Our party is the culmination of dozens of turning points and shifts of fate. Sometimes it was my decision and sometimes it was chance, but we've gone through 37 characters over the course of the saga, plus Frisk and Chara. This is our final party composition:
Most of our equipped items come from mods, but even without them, we have a deep well of resources from potions to scrolls to wands and spare weapons and armor, among other things. We enter the Throne of Bhaal fully buffed and ready.
Melissan summons Jon-bon and Bobo, plus a Fallen Solar and Imoen as the Slayer.
Bobo and the Fallen Solar die during Tashia's Time Stop, but Irenicus is invisible and I forget that Coran (one of our three party members immune to Time Stop, alongside Xan and Chara) has Detect Illusions.
But Frisk manages to hypnotize him just long enough for them to dispel his illusions, paving the way for our multiple mages to take down his buffs.
Imoen changes back into her human form, but for some reason, she remains hostile.
She stays that way, too. We don't have a choice.
We proceed to the energy mana magicka misty greenstuff pools. Turns out we can kill all of the demons with a single Time Stop, except for the Marilith with its irritating PFMW, which we can only kill afterwards.
I do the same thing for the other gooky goo pools. As usual, I don't use the pools to rest the party until we're ready for the Five. This allows us to rest three times in a row, ensuring that we start the fight with full spell slots as well as full buffs, full summons, and full traps (if we had any).
The pools let me summon Dynaheir and Tiax, but I only summon Gorion. I skip some inspiring fatherly dialogue and take a look at his spellbook, which brings nothing interesting to the table.
It takes a few tries, and for a moment I think I've run into another game-breaking bug, but I activate the final goo pool and the Five appear.
Tashia stops time. Even Balthazar is here, under Melissan's control, despite him committing suicide and also being diametrically opposed to Melissan.
With all the resources we gathered since Chateau Irenicus, we can afford to splurge. Such as by using a Protection from Magic scroll on Abazigal and Sendai.
If the rest of the party somehow falls, Chara can always use the Staff of Zoltan to become invisibility to all evil-aligned enemies. Therefore, our first target is Balthazar, who has not yet activated his immunity to Time Stop.
Notice that I left Illasera at Near Death. This is so that I can kill her immediately after Melissan arrives, briefly knocking out Melissan herself.
Abazigal is next, as he hits very hard if left unchecked. Improved Kitty briefly distracts the enemies to the west.
Then Sarevok, because I think Yaga-Shura has regeneration or damage resistances or something.
Notice Melissan losing her defenses. Apparently Melissan has no Spell Shield of any kind, so SR's Pierce Shield takes down both her Absolute Immunity and her Spell Trap.
Xan and Coran get knocked unconscious, but Xan's old Contingency cures him immediately.
Chara and Tashia, buffed with Tenser's Transformation, attack Sendai, who is already basically dead thanks to a Protection from Magic scroll (we still have 4 or 5 left). Our front line deals with Yaga-Shura, who goes down quickly.
Only two left. And Sendai has no means of defending herself whatsoever.
Melissan is all alone. We prepare to seal her fate.
Melissan goes down to Injured... and then suddenly dies.
We didn't even need to get her to Near Death; she just died. What happened?
The Solar appears, but does not speak. Is this another bug?
I click on the Solar and it delivers its next line, skipping the normal dialogue with Melissan. I take a look at the combat log, and it seems that Coran landed the final blow.
Then I realize. Coran was using Bard's Bane, the +5 longsword from the fight with Breudayael.
The one that permanently drains 3 Charisma per hit. We killed Melissan with stat drain, without even intending to.
Mod items broke everything. We took down Melissan in record time without taking a single point of damage or using any of our HLAs. We didn't even begin to dip into our item pool.
The Solar asks Chara what they want to do with the essence of Bhaal. We banish it.
We have no interest in becoming the new god of murder. For us, there is only one Absolute God of Hyperdeath.
It's over.
Throne of Bhaal is over! The saga is over!
This is my first trilogy/tetralogy run. It was a nightmare at times--including virtually everything in my first attempt at BG1--but we have finally, finally come out on top.
Tashia has a pretty grand epilogue. Turns out she became a beloved mass murderer in the service of justice.
As for Coran, he seems to have done fairly well for himself, considering himself.
Yoshimo also gets an epilogue, but it's pretty short because he was only in the party until we got out of Chateau Irenicus. It's also kind of sad.
Ninafer at least had the sense to get out of adventuring and settle down.
But Xan's epilogue is just perfect.
One no-reload Baldur's Gate saga with all of the mods installed, from Candlekeep to Dragonspear to Athkatla to the Throne of Bhaal, complete.
First of all we rendezvoused with Drizzt and retrieved Dy's journal. Then we headed over to Beregost, and then down to Nashkel, stopping by unexplored regions along the way. I didn't bring Minsc into the party yet, but decided that he'd fit eventually. First we picked up Isra and dropped Garrick, dealt with Greywolf, and cut through the mines with little trouble- Safana sniffing out the traps rather well. Cromarty liked Isra a little, but 3 swordswingers seemed a little unbalanced, and besides he has trouble dealing with strong women . So we let in Xan and visited some tombs, though Cromarty quickly realised that he was in fact an optimist compared to Xan... all the romances he's ever read would crumble to dust through Elven eternities... Probably time to bring in Minsc soon though.
The Amazons also fell in short order, yielding some nice stuff. We now have two wands of monster summoning which will be helpful at the bandit camp. In the near future we will push on with the main quest but may pay a short visit to Durlag's and other dangerous areas. Cromarty has his faults but he doesn't shy away from danger.
@Aasim: It was most definitely interesting and fun, but I won't be able to play it the same way on the second run through. If I did, the difficulty would be too low.
A few mod items won't change much, but when you have dozens of mod items throughout the game, the vanilla items become obsolete. Mod items so dominated gameplay that maybe 70-90% of the items we used were mod items, and Alora, Yeslick, Jan, Imoen, Korgan, Valygar, Tashia, and Coran joined the party almost solely because they could make use of certain mod items. Alora was the most striking example: her ability to use Doufas' Saber obviated the need for an actual fighter at the front of the party and made her into a completely different character.
Virtually all mod items in Baldur's Gate and Siege of Dragonspear were far more powerful than vanilla items (largely because BG1 items are so boring), but in Shadows of Amn and ToB, most mod items were actually pretty much on par with the typical options. But there were so many new items that we could just pick out the +4, +5, and +6 weapons and leave all the +1, +2, and +3 options behind.
I don't think it compromises the run--I've already no-reloaded each of the BG games without these items--but it definitely made things easier overall. With all the mods from a BWS install, you could beat the entire saga while relying on only two items.
For BG1 and SoD, all you need to do is sneak past the mages beneath Ulcaster and snatch the Amulet of Wyvren Summoning. That amulet can get you through all BG1 (except for the Loup Garou, I assume) and all of SoD (except for the final battle, if you have Spell Revisions installed). For BG2 and ToB, all you need is to kill Drusilia in Spellhold. She's a level 31 mage with lots of high-level spells, but at 88 HP, a solid backstab or the right set of traps could kill her before her Stoneskin and Absolute Immunity spells pop up. Grab her Staff of Zoltan and you're invisible to all evil critters, even liches and planetars and demons.
The backstab wouldn't be hard; her AC is only 5. Without Item Revisions installed, a Cleric/Thief using Righteous Magic and the non-IR Staff of Striking could kill Drusilia in one hit. With Item Revisions installed, a Kensai(9)->Thief could do it with the Short Sword of Backstabbing, grandmastery, and Aid or Luck. It would be a 95% chance of success, or 100% if you used a Limited Wish Time Stop for an automatic hit. Other classes might need luck to get a high-enough damage roll.
Or you could just bomb her with spell damage, as she has no innate resistances. She does, however, have saving throws of 0, which means she'll make all of her saving throws. You'd need 25d6 guaranteed damage to kill her on average, and maybe 30-40d6 to ensure a kill despite bad luck. Flame Arrows, Skull Traps, and Sunfires from multiple party members could work if they all struck instantly. The fewer mages in the party, the more levels you'd need. Bear in mind that Edwin could not hit her with Flame Arrow, as she is invisible to evil characters, and note that she is immune to Incendiary Cloud for whatever reason.
Traps and Domination spells might turn her hostile, but if they don't, that would also let you take her down without risk. Seven traps deal 98 damage on average (more at higher levels) and Domination, although it would have like a 5% chance of success per casting, would let you send her off to die against the local undead.
Do that, and the rest of the games should be a cakewalk.
I'm not sure how I feel about using these items in a future run. If you put all of them together, you break the game, but I don't like the idea of forbidding myself from using any mod items--that would just be boring. After all, a lot of these items are pretty cool. I just don't know where to draw the line. When does an option become "too strong?"
1. When it becomes the default strategy or combination of items. 2. When said strategy or combination of items never losses it's reliability, no matter which foe the party is currently facing, it still is, if not the most effective, successful least. (For example, the Seducer kit, whilst it's flaws prevent it from successfully solo'ing the game, at-will non-magical abilities such as Hypnosis seem to powerful in my eyes. Same for the Alchemist to be able to brew potions to deal with everything, specially with some of the biggest threats in the game, although this is more noticeable when paired with lots of gold. Also, being able to sell potions in BG1 kinda breaks the game's economy if you happen to have SCS with at least 50% chance of dropping, because the amount of potions you will find increases by an unnatural amount). 3. When it (be it a certain strategy or combination of items) imposes no drawbacks that should be present when using a particular thing (for example, Coran has -14 AC but he's dual-wielding at 10 ApR without any buffs... I think that's a bit over the line, considering that, in vanilla, going over -10 AC without a shield is pretty hard, and it's even worse considering you have Xan with a shield, 5 ApR unbuffed, -10 THAC0 and with -12 AC while wearing R O B E S.
Another things that make it relatively easier than vanilla as well: 1. The abundance of magical items and gold (maybe I'm just too used to HardTimes, but it certainly makes the game easier in general). Also, most convenience tweaks DO reduce the difficulty of combat, because by allowing you to carry more items, you're also able to develop better tactics or use more consumables you wouldn't be able to use otherwise. 2. The abundance of magical items providing you with enough options to find ideal combinations of items for each party member. This isn't possible in vanilla, if, for example, you have two pure fighters. Some items are clearly superior, and the other fighter will have to do without them. 3. Knowing exactly what you'll be facing. Things like that mod-introduced spellcaster, which you looked up before engaging, get their difficulty greatly reduced by having no surprise factor, and giving the player the opportunity to come up with a perfect strategy (for example, I usually go in blind but full-buffed, and retreat at least five times, it's dangerous, it's still meta-gaming but at least you're taking the initial risks and getting the information in a much more interesting way that adds a tiny bit of difficulty.
This is all constructive criticism, and only because you've asked when/how something becomes too strong. This is what I personally think (also, don't think I don't go against these myself... After all, I'm playing a Wizard Slayer/Transmuter, which, while weak-sounding on paper, it actually works pretty well, even if it's still worse than a Fighter/Mage (until we get 100% MR, then that'll change I guess), many things make up for it's weaknesses, making it much more powerful than I thought it could be when I first came up with the idea to play it. Same for the Enforcer (Wizard Slayer/Enchanter or Illusionist/Sharpshooter) and other multikits I tried to build from an RP/"this one is probably terrible" perspective but actually failed to do so, and found out new strategies/builds that way).
I'm not sure how I feel about using these items in a future run. If you put all of them together, you break the game, but I don't like the idea of forbidding myself from using any mod items--that would just be boring. After all, a lot of these items are pretty cool. I just don't know where to draw the line. When does an option become "too strong?"
WOT
Indeed. I once (cca 4 years ago, pre-EE era) played megamod installs. Frankly, I was awed. The ammount of new content, NPCs, kits, items, spells, additional content, maps etc. was staggering. I felt I could play such an install for ages just going through BG1, let alone the whole game (there are much more "gigantic" mods for BGT than EET). The mod that turned me away from them is probably Dark Horizons - while it's rather interesting; and the story blends well with the game, equipment there is ToB-standards + the descriptions are outright horrible, often misleading, inedaquate and/or plain wrong. I even tried to tweak some of the most OP stuff there, but simply gave up on it after one person tried to do the same and mod's author seemed to be very upset about it. 90% of the items there don't belong nowhere near BG1 standards, which for me ruins the whole mod - while one can say "leave it on the ground" I also find this very user-unfriendly way to deal with such issues. I.e.if it's on the ground, if it's powerful, if it's used against you, why wouldn't you pick it up? Pride, stupidity, or both? This kind of stuff completely breaks immersion. Then again, you've got a mod such as Drizzt Saga, which beefs up the challenge in BG1 to such extreme levels (vampires, demons, you name it) where you'll not only want, but *need* such equipment to be available....balancing one single mod is hard; balancing a megamod install is virtually impossible - you make a hard encounter, give the player items to pull through it, but leave the rest of the game intact...while the player keeps the items/XP. Moreover, most of these mods were stiched in pre-SCS (some even pre-Weidu) era . Today, in comes SCS, makes otherwise dumb enemies in SCS-powerhouses, add something like aTweaks Aerial Servants on top of it and you'll be begging for that 5 apr throwing dagger you left in the woods south of Beregost..... Anyhow, congrats again - at least up to the "can't be touched by evil staff" I kinda doubted you'll pull it through. The ending battle was a bit of a downer excitement-wise for me, but afaik you're the very first person in no-reloads who uglified Mellisan to death.
Blurf. I will not be using a BWS EET instance for my next No-Reload attempt after all - even in the BWS basic EET setup Set Snare is broken. I'll try a manual EET install to see if it's still broken there but I'm not optimistic about this (with Imoen being out of the party for SoD there's no incentive for me making her a mage in the BG1 portion, which for me means making her a Trapper)
E: So I tested a manual - and absolutely minimal - EET install and traps are still working there so it must be one of the options added in by BWS in its basic EET setup. Probably going to attack it this weekend to see what BWS is doing to my traps. The good news is that since I just want a basic EET with the hueg Everything In Faerun map and the spell info mod that I asked about a couple days ago, I can still do an EET instance for my next No Reload.
Well as promised restarted and played the same game up until finishing the first parts of Durlag's and this time didn't walk into any trap. Few differences. Decided that I had been far too cautious so did more solo and picked up everybody just that bit later so levels were better. Also did the area just below and to the left of Nashkel mines and the Drizzet area.
So back to the playthrough.
We made our weary way back through the tower, laden with stuff we couldn't identify (neither could the dodgy merchant just outside, which seemed a rather poor business move, probably why he hasn't got a nice shop in town, sells priceless artifacts for the price of the materials) and stopped at Nashkel for the night.
Fast asleep I was suddenly awoken by Kivan banging on the door. "I had this terrible dream that you had been killed but then you stepped out of the shower and everything was as it was before, so just checking" Aww, sweet, I wonder where he got that idea?
So where next? "the bandit camp" "south" "a brothel" "the underdark" "north"
So no concensus, but I had promised Kivan I would help with his revenge thing and we were packing some serious gear now so it seemed the right thing to do. Plus we were getting pretty sick of the bandits and attack is the best form of defense. So treked north to Beregost, recharged Edwin's fire wand with the chicken killing mage, stocked up even more on missiles, donned the belt for disguise (not that it works but you never know) and made our way into the wilds.
Got lost, (call yourself a ranger Kivan?), headed for a tower we saw in the distance, were surprised by a portal suddenly opening and spilling out a drow. And OMG can this one talk, probably why he's in exile now. Kivan wanted to kill him straight off and was backed up by Edwin. Branwyn wasn't paying much attention, too busy praying to Tempus. Viconia wanted him as a plaything (though I've got a feeling that she's the kind who always ends up breaking their toys) and me, well, another one between me and the enemy, bring it on. So welcome Baeloth, the sorcerer.
Carried on through the woods, came to a lake, met some poets, after 100 verses we all wanted to kill them (but we didn't, it's culture innit), they gave us a harp, must have thought Baeloth was a bard.
But we were not a happy group. Viconia kept telling Baeloth to fetch her food and muttering about him not knowing his place (which she was willing to rectify given enough time and some tentacle rods). Kivan glowered and spoke about how Sheverash would never forgive him for traveling with Drow (which is kind of ironic given that Sheverash was never the sort to forgive and forget anyway). Branwyn tried to be friendly but was forced to give up when she couldn't get a word in edgeways. Edwin was sulking, majorly sulking. Somebody with more and better spells who was also getting the promise of being "corrected" by Viconia and wore an archmagi robe.
Consequently, we walked slap bang into an ambush by 10 chill bandits. Edwin went down first just after he got a web off and a fireball, Branwyn next, then Viconia. Baeloth was at the back casting protections on himself then finally managed to pull himself together and cast confusion, Kivan and I pelted them with arrows inbetween chugging potions. It was a close call. So back to the FAI dragging the corpses of our fallen comrades feeling rather subdued.
But never mind, much poorer and after a night at the inn, arose bright and early to have another try. I'm joking, the previously "dead three" were seriously pissed off.
But then Baeloth announced that he would probably be safer if he left us to our own devices which made us close ranks. So with a few choice insults directed Baeloth's way, including some about having "greater balls of fire" than him, (come on, how could I resist) and our insistance that he give up his robe for Edwin as he was chickening out, we set out again for the Bandit Camp.
Perhaps it was the shock of three of us ending up dead, perhaps it was the relief of not having to listen to Baeloth (mind, I quite liked him until he left us), perhaps it was because a feeling of grim determination had settled upon us, but the Bandit Camp was a walkover.
Snuck up the back under cover of darkness, got the skellies up (where do they come from? I don't like to ask but they are cheerful buggers, laughing away as they hack things to pieces). Found a choke point, webbed, greased, fireballed, skulltrapped and shot the whole damn camp to pieces. Everybody rushing in to get slaughtered, the battle tactics of the mentally challenged. A massacre is hardly adequate to describe the carnage we inflicted. It took longer to pick up all the loot.
Then a quick check in the tents to kill off any malingerers, a cave full of gnolls (pah gnolls, we eat gnolls for breakfast, well we don't really but you know what I mean). The large tent contained a prisoner who told us about the "Iron Throne" being behind all this. And a chest with documents telling us about a "secret" mine in the Cloakwood. But no Tazok, Kivan was so distraught he almost (almost) raised his voice. Branwyn comforted him as only a woman with a double D cup chest can, seemed to work as well, never seen Kivan looking so cheerful.
Once again, but this time laden with riches and no dead bodies, we headed back to the FAI.
For example, the Seducer kit, whilst it's flaws prevent it from successfully solo'ing the game, at-will non-magical abilities such as Hypnosis seem to powerful in my eyes. Same for the Alchemist to be able to brew potions to deal with everything, specially with some of the biggest threats in the game, although this is more noticeable when paired with lots of gold. Also, being able to sell potions in BG1 kinda breaks the game's economy if you happen to have SCS with at least 50% chance of dropping, because the amount of potions you will find increases by an unnatural amount.
Do you have any other suggestions for how to better balance the kits?
I noticed that the Alchemist kit seemed to bring in a surprising amount of money, considering it was supposed to be a net drain on the party's gold supply. But the Seducer kit always seemed rather underpowered to me. Hypnosis worked great on enemy hordes (though I chose screenshots that highlighted successes, rather than all the times Hypnosis failed), but other than that, Frisk mostly just hung around and used Detect Illusions.
The main reason I made Seducer abilities usable at will was because they were all save-or-else spells. If I made them usable only a certain number of times a day, then you could easily just run out of spells and then you'd be left with a crippled thief for the rest of the day.
I noticed that the Alchemist kit seemed to bring in a surprising amount of money, considering it was supposed to be a net drain on the party's gold supply.
You could reduce the store's buying markup even more. Until it's not even profitable, but in fact you loose money (for example, a store would pay more for the potion), or, introduce component-based recipes instead (hard to implement, easier to balance).
But the Seducer kit always seemed rather underpowered to me. Hypnosis worked great on enemy hordes (though I chose screenshots that highlighted successes, rather than all the times Hypnosis failed), but other than that, Frisk mostly just hung around and used Detect Illusions.
What I think that it's too powerful is how it affects any type of creature. Some creatures don't have a "brain" per se, so you couldn't hypnotise them (same could be argued about creatures immune to Illusion spells and blind creatures).
The main reason I made Seducer abilities usable at will was because they were all save-or-else spells. If I made them usable only a certain number of times a day, then you could easily just run out of spells and then you'd be left with a crippled thief for the rest of the day.
The thing is, at-will abilities favour long-term fights a lot, which is understood and expected. But when it's a crowd control ability you're talking about, the best idea is to give the user limited uses. Maybe limit the uses to 10, and then add another ability that restores those 10 uses back, but it can only be used outside of combat (check .spl flags). Also, the Seducer being a crippled Thief for the rest of the day... Isn't that kinda the deal with Bounty Hunters? If you reduced the penalties, the kit could also work with use-per-day innate abilities (although you'll have to work on balancing that a lot probably).
Perhaps rather than being gold dependent it could be component dependent to a degree? If a player knows that there are only 3 unicorn horns somewhere in the game which let the Alchemist do x ability they may be less cavalier than by relying on the broken gold economy. In my current game I quickly realised that Xzar's continued presence would result in an immense stack of gold eventually.
@CrevsDaak: Maybe I'll just remove the Alchemist's ability to recycle potions.
The main reason Hypnosis works against non-humanoid critters was because, during an early test run, I noticed my first Seducer kit was pretty much useless against ogres and gibberlings and undead, as its Charm spell only had a tiny chance of affecting them. Hypnosis gave the Seducer something to do in those fights. I also made it area-effect because it seemed like a solo Seducer was too weak without it--mass Hypnosis for 1d6 rounds would let the Seducer try to pacify the battlefield long enough to charm an important enemy.
What if I handled it like this:
1. Hypnosis can be used once per day at levels 6, 10, 14, and 19. Regardless of level, it lasts 2 rounds and offers a save vs. spell at no penalty. 2. Charm only penalizes movement rate by 25% instead of 50%. 3. Charm is changed to work against non-humanoid enemies, but certain types get bonuses to their saves: -Intelligent and familiar critters like animals and ogres: +1 -Unintelligent and unfamiliar critters like golems and undead: +2 -Alien and extraplanar critters like beholders and elementals: +3
What do you think? Would this make the Seducer a little more balanced for party and/or solo play?
Best served cold, I flooded a mine and freed all the slaves... with a drow and blackguard in my group I need all the good rep I can earn. · Dorn is frilled to finish his quest... its very buggy so I just stand south of the tree and nuke them for ease. · Branwen used her stealth to collect a free book then I swapped her for Viconia who used the same trick to pinch a wand without hurting any spiders.
As @semiticgod said: they are produced as bitmaps which I open in Paint to turn into jpegs before posting.
I used to do that. Lot of work. There are a lot of free image converters, so you can mass-convert to jpeg w/o microing everything.
Anyway, does anybody from old forums remember one of my PCs, a dwarven chick named Bertha? She died a scripted death (Demon Lord in the Underdark) when asking for a "reward" I decided to give her another go.
Party (all custom made, I can stand this game NPCs no more)
Pretty much my standard stuff. Added Golem Construction from @argent77 is so good that it's reason enough to buy EEs if you're still in doubt. Also, I've added a few tweaks of my own. First, notice the kensai dwarf up there. That's not a "regular" kensai. I altered the kit: 1) THAC0 bonus is gone. His THAC0 is the same as the fighter's. That simply begs for dual class, which I hate. Unless it's berseker-cleric we're dualing. 2) innate AC bonus is removed and replaced with +2 bonus vs melee weapons (keeping ranged vulnerability) 3) Kai ability I've reworked. It no longer gives max damage, but instead grants +5 to critical hit roll (15 and above, doesn't stack with "keen" weapons but does with weapon style bonus) 4) at level 20, all attacks do max damage. No Kai required. (if you play a single-class kensai this far, here's the big cahuna) 5) his damage bonus is reworked. He no longer gets +1/3 levels. (I find this silly - take a 1d4 damage dagger. With kensai bonuses, the wepon's damage would increase from 2.5 average to 15.5, equaling a more than 500% damage increase w/o even a pip in daggers!) At level 1 he gets a 30% increase in melee damage, and gains +1%/per level of exp. up to 50% at level 20. 6) with IR, he can wear bracers of defence
Overall, given the %-based increase, kensai is now someone you want to be wielding *big* weapons, and someone you want to stick in melee, since none of the damage bonuses work on missile or thrown weapons. In the same line, his % based bonus get more important with other damage bonuses like weapon enchanmtent, granmastery, buffs etc. It's a BLAST of a kit now.
One more kit tweak - Dragon Disciple. I didn't touch it much, but she gains one additional use of innate breath attack 1x/3 levels, has a 30% increase in all fire damage she does, and; unlike it's original version, she gets more spells to cast per day. 2 more, to be exact. The caveat? She gets to learn no more than *3* new spells per level. Talking about specialization here... Unfortunately, this also affects sorcerers so it's not exactly a user-friendly tweak.:) I'm not sure how I feel about this one. SR makes a lot of spells good. There are always some "no-brainer" spells you got to have - PfMW, Dispel Screen, Imp.Haste, etc. The increase in fire damage however draws strongly to fire-based damage spells like Flame Arrow, Delayed Blast Fireball and similar. With only 3 spells you can ever know, this kit is very limited in what it can do.
Anyhow, to game. I gave myself some slack on this run. One, I use vanilla XP tables. 2nd, I allow myself a custom item right from the start. This is the item:
Doesn't look like much, does it? It has following effects: - protection from critical hits - +1 breath save - on a critical hit, user casts Larloch's Minor Drain on target
Kensai gets it, since I don't want to wait for SoD to get critical hit aversion.
We start, as always, by killing the Piercing girdle Ogre. Note how kensai's damage bonus is displayed. HOW COOL IS THAT?
Next, Beregost, FAI (not Tarnesh yet), vist High Hedge, buy Pro Acid scroll, go for the ankhegs. Bertha nearly died there (she's not immune to critical hits).
This is my kensai's critical hit. As you see, the damage bonus is bigger if you deal more damage in the first place. HOW COOL IS THAT?
This is Dragon Disciple in action. (Un)fortunately, the fire damage increase cannot be tied to spells alone - her burning soul applies the bonus damage to wands, potions, everything. Everything will BURN!
With the basics (get Wand of Fire, visit Nahskel, get some petrficiation protection) done, it was time to pay Mutamin a visit. On EE, he's immidiately hostile. We burned him, and his basilisks.
Also Kirian. I'm quite overusing fire wand now.
A preview of enemies to come... (just a test I ran for an issue @Serg_BlackStrider had...)
For the end of the session, we cleared top floors of Durlags and dealt with some wannabe assasins. I'm waiting for my thief/illusionist to be able to pickpocket RoFA, which led to Bertha getting held by a ghast, but all was fine. Power of friendship.
Actually, this damage bonus, is the damage number shown including that number or excluding that number?
To all. May the fourth be with you!!!
In other news, I am finally rounding up my monk kit for improved anvil and I will start my run very soon. It took me a lot of time to get some effects to work and to balance it a bit with the mod. Now I am contemplating the difficulty. - Vanilla improved anvil - insane improved anvil - LoB improved anvil
Suggestions? (note that I finished earlier versions a few times already so I know some fights okay enough to attempt a noreload).
Actually, this damage bonus, is the damage number shown including that number or excluding that number?
Suggestions? (note that I finished earlier versions a few times already so I know some fights okay enough to attempt a noreload).
1st number is total damage done, 2nd is the damage from the bonus. Enemies take the 1st number only. Per suggestions on your run, yea, LoB Anvil seems a fun experience. Here's a verse for you:
As I slowly chip away At golems, not made of Clay Rakshasa regenerate quickly I miss my light of day
Crawlers won't take a dent Now we need to repent And start another run LoB Anvil is no fun
For when your Necros fail Wish, mate, is not a Wail Your fighters will be in vain When you meet the golem train
Hardwood, Web, Ultra and Supreme Will make you run 'till May 50K HP to take away Oh I miss my light of day
@Iroumen: I wouldn't attempt a no-reload on LoB mode in Improved Anvil. I think a minimal reload of Improved Anvil at Core difficulty would be much wiser.
To my knowledge, only Saros Shadowfollower has ever beaten Improved Anvil without reloading--and I'm not sure if that's really feasible in the more recent versions, which I'm sure have gotten even stricter.
I have done it on easy difficulty with a shadow party on the side but that was while skipping some tougher optional quests. There are some others who sent pms around on the board with their exploits as well. Saros did the insane version, to my knowledge the only one to succeed.
Maybe I will just give it a chance and restart on core if I fail.
As we headed to the FAI entrance, was again accosted by the old man who we kept on giving coppers to for tea. Turns out it's Elminster (yet he never refused our money, what a con artist) and he proceeded to give some enigmatic hints about what I should be doing next. Edwin of course wanted to kill him, can't say I was that inclined to stop him but "Elminster"? slightly more than we can chew currently. One day, one day.........
Identified, distributed and sold the loot, quick wash and brush up and the prospect of a night of heavy drinking, what could be better? But for some reason, just wasn't feeling it. Did I really want to carry on slogging my guts out opposing the Iron Throne and their plots? That was never my plan, it happened by accident more than anything. But the assasins were after me before I went anywhere near the mines, what was I missing? The group who killed Gorion were specifically after me but why? And did I really care? I'd much prefer to just runaway.
Although sad about Gorion, I'd learnt enough about fighting since that night to be more irritated with his complete lack of preparation. Seriously, what was he thinking? Perhaps he'd got a bit senile after spending all those years in Candlekeep? Would it have really hurt to get a few of the guards together, a wand or two, some decent equipment?
Then there were the troubling dreams. Every adopted child wants their background to be exotic, a lost princess, the true heir to a fortune. What do I get? Visions of death and destruction and bone daggers. The healing powers though, I'll take them.
I looked around at my companions, and yes I had grown fond of them. But was that enough and did I really want to drag them through another bloody mine? Nah, time to go south as I always planned, I had money, good gear, could open any lock, disarm any trap I came across and was pretty capable in a fight.
That night I crept out of the FAI and hit the road on my own.
Alan/Ayla Partridge of the Norfolk Partridges and their Solo Adventures
Travelled overnight reaching Beregost as the shops opened, black shadow armour was the objective. It's black, it's leather, there are no downsides to this decision and it being magical, Alan or Ayla both looked pretty damn cool wearing it.
Carried on south hanging to the east, saved a cow (yay now I'm a true hero) and killed a billion ogres and assorted monsters who go "arrggh". Quite what they are doing hanging around in groups with no discernible settlements or means of production I never got a chance to ask before shooting them safely from a distance. No women monsters either, perhaps it's the local hangout of the YMCA? One small group demanded I give them my "iron", how about "no, die scum?".
Ever southwards, skirted Durlag's Tower, shame I won't get to explore the rest of it, maybe one day in the future. Killed various groups of wolves, nowadays I chunk them up quite easily compared to having to down an oil of speed and running like crazy to keep out of their way while shooting. Met a woman who asked me to take her ill companion to the FAI, I just came from there it's miles away. Talk about relying on the kindness of strangers. Refused but gave her some potions to help out, and she gave me a ring in return (artistic license.... again). Decided to cut across to Nashkel and stock up before heading over the Cloud Peaks and further into Amn.
Left Nashkel, down past the mines and the eyeless face in the cliff, now I was really on my way, unknown territory. Marching along, whistling a merry tune (not really but trying hard here to set the scene), minding my own business, when I was accosted by a group of women, (bloody ugly women at that) and although I was Alan at the time, told them, "their clothes were attrocious". Ooops, way to blow my cover.
Upshot was they demanded my name. I said mind your own business, they said no matter we know who you are, I said then why ask, they said it's not personal we have to kill you, I said why, they said becase it's how we earn our money, I said hadn't they thought about getting some qualifications and breaking that glass ceiling, they said look at the corporate world and how the patriarchy was holding them back, I said that's just an excuse, they said now you're just mansplaining, I said but you just identified me as a woman, they said you're a hostage to the patriarchy you even dress like one, I said they were being insulting by their innability to accept my right to be considered male or female as I choose and that gender is fluid, and they said "NOT AS FLUID AS YOU ARE GOING TO BE AFTER WE HAVE FINISHED WITH YOU."
Meanwhile, I had sorted my potions, so tossed an oil of fiery burning and promptly dissappeared.
Then it was just a matter of picking them off one by one, arrows of biting stopping the spell casters giving any problems and the invisible backstabber couldn't do much damage through the armour. Finally there was just one left, slowly being poisoned by an arrow. I dangled the antidote just out of her reach as she rolled around on the floor in agony. "Tell me who sent you after me and how did you recognise me". "It was the Iron Throne and they have spies planted throughout the sword coast" "Why are the Iron Throne after me?" "You destroyed their plans to build an iron monopoly and took down the bandits" "I was forced into that, they attacked first" "They don't care, one of the heads of the IT has it in for you personally" "Why" "I don't know, they have other groups like us hunting you, and he won't stop" "Who is "he"? "I don't know the name but he's mad, quite mad" "What does he look like" "Tall, very tall and has golden eyes"
As she drank the antidote I stabbed her through the heart. I could feel a great blinding rage rising up within me. This was the same man who had killed Gorion, who had sent bounty hunters after me, who was now sending professional groups to hunt me down, I was sure. This wasn't going to stop until I stopped it, running away was not going to work.
I picked through their stuff taking the best pieces to sell, and turned back towards the north. Athkatla would have to wait.
In short, BG1 is done. We explored Durlag's up to the Warders level (I'm not overly sure about no-reloading those w/o two dozen Skull Traps). Then sirens, then back to main plot. Notable moments: Bertha running for her life after a critical hit from a skeleton warrior + a Flesh golem hit
Cassius Ale, my kensai, getting hit by Harm. Yes, I killed the cleric and sirens there. I'm a bad and evil person. Kensai died moments later. We killed Hurlan in Ulgoth's as well. I wonder where karma will get me...
AoE massacre of Bandit camp
Kysus, Rezdan & co. Both mages ate Paralyzation wand.
as did Hareishan in the mine.
Davaeorn lived a bit longer. He's immune to paralyzation since he's a cheating bastard of a mage. Regardless, we did the battle w/o Pro Magic scrolls (I wanted to save those for Ice Island, but never went there actually). Horrors first..
Davaeorn himself loved lighting and fire attacks this time. Lots of damage, lots of healing. I forgot to memorize Spell Thrust for him, so I couldn't remove his MGoI; which made him last quite long.
Eventually, he ran out of spells to cast, his Globe expired, and a Grease (yes, Grease. My Dragon Disciple can know only 3 level 1 spells and Grease is one of them) knocks him down. With all attacks auto-hits, we plunge him with darts, arrows and bullets.
Kensai does him.
In the city, the worst battle was vs Sunin; who managed to kill both Illusionst and dragon disciple. Awful battle; I was playing late and tired and this is what happened. I'm lucky he only summoned two Ogres.
We also fought (actually, DD and illusionst did) Iron Throne. They survived the initial fire wand/Detonation arrows barrage, but heavilly wounded, they were easy prey.
From there, Candlekeep, no problems there, Krystin (poisoned by arrows) + Slythe (whacked to death), and then Duchal palace which always has a chance to fail.
Luck is on our side however, as Dope mage fails to get his first spell off. He wonders away, then turns invisible, than goes to debuff my DD, useless - but that gave us enough time to finish the others. Alone, he's no problem.
Belt proved to be rather intelligent, and stood watching as Sarevok kills Liia. GJ.
Due to lack of patience for BG1 quests, we go vs Sarevok at cca 120K XP each. Still, no problem. Kensai uses a Pro Magic scroll (tbh, turned out useless) but whatever. I buff my thief/illusionist and send him shooting arrows at them. Naturally, the little bugger gets dispelled. He drinks an invisibility potion.
I wait for enemies' next move. It's one of three possible: 1) Semaj uses some anti-invisble spell 2) Angelo does the above 3) Angelo pokes around
Ad)3 happened. Paralyzation Wand- ready. Two paralyzation wands, actually. He fails his 2nd save, and it's good night for him.
Now to make enemies fully visible; Bertha drinks up invis potion and dispels that crap from them.
To expend some of Semaj's spellbook, I summons some meatshields. However, enemies kill them in one or two hits, and start approaching our position.
We scatter, turn invisible, and consider our options.
More summons! they keep Sarevok, Semaj and Diramid off our backs long enough so we kill Tazok.
I stun Semaj with the Wand, but we can't get through his defences fast enough. Sarevok is locked in melee vs summons, so we turn to Diramid. this seemed to go on forever...
He dies, but Semaj is out of stun. Another stoneskins cast on him....grr.
I finish him with a Lighting Wand attack. Sarevok is now alone.
We summon via Wand, shaman dances to get spirit animals, this goes on and on and on....he won't die. Then I realise I haven't fixed the bug that prevents him from dying on EET installs. I turn on the "HP above head" option to check him, and indeed, he should be long dead by now. And I'm all out of summons, no more wand charges.
Two options now; one- all turn invisible, run, save, exit, fix the bug, reload, do a point of damage, done. Second; CLUA a PW:Kill scroll which ignores MINHp item preventing death. 2nd it is...
I think I'm going to give up on using an EET instance for my next No Reload run - as it turns out, EET is what's breaking low-level kits, not BWS. Wasn't there an EET component at some point that fixed that issue?
Comments
Underthrone: Chara and Frisk in Throne of Bhaal
Part 5
(BG1 run begins here and ends here)(SoD run begins here and ends here)
(SoA run begins here and ends here)
Previous posts here:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/873342/#Comment_873342
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/873350/#Comment_873350
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/873567/#Comment_873567
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/873592/#Comment_873592
It's the end.
Our party is the culmination of dozens of turning points and shifts of fate. Sometimes it was my decision and sometimes it was chance, but we've gone through 37 characters over the course of the saga, plus Frisk and Chara. This is our final party composition:
Most of our equipped items come from mods, but even without them, we have a deep well of resources from potions to scrolls to wands and spare weapons and armor, among other things. We enter the Throne of Bhaal fully buffed and ready.
Melissan summons Jon-bon and Bobo, plus a Fallen Solar and Imoen as the Slayer.
Bobo and the Fallen Solar die during Tashia's Time Stop, but Irenicus is invisible and I forget that Coran (one of our three party members immune to Time Stop, alongside Xan and Chara) has Detect Illusions.
But Frisk manages to hypnotize him just long enough for them to dispel his illusions, paving the way for our multiple mages to take down his buffs.
Imoen changes back into her human form, but for some reason, she remains hostile.
She stays that way, too. We don't have a choice.
We proceed to the energy mana magicka misty greenstuff pools. Turns out we can kill all of the demons with a single Time Stop, except for the Marilith with its irritating PFMW, which we can only kill afterwards.
I do the same thing for the other gooky goo pools. As usual, I don't use the pools to rest the party until we're ready for the Five. This allows us to rest three times in a row, ensuring that we start the fight with full spell slots as well as full buffs, full summons, and full traps (if we had any).
The pools let me summon Dynaheir and Tiax, but I only summon Gorion. I skip some inspiring fatherly dialogue and take a look at his spellbook, which brings nothing interesting to the table.
It takes a few tries, and for a moment I think I've run into another game-breaking bug, but I activate the final goo pool and the Five appear.
Tashia stops time. Even Balthazar is here, under Melissan's control, despite him committing suicide and also being diametrically opposed to Melissan.
With all the resources we gathered since Chateau Irenicus, we can afford to splurge. Such as by using a Protection from Magic scroll on Abazigal and Sendai.
If the rest of the party somehow falls, Chara can always use the Staff of Zoltan to become invisibility to all evil-aligned enemies. Therefore, our first target is Balthazar, who has not yet activated his immunity to Time Stop.
Notice that I left Illasera at Near Death. This is so that I can kill her immediately after Melissan arrives, briefly knocking out Melissan herself.
Abazigal is next, as he hits very hard if left unchecked. Improved Kitty briefly distracts the enemies to the west.
Then Sarevok, because I think Yaga-Shura has regeneration or damage resistances or something.
Notice Melissan losing her defenses. Apparently Melissan has no Spell Shield of any kind, so SR's Pierce Shield takes down both her Absolute Immunity and her Spell Trap.
Xan and Coran get knocked unconscious, but Xan's old Contingency cures him immediately.
Chara and Tashia, buffed with Tenser's Transformation, attack Sendai, who is already basically dead thanks to a Protection from Magic scroll (we still have 4 or 5 left). Our front line deals with Yaga-Shura, who goes down quickly.
Only two left. And Sendai has no means of defending herself whatsoever.
Melissan is all alone. We prepare to seal her fate.
Melissan goes down to Injured... and then suddenly dies.
We didn't even need to get her to Near Death; she just died. What happened?
The Solar appears, but does not speak. Is this another bug?
I click on the Solar and it delivers its next line, skipping the normal dialogue with Melissan. I take a look at the combat log, and it seems that Coran landed the final blow.
Then I realize. Coran was using Bard's Bane, the +5 longsword from the fight with Breudayael.
The one that permanently drains 3 Charisma per hit. We killed Melissan with stat drain, without even intending to.
Mod items broke everything. We took down Melissan in record time without taking a single point of damage or using any of our HLAs. We didn't even begin to dip into our item pool.
The Solar asks Chara what they want to do with the essence of Bhaal. We banish it.
We have no interest in becoming the new god of murder. For us, there is only one Absolute God of Hyperdeath.
It's over.
Throne of Bhaal is over! The saga is over!
This is my first trilogy/tetralogy run. It was a nightmare at times--including virtually everything in my first attempt at BG1--but we have finally, finally come out on top.
Tashia has a pretty grand epilogue. Turns out she became a beloved mass murderer in the service of justice.
As for Coran, he seems to have done fairly well for himself, considering himself.
Yoshimo also gets an epilogue, but it's pretty short because he was only in the party until we got out of Chateau Irenicus. It's also kind of sad.
Ninafer at least had the sense to get out of adventuring and settle down.
But Xan's epilogue is just perfect.
One no-reload Baldur's Gate saga with all of the mods installed, from Candlekeep to Dragonspear to Athkatla to the Throne of Bhaal, complete.
Just quickly from my phone...
First of all we rendezvoused with Drizzt and retrieved Dy's journal. Then we headed over to Beregost, and then down to Nashkel, stopping by unexplored regions along the way. I didn't bring Minsc into the party yet, but decided that he'd fit eventually. First we picked up Isra and dropped Garrick, dealt with Greywolf, and cut through the mines with little trouble- Safana sniffing out the traps rather well. Cromarty liked Isra a little, but 3 swordswingers seemed a little unbalanced, and besides he has trouble dealing with strong women
The Amazons also fell in short order, yielding some nice stuff. We now have two wands of monster summoning which will be helpful at the bandit camp. In the near future we will push on with the main quest but may pay a short visit to Durlag's and other dangerous areas. Cromarty has his faults but he doesn't shy away from danger.
A few mod items won't change much, but when you have dozens of mod items throughout the game, the vanilla items become obsolete. Mod items so dominated gameplay that maybe 70-90% of the items we used were mod items, and Alora, Yeslick, Jan, Imoen, Korgan, Valygar, Tashia, and Coran joined the party almost solely because they could make use of certain mod items. Alora was the most striking example: her ability to use Doufas' Saber obviated the need for an actual fighter at the front of the party and made her into a completely different character.
Virtually all mod items in Baldur's Gate and Siege of Dragonspear were far more powerful than vanilla items (largely because BG1 items are so boring), but in Shadows of Amn and ToB, most mod items were actually pretty much on par with the typical options. But there were so many new items that we could just pick out the +4, +5, and +6 weapons and leave all the +1, +2, and +3 options behind.
I don't think it compromises the run--I've already no-reloaded each of the BG games without these items--but it definitely made things easier overall. With all the mods from a BWS install, you could beat the entire saga while relying on only two items.
For BG1 and SoD, all you need to do is sneak past the mages beneath Ulcaster and snatch the Amulet of Wyvren Summoning. That amulet can get you through all BG1 (except for the Loup Garou, I assume) and all of SoD (except for the final battle, if you have Spell Revisions installed). For BG2 and ToB, all you need is to kill Drusilia in Spellhold. She's a level 31 mage with lots of high-level spells, but at 88 HP, a solid backstab or the right set of traps could kill her before her Stoneskin and Absolute Immunity spells pop up. Grab her Staff of Zoltan and you're invisible to all evil critters, even liches and planetars and demons.
The backstab wouldn't be hard; her AC is only 5. Without Item Revisions installed, a Cleric/Thief using Righteous Magic and the non-IR Staff of Striking could kill Drusilia in one hit. With Item Revisions installed, a Kensai(9)->Thief could do it with the Short Sword of Backstabbing, grandmastery, and Aid or Luck. It would be a 95% chance of success, or 100% if you used a Limited Wish Time Stop for an automatic hit. Other classes might need luck to get a high-enough damage roll.
Or you could just bomb her with spell damage, as she has no innate resistances. She does, however, have saving throws of 0, which means she'll make all of her saving throws. You'd need 25d6 guaranteed damage to kill her on average, and maybe 30-40d6 to ensure a kill despite bad luck. Flame Arrows, Skull Traps, and Sunfires from multiple party members could work if they all struck instantly. The fewer mages in the party, the more levels you'd need. Bear in mind that Edwin could not hit her with Flame Arrow, as she is invisible to evil characters, and note that she is immune to Incendiary Cloud for whatever reason.
Traps and Domination spells might turn her hostile, but if they don't, that would also let you take her down without risk. Seven traps deal 98 damage on average (more at higher levels) and Domination, although it would have like a 5% chance of success per casting, would let you send her off to die against the local undead.
Do that, and the rest of the games should be a cakewalk.
I'm not sure how I feel about using these items in a future run. If you put all of them together, you break the game, but I don't like the idea of forbidding myself from using any mod items--that would just be boring. After all, a lot of these items are pretty cool. I just don't know where to draw the line. When does an option become "too strong?"
2. When said strategy or combination of items never losses it's reliability, no matter which foe the party is currently facing, it still is, if not the most effective, successful least. (For example, the Seducer kit, whilst it's flaws prevent it from successfully solo'ing the game, at-will non-magical abilities such as Hypnosis seem to powerful in my eyes. Same for the Alchemist to be able to brew potions to deal with everything, specially with some of the biggest threats in the game, although this is more noticeable when paired with lots of gold. Also, being able to sell potions in BG1 kinda breaks the game's economy if you happen to have SCS with at least 50% chance of dropping, because the amount of potions you will find increases by an unnatural amount).
3. When it (be it a certain strategy or combination of items) imposes no drawbacks that should be present when using a particular thing (for example, Coran has -14 AC but he's dual-wielding at 10 ApR without any buffs... I think that's a bit over the line, considering that, in vanilla, going over -10 AC without a shield is pretty hard, and it's even worse considering you have Xan with a shield, 5 ApR unbuffed, -10 THAC0 and with -12 AC while wearing R O B E S.
Another things that make it relatively easier than vanilla as well:
1. The abundance of magical items and gold (maybe I'm just too used to HardTimes, but it certainly makes the game easier in general). Also, most convenience tweaks DO reduce the difficulty of combat, because by allowing you to carry more items, you're also able to develop better tactics or use more consumables you wouldn't be able to use otherwise.
2. The abundance of magical items providing you with enough options to find ideal combinations of items for each party member. This isn't possible in vanilla, if, for example, you have two pure fighters. Some items are clearly superior, and the other fighter will have to do without them.
3. Knowing exactly what you'll be facing. Things like that mod-introduced spellcaster, which you looked up before engaging, get their difficulty greatly reduced by having no surprise factor, and giving the player the opportunity to come up with a perfect strategy (for example, I usually go in blind but full-buffed, and retreat at least five times, it's dangerous, it's still meta-gaming but at least you're taking the initial risks and getting the information in a much more interesting way that adds a tiny bit of difficulty.
This is all constructive criticism, and only because you've asked when/how something becomes too strong. This is what I personally think (also, don't think I don't go against these myself... After all, I'm playing a Wizard Slayer/Transmuter, which, while weak-sounding on paper, it actually works pretty well, even if it's still worse than a Fighter/Mage (until we get 100% MR, then that'll change I guess), many things make up for it's weaknesses, making it much more powerful than I thought it could be when I first came up with the idea to play it. Same for the Enforcer (Wizard Slayer/Enchanter or Illusionist/Sharpshooter) and other multikits I tried to build from an RP/"this one is probably terrible" perspective but actually failed to do so, and found out new strategies/builds that way).
I even tried to tweak some of the most OP stuff there, but simply gave up on it after one person tried to do the same and mod's author seemed to be very upset about it.
90% of the items there don't belong nowhere near BG1 standards, which for me ruins the whole mod - while one can say "leave it on the ground" I also find this very user-unfriendly way to deal with such issues. I.e.if it's on the ground, if it's powerful, if it's used against you, why wouldn't you pick it up? Pride, stupidity, or both? This kind of stuff completely breaks immersion.
Then again, you've got a mod such as Drizzt Saga, which beefs up the challenge in BG1 to such extreme levels (vampires, demons, you name it) where you'll not only want, but *need* such equipment to be available....balancing one single mod is hard; balancing a megamod install is virtually impossible - you make a hard encounter, give the player items to pull through it, but leave the rest of the game intact...while the player keeps the items/XP.
Moreover, most of these mods were stiched in pre-SCS (some even pre-Weidu) era . Today, in comes SCS, makes otherwise dumb enemies in SCS-powerhouses, add something like aTweaks Aerial Servants on top of it and you'll be begging for that 5 apr throwing dagger you left in the woods south of Beregost.....
Anyhow, congrats again - at least up to the "can't be touched by evil staff" I kinda doubted you'll pull it through. The ending battle was a bit of a downer excitement-wise for me, but afaik you're the very first person in no-reloads who uglified Mellisan to death.
E: So I tested a manual - and absolutely minimal - EET install and traps are still working there so it must be one of the options added in by BWS in its basic EET setup. Probably going to attack it this weekend to see what BWS is doing to my traps. The good news is that since I just want a basic EET with the hueg Everything In Faerun map and the spell info mod that I asked about a couple days ago, I can still do an EET instance for my next No Reload.
Well as promised restarted and played the same game up until finishing the first parts of Durlag's and this time didn't walk into any trap.
Few differences. Decided that I had been far too cautious so did more solo and picked up everybody just that bit later so levels were better. Also did the area just below and to the left of Nashkel mines and the Drizzet area.
So back to the playthrough.
We made our weary way back through the tower, laden with stuff we couldn't identify (neither could the dodgy merchant just outside, which seemed a rather poor business move, probably why he hasn't got a nice shop in town, sells priceless artifacts for the price of the materials) and stopped at Nashkel for the night.
Fast asleep I was suddenly awoken by Kivan banging on the door.
"I had this terrible dream that you had been killed but then you stepped out of the shower and everything was as it was before, so just checking"
Aww, sweet, I wonder where he got that idea?
So where next?
"the bandit camp"
"south"
"a brothel"
"the underdark"
"north"
So no concensus, but I had promised Kivan I would help with his revenge thing and we were packing some serious gear now so it seemed the right thing to do. Plus we were getting pretty sick of the bandits and attack is the best form of defense. So treked north to Beregost, recharged Edwin's fire wand with the chicken killing mage, stocked up even more on missiles, donned the belt for disguise (not that it works but you never know) and made our way into the wilds.
Got lost, (call yourself a ranger Kivan?), headed for a tower we saw in the distance, were surprised by a portal suddenly opening and spilling out a drow. And OMG can this one talk, probably why he's in exile now.
Kivan wanted to kill him straight off and was backed up by Edwin. Branwyn wasn't paying much attention, too busy praying to Tempus. Viconia wanted him as a plaything (though I've got a feeling that she's the kind who always ends up breaking their toys) and me, well, another one between me and the enemy, bring it on.
So welcome Baeloth, the sorcerer.
Carried on through the woods, came to a lake, met some poets, after 100 verses we all wanted to kill them (but we didn't, it's culture innit), they gave us a harp, must have thought Baeloth was a bard.
But we were not a happy group. Viconia kept telling Baeloth to fetch her food and muttering about him not knowing his place (which she was willing to rectify given enough time and some tentacle rods). Kivan glowered and spoke about how Sheverash would never forgive him for traveling with Drow (which is kind of ironic given that Sheverash was never the sort to forgive and forget anyway). Branwyn tried to be friendly but was forced to give up when she couldn't get a word in edgeways. Edwin was sulking, majorly sulking. Somebody with more and better spells who was also getting the promise of being "corrected" by Viconia and wore an archmagi robe.
Consequently, we walked slap bang into an ambush by 10 chill bandits. Edwin went down first just after he got a web off and a fireball, Branwyn next, then Viconia. Baeloth was at the back casting protections on himself then finally managed to pull himself together and cast confusion, Kivan and I pelted them with arrows inbetween chugging potions. It was a close call.
So back to the FAI dragging the corpses of our fallen comrades feeling rather subdued.
But never mind, much poorer and after a night at the inn, arose bright and early to have another try.
I'm joking, the previously "dead three" were seriously pissed off.
But then Baeloth announced that he would probably be safer if he left us to our own devices which made us close ranks. So with a few choice insults directed Baeloth's way, including some about having "greater balls of fire" than him, (come on, how could I resist) and our insistance that he give up his robe for Edwin as he was chickening out, we set out again for the Bandit Camp.
Perhaps it was the shock of three of us ending up dead, perhaps it was the relief of not having to listen to Baeloth (mind, I quite liked him until he left us), perhaps it was because a feeling of grim determination had settled upon us, but the Bandit Camp was a walkover.
Snuck up the back under cover of darkness, got the skellies up (where do they come from? I don't like to ask but they are cheerful buggers, laughing away as they hack things to pieces). Found a choke point, webbed, greased, fireballed, skulltrapped and shot the whole damn camp to pieces. Everybody rushing in to get slaughtered, the battle tactics of the mentally challenged.
A massacre is hardly adequate to describe the carnage we inflicted. It took longer to pick up all the loot.
Then a quick check in the tents to kill off any malingerers, a cave full of gnolls (pah gnolls, we eat gnolls for breakfast, well we don't really but you know what I mean). The large tent contained a prisoner who told us about the "Iron Throne" being behind all this. And a chest with documents telling us about a "secret" mine in the Cloakwood.
But no Tazok, Kivan was so distraught he almost (almost) raised his voice. Branwyn comforted him as only a woman with a double D cup chest can, seemed to work as well, never seen Kivan looking so cheerful.
Once again, but this time laden with riches and no dead bodies, we headed back to the FAI.
I noticed that the Alchemist kit seemed to bring in a surprising amount of money, considering it was supposed to be a net drain on the party's gold supply. But the Seducer kit always seemed rather underpowered to me. Hypnosis worked great on enemy hordes (though I chose screenshots that highlighted successes, rather than all the times Hypnosis failed), but other than that, Frisk mostly just hung around and used Detect Illusions.
The main reason I made Seducer abilities usable at will was because they were all save-or-else spells. If I made them usable only a certain number of times a day, then you could easily just run out of spells and then you'd be left with a crippled thief for the rest of the day.
The main reason Hypnosis works against non-humanoid critters was because, during an early test run, I noticed my first Seducer kit was pretty much useless against ogres and gibberlings and undead, as its Charm spell only had a tiny chance of affecting them. Hypnosis gave the Seducer something to do in those fights. I also made it area-effect because it seemed like a solo Seducer was too weak without it--mass Hypnosis for 1d6 rounds would let the Seducer try to pacify the battlefield long enough to charm an important enemy.
What if I handled it like this:
1. Hypnosis can be used once per day at levels 6, 10, 14, and 19. Regardless of level, it lasts 2 rounds and offers a save vs. spell at no penalty.
2. Charm only penalizes movement rate by 25% instead of 50%.
3. Charm is changed to work against non-humanoid enemies, but certain types get bonuses to their saves:
-Intelligent and familiar critters like animals and ogres: +1
-Unintelligent and unfamiliar critters like golems and undead: +2
-Alien and extraplanar critters like beholders and elementals: +3
What do you think? Would this make the Seducer a little more balanced for party and/or solo play?
Tig-3,
Best served cold,I flooded a mine and freed all the slaves... with a drow and blackguard in my group I need all the good rep I can earn.
· Dorn is frilled to finish his quest... its very buggy so I just stand south of the tree and nuke them for ease.
· Branwen used her stealth to collect a free book then I swapped her for Viconia who used the same trick to pinch a wand without hurting any spiders.
Anyway, does anybody from old forums remember one of my PCs, a dwarven chick named Bertha? She died a scripted death (Demon Lord in the Underdark) when asking for a "reward"
I decided to give her another go.
Party (all custom made, I can stand this game NPCs no more)
Weidu:
~EET_CORE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Core EET (game importation): 1.0 RC8
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #0 // Item Revisions by Demivrgvs: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #1030 // Store Revisions: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #1042 // Revised Armor -> Without Movement Speed Penalties: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #10 // Revised Shield Bonuses: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #17 // Weapon Changes: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #1080 // Enchantment Doesn't Affect Speed Factor of Weapons: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #11 // Dual Wielding Changes for Light and Heavy Weapons: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #19 // Revised Backstabbing -> More Weapons Usable for Backstabbing: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #1200 // Revised Critical Hit Aversion: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #12 // Items of Protection Can Be Worn with Magical Armor: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #1091 // Remove Weapon Restrictions from Multi-classed Divine Spellcasters -> Clerics and Druids: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #16 // PnP Equipment for Druids -> Druids and Fighter/Druids: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #1060 // Kensai Can Wear Bracers: V4 Beta 9
~ITEM_REV/ITEM_REV.TP2~ #0 #1070 // Thieves Can Use Wands: V4 Beta 9
~CRITICALS/CRITICALS.TP2~ #0 #3 // Revised Grandmastery: Beta 1
~CRITICALS/CRITICALS.TP2~ #0 #4 // Revised Constitution bonuses and Hit point rolls: Beta 1
~CRITICALS/CRITICALS.TP2~ #0 #5 // Revised Strenght bonuses: Beta 1
~CRITICALS/CRITICALS.TP2~ #0 #7 // swashbucker revised: Beta 1
~IRSRFIX/IRSRFIX.TP2~ #0 #0 // Random IR fixes: 1
~IRSRFIX/IRSRFIX.TP2~ #0 #1 // Tweak Greenstone Amulet: 1
~IRSRFIX/IRSRFIX.TP2~ #0 #4 // Assign portrait icons to IR items: 1
~IRSRFIX/IRSRFIX.TP2~ #0 #8 // Make Item Revisions potion buffs dispellable: 1
~IRSRFIX/IRSRFIX.TP2~ #0 #9 // Revised HLAs for fighters - WW attack: 1
~IRSRFIX/IRSRFIX.TP2~ #0 #10 // Revised HLAs for fighters - Hardiness ability: 1
~TRAPSAVEMOD/TRAPSAVEMOD.TP2~ #0 #0 // traps saving throw mod
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #11 // Revised High Level Abilities -> Choose which classes get revised HLAs: beta 4.09
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #101 // Fighter HLAs: beta 4.09
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #102 // Barbarian HLAs: beta 4.09
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #103 // Ranger HLAs: beta 4.09
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #104 // Paladin HLAs: beta 4.09
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #105 // Cleric HLAs: beta 4.09
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #106 // Druid HLAs: beta 4.09
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #107 // Monk HLAs: beta 4.09
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #108 // Wizard HLAs: beta 4.09
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #109 // Bard HLAs: beta 4.09
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #110 // Thief HLAs: beta 4.09
~REFINEMENTS/SETUP-REFINEMENTS.TP2~ #0 #30 // Shapeshifting fix -> Heal on shifting back to human (Default): beta 4.09
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #0 // Ascension v1.51 BETA (requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160522
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #1 // Tougher Abazigal (optional, requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160522
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #2 // Original Tougher Demogorgon (optional, requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160522
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #3 // Tougher Gromnir (optional, requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160522
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #4 // Tougher Illasera (optional, requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160522
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #5 // Tougher Yaga-Shura (optional, requires ToB): v1.5 BETA_20160522
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #101 // Ascension Portraits - Bodhi: v1.5 BETA_20160522
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #102 // Ascension Portraits - Original Balthazar by Cuv: v1.5 BETA_20160522
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #103 // Restored Bhaalspawn Powers by David Gaider: v1.5 BETA_20160522
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #104 // Extended Epilogues by shawne: v1.5 BETA_20160522
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #105 // Extended EE Epilogues by shawne: v1.5 BETA_20160522
~ASCENSION/SETUP-ASCENSION.TP2~ #0 #999 // Remove Anyone Identifier in EA.ids: v1.5 BETA_20160522
~SPELL_REV/SETUP-SPELL_REV.TP2~ #0 #0 // Spell Revisions: v4 Beta 14
~SPELL_REV/SETUP-SPELL_REV.TP2~ #0 #10 // Deva and Planetar Animations: v4 Beta 14
~SPELL_REV/SETUP-SPELL_REV.TP2~ #0 #20 // Mirror Image Fix: v4 Beta 14
~SPELL_REV/SETUP-SPELL_REV.TP2~ #0 #30 // Dispel Magic Fix: v4 Beta 14
~SPELL_REV/SETUP-SPELL_REV.TP2~ #0 #50 // Remove Disabled Spells from Spell Selection Screens: v4 Beta 14
~IRSRFIX/IRSRFIX.TP2~ #0 #2 // fix secondary types (check readme for detatils): 1
~IRSRFIX/IRSRFIX.TP2~ #0 #3 // revert SR Haste to AoE effect: 1
~IRSRFIX/IRSRFIX.TP2~ #0 #5 // Fix Wish effects: 1
~IRSRFIX/IRSRFIX.TP2~ #0 #6 // Nerf Wish spell: 1
~IRSRFIX/IRSRFIX.TP2~ #0 #7 // EE pro stuff, still in making. What's done should work...: 1
~SPELL_REV/SETUP-SPELL_REV.TP2~ #0 #55 // Spell Deflection blocks AoE spells: v4 Beta 14
~SPELL_REV/SETUP-SPELL_REV.TP2~ #0 #60 // Update Spellbooks of Joinable NPCs: v4 Beta 14
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #60 // Weapon Animation Tweaks: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #70 // Icewind Dale Casting Graphics (Andyr): Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #130 // Force All Dialogue to Pause Game: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1070 // Improved Multi-Player Kick-out Dialogues: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1080 // Add Bags of Holding: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1090 // Exotic Item Pack: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1120 // Stores Sell Higher Stacks of Items: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1220 // Allow Cromwell to Upgrade Watcher's Keep Items: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2151 // Wear Multiple Protection Items -> No Restrictions: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2250 // Un-Nerfed Sorcerer Spell Progression Table: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2261 // Alter Mage Spell Progression Table -> PnP Table: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2281 // Alter Cleric Spell Progression Table -> PnP Table: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2291 // Alter Druid Spell and Level Progression Tables -> No Level Progression Changes, PnP Druid/Cleric Spell Table Only: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #2410 // Druids Use 3E Alignment Restrictions: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3031 // Easy Spell Learning -> 100% Learn Spells and No Maximum Cap: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3060 // Remove "You Must Gather Your Party..." Sound (Weimer): Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3080 // Increase Ammo Stack Size -> Unlimited Ammo Stacking: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3090 // Increase Gem and Jewelry Stacking -> Unlimited Gem and Jewelry Stacking: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3100 // Increase Potion Stacking -> Unlimited Potion Stacking: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3110 // Increase Scroll Stacking -> Unlimited Scroll Stacking: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3120 // Happy Patch (Party NPCs do not complain about reputation) -> NPCs Are Never Angry About Reputation: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3123 // NPCs Don't Fight: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3140 // Faster Chapter 1&2 Cut-Scenes and Dreams -> Originals from EoU (Karzak, Blucher): Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3160 // Keep Drizzt's Loot, Disable Malchor Harpell: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3170 // No Drow Avatars On Party In Underdark: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3191 // Disable Non-Hostile Rest Spawns: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3194 // Alter Hostile Rest Spawns -> Disable completely: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #3205 // Stores Purchase All Item Types: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4031 // Consistent Stats: Edwin -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4041 // Consistent Stats: Jaheira -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4061 // Consistent Stats: Minsc -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4071 // Consistent Stats: Viconia -> Use BG2 Values: Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4080 // Make Khalid a Fighter-Mage (Domi): Beta 5
~CDTWEAKS/SETUP-CDTWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #4090 // Make Montaron an Assassin (Andyr): Beta 5
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #1000 // Initialise mod (all other components require this): v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #3030 // Re-introduce potions of extra-healing: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4010 // Grant large, flying, non-solid or similar creatures protection from Web and Entangle: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4120 // NPCs go to inns: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4130 // Move NPCs to more convenient locations: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #4146 // Skip the Candlekeep tutorial sections -> Skip Candlekeep altogether (warning: breaks the 4th wall!): v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5000 // Ease-of-use party AI: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5020 // Remove the blur graphic effect from the Cloak of Displacement: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5050 // Stackable ankheg shells, winterwolf pelts and wyvern heads: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #5900 // Initialise AI components (required for all tactical and AI components): v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6000 // Smarter general AI: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6010 // Better calls for help: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6024 // Add high-level abilities (HLAs) to spellcasters -> All eligible spellcasters in Throne of Bhaal and Shadows of Amn get HLAs (very challenging and not really recommended!): v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6030 // Smarter Mages -> Mages cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6040 // Smarter Priests -> Priests cast some short-duration spells instantly at start of combat, to simulate pre-battle casting: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6103 // Potions for NPCs -> Two thirds of the potions dropped by slain enemies break and are lost: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6200 // Improved Spiders: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6300 // Smarter sirines and dryads: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6310 // Slightly harder carrion crawlers: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6320 // Smarter basilisks: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6500 // Improved golems: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6510 // Improved fiends -> Fiends have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6520 // Smarter genies -> Genies have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6530 // Smarter celestials -> Celestials have about 50 percent more hit points than normal: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6540 // Smarter dragons -> Dragons have a substantial hit point increase: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6551 // Smarter beholders -> Don't give beholder rays any chance of burning through spell protections; beholder antimagic blocks all spells, including harmful ones, for a round (simulates D&D rules): v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6560 // Smarter mind flayers -> Illithids have only original-game resistances; Illithids can see through invisibility: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6570 // Smarter githyanki: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6580 // Improved Vampires: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6590 // Smarter Throne of Bhaal final villain: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6800 // Smarter Illasera: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6810 // Smarter Gromnir: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6820 // Smarter Yaga-Shura: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6830 // Smarter Abazigal: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6840 // Give Ascension versions of Irenicus and Sendai SCS scripts and abilities: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #6850 // Give Ascension demons SCS scripts and abilities: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7000 // Improved doppelgangers: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7010 // Tougher Black Talons and Iron Throne guards: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7050 // Improved Ulcaster: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7060 // Improved Balduran's Isle: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7070 // Improved Durlag's Tower: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7080 // Improved Demon Cultists: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7090 // Improved Cloakwood Druids: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7100 // Improved Bassilus: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7110 // Improved Drasus party: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7130 // Improved Red Wizards: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7140 // Improved Undercity party: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7200 // Tougher chapter-two end battle: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7210 // Tougher chapter-three end battle: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7220 // Tougher chapter-four end battle: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7230 // Tougher chapter-five end battle: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7250 // Improved final battle: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #7900 // Improved minor encounters: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8010 // Improved Shade Lord: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8020 // Spellcasting Demiliches: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8050 // Improved Random Encounters: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8060 // Improved de'Arnise Keep ("Tactics Remix") -> Spirit trolls have the same powers as in the original game: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8070 // Improved Unseeing Eye: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8081 // Improved Bodhi (Tactics Remix) -> Original Tactics Improved Bodhi with SCSII scripting: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8100 // Improved battle with Irenicus in Spellhold: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8110 // Improved Sahuagin: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8120 // Improved Beholder hive (adapted from Quest Pack): v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8140 // Slightly Improved Drow -> Upgrade Ust Natha's defences: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8150 // Slightly Improved Watcher's Keep: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8160 // Improved Fire Giant temple: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8170 // Enhanced Sendai's Enclave: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8180 // Improved Abazigal's Lair: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~STRATAGEMS/SETUP-STRATAGEMS.TP2~ #0 #8190 // Improved Minor Encounters: v30 BWP fix + K4thos' EET compatibility + kreso's Spell Revisions compatibility
~A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION/SETUP-A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION.TP2~ #0 #0 // Golem Construction Ability for Spellcasters: 4.0
~A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION/SETUP-A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION.TP2~ #0 #10 // Replace original Golem Manual: 4.0
~A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION/SETUP-A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION.TP2~ #0 #15 // Improve enemy spellcaster AI: 4.0
~A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION/SETUP-A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION.TP2~ #0 #20 // Golems for enemy spellcasters: 4.0
~A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION/SETUP-A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION.TP2~ #0 #25 // Greater variety of enemy golem types: 4.0
~A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION/SETUP-A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION.TP2~ #0 #30 // Fighter Stronghold golems may continue to serve you: 4.0
~A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION/SETUP-A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION.TP2~ #0 #35 // Make golems vulnerable to specific spell effects: 4.0
~A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION/SETUP-A7!GOLEMCONSTRUCTION.TP2~ #0 #40 // Reduce weapon immunities and resistances for constructed golems: 4.0
~PPE/SETUP-PPE.TP2~ #0 #0 // Portraits Portraits Everywhere (PPE) - core component: 1.01
~PPE/SETUP-PPE.TP2~ #0 #150 // Category Portraits (Recommended) -> Random: 1.01
~PPE/SETUP-PPE.TP2~ #0 #20 // Replace Low Quality TOB & SOA Portraits: 1.01
~PPE/SETUP-PPE.TP2~ #0 #25 // Edwin/Edwina: 1.01
~PPE/SETUP-PPE.TP2~ #0 #30 // Ust Natha Drow NPCs: 1.01
~PPE/SETUP-PPE.TP2~ #0 #35 // Vampire NPCs: 1.01
~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #0 // Sentrizeal's Wizard 4 Missing Animation Fix: v1.1
~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #1 // Sentrizeal's Elven Ranger Avatar (Female): v1.1
~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #2 // Sentrizeal's Elven Ranger Avatar (Male): v1.1
~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #3 // Sentrizeal's Elven Ranger Weapon Fix: v1.1
~SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK/SETUP-SENTRIZEAL_AA_PACK.TP2~ #0 #4 // Sentrizeal's Human Gladiator Avatar (Female): v1.1
~EET_TWEAKS/EET_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #1 // Consistent NPC appearance: 1.3
~EET_TWEAKS/EET_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #15 // Disable item shattering for enemies: 1.3
~EET_TWEAKS/EET_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #16 // Adjust BG1 weapon shattering: 1.3
~EET_TWEAKS/EET_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #17 // Adjust BG1 shield shattering: 1.3
~EET_TWEAKS/EET_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #18 // Adjust BG1 armor shattering: 1.3
~EET_TWEAKS/EET_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #19 // Adjust BG1 helmet shattering: 1.3
~EET_TWEAKS/EET_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #23 // IWD:EE soundsets (requires installed IWD:EE): 1.3
~EET_TWEAKS/EET_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #24 // IWD:EE portraits (requires installed IWD:EE): 1.3
~EET_TWEAKS/EET_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #26 // Add Priest of Tempus kit for Priests: 1.3
~EET_TWEAKS/EET_TWEAKS.TP2~ #0 #27 // Add racial enemies from IWD: 1.3
~EET_END.TP2~ #0 #0 // Finalise EET (last mod in install order)
~LEUI/LEUI.TP2~ #0 #0 // lefreut's Enhanced UI - Core component: 1.8
~LEUI/LEUI.TP2~ #0 #1 // lefreut's Enhanced UI - BG2 vanilla bams for spells: 1.8
Pretty much my standard stuff. Added Golem Construction from @argent77 is so good that it's reason enough to buy EEs if you're still in doubt.
Also, I've added a few tweaks of my own. First, notice the kensai dwarf up there. That's not a "regular" kensai. I altered the kit:
1) THAC0 bonus is gone. His THAC0 is the same as the fighter's. That simply begs for dual class, which I hate. Unless it's berseker-cleric we're dualing.
2) innate AC bonus is removed and replaced with +2 bonus vs melee weapons (keeping ranged vulnerability)
3) Kai ability I've reworked. It no longer gives max damage, but instead grants +5 to critical hit roll (15 and above, doesn't stack with "keen" weapons but does with weapon style bonus)
4) at level 20, all attacks do max damage. No Kai required. (if you play a single-class kensai this far, here's the big cahuna)
5) his damage bonus is reworked. He no longer gets +1/3 levels.
(I find this silly - take a 1d4 damage dagger. With kensai bonuses, the wepon's damage would increase from 2.5 average to 15.5, equaling a more than 500% damage increase w/o even a pip in daggers!)
At level 1 he gets a 30% increase in melee damage, and gains +1%/per level of exp. up to 50% at level 20.
6) with IR, he can wear bracers of defence
Overall, given the %-based increase, kensai is now someone you want to be wielding *big* weapons, and someone you want to stick in melee, since none of the damage bonuses work on missile or thrown weapons. In the same line, his % based bonus get more important with other damage bonuses like weapon enchanmtent, granmastery, buffs etc.
It's a BLAST of a kit now.
One more kit tweak - Dragon Disciple. I didn't touch it much, but she gains one additional use of innate breath attack 1x/3 levels, has a 30% increase in all fire damage she does, and; unlike it's original version, she gets more spells to cast per day. 2 more, to be exact.
The caveat? She gets to learn no more than *3* new spells per level. Talking about specialization here...
Unfortunately, this also affects sorcerers so it's not exactly a user-friendly tweak.:)
I'm not sure how I feel about this one. SR makes a lot of spells good. There are always some "no-brainer" spells you got to have - PfMW, Dispel Screen, Imp.Haste, etc.
The increase in fire damage however draws strongly to fire-based damage spells like Flame Arrow, Delayed Blast Fireball and similar. With only 3 spells you can ever know, this kit is very limited in what it can do.
Anyhow, to game. I gave myself some slack on this run. One, I use vanilla XP tables. 2nd, I allow myself a custom item right from the start.
This is the item:
Doesn't look like much, does it? It has following effects:
- protection from critical hits
- +1 breath save
- on a critical hit, user casts Larloch's Minor Drain on target
Kensai gets it, since I don't want to wait for SoD to get critical hit aversion.
We start, as always, by killing the Piercing girdle Ogre. Note how kensai's damage bonus is displayed. HOW COOL IS THAT?
Next, Beregost, FAI (not Tarnesh yet), vist High Hedge, buy Pro Acid scroll, go for the ankhegs. Bertha nearly died there (she's not immune to critical hits).
This is my kensai's critical hit. As you see, the damage bonus is bigger if you deal more damage in the first place. HOW COOL IS THAT?
This is Dragon Disciple in action. (Un)fortunately, the fire damage increase cannot be tied to spells alone - her burning soul applies the bonus damage to wands, potions, everything. Everything will BURN!
With the basics (get Wand of Fire, visit Nahskel, get some petrficiation protection) done, it was time to pay Mutamin a visit. On EE, he's immidiately hostile. We burned him, and his basilisks.
Also Kirian. I'm quite overusing fire wand now.
A preview of enemies to come... (just a test I ran for an issue @Serg_BlackStrider had...)
For the end of the session, we cleared top floors of Durlags and dealt with some wannabe assasins. I'm waiting for my thief/illusionist to be able to pickpocket RoFA, which led to Bertha getting held by a ghast, but all was fine. Power of friendship.
To all.
May the fourth be with you!!!
In other news, I am finally rounding up my monk kit for improved anvil and I will start my run very soon. It took me a lot of time to get some effects to work and to balance it a bit with the mod. Now I am contemplating the difficulty.
- Vanilla improved anvil
- insane improved anvil
- LoB improved anvil
Suggestions? (note that I finished earlier versions a few times already so I know some fights okay enough to attempt a noreload).
Per suggestions on your run, yea, LoB Anvil seems a fun experience. Here's a verse for you:
As I slowly chip away
At golems, not made of Clay
Rakshasa regenerate quickly
I miss my light of day
Crawlers won't take a dent
Now we need to repent
And start another run
LoB Anvil is no fun
For when your Necros fail
Wish, mate, is not a Wail
Your fighters will be in vain
When you meet the golem train
Hardwood, Web, Ultra and Supreme
Will make you run 'till May
50K HP to take away
Oh I miss my light of day
To my knowledge, only Saros Shadowfollower has ever beaten Improved Anvil without reloading--and I'm not sure if that's really feasible in the more recent versions, which I'm sure have gotten even stricter.
Saros did the insane version, to my knowledge the only one to succeed.
Maybe I will just give it a chance and restart on core if I fail.
(... looks forward to interpretive dance as the next logical stage...)
As we headed to the FAI entrance, was again accosted by the old man who we kept on giving coppers to for tea. Turns out it's Elminster (yet he never refused our money, what a con artist) and he proceeded to give some enigmatic hints about what I should be doing next. Edwin of course wanted to kill him, can't say I was that inclined to stop him but "Elminster"? slightly more than we can chew currently. One day, one day.........
Identified, distributed and sold the loot, quick wash and brush up and the prospect of a night of heavy drinking, what could be better?
But for some reason, just wasn't feeling it.
Did I really want to carry on slogging my guts out opposing the Iron Throne and their plots?
That was never my plan, it happened by accident more than anything.
But the assasins were after me before I went anywhere near the mines, what was I missing?
The group who killed Gorion were specifically after me but why?
And did I really care?
I'd much prefer to just runaway.
Although sad about Gorion, I'd learnt enough about fighting since that night to be more irritated with his complete lack of preparation. Seriously, what was he thinking? Perhaps he'd got a bit senile after spending all those years in Candlekeep? Would it have really hurt to get a few of the guards together, a wand or two, some decent equipment?
Then there were the troubling dreams. Every adopted child wants their background to be exotic, a lost princess, the true heir to a fortune. What do I get?
Visions of death and destruction and bone daggers.
The healing powers though, I'll take them.
I looked around at my companions, and yes I had grown fond of them. But was that enough and did I really want to drag them through another bloody mine?
Nah, time to go south as I always planned, I had money, good gear, could open any lock, disarm any trap I came across and was pretty capable in a fight.
That night I crept out of the FAI and hit the road on my own.
Travelled overnight reaching Beregost as the shops opened, black shadow armour was the objective. It's black, it's leather, there are no downsides to this decision and it being magical, Alan or Ayla both looked pretty damn cool wearing it.
Carried on south hanging to the east, saved a cow (yay now I'm a true hero) and killed a billion ogres and assorted monsters who go "arrggh". Quite what they are doing hanging around in groups with no discernible settlements or means of production I never got a chance to ask before shooting them safely from a distance. No women monsters either, perhaps it's the local hangout of the YMCA? One small group demanded I give them my "iron", how about "no, die scum?".
Ever southwards, skirted Durlag's Tower, shame I won't get to explore the rest of it, maybe one day in the future. Killed various groups of wolves, nowadays I chunk them up quite easily compared to having to down an oil of speed and running like crazy to keep out of their way while shooting. Met a woman who asked me to take her ill companion to the FAI, I just came from there it's miles away. Talk about relying on the kindness of strangers. Refused but gave her some potions to help out, and she gave me a ring in return (artistic license.... again). Decided to cut across to Nashkel and stock up before heading over the Cloud Peaks and further into Amn.
Left Nashkel, down past the mines and the eyeless face in the cliff, now I was really on my way, unknown territory. Marching along, whistling a merry tune (not really but trying hard here to set the scene), minding my own business, when I was accosted by a group of women, (bloody ugly women at that) and although I was Alan at the time, told them, "their clothes were attrocious".
Ooops, way to blow my cover.
Upshot was they demanded my name. I said mind your own business, they said no matter we know who you are, I said then why ask, they said it's not personal we have to kill you, I said why, they said becase it's how we earn our money, I said hadn't they thought about getting some qualifications and breaking that glass ceiling, they said look at the corporate world and how the patriarchy was holding them back, I said that's just an excuse, they said now you're just mansplaining, I said but you just identified me as a woman, they said you're a hostage to the patriarchy you even dress like one, I said they were being insulting by their innability to accept my right to be considered male or female as I choose and that gender is fluid, and they said
"NOT AS FLUID AS YOU ARE GOING TO BE AFTER WE HAVE FINISHED WITH YOU."
Meanwhile, I had sorted my potions, so tossed an oil of fiery burning and promptly dissappeared.
Then it was just a matter of picking them off one by one, arrows of biting stopping the spell casters giving any problems and the invisible backstabber couldn't do much damage through the armour. Finally there was just one left, slowly being poisoned by an arrow. I dangled the antidote just out of her reach as she rolled around on the floor in agony.
"Tell me who sent you after me and how did you recognise me".
"It was the Iron Throne and they have spies planted throughout the sword coast"
"Why are the Iron Throne after me?"
"You destroyed their plans to build an iron monopoly and took down the bandits"
"I was forced into that, they attacked first"
"They don't care, one of the heads of the IT has it in for you personally"
"Why"
"I don't know, they have other groups like us hunting you, and he won't stop"
"Who is "he"?
"I don't know the name but he's mad, quite mad"
"What does he look like"
"Tall, very tall and has golden eyes"
As she drank the antidote I stabbed her through the heart. I could feel a great blinding rage rising up within me. This was the same man who had killed Gorion, who had sent bounty hunters after me, who was now sending professional groups to hunt me down, I was sure. This wasn't going to stop until I stopped it, running away was not going to work.
I picked through their stuff taking the best pieces to sell, and turned back towards the north. Athkatla would have to wait.
In short, BG1 is done. We explored Durlag's up to the Warders level (I'm not overly sure about no-reloading those w/o two dozen Skull Traps). Then sirens, then back to main plot.
Notable moments:
Bertha running for her life after a critical hit from a skeleton warrior + a Flesh golem hit
Cassius Ale, my kensai, getting hit by Harm. Yes, I killed the cleric and sirens there. I'm a bad and evil person. Kensai died moments later. We killed Hurlan in Ulgoth's as well. I wonder where karma will get me...
AoE massacre of Bandit camp
Kysus, Rezdan & co. Both mages ate Paralyzation wand.
as did Hareishan in the mine.
Davaeorn lived a bit longer. He's immune to paralyzation since he's a cheating bastard of a mage.
Regardless, we did the battle w/o Pro Magic scrolls (I wanted to save those for Ice Island, but never went there actually). Horrors first..
Davaeorn himself loved lighting and fire attacks this time. Lots of damage, lots of healing. I forgot to memorize Spell Thrust for him, so I couldn't remove his MGoI; which made him last quite long.
Eventually, he ran out of spells to cast, his Globe expired, and a Grease (yes, Grease. My Dragon Disciple can know only 3 level 1 spells and Grease is one of them) knocks him down. With all attacks auto-hits, we plunge him with darts, arrows and bullets.
Kensai does him.
In the city, the worst battle was vs Sunin; who managed to kill both Illusionst and dragon disciple. Awful battle; I was playing late and tired and this is what happened. I'm lucky he only summoned two Ogres.
We also fought (actually, DD and illusionst did) Iron Throne. They survived the initial fire wand/Detonation arrows barrage, but heavilly wounded, they were easy prey.
From there, Candlekeep, no problems there, Krystin (poisoned by arrows) + Slythe (whacked to death), and then Duchal palace which always has a chance to fail.
Luck is on our side however, as Dope mage fails to get his first spell off.
He wonders away, then turns invisible, than goes to debuff my DD, useless - but that gave us enough time to finish the others. Alone, he's no problem.
Belt proved to be rather intelligent, and stood watching as Sarevok kills Liia. GJ.
Finale approaching....
Due to lack of patience for BG1 quests, we go vs Sarevok at cca 120K XP each. Still, no problem. Kensai uses a Pro Magic scroll (tbh, turned out useless) but whatever. I buff my thief/illusionist and send him shooting arrows at them.
Naturally, the little bugger gets dispelled. He drinks an invisibility potion.
I wait for enemies' next move. It's one of three possible:
1) Semaj uses some anti-invisble spell
2) Angelo does the above
3) Angelo pokes around
Ad)3 happened. Paralyzation Wand- ready. Two paralyzation wands, actually. He fails his 2nd save, and it's good night for him.
Now to make enemies fully visible; Bertha drinks up invis potion and dispels that crap from them.
To expend some of Semaj's spellbook, I summons some meatshields. However, enemies kill them in one or two hits, and start approaching our position.
We scatter, turn invisible, and consider our options.
More summons! they keep Sarevok, Semaj and Diramid off our backs long enough so we kill Tazok.
I stun Semaj with the Wand, but we can't get through his defences fast enough. Sarevok is locked in melee vs summons, so we turn to Diramid. this seemed to go on forever...
He dies, but Semaj is out of stun. Another stoneskins cast on him....grr.
I finish him with a Lighting Wand attack. Sarevok is now alone.
We summon via Wand, shaman dances to get spirit animals, this goes on and on and on....he won't die. Then I realise I haven't fixed the bug that prevents him from dying on EET installs. I turn on the "HP above head" option to check him, and indeed, he should be long dead by now. And I'm all out of summons, no more wand charges.
Two options now; one- all turn invisible, run, save, exit, fix the bug, reload, do a point of damage, done. Second; CLUA a PW:Kill scroll which ignores MINHp item preventing death.
2nd it is...
Now entering SoD; this is Bertha's stats.
Keep up the good work!