was looted, Jardak and his butler lost their heads and a basilisk running loose in a warehouse provided Nugget with the chance to learn insect plague.
The Iron Throne mercenaries had chosen to defend the fifth floor, and failed miserably.
A quick round-up of Suneel and his wizardly ring and the Seven Suns doppelgangers was undertaken before seeking out Scar and Duke Eltan. On return to Candlekeep, a race up the stairs ended with the party being framed for murder and arrested. Tethtoril arranged a break-out and the tombs underneath the library were looted by Nerd and Dreen as Nugget stayed out of danger.
Nugget has 51 kills, Nerd 125 and Dreen 168. Inventories filling up rapidly - as they have all session.
With a ring of free action available the Cloakwood held no terrors and the Crew were soon lining up to get into the mine. First though they needed to get past the guards. Poison was again helpful against the mages, but Al was affected by chaos early on which complicated things - others needing to steer clear of his arrows of biting, while trying to also avoid the hard-hitting Drasus and finish the remaining enemies off. That was all done successfully, however.
The damage taken from Drasus proved to be an ongoing problem though. First, an attempted rest was interrupted by a horde of guards - prompting the Crew to leave the area. They ran straight into another ambush though - this time by a bunch of amazons.
With HPs already low the backstabs from the thieves were potential killers. However, Al got in the way of one of those, while the other missed. Bugsy did good work throwing darts of stunning for the first time to put Lamalha out of action,
but Zeela shrugged off several hits while casting unholy blight and that pushed 2 of the Crew even more into danger.
That was the last of their tricks though and the Crew were able to rest and heal without any significant further problems.
There were no particular difficulties in going down the mine, but on arriving near Davaeorn I realised that I'd forgotten to buy the Necklace of Missiles. However, an oil of fiery burning activated the Battle Horrors and they were soon dealt with. Al then used a potion of magic blocking to negate the traps and Davaeorn's initial sequencer and Davaeorn and his first lot of guards fell before that ran out.
After dodging the slave outside they went to Beregost and reduced reputation to 9 before resting to pick up a Bhaal horror. A few donations at the temple and completing more quests soon put reputation back to 20 and they went to get the Necklace of Missiles from the Carnival as well as shopping in the city. As with the wilderness they didn't do all tasks there, but did complete everything that provided equipment upgrades. As always Vito was the last to get to level 7 - achieving that after shooting down Ramazith.
The Iron Throne enemies were split up using the stairs and failed to do any significant damage. Next up will be a return to Candlekeep.
The ogre mage ambush at Candlekeep is potentially nasty with not enough time to move out of range before area effect spells arrive.
Al took the precaution of using a magic blocking potion immediately to ensure he wasn't put out of action, but as it happened no-one was affected by anything nastier than glitterdust and the Crew had an easy victory.
They cleaned out all the opposition in the catacombs (I probably would have killed the Iron Throne leaders as well, but forgot until too late).
Back in the City they once more spent up all their funds before going to find Slythe. He was lucky to survive long enough to get a backstab in, but Krystin was less fortunate.
At the palace the Crew potioned up for the first time. Two went in as melee targets with another two dispelling with arrows and the last ones using poison and stunning darts. Everything went smoothly there, with the mage getting stunned pretty much straight away and neither duke being seriously injured (though Liia was later killed by Sarevok). The Crew pulled back as the last doppleganger died to make sure that Belt was kept out of Sarevok's firing line.
With buffs still active the inhabitants of the maze were chopped up in short order. The Undercity party got a taste of exploding arrows
before everyone rested up for the final conflict. Rather than dump the enemies in a corner this time the Crew potioned up again before going invisible and unleashing a round of exploding arrows at the dais.
The intention was to go invisible again, to allow a second round of fiery rain, but that didn't work - I think the game engine got confused by too much happening at once with Sarevok and co still in the process of generating. As a result the invisibility potions were consumed, but no-one actually turned invisible. However, Al then acted as a lure for Sarevok while the others continued the bombardment - quickly killing Semaj and Diarmid.
Tazok had gone for the archers and was cut down as they swapped missiles for melee weapons. Angelo finally finished his buffing and appeared, but dispelling arrows meant he didn't last long - though he did just manage to get a remove magic away.
After the skeleton warriors were all shot down I decided it would be fitting to deal with Sarevok in melee, without softening him up first. Al's AC of -11 (and -7 vs slashing) gave him some hope of avoiding attacks and he took point while the others piled in. I expected them to be able to win that contest, but they didn't have much luck with their attacks (and were also being buffeted around a bit by bats ) and Al was forced to retreat moments before Sarevok breathed his last.
The Crew are not venturing into SoD, so will shortly be waking up in Jon's dungeon.
Gate70/Grond0 multiplayer trilogy attempt 123. BG:EE part 4 (123) Daorem (dark moon monk, Gate70) and Char (blackguard, Grond0)
Siege of Dragonspear, spoilered. Chapter 7, Baldur's Gate
Imoen was waiting for Daorem and Char at the bottom of the rope. The feeling was mutual about travelling together, so Imoen left the dark moon monk and blackguard to their own devices.
Daorem was not looking forward to the tomb but Char pluckily frontlined and steadily worked through the various enemies. Soon the entire level was clear and steps to the next level were taken. Daorem considered suggesting scrolls of protection from undead but Char was already hacking undead to pieces, usually after an arrow of detonation or two. A Shadowed Soul almost killed Daorem and badly wounded Char but the blackguard dug deep to prevent two more additions to the crypt.
Daorem advised resting before taking on one group of living breathing enemies, and Char thinned them down with poisoned detonation arrows. There wasn't much left to clean up.
Korlasz cannily protected herself from fire but combined missile damage saw her admit defeat before combat really began, and after looting some books for Imoen and reporting back to a mummy it was time to go.
The Duchal Palace seemed like a good place for a rest but assassins attacked Imoen and had to be fought off. Daorem and Char carefully emptied their storage chest and after killing a few more assassins headed into the city. Items were traded at Sorcerous Sundries, with an ammo belt and gem bag picked up for good measure. No doubt there were lots of things to do in town but instead Daorem told Captain Corwin to set march.
Chapter 8, Coast Way Crossing
Daorem sold a few more items while Char picked up a magical mirror. Again, there were plenty of things to do but the duo decided to head straight for the bridge. A crusader mage destroyed that just as we arrived, and Char gave as good as he got in the subsequent fight while Daorem sniped from safety. Before any conclusion could be drawn, Caelar appeared and called for talks. Daorem duly obliged, and combat ended. Daorem and Char returned to camp to declare the chapter ended, then went to find another way to cross the river.
Chapter 9, Boareskyr Bridge
Troll Claw Woods saw Char victorious but badly wounded fighting a group of hobgoblins, the only other point of interest was meeting Jaheira and Voghiln who were sent back to camp. On to the Forest of Wyverns where the wyverns poisoned Char twice before being cut down, and some bugbears were swept aside. There's a cave ahead so Daorem slips into the shadows and shoves Char ahead of her.
Scouting anti-clockwise sees the duo hug the southern edge of the cave and down some steps into a bugbear cave for a fight. Two bugbear stalkers make an appearance though, rapidly turning a simple combat into a near-death experience for Daorem.
A couple of potions later matters are back under control and Char is drawing more bugbears to their death. Their leader is a tough nut to crack, forcing the duo into thinning down his supporters then shooting him from a safe distance before heading into a temple of Cyric.
Kaherrem and his crusader patrol are caged near the entrance. Daorem considers spiking them but Char is a paladin of sorts and the risk may be too great. Leave them alone then.
Ziatar, a half-dragon is at the end of a corridor and calls for aid as Char moves to attack. The trail of bodies leading to her room is evidence that old dogs can learn new tricks, and she has to face her fate alone. Sanctuary and healing spells stave off her death for a short while but Char has the patience to hang around and pounce once her defences wear out.
Daorem picks up two keys and fishes around in her bag, casually thinking a potion will help Char with what is to be faced next. A huge neothelid appears, but ignores Char and targets Daorem. She runs outside but the neothelid follows. Eventually Char becomes the point of interest and Daorem realises a potion of cold resistance won't help much against a wave of poison.
Daorem readies a wand of the heavens, telling Char to stand firm as the neothelid may dive if he moves. Char shuts his eyes and hopes for the best, discovering the best is to deliver a forceful blow and kill the monster.
Daorem decides not to open one door yet in case the occupant goes hostile, and indicates to Char that the room at the end of the corridor should be explored next, preferably with detonating arrows.
The enemies in this room take a beating but come out fighting. The targeted enemy flits out of vision for a fraction of a second, preventing more arrows from burning them down. Char baulks them briefly but then we turn to cat and mouse at this point.
Mohad Flintburn is bravest of all, chasing us through several rooms... to his eventual doom.
Daorem sneaks back and sights each enemy in turn, for Char to shoot them mercilessly.
We return to the bypassed door, and retrieve a Bridgefort wardstone as reward for freeing the occupant. We have the keys to release Madele, forcing her to live a life of good, and Keherrem. He though, is hostile, thanks to the neothelid chasing Daorem and using the area poison. Daorem tries telling him to put a sock in it, but her foot is just too forceful and he crashes to the ground, dead. Daorem grabs his badge and we depart.
Once reaching Bridgefort we use the wardstone to enter the fort, and twice more to go retrieve a scroll from the Crusaders nearby. With that done we tell Khalid to wait for the sound of battle, and head back outside. The session ends there, meaning we should try to rouse our forces for battle next time. There will be death aplenty, hopefully not ours
The Crew had a good start to their BG2 adventures by successfully killing the ogre mage. Without missile weapons his defensive buffs and area effect spells make him dangerous, but Al managed to scare him with a rare use of his Bhaal horror ability and that provided time to go and pinch a couple of crossbows from the nearby duergar.
The rest of the dungeon was no problem and Al finished things off appropriately by breathing on Ulvaryl.
The experience for getting out provided everyone with their 8th level.
After stocking up on ammunition the Crew donated most of their money to the Church before getting a bit of entertainment at the Circus. The Copper Coronet didn't detain them long
before they dived into the sewers to find a back door to some slavers. Captain Haegan hit pretty hard - but not quite hard enough.
After finally resting enough times to heal the Crew took on what proved to be the easier task of subduing the mages.
As everyone had plenty of HPs left they were able to go through the poison trap on the way out of the front exit.
Reporting back to Haegan got everyone except Vito the XP for level 9, but immediately after that potential disaster struck. When fighting the hobgoblins at the entrance to the sewers one of them must have run out of the exit without me noticing as I saw out of the corner of my eye a red circle coming into view - and immediately Bernard turned hostile and attacked (perhaps he's got hobgoblin ancestry). For a shopkeeper he's also got a pretty mean attack!
The Crew successfully travelled back to the Promenade to rest and heal (I don't allow the use of healing potions, so travel and rest ambushes can be a significant danger in my no-reload runs). After resting they travelled to the Docks where Officer Dirth provided them with their first suit of full plate - and allowed everyone to level up. As usual final HPs are all well above the theoretical average for the Crew of 99 - the lowest of them having 111. They also bought the nymph cloak and back at the Slums they tried that out on Bernard. Charming shopkeepers doesn't always give access to their inventory, but this time it did . Even though reputation was only up to 17 I stretched a point and bought his good stuff - Mad Dog probably getting the best of the deal with Stonefire and Azuredge.
Moving on to the Bridge District the Crew picked up the berserker horn to get their first summons. They solved the Skinner murders, killing the Rune Assassins despite both of them meanly picking on Bugsy to backstab.
Looking for a bit more reputation they started journeying to Trademeet, but were not surprised to see Suna Seni attempting to hold them up. Everyone except Al got slowed in that fight, but they still had a bit in hand when the wizard fell.
At Trademeet a sneak attack killed Taquee before he could buff. The berserk warrior had been left in the tent and Vito went in to produce the efreeti to join in the fun - and the efreeti immediately ran back outside . Everyone except Al then went in and cut down the Khan. At the Druid Grove my archers party struggled with the trolls, but the better AC and melee ability of the Crew made progress pretty easy. Unfortunately they're not allowed to recruit NPCs - which meant Cernd has virtually no chance against Faldorn and he once more performed as expected, meaning no reputation gain is possible at Trademeet.
Stats Al - L9, 132 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 64 kills (+241 in BG1) ** longsword / ***** longbow Bugsy - L9, 120 HPs, 45 kills (+139 in BG1), 0 deaths, ***** katana / ** dart Vito - L9, 115 HPs, 63 kills (+155 in BG1), 2 deaths, ***** halberd / ** shortbow Carlo - L9, 111 HPs, 36 kills (+171 in BG1), 0 deaths, ***** flail / ** sling Baby Face - L9, 113 HPs, 39 kills (+134 in BG1), 0 deaths, ***** 2-handed sword / ** crossbow Mad Dog - L9, 123 HPs, 81 kills (+116 in BG1), 0 deaths, ***** axe / ** dual wielding
Shyffunee cleared Candlekeep. Prat and his party got us really low on HP (and Slowed us at the same time!), because I triggered the encounter accidentally, but we fled after killing everyone but Prat and then went back and rested so that we could deal with him. After we got out of the keep, we bought a couple of scrolls (Sunfire and Phantom Blade), and I wonder why can't Transmuters use Lower Resistance, if it's an Abjuration/Alteration spell (also, how does such a spell event exist). Anyway, our purchases also include five arrows of Dispelling, ten arrows of Detonation and more charges for the Wand of Cold/Lightning. Notable loot is jut a long sword+1 from the Leaders of the Iron Throne, and a Wand of Summoning with 20 (!) charges (also one with 8 but we left it at like 3 to deal with Prat). We got level 9/10 from the Doppleganger keeping Eltan sick.
Our next objectives are finding the DEX Tome, a bow, and finishing the game. Maybe werewolves or even a bit of Durlag's, but I really, really want to get to BG2. Slythe/Kristin are going to be dealt with a single arrow of Dispelling and excessive amounts of Wands abuse, my only idea for the Palace is casting Invisibility from a scroll over Liia. Dunno about the final Battle... I think I'm going to go out and rest whenever I need to or something cheesy like that (anyway, as long as they aren't immune to Cold, and they don't use Hold Person, I have the victory almost guaranteed, because I can just run in circles with the Paws of the Cheetah while blasting them away from existence with the Wand of Cold). I think I should pick up Conjure Lesser Fire Elemental for BG2, but I'm not sure about it, I think It'll help a LOT in Chateau Irenicus, but honestly I've never used it, thoughts on it?
I collected cats for a friend of Neera and poked my nose into watchers to get some nice equipment including a summon and endless ammo... fighting the first two statues (one at a time) got me a powerful sword then we decided to go look for Mazzy.
so far; ·Jan was happy to slam a door shut... I fight them one at a time. Bugs; ·Viconia got lost and we needed help from the Deity (reloading the save) to get her back...never press the colour box when this happens or you will lock up your system.
Dunno about the final Battle... I think I'm going to go out and rest whenever I need to
Don't rely on that unless you have mods that change the standard behavior (which doesn't allow leaving the temple or resting once the fight begins).
I think I should pick up Conjure Lesser Fire Elemental for BG2, but I'm not sure about it, I think It'll help a LOT in Chateau Irenicus, but honestly I've never used it, thoughts on it?
It is a great spell when cast in advance, though the delay while you try and control the elemental and the chance of it going hostile means it's not such a good option for use in combat.
I think I should pick up Conjure Lesser Fire Elemental for BG2, but I'm not sure about it, I think It'll help a LOT in Chateau Irenicus, but honestly I've never used it, thoughts on it?
It is a great spell when cast in advance, though the delay while you try and control the elemental and the chance of it going hostile means it's not such a good option for use in combat.
OK then, it's a set objective now. I am not sure how I'll take it down if it goes hostile on me on Chateau, but I just hope it doesn't.
Back in Athkatla the Crew made short work of the Fallen Paladins to push reputation to 19.
To get the final point needed they did the Sir Sarles quest, though they also rescued Renfeld before taking Neb's head.
Their stock of money didn't stretch too far, but after shooting down Prebek
they earned a bit more by looting the harpers - and getting a small bonus from Lucette.
While in the area they did Mae'Var's tasks - Rayic Gethras surprisingly failing to get his buffs up in time to save himself.
Before venturing into the lair of the backstabbers, however, I decided to seek out some more quality armor. The obvious place for that was back at the Bridge District where Captain Dennis died - and died again. This is one of the locations where using screenshots within the game cause not just the game, but my entire computer to become unresponsive - forcing a restart. Doing that once is annoying, but forgivable. Doing it for a second time immediately afterwards is ... {comment blocked by Forum rules }. Even more annoying, in the third fight Captain Dennis ran away out of the inn and disappeared before he could be finished off - thus losing me both his plate armor and throwing dagger.
The Crew then went back to Mae'Var's guild. There were indeed a lot of backstab attempts in there and, though no-one was badly hurt, they rested after clearing the ground floor - and again after doing the second floor and opening all the trapped containers. Then it was finally time for Mae'Var himself to meet his doom (or at least magic missile).
A few more equipment purchases - including Vhailor's Helm - emptied the treasury again and the Crew set off for the de'Arnise Hold in search of more loot. Potential ambushers in the City changed their mind immediately and ran for it, but some orogs in the wilderness were more determined (though not a great deal more successful).
Al's -9 AC again made dealing with the trolls at the Hold no problem and the hordes of them pushed the Crew up to level 10. Just after that all 5 of them that started in melee with an iron golem were affected by its poison - I'm not sure if they were just very unlucky (their saves vs death varied from 1 to 3) or if that no longer offers a saving throw.
That chapel is a safe place to rest though, so healing the damage was no problem. For Tor'Gal Al used an invisibility potion to draw him out alone and an invulnerability to avoid being scared. None of the others used potions initially (though Vito took a strength potion later to counter-act strength drain). Even on his own Tor'Gal is still extremely dangerous and quickly knocked lumps out of everyone. It looked like he would finally go down without casualties though, but he stuck at 1 HP and refused to fall unconscious for a while - and then finished Baby Face off for good measure.
He then turned on Al, but fortunately he eventually realised that he was supposed to die ...
... or perhaps not so fortunately. I'd just written the above notes on the battle with Tor'Gal and went back to the game - to find this.
I assumed at first that was the bug I've seen a number of times that wipes out the character, but Al's portrait is still there. Reviewing the screenshots I think the cause is clearly DUHM. At one point Al was taken down to single figure HPs while in melee and retreated to fire arrows instead - buffing himself before doing that with DUHM to both get a few HPs back and increase his chance of hitting. I've noticed a few times that the game is not always consistent about how HPs are added and subtracted for constitution changes and, although Al had definitely not been hit again after he retreated, the last screenshot with Tor'Gal shows him with only 7 HPs and DUHM active. I would guess therefore that he didn't gain HPs from casting DUHM, but did lose them when it ended (along with his life) . It's also possible I suppose that one of Tor'Gal's special abilities is some sort of bleeding continuing damage, though I haven't noticed that in previous runs.
None of my runs allow any type of item-based magical healing - potions, rod of resurrection, gloves of healing etc. I also don't allow antidotes, which has cost me plenty of deaths over the years. Occasionally I'll add extra restrictions, but most of the time other potions are fair game .
Grond0 would make quite the lieutenant in a war like WWII - "But sir, I lost my arm in that last artillery barrage - I need a medic!" - "Forget about healing - get out there and fight! Be a man!"
@Grond0: In my install with SCS, TorGal drains STR on hit. It's possible that DUHM simply staved off a STR drain kill. The STR drains lasts much longer than DUHM, so when it ran out, your STR dropped below 0. I'm guessing that's what happened.
@semiticgod - interesting idea, but it couldn't have been strength drain. While Tor'Gal was cheesily hanging on at 1 HP he killed Baby Face (who was running round scared and got too close to him) and then finished off the berserk warrior who was the only one left in melee range. Tor'Gal then picked out Al and ran at him - and Al dodged away for the second or two longer until Tor'Gal finally snuffed it. For strength drain to be fatal he would have had to have been at strength 3 or less while DUHM was active - which would make it difficult to run round in full plate ...
Comments
If 65 and 64 were different, the potion would grant immunity to neither. If they were the same, the potion would grant immunity to both. But the inconsistency, 64 and 65, is between the attacks and the potion, not between the two attacks.
In PROJECTL.ids, GAZE is only 64, not 65. Yet the potion (64) was clearly granting Morwen immunity to the basilisk attack (65), as she suffered a lot of hits from the basilisks without ever needing to make a save. But otherwise the basilisk attacks were working just fine, as Ajantis, Tiax's Ghoul, and Kivan all got hit.
Theoretically, it's possible the potion grants immunity to both attacks, and the potion ran out at just the right time. But that's only a gap of a few seconds in a 300-second spell, and Morwen had drunk the potion very, very recently before she died.
But yes, since the Medusa's gaze only has a range of 6, you can stay out of harm's way by kiting them.
About BWS - hmm... @ALIEN ? The install order from semiticgod is very wrong from the start. Spell Rev before Item Rev is wrong. Base Item Rev can go whenever you want, but SR must go after - it needs to go after all item-adding mods. And most spell adding mods, at least those that add new spells to the game.
The way it's handled now completely busts SR - it will mess up a lot of stuff concerning Dispelling Screen, Petrification, Haste/Slow etc. Just put it after Refinements in BWS; it has an added compatibility block.
About medusa - I don't have the medusa-adding mod, but I remember when playtesting a megamod compilation it worked fine vs them....then again, I did the install manually, and installed SR after medusas adding mod.
What you could do is the following (it will/should fix your petrification protection issues at least)
Download this template
Open up components/items.tpa
Delete everything from there
Copy paste this code into items.tpa file
ADD_SECTYPE ~k1#Petrify~ @21005
COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP GLOB ~^.+\.itm$~ ~override~
PATCH_IF (SOURCE_SIZE > 0x71) BEGIN
READ_LONG 0x64 ab_off
READ_SHORT 0x68 ab_num
READ_LONG 0x6a ef_off
FOR (i=0;i 0x71) BEGIN
SET found_petrify=0
READ_LONG 0x64 ab_off
READ_SHORT 0x68 ab_num
READ_LONG 0x6a ef_off
FOR (i=0;i 0x71) BEGIN
LPF CLONE_EFFECT INT_VAR match_opcode = 43 opcode = 221 parameter2 = %k1#Petrify% silent = 1 END
END
BUT_ONLY
COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP GLOB ~.*\.spl$~ ~override~
PATCH_IF (SOURCE_SIZE > 0x71) BEGIN
LPF CLONE_EFFECT INT_VAR match_opcode = 43 opcode = 221 parameter2 = %k1#Petrify% silent = 1 END
END
BUT_ONLY
COPY_EXISTING ~spwi604.spl~ ~override~
WRITE_BYTE 0x27 "%k1#Petrify%"
BUT_ONLY
COPY_EXISTING ~spwi604d.spl~ ~override~
WRITE_BYTE 0x27 "%k1#Petrify%"
BUT_ONLY
COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP GLOB ~.*\.itm$~ ~override~
PATCH_IF (SOURCE_SIZE > 0x71) BEGIN
LPF CLONE_EFFECT INT_VAR multi_match = 1 match_opcode = 101 opcode = 206 match_parameter2 = 134 STR_VAR resource = spwi604d silent = 1 END
LPF DELETE_ITEM_EFFECT INT_VAR opcode_to_delete = 134 END END
COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP GLOB ~.*\.spl$~ ~override~
PATCH_IF (SOURCE_SIZE > 0x71) BEGIN
LPF CLONE_EFFECT INT_VAR multi_match = 1 match_opcode = 101 opcode = 206 match_parameter2 = 134 STR_VAR resource = spwi604d silent = 1 END
LPF DELETE_SPELL_EFFECT INT_VAR opcode_to_delete = 134 END END
Open up languages/english and add this line
@21005 = ~Petrification effect reverted~
Install by running mycustom. This can be installed last.
However, this Weidu will lead to more crazy stuff.
Undergate: Chara and Frisk in Baldur's Gate
Part 9
Previous posts here:https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/860188/#Comment_860188
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/860578/#Comment_860578
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/861123/#Comment_861123
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/861538/#Comment_861538
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/864004/#Comment_864004
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/864065/#Comment_864065
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/864387/#Comment_864387
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/864400/#Comment_864400
We head up north and tackle Osmadi multiple times. But after he causes 5 or 6 inexplicable crashes in a row, without fail, I decide that he does not deserve to be beaten fairly. I kill him in a way that makes sure he can't crash the game.
We wander into a random map somewhere and discover that the area is loaded with spiders. As usual, Phase Spiders teleport from all the way across the map and flank us. They deal 5 poison damage per second on a failed save, but the XP reward is just fantastic.
It's worth almost as much as an Ankheg! We go on the prowl for more spiders. Kagain's strong saving throws don't guarantee he'll avoid getting poisoned, but Chara's Sweet Elixirs can cure poison for only 11 gold a pop. Frisk minimizes the pressure on Kagain using Hypnosis, but the high save bonus means it's a very unreliable disabler.
We scour the map, searching for every bloody chunk of XP we can carve from our enemies. Finally, finally we hit a milestone.
As a level 4 Alchemist, Chara gets some very important new items.
Bitter Tonic will give us a slight HP boost for big encounters, Brine Solution will protect us from disablers (and also increase the chances of scribing scrolls), Sour Draught will be a powerful healing option, and Pressurized Gas will let us bomb living targets with poison damage. We also get Musk Wine (not pictured), which grants +3 to STR and movement rate for 8 hours, or +5 for Alchemists. Musk Wine can boost Kagain's unremarkable 16 STR up to an astounding 19.
Chara can also finally cast Mirror Image. They couldn't do it at level 3 because the Alchemist kit gets one fewer spell slot per spell level. Plus, we get an upgrade to our grenades. They now have only a +2 bonus to the save vs. breath to avoid stun and deafness, and deal 2d6 damage instead of 1d6.
And then I feel sad.
Because we still need to hit level 7 if we're going to have any chance against Sarevok. The level 7 potions are just too important.
And we need 5 times as much XP before we can get there.
I don't know if we can get that much by the end of the game. With all sources of XP cut down to 25%, a normal character hitting the original XP cap of 161,000 will only get Chara 40,000 XP, leaving a 20,000 XP gap before they can reach level 7.
Do all the quests in the original game and you get to the XP cap. And we'd still be less than two-thirds of the way there.
Regardless, we're finally ready for the bandit camp, which means we can resume the main quest and head to the Nashkel mine. The Tab key reveals a special treasure, but apparently we're not supposed to take it.
And now I feel bad.
We run into a gang of Duergar in the mine. Unfortunately, they bring a lot more to the table than the Duergar grunts in Chateau Irenicus.
Chara's potions, however, are an excellent solution.
As long as we don't fail any saves against the enemy cleric's Hold Person. The Greenstone Amulet can block it...
...but whenever I take the amulet off of Chara, I expose our main character to a game-ending disabler.
Taking down the Duergar proves difficult. Our THAC0 is terrible; Kagain is our only fighter and the Duergar all have armor and plenty of HP. Plus, some kobolds are rushing in to flank us.
Another Hold Person comes our way, and this time I keep the Greenstone Amulet safe on Chara. Frisk fails a save, but Finch has a level 2 version of Remove Paralysis!
All the enemies have gathered in a cluster, allowing Frisk to hypnotize them so Chara can blow them up.
Kagain is buffed with Musk Wine and now has 19 STR, dealing +7 damage when using his +3 axe. The boost is enough to chop up one of the Duergar before he can heal himself.
With the cleric gone and no more Hold Person spells to worry about, the rest of the fight is a slow grind. And thanks to a healthy gold supply from our early, vulnerable days, we have far more healing potions than the enemy. They run out of resources. We do not.
An Alchemist's power is limited by the party's gold supply; other classes are limited by rest periods. This means Alchemists aren't weakened so much by long, protracted battles.
Our fight with the Duergar yields a very special set of armor.
Too bad nobody in the party can wear it for some reason.
I stumble upon Mur'Neth, a name I've only heard on the G3 website. I know he's an NPC, but I've never tried him before.
I decide to boot Indira from the party. She could have been strong later in the game, but she entered the party at level 1, and we've been struggling to find good sources of XP. We can't afford to keep her.
Mur'Neth is not, as I thought, an Oozemaster druid. He's a thief who has some strange innate abilities, including the ability to change into a magic-immune jelly.
I use the spell to choose a kit for him, and I discover something very special.
One of my mods creates an "Alchemist" kit for thieves. It's not much like my Alchemist mage kit, but it does have something very special going for it.
It can create normal potions every day, at no cost in gold. Elixirs of Health, Flaming Oils (like the IWD item), and Potions of Fire Resistance, Cold Resistance, Perception, Rage, Clarity (!), Invisibility (!), Regeneration, and Speed. Chara can get lots of money by selling them, but more importantly, this means we finally have a reliable escape option. Smoke Bombs are cheap, but they don't always cover you for a full round; now Chara will always have a Potion of Invisibility on hand in case things go wrong. Plus, Oils of Speed will compensate for our poor attack power, and Potions of Clarity will finally give us a defense against fear, since my mods took Remove Fear away from Tiax and Finch.
The last major fight is Mulahey. I got lucky last time I fought him with an Alchemist, but grenades don't always stun their target.
Of course, sometimes you do get lucky.
The stun only lasts a single round, but Mulahey will also suffer 50% spell failure in the next round due to deafness. And when Tiax gets Mulahey to fail a save against Doufas' Saber as well, he is doomed.
Notice Frisk in werewolf form. That's because the Cloak of the Wolf in Item Revisions can turn the wearer into a werewolf. It's quite nice, though none of our party members is well suited for using it. All it really does is give Frisk better AC at the cost of an HP drop.
I decide to finally remove Tiax from the party. He was really useful with Doufas' Saber and its absurd 3 APR and paralyze effect on hit, but I really only brought him into the party because he could summon Ghasts, and with the basilisks and Ankhegs gone, the Ghast is no longer that important. Especially now that we have Kagain, a far superior tank.
We bring Xan into the party, who is a Fighter/Mage in my install with the Bladesinger kit like Indira. Unlike Indira, he starts at a higher level. He'll be a strong character with a little more investment, though he might not get along with everyone in the group.
While we're here, I decide to tackle Narcillus. I had trouble with him in my minimal reload run, so I use a lot of expensive potions from Chara to buff the party.
But it turns out there's a nonviolent way to resolve this encounter.
Now that we're out of the mine, Officer Vai should be willing to purchase our Bandit Scalps. And we've got plenty.
Funny thing is... Offices Vai also apparently will buy other items. And she pays full price for all of them, unlike normal merchants. We can't buy back anything we sell to her--once she has it, it's gone forever--but it's a real gold mine.
We go from 30,000 gold to 50,000 gold in a single day. Not that I have many uses for all that money, with level 7 potions still far out of reach.
We turn to philanthropy instead. Paying for a young student to pursue higher education fills us with detemmienation.
I think possibly the first party I played of all my one character types was a bunch of dwarf fighters. They've been in BG2 a few times, but never done as well as they might have done, so I thought it was time to give them another shot.
Like the recent archers, the characters in the Crew have been imported from their original BGT installation into BGEE and are playing with an SCS/Ascension modded version. Unlike the archers, however, they're not required to avoid deaths in BG1, so went straight to find Shoal. The only character with decent charisma (other than Al) is Vito, so he picked up a fatal kiss - and then died again almost straight away when I forgot that SCS would cause Droth to pick out the weakest link as a target. The others eventually shot down Ogre Droth though before making Shoal pay in full for her crimes.
South of Beregost an encounter with the Flaming Fist allowed the Crew to pick up 3 sets of plate mail to improve their defense. Back in Beregost they murdered Algernon before heading north to find Dushai and get all their killing of innocents done in one go.
Some quests on the way to Nashkel restored their reputation sufficiently for Al to get CLW. A mis-click that sent Joia away empty-handed didn't help with that and neither did attacking some diggers in the instant before they turned hostile (annoying Charleston Nib - even charmed he then gave no reward). However, successfully restoring Melicamp finally gave Vito enough XP for level 2 and everyone levelled up.
Stats
Al - L2, 28 HPs, 17 kills
Bugsy - L2, 28 HPs, 19 kills, 0 deaths
Vito - L2, 29 HPs, 20 kills, 2 deaths
Carlo - L2, 25 HPs, 32 kills, 0 deaths
Baby Face - L2, 22 HPs, 27 kills, 0 deaths
Mad Dog - L2, 30 HPs, 21 kills, 0 deaths
Previous updates
I'm not requiring the Crew to do all possible encounters, unlike monks or archers, so they've been moving on quite swiftly. Vito got the XP for level 3 at some point while clearing out an ogre clan
A swift trip through the southern areas pushed reputation up to 19 and the Crew decided it was time for some basilisks. Al took the responsibility for soloing those and soon got everyone up to level 4 despite a sneak attack from some gnolls.
After spending all their funds on the good stuff at High Hedge the Crew returned to the coast to sort out some sirines.
With the extra level and the generally high HPs from playing in EE I decided the Crew could now go back and challenge the Doomsayer. Although most of them had non-proficient magic weapons they still managed that easily enough.
Their good AC allowed the Crew to pass through the Nashkel Mine without resting
Rather than go straight on to the Bandit Camp the Crew took a diversion to Durlag's Tower to pick up some more quick XP. Al once more soloed some basilisks (this time using potion protection) before everyone joined in to kill the ghost (using the stairs), Kirinhale (magic ammunition)
Vito still needed a few more XP for another level, so everyone returned to the ankheg area and cleaned that out.
They cashed in the loot from the Camp and bought all the rest of the items they wanted, including another set of plate armor and the crossbow of speed. While thinking about armor I decided to find another ankheg and convert that to a nice
handbagsuit of plate. On the way though Molkar tried an ambush. That's dangerous for a solo character, but no problem for the Crew - Halacan immediately found his save wasn't good enough against poison and the others were cut down very quickly.Stats
Al - L6, 83 HPs, 147 kills, ** longsword / **** longbow
Vito - L6, 78 HPs, 110 kills, 2 deaths, **** halberd / ** shortbow
Bugsy - L6, 77 HPs, 85 kills, 0 deaths, **** katana / ** dart
Carlo - L6, 71 HPs, 121 kills, 0 deaths, **** flail / ** sling
Baby Face - L6, 81 HPs, 81 kills, 0 deaths, **** 2-handed sword / ** crossbow
Mad Dog - L6, 87 HPs, 84 kills, 0 deaths, **** axe / ** dual wielding
A little break for awhile, and then I'll see if I'm feeling an attempt at a Trilogy run after the real fun of reinstalling. Happy no-reloading!
ABT-10,
opening move,I defeated the guards and took a risk to get a ring, then gave Minsc the boot and went to the bridge district to collect my warrior summon. Neera countered a ambush then disappeared and I agreed to look for a murderer as I payed for my license... Viconia gave me the full sad-eyes treatment and bless me if I didn't almost keep walking but I remembered my own mob trial after dragonspear and that convinced me.
so far;
·Neera was happy to see me again... I just joined her in the woods.
·Imoen got arrested.
·Jaheira is fertilizing the wild woods with her corpse... it is what she would have wanted I'm sure of it.
Journal of Terror of Tempus
Starting a new Battleguard of Tempus run using a character that I rolled some time ago called Terror of Tempus. Str 18, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 9.In Candlekeep, the only enemy that caused me problems was Mendas. However, like the others, he too was killed.
I returned to the Gate of Candlekeep after being ambushed by assassins in a battle during which Gorion was killed.
Upon returning to the site of the ambush, I was ambushed by undead whilst in transit. I fled!
Near Beregost, I met Sirene, a Paladin of Ilmater and an Inquisitor. We gelled together so she accompanied me to The Friendly Arms where we were attacked by a mage called Tarnesh. Sirene’s true sight caused the battle to be a short one which we won.
We proceeded northwards and after killing half a dozen hobgoblins, we ended up helping a priestess called Tenya. It came as quite a relief to discover that Sirene favoured my actions.
After taking the bowl to Tenya we took on and defeated an ankheg.
Upon returning to Beregost we headed southwards with the intention of going to Nashkel. However, on the way we were assaulted by no fewer than three Flaming Fist Mercenaries. Despite being outnumbered we prevailed and as a result we now have plate armour.
We returned to Beregost to rest and decided on a more circuitous route to Nashkel going via High Hedge. There we killed some gnolls before heading south where we killed a wolf.
In doing so we were able to rescue Mellicamp and have him returned to his proper shape at High Hedge.
Heading south once more we met up with Bassilus who we triumphed over .
At the temple we were generously rewarded for this.
Journal of Terror of Tempus
Heading south again we helped Albert and his dog Rufie.In transit we were able to kill a winter wolf.
Nearby we saved a sirene’s tree by killing Krumm and his buddy.
Heading west we killed Gnarl and Hairtooth when they attacked us.
We were then attacked by yet more assassins who we killed.
To the north we were attacked by some ogre berserkers and then a polar bear all of which we slew.
Neville and his cohorts hurt me badly, but they paid the price.
In transit we killed another winter wolf.
We then fought Zargos Flintblade who went berserk after being badly hurt.
We then killed Greywolf before returning to Beregost.
Coran joined us after which at Beregost we killed a number of spiders before heading west to kill Zargal et al.
Heading further west we killed some sirine and upon killing a carrion crawler, Coran levelled up.
We dealt peaceably with Sil and then fought flesh golems in the cave. Coran was killed in the second battle.
We headed back to Nashkel where we raised Coran before getting the reward for the emeralds.
With the help of Oublek we killed a baby wyvern, though sadly he was killed.
Lord Von Undenzieht then got angry with us for killing the baby wyvern, but the guard dealt with that problem. We then sold the winter wolf pelts.
After that I relieved some of Bardolan’s tension.
After that I found a warm place for Noober to recuperate.
In transit we killed a brown bear.
We then took Brage safely to the temple.
In transit we killed another winter wolf before returning to the gnoll stronghold. We were badly hurt and had to rest.
We then took on all the gnolls and defeated them though Sirene was killed.
Nugget, Nerd and Dreen could see Tiber and agreed to help him find a new owner for a two handed sword. A short while later Nugget and Nerd shook their heads, moving away from Dreen who had mistakenly equipped the cursed berserking sword retrieved from Captain Brage last time. A brief temple visit saw the swords swapped.
Further into Cloakwood Dreen was spotted by the Hamadryad, who teleported away several times before finally being killed off. Drasus, Genthore, Kysus and Rezdan found themselves out-summoned and by the time their bodies had been looted by Dreen and Nerd, a guard at the mine entrance had been mauled to death by a spirit summon.
NashkelCloakwood Mine held little of concern to the trio, a spirit snake gorging itself on Hareishan and her archers. Their fate remains unknown as Nerd chose to run downstairs while the snake occupied everyone. Two Battle Horrors delayed events for a minute or two then Davaeorn breathed his last.Ramazith wisely stayed away as his tower was looted, Jardak and his butler lost their heads and a basilisk running loose in a warehouse provided Nugget with the chance to learn insect plague.
The Iron Throne mercenaries had chosen to defend the fifth floor, and failed miserably.
Nugget has 51 kills, Nerd 125 and Dreen 168. Inventories filling up rapidly - as they have all session.
Previous updates
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With a ring of free action available the Cloakwood held no terrors and the Crew were soon lining up to get into the mine. First though they needed to get past the guards. Poison was again helpful against the mages, but Al was affected by chaos early on which complicated things - others needing to steer clear of his arrows of biting, while trying to also avoid the hard-hitting Drasus and finish the remaining enemies off. That was all done successfully, however.
The damage taken from Drasus proved to be an ongoing problem though. First, an attempted rest was interrupted by a horde of guards - prompting the Crew to leave the area. They ran straight into another ambush though - this time by a bunch of amazons.
There were no particular difficulties in going down the mine, but on arriving near Davaeorn I realised that I'd forgotten to buy the Necklace of Missiles. However, an oil of fiery burning activated the Battle Horrors and they were soon dealt with. Al then used a potion of magic blocking to negate the traps and Davaeorn's initial sequencer and Davaeorn and his first lot of guards fell before that ran out.
After dodging the slave outside they went to Beregost and reduced reputation to 9 before resting to pick up a Bhaal horror. A few donations at the temple and completing more quests soon put reputation back to 20 and they went to get the Necklace of Missiles from the Carnival as well as shopping in the city. As with the wilderness they didn't do all tasks there, but did complete everything that provided equipment upgrades. As always Vito was the last to get to level 7 - achieving that after shooting down Ramazith.
The Iron Throne enemies were split up using the stairs and failed to do any significant damage. Next up will be a return to Candlekeep.
Stats
Al - L7, 103 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 204 kills, ** longsword / **** longbow
Bugsy - L7, 92 HPs, 120 kills, 0 deaths, **** katana / ** dart
Vito - L7, 85 HPs, 139 kills, 2 deaths, **** halberd / ** shortbow
Carlo - L7, 86 HPs, 153 kills, 0 deaths, **** flail / ** sling
Baby Face - L7, 92 HPs, 118 kills, 0 deaths, **** 2-handed sword / ** crossbow
Mad Dog - L7, 96 HPs, 107 kills, 0 deaths, **** axe / ** dual wielding
Previous updates
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The ogre mage ambush at Candlekeep is potentially nasty with not enough time to move out of range before area effect spells arrive.
Back in the City they once more spent up all their funds before going to find Slythe. He was lucky to survive long enough to get a backstab in, but Krystin was less fortunate.
At the palace the Crew potioned up for the first time. Two went in as melee targets with another two dispelling with arrows and the last ones using poison and stunning darts. Everything went smoothly there, with the mage getting stunned pretty much straight away and neither duke being seriously injured (though Liia was later killed by Sarevok). The Crew pulled back as the last doppleganger died to make sure that Belt was kept out of Sarevok's firing line.
With buffs still active the inhabitants of the maze were chopped up in short order. The Undercity party got a taste of exploding arrows
The Crew are not venturing into SoD, so will shortly be waking up in Jon's dungeon.
Stats
Al - L7, 103 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 241 kills, ** longsword / **** longbow
Bugsy - L7, 92 HPs, 139 kills, 0 deaths, **** katana / ** dart
Vito - L7, 85 HPs, 155 kills, 2 deaths, **** halberd / ** shortbow
Carlo - L7, 86 HPs, 171 kills, 0 deaths, **** flail / ** sling
Baby Face - L7, 92 HPs, 134 kills, 0 deaths, **** 2-handed sword / ** crossbow
Mad Dog - L7, 96 HPs, 116 kills, 0 deaths, **** axe / ** dual wielding
Daorem (dark moon monk, Gate70) and Char (blackguard, Grond0)
Siege of Dragonspear, spoilered. Chapter 7, Baldur's Gate
Imoen was waiting for Daorem and Char at the bottom of the rope. The feeling was mutual about travelling together, so Imoen left the dark moon monk and blackguard to their own devices.
Daorem was not looking forward to the tomb but Char pluckily frontlined and steadily worked through the various enemies. Soon the entire level was clear and steps to the next level were taken. Daorem considered suggesting scrolls of protection from undead but Char was already hacking undead to pieces, usually after an arrow of detonation or two. A Shadowed Soul almost killed Daorem and badly wounded Char but the blackguard dug deep to prevent two more additions to the crypt.
Daorem advised resting before taking on one group of living breathing enemies, and Char thinned them down with poisoned detonation arrows. There wasn't much left to clean up.
The Duchal Palace seemed like a good place for a rest but assassins attacked Imoen and had to be fought off. Daorem and Char carefully emptied their storage chest and after killing a few more assassins headed into the city. Items were traded at Sorcerous Sundries, with an ammo belt and gem bag picked up for good measure. No doubt there were lots of things to do in town but instead Daorem told Captain Corwin to set march.
Scouting anti-clockwise sees the duo hug the southern edge of the cave and down some steps into a bugbear cave for a fight. Two bugbear stalkers make an appearance though, rapidly turning a simple combat into a near-death experience for Daorem.
Kaherrem and his crusader patrol are caged near the entrance. Daorem considers spiking them but Char is a paladin of sorts and the risk may be too great. Leave them alone then.
Ziatar, a half-dragon is at the end of a corridor and calls for aid as Char moves to attack. The trail of bodies leading to her room is evidence that old dogs can learn new tricks, and she has to face her fate alone. Sanctuary and healing spells stave off her death for a short while but Char has the patience to hang around and pounce once her defences wear out.
Daorem picks up two keys and fishes around in her bag, casually thinking a potion will help Char with what is to be faced next. A huge neothelid appears, but ignores Char and targets Daorem. She runs outside but the neothelid follows. Eventually Char becomes the point of interest and Daorem realises a potion of cold resistance won't help much against a wave of poison.
The enemies in this room take a beating but come out fighting. The targeted enemy flits out of vision for a fraction of a second, preventing more arrows from burning them down. Char baulks them briefly but then we turn to cat and mouse at this point.
We return to the bypassed door, and retrieve a Bridgefort wardstone as reward for freeing the occupant. We have the keys to release Madele, forcing her to live a life of good, and Keherrem. He though, is hostile, thanks to the neothelid chasing Daorem and using the area poison. Daorem tries telling him to put a sock in it, but her foot is just too forceful and he crashes to the ground, dead. Daorem grabs his badge and we depart.
Once reaching Bridgefort we use the wardstone to enter the fort, and twice more to go retrieve a scroll from the Crusaders nearby. With that done we tell Khalid to wait for the sound of battle, and head back outside. The session ends there, meaning we should try to rouse our forces for battle next time. There will be death aplenty, hopefully not ours
Previous updates
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The Crew had a good start to their BG2 adventures by successfully killing the ogre mage. Without missile weapons his defensive buffs and area effect spells make him dangerous, but Al managed to scare him with a rare use of his Bhaal horror ability and that provided time to go and pinch a couple of crossbows from the nearby duergar.
After stocking up on ammunition the Crew donated most of their money to the Church before getting a bit of entertainment at the Circus. The Copper Coronet didn't detain them long
Reporting back to Haegan got everyone except Vito the XP for level 9, but immediately after that potential disaster struck. When fighting the hobgoblins at the entrance to the sewers one of them must have run out of the exit without me noticing as I saw out of the corner of my eye a red circle coming into view - and immediately Bernard turned hostile and attacked (perhaps he's got hobgoblin ancestry). For a shopkeeper he's also got a pretty mean attack!
The Crew successfully travelled back to the Promenade to rest and heal (I don't allow the use of healing potions, so travel and rest ambushes can be a significant danger in my no-reload runs). After resting they travelled to the Docks where Officer Dirth provided them with their first suit of full plate - and allowed everyone to level up. As usual final HPs are all well above the theoretical average for the Crew of 99 - the lowest of them having 111. They also bought the nymph cloak and back at the Slums they tried that out on Bernard. Charming shopkeepers doesn't always give access to their inventory, but this time it did
Moving on to the Bridge District the Crew picked up the berserker horn to get their first summons. They solved the Skinner murders, killing the Rune Assassins despite both of them meanly picking on Bugsy to backstab.
Looking for a bit more reputation they started journeying to Trademeet, but were not surprised to see Suna Seni attempting to hold them up. Everyone except Al got slowed in that fight, but they still had a bit in hand when the wizard fell.
At Trademeet a sneak attack killed Taquee before he could buff. The berserk warrior had been left in the tent and Vito went in to produce the efreeti to join in the fun - and the efreeti immediately ran back outside
Stats
Al - L9, 132 HPs (incl. 5 from Helm), 64 kills (+241 in BG1) ** longsword / ***** longbow
Bugsy - L9, 120 HPs, 45 kills (+139 in BG1), 0 deaths, ***** katana / ** dart
Vito - L9, 115 HPs, 63 kills (+155 in BG1), 2 deaths, ***** halberd / ** shortbow
Carlo - L9, 111 HPs, 36 kills (+171 in BG1), 0 deaths, ***** flail / ** sling
Baby Face - L9, 113 HPs, 39 kills (+134 in BG1), 0 deaths, ***** 2-handed sword / ** crossbow
Mad Dog - L9, 123 HPs, 81 kills (+116 in BG1), 0 deaths, ***** axe / ** dual wielding
Our next objectives are finding the DEX Tome, a bow, and finishing the game. Maybe werewolves or even a bit of Durlag's, but I really, really want to get to BG2. Slythe/Kristin are going to be dealt with a single arrow of Dispelling and excessive amounts of Wands abuse, my only idea for the Palace is casting Invisibility from a scroll over Liia. Dunno about the final Battle... I think I'm going to go out and rest whenever I need to or something cheesy like that (anyway, as long as they aren't immune to Cold, and they don't use Hold Person, I have the victory almost guaranteed, because I can just run in circles with the Paws of the Cheetah while blasting them away from existence with the Wand of Cold). I think I should pick up Conjure Lesser Fire Elemental for BG2, but I'm not sure about it, I think It'll help a LOT in Chateau Irenicus, but honestly I've never used it, thoughts on it?
ABT-11,
gear,I collected cats for a friend of Neera and poked my nose into watchers to get some nice equipment including a summon and endless ammo... fighting the first two statues (one at a time) got me a powerful sword then we decided to go look for Mazzy.
so far;
·Jan was happy to slam a door shut... I fight them one at a time.
Bugs;
·Viconia got lost and we needed help from the Deity (reloading the save) to get her back...never press the colour box when this happens or you will lock up your system.
It is a great spell when cast in advance, though the delay while you try and control the elemental and the chance of it going hostile means it's not such a good option for use in combat.
Previous updates
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/864905/#Comment_864905
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https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/865434/#Comment_865434
Back in Athkatla the Crew made short work of the Fallen Paladins to push reputation to 19.
Their stock of money didn't stretch too far, but after shooting down Prebek
Before venturing into the lair of the backstabbers, however, I decided to seek out some more quality armor. The obvious place for that was back at the Bridge District where Captain Dennis died - and died again. This is one of the locations where using screenshots within the game cause not just the game, but my entire computer to become unresponsive - forcing a restart. Doing that once is annoying, but forgivable. Doing it for a second time immediately afterwards is ... {comment blocked by Forum rules
The Crew then went back to Mae'Var's guild. There were indeed a lot of backstab attempts in there and, though no-one was badly hurt, they rested after clearing the ground floor - and again after doing the second floor and opening all the trapped containers. Then it was finally time for Mae'Var himself to meet his doom (or at least magic missile).
A few more equipment purchases - including Vhailor's Helm - emptied the treasury again and the Crew set off for the de'Arnise Hold in search of more loot. Potential ambushers in the City changed their mind immediately and ran for it, but some orogs in the wilderness were more determined (though not a great deal more successful).
Al's -9 AC again made dealing with the trolls at the Hold no problem and the hordes of them pushed the Crew up to level 10. Just after that all 5 of them that started in melee with an iron golem were affected by its poison - I'm not sure if they were just very unlucky (their saves vs death varied from 1 to 3) or if that no longer offers a saving throw.
... or perhaps not so fortunately. I'd just written the above notes on the battle with Tor'Gal and went back to the game - to find this.